The Sun. — London, England, 1847-03-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY MORNING, MARCH 6, 1 THE RAILWAY COMNIISSIONERS BILL. of 3 thIr.,kI.UNTZ presented a p,,tilion from the director. e Jo itrumgham, Dudley, and W..lverhAnpton Rail "a7 Company av,ainst the provisions of this Bill. THE RAJA OF SATTARA. Vcr s e ir BE LACY EVANS presented a petition from streiniter, praying for an irluiry into the oir?um- . ' lla ces attendant on t h e d et h ronemen t of the Raja of Dallas, SPANISH DEBT. kot Lord G. BENTINCK wished to give notice that , on ! t itbiY next, I.e would present a petition from the h o r d rr nati and deputy-chairman of the Spanish et Association, asking assistance of the House ~ Bond obtain redress from the r aniSpsh Crown, in the matter 1 _ a debt which they stated was above 7,000,000/. ster p,.and which they alleged was principally due to IirI.tESEN ratsh subjects. SESSIONS IN IRELAND. BOUVERIE said that, seeing the Right Hon. the Ei -ret arY for Ireland in his place, he wished to inform ~a l n that he bad seen in the Dublin Gazette sixteen pro vt;itations for the holding of presentment sessions in gill parts of Ireland. Now, he understood that . a tut s it passed through the House providing a substi wise for the Public Works Act passed last session ; he therefore to ask whether those proclamations f or ` e ,intend e d to authorise those presentment sessions the furtherance of public works as well as for the rre of supp l y i ng food to t h e d est i tu t e Irish? h een *LABOUOHERE said, that as the Act which had passed as a substitute for the Public Works Bill had t 'nlY lately received the sanction of the Legislature,. e a. r e had not been time allowed for carrying it into sti et. Ile could assure the lion. Mernier that the ti e -I°ll s wish of the Government was to reduce and ex ti Irish the p resent system of providing public works se ii iirl Y as possibl e , consistent with the peace of the s n i trY and the welfare of the people. r • HUME wished to keow if any order had been tataitted to the Irish Government upon the subject? 4'4% LABOTIC HERE replied in the affirmative. dr• sp SUNDAY TRAINS. the • n `-' O NER gave notice that he should move that Petition from Yerk against the compulsory Sunday ling be printed the votes. HOLYHEAD HARBOUR. th e t.)r d SANDON moved for certain returns showing of na me of the engineer who has been finally appl e -veil plans h ' r Majesty's Government, with a copy of the nitp i the estimated cost of the same, together eith the e ens ' e ' °f such engineers and nautical men as had been u tilted and approved of the same. b een t i COOPER stated that those returns had already - 'aid upon the table of the House. BnTT PUBLIC WORKS (IRELAND). purs ue . 4 uVE RI E wished to know the course to be we ,—"; 0 3r the Government with regard to the public ti tu r „ -3 Lu Ireland. If he remembered rightly, a short Li,' ago there was a letter addressed by the Lord theutenant to the relief commissioners, suggesting that 34a P u blic works s hould be effectuully, but gradually, pub lic He wished to know if any suspension of t he m e works in Ireland had taken place. ke3 7: LABOUCHERE could only give a genera l th e e r to the question. He had no doubt that some of th e public works had already been suspended. It was desir eDoss:ei of the Government to close as s p eedil y as the system of public works in Ireland. t ord AtIIREARS OF RATES (IRELAND.) . sie kt DUNCAN wished to put a question with re lit:, to the Castlebar Union. A letter had that morning 14'; circulated, written by Mr. Otway, dated Feb. 11, that st ,ating• that two-thirds of the rates in arrear for st ut ,„, u nion were due from solvent parties. He further th o — u , that a rate had not been struck, and he impresses n ecessity o f t h e G overn ment making advances on the t o k,,e e urit Y of these rates. He wished to a , k i f it was the f t i i ntion of th e G overnmen t to make any such advances enC e Public money, and what steps were to be taken to . fro m th e collection of the rate from the so lvent lessors :1 , 1 who S m they were due? ir 0 - GREY said, that with regard to the fi rs t . question of his Noble Friend he had no additional infor li",„"ou to give beyond that which was already before the It ' ll "- With regard to the latter part of the question, he :r o c : e ld e r d e i f n e g r his Noble Friend to the 20th page of the peer to which he had referred, wit, re he would find that s had been instituted ..l by , the Commissioners, a rr „ view to tha enforcing t. e ment of tte rates in 'ar, by the lessor. Mr. FscoTT wished to know Lot d Lucan had paid th e rate's due from him, and if net, whether he would be excluded from his right to vote ? GEORGESir GREY said that the Noble Lord to t r Ivh(11 1 the Hon. Member referred was then in Ireland. b l - 5 had pl ace d on t h e ta b le o f t h e House papers in which ~had expr esse d a s t rong o pi n i on as to his liability to e Payment of those rates. He (Sir George Grey) had „ deubt, that if the Noble Lord found that he was Ihthl e for those rates, he would at once pay them. Mr. ESOOTT wished to know whether there was bad given notice? Sir G. GREY said that, if the Hon. Member had read the papers that had been laid on the table with attention he would have seen that there was no indisposition to exonerate the rate-payers at the expense of the Treasury, but the utmost exertion would be made in the collection of the rates. the Lord-Lieutenant to advance money to p revent the ? (I 'ling of workhouses, and the distress that wou ld ensue consequence. The Carron Union had no particular i.„ 14 1 to favour, and would form no especial example, he Lord-Lieutenant would exercise the same dis cretion with respect to other unions as that which had bf en exercised with regard to Carron. kr. HUME inquired whother there would be any disposition on the part of the Gove rnment to piss a re solution to the effect that no more money should be advanced for the relief of any union than was by the collection of the rates. . Sir G. GREY did not quite un d e r s tand the question, out he m i g ht remind the Hon. Gentlem sn that there was a distinct motion on the papers of the House,. and when t hat came on for discussion the whole of the details would naturally be brought under the attention of the "Anise. CRACOW. Mr. STUART WORTLEY wished to ask a question of the Noble Lord opposite as to whether any arrange ment had been especially entered into with r es p ect to t he ,convention between this country and Russia in 1831, 7, 111 Whether he had any objection to lay the papers o n •as table. 4 4 2,,, r d J. RUSSELL—The discussion would be re on Thursday, when he would then ans wer the question. ' SALE OF SPIRITS IN CANTEENS. th:, ll the motion that the House go into Committee o n Ordnan ce Estimates, arLi Colonel LINDSAY rose to move, that an humble —are e_ hss be presented to her Majesty, praying that she, i au ,"e,graciously pleased to direct inquiry to be made the effect that the present canteen system has ti l t s nn the army ; and whether it would not be advan -114:11°11s to discipline, and to the moral improvement of 'tajesty' s troops, to prevent the sale of spirituous ~,e`,;(>, , in canteens within the precincts or proximity 'barracks. In making this motion, he was only urged - ri-esire todo his duty in that House and t o the countr y . ra en ", iti not wish t o o ff e r any opposition to the Govern ; on the contrary, he thought be could throw out m u) ; suggesti o n w hi c h might lead to a reduction in the the s - n rit required f o r the es timates. It appeared that etat; ra 01 65,000/. was derived as rent from the of n e ns and washing the sheets. The total number er an " e n , including the artillery, in the British amountrre 'vas 119,8 v. Excluding the artillery, tie Nyh jeh ~derived from washing the sheets was I I 896/. 45., l eo , deducted from the total sum of 65,7391., would Th: as derivable from the canteens the sum of 53,8431. t o tileantecns were usually let for a period of three years ch a ° highest bidder, provided he was a person of good e►actor. The tenant had also to pay a fixed sum for t s r ,an in the barracks, including also the men in the 4 r e 'al, married men living out of the barracks, and who the ir ri r ° "uPied the barracks except when on duty, a l nd , callenet allowed to go into the canteen. He wa , s vh a a s: . ea er d "Pen to pay all taxes, rates, and assessments • of • what that e result this mode of letting the calm_ was, ex, I. " Person who occupied it was obliged to be ra st of ehitant in his charges. This was not the fault of the thee e G et3 i n Command, nor the fault of the Ordnance or it a ., -- "ernment, but it was the fault of those whose duty of .. ( - i s , 1• 0 bring the subject under the notice of the Boat! open r e r il "ee, Ihroug,h the usual and regular channe le ti eular , that purpose. Now, the subject he wished par ti,V to bring under the notice of the Government Bold that these canteens spirits were licensed to sbe clitene:4 well as other articl es, and the cone rall aar of that license was the general demo- The of the men living in the barracks. the can man had to give such an enormous rent to pay cteroment for the premisics he rented, that to re sPieit im self he was obliged to lay an extra price on the _ Notio 'a n he sold. His object in bringing forward this eon was that spirits, as an article of liw a 4l2 °Ption in these canteens, might lx! done aff4 with. He had some experience in military recruit and he invariably found that the y oun g as was seduced to these places by the old soldier ., , 44 the ea ; , 3 "nsequence was that evil habits were gradually be ll- '""uced, and the young soldier in a short time of t - C e confirmed drunkard He, therefore, complained posee facilities which the canteen presented for this pur sedu ,its proximity to the barracks, and its placing the G ov temptation constantly before his eyes. When th e : L ti ment first constructed canteens, he admitted that ha: had a good object in view ; and as somebody must sid, a r t _",n Profit on the vArig ins articles aold there, they c0n ,711 they might as well have the profit as any one else. qui think that the distributi.in of spirits in the can more was most objectionable, and there would be many sa vings' banks warrants, and warrants for g ood kuo Uct issued, if it was checked. It was perhaps not which , but th ere was an order in existence of gave to the commanding officer the power wh res tricting the sale of spirits in canteens ; th e er „Lhe Way deem it advisable from the ill conduct of men. But this was a privilege of which they . never Th _l'ed them se l ves, as they did no t like to exercise it. °c c anteen men gave large sums to ob tain the C niet . and there were some canteens in the ten r °l 3o lis where the average expenditure of every Others,men exceeded thirteen shillings per in , nth ; varied in the amount of money, but it never was or of e e l r e i v m e e n , shillings. The canteen was a fruit 4ef,svu:els and much of the irregularity and r it of discipline that prevailed might be traced to it. , Man were t o b e f ut . n in a state of drunkenness, the" non-com m i ss i one d of fi cer d are not l ay a hand u p s him, but must wait until a police-officer or a file soldiers came to his assistance. The acts of in at"...o!dination generally happened at roil call for the eve n i ng parade, w h en th e men were in a state of drunk ennead, and assaulted their superiors. Now he found that cut of 342 c , rpore..l punishments which had taken place the army last ye ar , 139 of them were for acts of in subordination.. connected with drunkenness, and 70 more ' J r drunkenness alone, making a total of upwards of 200 for offences offences connected with drunkenness. In those regi ments u came from India, where, and in the West Indies, drunkenness was known to be more intense and violent, it was a fact that corporal p inishments were more numerous than in any other corps. In the returns it appeared that from one regiment which came fr.-An India the punishments were 17 in number, in another they ware 20, and in one which came from the Westlndies there were 18 punishments during the year. So inveterate was the habit ot drunkenness in the West Indies, that it was known that the wen mixed Cayenne pepper with their spirits, in order to give them additional pun gency for the stomach, and it was also well known that the drunkenness which arose from drinking spirits in canteerns was al:vays more violent than that which arose from taking the spirits bought out of au m, no doubt, from the deleterious substances mixed with them. Such a system as that, by which large profits were raised from the moral turpitude of the people, was a syst' m which it was the duty of the Government seriously to consider and endeavour to put a stop to, even though they should be compelled to give up thereby some small portion of the revenue which they then derived from the canteens. He did not expect that any immediate improvement would take place, but still it was the duty of the Go vernment to adopt some general mode of improvement, some mode by which the facilities of the young soldiers to obtain spirituous liquors would be taken away, the old soldiers prevented from seducing the young to spend their money at such places, and the habits of both the young and the old soldiers improved. And this, in his opinion, could be only effected by prohibiting the selling of spirits in any of the canteens.—(Hear, hear.) Besides, all this drunkenness and debjuchery lead to an extensive invalid system, and hence the c o st of that sys tem was more than would be saved by reforming these abuses. The habitual drinker was also an expense to the country. The habitual drinker was the man, when drunk, who made a con stant practice of drinking his glass at the canteen, and was always in a state of false excitement. He never was reported as a drunkard, and yet this man was a source of far more expense to the country than the habitual drunkard, because the constitution of the one fell before that of the other. All military officers agreed that, on the whole, the can teen system she uld be abolished. as the moat effectual way to put an end to crime was to undermine it. The firet authority he would mention was one which they would consider of some weeght. The present Governor • G -neral of India, Lord Hardinge, in his evi dence before a Commission said, that before he left the Ordnance, he had a minute under his consideration, with a view to put an end to this system, which he considered a species of tax uron the soldier. The present Adjutant- General, Sir John M•Donald, entertained the same opinion, and commanding officers in general considered that these canteens were a nuisance instead of a benefit to the soldier. Sir Edward Blakeney was of opinion that. canteens should be better regulated, and let at a less rate than they were. Colonel Smith said that if he, had his will he would not permit the sale of a single glass of rum in any canteen ; and Sir John Campbell geld the same opinion. Bnt he would also refer to an authority upon which the House would be inclined to place reli ance. He alluded to Sir George Atithur, who had been employed in every quarter of the globe, and that also by the present and the late Government. he says, " We enc urage the soldier to drink a small quantity of spirits, hut we punish him for drinking a large—though a small quantity disarms his power of resistance to the large. The Gallant Officer then cited the testimony of Col. Nls.cdougal and Colonel Macgregor, to show that none but a confirmed drunkard would take the trouble to dress and go out of barracks to get spirits in a morn ing, as also the testimony of Dr. Ferguson, who had served both in regiments and on the staff to show how inveterate the habit of drunkenness would become, and what hard shies the men would undergo, and to what abomina tions they would descend to get spir its when it was once formed. Dr. Fergasote who is now high in office, had further stated that beer would not intoxicate a man without the admixture of spirits. Was it not then a bounden duty, on the part of the Government, to remove this temptation from the reach of the men. He therefore thought himself justified in bringing this motion before the House, especially as he thought that of late a great portion of that power which formerly belonged to commanding by fear had been removed, and that corporal punishment was also Cot they reduce ofd, he felt justified in making an appeidßJard Ordnance, and through them to the Cnanneller of the Exchever, to yield up some of the r income deri vable from these canteens, and raise the social and moral condition of the service, a,.(1 conduce materially to its efficiency.—(Cheers.) The Hon. and Gallant Member concluded by moving the tuition of which he had given notive. Mr. FOX MAULE said that he did not for a moment wish to defend the system pursued to a great extent in the can of the different barracks throughout the country, which had been alluded to so forcibly by the Hon. and Gallant Officer who had just sat down. But he must be allowed to say that the remedy proposed by the Gallant Member, although founded upon the best of principles, would not, he feared, be very easily carried out. It would net, perhaps, be disagreeable to learn that the minds of the authorities had been already turned to the consideration of this question, and that they were at this mo ment considering in what way the canteen , could be put upon a better footing, so as to form a part of that system of general amelioration of the whole condition of the soldiers, which both the authorities at the Horse Guards and her Majesty's Government have sincerely at heart. It will be remembered that the canteens, although attended with considerable inconvenience when allowed to be put to improper uses, were a great anvantage to the soldier while in barracks. There were many articles to be obtained in these canteens, which it would be inconvenient, on many occasions, for the soldier to have to seek without the walls of the barracks. And even with reference to the sale of spirits, the canteen was so entirely under the control of the commanding officer, that, it he chooses to exert his proper authority, and use a moderate amount of common vigilance, many of those evils, to which the Hon. and Gallant Officer had alluded, might in ordinary cases ; be prevented; but still he was tree to admit that it was not easy for an officer always to exercise the authority vested in him. He would not detain the House by going into any of the cases mentioned by the Hon. and Gallant Officer ; but he felt bound to admit, that under many circumstances, the sale of spirits in the canteens might be injurious, but the answer to that was, that total ab stinence from the sale of spirits might also produce evils in another direction. The Hon. and Gallant Officer did not trace the canteen to its original establishment. Formerly canteens were confined to the sale of spirits exclusively, but they were afterwards extended to other articles. Their esta blishment for the sale of spirits exclusively arose from the re gulation of excluding spirits from barracks. That regulation gave rise to the crime of smuggling spirits into the barracks, and canteens were established with the view of doing away with that offence. With these observations he hoped the Hon. and Gallant officer would not press his motion to a division, but leave the subject in the hands of the Government. Sir H. DOUGLAS said that it afforded him much pleasure to know that the Government was disposed to take the canteen system up, with a view to inquire into its operation, and to remedy the evils which might be found in it. Much of the present system arose from abuses that had gradually crept into the system. In a command which he himself had, and that not long ago, a sum was paid for wine for the officers' mess, derived from the profits of the canteen system. He believed it would never be placed on a proper footing until both Government and the canteens ceased to derive profit from the quantity of luor consumed in those places. He would throw it out for the consideration of the Right Hon. Gentleman (M. F. Mettle) whether these canteens could not be made a desirable and moral adjunct to the barrack-room, so as to become a place of resort for a very different purpose than intemperance. He would not, however, permit the profits of such an institution to go either to the Government or to the canteen, but to be spent in some wholesome and profitable manner to the advan tage of the soldier; and he ehought if fhey were changed to the fund system, and appoint a canteeneer to superintend the institution in a moral and judicious manner, it would put an end to those pernicious indulgences which he had long seen and deeply regretted. Mr. GOULBURN was exceedingly glad to hear the state ment made by the Hon. Gentleman opposite, but still he must assert that the House were greatly indebted to the Gallant Meer for havipg given to the House the results of his expe rience and inquiries. Yet, as the Right Hon. Secretary• at- War had stated that the subject of canteens was at the present moment under the consideration of the Government, he would perhaps act wisely in the withdrawal of his motion on the pre sent occasion. Celenel ANSON quite concurred with the Gallant General opposite, that any plan which would be likely to promote the improvement of the soldier it was the bounden duty of the Government to entertain, and, if necessary, to pursue. But he felt compelled to call the attention of the Gallant Officer, by whom this question had been introduced to the fact that so far back as 1838 the. Government of the day had expressly stated that they were quite ready to adopt any suggestion which was likely to prove of practical benefit. But it should likewise be remem bered, that by the regulations as they at present stood, the commanding officer had full power to direct the canteens, as it appeared by the regulations now in force. It should also be recollected, that these canteens were taken by tenders, and not only was security given for payment of the rent, but also for the good conduct of the parties by whom they were taken ; and in the event of the orders not being obeyed, the occupier was subject to ejectment. Sir De LACY E VANS begged to tender his grateful thanks to the Gallant Officer, for the pains which he had taken to bring this subject before the House, a subject which might not be felt to be of interest to the House, but which was of great importance to the profession. He was also glad that it was, according to the statement of GheeSecrenttryat- War, to be taken in hand by the rnme; yet he must observe that it was plainly evident from the the extracts which had been read by the Gal lant Officer, that manding officers of regiments felt themselves in a difficulty as to the direction of these establishments. He entirely concurred in the proposition of establishing a canteeneer, and it would be much better if no property was derived from the canteen. 11 a non-commissioned officer was placed at the head of the de partment, and taught to expect promotion if he conducted it well, there would be a great advantage conferred upon the army if such a preposition was carried into effect. Mr. STUART WORTLEY said he was anxious to give his tribute of thanks to the Hon. and Gallant Officer for the zeal which he had shown upon the subject. He believed that nine-tenths of the offences which were committed in the army arose from the crime of intoxicaeon. The Earl of ARUNDEL said that he also felt most grateful to his Gallant Friend :or the able exposition with which he had favoured the H use, of the ill effects of the distribution of spirits in the canteen on the discipline of the army. Colonel LINDSEY said that he felt most flattered by the praises which had been been bestowed upon him. Having called the attention of the House to the subject, he would beg leave to withdraw his motion. The motion was then withdrawn. CULTIVATION OF THE LAND IN IRELAND. On the order of the day being read for going into Com mittee of Supply, Mr JOHN O'CONNELL desired to draw the attention of the House to the motion, of which he had already given notice, namely, of his intention to bring under the con sideration of the House the advisability of employing the labouring population, now engaged upon public works in Ireland, in the cultivation of the soil. The destitution which prevailed in that country was frightful ; by the last accounts which they had received, no fewer than 730,000 persons were weekly employed upon the public works in Ireland It was a notorious fact, that the arable land was lying notified from the want of means of its proprietors. H e , therefore, objected to this system of employment, as the works would not be by any means piailae tive of one r r f the benefit, as the same &succubi. L o t eproducevr :rt., directed to- wards the cultivation of the s til. The question, then, was, ' whether itesvould nit be better t o turn the people to its cultiva- term, as it was at tl e present moment so greatly neglected. In F. ante the amount of food destroyed was far more that ever anticipated, and the French press held out gloomy prospects for the future. The prospects of France were the general pros pects of the continent. The grand jury of Longford had passed a resolution calling upon the Government to employ the people thus in preference to wasting their labour upon the public roads He understood that that resolution would be followed up-by others from the grand juries of the different counties if the Government refused attention to the demand made upon them. He desired to state that a Mr. Brennan, in the county of sleath, seeing the deficiency of the cultivation of the land, has offered, and given, premiums to such of his tenants as had cul tivated theirs. If the system which he proposed were carried out, some assurance ought to be given the people that thcy would be insured the fruits of their labour, as the crops would be seized by the landlords. When the people were at present spoken to for not having made same exertion, their excuse was, that if they tilled they would derive no benefit from their in dustry. If some Members considered that such a scheme was too extensive, they should recollect that the same amount at present expended would suffice ; they should alsoremensber they could not retrench their present expenditure—such was the enormous extent of the calamity which had befallen the country. He was very sorry to see that a Noble Lord in another place had been reported to have said that Ireland should look to herself, and that she should depend upon her owe exertions. Now he was sorry to say .hat she was incapable of doing more than she had or was doing. He considered that the expression would be injurious, as it would indispose those elm might otherwise be inclined, and prevent them from extending their aid should the necessity of the Irish people outgrew its present extent. There had been some observations about economy, but the people had nothing to be economised about ; their whole stock had been consumed, nay, even their seed for the next year has been wanted to supply their present necessities. Their heaps of manure had even been sold, by which they had hoped to cultivate the soil. There has only been ten millions proposed, to meet this fearful necessity. He could assure the House that one-half rents would not be paid this year. There had also been a great deal of talk of the amount of money at present lodged in the savings' banks, and much clamour had been raised upon the subject ; but what were the facts? Why, the money placed there had been placed by those about to emigrate, and ex actly that very class whose loss would at the present pressure be severely felt. But even more than that, the excesses of Great Britain of money lodged in savings' banks ten years ago was fifteen millions; at the present moment it was twenty-five ; so they might see that the amount of money lodged there could not be so much. He desired to express his heartfelt admiration at the charity of England towards the people of Ireland, and in doing so he would take occasion to observe that the House of Commons ought to take some steps to enforce the expenditure of the absentee rents in Ireland. While the resident landlords in certain districts had subscribed about 15e. in the pound to • wards the relief of the destitute, the absentee landlords in many instances had not subscribed above a farthing in the pound of their rental. What he submitted was wanted in Ireland was gradually to abstract the people from the public works, and without breaking up the machinery in operation at present, place the persons so abstracted to the cultivation of the soil. By so doing they would remove all danger in making the transition. If this were done he hal no doubt but that barony presentments would be as readily got for the cultivation of the lanai as for the construction of public works. Another thing which he would suggest to be done would be a measut e to produce peace between the landlords and the tenants, and to secure to the latter the value of any improvements they they might effect in their holdings. There ought, in addition to arrangements of this kind, be a law to compel the proprietors of land to come and reside on their properties, so that the rents which they receive instead of being spent out of the country might be spent in it. By this step alone 5,000,0004 would be saved to Ireland every year. lie hosted that the Go vet nment would take these matters into its most serious con sideration as they were of the utmost importance to Ireland at the present time. Mr. LABOUCHERE said it must not be supposed that he was surprised at, or censured the motion of, the Hon. Member. The condition of Ireland was so alarming that he was not at all astonished that he should think it his duty to impress the subject on the attention of the House. The Hon. Member would do him (Mr. Labouchere) and the Government the justice of supposing that if anything more than another would have stimulated them to greater exertion than they had made, would have been the patient endurance of the suffering people of Ireland.—(Hear.) The Hon. Gentleman had laid before the House certain proposals, and he (Mr. Labouchere) felt it his duty on the part of the Government to state distinctly his opinion on them, so as there may be no doubt and uncer tainty in the matter. He would, therefore, in answer, say it was not merely the duty of the Government not to adopt the course proposed, but that it was impracticable and unprin cipled. The Government had already done that which no executiveal)uabuses. But could the take a ke oet w eerhdy i aoteohgt Governmentr ntohaehuipvonitlui otherwise gst:.hh, Government had ever yet done before; it had attempted to employ the great body of the people—a step which no riskingd ttahenedie employment mnnt woawtoat abuses' sfo h gue urto e s leengdsei ehr: pauhlgreatestcit rcumstances that; might mayeet t nhri with evgne risks y, t tsd o it ehatd:hrohai the t el foropen,w proceeded ahcabr a dey w rt oaahfulestyheo.aortetf horror e land from one end to the other.—( Hear, heir.) But there ir d were various reasons into which at present he would not go at country, They they e tei y :ot, r length. Why, they could not proceed with the employment of the people in this way. They were now employing, according to the latest accounts, an organised body of 700,000 on i üblic works, a fact unexampled in history, and here he would re mark that justice had not as yet been done to those who had had the direction and superintendence of these works. Those who had had the superintendence, had throughout their ardu- t ous undertaking shown the greatest ability, zeal, and spirit in carrying out the arrangements of the Board of Works. Had they not done so the greatest evils and abuses would have arisen. Another, and a serious evil, threatened them. The time had arrived when the soil required to be cultivated for the coming harvest, and had they decided to go on with the public works. the consequence would have been, there would have been no one to cultivate it. But though the Government had deter mined to stop the public works, had they therefore abandoned the people? No ; but they had introduced another system to meet the state of the country. They had decided not to em ploy them, but to give them food. He would not say that this would not be accomparied with great evil, and was a proceed ing also foreign to the functions of a Government ; but he said of this, as he said of the system of the Board of Works, the Go verement did not adopt it. They did not consider it free of evils, but because they thought it freer of evils and abuses than any other. At the same time, every exertion would be made by the relief committees to check any evil that might be de veloped under the system now proposed to be adopted. Yet, though the system of supplying food in this way might be liable to abuse and evils, they could nut, as a Christian legislature, and as Christian men, allow pestilence and famine to spread over Ireland without doing every thing in their power to relieve them. But the lion. Member wanted the Government to go a step further, and to directly interfere in the cultivation of the soil. He (Mr. La bouchere) told him that it was impossible for the Government to at tempt such a thing ; or, if they did, it would be a deploy. able failure.—(hear, hear.) It would paralyze all individual exertion, anti would produce nothing in the country but evil. For the Government. therefore to do so, would be to go en tirely be} and their functions. The same applied to the supply of seed for grain. To supply such seed was a thing which no Government would attempt to do, and it would lead to irrepar able mischief. With respect to the cultivation of the soil to prepare for the coming harvest, that was a question of the greatest importance. He rejoiced, however, to say, that he had received intelligence from Ireland to the effect that the land was in course of cultivation, though he regretted to say all districts did not exhibit the same satisfactory results. Still he hoped there would be no difficulty on this head ; and he trusted that. the landed proprietors of Ireland—though he admitted in many respects they had not the power to do a great deal in the matter—would do every thing they could to assist their poor countrymen. The income of the Government for the relief of destitute persons, he had no doubt, would have the effect of liberating the labour of Ireland, and that it would he now employed in the propagation of the soil.—( The Right Hon. Gentleman here read an extract from a report of Major Fitzgerald, a Government inspector in the county of Clare, to the effect that the people under him were gradually returning to the cultivation of the land, and that in one week no less than 1,00 persons left.)—Such were the proceedings new going forward ; and he begged to state that everything would be done by the Irish Government to administer the new law in he way best calculated to advance this desirable meveinent. Ni.w, a fee - %lords relating to absentees. While he knew that .ome of those proprietors had done their duty in subscribing liberally to meet the present crisis, others had shamefully neglected their duty, and left the r silent proprietors the task of meeting the difficulties. lle must say, that at the present time Ireland was the proper place for Irish landed proprietors to reside ; but, at the same time, it public opinion would not induce them to live there. he did not think a resolution of that use would have the effect. Respecting the law of landlord and tenant which had been referred to, a Bill, as already inti mated, would be introduced into the House on an early day. He would not longer trespass on the House, but conclude with assuring the Hon. Member that the state of Ireland would re ceive the anxious attention of the Government, and if they did not take his suggestions, it was because they did not think they would tend to the improvement of that country.—(Hear, hear.) Mr. SHAW quite concurred in the opinion of the Right. Honourable Gentleman the Secretary for Ireland, that any in terference on the part of the Government would tend only to paralyze the exertions of the people without producing any really beneficial result. He feared, however, that some evils might arise from suddenly throwing out of employment the great number of labourers emi loved on public works, and upon whose exertions were depending for their maintenance, on a moderate calculation, 3,000,M0 persons. He had received se veral letters from Ireland upon this subject, stating that greater abuses would, no doubt, take place under the proposed mode of relief than existed even under the Labour Rate Act, in consequence of the greater temptations which would exist for fraud upon the parts of the persons applying for )(s -lid. He hoped that the Government would adopt speedy means to render the transition from the one state to the other as little injurious to the interests of the people as possible. Difficulties must, no doubt, exist under all modes of relief, but the only alteration the Government could adopt, was either to submit to these difficulties, or to allow the people to starve. Mr. BELLEW thought that an efficient poor-law would be the best possible remedy for the evil of absenteeism, justly eemplained of by the Right Hon. the Secretary for Ireland. With respect to the public works, he slid not think that they had been so entirely useless as they were supeoiesl by some persons to have been. Mr. FITZGERALD thought, as the present was the sowing season in Ireland, the Government should do some thing, in the present state of the country, to assist the people of Ireland to obtain the necessary seed, and encourage the people in the cultivation of the land. He most cordially concurred in the opinions ex. pressed by the Hon. Member for Kilkenny (Mr. O'Connell), and he hoped that the Government would yet see the neces sity of adopting the suggestions of the Hon. Member. He thought it a most unfortunate thing that the question of sup plying seed to the people of Ireland, had been mentioned at all by the Government. In his own experience, he had known of many instances of persons having consumed their seed, trusting to Government for a fresh supply. He thought that some strong resolution should be passed by both Houses of the 1 headed the Sovereigherself, oring or Legislature, are ding the a bsentee landlords to go in and live imploring Ireland; c at 'un alT an se events until the next harvest, and there by their home voleece and example, assist in raising the condition of the people, and removing the enormous burden thrown upon the nation. Lord JOHN RUSSELL was quite willing to follow the had b.• en expressed b fore, and he could say opinions which ere willng to abide the fir the Government that they 're he Hon. Member for)'Kil question which had been raised by that t the were not int lined kenny ; but he must distinctly say 1 • and the • were quite to undertake the tillage of the lan( , i e ., which that Hon. Member ready to follow the strong warn It 'al given to them. Whe n last year the sum of 50,00 01 . were the country , it was distinct y voted for the improvement o f asserted that it was of little use. He hail hoped that su s , which he knew was only applicable to particu a ases, ry benefit ; would have at least sufficed for tempora but a Noble Lord had told them that all the be f i t that would accrue was only a monetary relief, for it would only suffice for the 1 u rehase of 25,000 quarters of oats. He de 'ply regretted to hear that the farmers were s not prepared with seed; but he believed, f ro m the inqui it's he had made, that tillage would be more extensively resumed than was generally supposed, and that tillage would go on as soon as the proper season arrived. He would ask if these changes were to be aqoptetl, what uas to become of the army of 11,000 auditors now engaged on the supervision of the public works? Not ten times that number would suffice for the purpose. He believed that the tillage would be extensively resumed ; but he founded his hope on the presumption that no false impressions would be spread of the amount of assistance to be derived from this country. Mr. HAMILTON thought sufficient justice had not been done to the officers of the hoard of Works in Ireland. When they recollected the gigantic task which those gentlemen had to perform, and that they had the management of 700,100 men, and the order and regularity with which those works proceeded, they would be satisfied that they had a most onerous duty to perform, and would allow that it was well executed. It would, therefore, be manifestly unjust to impose additional duty upon them. With respect to the proposition that the Government should undertake the tillage of the land, he quite agreed with the Noble Lord who had just sat down, that it would be highly injudicious on the part of the Government to undertake the tillage of the land, for he felt assured that it would have a very paralysing effect. There would, in his opinion, be no necessity fur any strong er imperative measures either upon the landlords or the tenants in Ireland. He mentioned this because he thoughtit but right that other Members should share the responsibility of these statements.—(" Hear," from the 'Ministerial benches. ) But there was one thing which he thought might be attended to, and it was of great importance, because he believed that many Hon. Members were not aware of the number of act es that were out of cultivation in Ireland. This was very likely owing to a certain extent to the practice that had lately occur red, of the farmers leaving their farms. In the west of Ireland this was particularly the case, and he thought that some tribu nal might be erected for arbitration between the landlord and the tenant. Such a tribunal might give, say six months, for the opportunity (to the tenants) of retrieving their property, or at least give them compensation for the losses and expenses which they had sustained. Mr. B. ESCOTT was more and more of opinion the longer he lived, that not only would the adoption of any ex traordinary measures for Ireland not be beneficial, but would be absolutely injurious. The only two things that could, in his opinion, be done, was, in the first place, to allow the free importation of grain into Ireland, and the second was, the adoption of a system of strict economy. If those who were in the possession of wealth would set the example of that economy. It was a well known fact, that if the bran were to be ground up with the grain, there would be an in crease of at least one-third to the farinaceous food of the people, and would not only also increase it, but would actually constitute a better and more wholesome food for man. The consequence of this would be, that the dreadful calamity with which the country was now oppressed, would be to an immeasurable extent relieved. At the present time there were large exports of wheat to Paris, and this very day a large quantity had been sold for that purpose at :!iark Lane, at 765. a quarter. The same was done last Monday, and by a little management, all this out-going would be saved. There then was sufficient reason for the adoption of the eco nomy which he recommended. The subject then dropped. On the D m E o F t E ie N n C a E g S ni O ng F in T tn H a E C S o o m U m T itt H en C o O f A s S ni T p . ly being again read, Colonel RICE begged most earnestly to call the attention of the Government to the important works which were voted for during the last session, and he trusted that in the estimates for the present year that sufficient amount would be taken to render the defences of our southern coast secure. It might be alleged that the sum required was large, and that it could be ill spared ; but it should be recollected that if large, it was necessary, and great as it might be, was not larger in a whole year than was now sent in one month to Ireland. The French wed, in this instance, set us a worthy example, for they bad been active for years past in protecting their coast. But we seemed to have exchanged characters with them, for while we were only talking, they had been earnestly at work. We were proud of our naval superiority, and well had it been sup ported. Yet it should be recollected that even before the days of steam navigation, that demonstrations had been made against the southern coasts of England, and it attention to the state of our defences was necessat y then, it was doubly necessary now, and he earnestly trusted that the matter would not be neglected by the Government. COMMITTEE OF SUPPLY—ORDANCE ESTIMATES. On the order of the day being again read, Sir HOWARD DOUGLAS, for himself and his Gallant Friends who had given notices of motions, begged to postpone them to some future day. The House then went into Committee, an d Colonel ANSON said, that in rising to bring forward the Ordnance Estimates for the year, he I , lt proud to notice the o bservations which had been h made by the In Mem ber for Montrose, who, e was serry to see, was net then in his place. That Honour able Member had last year stated, that h t was quite willing to suffer the naval and military estimates for the year to be proposed without a word of observation from him, although the several sums were 30 largely increased. He had this year thrown out a caution, in which he (Col. Anson) entirely concurred anti fully assented to the proposition, that it was the duty of every functionary of Government, however largo the sums might be at his com mand, to use them with the most sparing economy, and to bring every charge within the smallest possible limit of practi cable economy. But economy ceesisted as much in the appli cation of the money used, as in the amount to be applied to the purposes for which it was voted. And in considering the greet and extensive colonial empire now under the charge of the British authorities, he conceived that a greater wisdom would be shown in the conservancy of the whole by a judicious expenditure, than by risking a part through too thrifty an outlay. He could assure the House that the utmost endea vours had been used to arrive at accuracy in the estimates, and if they were larger than last year, it was net from any desire to avoid economy, but partly from the circumstance that the last was an irregular year, and so could not fairly be compared with this. The whole amount which he proposed for the ordnance estimates for the three services was, '2,679,127/. For the year 1846-7, it was 2,543,5691., showing a total of increase this year of 135,558'. But if Hon. Members would turn to the first page of the abstract, they would find that there were three different votes—vote 2, vote 4, anti vote 9—in which there was a deficiency amounting together to the sum of 67,2991. So that the actual increase was only 68,2891. upon the last year. The sum which he proposed to take for the military ordnance was 673,2391: the sum voted for 1846-7. was 579,670/., making an increase of 41,6911. on the year, These items were to be divided between the engineers, the sappers and miners, and the artillery. On the estimates for the corps of engineers there was an increase of 5,578/., but this did not arise from any addition to the force, but from their having beers worn out, and from their more constant employ ment ; and all knew that from the eminent position which the officers and men of that corps were held in by the scientific world, that their services were eagerly sought for wherever their assistance could be obtained. Ile would pass to the Sappers and Miners, and he must say that that body was com posed of the most efficient men. There was no increase in the establishment. He now came to the Artillery. It was found neees-ary to add 1,200 m en to that establishm ent. They had found no difficulty in getting recruits, b ut the y had endeavoured to manage as ec onomically as possible . He thought no gentleman wou ld sa y that the incre ase was too great, for, when he cons id ere d th e ex tent of tl.e colonies, it must appear a matter o f sur p r i se that they sho uld p erform their duties as w e ll as t h ey h a d d on e. The next vote was for the com m i ssar i at d e p ar tment. Th is y ear it was proposed t o grant 370,464/. Th e excess over last year was in consequence o f t h e increase in the the price of fodde r . Th e di stress i n I re l a nd in e so me deg a'so contributed t o th e i ncrease. Th e a ctual incr ease was only 12,507, and i t s h ou l d b e remem b e red that l ast y ear the votes were only f or t h ree- f ourt h s o f the year , while at present, the estimat e was f or t h e w h o le year. The next vote was for the sa l ar i es an d con ti n gencies of the ordnance department at the To wer . H e believed there wa s no body of re men more efficient. There was a decrease in the n umber of the men employed, which was ow i ng to t h e s ubstitution of police in the employed. The increase was owing the Tower. The nex t i tem to w hi c h he woul d allude, was number of artificers that it was f o und necessa r y to employ in repairs at Woolwich and o th er pl ace s where the sal" , was re quired. The 6th vote wa s f or o r dnance stores. For tnat year , t hey asked 368,712', wh i l e l as t y ea r it was 3960841' and was an actual increase that year o f 21,0 )o'. The est imate for shot, to for the labourers shells, Rec., was 4,731/. more than that of last year. The next vote was for works at home a n d a b roa d, a nd it was proposed to grant for that purpose 632.7631. Last year the grant was 611,9861 ' and the actual increase for that year was 22,709/. A great f sures to secure their sea-ports, even though change had taken place by the substitution of steam vessels k or sailing vessels; but he thought they were bound to hadta evmneivae it eat had acted cised a wise discretion in the manner in which they had acted in reference to this particular for, instead of, as before, ex. an increased outlay. He thought that Government in reference reference to this particular ; for, instead of, pending large sums of money on their colonies, theays I out largo employ them at home. It was thought right toh.ay They had (Trout . sums on such places as sheefness and Ply h there were also to expend large sums on barracks, of whic was very volu -38 new ones established. From the list, which intended to 0/. less than it, 167 in Ireland. The vote for surveys was 3,7 e 5 d that the Irish the previous year. The Government expect d. Consh'erable Ordnance survey would be shortly complete urinous, it appeared there were 205 barracks in England, an, complaints had arisen as to the sum reasons existed as compared to Scotland, but very good The voteig that the Irish survey should be completed for civil and military non-effective service was 165,.,3( which was an excess of 46,0001. over the vote of last year. This vote would be accounted for, by the increase in the expended in Ireland military service, and by the fact, that many departmentsur had fallen into this estimate which did not formerly oc . He had also a right to set (AT against this excess, the additional service he would obtain in the artillery, and the advantages he would gain in the obtaning additional forage. 3lr. WII.I.IANIS said that they were called on to vote away seven millions of money, and daring the statement of tte Gallant Officer there were only twenty-nine Members in the House ; and his best course, therefore, might be to follow the example of his Friend, Mr. Hume, upon a former occasion, and remain ;lieut. lie thanke , l tits lion. Friend ter furnishing a comparative statement, as the ilouse had thereby a better means of judging of the economy which to answer to the Hon. Member, ob- N u 'a ch ri . ou u s ibldater had been maintained. He could not see the reason of the increase, :tnd lie cane , ' for an explanation. If he was to go throtp2.l.l the esti mates, he would be able to show that a reduction could be made in not ak too The much. every item ; but he knew, under present circumstances, it was per fectlysir t°l,%;‘[tslotit)arDt9rOl;LtnOrditance Department being too much useless. The House would pay attention to the matter. aerved possible. He defended the late teries both of this country and the colonies, were not half ds tu c a ao n tu i i i l e tt d iei , e. and he therefore rejoiced at the increav of 1,200 men. d 11:::::1:11etrhedoulgth:atnsosteislltiitiaiartteoowtayse the circumstances of the country, it was necessary that this branch 1 . ANSON briefly explained. The new bara l e:- Government from any charge that while in office they I named any expensive or improper experiments. `olViieTower would be completed as soon as possible. nowit lNG complained that the whole of the ordnance of the service should be as efficient as Dr. mit mates had been greatly increased at a period when the le people of this country Were coiled upon to make the greatest sacrifices, in plain o rder to afford relief to their starving country men. He wen ces, ed, also, that the accounts were made out in the way they were, and hoped that that would be the last ocersion in which they would be made out on such a plan. There were deduct ens for appropriations and other matters; this they were rendered unintellig ible, "s l °Priati exact e xpenditure arr ived at with difficult y . Th, - and the toncy ought to go tht cugh the Treasury in the ordinary course. After a short conversation, the vote was agreed to. The following votes were then agreed to:- 670,239/. ter allowances of the ordnance military corps. 370,464/. for the commissariat, including barrack supplies, cloth ing, great coats, Ste. 9 , i.414/. to defray the salaries of persons em oyed in the Ordnance- office. 228,1301, salaries and allowance to persona employed in the Ord defraying the cost of labour in connexion with the department in the colonies. Ordnance 68,711/. for Ordnance stores. 3 The stun of 633,7651 was then granted for the ex; ruse of the Ord nance barrack works and repairs. . rFeuELL said that he observed a statement in the Captain • , " Times," that a high wall had been erected arouni the Woolwich Military Aca d e my, for the purpose of keeping the Cadets from walk ing about the streets o!' . the town. He wish e d to k now if there was any truth in the rep ort Cole el ANSON sad that no report had yet been made to the House with respect to the Woolwich Academy. He recommended Hon. Members not to believe all they saw in the newspapers. - (Laughter.) The tact was, that a palisade had been erected for the purpose of preventing improper persons getting in, but not to pre ven d of 16'3,5321., for the purpcoe of defray liirgonpOonsti free tI v e military and naval services for next yeur, t titi h s se 7 f, netting then agreed to. inn 'l'lle House then proceeded to consider the navy estimates. Sir 11. DOUGLAS expressed his regret that the Government bad not t.ll , eit ineasurei to secure AI l efficient naval reserve force similar to that which existed in France. The whole establishment of the French fleet consisted of 29,000 men, and they had established fleets at the live principal ports. The establishments of the gun r ery department at each of these five ports, beside the gunnery frigates, were such that they could put 6 000 men on board at any morneet. Never had any country made such progress as France bad since the war. At the close of 1815 her commercial as web as her royal marine was. completely destroyed, and yet never was she in such a position of power as at the present moment. At Cherbourg, L'Orient, Toulon, Marseilles, and Bourdeaux, she had the most complete establishments, and the officials could put a most com plete armament on board at any moment, anti he trusted that no false, no inferior notions of economy, would prevent the Government irons putting the navy into such a state of preparation as—although we never wot Id commit any otteesive and injurious acts that should lead to a war—would citable us to inflict in the first instance such a dreadful blow as would give a whole turn to the contest. Dr. BO WRING said that the Gallant General had held strange language, for while lie had been extolling the increase of the French navy, he had altogether overlooked the advance of our own, with which the advance of the French nary was, indeed, tardy. Me did not hesitate to say, that as compared with the English navy, it was totally in a state of weakness, and utterly unable to compete with our own. He was glad to say that it was universally con fessed that the British navy was, beyond all comparison, superior to that of any other in the world. What was thecase? Why, while the two successive Administrations had been gradually reducing the hordes. on the people of this country, the French Government, on the contrary, were, year after year, getting deeper and deeper into debt, until, after thirty years of peace, that country was so deeply involved, that the Ministry were afraid to meet the Chambers. Whether in political influence, commercial success, warlike power, or finaneial position, there was no comparison between the two countries.—(Hear.) He could not sit down without adverting to a most admirable change in the dockyards which had been made by the present Government, which was likely to keep the navy in a still greater state of efficiency than ever it had been before. Sir HOWARD DOUGLAS—Had the Hon. Gentleman read the pamphlet of the Prince de Joinville ? Dr. BOWRING—Yes, certainly; and it was a confession of their weakness. Mr. WILLIAMS was not quite so satisfied with this increase of the expense as some Hon. Gentlemen appeared to be. He found that the estimate taken for the whole of the cost was 5,661,0001., and, upon a comparison with late years, he found that there had been an increase of not less than upwards of 3,009,000/., and that, too, in a time of profound peace. Sir CHARLES NAPIER perfectly concurred in all that had fallen from the Gallant General (Sir Howard Douglas). He did not, how ever, at all agree with the statement of the Hon. Gentleman opposite (Mr. Williams)—(Hear and laughter)—because if they were to take his advice, the defence of the country would be impaired, and perhaps an opportunity thereby afforded to the French of passing 50,000 or 60,000 men into this country should they feel inclined to do so. He wished to bear his testimony to the way in which the Hon. Gentleman the Secretary to the Admiralty (Mr. Ward) had brought ferwavd the questions so interesting to the navy. It had been admitted by every Secretary to the Admiralty, and by every Lord of the Admiralty, for some years, that jobbing to a large extent had existed in our dockyards. Now he sincerely wished that the Hon. Gentleman had been authorised to go a step further than his predecessors had gone; and, in addition to making such an admission, had issued an order like the one recently issued by the Custom-house, which he supposed was issued by the permis sion of the First Lord of the Treasury. It stated that the friends or clerks, employes, and others, making use of private interest for the purpose of raising them from their different stations, would find that a very opposite result would take place Now he confessed he should like to have seen a paper issued by the First Lord of the Admiralty, stating that those connected with the navy must only expect to attain promotion by their own exertions, and that if they applied to " Lord this " or " Lord that " for such is purpose, that their progress would be effectually put a stop to.—(Hear.) The workmen in the respective dockyards wanted better superintendence, and this might be effected if the superintendents and ether officers were strictly honest. which he regretted was unfrequently the case. —(Hear and laughter). The mode in which persons were :appointed was pregnant of evil. If the names of three persons were brought to the Admiralty, two of whom were Whigs and, the other a Tory, no doubt the Whigs would stand a far better chance of being ap pointed than the other.—(Laughter.) Why, it needed no ghost from the grave to tell them that this was the invariable practice. (Mr. Ward dissented.) The Non. Gentleman shook his head, but the statement was correct. The great fault of the management of the dockyards was that a superintendent was not allowed to man h.s yard as a captain manned his ship, and to discharge the men if they neglected their duty. If this power were vested in him he would " keep a good look out," and prevent a continuation of this jobbing. Ile (Sir C. Napier) had been endeavouring for five years to impress the neces sity of a thorough revision of the dockyard system upon the Govern ment ; but he had never received any assistance in his labours until the present session, as he found the Secretary to the Admiralty stating that the " Government did not get a fair day's work for a fair day's wages." (Hear, hear, amid laughter.) Then again, the lion. Gentleman the Member for Portsmouth (Mr. Baring) admitted that many ships were not built in a proper manner, as mis takes had been made from time to time in their construction. We had also the published statement of a gentleman who was connected with the Admiralty during the late Administration (Mr. Corry), that, " considering the large expense of building and preparing ships, the most careful revision of the practice and proceedings of the dockyards is urgently required, as much for the purpose of saving expense, as for the purpose of promoting regularity." Ile should like to know from the Secretary of the Admiralty whe ther those thirty-three iron vessels were in his opinion adapted tor war or not? There was one other question also which he wished to ask him He was desirous to know it he intended to revise the articles of war with a view to make titans more humane ? In these days of modifying and abolishing corporal punishment, he thought the Admiralty should take this subject into their consideration. Before he sat down he also wished to impress upon the Admiralty the propriety of increasing the number of ship-carpeeters in their employment. The pay of this class of persons was so small that they were obliged to employ joiners to carry on the works, and he hoped that, as soon as a vessel was out of commiseion, they would lay on the table a statemnt of the exi wises she incurred while in co nmissien, as he beiievee i such an account would be extremely satisfactory. If the Admiralty would follow these few hints which he had thrown out, he had no doubt but they would he attended with the best results. With regard to those iron vessels, it was proved, if they were struck with a shot, the effect was Just the same as if " you put your finger through a piece of brown paeer." Now, what would be the consequence, he would ask, if one of these vessels was struck with a 32 or a 68-pounder ? If the lion. ourable Gentleman did not know. lie (Sir Charles Napier) would tell him, she would go to the bottom like a stone. Capt. BERKELEY thought that the Gallant Admiral (Napier) should not have alluded to the iron vessels, as the Secretary for the Admiralty had already stated that iron vessels were not tilted for the proposes of war. lie himself did not think they were adapted for such a purpose. Mr. CORRY would only make one or two remarks on the subject. The Hon. Member for Wiltshire seemed to think that a good deal of jobbing had been practised in the appointments in the dock yards: but he could assure the Hon. Gentleman thst while he (Mr. Corry) was in office, no such jobbing was carried on. The appointments of the late Government were founded upon the merits of the parties ap pointed, and not with the view, as the Honourable Member would seem to insinuate, to secure sinister support. With regard to the fitness of iron for steam vessels he would not contend that iron was suite 1 for tile purposes of vessels of war, but with regard to vessels to he employed in services of a general character, he entertained an entirely different opinion, and In support of that opinion he need only mention that he had received a letter tram Captain Hosken, wherein he stated, that had the Great Britain bet n made of wood instead 01 iron she must have gone to pieces long ago. Ile maietained, therefore, that iron was the best material for constructing vessels to be used for general purposes. When they said so much of the de ' fects of Iron vessels. they should recollect that wooden vessels were not able to resist the effects of shot, but they had otten been burnt from the shots fired into them. That was an incoevenience to which iron vessels were not subject. It was said that a shot fired into an iron vessel passed through one side and entered the other, but this must have arisen from the slight scantlings of the iron, and the same con sequences would result to wooden vessels, if made up proportionably slight. It could not be denied, however, that if they were objection able as war vessels, they would make very good troop ships. Captain HARRIS said that it would be most advisable that a sum of money should be voted as a supplementary estimate, for the pur pose of raising the pay of petty officers, and that such a measure should go pari passe with secondary punishments. Captain PECHELL desired to know what votes the Government were anxious to obtain, as he wished to hear the observation which the Right Hon. Baronet (Sir James Graham) intimated he would make ? Mr. WARD said that he could not expect the House to enter into the whole question of the estimates, as Hon. Gentlemen would have another opportunity of addressing the House. Sir J. GRAHAM said he was aftaid that any observations which he might make in reference to this vote, and the paper which had been laid upon the table, would be of little value, because his expe rience at the Board of the Admiralty, w en n of very late date. -But he must say that the idea of the patronage of the dockyards being monopolised by the Secretaries of the Admiralty was altogether unknown in his time. In fact the Secretaries exercised no patronage, except in the appointtnent of chap'ains. He said that he had held the office of Secretary to the Admiralty for two years, upon the general election after the Reform Act, and before he left that board, he could perceive the operation of the right to return Members to Parliament tor Chatham, Ports mouth, and other places ; and he must say, that if these political feelings prevailed further in the service of the Government, he feared they must resort to the old usage of the statute in reference to their servants, which was, that all who were employed in the collection of the revenue, should not possess the qualification of voting. He instanced the coast-guard as a case nearly analogous to the present. Still, he theueht, this plan brought forward by the Admiralty was such, that it ought to have a fair trial, and therefore he would give it his support most gladly, in order that the experiment might be made. If the experiment of the Admiralty fail, then he would most certainly recommend the extreme remedy of disqualification. Mr. WARD was extremely gratified at t to favourable opinion ex pressed by the it:ght Hon. Baronet, and he could assure him that eeerything woul I be done to g we effect to the plan which be had spoken of so highly. Ile was also of opinion that the officers in the dockyards would co-operate in giving the plan a fair trial. Should it, however, fail, he had no objection to the extreme remedy of dis qualification recounnenden. Sir HOWARD DOUGLAS expressed himself in favour of the plan. Mr. T. BARING begged the Right lien. Member to be watchful of the proposed plan, else he would find teat he had only removed the evil from the inferior to the superior officers. The grettte-t care, therefore, was necessary, in order to give the measure a fair chance. If that were done, a benefit might be realised ; but whether or not, he had crave objections to the extreme remedy of disqualification which had been recommended by the Right Hen. Baronet the late [Lorne Secretary. The vote was then agreed to. The following votes were then agreed to:- 25,5571. to defray some expense in connexion with naval establish ments abroad. 811,3071. to defray the wages of artificers and labourers in con nexion with naval establishments at home. The House then resumed, and the report was brought up, and or dered to be received on Monday. DRAINAGE OF LAND BILL. On the motion that this Bill be read a second time, Lord LINCOLN objected to s ome o f t h e provisions of the Bill, and complained that Its object had been slightly altered by the Goveriunent from the one Introduced by their predecessors. The rreat advantage contemplated by the Bill of last year was to convert the instalments into a loan. Uhe large proprietors would have nu great difficulty in obtaining these loanntitrom insurance cone patt ies. The small proprietors could not do so, for where the sums amounted only to 4,000!. or 5,0001., there would be a difficulty ; but when the sums amounted to 30,0:10/. there would, he conceived, be no such difficulty. He would not be invidious and real the names of the persons on the paper before him, but he observed that there were applieations for sums of 32,i-001., of 47,000!., and, in one in stance, of 70,000/. ; and although the grant was 2,000,000!., there were applications for 700,0001. beyond that sum; so that it was evident that the whole of the money, if this system were to be pursued; would be absorbed by the large landowners. Then, again, he objected to the term which was adopted of throe years, tor in England there were seven-course systems, and in Scotland four-course systems, so that the money never could be repaid within the three years, and he would therefore advise that they should at once be dropped, and take a five year system, for that would be much better both for the drainage and for the cultivation of the soil. Again, if the money was thus to be expended, he was afraid that it would never prove of any great value in promoting the general improvement. He did hope therefore that the Government would give this Bill a little more attention before it was definitely passed through the House. The Bill was then read a second time, and ordered to be com mitted on Wednesday next. CONSOLIDATED FUND BILL. This Bill was read a third time and passed. Mr. GODSON obtained leave to bring in a Bill to encourage per sons to effect Insurance on Lives, Tile Bill was subsequently brought in and read a first time. The LORD ADVOCATE obtain. d leave to Introduce the following Bills :—A Bill to amend the law and practice in Scotland as to the Service of Heirs ; a Bill to amend the law and practice in Scotland with regard to Crown Charters amid l'recepts trout Chancery; a Bill to facilitate the Transference of Lands and other Heritages in Scot land not held in Burgage Tenure ; a Bill to facilitate the Transfer ence of Lands and other Heritages in Scotland hold in Burgage Tenure ; a Bill to facilitate the Constitution and Transmission of Heritable Securities for Debt in Scotland, and to render the same more effectual. Captain PECIIELL moved for a return of all vessels that have been purchased, since 1830, in the Royal Navy, including those condemned under the Acts relative to the Slave Trade, stating the tonnage s he the price paid for each, distinguishing else areee „, paid for the hull and for the stores ; also tor a return of tha number of boys of the first and second class for general service received on beard the several flag-ships at Ports mouth and Devonport, durhig the several months of August, Sep tember, October, November, and December, 18 te, distinguishing those who have not been entered under the regulation of the admi ralty tnemorandum of the 25ta day of May, 1841, with the number of boys so entered, who have been supplied with slop clothing.— Agreed to. The remaining orders of the day were then disposed of, and the -diourned at Half-past One o'clock. house adi, STEAM -BOAT ACCIDENT.—On Wednesday atter• noon, a boat, containing six passengers, and navigated by a waterman, left the Cork steamer Git, lying in the River, off Rotherhithe, for the purpose of proceeding to the Tunnel pier, when the Waterman steamer No. 1, which was going down the River, struck the bows of the boat, which imme diately capsized. The passengers were all immersed in the stream, and some of them clung to the steam-vessel until they were taken on board. One of them, a female, named Mary Ann Sweeney, had a very narrow escape. She went down directly after the boat was capsized, and when she again rose to the surface of the water she was rescued by a Thamas police- constable, who put off to the assistance of the par ties directly t he collision took place. She was conveyed ,to the station -house, where she was provided with clothing. r The other p a ssengers experienced no damage beyond their 1 imm ees'o,n in the River, and received the most humane attec tions from the people on board the steamer. The occurrence appeared to have been quite accidental, SAVINGS' BANKS. TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN. Sin,—From an observation recently made by Mr. Baron Alderson, relative to deposits in savings' banks (and which first appeared in a public print through the Swings' Bank Cercu'ar), a good deal of misunderstanding prevails. The Baron has, by many, been understood to say that if a savings' bank depositor neglected to withdraw any part of his deposit for more than six years, he would be debarred by the Statute of Limitations from recovering what might be then invested. Since what the Baron let drop upon the sub ject it has been contended that, as interest is added year!y to a depositor's account in the bank ledger, that is a regular renewal of the whole account. On the other hand, it is argued that, adding interest annually is not a payment, and, therefore, no renewal of the account. Now, Sir, as every body knows thete is the glorious uneer• taint• of the law, the most prudent and safe plan will b..- for a depositor (either in person, or by the requisite written dele gation,) to withdraw something within six years, if even a shilling, and thereby set all doubting on this head at rest.— Your obedient servant, March 3, 1847. CERTAINTY. FRENCH PLAYS. ST. JAMES'S THEATRE. M. Alcide Tousez made his first appearance before an English audience last evening, and M. Alcide Toissez will become, no doubt, a great favourite with the English public. He is by far the most humourous French actor we have ever seen. There is a breadth and an unctiousness about him that is quite Listo nian. The piece chosen for his debut was Le Roi des Frontins in which he sustains the part of Thomas. Frontin, be it remembered, is the generic name of the intriguing valet of the French vaudeville, and the Frontin of tke piece (M. llumery) tired of serving a young, dashing, intriguing, but poor French nobleman, seeks for a successor, and ends one in Thomas, an itinerant vendor of poultry a country gawky. He drills him into the hat exercise and waiting exercise, &c., of a valet (this drill scene is exceedingly rich), and giving him a written cha racter, leaves him as his successor, His master is disgusted with his gaucherie, but relying on the written testimonial of his abilities, em ploys him in all sorts of intrigues. His stupidity favours him, and as luck will have it, Thomas, more to his own surprise than to that of any body else, succeeds d mervei lle in everything he undertakes ; his stupidity is put down to the ac count of calculation and intrigue, and he, the stupid country dolt, is at length acknowledged to be Le Rol des Frontins, the prince of clever intriguers, merely by acting on the theory of 1 aissez faire. The acting of Tousez was rich in the extreme. Nature has bountifUlly bestowed on him a face and figure such as have not been seen since the days of Liston. M. Alcide Tousez has im proved these natural advantages to the highest pitch of perfec tion. The house was in a roar from the moment of his appearance to the falling of the curtails ; and to all hypochondriacs we should recommend as an infallible cure an evening with M. Alcide Tousez at the St. James's Theatre. FOOD DISTURBANCES IN THE NORTH. (From the Edinburgh Adrertiaer.) FIRING BY THE MILITARY AT WICK. Contrary to all expectation the turbulent spirit manifested in some districts in the north, regarding the shipment of food front the various ports, has again manifested itself, and been attended with disastrous results in the town of Wick. It appears that, in the course of last week, a vessel had arrived at Wick to ship grain, but, by the interference of the populace, this was prevented. Shetiff Thomson and the authorities, however, deemed it necessary that protection should be afforded to the exporters of the grain, and ap. prehending that outrages might be committed, sent for the aid of the military at Fort George. Accord. ingly a detachment, consisting of one hundred and four men of the 76th Regiment, under the command of Captain Evans Gordon, was dispatched by the Pharos steamer, and arrived at Wick on Tuesday. After being landed they were quartered in the Temperance Hall. The authori ties now made preparations to protect the loading of the ves sel, and, on Wednesday, a number of constables were sworn in, but the shipment of grain proceeded so slowly that they were dismissed with an injunction to assemble if necessary. The following are from the local papers:— (From the John 0' Groat Journal of Friday.) Before dusk on Wednesday evening a party of the military was marched down the quay to watch the vessel during the night, and here commenced the most alarming part of the whole proceedings. How a mob was created, there are various statements; one thing is certain, previous to the arrival of tee military, the streets presented the usual features of ordinary days. About seven o'clock the whole remaining body of the soldiery were quickly marched to join their comrades, on a shot being fired as a signal from their party on the quay. At this time there was a great excitement. An immense gathering of the populace; men, women, and children had asssembled, and, in other parts of the town, deep anxiety was depicted in every coun tenance, and great excitement prevailed. The Sheriff and Provost were present amongst the mob, who surrounded the military on all hands. The Riot Act was read by the Sheriff, hut this had not any effect in inducing the people to diverse in peace. At this time the feelings of the inhabitants were roused up to the highest possible pitch, for a direct collision was anticipated every hour. The soldiers were divided into several parties, and were ordered to disperse the mob at the point of the bayonet. In this attempt several were wounded but only slightly. The soldiers continued for some time parading in different directions, which had the effect of scat tering the crowd. The prisoners were taken and lodged in ja.“ But the worst remains to he told. As a party were march. ing from Pulteney-town, back to their quarters, when imme diately under the brae where the Academy is erected, a volley of stones was thrown by individuals on the top of the brae and the Sheriff and Provost were both struck. The soldiers were immediately ordered by the Sheriff to fire, and we deeply regret to say, that two individuals, a man and a girl were wounded. The man, William Hougston, fore man cooper to Mr. David Davidson, did not form part of the mob, nor was he with them at the time. According to his own statement, which seems highly probable, he was proceeding quietly home. A ball went through his right hand, which was so shockingly mutilated, that the fin gers had to be cut off, and it is even doubtful if a farther amputation will not have to be made. The other a girl, named Macgregor, was wounded in the left arm, the ball passing through the fleshy part, but we believe that the in jury done was not dangerous. About this time it is impos sible to depict the state of excitement which was visible in every direction. Men, women, and children fled, on hearing the report of the musketry and on learning that damage had been done. Parents were anxiously running in search of their children, while the crowd were giving expression to the most vociferous shouts and yells. Soon after, with the ex ception of the guard at the vessel, all the military were or dered to their quarters, but throughout greater part of the night, groups of the inhabitants were assembled at every corner, where the unpleasant events of the evening were can vassed. Nothing occurred, however, to produce a breach of the peace. FURTHER PARTICULARS. would seem that, previous to the soldiers being ordered to disperse the mob, they suffered a continuous and most aggravating series of assaults from the crowd, and not a few of them were wounded. Some of the women seized staves, with which they struck the solders ; one, in particular, struck an officer thrice, when she received a pretty severe sword cut. Stones were also thrown from various directions. A great many were wounded by the bayonets of the soldiers, but no serious injury was done to any by this means. TntrusDAY, Foun o'CLocK, P.m.—A public meeting of the electors has just bee❑ held, at which resolutions on the sub- jest of the military being brought here, have been unani mously passed. The Town Hall was crowded to suffocation, and was presided over by the Provost. At the close of the meeting, the whole assemblage have gone down the quay, and removed the obstructions. From present indications we think, as we sincerely trust, we have seen the end of this most unpleasant matter. The Provost made some explana tions to the meeting, which were loudly applauded, anti gave universal satisfaction. Few speeches were Made at the meeting. but such of the gentlemen as spoke. expressed their resolution to support the authorities, and an earnest desire for the immediate removal of the military. CASTLETOWN.—On Monday evening several hundred per sons assembled at Castlehill harbour, in order to put to sea a vessel ( the " Fisher "of Leith) hich had come there to load grain. They proceeded to hoist the booms out o the harbour entrance, and to use threats to compel the cap. tain to leave the port. Mr. Traill, M.P., accompanied by Sheriff Gregg, the latter of whom happening to be there by chance, quickly proceeded to the scene of action, but their presence had not much effect on the turbulent mob. Many were armed with sticks and bludgeons, and having pro ceeded on board the vessel, the mate, in attempting to de. fend himself witb a knife, was felled to the deck. This la,t onset had the effect of dispersing the crowd, as they sup. posed the man had been killed, and each took to his heels. Mr. Traill then, at a late hour, (about 12 P.M. or I A.m.), had his household forces mustered, got the booms replaced. the vessel secured, and had the mate carried on shore • he is, h ow ever, severely injured. The crew having been withdrawn no further attempt was made to put the smack to sea. That such outbreaks should take place in a rural district like Castletown and Dunnet, is remarkable, and cannot be justi fied by any good reason. Mr. Traill is known to have re tained in the district more meal and grain than have been stored there in any previous season, more indeed than can be consumed before next harvest. The people, too, are welt em ployed, and want is not known among them. THURSO. •••••A correspondent of the above journal, writ ing from Thurso, on Tuesday last says— "We have had lamentable disturbances here. The populace have blocked up the road to the river with two small sloops; one of them was taken up to-night. They have also planted a ten-pounder on the braehead. About one hundred special constables have been sworn in, and everything assumes a most threatening aspect. Wehave too much cause to fear serious Consequences, unless, by some means or other, peace be restored." We have learned, in addition to the above, that on Wednesday evening another gun was placed on the brae, and that the feelings of the people continue wound up to the greatestpitch. Assemblages at night are frequent, and threatenings of violence are per severed in. The peaceable inhabitants are kept in a state of the utmost terror from these manifestations. this country reference to .oiling then , e under the sod a fear as system Ff most horrd ties stoo Inthe abject, over iwn that the . mora lizing. 'were carried ,the change no longer 'need (L" d ter of stolen .Ition would however, o f oar' tell him. d been coo ported. fie he property ,uth R ales. id in a short ent as ever R.Y scroll C. -ere pre• nal Sale we, 'O3 owsp : a Pad' ~v, 9 An a ;TO W° aad at e-Streett ?ll° 004' La re"l °WO ' 0 ni Wi e° [-den e ffect' ietY 0 0 ' 5 ' ,stb' e etinib led, 311 on ge four sere 4d t of e of 'ors wr" • - 842 Till'', LATE COLLISION ON TEE RIVER.—The. --- rectors of the London and Leith Navigation Company have instituted an investigation at Leith into the circumstances attending the late accident, which resulted in the loss of the Rose schooner and several lives, through collision with their steamer the Royal Victoria. Mr. Wetter, the captain of the Rose, was examined, and detailed the circumstances under which the collision occurred, so far as he knew them, and said that kis schooner was anchored on the north side of the Thames at the time. The night was quite clear. He had no lights fixed to the schooner's mast or bow. The steamer struck her on the larboard bow, and she went down on her broadside. The steamer had her engines reversed, and she went astern before the Rose sunk. Was part-owner of the vsssel. She had been valued at 8001. or 9001. She was 18 years old. Captain Meiklereid, the master of the Royal Vic toria, stated that he left St. Katherine's Wharf on Saturday night, at twelve o'clbck. The pilot left her at the usual place, Gravesend. He then took the control of the steamer, and on arriving off the creek at Hole Haven, about half a mile from the shore, the accident occurred. On nearing Hole Haven he noticed three vessels ahead, one under canvass, and the other two at anchor. He wanted to go to the north ward, between the two at anchor, as he could not get to the southward, the sailing vessel being close on to him. He was on the bridge, and the carpenter was with him. The second mate, Johnson, was at the helm. It was the carpenter's duty to be on the look out, and Dickson was on the bow. The night was clear, and he saw the vessels half a mile off. He would have gone to the southward of the vessels if there had been room. He desired the helm to " port, port—hard a-port." The helm, in consequence of the ebb tide, did not steer well, and he directed the engineer to say the engines and reverse them, so as to go astern the It was steamer ttto strucklte,h o t w h - e ever, to prevent the collision ; schooner, and in four or five minutes she went down. Some portion of her went under the steame r . H e instantly . di rected a boat to be lowered to save the crew, but it picked up none. The steamer was brought to an anchor, and for two hours remained by the spot where the Rose went d own It then continued its course t o Leith. The oft thethe schooner was brought on b oar d- the steamer. passengers were alarm e d b y the accident excepting those on deck. One of the Roy a l Victoria's anchors was torn away. ROBBERY OF RAILWAY SCRIP.—The police have received information that a roltbery of 130 scrip shares, in the Worcester, Warwick oea and Rugby Company, had been effected from th e office lessrs. Oldaker, Pershore, Worces tershire. The numbers are all between 9,041 and 26,020. S Tr N 77 - 7 -f LAW INTELLIGEN ( SECONDARIES' COUII7', MI (Before Mr. Secondary PoTTiL. _ , DEADMAN v DEATH. THE TABLES TUnNED.—This was action to; ,recover fliQ sum of 2001. and interest on a mortgage. There Was no fence to the action, and a verdict was given for the plaintiff. SHARPE s. JONES. The plaintiff in this action is a house agent, in St. John's street, and the defendant is a milkman in Westminster. It appeared that the plaintiff hail been engaged to dispose of the goodwill and lease of the premises, and accordingly advertised it, besides putting up a bill in his window, which was seen by a party who became a purchaser; but as the plaintiff had been paid for putting up the bill, it was con tended he could not charge commission, as all his subsequent acts had been on behalf' of the purchaser, in order to arrange the price, the purchaser having applied to him for that pur pose, and when he went to take the inventory, now charged for, he said he was doing it for the purchaser. The jury gave a verdict for the defendant. COURT OF BANKRUPTCY, March 5. (Before Mr. Commissioner FANE.) IN RE WELLS. In this case the bankrupt, who was described as a mer chant in the Poultry, came up to pass his lastexammation. Mr. BucHANA.Ni supported the application. His HONOUR said there had not been a trade assignee ap pointed, and therefore he should, on a general principle, ad journ the examivation ; for where there were no assetts, or the case was so beset with difficulties that no creditor could be found to tette the assigneeship, it might be considered the affairs were such as could not be satisfactorily wound up by the:solicitor to the fiat, and he therefore adopted a general rule to adjourn such cases for twelve months. Mr. BucHANAN was proceeding to explain, when His HoNeuß said if he was acting on the particular cir cumstances of the case, then. Mr. Buchanan's observations might avail the bankrupt, but as the judgment was on a ge neral rule he could not alter it. The last examination would be adjourned sine die, with leave to come up when he could find a person to become assignee and investigate the ac count; but if he had entered into the merits probably it would have been the same, as bankrupt had been gambling in railway shares. Adjourned accordingly. CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT. OLD COURT. (Before Mr. Justice COLERIDGE and Mr. Justice COLTMAN.) UTTERING FORMED ORDERS.—Jane Stoor, aged 33, a married woman, was indicted with having uttered several forged seamen? orders, with intent to defraud Mary Edwards and others. The case was fully proved, and several previous convic tions having been put in, the prisoner was sentenced to 20 years' transportation. Several petty larceny cases of no interest took up the rest of the morning. NEW COURT. Before the RECORDER and Alderman Hucass.) . .. The following prisoners were brought up for sentence : William Monroe, aged 21, convicted last session of stealing paper from three different establishments, was sentenced to one year's imprisonment and hard labour. Wiliam George Sweet, aged 17, convicted of an indecent assault upon a child under 10 years, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment and hard labour. Henry Kendall, a goods porter on the Great Western Rail way, was indicted for stealing two bottles of wine from a hamper to be sent by the railway. It appeared that two hampers, containing 18 bottles of port wine each, waxed on the corks and stamped, were sent to the Paddington station, on the 4th February, well packed, and in good condition. A few hours after, it was observed that the end of one of the hampers had been raised, and two bottles taken out. The bottles were found behind an empty case in the vod's store. Sergeant Childers of the company's force was put to watch, and he saw, while secreted in the store, the prisoner come and cautiously look round, and then take up one of the bottles, and put it under his jacket. When the constable seized him the pri soner, in surprise, exclaimed, " 0 Lord God, this is the first time." The jury found the prisoner guilty, but recommended him to mercy, in consideration of his previous goad character. The COURT assured the prisoner .that only in consequence of the jury's recommendation, the sentence would not be transportation, as it certainly would be in the very next case of a similar character. He was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment and hard labour. POLICE IN TELLIGENCE'. BO W-STREET. James Williams and Frederick Jenkinson, who had been re manded from Monday, on a charge of uttering a forged cheque on the hank of Messrs. Ransom. at the shop of Mr Prew, tailor, of High Holborn, was again brought before Mr Jardine this morning. On the case being called on, Mr. Wolf, who defended the prisoners, said that before the case was entered, into, be wished to call the magistrate's at tention to an occurrence which had taken place since the last examination. The prisoners had been removed to the Totbill-fields Prison, where Williams had written a letter to him, giving him instructions f i the defence. This letter was stopped by Mr. Tracey, the Go; , r nor of the prison, who not only prevented it from being forwarded to Mr. Wolf, but went to the prisoners to caution them against employing him (Mr. Wolf), who, he said, was "one of those scamps who frequent the police courts, without being attorneys, and without any authority from attorneys. Williams being a very old client of his, indignantly rjected Mr. Tracer's advice, saying that he knew well what the cha racter of 'Mr. Wort was, and he was determined to retain him. Now, he considered it his duty to mention this, as if such proceedings were to be allowed, there was no protection for persons who were in custody on such charges. Mr. JARDINE said that he could not do anything in the matter, as, in the first place, he could not act on the unsup ported statement of the prisoners, and, indeed, he had not the power of punishing Mr. Tracey if he had been guilty of such misconduct; but there was no question that if he had done so it was highly improper. However, he would take care that inquiries should be made in the matter, and if necessary he would make a representation in the proper quarter. The case was then proceeded with. The following additional evidence was given : Charles Jackson, a clerk at Messrs. Ransoms, Pall Mall, said that on Saturday last the cheque produced was pre sented by Mr. Prew's clerk, now in court. The cheque was signed " C. Kinnaird," but as it was immediately seen that it was not Mr. Kiunaird's signature it was not cashed. The clerk took it away. Mr. Kinnaird, jeweller, of Gerard-street, Soho, said that the cheque produced had becn taken out of his blank cheque book, by what means he could not tell. The signature was not his. Several other cheques had been torn from his book, but he had never noticed it until he heard of this case. This completed the case, on which the prisoners were com mitted for trial ; but there was a second charge for passing another forged cheque, also in Mr. Kinnaird's name, which occupied the Court for a considerable time. In this case, however, the evidence was not complete, and the prisoners were therefore remanded till this day-week. On the first charge they still stand committed. Mr. Kinnaird requested us to contradict the statement which appeared on Saturday, that there were no effects at Ransom's in his mime. It was misapprehension of the clerk who took the cheque to Messrs. Ransom's bank. The true ground of the refnsal to cash the cheque was, that the signature was seen at once to be false. - - - - .t 7 WORSHIP-STREET. Mr. Lawrence Gregg, described as a gentleman of property residing at No. 17, Ask-terrace, Hoxton, New Town, was charged with being found by the police, in the public street, drunk, and incapable of taking care of himself, and with violent conduct, &c., at the station-house. Police constable 405 N deposed, that he was on duty at about three o'clock, when be discovered the defendant in the street, so drunk that he was reeling from one side of the pavement to the other. He had got a puree in his hand, and on witness speaking to bim, the latter said, "I think I have lost some silver, and a Si. note. Witness, on examining the contents of the purse discovered the defendant's money to be correct. Perceiving, however, a female of loose character to be apparently watching him, and that he had, in addition to the cash, a gold guard chain round bis neck, he thought it prudent to convey him to the station-house, with a view to his being afterwards conducted home. He, however, on arriving at the station-house, assailed the inspector, police sergeants, and other constables, with the most opprobrious epithets ; he refused to give his name or address, and his conduct was altogether so violent, that they were at length compelled to place him in a cell, which, however, took three persons to perform. Mr. ARNOLD said the defendant's conduct was very bad. He did not see why the defendant should be treated diffe rently to a person in humble circumstances. He should, therefore, commit him to the House of Correction for three days. CLERKEN WELL. peeredca . t l , [ 2 r 2 M t3 00 0 , p u ra l e d t he h aa e r gg c ae l e r nos k ft t En o odt t wh having ar m dv m s t tm r h a ien t e s sn, ut a mh t ob t he driver s court, of h IlP e the ab " marked in a conspicuous posit n m upon the inside of the cab. Mr. Mould said he engaged the cab on Thursday night, when the defendant demanded double the amount of hi s legal fare. Observing no number inside th e ve hi c l e , and as he (Mr. Mould) was perfectly aware that extortion on the part of the drivers generally, accompanied the absence of the number, he thought it his duty to bring the case before the magistrate. Mr. Faucher, the extensive cab proprietor of Mount Pleasant, said the defendant was in his employment, and from his own dearly bought experience he trusted he might make an observation to the magistrates. It magis trates when cases of overcharge were proved against cabmen, were to exercise their discretionary power, and instead of fining them send them to prison, without the alternative of a fine, it would be much bet t e r for the cab proprietors them selves as well as for the public generally. When a fine was imposed the fraternity clubbed to pay it; so that in point of fact the actual offender escaped without the slightest punish ment, often not even the payment of a single penny out of his own pocket. Mr. Mould said he did not wish to press the charge with any severity against the defendant, and Mr. COMBS ordered the defendant to pay a fine of 10s., and in default to be committed to the House of Correction, with hard labour, for seven days. JUVENILE chooI n S CHOOL a o s r j u t s b n e tt e s n T o ß p Y e n . ci wre t c hed locality of Pye-street, Westminster. It has A s under it t h i e F a u lf v B e den omi nat io n AN in b the eeafounded by the Ragged School Union, for the erection and support of free schools tor the destitute poor. SALE OF L AND IN TEXAS. Thursday, 16,273 acres of freehold located land, situate in Texas, under the dominion, and in the southern part of the United States of North America, were submitted to public competition, at the Auction-mart, by Mr. Robins. The land comprised nine estates in the counties of Harris, Liberty, Galveston, and Bexar, the size being from 320 to 4,605 acres, all of them surrounded with thriving farms, and from three to eight miles from the capital city, Houston. The lands located in the vicinity of Houston, &c., produced &s. 6 3 4 d. the acre ; the unconditional certificates, entitling the holder to select land in any part of Texas, from 320 to 1,280 acres each remaining unallotted, going at nominal prices. ROYAL ORTROP2EDIC HOSTITAL. —Thursday * general meeting of the governors of this charity for the cars of club foot, lateral curvature of the spine, and all other con tractions and deformities, was holden in the board-room of the institution in Bloomsbury-square ; Q. Harris, Esq., in the chair. The numbers admitted during the past year were 117 in and 1,228 out-patients, exceeding those of any pre vious year by 376. The treatment of lateral curvature of the spine, hitherto deemed almost incurable, has been attended with signal success. The receipts for the year amounted to 2,1671., and the expenditure left only a balance of 212/. 88,, The anniversary dinner will take place on the sth of May. GUN COTTON AND MACHINERY. Isaac Mickle, Esq., of Camden (New Jersey), is applying gun cotton to the propulsion of machinery in his factory. The engine is constructed on the plan of the ordinary steam-engine, only thrre are two cylinders, one working in the other. The gun. cotton is ignited by electricity, engendered and applied in a novel manner. Any degree of power may be obtained. It. is safer than the ordinary steam-engine, and one persop can run it. r Lb° . i font ,ega I 0 0, r oe able ion, nevi 5 oL, ick° EMI MU 'r~~;==