The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-05-22 00:00:00

c~~` ~~.~ - ~. Knlper aI Varitalntht♦ HOUSE OF LORDS.—MONDAY. Lord LYNDHURST gave notice that he would, on Tuesday, move for copies of the correspondenue between the Neapoli tan government and Mr. Macgregor, on the subject of the sulphur monopoly.—Adjourned. HOUSE OF COMMONS.—MONDAY. An immense number of petitions was presented for and against Lord Stanley's bill. Lord MORPITTH presented a petition against the bill from Belfast, signed by more than 8,000 inhabitants ; and another from Liverpool, signed by upwards of 16,000 persons, also against the Registration Bill of the noble lord. (Cheers.) Mr. W. BARRON presented a similar petition from 'Water ford. _ _ Lord SANDOS presented a petition from Liverpool, signed by 23,137 persons in three days, in favour of the bill of the noble lord. (Cheers.) Of these 20,000 had added their . . professions and residences. He believed this petition was the most numerous and respectable that had ever proceeded from that town. They prayed the house at once to go into committee on the hill, and, disregarding factious opposition, to carry it to a third reading. (Cheers.) He begged leave to read a passage from the petition. The petitioners said the objections to the hill were of a threefold character—N .l Z, personal, fraudulent, and Mistaken : personal, because not founded against the principles of the bill, but against the noble lord who introduced it, and therefore unworthy of the attention of the house ; fraudulent, because, under the pre tence of keeping up an extensive franchise, the real design of the opposite party was to keep on the registers persons not legally qualified to vote, or persons to vote in lieu of dead men, whose names were still retained (laughter),—and it was the duty of the .house to resist. all such dishonest and disgraceful attempts (" hear, hear," and laughter) ; mis taken, because they proceeded upon misrepresentations of the bill ;—and the petitioners had no doubt that, if the house went into committee on the measure, all honest and reason able objections wonld soon be satisfied. (Cheers.)' The noble lord and Mr. Cresswell then carried up the bulk petition to the table, amidst general laughter. BUSINESS. OF THE HOUSE. Mr. °MILBURN wished to know when Lord J. Russell intended to move his proposed alterations in the Poor-law Amendment Act. Lord J. RUSSELL could not mime the time, but would state the course which he intended to pursue. He would first go into committee on the Canada Government Bills ; he would next proceed with the Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues Bill ; he would then propose the hill for continu ing the poor-law commission ; and after that proceed with the measure for altering certain provisions of the Poor-law Amendment Act. IRISH REGISTRATION BILL At half-past five o'clock, the order of the day having been read for the committee on the Irish Voters' Registration Bill, Sir W. SOMERVILLE rose to resist the further progress of. the measure. He contended that.the lower class of voters were not, as many seemed to suppose, a body so numerous as to overbear the £2O and the £5O electors, and admonished the house to proceed with caution and forbearance. He thought every single clause of the bill objectionable; but be proposed, in moving that it should be committed on that day six months, to dwell only on its two main features. The first was the cost of the annual registration ; £5 would be a ruinous mulct to a pocr cottager, though it would be nothing out of the funds of the Carlton Club. It was to him incom prehensible how any man could support this bill who lived in Ireland, and knew how much that country required tran quillity. The other great evil was the appeal. Were the registration appeals to be heard before or after the civil and criminal business ? In either case, one or other class of suitors must be mischievously and even indefinitely delayed. Instead of throwing an invidious duty on the Judges, he should like to withdraw it even from the assistant barristers, and remove that apprehension of political bias which must always prevail among the people, while their judicial officers are invested with political functions. The real object of the present bill was only to remove the Irish liberal members. In general, the noble lord was the obstructor; but he was himself obstructed by those Irish representatives, and there fore he was anxious o disseat them. Mr. JAMES GRATTAN seconded the motion. He thought the bill peculiarly injurious to the Roman Catholics, because the electors whom it would disfranchise happened to be chiefly of that faith. Mr. LEFROY observed, that, unless this hill should give in.-ins of revision, there was no way of correcting the ri .n.i, except through an election committ e ; but com < p rortually refused to open the registry. The last emninittee, on which sat eight of the present sup .:ers. of the ministry, had refused to open it; but, aware e incoovenjenee of their own refusal, they had passed a ~r,•milution, asserting the necessity of some immediate for the want of revision. Surely those eight gentle oei:l vote at least for the speaker's leaving the chair. L in ,ford committee had opened the registry, and s.iung" .e;•:.,►T' a great number of votes as fictitious but thefe :i! tit) means of taking them off the registry ; and, at the next election, they had all been ready to poll afresh. Twelve committees had opened the registry ; and the total of the fictitious votes disallowed by them was between 1400 and 150, not one of whom could be prevented, under the present law, from voting again. The learned member then cited opinions pronounced in former debates by various of the present opponents of the bill, in favour of its leading provisions ; and among them were Mr. O'Connell and the Attorney-General. It had been said, that the franchise wanted clearer definition. The judges of Ireland had already defined it. Legislation, therefore, on this head was not requisite ; but, if it were, why not introduce a clause for that purpose in the committee ? Gentlemen said, there ought to be an increase of the Irish constituency ; but if so, let the increase be a fair, not a fraudulent one. As to the petitions against this bill, they would have been entitled to no weight, had they come in waggon loads, when it was considered by what delusion they had been got up ; Mr. O'Connell having told the Irish people it was actually admitted, that the object of the bill was the profligate one of destroying the franchise of Ireland, and transferring the elective power to the land lords. Lord CLEMENTS said that the real fault of the people was only that they did not vote with their landlords. Sir H. BATESON regretted that this should be now made a party question. Its leading provisions had theretofore been fully approved of on the other side of the house, but now it was made a political matter by a section, who feared it would affect their own interests. As to the petitions, they had indeed been numerously signed, because orders had come down that on the Easter and following Snndays each priest should, from the altar, direct every man of his congregation to sign at the door before he q witted the chapel. He had himself asked a little party of them what it was they had signed ; and their answer was that they did not exactly know, but they believed it was something about Mr. O'Connell. The language, too, of intimidation and abuse employed by some part of the Irish press had been so gross, that Billings gate would have been ashamed of it. Mr. LYNCII complained, that there was already much un certainty as to the franchise, from the discordance between the decisions of assistant barristers, and the want of unifor mity even among the judges. To reproduce this evil every year would be a great aggravation. He would prefer a fran chise of which the test should be the poor-rate ; but though he might be unable to carry that, he had at least a right to require that the existing franchise should be defined. The true object would be, not to multiply exclusions from the franchise, but to afford facilities for obtaining it. What man of timid, retiring character, would brave the obstacles set up by this bill? Mr. Lirrox said the franchise was already defined. For a considerable time there had been some uncertainty whether the £lO clause of the reform act did or did not require that there should be an interest for which a solvent tenant would give a clear value of £lO a year. All the judges, except one, did, after an argument of two days, decide that there must be such an interest. The one dissentient judge ventured, on his next circuit, to act on his own opinion, thus opposed to that of all his brethren, and some assistant-barristers fol lowed him. Upon this Lord Chief Justice wrote to Lord Chief Justice Denman, requesting to be informed whether, in crown cases reserved (which are precisely analagous,) Use judges hold themselves bound by the opinion of the majority, as they are where the judgment is given on matter of record; and Lord Chief Justice Denman's answer was, that they do hold themselves so bound. This proved that the franchise was no longer undefined ; and Mr Litton added, that he un derstood the one dissentient judge to have since acted on the • opinion of the majority. But, as some of the assistant-bar risters still held out, and decided votes on the principle de clared by the majority of the judges to be illegal, there was no security to the constituency, without an appeal to a tri bunal whose judicature would be uniform. it had been said that the franchise was to have been legislatively defined in the bill introduced by Mr. Attorney-General Woulfe—that is, an attempt was made by that bill, under pretence of removing doubts, to declare the law in direct opposition to what it had been declared to be by the judges in their construction of the reform act. And now the house was to be told that no bill should pass for the prevention of the grossest fraud and per jury, unless this repeal of the reform act were included. The learned gentleman closed his speech by assuring the house that Mr. O'Connell's efforts against this bill and against the union had become wholly powerless in Ireland, where every uid woman now understood that his .movements were a mere pecuniary speculation. Lord JOIIN RUSSELL began by describing this as the most gortoidable attempt ever made against the reform act, as tend ing, no like former motions, to follow out the spirit of tha' act by extending the franchise, but to retrograde by an ef fort at contraction, and treat the man who demanded the fran chise as a pnelic enemy. Nor was he much consoled to find tiro tl.te attack was only on one part of the United Kingdom, fi-.!atise in all pars he could see evils requiring equal atten tion—tee animal vexation of registry in England, fictitious vote s is ;cotland, intimidation' and bribery in all the three To none of these evils did gentlemen opposite apply taemselve, but only to the one instance in which a Party purpose was to be answered. In England the voters were not troubled to prove their title unless objected to, thoneh they certainly were exposed to the vexation of annual wre;•riori He had himself proposed a bill for removing this awes i- England. The present bill gave no relief to the 1. it left them all their own disadvantages, and invented • others in addition Was the system of this bill to o.iticed into England ? If not, Ireland was treated it . . , apiality and injustice; but if yes, he would warn the :+f England against so monstrous a change. Iu the 6A. of George IV. which gave the appeal against the re jeci .on of the vote, a jury was to determine on matter of fact ; but in the present bill, which gives the appeal against the ad .mission of the vote, the jury, that is the popular principle, is wholly struck out. The franchise is not directly defined by the bill ; but the bill sends the appellant to the judges, who have already defined it just as the authors of the bill desire. It would have been more consistent with good faith to define the franchise directly. Lord John proceeded to object to the absolute power which the bill proposed to give to the judges, making th e m supreme not only over th e l aw, b ut over t h e House of Commons. He disliked to see power so bestowed, because the judges had always exercised such powers in a narrow spirit. Now as to the annual revision. In England it was managed by associations on a very expensive system. How was that expense to be borne in Ireland, a country so much poorer? Lord STANLEY observed, that though it had been very usual to take the second reading of a bill by consent, and re serve the discussion until the motion for going into commit tee, it was not at all customary to make a fresh opposition on that motion, after a contest of two nights and a division on the second reading. The mover of the amendment, how ever, had dealt fairly ; he had attempted no shuffle, and talked of no bills which were never intended to be brought in. Lord Stanley then ads erted to the personal attacks which had been levelled against lihnself. Mr. O'Connell's abuse he was sure no gentleman ssonld expect him to notice at all, but some of that member's perversions of fact were too gross not to re quire refutation in this, the only place where he and Mr. O'Connell were likely to meet upon this conflict. He then dissected some of 1..1r. O'Connell's statements to the people of Ireland, and showed, passage by passage, the misrepre sentations contained in them. The present amendment went to declare, that to the existing evils of fictitious voting no remedy should be applied. In proof of these evils he cited the regis tries of Dublin city, Dublin county, Longford, Waterford, and other places, where he alleged that the nominal constituency on the roll amounted to two, sometimes to three, times as many persons as actually remained alive and qualified to vote, and he referred not only to various cases of votes given in the names of dead men, and on leases for lives which had ex pired, but to a speech of Mr. O'Connell, made in 1832, in which Mr. O'Connell himself foretold all these very frauds, and contended for an annual registration as the only effectual means of preventing them. Among other illustrations then given by Mr. O'Connell had been a story of a man who came up to vote as John Moran, and being desired to write his mann, took up the pen without any hesitation and wrote' 4. .IN.,_-:. ‘ lllh sll4'• k‘. ~. L " Dennis O'Brien." When the laughter raised by this story had subsided, Lord Stanley went on to say, " I find no fault with the learned member for having abandoned all his old opinions, but I do complain of his vituperating me because I adhere to them." Then addressing himself to the speech of Lord J. Russell, he condemned the petty trick of announc ing government bills to defeat his. And at what period had these bills beep announced !—not at the beginning of the ses sion ; no, not till after the defeat of ministers on the second reading of the present measure. Even the Solicitor-Ge neral for Ireland had not opened the outline of the promised bill. But Lord John had intimated that it was to be rnadeas perfect as possible, without reference to the facility of passing it in the other house. In other words, the government was preparing a bill which should serve both as an excuse for not supporting the present measure, and as a peg for hanking up the subject altogether. The exclusion of the jury, which Lord John had represented as so anti-popular, had actually been borrowed from one of the former bills on this very sub ject, sent np to the lords by this very goVernment. The prin ciple of costs was one of justice, proposed not for the vexation of the poor voter, but for his protection ; and the clause enacting it was borrowed from another bill, prepared by the law officers of the present ministry, and sanctioned by Lord John Russell himself.—Lord Stanley vindicated some other details which had been attacked, protesting, however, that these objections should have been reserved for the committee. Finally, Lord J. Russell had called on him to declare the franchise. Was this fair dealing, from a government who would undoubtedly agree to no declaration of the franchise, except such a one as they knew the other house would reject —such a one as they expected would defeat this bill? Lord Stanley concluded with a vindication of his own motives in proposing the bill. Mr. CALLAGHAN then moved an adjournment of the de bate. A discussion on this point arose, and the house then divided on the question of the adjournment of the debate, when the numbers appeared—For the adjournment, 262 ; against it, 281 ; majority, 19. Some further discussion took place, but eventually the ad journment of the debate was agreed to, and the house ad journed at a quarter past one. lIOLTSE OF LORDS.—TUESDAY. The royal assent was given by commission in the House of Lords to several bills, public and private. In answer to Lord Westmeath, on the subject of the per secution of the Jews at Damascus, Lord MELBOURNE said, that what was reported in the journals as having been stated by him on the occasion referred to was precisely the reverse of what he said. His negative answer was, that he did not know whether instructions bed been actually sent out to the consuls at Damascus and Syria, but he knew that it was the intention to send out such instructions, and he might now say, that at the time the question was asked distinct instruc tions had been sent out to our consuls to interfere. It appears that his lordship uttered only one syllable on the occasion alluded to, which, as his lordship never speaks very plainly, was misunderstood. Lord ABERDEEN s tated that his bill on the church question Of Scotland hail beet' well received—far beyond his expec tation. Lord IVlEr.BotinE postponed the Irish corporation bill to the 2nd of June. After a conversation ending in nothing, on the state of Ireland, the Archbishop of DUBLIN brought forward his motion for the abolition of the punishment of transportation. His Grace went over the same topics which were urged by Sir W. Molesworth, and with a manly simplicity of style well worthy of imitation. Lord NonmANnYimoved the previous question, but after some discussion the Archbishop declined to divide the house. HOUSE OF COMMONS.—TUESDA Y. The New - Zealand company bill was read a second time, as was the Weaver churches bill. In answer to Mr. Cresswell, Lord PALMERSTON stated, that within the last few days he had received despatches from Mr. Mandeville, the British minister at Buenos Ayres, and that active negotiations were now proceeding between Mr. Mandeville, and the representatives of the French go vernment, with a view to effecting an arrangement. A war was going on between Montevideo and Buenos Ayres, and in these hostilties the French forces took a part. Into these events it was not necessary for him at present to enter more fully than to state that French ships of war had sailed up the river, and had an engagement with one of the batteries. In short, there had been several acts of hostility besides the blockade. Lord PALMERSTON, in answer to Lord Sandon, stated that the legal authorities he had consulted upon the question of certain duties forcibly levied on English merchants by the authorities at Bilboa, sustained the opinion which he had entertained as to the illegality of those duties •, and for this view he contended in his communications with the Spanish 'government. The Bilboa authorities would, however, be entitled to continue to levy the duty until prevented by the result of the negociation ; should it prove unfavourable to them, subject, however, to repayment. The last communi cation was from him to the Spanish government, stating the reasons why he thought the duty ought not to be levied, and to this no answer had been as yet received. A bill founded on the resolutions in the Committee of Ways and Means last Friday, was brought in, but the dis cussion was postponed. IRISH REGISTRATION BILL—ADJOURNED DEBATE. The adjourned debate on Lord Stanley's bill was then re sumed. It was begun by Mr. D. BROWNE, WhO expressed his per suasion that the justice of the cause would supply all defici encies of argument and eloquence in its advocates. His own speech was an exception from his theory. The only material fact he stated was one for which his constituents will hardly thank him, viz., that this bill, should it pass, would leave •but about 400 electors in Mayo. Until this authentic as surance of its representative, we had no notion that the genuine electors of that country bore so very small a propor tion to the fictitious voters who return the hon. gentleman. He concluded with a Latin quotation, which a little knot of tail liberals greeted with a cheer, probably as evidence that they had learned the language. Mr.-YouNG made a short and temperate speech in favour of the bill, which he was sure would take away the franchise from no man who was justly entitled to possess it. Mr. V. STUART admitted that there were evils to be re dressed, and professed his willingness to redress them ; but not by this bill, which he thought would close a necessary vent for public opinion, and drive the Irish people into poli tical associations and movements of a dangerous kind. Mr. Roctm said there was much less corruption and chi canery in the Irish than in the English elections. (It is pro bably true enough that less money is spent in Ireland than in England. The Irish Whigs have a cheaper way of ma naging the matter with their poor electors, by religious inti midation, and bodily force.) Mr. Roche objected to go into committee, and observed, that as another gentleman had quoted Shakspeare, he might be permitted to say that such a proceeding would be " a wounded snake, dragging its slow length along."—Shakspeare ! Sir G. SINCLAIR, while he confessed that the rejection of a bond fide elector is an injury to him, desired to have it re membered that the admission of a fictitious vote is a griev ance to the whole constituent body. This was not merely an Irish, but a British question. The whole object was to overhear the House of Commons, and give indefinite conti nuance to bad government. The member for Dublin had erected a political papacy, and held a certain portion of the Irish representatives in complete slavery. The hon. baronet the member for Mayo, whose only offence had been absence from the division on the second reading of this bill, had been dealt with in the most summary style of punishment ; " Off with his head, so much for Brabazon." Ministers them selves were in the same bondage, and the Colonial Secretary had in this very debate assumed the office of Mr. O'Connell's trumpeter. Sir G. SINCLAIR then gave a very humourous sketch of the speech which he himself would make if he had an oppor tunity of addressing the " hereditary bondsmen" in the Corn Exchange of Dublin ; and this highly amusing and sarcastic episode. in which the delusions practised on the people by Mr. O'Connell and the priests were broadly exposed, pro duced a great deal of laughter on all sides. The hon. baro net concluded his ingenious speech by vindicating the policy and applauding the conduct of Lord Stanley. Lord C. RUSSELL rose to oppose this bill, prompted, he said, by the desire to follow up the principles of the great man whose name he bore. The noble Lord proceeded a little while in good language, but being interrupted by an unex pected cheer, which threw him out of his track, was, from want of experience in debate, unable to recover himself, and, though very kindly treated by both sides of the House, was obliged to sit down. Mr. H. GRATTAN, with great heat, attacked the speech of Sir George Sinclair. He inveighed in unmeasured language against the bill, and talked in terms still more violent against some whom he supposed to be its authors, and whom he passionately accused of the worst malignity and fraud. He thought the passing of this bill would increase the chances for repeal of the union. Lord POWERSCOURT supported the bill, and mentioned • - gross instances of fictitious votes given at the last general election, amounting, in the single county of Wicklow, to no fewer than 46. Mr. C. Woon expressed his regret that he must concur in the vote for the committee, against the opinion of those with whom he usually acted. He would not vote for finally passing the bill in its present form, nor sanction any measure which should throw difficulties in the way of the legitimate fran chise, hut he felt that there were gross evils to be redressed, which he saw no means of redressing, except through the medium of this bill, when properly modified in committee. The omission of any enactment as to the franchise seemed to him no sufficient objection ; though he wished to see the franchise settled in opposition to the construction given by the Irish judges. The similarity of this to the former bills on the same subject, which had been sanctioned by the go vernment, was in his-mind conclusive against the imputation that the present measure was designed to destroy the liberties of Ireland. The objections which had been made to its de tails were such as might he easily obviated in the committee. lie had vo t e d indeed against the second reading, but he had not then had an opportunity of maturely considering the matter, and, the second reading having been carried, he could not now consent to reverse that decision of the house. Mr. M. J. O'CONNELL besought every member to con sider how he would deal with such a bill as this, if the ordeals proposed by it were to be applied to his own constituents ; if, for instance, the voters of Halifax (the borough repre sented by Mr. C. Wood) were obliged, before they could acquire their franchise, to serve the complicated notice which this bill prescribed. Where enfranchisement was to be granted, as in the case of municipal corporations, the boon wa s given to England and to Scotland before it was extended. to Ireland, where, indeed, even now it was not actually esta blished ; but where disfranchisement was the object, it was applied to Ireland the first. When Lord Stanley came as Secretary to Ireland in 1830, the re peal cry was a sli g ht one. Before his administration ended it was loud and general. The hon. meniber, in conclusion, endeavoured to charge the Protestant landlords in their turn with an attempt to create fictitious votes, and entreated the house not to let those landlords obtain, through this bill, the control of the Irish elections. Colonel CoNOLLY vindicated the Irish landlords, and jus tified the provisions of this bill. If an increase of the Irish constituency had been necessary, still it would not have been h v warrantable by such means. It would e just as allowable to increase a country's circulation by an infusion of base h money. He must now adopt the c onnnon cr y of e other side, and call for " Justice to Ireland." Mr. PIGOT, the Irish Solicitor-General, objected to the bill chiefly on account of what he considered its main princi ple, that of revision, or rather re-investigation. Much had been said of the evil of certificates. He was prepared to be come a party to a measure for the cure of that evil, a measure which had already been announced by the Colonial Secretary. (This repetition of that paltry shift was received with loud contemptuous cheering.) 'What property would any man be content to hold on condition of being subject to perpetual attacks upon his title ? In other kinds of property possession was settled by a fair trial—the franchise was to be the single exception. (Is not the learned gentleman aware that there is no limit to the number of successive ejectments which tnay be brought to take any man's estate from him, except by ap plication to the Court of Chancery for a perpetual injunction ?) He had also a strong objection to the devolution of political duties upon the judges, and to the vexation, expense, and multiplied litigation, which he apprehended must be the con sequence of an appeal to them against the admission of the vote. Lord HOWICK said, he had voted against the second read ing to mark his confidence in the Government, though even then be had thought that the bill ought to go into committee, and that the resistance of Ministers was highly impolitic ! But he could not now consent to reverse the vote by which the second reading was carried. He had no great confidence in the intimation that Government meditated a bill of their own, an intimation which h ad been g iv en somewhat late, and which' was by no means hopeful in the present state of the session, and of-the feeling between the two houses of Parlia ment. Indeed, even now it was not Stated that any such bill • was in actual. existence. As to the complaint against per petually renewed revisions, it would be removed by the sim ple amendment, that a vote, once established and registered, should not be again questionable, except for matter having arisen since the registration. So as to the double appeal, the objections might be obviated by easy amendments. It had been said, but be could not believe it to be really meant, that the house ought to leave gross abuses in operation, because their honest removal would diminish the Irish constituency. He would do all in his power to prevent that diminution fairly ; but he would not, eves with this view, keep up a ma chinery for the fabrication of illegal votes. Mr. GISBORNE, in his character of an Irish representa tive, thought himself bound to oppose the bill. The house by divers cries of " Question," intimated that they did not feel the duty of making a speech to be at all imperative upon him. The SOLICITOR-GENERAL contended that to go into com mittee on this bill would be to impair the efficiency of the Reform Act. Annual registration existed in England, and was loudly complained of. The people had been long expect ing measures from the government to reform it (satirical and repeated cheers); and nothing had prevented the government from maturing such measures, except the understanding that no measure would succeed in the other house which did not go to impair the Reform Act. The learned gentleman then went over the often-repeated objections of detail, with reference chiefly to what had fallen from Lord Howick. In this part of his speech he fell into an error as to one of the clauses of the bill, which occasioned a great deal of laughter at the expense of this acute and usually accurate lawyer ; but the house gave him no quarter, and indeed were now be coming generally impatient. The learned gentleman, how ever, travelled on into other topics, not all of them very relevant. If our readers should be surprised at the absence of his usual talent, their wonder will perhaps be relieved by the intelligence that he was speaking against time, fur the purpose of getting the debate carried over to another even ing. Lord MILTON who had paired, was not come up, and his pair was. Mr. O'Connell expected to he beaten on an im mediate division, and issued- his commands therefore that the debate should be adjourned, in order to take the chance of Lord Milton's arrival, and of the chapter of accidents. Accordingly, when the Solicitor-General sate down, Mr. HUME moved, and Mr. O'CONNELL seconded, the adjourn ment of the debate. A division took place, the motion was defeated, and another motion of the like nature met the same fate. Strangers having been re-admitted, Mr. HOME, seconded by Mr. O'CONNELL, made yet another motion of adjourn ment. _ Lord STANLEY then rose, and said it was time for the house to determine how far this system of impediment should be pursued. He had expected that the learned member for Dublin, who had come over burning with resentment, would have seized the earliest moment for meeting him face to face; that member, however, had not once offered himself to the chair, and yet the house was now desired again to adjourn, in order that he might have an opportunity of being heard. HOUSE OF LORDS.—WEDNESDAY. The House of Lords did not assemble this day. HOUSE OF COMMONS.—Wednesday. Among a great heap of-petitions presented last night in the House of Commons by different members was one by Lord TEIGNMOUTH from certain inhabitants of Marylebone, com plaining of the system of the centralization of the police by Lord John Russell, and praying that an impeachment might be instituted against him. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL gave notice, that in the com mittee on the Poor Law Amendment Act he should intro duce a clause to exempt stock in trade from being rated. Mr. HUME gave notice, that he should move us an amend ment on the motion of Sir R. Inglis to-day a humble address to her Majesty on the appropriation of church property. The orders and notices which stood on the paper were then disposed of seriatim, previous to the resumption of the debate on the Irish Registration Bill. THE IRISH REGISTRATION BILL.—ADJOURNED DEBATE. The dull debate, worn threadbare on Tuesday night, was then opened by Mr. HUME, who opposed Lord Stanley's bill in a tiresome speech on Irish affairs in general. He compared the number of Irish with the number of English electors, complainin g that the proportion of Irish is too small. He repeated the often-disproved allegation that the object of the bill was to disfranchiese the people of Ireland. He entered upon the Catholic question, and condemned the opinions of a party who, he said, were trying to restore the obsolete penalties against the Papists. During the whole of this.speech a large body of conservatives, with truly patriotic patience, sat fast on their benches, and defeated the object of those radicals who had hoped, not perhaps without some reasonable ground, that the speech of their Kilkenny com rade would reduce the house to _a state in which it might be counted out. _ _ _ _ Mr. LUCAS observed, that the reason why Ireland had fewer electors than England in proportion to the population was not that any party sought to withhold from Ireland the franchise allowed to England, but that Ireland comprised a mtich smaller number than England of the persons possess ing the requisite qualification in property. But he would rather reduce the qualification from £lO to £5, computed on ant bond fide test (little as he should he disposed to such a reduction),ihan continue a fictitious franchise at 1.:10. At tempts had been made to mystify the English members about vexation practised by the conservatives. He had to complain of vexation on the other side of the question. There was now a quarterly registration ; and he mentioned an instance where 800 notices of registration had been given, and only about 200 of the parties giving them had appeared to sub stantiate their votes. Under the present system this sort of feint might be practised four times in every year. Yet the bill before the house, which would reform the registration by changing the process from a quarterly to a yearly one, was earnestly resisted by men professing to be the opponents of vexation, the very men who, for the most part, were the zealous champions of annual parliaments. Mr. REDINGTON uttered a loud and voluble declamation against the bill. Mr. GASKELL, though not surprised that after the signi ficant demands of a certain party in Ireland the ministry should have opposed the second reading of this bill, wds yet astonished that they concurred in the present attempt at interposing vexatious delay, and still more that they had found no better masons to justify their conduct than the arguments advanced by the English Solicitor-General, or the panygerics pronounced on Mr. o . Connel by the leader of the ministry. When the existence of gross abuses was not denied, not by the government, not by those adherents of theirs who had already introduced bills of their own against those very abuses, why this sudden hostility to the remedy ? It looked as if the discovery had now been made, that the removal of those abuses would affect some party interest, and that, bad as such abuses might be, they yet were not so bad as the loss of office. The bill was talked of as a measure of disfranchisement. He knew not why, for it did not even touch the real franchise; it disfranchised only fictitious voters. Were the fictitious voters then so very numerous that to get rid of them would work a serious dimi. nution of the whole constituency? If so, that afforded him the strongest possible argument for going into the committee, when he should be preparcd to vote for every clause of this bill. _ _ _ Mr. ROCHE, of Cork, opposed the measure, which he re garded as having been introduced for mere purposes of party. \Vales was a poorer country than Ireland, and yet possessed a larger proportion of electors. A long pause now ensued, during which no attempt was made to address the chair by any of those who on the pre ceding night had clamoured for adjournment, to give an op portunity to the numerous candidates bursting with the ges tation of their speeches. But The SPEAKER having directed strangers to withdraw, in order to a division, and the conservative party being obviously a majority of the members present, the opponents of the bill did not venture to let the debate conclude ; to avert which consummation, Mr. CALLAGHAN rose, and after a sketch of the history of registration in Ireland from the date of the reform bill, re curred in the usual terms to the standing libel, the alleged hostility of Lord Stanley to the Irish people. Mr. SOMERS spoke on the same side, as the vindicator of the morality of the Irish. The O'Connellites were now relieved from all further ap prehension of a premature termination to the debate by no less durable an interposition than that of Sir. C. GREY, who occupiel his first quarter of an hour with a general dissertation upon the reasonableness of the adjourn ment, with reference to the various questions which were, or might have been, under consideration on the Tuesday and on the Wednesday, including copyright and China, and with reference to the advantage conferred on the house by the op portunity of hearing his speech. Nor did he forget, in passing, to censure the absence of Lord Stanley ; not, perhaps, per ceiving that among the absentees at that moment, were also every one of the cabinet ministers—Lord Morpeth only ex cepted, and, greater than all—the great agitator himself. He then announced, that he was coming to the discussion of the main question, but instead of doing this, he launched into an illitnitable discourse upon the very subject which the bill had been the most roughly censured by other members for avoid ing—namely, the definition and construction of the franchise with respect to beneficial value. He contended, that as the franchise was mere matter of election law, the opinion of the majority of the judges was not binding on the minority. The legislature had referred the decision to a single judge of assize, not to a tribunal of many judges. The exemplary patience of the house, which had now been exercised in the learned gentleman's favour for upwards of an hour, was not proof against such a strain of argument as this, and he at last gave way to the general uneasiness of the house. Mr. THESIGER animadverted upon the strange irrelevancy of the foregoing discourse, and on the unsatisfactory nature of the speech delivered on the preceding night by the Attorney - General. That learned gentleman had objected to the want of convenient places for registration ' • but the 36 and 17th sections of the bill had fully provided for bringing home the registration to the very doors of the voters. Objection had also been made to the annual revision. It could not be doubted, that if there had not been an octennial system of registration pre-existing when the reform act passed, that act would have assimilated the Irish, to the English and Scotch registrations, which were both of them annual. Then, as to the double appeal, which was the only mode of expelling a fraudulent vote from the registry, the question respecting the tribunal to which such appeal should be referred was one the discussion whereof belonged not to this stage of the bill, but to the next. Mr. Thesiger then availed himself of his experience before election committees to illustrate in a very lucid manner the monstrous hardships and difficulties im posed on those who seek, under the present system, to expunge a bad vote from a poll—hardships and difficulties which some such enactments as those of the present measure were indispensable to redress. Mr. O'CONNELL rose. He admitted that the bill was was good for members of parliament, for the £5O freeholders, and for the clergy of the established church, but it was a bad bill for the poorer voters. His quarrel with Lord Stanley lie would adjourn till the bill should be in committee. It was a bill for annihilating nine-tenths of the constituencies in Ireland. He read a circular from a district secretary of the conser va ti ve partyestating that the success of the party 6 4 depended wholly on preventing the tenants from re registering their votes;" not . fraudulent votes but any votes. a ct ii r o r , iiii a as n t He read also an admisson from a witness, that he received an enle,ei annuity electioneering e t ifen e 4 c o a-year, " for swearing against votes." witness was a surveyor employed to make valua tions this bill to rish •n l g properties, and depose to the particu lars of them.) The r' people, proceeded Mr. O'Connell, and malignant 1 • two causes—national antipathy to them, electioneering addressyeiii,n7nd The your after antipathy ngotr d i t i l s n proveder speeches, by y and your press, your vile produced as many bursts eB. (This phrase thrice repeated, Londonderry had cheered, of at laughter.) The member for a public meeting, the assertion that a Catholic was less mindful of his oath than a Pro testant. He would not venture to repeat that c h eer i n thi s place. Such a cheer had been raised, by Mr. Emerson Tennent, yet i too, at Belfast, whom Lord Stanley had selected he wasone of those his the preparation of this bill. The ascoadjutors in g reat Liverpool petition then shared ti 7 'scriber s o f th e orator's wrath, and he railed very roundly at variou e s other classes, who, he said, were calumniators of the greatatl The union had given Ireland a right to equality. c body. was the poorer country, and theref ore a poorer class in She Ireland were entitled to take the same l evel w ith a richer class England. She had but 60,000 electors in all, yet there were in 33,000 in one riding in Ycrkshire. He then went through a England series of parallels between vari ous districts of and of Ireland; after which he made a laboured argument, for time purpose of showing that the fictitious votes now existing, were the mere accidents of the carelessness natural to the first registration, not the results of any systematic fraud. The bill should have contained a provision for settling the franchise, which he could not consider as settled by the deci• sion of the judges. He would move, if the bill should go into committee, an instruction for the insertion of a clause which should settle the franchise in the opposite direction, in the direction really contemplated by the reform act. Let the amount of the franchise be diminished, and the vote would 'be of less value, and the temptation to perjury less. The , noble lord who had introduced this bill had had somebody's luck beside his own. (Cries of " Name, name." The learn ed member, however, did not take that liberty with his friend.) Sir ROBERT PEEL said he would enter into none of the details, the discussion whereof had been desultory and use less. He would inquire only into that material question, whether the house, having great abuse's proved before it, should make an attempt to cure them—not to carry the par ticular clauses of this bill, but to apply some remedy to a clear evil. He trusted to the right feeling of those who had before absented themselves from - the resistance against the second reading, and td the honourable example set by Lord Howick and Mr. Wood, in despite of their own preposses sions. Lord Stanley had been Most unjustly assailed : his principle was to aid the legitimate - franchise, and discourage unjust objections. Where was the danger of the committee ? The majority of the house had ample power to prevent any undue restriction, even If any such had been contemplated. In 1835, so convinced had Mr. O'Connell been of the fitness of the main principles embodied in this bill, that he had sup ported in this house both the annual revision and the ap peal both ways. Yet now these very . proposals were evi dence of national antipathy and religious bigotry ! If par ticular clauses were objectionable, let them be altered in committee : but let not the abuses of the registration he perpetuated by a total rejection of the subject matter. The ministers promised a bill of their own ; but they had promised it in most equivalent terms, and not at all until they had been defeated on the second reading of this measure. Then it was that Mr. O'Connell had expressed his gratitude to Lord John Russell, not for having advanced a salutary amendment, but for having furnishes the English members with an excuse to vote against the further progress of the bill now in debate. This bill was censured for containing no clause to define the franchise ; yet Lord John admitted that his own bill was to contain no such definition. But when was Lord John's bill to pass the House of Lords ? The So licitor-General had said it would 'pass when the present bigoted race of peers should have been succeeded by their more liberal heirs, now sitting in the House of Commons. A long time to wait ; and what, meanwhile, was to become of the abuses of Irish registration? Seven years the minis ters had talked of a remedy ; and if this bill were rejected, seven more would elapse before that remedy would be com pleted. All the arguments about the proportions of voters in England and in Ireland were here irrelevant. If the fran chise ought to be lowered, let a bill be introduced to lower it ; but that subject should not be mixed.with the question of fair or unfair registration. It was not true kindness or con ciliation to Ireland to let the boa fide voter be overborne by false claims of franchise. When fictitious voters were sus pected in Scotland, adverse to your party interests, when corporations were attacked which it would profit you to abo lish, you were eager for reform ; do not now oppose the re dress of proved abuse and Corruption, because you find it would be unpalatable to your own supporters. Lord MORPETII likened Sir Robert Peel to Ulysses co:ning in aid of Ajax. His next illustration was a whirlpool, from the vortex whereof he dick not him Self escape without a woful draggling. His third allusion was to the painter who. com bined in his picture the charms'of all the beauties of Rhodes ; and his fourth, to a fowler catching small birds with chaff. These displays of imagination seemed to the house a little inapplicable, but the noble lord corrected their impatience by telling them, that if they would not hear him they should have another adjournment. He admitted that it would have been desirable to produce, somewhat earlier, the bill prepared by the Irish Solicitor-General ; but he said it was actually drawn, and had been held back only in hopes of making it more perfect. As to the present measure, he had the satis faction to feel convinced, that even if it should go into com mittee, it must be eventually defeated. For the present, at least, that satisfaction was postponed, inasmuch as, on a di vision, the conservatives carried their motion by a majority of 301 against 298, striking dismay into the ministers, and despair into the " Tail." The house then went into committee; but the chairman was immediately ordered to report pro tress and to ask leave to sit again on Friday pro forma, when Lord Stanley will fix a day on which the proceedings in committee will really com mence.—The house then adjourned at a quarter-past two o'clock. COURT CIRCULAR.-Tu SDAY. Viscount Melbourne had an audience yesterday of the Queen. The Royal dinner party at the Palace last evening included the Marquis of Hertf,wd, Marquis and Marchioness of West minster, Earl of Uxbridge, Earl of Surrey, Earl and Countess of Clanwillian, Earl of Morley, Viscount Melbourne, Lord and Lady Norreys, Colonel and Lady Isabella Wemyss, and Sir William Lumley. The band of the Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards was in attendance at the Palace during the evening. Her Majesty the Queen Dowager rode out yesterday after noon in the parks, attended by Frances Lady Clinton, Hon. Miss Anne Gore, Sir Horace Seymour, Earl Howe, and the Rev. J. R. Wood. _ The Duchess and the Princess Augusta of Cambridge visited the Princess Augusta yesterday at Clarence-house, St. James's. The Duchess Ida, with the Princes and Princesses of Saxe Weimar, took an airing yesterday afternoon, in a pony phreton and four. Sir Robert Peel, Lord Stanley, Lord Ashburton, and Sir Robert Inglis, a deputation from the Trustees of the British Museum, had an interview with the Chancellor of the Exche quer yesterday, in Downing -street. The Marquis of Downshire had an interview with Viscount Melbourne yesterday, in Downing-street. • Sir John Guest and Lieut. Littlehales, of her Majesty's brig Dolphin, had interviews with Lord John Russell yes terday, at the Colonial-office. The Earl of Zetland, Dr. Bailey, Mr. Gibson Craig, M.P. and Mr. Price, had interviewsyesterday with the Marquis of Normanby, at the Home-office. Despatches from Governor Light, at British Guiana, were received yesterday, at the Colonial-office. W EDNESDAY. Viscount Melbourne and Lord J. Russell had audience of the Queen yesterday. Her Majesty and Prince Albert, attended by the Countess of Sandwich, Hon. Miss Cocks, Viscount Torrington, Hon. Major Keppel, Hon. Colonel Grey. Col. Wylde, and Mr. F. Seymour, honoured the Italian Opera with tteir presence last evening. Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent has been for some days much indisposed ,from a rheumatic affection, which prevented her being present at the great ball at Buck ingham palace, and the last draWing-room. Her Majesty the Queen Dowager and the Duchess Ida of Saxe Weimar visited the Princess Augusta yesterday, at Gloucester-house. _ The Duchess and the Princess' Augusta of Cambridge visited her Majesty the Queen Dowager yesterday. Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar arrived at Marlborough House yesterday morning, from the Royal 'Military College at Sandhurst. The Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Sussex, and the Duke of Cambridge visited the Princess Augusta yesterday. His Royal Highness Prince Albert inspected, yesterday, Mr. G. E. Hering's Sketches of the Tyrol, at Buckingham Palace, which were submitted to his Royal Highness by the artist. Her Majesty the Queen Dowager and the Duchess Ida of Saxe Weimar visited the Duchess of Kent yesterday, at In gestrie House, Belgrave-square. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Princess Augusta of Cambridge honoured Mrs. COX with their com pany on Monday evening, in Grosvenor-place. Sir George Strickland, Mr. Chester, M.P. and Mr. Turn bull had inter views with Lord John Russell yesterday, at the Colonial-offiee. . Lord De Lisle had an interview with Viscount Melbourne yesterday, in Downing-street. THE FREEMEN OF NORWICH. Monday last was announced as the day on which the free men would place in the hands of the Marquis of Douro, their petition to parliament, agreed to at a Common-hall, and pray ing- to be restored to their ancient right of voting at munici pal elections. It will hardly be believed that the mayor re fused the use of St. Andrew's Hall for this purpose. We scarcely dare trust ourselves to advert to this refusal, for fear we should express too strongly the contempt which we feel at an act so outrageously insulting to the great body of free men, and bearing the impress of such petty, peevish, party spite. But it occasions us no surprise. No! Authority confided to such hands is sure to be used with unkindness, and, when it can safely be done, with despotic severity. Stephens, Julian Harney, and other chartist leaders ; O'Con nell, any other political ruffian, if he has but radicalism in his soul, may spout trash, breathing of rebellion, within the walls of St. Andrew's Hall; But if the freemen desire pub licly to place in the hands of a conservative nobleman—that nobleman being the son of the Duke of Wellington—if a de sire is shown by the poor freemen, to place in his hands a petition to parliament for a restitution of their rights, the doors of their own ancient hall are shut against them. Is it to be supposed that this refusal will not remind freemen of those times when they themselves had a voice in the election of the mayor of the city ; of days gone by, ere a new con stituency had built up town-councils, and such political hot beds spawned forth your robeless civic dignitaries ; when the chief magistrate of the day was indeed the head and leading personage of the town ; doing some good to its trade ' • looked up to with respect from the office which he held ; and, after his year of duty, retiring to the bench of justice, raised to a post of honour by the good opiniOn and regard of a majority of his fellow-citizens. Is the change for the better ? Will not men, freemen especially. henceforth at the name of liberal turn up their noses and say " Bah !" The committee of the operative freemen were not to be diverted from their object by the impediment thus thrown in their way, and the use of the Greyhound-yard having been granted to them, they immediately announced that as the place of meeting, for presenting the petition to the Marquis of Douro. _ _ Lieutenant-Colonel Harvey was called to the chair, and the petition having been presented to the Marquis of Douro, his lordship addressed the meeting in an appropriate speech, in which he took occasion to express his conviction that " the freemen are as ancient as any other class in the coun try, and were equally entitled to protection ; and if privileged classes, it should be said, are not necessary to the prosperity of the country, it cannot be denied that they are co-existent with that prosperity. (Hear.) Consistently with cowardly and revolutionary principles, the first attack is made upon the privileged class of freemen—a class the least protected and the least prepared for defence, and the least suspicious of the injury intended. I will not proceed round the world with the most ancjent freemen of Norwich, for charges against the government, but will at once come to this point, the injustice done to the freemen, and the way in which they have it in their power to resent it. You are aware that the strength of the administration is in the borough towns ; in the counties they are in a minority. But a large proportion of the constituency in the bbrough towns is still composed of freemen, and yet, in the elections of 1837, no ministry had less reason to be dissatisfied with the support of the freemen than the present administration. This, too, was after the Municipal Corporations Bill had passed, and after the injury had been inflicted on the freemen. (Hear.) Nor have the freemen themselves given the a dministration reason to sup pose that they were dissatisfied. Half the freemen are con servatives, but as a body the freemen have never evinced towards those who deprived them of their rights the distrust they deserved. (Hear.) You have to blame yourselves, then, for that; and if it he true that you are to blame, you have the remedy in your own hands. (Loud cheers.) No one can give you the assistance which it is in your power to afford yourselves. lam satisfied that there is a strong feel ing amongst those who are injured in favour of the restora tion of their rights. But an ebullition of the moment is not sufficient. (Hear.) Nothing can procure your rights but a determined and persevering resolution, that no• man shall obtain your assistance and support hut by the advocacy of your ancient rights." S. Bignold, Esq., and several other gentlemen, also ad dressed the meeting; and a resolution of approbation of the conduct of the noble marquis having been passed, the meet ing separated.—Abridged from the Norfolk Chronicle. TIIE WEATHER AND THE CROPS.—Accounts from all parts of the kingdom concur in representing the prospect of abundance, which the recent seasonable weather has opened upon us, as being roost gratifying• A more promising season is scarcely in the memory of man, and its fruits are already shown in a considerable decline in the price of wheat. This is a sad work for the anti-corn-law agitators ; bad crops, high prices, and starvation c onstitute their stock in trade, and a golden harvest is a visitation of Providence which they ought, in consistency, to Standard.o avert by humilia tion and prayer !—Blackburn SECOND EDITION. _ - Standard-office, half-past Ten o'clock. BURNING OF YORK MINSTER. We copy the following from a second edition of the Brad ford Observer of yesterday, with which we have been po litely favoured. At an early hour this morning, a report reached the town, that that noble and venerable ecclesiastical edifice, York Minster, the pride of Yorkshire and the admiration of Eng land, was destroyed by fire. This report was not however credited. People are not generally ready to believe bad news. But as the day advanced, parties who arrived from Leeds confirmed the sad story, and at length on the arrival of the York mail at eleven o'clock, all doubt was set at rest. A great number of letters have come into the town from York, but all of them necessarily short. One lying before is says, " Our beautiful Minster has been on fire. The whole of the tower which contains the bells, and from thence to the great tower is one mass of ruins. It is still burning (one o'clock, A. re.); but we hope soon to stop the devastating element." Our correspondent writes us word that he will send further particulars by ex press, bnt they have not reached us. In the absence of pre cise information, it is of course impossible to tell how far the reports in circulation are to be believed, but all seem to con cur in stating that the fire originated through the careless ness of some workmen, plumbers, who neglected to put out their fire and candles. The fire originated in the tower at the west end. It was first observed about ten o'clock last night ; the wind being high the flames spread ra pidly, and before any effective assistance could be rendered the beautiful roof of the nave, constructed of carved oak, ignited and communicated with the great tower. So quickly did the devouring element accomplish its work, that in little better than an hour and a half after the fire was discovered, one of the towers at the west front fell with a tremendous crash. We hear that several individuals were buried in the ruins, but have no authentic intelligence that the calamity, great as it is, is aggravated by loss of life. (From a second edition of the York Courant of yesterday.) It appears that about a quarter before nine o'clock on 'Wednesday night several persons observed a small light in the south-west tower of this, magnificent pile, but did not take any particular notice of the circumstance, being aware that the works connected with the clock had been undergoing repair. In a short time, however, it appeared that the tower was in flames. The alarm was given, and two powerful engines were soon on the spot ; but, unfortunately, full twenty minutes elapsed before s supply of water could be obtained. The flames spread with astonishing rapidity, and by about eleven o'clock nearly the whole of the roof of the nave had fallen. in. The Lantern tower was, with great difficulty, preserved. About half•-past twelve, the whole of the roof having fallen, and two additional engines having arrived by railway from Leeds, the flames were gradu ally surmounted, and between one and two the danger was over. The south-western tower, with the noble nave are, however, a mass of ruins. Every pillar in the nave is more or less injured, and one of the windows near the west ern entrance was partially destroyed. The great western win dow was, however, entirely preserved, and the others sus tained but trifling damage. No injury was done to the screen or organ, though they were at one time in imminent danger. The belfry was reduced to a mere shell, and the fine peal of ten bells fell to the ground. No estimate is given as to the amount of damage, and nothing is known as to the cause of the fire. It is supposed to have originated in the carelessness of the persons employed in repairing the clock. By a singular co incidence the south-western tower is that on which the in cendiary Martin made his first andjunsuccessful attempt to fire the cathedral on the 2d of February, 1829. 111ISCELLANEOUS. A patent, of a singular description, has lately been taken out; it is for an invention to supersede the ordinary wooden letters usually fixed upon the facia of shop windows. The new letters are made of porcelain, of every form and hue, and when fixed up, present a beautiful and attractive appear ance. PLEASANT PROSPECT.—An American paper says, " The Great Western brought us over a fresh supply of the swell mob.' They stopped at the Astor house and Blancard's, stole a quantity of sovereigns at each, and then disappeared. This summer they will he as plentiful as blackberries. Each steamer will bring a fresh lot." SALMON.—It is a mistake to cook salmon quite fresh. The flakes are hard—the oily matter which, by keeping, insinuates itself into the flesh and renders it tender, is curdy. Although fresh salmon is generally sought, and as generally esteemed, a day's hanging is a manifest improve ment.—Sportsman in Ireland. RESIGNATION OF MR. HARLAND, M.P.—Mr. Ilarland, who at present sits and votes in parliament on the whig interest, as a representative for Durham City, has issued an address to the electors, in which he states that " on mature consideration," he has resolved not to offer himself at the next election as a candidate for their suffrages. LINCOLNSHIRE.—It is said that Mr. Heathcote, the sham conservative M.P., for South Lincolnshire, is about to retire, with a view of setting up for Rutlandshire, on conser vative principles. If South Lincolnshire can only get the opportunity, it will, to a moral certainty, return two good men and true. An Irishman having broke a small hole in the window of a public-house, paid for it, and then went back and smashed the pane to pieces, under the. impression, as he said, that he " might do what he would with his own." We have reason to believe, that at the present moment a vast number of counterfeit Bank of England notes are in circulation in this district of the kingdom, and the traffic in base coin appears also to be carried on to an equally serious extent. --Birmingham Advertiser. ORTHOGRAPAY.-At the Bolton borough court, on Tues day last, a celebrated inspector of the force (an Irishman) made his return for meat or meals the prisoners had con sumed, in the following terms :—" Return for males, &c.," meaning of course meals. Mr. Le Marchant, Principal Secretary for the Board of Trade, and Mr. N. MaDonald, Private Secretary to Lord Morpeth, have been both named as likely to succeed the lamented Mr. Drummond as Under Secretary of Ireland. No appointment has yet been made. DISEASE AMONG THE FISH IN THE CLYDE.—For some time past, great quantities of small fish have been floating along the Clyde apparently dead. Crowds of boys and women are constantly on the look-out for them, and they are caught in great numbers, with nets, baskets, &c.—Glasgow Chronicle. The number of grocers and spirit retailers in this city and liberties is reduced from 450 to 100. There are but three applications for spirit licences in this city, to be made at quarter sessions, before the mayor and magistrates.—Lime rick Chronicle. TYPOGRAPHICAL. ERRORS.—ERRATUM.—For " A tail of a terrier, founded on fat," read " A tale of terror," founded on fact."—Maumee Express. ADVICE TO PARENTS.—Rear up your lads like nails, and they'll not only go through the world, but you may clencleem on t'other side.—American paper. The King of France has conferred on Mr. Cramer, the distinguished pianist, the decoration of the Legion of Honour. It is understood that the first recommendation of the commission of enquiry into the bankrupt and insolvent laws, will be the immediate and total abolition of imprisonment for debt. How TO LIVE PEACEABLY.—The late Mr. Clarke, of Frome, being asked by a friend, how he kept himself from being involved in quarrels, replied, " by letting the angry person have all the quarrel to himself." A very fine trout, weighing 101bs. was this week netted in the Thames, near the mouth of the Kennet. Two others (one weighing Sulbs) were also caught by fair angling, in the river, at Lower Caversham. EPITAPH.—A person who married a termagent, who drove him to desperation, and, finally, to death, just before dying, requested a friend to have the following brief, yet pungent, inscription put on his tomb :—" Slain by a jaw bone." FORGERY.—Forgery appears to be greatly on the increase in Scotland, and the Lord Justice Clerk has attributed the deplorable fact to the relaxation of the law, by which the offence is no longer held to be capital ! A letter from Darmstadt announces that the Prince de Leiningen is about to pay a visit to the court of St. James's, and towards the end of the summer will accompany his mo ther, the Duchess of Kent, over to Amorbach. A London contemporary, amongst its leading matter, one day last week, had this—" The news from Afghanistan is favourable. Extremely cold weather had set in at Cabool, and a great mortality had in consequence occurred among the Sepoys!" EXTRAORDINARY HEIFER.—On Thursday the 7th inst., Mr. William Bennet, butcher, of Fleetwood, killed a maiden heifer, from Ireland, which weighed, when killed, 14 score and 71bs. per quarter, aid had 1121bs. of loose fat, a circum stance unparalleled in that neighbourhood.—Preston Chro nicle. Sixteen head of prime cattle, the property of T. Winnall, Esq. of Eccleswall Court, near Ross, were lately poisoned, in consequence of eating a quantity of meadow saffron, grow ing in one of the fields upon the farm : three or four of them died, and the others were not expected to recover. WHIG PATRONAGE AND ECONOMY.—It now appears that besides the loss to the revenue by the new postage scheme of a million a year, no less than 484 new appointments have taken place in the Post-office in consequence of it,—the sa laries of which 484 officers must, we presume, be added to the above loss. The wife of a sawyer residing at Danbury has, on three successive occasions within the last four years, presented her husband with twins. The happy couple are each 28 years of age only ; they now have nine children. The last pair pre sented themselves on Tuesday last. LANARK.—A girl, named Keith, died on the 3d curt. in consequence of having masticated and swallowed some larch bark the day previous. A brother of the girl's was likewise in great danger of perishing from the same cause ' • but we are happy to state th a t h e h as recovere d.—Gl asgow chronicle. A MAN OF THE WORLD.—As a proof that the saying that Dent is a " place out of the world," is nearly correct, we may state, that a person who has lived there thirty years, happened to be in Kirby Lonsdale, on Tuesday, when the First Dragoons came in, and said they were the first soldiers he had ever seen in his life.A—Blackburn Standard. A MONSTER.—Mr. Thomas Hartley, of Broughton-in- Furness, has at this time in his garden a curled Brocoli, nine feet high. It measures twenty-three feet round the branches, two or three of which are from four to seven feet long ; round the ball it measures six inches. This vegetable prodigy is now in full flower.—.3faitchester Guardian. Some one was remarking the other day at the Athenaeum, on the oddity of Prince Albert having fixed upon a pair of candlesticks as artappropriate present to make to Mr. Davis, the huntsman. " Not at all odd," said Theodore Hook ; "it was done that he might . he always ready to assist his royal highness to a-lig ht." - -Argus. A THICK-HEADED FELLOW. — The Bordeaux papers relate, that a sailor, on board a merchant vessel in that port, getting intoxicated the other day, and taking a fancy to destroy himself, threw himself twice down upon the deck from one of the masts, a height of fifty feet, with his head foremost, and without sustaining any injury ; but on making the sad experiment a third time, he broke an arm and two of his ribs, and received two severe wounds in the head. He was carried to the hospital at Bordeaux, where, notwith standing the gravity of the injuries he has sustained, hopes are entertained of hie recovery,--French paper. THEATRE-ROYAL, LIVERPOOL Fifth Night of Mr. BUCKSTONE, the celebrated Dra matist and Performer, of the Theatre-Royal, Haymarket, who is engaged for Ten Nights. Third Night of Mr. T. P. COOKE, of the Theatres-Royal, Drury-lane and Covent-garden, who is engaged for Eight Nights. Mr. Buekstone's new Drama of POOR JACK, having been received on the first and second representations with the most decided approbation, will be repeated THIS EVEN ING, and on MONDAY NEXT. THIS present FRIDAY, May 22, 1840, the Performances will commence with the Melo-Drama of a TALE OF MYSTERY. Count Romaldi Mr. Stuart. Stephano.. Mr. W. H. Bland. Francisco.. Mr. Chaplin. Michelli.. Mr. Baker. Montano.. Mr. Gray. Selina Mrs. Baker. After which, will be performed, for the third time here, a new Drama, written by J. B. Buckstone, Esq., called POOR JACK. Jack Somerton Mr. T. P. Cooke, Tim Twopenny.... Mr. Buckstone, As originally performed by them in London. Sam Griffin Mr. Gray. The Hon. Mr. Flummery Mr. Chaplin. Mrs. Colonel Fantod.. Miss Cleaver. Eleanor.. Mrs. W. H. Bland. Becky.. Mrs. Tellet. To conclude with the Farce of the LOTTERY TICKET. Wormwood.. Mr. Buckstone. Charles.. Mr. W. Howard. Mrs. Corset.. Mrs. Clarke. Susan.. Mrs. Tellet. On MONDAY, May 25, the petit Comedy of the INN KEEPER'S BRlDE.—After which, the new Drama of POOR JACK.—To conclude with the Farce of ROBERT MACAIRE. Robert Macaire, Mr. T. P. Cooke; Jacques Strop, Mr. Buckstone ; Marie, Miss Cleaver ; Clementine, Mrs. Baker. GRAND CONCERT. MONS. DOHLER has the honour to announce a Grand CONCERT of VOCAL and INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC, which will take place on TUESDAY Evening, the 26th instant, at the Royal Amphitheatre, Liverpool. HERR MOLIQUE, the celebrated Violinist, whose performances at the Philharmonic Concerts, London, have created such an extraordinary sensation, will make his first and only appearance in Liverpool on this occasion. Vocalists, Mi.s BIRCH, Miss DOLBY, and Signor ZUCCHELLI. VIOLINIST H ERR MOLIQUE. PIANIST Mons. DOHLER. Mr. GEORGE EYTON will accompany the Vocal Pieces. Full Particulars will be shortly announced. Box places may be secured on application to Mr. Wiiiss, Church-street. Tickets for Centre Boxes, 55.; Side Boxes, 4s. ; Pit, as. ; and Gallery, 2s. each; may he had at the Music Shops and usual places, • The Concert will commence at Eight o'clock. Ibt Ethrrpool &tanbarb. FRIDAY MORNING, `ti AY 22, 1840. The packet-ship Siddons, which sailed from New York on the 27th ultimo, was signalled as being off Point Lynas early yesterday afternoon, and notwith standing an adverse tide, reached this port about seven in the evening. She sailed on the 27th ult. and conse quently had a passage of 25 days—having encountered a succession of east winds. She nevertheless brings the latest intelligence from New York, and we have to ex press our acknowledgments' . to Capt. Palmer for his kindness in forwarding us a morning paper of the 27th, and another of the 25th ult. They contain very little intelligence of importance. The packet-ship United States had arrived, bringing dates from England to the Ist April, seven days later than the previous arrival.. In the Senate, at Washington, on the 24th April, a memorial was presented by Mr. Buchanan, from silk manufacturers of Dedham and Needham, (Mass.) asking that a duty might be imposed on foreign silk. Mr. B. said, that experience had demonstrated that your soil, climate, and dry atmosphere, were peculiarly suited for the production of silk; and yet strange as all that might seem, silk was not only admitted duty free, but that, too, at a time when we were absolutely obliged to borrow money for the wants of the govern ment. He stated that he would long since have origi nated a bill on the subject in the Senate, had such a measure affecting the revenue been constitutional. The memorial was referred to a committee of finance. (From the Neu , York Journal of Commerce, April 27.) Business generally is going on very fairly in all lines. It is however largest in foreign shipments anti in groceries. MONEY AND EXCHANGES.--The transactions at the Stock Board have been on a very moderate scale, and chiefly in fancy stocks, not indicating actual investment to any great extent. Large amounts of money are lying idle in the banks, and they are abundantly supplied with coin. Philadelphia Baltimore Richmond Charleston Savannah 8 a 9 Augusta Macon Mobile 6 a 10 N. Orleans - a Nashville - London Paris, .... 7 a 8 5f 271 a 5 30 Extract of a letter, dated Mobile, April 16. Exchange on the north is very scarce, and we fear the rates will further advance. The same is the case in New Orleans, notwithstanding the large amounts of produce they have to forward. Sterling has been sold at 14 prem. here, and 15 per cent. We understand that the banks in New Orleans intend to increase their issues pretty largely, for the sake of propping up the bankS of Mississippi, and this will certainly not help the exchange. Several of the New Orleans banks have been dealing largely in cotton this season. 60 day bills on New York, are 54a:1 ; some have been sold at G ; 30 days, 7 per cent ; 1 day, 8 per cent. Extract of a letter from Galveston, Texas, dated April 11. " Loss OF THE SHIP VIRGINIA, OF NEW YORK.—Capt. Hamilton, of the ship Virginia, is now here, and that fine vessel is a wreck on the bar at the entrance of this harbour. She struck while in charge of the pilot, attempting to enter the harbour. No blame can be attached to any one connected with the vessel. It seems to be one of those unavoidable accidents which sometimes attend the navigator. Capt. Ha milton is actively and industriously engaged in saving every thing that can be saved for the benefit of the underwriters:" The Virginia was owned by Messrs. Rogers and Co. of this city. IMPORTANT FROM TEXAS. NEW ORLEANS, APRIL 17.—8 y the steam-packet Nep tune, Captain Pennoyer, we have received Texas papers to the 13th inst. We copy below the only news we find in them. From the Civilian Extra of April 12th. IMPORTANT NEWS FROM TIIE WEST. By the steamer Dayton, which arrived this morning from Houston, we have received intelligence that the Centralists, under Arista, and the Federalists, under Canalos and Zapata, have had a bloody engagement near Mier, on the Rio Grande, in which the Federalists were totally routed, with great numbers killed and wounded, the exact number not being known. THE CURRF,NCY —A bill requiring all the banks of this state to redeem their notes at half of one per cent. discount, either in New York or Albany, has passed both branches of the legislature. On the 25th April a bill was brought before the Senate by Mr. Adams, for the imposing of a duty on foreign silk. FROM THE PACIFIC. — The ship Congress, Capt. Water man, arrived here yesterday, after a very short passage, having left Coquimbo on the 13th February. She brings a cargo of the value of about 300,000 dollars, including 138,000 dollars in specie. The market at Valparaiso was overstocked with American goods.—Brother Jonathan, New York paper of 25th April. We have received a copy of the St. John's (New foundland) Times of the 15th of April. The news contained in this paper is of comparatively little im portance. It complains bitterly of the new burden of taxation imposed upon the colonists—a complaint which will meet with a ready response on this side of the Atlantic. It will be seen from our parliamentary summary that the bill brought in by Sir P. Egerton,' the *conservative member for South Cheshire, to enable the trustees of the River Weaver navigation to provide out of their surplus funds, an increase of church accommodation for the population which the improvement of that river has drawn on its banks, passed the second reading on Tues day evening by a majority of 76. We are glad to record this evidence of an inclination on the part of the House of Commons to despise the opposition offered by a clique of canters in parliament, and brawlers out of doors, to every measure the tendency of which is to extend the usefulness and advance the cause of the religion of the Established Church ; and we accept the decision of the house upon this individual case, as a favourable augury for the bill which is shortly to be introduced by Sir Robert Inglis, the object of which is defensible upon precisely the same grounds as the bill whose second reading is now sanctioned, and whose principle is thereby admitted. Our readers will no doubt remember the clamour which was raised, by a few of the hacks of the minis terial faction, when it was first proposed by Mr. Tolle macho and others to apply a portion of the funds of the navigation to the purpose of supplying the spiritual destitution of that portion of the people of Cheshire which is located in the neighbourhood. The parties by whom that clamour was made—righteous, pious men !—had no idea that a population of boatmen and flatmen could have any need of a church ; so long as there were beer-houses and conventicles, hush shops and dram shops, what need could this degraded and ignorant class have of churches ? How prompt was each Whig landowner or mill-owner to lift up his devout countenance and exclaim against the proposed application of these funds as a job, and—what in their saintly eyes was worst of all—a church job ! Alas, alas ! After all these denunciations made upon principle—your thorough Whig always has "principle" upon his lips, but jobbery in his heart—after all the Mawworm cant of voluntaryism, the real, substantial objection to this application of the River Weaver fund is, that it touches the pockets of these saints, the funds being now applied in aid of the county rates of Che shire, thus saving to the Cheshire landowner a few paltry pence per annum, which he may possibly be called upon in future to contribute. Of course the second reading of the bill was strongly opposed in the house, and, in particular, by that shining luminary, Mr. George Wilbraham, whom we hope our Conservative friends of South Cheshire will get rid of with all convenient speed. His exhibition on Tuesday evening will probably afford as poor a recommendation to the favour of the yeomanry of Cheshire as his Jim Crow performance upon the Corn Laws. Well, the Ministry of Lord Melbourne is again beaten, and upon a vital question. After three nights of debate, after exhausting every effort which baffled fraud could suggest, after appealing in vain to the in terests and the fears of the House for support, Lord Melbourne's Administration is in A MINORITY OF THREE in a division upon the Registration Bill of Lord Stanley—a bill the passing of which is acknow- • ledged to carry with it the certain destruction of the Whig faction, and the loss to those pure and patriotic gentlemen of all the snug pickings and the pet places to which they have clung with such devotion for the last ten years ! We certainly cannot pretend to guess at the course which Lord Melbourne's incapables will take upon the occasion. An honourable party would at once resign office; but that the despicable faction which now mis governs England will take such a step is more than we dare predict. It is hard, very hard, to drag a Whig from his plunder, and harder still when he happens to be a degraded and a hungry one. Shame has no blush for a tWhig cheek. Scorn and derision recoil from the impenetrability of a Whig breast. One only method there is by which he can be driven to disgorge, and that method—the application of the foot to his dorsal extremity--we have little expectation of seeing adopted so speedily as the people of Great Britain de sire and fervently pray for. We do not then expect that Lord Melbourne will be guilty of any such madness as a resignation of office would be in the eyes of his coadjutors. There are still devices to be tried, appeals to be made, trickery to be attempted, in the hope of staving off the day of reckon ing. A majority of three, in a house of 599 members, is no mighty affair for Whig ingenuity to surmount ; and we have no doubt that every means which faction can suggest will be adopted to defeat the measure which that majority has declared its intention to carry into a law. We have no doubt that by the present re formed House of Commons the attempt will be made, and as little doubt that the attempt will be made in vain. The debate upon this bill, prolonged to three nights for a factious and dishonest purpose, has not been without its effects throughout the country. The minds of the public have been disabused of those gross delu sions which it has been the unceasing effort of its opponents to throw over it. The MONSTER EVIL by which Ireland is degraded and enslaved, is now un masked ; the veil is torn from before the face of fto mish corruption, and its hideous features presented naked to the world, glaring in all their horrible defor mity. No Ministerial trickery will now be 'permitted to replace that covering which the band. of Truth has drawn • 'ie. No ruffianism of the mendicant impos tor wl - - .as fed from its pollution, will succeed in sti fling the indignant feeling with which the people of England have regarded the disclosure of its demo ralising and soul-destroying tendencies. But it is not alone the progress which sound prin ciples of legislation appear to have made in the estima tion of the public and of parliament during the discus- - sion of this measure, upon which we are dispcsed to congratulate the country. We have never feared that such a measure would not eventually be passed, al though we may have doubted whether in the present House of Commons, or during the present session, such a consummation could be realised. The princi pal gratification which we derive from the debate, - is caused by the admirable illustration which it affords of the unutterable meanness by which the proceedings . of the present Whig faction are characterised. With what loathing—with what ineffable disgust—would a Whig of the school of Fox and Burke turn away from . contamination such as that which the WlAgs of the present day submit to and 'court ! How such men would scorn to herd with the O'Connells and Humes . of the Reformed House of Commons !—to hold office by the kind permission of - those vulgar demagogues, and at the price which they choose to exact as a re- muneration for their venal votes ! Yet such is the position of the present Whig Administration. They dare not walk " cleanly"; they dare not turn aside from pollution ; they must swallow the potion, nasty though it be, which is held to their craven lips, anti are not even allowed the privilege of making faces ! The debate on Lord Stanley's bill has displayed fully to the public this disgraceful bondage, and the ready zeal with which the supporters and members of the Government enter into the factious Views of the. beggarly impostor who dictates the terms of their ex istence. How otherwise could the discussion of a question, already worn bare, be prolonged for three nights against the recorded wishes of the majority of the House How otherwise could Lord Stanley be refused permission to proceed at once to forward his bill one stage in committee ? How otherwise, we ask, than by a disgraceful collusion between a contemptible Administration and an equally contemptible faction of traitors and bullies ? It is no doubt true that Lord John Russell attempted, at the last moment, to disclaim any connexion with the disgraceful attempts made by Hume and O'Connell, as recommended by our Clayton-square orators, to impede the progress of the bill by repeated motions of adjourn ment. " I have no power," lisped Lord John, " to' control the party from whom these motions proceed." We are well aware that Lord John Russell has no con trol over the sayings and doings of Daniel O'Connell, and for the simple reason that Lord John and the members of the administration are the slaves, and O'Connell the tyrant. Lord John control him ! Fudge; But one thing we predict Lord John will find that he can do, and that, if he hopes to receive the con tinued support of the Agitator, he must do. He will be required to oppose, by every factious manoeuvre in his power, the progress of Lord Stanley's Bill in com mittee. 'We can assure him, however, that in doing so he will only be sinking himself and his party more deeply in the estimation of the people of England. The bond fide constituencies of this protestant country will not any longer endure that their franchises shall be swamped by the perjured and fictitious consti tuencies of popish Ireland. The corruption of the system of registration in that country must be rooted oat, not glossed over. The measure of Lord Stanley will effect that object, and it must be passed, 1 10- weakened in its provisions, and undiluted with any of the fraudulent and spurious patchwork which Lord John and his Radical allies would gladly be allowed to be min i :'mod with it ! In uur remarks on Tuesday, upon the Liverpool Mercury's misrepresentations of Lord Stanley's Bill, we promised to return to the subject and to expose the calumnious spirit displayed by our contemporary towards one of the speakers at the Amphitheatre meet ing —the Rev. Hugh M'Neile. We are sorry that we made the promise. The task of exposing falsehood is not to our taste, although it is a part of our duty to the public ; and we enter upon it on the present occasion with the greater reluctance from knowing that our op ponent is unworthy of the notice we have ahead , ' bestowed upon him, or he would probably have re ceived before now a castigation from a hand which ! ts well able to inflict it, upon a " foeman worthy of hjs steel." The Mercury accuses Mr. M‘Neile of suggest iv g falsehood, by quoting from the speech of Mr. Bolero ° rennent, at the Belfast meeting, a passage which asserts that by Lord Stanley's bill the 'claimant to register has "the registry brought to his own parish and his 0 " door, for the first time, instead of being dragged from the farm to the quarter sessions' town." Now r we.d° not pretend to say, and neither Mr.. M'Neile nor Mr- Emerson Tennent meant it to be understood, that lite rally and strictly the bill enabled the claimant to com plete his registration at so cheap a rate and with so little