The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-02-26 00:00:00

insinuation, those who knew no better, that the virtues of the
Swiss were mainly attributable to their general disregard of
Sunday observance. As usual, he concluded his diatribe by a
fling at the Church, for which he entertains the same affection
that a nameless personage is averred by Romanists to hold for.
holy-water. His great measure for improving the minds and
the condition of the working classes wag appropriately seconded
by Sir J. SHELLEY ; and, what was far worse, was supported
by Lord STANLEY in a speech of great length and specious
plausibility. The motion was ably opposed by arguments of
great weight, by Messrs. PELLATT, BAXTER, NAPIER, CAIRNS,
and others, and on a division negatived by a majority of 376 to
48. In course of the debate,. Lord PALMERSTON spoke in a
tone of levity and with an affected sarcasm which gave offence
to both sides; he, seeing the way in which the strength of the
house lay, made a virtue of necessity, and threw in his vote
along with the majority.

In the meantime it does not escape the remark of all ob-
serving parties that the House of Commons is once more busy
in the reckless production of legislative work, crude and
fanciful, and more voluminous than can be overtaken in this,
or indeed in many coming sessions. There is absolutely no
end to the introduction of new measures. The particular
hobby of each member is again finding form, though greatly
lacking consistency in the shape of a bill; and for every so-
cial grievance, as for many a private whim, some enactment
or other is proposed as a remedy; no one takes the trouble of
considering what the law is, but all are busy in isolated at-
tempts to make the law what each thinks it ought to be in
regard to his particular hallucination ; so that the list of
" orders of the day" already assumes the dimensions usually
belonging to it in the middle of the "dog days." Nearly all of
these, it is well known to their projectors, must necessarily
be overlain and smothered in the ordinary progress of legis-
lation, so that their introduction is at best only

Wasting the time in strenuous idleness.'

When it is borne in mind that not these alone, but that even
measures of real practical usefulness must necessarily be over-
taken and trodden down, or jostled aside by the resistless
and inevitable peace or war debates which await the energies
of Parliament, and which, ere many days are over, must be
taken up and disposed of, the early promise of an abundant
legislative harvest becomes more and more problematic and
remote. Amidst the rushing stream of proposed legislation,
it is singular, as well as pleasing, to note that the od-estab-
lished grievances of " mob-orators" have nearly disappeared
from the list. With the exception of Mr. H. BERKELEY'S
annual speech and motion on the " vote by ballot" whimsy,
Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S yearly display on "national education,"
and his lordship's cast-off suit of the ROTHSCHILD livery,
which has been picked up and donned by Mr. MILNER
GIBsoN, Parliament is not threatened with any of the old
clap-trap motions for " extension of the suffrage," " annual
Parliaments," " the no-property qualification of members,"
and the " payment of representatives :" these, and the pro-
lific spawn of their congeners, have entirely disappeared from
the notice-paper. Notwithstanding the " good riddance"
from these stock pieces of parliamentary declamation and out-
of-doers agitation, the legislative path is yet encumbered to
such a degree as-fairly to defy progress. Take Tuesday night's•
proceedings as an illustration, and the obstructive influences
will at once be seen. A series of questions addressed to
Ministers on a variety of topics initiated the proposal for a•
select committee to consider the propriety of having tribunals
established to settle all disputes which may arise between
masters and workmen. The committee was granted.
This was followed by a proposal from Mr. LOCK KING-,
to get prepared for the use of the House an edition of the
statutes at large, with all the obsolete or repealed statutes-left
out. This was refused; but it was only one of a host of
motions of similar import. The- next subject was minister's-
money in Ireland, and a bill was- introduced to settle the sub,
ject, as it is facetiously said, "for ever." The subsequent step-
of the evening's parliamentary diversion was the introduction
of a bill for more effectually carrying out refor.t atory institu-
tions in Scotland ; followed by another bearing on the qualifi—
cations of commissioners of supply in the Scotch counties ; so
far were "Scottish Rights" vindicated. After this the premier
introduced a bill to extinguish certain rights of way and to,
shut up certain roads near the camp at Aldershott. Next
committees were appointed to consider and report on the adul-
teration of food; on civil service superannuations ; on silver

and gold wares; and on the ecclesiastical commission—the
reports of all these committees to be followed by bills on the
numerous subjects to which they individually refer. Here it

will be seen that on this one night work was cut out for the-
legislature on a variety of important topics, more than suffi-

cient to occupy its attention for a complete session ; yet was
Tuesday only an ordinary night, in, so far as regards the-
Sysiphian labours of legislation, almost every one for the pre—
ceding fortnight having been nearly as prolific.

The new loan and its concomitant- incidents have formed
fertile topics of conversation among City and West-end circles.

The time for asking it took most people by surprise, and in the
money market the smallness of the amount demanded excited
still more general remark- It was fully anticipated that, at
the usual time of making his financizistatement, a loan would.
be negotiated for the full amount the necessities of the
Government required; but that at so early a period a
proposal for a loan, and for so smalls a• loan, only £3,000,000,
and the funding of £3,009,000 of Exchequer Bills should
have been made few were prepared to hear. The small
financial morsel was immediately swallowed up, and con--
siderably more money than was- wanted was almost at
once tendered. The general solution of this pecuniary-
riddle is supposed to be that given, by Lord PALMERSTON, that
Government is in immediate want of money ; and the out—
siders add that they have asked fdr so small a sum in tha -
meantime in the belief that, should peace be established, they
will be able hereafter to raise a ranch larger sum on easier
terms than they could now obtain, Be this as it may, little
room exists for doubting that the alacrity displayed by
capitalists to furnish the Government with means for carrying..
ou the war will be productive of the most salutary effect in
giving weight to the arguments- adduced by the plenipoten-

tiaries of the Allies, at the eunfereace to be opened this day in
Paris;for agreeing, if possible; (mate terms of a lasting peace:.
An immense sensation has beemereated throughout London.
and all over the United Kingdomby the determined and un-
expected suicide of Mr. Joni SkaLEIR, M.P. The announce--
meut of the fact, and the, singularly resolute character,
of the circumstances attendant cn the deplorable act, were of
themselves sufficient to account for much of the interest felt
in the sad event. If these were of so startling and urnisnal a
nature as to excite surprise,.tha disclosures since made, taken.
in conjunction with those- whiah can as yet be little morethan
surmised, have been sufficient to awaken the utmost degree
of astonishment, as they must, if true, be productive of wide-
spread misery and ruin. Frauds to an almost incredible ex-
tent have been perpetretedi by the deceased, with..a reckless-
ness of audacity and a successfulness of ingenuity which throw
the exploits of Messrs. STICARAN, and BAArgs, as well
as the most accomplished. of public defaulters, completely into
the shade. It is believed that the frauds he has. perpetrated
will amount to the enormous sum of £I,OAOOO. Among
these, rumour has it that the deceased forged, and issued no.
fewer than 50,000 shares and obligations of the value of £5.
each of the Royal Swedish Railway Company. It was also .
said that he has forged and negotiated sevesel deeds and mart-_
gages of estates in Ireland. "But," says. a. London moaning,
journal, "perhaps the boldest and most daring, forgeries, of. all.

are those which relate to deeds for the purchase of property
in the Encumbered Estates Court of Ireland. These- forged
deeds purport to bear the signatures ottheCommissioners,,the '
registrar, the chief clerk, the solicitors in the various, causes,
and the Commissioners' seal. The eident to whiclu this class
of forgeries has been committed may be inferred from, theiact
that the stamp duty alone on these- amounted to several, hun-
dreds' of pounds." With such an amount of crime and
danger hanging over his head; it is not to be- wondered
at that the unhappy man should have contemplated self-
destruction as a means, indeed the only means of escaping
from the labyrinth of wretchedness in which he had so
completely enwoven himself. The act,, it is believed, al-
though long contempleted, was precipitated by the circum-
stance that one of the holders of deeds relative to the purchase :
of one of the encumbered estates, who had advanced a large
sum of money to Mr. SADLEIR, had gone over to Ireland
with his solicitor on Saturday se'nnight to have the deed
registered. Mr. S.I.DLIIL, it is said, did everything in his
power to dissuade the party from going ; but having failed in
doing so, and being fully aware of the disclosures which
awaited him, he put an end to his miserable existence. With
the disclosures which must ensue upon the death of this
wretched criminal will in all probability, it is to. be feared,
begin a black chapter in the moral as well as in the social
history of many a prosperous family—want, and all its con-
comitant evils, being heaped upon them by the daring
1 wickedness of him who has completed the catalogue of his
- crimes by the destruction of his own baleful life.

Tcuicisn REronm BlLL.—Advises received at Vienna by
telegraph an n ounce th e followingas the twenty-one points of the
Turkish Reform B ill which has been sanctioned by the Sultan :-
1. Maintenance of the Ilatti-Sherrif of Gulhaneh. 2. Gua-
rantee of ancient- ecclesiastical privileges to the Greek and
Armenian churches. 3. Deprives the " Patriarchate" of tem-
poral and judicial power. 4. Equality of all confessions. 5.
Abolition of persecution and punishment on account of change
of religion. O. Admission of Christians to state offices. 7.
Introduction of civil jurisdiction for the Rayahs (Turkish
Christians). 8. The existing civil and criminal laws to be
collected into one code or digest. 9. Code of laws to be in 01
the languages used in the empire. 10. Prison reform. 11.
Police rerorm. 12. Recruiting among the Rayahs. 13. Ad-
mittance of Christians to military honours. 14. Reformation
of the provincial authorities. 15. Rights of Franks to possess
real property in Turkey. IE. Direct taxation. 17. Improve-
ment of highways. 18. Public budget. 19. Representation
of Christians in Council of State. 20. Credit bank for com-
merce. 21. Reform of the currency.