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

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1856

FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.

MONDAY MORNING.

THE QUEEN and the Court continue to reside at Bucking.
ham Palace, and it is pleasing to observe that, amidst the con-
tentions introduced or fostered through Ministerial impru-
dence in both Houses of Parliament, HER MAJESTY remains
in the enjoyment of individual repose—that in defiance of the
ascerbity created by the unconstitutional stretch of the ROYAL
prerogative, recommended by the LORD CHANCELLOR, and
backed by the Cabinet, the popularity of the SOVEREIGN
remains unimpaired. On Tuesday, accompanied by the
PRINCE CONSORT, and attended by a party of ladies, the
QUEEN visited the Arsenal at Woolwich, and inspected the
trophies brought from Sebastopol by the Bucephalus. HER
MAJESTY appeared much gratified by the inspection, and, as
she always is, was received with gratifying demonstrations
of loyalty and affection by the crowds who had assembled to
see her passing, both in the Metropolis and at Woolwich. On
Wednesday the first levee of the season was held at St. James's
Palace. The attendance of those who held the privilege of
entree was very great, and the number of presentations was
unusually large. HER MAJESTY, who wore a magnificent
dress of blue and white brocade, and whose head was
encircled by a tiara of diamonds and rubies of great value and
splendour, appeared to be in admirable health and spirits.
On Friday, HER MAJESTY held a chapter and investiture of the
most honourable order of the Bath at Buckingham Palace.
At this chapter, Sir RICHARD ENGLAND and Sir GRAHAM
EDEN HAMMOND were invested with the military grand cross,
and Lord PANMURE with the civil grand cross of the order.
Rear-Admiral S. LUSHINGTON, General J. W. SLEIGH, and
several others were invested with the military order of knight
eommander, and a considerable number of others were invested
with the military order of knights companions. In the evening,
the QUEEN* and Prince ALBERT, attended by their suite,
honoured the Haymarket Theatre with their presence. It is
now understood that the Court will leave London for Windsor
some days earlier than was expected,—about the 19th instead
of the 22nd proximo, as had been originally stated, when the
PRINCESS ROYAL will receive the holy rite of confirmation.
The Life Peerage question, which has occupied so much of
parliamentary and public attention for the last ten days or a
fortnight, has come to a termination, for the present, at all
events. On Friday night, after a debate of unusual bril-

Laney, the House of Lords, sitting as a committee of
privileges, decided that neither the letters patent, nor the
letters patent with the usual writ of summons issued in
pursuance of those letters patent, entitle Lord WENSLEYDALE
"to sit and vote in parliament." This conclusion was arrived
at after an unsucessful motion by Lord GLERELG (long ago
known as Mr. CHARLES GRALITT), awakened for the occasion
after a legislative slumber of many years' duration, who
proposed that the validity of the title to sit and vote should
be yeferred to the judges. This proposal was negatived by
142 to 111 votes. Another mode of disposing of the ques-

tion without deciding in opposition to the Ministry, and yet
discountenancing the creation of life peerages, was proposed
by Earl GREY ; but it met with no better fortune than that
of Lord GLEIXELG, being rejected by a majority of thirty-
five, in a committee of one hundred and forty-nine peers, no

proxies being taken on votes of the house while in committee.

The course pursued by Lord WENSLEYDALE throughout the
tedious, and to him unpleasant, if not absolutely painful
proceedings, meets with very general approbation, both in

parliament and oat of doors.

From the first he declined to

appear personally or by counsel, as a party to proceedings

Which involved a collision between the first and second estates

of the realm. During the whole of the discussions en this

unseemly recommendation of the Ministry, every one felt, and

probably none more keenly than the noble lord who led the

opposition to the anomalous and unconstitutional use of the

royal prerogative, that by it Lord WENSLYDSLE was placed

in a most invidious position; but a stern and uncompromising
sense of duty prevented the adoption of any other course.

The newly-created peer,—whose patent of nobility was pre-

rented to him, shorn of more than half its honours, had its

legality been uncballengable, but rendered doubly obnoxious
by the constitutional objections to which it was exposed,—has

small reason to thank those by whom the tarnished honour
was conferred. That the noble and learned lord was, in all

respects, through character, talents, and acquirements, com-
petent to fill a distinguished place in the House of Lords, and

even to confer lustrA upon the peerage, is admitted on all

hands, and it is broadly reprobated in many quarters, that he

should have been selected as the first member of acomparatively

degraded peerage, as is alleged, because, personally, he was so

entirely unobjectionable, and had so many friends, as to make
his introduction a matter of probable ease, where others, less
favourably circumstanced, in these respects would, on their

individual merits, have had no chance of success. The un-

worthy attempt has been defeated, and now it is to be hoped,
that, taking heart of grace; Lord PALMERSTON' and his col-
leagues will do what they should have done at first— recom-
mend the letters patent, creating Sir JAMES PARKE a peer,

. .
to be extended, so as to embrace the ordinary conditions of the

peerage. Much acrimonious feeling has been displayed by
the Ministerial adherents in connexion with this subject,

which, it is now to be hoped, has been set at rest for ever.
These parties profess to say that Lord LlrxnntrusT, and

those who acted with him, provoked and carried on a war
against the prerogatives of the crown, bringing the privileges
of the peerage into direct collision with those prerogatives.
Snch a pretence is scarcely worthy of refutation. The per-

sonal feeling of the Sovereign has probably never been

enlisted on either side. Lord BUOIIGHAM broadly stated
that the creation of a life-peerage is as constitutionally
illegal as the levying of taxes by the crown without the con-
sent of parliament; and in answer to the alleged precedents
which exist for such peerages, he says there are quite as many
in favour of such a levying of taxes without parliamentary
consent; but he cogently demands, " will any one stand up and

justify the levy of a tax without consent of parliament on the
strength of such precedents ?" He emphatically answers no !
and most people believe he is right in that opinion ; at any
rate he is followed in it by Lord LYNDHURST and Lord ST.
LEONARDS, and the opinion of those three distinguished legal
authorities is endorsed by the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE of Eng-
land. In the present position of our- foreign relations, any-
thing likely to shake the stability of Lord PALMERSTON'S
government is to be deprecated; but even the urgency of such
a consideration cannot be admitted as a sufficient reason for
permitting inroads upon the constitution, and he is no true
friend to his lordship who would even hint that, taking ad-
vantage of his accidental position, that accomplished senator
would lend himself to an attack upon our institutions, which he,
as the chief responsible adviser of the crown, is bound in an
especial manner to protect.
Besides their laborious defence of the constitution, as ruled
by law and settled by practice, in reference to life peerages,
the brilliant talent and mature judgment of the House of
Lords have, during the past week, been engaged in attempts
to maintain the practical working of our executive within the
bounds legally prescribed by the Legislature. A laudable in-
stance of this was afforded by the Earl of DERBY, on Thurs-
day evening, in his attempt to lift the veil of mystery which
shrouds the connexion between the Horse Guards and the
newly-created Ministry of War. That his lordship was only
successful in eliciting an evasive instead of a direct answer
from Lord PA.irmrnE, is no fault of the Earl of DERBY; but
it is something to have learned, as he did learn, that the pa-
tronage of the army is managed. in a sort of semi-conjoint
semi-disjoined manner between the Commander-in-Chief and
the Secretary of War. While the noble Secretary of War had
his hand in at giving an explanation in which nothing is ex-
plained, but in which a determination to avoid explicitness.
was very clearly manifested, he took occasion to allude to a
'rumour, which, for years past, has obtained both currency and
credence, to the effect that the army patronage—during Lord
HARDINGE'S tenure of office, at all events—has been a medium
through which a Field Marshal, not less distinguished by his
illustrious position than remarkable for his "conduct in the
field," exercised authority without responsibility. His lordship
'alluded to the rumour, as he said, merely to give it a flat con-
tradiction. S'excuse, s'accuse, says the French proverb : .no
one asked his lordship any question upon this particular point;
verburia sap., if he should see this, the noble Secretary for
War will probably understand its application.
The pretended friends of the working classes had a " field-
night" in the House of Commons on Thursday. On that oc-
casion the "poor man's friend," Sir JOSHUA WALMSLEY
brought forward his motion for throwing open the Britisl
Museum and the National Gallery on Sundays. The philan
thropic knight made a long and elaborate harangue," horribb
stuffed with" platitudes about the meliorating influences o
knowledge upon the hard fate of the "working man." HI
dwelt with pathos on the pleasing pictures which he "fondly
drew" of decreasing immorality with increasing laxity of Sun-
day observances. Commencing with Edinburgh and Glasgow,
where, he said, the Sunday observance was most stringent
and the immorality greatest, he took London next, where, he
assured his wondering auditory, that as Sunday observance
was less rigid, so also was virtue more predominant. Taking
next an excursive sweep over the continent, in which he
omitted Paris, where Sunday observance is n t held to be one
of the cardinal virtues, but the moral purity of which he pro-
bably regarded as too dazzling to be rashly paraded to public
gaze, he fixed upon Switzerland as the Elysian field of modern
virtue and morality; seizing the opportunity of informing, by

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 was 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, CAIRN s,
and others, and on a division negatived by a majority of 376 to'
49. In course of the debate, Lord PALMEESTON 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 old-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 Joax 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. Munn?.
Cassom, Parliament is not threatened with any of the old
clap-trap motions for " extension of the suffrage," `s 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-doors 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 miuister'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 refora 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; ou 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 oue 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 financial statement, 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 small a loan, only £5,000,000,
and the funding of £3,000,000 of Exchequer Bills should
have been made few were prepared to bear. 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 PALMEESTON, that
Government is in immediate want of money ; and the out-
siders add that they have asked for so small a sum in the
meantime in the belief that, should peace be established, they
will be able hereafter to raise a much 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
on 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 t..nference to be opened this day in

Paris, for agreeing, if possible, ou the terms of a lasting peace.
An immense sensation has been created throughout London
and all over the United Kingdom by the determined and un-
expected suicide of Mr. Joxs SAMLEIR, M.P. The announce-
ment of the fact, and the singularly resolute character
of the circumstances attendant on the deplorable act, were of

lemselves sufficient to account for much of the interest felt

in the sad event. If these- were of so startling and unusual as
nature as to excite surprise,. the- disclosures since made, taken.
in conjunction with those which can as yet be little more than
surmised, have been sufficient to awaken the utmost degree
of astonishment, as they must, if true, be productive of wick--
spread misery and ruin. Frauds to an almost incredible ex-.
tent have been perpetrated. by the deceased, with a reckless-
ness of audacity and a successfulness of ingenuity which throw
the exploits of Messrs. P 4.133, STRATIAN, and BATES, 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 £1,000,000. 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 several deedsand mort-
gages of estates in Ireland. "But," says a London morning
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 of the Commissioners, the
registrar, the chief clerk, the solicitors in the- various causes,
and the Commissioners' seal. The extent to which this class_ .
of forgeries has been committed may be inferred from the fact '
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. SADLEIR, 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
wickedness of him who has completed the catalogue of his
- crimes by the destruction of his own baleful life.

TURKISH REFORM BILL. —Advices received at Vienna by
tel egra ph an nouncethe following as the twenty-one points of the
Turkish Reform Bill which has been sanctioned by the Sultan :---
1. Maintenance of the liatti-Sherrif of Gilliland). 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 persecutTn and punishment on account of change
of religion. 6. 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 he in all
the languages used in the empire. 10. Prison reform. 11.
Police reorm. 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. 16. 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.

LIVERPOOL TOWN DUES.-MEETING
OF THE INHABITANTS:

Ox -Friday last, a public meeting of the inhabitants of
Liverpool was held in St. George's Hall. The meeting was
convened by his Worship the 2;layor, in compliance with a
requisition addressed to him, signed by nearly 2,000 of the
" bankers, merchants, brokers, And other inhabitants" of
Liverpool, to protest against the proposed measures as "sub-
versive to all established rights, of property, to agree to a
petition to both Houses of Parliament against the proposed
bill, and to adopt such other measures as may best tend to
avert so monstrous and unjust an innovation."
The Mayor, J. STEWART, Esq., presided, and upon the plat-
form there were, amongst others, the following gentlemen:—
Messrs. J. P. Heywood (High Sheriff), Ambrose Lace, James
Aikin, R. A. Macfie, Ingram, F. A. Hamilton, (B. S. and C 0.,)
S. R. Graves, G. J. Duncan, J. Lyon Jones, William Rathbone,
Lawrence Peel, G. Roscoe, David Hodgson, P. F. Curry
(coroner), Wrenn, Troutbeck, John Lockett, Robert HOrsfall,
Thomas Avison, Adam Hodgson, Henry Danson, James M.
Wood, David Rae, James Smith, William Fisher, Ralph
Brocklebank, James Reay (Secretary to the Guardian Society),
Backhouse Robinson, Robert Dogfish, Roger Lyon Jones,
Charles Saunders, James Thomson, Christopher Bushell, M.
J. Sidney, J. B. Lloyd, S. Holme, J. Holme, R. L. Gardner,
T. Toulmin, George Holt, E. Bradley, J. A. Picton, D. Cros-
thwaite, J. Robertson, W. Preston, T. D. Anderson, Alderman
Cooper, Thomas Godfrey, Ald. Parker, Beckwith, M`Gowan
Woodruff, Wagstaff, and Ald. Dover. There were about 2,000
persons present in the body of the hall and in the galleries.
Letters of apology for unavoidable absence were read by the
Deputy Town-clerk from Messrs. Charles Turner, J. A. Tobin,
H. Hornby, W. Earle, J. H. Turner, and Richard Brooke.
The MAyou, who on rising was received with great applause,
said he felt great pleasure in calling this meeting, parti-
cularly when he found that upon so important a subject the
requisition had been so numerously signed by gentlemen of all
political parties; by the bankers, merchants, shipowners, pro-
fessional men, tradesmen and shopkeepers, who have all cor-
dially united in a desire to preserve those dues which had
been legally acquired, and judiciously as well as faithfully. ap-
plied to the public benefit. (Applause.) The great amount
of these dues appeared to him to be the chief bait which
attracted the cupidity of those by whom the right 4 of the cor-
poration were attacked. The magnitude of those dues, it
must be recollected, did not arise from the largeness of the
individual portions of the impost, but rather occasioned by the
great extension and expansion of the commerce of this great
borough ;—(hear, hear !) —by the accommodation which has
been afforded for ships and shipping, and for mercantile
transactions generally. But whilst some are attacking U 3 for
the purpose of abstracting this amount of dues, they forget
that they are loosening one of the great strongholds of society
by which property in this country is held, not only by muni-
cipalities but by individuals. (Hear, hear!) He could assure
them, from the very highest authority, that there is property,
to an enormous extent, held, not only by municipalities, but
by noble lords, noble dukes, and others, derived from that very
title of which our town dues form only a small part. (Hear,
hear ! ) For gentlemen will recollect that the conveyance,
which was originally made to the citizens of London, com-
prised the dues of Liverpool, then a very trifling portion, in-
deed, in the whole transaction. It was, in fact, to extinguish'
a debt of upwards of £300,000 ; and at that time, early in the
reign of King Charles 1., the dues of Liverpool were a very
small drop indeed, in the great amount ; but one title, one con-
veyance, carried the dues of Liverpool, with divers rights
over fairs, rivers, manors," and so on, which are now held by
a variety of individuals and communities. If Liverpool is to
submit to this,—if an inroad is to be made on those rights
of property which have hitherto been held sacred,—even those
who may exult at the deprivation of Liverpool, may yet be
whipped with their own rod ! (Applause.)
J. P. HEYWOOD, Esq., late High Sheriff of the county,
moved the first resolution, which, along with the others, will
be found in our advertising columns. In moving the adoption
of the resolution, he said he could see neither reason nor
justice in this proposal of the government. (Hear, hear.) In
his opinion the corporation of Liverpool had always expended
their large income, not solely for the advantage of the town of
Liverpool itself, but for the- good of the kingdom generally,
and more particularly for the advantage of the manufacturing
districts of Lancashire and Cheshire. He must confess that
he had always been amazedat the unfortunate jealousy with
which Liverpool had been regarded by its neighbours, instead
of gratitude, to which he thought the town was entitled, for'
the many advantages which its judicious expenditure of the
revenue derived from the Town Dues had conferred upon the
country at large. (Hear, hear.) He concluded by moving
the adoption of the resolution.

Mr.. GEORGE HOLT seconded the resolution. It appeared
that the bill now proposed lay the vice-president of the Board
of Trade was an attack upon, the municipal institutions of
the country, and an invasion of those rights and privileges,
which, in all times, bad been found of great service to the
prometitni of freedom, and of an enlightened policy. The-
principle of self-government—municipally in our corporations
and parochially in our vestries—had been the foundation of'
much free thought and of the-English character. HiStorians
and commentators had always.regarded.municipal institutions-
its the foundations of civil and religious, and especially of
commercial, freedom. Concurring in this opinion, he must say
that he viewed with considerable alarm a measure-like the
present, coming from the ministry, and making an attack
upon property which, he meant-toshow, had been appropriated
in the main to national, and not merely to local purposes..
The mayor had clearly set forth the foundation on which the
title- of the town to these dues rested. After the minutest
investigation the courts of law had solemnly decided that they,
were the undoubted property of the corporation. The dues
levied had. been expended for purposes in really national,
although to some extent these purposes might appear' local.
Land had been purchased by the corporation for the purpose
of making communications to facilitate necessary intercourse;
and, indeed, in the very first instanced- the corporation of
Liverpool had voluntarily alienated a portiond their property
for the purposes of the dock estate; free from taxation forever.
From time to time they had made-other grants, or had sold
land at a nomimal price, in furtherance of the same great
national.object, and besides have paid the- whole .expenseof the
conservancy of the river, iu.whatever hands that conservancy
had from time to time been placed. Then-let them look at
the landing-stages, which. would. cost the corporation not
much less than £200,000, and which were necessary, not for
the accommodation of the inhabitants of. Liverpool alone, but,
like the docks, were required by the country at large. (Hear,.
hear.) And even the noble building .in which they were then
assembled, and which was a very sore subject with some
people, was as much built for the hundreds of West Derby
and Salford, as for the town cf Liverpool. Was it not for the-•
administration of justice in this division, of the-county? And
if the cost of it had not been defrayed out,of the town dues,
must not a very heavy rate have been laid upon the county
for the erection of some building for that purpose? He (Mr..
Holt) believed that the legislature, with a full knowledge of"
the facts, would never permit this bill to pass ; and therefore,.
without further remark, he would cordially.second the resolu-
tion,. which was unanimously adopted.
Mr.. GRAVES, vice-chairman of the Shipowners' Associa-
tion, moved the next resolution. When the repeal of the
navigation laws took place in this country, it was universally!
admitted that all the burdens upon British shipping should hie
removed, and to a great extent this admission had been car-
ried out. But there were burdens of a practical nature still
remaining, and to which the attention of the Board of Trade
had been repeatedly called ; and had the vice-president of the
Board of Trade come forward with a measure for relieving the,
shipping of this country from the- burdens of our consular
system—(hear, hens)—had the boardeozne forward, following
in the footsteps of France and America, to charge the lights
of this country upon the Consolidated Fund, he should hare
been inclined to believe in the good:intentions of the president
of that board. But, no ; to the clamours of a few
individuals, he had got a pet grievauceof his own, a grievanee
which had never been complained °flay the shipowners of this
country, and from which they had never asked to be relieved
(hear)—he proposed, by the Local Dues on Shipping Bilk to
change the ccaection of the dues-of this port from the hands
of the corporation to the hands of icier Majesty's Customs, ulti-
mately to reach the hands of the Board of Trade, who,.b an
order in council, at any moment,_ could either abolish or con-
tinue those dues, or allocate them for their. own purposes.
(Cheers.) Ire, as a shipowner, denounced the bill which,he held
in his hand as nothing more nor less than mockery. (Cheers.)
In place of being a boon to the :,hipping interest of this country,
it absolutay became -a burden. He did not speak thus from
his own ihdividual opinion, only. The shipowners of this port
had unanimously recorded! their disapproval of this measure,
and had, openly declared their-intention to oppose it; . Having.
read an extract from the-petition adopted by the association at
their meeting, on Thursday, the speaker said that *,hg's forcible
repudiation, emanating: from, the interest which the bill was
intended to relieve, could,not fail to arrest the attention of the
members of the Houses of Parliament, when they were called
upon to record their votes. upon a measure which, for the first
time- in. Parliamentary, annals, openly avowed, and undis-
guisedly justified, the confiscation of acknowledged rights.—
(Cheers.) Proceeding to show why he considered the bill a,
burden upon Braish shipping, Mr. Graves said that the works.
undertaken and contemplated by the Corporation of Liverpool:
'es connexion witletbe shipping interest, were absolutely necese
sary to the vast- and. ever-increasing commerce of the port;;
-works which had been truly described as-.having rather, a:
national than a local, character—(hear, hear)—but which: it,
would be impossible-to carry out, if the revenues of the Corpo,
ration wereseized, except by increased taxation. He believed,
that the very first measure which wouldfollow the passing.of
Mr. Lowe's bill would be to increase the Dock-rates to.their
maximum amount—(hear, hear)—and it was in this way that
the bill would be a burden upon the shipping, anda,positive
and direct injury to the trade of tho,port, and that of! the sur-
rounding towns and district. (Cheers.) The Vice-President
of the. Board of Trade had conjured up a ghost of restricted
trade e but if this bill became law, Mr. Lowe would, see this
ghoit of restricted trade chang,-ing its habitation from the
Mersey to the Dee. (Laughter.) Great stresa had. been laid
upon. the Differential Duties which had been leviedwithin the
port,. and Mr. Lowe had brought prominently forward cases
of great hardship. Mr. Graves would not deny that these
Differential Duties, caused by antagonistic interests, had
proved great obstructions to. the commerce of this port ; but
it would have considerably raised in his mind the reputation
of the Vice-President of the Board of Trade-for candour if be
had at the same time stated that there. was then in the house
•a bill which, in the conse.of a short time, would abolish the
double dues existing within the Mersey, and would, when it
.became law, terminate thegrievance with which he sought to
gain the sympathy of the. house. The bill, if it were sifted,
mightcontain points which would be a boon to the shipping
interest of the country, but he thought he was speaking the
sentiments of his brother shipowners when he declared that
they would not be tempted to receive benefits of such a nat-aro
at the expense and sacrifice of those great principles which had
ever upheld the commercial classes of this country in their just
and existing li, its. (Hear, liter, and applause.)
Mr. ROBERT RANKIN, in seconding the resolution, cha-
racterized the bill as one of spoliation, and said that as a re-
fident in Liverpool for seventeen years, and. a member of a
house which had paid these dues for forty years, he was not
one of those who could desire to deprive the Corporation of
what lie conceived to be their legal rights.
Mr. JAMES AIKIN supported the resolution, and, in doing
so, referred to the trial in which the title of the Corporation
to the town dues had been challenged, and said that he, as
one of the associated merchants, bad been a party instrumental
in causing that action to be brought. The result had been
to prove in the clearest possible manner the title of the town
to those dues—never, indeed, had a title to any description of
property in this country been more clearly established. (Hear,
hear.) It would be a very interesting thing for the meeting
to trace the dues through different possessors, during the long
period of six hundred years, until they finally became vested
in the town of Liverpool—sold first by the Crown to the Cor-
poration of London, and by that Corporation to the then

Lord Molyneux—they were by him leased for a term of one
thousand years to the Corporation- of Liverpool—held by the
Corporation, under that lease, for about a century—and even-
tually purchased in fee simple oft' Lord Molyneux's descendant,
Lord Sefton. The title of the Corporation to the property
thus purchased was never questioned until about a quarter
of a century ago, when it was deemed advisable to ascertain
whether those dues could be strictly and legally demanded.
The trial took place before the Lord Chief Justice; the most
eminent counsel of that day were employed; the case went
to the jury ; a verdict passed for the Corporation ; and al-
though, in the first instance, a bill of exceptions was. ten-
dered to the ruling of' the. judge, the parties resisting the
dues found, upon consulting counsel, that they had not a leg
to stand upon, and they therefore said to the Corporation—
"We see you have a title, but we think there are some few
particulars iu which the rates ought to be modified." They
were requested to point out the modifications which they
would suggest. They did point them out, and those modifi-
cations were made 'to the entire satisfaction of the trading•
community of the town of Liverpool at that time. (Hear.)
Mr. JAMES SMITH also supported the resolution, and in
doing so, said the bill proposed by Mr. Lowe adopted this
principle—that the property of a corporation stood in a dif-
ferent position from that of a private individual, and that in
the case of the Corporation of Liverpool there should be no
compensation for its removal. With what did the corporation
pay for_ that property to the Earl of Sefton ? They paid for
that property out of money which they possessed and derived
from certain other property, and he defied any man to show
that, under such circumstances, if Liverpool was to be deprived
of the dues, she ought not to be compensated as thoroughly
and completely as if they were the property of a private indi-
vidual. (Hear, hear.) He had carefully looked over the bill,
and he must confess that he could not properly ascertain the
drift of it. It might mean one of two things; either that the
town dues should be entirely abolished, or after defraying any
existing charges upon them, it provided that the dues were to
be collected in future by the customs, and to pass into the
hands of the Board of Trade. If so, there was one of two ways
in which they might appropriate them. They might appro-
priate them to harbour purposes all over the country, and
deprive the port of Liverpool of almost any advantage
from them, or they might lay down as a principle, that these
dues being collected in the port of Liverpool, should be appro-
priated, as they might imagine, for the benefit of the shipping
property of Liverpool. But if these dues were abolished, so far
from having anything to hope for in the way of relief, the ship-
owners must look forward to a very large increase in taxation.
(Laughter.) No gentleman there, he was sure, could look at
their extended line of docks, now reaching almost five miles,
and not see that it was almost impossible to carry on the trade
of the port for want of a wide thoroughfare extending through
the whole line of docks. But deprive Liverpool of the town
dues, and the burden of providing such improvements was
thrown undoubtedly upon the Dock Estate, and how could the
latter carry out such improvements without increasing their
rates ? He had said also that the Board of Trade might ap-
propriate these dues to general purposes, and Liverpool receive
little or no benefit,. though be could hardly believe that any
government would commit so glaring an act of injustice as
this. But in case they were applied for the benefit of the
commerce of Liverpool," who_ were to be the judges ? The
Board of Trade. And was it not extremely probable that the
board would justify their appropriation of the Liverpool town-
dues by pointing to the large sums of money which they had
expended upon Holyhead harbour—(hear, hear)--though the'
Holyhead harbour improvements would not afford the slightest
advantage to the interests of the commerce and shipping of
Liverpool. (Cheers.) In conclusion, Mr. Smith repeated that,
as a shipowner, he could see no advantage whatever to the
shipping interest by depriving the Corporation of Liverpool of
the dues, but every advantage, not only to the commerce of
the port, but to the commerce of the whole country, by the
dues remaining as they were.
The resolution was unanimously adopted.
Mr. AMBROSE LACE moved the next resolution, and, in
doing so, contended that the title of the Corporation to levy
these dues was clear and indefeasible, and, if eta, Parliament
could not abrogate them without granting compensation. He
declared that, upon the very principle laid down in the bill,
Government was not justified in taking the dues. Those who
looked at the bill would see that they were very careful to de-
clare that all individual owners-of tolls should be compensated,
and that only corporations should not.- Well, then, if the Cor-
poration of Liverpool had possessed these dues for so many
years, and• had applied them to purposes for whialrotherwise
they must have levied local rates, had they not, in. point of
fact, got a title to them by time ?—( Hear, hear !) Did not
any personrin buying property, eonsider what the dues and
rates were to which that property was suhject ? and would he
not give a greater price for property—say on the north-side of
Parliament-street —because he knew that, to the extenVotten
per cent. upon his rental, he would be relieved from local
dues ? Where- would be the difference, he asked, between
taking one-tenth of the dues of Covent-garden market from
the Duke of Bedford, and taking from the people of Liverpool
one-tenth of their dues ?—( Hear, hear 1) It was precisely-the
same thing.
Mr. RA.LPIT Bnoeirnaessit was very- happy to second the
resolution. On the introduction of the • measure, Mr. Lowe
very disingenuously stated that it was-intended to relieve the
shipping of the port from some of its enormous taxation ; but.
the-fact was, that it would relieve the-shipping interest from
no charge whatever; —( Hear, hear o—and the probability was
that, were the town-dues to be taken away from Liverpool—
which•God forbil•!—the shipping interest would be more hea—
vily taxed than hitherto. As a shipowner and merchant, an,-1
he believed he !spoke- the sentiments of the other shipowners--
and merchants of Liverpool upon this matter, .he would not
to derive-any advantage from a reduction in tolls which,•
was obtained by means -so unjust and illegitimate. (Cheers.)
Mr PICTON, at great length, and in a speech of considerable-
jecnlarity, supported the resolution. I-Fe-read extracts from
the 'proposed bill, and argued that if these-were carried out as
law, the • Board cf Trade would be empowered to reduce the
dues, to raise them again if they thought 51t, and do with the
as they liked.
The resolution was carried unanimously.
Mr. R. A. MAC3I/3 moved the adoption of-the next resolu-
tion. Referring to the 'remarks of the Mayor of Salford, (at
the meeting in Mitnehester on the previous- day) Mr. Macfie
quoted a paragraph, to the effect "that there was not a
person who walked along the street who did not contribute
in' some degree to•these dues ; and especially there was no
female that passed along the street whose dress did not con-
tribute to them." NOw, sir, (said the speaker;) what if I
should say that the-firm with which I am connected pay of
dues, or at all events import goods liable to.these dues, many
times more than the- amount paid by the whole of the ladies
and females of Manchester. (Hear, hear.) lam not aware
that any house in Manchester, or the district, consumes so
large an amount of goods liable to these dears as we do, and
yet 'I
do not complain. (Hear, hear.) He alluded to the bene-
ficial uses to the working classes, to which these dues had
been made applicable, along with the- other sources of
income. We have excellent public baths, libraries, museums,
botanic gardens,. parks, an observatory, hospitals, a costly
supply of water, ,an efficient fire-police, and .other advan-
tages; but notlf_ng for the rich—we have no colleges, no
academies for the sons of the-better classes, as they are called—
no. The attenticn• of the Liverpool Corporation seems to have
been mainly directed to benefit the mass of the community.
(Hear, hear.) Oar Manchester friends may say—" That is
' not connected with trade; you have been, looking to your-
: selves after But it is the docks that bring to us this
great populatiot4 for whore this provisiond4-made; and a very
great part of the crime, and the casualties, and the law cases
of Liverpool, are in connexion with these docks, and that
trade, which certainly passes through our-streets and docks, is
the trade, at the- same time, of the whole nation, and of the
whole world.

Mr. CHAR/ES, SAL'S2NESS briefly seconded the resolution,
which was unaaimomiy adopted.
Mr. W. RAMBONE, in moving the next resolution, said he
was rather surprised at the modesty—not-usaal with members
of his profession—and still more at the, morality, of the Vice-
President of the Board of Trade. (ffean, hear.) He should
have thought-that no lawyer would have said that property-
belonging to corporations might be spoliated any more than,
the property of individuals. (Hear, _hear) That was not
his moralit74: and be should be glad to know how the share—.
holders in those great corporations, the London and North-
western, the• Great 'Western, and the, Great Northern Raih.
way Companies would like to have--their property in those.
concerns taken bold of by the government ; or what their
friends in. Manchester would say if a hungry government
should seise upon their corporate-interest in their gas works.
(Hear, hear.) He was called a radical reformer, but he was
not an unprincipled revolutionist. (Hear, hear, and cheers.}
He was quite sure, if the people .4 England understood the
question, that government would 4ose, the bill ; and he hoed,
if they persevered with it, they. would lose their places- too.
Mr..Heastr.ron (Brown, Shipley, and Co.), while he- pro-
tested earnestly against this bill, was not prepared to oppose
any reasonable plan for the abblition of town dues ; but he
thought, as the country wovid have the advantage of the abo-
lition, the country should bear.theexpense of it, and that it
should not fall on individual3towns. (Hear, hear.) This bill
hadino man's good wishes.. It neither abolished the dines nor
did justice to the town. (Hear, hear.) It simply transferred
the dues to the government, taking them out of the hands of
the local authorities, who.were always ready to do what they
were asked, to meet the-requirements of trade. He-had him-
self had occasion to represent to the Dock Committee that
there were large stearaers enough, whilst there was-no aecom-
modation. What answer had he received ? Ho- had been
asked to state what he•required, and was assured, that every-
' thing should be done-to meet his wishes. (Hearihear.) The
result was that a steamer of 74 feet, requiring gates of 80 feet
in width, was, on, her arrival, immediately accommodated,
which, if he had had,to go to the government, might:have been
in the river to this day..
Mr. CHRISTOPIISII BUSHELL_ supported the resolution,

Board
arguing that tba.measure of the Board of Trade was a direct
attempt to subvert those municipal institutions which, through
their various ramifications, constituted the. basis not only of
our liberties, but of our prosperity also;, that no act of mal-
administration,.on the part of the Liverpool corporation, could
be proved to, justify the powers which they at present pos-
sessed being removed ; that a principle, of right and justice,
ought not to be violated, whether an individual or a number-
of individuals were concerned ; and that, least of all, shoedd
principles. of right and justice be violated by a government.
The resolution was then put and carried unanimously.
Mr. Da,NsoN moved the adoption of the petition, and repro-_
bated, in severe terms, the spirit which Mr. Lowe manifested,
on the introduction of his bill, in Owing Liverpool in thesame
category with a number of places, which had abused the public
funds with which they had been entrusted, thus placing Liver-
pool iu a false position with the house and the, country.
Rams,gate, Bridlington, and Whitby were empowered to levy
dues, because they professed to be ports of refuge for ships in
distress; and the honourable member (Mr. Lowe) himself,
declared that not one of these. places, which had for years past
been levying port dues, were. enabled to discharge one single
public duty in return. This, however, was not at all the case
with Liverpool, and it was most unfair to class her with such
places. Mr. Denson complained also of the wrong impressions
which Mr. Lowe had conveyed by his ignorance of the subject
in connexion with Liverpool, and by his mixing up of dock and
town rates. Speaking for the shopkeepers, he said that they
were heartily in unison with the merchants upon the question
of the town dues. With regard to the case of the corporation,
when it was fairly known, he believed it to be so strong that
they could afford to drop their legal claim altogether, and rely
upon the fact that the prosperity, not only of Liverpool, but
of the whole country, depended upon the present relations of
the corporation to the trade of the port remaining intact.
(Cheers.) -
Mr. SYDNEY, in seconding the resolution, expressed his
regret that Lord Palmerston should have introduced such a
bill,—deprecated the attempted distinctions between corporate
and private property,—and refused to believe that so un-
righteous a measure would ever be sanctioned by a British
House of Commons.
The resolution was then put and carried unanimously.
Mr. DA.VID HODGSON moved a vote of thanks to the chair-
man, which was seconded by Mr. J. TORE, and his Worship
',aving briefly replied, the proceedings terminated,

THE TOWN DUES.

IA SPECIAL MEETING of the Select Vestry was held on
Wednesday, for the purpose of considering the propriety of
I . _

petitioning parliament against the proposed abolition of the
Liverpool Town Daes. The Rev. Rector Campbell presided.
On the motion of Mr. Churchwarden WOODRUFF, seconded
by Mr. SHA.W, the following petition to parliament was
adopted :

To the honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled, the
humble Petition of the Select Vestry of the Parish of Liver-
pool, who are the elected Representatives of a Population
numbering by the last census 265,000 souls,
Sheweth,—That a bill has been introduced into your honour-
able house by Mr. Lowe, intituled "a bill for the abolition of
passing tolls, and the regulation of local dues on shipping."
That the said bill proposes to deprive, without equivalent, the
Municipal Corporation of Liverpool of the dues upon goods
carried in ships, commonly called town dues, a property which,
originally created by the undoubted prerogative of the Crown,
was purchased from an ancestor of the present Earl of Sefton,
by the Mayor, Bailiffs, and Burgesses of Liverpool, and was
declared, in 1833, by the Court of King's Bench, to be, by the
said purchase, the undoubted property of the municipality.
That the said town dues so declared to be the legal right of

the Liverpool Corporation have not been restricted in their
outlay to local objects. On the contrary, vast sums have from
time to time been expended in works of a national character,
in the creation of customs and excise offices for the collection
of the revenue, in the erection of St. George's-hall for the
facility of public justice, as well for Manchester and the
neighbourhood as for Liverpool ; in the conservancy of the
river and the port; in contributing to the formation of ex-
tensive docks, which have ever bean exempt from local rates ;
in large convenient landing stages, and in every way to in-
crease to the utmost possible extent the commercial facilities
of the port. _ _

Thai your petitioners submit that the right of the Corpora-
tion to the town dues in the present case, instead of having
been weakened by the Reform Act, as is argued, was only
strengthened and confirmed thereby.
That your petitioners also submit, as the guardians not only
of the poor, but of the funds of the ratepayers, to whom as
burgesses the town dues belong, that the proposal to take
away the town dues without compensation under such cir-
cumstances is fatal to the title of all corporate property, and
dangerous also to the secure enjoyment of all other property
whatever. Your petitioners, therefore, humbly trust that for
the reasons herein assigned the said bill may not be permitted
by your honourable house to pass into law.
And your petitioners will ever pray.

The Cue rumax, before putting the resolution, said :—My
great objection to this bill is, that it is an act of confiscation ;
it takes away property, which I maintain is the property of
the burgesses of Liverpool, without compensation. This is an
act of confiscation which is not justifiable. In contradiction
to the specious casuistry of theorising politicians, that cor-
porate property is public property, liable to confiscation at the
caprice of the legislature, without equivalent or compensation.
I believe that the property of the municipality of Liverpool
is the private property of the burgesses of Liverpool, that the
Town Council are its trustees, elected by ourselves as its
guardians and conservators, and that to rob us of it without
compensation will be an act as unconstitutional as it would
be to rob the Earl of Derby of his estates, or the house of
Russell of its property at Woburn Abbey, Tavistock, and
Covent-garden, granted to it by. the crown out of the plunder
of the church ; a corporation is defined as a body politic
authorised by the King's charter to have a common seal, com-
prised of members, able by their common consent, to grant
and receive in law anything within the compass of their
charter. The town dues were bought for a price by the bur-
gesses of Liverpool in their corporate capacity, and are now
the legal property of us, the burgesses of Liverpool, in our
corporate capacity, and can only be taken from us,.without an
equivalent, by a violation of the law. I grant that corporate
property; like all other property, is the creation of the law,
and therefore subject to the reguLatiou of the law; and that
property may he taken from a corporation for the
public good in the same way that a man's house or laud may
be taken from.him for the public good, as in the-case of rail-
ways or street improvements • but they are not taken away
without au equivalent. To confiscate the property of a corpo-
ration upon the pretence that it is public property,. is- to give
a handle to the dangerous errors of Socialists, who-maintain
that all property is a theft, and an usurpation ; that the great
and crying evil of the time is•thensurpation of the lands the gift
of God, from the people—that all the land, houses, and mines
must be restored to the people—and that without the-restora-•
tion of this property reforming is unavailing. If the pro-
perty of the Corporation of Liverpool is injurious to the
public interest, take it away ; but first prove that it is in-
jurious, and then give compensaticn. But what is the injury
of the town dues ?- The charge, I am-told, upon a bale of cotton
is 4d. and I can hardly think that this will justify confiscation
upon the pretence that it is restriction on the freedom of trade.
The petition wiz-unanimously agreed to, and the chairman
was authorised to proceed to London to make the necessary
arrangements for its -presentation to the • House of Commons.
The Vestry then broke up.

LIVERPOOL CHAMBER cf'COMMERC:Z.

A SPECIAL meeting of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce
was held on Saturday, at the Offices, Exellange-buildings, to
take into consideration the government bill in favour of:
Limited Liability in Partnership. The- chair was occupied by
Mr.-Charles Holland, the president ; and there was au unu—
snally . large attendance ..of :members, among whom were
Torr, the vice-president, Messrs. Christopier Bushell, Alder—
man Bennett, Sheil, Katy, Lamont, Hitbback, Gill, Cooke,.
Bibby, Macfie, Jackson, Heath, Johnson,. Lister, Holderness„.
Forget, Dixon, Tomlinson, Prowse, Farnworth, Rea, Frost,.
Pitkering, Walker, Lang, Lamb, Robertson, Beazley, Hey-
worth, Swinton Boult„ Francis Boult, Fisher,Boyd, Anderson,
Mendell, &c.
Tona affirmed that the principkof limited liability
was fraught with mischief; and pointed, in proof this, to the-
tbot that a number of rotten and decrepidconcerns were look-
ing to the anticipated act of parliament-to-prop them up. The
mercantile community could not allow a measure of this kind
to pass without the strongest remonstrance against the want
of protection of the public which it displayed, and the pre-
mium it almost seemechto extend to fraud`: Under these cir—
cumstances, he moved, "'That the bill introduced into parlia-
ment entitled Bill to amend the Law•of Partnership,' is-
fraught with' evils of the greatest magnitude to the true in-
terests of the commerce and credit of this. country."
• Mt. CHRISTOPHER FATSHELL, in a leng,thy‘speech, seconded
e proposition, believing that the bill recenth introduced into,
the house by Mr. Lowe was fraught witlnevifs of the greatest
magnitude to the commerce of the country.
Mr..EDWABD HELCH, ex-president of the Chamber, had,
no hesitation in reiterating the sentiments he had on former-
occasions freely expressed on this subject. Having urged that-
it was a libel on all commercial and trading integrity to say-
that partnerships under this bill would not be as honestly.
entered into as those framed' under the old law, lie concluded
by
-.moving, as an amenarnent, " That the.principle of the bilL
is sound, and worthy. of adoption, but that provision should,:
be made for capital lent under the clauses of this bill remain—
, lug liable to all debts-contracted while in the hands of the •
borrower to connect: responsibility strictly with ostensibility], .
and to give facilities to the public for aceertaining when loam
are withdrawn."
Mr. JOHN Dixom seconded the amendment: .

Mr, ROBERT 1.,a0mx.,. in supporting the amendment, sug-
=sted the insertion: of a paragraph, to-the effect that a clause.
should be introduced into the bill, postponing the claim of the
lender of money until all the creditors-were satisfied.
After a discussica& in which several members took part, 'lle,
amendment was kst by about two. to one. Several other
amendments were- successively negatived, and the origiiaal
motion was carried,by 25 to 12.