The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-04-02 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

In the Douse of Lords, March 28, the Peace Preservation
(Ireland Lill was brought up from the Commons and read a
rat time.
The Earl of Shaftesbury moved for a return from every
archbishop and bishop holding a see In England or Wales, of
the names of persons emphoed by them in ecclesiastical
business, and of their fees and duties, in 1867, 1863, 180 ; re-
turn from every ecclesiastical registry, relative to fees pay-
able to arehblahops, /tc. ; and to the number of marriage
licence. hi each of those years.
After a few remarks from the Bishop London relative to
the Ecclesiastical Courts Bill, the motion was agreed to.
Lord Bondlly inovedt nra return from each diocese rela-
tive to the places in which the records of all ecclesiastical
and diocesan matters are preserved. His lordship expressed
a hope that the Government would order that all such
records should be transferred to the custody of the blaster
of the Rolls.
The motion wan agreed to.
In reply to Earl Delaware,
Lord Northbrook said that there was now In a forward
state a bill which was inteuded to form a complete code of
military laws.
The Mutiny Bill and the Marine Mutiny Bill passed
through committee, and their lordships adjoureed.
In the Bowe of Commons, Mr. R. A. Cross asked it the
Chancellor of the Exchequer intended to proceed with the
second reading of the Saving Banks Bill before Easter
Mr. Stansfeld replied that the Chancellor of the Exchequer
did not intend to bring forward the second reading before
I:aster.
Sir John Ogilvy asked the Postmaster-General what
Measures lie intended to take to induce the American
Government to transit the homeward malls by more expedi-
tions Imes of steam packets than those at present employed.?
the Marquis of ilartington stated that owing to &reduction
of the sea postage. tile two companies who hitt previousiy
carried the maiis, ref used to de so ima longer, and the contract
had therefore been entered into for the performance of
the service by the N orth German Lloyd's and two other corn.
panics. lie had received several memorials complaining of
the delay and inconvenience caused by the change, and
these memorial.; he had forwarded to the American Post-
-v G eneral.

master.

Colonel It, reef ord asked the Horne Secretary If it had come
to his knowls dge burglaries that had taken place lately at
the residences of the American Minister, of Lady Napier, el
Lord George Cavendish, and of Mrs. Cohen of Park-lane, and
that the offenders had not been brought to Duties and If
any allowance be made to the Chief Commissioner of Pollee
for house rent?
Mr Bruce said that the clues had caused a great deal of
attention, and touch misapprehension had been excited.
Two regul trip organised gangs of thieves hail been hunted
down by the police. One of these consisted of seven skilful
burglars and a notorious receiver, and they had been all
convicted and were all undergoing terms of penal servitude
from twenty )earn downwarda Most of the members of the
other gang had been convicted, and the pollee had
• clue to the abode of the remainder of them.
In July hut an addition of DO had been made to the
metropolitan detective force, and from returns which he
bad obtained he found that the number of crimes had
decreased. During the six months eliding December, 1868,
the number or burglaries, robberies, !eremites, reeelybm
stolen goods, ac., reported to the pollee was 7,273. 1,511
persons were apprehended, and 1.087 were convicted.
In the six months ending December, 1861 i, the number
of these offences was 6,633, whilst the numbers of ap-
prehensions and convictions had risen to 1,589 and 1,170
respectively, lie hail received reports of very great Improve-
ment in most if the metropolitan districts, and he had no
doubt that the decrease In crime had beim still greater
during the last three months than during the latter period
which he had referred to.
The House went Into Committee on the Irish Land Bill
There was a short preliminary conversation started by Mr.
Knight and prolonged by Mr Newdegate. Mr. Knight
maintained that a harsh and defective Poor Law had been at
the root of Irish grievances, and that the bill would do
nothing to remedy them, because, though It conferred cer-
tain benefits on the middle claws, it for ever shut out the
labouring population from becomiug the proprietors of land.
On getting into Committee, Clause 1, which legalizes the
Ulster tenant-right custom, wan under discussion until mid-
night Mr. I4m was persuaded to withdraw a motion to
postpone the clause, on the ground that Clause 3 was the ,
pivot on which the whole of the bill worked, and that until ,
that was settled it was waste of time to discuss other '
clauses.
Mr. Ileadlam then moved an amendment, the object of
which was to facilitate the extiuctfon of the Ulster custom
by agreement between landlord lied tenant, and to register
the memorandim of the agreement in the Landed Estates
Court. It was for the perminient advantage of Ireland, he
argued, that these customs, which were prejudicial to agri-
culture, shonid he got rid of, existing interests In them being
provided for, and he awelt also on the vagueness and me
certainty of these customs and the neglect of the bill to pro-
vide means for carrying them out.
Mr. Chichester Fortescue, in opposing the amendment,
replied that it was not the business of the Committee now to
decide on the merits of the Ulster custom, but simply to
provide that it should have the force of law, and no longer
depend en individual caprice. Personally, however, he had
abetter opinion of the custom than Mr. Ileadlam, and he
believed it had Improved agriculture, contented the people,
and estsblished cordial relations between the landlords and
their tenants.
_

Mr. Dent agreed with Mr. Hoodlum that the money paid
for the purchase of the right by the tenant would be more
profitably invested if put into the cultivation of the adi,
while the Marquis of Ilamilton, Sir F. ileygate, and others
warmly eulegised the custom and its practical workings.
Mr. W. Fowler and Mr. M'Lagan, though theoreticallyells-
approving It, )ot, in face of the value set upon it by the people
and its manifest beneficial operation in practice, declined
to assist in Its extinction. Colonel Barttelot insisted
that the queition shoat be discussed, not merely from
a political point of view, but with regard to the im-
provement of agriculture Mr. Cornices, Mr. Gregory,
Mr. G. Grezory, Mr. Gollney, and Mr. Bourke also
spoke, and Mr. Gladstone argued that the amendment
practically would make lea. provision than the bill for the
extinction of the "custom," in which he pointed out, whether
good or bad, the tenants had £20,000,000 invested. Mr.
lleadlam did not press his amendment to a division, but
allowed it to be negatived.
Mr. Samuelson then moved to extend the clause so as to
legalise all other agricultural customs besides the Ulster
tenant-right. and was supported by Mr. Cogan, Mr. Pollard-
'Urquhart, Mr. O'Reilly, Dr Brady, and other Irish members.
The Attorney-General opposed the IlL.UliMent, as ine
practicable and undesirable. and Mr. Gladstone urged the
Committee to settle the Ulster custom first, and leave the
others to be dealt with under Clause 2 He admitted, how-
ever, that wherever customs could be shown to exist equiva-
lent to the Ulster tenant-rizht—where, that is, they existed
with the consent of the landlord and other identical condi-
tions were present—they ought to be recognised.

_
After a protracted conversation the amendment was pressed
to • division, and rejected by 323 to 42.
The rest of the evening was spent in discussing the expedi-
ency of defining tenant-right. At the soggestiou of Mr.
Cross the word "usage" was altered to the plural to meet
the various (-gins of tie custom. Mr. W. Johnston next pro-
posed to define tenant-right as a right of continued
occupation on the payment of the rent stipulated or
determined by fait valuation, or as the right of the
tenant to sell his interest to a solving incoming tenant to
whom a landlord shall not make a reasonable objection. Mr.
Chichester Fortescue objected that this was not so much a
definition as the creation of new customs; and among other
things it implied a Government valuation of rent. The ne-
cessity of a definition wa• strongly urged by Mr. Whitwell,
Mr. Synan, arid others, while Lord G. Hamilton approved
the decision of the Government not to attempt it. On a
division the amendment was rejected by 118 to Sil. On
Mr. Fortescue's motion tie words were omitted from the
clause which limits the custom to compensation to be made
or allowed on account of the out-going tenant of a holding,
and several other verbal amendments were made. This
completed the first paragraph of the nrst clause, and the
Chairman was here ordered to report progress.
Some other Madness wa.s disposed of, and the House
adjourned.
In the House of Lords. March 29, Lord Dufferin, in moving
the second reading of the Peace Preservation (Ireland, Bill,
said that no Minister could bring forward such a mea-
sure without reluctance, and no one connected as lie was
with Ireland could do so without a deeper feeling. Tha
Government, however, had come to Parliament to ask
for further powers, and they did not expect that Parlia•
ment would accede to their demand, unless they could
show the exigencies of the case niacin powers necessary to
enable theni to check that outbreak of crime and outrage
which had attracted so much public attention.
During the fourteen months ending in Fehruary last there
had been 713 cases of crime, consisting as follows .—Agrarian
murders, 8; firing at persons, 16 ; firing &Feting., 6 ; aggra-
vated assaults. 20; administering unlawful oaths, 171;
threatening letters, 480; and attacks upon houses, 6. In
many cares no person was convicted, because of the difficulty
of obtaining evidence. With regard to those agrarian and
homicidal crimes, it was unfortunate that the press of Ireland
bad to some extent identified thstinselvea with proceedings
of that de.crlption. The question which their lordships
had to ask themselves was simply whether or not they
were prepared to allow innocent men and women—for
he was sorry- to say that even women had sometimes been
the victims of outraggs—to be destroyed, frequently in open
day, and sometimes iii the presence of numerous spectators,
and occasionally under circumstances of exceptional cruelty.
The noble earl proceeded to de•cribe the provisions of the
Government bill for the represeion • f crime, which he said
woul i be ample for the purpose for which they were designed
He appealed to the people of Ireland to judge between the
Government and those who incited to murder, as te the ne-
cessity for the measure, because he believed that the great
majority of the people were still loyal to the Crown.
The Duke of Richmond referred to the charges of the
Irish Judges as affording a conclusive justification for the
stringent and exceptional legislation now proposed. Ile
approved the provisions of the bill, and emphatically re-
ferred to the Prates Clauses as the most valuable portion of
the measure. With regard, however, to the causes of the
disturbed state of Ireland, the Government could by no
means be absolved from blame. Speeches had been delivered
by almost every member of the Government which had
caused undoubted mischief in Ireland. The reluctance of the
Government to bring in this bill he regarded as an admis-
sion that their mode of governing Ireland was practi-
cally a failure, but a grave responsibility did not the less
attach to them for not coming to Parliament at an earlier
period for additional powers. He concluded a moderate and
conciliatory speech by expressing a hope that the Govern..
meat would carry out the provisions of the bill in a vigorous
and determined manner, in which case be promised them the
support of all classes in this country.
Lord Oranmore complained at some length of the Irbil
" policy of the Administration.
Lord Lurgan entertained no doubt as to Ihe necessity for
• the bill, and only hoped it would become a dead letter by
the population of the disturbed districts and the Irish press
ceasing to commit the acts now declared to be illegal.
Lord Derby, while thinking that the Government had come
rather late to the decision that the bill was called for, was of
opinion that, strong and unprecedented as it was, it was not
one whit stronger than was required. Ile singled out the
Press Clauses as striking at the root of the evil, and sold he
had not a word to urge against the principle of the bit its
suggested that juries in Ireland in criminal cases should no
longer be required to be unanimous, and contended that a
majority of two-thirds would give all reasonable security to
prisoners on their trial.
Lord Kimberley defended the Government for not having
sooner come to Parliament for a repressive measure. They
had carefully considered the state of Ireland from month to
month, and he justified the delay by a reference to the crimi-
nal returns and also by the unanimity with which the measure
had now been received.
Lord Sallabury pined In the general praire with which he
said the bill had neen received. The Ministry, it wan to be
hoped, would now awake from the dream that remedial
meaaures alooe would aolve the Irish problem. Such had
been tried for 100 years, yet at this moment Ireland was lea,
loyal and orderly than it had ever been. The fact was that
they were dealing in Ireland with a pop dation which in many
districts was of a lower scale of civilisation than our own,
and which, in the words of the late Lord Derby, must be
taught to fcar the law before they could be induced to love
it.

Lord Grarville, gratefully acknowledging the mild, tem-
perate, and p driotte tone of the debate, pointed out certain
contradictions in the speeches of the Duke of Richmond and
the last speaker, Slid .141 he should Like to hear the subject
of the unanimity of juries argued out between them. Ile
denied that the iioVtrlinient had awakened from to dream
that remedial measures would in the long nin have a bene-
ficial effect, believing as he did that meaaures ofjustice would
yet make Ireland loyal aud contented.
The bill was then read a second time.
Lord Granville proposed to take the Committee On Thurs-
day, and to suspend the Standing Orders, so that the bill
might be read a third time and passed on Thursday night
The Duke of Richmond expreesed his concurrence, and
their lordships aeljonrned.
In the House of Commons, Mr. Gladstone, In reply to Sir
L. Palk, promised before Easter to make a general state-
ment of the specific points on which the Government con-
ceived the Education gill required amendment ; but he did
not speak in a very sanguine tone of the prospects of the
bill. The day for resuming its consideration rather receded
than grew nearer, and it would ceriaiuly be impossible to go
Into committee before the ISth or 201 h of May. In reply to
Mr. Stacpoole, the Premier held out no hope of dealing with
the Irish Railways this Session.
A resolution moved by Sir G. Jenklnson, declaring in sub-
stance that the cost of maintaining turnpike roads of which
the trusts have expired should not be limited only to those
parishes through which such roads actually pass, was agreed
to without opposition.
Mr. liewdegate then moved for a Select Committee to

Inquire into the increase of Conventual anti Monastic Muni
tuitions in this country, and into the terms on which their
property is held.
The Solicitor General replied that the increase of these
institutions, due as they were to the development of the
Roman Catholic religious spirit, was the natural result of the
toleration and the consequent increase of that religion in this
country. So far as property went, he maintained that
Roman Catholics were exactly in the same position before
the law as other communities, and the same doctrines of
common law and equity were applicable to them. The only
difference—the exemption from the Jurisdiction of the
Charity Commissioners—was a necessity, and was a sort of
compensation for the law of "superstitious uses."
On a division, Mr. Newdegate beat the Government by a
narrow majority of two-131 to 124—a result which was
hailed with much enthusiastic cheering.
Some other bush:lots was disposed of, end the Mouse
adjourned

In the House of Commons, March 30, Mr. C. Forster, In
moving the second reading of the Felony Bill, remarked
that it was identical with the one which he had intro-
duced in 1864, and which after passing Its second reading
was entrusted to the then Attorney-General, Init. owing
to a change of 51 inistry, fell through. Previous to that
time the matter had been twice recommended to the notice
of the House by the Statute Law Cuisolidation Com-
mittees. The existing law as to the disposal of the
property of convicted felons was admitted to be a real Kiley-
..., and the severity of its operation in the case of minor
offences, instead of maintaining the dignity of the law by ex-
citing reprobation of the off ender, often tended to excite great
sympathy for the criminal. The net aunt secured to the Crown
by means of the law was comparatively small, and he submitted
that so oppressive a law as the existing one ought not to be
aohedi for the sake of the small revenue which it obtained.
The law of forfeiture was nothing more than a barbarous
relic of the feudal days, whilst it had been abolished by the
Code Napoleon and all modern c,des except our own. The
bill which he had introduced was intended to remove the
grievance which the law created, and he therefore moved its
second reading;

After remarks from Mr. S. 0. Morgan, Mr. Jewel, and the
Home Secretary, the bill was then read a second tune, and
was referred to a select committee
Mr. W. Johnston, in moving the second reading of the
Party Procession ,ireiti.tl) hill, said that the Party Processions
Act of IsEd was eminently unsatisfactory, had been partially
and locally administered, and had utterly and entirely failed
• in achieviiig the object for which it was introduced. It had
been a dead letter in one portion of the country, while it had
been rigidly enforced in another; and it had served to
exasperate the feelings of the people. lie submitted,
on behalf of the loyal Orangemen of Ulster, that it hail
never been their intention, In the processions lii which
they hml taken part, to offer a slight to her Majesty's
Government or to hurt the feelings of their Roman Catholic
fellow-subjects. The present Government had allowed the
Act to remain • dead letter upon the statute book, and It
ought, therefore, to be repealed. lie did pot agree with
those who asked that these processiims should be put down.
The Act tended to provoke great animosity and ill.feeling
between the two great classes of the community in Ireland,
and he urged that it should be repealed, lie moved the
reading of the bill.
The motion a as seconded by Viscount Crichton, and, alter
• short discussion, the bill was read a second time.
Sir John Grey moved the second reading ot the Medical
Acts Amendment MIL lie said its object was to amend the
Act of ISSB and subsequent Acts, which had bees enacted
for the purpose of enabling persona requiring medical alit
to distinguish between qualified and unqualified medical
practitioners, but which had utterly failed in effecting
their object Owing to the number and variety of ex-
amining bodies there was now no efficient test of the
practical knowledge of candidates to the pretension; and
the chief principle of the bill was that every candidate
should be hilly tested, both in the hospital and in the dis-
pensary, and should not be licensed unless he proved him-
self practically acquainted with all that a medical man
ought to be familiar. There would he only one way by
which the profession could be entered, and the proficiency of
every one admitted would be certified by the State.
Mr. S. It Graves seconded the motion for the second
reading of the bill on the ground that there was great need
of a radical change in the education of the medical pro-
fession, and also because it was desirable to allow the larger
towns of she country to be heard in the Medical Council of
the country.
Sir. Brady moved the adjournment of the debate.
Mr. Former hoped that the hon. member would accede to
the motion for adjournment. Earl de Grey had Instructed
him to state, on Lobel of tile Government, that he hail under-
taken to bring in a bill into the other lioum which had for
its Mips t to amend the Me ,ical Acts.
Sir John Gray acceded to the motion, and promised that
should the Government bill be an effective one, he would
withdraw his own in favour of it.
. . . .

Mr. P. Rylanos deferred the motion for the 'second reading
of the Sale of Liquor on Sunda) s Bill until after the day fixed
for the introduction of the Government Bill on the subject.
The House went into committee on the Attorneys, and
Solicitors' Remuneration Bill.

Sir. 1, Gokisculd moved that the chairman do report
progress.
After a few words from itr. Thuile Palmer, the motion was
Withdrawn.

Bir4:.(l7,;ldsmid disapproved of that provision of the bill
which gave power to solicitors and attorneys to make agree-
ments with their clients, and thought that there should be a
fixed scale of charges.
Mr. Bruce was understood to say the provisions had been
considered by the Attorney•Oeneral and the Sollcitur-General,
and that they had apiroved or them.
Clauses I to 4 having been disposed t.f,
Sir J. Trelawney moved mean amendment to Clause 5, that
where deeds or securities are deposited with a lawyer on
behalf of a client, they shall uot be held as security for costs.
After a discussion In which the amendment was condemned
by several hon, members who took part, the Home-Secretary
and the Solicitor-General I. d. Ireland recommended that the
amendment should be postponed, but this the hon. baronet
would not accede to.
The committee divided, 10 for the amendment; against, 95;
majority, 85.
The amendment was therefore lost, and the clause adopted.
On Clause 6,
Sir J. Trelawney moved an amendment.
Mr. Alderman Lusk moved that the chairman report pro-
gress; and this was agreed to.

The Survey of Great Biataln, the., Bill, was read a second
time ; as was also the Couhty Courts ,Buildings Bill, and the
Hull., at:J.urned.