The Press.
London, England, 1855-08-11 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

herself, while France was bound jointly, but not
severally : to which last argument the LORD CHAN•
CELLOR replied by admitting the fact, but denying
that it was of any consequence. The Earl of
CLARENDON made a few explanations respecting the
conferences.

On Tuesday evening the bill was read a third
time and passed without a word of serious discussion.
HOSPITALS IN THE EAST.
Mr. STAFFORD, on Monday, drew attention in much
detail to the deflciencie4 Sand irregularities in the
management of these hospitals, and asked what had
been done to rectify them.
Mr. PEEL explained the art angements now in pro-
gress, denying many of the accusations of mismanage-
ment, and promising due care in the health and
comfort of our troops if they had to pass another
winter before Sebastopol.
STATE OF EUROPEAN POLITICS.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL took the opportunity of the
third reading of the Appropriation Bill to make a
discursive speech, of which the excuse hs made was
the propriety of considering the affairs of Italy.
Starting from the expenses of the star in which we
were engaged, he went on to the absence of decisive
results in the Baltic fleet, and from thence to the
dangers of the common cause in Asia, to which the
failure of the Foreign Legion prevented our sending
any defence. In the Crimea our large armaments
would be met by a Corresponding Russian force, aug-
mented by troops set free by the present policy of
Austria. Recurring to the Vienna Conferences, he
should have been glad if, for his own justification,
the whole o'' the despatches which he had sent home
could have been p►inted, which be trusted they
would be at some future time ; and adverted to the
opinion of the Turkish Plenipotentiary—one of the
hest-informed men of his nation on European affairs
—in favour of the last Austrian proposal. After
some compliments to the faith of our French ally, and
wishes that the Ministry might be able at the reassem-
bling of Parliament to give a good account of their
proceedings, he came at last to Italy, and argued,
from the bold and generous conduct of the Ring of
Sardinia, that he had a right to expect the moral
support of this country in restoring a better system
to Italy. In the Papal States crime, outrage, and
misgovernment prevailed everywhere—patriotic men
were suffering in Neapolitan dungeons—Tuscany
bad repudiated the principles she once professed of
religious toleration—and, in the midst of all this,
Italy was occupied by foreign troops. One essen-
tial point in the prosperity of Italy was the liberty
of Rome ; yet that city had long been occupied by
French soldiers, who were to have withdrawn when
the domestic authority should have resumed its
sway ; but the prospect of such a result was just
as distant as ever. He Loped that the Govern-
ment of France, in concert with our cwn, might
devise some just system of Government in the
Roman States, enabling France and Austria to with-
draw their troops, and that foreign influence would
no longer crush the hopes of Italy for freedom,
justice, and national policy.
Mr. WILKINSON denied that in the prosecution of
the war we were dependant on the opinion of Turkey.
Our defence of Turkey was but a means to an end—
that end being a check to Russian aggrandise-
ment.

Lord JOHN RUSSELL explained that he meant by
his reference to Turkey to assert that i we con-
tinued the war for other than Turkish interests we
must subsidise her.

Lord PALMERSTON began by denouncing the
late speech of Mr. Gladstone, who had been a party
to the commencing the war, had assisted in carrying
it on, and now declared it unjust, conjured up
imaginary disasters, and magnified the resources of
the enemy and our own difficulties. After repeated
protests of his intention to prosecute the war with
vigour, he observed, on the Turkish opinion of the
Austrian proposal, that the Government at Constan-
tinople fully agreed with that of France and England
in rejecting it. At the same time it must be remem-
bered that the Turkish was not the only question,
that beyond the defence of Turkey lay the still
greater difficulty of the grasping ambition of Russia,
and, therefore, the terms of peace ought to rest with
those who had a greater interest in that peace than
Turkey herself, and whose views on European
policy were more likely to be right. Coming to
Italy, he pronounced a glowing euloginm on the
patriotism of Piedmont., which managed its newly•
acquired representative institutions as though it had
been used to them for centuries. The state of the
rest of Italy offered a painful contrast, where foreign
influence joined with foreign arms in destroying the
wellbeing of the people. At the same time he
denied thet Austria was increasing her forces in
Italy, and asserted that whatever course that Govern-
ment might pursue it would never take up arms
against England and France. He referred in some
detail to the attempts to introduce a better otganisa-
tion into the administration of the Papal States, and
to the causes of their failure, adding that both

753

France ana Italy would take advantage of any
opportunity that offered for the improvement of
Italy.
Mr. HENLEY made some observations on the part
taken in former times by Lords Palmerston and
Russell in the matter of nationalities ; complained
that no expectation had been held out that foreign
bayonets would at any time be withdrawn from
Italy; and did not believe that there had been any
fair opportunity for putting an end to the war,
which we must fight out, now that we were in it.

GRANT TO THE ROYAL SOCIETY.
Lord PALMZIISTON stated on Monday that, although
the Government could not continue the grant of
1,0001., which bad been given out of a special fund,
on its own responsibility, yet that a similar grant
would appear next year in the miscellaneous es.
timates, which would afford the house an opportunity
of discussing it. The money, he added, had been
judiciously and economically expended.
Lord JOHN Russell. had previously explained that
the original grant had not been a misapplication of
a charitable fund, but given from a fund of " special
service and royal bounty," and had expressed his
hope that a parliamentary grant would be annually
voted.

CHARITABLE TRUSTS BILL.
The details of this bill, which had come'down from
the Lords, was explained in the Commons on 'Mon-
day by the ArroeNer GENERAL. Its object was to
enable the settlement of charitable property withodt
the expensive process of Chancery. lie himself be-
lieved that there onght to be no limit to the species
of property thus dealt with : the Lords, however, had
restricted the operation of the measure to property
of 101. annual value, which he proposed to raise to
301. The powers of the existing board of commis•
sioners would he materially enlarged—giving them
the privilege of examining witnesses, of appointing
local inspectors, of sanctioning the removal of
teachers in schools, of repairing, improving, and
even alienating property, when circumstances ren-
dered it necessary and 'expedient. '
Mr. KNIGHT was willing to strengthen the hands
of the commissioners, as at present constituted, brit
objected to so violent a change, as one which can-
verted an inspecting and remedial board into a board
of administration with absolute control. It was,
monstrous to deal thus with thirty-five millions of
money. The commissioners already possessed mix.:
mons powers, the extent of which they seemed
anxious to conceal from the public.
Sir W. Jolliffe, Mr. Peliatt; and Mr. Cairns took a
similar view, observing that the court of the commis-
sioners was to be a close one, and that great danger
was to be apprehended from the exercise of such un-
limited powers. The last hon. member recommended
a select committee next session for a satisfactory
settlement of the subject.
On the other hand, Dr. MICHELL thought the com-
missioners might as safely be trusted as the Court of
Chancery; Sir G. GREY begged the house to go into
committee, that the Objections of detail might then
be examined; and the SOLICITOR-GENERAL traced
the history of charity measures for twenty yetteS;
contending that they all tended towards the plan
now proposed.
Mr. HENLEY, after adverting in detail to various
points of the bill, recommended that the judicial
powers proposed to be given to the commissioners
should he struck out.

Mr. MALINs and Sir W. HEATHCOTE made the same
recommendation, to which the ArrottNtr-GltromAt
reluctantly consented, saying that he must be con-
tented to take what he could get.
On this assurance the house went into committee,
and in the course of that and the following night the
hill went through committee in its mutilated shape.
It has since been read a third time and passed.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE.
The third reading of this bill was opposed
Monday by Mr. T. CHAMBERS It created, he sal
a new tribunal, superseding the old criminal trib
nals of the country without necessity—the only
mice being to hasten the trial of prisoners—while
the large towns the delay between the trial and the
committal did not now on the average exceed three
weeks. Summary powers of decision were given to
the magistrates in cases where the value of property
most fal-

stolen was not more than five shillings—a .
lacious test, as often an offender was prosecuted in
important cases for a very small part of the whole
property lost, for reasons of legal technicality. The
offender would be tried by a close court, and in the
rural districts thrown helplessly into the hands of
the police. lie moved that the bill be read a third
time that day three months.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL replied by saying tha
the bill dealt simply with cases which did not deserve
the delays, expenses, and formalities of a regular
trial. The prisoner would in all cases be offered the
option of a jury, if he chose to avail himself of it.
The amendment of Mr. T. Chambers was nega-
tived, and the bill was subsequently reads third time
and passed.

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