The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-03-10 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

LUNACY LAWS.-INDIAN COMMERCIt.

In the HOUSE OF LORDS, March 2, the Lunacy Acts
Amendment Bill was read a second time. Viscount
Cross assured their lordships that there would be no
delay in providing dock accommodation at Bombay,
which was necessary for the defence of India and for
the purposes of British commerce.
TRAFALGAR-SQUARE.
In the HOUSE OF COMMONS the debate was resumed
on Sir C. Russell's motion for a Select Committee to
inquire into the holding of open-air public meetings in
the metropplis. Mr. Bradlaugh proposed as an amend-
ment to add to the motion words in favour of a public
inquiry into the alleged unlawful assembly in Trafalgar-
square on Sunday, Nov. 13, 1887, and the conduct of
the police in connection therewith. The Attorney-
General defended the action of the Executive, whilst
Sir W. Harcourt, who supported Sir C. Russell's
motion, held that the police, instead of prohibiting all
meetings in Trafalgar-square, should have regulated
.. Sir Henry James supported the Government.
At five minutes before midnight Mr. Pickersgill rose
to continue the discussion, whereupon Mr. W. H.
Smith intervened with a motion for closure, which was
carried nentine contradicente. The House then divided
on Mr. Bradlaugh's amendment, which was rejected by
322 votes to 207. Sir C. Russell's original proposal was
subsequently negatived by 316 votes to 224.

;y I them,

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT.

In the HOUSE OF LORDS, on March 5, Lord
Thurlow moved the second reading of a bill to amend
the Electric Lighting Act of 1882 by removing the pro-
hibitions and restrictions in the use of electric lighting
•in private houses. The bill proposed to extend the
provisional order of the Board of Trade from twenty-
one years to forty-two years. Lord Crawford and
Balcarres urged that the purchase clauses of the Act
should be done away with altogether, and that Electric
Lighting Companies should be allowed to make their
own terms with the local authorities. Lord Onslow
said the Government would not offer any opposi-
tion to the measure. Lord Herschell declared that
the terms of the Act of 1882 were such as to
render it certain that no profit would be made from
the new undertakings. Lord Salisbury reminded
Lord Herschell that that Act had been passed by a
Liberal Government, of which the noble lord himself
was a member. Water companies had bound Parlia-.
ment to conditions which very seriously affected the
public, and he did not know that we were much better
off as to gas, the gas companies having secured terms
which, if their results could have been foreseen by
Parliament, would have led to the Acts being very
seriously modified. It was, therefore, not unreasonable
that, in dealing with electricity, they should proceed
with caution. The Government would view the present
bill in an unprejudiced spirit, and would support it if
the noble lord could show that the proposed modifica-
tion of the law would be useful. After some remarks
from Lord Kimberley, the bill was read a second time.
THE SLE OF INTOXICANTS TO SAVAGES.
Lord Knutsford, replying to the observations of
several noble lords, said that the Government had sent
a circular to many of the Colonies on the subject of the
sale of intoxicating liquors to the native populations,
and when the answers to this circular were received he
would lay the documents on the table.
A NEW WRIT ISSUED.
In the HOUSE OF COMMONS, •tt 'new writ was ordered
for the Chichester Division .of Sussex for the elect*
of a member in room of the Earl of March, who his
resigned.
SUPPLY.--THE ARMY ESTIMATES.
On the motion for going into Committee of Supply
on the Army Estimates, Captain Colomb called atten-
tion to the growth of army expenditure, and to the
relative decrease of naval expenditure • but he did it
bring forward a motion he had on the paper, that t
was desirable that the House, before the Army Esti-
mates were submitted to it, should be put in possession
of the general principles of defence, which have deter-
mined the gross amount of the Estimates and also of
the programme of defence to which the Admiralty and
War Office were to conform.
Sir IV. Barttelot moved for the appointment of a
Royal Commission to inquire into and report upon the
military requirements for the protection of the Empire.
Lord H. Brudenell Bruce seconded the motion, which
gave rise to a long discussion, in which Sir H. Have-
lock-Allan, Sir E. Hamley, and others took part. Mr.
Brodrick, in replying, said that not a single insinuation
had been made that the policy of the Government had
been in the wrong direction. The Government were
spending the largest sum they could spend in the time
with advantage, and anything beyond it would be
squandered. No nation could stand expenditure at the
rate suggested by several of the speakers. If the
Government assented to such a Commission they would
assent to a Commission which would reveal to the
world the deficiencies of the Empire and hamper the
responsibilities of the Executive, and for a Commission
of such a wide scope no case had been made out. Lord
Charles Beresford, in supporting the motion, main-
tained that the country desired that experts should
have a great deal more to say in the management of the
services than they had. The present system was utterly
rotten and bad, and a Royal Commission would expose
its badness. The country could not have economy
under the present system, but he hoped the question
would not be made a party one, and that all
parties would combine to remedy existing evils. Mr.
W. H. Smith asked how it was possible to charge a
Commission, composed largely of experts, with the
duty of making provision for the interests and defence
of the Empire, and thereby remove the responsibility
from the shoulders of the Government of that day. He
was willing to allow a Parliamentary inquiry into how
far the organisation or administration of the Army or
Navy might be defective, and what economies might be
possible, but so long as the Government remained in
office they could not comply with the motion, and must
take their own way of arriving at the same object.
On the motion of Lord Randolph Churchill, the de-
bate was adjourned.

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