The Press.
London, England, 1858-02-27 00:00:00

THE RESIGNATION OF MINISTERS.

Earl GRANVILLE rose and said :
My Lords, I rise for the purpose of making an announce-
ment to the house, for which probably your lordships are
already prepared. It is, that in consequence of what took
place in another place on Friday her Majesty's Ministers
have thought that there was no other alternative left open
to them than most respectfully to tender their resigna-
tions to her Majesty. Her Majesty has been most gra-
ciously pleased to accept those resignations, and I under-
stand that the noble earl who is not now in his place,
Lord Derby, has undertaken the commission of forming a
Government. I understand also that the noble lord will
think it convenient that there should be an adjournment
of the house until the time when those arrangements are
made. I understand that the noble lord will be glad that
the adjournment shall take place from now until Friday.
I am informed by my noble and learned friend on the
woolsack that it will be convenient to suitors that the
house should meet to-morrow for judicial business. I
think your lordships will all agree that we should abstain
from other public business until the noble earl has an
opportunity of taking his place. We in the meantime
are only holding our places until his arrangements are
made. (Hear.)
The Earl of MALMESBURY

My Lords, I have been too long and too well acquainted
with the noble lords opposite to be surprised at the step
which they have taken. I have always known them to be
men to whom the sense of public duty and the claims of
private honour arc to all things else paramount, and I am
not surprised at the step which her Majesty's Government
have taken in resigning. (Hear, hear.) I shall not,
perhaps, be blamed if I say that I feel a natural and legiti-
mate pleasure in knowing that men are called to the
councils of the Crown whose political opinions are the
same as my own, but that satisfaction is exceeded by the
feeling that at no time within my memory have any
political debates in this house led to any acrimony, and
that on this side of the house we have carried on those
debates and the divisions following them without any feel-
ing of faction or personal hostility to her Majesty's Govern-
ment. (Cheers.) I look back with satisfaction to two
periods of great importance and excitement, when we
have had the pleasure to support her Majesty's Govern-
ment. I allude to the Russian war and the rebellion in
India. (Hear, hear.) I have only to add that Lord
Derby is at this moment employed in fulfilling the task
which has been intrusted to him by her gracious Majesty,
and that it is his wish, as the noble earl has expressed
it, that your lordships should assent to an adjournment.

THE LORD CHIEF 'JUSTICE AND THE ATTORNEY-
GENERAL.

Lord CAMPBELL, in reply to Lord Lyndhurst, said
that a recent statement of the Attorney General with
respect to the alien law had caused him much pain
and astonishment. The Attorney-General had
said,—" The state of the English law I believe to be
this,—that foreigners are able to do in this country
that which your own subjects are unable to do, and
that which would he a crime in natural-born British
subjects is a matter of impunity in foreigners ":
Now, that was not the law of England, and it was of the
last importance that it should be known to the country
and to Europe that it was not the law of England. He
appealed to his noble and learned friend ( Lord Lynd-
hurst) to confirm his statement, that there was no distinc-
nr whatever between natural-born subjects and aliens
loth regard to acts committed within the realm of England.
Habeas were in England, within the Queen's allegiance,
they were her subjects as long as they remained there,
and they were liable to the same procedure as natural-
born subjects. If they were tried for high treason, or any
offence between high treason and the lowest known to the
law, done in England, it would be wholly immaterial whe-
ther they were aliens by birth or foreign subjects, and it
would be most disastrous if it were supposed that such
was the disgraceful state of English law that they, owing
allegiance to England, were not subject to the law which
bound English subjects. He said that while they were
under the protection of English law they were bound to
obey it, and were liable for any infraction of English law,
exactly in the same manner as any perron who was born
within the sound of Bow bells. }'or conspiracy and every
other offence they were amenable to the law of England.
It would be monstrous that it should he proclaimed to the
world that they who lived here and enjoyed an asylum
could commit with impunity crimes for which English
subjects might be punished. If a foreigner in a foreign
conory committed a crime and came to England we could
not punish him for what he had done in a foreign land. It
would be contrary to the law of nations to attempt to do
ao- lint we could legislate for our own subjects all over
the world, and make them amenable in an English court
for anything which they had committed abroad. With
regard to a foreigner who committed a crime abroad, we
414 no jurisdiction over the offence, but for everything