The Press.
London, England, 1853-07-09 00:00:00

SIMONY.

The second reading of the Simony Law Amendment
Bill was moved in Wednesday's sitting by Mr. Plitt.-
Li melte. The evil the measure was intended to meet,
he observed, was of the gravest character—the making
a solemn trust, the cure of souls, matter of barter
and commercial speculation. By he general eccle-
siastical law the sale of benefices was illegal, and,
since the Reformation, it had been denounced in
several statutes. By the 12th of Anne the clergy
were prohibited from procuring for themselves, for
money, the appointment to any ecclesiastical benefice.
A previous act, of 31st Elizabeth, had, however,
received an extraordinary construction. It had been
determined by the !louse of Lords that although the
sale of a presentation when the living is vacant would
be invalid (for this would be gross simony), if the
incumbent was in a dying state, the sale of the next
presentation, though about to be vacant, would not
be simonised. illustrating the unseemly practices
which at. present prevailed in the matterof such sales,
Mr. Phillimore read many advertisements wherein
the various attractions of the livings offered for dis-
posal were set forth in lively colours, and puffed like
any other article of transfer and sale. If spiritual
offices could be sold, lie remarked, there was no reason
why political or judicial appointments should not be
so also. The prevalence of these simoniacal practices
it was which gave scope to the scoffers, and rendered
the Church of England obnoxious to the criticisms
of the separatists. The operation of his bill, he added,
was altogether prospective, forbidding the sale of any
benefice upon, or in prospect of, its next avoidance.
The lateness of the hour was alleged by Mr. Hot:-
vzinz as his reason for moving the adjournment of
the debate. _ _

Mr. G. Btirr wished to controvert, without delay,
the fallacies imported into Mr. Phillimore's speech. It
had heen assumed that it was simoniacal for a lay-
man to exercise over ecclesiastical benefices the
ordinary rights of property. Yet these rights were
conferred on him by the law and were of very long
standing. Ever since the Reformation the law of
England recognised the right of a layman to pur-
chase the next presentation to a living, and to sell,
settle, or dispose of it st his pleasure afterwards.
This bill, therefore, affected the rights of property,
and Parliament might as well interfere with the title
to all chattels real. Nor did it propose anything for
the benefit of the public, for it gave the presentation,
in the cases contemplated, to the Crown, in whose
hands he doubted whether it would be empl►yed
more for the advancement of the general welfare.
He thought that, generally speaking, laymen had
exercised their ecclesiastical patronage creditably,
and the fitness of the presentee was always examined
into by the bishop.

THE PRESS.

Mr. WILSON reiterated the appeal on behalf of the
tiovernment for an adjournment, because there were
some customs resolutions on the paper which they
wished to get passed before six o'clock brought the
hour of rising.
Mr. BAN KES, however, with some remarks upon
the unfairness of permitting serious changes to Lit
made. or important bills introduced, at times when
there was no possibility of discussing them, oceupied
the house until the clock was on the stroke of the
appointed hour, when the debate stood adjourned
ex necessitate.
SHORT-110(1R sVsTEN.
Mr. COMIETT, on Tuesday, MOVeil t it loave. to
bring in a bill limiting the hours of factory latiiior
for women. young persons, and children, and to pro.
vide nu. a more perfect inspection of factories in the
United Kingdom:—
" His proposition was to restrict the hours of labour of
all ik`NOIIR employed in factories, including a,imel, amid
all plum; persiais and children, to ten hours a day for the
first limo days in the week, and seven horns and a half min
Saturdays. In order to ensure the working ill this irismia.
fiat,. the hill prodded that the motive power in all factories
should I. suspended frian half-past the ueluek in the
evening on the first live din in the week until six the next
marniig, and on Saturdays in a similar proportion."
This arrangement he advocated as being merely a
restoration of the Ten-hour Act of I.Bli in its on.
ginal intention. and described the evasions which
millowners practised too generally with regard Its
that net, as also to the subsequent statute commonly
called the Compromise Act. Among the object s
Ile anticipated to his proposal, and which he 4.11111-
Nitwit beforehand, the most serious was that respect-
ing the restriction to the motive power; lint he con-
tended that by no other means could the measure be
made ettectiii.

The 'motion having, been selsonded by Mr. FirinEs,
and opposed by Mr. W. A. Wii,sissos,
Lord PALMERSTON reserved to himself the right of
dealing with the bill as he thought proper hereafter,
but consented to its passing the preliminary.
stage. He had intended to bring in a bill himself'
prohibiting the employment of children before ti SAIL
and after 6 p.m. The circumstances under which
children were sent outlon a drizzling 'wonting to go
three or four miles to their place of work, and had
find their way home again, in a (lark evening, per •
haps with snow on the ground, were sufficient to ae.
count for the extreme mortality nomog that class of
factory labourers. It was a matter of delicacy to in
terfere with those who, being of age, were free
agents ; but he observed that the millowners were
not promoting their own real interest by treating
persons in their employ as mere machines, out of
which the greatest possible amount of labour was to
be got; and they had better remember that their
workpeople were moral and intelligent agents, who
ought to have a moderate degree of leisure, without
which the desirable amount of good labour could
not be obtained. He might be told that the mea-
sure he propo:ed would indirectly interfere with the
employment of others than those for whom he wished
to legislate, but the neeessity of protecting children
VMS so important that he could not regard this as a
sufficient objection.
Lord J. MANNERS believed that the plan suggested
by Lord Palmerston would not go far enough either
to satisfy the just demands of the employed or pre.
vent the evasions practised by the employers. Ton
much compromise of the rights of the operatives bad
been already permitted, and yet the millowners pro-
ceeded to evade the very acts which had been passed
in their interests. Results had falsified the predie•
tines once hazarded touching the evils to he appre-
hended from interfering with the hours of labour,
and nothing now warranted them in shrinking from
doing that full justice to the working people which
they had not secured by the act of MO. lie warmly
approved of the bill.
Sir 0. OBEY adhered to the bills of 'l7 and
which he had helped to construct, and now declared
to have worked admirably. Very trifling instances of
evasion were proved, not involving more than one in
twenty of the ministers. Ile regretted that Lord
Palmerston should have given even an apparent
sanction to a bill comprising a principle so dangerous
as that of interfering with the motive power so far as
affected adult and male labour.
Mr. I. Burr believed that evasions of the existing
acts were very numerous—a belief which Mr. Fox
shared, and added that the operatives took extreme
interest in the subject, and were anxious to have
better legislative protection than they now ienjoyed
against overwork.
Mr. W. PATTEN deprecated the attempt to set
men against masters and masters against men.
Mr. LABOUciIERE opposed the bill because it
restricted the motive power and interfered with the
rights of capital.
Mr. lioimme supported it because it vindicated the
rights of nature.
Lord .1. Russrtr. remarked that they hail been
discussing details to which the Ministers had no
intention of committing' themselves, though they
had consented to let the bill be brought in.

221

Mr. NEWDEGATT and Mr. J. BALL having thefly
supported thy measure, leave was tgiven to bring iu
the bill.

THE INDIAN ARMY.
The Earl of ELLEKBOROVOH, on Tuesday, laid a
bill on the table of the Peers' House, consisting of a
single clause, by which the East India Company are
entitled to increase by 7,500 men the Eumpeau
fumes now in their service. The force employed by
them at present, under the law, was 11,200 men ;
but this bill, said the noble earl. would enable them
to employ :20,000 men. lie thought it, must desirable
that their lordships sl Id at once pass the bill, so
hat it might become law six or eight weeks sooner
than the Government bill, and that they might there-
by be able to place at the disposal of the titneruineut
two or dim, additional regiments.
The bill was read a first time.
Doe KY AHD APPOI NTME NTS.
After a preliminary conversation touching the pro-
priety and fairness of introducing the subject at
111441.1 midnight in a Wi'eli•Sl house. Mr. KrATlhn
ISSlNkn'il. on Tuesday, in mooing the resolution of
%hick his notice stood on the paper, to the following
ettect

•• That, referritn: to the report of the seleet vomit& low tot
iloeliy ant iin.lllo.lions, and the rudrure. swots %slits+ II ha
joasoted. Owl hoa.e i 9 of apish..' that. staring tilts e.ludul•arw•
Itott th.. late Itoar.l of A.lnllrahl, the. patronage or tioekyani
loNsistoshai4 awl the htdurucr sit the Adialrolti attn. uw.l alnl
1.%141.1.i10.4i 61r volitseal purpow•a to sill I•Veut suss) ill a 111111111er iii
ctslatl.ki to letteei lii4olo,lii 11M.11 I hat 1141)14Itlikrilt sit• the liuvrrn•
Islets!, mot to impair the etheteney of the service...

Occupying more than two hours in an elaborate
detail of the suspicions that prevailed before the
commission of hood* was appointed ; of the cir-
cumstances under which it was appointed ; of the evi-
dence given before it, and of the report thereon, the
hon. member po reeeded to comment on his subject
at a length which M. last. exhausted the patience
of the house. Atler appealing energetically against
than interruptions be experienced by the frequent
calls for a division, and eluding a call to order from
Mr. Hooker, on account of panne expression's which
seemed to transcend the courtesies, if not. the pri
vileges, of delude, Mr. heating at length yielded to
the manifest feeling of the house, and somewhat ab-
ruptly terminated his speech.
4ir .1. l'isistrros, remarking that the Cuomo pur-
sued by the hon. Member precluded all chance of
fair discussion, moved the adjourinnent. of the de-
bate. Ile added some strictures upon the report of
the commissioners, and declared himself prepared to
vindicate at every point. the HAMMINtraIOII of the Ad-
miralty by the Duke of Northumberland.
Mr. Donoom, also recognising the great energy,
ability, and discretion evinced by his grace in admi-
nistering his important (Mee, supported the motion
for aikantrmitent.
Lord Sevanwa with a few remarks upon the two
p seeebes last MAL, Mlillillea the rainless of allow.
imig the discussion to be aitiourne.l.
On a division, however, the *Um:lament was ne-
gatived by 95 votes to 70.
The debate was then renewed upon other motions

invoking a postponement anti future renewal of the
I iscussion in vinioug tbrniularie%. One motion for

the at-bow-mm.la of the house, moved by Sir T. A i.t.Atm,
showed on a division 172 negatives against. U affirma-
tive.

Presently Mr. IlnumsoNo, in the character of a
peaeetnaker, added fret4h fuel to the debate by pro.
posing that both aides should agree to a reaolution
thus conevistid :
" Itrferrint• to the report of the meloet slockywol
appointsenu+, it appvar.4 that 'twilit; every taleuitilstratiou tf the
Board of Ada:trait) heforr—i hat patronage taw( inflames
have been tined nud exereimell for isolitteal porposea, mid that the
report of the I.ollllllit4gi, 1111 the Clll4lllOll e•leetlna Matto. that
there hi no 111%tatiee of silt ekethots at that place In which a lit•
ye gat eitiolidate Wan not returned."

This proposition, however, was not persisted in ; and
Lord Intioxy MTITAHT afterwards entreating the
Govennuent to give a " day " for renewing the debate,
Lord l'at.mcitirroN cited the authority of Lord John
Russell, whom indisposition had compelled to leave
the house, for refusing the' request, on the ground
that none could be spared. tie declared that a
private 6' day" must be selected, and suggested that
Mr. K. Ball should gise up next Tuesday for the
purpose
" It is all very well 14 the bun. member for Cambridge-
shim to say bit nuiliim is of great importance. 1 do nut
mitkrvoloe its iniloiortallef.; Lilt it. is not 8 matter that
s,,es, and he rim take A.oifil• other Tue.dity—there will
Is• 1100 hul Tisesdays—(rinurs Ittoghter)—spun which
lie can 'piing it forward. I think next Tuesday would 1* a
very fitting da) for the resumption of the &butes ( No, no.)"
Mr. BALI. declined to adopt the suggestion, and
further discussion followed, when a new division
took place, on which the numbers were
For the adjournment
Against it
Lord I'AI.MERST4oN proposed that the debate should
be adjourned to the day then commenced.
111.. Insevw reiterated that, considering the hour
Mr. Keating had brought on his motion, he ought
to have yielded to the advice to postpone it. But, as
he would consider any motion that the house should

adjourn equivalent to negativing that motion, he
would assent thereto.

Mr. KEATINO defended himself, declaring that the
Opposition had been speaking against time on the
Factory Bill in order to delay the debate on his reso-
lution.
Mr. HILDTAIID then moved the adjournment of the
house, which, at a quarter to four, was carried by 100
to 59—majority, d 1; the house having bat nearly
fourteen hours.