The Press.
London, England, 1856-02-16 00:00:00

MR. CRAMPTON.

On the motion for going into Committee of Supply,
Mr. ROEBUCK, pursuant to notice, moved that an
address should be presented to the Crhwn, praying
for the production of all the correspondence that had
lately passed between the Governments of England
and the United States respecting the conduct of Mr.
Crampton. The recent explanations given by Lord
Palmerston respecting the apology offered to the
States upon the enlistment question were, he
declared, inconsistent with the fact that bad
come within his own cognisance. These facts
Mr. Roebuck proceeded to detail, deriving
his authority, in great measure, from the reports of
the trials that bad lately taken place in America,
and as.erting as the result that Mr. Crampton bad
endeavoured to evade the laws, and crimp the sub-
jects, of the United States. Whether in these trans-
actions the British envoy had followed or exceeded
his instructions from the Home Governmi nt, the
Washington Cabinet were, be contended, equally
entitled to insist on his recal. Even when the
alleged apology was made to the States, the attempts
at evading their law were not discontinued. The
object of his motion, as the hon. member declared,
was on the one band to unmask the Government in
what be suspected was a treacherous proceeding ;
and, on the other, to afford Parliament an opportu-
nity of repudiating all complicity in the transaction.
Mr. HADIIED seconded the motion.

Lord PALMERSTON reiterated his previous state-
ment that the correspondence in question was still
in too incomplete a condition to be expediently
made public. By the last communication from
the United States Government the recal of Mr. Cramp-
ton was again demanded, but the reply to that despatch
could not be prepared until the Foreign Secretary
had received an answer to the inquiries he had in-
stituted respecting various statements on which this
demand was based. He deprecated discussion until
all the papers were before the house ; and declared
that the Government had neither instructed nor de-
sired Mr. Crampton to do anything that could pos-
sibly infringe the laws of the country to which he
was accredited. In the course of the proceedings
which furnished grounds for the late correspondence,
Lord Palmerston asserted that several attempts had
been made to entrap the British functionaries into
illegal acts ; and lie attributed those attempts to a
conspiracy got up among certain individuals in the
States, who wished to bring the two countries into
collision. Denying with much emphasis that the
apology offered to the States was either insincere or
insufficient, or that any evasion of the law had been
practised, the noble lord commented upon the dan-
gerous return cf a discussion such as that Mr. Roe-
buck had challenged by his motion, and characterised
the proceeding as being unfair and unpatriotic.
Mr. DISRAEII felt that he could not support the
motion, which he considered premature in the con-
tinued absence of complete and official information.
He nevertheless contended that it came within the
competence of every member of that house to criti-
cise any detail of administration, even including the
foreign policy of the Government, which in their

SATURDAY,

opinion required explanation. Trusting that the
promised papers would prose fully elucidatory, and
the conduct of the Ministry found free from equivoca-
tion, Mr. DISRAELI recommended the withdrawal of
the present motion, which at the same time he
thought had been very justifiably brought before the
house.

Upon this suggestion Mr. ROEBUCK consented
not to press his resolution, and the motion was with-
drawn by consent.

SUPPLY.
Mr. W. WILLIAms renewed his complaint, that the
long expenditure incurred in collecting vanous
branches of the revenue were very imperfectly ac-
counted for in the estimates as now presented to
Parliament.

111 r. WiLsow gave some explanation on the subject,
after which the house went into Committee of Supply,
and passed several votes belonging to the Revenue
Departments Estimate, amidst a miscellaneous dis-
cussion.