The Press.
London, England, 1858-07-03 00:00:00

THE PRESS. JULY 3, 1858

completing the indispensable business, and would
forego everything else. Having extorted this
promise from the Minister, the House imme-
diately afterwards set to work in a manner which
rendered its redemption impossible. Supply was
the appointed business for the night. On such
a motion, according to the recognized privileges
of Parliament, the Government is altogether
powerless. Independent members have it all
their own way, and the CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER can but endeavour to possess his
soul in patience, answer questions, explain obscu-
rities, account for stray items of expenditure,
and wait until the hurricane of queries, amend-
ments, objections, and resolutions, shall have
blown over, with the hope that time may after
all be left for the transaction of a little real
business. This did not happen to-night. At six
the House seemed impatient for prorogation ;
but from that hour until hall-past one the general
tone of the discussion implied that honourable
members were quite satisfied with their situation
—that no one wished to escape from the neigh-
bourhood of the Thames, and that the time had
not come—even on the 28th of June—when
practical work ought to supersede mere talk.
The motion for going into Committee of Supply
was prefaced by eleven distinct amendments, em-
bracing a wide range of topics—since nothing
comes amiss to such an opportunity and
pointing to conclusions of very various character,
though destitute of any practical importance. The
topics were wide and various. Public debts ; the
complicated relationship between the War Mi-
nister and the Commander-in-Chief ; the purifi-
cation of the Thames ; the dishonest management
of the storekeeper's department at Weedon, and
divers other matters, were perforce allowed to
monopolize the legislative attention until an ad-
vanced hour. After many questions had been
brought forward, discussed, and either withdrawn
or negatived without a division, her Majesty's
Ministers at one o'clock recognized the impossi-
bility of getting through any real work, and
accordingly assented to the amendment moved
by Colonel BOLDERO for a Royal Commission of
Inquiry into the Weedon defalcations. The sub-
ject, no doubt, required investigation ; but the
night was not the less effectually wasted, so far
as regarded the transaction of public business.
The House at one moment show an impressible
anxiety to get away from the polluted neighbour-
hood of the Thames. In the next, however,
they persist in utilizing to its utmost extent their
constitutional prerogative of arresting all business
by interminable talk. This prerogative was
exercised with such effect that a long and late
sitting passed away without leaving even a wreck
of substantial work behind. The debate was
often dreary, and always desultory, and at the
i end there was nothing done.
TUESDAY.

The private members had forcibly seized on
Monday night. Tuesday fell to them of pre-
scriptive right—but for the last time this ses-
sion. Mr. DISRAELI, urging the " despatch of
business," succeeded in passing a resolution that
Government Bills were to have precedence
on every night of sitting until the prorogation.
This evening Mr. CAIRD, as a practical agricul-
turist, complained that too much money had
been expended in draining and improving
Ilainault Forest, now disafforested, by the
managers of the Crown property. Mr. HAMILTON
showed that an outlay of 42,000/. had pro-
duced an improved rental of 3,0001. per annum,
thus returning a permanent seven per cent.—not
on the whole a bad investment.
The rest of the sitting was given up to Ire-
land. One motion, censuring the appointment
of Mr. CECIL MoonE as Sessional Crown Pro-
secutor for Tyrone, was anticipated with some
interest as likely to produce a spirited duel
between the late and the present Attorney-
General for Ireland. The nomination was
challenged on the ground that Mr. MOORF: had
been the Deputy Grand Secretary of an Orange
Lodge. Mr. FurztiEitar.o made a long speech,
told a great many stories about old shindies
supposed to have arisen from Orange proces-
sions, and quoted at remorseless length out of
the Report presented in 1836. But the
" case " out of which he blew so big a bubble
collapsed into a drop of dirty water at a touch
from Mr. WurrEsiDE. The terrible pictures of
I Orangery presented by the Member for Ennis
were, as he proved, mere copies from the

•

caricatures of 1828. Respecting the individual
appointed, Mr. WIIITESIDE proved, first, that
Mr. MoonE was a gentleman of known ability
and character ; secondly, that he had some time
since ceased to belong to the Orange lodge ;
thirdly, that a large number of residents in his
locality, including many Roman Catholic
gentry and several Ronian Catholic priests, had
signed a memorial approving his appointment as
Sessional Crown Prosecutor (income 1401. per
annum !) ; and lastly, that while Mr. Frrz-
GERALD himself remained in office, this identical
Mr. MOORE had officiated in this very post
as deputy for his predecessor when un-
able to fulfil his duties from ill health. Never was
breakdown more complete. Mr. FITZGERALD'S
friends, as soon as the Attorney-General for
Ireland concluded his truly " crushing" reply,
hurried up to take him off the field without
further punishment. Lord PALNIERSTON hoped
that the case would be allowed to end in a non-
suit ; and Lord Join: RUSSELL, who never fails
to have some grand constitutional maxim at hand
for service in every emergency, talked about the
deplorable consequences that would, or could, or
might ensue, if the House, by directly negativing
the pending motion, gave encouragement to
" secret societies." But the outrageous attempt
to stigmatize the Administration—founded upon
a falsehood, and urged in the mere spirit of fac-
tion—could not be suffered to escape unre-
buked. The House insisted on stamping the
resolution with the opprobrium of a formal rejec-
tion. Mr. FITZGERALD has gained much money
by his dexterous advocacy of hopeless suits in the
Four Courts. It is to be hoped that his friends
will succeed in teaching him the necessity of
exercising a little more discretion—of depending
a little more upon the truth of facts and the
validity of arguments—when accepting the next
brief for his party in the House of Commons.