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

THE PRESS, FEBRUARY 27, 1858.

done within the realm of England he was equally amenable
as a native-born British subject. He had heard with
astonishment that it was made a question whether it was
any offence in England to conspire to murder the consort
of the Emperor of the French at the time she was
about to give birth to an heir to the throne. He was
shocked that there could be the smallest doubt upon the
subject. To conspire anything which was maluin in se in
England WAS an offence to the law for which the conspira-
tor would be liable to be prosecuted, and if it were to mur-
der one of the lowest subjects in a foreign country, such an
offence would most undoubtedly be committed. With
regard to the consort of a sovereign there was the instance
of Lord George Gordon, who was found guilty of libelling
Marie Antoinette. The bill which had been brought in
elsewhere did not create any new offence—it only altered
the punishment; and if it had been introduced as an
amendment of the English code he should most willingly
have supported it, because he thought !here ought to be
uniformity of punishment in every part of the United
Kingdom. He would advise any future Government to

go on with this bill, and if it came up to that house he felt
certain their lordships would support it.

Lords Lyndhurst, Brougham, Wensleydale, and
St. Leonards entirely concurred in the views of the
Chief Justice.

The house then adjourned until Friday.

HOUSE OF COMMONS—MormAy.

The Speaker took the chair shortly before four
o'clock, by which time there was an unusually large
attendance of members. The front bench on the
Ministerial side of the house was for a brief space
unoccupied, save by Mr. Fitzroy, Mr. Wilson, and Sir
B. Hall, but the back rows presented a solid phalanx
of members, and the earnest conversations in which
they engaged indicated the interest with which they
awaited the anticipated statement from Lord
Palmerston.

Mr. Disraeli entered the house alone at five
minutes to four, and there might then be noticed in
their customary places below the gangway on the
Ministerial side, Sir J. Graham, Mr. Bright, Mr.
Gibson, and Mr. S. Herbert. Mr. Disraeli was fol-
lowed at brief intervals by Mr. Walpole, Mr. Henley,
Sir W. Jolliffe, Mr. Napier, Mr. Baillie, Mr. White-
side, Sir J. Pakington, and Lord J. Manners, who
took their places on the front Opposition benches.
Lord Palmerston arrived at a quarter past four,
succeeded in a few minutes by Mr. Labouchere and
others. Lord J. Russell and Mr. Gladstone did not
enter quite so early.

NEW MEMBER.

Colonel CARTWRIGHT took the oaths and his seat
for South Northamptonshire.

Mr. ROEBUCK, agreeably to notice, presented a peti-
tion complaining of a breach of privilege by a mem-
ber of the house (Mr. Isaac Butt), in having entered
(as alleged) into a corrupt agreement with Ali
Moorad Khan, under which a sum of money had
been paid by the Khan to Mr. Butt; and he moved
that the petition be printed.
Mr. Burr protested against the course taken by
Mr. Roebuck. He denounced the charge as false,
and was prepared, he said, to prove that it was the
result of conspiracy. He demanded of the justice of
the house an immediate investigation of this odious
charge by a public inquiry at the bar, or if the house
objected to this course, that a select committee be
forthwith appointed for that object, to sit this day.
He then withdrew.
Mr. ROEBUCK having withdrawn his motion for
printing the petition, after a long and rather embar-
rassing discussion respecting the proper course of
proceeding, it was agreed that a select committee of
seven members, named, should be appointed forth-
with, and the members were nominated.
The petition was ordered to be referred to the com-
mittee.