The Press.
London, England, 1858-07-24 00:00:00

THE PRESS, Jtmy 24, 1858.

every claimant whose case is based upon " con- I
ditions precedent," is naturally regarded by
lawyers very much as the salmon catchers (not
fishers) on a Scotch river would regard the in-
junction to remove their stake-nets, and leave
off "burning the water." The opposition was
stoutly urged both on the primary motion for
going into committee, and on the special clause
(51), extending to the owners of non-encumbered
estates the privilege of obtaining Parliamentary
titles, and in both cases unsuccessfully. In the
course of the debate it was mentioned that the
value of this same Parliamentary title was rather
more than four years purchase on all the landed
estates for which such privilege was obtained.
Now, the total revenue from reaPproperty in the
United Kingdom, as assessed under Schedule A. to
the Income Tax, is sixty millions a year. At four
years' purchase, therefore, the enhancement in
the actual selling value of this commodity would
be 240 millions. This would be a clear gift to
the British landowners, obtained simply by the
extension to England of the measure which is
now adopted into the legal system of the sister
isle. The sacrifice is somewhat too heavy to
be much longer endured merely for the sake of
satisfying some legal scruples, or affording a
field for the display of legal ingenuities.

WEDNESDAY.

With an eye to Prorogation-day, their Lord-
ships consented to sit t'-day, and patriotically
devoted half an hour to the arduous duty of
forwarding some unopposed Bills through the
pending stage of progress.
THURSDAY.
Various business.
FRIDAY.

The annual Bill legalizing marriage with a
deceased wife's sister was thrown out on second
reading by a majority of 24, the numbers stand-
ing 22 contents against 46 non-contents.
Their Lordships afterwards finally passed the
Government of India Bill, which goes back to
the Commons with numerous, though not very
highly important, amendments.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.
MONDAY.
The Bill by which the House orders the
Metropolitan Board of Works to purify the
Thames passed second reading. Several mem-
bers renewed their objections to intrust so vast
and important a work to an assembly which had
hitherto done little or nothing but talk. Mr.
STEI'HENSON, in recommending the Board for the
service, relied chiefly on the negative argument
that its members during the two or three years of
their existence in that capacity had cleared their
heads of a good many crotchets, and found out
the absurdity of many impracticable schemes—
the Board, in short, had " sown its wild oats; "
while if they appointed any new body and
brought new minds into it, however superior
might be its abstract constitution, the work
would all have to be done over again. There
was something in this, though not much, unless
one could believe, against all the teachings of
experience, that absurdity was an exhaustible
quantity.
Mr. GLADSTONE regrets that New Caledonia
should be established under a form of govern-
ment " mounted" upon the autocratic principle.
All our first settlements, he observes, were gifted
from the outset with free institutions, and the
despotic or bureaucratic system was introduced
only when we began to form penal colonies. He
forgets the case of the Crown colonies acquired
from foreigners, or the garrison colonies held as
military posts in various parts of the world where
the administrative organization was, or still is, a
pure despotism. But more suo the Member for
the University answered himself before he ended
his speech, maintaining that a country extem-
poraneously peopled by adventurers of "mixed
" and promiscuous character, of irregular habits,
uncertain objects, and various origins" was an
utterly inappropriate field for the cultivation of
free institutions.
When the Appropriation Bill is brought in,
Hon. Members can count the days to Prorogation.
Like all money-bills, the measure must pass
through its successive stages in both Houses with
a clear day between each ; but when the journey
is safely accomplished, there is nothing to delay
the immediate wind up of the session. The first
step in this progress was effected to-night, and
` the Financial Secretary of the Treasury received