The Express.
London, England, 1862-04-01 00:00:00

DISTRESS IN IRELAND.

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Mr. MAGUIRE woo sake that as the motion for going
foes eommittes of supple on Friday, the 11th of April, be
wield roll *Nestles to the fact that several deaths from
starvation bed recently occurred in Ireland, and would sob
her Majesty's government whether they had received ofilnisl
notice of the fact, and whether they had taken any steps in
eousequestre, cad whether they were prepared to lay on the
table of the honer any correepo.oiewas that bad tam place
en the subjeet.

PERSECUTION I SPAIN.
Mr. BLAKE seed the TIM Led ef the Tommy
whether Imp mai en the bide d Mei hem the papers
uniting to the betimes bee Ilry's govern-
ment mil the gereemmeeit ef the gums respect,
iog the 'Emig peementies of protestant&
Lord rAutusros—Sar, I am afraid I anonet give the
papers which the honourablegemliameo asks for,
sad for the best of all remeem Mist I do not
think say such papers neap oda. (i=
There has bees no official communism* or sego
between the Foolish aadlipanithgewerommb la Ai=
Tb• British minister has from Wm le tin bid
I eoeversatiows with the Spanish siblAwis wßk milsomme to
the matter but lam sum my hon. Mad sad the home
will understand that reports of them meelkiel maven&
Lions are not matters proper to be hid Mime the
(flist, heard Ima only repeat whet I used bane. her
Majesty's mishear at Madrid has bees isibuslill to tabs
sdvasts4e of every fasonrabis oppertmity—witheat
offence to the Spanish government—to ewers the in
which the British natio° feels is rimord to theme %aorta-
nate people who have bees coodeumed to amen
ou socount of thew religious opinions. Matz, ='.ltAasst

TRAINING OF THE mum&
On the motion for going into comet Stec el supply,
Sir J. FERGUSION, persaant to aides, moved "That
in the opinion of the bones it was not desirable that the
annual trends; of the militia should be of less duration than
the minimum periodrsoommeeded by the royal eommission."
Lord BURGHLEY seconded the motion of the hon.
baronet.
Sir (I. C. Loris said the hors. and gallant member for
Ayrshire, at the commencement of his speech, proved two
abstract prepositions which be might humiliated Lim elf
entitled is -sereme without so much expatame of arra-
menL la the lira plus, the boo. and plaid gentleman
preyed that the militia wu an ancient constitutional fares
--(cher:eel—it was to be °outdated man army of meson, and
that it was highly valuable to the army in proteetiag the
country from the denser of invasion. The her, and
plant gentleman proceeded to establish these propositions
—that four weeks of drill would render the regiments more
ancient than three weeks, and that it was not expedlmt
that the militia force should be hiediciently exercised. He
(Sir O. C. Lewis) would be quite prepared to emeedesomoch
to the hoe. and pliant member without and formal proof.
But as the bon. and pliant gentleman proceeded to deal
more closely with the subject, he would find that it was a
question Widentially of expenditure, and that the house
must choose between submitting to the privatioa of a certain
amount of alsiency and incurring a considerable Mega= of
The government hied to choose the beet and
arena
iem they could under existing oiremenstanom
sad be themett, when be had stated the facts
the haw wernH agree that it would be better to acquiesce
M the pals of the government, and submitted to the
conissitiel hat year. In the year 1880-61 the 'rumba of
regiments Isedeed was 12i. and the estimated cost taken by
the peernment ins 520,129/. In the year 1861-61 the
tear wuaber et minuets wu the same, 123, and the esti-
mated ant wee 637,0001. The reason of the increase in the
estimate was that in the drst of those two years the num-
her of days' training was 27 ; but in the second of those
two years there were three dames : dist, them were 27
days training for the regiments ; then them were 21 days'
preliminary drill far the recruits ; and thirdly, there
were 24 days training for the whole of the men.
la the present year they had 180 regiments instead of 123
to estimate for, and the arrangements which the govern-
ment had thought it desirable to make were, that there
should be 11 dam' training instead of 27, and to allow 14
for preliminary drill. The estimated e for that num-
ber of days' training and preliminary drill was 697,0001., en
compared with 1517,0001.. there being an increase of 60,0001.
Now, if the number of days Maisie; was 28 instead of 21,
with 7 days preliminary drill arid the same number of re-
lemma, the estimated et would be 749000/. The guar
lies for the house to consider was whether the
proposal of the governmeut wee adequate to
the exigencies of the country, and it appeared
to ibe goverament that it was sufficient, looking to the
present elate of foreign affairs, to the large body of volati-
le.% sad tie the regular army. The hon. and pliant
genlisma rid it would be desirable to reduce the strength
eg tin tegininita, and to increase the number of days' trun-
ligg. New he (Sir G. C. Lewis) thought that if the govern-
mad bni reposed to reduce the strength of the militia in
Mist Me Muse the number of days training, the house
mid Yee been 111 opinion that it would not be either
idiot elf 11.1111111111 ML (Hear, bear.) It would be always
merle bemuse the number of days' training, but it would
net been erg to get meat to join the regiments. He hoped
lie beam would saution the plan of the government.
The house was cleared, but ultimately the =llea sun
negatived without a division.
IRON SHIPS AND STONE FOWL
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Air F. SMITH role, pummel to notice, to call the athle-
tins of the Secretary of State for War and of the Doble lord
the to the Admiralty to the accounts which had
come over o the recent naval action iu the American waters,
and in which the superiority of iron-clad ships over
...dee noes, se well as over stone forts on
shore, was so clearly demonstrated. (Heir, hear.) On a
former occasion he bad endeavoured to show the uselessness
of forts for the defence of Portsmouth harbour, although
be had concurred in the expediency of erecting on. at
fspithead ; but the erperience afforded by the meant
action in Hampton Roe& convinced him now that one
would be se mime as the other, and it was there-
fore that he rose to ask her Majesty's government
whether they wield not consider it well 'before they laid
out any mere moreey la the enentruction of coast and harbour
fortiticatioes. He would have brought forward the subject
ma Friday ever* het bat for the abloom of the sable
lord at the head et des gerereesst. when he wee war gist
to em it Ids }—be was glad, however, est
they were new is a situation to discuss it, without having
its pemelogit=ce increased by anything which had i
b6rreikntp odd that before thenoble lord answered the ,
=B:wilMd to make one or two observations. He
that the time bad now come for the application of
bee ship to all naval purposes. Hitherto it had
bees thamOt that iron was only applicable to
Lop ships, but here was • small vessel like the
Martha which bad proved herself perfectly @steins Na way.
Is desk the Monitor bed eared the credit of her country's ,
ma , ler bad it sot hem for her the Merrimac would bare
all the wooden ships. In all the experiments
whisk had bees made with iron-Lased ship, he had urged
that the yeestion was not so much what thickness would
swim them impenetrable to shot, but what would
ler the wadi of their coo= with ships of
woe& The ISITIMIS bed that
Omer eldrasthee had hese wind against going fie=lbleti
this geweles is thee beees. Ned When they braced bask sod
saw the Miceli. See bed slump been raised swim* the
eiloptioe of aey ewe yeladeds, they could not speeder that
there were °Nestle= made to • step further than
' they had hitherto desk s_ad
this wrantry of use. Mew OA the esti* Dewy el
el the solo
, jest, he wee seaviessi that lea they did thert they
Ilse he able be mien the seyenditare of car deekreedel
I saddle se Ws awry they weld be able le de may
their. stock of tither Ali was often reales fa the
• yeede--they soda see* hew to order the hem se they
emseted it, and es lielM by *mime or sat,
es they sham veldt be able in this way,
,le eases the which had hitherto