The Express.
London, England, 1849-02-02 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS.-THURBDAY, FEB. 1.
OPENING OF THE SESSION.

I Her Majesty yesterday opened parliament in person, and
having read the speech, pubbihed by us yesterday, her Ma-
' jesty and suits retired, and their lordships adjourned until
lire o'clock. - . . .

iltei;;;;* resumed at flu o'clock.
SELECT VESTRIES BILL.

The Marquis of LANSDOWNE brought in the Select
Vestries Bill, which wee read a first time.

THE QUEEN'S SPEECH.
The LORD CHANCELLOR teed the speech from the
throne, and it having also been read by the clerk at the
table,
Earl BRUCE moved the address in reply to her Majesty's
spuds, which was seconded by Lord BATIIILLN ; after which
Lord BROUGHAM rose and said— It gave him most
unfeigned eatisfactlon to agree with his noble friends
the authors of the Speech, awl with the noble lords who had
moved and seconded the Address—altheugh he was afraid
they had painted it tooetrougly—in the belief of commercial
end manufacturing Improvement. As to financial improve-
ment, his noble Mend took credit for an increase of
800,0001., omitting on the other side the reduction. The
measure for the abolition of the corn laws wouldsut an end
ID the fairy illusion, by cutting off that very day about the
sum which the noble lord boasted of as • surplus over the
last year. He regretted it, as far ea the revenue was oon-
Mind, but hailed it Aube reeultof free trade. But flour own-
/tercel prosperity increased, there might be a corresponding
increase in, tate revenue from other lees questionable sources.
There were one or two points= which he could not help feeling
strongly ; he alluded to the referents made in ter Majesty's
speech to the large reduction in the 'estimates. He could not
but feel that an agitation had been commenced he this coon-
try ander most unhappy auspices, end with very question-
able maim. Two means foe the attainment of their
objects hat been alluded to by the agitators. The Speech
from the throne alluded'to both The one was a reduction
of the army and navy, the other wee to reduce the =wadi•
tare te the same state as it wee in 1836, without reference to the
altered rendition of the country, and perhaps with profound
Ignorance as to the details. It seemed that the aristocracy
of the country in both houses of pastiest had long re-
solved to relieve the land of all by throwing them
on the moneyed interests, end there was no duty on =om-
elet to land, whilst there was upon persesel property that
wee the popular idea. (Hear.) The result of com-
parison elm= that the landed interest paid as much again
me the 'moneyed interest. Lend-tax before the revolution
was pima on personalty, and every year their lordships had
to passe bill to pit puma property from poor's rate.
The mowerfestarer mid hat he paid poor's rate, but it was
sor es the hod he ossagiol, end not on his manufactures,
whist the Issedoweer bad to pay the rata on the whole of his
property. There woo es mash Ilium mad deception in
such aroma that ko email let bat dealt the motives and
good hi& of these who seed them; for bow meld they shut
their ere to lbws facts ? Them they were tell there was to
he • mieseilen to • large attest of the hues of the country.
He knew hist elle friend (the Marquis of Lartedown") had
always wished to reduce the expenditure as much en possible,
and they had so right to take from the pockets of the pesple
mere than was absolutely necessary; but when they looked
to the status( the world how was anygrut reduction possible?
Led yes war was threatened everywhere, from Schleswig-
Ideletela it the teeth to the foot of Italy in the south, and
no put of Europe was in that Formal peace to which re
lentos had been made is the Speech. There was every-
where • of hostilities, it was trite, because Charles
Albert had been routed from one end of Italy to the other
and the Huagarians had been beaten by Jellachich
u Charlie Albert's generals by Radetski ; but hos-
tilities were only suspended Minas the defeated
could no trerinesflghL (Laughter.) With refer-
enoe to the in of the Engli-h and French admirals
in the affairs of Sicily, he thought it was mat daogerous to

lords think of a fact which recently weaned in Ireland.?
Several men were deprived of their liberty and put upon their
trials for an Minos created by set of parliament ; but in
one case the offence was left altogether undeseribed. The
man was pat upon his trial and was never told what the
offence for which he was about to be tried was. The cons,-
queue* was, the indictment was demurred to. The de-
murrer was allowed, and the crown lawyers in Ire-
land, in the discharge of their duty, thought it
necessary after praying fir judgment upon the demurrer,
to ask the court to sand the prisoner to execution. Why ?
Merely because his special pleader had commi•ted an error
in demurring. Technically speaking, when • demurrer wen
filed, it was assumed that all the facts pleaded were tree.
The question of law was raised upon the demurrer, upon
which, if allowed, judgment proceeded against the opposite
party, even though there was no proof whatever of the fade,
which, if invesagated, would lead to quite the contrary re-
sult. No one ever heard of each an attempt as had been
rude In that case in Ireland by the law officers. In civil
taus even the practice was to give leave to amend and plead
over, where justice required that the decision should not be
upon a mere technical point, but in a criminal cue such as
that to which ha referred, no one ever heard that judgment
should proceed upon a mete point, and that the defendant
was to be hanged because his special pleader had fallen into
an error. The court, however, did not acquiesce in the de-
mand of the Irish law officers, and it would he much better
and more creditable for the government if their lawyers had
not taken such a step. In requiring the court to accede to
Inch a proposition they showed much too little learning, but
with respect to putting • man upon his trial without ens-
Wing him to know what wax the charge against him they
showed too much learning. The noble and learned lord, who
was scarcely audible in the gallery from the circumstance of
his having addressed the greater part of his speech to the
house with his beck to the reporters, concluded by congratu-
lating the country elms its prospects of continued peace and
IT:descent.
BEAUMONT agreed with much of the speech of
the noble and learned lord, but he regretted to be obliged
to differ with bins upon many points of it. Approving, as he
. did, of a conciliatory policy towards France, he could not
adopt the doctrine that it was the duty of this country to
attach itself to the absolute policy of Austria, because she
was opposed in her Interests to France. Had the noble lord
(Brougham) forgotten the history of Sicily, and that
Eng-
land was bound, under the obligation of a treaty solemnly
entered into, not to adopt the modern policy pursued towards
that country—was it forgotten that for centuries Sicily had
been a separate kingdom—enjoying a separate coastitutfon,
a separate legislature, and, what was more, that she was
separated from Naples in the person of the monarch ? By
the treaty of Utrecht, Naples and Sicily were totally
separated, and subsequently England treated &oily as a per-
featly distinct and separate kingdom. In 1812, when an at-
tempt wee made to overthrew the constitution of Sicily, condi
it be forgotten that England undertook to establish it
and to become the sole protectress of Sicily? Eng-
land then undertook in terms that both the
crowns of Sicily and Naples should be separate.
They were decidedly bound to see that the constitutional
rights of Sicily were not infringed. In a despatch of Sir
William A'Court, in 1814, copies of which were circulated
in the Sicilian dominions, but which was not promulga'cd at
home, England wu pledged to be the guardian and peons,-
tress of Owes rights. Surely, then, Sicily could not be com-
pared with Ireland. What resemblance could be esta-
blished between a country like Sicily, which enjoyed a sepa-
rate existence, and Ireland. which, by its own act and deed,
had united itselfi with Oreat Britain. They must recollect
that Sicily had always protested against the infringements
made on its liberty, and it was only by the use of mere brute
force that the Neapolitans had destroy eel the constitution,
and established in its place the tyranny which was in
existence. Although on some points of the ease he was
I not surprised that his noble and learned friend differed from
him, he owned that ha wee surprised that he should have
blamed the edmirals for what they did. For his part, he
honoured them for the part they had taken, and he thought
it would have been indelibly disgraceful to both the French
and Eagl kb flags if they had not so interfr red. With regard
to the other subject on which the noble and learned lord
bad tinned, namely, the war in the north of Italy, he
would say that, in so far as this country and govern-
ment were concerned, the greeted ability was requi-
site, and must have been employed, to avoid the inter-
ference of France south of the Alpe. It was indeed
a false idea to entertain that France was not
burning with a desire to send her troops across
the Alpe, to take a pert in the determination of the questions
at issue there. If the opinion in France gained ground that
England was inclined to throw the weight of her assistance
on the side of absents government and of Austria, he was•
convinced that no government in France could have pre-
vented the French nation from joining the Milanese in their
revolt. All that he would say at the present moment with
respect to these negotiations was, that the idea of establishing
an Austrian province in Italy might be altogether abandoned,
for by an attempt to force Austrian influence on Northern
Italy they saight retard, but could not prevent, the outbreak
which, sooner or later, would take place.
The Earl o* WINCHELSEA said it was with deep regret
that he could not gin his cement to an unanimous address,
and he deeply regretted that het Majesty's &deism should ban
recommended her to place before the country lay proposal
for the reduction of their military or naval force, which he
believed would be fraught with danger to England's pesos
and prosperity if serried into West (Hear.)
Lord STANLEY—I am unwilling to interfere, by obser-
vation or meanest, with the conveyance to the throne of a
unanimous, expulsion of loyalty on our put ; but, my lords,
es it has been the policy of all gweraments, so I thought it
would be the policy of a government which has been treated
with more than ordinary tonneaus by patties' opponents,
and for whim peat allowances were ma&, on the around
of their difficalties—l say, my lords, I should have thought
that a government so situated would have abstained in
this speech from. every statement likely to provoke cavil,
and, above all. from every representation of the state
of the country which could be amused of exaggeration.
And yet, my lords, when I look at this spun, unratisfre-
tory as it is from first to last, I hardly find in it • PangrsPh
which is not open to hostile comment. (Hear, Mar.)
I hardly Sod a statement which does not, in my judgment,
give an incorreet view of that which it protegees to represent.
I am at an entire less to reconcile the osechrsions which are
drawn in the speech with the premises which the speech lays
down as well se with facts which are known to every one of
whatneon all the neon greatly exaggerates
what her Wy's goverment are pleased to consider, and
what m friend who opened the discussion declared
openly In kis judgment us be, the mount prosperity of this
essowey. (Hear, hear.) My lords, my belief is that,
though there may be sans trifling sunendoioes--- s
hot t, lag in the condition k -
this gesafry, and in the
me* regard to its position
bat session of parliament,
trifling amendment in theme
whatever quarter I lock, to find,
either in the state of our foreign
of our domestic affairs, (Hear,
first time I think since I have
in parliament, it has not been in
government to introduce the nun
her Majesty continues to receive
WITIIICAI of friendly relations.
patina of the speech in which 1
dially unite in the expreseion of gratehil pride

to
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eve from all foreign pew
us. (Hear, hear.) There an
Leh I cordially concur. I we
L of grate"' pride that the tram-