The Express.
London, England, 1858-03-04 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY

more than one-fifth. The urging
suit upon the Indian Oqiernment is
act, whether the some of action- co
England, the inside of tie Rouse of Olin-
mons, or the office of the Board of Control in Can-
non-row. It will never do to say that it would
be improper for Mr. Burr to accept money
for urging • case before the House of Com-
mons of which he is a member, but that it would be
all right and proper for him to urge the case before
the House of Cominons, and, at the same time, before
some other tribunal, provided he only received re-
=mention for the services rendered before the latter.
It is obvious that by such a decision the door to
abuse would be flung wide open. Nothing more
would be required to enable a member of Parliament
to pocket with perfect safety a remuneration as Par-
liamentary agent, in a case upon which he was called
to decide &sludge, by performing additional services
to his client out of doors, and charging a dispropor-
tionately large fee for them. We will not,
In the present state of our knowledge, affirm
that the Committee of the House of Com-
mons appointed to inquire into Mr. Burr's
IMO has come to such a monstrous decision ; but if it
las—and the intimation attributed to Sir JAMES
011ANAM that the result of the Resolutions was "an
" acquittal of Mr. Isaac Burr from the charge of
" improperly employing his privileges as a Member
" of the House of Commons" seems only susceptible of
such en interpretation—it will behove electors to be

on their guard against choosing any man for their
representative who can or will place himself in
such a suspicions position.
The part which Mr. BUTT has pl►yed in this
transaction cannot be correctly appreciated unless
his negotiations with the ex-President of the Board
of Control are taken into account. Mr.
VeasoN Stamm admits that he had re-
peated communications with Mr. BUTT—verbal and
epistolary—on the subject of the claims of Au
MOORAD. Of the conversations no record was kept,
and the letters are said to have been private and
confidential. It is impossible, therefore, to learn
with certainty what was the nature of the commu-
nications. But this is certain, that subsequently to
these interviews and letters, Mr. Vitaxox SMITH
altered a draft letter of the Court of Directors
refusing to entertain the Ameer's application, into
a letter encouraging him to return to &incle by bold-
ing out the hope that if he made himself useful there
to the English Government something might be
done far- him. The only reason assigned for this
partial reversal of a judicial sentence, on the
strength of private, unreoorit.: communications, is
that the sentence appeared harsh; but Mr. VERNON
Sierra gave the Committee to understand that he
was very reluctant to have the Ameer's case
debated in Parliament while the Bengal insurrection
was in progress, Mr. Burr having given it to under-
stand that he had informed the ex-President of the
Board of Control of his having urged the Ameer and
his friends to bring the ease before Parliament. We
are not entitled to say that Mr. Bore obtained the
concession in favour of Au MOORAD by hinting to the
ex-President of the Board of Control that he had it
in his power, ma Memberof Parliament, to force on
a debate on the Ameer's case; but in the circum-
stances suspicious will intrude themselves which it is
not easy to dispeL
We pronounce no opinion as to the conduct of Mr.
BUTT and the ex-President of the Board of Control.
We are willing to assume that the conduct of both
hes been throughout strictly correct. But this
will not be denied :—That if a Member of the House
of Commons is allowed to set as agent and adviser of
any person preferring a suit to the House ; if he is
allowed to receive remuneration from the suitor for
urging the suit elsewhere, at the same time that he
professes to urge it gratuitously in the House; and
if the Member thus engaged is allowed to obtain,
without challenge, from • responsible Minister of
the Crown, who acknowledges that he dreads a
debate on the suitor's claims in the House of
Commons, large concessions for his client, an enor-
mons amount of corruption may be safely practised
both by members of the House of Commons and by
the Executive Government. Such a state of
affairs is moot unsatisfactory even as matters
now stand. But supposing that the entire Home
Administration of India were vested in a single
Minister of the Crown responsible only to the House
of Commons, with what temptations would the in-
tegrity of our representatives in the Legislature be
then beset? As it is, we have had at one time a
Nawab of Surat, Rajahs of Settee and Coorg, an
Ameer of Scinde, and a Ring of Oude, knccking at
the doors of the House of Commons. Were that House
converted into &Court of Appeal from the Government
of India, it would be overwhelmed with • deluge of
Indian business enough to engross the whole time
of the members. And the Indian suitors, who
entertain a hereditary faith in the omnipo-
tence of bribes in judicial proceedings would
besiege these members with proffers, which, if
we construe the intimation of Sir JAMES GRAIIAM
aright, it would be perfectly safe for them to accept.
It was once alleged that a Nabob of Arcot had
eight members of the House of Commons in hie pay ;
if an Indian Bill in any degree resembling that of
Lord Piutaarrox's is allowed to become law, every
Indian Prince—and their name is legion—and every
wealthy Baboo will have his paid member or mem-
bers in the House of Commons. This is the danger
against which the people of England have to guard,
now that it is proposed to vest the government of
India exclusively in the Ministers of the Crown.

We understand that a London committee has been
formed for the purpose of organising a constitutional oppo-
milks throughout the country to any attempt which may be
mode to alter the lairs silicas( conspiracy. The drone ut
the ersatittas will also be directed against any step on the
part el tie government tending to encroach upon our canon.
baked libation or to invalidate the security of the asylum
afforded by this country to political exiles of all chases and
opinion,. The vigilance of this committee has been semibold
by the very unsatiefactory statement wade by Lord Derby in
the House of Lords on Monday last.

The Foreign Secretary has, we (herald) under-
stand, tarn measures to despatch at once • person of ap-
proved discretion to watch the trial at Naples aad to rapport
the latereeta of the two engineer.

"Another rule to which," said Sir John Peking-
toe at Droitwich yesterday, I hope 1 may hays the hossety
es well as ths firmness to adhere Is, that in the navy
there should be no party preferences. If o doubt, under
our parliamentary system of government, parties we must
ocialinse to have. Bat, In my opinion, petty feeling is
mischievous and out of oleos when it insinuates itself Into
the hiterual adrolnietration of our great public, departseete.
And when brave men ere candidates for the honour of
shedding their Wood and serving their Qum in a pliant
profession it would be a gross perversion sad a heavy dare-
, fiction of duty on the part of a minister If he looked to any-
thing but merit and past warriors in the distribution of pro-
' motions sad appoiatmenta." (Loud cheers.)
Considerable activity prevails is the ship-building
depletions atChatbare Dockyard in hastening forward the
amid on of those K;ew steamers which hare been ordered
th.Aamtraty to be br,mght froward for launching. The
jakming mraw steamer. wai :Na kneeled from the dockyard
mutat the
approaching summer—ris , Hero, 91; Hood, 90;
)(may, 40; and Charybdis, 21 ; giving an aggregate of
shoat 12.002 toes burden.

Mr.i,antlity was at Turin A few day. ago, and
proceeds to mien, intent OA catering the *sans of his
London parer daring the coming spring c.7OPOP la II"
lisprestkrt.

itte, r 1" Couq.
; •
ogooßn,
m( mAilt
Tht Quell and Priem Congo andiro al f
Oka ilk ON pounds arday waft. .

His Highness the Maharajah Dhuleap Singh, se-
computed by a numerous suite, has loft Claridge's Hotel for
Pert. His highness proceeds in the first instance to the
island of Sardinia, and will afterwards tr►vel through Italy
for several months.

Their Highnesses the Siamese Ambassadors sad
suite will leave Chtridge's Hotel this morning for Paris, se
route to Siam, vat Ilaresilles. Their *hawses will be
seceeted by a guard of honour to the station, wheace they
win proceed by special train to Dover.

The Earl ..a Countess of Derby will have dinner
and evening pities on Wednesday the 10th and Wednesday
the 17th lad.

The Earl and Countess of Clanwilliam have re-
ceived letters from Canton River, conveying the intelligence
that Loed Hillard is recovering from the effects of his severe
wound in the left arm, which was shattered by a pupil ball
in the operations before Canton. His lordship writes in very
good spirits.

The
1 Earl and Countess of Jersey and Lady Cle-
mantilla Villiers have arrived in town from Middleton Park,
near Blaster.

The Hon. William Stafford Jerningham, her Ma-
jesty's Churl IPAffairos at Lima, has I Itaurigy's Hotel
for Peru.

The Earl of Derby has appointed Mr. Maurice
Drummond to be one of hie private secretaries, and Mr.
William Freaks has been appointed to be privets secretary
to the Lord President of the Colima

Major-General Peel, Secretary of State for War,
has appointed Mr. William Peel and Mr. J. H. Ord., of
the War-ofike, to be his private eseretariss. Lord Her-
dbige, Under-Secretary of State for War, has appointed
Mr. H. J. R. Chao* of the War-odic., to be his private

The Bishop of London has lioensed the Rev. J.
Paul, 8.C.L., to the Incumbency of 111. P.W.e Chapel,
Phalle*.

DRAM OP 811 ROBERT CAMPBELL.—We have
to record the death of Sir Robed Campbell, Bark, one of the
directors of the Beat India Company, and a commissioner for
the lieutenancy of London. The de ceased baronet was born
la Mt, mid manied in 1798 a daughter of the well-known
Dr. Feeley. He le eneoteded in his title and estates by Sir
John ?Scholl Robert Campbell, ILC.H., a wider in the But
India Company's service.

We regret to learn that Dowager Lady Xinnaird
died on Sunday bat at Bath. Her Ladyship was seventh
daughter of Wallas second Duke of Lasater, by his mar-
rise with the Bon. Emilia Olivia Usher, heir of the bat
Lord St. Gecep. Her ladyship was born 9th Sept., 1787,
sad married Bth May, 1808, the late Lord Lnnaird, father
of the puma per. By the demise of hue ladyship the
families of Lord and lady Kinnard, the Duke and Duchess
of Lamar, Mr. and lady Jane Repton, Lord and Lady
Foley, Viscount and Lady Isabella de Chabot, the Marquis
and liarchionesa of Kildare, and other families of rank, are
placed in ref urning.

We are glad to learn the Hon. Lady Inglis and
her children, by letters reoeived by the Let mail from Cal-
culate, are is better health than might have been expected,
tionsidering the severe mental anxiety end printion they
endured during their detention at Lockman. Her ladyship
end farody are expected to reach this onantry in the course of
the present month.

The following from the Colombo Observer, of
January 23, gives an amount of an extraordinary saddest
to Major Millman, Royal Artillery, sad stds•de.oamp to the
Governor of Ceylon --" Although It is still deemed unsafe
to move Major Mika= from Hatregazo, we rejoice to hear
that ho Is in no danger. It seams that en elephant ceargod
him, and was within a few fiat of him, wham Mr. Tyndall,
determined to save his friend's Ilia, fired. The bullet writ
through Major Milman's left shoulder, splintering a mall
portion of the bone. But the end arse answered ; the ballet
which had thus disabled Major Milman kti led the elephant,
which fell within a law feet of him. do narrow se wept
and under such cameraman, ia,we behree,anprecedented."