The Express.
London, England, 1868-07-22 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMT.

With the exception of a lone 4 mice of
order.,
the only subject which came before the noose of
Lords last evening was 'es. e ever-recurring topic of
foreshores ; but the moaions for papers upon this
subject were all ,eject,d.
' The inquir.ses made in the House of Comosone
were both, few and unimportant. Indeed the only
ens the, result of which need be noticed was ad-
strmed by Mr. Vance to Mr. Mill. In reply to
thitinterrogiltory the hon. member for Westmin-
ster denied that he had ever objected to make an
inquiry concerning the convicts Warren and
Costello because he " thought that asking
the question publicly could do the prisoners
no good, and would only enable the go-
vernment to claim and obtain credit for
clemency." Mr. Gladstone having shown that
the Duke of Argyll had not wittingly offended
against the privileges of the House of Commons,
in the positron which he had assumed with refer-
ence to the election of a representative for one of
the Scotch raivensity constituencies, the house
passed the Appropriation, and Army Chaplains
Bills, and reached the Electric Telegraphs Bill.
There was no opposition to going into committee
on this niesintrtv, but a, good deal 'of discussion
took place before the Speaker left the chair. The
Chancellor of the Exchequer himself gave a very
complete exposition of the position of the
bill and the changea which had been
introduced into its provisions iii committee.
Having premised that, owing to the want of
tines, no money, bill could be introduced
this -session to give effect to the terms settled in
this measure, the right hon. gentleman stated that
it was anticipated that the amount required to
purchase the telegraph lines would not exceed six
millions ; while Mr. Scudamore'a mean estimate
of the net revenue amounted to 280,0001. per
annum, which at 3 or 3/ per cent. would pay
interest upon eight millions. The accuracy of
these estimates formed the principal topic of the
discussion which followed. It was seriously
attacked by Mr. Gosehen and Mr. Leeman, and
Mr. Gladstone himself expressed doubts whether
too high a price had not been offered to the
telegraph companies. At the same time, thoee
right hon. and hon. gentlemen laid great stress
upon the circumstance that, as no money bill ,
was to be passed this year, the matter could not
be regarded as concluded ; and that the new
parliament must not be held to be bound to the
price which had been agreed upon between the
government and the companies, but must be re-
garded to be both legally and honourably free to
act as it thought right in the matter. Apart from
the doubts expressed upon the soundness of the
estimates, little or no hostility was manifested to
the bill ; and Mr. Coechen expressly stated that
many objections which were originally entertained
to the measure had been either greatly modified, or
entirely removed by the evidence which had
been given before the select committee.
Some doubts were. however, expressed by Mr.
Alderman Lusk whether the government could
profitably carry on the bailees of telegraphing
without they had a legal nsonpoly; and Mr. R. N.
Philips warned them against unduly reducing
rates for the benefit of " merchants, lawyers, and
betting men " at the expense of the general
boy of the taxpayers of the country.
).d:l'r the bill got into committee, Mr.
Childers proposed so to amend the fourth
clause as to provide that the price to be paid to
the telegraph companies, instead of being in any
should be left to be
way uy ...us measure,
fixed by arbitration. - The Chancellor of the r.x-
chequer opposed the amendment, and it was not
persevered with. There was some dis-
cussion upon one or two other amend-
ments providing for a reduction of tne
charge for telegrams in the met;.opolig and other
large towns ; but all 'silesiB proposals were unimo-
Mani, and eventually the bill passed through
committee. Before any progress was made with
the Poor Relief Bill (in committee) there was a
preliminary struggle as to whether or not the
measure should be allowed to go on. A
strong objection appeared to be entertained by
sonic of the metropolitan and at least one Scotch
member, aided by Mr. Newdegate, to the clauses
of the bill which referred to the religious instruc-
tion of paupers ; and, in order to get rid of them,
Mr. 11. Lewis moved to report progress. Mr.
'Villiers warmly supported the bill, and the
motion fur reporting progress was eventually
withdrawn. The conflict was renewed upon the
sixth clause of the bill, which involved the ques-
tion of the e-lablisliment of a "creed register,"
and a good many speeches were made upon each
side of the question. Mr. T. Chambers and Mr.
Newdegate led the " protestant" opposition,
which was entirely disavowed by Mr. E.
ItlllCs, who asserted that he was as
good a protestant as either of them.
Lord E. Howard pleaded as earnestly and
effectively, as usual, the cause of the Roman
Catholics; and Mr. Villiers adduced cogent argu-
ments to prove that this, and other clauses de-
pending upon it, were necessary to carry out the
already-expressed intentions of the legislature—
that the inmates of workhouses, like other
subjects of the Queen, should enjoy per-
fect religious liberty. Upon a division
the clause was carried by a majority of
31-58 to 27. After an ineffectual attempt on the
part of Mr. Newdegate to induce the committee to
report progress, another clause or two relating to
the same subject were agreed to, and the house
resumed. The remaining orders were disposed of
without much discussion, and the house adjourned.