The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-29 00:00:00

to:inquire into the constitution of the Board of Admiralty,
with the view of rendering it more efficient, and better
adapted to the various duties which it has to perform.
He suggested that the present Board of Admiralty should
be abolished. That the First Lord should have under him
the Rear• Admiral of Great Britain, who should have the
management of the dockyards, and the Vice-Admiral, who
should have the control of the victualling and medical
departments. This would render the navy more efficient,
and in proof of the necessity for a step in that direction,
he declared that if France and Russia combined against
us, the Queen's throne would not be worth sixpence
purchase.
Mr. Bentinek seconded the motion, and condemned the
practice of placing civilians in authority in the admiralty.
Mr. B. Osborne resisted the motion, and with regard to
the plan proposed by Sir Charles Napier; observed that it
was merely retaining the:present organisation under other
names. He vindicated the custom of having lay Lords of
the Admiralty, contending that seamen had not generally
the training necessary to qualify them for the office.
After a long miscellaneous discussion, which was
participated in by Sir G. B. Pechell, Admiral Walcott,
Lord Clarence Paget, Mr. Lindsay, Sir Charles Wood,
and others,

The house divided, when the numbers were—

For the motion
Against

35
153

Majority against
THE LAND TAX.

Mr. MacKinnon moved for a select committee to con-
sider the expediency of a more equitable adjustment of
the land tax, also of allowing a further redemption of the
same, and whether, by any other means, the land tax
might be made more beneficial to the revenue of the
country and to the reduction of the national debt.

Sir John Trollope opposed the motion, on the ground
that the obstacles to an alteration had before proved in-
surmountable.

The Cbancellor of the Exchequer had stated his reasons
in the previous session for opposing the motion, and as it
would, in fact, involve the re-imposition of the war nine-
pence on the income tax, ho hoped it would not be
pressed. '
The motion was withdrawn for the session.
TENANT RIGHT IN ULSTER.

Mr. Moore obtained leave to bring in a'bill to provide
for the better security and regulation of tenant right as
practised in the province of Ulster, and to give compen-
sation to tenants for improvements, &c., and to limit the
power of eviction in certain cases.•

MEDICAL. SCIENCE.

Mr. Fagan brought in a bill for securing the more effec-
tual promotion of medical and surgical sciences in the
Queen's University, Ireland.

AGGRAVATED ASMILTS UPON WOMEN AND CUILEREN.

Lord Raynham moved for a select committee to inquire
into the operation of the Act 16 and 17 Vic., chap. 21, for
the punishment of persons convicted of aggravated assaults
on women and children.

The motion was opposed by Sir George Grey, and nega-
ved on a division, by
For the motion
Against

. 125

.

EXEMPTION OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES FROM PAROCIIIAL RATES,

Mr. Hull brought in a bill to amend the Act 6 and 7
Vie., chap. 36, to exempt from county, borough, parochial,
and other local rates, land and buildings occupied by
scientific and literary societies.

DUTY ON HOPS.
On the motion of Mr. Dodson, a select committee was
appointed to inquire into the operation of the excise and
customs' duties upon hops.

BILLS READ.

The Joint-Stock Companies' Bill was .read a second
time. The Princess Royal's Annuity Bill was read a
second time. The Portland Harbour Bill was read a
third time, and passed.
The house adjourned at half-past twelve.

THE
MERSEY CONSERVANCY
AND DOCKS BILL.

FROM OUR OWN REPORTER.)

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—THURSDAY.
All the members of the committee were present. Sir
James Graham in the chair.
Mr. Elope Scott, before the examination of Mr. Heron
was resumed, begged to say that on the part of the Corpo-
ration of Liverpool he was now in a position to give an
answer to the question put by the Chairman at the close of
the sitting oo the previous evening. The order had been
made by the House of Commons in the last parliament,
and, most undoubtedly, if the returns were now to be
moved for, for the first time, it wou'd, in his judgment, be
a matter for serious consideration—and just consideration
--whether all the items should be insisted on ; he alluded
particularly to those matters which bore distinctly upon
the title of the Corporation of Liverpool to Town Dues,
the—diselnsures in respect of which would be dis-
closures for the benefit of parties who had, for .
the last twelve months or more, litigated the question.
But the order having been made by the last Parliament,
the officers of the Corporation had addressed themselves to
the duty— a work by no means light or trivial as would be
understood when he stated that there were no less than
6,260 folios of extracts from registers beginning in the
reign of Edward VI. The expense entailed by this work
would be not less than £2,000. He had now a digest of
these extracts. Whether they were reducible into still
smaller compass he did not know, but the abstracts them-
selves would be put in. No time had been lost so far as
the Corporation of Liverpool were concerned, and the
returns were now in that condition that, with another
week's work, they would be fit to lay before the
house ; but possibly the time necessary for printing them
would so far render them useless for the purposes of the
present committee. Under these circumstances they were
not in a condition at this moment to produce the returns,
but he was willing that the chairman shonld again
give formal existence to the order by moving the house for
its renewal. And if the examination of witnesses on the
part of the corporation should commence before the
returns were printed, he would produce the town clerk of
Liverpool, from whom ill the circumstances could be
elicited. He trusted that this explanation would be
deemed satisfactory by the committee. The corporation
had no desire to withhold any information ; but he felt
assured the committee would not insist on the production
of doeuments necessarily imperfect at present.
Sir James Graham : I may say for the committee that
the explanation is most satisfactory The order of the
house has not been disobeyed, and progres', it appears,
has been made in the returns, which, I presume, will be
presented within a short period.
Mr. Hope Scott : I think they may be effected within
a week.