Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-30 00:00:00

IMPE DIAL PARLIAMENT.

(By British and' Irish Magnetic Telegraph)

HOUSE OF COMMONS-WEDNESDAY.

The Speaker took the chair at twelve o'clock.
The members appointed to serve on the Drogheda
Election Cmatuittee were called to the table and sworn.

Mr. Drummond inquired of the Secretary of the
Treasury on what grounds £43,000 of the public money
had been advanced to supp)rt a private speculation of the
Eastern Archepeligo Company ; whether the government
was itself going to work the coal mines of Labuan, and, if
not, whether the government had become the mortgagees,
and at what rate of interest.; whether the government had
agreed to pay to the Sultan his royalties, and to insure
that they should be paid ; whether the government bad
taken any security that the grant should be bona fide
employed in the way for which it had been asked, and
when the money was to be re-paid.
Mr. Wilson had not had time to become acquainted with
the facts of the case, but he did not believe that any sum
of money had been advanced to forward a private sp3cula-
tion. Perhaps the hen. member would repeat his ques-
tions on the following day.

SCOTTISH SMOKE NUISANCES BILL.

The louse thrn went into committee on the Smoke
Nuisances (Scotland)
.Ateement Bill.
On clause I,

Mr. aniverie said he was in favour of the obj -ct of the
bill, but thought that before legislating in a manner aff,,,c'-
ing every class of mintifieure is Scotland, they should
institute an inquiry as to the operation of the prohibition
in regard to England.
Mr. Dunlop thought that this objection should have
been taken on the second reading.
Mr. Kinnaird was ready to adopt any reasonable amend-
ment, but hoped that a bill of such importance would not
to be rejected.
Lord Duncan observed that the nuisance existed in
other parts of the United Kingdom besides Scotland, and
stated that he should move at the proper time that the
prohibition be extended to Great Britain and Ireland.

Some farther conversation having taken place, the
clause was agreed to, and the bill then, with some amend-
ments, passed through committee.
The report was fixed for the 12th of Auzust.

SUPERXNNUATION.
The debate upm the second reading of the Superan-
nuation Act Amendment Bill was opened by Mr. Rich,
who objected to the bill on the grounds that it was im-
perfectly framed, that it would be unjust in its opera-
tion, that it was quite unnecessary, and that it would
be found to be based upon erroneous statements ; that it
involved a needless extravagant expenditure of public
money, and that it recognised and encouraged a breach of
contract.

Lord Naas stated that the question for the House to con.
sider was, whether there should or should not be an abate-
ment of salary for superannuation. An increase is the
salaries of late years would, ha admitted, afford some
ttis wer to his cas,', but he denied that that was the fact,
and referred to the Admiralty and Customs to prove his
words. In 1834, in the Admiralty, 199 persons were
employed at a cos, of £59,266, the average amount of
salary being £297, whereas in 1856, 282 persons were
employed at a cost of £74,885. The average being £283, in
the collection of the Customs in 1834, 4,856 persons at a cost
£722,500, the average amount of salary being £149 ; and
in 1856 then were 5,570 persons employed, at a cost of
£814,000, the average annual salary being £146. He
denied that his bill was for the benefit of the rich in
preference to the poor, and stated that it would affect
salaries of £l4O. It would involve a gain rather than a
loss to the exchequer, and he placed it before the House as
a measure to carry into effect the recommendation of a
royal commission.

Mr. Gladstone regretted that more than the complex
statistical maters had been referred to in a com-
mission, and stated that upon this subject he
preferred the authority of the committee of that
house. He objected to the bill on the ground that it
was plainly and exclusively a bill for the increase of
Public Servants, and that its provisions were totally at
variance with the repirt of the select committee. He
did not think in justice to the public, they should assent to
the extensive increase proposed by the bill.
Mr. Disraeli thought the matter should have been
decided by the Government upon the information in their
possession, without reference to select committee on
commission. The question for the House to consider was,
whether the tax upon the civil servants was unjust or
impolitic. He contended that it was generally admitted,
that the deductions for superannuation were both impolitic
and unjust, on that ground he supported the bill.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer defended the course
taken by the government in the matter, and disputed• the
chini of the civil servants on the
,ground of equity and

ustice.

The House divided—
For
Agair,st

Majority 6O
Tho announcement was received with loud cheers.
Tho bill was then read a second time.

THE OATHS BILL.

Lord John Russell postponed, till Monday, the second
reading of the Oaths' Bill, expressing a hope that Baron
R ithsehild would have taken his seat in the interim.
The Court of Session (Scotland) Bill was read a third

time and passed.
The Gloucester Election Clinmittee reported that Mr.
Walcott was duly elected, but that undue influence, no'
with his knowledge, was used.
The Yarmouth Election Committee reported that Mr
M'Culloch and Mr. Watkins were not duly elected.
The house adjourned at seven minutes to six.

THE EMPERORS OF RUSSIA. AND OF THE FRENCH.—The
Ernperar of Russia, who arrived on the 25th at Berlin, will
leave directly for St. Petersburgh, by way of Stettin. He
will return in the month of September, when it is supposed
that the meeting between him and the Emperor of the
French, now neguciatity, is to take place.
THE CHANCELL'Ht OF THE EXCHEQUER'S ELECTION
FXPrNSES.—The total expenses of the return of Sir G. C.
Lewis for the Radnorshire borough, at the last election,
ameunted to only £3O 2s. This includes £lO 83, the
auditor's fee (incurred after the election), reducing the
actual election expenses, therefare, to something under
£2O. We should imagine there are few members in the
house who have been returned at so cheap a rate.

....
LOVE AND SUICIDE —Yesterday a yo;ing girl, named
Georgina Hooper, aged 19, lately residing at Hackney,
London, committed sukcide. She had been keeping com-
pany with a young man who had discarded her for another
girl, to whom he was about to be mdrrierd. The fact so
preyed on her mind, that she left home unobserved by her
parents, and at the time above named, she was seen to
priTipitate herself into the water of the Regent's canal,
adjoining Vicorita-park. She was taken out, but lite was
extinct.
'nth BRITWII MNISTER A SABB AT EI•IiEFP FR. --The
Christian. will be grat;fied to learn that the British
Minister. tat Washington, Lord Napier, sets a.good example
as t 'keeping the iabbath, steadfastly reusing to receive
vi,'''.coirs on that day. We undsrstand that a Commodore
'va our Navy not long since called at Lord Napier's resi-
dence on the Sabbath. The servant who came to the
door informed him that his lordship did not receive visitors
on Sunday: " But lam Commodore Dupuy," replied the
visitor, "It makes no diTrence, sir," said the servant,
be will not receive you." " But go tell him Commo-
dore Erastuts Danny, of the United States' war steamer
Susquehanna, has called." " I'll do so if you insist
upon it ; but I know he'll not receive you, for it i; not
his custom to receive visitors on Sunday." The finale
was that the Commodore had to depart without seeing t.,40
Minist3r.—New York Presbyterian.