The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-11 00:00:00

_ _ •
'The-Weights ands feasure Bill was read a second time.
The Ecclesiastical Property (Ireland) IEII was read
third time and pissed.
The house-then vent into committee on the-Religious
Worship Bill, which passed through that stage.
On the motion for the second reading of the &niers
-House Drainage Bill.
Sir J. SHELLEY hoped the noble lord would not object
under wo
uoguhl dt
thisht
ha
that
te
bill.
ts nh ci e uHyte.p oin
to postpone the bill until some day after next Monday,
allis
Lt Nuisances
ohradt
Ew Ba Removal ;ImrNr oGv
iv
Tad leodßNfi Inltr; h
when it might be shown that the local boards,. under the
the committee be postponed until Widnesda wo
va
was
e dr t
thatod
do
inexpedient. Re thought that it was highlydesirable
coursew
that
a bill should be passed as soon an possible to render house
drainage. as effectual as possible, in the face of cholera and
other epidemics which might break out at any time when
the !owner set in, If the .house was not disposed to agree
to this, he should throw the responsibility on them and the
Government. He moved that the committee be fixed fo,r
this day.
Lord PALMERSTON thought that the bill might -stand
for this day. •
Sir J. SHELLEY withdrew his motion, and the coin-
mittee was fixed for this day.
The Personal'Estates Bill was read a second time.
GOVERNMENT OF VICTORIA. •
•
Lord J. RUSSELL moved for to bring in a bill to
enable-her Majesty to assent to a bill, as emended, of the
Legislature of Victoria, "to establish a constitution le
an • for the colony of Victoria."
Mr. LOWE was very sorty to be obliged to trouble the -
house at that late hour with two or three observations, hut
the great importance of the question, and the novelty as
well as the very undesirable nature of the course about to
be adopted, must be his excuse for doing soe The noble'
lord gave notice of a bill to enable her Majesty to assent to
an act of the Legislative Council of Victoria as that act had
been amended. This • was a very-extraordinary motion.
He would say nothing now of thebill, which could be die.
cussed when it was before the house, but the form in which
they were about to legislate was extremely objectionable,
and he was the more inclined to oppose it because he saw,
from
bead
a notice that had been given
what was intended to
an npted in the Council of New 'South Wales. In 1850
act was Pass'ed, giving to the Legislative Councils of the
Australian colonies power to frame new constitutions for
themselves. Under that
' statute the Legislative Council of
Victoria had passed
that power .had be an act, the preamble of which recited
been given it to •do so by: the statute of
1850; but then the acts
overleapt and transcended by the Legislative Council
of 1850, presuming to r the powers contained in the act
eneal nume and also to invest the Council • roue Imperial statutes,
which it did not now possess, awncith a e,reat many powers
of Parliament could confer upon wllich nothing but an act
many respects altered the relation theoliNvbile it likewise in
cil to the Imperial Legislature. This Legislative Comas
Council of Victoria bad no more anthacktthe Legislative
had any small knot of persons assembling t4a-Pass than
room in the colony and calling themselves a tut/nether in a
The Legislative Council, however, took it upon meeting,
The
pass this act, reciting the limited' powers given to • 43
by
Parliament; and then, being conscious that it had exceeds
those powers, it sent home, together with this bin,„horr
act, which it suggested that Parliament Should pass is
order to legalise,what it had done. Now, it would' be
most inconveniefft, as well as not very creditable, for the
British 'Parliament to accede to such a request, while
it would also be most inexpedient as an• example to '
the other colonies. Certain limited powers having been
granted to the Legislative Council, it ought to have con-
fined itself strictly within its authority ; and whatever
was wanted beyond those constitution powers should take
the form of a gift and concession from the Imperial Par.
liament to the colony, instead of the colony taking it in a
shape that was illegal and void, and then sending its act
home, accompanied by another short act, asking Parlia-
ment to confirm and ratify its irregularity. If this mo-
tion had been for a bill to assent to the act of the Legisla-
tive Council of Victoria, the course pursued by the Go-
vernment would have been sufficiently objectionable—but
it was more objectionable still, because it was not merely •
a bill to enable her Majesty to grant her consent, but
really a bill to enable the Legislative Council to pass that
which it had set up, though utterly void of law. The house
was therefore asked, in fact, to give validity to -a law -
which the Legislative Council had no authority to make,
and which her Majesty had no power to agree to. The
matter, however, did not stop there. The Legislative
Council of Victoria, having passed an act which it had no
power to pass, and then sent it home to be made valid,
the noble lord did not approve of certain portions of this
colonial act, and thought it not advisable to adopt them ;
and, therefore, he had amended the colonial act by strik-
ing out those objectionable portions of it and inserting
others in their place ; and then he asked Parliament to
pass an act to enable her Majesty to assent, not to the bill
which the Colonial Legislature had adopted, but another
bill which the noble lord had devised. A bill when thus
altered was no longer the same measure, but must be re •
-
garded as an entirely new one, and therefore the bill now
proposed to be legalised could not be consideredas the bill
that was passed by the Legislative Council of Victoria.
As the noble lord had amended this bill, he presumed that
the House of Commons could also amend it. (Hear.) If
not, the simple effect would be to deprive the house of the
power of amending an act of its own, because the act would
be as much the act of this house as if it had never
passed the Legislature of Victoria, that Legislature never
having had power to pass it. They were, therefore, involv-
ing themselves in a mess of inextricable confusion, diffi-
culty, and anomaly, and they were placing the house in a
situation in which it ought not to be placed—namely, in the
situation of submitting to the dictation of a colonial as-
sembly as to what laws it should pass. He objected,
therefore, entirely to the course which the noble lord pro-
posed to pursue, but he would suggest two courses, either
of which would be free from any objection in principle.
The noble lord might stand upon the ad of 1850, and say
to the Legislative CounCil of Victoria, " You have ex-
ceeded your powers ; you- have done that which you had ,
no right to do, and I therefore send back the act, in order
that yen may amend it." But, as the case was said to be
one of emergency, the noble lord might also introduce a '
bill vesting in the Governor-General of the Australion co-
louies power to as-eut to the act so amended at once in the •
name of her Majesty. That bill might also bo coupled -
with another making such concessions to the Colonial Le-
gislature as the Legislature had assumed to itself without
the- authority of Parliament, and giving to it the lard
fund, and anything else which the noble lord thought it
ought to have. The other course would be to do in effect
what they now asked to do in substance—namely, to sweep
away the machinery of enabling her Majesty to assent to a
bill which the Colouial Legislature had never passed, and
to legislate directly on the subject (bear, hear.) If the
noble lord thought the house ought to make a constitution
for the colony let them do it—(hear)—but let them have- ,
the question brought fairly before them, so that they
:night know what they were about. ire protested against
the plan of passing an r..ct to enable her Majesty to assent, •
not to an act that had been passed by the Legislature of
Victoria, but, to another and a different act, which, even
had it been passed by that Legislature, had been passed by
it ultra vires. (Hear, hear.)
Lord J. RUSSELL did not think that either of the
courses proposed by the hon. gentleman would be prefer-
able to that which the Government desired to adopt. The
lion. gentleman was mistaken in supposing that it was pro- .
posed to insert in this act provisions which the Legislature
of Victoria had not sanctioned, but the,hon. gentleman
was quite correct in stating that the enactments of the
Legislature of Victoria were ultra vires, that they interfered
with certain imperial acts, and that they touched upon
matters which were strictly within the province of her
Majesty and Parliament. He proposed, therefore, to take
generally the act of the Legislature of Victoria as far as
concerned its own constitution, but to omit certain propo-
sals which would limit the power vested in the Crown of
disallowing the acts passed by the colonies. The bill,
therefore, although it would certainly not contain all that
the Legislature of Victoria had proposed, would not con-
tain anything to which it had not given its assent, and
thus, iu his opinion, would be within the powers given bY
Parliament to the Australian colonies to form constitutions
for themselves. It must be recollected that both of these
constitutions arrived in this country during the last re-
cess. If they had been sent back they could not have ar-
rived in time to give validity to these acts in the course of
this session. The hon. gentleman said they would getinto
inextricable confusion; because a similar course would be
pursued with regard to othercolonies. WithregardtoNew
South Wales, it was quite true a similar course would be
adopted, but the constitution proposed by the Legislative
Council of New South Wales differ&l in some important
respects from that proposed for Victoria. In Victoria, for
instance, it was proposed that the Legislative Council
I should be elected, in New South Wales, that the Legisla-
tive Council should be nominated by the Crown. With re-
gard to the, Legislative Council, the Government thought it •
right that the wishes of the colony should be consulted, but
when the act was passed with regard to Victoria and with re-
gard to New South Wales he did not apprehend there would .
be any difficulty about the other colonies. With regard to
Van Diemen's Land, they had already a cOnstitutionwhich
was strictly within the powers given by the act of 1850,
and that constitution having been laid before the two
Houses of Parliament, had already been confirmed and
approved by her Majesty in Council. With respect to
South Australia, the constitution was agreed to, but the
Council afterwards had several discussions and divisions,
the result of which was a desire to indulge the Legislative
Council in their wish to have it referred back to them ; and,
accordingly, the matter was referred back, with discreto
to the Governor to propose to the colony, whether elective
or nominative, a Council in such a ferm that he might be'
able to consent without further reference to Farhatent.
But he thought it inconvenient to send this proposal
not 0
changed.7l
Victoria and New South Wales to be re-discussed, wh
it appeared their mind upon the subject' wasavers, bin.,
discussing•these 45.
He should be quite ready, in
they ought
nto point out in what way he thought
would be Pe__
As the hon. gentleman said the schedules owe parte .
berg allcm'' se ewer
to discussion, and if hon. members
tt d, it was in —a _
those schedules ought to be omihoeu
gb, of course, it was a
of Parliament to alter theme would 4o so. With re.
matter of discretion whetherthey
this subject, he would say,
spect to general legislatiosne on
d in Australia that the manage-
s great desire was ex o
Press and the revenues arising from
ment of the waste lands, ,
disposition of the Colonial Govern.
them, should be at the u
tupon which the Australian colo-
ment- It was a
a"---
and it would be most convenient if a
• t great value,
e carried into effect.
mem se
purpose were
G. my suggested that leave should be given to
bill for that pn.
Alr.,--tiesnoble now, but that further time should be
bring in lord for re-considering the neati
taken by the
words from Mr. ADDERLIt ""
After a few
given to bring in the
leave w" g •
of
On the motion the ATTORNEY-GENERA.L and
eave
of
was given to bring in a bill to continue an act of 13 14
Victoria, to enable the judges of the courts '
common law at Westminster to alter the forms of
The bills were brought in and sea pleading.
house adjourned at half-past one o' 1 a first time, and the
•

A HARD SKULL—In the ------------Callao (Peru) . News of Feb.
10, we read as follows :—The approaching carnival sea-
son promises 'to be rich, rare, and racy in its character.
By reference to our advertising columns, it will-be-seen
that a butting match is in contemplation between the_
steward of the Wild Pigeon' and a rain celebrated for
his strength and courage. It is almost unnecessary to
add, that the challenging party is a coloured ap. the
Hoare
idea of the strength of his skull may be formed from
fact of his having, a day or two 31,1C8,
head of a porter cask, upon which a heavy
would make no impression.
bag .been just 'received
From an official report, whichistive to the cultivation
by the French Government,
relative
that the results of the
of tobacco in Algeria, it appears
the 81st March, 1855, have
season of 1854, ending on the ehauvyttsdin
hammerthe
year on all points of the
exceeded those of the
ri
acquiredt preceding
hnut :t io_ ei o the
considerable prov provinces c
extension.e e o t Oran
ed by the Government up to
marclualt-itkpuam_Auts to 2,93041 kiligrammeap-
acTonhldoe ntyotaln d
Constantineth a
t thhae;ep
a Ott of AM'BB2{" °°°•.
tahts 31st0