The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-24 00:00:00

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HOUSE OF LORDS—(YESTERDAY.)
ROYAL COMMISSION.
The Royal assent was given by commis:lon to the fol-
lowing bills, viz. :—Lady Raglan and Lord Raglan's
Annuities ; Endowed Schools (Ireland) ; Gold
Wedding Rings ; Comnions Inclosure (No. 2) ; Spirits
(Ireland) Act Amendment; Friendly Societies ; Dublin
Carriage Act. Amendment ; Christ Church (Tod-
morden); Marriages Validity; Burial-grounds (Scotland);
Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes ; Waveney
Valley Railway ; Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway ;
Wisbeach Port ; Bolton and Nightingale's Road ;
Royal Medical Benevolent College ; Londonderry and
Coleraine Railway ; Cavendish Bridge ; Holland Ward
Roads ; Dagenham Docks ; London. Necropolis and Na-
tional Mausoleum ; Honitoo.Road ; E ,st of Fife Rail-
way.; Gateshead and Rexham Roads ; Portsmouth Rail.
way ; Shrewsbury Improvement ;
Northern Lon-
, don Cemetery ; Mid Kent and North Kent Railway ;
Barrow Harbour ; Birkenhead and Liverpool Docks
(Trust Property of Birkenhead Docks Trustees) ; Eng-
land and Ireland Improved Communication ; Furness
Railway ; Liverpool Docks ; South Staffordshire Rail-
way ; Livesey's Estate ; Pedder's Divorce ; Cromarty
Estate; Hamond's Estate ; Livesey's (Blackburn) Estate.
The Royal Commissioners were the Lord Chancellor,
the Duke of Argyll, and the Earl of Harrowby.
Their lordships adjourned during pleasure.

.
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the woolsack
at five o'clock.
On the motion of Lord REDESDALE, the Glasgow,
Dumbarton, and Helensburgh Railway was read a third
time and passed.
The Bishop of LONDON presented a petition from,
the inhabitants of Shoreditc,ll, and of the neighbourhood
of Victoria-park, against the proposed diminution of the
area of that park.
LAW OF MORTMAIN.
In reply to Lord ST. LEONARDS,
Lord BROUGHAM said be regretted that the bill re-
lating to the Law of Mortmain had not come up at ar
earlier period from the other house, so as to enable their
lordships to pass it during the present session. Under
the circumstances he would only move the second read-
ing of the bill, with a view to its being withdrawn for
the present session.
Lord LYNDHURST presented a petition from the
Protestant Alliance, stating that the petitioners bad
heard with alarm that her Majesty's Secretary of State
for the Horne Department had given permission to cele-
brate the Romish Mass in the Government prison of
Brixton, and praying their lordships' house to take
such measures as would secure a withdrawal of the
permission, and that such departure from the principles
of the constitution might never again take place.
sJord ST. LEONARDS called the attention to the
insecurity of our public records, and expressed a hope
that liar Majesty's Government would take the neces-
sary precautions to preserve the records from fire. The
noble and learned lord also referred to the injury done
to some of the partitions in Hampton Court Palace, and
to the robbery of one of them.
The Bishep of LONDON made some similar observa-
tions.
Earl GRANVILLE said the Chief Commissioner of
Public Works had issued orders for the institution of a
rigid inquiry into the circumstances alluded to by the
noble and learned lord.
Lord MONTEAGLE said be hoped that due care
of Marlborough House, in which the munificent do-
nation of pictures by a private gentleman to the nation
was deposited, would not be overlooked when precau-
tionary measures were being adopted.
Earl GRANVILLE said the whole subject was un-
der the consideration of the Government with a view
to adopting precautionary measures of the best possi-
ble description.
THE DISSENTERS.
Lord BROUGHAM moved the first reading of a bill,
the object of which was to relieve certain dissenting
clergymen from the Church of England from all penal-
ties to which they were at present liable, and from all
prosecution for schism, and from all other penalties,
spiritual and temporal, arising from an adherence to their
conscientious convictions. He would move the second
reading of the bill to-morrow.
After a few words from the Bishop of LONDON, the
bill was read a first time.
PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS BIL bill
On the motion of Lord MONTEAGLE, tis bill
passed through committee.
PIERS AND HARBOURS (SCOTLAND) BILL.
On the motion of the Duke of ARGYLL, this bill was
read a second time.
COAL MINES INSPECTION BILL.
This bill, on the motion of Viscount CANNING, passed
through committee after a few verbal amendments.
THE WAR IN ASIA.

The Earl of AIRLIE then proceeded to ask the
noble lord the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
whether the Government had lately received any official
information respecting the progress of the war in
Asiatic Turkey; but the noble earl spoke in so low a
tone that the observations accompanying his interroga-
tion did not reach us. It would be (the noble lord said)
very important if the noble earl at the head of the Fo-
reign Department could contradict the rumours which
prevailed as to the miserable condition of the Turkish
army, and he hoped that the Government would take all
the measures in their power for the purpose of stopping
the progress of the Russians in Asia Minor.
The Earl of CLARENDON said the Government
were fully alive to the importance of maintaining the de-
fence of the country around Erzeroum and Kars. Last
year the Government had sent out General Williams, an
able officer, who by his exertions bad succeeded in sus-
taining the spirit of the Turkish army. and in reforming
some of its abuses, and had placed Kars in a state of
defence. The latest intelligence which the Government
bad received was of the date of the 23d of last month.
The Russians bad then advanced on Kars, bad got
within the fire of the batteries, and had been repelled.
So far from the Turkish army being in the state of de-
moralisation and depression supposed by the noble lord,
General Williams had declared that the spirit and cou-
rage they had displayed on that occasion had amply re-
paid him for his labours.
.(Hear.) The inhabitants had
likewise displayed the best possible spirit. They had
received arms on their own demand, and whenever the
appearance of danger arose they always were ready to
resist it. On the 23d the Russian force between Kars
and Erzeroam had burnt some stores of corn, and had
sent for heavy siege guns. There was no reason to ap-
prehend that Kars could be take'n by a coup de main;
and if it were subjected to a regular siege it would be
the duty of the Turkish Government to succour it. He
(the Earl of Clarendon) had no objection to produce all
the information asked for.
MERCHANT SHIPPING BILL.
In committee on this bill,
Lord COLCHESTER moved a clause, the purport of
which was that if several of the seamen of a vessel sus-
pected her to be unseaworthy, she should be subjected
to survey. The object was to protect the seamen from
being sent to sea, and their lives being perilled, in an
unsafe ship.
Lord STANLEY of ALDERLEY resisted the clause
as needless and likely to prove vexatious.
Lord CACHESTER said if the law at present were
theoretically sufficient to meet the evil, it was not practi-
cally so ;, and so the seamen thought, for great numbers
of them had petitioned upon the subject. When seamen
applied to magistrates upon the subject they bad actually
been accused of deserting their vessels. What was
wanted was a summary remedy—it was really of no use
to refer the poor seamen to an action at law. He wished
the magistrate to have a summary power to determine
the question.
Lord STANLEY—You cannot compel a seaman to
go to sea in an unseaworthy ship.
Lord COLCHESTER—But what is wanted is a
power of deciding summarily what is an unseaworthy
ship.
The Earl of HARDWICKE said the subject was of
great importance. Large number of ships went to sea
quite unseaworthy. Once embarked, the seamen, if
they left the ship, were liable to be charged with Deser-
tion. Therefore, though the law gave the right to com-
plain of a ship as unseaworthy, practically the seamen
could not exercise the right. InsuranT3s were very
much perverted. He, believed agriculturists sometimes
burnt their corn to realise the money insured. (A. laugh.)
And from similar, want of principle, shipowners sent
ships to sea knovin to be unseaworthy, but which bad
been insured for a sum greater than their value. He
considered that the seamen were in need of protection,
and be regretted that so reasonable a provision should
have been rejected.
Lord ABINGER spoke in favoUr of some such provi-

sion.
Lord STANLEY of ALDERLEY still resisted it.
The LORD CHANCELLOR said that not only sea,
men but other persons might object to work in place:
unsafe and perilous to life. But the present provision
was likely to prejudice the interests of shipowners. No
doubt persons had been guilty of setting their stacks on
fire, or sinking their ships, for the sake of insurance.
But those were criminal offences, until lately capital,'
and legislation could hardly be moulded with a view to
meet such cases. • But this clause would give seamen
the power of vexatiously stopping ships from proceeding
to sea.
The clause was rejected.
The Bishop of OXFORD asked leave to introduce a
clause to protect the ballast-heavers of the metropolis,
who, he said, were in the bands of a small knot of publi-
cans and others, and wholly unable to exercise freedom
of labour. The publicans who had the ballast-heavers in
theirpower compelled them to take out their wages in drink
to a great degree. In 1853 the Merchant Shipping Acts
Amendment Act contained some degree of protection on
behalf of those poor men, which had produced a very
ben,fficial effect. The purpose of the proposed clause was
only to carry out the object by securing to the Trinity
House the control of the ballast. This would take bal-
last heavers out of the hands of the publicans.
Lord STANLEY of ALDERLEY said it would be
best to leave the matter for the present under the exist-
ing act. It was true that the ballast heavers had suf-
fered greatly; but it was contrary to the principles of
political economy that the monopoly in any trade or
business should be given to any body cf men. The effect
of the clause would be to give the Trinity-house the mo-
nopoly of the ballast business. The existing act gave
the Trinity-house quite sufficient control over the bal-
last. The evil alluded to was being daily reduced, and
would ultimately be entirely removed without any fur-
ther legislation.
The Bishop of OXFORD said that it was a mistake
to confound this clause with monopoly. The object was
to secure to the ballast-heavers the profits of their la-
bour, not to give to Ttinity-House any part of the pro-
fits. He feared that the evil would not be cured under
the present act. The ballast-heavers were labouring
under a monopoly, and the object of the clause was to