The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-27 00:00:00

1.04

PRIVATE BILLS.

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HOUSE OF LORDS—(YESTERDAY.)
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his scat on the wool-
sa2k at five o'clock.

PETITIONS.
Earl GREY presented a petition from Somerset,
nr7inz the house to adopt prompt measures for the
eedy t/{
Lord BROUGHA:vI presented a petition from
Kingston-upon-Thames in favour of the abolition of
church rates. The noble and learned lord took the
opportunity of laying on the table two more resolutions
he intcnded to move in connection with the treatment
of criminals.
The Earl of SHAFTESBURY presented a petition
from the Wesleyan body of dissentersin favour of closing
the public-houses on the Lord's-day.
THE QUEEN'S MESSAGE—TREATY WITH
SA RDINIA.
The Earl of CLARENDON, in rising to move that
the message of her most gracious Majesty with reference
to the treaty with the King of Sardinia be considered,
said he felt it would be unbecoming in him to detain
their lordships any length of time. Their lordships
would no doubt consider any argument superfluous in
support of the address which he intended to propose for
their adoption. Although the treaty proposed by com-
mand of her Majesty to the Sardinian Government was
only recently ratified, yet the treaty itself had long since
received the assent of that Power. It would no doubt be
agreeable to their lordships to learn that no solicitation
whatever was necessary on our part to induce the Sar-
dinian Government to take the course which more than
any other result within his recollection had been re-
ceived with satisfaction by all classes of her Majesty's
subjects. The only merit to which the diplomacy of
her Majesty's Government could lay claim to was that,
they thought the time had arrived when an invitation
might be given to the Sardinian Government to adhere
to the treaty of the 10th April. The Sardinian Go- •
vernment acting with that vigour of purpose and perfect
good faith which bad characterised all her proceedings
--which had insured her success at home and respect
abroad—had agreed to those preliminaries which had
terminated in so gratifying a result. Sardinia alone ad-
heres to what he would call that self-denying article, to
which England and France bad bound themsglves, not to
derive any territorial advantage from the war. The state,
however, of her finances being inadequate to the expenses
of an army abroad as well as at home, she has ap-
plied to England for an advance of money (2,000,0001.),
the interest of which was to he paid at the rate of 4 per
cent. ; 1 per cent. of which was to be applied to the
Sinking Fund. She also asks that her troops might be
conveyed by England to the seat of war ; and her
Majesty's Government, waiting the approval of Parlia-
ment, had agreed to these applications, and at this moment
a British fleet was on its way to Genoa to carry 15,000
of those troops to the Crimea—troops which he dared
to say were inferior to none in Europe in organisation,
in discipline, or in gallantry. The efforts made latterly
by Sardinia to obtain national liberty were watched
by this country with the greatest anxiety, and her
success in the attainment of that great object
was, he thought, greatly owing to the fact of, her
being utterly free from foreign intervention. The noble
earl concluded by moving an address to her Majesty,
which was but an echo of the royal message.
The Earl of HA.RDWICKE bore testimony to the
gallantry of the Sardinian troops at the battle of No-
vara, and also to the great ability that characterised the
gallant general who had been appointed to the command
of the troops in the Crimea.
The Earl of SHAFTESBURY said if ever Sardinia
was called upon to defend herself from external oppres-
sion, he believed that any application for assistance
would be met with a response from the country which
had never been made before—from north to south—from
John O'Groat's house to the Land's-end.
The address was then agreed to.
POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS WITH AUSTRALIA.

The Earl of HARDWICKE rose to present a petition
from the Australian Postal Association complaining of,
and calling attention to, the unsatisfactory state of the
postal arrangements with Australia. The noble earl said
that in 1851 contracts were enterel into for the conveyconveyance
of letters to Australia by the overland route, in connectionj
with the steamers of the Oriental Steam Navigation Com-
pany, and also by steamers by the Cape of Good Hope, the
former ro ate being travelled in 60 to 65, the latter in 61-
to 70 days. This arrangement continued till the commence-
ment of the war. The postal revenue obtained from the
communication with Australia was 90,030/. a year; the
value of the exports to that country in the year 1853 was
14,506,532/. ; but at the present moment the postal com-
munication was stopped ; that was to say, it was carried
on only by sailing vessels ; and the consequence was that
the communication, which formerly occupied six weeks,
now occupied four or five months. The petition which he
had presented admitted that there had been a derange-
ment of the steam communication on this side of the
Isthmus of Suez, but denied that any such arrangement
had occurred on the other side of that isthmus, and assert-
ed that therefore so far as that part of the route was con-
cerned, the regularity heretofore observed might have been
maintained. The petitioners stated that there existed
in Australia several companies possessing ships well
adapted for the conveyance of mails, and they prayed
their lordships to take into consideration the injury sus-
tained by the general interests of the colony from the
suspension of mail communication, and to address her
Majesty, praying her Majesty to direct arrangements to
be made for the re-establishment of that communication.
Whatever difficulty might exist in carrying on the postal
service as it was carried on before, he thought that
difficulty might be met in the same manner as it had been
met with regard to other colonies, and ho sow no reason
why the colonists ghould not. hn permitted aotrup a.
postal communication of their own. (Hear.)
Lord CANNING said there could be no doubt that the
subject was one of great importance, both to the mercan-
tile interests of this country and to the interests of the
colonists, and deserved every consideration. He thought,
however, that the noble earl had been led into some little
error by the allegations in the petition. The statement
with regard to the postal communication producing
90,0001. a year was made from an insufficient knowledge
of the facts. So far from that being the produce of the
postal revenue--
The Earl of HARDWICKE observed that 90,0001. was
the gross revenue, out of which the postal service was
carried on.
Lord CANNING said that that statement was very far
from being accurate. It appeared from a report laid on the
table last session that the amount received two years ago
was not half that sum. About six months ago a consider-
able diminution took place, in consequence of the reduc-
tion in the colonial postage, the reduction in the case of
Australia being more than one-half, and the whole amount
of postal revenue received from the Australian mails,
during the last six months, was not more than at the rate
of 36,0001. a year. Now with respect to the offer of the
packet owners to contract. A proposal was made to him,
some time ago, to enter into an engagement, or give an
undertaking to a company not possessing a steam or sail-
ing vessel, that the Government would enter into a contract
with them, on their constructing steam or sailing vessels
for the purpose of carrying the mails. Now, the adoption
of such a course of proceeding would not only have been
rash on the part of the Government, but it would have been
unfair to other companies. The principle on which the Go-
vernment had hitherto acted had been not to entertain pro-
posals from companies whose means of performing contracts
were not in existence. (Hear, hear.) The reason which had
led to the suppression of the Australian steam service was
very evident. War was a hard taskmaster, claiming the
application of every possible resource. Little more than
two years ago there were in existence two lines of steam
communication with Australia, but last year the require-
ments of the war had caused steamers to be drafted from
all steam companies, and from the two Australian com-
p mies especially. It so happened that at that. time he
was in communication with the Peninsular and Oriental
Company, with the view of increasing their bi-monthly
communication, which would have given 18 instead of 12
mails in the course of the year ; but the demands of the
war were so urgent that further sacrifices were demanded
from the company. Australia was not the only colony
which had suffered. Eight vessels had been taken from
the Peninsular and Oriental Company for tho transport of
troops and stores. The ccmpany which carried the mails
to the Cape of Good Hope had given up seven of their
vessels. Cunard's lino had given up eight. At this mo-
ment there were not fewer than from 27 to 30 large postal
steamers employed by the Government for the purposes
of the war. He was far from saying that Australia had
not suffered more than the other colonies ; but the Go-
vernment had no resources to fall back upon but the old
sailing vessels. The Government were so conscious of the
inj ones which had been inflicted on the Australian colonies
that notwithstanding the exigencies of the war, they were
in communication with parties most .likely to be able to
supply the deficiency, and inquiries had been made of the
Peninsular and Oriental Company as to the terms on which
they would consent to supply certain accommodation, and
the time which they would require to enable them
to do so. He did not look to the existing arranee-
ment as a permanent one. He thought the petition had
been drawn up in ignorance of what was really practicable.
He did not believe there were more than one or two
steamers in Australia able to take the long voyage. The
noble earl had fallen into an error with regard to the dif-
ference of time consumed in the voyage between sailing
vessels and steam vessels, stating that it now took four or
five months to write and receive an answer between Aus-
tralia and England, whereas formerly not more than five
or six weeks were required. Now there was no case of
which ho was aware in which the post had travelled be-
tween the two extremities in that time.
The Earl of HARDWICKE remarked that the voyage
which was formerly performed in six weeks now took 3
mouths.
Lord CANNING said that by the Cape line the average
passage was from eighty-five to ninety days. Notwith-
standing the pressure on the finances of the country, it
was the intention of the Government to re-establish an
efficient steam communication with Australia, but he
hoped that the Australian colonies, and those persons who
had influence in their councils, would manifest a little
patience in the matter, and show themselves willing for a
time to endure the inconvenience which they had experi-
enced.
The Earl of HARDWICKE said he understood the dif-
ference between sailing and steam vessels varied from 61
(lays to 90 or 100 days. He believed the Australasian
Steam Company was in possession of twenty steamers in
Australia, many of them as large as 700 or 800 tons.
The subject then dropped.
DESPATCH OF BUSINESS (COURT OF CHAN-
CERY) BILL.
Their lordships went into committee on this bill,
The bill was reported without amendments, and
Their lordships adjourned at twenty-five minutes after
seven o'clock.

HOUSE OF COMMONS-YESTERDAY,

The SPEAKER took the chair shortly before 4 o'clock

The following bills were considered and ordered to be
read a third tune : - Birmingham Water, Bridport Rail-
way, Chesterfield Water and Gas, Leeds, Bradford,
and Halifax Junction Railway, Monmouthshire Rail-
way and Canal, Plymouth and Stonehouse Gas, South-
Eastern Railway (Capital), Torquay Market and Slaugh-
ter-houses, Torquay, Tor, and St. Mary Church Gas,
and Sheffield Gas.
The following bills were read a second time and ordered
to be committed ;—England and Ireland Improved