The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-21 00:00:00

THE DISTRESS IN LANCASHIRE.

Mr. FERRAND asked the First Lord of the Treasury,
whether he would give a Government night immediately
after Easter to enable him to bring under the notice of the
house the present state of the cotton trade, and of half a
million of cotton operatives living in unwilling idleness.
Owing to the extreme urgency of the matter he trusted to
receive a favourable reply from the noble lord. (Hear,
hear.)

Lord PALMERSTON assured the hon. member and
the house that the subject to which the question related
was one which must necessarily create great anxiety in
the minds of the Government, and that being so, he
should be naturally desirous of giving any opportunity
that might be required for the consideration of the sub-
ject. • The two first Tuesdays immediately after
Easter were very much engaged, otherwise he might have
et aside a portion of either day for the discussion, but
anxious to afford the hon. gentleman every facility he
should set apart one of the first Government nights after
Easter for the discussion.
PORTSMOUTH DOCKYARD.

Mr. LAIRD asked the Secretary to the Admiralty whe-
ther he would have any objection to lay upon the table of
the house any plans, reports, and estimates which might
have been laid before the Admiralty in reference to the
proposed extension of Portsmouth Dockyard?
Lord C. PAGET replied in the affirmative.
THE EXPERIMENTS AT SHOEBURYNESS.

Sir J. PAKINGTON asked the Secretary to the Ad-
miralty whether it was true that, in the trials at Shoebury-
ness on Tuesday last, 51 inch iron plates were penetrated
by shells, and the wooden backing set on fire ; and, if so,
whether the Admiralty still intends to build of wood the
five new ships to be plated with iron ? (Hear.)
Lord C. PAGET replied that on Monday last very im-
portant experiments took place, net only with Armstrong,
but with Whitworth shells, and undoubtedly these shells
pierced 5} inch plates. As, however, the targets had not
been taken to pieces he could not furnish the exact effect of
the shells. Last year, owing to the anxiety of the house,
he expressed an opinion on a similar subject which was very
much modified on the examination of the targets. He
could not venture, therefore, to express an opinion until the
targets had been thoroughly examined. (Hear, hear.)
Sir J. PAKINGTON argued that his question had not
been fully answered. (Hear, bear.) Had the wood behind
the plates been sot on fire and blazed ? And did the Go-
vernment intend to continue building the five ships speci-
fied of wood ? (Hear, hear.)

Lord C. PAGET begged pardon that he had omitted
to reply to the latter part of the question. The Admiralty
had not, in consequence of the experiments last Monday,
altered their opinion with respect to wood versus iron.
THE FRESCO PAINTINGS IN THE HOUSES OF

PARLIAMENT.

In reply to Mr. C. BENTINCX,
Mr. CO WPER replied that a commission composed of
eminent artists and others had enquired into the causes of
the deterioration of certain fresco paintings, and they had
reported that they had been unable to discover the causes.
The report would be laid on the table.
THE POLISH REFUGEE, ABICHT.

Mr. HENNESSY asked the First Lord of the Trea-
y, whether the Russian Government recently applied
1,. her Majesty's Government for information respecting a
Polish refugee named Abicht ; whether her Majesty's Go-
vernment complied with that application, and afforded infor- ,
oration to the Russian Government; and, whether this
Polish refugee was the individual referred to in a letter of
Earl Russell, dated Foreign-office, Feb. 14,1863, as" a per-
son lately arrested in Poland as a political agent ?"
Lord PALME RSTON replied that no application of any
kind had been addressed to her Majesty's Government by
the Government of Russia upon the subject of the refugee
Abicht. Of course, therefore, no answer could have been
returned to the Russian Government. On the 14th of
January the British Consul at Warsaw sent a
d. spatch stating that a certain number of Poles
had been arrested. On the 14th he wrote again to
say that a person named Abicht had been found travelling
with a British Foreign-office passport, in the name of Brett,
which had been regularly vised at Vienna, and the various
places he had passed through on his way from Eng-
land to Warsaw. Inquiries were made how this
had happened, and it was found that in July, 1864 a Mr.
Leverson, of St. Ifelens, in the City of London, had applied
to the Foreign-office for a passport to Mr. Brett, his confi-
dential clerk, and also for another confidential clerk,
who was to accompany him, but whose name he
(Lord Palmerston) did not recollect, on the ground
that they had important business on the continent.
Mr' Leverson had been communicated with, and a letter
had been received from him dated from Paris, stating that
inquiries had better be made of Mr. Brett himself. Mr.
Brett had been written to, but up to that time no answer
had been received. (Laughter.) Probably he had not a
etentive memory ; at any
rate he had failed to post a reply.
(Laughter).
THE MUSEISI%. ESTIMATES.
Lord H. LENNOX asked the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer Whether ho had made arrangements for having the
British Museum estimates; moved in the house by a 9
Minister of the Crown
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCREQUER replied
that it had been usual to permit these estimates to be
Thre-
vised by a distinguished member of this house.who Was also
one of the trustees of the Museum. e Gov,
ernment had
not seen any reason to depart from the practice heretofore
followed. (Hear, hear.)
THE ROYAL OAK.
Mr. DALGLISH asked the Secretary to the Admiralty
whether the authorities at the Admiralty intended to try
the effect of Whitworth's shells on a target representing the
side of the Royal Oak, or of one of the wooden ships which
it is proposed to build ?
Lord C. PAGET replied that it was the intention of the
Admiralty to carry out a series of experiments on targets

representing various ships. These experiments were now
going on from day to day, and the authorities would be
bappy'to offer every facilityfor the attendance of hon. mem-
bers.