The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-17 00:00:00

THE EXHIBITION BUILDING.

Lord ENFIELD gave notice of his intention to ask the
noble lord at the head of the Government whether he had
not received a report from the Treasury to the effect that the
value of the Exhibition building was only £30,000 less the
cost of pulling it down ; and, if so, whether there was any
objection to lay the report upon the tabls before the discus-
sion was taken on the proposal to purchase the building.
Mr. A/RTON gave notice that when the vote for the
purchase of the building was brought forward he should
move a resolution to the effect that, in the opinion of the
House, the sum of £67,000 voted for the purchase of the
land at Kensington should be applied to the discharge of
the liabilities of the commissioners of 1851, and that the
property of the commissioners, subject to any charges upon
it, should be vested in the Commissioners of Works. (Hear,
hear.)
THE COURT-MARTIAL ON CHARLES THOMAS.

Mr. HIDFIELD asked the Secretary to the Admiralty
whether his intention had been called to the proceedings of
a court-martial held on board her Majesty's ship Victory,
at Portsmouth, on Charles Thomas, a seaman, charged
with insubordination and using offensive language to a
boatswain, who had ordered the liberty-boat to leave before
its appointed time, when the prisoner was returning to his
ship, after the expiration of his leave of absence to get mar-
ried ; and if so, whether it was true that, under the circum-
stances of that case the prisoner was adjudged to be reduced
to the second class, to receive forty-eight lashes, to be im-
prisoned in Winchester Gaol for two years, and then to be
discharged with disgrace from her Majesty's navy; and
whether he would lay the proceedings of the court upon
lee table of the house.
Lord C. PAGET said the hon. member was misinformed
with respect to some of the particulars of the case. In the
first place, the hon. member was mistaken in his assump-
tion that the sailor Charles Thomas was prevented merely
by accident from returning to his ship ; that was not so, for
according to the evidence of the other sailors in the boat,
they did not quit the shore until the appointed time, and
Themes was not down in time to go on board, However,
he afterwards found his way to the ship, and then he showed
himself very indignant towards the boatswain in charge of
the boat, and used most violent, offensive, disgusting, and
insubordinate language towards that officer, and towards
the captain of the ship. His offence was so grave that it
Was naturally thought requisite he should be tried by court-
inertial, and accordingly he was so tried. The second in-
accuracy of the hon. member was in statingthat the prisoner
ha(' been on leave of absence to get married. Now, the pri-
aboeneeti °
pri-
soner himself set up no such defence ; he stated that he had
evidence
to see his brother, and had got intoxicated.
But ties of the other sailors was that he was sober
when he made
As
to
the 1180 of the very gross language charged
correctly stated bsentte,nce of the court-martial, it had been
" Hear, hear") by
hon. member. (Ironical cries of
, Were:as bound to say that courts-martial,
like individuals
cries of " Hear, hear.) occasionally liable to err—(ironical
erring erring on the side of
leniency, and eometimer
Itng on the side of severity.
(Hear, hear.) At the earner irareev,. the proceedings of all
courts-martial came underptpleeenea
tihtn,,ton of the Admiralty,
of the Admiralty were
and it not unfrequently ha
able to exercise the blessed privilege
the
oonbt that in
tigate the sentences upon prisoners when it and to mi
appeared to
them sentences were too harsh ; and he leaa not
the present case the Admiralty would have
of exercising their mitigatory privilege, (Hear, hP„P:r)tEtY
ho believed the house would agree with him that, whatever
t
arrangement the Admiralty might make, whatever miti-
gation of the sentence might be enforced, it should be
clearly understood that that mitigation was not the result
of the interference of that house. For it certainly would
not conduce to the discipline of the navy i
fthat housewere
turned into a court of appeal from decisions of courts-mar-
tial. (Hear, hear.) Such being the circumstances of
ptrhoe-
case, he hoped the hon. member would not press
cian
as
duction of the proceedings ; and the more esp
under the Naval Discipline Act, the prisoner woulde bY ,
e en-
titled, after an interval of three months, to a copy of the
sentence and the proceedings of the court.
Mr. HADFIEL D expressed a hope that some means
would be devised for preventing the publication of such in-
accurate statements.
Lord C. PAGET said he sincerely wished he could pre-
vent misrepresentations of the kind appearing in news-
paper ; and, as he was on the subject, he might observe,
in reply to a question put to him by the right hon. member
for Kilmarnock (Mr. Bouverie), that there was not the
soltinr teet foundation fur a statement which had appeared the
day in the papers relative to a sailor having been or-
dered to
prison for three years, and as having committed
suicide in co
usequence. The only suggestion he had to offer

was, that when such statements reaehed hon. members they
should bring them forward in that house, in order to afford
him the opportunity of correcting them. (Hear.)
THE HIGHWAYS ACT.
Sir W. MILES asked the Attorney-General whether, in
the construction of the following sentence in the schedule
of the Highways Act, viz., "All question • al- ell be decided
by a majority of votes of the members pmer.t," it was ne-
cessary that there should be a majority of the persons pre-
sent, or whether it was sufficient that there should be a
majority of those who being present gave their votes.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said the question had
not as yet been submitted to, nor had it obtained, judicial
interpretation, but it appeared to him that the matter
was not open to any for doubt. In his opinion, it was
not sufficient that there should be a majority of those who
being present gave their votes, but there ought to be a ma-
jority of persons present voting one way or another.
PUBLIC WORKS (MANUFACTURING DIS-

TRICTS) BILL.

In reply to Mr. FERRAND,

Mr. VILLIERS said that the second reading of this
bill wss fixed for Thursday, and that it would be tak3n
early, but he could not decide upon fixing the committee on
the bill for a morning sitting, as the bill had not been as
yet read a second time, nor indeed did the matter rest with
him at all.

THE ENGLISH AT ZANZIBAR.
Mr. STIRLING asked the under Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs whether he had any information respecting
an outrage said to have been perpetrated by Arabs on an
English subject at Zanzibar, in February last, and respect-
ing reports lately published in the French newspapers of
hostile feeling against the European residents, excited in
the minds of the native population of Zanzibar by certain
alleged operations of British cruisers engaged in the repres-
sion of the slave trade?

Mr. LAYARD said that, in consequence of the question
of his hon. friend, he had referred to the French papers,
and he found in the Journal des Debats an account of a
estate of things as represented by his hon. friend. It ap-
peared that a meeting had been held at Zanzibar of some
European residents, relative to the feeling of the Arab popu-
lation towards the English. But it appeared also that the
meeting was presided over by a French gentleman, and,
considering the sources of our information on the subject,
that circumstance was somewhat suspicious. If hon. mem-
bers would refer to the slave-trade papers laid upon the
table during the present session, they would see that while
the slave trade was repressed on the west coast of Africa,
it was obtaining an unhappy development on the east
coast, where it was carried on not only by French
agents, but under the French flag. The British cruisers,
however, under treaty with the Sultan of Zanzibar, were
endeavouring to put an end to the traffic, which had depo-
pulated whole districts, and was working an amount of
misery almost impossible to describe.
Mr. STIRLING asked whether any official information
had been received at the Foreign-office corroborating the
statements in the French papers.
Mr. LAYARD said that none such had been received
and he desired also to state that he ought to have de-
scribed the trade which the French were carrying on on
the east of Africa as being nominally carried on for the
obtaining of free labourers.
CAPTAIN FISHBOURNE AND THE PATRIOTIC