The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-29 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

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HOUSE OP COMMONS-This Day.
The SPEAKER took the chair at 1% o'clock,
NEW MEMBER —HALIFAX.
Mr, STANSFELD took the oaths attl his seat.
The Lords' amendments to the Leeds Gas Bill were con.
sidered and agreed to.
The following bills were considered and ordered to be
read a third time :—Elsecar, Wentworth, and Hoyland
Gas—and Tees Conservancy,
SECOND READINGS.
The following bills were read a second time :—Cork and
Kinsale Junction Railway, and Fochabers and Garmouth
Railway.
__

CHURCH RATES ABOLITION BILL.
Sir J. TRELAWNY moved the second reading of this
bill. He regretted the absence of the right hon. gentle-
man the member for North Wiltshire (Mr. S. Estcourt)
from ill health, who had proposed a bill with a view of ef-
fecting a compromise on this important matter. Parliament
had virtually given its assent to the repeal of church-rates,
and it w. is high time that some satisfactory settlement was
arrived at. In 1861, it would be recollected, that the bill
for the total abolition of church•rates was only lost
by a majority of one, and that the Net° of the right hon.
gentleman in the chair, Strictly speaking, church rates
were the mosquitos of the Church of England, for they
were a perennial source of irritation. He disclaimed any
intention to injure the Church or to separate it from the
State. He had done all he could to bring about a substan-
tial compromise, but he regretted his endeavours in this
direction had not received very lit.ral support. He con-
fessed he could not understand the language and policy of
the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the subject of church
rates. The right hon. gentleman advocated civil and re-
ligious liberty in all church matters, but nevertheless
he did not vote either way in connection with the abolition
of church rates. (Hear, hear.) He trusted the right hon
gentleman would explain his conduct. He hoped hon.
members would cease to make this subject a stalking horse
for their personal aggrandisement or ambition, and proceed
at once and finally to a settlement of a matter which had re-
mained open and unsettled too long. Strictly speaking, the
church was the church of the people, and in most churches
a certain number of seats were set apart for those who came
unable to pay for seats, but in some cases, as in Manchester,
some of those seats have been let, and it could hardly be
expected that in such circumstances people would pay church
.L a love to understand
the grounds on which the hon. gentleman opposite
(Mr. G. Hardy) proposed to meet his bill with a
direct negative, without offeri g any substantial amend-
ment. Now was the time for those on the other side to
accept the olive leaf, and at one to come to a deft its un-
derstanding on the matter. Those who now opposed a
settlement would have to answer for their conduct at the
hustings.

Sir C. DOUGLAS seconded the motion.
Mr. G. HARDY rose to move as an amendment that
this bill be read a second time that day six months. He
should leave the right hon gentleman the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, whose mind was certainly undergoing some
extraordinary changes, to explain his conduct with respect to
church rates. (Laughter.) IL held that in no case were
church rates unjust; they had been levied for 1,000 years,
and with the consent of the owners of the land But for them
we should not probably be enjoying the blessings of religion,
nor the ben, fits of education, for it must never be forgotten
that the Church fostered and popularised the art of printing.
The bill proposed to take away a quarter of a million easily
collected indispensable fir the maintenance of the fabrics
and her pastors. Let Dissenters leave the Church alone, for
voluntaryism was defined by one of its chief supporters as
the principle of non-interference with Church or State—
and strive to emulate her in good works. (Hear, hear.)
The supporters of voluntarism belied and vitiated their
until the table groaned
principlesthem,
iansksinengdtihnegSuipatpeetotlitinotnersfere with the observance
of the Sabbath, bnt they would not allow the slightest in-
terference with themselves. (Hear, hear.) The best
argument in favour of the retention of Church-rates was
that they were maitained in the large towns with which
the supporters of this bill were connected. (Hear, hear.)
And he therefore charged those who supported the bill as
thus acting inconsistently. The hon. baronet appealed to
the decisions of two Parliaments on these rates, but it must
not be forgotten that the present Parliament had
ageed, by resolution, that these ancient rules ought not to
be abrogated until a remedy were devised in the nature of
an substitute. To be consistent the house should reject this
bill, (Hear, hear.) Those who supported this bill con-
sidered that the Church ought not to be maintained in con-
nection with the State; those who opposed it entertained a
diametrically opposite opinion : hence there could be no
compromise on account of this diversity of their sentiuents.
The abolitionists could give them nothing in return; they
proposed to take the oyster and give the Church the shell.
The noble lord the member for Woodstock (Lord A.
Churchill) had put a notice on the paper, as an amend-
ment, that the churchwardens and overseers should be
empowered to repair churches and to levy rates for that
purpose, but it expressly stated that they should have no
power of enforcing this requisite levy. (Hear, hear.)
Nothing could be more absurd than that. The voluntary
principle would not suffice for the repair of churches;
voluntaries had peculiar modes of raising funds by anni-
versaries RN CI juuneem m. LUC!a owa+
not be done in[connection with the Church. (Hear. hear.)
Whrre would they find churchwardens, whose duties are
at present no sinecures, to discharge the duty of collecting
voluntary sub,criptions for the repair of churches ? Why,
they would not find men to discharge inch a duty. (Hear,
hem.) The clergy, at this time, were overburdened with
charitable claims.

(LEFT SPEAKING.)

THE POLISH QUESTION.

.---
The following is the fu-.. ll text of the despatch of
the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Drouyn
de Lbuys, to the Duke of Montebello, the Ambue-
sador of France at St. Petersburg:—
" Monsieur le Duc,—The insurrection of which the Ring-
dom of Poland is now the theatre has aroused in Europe an
anxiety, in a time of peace, which no proximate event
seemed likely to disturb. The lamentable effusion of blood
caused by this struggle, and the painful incidents connected
with it, excite at the same time a deep and sad emotion.
" The Government of his Majesty, therefore, only obeys a
dutywhichinthexis state
pressi
ongf to a
ff theair s
D
calling its attention to the inconveniences and dangers
Courtttor a lif Russia the reflections
suggests to it, and in
which it implies.

" What characterizes the disturbances in Poland, M. le
Due, what gives them an exceptional importance, is the tact
that they are not the effects of a temporary crisis. Effects
which are almost invariably reproduced with each genera.
tion cannot be attributed to purely accidental causes. these
convulsions, which have become periodical, are the symp-
toms of an inveterate evil ; they are so many proofs of the
impotency of all plans hitherto imagined to reconcile Poland
with the position conceded to it.
" On the other hand, these too frequent disturbances are
a source of anxiety and alarm. Poland, which occupies a
central position on the continent, cannot be disturbed with-
out:the other States touching upon her frontier suffering a
shock which reverberates through the whole of Europe.
This has always been the case whenever tne Poles have
taken up arms. These conflicts, as what we are witnessing
sufficiently proves, do not only create anxiety in the pu'lic
mind, but, if they are prolonged, may disturb the relations
between the Cabinets and cause most lamentable cow plica
tions. It is the common interest of all the Powers to see
that these incessantly recurring dangers are put a stop to.
" We flatter ourselves, hi.. le Due, that the Court of Rus-
sia will receive in the same spirit in which we have written
them the considerations which are worthy of its attention.
We feel confident that it will show that it is animated
by those liberal views of which the reign of his Majesty the
Emperor Alexander has already given such striking proofs,
and that, in its wisdom, it will take advantage of the oppor-
tunity of taking measures to place Poland under the condi-
tions of a durable peace:

"You will please to leave a copy of this despatch with
his Excellency Prince Gortschakofr.

against £20,231 for the correspond-
inggainst £22,467; on the Cork and
The receipts last week on the South-Eastern
Railway were £18,567,
; on the London and
Big
(Easter week)
rto period
n, Lus,tßandon, £344, against £355 ; and on the Great Luxera•
bourg, £5,041, against £5,031.
1a895, year a
William
M‘Lean, Esq.. of Henderson County,
one of the most extensive end successful planters in
Kentucky, sold his crop of tobacco, embracing three hun-
dred and eighty thousand pounds, together with his mop of
corn, for the sum of 70,000 dole. The tobacco alone brought
63,000 dols.— New York Taper.
DEPARTURE OF 1,000 _EMIGRANTS FROM MAN-
CHESTER.--Yesterday morning upwards of 1,000
emigrants left the Victoria Railway Station of the London
and North-Western Company, Manchester, for Birkenheae,
en route to Australia. Tne tifti,i consisted of 21 carriages,
inclusive of the luggage vats, which appeared to be as
heavily laden with goods as the carriages were with emi-
grants. The engine as well as carriages were gaily decked
with evergreens and flags, and a majority of the adventurers
appeared as joyous and lighthearted as if they were going
only for a short pleasure trip, instead of a distant voyage to
the antipodes. The emigrants consisted of 400 to 500 fami-
lies, besides many single young men and women. The sta-
tion was exceedingly crowded, there being quite as many
friends there to bid them God speed" as there were emi-
grants. Since writing the above we learn that the emigrants
are going to Canterbury, New Zealand, by the ship British
Crown, now lying in the MerseY. The emigrants are chiefly
natives of Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, and the surround-
ing villages.
THE CITIZENS AND THE POLICE AMALGAMATION
BlLL.—Yesterday the Lord Mayor fixed Tuesday next, the
sth May, for the meeting of citizens with reference to Sir
G. Grey's Police Amalgamation Bill. Up to last night,
upwards of 3,500 signatures had been appended to the re-
quisition.