The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-20 00:00:00

late Prince Consort devoted his 'efforts, and to bear his
name P
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER 'ntimated
that he was not yet in a condition to give a practical enswer,
as the commissioners of 1861, with whom the matter rested,
had not yet come to a decision. The commissioners would
meet on Thursday) when he anticipated a t nal decision
would be arrived at. After the holidays he ; °seed to be in
a position to answer the question satisfactorily, and to inti-
mate the intentions of the Government with respect to the
buitding. If acquired by the Government it certainly would
be devoted to the purposes indicated in the question.
PROTECTION OF LIFE AND PROPERTY FROM
FIRE IN THE METROPOLIS.
Mr. CRAWFORD asked the Secretary of State for the
Home Department when he would bring in his bill for the
better protection of life and property against fire in the
metropolis
Sir G. GREY replied that, as the details of the bill had
not yet ,been settled, he could not name the exact period
when it would be introduced. But it would be introduced
at the earliest possible moment,
SMALL PDX IN THE METROPOLIS.
General BUCKLEY asked the President of the Poor
Law Board, whether he was aware that fresh cases of
small pox were brought into the workhouse of St. George's,
Hanover-square parish, and other workhouses in London!;
and whether some arrangement could not be made to pro.
vent fresh cases of small pox being brought into the popu-
lous part of London ?
Mr. VILLIERS replied that the parish authorities, in
response to a circular from the Poor Law Board, had pro-
vided ample accommodation. The disease was greatly on
the decline, not only in the parish specified, but in other
parts of the metropolis.
THE CHINA WAR VOTE.
Sir S. NORTHCOTE asked the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer whether it was the intention of the Government to
surrender into the Exchequer the balance of £526,104 re-
maining unissued from the vote of credit for the China war.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER replied
that the time had not arrived when it would be practical to
surrender this balance. The money wsuld be surrendered
to the Exchequer when all the contingencies connected with
the.war had been definitively settled.
COMMITTEE ON ORDNANCE.
In reply to Mr. LINDSAY,
Mr. MONSELL replied that the committee had not yet
concluded their labours, and he feared it would be some
time yet, but he hoped the report and evidence would be in
the hands of members before the end of the session.
POLAND.
Lord PALMERSTON moved the adjournment of the
house to the 25th.
Mr. HENNESSY called the attention of the noble lord
at the head of the Government to a document which he had
received, and which he asserted to be authentic, stating that
the Russian troops had received great facilities and had
been supplied with amunition by the Prussian tic. ps, and
addressed some interrogatories to the noble earl on the
matter.
Lord PALMERSTON explaiced what, in his opinion,
WAS the nature of the international law on the subject, and
intimated that he had not received any information on
the matter. He believed neutrals were permitted to supply
belligerents with ammunition.
THE CONDUCT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
Mr. PEACOCK called attention to how our foreign re-
lations were treated in that house, and as her Majesty's Go-
vernment were about to take a short holiday, he hoped they
would take into their consideration some mode of improving
it for the future. During the greater part of the present
session all the important discussions on foreign affairs had
been transferred to the other branch of the legislature.
About the middle of last month the noble lord the member
for Chichester put a question to the Under 'Secretary rela-
tive to the Crown of Greece, who rose and said he could give
the noble lord no information. The noble lord saig he would
repeat the question, when the Under-Secretary again rose,
and said it would be idle and useless for him to repeat it, as
he could give no further answer. Within 48 hours, how-
ever, the same matter was brought under the discussion of
the other branch of the Legislature, and Earl Russell spoke
for an hour on the subject. (Hear, hear.) He entered fully
into the question, and though the noble lord at the head of
the Government said the noble earl disclosed little, he (Mr.
Peacock) doubted if the noble earl had yet arrived at the
art of speaking for an hour and of saying nothing. (Hear,
and laughter.) After that the hon. and learned member for
Sheffield brought before the house our relations with Ame-
rica, which was a question in which the entire country felt
considerable interest, and that question was followed by
another from the hon. member for East Norfolk. The
noble lord in reply said he could say nothing, and the
Under-Secretary could only say ditto to the noble lord.
At that time the matter was undergoing discussion in the
other house, where Earl Russell entered most fully irate
the subject of the carrying the Matamoras mails. On
Friday week an important question was prevented from
being brought on by the hon. member for Galway from
there being no house— (hear, hear)—which many consi-
dered was deliberately done to defeat discussion. (Hear.)
And on Friday last the China debate was allowed by the
Government to come suddenly to an end, owing, as the
Under-Secretary stated, to a misapprehension on his part
as to his being able to speak on the several questions before
the house if he rose at an early period of the evening.
(Hear,) The hon. gentleman must have been aware that
he could have spoken on all the questions. No doubt he
would say that he was acting according to order or instruc-
tion; but the inconvenience complained of arose from the
fact that the Foreign Secretary was a member of the other
house, and the department was only represented in this
house by the Under-Secretary. Four important depart-
ments were represented in this house by under-secretaries
—(hear)—viz., War, the Admiralty, Foreign, and Colonial
departments. The only departments represented in this
house were the Home-office and our Indian empire. (Hear.)
He urged an expression of opinion by that house against its
continuance, and prevent that assembly, which had hitherto
been considered the first representative in the world, from
being degraded into a debating society, and from possessing
no more political authority than a parish vestry. (Hear.)
After some remarks from Mr. NEWDEGATE,
Mr. LAYARD defended himself from the charges that
had been made against him by the hon. member for
Maldon, and who had unintentionally misrepresented
what had occurred. He had made two direct charges
against him—first, that he declined to give information
relative to the affairs of Greece ; and secondly, with regard
to the Matamoras affair. With respect to the first ques-
tion, he thought it his duty not to give any answer, and
in the House of Lords Earl Russell declined to give the in-
formation. When he was asked about the Matamoras mails,
he had no information, having left the Foreign Office before
it was received ; and it was owing to Earl Russell's attend-
ance being required later in the House of Lords that he was
in possession of the information before he left the Foreign
Office. He denied that he was any party to the count-out,
and he assured them he had no knowledge whatever about
it until he reached the house. When he found that the
house had been counted out he very much regretted it, be-
cause he was anxious to have an opportunity of replying to
the charge he knew the hon. member for Galway was about
to make. He admitted that he had since ascertained that
he was in error in thinking he could only speak once on
Friday night last on the China question ; but he attributed
the sudden termination of the debate to the hon. member
for Northumberland's anxiety to have the correspondence,
calling out "aye" when the Speaker put the question that
enabled him to leave the chair. His hon. friend had had his
notice on the paper for many days, and he told him that it
was his intention to end with a resolution. He asked him
what he was going to do, and nevertheless it was not until
the morning after the motion came on that he got his hon.
friend's list of the papers he was moving for. It turned
out, too, that all the papers, with one exception, were con-
nected with a different department from his, namely, the
Admiralty ; but so little was his noble friend the Secretary
for the Admiralty aware of the motion that was going to
be made, that he had actually left the Louse. Now, he
had been accused of neglecting his duty in not answer-
ing the statement of his honourable friend. Well, he
could assure the house that he had no wish whatever to
shirk the question, and he would have been quite ready to
answer, but for a misappropriation as to the rules of the
house. It had been said, however, that some other mem-
ber of the Government might have replied to the questions
on foreign affairs which would have remained unanswered
by him. Now, while admitting his gratitude to the noble
lord at the head of the Government for the support which
the noble lord aff,rded him in the conduct of the business
of the Foreign Office in the house, he must say it was
rather hard that the noble lord should be called upon to
make four or five elaborate speechesd
therefore
er the course
he
thought
eouf an
t
evening upon important questions, an
a division of labour, and that he (Mr.
it was only fair that upon Friday evening there should be
Layard) should take
the China question. (Hear, hear.) But he could aessure
his hon, friend that no personal disrespect was intended
towards him. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. BENTINCK said that, whatever
question there
might be as to the distribution of the several Govern-
ment offices, it was not likely that there would be want-
ing in that house opportunities of discussing the affairs
of other countries. It seemed to him that those discus
Mons were very often of a most unfortunate character. He
should like to ask hon, members who were so enthu-
siastic about the affairs of Poland and other countries
whether they were in earnest in the language which they
held, and whether, in the event of the Government adop-
ait the
eriably Government result.
ig their suggestions, they were prepared to support the
Gn
( Ho ve
(Haar,
rr
hear,)men A
i n the
for
potlhiec
y charge
which
against mustgns invariably
that they were guilty of a slight towards the house in habi-
tually omitting to answer questions with respect to foreign
affairs, he must say that whatever misconduct the Govern-
ment had been guilty of in its mode of dealing with that
house arose entirely from the want of endeavours on the
part of the house to defend its privileges. Fifteen years ago
the house surrendered a most important privilege of inde-
pendent members, and the result was that Governments, no
matter what their party, took advantage of the circumstance
to avoid the discussion of inconvenient questions. He de-
sired to know what business would be taken on the first day
of meeting after the recess.
Lord R. CECIL, in reply to the observations of the hon.
member for West Norfolk (Mr. Bentinck), asked how did
his hon. friend the member for Northumberland (AIL Lid-