The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-09 00:00:00

PUBLIC WORKS BILL.

Mr. HENNESSY complained that he had been debarred
on Saturday morning by the edict of the Speaker from ex-
pressing his opinions on the measure. It would materially
affect his constituents in King's County, and he desired to
have addressed the house on the subject.
The SPEAKER explained the course of procedure
adopted. The hon. gentleman spoke three times on the
subject, and he (the Speaker) thought at the time that he
himself was out of order in permitting him to de so. It
appeared to him that the hon. gentleman was out of order
on Saturday morning. Hence he called him to order.
ROYAL BOTANICAL GARDENS, EDINBURGH.
Mr. GREGORY, on the motion for going into Commit-
tee of Supply on Civil Service Estimates, Class 1V,5
moved " that, in the opinion of this house, the Royal Bo-
tanical Gardens of Edinburgh should be open to the public
after the hours of Divine Service on Sundays, as is the case
with other botanial gardens supported by Parliamentary
grants."
Sir J. SHELLEY seconded the motion.

The LORD-ADVOCATE opposed it on the ground that
the gardens, 18 acres in extent, were laid out for purely
scientific purposes, and that the gardens being two
miles distant from the abodes of the workpeople,
and situated in a valley, and would not be of such great
value for the purposes of recreation as other and more ad-
jacent spots readily accessible, such as Arthur's Seat
and other places—the feeling of the community was clearly
against the opening of these gardens on the Sabbath.
Mr. STIRLING tendered his thanks as a Scotch mem-
ber to the hon. gentleman who brought forward the motion,
and stated he had good grounds for believing that, while
the petition for opening the gardens had been signed by
35,000 adult males, the petition against the opening had
been signed by men, women, and children, and constituted
one of the most scandalous instances of getting up a petition
he had ever heard of. (Hear.) It would be most ludicrous,
if it was not most painful, to see how people in Scotland bol-
stered up their int3rpretation of one Divine commandment
by the breach of the rest. (Laughter and cheers.) As to
the public opinion of Edinburgh being adverse to the mo-
tion, he would challenge the Lord Advocate or any one else
to produce a list of petitioners against the motion of equal
eminence to those who had petitioned in its favour. He ad-
mitted that the clergy of Scotland were against it; but he
would ask the house to consider what took place in the As-
sembly of the Free Church only a few days ago. A certain
rev. gentleman brought before the Assembly the fact that
her Majesty the Queen had erected upon a high ground
near Balmoral a monument to the late Prince Consort.
(Cheers.) Upon that monument her Majesty had inscribed
a few touching and thoughtful words taken from the " Wis•
dom of Solomon," words which had some tender associa•
tions with the illustrious prince whom it was intended to
commemorate. (Hear.) The rev. gentleman in a long
speech brought these words before his brethren, interpret-
ing this proposal in a way that would not meet with
much respect in that house, namely, that, because the 1
words in question were taken from the Apocrypha, her
Majesty thereby implied a belief in the equal authority of
those books with the Holy Scriptures. (Cheers.) And
he was sorry to say that the speech of that frantic divine
(cheers and laughter)—was met with signs of applause ;
at all events, he departed from the Assembly without re-
ceiving that rebuke which his language and logic deserved.
(Loud cheers.) Certainly the hon. member for Greenock
rose immediately afterwards, and declared that he
did not endorse such sentiments, but no one else made a
reply. (Renewed cheers.) But were they to understand
that a meeting such as that spoke the fair sentiments of the
laity of the Free Church of Scotland ? Mcst unquestion-
ably net. (Loud cheers.) The fact was that in Scotland, as
all other countries, the clergy were obliged to do a very
rge share of the public speaking,
and aconsequently to
evolve a large share of public nonsnse. (Loud laughter
and cheers.) But
he hoped that public opinion upon the
subject would annually change, and that the apparent