The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-11 00:00:00

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THE SUN.

LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 1862.

The Ministerial defeat last night in the House
of Commons is so far deeply to be regretted that
it hos sha•lved for another year the really admi-
rable scheme for the concentration of the Courts
of Justice. was upon the second reading of
the money bill connected with this imperial pro-
ject that the Com:nons eventvally decided upon
the formal rejection of the meas,nre introduced
by one of the Cabinet IVZinisters. An amendment
having been moved by the hon. and :earned
member (Mr. SELWYN), who thereby acqui.red
the glory of " pinking" the Government, by a
dexterdus lunge, in the midriff—and amendment
that the bill be read a second time this day six
months--Ministers at length, towards the small
hours of the morning, found themselves suddenly
in a minority of two. And the Opposition, of
course, made the most of it. So soon as the
numbers were anvonnced up rose a shout of jubi-
lation, as though the fate of a Government had
been decided. When, in point of fact, the triumph
or failure of the bill which unluckily fell through
last evening, made not the smallest difference in
the world either to the Government or to the
Opposition. In effect, it will be remarked, upon
the mere surface of things last night, that the
House was by no means a large House to begin
with. It numbered considerably less than 200 in
all. At the most—when the opposing forces mus-
tered at length at their fullest number—there were
within the walls, including Mr. Speaker and the
four Tellers, but 169 altogether. And such confu-
sion as the Ayes and Noes made of it from begin-
ning to end Two divisions there were—or if
we would be especially accurate, three distinct
divisions there were—before the matter at issue
was definitively decided by the throwing out of the
Government bill by that little clear majority of
two,

The Speaker—after a lengthened discussion, in
which Sir W. HEATHCOTE, Mr. COWPER, Mr.
S ELWYN, Mr. FREDERICK E EEL, Mr. GLADSTON E,
Mr. MALINs, Mr. BOUTERIE, the Attorney-Gene-
ral, the Solicitor-General, and Sir H. WILLOUGHBY
141 of them took part, sifting the subject
in debate thoroughly durivg the agitation
of their conflicting arguments—the Speaker having
at last brought the discussion to a climax by putting
to the house
that the word " now" stand part of the
question—Abe house divided, and again, as in last
session, theta was a tie
Ayes
......
81
Noes
.....
The Tellers bewildered—the house ringing with
mingled laughter and cheering—everybody looking
at the iascrutable face of Mr. Speaker to
learn the decision about to 1,
-e Riven by his casting
Tote!

Mr. Speaker—upon one et those
rare occasions
when his honoured name is for once no actual mis-
nomer--addressing t tie house, then said „
lhe house
having given consent for this bill to be introduced"--
But, as if a fatality were attendant Upon. him
as if it were inexorably decreed by Fate that even
for so brief an interval Mr. Speaker were not to
speak—up rushes an excited member of the House
with a stammering interruption like my Lord DUN-
DREARY. There is a cry of " Order" at the seeming
indecorum. But the interposing member turns out
to be Mr. T. G. BARING, the Under Secretary for
India. The news blurted out by Mr./BARING gets
'whispered about the House. An hon. member Who
as in the House at the time of the Division.
has
not passed through the lobby ! The
delinquent--who proves to be Mr. WYKEHAM
MARTIN, the
hon, member for Rochester—is sum-

moned to the table of the Ilona; $y Order of the
gravely catechised. Gravely,
Speaker, and there
however, though he is catechised—hardly cin the
House meanwhile preserve its gravity during the
examination. " Did you hear the question put,
sir ? " " I did, sir. I was in the House,
sir, but I did not pass out at the
door." Why—is not explained. But there
is laughter. " Which way will you give your
voice, Sir ?" asks the Speaker. " With the ayes,"
replies the Member for Rochester. There is more
laughter, and there are cheers from the Ministerial
Benches—for that supplementary vote of Mr. MAR-
TIN'S saves the Speaker trouble by opportunely
giving a tardy majority of one to the Government.
The battle, however, is very far indeed from being
brought to an end decisively. The Courts of Jus-
tice (Money) Bill is yet to form the Marengo of the
Opposition. The Defeat may still, it is thought, be
turned into a Victory ; and unhappily for that
dream of a Palace of Justice that we had se
much and so long at heart—it is thought
thus, moreover, only with too much reason.
The hon. and learned member for the Uni-
versity of Cambridge moves his amendment,
namely, that the Bill be read again six months
hence. The three minutes' sand-glass is turned
upon the Table. The divison bells are rung for the
appointed interval. And at the close of that inter.
val the doors are again shut to. Only one addi-
tional representative, whose name was not in either
list upon the first division, has entered the House
during those three minutes' grace: the hon. gentle-
man in question being the lately-returned member
for the newly-created constituency of Birkenhead.
Yet, upon the division which then takes place,
it proves, wonderful to tell, that the Minis-
terial majority of one has suddenly be-
come transformed into a Ministerial minority of
two. The fact being, that others besides the
member for Rochester have been bewildered
upon the former division—and then and there
baulked in their amiable intentions solely by their
own self-bewilderment. One of the English county
members, it was Col. GILPIN, the member for Bed-
fordshire—and with him one of the Irish represen-
tatives, it was Mr. BLAKE, the member for the city
of Waterford—had, under the influence of some
momentary obfuscation walked into the lobby with
the Government side, when intending to do pre-
cisely the reverse. Aware of these blunders on the
first division they failed to repeat it on the second.
The amendment of the member for Cambridge

University is put—
For the Second Reading Bl
Against it .
The voting paper changes hands this time—thanks
in different degrees to the members for Bedfordshire,
for Waterford, and for Birkenhead. The Ministerial
Bill is thrown out by a clear majority of two against
the Government. As a matter of course, immediately
upon the announcement being made, there are rounds
of cheers from the Opposition benches. Nothing
comes of it—nothing could come of it : but still it
is a Government Bill, it has been thrown out, the
Ministry is again in a minority, and the Opposition
members at least will give themselves the luxury of
a ringing cheer or two over their confronting anta-
gonists. The spunge, to be sure, cannot be
thrown up. But another round is over—more blood
has been drawn—and yet, at the end of it all, with
imperturbable serenity upon his every lineament,
there still sits the Judicious Bottle-Holder, with
folded arms, looking, with smiling self-possession,
upon the fluctuations in the political ring !
We should almost have felt exhilirated by the
refreshing novelty of that little "breeze " last night
in the House of Commons, but for the after-qualm
produced by the reflection that if it has served to
enliven for a moment the dell uniformity of the
Session, it has unhappily lost to the country, for
another year, the chance of seeing its Courts of
Justice concentrated. A result all the more tan-
talising, when it is remembered that the site of the
new Palace for the Blind Goddess with the
Balance and the scales has already been selected and
carefully marked out. Besides which, there is the
Suitors' Fund ready at hand to be drawn upon.
There is the certainty, when once our now scattered
courts are brought together, of an immense yearly
economy resulting both to the public and to the
profession—a double economy, an economy of time
atld of money : though, by the way, according to a
familiar adage in this country, the words are, as
indicaticos of value, synonymous. However—lost
tons this year, the Palace of Justice may be secured
effectually next.

We may talk now of " the great guns " of the
day, without incurring the charge of descending
to slang, for the literal great guns, for the time,
attract more of public attention than their figura-
tive competitors. Our Houses of Parliament can
hardly forget them for a single night, since the news
of the battle of the Bth of March in Hampton
Roads first reached England. Every neighbour
you meet has something to say about " great guns ;"
every reader of a newspaper glances over the
columns with the question in his mind—" Anything
more about great guns ?"—and Lord R. MONTAGU
and Lord CLARENCE PAGET, and others do their best
to satisfy the public craving to know all about
the " great guns," and what is only another part
of the same subject, about the shields, cupolas,
or targets, against which the great guns are
matched, or behind which they work
What we learned last night was first a little
history of the Cupolas, in which the guns are to be
used, and under which the gunners are td be safe
against all other guns. General PEEL, we are in-
formed, was the first official to appreciate the value
of Captain COLES' invention, when he was last in
office. He wanted to try it as a part of a fort.
The present Government when it succeeded to office
took the same favourable view, but the War De-
partment did not possess the requisite facilities
for constructing the shield; the Admiralty, more-
over, wished for the work, and accordingly it was
handed over to them. They built a shield,
made trial of it last autumn on board the Trusty,
and were quite satisfied they ought to proceed.
Hence the demand for a sum of money to build a
ship expressly Mr the purpose of working the
shield. The public will be pleased to know that
justice is done; pecuniarily, to Captain COLES. He I
wa3 at once placed on full-B.ay, and the usual allow-
ance additional made him of £1 a day given to
officers actually engaged in preparing inventions
for the Admiralty. . _ _

But the Shoeburyness experiment could not, of
course, be overlooked ; Lord PAGET must be made
to tell all he knew about that ; but he could only say
that the account which our readers saw yesterday
was as faithful as could be wished. It comes to this,
that for close quarters the grand essential is that
the gun must be able to bear the largest charge of
714)0w-der which will be all consumed in the ex-
plosion,The difference between the shots fired at
the Merrimac by the Monitor and those which
utterly smashed
difference of the target on Tuesday, was the
the weight of powder by which they
were propelled. It will
be remembered that the
Monitor's shots weighed I.Bolbs • the shot fired on
Tuesday weighed but
1401:
51611ba, yet the heavier
balls made no impression
plated as
the Merrimac,
hastily and imperfectly
as she had been,
while the others went through what represented a