The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-29 00:00:00

INDUSTRIAL AND PROVIDENT SOCIETIES
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BILL.
The Lords' amendments to this bill were considered and
agreed to.
JUDGMENTS LAW AMENDMENT (IRELAND)
STAMP DUTY.
The report of the resolution already agreed to was
brought up and adopted.

AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE TREATY (No. 2) BILL.
This bill passed through committee.
MERCHANDISE MARK BILL.
The Lords' amendments to this bill were considered and
agreed to.
The sitting was suspended at two o'cloock.

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HOUSE OF LORDS—YESTERDAY.
CIVIL WAR IN CHINA.
Earl GREY rose to move for copies or extracts of any
correspondence explaining the arrangements that have
been made for permitting officers in the naval and
military service of her Majesty to accept employment under
the Government of China. The noble lord said the
subject was one of very considerable importance,
and upon which it was very desirable some explanation
should be made before the present Parliament was pro-
rogued. The allowing English officers to take part in China
against the Taepings, implied that a material change in
the policy of her Maj-sty's Government respecting the em-
pire of China had taken place, and he for one thought
it was very desirable that Parliament and the country
should know the extent to which it was proposed to go,
and also the reasons which had led to the change, He
could not reconcile that step with the avowed intention
of Government to observe a strict neutrality between
the conflicting parties. All the principal fortifications had
been inspected, and the guns had been laid by British sub-
jects, in fact everything had been done for the Imperialists
except the actual personal opposition of British officers
against the insurgents. He could not reconcile such an
act as one of strict neutrality, and the information he wished
to elicit was what change had taken place that had so al-
tered the determination of the British Government. He did
not think our trade in that part of the world could be furthered
by the fact of assisting the Imperialists against the insur-
gents. On the contrary, he thought the worst effects
would arise from British interference, and that the restora-
tion of tranquillity would bo mere remote than ever.

-•—•
The Duke of SOMERSET stated that an arrangement
having been come to between the British Admiral and the
Taepings that the latter should not approach Shanghae
nearer than 34 miles, the Taepings brcke the compact, and
declared that the time had arrived to take that town. With
a view to protecting Shanghae, in which there was much
British wealth, the Chinese Government requested our
officers to organise a flotilla of gunboats to put down the
pirates, and the Admiralty had given these officers leave of
absence. Up to this moment the British Government had
kept a police of small vessels there, and the time had come
when we must abandon the treaty and quit China or assist
its Government in the slender way in which our aid was
asked. There was no objection to produce the papers.
Lord STRA.T FORD de REDCLIFFE having spoken
in support of the Chinese policy of the Government,
Earl RUSSELL admitted that the course now pursued
by this country in China appeared to be a departure from a
system of strict neutrality ; but the circumstances were
most exceptional. The stipulations of the treaty of Pekin
w ere being carried out faithfully by the Chinese Government,
and our trade at the ports opened to us under that treaty
was largely increasing. Of course the safety of those ports
Was modal to our commerce, and iiingpo had, therefore,