The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-06 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

HOUSE OF LORDS.--L ST EVENING.
ROYAL COMMISSION.
The Royal Assent was given by Commission to the fol-
lowing bills :—Marriages (Lambourne), Prisons (Scot-
land) Act Amendment, Procurators' (Scotland), Partnership
Amendment, General Post-office (Additional Site), Carriers'
Act Amendment, Sugar Duties and Drawbacks, County
Courts Equitable Jurisdiction, Record of Titles (Ireland),
Harbours Transfer of Land Debentures (Ireland), Small
Benefices (Ireland) Act (1860) Amendment, Smoke
Nuisances (Scotland) Act Amendment, Greenwich
Hospital, Turnpike Trusts Arrangement, Ayr Burghs
Election, Comptroller of the Exchequer and Public Audit,
Inland Revenue, Indemnity, Compound Spirits Ware-
housing, Admiralty, &c., Act Repeal, Salmon Fishery Act
(1861) Amendment, Clerical Subscription, Falmouth
Borough, Crown Suits, &c., Poor Law Board Continu-
ance, Colonial Docks Loan, Turnpike Act Continuance,
Local Government Supplemental (No. 5), Locomotives
on Roads, Local Government Supplemental (No. 4), Navy
and Marines (Property of Deceased), Naval Discipline Act
Amendment, Foreign Jurisdiction Act Amendment,
Rochdale Vicarage, Peace Preservation (Ireland) Act
(1856) Amendment, Expiring Laws Continuance,
Pier and Harbour Orders Confirmation (No. 2),
Harwich Harbour, Colonial Governors' Pensions, Skipton
and Wharfdale Railway, Tunbridge Wells Water, Ogmore
Valley and Ely Valley Extension Railway Companies
(Carlisle Citadel Station Branch), 'Redden and Bentley
Road, Metropolitan Market, Mansfield and Worksop
Road, Midland Great-Western Railway of Ireland,
Swansea and Aberystwith Junction Railway, Wigtoushire-
shire Roads, North British and Edinburgh and Glasgow
(Bridge of Forth) Railway, Blackpool and Layton with
Warbeck Improvement, Chesterfield, Newbold, and Dun-
stan Road, Great Northern Railway (Junction at Newark,
&c.), Edinburgh and Glasgow and Monkland Railway
Companies, Kidivelley and Llanelly Canal and Tramroad,
West Cornwall Railway, Busby Railway, Aberdeenshire
Roads, Belfast Central Railway, Dublin, Wicklow, and
Wexford Railway, Dingwall and Skye Railway, Isle of
Wight Railway, St. Clement Danes Improvement, Stour-
bridge Railway, Rochester Oyster Fishery, Lymington
River Improvement, &c., Burnley Market, Fergus River
Navigation, &c, West Cork Railway, Dublin Trunk Con-
necting . Railway, Halesowen and Bromsgrove Branch
Railways, Barry Railway, Newton Water, Hoylake Rail-
way, Sidmouth Railway and Harbour, Spilsby and Firsby
Railway, Swansea Vale and Neath, &c. Railway, Bodmin
and Wadebridge Railway, Mid Wales Railway ( Western Ex-
tensions) West London: Wharves and Warehouses, Bishops-
Castle Railway, kc., Ulster Canal Transfer, Burton-upon-
Trent Connecting Railways, Burton-upon-Trent Railways,
East and West Yorkshire Union Railway, Glasgow and
South-Western Railway (Additional Powers), Glasgow
and South-Western Railway (Ayrshire, &c., Lines), Glas-
gow City Union Railway, Manchester, Sheffield, and Lin-
colnshire Railway (Purchase, &c.), Mellis and Eyre Rail-
way, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Improvement, North Eastern
1 Railway (Leeds Extension).
Several other railway and private bills, amounting to
over 200, also received the Royal Assent.
The Commissioners were Earl St. Germans, Lord Wens-
leydale, and Viscount Sydney.
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the woolsack
at five o'clock.
THE RESIGNATION OF THE LORD CHANCELLOR.
It being pretty generally known that Lord Westbury
would this evening make a statement relative to the cir-
cumstances that led to his resignation of the office of Lord
Chancellor there was a very full attendance of peers. The
members of the House of Commons were present in very
considerable numbers, and the space before the throne was
very fully attended. In the upper galleries there were a
number of ladies and some of the leading members of the
corps diplomatic.
The LORD CHANCELLOR, at a quarter past five, rose
from his seat, and said that he felt it to be his duty, out of
the respect which he owed to their lordships, to call their
attendance there to-day, that he might personallyannounce
to them that he tendered to her Majesty the resignation
of his office, and that her Majesty had been gin-
ciously pleased to accept that resignation. Tho step
he took yesterday he should have taken some
weeks ago if he had followed the dictates of his own
conscience. (Hear, hear.) But he felt that he could not
take such a step without receiving the sanction of the
members of the Government, of which he was ono. As
far as he was personally concerned, possessing, as he did,
the personal acquaintance of the noble lord at the head
of the Government, he felt his honour was perfectly
safe if ho followed his advice. He therefore fol-
lowed that advice rather than his own inclination.
He felt that the holder of the great seal should not stand
in the position of an accused person, and that ho Ought
to retire from it, and meet any accusation in the cha-
racter of a private person. But his noble friend at the head
of the Government combatted that opinion, and he thought
with great justice, it would not do to admit it as a prin-
ciple of political conduct, or the consequence would be
that whoever wanted to drive a Lord Chancellor
from office would succeed. When these charges were first
made he entreated to be allowed to resign. When the
committee of the House of Commons was moved for he
renewed his solicitations, but again he submitted to
to the wishes of his colleagues. When however, the .
late motion was announced in the House of
Commons, he again renewed his request, that the motion
might be rendered unnecessary by his resignation. But
his noble friend thought it was his duty still to persist, and
accordingly the resignation, anxious as he wished to make
it, was postponedin the manner he described till yesterday.
It was not his business to question the decision at which
the other house had arrived with respect to him ; but he
could assure their lordships that he had not been inten-
tionally guilty of any dereliction of his duty. He ad-
verted to the different law reforms which he had, with the
assistance of Parliament, been instrumental in pro
meting, and much regretted that he had not been
able to bring to maturity what he had so much at
heart, a full digest of the laws of the country ;
but he trusted that that great work would not be aban-
doned, but that both private members and noble and
learned lords would unite in its promotion. He looked
forward with confidence to the continuance of the progress
ghat had been made in the improvement of the ad-
ministration of justice, and he referred particularly
to ;the alterations that had been introduced into
Chancery, the benefits of which world bo soon expe-
rienced. The noble and learned lord, in feeling
terms alluded to his long connection with Parliament, and
to the kindness and consideration he had invariably re-
ceived from their lordships. He then resumed his seat on
the woolsack amid much cheering.
The house shortly after adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS-LAST EVENING.
The SPZAKERRcIy
tookAtheL cchoamirmatlfsosulrooN.
o'clock.
Colonel CLlFronn, the yeoman Usher of the Black
Rod, summoned the Speaker to the bar of the Upper
House to hear the Royal Assent given by Oommission
to
several private bills.
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC COLLEGES.
Mr. HENNESSY asked the Secretary for the Home
Department a question with reference to a 'statement
alleged to have been made by Mr. Fortescue in his address
to the electors of Louth, to the effect that the conduct of
the Government, with reference to the Catholic Colleges
in Ireland, had the approval of the Roman Catholic bishop.
Ile had received a letter from the Catholic Bishop of
Tuam denying the accuracy of that statement.

Sir G. GREY said that there had been no communica-
tion between the Government and the Roman Cattolic
clergy on the subject, but heunderstood they were favour-
able to the course adopted by the Government.
The houso then adjourned.

General Omer Pasha has arrived in Paris, and
been received by M. Drouyn de Lhuys, Minister of
Foreign Affairs.