The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-24 00:00:00

THE BALLOT,

Mr. BERKELEY presented petitions from the inha•
bitant.3 of Bristol and elsewhere in favour of taking votes
at elections by ballot.

CHURCH RATES.
Mr. S. ESTCOURT gave notice that he would make a
motion to the effect that steps should be adopted to settle
the disputed question of church rates. (Hear, hear, and

laughter).
SUPPORT OF PAUPER LUNATICS IN DUBLIN.
Sir E. GROGAN asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland if
he had received a statement from the Lord Mayor and Muni-
cipal Council of Dublin, on Sept. 29, 1861, praying that the
citizens of Dublin might be relieved from the support of
lunatics not belonging to the Dublin district, and that addi-
tional governors for the Richmond Lunatic Asylum might
be selected from the Municipal Council ?
Sir R, PEEL said that he had received some communi •
cation on the subject in question, but he did not consider
that there were any circumstances in the case of Dublin
district that required such exceptional regulations as those
suggested by the hon.. member.
MR. JUSTICE BOOTHBY,

Mr. CHILDERS asked the Under Secretary of State for
the Colonies what action her Majesty's Government had
taken in regard to the petitions from both houses of Parlia-
ment in South Australia, praying her Majesty to
remove Mr. Justice Boothby from the bench of
South Australia ; and whether there would be
any objection to produce the correspondence between Go-
vernor M'Donnell and the Duke of Newcastle, on the sub-

ject of those petitions ?
Mr. C. FORTESCUE said that his noble friend at the
head of the foreign department had received papers on the
subject, and that a selection of these documents would be
made and presented to the house.
DISTRESS IN IRELAND,
Mr. MAGUIRE drew the attention of the house to the
distress prevailing in the south-west of Ireland. He said
that 0601:43 of thA moat harrAwine description occurred in
the district to which he referred. (The hon. member then
cited several cases of distress in Skibbereen and other parts of
the south-west of Ireland, and inferred from them a general
statement as to the destitution of the district in question.
Sir R. PEEL said that the Government had adopted all
the means in their power to ascertain the actual state of
the south-west of Ireland, and from the result of that in-

njurious to the public serviee to produce and publish re-
ports received from the constabulary on the subject.
Upon a division the motion was negatived by 114 to 32.

WASTE LANDS IN INDIA.
Mr. SMOLLETT drew attention to the resolutions of the
Governor-General of India in Council
omulgated in
October last, and the Ir.;pers and minutes on which they
were framed, the P,,rst authorising the sale of waste lands in
perpetuity, and the second permitting the redemption of the
NO, revenues in certain cases, and inquired if the Govern-
ment had any objection to lay them on the table.
Sir C. WOOD said there was no objection to produce the
papers. The measures referred to did not go the length to
which they ought perhaps, but he did not see how they
could have gone further, because they announced that all
lands which were properly waste should be saleable in India.
He could not say he approved of all the details, and admitted
that the resolutions did not take sufficient care to preserve
the rights of persons having a limited occupation. If the
rights of the ryots had been ascertained in Bengal, as they
had been in North-Western India) he believed that one-
half of the disputes which had arisen there would never
have Leen heard of. The whole subject was, however, under
the consideration of himself and the Council for India.
SMOOTH BORE AND RIFLED GUNS.

Sir F. SMIT ft asked whether any experiments had been
tried to ascertain the effect of the most powerful smooth-
bore and titled guns on the section of the Warrior, or any
other target, at ranges about equal to half the interval be-
tween the proposed Spithead forts ; and, if not, whether
orders would be given to have such experiments forthwith
made.
Sir G. C. LEWIS replied that several experiments had
been made at Shoeburyness, but none as yet at a distance of
1,000 yards. It was the wish of Government that trials of the
mostost complete kind should be made with a view to test the
value of new inventions, and he admitted that it might be
desirable to make such an experiment as the one suggested.
Mr. OSBORNE tilted a lance at the Secretary to the
Admiralty, in the interest of Capt. Cowper Coles and his
cupola shield,
observing that the gallant captain came be-
fore the public not as an officer on full pay, but as an in-
ventor who had not been treated with the greatest conside-
ration by a public department. Capt. Coles had been put
on full pay against his own desire, and received neither sea
time nor command money. He had been kept seven years
waiting to have his invention considered, and he might
have sold it over and over again had he not been deterred
by his patriotism. The hon. member then described some
experiments recently made at Shoeburyness with the Arm-
strong gun, from which he inferred that notwithstanding
the expenditure of two millions of money on that weapon,
it was by no means so perfect as was represented ; and that
after all the best gun we had was the old 68-pounder smooth
bore.

Sir J. HAY stated that he had witnessed these experi-
ments, and although the damage inflicted on the target
was not so great as had been expected, the Armstrong gun
was still the most perfect description of artillery that had
yet been constructed.
Lord C. PAGET having repeated his statement of a
former night as to the relations of Capt. Cowper Coles and
the Admiralty,

The house went into committee of supply on the civil
service estimates, and was occupied for a considerable time
in the discussion of the vote for education in Ireland.
Ultimately the vote was agreed to, and the Chairman re-
ported progress.

The orders of the day were then disposed of, and the
house adjourned.