The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-18 00:00:00

COLONIAL POSTAGE.

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Lord STANLEY wished to ask the Under Secretary
of State for the Colonies, at what time the reductiott
n
rates of colonial postage, announced by the Postmaster-
General, may be expected to come into operation ?
Mr. F. PEEL said he was afraid that considerable
time must elapse before the plan announced by the

Postmaster-General could be brought into operation. He
understood that plan to be this, that uniform postage
of 6d. the Salf-ounie, should be imposed on all colonial
letters, but. before that could be accomplistred the sanc-
tion of the colonial legislature to the scheme must be
first obtained.

MEXICO.
Mr. F. W. RUSSELL wished to ask Lord John
Russell whether he had received any official reports that
her Majesty's Minister at Mexico had succeeded in pro-
curing for our trade, by the publication of a new tariff,
the removal of the prohibition that has existed for the
last twenty years against the importation of ordinary
cotton fabrics into that country, and in having the late
excessive duties modified, which from the opening of the
Mexican trade have weighed upon all other articles of
this most important branch of our exports. He also
wished to ask, in the event pf such information having
been received, whether the Government had any objec-
tion to lay before the house a copy of the official com-
munication.

Lord J. RUSSELL could only state generally that
such a dispatch had been received, but he could not say
whether he could produce it until he had time to exa-
mine its contents.

CANADIAN RAILWAYS.
Mr. MILLS wished to ask the Under Secretary of
f3tate for the Colonies whether the attention of her Ma-
jesty's Government has been called to the circumstance
that the only existing winter route for troops from the
Atlantic coast into the interior of Canada is through the
territory of the United States, and whether it is the in:
tention of the Government to facilitate, by guarantee or
otherwise, the completion of the railway communication
between lalifax and Quebec, in compliance with a me-
morial addressed to her .Majesty in Nov. last by the
Canadian Legislature.
Mr. F. PEEL was unable to answer the question at
present.

UNSTAMPED NEWSPAPERS.
Sir J. V. SHELLEY said in consequence of the pro-
secution which was going on against Mr. Truelove for
selling an unstamped newspaper, he wished to ask the
Attorney-General if he had any objection to state
whether the prosecution commenced against Mr. Collins,
the proprietor of the Racing Times, for publishing an
unstamped newspaper was abandoned, and if
so, whether it was in consequence of the opinion
of the then Attorney-General that the prosecution
could not be sustained without it was carried on in
conjunction with a prosecution against the proprietors of
the'Euilder, the Atheneum, and similar publications.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said it certainly was
true that the prosecution against Mr. Collins was aban-
doned, but it was not usual to state the contents of an
opinion which the Attorney-General had given to the
Croyn.
Sir J. V. SHELLEY wished to know whether if in the
present uncertain state of the law it was intended to
continue these vexatious prosecutions against newsven-
ders.

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL did not feel himself at
liberty to give an answer to this question, but he should
be inclined to recommend a prosecution in all cases where
there was an infraction of the law. (Hear, hear.)
CHICORY AND COFFEE.
Mr. HASTIE wished to ask the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, if it is to be clearly understood, under the
terms of the late Treasury minute, relating to the
sale of coffee and chicory, that it will be considered a
breach of the law to sell coffee without any label of de-
scription, except in a pure and unmixed state.; and that,
if coffee so sold without being labelled shall prove to be
mixed with chicory, , or, whether labelled or not, shall
prove to be mixed with, any other extraneous substance,
the party selling it will be liable to prosecution ; and, if
in case of information being laid of a broach of the law,
the proper authorities will prosecute the offenders.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER replied
in the affirmative to all the questions.

INDIAN TERRITORIES.
Mr. OTWAY wished to ask the President of the
Board of Control, whether it be true that the Govern-
ment of India has recently propoied to annex the ancient
Rajpoot State of Kerowlee to the British territories, in
pursuance of the claim which was asserted in Lord Dal-
housie's Minute of the 30th day of August, 1848, and if
so, whether the home Government has approved of this
proceeding ; also, whether there be any objection to lay
on the table of the house, the communications which
have passed
,between the authorities at home and in
India on this subject.
Sir C. WOOD said it was not true.
• HEALTH OF TOWNS.

Mr. R. MOORE wished to ask the Chief Secretary
for Ireland, whether it is the intention of Government
to introduce any Irish town improvement bill during
this session.

Sir J. YOUNG said he had no intention to introduce
such a bill this session.

Mr. COBBETT wished to ask the Chief Commissioner
of Works whether, until the intended amendment of the
act 11 and 12 Vic., c. 63, shall have been submitted to
Parliament, the General Board of Health will suspend
its operations as to places already visited and reported
on by superintending inspectors, but with regard to
which places no provisional orders or orders in council
have been issued.

Sir W. MOLESWORTH should offer no obstacle to
the application of the Health of Towns Act in cases
where the majority of the ratepayers were favourable to
the act.

BRIBERY AT ELECTIONS.
Lord A. VANE wished to ask Lord J. Russell, whe-
ther there is any intention on the part of her Majesty's
Government, to introduce any measure or resolutions
providing that henceforth in all cases where bribery or
treating in any city, county, or borough, is proved be-
fore a committee of the House of Commons to have taken
place, a commission should issue from the Crown to in-
quite into the state of such borough, city, or county.
Lord J. RUSSELL said that in cases where bribery
had been proved it would be right to institute a com-
mission of inquiry, but it was not the intention of the
Government to introduce any measure on the subject.
CONSOLIDATION OF THE STATUTES OF

IRELAND.
Mr. V. SCULLY wished to know if it was the in
tention of the Government to codify the statutes exist.
ing in Ireland ?
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL replied that that
would be included in the general measure proposed by
the Government.

THE AFFAIR AT SIX-MILE BRIDGE.
Mr. NAPIER rose to move, pursuant to notice, for
copies of p4er relating to the riot at Six-mile bridge, in
July last ; and said that as great misapprehension pre-
vailed on the subject, and as his own conduct, as Attorney-
General in the matter, had been not to say unfairly but
mistakenly misrepresented on a recent occasion, in another
place, he would take this opportunity of laying all the
facts before the louse ; and he did not doubt that, as the
interests and character of justice in Ireland were involved,
he should obtain the indulgence of the house while he
trespassed for some time upon their patience. The right
hon. and learned gentleman then proceeded to enter into a
close and detailed narrative of those facts with which the
public are already familar, connected with the actual fracas
between the military and the mob, at the Six-mile bridge..
Continuing the history, he justified the advice he had
given that the soldiers who had been committed should be
liberated on bail on the ground that it was necessary to
fix a crime upon each individual soldier, inasmuch as the
law distinguished between unlawful assemblies and lawful
bodies in the discharge of their duty, holding each member
of the unlawful assembly responsible for the collective
acts, but holding the member of the lawful body respon-
sible only for his own acts, if those acts were in excess of
the law, and in this case he had not found sufficient evi-
dence to individualise the alleged offence. Immediately
after bail had been accepted, a newspaper in Ireland pub-
lished an account, or rather a partial account, of the
transactions in question, and of the inquest : and in this
newspaper the regiment was charged with being guilty of
deliberate murder, this charge being made pending the
inquest, and befere the subsequent expected trial. This
newspaper also threw out imputations affecting the cha-
racter of the regiment—its courage and conduct. The
Duke of Wellington saw this newspaper, and being ever
alive to everything affecting the honour of the army—
(cheers)—he immediately wrote to him (Mr. Napier), in-
timating,•that he thought that the libel would be a fit sub-
ject for prosecution by the Crown, with a view to the pro-
tection of the soldier. In consequence, he (Mr. Napier)
applied for further information to the two officers who had
been in charge of the soldiers during the riot ; and their
depositions were submitted in a very full shape. (The
right hon. and learned gentleman read these depositions,
which were elaborate justifications of the conduct of the
soldiers, their firing on the people being represented as a
merely defensive act.) He appealed to every man of right
feeling whether after these sworn informations he could
have come to any other conclusion than he did, that these
officers and soldiers should receive constitutional protec-
tion, and that steps should. be taken to bring the prime
movers of this riot to condign punishment. A great deal
had been said with reference to the exact rights and duties
of the soldiers on occasions of this kind. He apprehended
that the duty of a soldier in a case of this kind was not
different from that of any other person, A soldier was
under the order of his superior officer, but the order
-of his . officer was not of itself a sufficient justifica-
tion. But in this case the soldiers were deprived
of their officer, and the corporal, the next in
command, was struck down senseless. Now he
(Mr. Napier) believed upon his conscience that the
men had done no more than their duty, and that as
British soldiers they ought to have had the support of the
laws afforded to them. (Loud cheers.) Yet those men
were paraded in the dock as felons, and an impression was
created by the speech of the Attorney-General himself that
they were murderers, or at least, aggravated manslayers ;
and that they had only escaped because the law officer
could not get at the man who had fired the fatal shots.
(Hear, hear.) His late learned colleague (Mr. Whiteside)
had been asked to go down to defend the soldiers, for they
had had no means of defence provided for them by the Go-
vernment ; and he had felt some delicacy in doing so,
having 'himself been a law officer of the Crown, and the
Attorney-General being about to go down to prosecute.
His learned friend had consulted him (Mr. Napier) upon
the point, and his answer was " Surely, you ought to go.
You would never have appeared as prosecutor, for we never
intended to prosecute ; and the soldiers are just as much
entitled to the protection of the law as any other .men."
(Cheers.) His, learned friend did go, but owing to the
course matters took, the accused were deprived of the ad-
vantage of his learned friend's statement, and the evidence
he could have adduced. They were thus put in a much
worse position than if the bills had been found against
them ; and they had now to labour under the imputations
which had been cast upon them, and which they had had
no opportunity afforded them of removing. All this time
the two Roman Catholic priests and the other parties had
been discharged from their recognizances, and they had
actually been brought—one of them from the very gaol—
as witnesses against these British soldiers. (Cheers.) The
results of the case had been most disastrous to the magis-
trate who had been concerned in the affair. He was
obliged to have policemen living in his house ; his family
were kept in a state of perpetual alarm ; and he was him-
self unable to attend any fair or market, or to discharge
the duties of a country gentleman. (Hear, hear.) Mr.