The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-31 00:00:00

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THE DANISH SUCCESS 44,1 T. . _S
In reply to Mr. BAILLIE,
Lord J. RUSSELL said the treaty signed in Lot Idoa
to regulate the Danish succession was to preserve i IA
succession, and could not be effected by the war a iki3
Russia.

REPLY TO HER MAJESTY'S MESSAGE
THE WAR.

Lord J. RUSSELL—Sir, before the house prove eds
any further, I wish to give notice that to-morrow I will
move the following reply to her Majesty's most grac ,oust
message :
" That a humble address be presented to her Make* r, to
return to her Majesty the thanks of this house for her 7 fleet
gracious message, and for the communication of the 11 In el rai
papers whim have been laid before it in obedience to • her
Majesty's command. 'To assure her Majesty of th a • just
sense we entertain or her Majesty's anxious and u, r f erne
endeavours to preserve to her people the blessings of pe ice
and of our perfect cereidence in her Majesty's disp( is ,tion
to terminate the calex cities of war whenever that of eject
can be accomplished' consistently with the hov lour
of her Majesty's Crown and the interests of her
people. That we have observed with deep concern, that
her Majesty's endeavours have been frustrated by the
of aggression displayiel by the Emperor of Russia, in his
invasion and contime el occupation of the provinces of V Tel-
lacilia and Moldavia—in the rejection of equitable tern ts of
peace, proposed under the sanction of the four principal
powers of Europe— end in the preparation of immf else
forces to support his unjust pretensions. That these I ere-
tensions appear to us subversive of the independence of the
Turkish empire. That we feel that the trust reposed ii lus
demands on our past a firm determination to co-op e; ate
with her Majesty in a. vigorous resistance to the projece s of
a Sovereign, whose further aggrandisement would be < lan-
gerous to the independence of Europe."
WIVES AND CHILDREN OF SOLDIERS.
Col. HARCOURT moved for a return of the nui n her
of married women belonging to each regiment ord:4 red
on foreign service; and the number married with and
the number married: without leave ; and the mum-
her of children. The hon. and gallant member read
several letters from military officers deprecating the
evils arising from the greatly increased number of mar-
riages in the service, a large proportion of which took
place without leave of the commanding officers.
Mr. S. HERBERT said he could have no objection
to the returns moved for, so far as they could be
accurately obtained. Be concurred in the remarks of
the hon. and gallant member respecting the evils of too
numerous marriages in the service without leave, though
the Government were anxious to do all in their power
to promote the comforts of the soldiers.
The returns were then ordered.
THE POOR-LAW BOARD.
Mr. BAINES then entered into some explanations
of his present position. He said that he had introduced
the Removal and Settlement Bill in a form which vras
in accordance with the recommendations of 1847, and.
had been asked whether it referred to Irish paupers.
He had replied that it did not. When the bill %beta
within a few days of the second reading, some Irish re.
presentatives had addressed a memorial- to Lord Pal-
merston, and had obtained a decision that Ireland ought
to be included in the bill, 'a decision given without his
being aware of it. On reflection he had been satisfied
that no personal disrespect was intended to himself, but
having at heart the interests of the bill as it stood, and
as the Irish members and others thought that this bill
was to be moulded to include Ireland, while he was con:
vinced the Irish question was not ripe for legislation, he
conceived that, by retaining his office, his character and
efficiency as a public servant would be impaired. Acting
upon these grounds, continued the right hon. gentlemen,
I did, on Tuesday last, send to the noble earl at the
head of her Majesty's Government my resignation of the
office which I have so long held. (General cheering.)
In the course of the day I received from that noble earl
a most kind letter, to which I have his permission to
refer, and one passage of which runs thus :
" I very sincerely hope you may be induced to recon-
sider the decision at which you have arrived. At all
events, I hope you will agree to suspend the execution of
your present intention until it be seen whether anything
can be done to remove the difficulties connected with the
present state of the measure to which you refer."
Upon the receipt of that communication, I not only
considered the case again most anxiously, but I deter-
mined—for a man's own feelings are not always to be
trusted in his own case—to refer myself to the judg-
ment of two gentlemen, whom I am proud to call my
friends, a noble lord and a right hon. gentleman, whose
characters for personal and political honour stand as
high as those of any gentleman in this house. The ques-
tion which I put to them was this—" Looking at all
the facts of the correspondence which has now passed, I
begged to ask your opinion whether I can, with honour
to myself, without injuring my efficiency as a public
man, and without disadvantage to the public service,
retain the office I now hold." I determined to be guided.
by their opinion. They favoured me with their opinion,
and I acted upon it ; and the following day I commu-
nicated to the noble lord at the head of the Government
the result of my own consideration and the advice I had
so received ; and it is with the noble lord's permission,
again, that I read a passage from the letter I wrote in
reply to the one I had received from him :
"As your lordship is pleased to express an opinion that-
serious inconvenience to the public service would be occae
sioned by my retirement at present, and as I find that the
friends with whom I have confidentially advised upon thio
subject consider that I may remain without injustice be
my own character, I beg leave so far to qualify the decision
which I had formed yesterday as to adopt the suggestion
kindly made in your lordship's note, remainingin my office
at present. I feel, however, that I must request per-
mission to renew the tender of my resignation hereafter,
in case I find that I am unable to acquiesce in the ultimate
decisions of the Government with regard to the Settlement
and Removal Bill, and the other questions connected with
it." (Loud cheers.)
That was the letter which I sent to the noble earl. The
house will now see the position in which I stand. I
have nothing to add. I hope I have not gone very far
wrong in the matter. It is my earnest desire to be quite
right. The house has all the circumstances before it,
and I leave them to its candid consideration. (Loud
and general cheering.)
Mr. FRENCH explained that no disrespect was in-
tended to Mr. Baines by consulting Lord Palmerston
without apprising the former.
Lord PALMERSTON—I can assure the house, and
my right hon. friend will believe me when I do so, that
no man who has any knowledge of the personal cha-
racter and high feeling of my right hon. friend could
suppose that whatever course he, upon full considera-
tion, might think it right to pursue, was not a course
which ho and those who might advise him would deem
to be most consistent with his private honour and cha-
racter. (Hear, hear.) I am glad that the decision of
those by whom he agrees to be guided has been such as
he has described. But I can assure him that those
who have the happiness to be his colleagues in the Go-
vernment would consider it a great misfortune to them-
selves and to the country to have lost the benefit of his
able services and exertions in the important department
which he has so well for the country administered. (Cheers.)
I sin sure it is unnecessary for me to say that, in the
transaction which led to the doubt upon the mind of my
right hon. friend, nothing could have been further from
the thoughts of any of those who had anything to do with
it, and I speak most particularly for myself, than to
do anything which could for an instant have impressed
upon the mind of my right hon. friend that there
was the slightest want, on the part of his colleagues, of
that regard and respect for him, individually and offi-
cially, to which he is so justly entitled. (Hear, hear.)
I happened not to be present in the council at the time,
but the moment I got the decision of the cabinet I com-
municated it to him, as well as those from whom the
memorial came. But, so far from its being the intention
of the cabinet, as I understood it, that any change should
be made in my right hon. friend's bill, I distinctly stated,
and I requested my noble friend opposite, with whom I
had been in communication, to communicate with my
right hon. friend as to the best manner in which the
object of the memorialists could be accomplished. I
never for one instant considered that it was essential that
a change with regard to Irish paupers should be made
in the same bill which my right hon. friend brought for-
ward as to English paupers. There were a variety of
circumstances which might, on the one hand, require
fuller information before any measure might be devised,
and which, on the other hand, would require that mea-
sure to be entirely distinct from the bill of my right hon.
friend. I can only repeat the pleasure that her Majesty's
Government derive from the decision which my right
hon. friend has come to ; and I am sure the country
would concur with us that it would be a great misfor-
tune at any time, and more especially at the present
moment, to lose his valuable services. (Cheers.)
Mr. T. DUNCOMBE confessed that it was with sur-
prise and great regret that he read that morning of the
resignation of his right hon, friend the President of the
Poor-law Board. (Hear.) It would be in the ref" Reece-
in lieu of the old Poor Law Board, they were
tion of the house that, when the present board was form"
they were henceforward to have an officer placed in that
house might apply
house—a minister to 'whom thetold that
for
the information it required—an important person, who
was not to be treated as a mere subaltern of the Govern-
ment, and kept in utter ignorance of all the decisions
of the Government. (gear hear.)
Now, he really
thought that the explanation which had been given by
the noble lord (Palmerston) was not satisfactory to the
house, even if it was satisfactory to the right hon. gen-
leman—(cries of " Rear")--because the right hon. gen-
tleman bad not been treated with the consideration with
which he (Mr. Duncombe) maintained he ought to have
been treated. He little dreamt that there was flirtation
going on between Tiverton and Tyrone. (Cheers
. and
laughter.)
He did not know that thheirse
devoted o ttehds head.roat
Irish cloud ready to burst
over
rt
he thought the right
All he Wished now to say way,'ted himself entirely from hon, gentleman had ex.trincaof a
personal nature. The
every charge and imP;tati? P a most painful
had been placedin
right hon. gentleman
as well as a false position. So likewise had that house,
the several deputations, and the public. It was impos-
sible,
that the house could disc ussthe question as it then
stood. It would be playing Hamlet without the part of
Hamlet, to proceed to deal with the poor law and to
Irish
all reference to theand the Scotch poor.
omit
the Government had not
Therefore, he suggested that if
the point—if
arrived at any decision on there was to be
no removal of the whole poor of the three kingdoms—
that the whole question should be postponed until the
nextession. He (Mr. D.) was delighted to hear that
the right hon. gentleman's resignation had been delayed,
and that the country would have the benefit
of his ser-
vices for some time longer. But come when that resig-
nation might, he (Mr. D.) was bound to say that when
it did come the Crown 'would lope pa elloieut