The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-05 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS—(YESTERDAY.)
ARBITRATION LAW AMENDMENT BILL.
This bill was read a second time.
CHIMNEY-SWEEPERS' BILL.
On the motion of the Earl of SHAFTESBURY, the
Chimney Sweepers Bill was referred to a select com-
mittee, as required under standing order 175. In the
course of his observations, the noble earl stated that
children of tender age were still largely employed in the
great towns to cleanse chimneys, notwithstanding the
prohibitions of the law.
THE WIVES. AND CHILDREN OF SOLDIERS
ORDERED ON FOREIGN SERVICE.
Lord ST. LEONARDS moved for a return of the
number of the wives and children ofsoldiers on service in
the East, or ordered there. His object in bringing before
the notice of their lordships the condition of these women
and children was by no means to interfere with the
regulations against the marriage of soldiers without
leave. At the same time it might be desirable to revise
those regulations, bearing in mind the altered circum-
stances of the case. Of late years they had done much
to ameliorate the condition of their soldiers ; and inas-
much as they had shortened the period for which men
were enlisted it would be desirable to discourage marriage
as far as possible, at least during the first period of their
service, after which they were at liberty, if they chose,
to quit the army. It was, however, necessary, for ob-
vious reasons, that a certain proportion of the soldiers
should be married ; and he should be glad if the
Government would consider souse means of providing
for their wives and families while they were abroad.
It was obvious that their families must be maintained in
some way, and the only question was which would be
the best plan to adopt ? It might be asked, why raise
this question at the present time ? His answer was that
the number ordinarily required for the colonies was not
large, and they were not taken away without due notice,
so that they eould make arrangements beforehand. In
the present case, however, the number taken away was
very considerable; and it had come upon the men suddenly.
With respect to the war in which we were embarked,
there was but one feeling throughout the country ; and
there was a no less general determination that the fami-
lies of the soldiers we sent forth to fight our battles
should not be neglected, otherwise the cheers which had
accompanied our armaments from our shores would have
been
meaningless ; but those cheers were intended to
assure our soldiers that those who were nearest and dear-
est to them should be taken care of. (Hear.) Now there
were only three ways in which that could be done. The
first was by means of Government aid, which he hoped
would not be resorted to except it should be found abso-
lutely necessary. The second was the state in which
these poor women and children would inevitably be left
unless something was done, viz., dependence on parochial
relief. But if there was one thing more odious to a
soldier than another, save only disgrace before the
enemy, it was the idea that his family might be driven
to the workhouse. The third plan was, by benevolence
properly directed. A considerable sum had already
been subscribed for this purpose ; but if it were distri-
buted in the usual way, it would only afford a temporary
assistance ; and, moreover, it might have a positively
injurious effect, by accustoming soldiers' wives to live
upon alms. Now, what he (Lord St. Leonards) pro-
posed was that the inhabitants of the parishes to which
the women belonged should take upon themselves to re-
lieve them of the burden of maintaining some of their
children, where they had more than they could possibly
provide for themselves. He would give them an instance.
He knew a woman of excellent character, the wife of a
husband equally deserving. She was left with six
children, and it would have been perfectly impossible for
her to have maintained herself and her family. Two of
them were taken from her, and with that assistance she
was enabled to provide for herself and the rest of her
children, without recourse to the union, into which she
must otherwise have been inevitably driven. He could
narrate several other cases ii which, by means of a little
assistance of this kind, women had been enabled to
avoid the workhouse ; and thus they would see that
this mode of affording relief was not only the most con-
sonant with the feelings of the soldiers, but would also
be the most effective. (Hear, bear.) The only objec-
tion that could be brought against it would be that it
would sever the ties between a mother and her children.
But that he denied, because the children that would
require a mother's care or that could maintain them-
selves, would not be removed from her. He proposed
that there should be no spoiling of these children, or
treatment of them in a manner that would unfit them
for their proper station in life; but that they should be
so brought up that ' when their father returned he
should find them much in the same state as they would
have been had he not been ordered on foreign service.
(Hear, hear.) He hoped that their lordships and the
public would give this plan their best attention, for ho
was convinced that if properly carried out it would an-
swer the end they had in view, and cheer the hearts of
our soldiers more than any other that could be devised.
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH did not oppose the
motion, but he should be glad to hear some member of
the Government express sentiments on the subject.
For his own part, he thought that any plan, whether
adopted by the Government or by individuals, which
should induce women more freely to marry soldiers,
would be the most unkind thing that could possibly be
done to them. The noble and learned lord had not suf-
ficiently considered the fact that in the line regiments
the soldiers, after remaining at home for five years,
must necessarily go abroad for 15 or sometimes 20
years. If, then, women married soldiers they did not
marry them for life like other men ; but, practically
speaking, they married them for five years at 'the
most. And in most cases it was better for the women
that they should be separated from their husbands than
they should go with them. If she had young children
—and if she had children at all, they must be under
five years of age—they were sure to die ; for more than
half the troops and all the young children that went
either to India or the West Indies, must necessarily
fall victims to the climate. If any new system respect-
ing soldiers' wives and children were to be adopted, he
thought it would be a hardship if it were specially con-
fined to the families of the troops ordered on the Turkish
expedition ; because the only peculiarity in the case of
those troops was that they were ordered abroad a little
sooner than they would have been if war had not broken
out. He understood that it was proposed to remove
the depots of all the regiments ordered abroad to the
Isle of Wight ; but he thought that that would give
rise to much inconvenience, and would cause the wo-
men and children left behind much misery and distress.
Those women earned their living chiefly by washing,
and though when the regiment was ordered away they
lost a great part of their customers, they were not entirely
deprived of the means of subsistence. He thought that,
the best they could do would be to make the town
from which each regiment was removed to go abroad
its home until it returned again, and he ended as he be-
gan, by deprecating any-thing that would hold out any
further inducements to women to marry soldiers.
The Duke of NEWCASTLE agreed with what had
fallen from the Earl of Ellenborough as to the undesir-
abteness of holding out any undue encouragement to
women to marry soldiers ; but he thought it had hardly
been justified by anything that had been said br. the noble
and learned lord, who nad carried out in his private
the
vtate
capacity the recommendations he bad offered
bringing the subject before the house.
H
consideratione g lec ted by th ews s Ghu
erolearnedl
ldleo ard for
bringing He thanked the noble and e
, .
vis mr
en thaten t the
whosubject
took
thhaed s
notjct been
into n n
it was determined to send troops to the East.
The Earl of DERBY said he had heard a rumour that
übe
a regiment which had recently returned from Canada
had been ordered to the East. A. considerable number
of the men had married in Canada, and their wives, who
were ignorant of our language,
The Duke of
were left behind. He
was inquired if this a true.
NEWCASTLEa
said the matter had nc4
been brought ought to his attention, but he thought it very
possible that such a circumstance had occurred. If it
Tnr
bad it Was an exceptional case, and he should feel it his
duty to inquire into it.
Earl PO WIS suggested that the wives of soldiers who
went abroad for garrison duty should be allowed to go
out with their husbands in greater numbers.
The returns were then ordered, and their lordships
then adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS—(YESTERDAY.)
DUBLIN UNIVERSITY.
Mr. FAGA.N rose to move for leave to bring in a
bill to make provision for the better government of the
University of Dublin ;_ for the establishment and main.
tenance of a
,second college therein, with co-ordinate
authority, and, as near as may be, equivalent income,
with Trinity College, to be called, in pursuance to the
act 14 and 15 Charles 2. c. 2, the Queen's College ; and
further for the extension, in pursuance to the act 33
Geo. 3, c. 21, to students of all religious denominations,
of the honours, degrees, benefits, emoluments, and
offices, in the Queen's College. The honourable
member said he regretted to have to state that while
the Dublin University was the most richly en-
dowed educational establishment in the world, it gave
less contributions to literature or science. The Dublin
University was endowed with the enormous property of
200,000 acres of land, which was valued at 93,000/. a-
year ; and though in point of fact that land at
present did not produce above 64,0001. aleary
the University was still as it would be Sean
by what he had just stated, most richly endowed.
The Provost of that tUniversity received an annual
stipend of 3,5001., while the heads of houses in Oxford
and Cambridge bad not quite 500/. ; the seven Senior
Fellows in Trinity College, Dublin, had 1,8001. a-year
on an average. The first class of Junior Fellows in
40
the Dublin University, six in number, had . 0.. a-year.
The second class Fellows, also six in number, had 6001.
a-year ; the third class Fellows, five in number, had
400/. a-year ; while the Junior Fellows of Oxford and.
Cambridge had not upon the average above 250/. a-year.
The ill success of the Dublin University as a national
establishment he attributed to the strictly exclusive
character of the eystem, by which the scholarships, and
all the prizes of the University, are confined to persona
of the Protestant religion, and the systematic exclusion
of Roman Catholics, by which the great body of
the people of Ireland avoided that University
altog,ethor as a seat of learning. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. G. H. MOORE seconded the motion.
Mr G. A. HAMILTON rose to give the motion of
the hon. member for Cork his most decided opposition.
This was the first time in his life that he had ever
heard gat the. Dublin University had been established
for to beiefit of Roman Catholics. (seer, hear.)
was it p4ioaa,l,le, was to surFoloi that