The Sun.
London, England, 1854-06-29 00:00:00

LONtiON

LNIPERIAL PARLIAnEN-1711.-

HOUSE OF COMMONS—(YESTERDAY.)
- MORTMAIN BILL.
Mr. MOWBRAY then moved that the consideration
of the bill be postponed till after the other orders of the
day were disposed of.
Mr. BO UVERIE repeated his previous observation,
that it would be unworthy of the house to refuse to go
on with the bill because the law officers of the Crown
were not present.
Mr. BOWYER considered the further consideration
of the bill ought to be postponed till next session.
--Mr. GOULBU RN- thought the house ought to go at
Once into committee on the bill.
Mr. MOWBRAY said a suggestion was made to him
by his honourable and learned friend (Mr. Headlam),
that he had no objection to postpone the consideration
of the 13th and 16th clauses for the present, provided
the house went at once into committee on the bill.
Under those circumstances he begged to withdraw his
motion.
The motion was then, by leave, withdrawn, and the
house went into committee on the bill.
On clause 3, which provided that the quantity of land
to be devised for the purposes of building schools or
churches, should be limited to five acres,
Mr. MULLINGS moved an amendment, that the
quantity should be limited to two acres.
Lord PALMERSTON (who had entered the house
a few minutes previously) supported the original propo-
sition of the clause.
Mr. MAG DIRE considered that burial grounds should
be exempted from the operations of the bill.
After a good deal of discussion, the amendment was
withdrawn.
Clause 3, as amended, was then geed to.
Clause 4 was agreed to without discussion.
Clause 5 gave rise to-a good deal of technical discus-
sion, which brought out the legal members in great
force. Ultimately the clause was amended by striking
3ut parts of it, and making additions to it. The object
A the clause appeared to be to define the meaning of the
:erm " site," and to provide that, if land left for a spe-
ial purpose should not he' apprbpriaited to that pur-
pose within a specified time, it should revert to the
heirs of the granter.
The committee divided upon the clause as amended,
and the numbers were .
For the clause
Against it
Majority —6s
The clause was accordingly added to the bill.
On clause six,
' Mr. GO.ULBURN complained that it violated the
provisions of the Mortmain Act, and therefore he ob-
jected to the clause. •
Mr. HEADLAM and Mr. ATHERTON argued that it
was a matter of public policy that the mortmain laws
should be amended in the proposed bill by this clause.
Mr. T. EGERTON did not think so. In point
of fact, the clause would go to destroy the whole
foundation of the ruortmain laws, as it would
enable undying corporations to purchase and
hold land in perpetuity. He entertained a decided ob-
jection to such a provision, no matter whether it was
intended for a charitable or any other purpose whatever.
After some further discussion,
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL, who entered the
house shortly before five o'clock, said he had given a
few minutes' attention to the clause, and it seemed to
him to be surrounded with so much difficulty that he
must suggest its postponement.
Mr. HEADLAM complained of this treatment. The
bill had been several months before the house, and it
was too bad that at the last moment and after only two
or three minutes' consideration, one of the law officers of
the Crown should pronounce against the most important
clause in the bill. If this was the treatment he had to expect
at the hands of the Goveinment, be thought the sooner he
gave up the measure the better, as it was impossible for
an independent member to carry it under such circum-
stances. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. Serjeant SHEE thought the object of the clause
was an exceedingly good one ; it was simply to enable
charitable persons who had money in hand to invest it in
land for charitable purposes, and he was at a loss to un-
derstand how such a provision could infringe on the
Mortmain Act.
Tne SOLICITOR-GENERAL did not object to such
a provision as that, but, the language of the clause was
such as to admit of its being applied to purposes that
would be at variance with the conditions of the inort-
main laws.
Mr. HEADLAM was at a loss to discover where
there was room for improvement in the language of the
clause, bet 'let the oornmittee pass it as it had been
amended, then see it reprinted, and if it should be found
that the language could be restricted or improved, -why
.the change could be made on bringing up the report.
After some further discussion of a purely technical
character the committee divided, when there appeared—,
For the clause lO6
- Against it
. _ Majority —l5
The clause was then agreed to.
The Chairman was then directed to leave the chair,
and the house having resumed, the CHAIRMAN reported
progress, and obtained leave to sit again on Wednesday
next.
JURORS AND JURIES (IRELAND) BILL.
This bill was committed pro forma, for the purpose of
inserting amendments.
CRUELTY TO ANIMALS BILL.
This bill was read a third time and passed.
INDEMNITY BILL.
This bill was read a second time, and ordered to be
committed on Friday next.
SALE OF BEER, &c., ON SUNDAYS.
1. Mr. W. PATTEN said he had given notice of his
intention to move for leave to bring in a bill for further
regulating the sale of beer and other liquors on Sundays,
but as there was considerable difference of opinion as to
the limitation of time, while a -committee was sitting
on the subject upstairs, he thought it would 'be better
to postpone the motion until next session. (Hear.)
The other orders were then disposed of, and the house
adjourned at half-past 5 o'clock. - •

LETTER FROM AN OFFICER OF THE

TIGER.

The following letter has.. been received from
Lieut. Alexander Hamilton, late of her Majesty's
steam-frigate Tiger :
" Odessa, 9th June, 1854.

" SIR, —Lieutenant Royer left last Wednesday for St.
Petersburg ; Lieutenant Stone, Dr. Domville, and my
self, start for Kaizan to-morrow ; the remainder of the
officers and ship's company proceed to Kaizan on Mon-
day ; the four midshipmen, Messrs. Hammond, Row
den, Hind, and Robinson, accompany the officers and
ship's company as far as Moscow, where they are to
remain to study at the University. Mr. Sullivan, Wm.
Tanner (who was wounded), and a stoker, John Fitz-
gerald, and William Atherton (a man who attended on
Mr. Sulliman), remain behind in sick quarters.
" Nothing can exceed the courteous treatment both
officers and men have received since we have been at
Odessa.—l have, &c., (Signed)
ALEXANDER HAMILTON, Lieut. R.M.
"Capt. Powell, H.M.S. Vesuvius."

THE BALTIC'.—The Pays, after speaking of the advance
of Sir C. Napier towards Cronstadt, observes as follows :
"This news is the more important as the last-despatches
from the English Admiral seemed to imply that decisive
operations were impending. It is evident that the junc-
tion of the two fleets was the only thing waited for. That
junction having now been accomplished, there is nothing
to oppose their acting together with vigour, and we have
every rep son to believe that if the submission of the Cz:ir
does not arrest their onward course, before long a grand
blow will be struck in the Baltic. It is not that
nothing has been hitherto done —on the contrary,
great results, material and moral, have been ob-
tained. In the north, there is at present only
one Russian port, namely, Archangel, that is not
closed, and some persons recommended in the sitting. of
the English Parliament orthe 23d to blockade'it like the
others. This blockade of all the maritime issues of
Russian commerce has zjyen a dreadful blow to the
finances of the Czar, ache nature of the products of
that country scarcely permit their being exported except
by sea. By closing that way France and England have
dried up the most evident sources of the revenue of the
empire, that of the customs, which are estimated at
120,000,000. In addition, as the interruption of a com-
mercial movement of about 700,000,000 is the ruin of the
country, that interruption has revived throughout the
whole of Finland the old national hatred felt against
Russia. Her inhabitants, in despair, curse the policy
of violence which causes- them so many misfortunes ;
and, should the success of our arms only respond to the
hopes which are entertained, the Czar will find deter-
mined enemies in those brave inhabitants of Finland who
have hitherto supplied seamen to all the Russian fleets."
THE RIFF PIRATES.—A letter of the 7th, froth Tan-
giers, says—" A Spanish bark that plies as a mail-packet
between Malga and the Presides on the coast of Africa,
has been attacked and pillaged by some Riff corsairs in
the bay of Alhucemas. The crew managed to escape in
a boat, with the exception of one cabin boy, who was
made prisoner. On a demand for redress being made by
the Spanish charge d'affaires at Tangiers, the Pacha of
Tetuan caused a bark, that had come from the Riff and
just cast anchor off the town, to be immediately seized.
The men who manned the vessel happened to belong to
the very tribe that had been guilty of the aggression.
Six of taem are now in prison at Tetuan, among' whom
there is a kabyle known to be the chief of these expedi-
tions.

CHANGE of FORTUNE —ln the case of Mary Kane, as
next of ki❑ of the late Thomas Kane, of Old Brentford,
London, who died in 1846, and whose property was
claimed by Mr. Maule for the Treasury, the above man
having died intestate, and without known relatives, a
poor family in Skibbereen bait) just succeeded in estab-
lishing their title to 15,0001., his property, after every
opposition in the Engiisii Chancery Court.
AN EPISCOPAL DlLEmme..-011 Friday last the Bishop
of New Zealand, who is now in England, attended a
general meeting of the Church Missionary Society, and
after recommending a plan for the subdivision of his dio-
cese, announced his intention of appropriating the whole
of his annual income, namely 6001. a year, towards the
endowment of a new see. On Monday night last Sir
George Grey, the new colonial secretary, announced the
determination of Government to discontinue the annual
allowance of 6001. hitherto made by a vote of Parliament
to_ the bishop. ~The right rev. prelate's income was
1,2001-. a year, derived from these two sources, so that
he is now left without a shilling of regular stipend.

Coupled with these accounts is a statement of the ex-
pense of the Money-order office for 1853. The total for
the United Kingdom was 72,725/.; and, as the amount of
commission received was 86,8641., there was a profit in
this department of 14,1491. But for an excess of 7701. in
the expenditure of the Irish offices over the receipts, the
surplus would have been 14,9191., as the gain for England
.and Wales was 14,4021., and for Scotland 5171. Last
year the total profit was 10,6891., and five years ago it
was but 322/. In England and \ the annual issue
of money-orders, in proportion to the population, is now
at the rate of about one to every four persons, and for
the united kingdom it is about one to every five
persons.