The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-24 00:00:00

TINE REI'UI3LIC.

Mr. URQUHART wished to ask the Right Hon.
Baronet at the head of the Admiralty whether any steps
had bee❑ taken to remedy the mischief which had been
occasioned by the affair, to which he had alluded yester-
day. There had been no papers or other things found
on board those vessels to justify a declaration of war„
and, therefore, there were no legal grounds for taking
possession of the vessels.
Sir F. BARING said that until the papers at the
Foreign' office were laid upon the table the. Hon.
Member must rest satisfied with what his Noble Friend
at the head of the Foreign Department had stated yes-
terday.
COMPENSATION FOR THE CANADIAN
REBELS.

Mr. ROBINSON said that he would take the liberty
of asking whether her Majesty's Government were in
possession of any papers from the Governor-General of
Canada, intimating that in the discussion in the Com-
mittee of Colonial Legislation two separate propositions
had been made that those persons who had been engaged
de facto in the promotion of the rebellion should be ex-
cluded from any share of this compensation, and that
both of these propositions had been negatived by large
majorities.

fir G. GREY, in reply, said that his Noble Friend at
the head of the Foreign Department was, he regretted
to say, unable from indisposition to be in his place this
evening, and he therefore himself might possibly not be
able to speak on the subject with that accuracy which
was desirable. Thus much, however, he could say, that
the Government were not in the possession of any
dispatches, and all the Government knew of the subject
was the information derived from the newspapers. It
was true that his Noble Friend had receivt d a private
letter from the Governor-General of the Caned:so, but
Lord Elgin had refrained from sending any official dis-
patches until the usual period.
MUTINY BILL.

On the order of the day being read for the second
reading of this Bill,

Mr. FOX MAULE said that before going into the
consideration of this Bill, ho wished to inform the
House that he had received a communication from

two members of the Liverpool Financial Association,
impugning his statement that their proceedings were
likely to injure the confidence which the soldier ought
to place in his officer. In order to show that such was
not the case, he would quote a statement from Tract N 0.4,
p. 2, to prove that there had been a most unfounded
assertion that the colonels of regiments and their
to
t
quarter-masters were combined to alter the usual attire
of soldiers—their stocks,l_slo orderhavoiensg,&ree:d ando
the allpu the minor
extract, tmoneythe
into e
articltehseiroofwn
clothing,
pockets,
Right Hon. Gentleman expressly denied that in the first
place there could be any collusion between the com-
mandants of regiments and the quarter-masters, and that
even if there was, that they had any power to
alter the clothing of the soldier as described.—
(This announcement was followed by loud cheers from
all sides of the House.) With regard to the second state-
ment, it was contained in the first, for if such a
principle had existed in the army the soldierofficer.
He would take leave to express a hope that it was
neither the intention of the Liverpool Financial h
could not possibly have any confidence in
Asso-
ciation to call in question the character of the colonels
or quarter-masters of our army, nor, still less, their de-
sire induce any dissatisfactionbetween the officers
of to r,
the army and the men.—(Cheers.)
Mr. HUME said the language which the Right Hon.
Gentleman had read from the tract bore out the re-
port of a Committee which sat in 1847 upon
this very subject of army clothing, and the
report itself expressed almost in the same words the
anomaly which existed then of the clothing of the army,
if economically effected, producing profit to certain offi-
cers.—(Hear, hear.) The commanding officers had
nothing to do with it; but there was no
doubt that the system was such that, if a re-
giment was cheaply clothed, more money would flow
into the pockets of the colonel than if the clothes were
dear. Ho did not blame the colonels for this, but the
system; and he hoped it would soon be got rid of.
Mr. B. DISRAELI said they were not likely to
expedite the business of the House when they
found not only a Member of Parliament, but a Minister
of State, no less indeed than the Secretary-at-War, en.
tering into combat with the Financial Reform Society.
Possibly they would have the tracts of the Anti-Corn-
law League, the tracts of the Protectionists, or they
might have the tractarians of Oxford to answer in
the House if this proceeding were tolerated.—(Hear,
hear, and laughter.) He hest not given that thorough
study to the tracts in question which the Hon. Gentle-
man informed the country he had done. He congratu-
lated the Hon. Gentleman upon the result he had aimed
at, but for himself he had formed a very different
conclusion of the intention and objects of this Financial
Reform Society in Liverpool. He had no doubt whatever
that the intention of the scciety was to throw a stigma
upon the British army, but he would not condescend to
notice efforts of that kind, respecting which he
thought public opinion was already made up, and
that opinion very properly treated with contempt all
societies whose labours were founded upon misrepresen-
tations, and whose only object was to throw a stigma
WWI the well-cherished iusOifichi of the otnatry.