The Sun.
London, England, 1836-06-08 00:00:00

ISLAND OF MALTA.

Mr. E WART presented a petition from the Island of Malta,
complaining of the want of proper Representatives, and
praying that their representation might be based upon the
principle on which the English representation was founded.
He felt confident that under the present Government no officious
intermeddler would intercept justice to that country. The
second complaint of the petitioners was, that the Government
had restricted the diffusion of education among the inhabitants
of the island, by imposing a tax upon the students of the Uni-
versity. Such was the social and political condition of that
country, but her commerce also had claims upon the attention of
that House. The supply of grain to that country had low,
been a source of Government monopoly, and the institution 1;
which it was directed, was a most uncommercial and unsocial
interference with the wants of the people. He trusted that
that House would give the Maltese merchants, the British
merchants, and the people of Malta, the benefit of a free trade.
—_( Hear, hear, hear.) The petitioners also complained of
the quarantine laws which pressed very heavily upon the mer-
chants frequenting that port, and differed altogether in
their details from the quarantine regulations of other colonial
ports. He understood from his Hon. Friend below
him ( Sir G. Grey), that it was the intention of his Majesty's
Government to send out a Commission to enquire into the
grievances complained of by the inhabitants. He could only con-
sent to the issuing of the Commission upon the principle of entire
publicity being given to its proceedings, upon the old English
principle. He hoped that nothing would be done with closed
doors, otherwise no satisfaction would be given to the people
of the island. He hoped the Colonial Government would not
in the mean time suspend those urgent Reforms which were
now pressing—he hoped the Commission would report from
time to time, and that it would be laid on the table of the
House.
The petition was laid on the table.
Mr. HOLLAND had a petition to the same effect from the
merchants connected with the trade of Malta—it was hardly
possible to separate the one petition from the other. The
prayer of the petitioners had often been brought before the
Government. A petition had been presented only a few
days ago to the Noble Secretary for the Colonial Govern-
ment, and had been kindly received. Since he had been in the
House, he had been informed that the Government had deter-
mined that they would no longer interfere with the Corn trade.
That, then, only left the Custom Laws and the Quarantine Laws,
which were complained of asgreat grievances. The Customs gave
9,8001. per annum, leaving a net revenue of 7,0411. arising
from the Customs. The quarantine dues, with this sum,
amounted to 11,000/. The Report of the Commissioners ap-
pointed in 1830 recommended a reduction to* the amount of
15,000/. in Salaries and so forth. If the present Government
acted upon that suggestion, and reduced the salaries and
other expenses to this amount, surely the Customs'
might be dispensed with.—( Hear.) This petition referred
only to the English flag. After the manner in which the sub-

ject ha been taken up by the Hon. Baronet ( Sir G. Grey), he
would not trouble the House further upon the subject.
Lord SAND ON presented a petition on the subject of the
quarantine duties from Liverpool.
Mr. HUME had a similar petition to present, signed by an
individual of the name of Charles Lienen, who had been
several years resident in the island of Malta, complaining that
by some regulation of the island he had been prevented from
opening an English school, and that he had been subjected to
imprisonment for opening a school without a license. As
Government were about to enquire, he hoped they would
enquire into this case, and all the other allegations contained
in the petition. He hoped that the time would come when in
the expenses of Government, both civil and military, useful
alterations would take place.
Sir GEORGE GREY rose to reply, but was interrupted by
Sir AUGUSTUS CLIFFORD, who appeared at the Bar, and sum-
moned the Commons to hear the Royal Assent given to cer-
tain Bills, for which see Lord's report.
The SPEAKER having returned—
Sir GEORGE GREY said the Government had promised
to send out a Commission to inquire into the matters com-
plained of by the petitioners, and it was their anxious wish
that every matter of complaint should be fairly and properly
investigated, with a view to ascertain what reductions
could be made in the burdens of the people. With respect to
the Custom duties, no immediate steps could be taken ; but
no time should be lost to remedy the evil when his Majesty's
Government was in possession of such information as would
enable them to act. With respect to the constitution of the
Commission, it was the determination of the Government that
it should be unobjectionable in every point of view.
Major BE AUCL ERK expressed his warm satisfaction at
the declaration that his Majesty's Government were deter-
mined to remedy the grievances under which the people of the
Island of Malta suffered. When he was in that island he had
seen the inhabitants of the place in a state of starvation, and
many of them had died of starvation in consequence of the high
price of corn, occasioned by the duties imposed on it, to pay
the enormous pensions of those who live upon the industry of
the brave and unfortunate islanders. He (Major Beauclerk)
would remind the House that it was the brave Maltese who
drove the French out of their island, and he hoped they would
now evince their gratitude by rendering them justice.--( Hearl)

NORTH AMERICAN BANKING COMPANY.
Mr. ROEBUCK wished to call the attention of the House
and the Government to a Bill then before the House, called
the North American Banking Company's Bill, in order to
ascertain whether it was a public or private Bill. It seemed
to him to affect in a very great degree the interests of
our North American Colonies. It gave peculiar power
to particular individuals, and ought therefore to be called a
public Bill. When he (Mr. Roebuck) was about to bring
forward a subject connected with the Colonies, he was request-
ed to postpone it, on the ground that a Royal Commission
had been sent out to inquire into the subject. He wished,
therefore, to ask whether or not, in the peculiar position of
these persons, Government was prepared to deal equal justice
to both parties, and to prevent the interference of a parcel of
traders, who were seeking their own private profits, careless
of the interests of the nation, as they had prevented him (Mr.
Roebuck) from interfering, although he had been requested

to do so by the Colonies.—
Sir G. GREY said that the Colonial Department had been
applied to by certain persons on the subject of such a Bill as
that mentioned by the Honourable and Learned Gentle-
men, but they had refused to give their sanction to any
such measure. Before this Bill proceeded further, it would
be his duty to ascertain what its contents were, and if it
were open to the same objections as the former scheme was
open to, he would certainly oppose it.
LONDON AND CROYDON RAILWAY.

On the motion of Major BEAUCLERK, the Report on
the London and Croydon Railway was considered, and the
Bill ordered to be read a third time.
TREMOUTHA HARBOUR AND RAILWAY BILL.
The further consideratien of the Report on the Tremoutha
Harbour and Railway Bill was postponed till Tuesday next.
THE POST-OFFICE. _

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER—Seeing
the Hon. Member for Greenock about to rise for the purpose
of bringing forward his motion relative to the Post-Office,
said that it might be convenient for the House to know, that
it was the intention of his Majesty's Government to introduce
one or more Bills in the course of the present Session, founded
on the recommendation of the Oommissioners of the Post-office
inquiry. Those Bills would involve all the questions to which
the resolutions proposed by the Hon. Member related, and he
therefore put it to the House whether they would• allow
the subject to be brought before them in the abstract shape of
a resolution, when it would be brought before them in the
specific shape of a Bill. Under these circumstances, he
trusted his Hon. Friend opposite would withdraw his motion.
Mr. WALL ACE felt himself placed in a most peculiar
situation. When Hon. Members had devoted much time and
attention to the subject, and whatever his own feelings might be
upon the motion, he did not feel himself warranted in depriving
those parties of the opportunity of conveying to the country the
informationwhich they sought and required. It it was perfectly un-
derstood that when those Bills were introduced it was to be an
open question, and that he (Mr. Wallace) might enter fully
and completely upon all the points embraced in his resolution,
then he would be willing, as he ever had been, not to em-
barrass the Government needlessly.—( Loud cheers.)
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER would
not only come to that understanding with the Hon. Member,
but he admitted that it was the only just and legitimate mode
in which the question should be dealt with—it was with a per-
fect untterstanding that every point contained in the resolutions
of his Hon. Friend might be brought before the House, and that
he should have a full and perfect right to discuss their prin-
ciple on every stage of the measures of the Government. He
assured his Hon. Friend there was not the slightest want of
eotrrtesy on his part—the real object of his Hon. Friend
was not discussion, but remedy. He (the Chancellor
of the Exchequer) tendered him the remedy without
the discussion, while at the same time there was not a topic
raised in the resolutions which would not afford him just and
legitimate ground for observation. He assured his Hon. Friend
it was not his intention to leave him in the dark as to the mea-
sures of Government, and it was only in consequence of the
circumstances to which he (the Chancellor of the Exchequer)
had alluded, that he had not conferred with him on the subject.
—( Hear, hear.)
Mr. WALLACE had only one word to say. His resolu-
tions, which stood on the paper for that evening, were ex-
ceedingly broad and comprehensive, and on the understanding
that all their details were open to discussion, he would now,
with the leave of the House, withdraw his motion.—(Loud
cheers.)

THE PLAGUE.
Mr. W A KLE Y had a question to put to the President of
the Board of Trade, the pressing nature of which he trusted
would excuse him. As he ( Mr. Wakley) was leaving the
House last night, he was informed that five persons had
died of the plague in Tottenham Court-road.—( Hear,
hear, hear.) He ( Mr. Wakley) had made enquiry of a
medical gentleman in extensive practice, whether he had
met with any case of plague, or any case resembling it. That
gentleman had replied in the negative, but finding the report
was exceedingly prevalent, and that there was a very general
degree of alarm, and feeling that the most correct official
information should be given on the subject, he had felt
it his duty to put the question. He understood that a depu-
tation had waited upon the Board of Trade on the subject, and
therefore he hoped he should be excused for asking whether
any official information had reached his Majesty's Govergment
upon the subject, or whether the report was wholly unfounded?
Mr. P. THOM SON was very glad the question had been
put, because it was obvious that if reports of that nature were
circulated, they could not be contradicted too soon ; and in an-
swer to the Hon. Member's question, he had the satisfaction
of giying the most unqualified contradiction to the whole
of the reports which had been spread through the town.—
( Loud cries of " Hear.") He must say that he had some
right to complain of the quarter from whence these rumours had
come. On Friday last he had heard that the report had ori-
ginated with a medical man, and it was from that quarter
that the entire rumour had originated.—( Hear, hear, hear.)
Enquiries were at once made, and a letter was written to a
medical gentleman from whom it was supposed that the
report had originated. The answer to this he had in his hand.
It was as follows :—" In reply to your inquiries I have
the honour to state that the report was communicated to me
by a medical practitioner last Sunday, which report I men-
tioned to one house only on the same day, and not since. It
was not that several cases of plague had occurred, but that
Mr. Cook, in the house of Messrs. Shoolbred and Cook,
drapers, and seven of their men, had died after opening a bale
of goods, and it was supposed they had died of the plague in
the course of the operation. This medical practitioner, know-
ing that I had paid considerable attention to the subject whilst
resident at Constantinople, thought that the report would in-
twest me, and wished that I would take the pains to inves-
tigate the particulars of it. This object I was not able to
accomplish, owing to other numerous engagements.—
I have the honour to be, &c., &c." Upon receiving this
answer, I directed Sir William Pym, the head of the
Board of Health, to proceed to inquire into the circum-
stances. He did so, and found that Mr. Cook, the head of the
firm, which he might say was a large warehouse establishment,
where between 70 and 80 people were employed, had died on the
Ist of May of a brain fever ; and since that time, not
a single person, out of the whole eighty who were em-
ployed, was ill, except one young man, who was
suffering from a pulmonary complaint. He must say that it
was a just ground of complaint that any persons, above all
medical men, should propagate rumours of this kind, with-
out first stating the fact to the Government. He hoped
to be able thus publicly to dissipate the alarm which had
been created, and at the same time to express his own feel-
ings, and to say that it was the duty of every medical
man, when he heard a report of so alarming a character as
that mentioned, to inform Government at once upon the
subject, in order that the proper steps might be taken
to ascertain the truth, and to quiet the public mind, or
to take such precautionary steps as should be deemed neces-
sary. As he stated before, a deputation had waited upon him
this morning from Tottenham, in considerable alarm, and he
understood that in consequence of the report that had been
spread abroad, the establishment of Messrs. Shoolbred
had suffered considerably, and they expected to
suffer more they were wise enough to offer a re..
ward of 2001. for the discovery of the person who was the
original author of the ealumny.
Mr. WAKLE Y was glad to hear what had fallen from the
Right Hon. Gentleman. He begged, however, to say it was
the opinion of nine-tenths of the medical men in the country
that the plague was not a contagious disease, and that if it
were in this country it ought not to create any alarm.