The Sun.
London, England, 1849-02-19 00:00:00

TATTERSALL'S-THIS EVENING,

Six O'CLOCK.
LIVERPOOL STEEPLE CHASE.
8 to 1 agst Prince George
9 to 1 agst The Curate
10 to 1 agst Napoleon
10 to 1 agst Proceed
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE STAKES.
12 to 1 agst Loup-garou
15 to 1 agst Halo
15 to 1 agst Footstool
METROPOLITAN HANDICAP.
13 to 2 agst Lugar
11 to 1 agst Canezon
16 to 1 agst Loup-garou
16 to 1 agst Clarissa
18 to 1 agst Executor
TWO THOUSAND GUINEAS.
7 to 2 on the field
5 to 1 agst Nunnykirk
CHESTER CUP.
20 to 1 agst Joe o' Sot—taken
20 to 1 agst The Tartar
33 to 1 agst Blucher
35 to 1 agst Halo
40 to 1 agst Peep o' Day Boy
50 to 1 agst Ballinafad
50 to 1 agst Lugar
66 to 1 agst Swallow
DERBY.
4 to 1 agst Flying Dutchman—taken
7 to 1 agst Tadmor
18 to 1 agst Honeycomb
20:to 1 agst Uriel
25 to 1 agst Nunnykirk
50 to 1 agst Indus

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

(THIS EVENING.)

HOUSE OF LORDS.
The LORD CHANcELLon took his seat on the Wool.
sack at Five o'clock.

CASE OF SMITH O'BRIEN.-WRIT OF ERROR.

The Clerk of the Crown handed in a writ of error
from the Court of Queen's Bench, Ireland, in the case of
W. Smith O'Brien and others.

The Marquis of SALISBURY presented petitions
against the Marriages (Scotland) Bill, and against any
change in the navigation-laws.
CORRUPT PRACTICES AT ELECTIONS.
The LORD CHANCELLOR moved the second
reading of the Corrupt Practices at Elections
Bill. This Bill had last year been intro-
duced into the other House, and was founded
on the report of a Select Committee which bad taken
evidence on the subject, and which evidence was in pos-
session of their Lordships. The Noble and Learned
Lord then proceeded to detail the history of the various
laws which had at different times been enacted for the
purpose of putting
ieextpr
ol adi
en:
edd the
into amendmentsth
e exisa tn gs t op to corrupt practices
at elections of Members to serve in Parliament, and
lawproposedand bthyetheiesele3sisty forliltobe
those amendments.
Lord DENMAN thought the Bill of last
year was open to great objections. He thought
that the Commissioner was armed ;with powers
which no officer ought to possess. He thought
that Parliament possessed already all the powes
with which it was proposed to invest this Commie-
sioner, and he proposed that the Bill should be referred
to a Select Committee.
Lord BROUGHAM felt that the objections of his
Noble and Learned Friend were very grave. lie
thought the proper remedy
to raise a better feeling on
wtohueldpabrte
ofto those
eavwohuro
hethoaudgophttetaatboovpeetalal
were candidates at
things that some at.
measurecleeti shoulds
stop to the present system of corruption and perjury.
Lord DENMAN explained.
Lord STANLEY thought this was a measure not to
be lightly dealt with, and although he would not oppose
thought that the
the second reading of the Bill, he
House should not legislate without further in-
quiry. During the course of the last cession
various accusations had been brought against Members
of the other House, some of whom were connected with
Government, of corrupt practices. Several private
Members introduced measures for the purpose of investi-
gating those charges. Those measures were dropped,
and the Government undertook to introduce a measure on
the sulject. The measure was introduced in July ; it was
brought up to the House of Lords in August, and Par-
liament was prorogued before theßill was passed,and now
they proposed to introduce a new measure to prevent
corruption for the future, which forced the Committee
appointed to try an election petition to praceed at once
to the investigation of any possible charge of corruption,
which either by the evidence of a witness, or the speech
of a counsel, might be brought before them; and the Com-
mittee might, if it chose,recommend that the case shouldbe ,

referred to a commission to be sent down to the place
where the corruption was alleged to have taken place on
a fishing inquiry, and when he shall have made his re-
port to the House of Commons, may adopt such steps as
to them may seem proper—a course of proceedings which
they may adopt at the present moment. He objectee to
the inquisitorial powers proposed to be given to the com-
missioners He would not oppose the second reading of
the Bill, but he thought it ought to be referred to a
Select Committee, and he was of opinion that
if their Lordships consented to the second
reading, it should not be understood that they
were therefore, to be precluded from throwing
it out on the third reading if the evidence to be taken be-
, fore the Seloct Committee should fail to show the neces-
sity for the measure.
The LORD CHANCELLOR replied; and
The Bill was read a second time.
MARRIAGES (SCOTLAND) BILL.

Lord CAMPBELL rose to move the second reading
of the Marriages (Scotland) Bill, and was
[LEFT SPEAKING.)

HOUSE OF COMMONS.
The SPEAKER took the Chair at Four o'clock.
NEW MEMBERS.

Sir RALPH LOPBS took the oaths and his seat for
Devonshire, in the room of Lord Courtenay; as also did
Mr. FRANCIS BARING, for Thetford.
SECOND READINGS.

The following Railway B.lls were read a second time:
Cockermouth and Workington (Branch to Bridgefoot,
Amendment of Act, and Power to lease to Whitehaven
Junction Railway Company).
East Indian Railway Company (for making one or more
Railways in the East Indies) Incorporation.
East Lothian Central (Abandonment of the Railway and
Dissolution of the Company).
Edinburgh and Northern (Formation of Slip Quay and
other Works at Grantor ' • Extension of Station at Edin-
burgh, Regulation of Perth Station, and Amendment of Acts).
Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company.
Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire (Consolidation and
Amendment of Acts).

Shrewsbury and Birmingham Acts Amendment, Branches,
and Deviations. _ _ _

Shrewsbury and Chester (for Branches to the river Dee;
Agreement for Joint Station at Shrewsbury; Power to sub-
scribe towards the Shrewsbury and Hereford).
Stockton and Darlington (Alteration of Line in Eggles-
cliffe and Stockton-on-Tees).
Stockton and Darlington (Lease of Line to the York, New-
castle, and Berwick Railway Company, and Amalgamation of
the two Undertakings).
Stockton and Darlington (Consolidation of Acts, Increase
of Capital, and purchase of the Middlesborough Dock).
York and North Midland (Deviation and Abandonment of
Part of the authorised Lines of Railway between Market
Weighton and Beverley, and Copmanthorpe and Tadcaster).
The following Bills were also read a second time :
Argyll Canal (Abandonment of Undertaking, &c.)
Ashton-under-Lyne Police, Markets, Improvement Acts
Extension and Amendment, and Transference of Gas and
Waterworks and other Property to the Corporatian.
Birmingham Borough (Exemption from County Rates).
Darlington Gas and Water Company.
Holme Reservoirs (Increase of Rates and Amendment of
Act).
Kidderminster Union Small Tenements Rating.
Lincolnshire South Holland Drainage Improvement.
Macclesfield Borough Waterworks, Markets, &c.
Marshland, Smeeth, and Fen (Equalization of Drainage
Rates and Repair of Roads).
North Shields Quays and Improvements.
Ransonmoor or Doddington Fifth District Drainage Act
Amendment (to amend and extend the Powers, to annex
other Lands, to borrow Money, and to levy Rates or Taxes).
Renfrewshire Justice of Peace Courts.
St. Alban's Rates.
Staffordshire Potteries Waterworks (Extension and
Amendment of Act).
SOUTHAMPTON SMALL TENEMENTS
RATING BILL.

On the motion that this Bill be read a second time,
Mr. COCKBURN proposed that it be read a second
time this day six months, on the ground that if the Bill
were passed the tenements to which it referred would be
rated to the landlords instead of the tenants, who would
thereby be disfranchised.—(Hear.) It would lead to the
application of a new principle to a local community to
the exclusion of others ; it sought to introduce
a new mode of oppressive class legislation, which
was repugnant to the inhabitants of Southampton, who
had, in common council assembled, voted by a large ma-
jority that it would prove most inimical. He, therefore,
felt it his duty to offer the Bill all the opposition in his
power. _ _

The amendment having been seconded,
Mr. MACKINNON defended the Bill. Out of 6,000
persons rated in Southampton, no rates could be obtained
from 1,800 persons.—(Hear.) The rates were exceed-
ingly heavy, and it was deemed advisable to make
the landlords of those houses which were
generally let to poor Irishmen and others liable for the
rates. He would, therefore, only have to charge the
tenant the amount of his rate in the rent. The
vestries of the five parishes of Southampton had
approved of the Bill by large majorities. A
similar Bill had been successfully in operation for
some time at Kidderminster and other places.
The Bill was unobjectionable in principle, and was merely
required for the collection of the rates, and had nothing
whatever to do with the franchise.

Mr. COMPTON supported the Bill.
Mr. P. SCROPE suggested that this, and other Bills,
would be suspended for further consideration. He
hoped a local measure of this kind would be post-
poned until the House came to a decisien on the general
principle. There were hundreds of thousands of poor
people in this country excused from paying rates in
consequence of their poverty, under the ti9th Geo. 111.
Mr. HUME agreed with what had fallen from his
Honourable Friend (Mr. P. Scrope). There was
no doubt that the poor-rates fell heavy upon
small proprietors ; but ought the House not, by every
means in its power, to induce the poorer classes to pay
the rates if they could, and ought the House not to
hold out the right of voting, both municipally and for
Members of Parliament, to induco them to use every
effort in their power to pay the rate? This was not
a time to limit the franchise.—(Cries of " Hear,
hear.") When the House interfered with the
franchise, it ought to be with the view rather to ex-
tend than to limit it. The principal point was this, not
to take away from the poor man the inducement to pay
his rates which he has in being a voter both at munici-
pal elections and for Members of Parliament.
Mr. GODSON thought the argument used by the
Hon. Member for Stroud (Mr. P. Scrope) ought to have
prevailed in 1841, when it was used as it now is; and
certainly the Government did not seem any more dis-
posed now to bring in a general measure than they were
at that time. The Hon. Member gave some particulars
of the beneficial way in which a kindred measure worked
which was now in operation in the borough which he
represented (Kidderminster).
Mr. HENLEY thought this was one of a series of steps,
by which the Legislature sought to deprive the poor
man of that main provision which our law has made for
him, that if he is a poor man he shall be excused from
paying poor-rates. That was the existing state of the
law. At present the law of England was that the
rate was collected from the occupier. This was
an attempt to shift it on the proprietor, which was a
total and entire change of the law, and against the con-
sent of the people in the town for which it is proposed.
How it would work with reference to the franchise he
did not know, nor did he care; but the objection he had
always taken to similar Bills was they deprived the poor
man of the advantage which the law gave him.
For these. resons, if the eecond reading of the Bill
was pressed he should vote against it, believing it was
detrimental to the poor man.
Mr. R. SPOONER supported the second reading of
the Bill, as other Bills in other localities had worked well.
Mr. MUNTZ thought that the principal objection to
the Bill was the extent to which it was carried, and the
great disfranchisement it would create.
Strangers were then ordeied to withdraw, and the
House divided, when there appeared—
For the motion ... 64
Against it ... .. 106
Majority against the second reading —42
BISHQPSWEARMOUTH RECTORY.
_ .

Mr. HORSMAN gave notice that on Wednesday he
should bring forward the petition he had presented rela-
tive to this rectory under the consideration of the Howie.

DIPLOMATIC PENSIONERS.

Mr. M. MILNES gave notice of his intention to ask
leave to introduce a Bill to enable persons in the receipt
of diplomatic pensions to hold seats in the House.
JUVENILE OFFENDERS.

Mr. M. MILNES also gave notice that to-morrow he
should ask some member of the Government what mea-
sures had been taken since last session for the preserva-
tion of public records. Also whether it was the inten-
tion of Government to proposo any measure with re-
spect to the treatment of juvenile offenders.
COLLIERY EXPLOSIONS.

Mr. HUME gave notice that on an early day he
should move a resolution to the effect that the excessive
loss of life through the frequent colliery explosions from
fire-damp rendered it the imperative duty of the Legis-
lature immediately to adopt means, now that they had
them at their command, to prevent a recurrence of such
calamities.