The Sun.
London, England, 1836-07-06 00:00:00

THE BRITISH LEGION.

Sir R. PEEL begged to ask the Noble Lord the Secre-
tary for Foreign Affairs, whether he• had seen a document
bearing the signature of the Commander of the British
Legion, which had appeared in all the papers of yester-
day. The document had all the external marks of
authenticity, but all the internal ones of being a fabrication.
—( Hear.) The Order of the llay stated, that as the
Legion was acting in concert with the British Marines, all
British subjects taken with arms in their hands, and serving
Don Carlos, would be treated as rebels, and suffer death
as such according to the laws of England. As that docu-
ment was receiving very general circulation, the sooner
bny authentic official information could be obtained upon
what he (Sir It. Peel) must consider a fabrication, the
better ; and if the Noble Lord could do so, it would be
most important that it should be contradicted.—(Hear.)
Lord PALMERSTON said the Right Hon. Baronet
must be aware that the act was one relating to an officer not
in the British service, or under the British Government,and
for whose acts Government was not responsible. Govern-
ment could have no official cognizance of the document,
and therefore if the Right Hon. Baronetasked him (Lord
Palmerston) as a Minister of the Crown, he must reply
that he had no information to give him ; but if he asked
him as an individual whether he believed such a document
existed, be was bound to say that he believed some such
order had been issued. It was unnecessary for him to add,
that no orderissued by a General in the Spanish service could
be considered as an interpretation of the law of Great Britain.
Lord MAHON wished to put a plain question to the
Noble Lord with respect to the affairs of Spain. Was
Englani at peace or war with that country?—(Cheers,
and cries of " Chair, chair.") He thought that it was a
very tortuous policy indeed that could not give a plain
answer to a plain question.—(Cheers.)
Lori PALMERSTON thought that the Noble Lord,
in putting a plain question need not have gone into a tor-
tuous argument.—(A laugh.) The Noble Lord had
asked whether this country was at peace or war with
Spain, to which he answered that a treaty had been signed
between this country and Spain, by which this country was
bounc: to give to the Queen of Spain the co-operation of a
naval force if necessary, and the Government were now
putting in force, to *the best of their abilities, the tenor of
that treaty.—(Cheers.)
A Message from the Lords brought up several Bills.
In answer to a question from an Hon. MEMBER,
Lod PALMERSTON said that, upon a represen-
tation from Lord John Hay, a party of the corps of Sappers
and Miners were now under orders to go out and join him.
EMIGRATION. _

Mr. WALTER had a question to put to the Govern-
ment, to which he was anxious to afford the House an intro-
ductory explanation.
The SPEAKER said the Hon. Member must confine
himself to the question.
Mr. WALTER said, in passing a country post-office
he happened to see a large placard relating to fe-
mie emigration exhibited in the window. On making
inquiries, he was shown a letter from the Secretary
of the Post-office, desiring that it might be exhibited until
the ship sailed. The placard stated that young women
from 15 to 30 were wanted to go to Van Diemen's
Land ; and it went on to state, he did not think
very modestly, that young women were much wanted, be-
cause of the deficiency of population—CA laugh)—and
that a great portion of those who had previously gone out,
had already got married.
Tho SPEAKER said the Hon. Gentleman was abusing_
the courtesy of the House ; he must confine himself to the
question.
Mr. WALTER would only say a few words.—(No,
no.) Then he would ask whether this was an official docu-
ment or not ?
Sir G. GREY believed that there was nothing official
in the document, which emanated from a voluntary
Association who paid much attention to their self-imposed
duties. The Hon. Member for Chichester was one of the
most influential Members of the Committee, and would be
able to give the Hon. Member any information he wanted.
Mr. ROBINSON gave notice that early next Session
he would move for leave to bring in a Bill to amend the
India Act, in order to afford compensation to the excluded
officers.