The Sun.
London, England, 1836-03-19 00:00:00

lIVIPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, Mencil 18.
ROYAL ASSENT.

The LORD CHANCELLOR, the Earl Of SHAFTESBURY, and
Lord LYNDHURST took their seats at a few minutes after four
o'clock, as Commissioners, for the purpose of giving the Royal
Assent to several Bills. _

The SPEAKER, accompanied by several Members, having
appeared at the Bar, the Royal Assent was given in the usual
form to the following Bills :—The Slave Compensation
AmenJment Bill, the Capital Punishment (letter stealing)
Abolition Bill, the Reading Union Gas Bill, the Hardwick
(Cambridge) Enclosure Bill, and one or two other private Bills.
The House then adjourned during pleasure.

The Lose CHANCELLOR took his scat on the Woolsack a
few minutes before five o'clock.
AGRICULTURAL DISTRESS.
Lord BR A Y BRO OK presented a petition from the county
of Berks, signed by 1,680 persons ; also a petition from Far-
,ringdon, in the same county ; and several petitions from pa-
rishes in- the county of Essex, on the subject of agricultural
distress. The Noble Lord expressed his cuncurrence in the
prayer of the petition, and moved that it be referred to the
Committee.
ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS CONSOLIDATION
BILL.

Lord FALMOUTH presented petitions from Halston and
St. Ives against the probate clause in this Bill.
Lord WH A RNCL I FFE presented a petition from Knares-
borough, Yorkshire, on the same subject.
MESSAGE TO THE COMMONS.

The Marquis of L ANSDOWNE moved that a Message
be sent to the House of Commons, requesting that they would
be pleased to furnish their Lordships with a copy of a
Report of the Committee on Railways, and the rules adopted
in consequence of that Report. He (Lord Lansdowne) beg-
ged to recall to the minds of their Lordships a conversation
which had taken place on the subject of Railways a few
evenings ago, upon which occasion he stated that the capital
required for the works in progress would amount to about forty
millions sterling. The estimates for the works in actual
operation amounted to twenty-eight millions. Now it was most
important that the principle should be regulated on which this
expenditure should take place, and with that view the House
of Commons had taken salutary measures, and adopted certain
rules, which would be found most beneficial to their Lordships.
No less than 19 Committees were now engaged in investigat-
ing the subject. The great object of the enquiry was to as-
certain whether the benefit which the public was to derive from
the projected works would be commensurate with the indivi-
dual sacrifices which must necessarily be required. It had been
suggested that a deposit of a certain portion of capital
should be required before bills should be entertained.
This was a subject well worthy of consideration, but he thought
it would be unjust to apply the ,principle to Bills at present
before Parliament, as the parties had incurred heavy expenses
on the faith of the Standing. Orders.--( Hear, hear.)
The Earl of RIPON cordially agreed with what had fallen
from his Noble Friend who bad just sat down. There
were two classes of persons whom he thought the House'
was bound to protect • the first was those persons who
were led into schemes of this sort without knowing any thing of
them, without knowing any thing of the line the Railroad was
to take, and who consented to risk their money in schemes, the
real valise of which they knew nothing about. The other
class of persons were those to whom his Noble Friend had
alluded, and who were treated with very little respect by
the Railway Companies, namely, those individuals whose
property they wanted, and which they said they must take in
order to execute their projects. The course that the com-
panies took in some places was tyrannical. (Hear, hear,
hear.) Individual property in some cases would have to give way
to public good, but it ought to be proved that the security
really existed for its destruction before the proprietor was de-
prived of it.
The motion was then agreed to.
MR. BUCKINGHAM'S CLAIMS.

Lord HOLLAND presented a petition from Manchester,
praying that compensation might be made to Mr. Buckingham,
AFFAIRS OF SPAIN.

The Earl of ABERDEEN rose to call the attention of the
Noble Viscount opposite to a subject, for introducing which he
thought he need not offer any apology. No man could have
looked at the contest now going on in Spain, and have
duly marked its progress without being moved by the impulse
of those fcelirgs which were common to our nature,
and every man was bound to bring the attention
of the House to the matter, when lie believed that
the character of the country and the honour of the King's
Government were dee,ily interested.—( Hear, hear.) I
was not his intention to enter into any detail of
the conduct and policy of his Majesty's Government,
in the course they had pursued from their relation with
the Spanish Government, and their connection with the
contest that , was at present going on.—( Hear, hear.)
He did not enter into the discussion of the question with
any feelings of partizanship ; I:e did not rise for the pur-
p,,Ae th:it grourd of blaming his Majesty's Ministers.
He had nothing to do with Don Carlos ; he had no sympathy
with his cause or party. He made no objection to the
conduct of his Majesty's Government, in having recog-
nised the legitimacy of the Queen's Government, and
in having established feelings of relationship with them.—
( Cheers.) He knew that a treaty of alliance had been con-
cluded with the Government; and although lie was
prepared to repeat what he had before expressed, the
the strongest condemnation of the policy of the treaty
still he was the List man who would recommenc
that any treaty ratified by the King, to which the
good faith of his 31..jestv was pledged, should net be
faithfully kept.—( Hear, hear.) flit reason for making
this motion teas
.because the country was specifically and
virtually participating in a cause and system of warfare which
had been disgraced atrocities unheard of in any history.
—(Cheers.) It was remarkable, from thq very commencement
of the contest, that it had been carried on under circumstances
of peculiar atrocity, and things had gone on in this way for sonic
time; an attempt had been made, and most humanely, by his
friend the Noble Duke ( Wellington) tt.>arrest the progress of
these excesses, by establishing a regular exchange of prisoners.
That attempt met with 'the bi,,host success. But where
was that convention now? It was trodden under foot,
scattered to the winds, and wholly unacted upon. Ile would
not trouble and distress their Lordships with any recital of
the various excesses that had been committed during the
past year ; but they had crone on increasing, until at last they
appeared to have arrived at the acme of atrocity. He would
only allude to an event which he had recently seen detailed
in the public papers. He referred to a relation of the murder
of -an unfortunate the mother of a partizan of
one of these parties. It appeared that a partizan
of Don Carlos, named Cabrera, had been guilty of various
excesses—what they were he did not exactly know, as they
were not detailed among those with which he had been furnished,
but he dared to say they were bad enough. The Commandant
of the province not being able to get this person into his power
ordered the execution, or rather the assassination of his
unfortunate mother, an old woman who was entirely helpless.
The individual to whom this order was directed appeared to
have had some touch of humanity in his ccmposition—
rind he referred for instructions to the Captain-General of the
province. Ile had accordingly referred to that quarter for his
instructions—they arrived without delay—he had positive
orders to put the unfortunate woman to death. It was a cir-
cumstance almost past belief—it was a circumstance unparal-
leled in the history of warfare—nay, he (the Earl of Aber-
deen) doubted whether any thint, quite so shocking to every
feeling of human nature had been' perpetrated even in the
horrible excesses of the French Revolution.—( Hear, hear.)
It was the cold-blooled, deliberate act of the highest autho-
rity in the country—The Chief in command for the Queen—
the Captain-General of the province—a man, too, who had
been received on board of his Majesty's ships—those sanctua-
ries of courage, humanity, and true feeling—with almost re-
gal honours—( Hear, hear)—General Mina. He would ask
their Lordships if such an act as that did not deserve to be
met with an involuntary shudder of loathing and detestation
of the actors ? The son of that unfortunate mother, goaded
by the murder of his aged parent, resorted to retaliation. He
accordingly put to death four ladies, the wives of Spanish
officers in the service of the Queen, and further declared
that, as the commandant had issued orders to put to death
five persons for every one taken by him with arms in his
hands, he should murder twenty for each individual so slain.
But enough of these horrible details. He (the Earl of
Aberdeen) wished to point out to the House how far this
country•was concerned in these atrocities, and to what extent
its character was compromised by them. There was a treaty
in existence which bound this country to the performance of
variods conditions—the Treaty of Quadruple Alliance. By
that treaty England was hound to furnish the Spanish Govern-
ment vtith arms, ammunition, and ordnance stores of various
descriptions. It had been executed hitherto by the country
with no measured hand ; he believed that we had supplied
arms for more troops than the Queen of Spain had altogether
in her service ; and upwards of 400,000/. worth of various
supplies had been furnished the Spanish Government. Now
it never could have been intended by this country that these
supplies should be furnished the Queen's forces for the pur-
pose of carrying on any other than the legitimate species of
warfare which was known and practised among all civilized na-
tions ; and therefore nothing but ignorance could excuse the
circumstance of their being furnished at all. If, however, his
Majesty's Government had known anything of the facts of the
contest—if it was aware of the sanguinary and ferocious na-
ture of the warfare—then it rendered itself not alone respon-
sible for furnishing arms to such monsters, but for the mode
in which they were used by them. There was another reason
besides this why this country should manifest and feel a strong
degree of interest in the contest, and all the circumstances
connected with its progress. A numerous band of adventurers,
organized and recruited under the protection and with the
countenance of the King's Government, by means of a law
suspended especially for those purposes, had entered into the
service of the Queen of Spain, and engaged themselves in
the horrible warfare carried
on in that country. He did not
mean to canvass the motive, which led the great majority of
these men to take that step'
. He did not seek to divine the
causes which actuated them on that occasion; it might be a
love of adventure—he believed it to be so many cases—a
desire•-prnikting ; but the want of food was, he imagined, the
Mestta,Ctire Ili urging them on. But it could not be forgotten
that, they were our countrymen, entitled to our attention and
oldassistance;-:aitAit should be remembered that they were
• . ,
peculiar/3r deservini, of our sympathy in the horrible system of
Avadaric•Wilich thetwere fighting on. It was the duty of his
majeitir,'Qoverliment to protect, as far as it was possible for
ifiern, to, do- 40.7,:digse unhappy individuals. Another reason
whY--,:E4glarid 's/Nlbld interpose promptly and effectively in
that fefficiaiis, qulrrel—(Hear, hear)—he should leave their
Lordahips What sort of education were these men
receitis rshat sanguinary army ? Was it like that which