The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-24 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1847,

The House of Lords met at Five o'clock.
The Destitute Persons (Ireland) Bill was, after a
short debate, read a third time and passed.
The Royal asset was then given by commission to
the Buckwheat Importation Bill, the Brewing from
Sugar Bill, the Distillation from Sugar Bill, and the
Chelsea Pensioners' Bill; after which their Lordships
adjourned.
The House of Commons met at Four o'clock.
Mr. ELLICE moved that all railway Bills in the pre-
sent session he referred to the Railway Commissioners,
for their report to this House upon the following

points, previously to such Bills being considered in

Committees of this House:—That every report so to be
made upon each Bill should state the amount of the
capital proposed to be raised, and of the loans proposed
to be authorised by the Bill; and if, uader the pro-
visions of such Bill, any powers were to be given to any
company already incorporated, of raising further capital
or loans, or of making alterations, branches, or extensions
of their existing lines, or of purchasing or leasing any
other lines made or to be made, or of subscribing to the
capital, or guaranteeing the capital of, or amalgamating
with, other companies ; such report should also state
the powers granted by any former Act or Acts to such
companies already incorporated for any of the above
purposes, and of the manner in which, and extent to
which, such powers had been exercised ; and the report
should further state the opinion of the Commissioners
thereon, and also their opinion as to any special pro-
visions with which it may in any case be expedient to
accompany the grant of any special provisions of any
powers-for any of the above mentioned purposes. That
every such report
.be referred to the Committee of this
House appointed to consider the Bill to which the same
may relate.

Mr. HUDSON would not object to the motion.
Lord J. RUSSELL thought considerable benefit would
arise from the motion proposed.
The motion was then agreed to.
Mr. T. DUNCOMBE moved for leave to introduce a Bill
to amend the Reform Act, the object of which was to do
away with the rate-paying clauses of that Act.
Lord JOIIN RUSSELL felt it his duty to oppose the
motion.

Mr. GISBORNE supported the motion, as did Sir DE
LACY ETANS.

Mr. P. !TOWARD opposed the motion.
Mr. HUME regretted to hear that the Noble Lord at
the head of the Government opposed the motion.
Sir B. HALL thought the repeal of the rate-paying
clauses absolutely necessary.
Mr. D'EYNCOURT was in favour of the Bill.

Mr. WAKLEY thought that those who had attempted
to show cause against the Bill had failed, and he
trusted it would be pressed to a division at once.
Sir G. GREY opposed the Bill.
Sir C. NAPIER thought that the franchise should be
more extended, and therefore he should support the
Bill.

After a few words from Mr. WILLIAMS, Lord G.
BENTINCJ, Mr. B. ESCOTT, and Colonel WOOD, the
House divided, when there appeared—
For the motion for introducing the Bill BB
Against it

Majority against the introduction ... —2O
Sir J. PAILINGTON then moved for leave to bring in a Bill
authorising the trial and conviction of juvenile offenders
in certain cases, without the intervention of a Jury. The
House was addressed by Sir G. GREY, and eventually
leave was given.

Lord J. MANNERS obtained leave to bring in a Bill to
amend the law relating to charitable bequests.
The House adjourned at a Quarter to Eleven.

Although the introduction of an organized system
of National Education is reserved by the Govern-
ment for some subsequent opportunity, we are re-
joiced to behold a determination in both Houses of
Parliament to anticipate that important measure
in as far as juvenile offenders are concerned. The
necessity which exists for some interference with the
germination and development of vice among the more
impoverished portions of the population is not a new-
born necessity springing from some mushroom over-
sight on the part of the Executive. It is a necessity
which has acquired an appalling magnitude and im-
portance from the miserable length of its continuance.
To employ the epithets, not in odious mockery, but
with sentiments of the truest sorrow and humility,
we only perceive in that necessity "an aged vice, a
grey iniquity." We only perceive in it a lamentable
indication of the insufficiency of our criminal
ccde for the suppression of the social maladies
arising from neglect and ignorance. Nor can the
pernicious consequences of this inattention to the
wants of the poorer members of the community be
regarded as but just recognised by the representa-
tives of the more affluent and instructed. They have
for years been acknowledged in Parliament—they
have long occupied the attention of the benevolent
and patrictic—th.,y have f,ri..riz!3t.,-,,1 -rhiL2nthrook
establishments in the metropolis—they have found I
eloquent and suppliant voices in the reports of the

prison inspectors and in the Legislative Chambers at
Westminster. We would fain believe that those
voices, enforced by the supplications and representa-
tions of the Press, are on the eve of being allayed by
the unanimous decision of Parliament. In the Lords
the matter has received the generous, assistance
of Lord BROUGHAM. In the Commons the inter-
cessions of the ex-Chancellor are being emulated by
the Hon. Baronet the Member for Droitwich. It
was with peculiar pleasure we observed the course
taken by Sir Joasr PAXINGTON, in moving for leave
to bring in a Bill for the more speedy trial and punish-
ment of juvenile offenders. As was inevitable in the
present enlightenment of the Legislature upon the
grievances arising from the protracted abeyonce in
which the matter has been hitherto lying, leave was
readily granted. The entire question of reform
in relation to this prolific class of criminals will
naturally come, therefore, before Parliament out of
the discussions upon the proposed measure of Sir J.
PAKINGTON. In the absence of any comprehensive
scheme of education, it is consolatory at the least to
behold something like preparation for the lopping off
of one of the most baneful branches of ignorance.
That the indiscriminate imprisonment of young
children, pending their trial at the criminal courts, is
productive of a scarcely calculable amount of injury,
has been long evident, and (what is more) long
acknowledged. The transition from a childish pecca-
dillo to a deliberate larceny is thereby characterised
by an awful rapidity. An unnatural stimulus is
given to the villanous propensities which might
otherwise have been weeded out in their innocuous
blossomings, but which are from vicious companion-
ship prematurely forced to bear the fruits of sys-
tematic sin. What the Hon. Baronet the Member
for Droitwich instanced, in the case of a little girl of
scarcely twelve years being confined amidst all " the con-
tamination of the female side of the prison," during a
considerable interval previous to her trial, might be
instanced a hundred fold from the pages of the
Prison Inspectors, as well as from the domestic
narrations of the suburban rookeries. From that
malign abandonment of the tender offspring of the
ill-informed, their ductile intellects are tutored to
crime before the power of discrimination between
right and wrong has assumed a place in their intel-
lects. Before they are in any measure capable of
judging matters which have baffled stronger intellects
than theirs, even when matured by age and cultiva-
tion, these children are seduced into the perpetual com-
mission of offences against the law, and in defiance of
the principles that regulate social decency and national
morality.

" Eheu me miserum ! Cum mihi paveo,
Turn Phormio me excruciat anima."

"Alas !" they might exclaim almost in the language
of TERENCE, " when I have most reason to be troubled
for myself,
my natural protector, the Legislature,
plunges me into irreparable misery." It remains for
that Legislature to redeem its own character as
the natural protector of the poverty-stricken
and despised, by reclaiming the children whom it is
even now transforming into the antagonists cf its au-
thority. We cannot cause the dead generations of
what were once juvenile offenders to lire again, and
to live in sobriety and happiness, instead of villany
and opprobrium ; but we may, if we list, prevent the
similar ignomy and similar wretchedness of similar
generations. The finger of the law can stay that
wheel of crime ; we look for its interposition.

There are few subjects more worthy of the serious
and attentive consideration of the Senate than that
to which Mr. HUME last night directed the notice of
the House of Commons. The enormous expenses
that have ever attended the passing of private Bills
through either House have proved a bar to the intro-
duction of many measures of great utility, by which
small localities, or the estates of individuals, might
be materially benefited ; in fact, it has hitherto
acted as a prohibition to all but the very wealthy,
and the comparatively poor have been prac-
tically excluded from a participation in the
advantages to be derived from legislative inter-
ference in their behalf. The same may be said of any-
thing where the outlay, or the money to be raised or
expended, does not exceed a few thousand pounds
for, although the value of the proposed measure may
be obvious to the meanest capacity—although it may
be wholly unopposed, or even anxiously desired and
petitioned for by every one whose interests are in
any the slightest degree interfered with or affected
thereby—still there must be at the very least 5001.
and more, probably double that sum, wasted in legal
and Parliamentary expenses before it can receive the
necessary sanction or authorization. This is a crying
grievance, and one which we trust will be removed
during the present session. Much good has un-
doubtedly been effected by such of the recommenda-
tions of the Special Committee of last year as have
already been adopted and acted on. Under the old
system witnesses were frequently detained from their
homes and families, and from their ordinary occupa-
tions, for several weeks, at serious inconvenience to
witnessestree as
themselves, and at an expense of several hundred
pounds per diem to the promoters, while the stand-
ing orders were being proved ; while, by the recent
daysregulations,
a t
the
no t
Butis t disposedhevidence
much
still remains to be
e
of
o inf
two
there
before three
are
r
dtoonme.erely Whymightfarthest.formal matters, respecting
whichsw
no disputes, be taken by affidavits, or or
duly authorised commissioners, in like manner as
that now adopted in Chancery proceedings, leaving it
optional with the Examiners, if they thought proper
so to do, and if it was required by either
party, to demand that such witnesses should
attend in proprza person 4. By this means, to
which we can perceive no reasonable grounds
of objection, vast expenses would be saved.
Why should there not be a fixed table of fees, whether
of counsel, solicitors, or Parliamentary agents, by
which the amount should be regulated, and a proper
mode of taxation adopted ? The fees of the Houses
should also be materially reduced, and we doubt not
that by a judicious reform the expenses of obtaining
private Bills may be reduced to a mere fraction of
what they at present amount to.
In no other country but our own are such extra-
ordinary and extravagant expenses tolerated; in almost
any other an enactment can be obtained for fewer
shillings than it will cost pounds in England. Why
should this be so? What benefit to the country is to
be derived from a perseverance in the antiquated
system ? Why must thousands, and hundreds of
thousands, be uselessly wasted in every year ? Is
any necessary precaution against rash or inconside-
rate legislation omitted in other countries, where that
legislation can so much more cheaply be obtained ?
We believe that- such is not the case ; but if any
danger should appear to the Committee during the
progress of their investigation, we have no doubt that
adequate means will be taken to guard against them.
We are happy to find that the Committee who have
been appointed to conduct the inquiry consist of able
and practical men of business, well acquainted with
all the details of Parliamentary business; and we
anticipate many useful reforms and beneficial alters
tions from the result of their labours.

Madrid papers of the 16th have been received.
The Gaceta contains the official announcement of the
appointments of General ORAA to the Ministry of War,
and of Senor OLIVAN to the Ministry of Marine. On
the 15th the heroic defender of Saragossa, I)on JOSE
PALAFOX, died suddenly at Madrid. It will be in the re-
membrance of our readers, that Senor ISTURITZ and his col-
leagues were base enough to deprive this old veteran of
the command of the household troops, lest the sight of this
scourge of the French should excite unpleasant remi-
niscences in the minds of the followers of the Duke DE
MONTPENSIER.
The health of General NARVAEZ is said to be in a
declining state.
According to El Tiempo, one of the directors of the
Bank of San Fernando left Madrid for Bayonne on the
15th, to procure funds, in order to meet the continued
run on the Bank.

MADRID BOMA, FEB. 16.—The Three per Cents.
closed at 32 paper; Five per Cents., 20} cash, 201 paper;
Coupons, 18 cash, 19 paper; Debt without Interest, 6i
paper.

We have received the Paris papers of Monday.
The Constitutionnel, in commenting upon the Nei--
manby-Guizot affair, deities emphatically that the
Marquis of NORMANBY had ever given it any informa-
tion, us had been falsely asserted by the Presse. Speak-
ing of M. GUIZOT, it that it has b, en clearly

titvronn,qrvell to ,01,31 e of Etsroro t'" t• to 11,4`4 not
opuksu tiie truth. I lie article concludes %vial the fol-
lowing retort to the taunts of th© Ministerialists, that

the Opposition journals were the organs of the English
Embassy :
"Let the Ministerial journals remember this—that there
are not in France any organs of foreign powers, any minis-
ters of foreign powers, but the journals and the men who in
1840 sang out a shameful recantation—but the apologists of
the massacres of Galllcia, the men of Ghent and their sup-
porters."
The KING of the BELGIANS was to arrive in Paris on
Monday. His visit is stated to be at the urgent request
of the KING of the FRENCH.
Count WALsKv, the French Minister to the Brazils,
who, in conjunction with Lord HOWDEN, is to conduct
the negotiations for the pacification of La Plata, is t
sail from Toulon on the 10th March.
It is said that M. HEBERT, the Procureur-General, is
to succeed M. MARTIN (du Nord) as Mini-ter of Jus-
tice.

The Three per Cents. closed on the Paris Bourse on Mon-
day at 78f. 55c. ; the Five per Cents., 1181. 65c. ; the
Orleans Railroad Shares, 1,270 E ; Rouen, 872 f. 50c. ;
Havre, 6821. 50c. ; Great Northern. 631 f. 25c. ; Avignon,
8401.; Vierzon, 5851. ; Bordeaux, 5421. 50c. ; Boulogne,
4151. ; Basle, 2101.; Dieppe, 316 f. 25c. ; Paris and Strasburg,
4681. 75c.; Tours and Nantes, 468 E 75c.; Paris and Lyons,
4951. ; Lyons and Avignon, 4821. 50c.; Bordeaux and
Cctte, 450 f.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, ILnauAer 23.
Boulogne and Amiens, 141/2 —Central of France (Orleans and
Vierzon), 13—Dutch Rhenish, 41,4 —East Indian, 4 —Namur and
Liege, 3%—Northern of France, P 274 —Paris and Roam), 33.%.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT,

(THIS DAY.)

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

The SPEAKER took the Chair at Twelve o'clock, but it was
nearly a quarter past Twelve before a sufficient number of
Hon. Members attended to constitute a House.
Papers from the Poor-law Commissioners were presented.

SECOND READINGS.
The following Bills were read a second time, and ordered
to be committed :

Boston, Stamford, and Birmingham Railway (Wisbech to
Sutton Bridge, &c.)
Boston, Stamford, and Birmingham Railway (Branch to
Wisbech Harbour and Wisbech Harbour Imp' ovetnent).
Eastern Counties Railway (Hertford to Hitchin).
Eastern Union and Ipswich and Bury St. Edmund's Rail-
waya Amalgamation.
East Lancashire Railway (Southport Branch and Preston
Extension).
East Lancashire Railway (Burnley Connecting Line).
East Lancashire Railway (Deviations and Rawtenstail Coal
Branch).
East Lancashire Railway (Bury to Manchester).
Edinburgh and Northern Railway (Burntisland Pier, &c.)
Great Northern Railway (Hertford, Hatfield, and StAlban's
Branch).
Great Northern Railway (Deviations between Grantham
and York).
Great Northern Railway (Deviations between Peterborough,
Boston, and Doncaster).
Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley, Wakefield, Huddersfield, and
Goole Railway (Partial Alteration of Levels, &c.)
Direct London and Portsmouth Amendment, and a great
number of Railway Bills were brought in, and read a first
time.

LIGHT DUES.
Sir J. JOHNSTONE presented a petition from Scarbo-
rough against the light dues.
ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL.
An HON. MEmnEa presented petitions from Suffblk, Leices-
ter, Kent, Surrey, and other places, against this Bill.
Petitions to the same effect were presented by Sir R. 11.
Inglis, Mr. Plumptre, Lord Brooke, and Mr. Greene.
NATIONAL RATE.
Mr. I'ACKE preseseuted a petition from 'Worcester (as we
understood), praying that the poor might be maintained by
a national rate.

LAW OF SETTLEMENT.
Captain PECHELL presented a petition from Brighton
complaining of the law of settlement.
POOR REMOVAL BILL.
An HoN. MEmnEn presented a petition against the
Poor Removal Bill of last session.
Mr. BRIGIf F presented a petition from some place in Dur-
ham against the Poor Removal Bill.

ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL.
Sir JOHN DUCKWORTH presented a petition against
the Catholic Relief Bill, signed by upwards of a thousand
persons.

REFORM BILL.
Mr. T. DUNCOMBE presented two petitions, agreed to at
a public meeting in Leeds—one for the repeal of the rate-
paying clauses, and tile other for the alteration or amend-
ment in the Reform Bill itself.
Sir JAMES GRAHAM presented a petition from Fording-
bridge against the Poor Removal Bill.
RAILWAYS IN IRELAND.
Colonel VERNER presented a petition from the county of
Wexford, praying the House to pass measures for the pur-
pose of promoting railways in Ireland.
POOR-LAW IN IRELAND.
Mr. NEWDEGATE presented apetition praying for an
efficient poor-law for Ireland.
GREAT NORTH OF ENGLAND RAILWAY.
Mr. FORMS presented a petition in favour of the Great
North of England Railway Bill.
CASE OF ROBERT LANGSLOW, ESQ.
Mr. ESCOTT moved that the petition of Robert Langslow,
Esq., late judge of the District Court of Colombo, No. 1
South, in the Island of Ceylon, be printed with the Votes.—
Agreed to.
CURING-HOUSES IN IRE LAND.
Colonel CONNOLLY moved for a return of the cost of the
Government curing-houses at Killibegs, Belmullet, and
Roundstone; the quantity of salt imported at each station;
the cost of the salt per ton, how much salt sold, and the price
received per hundred; the quantity consumed in curing fish ;
the quantity of fish purchased at every station, distinguish-
ing each kind; the price paid to the fishermen per thousand
for herrings, and per dozen for cod, ling, haAlock and other
round fish, and the price received for any fish sold ; the
nett profit or loss at each station, up to the 28th day of
February, 1847.
mßiagthedt Hon.
we Gentlemanu nclerstoodij
Mr. LABOUCHERE trusted that the Hon. and Gallant
Member would defer pressing his motion at that time. (The
atsh
aptr occ eoeldo
ni negl .0 lovnhneonlly
hNasd- a swiint
itst
drawn his motion).
FILE-CUTTERS OF WARRINGTON.
Mr. T. DUNCOMBE moved that the petition of the file-
cutters and tradesmen of Warrington (presented 23d Feb.)
be printed with the Votes.—Agreed to.
TARIFF RETURNS.
Mr. NEWDEGATE moved for returns of alteration in the
tariffs of foreign states since the Ist January, 1846,
with the alterations made in the terms and con-
ditions on which raw produce goods or merchandise
were imported or exported into or from such foreign states;
of the exports in manufactured cottons, woollens, silks
leather, hardware, pottery, and glass, specifying the coun-
tries or states into which they had been exported in the
years 1844, 1845, and 1846 respectively ; of the number
of cotton, woollen, and silk mills, working short time,
or that had stopped working on the Ist March,lB44, 1845,1846,
and 1847 respectively; of the corn, grain, flour, and meal
measured in quarters of corn, and of the quantities of the fol-
lowing kinds of provisions, namely, butter, cheese, biscuit,
and cured or fresh meat, which had been imported into this
kingdom in the years 1843, 1844, 1845, and 1846 respec-
tively; of the foreign states which had altogether prohi-
bited or imposed additional duties on the exportation of corn,
grain, flour, meal, potatoes, or other provisions, stating the
amount of such increase' duties, and the date on which they
were imposed, in the years 1844, 1845, 1846, and 1847 respec-
tively.—Agreed to.
THE CONSTABULARY IN ENGLAND AND WALES.
Mr. FREWEN moved for a return showing the number
of police-constables in each county, or division of a county,
in England and Wales, under the Act 2 and 3 Vic., c. 93,
distinguishing each class or denomination; including, also, a
return of the number of police-constables stationed in each
petty sessions district in said counties, with the name and
population of said district, and the amount paid to the county
police rate bv each district; together with an account, in
detail, of the several items of expendituro for the year 1846.
—Agreed to.
PRESENTMENT SESSIONS IN KINSALE.
Mr. WATSON moved for copies of the correspondence
which had taken place between the committee of the town
of Kinsale, the Board of Works, the Treasury, and the Secre-
tary for Ireland, on the subject of certain reproductive works
presented at the sessions held for the barony of Kinsale, on
the sth day of October last, under the Labour- rate Act.—
Agreed to.

MILITARY KNIGHTS OF WINDSOR.

Mr. BOND CABBELL moved that the petition of the
Military Knights of Windsor on the royal foundation in
Windsor Castle, relative to and for the inquiry, and the le-
gislative redress required in their case (presented 23d Feb.).
be printed with the Votes.—Agreed to.