The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-25 00:00:00

IMP E. RiA L A fee 4 T.
if()/7SE fir L() II I'S, April 24.
Their Lordships met at Five o'clock.
SALE OF SPIRITS ON SUNDAY.
The Earl of REDESDAL F. presented a petition from the
inhabitants ef the royal burgh of Inverness, in public meeting
aasernltletl, sat s'oe in'!-.;. he put ip td7P -rel.- ef le-
toxicatine •
Siisee-seGE i t'ol,l.ltiti.S.
Mesfenssers frten tee House 0. C*lllll*,:as ereuctii up several
Bills, which were laid on the table.
CH \ BITABLE BEQUESTS ACT.
Lard BEAUMONT presented a petition from a person pro-
fessing the Roman Catholic religion, residing in Lancaster,
complaining of the inter'erence of the Roman Catholic bishop
with certain moneys bequeathed or charitab e purposes, and
praying that the House would order that it e funds should
be applied for the purposes for which it was intended.
NEWENHAM'S DIVORCE CASE.
Lord BROUGHAM wished to present a petition to their
Lordships which referred to the case of Wm. Burton Newen-
ham. A petition had been presented to that House which.
upon the suggestion of his Noble and Learned Friend upon the
Woolsack, was set aside on the account of inform tlity It was con-
sequently withdraws:. and an amended I etition had been framed,
which upon being submitted to his Noble and Learned Friend
had met with his approval, and he now begged to submit it
to their Lordships' consideration.
Lord CAMPBELL had understood that the parties to that
petition had never met together as man and wife, but if they
had met together as man and wife in a single instance, and
there had been issue from that marriage, he should most
decidedly oppose the reception of the petition.
THE CORN-LAWS.
The Duke of CLEVELAND held in his hand a petition to
which he particularly desired to call the attention of their
Lordships. It was from parties connected with the landed
interest, and was signed by upwards of 2,500 individuals. It
came from that class of persons who are most materially affected
by the existing corn-laws, and prayed that the
amount of protect ion they now enjoyed might
slot be reduced. His opinions upon the subject were
too well known to render it necessary for him t say
ay
not only that he assented to its prayer, but that
heartily concurred in their opposition to the re-
duction of the protection which this country now enjoyed.
He would not weary the House by going through
the petition, but he would just read the heads of it.
The Noble Duke then proceeded to do so.
Soule of the
statements were to the effect that the petitioners were
of opinion that a free trade in corn woul be he
ruin of the home grower. He concluded by decd laring t
he
believed that the pe itioners were right, while that the pro-
ceedings of many representatives were in direct contradiction
of the promises
ABOLtITIhey
ON madOF DEODANDSe at the last general e
BlLL.lection.
Lord CAMPBELL said, in rising to move the order of
the slay upon this Bill he would say but a very few words.
Their Lordships were already aware of the utter inutility of
inflicting deodands. The formal manner in which they were
imposed before the coroner was such as might be supposed
would stand fire in the Court of Queen's Bench. but
these proceedings were invariably qua hed in that Court.
Mr. Wakley, the coroner for the county of Middlesex, a gen-
tleman of great experience, had assured him, and had autho-
rised him to say that no benefit whatsoever arose in any in-
stance from deodands under the present law. With regard to
the other Bill, which formed a pet of the same measure, it
would be enough to read the preamble, which contained
two assertions.—( Hear.) He asserted, that according
to the present law of deodand there was no remedy for a
death caused. Under the present law the doctrine was, that
when death ensued the life of a man was so valuable that no
estimate could be put upon it, and accordingly no
remedy was to be obtained for its loss. If a
man had a limb broken on account of the negli-
gence of coach proprietors or of railway companies,
he had a legal remedy to resort to, but if their negligence had
been of a still grosser character, so that death ensued, there
was no remedy to be given to the surviving relations, and the
widow of the man was thrown upon the world. The general
:rule of the English law was, that where there was a wrong
done the law should give some compensation ; so that in
cases of murder there was not only a punishment to the crimi-
nal, but a compensation to the surviving relatives. That law
was not put in practice, but he believed that it was admitted
in England, and also in all :he continental nations.
He trusted they would allow these Bills to be read a second
time, without offering any opposition to them, as he would
require again to draw the attention of their Lordships and of
her Majesty's Government to them. He had, within the last
five minutes, been told that the railway interest was
so enormous in the House of Commons that it
would be utterly impossible for these Bills to have
the chance of succeeding. One company alone, he was told,
could muster as many as eighty votes. It might be that. there
'were many railway proprietors who were Members of Parlia-
ment also ; but he hoped that they would magnanimously forget
that they were railway directors only. and that they wouti
consider that they were citizens and subjects—that they were
men—and, therefore, bound to do full jusice to their fellow
men. The Noble Lord concluded by moving the second read-
ing of the Deodands Abolition Bill, and the second reading
of the Death by Accident Compensation Bill.
Lord LYTTEL'rON said it might be remembered that last
Tear he had introduced a Bill having similar objects with those
introduced by the Noble and Learned Lord opposite. He was
glad that the matter had fallen into abler hands than
his own. He would willingly give the measures his sup-
port, and he trusted they would meet with no opposition on
the part of the other branch of the Legislatu.e. The Bill of
last session, to which he had referred, had received the sanction
of the legal authorities in that House, but he understood that
the legal authorities in the Lower House had met it with
some objections.
Lord BROUGHAM said that he entirely agreed with
the Noble Lords who had already spoken upon this
measure. He (Lord Brougham) was one of those who
attended in Committee upon this subject, and he
could only say, that every attention had been given to
the preparation of these Bills ; and he was therefore sorry to
hear that they were likely to be objected to in the other House.
Re considered that if a slight alteration could obviate these ob-
3eetions, they ought to introduce them. As regarded com-
pensation for the loss of life, the law of England
was an exception to the law of every other country.
The law on the subject had :teen, that life was so valuable that
ro; compensation could be given for it. However logical that
rnielt be, he could not give his assent to it. He thought it was
high time that this opprobrium to their law should be removed,
and he thanked the Noble and Learned Lord for taking the
matter up, and introducing the measure.
After a few words from the LORD CHANCELLOR, to
the effect that they should make themselves satisfied of the
grounds on which objections to these Bills had been taken, so
that on technical grounds there might be no pretext here-
after for rejecting them, the Bills were put and severally read
a second time.
LOAN TO THE IRISH PEOPLE.
The Marquis of CLAN RICARDE presented a petition
frond a place in Ireland, the name of which did not transpire,
in the prayer of which he could not agree, though it was
coucha‘d in respectful terms. It concluded with asking Parlia •
ment for an immediate loan of three millions sterling, with an
annual load, for-the construction of public works in Ireland.
CHARITABLE TRUSTS BILL.
The Earl of ELDON presented several petitions against
the Charitable Trusts Bill. Tice petitions were from the
Masters of Trinity House in Hull, the masters and wardens
of the Paper Stainer? Corporation of the City of London, from
Middlewieh, in Cheshire, and the rector and churchwardens
of St. Mary, Whitechapel, in the county of Middlesex.
THE NEW HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.
The Marquis of CLANRICARDE said that he was not
about to move that the report of the Select Committee on the
rebuildieg of the new Houses of Parliament should be taken
into consideration, in consequence of the opinion which their
Lordship had expressed on the last occasion the subject was
introduced, that it would be better that the matter should be
left in the hands of her Majesty's Government. He would,
therefore, beg to move that the order of tile day should be
discharged. But he would beg leave, before he would do so,
to hear his Noble Friend the Commissioner of Woods and
Forests make some statement on the subject. As yet he had
made none, and he very much feared that their
Lordship" interests were not properly taxen care
f. If he was not deceived, Mr. Barry, in care
f. If he was not deceived, Mr. Birry, in an
saver to a question put to him, said that their Lordships
had 21 o t any foundation, from the evidence given at the Coin-
mittee, for the supposition that they would have their House
ready for their reception by the commencemetit of next sts-
ldbbuet
sion. He begged leave to say there wastrot one Noble Lord tm
'that Committee who
was not led to believe
A thatnmdes t
sueh
possible,
the fact. That it would not r:taalr ) b
y
most easy to effect it.—(Hear,saw the bworks which wwet'reendatlily carriedeylooked
to other countries said s
em de much greater magnitude, they sh uld conclude that tb •
interests were not had ordered the they
beein-4 taken care of, especially when ae'r
aware that the House of Commons.
o doubt, be most t eir
of &teen or twenty rooms for the immediate receptiPornePoafiaht°ll
Committees. This might, he had n
but he dideosany-
venient for the dispatch of publicbusiness
afford a very Strong
d not been attend
ds,
ed
that their Lordships'. interests ha
to. Great inconvenience arose to the law Lor
üblic-.
who were so good as to sit many hours in the dabueiv in
ss e n that
House for the purpose of the dispa
He wished, therefore, to know whether there was any obstacle
at present in existence to prevent tits elder and more impor-
tant Members of the Houses of the Legislature from obtaining
the same aeeommodation? He wished to learn from hi
buildings
at the present moment, what prospect there was
esf the Houses being soeedily finished, and especially
what likelihood there was of th-ir Lordship getting into
their own Chamber at. the beginning of next session?
g months none of those
He did hope that during the ensuing
h • d I
paltry squabbles. which he had understood to aye Dupe et
the wow of late, would be suffered to inter-
fere with their future progress, for he deemed them
to be altogether unworthy of parties so specifically
under the direction of her Maiesty's Government. If such
squabbles and disputes were not suffered to exist, not only
would there not be any intermission of the works, Lut they
would be so rapidly advanced as to enable their Lordships to
take possession of their new House at the beginning of next
year.
Viscount CANNING, before answering the question of his
Noble Relative on its main grounds, would beg to reply to his
remarks with respect to the House of Commons. On the lel;
of the present month the Speaker had sent notice that
a considerable addition to the number of committee-
Looms would he wanted on the 27th instant, and at the
-ductsment of the Speaker and Sergeant-at-Arms, an endea-
vour was made to secure two or three houses in Palace-yard,
but they were ultimately fcund to be quite insufficient
for the
purpose.twa. He then spoke to Mr. Barry,
by whom
areed, that the committee• rooms
in the new Houses might be made ready by that time.
With respect to theactr accommodation of their Lordships, there
were in the new
Mousers
nineteen committee rooms, which
same
- were precisely in thecrdition as the committee
rooms of the Commons at
the
un-
dertook their preparation, and time Mr. Barry
believed
were needed, they could be got reandeY with equal textti,di if it
tion.
If their Lordships should rsquire further that
i
had taken care to guard against that by daccommodation, he
to open a further access to their rooms on the riveresiringMr. Barry
which their Lordships would have exclusive front, to
sorry to say he could net answer some otheraceeB'. He
was
Noble Lord,' question, particularly with regardto parts of the
which their Lordships' House was likely
be
finished. the time at
regretted to say that they were not in such a state He
of forward-
ness as had been expected. But with
gar
squab-
bles alluded to by his Noble Friend, paving taken place be-
d to the
t;gz to
be-
ttween Dr. Reid and Mr. Barry, he
besay that it was
touch to be regretted that the d fferences that had arisen
these two gentlemen were of a much more serious n bet wesn
character than
mere squabbles. It appeared te him, from the report that had
been laid upon their Lordships' table, that those differences
were of so momentous a character that unless a Government
investigation were to take place, the country would
be put to an enormous additional expense, and ultimately
the delay would be much greater. He believed it had never
been clearly shown that the system of ventilation adopted by
Dr. Reid was such as wauld suit the Houses of Pediment, or
was, in fact, at all feasible, although the appara, us it
required extended over eight or nine &ern of
land.--( Hear.) Would their Lordships th-n peril the
safety of the New Houses by any hasty step ?
lie had considered that the best course which ceuld b fellowed
sweuld be to select three gentlemen. whose eminent positions and
professional and scientific acquirements figici ensure a souud