The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-21 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.
HOUSE OF LORDS, August 20.
Their Lordships met at Five o'clock.
Messengers from the House of Commons brought up
several Bills.
DEATHS BY ACCIDENTS COMPENSATION BILL.
Lord CAMPBELL gave notice that to-morrow he should
call the attention of their Lordships to the amendmeats which
the House of Commons had introduced into this Bill.
ABOLITION OF EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS OF TRADING
(IRELAND) BILL.
Their Lordships went into Committee on this Bill, on the
motion of Lord CAMPBELL.
The Bill then went through Committee, and the report was
brought up, the third reading being ordered for to-morrow.
CIIIEF-JUSTICESHIP OF BOMBAY.—LORD G.
BENTINCK.
Lord LYNDHURST begged to call the attention to cer-
tain statements which had appeared in the morning papers
yesterday, and which hal reference to a Noble Friend
of his who was now on duty in a distant part
of the country, and he deeply regretted that their Lordships
not sitting yesterday prevented his making this statement
earlier. He would not allude to the coarseness of language
which had fallen from the Noble Lord (Lord Ceerge
Bentinck) by whom this charge had been made, but he was
particularly anxious on account of the position which he
lately held in the Ministry to offer an explanation. With
respect to this statement, he had to say that it gas particularly
unfortunate that this explanation had not been made earlier,
for it was almost impossible to meet it by reason and
argiuneet. In the early part of the year he had been applied
to to fill the office of a chief justice in India by his Noble Friend
at the head of the Board of Control. In consequence of that
application he had named six or seven persons, among whom
was Mr. David Pollock. All who knew that
gentleman knew how well he was fitted to fill
the situation. His connexion with the Chief Baron of the
Exchequer had in no way affected the case. A vacancy
having been created gave him an opportunity of filling it. Three
or four year: ago, he (Lore Lyndhurst) had ap ointed Mr.
Phillips a Commissioner for the Court of Bankruptcy. From
domestic circumstances the office had become immediately dis-
tasteful to him. His wife and family had separated from
him, and were now living apart from him at Cheltenham.
Mr. Phillips had been suggested to him as a proper
person to fill the office of Chief Justice of Madras,
but Mr. Pielock seemed to him the more proper person,
and his appointment was sanctioned by the Queen on
the 10th June. Mr. Phillips' office had been vacated, and he
was prometed to the office left by Mr. Po lock. No one cou d
doubt the ability of the gentleman to fu'fil the duties of the
office. He had apiminted his secretary. Mr. Perry, to execute
the duties of the office which Mr. Phillips had left, and with
reference to the appointment of that gentleman, and the obser •
'rations of the Noble Lord to whom he had alluded respecting
it, he would say that had he not appointed Mr. Perry. he
would have been guilty not only of the grossest lorgetfulnesolut
of the grossest injustice in overlooking the merit; of a person
who had nerved him with the utmost fidelity and intelligence,
and who had recommended himself to manyof their Lordships
by those abilities to hich had always been serviceable to the
State, and particularly useful to himself. With respect to the
Noble Lord who had made these remarks, in another place,
he might refer to some observations in a speech of Pitt upon
Napoleon, upon whom that Minister had remarked that there
was nothing too great for his ambition, nor too mean or toe
small for his rapacity. The Noble Lord had abandoned the
statement he had made in reference to the presentation to
Nocton, but he did so on wrong grounds, for he, when Lord
Chancellor, did present to the living in Nocton, and that pre-
sentation had no connexion whatever with the judicial appoint-
ment of Mr. David Pollock, as he had nothing what-
ever to do, directly or indirectly, further than he had
stated. The charges, therefore, of that man were
made on light ground, and his retractations were made with
the same levity. The Noble Lord then proceeded to describe
the circumstances under which the presentation to Nocton
was made; and read letters, one from the Earl of Ripon and
from Lady Ripon, soliciting the appointment for the Rev.
Mr. Wilson, who was then in the possession of a living of the
same value as that of Noctor under the Bishop of Bath and Wells.
The Rev. Gentleman had, it appeared, endeavoured to promote
the well-being of those in the neighbourhood in which lie lived.
He also received a letter at the time from Lady Ripon, thanking
him most cordially for the appointment he had conferred upon
the Rev. Gentleman. The charge, considering the evidence on
which it rested, was one of the most extraordinary that was
ever brought against a public man. He could not conceive
how a nobleman, occupying a high position, could bring so
grave a charge, not on his own evidence, but on the evidence
of another, and without investigation against another public
man. Such a charge could not be otherwise than condemna-
tory of the individual who uttered it, and whose weakness and
folly were only equalled by his baseness.—(Cheers.) The
Noble and Learned Lord then referred to the appointment of
Mr. D. Pollock to the judgeship of Bombay ; who, he
contended, from his previous duties was fully capable of
discharging the duties of the office to which he was
appointed by him. The course he adopted with respect to
Mr. D. Pollock was only such as was adopted in similar cases.
He asked their Lordships, then, if he had not justified himself
in their eyes ? Could any one justify such conduct on the part
of the Noble Lord, who made the charge ? 13u±-, perhaps, he
might consider it not inconsistent with party to asperse those
who differed with him; or, yet bees, his early habits had taught
him to form so low an opinion of men as to suppose that every
man in public life must he actuated by some base - some un-
worthy motive; but the best proof of calumny was to oe found
in the character of the calumniator. There was no want of
will, but inability to distil his poison ; be was not unlike a wasp
who took delight in stingine. Such aspersions were not well-
out harm, after they had been perpetrated. as people remem-
bered them. It was hum:liming, at the close of his political
life, and at the close, h, might almost say, of his natural life, to
have to repel accusations of this kind. Ile hoped their Lord-
ships would bear with him on an occasion like the present. -
(Cheers. ) He thanked their Lordships for the attention with
which they had listened to him, and in their hands he would
leave the matter.
The matter then dropped.
MILITARY FLOGGING.
Earl FORTESCUE presented a petition from Penryn in
favour of the abolition of military flogging.
AUSTRALIAN LANDS BILL.
Earl GREY moved the third reading of the Australian
Lands Bill,
After a few observations from Lord ELLENBOROUGH,
the Bill was read a third time and passer,.
LUNATICS ASYLUM AND PAUPER LUNATICS
BILL.
On the motion of the Marquis of LANSDOWNE, the Lu-
natics Asylum and Pauper Lunatics Bill was read a second time.
BRITISH POSSESSIONS BILL.
The Earl of CLARENDON moved the second reading of
the British Possessions' Bill.
Lord ELLENBOROUGH objected to the principle of the
Bill. Under its operation the duties in one colony might be
abrogated, diminished in a second, and retained in a third.
But for that purpose time was necessary. And on the earliest
meeting of Parliament, her Majesty's Government might come
down to the House awl overturn ail those arrangements. But
there was another matter to which he would invite the atten-
tion of Government. They thought it but fair that the woods
of the colonies and of foreign countries should be admitted
on equal terms. That was free trade. But he could not
see how, if there were to be an equalisation of du-
tie:, there should not also be an equalisation in
the use of ships as well as in the admission of woods. He
could not see how the claims of the colonists could be resisted
for the free use of ships as well as of the rate of duties. It
was notorious that, although the number of our ships had
largely increased, yet the number of ships of other countries
had been much more than proportionably increased. All
force was relative, and it was not on our position, but on our
relative, superiority that our pre-eminence and our safety rested.
He was, therefore, anxious to know, whether in granting this
principle of free trade, the Government were ready also to sa-
crifice the navigation laws.
Earl GREY thought that the Noble Earl had not, in those
observations, sufficiently attended to the relative merits of the
subject. He had had an opportunity ef talking with one of
the principal Members of the Legislative Assembly in Ca-
nada, and had certainly heard from him that the abolition of
the differential duties would net only be very distasteful, hut
in all probability very unprofitable to the colonies. But it
should be recollec'ed that the colonies had not, with all the
duties levied, been able to satisfy their own expenses. It was.
therefore, clearly evident, that whatever the difference might
bit that was occasioned by the present regulations.
they in no way invalidated the right of the mother
country to regulate their trade. —( Hear. ) With respact
to the question of the navigatien laws, he did conceive that it
was highly inexpedient that any inquiry should V entered upon
at the present moment. The colonial shipping interests were,
as they were in this country, of the utmost importance, and it
was of the highest consideration that they should be fully upheld.
To do so, it might be matter of thought whether these colonies
should or should not be endowed with any peculiarly private
privileges, but still be could repeat that it was highly inexpe-
dient at the present moment to enter upon such a subject.
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH had net one word to say
in reply, but he might observe, that he trusted in those mea-
,
sures the Government would not forget the claims of India for ',
the admission of its sugar as colonial sugar.
The Bill was then read a second time.
MESSAGE FROM THE COMMONS.
Messengers from the House of Commons came up, soliciting
a conference with their Lordships with that House, on the
Baths and Washbouses Bill, which was agreed to.
The Public Works (Ireland) Bill, the Turnpike Roads
(Ireland) Bill ; the Public Works, Fisheries, &c., ( Ireland)
Bill ; and the Colonial Possessions Bill, were severally read a
second time.