The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-08 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

(THIS DAY.)

HOUSE OF COMMONS.
The SPEAKER took the Chair at Twelve o'clock.
ADJOURNMENT OF THE HOUSE.
Sir ROBERT PEEL moved that the House at its rising
do adjourn till Friday, the 17th inst.
The motion was put from the Chair and agreed to.
Mr. MUNTZ presented a petition from the retail brewers
of Birmingham, praying that they might have the same
privileges as the licensed victuallers.
SECOND READINGS.
The following Bills were read a second time, and ordered
to be committed, viz.:—

Surrey Grand Junction Railway.
Newport, Abergavenny, and Hereford Railway.
South Staffordshire Junction Railway with Branches (No. 1).
South Staffordshire Junction Railway (No. 2—Bilston and
Priestfield Branch).
South Staffordshire Junction Railway (No. 3 Showhill
and Portobello Branch).
South Staffordshire Junction Railway (No. 4—Willenhall

-
and Bloxwich Branch).
Leeds and Thirsk Railway North Eastern Extension (Wath
to Hartleol).
Caledonian Railway (Dumfries Branch).
Caledonian Railway (Dundyvan Branch).
Caledonian Railway (Mid Lothian Branches).
Caledonian Railway (Leith Junction).
Caledonian Railway (Glasgow, Garnkirk, and Coatbridge
Railway Branches).
Lesmahagow, Wised, and Coatbridge Mineral Junction Rail-
way.
Scottish Southern Railway.
East of Fife Railway.
Manchester, Bolton, and Bury Canal Navigation ar.d Rail-
way, and Manchester and Leeds Railway Amalgamation.
Birmingham, Lichfield, and Manchester Railway.
Buckinghamshire Railway (Oxford and Bletchley Junction).
Bristol Waterworks (by order).
Vale of Neath Railway (by order).
REPORTS. .

The following reports were brought up, the amendments
and alterations agreed to, and the Bills ordered to be en-
grossed, viz.
Liverpool Docks.
Southport Improvement.
Plymouth Cemetery.
Taunton Gas.
London and South-Western Railway (Farnham and Alton
Branch.)
Edinburgh and Peebles Railway.
Weston-super-Mare Pier.
London and Oxford Railway.
Exeter and Exmouth Railway.
SHREWSBURY AND HEREFORD RAILWAY.
Sir R. PRICE moved—" That the report of the Standing
Orders' Committee on the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway,
'that the standing orders ought not to be dispensed with,'
be referred back to the Standing Orders' Committee for re-
consideration." In making this motion he wished it to be
understood that he had no intention of casting any imputa-
tion on any of the Hon. Gentlemen who were members of
the Standing Orders' Committee. He thought, however, that
several circumstances in the case of the Shrewsbury and
Hereford Railway had not 'received that consideration at the
hands of the Committee which perhaps they were entitled to.
The objections and errors urged against the promoters by
the Standing Orders' Committee were really so trifling that he
thought the House would not consider them of sufficient
importance to impede the progress of the Bill. One of the
objections urged was respecting some cross sections, but there
was nothing stated positively in the standing orders as to
cross sections.—(Hear, hear.) The Railway Consolidation
Act would provide for any deficiencies in the Bill. No pub 7
lic or private injury could happen to any one if the Bill were
suffered to proceed. He hoped, therefore, that the House would
permit the case of the promoters to be referred to the Standing
Orders' Committee for reconsideration, on whose justice he
reposed the greatest reliance. The promoters were perfectly
willing to abide by the decision which they might come to
on reconsideration. The present was a very hard case.
Several Bills with far worse gradients,' and much more
violently opposed, had been allowed to pass, although the
promoters had not, in several instances, complied with the
standing orders. He could adduce an instance—the March
and Lincoln Railway—where a course had been permitted
similar to that which he now prayed for on behalf of the pro-
moters in this case. The promoters fully expected that
they should pass the standing orders, because the objections
were so trifling. He hoped, therefore. that the House would
accede to the motion; by acting otherwise, they would in•
flict both a public and a private injury.
Tite motion having been seconded by an HON. MEMBER,
Mr. ESTCOURT said that the motion was of so unusual a
character, that he felt himself constrained to oppose it. If
the motion were passed, the members of the Standing Orders'
Committee would feel that the House reposed no confidence
in their decisions, which would ever be subject to reversal.
11' by did not the Hon. Member take the course adopted by
the promoters of other Bills during the present session ? Why
did he not move that the case be referred to the considera-
tion of the Sub-Committee ? His Hon. Friend had at some
length detailed the several non-compliances, and argued that
they were of a very trivial character. Ile found that there
were not less than 50 of these. "
Sir R. PRICE—Forty-three.
Mr. ESCOURT—Not le7s than fifty, and some of these of
a most important kind. The public would not be benefited
by the recommittal of this Bill ; they would be more benefited
by the postponement of the measure till another session,
when the promoters would be able to correct these fifty
errors in their length of fifty-one miles. If this motion were
conceded the House could not with any propriety refuse in
any similar case, and he should therefore oppose the appli-
cation.
Mr. CHRISTIE recommended the Hon. Member to with-
draw his motion.
Sir: R. PEEL was prepared to reject this vote on the
ground that it implied a want of confidence in the decision of
the Standing Orders' Committee.
Mr. STRUTT, having been chairman of the Sub-Com-
mittee who considered the petition in question, had prepared
himself with details of the objections urged against it, but
after what had fallen from the Right Hon. Baronet opposite,
he did not now think it necessary to go into them. He
could, however, assure the Hon. Member who had made the
motion that he had been deceived as to the notice of the non-
compliance of the standing orders, for instead of their being
of a trivial character, they were omissions and defects of the
most glaring and fatal description.
The motion was then withdrawn.
THE CORN BILL.
Sir R. PEEL presented a petition, numerously signed by
merchants, manufacturers, and others of Staleybridge, in
the county of Lancaster, praying the House to pass the Corn
and Customs Bill without any further delay.
Mr. DUNCOMBE presented several petitions from York-
shire in favour of a ten hours Bill. The Hon. Member also
presented a petition agreed to at a public meeting held at
the Crown and Anchor, in the Strand, on the 25th of March
last, praying the House to take into their consideration the
present state of Eastern Europe, with the view of devising
some means for the restoration of Poland. The honourable
Member presented another petition from Mr. Richard John..
son, bookseller, of Hull, complaining that he had been fined
201. under the Corresponding Act for taking money at the
door of a lecture-room, where a gentleman by whom he
was employed was delivering a lecture on the evi-
dences of the Christian religion. The petition stated
that the information was laid against the petitioner by s
police officer who attended the lecture, which was deli-
vered at the Hull Mechanics' Institution, in plain :clothes,
and afterwards turned informer, and prayed the House to
repeal the Act under which the information was laid, or every
person attending the institution would be liable to the same
penalty which bad been inflicted upon the petitioner. The
Hon. Member presented a second petition to the same effect
from the inhabitants of Hull, who agreed to the petition
while assembled in public meeting.
THE REVENUE.

Colonel SIBTHORP gave notice that he would,,on
Tuesday, the 21st of April instant, move for copies of the
evidence on which the First Lord of the Treasury grounded
his anticipations of the amount of the surplus revenue which
he expected would be received in the present year.
BUILDING SOCIETIES.
Mr. EWART wished to know whether the Government
intended to make any alteration in the Stamp Duties in fa-
vour of building societies?
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said, that
although the Government had determined to abolish the
duties on the transfer of shares in building societies, they did
not intend to propose that the duties should be altered with
respect to the conveyance of property by such societies—the
duties in which cases pressed less heavily upon the members
than upon individual parties.
Mr. EWART said the reverse was the fact ; the duties
pressed much more heavily upon the members of building
societies than upon individuals.—(Hear, hear.)
THE POOR LAWS.
Mr. CHRISTIE asked Sir James Graham whether the at-
tention of the Poor-law Commissioners had been directed to
the case of Elizabeth Butcher, tried at Salisbury on the 12th
day of March, for the murder of her infant child, and ac-
quitted, the child having been stripped of its clothing on the
mother's leaving the Cricklade and Wootton Bassett work-
house ; and to the case of Harriett Bowkett, tried at Here-
ford on the 30th of March, for the exposure of her infant child
with intent to murder, and acquitted of the intention to
murder, the child having been stripped of its clothing on the
mother's leaving the Ledbury workhouse ; and whether the
stripping infants of the clothes which have been supplied in
the workhouses, where the mothers have no other clothing
for them, when they are taken out of the workhouses, is or-
dered or sanctioned by the Poor-law Commissioners
Sir J. GRAHAM said that the cases to which the Hon.
Member had referred had attracted the immediate attention
of the Poor-law Commissioners; and he held in his band a
letter, dated the sth of February last, which showed clearly
that the children of Butcher and Bowkett had not been stripped
of their clothing on their leaving the workhouses in ques=
tion. If they had been so stripped, the regulations
which the Poor-law Commissioners had issued to the dif-
ferent boards of guardians throughout the country would
have been openly violated, as there was an express direc-
tion given by the Commissioners that all bastard children
should be suffered to leave the workhouse in the clothin'
given to them by the boards of guardians.—(Hear, hear.)
In every case clothing was ordered to be furnished by the
guardians to children born in workhouses, and they had no
authority to deprive them of it on their being removed
from the precincts of the unions. No impediment
whatever was offered against mothers taking their tochildrenthem
from the workhouses, and every facility was given
to obtain clothing for them. Whatever had a risen
existingin relfearw.
ence to these two cases did not spring from any
or regulation approving of the ha which the Hon.
Member appeared to suppose had been inflicted on the two
individuals in question.
He woula take this opportunity of
stating that he was very glad to find that the poor-law was
being carried out very beneficially in Ireland.—(Hear, hear.)
The Government were continually receiving intelligence
of the feelings of the people of that country,
changing
materially in favour of the poor- la w.—( Hear, hear.)
Indeed,he then held in his hand two reports to that effect
from the Poor-law Commissioners in Ireland, which he
would take the liberty of moving to be laid on the table of
the House, and subsequently proved, and after Hon. Mem-
bers had read, he felt convinced that they would arrive at the
same conclusion to which he had, viz., that the poor in Ire-
land were now receiving great benefits from the operatioh of
the laws relatirg to the poor in that eountry.—(Hear, hear.)
The reports in question were then brought up by the Right
Hon. Baronet, and ordered to be printed.
INDIAN CORN.

Mr. MCARTIIY wished to ask of the Government under
what regulations the Indian corn would be distributed to the
people of Ireland ?
Sir JAMES GRAHAM stated that general regulations
upon the subject had been laid upon the table of the House ;
in some particular districts, however, the distribution would
take place under different regulations, suited to varying
circumstances.
Sir R. PEEL would 'say ene word with reference to this
introduction. It was found already that persons who bad
been subsisting upon that article were able to do their work
better, and to work for a longer time than they could upon
their former article of diet. All prejudices against Indian
corn was now fast disappearing in that country. Tbe people
found it both palateable and nutritious. This article,
however, Honourable Members would recollect, was now