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

IMPERIAL PARL MEN T.-
' WOUSE- OF LORDS, August 20.
Their Lordships met at Five o'clock.
Messengers from • the House of Commons brought up
severai Bills.
DEATHS BY ACCIDENTS COMPENSATION BILL.
Lord CAMPBELL gave notice that to-morrow he should
call the attention of their Lordships to the amendments 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 report was
brought no, the Third reading being ordered for 0-morrow.
CHIEF-JUSTICESHIP OF BOMBAY,—LORD G.
BEN TINC K.

Lord LYNDHURST begged to tall the attention to cer-
tain statements which had appeared in the morning papers
yesterday, and which had 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 George
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 was particularly
unfortunate that this explanation had Tee been made earlier,
for it was almost impossible to meet, it by reason and
argnmer.t. 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 sevep persons, among whom
was Mr: David Pollock. All who knew that
gentleman knew how well ho 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 years ago, he (Lord Lyndhurst) had ap ointed Mr.
Phillips a Commissioner for the Court of Bankruptcy. From
domestic circumstances the office bad 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 bad been suggested to him as a proper
person to fill the office of Chief Justice of Madras,
but Mr. Pollock 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 promoted to the office left by Mr. Poleek. No one coned
doubt the ability of the gentleman to fulfil the duties of the
office. He had appointed 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-
vations 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 forgetfulness, but
of the grossest injustice in overlooking the merits of a person
who had served him with the utmost fidelity and intelligence,
and who had recommended himself to manyof their Lordships
by those abilities which 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 pive,
he might refer to some observations in a speech of Pitt upon
Napoleon, upon whom that Minister bad remarked that there
was nothing too great for his ambition, no^ too moan or too
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 ground., 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 bad
stated. The charges, therefore, of that man wore
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 povessien of a living of the
same value as that of Noctor under the Bishop of Bath and Well.
The Rev. Gentleman had, it appeared, endeavoured to piemete
the well-being of those in the neighbourhood in which be lived.
He also received a letter at the tame from Lady Ripon, thanking
him most cordially for the appointment he had eonferre upon
the Rev. Gentleman. The charge, eonsid ring the evid nee en
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 brine 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 in4ividual who uttered it, and whose weakness and
folly were only equalled by his baseness.—( Cheers.) Tne
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 ceurse he adopted with respect to
Mr. D. Pollock was only such as was alopte.l in sitrid.r eases.
He asked their Lordships, then, if he had not justified himself
in their eyes ? Could any one justify such conduct on the part I
of the Noble Lord, who made the charge ? But, perhaps, he
might consider it not inconsistent with party to asperse those
who differed with him ; or, pehaps, his early habits had taught
him to form so low an opinion of men as to suppose that every
man in public life must be actuated by some base—some un- ,
worthy motive; but the best proof of calumny was to oe found I
in the character of the calumniator. There was no want of
will, but inability to distil his poison ; he was not unlike a wasp
who took delight in stinging. Such aspersions were not with- 1
out harm, after they had been perpetrated. as people remem-
bered them. It was hum listing at the close of his political !
life, and at the close, he might almost say, of his natural life, to
have to repel accusations of this kind. He 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 flagoing.
AUSTRALIAN LANDS BILL.
Earl GREY moved the third reading of the Australian
Lands Bill,

After a few observations 'from Lnrd ELLENBOROUGI-1,
the Bill was read a third time and passed.
LUNATICS ASYLUM AND PAUPER LUNATICS

BILL.

On the motion of the Marquis of L ANSDOWNE, 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 and overturn all 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 ccuntries should be admitted
on equal terms. That was free trade. But he could not
se• how, if there were to be an equalisation of du-
ties, there should not also be an equalisation in
the use of ships as well as in the admission of woods. He
could net 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
bad 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 sacety 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 of 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 not only be very distasteful, hut
in all probability very unprofitable to the colonies. But it
should be recollected 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
be that was occasioned by the present regulations.
they in no way invalidated the right of the mother
country to regulate their trade.—( Hear.l With resp.et
to the question of the navigation laws, he did conceive that it
was highly inexpedient that any inquiry should be 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 shouldbe 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 he could repeat that it was highly inexpe-
dient at the present moment to enter upon such a subject.
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH had not 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.