The Sun.
London, England, 1848-06-20 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT,

(THIS EVENING.)

HOUSE OF COMMONS.
The SPEAXER took the Chair shortly before Four
o'Clock.

LORDS' AMENDMENT.
The Lords' amendment to the Brentford Gas Light
[ Acts Amendment Bill was considered and agreed to.
THIRD READINGS.
The following Bills were read a third time and
passed:—
Caledonian Railway (branches connecting the Clydes •
dale Junction and Wishaw and Coltness Rail-
ways, &c.)
Walsall Improvement and Cemetery.
Wishaw and Coltness Railway (Deviation Connectin
Branch and Improvement). g
CALEDONIAN RAILWAY (BRANCH ACROSS
THE CLYDE AND GLASGOW STATION).
On the motion that the report on this Bill be en-
grossed,
Mr. HUME said the Admiralty had for three suc-
cessive years refused to consent to any railway passing
across the Clyde, and by one of the most extraordinary
proceedings that he had ever known to occur in any public
department, the Admiralty had withdrawn its veto, and
sanctioned the project. In order, therefore, to give the
trustees of the Clyde and the people of Glasgow an op-
portunity of showing the injury which such a bridge
would cause to the navigation, he would move that the
consideration of the Bill be postponed until next session.
Mr. FOX MALLE said that the communication
which the bridge would afford between the south and
the north sides of the Clyde would confer great advan-
tages upon the people of Glasgow, and would
not cause any obstruction to the navigation.
Lord LINCOLN said he was of opinion that the Ad-
miralty were undoubtedly wrong in withdrawing their
veto against the construction of the bridge, and consi-
dered that it would be more to the public interest to
postpone the Bill until next year.
Captain FIT ZROY said the Admiralty had made a
very strict inquiry into the matter, and finding that they
could not in their public capacity offer any further op-
positi,n, and as there was no opposition by any party
to the project, they consented to withdraw their veto.
The House then divided, when there appeared—
For Mr. Hume's amendment l9
Against it............. 129
Majority —llo
The report was then agreed to.
GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.
On the question of the further consideration and
adoption of the report on the Great Western Railway .
Bill (to confer additional power on the company with
reference to the purchase of the Birmingham and Ox-
ford Junction),

Mr. LABOUCHERE presented a petition against the
Bill, and praying that the House would Rot allow it to
pass until the company had reduced' their fares to the
sum prescribed by law.
Mr. DENISON objected to the further progress of
the Bill, because in his opinion it contravened the Act
of Parliament with regard to the gauge of railways.
The question involved in this Bill was a matter of such
importance as to induce him to call upon his Right
Hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade to
state his opinion on the subject of its provisions.
Mr. LABOUCHERE would not go into the large
question of the broad or narrow gauge. He would say,
however, that he thought the question of gauge in a
most unsatisfactory state. He was prepared to resist
the provisions of the Bill now before the House so far
as they went to provide a double line of railway;
his intention: was to give notice upon the third read-
ing of his intention to move that the clause with
respect to the double gauges should be struck out of the
Bill.
Mr. CHRISTOPHER thought the report of the
Board of Trade most unsatisfactory. If the deci-
sions of the Committees of the House were abro-
gated in this way by the Board of Trade, Honourable
Members would not feel inclined to devote that
attention to the duties which devolved upon them
as Members of Committees as they now did. He
hoped the House would, therefore, give that con-
sideration to the report of the Committee which the
care and attention the Committee had devoted upon it
deserved. The Committee of which he was a member
would he, unfairly dealt with if the House acceded to the
proposition of the Right Hon. Gentleman.
Sir EDMUND HAYES, the Chairman of the Com-
mittee, declared that he perfectly coincided in the ob-
servations of the Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Christopher).
Sir L. O'BRIEN supported the decision of the Com-
mittee.
Mr. MUNTZ wished that Hon. Gentlemen, before
they voted, could have an opportunity of witnessing
the facility with which the carriages were changed
from one gauge to the other in Gloucester. The
plan had been in operation since October last, up-
wards of thirty trains had passed to and fro in the
course of a day, and the process of changing the trains
was effected without the slightest difficulty. He repre-
sented a large constituency who were most anxious to
have the double gauge. The House had consented to
the double gauge being carried to Wolverhampton, and
he saw no reason why persons living in that locality
should be enabled to get to London before the people of
London, owing to having a more rapid meaus of transit
by the broad gauge.
The report was then agreed to.
The following reports were then agreed to:—
Edie burgh and Bathgate Railway (Extension and De-
viation).
Great Western Railway (Branch from Slough to
Windsor).
Great Western Railway (Loop Line from the Birming-
ham and Oxford Junction Railway through Lea-
mington).
Liverpool, Manchester, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne Junc-
tion Railway (abandonment of the railway and disso-
lution of the company).
London and South-Western Railway Company and
Southampton and Dorchester Railway Company
Amalgamation.
Whitehaven and Furness Junction Railway (Extension
or Deviation Line from Silecroft to Foxfield, &c.)
CHURCH-RATES.

Mr. OSBORNE gave notice that on an early day he
should move for leave to bring in a Bill to abolish
church-rates.

COLONIAL EXPENDITURE.

Sir WM. MOLESWORTH gave notice that o❑
Tuesday next he should move a resolution to the
effect that it was the opinion of the House that the
colonial expenditure was excessive and ought to be di-
minished, and with the view of accomplishing that
object the colonies ought to be invested with larger
powers for the local administration of their own affairs.
EXCISE.

Mr. FAGAN seeing the Right Hon. the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, he wished to ask him whether, in the
event of the duty on West India rum being reduced
from sd. to 4d., it was the intention of the Govern-
ment to give any countervailing advantage to the
English and Irish spirit manufacturers by the removal
of some of the Excise restrictions? •
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said,
perhaps the Hon. Gentleman was not aware that a Bill
had already been introduced for removing some of
the grounds of complaint on the part of the
distillers, and he was happy to inform him that other
changes were under consideration. All restrictions
would be removed, except those that were absolutely
necessary for the purposes of the revenue.
DECIMAL COINS.
Dr. BOWRING wished to ask his Right Honourable
Friend the Master of the Mint whether any progress
kad been made with the decimal coins, and when they
might expect the issue of the tenth of a pound piece?
Mr. SHEIL said there was a Committee sitting upon
the subject, and until that Committee had reported, it
was not advisable to enter into any new agreement with
the money-office. Besides, a contract now existed with
the coining department, and until the provisions of that
contract had been fulfilled no fresh ones could be entered '
into.
EXPULSION OF ENGLISH WORKMEN FROM
FRANCE.
Mr. B. COCHRANE, seeing the Noble Lord the
Secretary for Foreign Affairs in his place, wished to
ask him a question of great national importance, and
one which he wondered had not already been
put to the Noble Lord. It was, whether those
workmen who had been turned out of France pre-
vious to the meeting of the National Assembly
had received any compensation for the money withheld
from them by the savings banks? If they had not, he
wished to know further, whether the Noble Lord had
any objection to lay upon the table any correspondence
that might have taken place upon the subject between
himself and the British Ambassador at Paris; and if it
was the intention of Government to demand of the
French authorities compensation for the great injuries
which had been done to British subjects ?—(Hear.)
Lord PALMERSTON said some time ago a com-
munication passed between Lord Normanby and the
French Government upon the subject, and the French
Government proposed that the deposits should be re-
stored to the English depositors in full, although a
different arrangement had been ordered in refer-
ence to French depositors. Since the Hon.
Gentleman had given notice of his question
he had inquired at the Foreign-office whether any report
had been received as to the return of the deposits, and
he found that no such report had been received. He
had therefore directed that further inquiry should be
made into the matter.—(Cries of "Hear, hear.")
Sir DE LACY EVANS said. as a considerable num-
ber of those workmen were in great distress, he wished
to know whether the Government could not make them
some allowance, or grant them some moderate redress
in anticipation of the realisation of their claims upon the
French Government?
Lord PALMERSTON was understood to say that
the subject would be taken into his consideration and
also that of his Noble Friend the Secretary for the
Colonies.

MAIL TO THE WEST INDIES.
Lord INGESTRE inquired whether it was the
intention of the Government to detain the West Indian
mail-packet until the conclusion of the debate upon the
distress now existiag in the colony, and if not, whether
it was their intention to dispatch a man-of-war for the
special purpose of conveying the intelligence to the
West Indies on the result of the debate being known ?
Lord J. RUSSELL said the Government did not in-
tend to delay the packet beyond to•morrow; but as to
the other question he was unable to give the Noble Lord
an answer.

PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.-MR. HUME'S
MOTION.
___

The SPEAKER intimated to the House that it would
be expedient for Hon. Members who had petitions in
favour of the motion of the Hon. Member for Montrose
to present them then.
Several Hon. Members then presented a number of
petitions in favour of the extension of the suffrage, vote
by ballot, triennial Parliaments, and equal electoral
districts.
Lord DUDLEY STUART presented several petitions
for an extension of the suffrage, and in support of Mr.
Ilume's motion. The Noble Lord also presented peti-
tions from Ilarylebone and St. Pancra► in favour of the
vote by ballot and the establishment of electoral districts.
Mr. C. LUSHINGTON presented similar petitions
from the Westminster Reform Society, and the inhabi-
tants of St. Paul's, Covent-garden.
Mr. M. WILSON preseqted similar petitions from
Truro.

Mr. W. J. FOX presented 287 similar petitions.
Mr. MO WATT presented petitions to the same
effect from Falmouth, complaining of the outrageous
expenditure of tha country, and stating as a proof
of the House not representing the sentiments of
the country, the evidence recently adduced before
Committees appointed to determine returns petitioned
against ; also against the interference of Peers in elec-
tions.

Colonel THOMPSCN presented a number of peti-
tions from Manchester, Sunderland, Dundee, Wrexham,
and other paces, in all signed by 3,000 persons, in
favour of Mr. Hume's motion.

Mr. MUNTZ presented a petition from Birmingham,
signed by 10,000 persons, stating, though the Reform
Bill was a step in the right direction, and might have
satisfied its framers, it did not satisfy the rest of the
community ; that class legislation had in a great degree
brought about the present state of things on the Conti-
nent, and praying for Parliamentary Reform.
Mr.
from presented a petition to the same
effect from Southampton, signed by 300 persons ; also,
from Bridport, in the Isle of Wight, to the same effect.
Sir E. BUXTON presented petitions from places in
Essex.

Colonel TYNTE presented petitions from Bridgwater
and Glasgow.

Mr. OSBORNE from several places in Middlesex,
which he stated were not got up by committees.
Mr. RICE from Dover,
Mr. ADAIR from Cambridge.
Mr. PATTISON from a place the name of which did
not reach the gallery.
Mr. CLAY from Hull.

The petitions to the same effect were presented by
Mr. Hindley, Mr. Westhead, Mr. Fox Maule, Lord
Lincoln, Mr. Sharman Crawford, Mr. E. Denison, Sir
De Lacy Evans, Sir George Strickland, Mr. Fitzroy,
Sir William Molesworth, Dr. Bowring, and Mr. George
Thompson, Lord Duncan, Sir J. Hamner, Sir G. Clarke,
Sir T. Egerton, Mr. Divett, and Mr. Grainger.
Petitions to the same effect were then presented by
Hon. Members from Monmouth, Cardiff, York (signed
by 5,550 persons), Stamford, from the brush makers
and bellows makers of Bristol, from Stoke-upon-Trent,
Kelso, Tunbridge Wells, Maidstone, Seven • Oaks, and
other places.

Mr. COB1)EN presented a petition bigned by 2,000
eloetors also in favour of the Motion yr the 11,11. Men►uer
for Montrose.

The HON. MEMBER also presented similar petitions
from Stalybridge, and nearly two hundred other places.
Mr. AGLIONBY presented similar petitions from
Coekermouth, Whitehaven, and several other places.
Mr. C. PEARSON presented similar petitions from
Lambeth.

Mr. HENLEY presented similar petitions from Read-
ing.
Mr. WAKLEY presented a great number of petitions
from different parts of the borough of Finsbury, com-
plaining that the House as at present constituted did not
represent fairly the population of the country, and pray-
ing the House to adopt the proposition of the Hon.
Member for Montrose.

Mr. C. P. VILLIEFS presented several petitions in
favour of Mr. Hume's motion.
Mr. J. B. SMITH presented similar petitions from
various parts of Scotland.
(LBFT SITTING.)

THE LONDON GAZETTE.
(THIS EVENING.)

FOREIGN-OFFICE, JUNE 16, 1848.'

The Queen bas been pleased to approve of Mr.
Ilichard Jones Todd, as Consul at Cardiff for the
Grand Duke of Oldenburgh.
WHITEHALL, JUNE 17.

The Queen has been pleased to direct letters patent to
be passed under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, granting unto Thomas
William King, Esq., Rouge-Dragon Pursuivant of Arms,
the office of York Herald, vacant by the promotion of
Edward Howard Howard-Gibbon, Esq., to the office of
Norroy King of Arms.

g ,
WHITEHALL, JUNE 19, 1848.

The Queen has been pleased to direct letters paten,
to be passed under the Great Seal of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, granting
unto Edward Stephen Dendy, Gent., the office
of Rouge Dragon, Pursuivant of Arms, ♦acant by the
promotion of Thomas William King, Esq., to the office
of York Herald.