The Sun.
London, England, 1848-08-03 00:00:00

WINDSOR CASTLE BILL.

On Phe motion fur the House going into Committee
on the Windsor Castle and Town Approaches Improve-
ment Bill,

Mr. B. QSBORNE said he would not oppose the mo-
tion for going into Committee; but when the House was
in Committee he should move the expulsion of those
clauses which stipulated for the shutting up of all the
public thoroughfares in Windsor Park.
Mr. HUME trusted the House would postpone going
into Committee on the Bill for a week, or until the
House had befqy them the report of the Commissioners
of Woods and Forests as to whether they could under-
take properly the subject. No man was more competent
than the Noble Lord now at the head of the Woods and
Forests to conduct the department that he *ow so ably
filled ; but he trusted the House would not take away
the rights of the people in the manner proposed by the
present Bill. He would therefore move as an amend-
ment that the committal of the Bill should be postponed
fur a week.

Lord MORPETH felt bound to oppose the amend-
ment of the Hon. Member for Montrose, knowing that
the report of the Commissioners of Woods and
Forests would not throw any light on the sub-
ject. He had no disposition, and never had, to do
anything that was detrimental to the public; his only
object was to do good to the public, and it had
been so ever since he had held the office he
had now the honour to fill.—(Hear.) He wished,
at the same time, to consider the interests of the public
and the comforts of the Sovereign.
After some observations from Sir H. WILLOUGHBY,
Colonel SALWEY addressed the House in support of
he amendment of the Hon. Member for Montrose.

Colonel REID supported the committal of the Bill
feeling assured that no public rights were invaded by
and that if it did not pass the comfort of the presen
beloved Sovereign of this cuuntry would be greatly in
terfered with.

Sir E. COLEBROOKE believed that the public
would gain much more than they would loss by the pre-
sent measure.

The amendment was then withdrawn, and the House
went into Committee on the Bill.
On Clause 1 being proposed,
Mr. OSBORNE called upon the Committee to insert a
clause binding the railway companies to contribute all
the money required for the proposed works, or guaran-
teeing that the cost should not exceed 85,0001.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said he would intro-
duce a clause upon bringing up the report which would
obviate all objections.
Mr. HUME thought it was highly desirable that
such a clause should be introduced. 'they were told by
the Chancellor of the Exchequer that the cost of the
improvements at Buckingham Palace should not exceed
300,000/., whereas they had cost 950,000/.
Mr. LOCKE protested that the railway companies ought
not to be called upon to contribute more than 85,0001.
Clause 1 was then agreed to, and so were also the
other clauses in the Bill, with one or two verbal amend-
ments.

`The House then resumed, and the Chairman reported
progress.
The report was ordered to be received tomorrow.
CALEDONIAN CANAL.

The Caledonian Canal Bill was read a third time and
passed.

LOAN SOCIETIES.

The report on the Loan Societies Bill was brought up
and agreed to.
MILITIA BALLOT SUSPENSION ACT.
Mr. COB NEWALL LEWIS moved, in the absence of
the Secretary at War, to bring in a Bill to continue the
Militia Ballot Suspension Act.
The Bill was subsequently brought in and read a first

time-.
The other orders of the day were then disposed of and
the House adjourned.

ELECTION COMMITTEE.
DUBLIN. . _

The scrutiny into the validity of Mr. Reynolds' ma-
jority was resumed yesterday, but the petitioners did not
succeed in striking off any additional votes.
The petitteners announced their intention to abandon
the objective founded on the non-payment of the Dublin
wide-streets rate.

ITALY.
A flying slip of the Milan Gazette, received yester-
day, publishes the following :
" EXTRAORDINARY BULLETIN.
‘.,` JULY 27, HALF-PAST TIIFIBE, P.M.
" Authentic dvices received from parties arrived
from the camp- attest the fact that the Italian army
preserves its numerical superiority, and is assembled
in complete battle array around Goito. Thither has
also repaired the division of General Sonnez, which left
Peschiera well armed and well supplied with provisions,
&c., so as to be in a position still to sustain a tong siege.
" The accounts already given that 2,000 prisoners were
taken in the recent battle, and that the loss of the enemy
in killed and wounded was far greater than on our side,
are confirmed.
The Provisional Government has destined General
Zucciii to take the command of the available troops con-
centrated
the entrated in Brescia. General Fanti has already set out
direction of that city to take the command of a
~rcorpsof upwards of 5,000 men there assembled. Colonel
t‘Tonitnedu in
i will leave to-morrow with the troops now sta-
tioned Milan and the mobilized' National Guard. 1
aprompt subsidies will reinforce the courage of the
iwnhhoahmitanes
nitysrtesident in the vicinity of the theatre of war,
the best spirit in favour of the national
cause.
"The Government has appointed a Committee of Pub-
lic Defence, which will constitute the central source of
all provisions required by the imperious exigencies of the
circumstances for the defence of the country. The latest
accounts received from the camp advise us that our troops
hay& attacked the tee at Volta, but
n the result of this
A
movement is, as yet, unknown.almost
toin
isnptirace intact
a:s omny.
of 60,000 combatants, however, ought
siderable degree of confidence.
13y order of the Provisional Government
(Signed) " G. C ARC Aneriec
The same sheet contains another extraordinary
bulletin, bulletin, dated a few hours earlier. We annex it at
length :
EXTRAORDINARY BULLETIN.
" MILAN, JULY 27, Two o'CLoca,
" We have received official aNices of the battle which
has been fought during the last few days.
"The enemy, strengthened by reinforcements, at.
tempted an assault on the whole line, availing them-
selves of the support of the three fortresses of Mantua,
Legnano, and Verona. On Sunday, July 23, the advanced
corps of the army, overcome by a numerical superiority
at itivoli and Sonuna Campagna, were compelled to

abandon those strong positions, after an honourable
resistance.
"On Monday, 24th instant, King Charles Albert,
having proceeded from Marmirolo to Villa Franca, our
troops regained the positions of Somma Campagna.
The battle was long and sanguinary. The loss of
enemy was greater than our own, and the day closed with
the prospect of a complete victory for the following day.
But on Tuesday, whilst our artillery was fulminat-
ing from the heights of Somma Campagna, a fresh corps
of the enemy, headed by Radetzky, having sallied from
Verona, where it had been concentrated, after leaving
Legnano and Vicenza, arrived at the scene of
action and attacked the Italian army. The King,
perceiving the danger of maintaining positions
so exposed and extensive, gave orders to the
Piedmontese army to fall back on Villa Franca.
During the night it continued its retreat, conducting
2,500 prisoners, without being molested by the enemy, as
far as Goito, where it intended to rest from the extraor-
dinary fatigues of the three preceding days, and unite
with the corps of reserve on the line of the Mincio.
Peschiera is bravely defended by the left wing of the
army, commanded by General Sonnaz.
"lay order of the Provisional Government,
(Signed) "G. CARCANO, Secretary."
The Milan Gazette of the 26th ult. quotes the fol-
lowing letter from Venice of the 21st :—" A person
has just arrived from Padua, to demand prompt
assistance from the commander of the city,
the inhabitants of Padua having revolted, dis-
armed the Croatians, and shut the gates of the
town. This popular movement was occasioned
by the execution of three persons by order of the
Austrian General D'ASPRE. At Treviso the popula-
tion has torn down all the proclamations, declaring
the place in a state of siege. The small Austrian
garrison was in imminent danger."
The Avennire d'ltalia, of the 27th ult., announces
that General PEPE had left Venice and occupied
Padua.

COMMERCIAL DISTRESS-
Among other circumstances which invest the Lords'
"Report on Commercial Distress" with unusual in-
terest and importance, must be reckoned the fact that it
is clearly the work of a half-awakened bullionist. Had
it been drawn by such men as Lord Stanhope or Mr.
Spooner, the public would only have said, " Oh! we
knew what Lord Stanhope would be sure to say; but
how came he to be allowed to draw the report?" It is
quite otherwise when we receive such a document from
the pen of a 'Whig, a Whig financier, nay,‘as Chancellor
of the Exchequer of the Grey and Melbourne times!
It amounts, then, to a confession, to an admission of
former errors, made by a man who, relieved from the
entanglements of office, and left at liberty to follow the
truth wherever it may load him, frankly acknowledges
that, in several important particulars, the legisla-
tion of the last ten or twenty years has
been egregiously mistaken. The three points
i
more particularly pointed out, n this report,
as requiring immediate amendment, are, as Iwo
have already stated:-1. The mischievous opera-
tion of the limit fixed, by the Act of 1844, to the
Bank issues. 2. The objectionable principle of thus
taking away the responsibility of the Bank, and then
leaving it, with all its enormous power, and public cha-
racter, to speculate unreservedly for profit, by any means
and all means, like any private adventurer. And 3. The
enormous and wholly inexcusable folly of still further
fettering the Bank by refusing it the liberty to increase
its silver bullion beyond a certain amount; that bullion
being just the cheapest, easiest, and safest commodity
with which it could commonly deal. On these three
points the Lord's Report leaves the Act of 1844,
to use a common phrase, " not a leg to stand upon."
Will the men of indomitable conceit, the Peels
Jones Loyds, Charles Woods, &e., own their error,
and consent to amend their ways? We much
doubt it. We fear that their vanity and amour
propre is too strong to permit them the exorcise of can-
dour and frank surrender. They will probably stand
upon possession. They will say, "We have made the
' Act of 1844, and we will not undo our own work. It is
for you to repeal that Act, if you can. You have beaten
u in the Lords, we have beaten you in the Commons;
it'is a drawn game; but we aro in possession; and you
cannot get us out." If this is their language, then the
country will probably have to undergo one more " groat
tribulation," before it is sufficiently excited to break the
yoke of the bullionists up for ever. For our own part,
greeting this report of the Lords with the greatest plea.
sure, as a clear, frank, able exposition of some of the
chief blunders of Sir Robert Peel's last measure, we re-
main of the opinion which we have often before expressed
that a sound and effectual reform of our monetary
system would go much further than these first and
most needed reforms. True, common sense demands,
as an honest bullionist has, in this report, admitted, that
the Bank should not be prevented from buying silver to
any extent it chose, or from issuing notes for that silver ;
inasmuch as the simplest and easiest of all transactions
would be, whenever a necessity appeared, to sell the
silver—the general currency of the continent—and so to
reduce its outstanding notes. Similarly, does experience
show, that the iron law, of just 14,000,000/. issue,:in good
times and in bad times, in days when money is abundant,
and in days when it is scarce, is a preposterous enact-
ment, and cannot be maintained in such days as those of
October last. If these things are not at once rectified,
it will clearly be because Sir Robert Peel loves Sir Robt.
Peel's infallibility better than he loves the prosperity of
England. But these amendments would only render the
present, system tolerable—they would not make it a
wise or good system. The grand questions would still
remain to be asked :—ls it right or fitting that any one,
or any body of men, save the Sovereign and her re-
sponsible servants, should be permitted to coin money in
this realm of England? Is it decorous or safe, that the
whole power of making the paper money of the realm
should be given to a company of merchants and trades.
men of London, whose first object avowedly is, not the
good of the community, but their own trading profits?
Is it consistent with common sense, that the
mercantile interests of the country being wholly
dependent upon a proper supply of money the
care of that supply should be entrusted, not to a respon-
sible Minister of Commerce, but to this private, trading
company of merchants and traders ? We feel assured
that to these questions there can be but one answer
given. Future ages will hardly credit the fact, that in
these days of boasted enlightenment, the English Go-
vernment and Legislature should have left its monetary
system wholly in the hands of a trading company ;
which company, having regard to its own profits when
money was cheap, made it cheaper ; and when it was
dear, made it dearer ; and thus contrived to augment its
gains at a moment when every other trading community
in England was suffering loss, in many cases, even to the
extent of ruin !—Herald.