The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-29 00:00:00

THE MASSACRE IN GREECE.

The Earl of CLARENDON stated that he had received
telegrams from Mr. Erskine, giving the latest in-
formation of the atrocious murders that had
been committed by the Greek brigands. The
noble earl then read the telegrams, which were the
same as those read in the House of Commons by Mr.
Otway. The noble earl then explained the reason of
offering a British ship for the conveyance of the
brigands to a foreign country, and said that
he did so, because the Greek Government had intimated
that they could not grant an amnesty, but had consented
to shut their eyes whilst the brigands were taken
away. He was quite sensible of the humiliation
of such a proposal, but the safety of the
prisoners seemed to him the first consideration. He made
the offer solely to preserve the lives of the captives, and
his colleagues shared with him the responsibility, but he
wished it to be clearly understood that if such a proceed-
ing was wrong he alone was to blame. Seeing the
general horror and indignation the crime had excited,
he hoped for a lenient judgement upon any efforts that
were made in the hope of preventing it, and whether he
did right or wrong he thought the relatives of the
murdered men would never have forgiven him if the
blame had, in the most indirect manner, been attributable
to any want of energy on his part in undertaking the
responsibility.

The Earl of CARNARVON expreised his thanks for what
had been done to avert such an act of horror.

Their Lordships then adjourned.

11U USE OF COMMONS.-THURSDAY.

The Speaker took the chair at five minutes past fou
o'clock.

THIRD READINGS.

The following bills were read a third time, and passed:—
Abbot's Wood (Dean Forest) Enclosure, Callander and
Oban Railway, Eccleshill and Bolton Gas, Glasgow
Houses of Refuge, Leeds Corporation Gas (Purchase, &c.),
Newport Pagnell Railway, Wolverhampton and Wa
Railway.
METROPOLITAN DISTRICT RAILWAY BILL.
On the motion for the third reading of this bill,

Mr. CRAWFORD said he regretted that since the last
time this bill had been under consideration no steps had
been taken to prevent those who objected to the measure
from taking the extreme course of moving its rejection.
They had now the plans before them, and the objections
that had been made to them still remained,
and if the House sanctioned the motion, it
would be virtually to supersede by the resolution of a
select committee of four members, the solemn decision
come to by both Houses iu 1864. He had on a former
occasion objected to the proposals in the bill as an act of
vandalism ; since that he had received the evidence of Mr.
Haywood, and he had failed to discover anything that
sverweighed the evidence given by Mr. Gregory and
other gentlemen before the committee. The proposal
to have a subway 200 yards in extent from the proposed
starting station in Queen Victoria-street, to an opening in
front of the Royal Exchange, that opening having a
double flight of steps close to the Wellington statue, was
most objectionable ; and the bringing a large mass of
people with the necessary accompaniment of orange,
newspaper, and lucifer match sellers to pester every person
with wares, would be attended with the greatest
public inconvenience. The traffic at present at the
particular point of the city he had just mentioned was
enormous, and when to that was added that of a large
number of railway travellers, it would render the spot
almost, if not quite, impassable. The open trench it was
proposed to make in Queen Victoria-street would
itself be a great objection, and then with respect
to the cost of the undertaking, some notion
of it would be formed from the fact that land in the vici-
nity sold yesterday realised no less than £2B per foot.
The land required by the company would be about 7,000
square feet, and that multiplied by 28 would give the cost
of the land as nearly £200,000, and yet the com-
pany said they could make the proposed extension of the
railway for £172,000 in excess of the sum that it would
take to carry the railway to Queen-street. There had
been a petition presented in favour of the bill, but that
was met by no less than 22 petitions signed by
the most influential merchants and traders in the city of
London. He was at a loss to know on what ground they
could come to Parliament to ask for powers
to make the proposed station, because they ad-
mitted they had no funds, and that their credit
was gone. He hoped the house would refuse to give its
assent to that which he could characterize as nothing less
than a monstrosity.

Mr. R. N. FOWLER added his testimony to the incon-
venience that would arise if the proposals of the company
were carried out.

Mr. SAMUELSON supported the third reading of the bill.

Lord JOHN MANNERS opposed it.
Mr. CROSS, as chairman of the select committee to which
the bill had been referred, defended the decision at which
it had arrived with respect to the bill. He denied that
the committee had broken the line of the inner circle, as
it was called, and in what they had done they had fully
considered the benefit of the public.
Lord ELcao did not dispute that the line would be a
public convenience, but the company could not carry out
the conditions involved in the scheme.

Alderman LAWRENCE, loped the House would not con-
sent to cut such a mabcrniacent street in two in order to
facilitate the operations of a railway company.

After some further discussion the House divided on the
proposition that " now " stand part of the question

The result was—

Ayes
Noes ,

200
179

Majority for
TURF BETTING

Mr. T. HUGHES gave notice that on Monday next
he should bring the subject of betting on horses under the
notice of the House.
ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES ACT.

Mr. STACPOOLE asked the First Lordlitf the Treasury
if he could state when it was proposed to introduce the
promised bill for the repeal of the Ecclesiastical Titles
Act.

Mr. GLADSTONE replied that the necessity for legislatidn
upon the subject of the Ecclesiastical Titles Act was cer-
tainly as great in the view of the Government as it had
been. At the same time the state of business made it
difficult to anticipate the precise time for introducing a
bill for the purpose in question.
THE TRUCK ACT.

Sir DAVID WEDDERBURN asked the Secretary of State
for the Home Department whether his attention had been
directed to the reports of continued and systematic eva-
sion of the Truck Act in Scotland; and whether he was
prepared to sanction a public inquiry by Royal Commis-
sion, or otherwise, into the working of that Act.
Mr. BRUCE said he had long been aware of the evasions
not only in Scotland, but in other parts of the country.
If the hon. gentleman or any other gentleman would
undertake to deal with the question, the Government
would give it their best consideration.
PUBLICATION OF REPORTS,
Mr. HENRY HERBERT asked whether it was true that 4
review of the Report of the Inspectors of Salmon
Fisheries appeared in the Times and Daily Telegraph of
the 14th and 16th April instant respectively, being a
fortnight before such report was circulated amongst the
members of the House, or could be obtained by other
newspapers or the public generally, and whether this had
been done with the sanction of the Home Office; and, if
not, whether inquiry would be made how the report was
so partially distributed, and by whom.
Mr. BRUCE believed it was true that the report of
inspectors of salmon fisheries did appear in the news-
- papers on the 14th and 16th of April, while the report
-Ywas only on the table of the House on the Bth instant.
The reports were given by the inspectors to the news-
papers on condition that they should not be used until
their reports had been published.