The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-26 00:00:00

IMPERI

HOUSE OF LORDS_(YESTERDAY).
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the woolsack
at the usual hour.
Petitions against the Marriages Bill were presented
by Lord REDESDALR and the Marquis of BREADALBANE.
The Duke of CLEVELAND presented a petition in
favour of the bill.
Lord BROUGHAM presented a petition from Hall-
fax,.complaining of the grievances under which women
labour_ by the:existing state otthe Marriage law. •
Lord OVERSTONE presented P. petition' from The
metropolis' signed by upwards of 300 clergymen of the
Church of England, in favour of the legalisation of the
marriage with a deceased wife's sister, and also several
other petitions, most numerously signed, with a similar
prayer.
The Bishop of OXFORD presented a petition from_
Hampshire against marriage .with a deceased, wife's sis-
ter, Some of the petitioners were of the labouring dais,
and they stated the meastrre wa-s uncalled for.
The Earl of ALBEMARLE presented petitions of
a totally opposite character—one was signed by upwards
0f1.7,000 persons, and the others were also numerously
signed—in favour of the legalisation of marriage with a
deceased wife'e sister.

TRANSPORTATION. .•
The Earl of STANHOPE said he bad received a state•
meet from the Government which induced him to post-
pone the appointment of a select committee on the subject
of secondary punishment, of which be bad given notice.
The Marquis of. LANSDOWNE could _assure the
noble earl and their lordships generally that her Ma-
jesty's Government had this subject under. their consi-
deration, and that it was their intention
_to
institute . such an inquiry as he thought would
be considered satisfactory to all- parties, with a, view..
to the placing the law with respect to secondary punish-
ments upon a more effectual footing than it appeared at -
present. The noble marquis concluded. by moving for
a return in reference to the number of convicts who
had been committed to prison within a certain period,
the'sentence passed-Upon - them, and the number that
had been granted tickets of- leave.
Earl GREY said that if there was to 'be any inquiry
at all before legislation was attempted, it ought •to be
gone into with the least possible delay. They were now .
very near Whitsuntide,. and if it was intended to coma•
der the subject this session, no further delay ought to be
allowed to take place.
Lord DUNGANNON said he trasted that the pre-
sent session would not be allowed to pass away without
something being done on this subject. It had been iina•
gined that a person .who bad had a ticket•of-leave
granted his ha 4 a certificate of g god character, but, on
the contrary; it appeared rather to be a stigma than
anything else.
The subject then dropped.
THE NAVAL REVIEW. • •
Earl GRANVILLE said that since yesterday he had made
inquiries into the causes of the mistakes of Wednesday, atici
he had now to state to their lordshiPs What were the instruc-
tions given by the Admiralty for the safe conveyance of the
two Houses of Parliament to and, from the naval review.
Some time ago arrangements were madl with the South-
Western Railway to carry their lordships down to Southamp-
ton, and at the beginning of this week Capt. Milne had had
an interview with the traffic manager to ascertain from him
whether it was perfectly certain that the company could un-
dertake under:the pressure to which: it was likely they would
be subjected to convoy their lordships without chance of a
failure. The answer he received was, that the company had
made such arrangements that it was absolutely certain that
' both the peers and the meub3rs of the other house would
arrive at Southanipton at a quarter past 9 o'clock. The Ad
miral

sent a communication to the municipal authorities of
Southampton, requesting them to take every precaution to
keep a clear passage from the railway station to the place of
embarkation, and they also wrote to the packet agent—a per-
son of great experience—desiring him to do everything in his
Power to facilitate the embarkation of the two houses. Or-
ders were also given to appropriate the Harbinger and the
Pasha of Egypt yacht 1113 tenders to convey the two houses ou
board their respective vessels, and the packet agent was
directed to hire two additional tenders. ' He wrote back to
say that it was perfectly impossible for him- to hire ant ves-
sels, and two other steamers were then sent round for the
service. With regard to the selection of the Transit she was
thought to be a very fine vessel, and having a large maindeek
she afforded accommodation for a large number of persons to
breakfast together, with the additional advantage of being
miler cover in case of rough weather coming on. Inquiries
had been made beforehand as to the state of her MigineS, and
the answer was that they were in good order, with the excep-
tion of a slight defect in the air pumps, the,only e ffe ct of which
would be to reduce her speed from 11 to 10 knots an hOur.
The officer selected to command was a gentleman of con.
siderable experience, and their lordships had all been wit-
nesses of his great courtesy,. (Hear, hear.) llis instructions
were to he ready to receive the company at 9 o'clock, and
having taken them on board he was to steam down the two
lines, to wait for her Majesty, and on her arrival to take up
her station as near the Royal yacht as posalble. In case of
ally unforeseendelay he was to keep outside for 'fear of coming
into collision. ith any of the gun.baats. What better in-
structions, even judging after the event, could hails been
given them there, ho could not see. The Admiralty had
since made inquiries as to the state of the Transit's engines,
and it was found that the only cause of their failure was that
the steam had got low in consequence of the fires having been
let down. They had ordered a strict and searching inquiry
to be made as to who was to Mama for this omission, and
whoever he was he would be punished. The whole thing
arose from the unfortunate breakdown on the South-Western
Railway—an event not so very extraordinary after all, con-
sidering that the company.had undertaken to carry so large a
number of persons beyond their usual traffic. The accumu-
lation of trains on the line was so great that between 700 and
800 persons arrived at the point of embarkation at Southamp-
ton at the very moment when the two houses were expected..
At the first the packet agent declined to ship them because '
he wished to keep the tenders for the use Of the houses, but
he' Was perfectly unable to resist the entreaties and remon-
strances of 700 to 800 gentlemen and ladies, all crowding and
squeezing together in the dust and heat. He- thought it
better to use the tenders to get them out of the way, and
that was the reason why they were not forthcoming when
their lordships arrived. ' With regard to the personal charge
made against him, he was afraid he should not be able to
make so satisfactory an answer. He had reflected deeply on
the subject since, and he could not think of -any excuse for
the pusillanimity which he had displayed. (Laughter.) .He
Could not accept the compliment which the noble earl oppo-
site had paid him for acuteness and sagacity, for he had so
completely lost his presence of mind that he had only carried
off with him one neutral peer and four noble lords of her
Majesty's Opposition. (Laughter.)
The Marquis of CLANRICARDE wished to know who was
to answer for what was done and what was left. undone by
tho railway company. He was afraid that Parliament a 4 pre-
sent had no power to punish the offenders, but he hoped that
no long time would elapse before a bill would be brought in,
giving Parliament and the country supreme power over these
railway companies.
Lord RAVENSWORTH was willing to accept the noble
earl's apology with respect to the arrangements, or rather the,
disarrangements of the early part of the day; but the noble
earl had given no explanation of the main grievance—namely,
the seven hours occupied by the Transit in her passage from
the place where she had taken up her position back to South-
ampton.
Earl GRANVILLE said he imagined that his , statement
that the fire had gone out was a sufficient explanation of the
absence of motive power. (A. laugh.)
The Earl of GALLOWAY complained that • the railway
company had not taken the most ordinary precautions for the
accommodation of their lordships.
The subject then dropped.
MARRIAGE LAW AMENDMENT BILL.
The Earl of St..GERMANS rose to move the second read.
ing of this bill, and said that although their lordships had in
1851 refused to affirm the principle of one of a similar nature,
he thought he was. justified, after the lapse of five years, in
-asking them to reconsider that principle. In 1842 the other
house had refused to allow a noble friend of 'his to bring in a
bill on this subject, but since that time they had allowed such
bills to be intrruced. The Archbishop of Dublin had truly
observed that every restriction was an evil, and that the bur-
den of proving its necessity must fall on its advocates. He
might therefore fairly call upon the opponents of this measure
to show that the legalisation of marriage with a deceased
wife's sister would be inconsistent with the wellbeing of the
country; but as the question had frequently been discussed
he might assume that nothing new could be said upon it, and
he would answer by anticipation some of the arguments
against the measure. Several able men held that the mar-
riage law of the Jews was not binding upon Christians. That
was the opinion of Bishop Taylor, who said—
" For though Christendom was then at the time of the
divorce of ,Queen Catherine by Henry VIII., much divided,
yet before there was almost aleneral consent upon this propo-
sition, that the Levitical .degrees do not by any law of God
bind Christians to . their observation. I know of but one
schoolraan (Paludanus), who dissents. By all which it appears
what was the state of these marriages under the law of Moses;
and yet all the scruple at which weak persons start or stum-
ble
is derived from that sanction in Leviticus which, in de-
spite of all reason and all precedents, and all observations
whatsoever, .they will needs suppose to be a naturaLand moral
laiv, so making 11 Commandments,- for' certain it is that the
Ten Couimandments were to the Jews the sum of their moral
law; in which, since tome things that were ceremonial were
inserted, it is not likely that anything that was moral should
be omitted. In the 10 words of Moses there was nothing less
than their whole moral law though something more there

was."
Chief Justice Vaughan took the same view :
" The Levitical prohibitions are no general law, but part
cular to the Israelites. As they were delivered to the Jews
only by Moses, they bind other nations no more than other
laws of the Jews do, as the laws of succession, and inheriting
land or goods.- They then must be made obligative, if at all,
to the generality of Christians by the New Testament; but by
what medium can that be proved? Ware it not for the sta-
tutes, it would be hard to make out by persons of what learn-
ing soevet that we are obliged by the Levitical degrees, for
we are not bound by the Judaical law, and how comes this
part to be distinguished from the rest f I mean those of the'
'Levitical degrees, which are of the Judaical positive law
only."
A more modern authority, Archbishop Whately, in speaking_ -
of the opinion of another eminent prelate, also said :
"I am certain that ho (Bishop Copleston) in common
with the very persons who have appealed to what they call
'the Divine law' in this matter, never considered the cere-
monial or the civil regulations of the Levitical codet
as binb
d-
ing on us. No one considers himself bound by
tha to a-
stain from the forbidden meats, or from selling land in per-
petuity, or to require any one to marry his brother's widow.
Nay, eves what are called moral duties no Christian Legis-
lature has felt bound in all cases to enforce by its own laws
disobedience to parents, for instance, and gluttony and.
drunkenness no one would deny to be moral offences, and yet
no Legislature denounces against theo
them the penalty of death.
The whole, therefore, of the appeal t Mosaic law is ma-
nifestly irrelevant, even on the showing of the very persons
who have got up this topic of declamation for the purpose
apparently of diverting attention from the real points at issue
The civil and the ceremonial ordinances of that law can thus
far, and only thus far, be taken as a guide, namely, that any-
thing which is not merely permitted, but distinctly enjoined
in the law, cannot be at variance with the immutable princi-
ples of morality." . -
bfany lcfruecl men, Sir. Willikin Jones and others, held that
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