The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-11 00:00:00

STREET ORGANS.

In answer to a question from Colonel SIBTHORP,
Sir G. GREY said ho had seen the letter in the Times
of yesterday from an inhabitant of Bryanstone-square,
relative to the nuisance of street organs, but he had not
thought it necessary to issue any particular order respect-
ing it, as sufficient power was given by the Metropolitan
Police Act for the removal of such nuisances by any
householder of the neighbourhood, and for punishing
such persons as refused to remove on being so required.
WINDOW DUTIES.

The CtIANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said that
it might be desirable for the House to know that he pro-
posed to take into consideration the resolution on the
window duties and house-tax the first thing on Monday,
if the motion of the Hon. Member for Bucks were not
disposed of in time to bring it forward on Friday night;
after that he should bring on the resolution for the re-
duction of the coffee and timber duties.
ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL.
In reply to a question from Mr. HUME,
Sir G. GREY said that arrangements had been made
for opening the area of St. Paul's Cathedral free of
charge. An order in Council would be necessary, but
in the meantime he understood that the Dean and
Chapter had thrown open the cathedral to the public.
ST. ALBAN'S ELECTION.

Mr. AGLIONBY moved that the evidence taken
before the Committee should be produced for the in-
formation of the short-hand writers. They first got
the report of the Committee, and that was, that Henry
Edwards should be taken into custody, and that
his evidence should be presented to the Committee.
That evidence was now in the hands of the Members
of this House, but no results had followed from
its publication. The Hon. sod Learned Gentleman then
read a variety of extracts from the report, and then pro-
ceeded to say, that out of these remarks two questions
arose; one was a matter of common law, and the other
of common sense. Ho was aware that the House
was quite indisposed to attend to questions of law,
but yet it was necessary to look to this matter,
for the evidence of Mr. Edwards had never
been personally derived from him, and therefore
no result could possibly arise except through the action
of the common law, and that was decidedly in favour of
the defendant. By the 78d section of the 11 th and 12th
Victoria, the whole of these delinquencies were dealt
with, and regulated the rules for Select Committees;
and from that section it was evident that the in-
quiry could not be proceeded with, under the cir-
cumstances, by the Committee or the petitioner.
He was told that the Committee were anxious to adjourn
beyond twenty-four hours, and they applied to the
House to do so. The House gave them leave, but after
that leave they neglected to meet again for the purpose
of declaring the adjournment as the spirit of the Act
required, and, therefore, before he proceeded further, he
should be glad to have the opinion of the Speaker upon
this technical point, because he thought the omission
he bad mentioned was fatal to the wnole proceeding.
He would therefore move that, as the committal of Henry
Edwards was informal, he ought to be discharged from
custody.
Mr. GOULBURN thought sufficient time had not
been given for considering the evidence in this case.
Mr. E. ELLICE, the chairman of the Committee, re-
lated the steps which had been taken in reference to the
adjournment. He was instructed by the Committee some
days ago to apply to the House for leave to adjourn for
a week. Leave was granted, and they did adjourn ac-
cordingly without again meeting; but he apprehended
there was no absolute necessity for a pre farms meeting
to adjourn.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said the question
raised by Mr. Aglionby was one of great nicety, and one
which was deserving of consideration before it was de.
tided. He should therefore propose that the evidence
'should be printed, and the question brought on at a fu-
ture period.
After a short discussion the motion of Mr. Aglionby
was withdrawn, and on the motion of the Attorney-
General the evidence of the Committee was ordered to
be printed.
Mr. AGLIONBY contended that the committal
of the prisoner was altogether informal, accord..
ing to the rules of the House and the principle which
had been followed in other cases. The charge against
him was that he had dissuaded another party from
attending the Committee and giving evidence
who had not been served with a Speaker's
warrant, and the Act of Parliament referred only to
those cases in which a party was guilty of keeping a
witness away who had been regularly served with a
warrant. The Hon. Member concluded by a motion, as
we understood, for the liberation of the prisoner.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said it appeared to
him, after the beat consideration he could give
to this case, that the proceedings of the Com-
mittee were strictly legal and proper. Edwards
it was proved before the Committee had tampered with
some of the witnesses, and the committal was therefore
within the jurisdiction of the Committee. Unless the
Committee possessed this power, this Edwards or

any other party might go on tampering with the wit-
nesses with impunity, but, said the Hon. and Learned
Member, Edwards ought to have been called to the bar
and asked if he had anything to say against his com-
mittal. No doubt upon abstract principles that was
the most desirable course, but this was not the practice
of the House, and the practice could only be changed
by resolution . In the case of the Ipswich election a per-
son alleged that he was tampered with by six persons—
three were first charged and given into custody. Ulti-
mately the whole six were charged with the offence, and
their explanation, not having been considered sufficient,
they were imprisoned. An Honourable and Learned
Friend said that was on a final report. He knew it was,
but there was an inherent right in the Committee to see
that justice was not frustrated. It appeared to him,
therefore, that as far as they bad gone, the Committee
had acted quite right. As to the proposal to hear Ed-
wards, there might be no objection to that, but he hoped
the House would agree with him in thinking that the
Committee up to the present time had acted properly.
Strangers were ordered to withdraw, but no division
took place, the motion having been, as we understood,
withdrawn.

On our re• admission to the gallery,
Mr. AGLIONBY was giving notice that to-morrow
he would move that Edwards be heard at the bar of
the House.

EXPENDITURE OF THE EMPIRE.

Sir W. MOLES WORTH then rose, pursuant to no-
tice, to move the two following resolutions:-
1. That it is the opinion of this House that steps
should be taken to relieve this country, as speedily as
possible, from its present civil and military expenditure
on account of the colonies, with the exception of its ex-
penditure on account of military stations or convict set-
tlements.

2. That it is expedient, at the same time, to give to
theinhabitants of the colonies which are neither military
stations nor convict ;settlements ample powers for their
local self-government, and to free them from that Im-
perial interference with their affairs which is inseparable
from their present military occupation.
In doing so, ho observed that the question of how the
avowedly great expenditure of this empire
i might be re-
duced without impairing the efficiency of its services and
defence, was one in which all were interested. The
greater portion of our expenditure consisted of two
branches. There was, first, the interest of the na-
tional debt, in which branch no reduction could be
made. The other portion of the expenditure
consisted in the government of the United