The Sun.
London, England, 1851-05-20 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, MAY 20, 185

In the House of Lords last night,
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE moved the second read-
ing of the Income-tax Bill. He thought that the coun-
try ought to submit to the continuance of this tax for
some short time longer, in order to enable them to
afford relief to the working clas-es by remitting duties
on articles of Consumption; at the same time he
was by no means is favour of direct taxation.
Lord STANLEY would not oppose the Bill, but he
thoti4ht the Commons had acted wisely in limiting its
operation to a year. He hoped shortly to see the tax
abolished altogether.
After a few words from the Earl of MALmeszurtY,
Lord BEAUMONT. and Lord BERNERS,
Lord MONTEAOLE denounced the tax as unjust and
opprf•ssive.
Earl GREY defended the tax, the productiveness of
which h.d enabled them to give a stimulus to industry by
the repeal of many taxes which preased upo❑ production,
as an instance of which be would mention the glass duty.
The Bill was then read a second time, and their
Lordships adjourned.
In the Commons,
The Chairman of the Harwich Election Committee
brought up the report, which declared that Mr. PRIN-
SEP had not been duly elected, and that the last elec-
tion was void.
A new writ was ordered for Clackmannan, vacant by
the death of Sir W. MORISON.
The House then went into Committee on the Eccle-
siastical Titles Assumption Bill, but no sooner had Mr.
BERNAL taken his seat as chairma❑ than
Mr. REYNOLDS moved that the Chairman do report
progress, and leave to sit again.
Sir GEORGE GREY, after the pledge given on Friday,
did not expect to have been met with this sort of op-
position.
The Earl of ARUNDEL and SURREY and Mr. ROE-
BUCK were in favour of delay.
Mr. GLADSTONE thought the progress of the measure
should be delayed until they had heard the opinions of
the law ufficers of the Crown on the proposed amend-
ments.

Lord JOHN RUSSELL considered the request for the
opinion of the law-officers of the Crown a very reason-
able one.
• Atter a desultory conversation, in which Sir H.
Lechis. Mr. P. HOWARD, Mr. ROCHE, Mr. KEoGI, Mr.
T. DUNCOMBE, Mr. lIUME, Mr. :3HARMAN CRAWFORD,
and Mr. G. MOOSE took pert, the motion of Mr. REY-
NOLDS was negatived without a division.
Oa the question being put that the preamble be post-
poned,
Mr. REYNOLDS again moved that the Chairman do re-
port progress, which on a division was negatived by
262 to 46.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL then, at considerable
length, explained the legal operation of the proposed '
alterations.
Att.r a few words from Mr. M. GIBSON, Sir F.
THESIGER, Mr. ROCHE, Mr. P. HOWARD, Lard BER-
NARD, and Lord J. RUSSELL,
Mr. T. DUNCOMBE contended that as the first clause
was tound, d on the preamble the preamble ought to be
discussed first.
In this view he was supported by Mr. AGLIONBY and
Mr. KE on, and nopos-d by Lord J. RussEhh arid
the :OLICITOII-GENERAL.
Mr. REYNOLDS again moved that the Chairman do
repo:t progress, which, on a division, was negatived
by 271 to 30. The m,tion that the preamble be post-
poned was carried by a majority of 258 to 45.
Mr. M. J. O'CONNBLL and Mr. REYNOLDS objected
to proceeding further with the Bill, on account of the
lateness of the hour.
Sir G. GREY urged the Committee to proceed.
Sir ROBERT INGLIS called upon the Government to
adopt some measure to protect the great majority against
a tyrant minoriv.
Sir F. THESIGER bad an amendment to move on the
first clause, and, therefore, urged the Government to
postpone the further consideration for a day or two.
Sir GEORGE GREY consented to a postponement until
Friday.
The CHAIRMAN reported progress, and the House
adjourned.

The slow coach of the session actually achieved a
single stage last night—Ministers succeeded in post-
poning the preamble of the Ecclesiastical Titles
Assumption Bill. The recognised leaders of the
Irish Brigade, of course, were active in their unfac-
tious obstructions, but after several manoeuvres of
guerilla warfare, Lord JOHN, the JELIU of the State,
drove through triumphantly so far. The Hon.
Member for Dublin fired the first shot. He took
quite superfluous pains to exculpate himself from the
imputation of acting otherwise than from the purest
motives, and in the most straightferward manner.
Who could ever dream of charging that distinguished
senator with being a party to any proceedings savour-
ing of the vexatious ? His entire conduct throughout
the progress of the measure has been characterised by
too strict a repugnance to the slightest violation, either
in spirit or in letter, of any understanding agreed
upon, to have rendered it necessary for him to apolo-
gize for opposing the motion that the SPEAKER, leave
the chair. According to his own admission, indeed,
" there was an understanding that he (Mr. REY-
NOLDS) and those Hon. Members who usually acted
with him should not oppose that motion ;" but great
emergencies demand tactics of a superior order ; and
who so fitting a judge of the propriety of the policy
to be pursued as the Hon. the ex-Lord Mayor of
Dublin ? Mr. GLADSTONE, indeed, expressed his
conviction that it would be inconsistent with the
spirit of the arrangement entered into with the
consent of all parties on Friday night, that an ad-
journment should take place before practical progress
had been achieved, and the House rejected Mr. REY-
NOLD'S motion that the Chairman repert progress, by
a majority of 216. But 46 patriots rallied round the
Hon. Gentleman, and although, in a subsequent sally
of a similar nature i❑ the course of the evening,
sixteen of the thanes fled from him, whilst " the ty-
rant majority " was numerically augmented, is not
the fame of LEONIDAS and his sacred band ever dear
to the recollection of patriots ?—and has not Mr.
REYNOLDS gallantly proved himself the champion of
the persecuted POPE, the ♦indicator of the extension
of religious blessings, and of the freedom of con

science, and the intellectual advancement consequen

on the purifying dominion of the Church of Rome

Neither was another Irish representative, whose
talent is really considerable—the -Lion and Learned
Member for Athlone—inactive on the occasion. The
gallant 811 a•g ..
er .
Airlf at (tor the characteristic modesty of
• arritoLng having repeatedly disclaimed for him-
these
any other position than that of a private in
chieftain ranlc,
of oratorical
and formidable confederacy),
if less profuse
or
thee b hail Mr. Ksocu as the acknowledged
minant in mineeiooratorical embellishments, leas ful-
wrung an enthusiastus
ic tribute
than when recently he
eeribute of admiration from a
celebrated morning
whatsoever porary, enlightened the
assembled senators withnatedrn• of legal lore, which,
had it not been for the triflingiPlaY circumstance of its
teeedre,lo do with the
Bequestsmuch to the
mainly having nothing
question at issue, might have
edification of the community. The
was jostling in his brain with a singular Bill
misconception of the true spirit of the i
Billenuine)
as sub.
mitted by the Government, and he uncorked his l
cubrations on the former subject, rendering a.
more
muddy the stream %hick can sometimes fall from his
lips with sufficient clearness and even brilliancy. in
sober truth, he made a sad hash of it last evening,
and the polished weapon of the SOLICITOR. GENERAL,
Who rose immediately to reply, found every joint and
crevice in his armour. He was convicted of trying

to pass off as original a notable objection first hatched
In the fertile brain of the representative of Finsbury,
and of vaunting the discovery of that curious phe::
n"nQnon termed in the vernacular " a mare's nest,
by proclaiming as a startling mystery that the Go-
vernment had adopted a portion of the Honourable
and Learned llleraer tor Alidhurst's preamble,
-shwas it had te Mat:Ml by the PENS

Government, at the instance of the Right Hon.
Gentleman the Member for South Wiltshire, has just
had printed a return of a rather interesting and
timely character. It contains a select group of par-
ticulars respecting the position of officers in the Royal
Navy of England, such as tends very far indeed to de-
monstrate the necessity existing for the recently
projected innovations. Scarcely anything, we be-
lieve, could more strikingly show the want of im-
provement in the system, until now so pertinaciously
persisted in by the Admiralty, then the facts, simple
enough in themselves, but of importance as displaying
the evil tendencies of a system, collected together in
this brief but significant document. Among other
details recorded in it are some rather remarkable
ones, disclosing the circumstance that there are
already on the list cf admirals no less than forty
who have not served a sufficient time as captains to
entitle them to their fligs! Forty—that is to say,
two full admirals, seventeen vice admirals, and
twenty -one rear-admirals—and this with the con-
currence and consent of the authorities. Added to
which we discover that among the first
100, and among the second 100 respectively,
on the Captains' List, according to the return above
mentioned, there are in the former instance just fifty-
four, and in the latter no less than eighty-four who
have not yet served a sufficient time as captains to
entitle them to their flag, any more than the forty ad-
mirals already particularised.
Another revelation of some significance in the do-
cument referred to, is the number of officers
who, as retired rear-admirals or retired cap-
tains, have at any time since September,
1846, accepted the retirement. Of these 211
have been ennumerated, thirty-eight among the num-
ber having, however, died since the period of their
retirement, so that 180 are surviving upon the list
indicated. Altogether we find from the official
statements made in the return moved fur by Mr.
SIDNEY HERBERT, that among the officers now on
full pay there are 11 flag-officers, 75 captains, 99
commanders, and 433 lieutenants, making just 618
in the aggregate. Those officers who are at present
holding employment, though not on sea pay, are thus
mentioned ; 7 captains, that is to say 1 under the
Customs and 6 under the Admiralty; 64 commanders,
of whom 59 are under the Customs ; and 309 lieu-
tenants, of whom 263 are in like manner engaged in
the same avocations. From all these particulars it
must be sufficiently apparent, we conceive, that the
demand for a change in the system pursued at
the Admiralty was not made before it was abso-
utely required. Enough evils in all conscience
must be allowed to be here rendered
visible within the limits of a very narrow epitome, to
admit of the pruning-hook of the reformer. In this
respect the return, printed at the instance of Mr.
SIDNEY HERBERT, must be regarded as a complete
justification of the arguments so frequently, though
until now so ineffectually, put forward by ourselves.
They reveal, among other things that, as had long
been suspected, promotion as well as kissing may go
by favour—promotion not only in the military,
but also in the maritime professions. But that the
statements above published are given upon the autho-
rity of the Government, we doubt not but that they
would very generally have been viewed as assertions
of rather dubious authenticity. As it is the facts are
placed now beyond the reach of all denial. The
authorities at the Admiralty hare not only shrived
themselves in the hearing of the whole nation,
but have given earnest, moreover, of their
determination to enter upon a course of amendment.
Those, consequently, who may hitherto have found
reason to lament over the degeneracy of the naval
system will perceive in recent events cause to exult
over very large indications of improvement—improve-
ment such as would have reflected credit even upon
SANZUE L PEPTS, ore of the ablest and worthiest of the
Admiralty Secretaries. A somewhat considerable
interval must, of course, elapse before the re-
forms sketched out for itself by the Admi-
ralty can be fully realised. This, -however,
can be no reason for regret to any sincere well-
wisher of the Royal Navy of England, seeing that
the delay will prove the means of preserving from
injury the interests of those who, howsoever un-
righteously, have attained the dignity of officers,
together with a proportionate allotment of pay and
prerogative. Improving suddenly or by jerks must
always be pernicious in its effects upon any system,
no matter how vast may be the ulterior good desi-
derated from the improvement. To render this good
really desirable and positively advantageous, it must
be arrived at by a means the most agreeably gra-
duated. Fortunately this has been the manner in
which the changes have been projected by the Admi-
ralty ; so that we are enabled to look forward to
their development with the most unalloyed satis•
faction.

• BATS AND THE EXHIBITION.
TO THE EDITOR uF THE 31ORNING CHRuNICLE.
Sir,—One good to be attaint d, indirectly perhaps,
from the Exhibition, is the repudiation, once and for
ever, of our ugly, uncomfortable, and unhealthy head
par —hats.

For this purpose I suggest the formation, in London
and in every provincial town, of an "Anti Hat League,"
the members or which shall one and all abjure the pre
sent unsightly chimney-pot hat. Ten or twenty gentle-
men, in a town of twenty thousand, would be quite aufli-
cient to start the thing. I myself have taken the solemn
league and covenant to-day.---Your fautrul servant,
J. E. SANDILANDS GRAHAME.
Burton-ball, May 15.

DEATH OP THE VD:COUNT STRATHALLAN. We
regret to announce the death of the Lord Viscount Strath-
allen, at his seat of Castle Strathallan, in Perthshire, in the
afternoon of Vs' edne.day last. His Lordship, who had
reached the ripe age of 85, began to show tokens of declining
strength some time ago; but his last illness w:s only of a
few days' duration. The deceased peer, James Andrew John
Laurence Charles Drummond, Viscount Strathallan, Lord
Maderty and Drummond of Uromlix, was born on the 24th
March, 1767. The family of which he became the represent-
ative"since
was a branch of the noble house of Drummond.
DPATLE OF li4A/OR-GENERAL SIR WILLIAM
he4itilriekidetnbeeraulfaineethe
_Msotnistan, K.C.B.—This distinguished officer died on the
Lehinet., at his residence in Saville-row, at an advanced age.
representediB4 i,
e n Liberal
r districtal pri n
coi
pf 1
,Cs.l a ck ni
Generalann a n
ma(n,
rdi i Ku
nicrfoosr
.s
3inierl3,-General
in. the Madras Artillery, and held the rank of
filled several other a
chiding that of 1:
Supreme Council o Company's. service. For some time
of Deputy-Governor of Bengal, and also
spTooinclurnaesn_ta of trust in the East, in-
SIR ANDRI ES_ MysorelnZommiseiener, and President of the
who has ro long been mixed
vai left by railway
yrnost.— t ills gentleman,
11:1)01: the Government of Africa,
and with whose name the whole
Friday evening, by the /Slaidatonaeriied at Plymouth on
news must be well acquainted, of the readers of African
aze...._, , East India trader. Sir
Andries shortly after his
for the me.
tropoliii.

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