The Sun.
London, England, 1851-05-07 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

HOUSE OF LORDS, May 6.
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat upon the
Woolsack at Five o'clock.
PETITIONS.
The Duke of ARGYLE, in rising to present several
) petitions from different places in Scotland against Papal
• aggression, drew the attention of their Lordships to
i the fact that he had stated that Papal aggression had
excited quite as great a sensation of indignation in
Scotland as in England; that statement had been con-
troverted, but he thought the petitions which he was
aLout to present would be sufficient answer to that con-
tradiction. The petitions were upwards of 100 i❑ num-
ber, and emanated from all parts of Scotland, from
Caithness to the most southern boundary of
Scotland. One of these petitions was from Glasgow,
and was signed by 556,000 persons; upwards of
2,000 of these signatures had been obtained at the
Royal Exchange of Glasgow. Another petition was from
the provost and town council of Edinburgh; another
numerously signed petition was from Greenock; and
another petition was from 600 of the students of the
University of Glasgow.
The Earl of MINTO bore witness to the existence of
a strong feeling throughout Scotland against the Papal
aggression.
Lord CAMPBELL presented several petitions against
Papal aggression.
Lord WALSINGIIAM presented a petition from the
board of guardians of a union in Norfolk, praying for
the total abolition of the law of settlement, and for sub..
jecting all property liable to income-tax to the poor-
rate.

The Earl of STRADBROKE (who spoke with his
back to the gallery, and was, consequently, nearly in-
audable) was understood to object to the principle of
union rating.
Lord STANLEY presented a petition from the soli-
citors of Lancashire, against the Bill for the registration
of deeds and mortgages, in the prayer of which he did
not concur, although he thought the petition offered
some valuable suggestions. lie moved that it should be
referred to the Select Committee on the Bill.
Lord CAMPBELL admitted that on the subject of
safeguards against forgery the petition offered some
valuable suggestions, of which he should avail himself;
but he hoped their Lordships would not be induced by
this petition from pushing forward the Bill with
vigour. With regard to the objections made
to the institution of a metropolitan registration-
office he was convinced that they must either have one
metropolitan registration-office or give up the measure
altogether. The country solicitors were getting up an
opposition to the measure, which would be effectual nn-
lees all parties concurred in supporting a measure which
was beneficial to all the possessors of property. Earl TALBOT presented several petitions against
Papal aggression, and also a petition against free trade.
RETIREMENT OF NAVAL OFFICERS.
The Earl of HARDWICKE then rose, pursuant to
his notice, to move for a return of the supplementary
estimate for the retirement of naval officers. Ho moved
for this paper merely for the purpose of making a state-
ment on the subject, as the paper itself, as their Lord.
ships ad knew, had already appeared in all the news
papers. There was no doubt that the state of the naval
profession had engaged the serious attention of all recent
Administrations, as well as of her Majesty's present
Government, not only as regarded the navy list gene-
rally, but also as regarded the inefficient officers on that
list, with a view to inducing them to retire from it, and
of causing thereby a gradual reduction of the heavy
charge of the dead weight. That was a subject which
must at all times be interesting to the country, as it re-
lated to a branch of the national service which was justly
dear to it. Questions had been made with the views he
had just stated. and which had been to a certain extent
successful in reducing the list. In the year 1840 the
last effort had. been made for the reduction of that list,
and had been in operation up to the present time. It
had two principal features—first, it was voluntary, and
next it had reference to the discipline of the navy. It
was deemed necessary that all captains should serve six
years at sea before they could obtain their flags. Those
who had not were put some years ago on the retired list;
but this regulation was thought to bear hard on many
officers, and their names were in consequence transferred
to the active list. He therefore assumed that if the
Crown called for the services of those officers, they
would be compelled to perform active service, and would
have no means, if they were so inclined, of avoiding it.
A recent order, which had been issued for the purpose
of putting certain officers on the retired list, was a com-
pulsory order, and made theta take rank summarily on
the retired list, without any choice whether they would
do so or not. Those officers who were at the head of the
captains' list would also be compelled to retire, if they
had not seen six years' active service afloat. He would
enter into a brief explanation of the mode in which this
that every officer on the admirals' list who had been per
regulation would act. The first operation would be this,
milted to take his place on the active list, and who had
not served six years at sea for his flag, would be com-
pelled to leave the active list, and to retire with his per-
manent rank on permanent half-pay. Now, this was a
breach of faith with forty-two or forty-three officers,
who, being on the active list, were still anxious to serve
the Crown. There were on the admirals' list undoubtedly
a number of officers who wished it thinned to a certain
extent, but, at the same time it must be admitted
m any
of
ff
thosethe i r seniors,omeers who it would
were
that though there were officers who would be satisfied
with the place which they would obtain by the retire-
mentb
still c xt reanxiousm
the Crown. There might be officers who, when the list
was thus deuce off, might findthemselves within reach
ly
tohs server d
o n
of a vice-admirals flag Itto the
Treasury a sum of 1,5.001 waas, proposed to givet b
di.
vided into pensions of 150/ a 3'eeaarr, whichfo tenwraestir? °ad-
mirals. No doubt many officersymightrbe glad tiongsee a
large portion of officers struck off fromthe
admirals'list,
and so many admirals who stood in their way bought off
by the country; but this mode of dealing with the senior officers might not be. so agreeable to such of them as
were still hale and active and ready to gn iuto any part