The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-11 00:00:00

confer on boards of guardians in respect to having wells
dry.

Mr. LOWE said that he would consent to an altera-
tion limiting the powers of the boards of guard:t ns to the
keeping in repair the existing wells.
Mr. HENLEY said that would exactly meet his 'views.
After some discussion the clause as amended was agreed
to.

The remaining clauses with some amendments were

agreed to.
The Chairman was then ordered to report progress,
SAVINGS BANKS AND FRIENDLY SOCIETIES
INVESTMENTS BILL.
__

The committee on this bill resumed.
On clause 1,
Mr. AYRTON said he had hoped that the Chancellor of
the Exchequer would have withdrawn the bill after the ob-

jections that had been expressed with regard to it. He
contended that the main object of the bill was to deal with
the funds of savings banks. The proposition of the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer was that he should be a banker to
administer the funds of these savings banks for the benefit
of the nation. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, however,
would be a banker of a very novel character and withoit

any security, and nothing could be more absurd than to
attempt to use the State as a banker. The committee on
savings banks had recommended the appointment of a
commission which would undertake the management of tha
aggregate funds of these institutions ; but, at the outset
they were met with the difficulty that, owing to 40 years
mal-administration, there was a deficit of £4,000,000 or
£.5,000,000, and it would be necessary to make that good
at starting. He repeated his objections to the Chancellor of
the Exchequer assuming the fimotions of a banker in dealing
with no less than 5A0,000,000, the property of savings banks
and friendly societies, and he called on the committee to
agree to the resolutions adopted by the select committee on
the bill.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said that
the: subject which the hon. member had introduced had
been already fully discussed and decided by the house,

and he trusted the committee would confine their
attention to the clause before them. The State was already
a banker as regarded these institutions, and all he proposed
was to improve its condition and surround the management
with safeguards. The right hon. gentleman defended the
bill at some length.

Afier a few words from Sir IL WILLOUGHBY and Mr,
HENLEY,
The house suspended sitting, it being four o'clock.
The house resumed at six o'clock.
SICILY AND PIEDMONT.

Sir R. PEEL rave notice that on Thursday next he
should move an address for papers relating to the threat-
ened annexation of Sicily to Piedmont, and also for any in-
formation Government may have obtained as to the pro-
bable demands of France consequent thereupon. He also
gave notice that he would ask whether Government had
intimated to the Government of Turin that it had not
viewed with indifference the uniformly aggressive policy
of that Government, and would call the attention of the
house to these subjects.
THE CONY ICT;„WILLIAMS.

Viscount RAYNHAM asked the Secretary of State
for the Home Department, whether he would consider the
propriety of recommending the exercise of the prerogative
of mercy in the case of a prisoner in Hertford Gaol, named
Williams, convicted at the last Court of Quarter Sessions
at Hertford, of simple larceny, and sentenced to imprison-
ment and whipping, so far as the remission of the corporal
punishment is concerned.
Sir G. C. LEWIS in reply read a letter from the Mar-
quis of Salisbury showing the enormity of the offences of
which the convict had been guilty, and said that the magis-
trates in quarter sessions were empowered by the 7th and
Bth Geo. IV. to inflict the punishment in question, and
that in no instance had the punishment been more deserved.
KENSINGTON GARDENS.

Mr. E. JAMES asked the First Commissioner of Works
whether a portion of Kensington Gardens, which had re-
cently been fenced off with iron hurdles in the shape and
size of a " two-year-old course," was intended for the pur-
pose of forming a road from Tyburnia to Belgravia, so much
desired by the public, or whether the object was to afford
accommodation to the equestrian portion of the population
to the exclusion of the pedestrian in the most agreeable and
most frequented part of Kensington Gardens.
Mr. COWPER said it was the wish of her Majesty
and of her predecessors that those gardens should be made to
afford the greatest possible recreation to visitors on horse-
back as well as those upon foot ; and recently efforts had
been made by the planting of additional flowers and plants
to make them more attractive. There was one class of the
community whose interests had been overlooked, and that
was those who were in the habit of riding in Rotten-row.
(A laugh.) It con slated of persons who were of varioxs pro-
fessions—lawyers, doctors, and others—who served the
public, and who were obliged to take their exercise in a very
short apace of time. (A laugh.) Hitherto they were ob-
liged to go backwards end forwards in a naerow space
scarcely large enough to hold them, and without being able
to diverge either to the right or to the left. It seemed to
him that, if without interfer;ng improperly with the recrea-
tions of the pedestrian... ,rnuarn or space coma De
appropriated to the riders, it would be en advantage.
(Hear.) He had thervfore arranged a new entrance for
horsemen at the west end of Rotten-row, between two gates
that are devoted to pedestrians. Persons desirous of walk-
ing might therefore go either to the right or to the left of
the riders—(a laugh)—who had therefore no right to cern-
plain. The space bitherto devoted to riders was a strip of
land only a mile and a quarter in length, wh;le that devoted
to pedestrians was an area of upwards of 600 acres ; it would
therefore be no loss to them to give up the avenue. They
would not, however, be wholly excluded from it, as the
fences were so arranged that whilst bar.ing the access of
the horses to the footwalk, they did not prevent pedestrians
passing across. He was sorry if the constituents of the hon.
and learned member had found fault with the arrangement,
which had given the greatest satisfaction not only to the
riders, but to many who walked, and who found that the
solitade was greatly enlivened by the addition of eques-
triens, both female end male. (Laughter and cheers.)
THE RECENT OUTRAGES IN LEBANON.

Lord C. RAMILTON asked the Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs whether he had any official confirma-
tion of the frightful. outrages reported to have taken place
in the district of the Lebanon, and whether the representa-
tives of the Christian Powers had been able to decide upon
any combined course of action calculat- I to put P-1 imme-
diate stop to such wholesale massacres.
Lord J. RUSSELL, who spoke in a Tel/ low tone of
voice, and was almost inaudible, said he was son' that the
Government had received official confirmation of the out-
rages. The statements had not, however, come up to those
seen by the noble lord 'n the public papers. With regard
to the means of protecting the Christians, the representa-
tires of the Christian Powers had met, and. had determined
to send troops to put down these outrages. Fuad Pacha
had been sent by the Turkish Government to investigate
the whole matter, and her Majesty's Government had de-
sired the English squat?-on there to interpose, and afford
every possible protection to the Christian population in
those regions. (Hear.)
THE NATIONAL DEFENCES.

.S;r J. SHELLEY asked the First Lord of the Treasury
what course the Government intended to take ii reference
to the report of the Ceramissicners on National Defences.
The report wag made early in Febt uary last, and a question
was asked more than three weeks ago in the other House of
Parliament, and the reply then given on the part of her
Majesty's Government was, that during the following week
the Government, in this house, would state the course
which it was intended to take h reference to this matter.
He wished to ask whether the Government intended to take
any steps :in consequence of the report, and, if money was
to be asked for, when it was intended to propose a vete for
that purpose.
Lord PALMERSTON said it was quite right and
proper that the house should know what course the Go-
vernment intended to pursue. His right hon. friend the
Chancellor of the Exchequer should state on Friday what
amount was required for the China vote, and how it was
to be raised. It was quite right the house should be
made acquainted with the whole amount of the demand
which might bo made upon it in the course of the session.
It was therefore his (Lord Palmerston's) intention on that
occasion not to go lath detail on the measure to be proposed,
but to state to the house the amount of money which her
Majesty's Government proposed to raise for the execution
of the works in question, and in what manner they proposed
that the money should be raised.
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE,
In answer to Lord J. MANNERS, as tq what business
would be taken on Thursday,
Lord PALMERSTON said he apprehended that on
Thursday there would be a statement from his right hon.
friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer as to the China
vote. He was not quite sure whether his right hon. friend
would be able on that night to go into the subject, but the
resolutions on Thursday must be reported on Friday before
he could make his statement, but when he made his state-
ment respecting the China vote he (Lord Palmerston)
would make the statement to that house to which he had
just referred.
NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERIES.

Mr. MILLS asked the Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs whether any arrangement had been agreed upon be-
tween the Governments of Great Britain and France on the
subject of the Newfoundland fisheries, and when the report
of the commissioners would be laid upon the table.
Lord J. RUSSELL said an arrangement had been agreed
upoi between the Governments of Great Britain and
France respecting them, and as soon as the report of the
commissioners and the papers connected with the subject
could be procured, they would be laid on the table.
POLITICAL RELATIONS BETWEEN SARDINIA
AND NAPLES.

Mr. GRIFFITH asked the Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs whether he had reason to believe that
great pressure was being put upon the Government of
Sardinia by that of France, to induce the former to enter
into alliance with the Government of Naples on the
strength of the promise of a constitution extorted at the
last moment from its fears ; and whether the British Go-
vernment would afford its moral support to the Govern-
ment
anl ib° fe
anee. S;trdinia, to enable it to preserve its independence
liberty of actien in respect to any such proposed alli-
Lord J. RUSSELL said he had received a communica-