The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-23 00:00:00

131-I,3ERIAL PARLIAMENT

HOUSE OF LORDS.-LAST EVENING.
The LORD CHANCELLOR rook his sea on the woolsack
At five o'clock.

INCREASE OF THE EPISCOPATE BILL.

Lord LYTTELTON moved the second reading of this
bill, the object of which was to enable the ecclesiastical
commissioners to recommend a scheme for increasing the
episcopate, subject to the approval of the Queen in Council.
The income for the endowment from any bishopric that
might be established was not to exceed £2,500 a year, and
to bo raised I,y voluntary sub.cription.
Tho Archbishop of CANTERBURY could only give
a qualified support to the bill, Ircause it did not deal with
the real evil. The scheme of Earl Russell wzts greatly to
be preferred.
On a division the bill was rejected by a majority of 43
to 20. Seven bi.hops and several lay peers retrained from

voting.
Their lordships then adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-LAST EVENING.
The SrEAKEIt took the chair at 4 o'clock.

THE CATERHAM ASYLUM.
Mr. "'OMENS asked the President of the Poor Law
Board the question be had given notice of respecting the
laying the foundation stone of tho Metropolitan Asylum
at Caterham, and the sumptu ins breakfast given on the

occasion.
Mr. GOSCIIEN said his attention had been drawn to
the ci) cumstances doubtless through the same channel as
that by which the hon member had received his, viz., the
newspapers. With respect to the hon. gentleman's in-
quiry as to whether the sumptuous entertainment given on
the occasion would be paid out of the metropolitan rate,
or, as he facetiously put it, the civil contingencies, he
could not say, but he had no doubt that if it was
charged to the metropolitan rate the auditor would at
once disallow the charge. How it was to be paid he did
not know; but be believed the contractors generally dis-
charged similar charges, and he believed, though he did
not know officially, that such was the course pursued on
the occasion. At all events, the charge of the sumptuous
breakfast would not be paid for out of the county rate.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.
Mr. BRUCE, iu reply to Sir George Jenkinson, who
asked a question as to whether he would state the grounds
upon which he had granted a respite of punishment to
Wilshire who had been found guity of the wilful murder
of a woman under the most atrocious circumstances, said
since ho had been in office, 11 cases of sentences of death
had been submitted to him. He exercised the prerogative of
mercy in two cases, and in each of which it was called a
miscarriage of justice. Of the eleven cases in six the
capital sentence had been carried out, two were proved to
be insane, and one innocent, which loft the two cases of
Nl'Donald and Wilshire. The former was re-
prieved on the recommendation of the judge—
(hear, hear)—and with respect to Wilshire, although
it was proved that the woman had been most cruelly
treated by the prisoner, yet there was a verdict that the
death of the woman was not to be imputed to tho violence
of Wilshire, but to intemperance and exposure to the
weather. He had taken the greatest precaution before the
sentence was commuted, and he felt quite certain the
whole of the facts of the case, when properly known
would prove his best justification. (Hear, hear.)