The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-19 00:00:00

MASTERS AND OPERATIVES.

Mr. MACKINNON moved for a select committee to
consider the inconvenience now felt in the country
from the want of equitable ttibunals, by whose
means any difference between masters and oper-
atives might be satisfactorily adjusted. The hon-
ourable member enlarged on the injurious effects
strikes amongst workmen had entailed, both to the em-
ployer and the employed, and said he considered this a
question well deserving the oonsideration of the house.
He thought much good would result from the house
establishing an equitable tribunal, presided over by a
person appointed by the executive, to which workmen
and masters might appeal when disagreements took
place between them.
The motion having been seconded,
Sir G. GREY said there could be no objection to such
an inquiry, to be conducted with a view to the objects
for which the Conseils des P rudltommes were esta-
blished, but which he thought the bon. member did not
perfectly understand. That was for dealing with exist-
ing contracts, and not for the purpose of regulating
contracts to be made. _ _

Mr. MACKINNON said that was the object he had
in view.—Agreed to.

STATUTES AT LARGE.

Mr. L. KING moved the following resolution :
" That there be prepared, under the direction
of the clerk of the Parliaments, an edition of the
statutes at large, for the use of this house, in-
cluding all public general statutes and parts of statutes
in force, and omitting all such statutes and parts of
statutes as are expired or have been expressly repealed ;
and that, in the place of the statutes or parts of statutes
repealed, there be inserted the titles of the statutes re-
pealed, the respective numbers and abstracts of the
clauses repealed, with a reference in the margin to the
statutes by which they are repealed. This ques-
tion was now making great progress, and he
doubted not but that the motion would be acceded to.
Ha then referred to the complaints made of a wait of
a consolidation of the statutes in his time by Lord
Bacon and by Sir E. Coke, and by Lord llardwicke.
In the reign of George 11. there were but six quarto
volumes of statutes, instead of as now 40 volumes. In
the reign of George 111. 6,053 statutes, public and pri-
vate were passed ; in that of George IV. 1,066; in that
of William IV. 6,731, and dining the first sixteen
years of her present Majesty's reign, 1364 ;
making a total of 10,561 from the time of
Lord Hardwicke to the present period, and he was
not aware that the lawyers of the present day were so
far advanced above the learned men he had referred to as
to be able to comprehend the numerous statutes that
now existed better than the above celebrated men, who
had so few statutes, in comparison, to deal
(Hear, hear.) He then referred to the opinions of
some of the lawyers of the present day in favour of a
consolidation of the statutes, and of Mr. G, Wilmore,
in his work, " Confusion Worse Confounded ; or, The
Statutes at Large." He compared our statutes with the
written laws of France, which were to be purchased
from 7d, to 11s., whilst ours wou!d cost 1001. In the
United States similar evils to that complained of
had been got rid of, and the laws of those
States had been consolidated in less than
two years. In this country the Government
said they bad not time to do it. The Statute Law
Commissioners did not appear desirous of doing it, and
what he proposed was that it should be done by the
Clerk of the Parliaments, and afterwards authenticated
by Parliament.
Mr. EWART seconded the motion and was
(LEFT SPEAKING.)

DESTRUCTION OF FORT NICHOLAS,

(Front the Gazette of this Eeening.)
WAR DEPARTMENT, FEB. 19.

Lord Nomura has received a Daspatch, of whieh the
following is a copy, addressed to his Lordship by Gan.
Sir W. Codrington, K.C.B.

Sebastopol, Feb. 4.
My Lord,—Marshal Pelissier informed me a few days
ago that this day Fort Nicholas would be destroyed ; and
ho again sent to say that at one o'clock p.m. the mines for
this purpose would be fired.
The view over the whole harbour is well obtained from
the interior slope of the Redan Hill, and from other
points within the Russian lines. •
The day was magnificently clear ; every sentry on the
opposite side could be seen, every working party watched,
every soldier that was lounging in. the sun ; occasional
shot and shell wore sent from the enemy to the I_C.ars.b,l-
- and the town, but otherwise nothing disturbed the
usual appearance of quiet, almost of desolation.
Oa our (the south) side, we looked down on the largo
ruined barracks in front, on the inner crock of the Dock-
yard, the Quay, and the remaimar of • Fort Paul, the spa-
cious inlet from the harbour on our left, beyond which
stands the roofless buildings of Sebastopol itself. Time
also is the well-remembered long line of pointed arches,
the casetnates of the interior of Fort Nicholas, of which
the embrasures in double tier pointed to seaward and away
from 11F.

It juts out into the harbour built on an inner tongue of
land; Fort Constantine forming a similar but more out-
ward defence for the sea approach on the north.
The scene and feeling of expectation were of great in-
terest, for another tangible proof of power and success was
to. take place, and 106,0)01bi. of powder were in the seve-
ral mines.

At the hour named a burst of smoke, dark and thick,
rolled from our left of the building ; it was followed by
another the heavy sound arrived, the stones were shot
into the air and to the sea ; the explosions of the extreme
right and the centre mingled at little intervals into one
drifting cloud, which veiled the destruction below.

The right of the sun played beautifully on the mass of
smoke, of which the lower part lay long and heavily on its
victim. The breeze passing it away over the remains of
the town, showed that a long line of ruin was all that re-
mained of the pride of Port _Nicholas, and one standing
menace of the harbour lay buried under its waters.

The state of the docks- has bean given in detail in my
letters. They are all destroyed, whilst the earth sur-
rounding them is shaken into '.cracks ; basin, docks,
masses of broken granite, capstans, gates; beams of iron,
and of timber are tumbled into one mass of destruction.—

I have, &o.

W. J. CODRINGTON,
General Commanding.

The Lord Pearenre, &c.

LONDON GAZETTE—(This Evening.)

BUCKINGHAM YALICE, FEB. 12

This day had an audience of her Majesty :—The 13aron
do Hochschild, Eniov Extraordinary :sal Minister Pleni-
potentiary from the King of Sweden and Norway, accorn•
panted by the Count Bjornstierna, Chamberlain of his
Swedish and. Norwegian Majesty, to deliver a letter from
his S)vereign, announcing that ho had conferred his order
of the Seraphim upon his Royal Highness Prince Albert.
To which he was introduced by the Earl of Clarendon,
K.G., her Majesty's secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,
and conducted by Major-General the Hon. Sir Edward
Cast, K.C.H., her Majesty's M titer of the Ceremonies.
WHITEHILL, FEB. 19. _

The Queen has been pleased to give and grant unto Ad-
miral Sir Edmund Lyons, Bart., G.C.B , her Majesty's
royal licence and permission that he may accept and wear
, the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Savoy, which
the King of Sardinia hath - been pleased to confer upon
him, as a mark of his Majesty's approbation of his emi-
nent services before the enemy during the present war,
and that he may enjoy all the rights and privileges there-
unto belonging.
The Queen has also been pleased to give and grant unto
Liontenant-General Sir Richard England, G.C.8., her
Majesty's royal licence and permission that he may accept
and wear the Imperial Order of the Modjidie of the First
Class ; unto Lieutenant-Colonel John Lintorn Arabia
Simmons, C. 8., and Major John Hardman Burka, her
Majesty's royal licence and permission that they may ac-
cept and wear the Third Class of the same Order, which
the Sultan hath been pleased to confer upon them respec-
tively, as a mark of his Imperial Majesty's approbation of
their distinguished services before the enemy daring the
present war, and that they may enjoy all the rights and
privileges thereunto belonging.
BOA.E.D OF TRADE, WHITEHALL, FEB. 18.
The Right Honourable the Lords of. the Committee of
Privy Council for Trade and Plantations have received,
through the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, a copy
of a despatch from her Majesty's Ambassador at Paris, en-
closing copy of a French Imperial Law, firing the duties
upon the importation into France. of exotic resins, as
follows :

In French ships—From countries out of Europe, fcee;
from the entrepots, 8 francs per 100 kilos.
In foreign vessels, 13 francs per 103 kilos.
BOARD OF TRADE, WHITEHALL, FEB. 18.

The Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of
Privy Council :for Trade and Plantations have received,
through the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, a copy
of a Despatch from her Majesty's Ambassador at Pans,
enclosing copy of a French imperial Law, fixing the duty
upon the importation of hydrochlorato, or muriato of
potass, into France at 15 francs the WO kilogrammes.
COMMISSION SIGNED BY THE QUEEN.
East York Regiment of Militia— Captain John William
Fleming
Sandwith, late of the Bombay Army, to ba Pay-
master, from the 15th November, 1855, whose appoint-
Ment, dated 2d November, has been cancelled, vice Wes-
terby, deceased.
COMMISSIONS SIGNED BY LORD-LIEUTENANTS.
County of Northumberland—Thomas William Charles
Riddell, Esq., to be Deputy Lieutenant.
Northumberland Regiment of Militia—Alex. Browne,
Esq. (late Captain and Adjutant), to be Major.
County of .Dorset—Charles James Radelyile, Esq., to be
Deputy. Lieutenant.
Dorset Regiment of Militia—Robert Clayton Drown,
Gent., to be Ensign, vice Bond, promoted to the 99th
Foot.
Queen's Own Regiment of „Oxfordshire Yeomanry
Cavalry—julins Alexander Sartoris; GO., (lately a Cap-
tain in the 16th Lancers), to be a Corneti vice Tawney,
promoted,
Artillery Battalion of the Royal Sussex Militia—Second
Lieutenant Henry Lloyd Nicholson to be First Lieutenant,
vice Cole promoted ; Second Lieutenant George Elliott
Clarke to be*First Lieutenant, vice .Barchard , promoted.
Royal North Gloucester Regiment of Militia—Robert
Baynes
ota d ;
George to be E vice Bomford, pro-
mgn, Charles Whittington, Gent., to be
Ensign. Reed, Gent.,
John nsi
Rifle Regiment of King's Own Staffordshire Militia—
Ensign Rowland Hugh Cotton to be Lieutenant, ;:vice
Kynnersley, promoted.
2d Regiment Warwickshire Militia—Jelin Wynne, late