The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-28 00:00:00

the port of London who, from 1830 to 1857,rwere sup, r•
ceded and dismissed upon charges of theft, fraud,
smuggling, acceptance of bribes, and concealment of offers
of bribes, making use of eggs and wine abstracted from
merchants' cases, intoxication while upon duty, insubordi •
nation, dereliction of duty, absence without leave, bank-
ruptcy, and insolvency, and that while all those 44 persons
so charged and so superseded or dismissed have been rein-
stated, 11 of them have been reinstated since Mr. Dune's

appeal for restoration or superannuation was rejected ; and
whether from the return referred to there were nGt omitted

6 cases of an equally marked character, including that of

a late collector in London, who became a bankrupt for a
considerable amount, and that of a principal in the long
room who had applied to his private use the customs money
officially confided to his trust."

SCOTCH BISHOPS.
Mr. AUGUSTUS SMITH asked the Secretary of State)

for the Home Department whether a bishop of the episcopal

communion in Scotland could legally perform any :?pisco-

pal functions in any diocese in England on behalf of the

bishop thereof.
MARITIME TREATY WITH FRANCE.—IIAR-

BOURS OF REFUGE.
Mr. LINDSAY asked the First Lord of the Treasury*
what steps had been taken to carry out the unanimous re-
solution of the house in regard to a maritime treaty with
France ; and what measures, if any, had been prepared to

carry into effect the resolution of the house respecting har-
bours of refuge ? He wished to know with respect to the
first part of the question, whether anything had been done

beyond reporting the resolution to her Majesty; also,

whether any correspondence had taken place with regard

to the grievance under which English merchants suffered,

namely, that under the navigation laws of France they
were precluded from carrying the produce of our colones
to France. No doubt it had been a great change for FrP.nce
to make any alterations in her commercial relations, 'with
this country ; but he wished to know what steps had..
been taken by the Government, and also if any corres-
pondence existed on the subject, whether the nob],
lord would have any objection to lay it upon the table.
With regard to the second part of the question, he
_ _

begged to remind the house that he had raised the question
some months since, and it was fully discussed. By a large
majority of the house a resolution was carried to the effect
that the recommendations of the royal commission should
be carried into effect. He thought, the Government was
bound to carry out the resolution, or else to state the reasons

why they did not do so. The resolution was founded upon
two committees, both of whichrecommencled the construe-

tion of harbours of refuge.
Lord J. RUSSELL said he wished to inform the hon.
gentleman that when the resolution of the house was car-

ried with respect to the maritime treaty with France, Lord
Cowley was requested to negotiate with the French Go.

vernment on this subject. As the hon. gentleman ap-
peared to have imagined, great excitemen, prevailed in:
France with regard to the introduction of British manufac-
tures into that country. Great alarm also prevailed in the
French maritime ports lest the Government should make

any change in the navigation laws. An address had been

sent to the French Government imploring them-not to.
sanction any change in those laws, and Lord Cowley
fly:aught that, under these circumstances, there was no use

in attempting to negotiate a maritime treaty. He also

found from a conversation with the French Minister that

the Fre,lieh Government were not disposed to entertain the.

question of any claim in consequence of any change which

had been made in 1848.

Mr. M. GIBSON said that with regard to the second part
of the hon. member's question, at the time when the reso-
lution. was passed, it was not quite plain what was the pre••

cise meaning to be attached to it. He (Mr. Gibson) had

asked the question whether it was intended by that resolu-

ion that, all the recommendations of the commissioners

should be carried out, and he learned that that was not un-
derstood to be the meaning of the resolution. On the
other hand, he was led to believe that all that was meant
was a general indication that something was to be done in
the sense of carrying out the recommendations. (No, no,

from Mr. Lindsay.) Putting that construction upon the
resolution of the house, which he quite agreed ought to
have great weight with the Government, it would no doubt
be their duty to submit such a measure to Parliament in
the course of next session as they might be advised ; and he

should certainly consider it his duty to propose to the house
such a plan as the Government could recommend.

CRUELTIES ON BOARD AMERICAN SHIPS.

Mr. MILNE S asked tho Secretary of State for the Home

Department what measures had been taken to bring about a

convention with the Government of the United States to

remedy the impunity with which Crimes are committed om
board vessels trading between the United States and this
country, and to call the attention of the house to some re—
cent circumstances bearing on the question. He said that
about that time last year he had had the honour to address
the house on the subject of crimes committed on board

American ships, and her Majesty's Government had pro..
mised to communicate with the American Government, bu
since that time nothing, that he was aware of, had bees,'
heard from the American Government on the subject. B' at
these atrocities were frequently occurring ; and only • the
other day the public were shocked with some frigl .tful
accounts in the reports of a trial of a seaman at Plyn' .outh.
A man had also recently died at the Northern H ospital,
Liverpool, who had been a sailor on board tb e Ocean.
Monarch. Upon this man's death an inquest was held
on his body, and the verdict of manslawshter was
brought in against the second and third mates of
that vessel. These two mates, however, had escaped during
the holding of the inquest, and were theinfore free from
any consequences of their atrocities. These two mates,
moreover, were the very men who had been accused and
found guilty of the manslaughter of a seaman on board a
vessel which bore the pacific name of the " John Bright."
(A laugh.) For want of the existence of an extradition
treaty between this country and America these men had.
escaped. It really became a question of what was the,
quantum of murder necessary to produce on the Govern-
ment a sense of the propriety of action. He hoped that her
Majesty's Government would give a satisfactory answer to
the question.
Sir G. C. LEWIS said with reference to the question of
his hon. friend the member for Truro, he would endeavour
to state as simply as he could the state of the law with re-
gard to the Scottie Episcopal Church. By the 32 George
111., c. 63, it was enacted that no person exercising the
functions of pastor or minister of any order of the episcopal
communion in Scotland should be capable of taking any
benefice or charge in England, or of officiating in that cha-
racter within the same, unless he were first lawfully or-
dained by some bishop of the church in England or Ireland.
It seemed to him that the word "pastor" must be read as
equivalent to " parochial clergyman," and as not extending
to a bishop.
Mr. A. SMlTH—Pastor or "minister of any order."
Sir G. C. LEWIS—No doubt those were the -words upon
which his hon. friend relied, but then, by an ordinary rule
of construction, the words, " minister of any order," must
be taken as illustrative of the word "pastor ;" and it must
be considered that an inferior, and not a higher order was
thereby signified. (Hear, hear.) There was, a subsequent
act by which the prohibition was partly removed, but the
question was whether that prohibition related to the exer-
cise of episcopal functions, and it appeared to him (Sir G.
C. Lewis) that it did not. The Bishop of Exeter had
communicated to him (Sir G. C. Lewis) his views on this
subject; and what the bishop contended was, that bishops
in the Scotch Episcopal Church, by the common
charch doctrines, could exercise episcopal functions
in English churches, inasmuch as they assented. in doctrine
with the English Church. For example, a bishop of the
Roman Church, if he conformed to the doctrines of the
Church of England, was ipso facto a bishop of the English
Church; and so also of a priest, as would be 'remembered
in the case of Mr. Blanco White, who from being a Roman
Catholic priest conformed to the English Church, and be-
came ipso facto a priest in the Church of England. The
case of Bishop Towers, who had recently be en exercising
episcopal functions in Cornwall on behalf of the Bishop of
Exeter, was by no means a solitary instance of the prac-
tice. Bishop Maltby, in the same way, had been assisted
by Bishop Eden Murray. The practice had. also been sanc-
tioned by the present Archbishop of Canterbury.. He (Sir
G. C. Lewis) concluded therefore that there was no statu
tory rule, and no rule at common law, by which Scotch
Episcopalian bishops could be prevented front exercising
episcopal functions in England, with the consent of the
bishop of the diocese. With respect to the question of his
hon. friend the member for Pontefract, he begged to say
that her Majesty's Government, early in the present year,
had entered into negotiations with the American Minister
in London with reference to this subject, and the draft of
an extradition treaty had been prepared and submitted to
Mr. Dallas. That treaty had, he presumed, been submitted
by Mr. Dallas to his own Government, which appeared as
yet to have come to no decision upon it.
TRANSPORT OF TROOPS TO NEW ZEALAND.
Lord A. CHURCHILL wished to put a question to the
Under Secretary of State for the Colonies respecting the
tenders that are called for for the transport of troops to
New Zealand. He wished to know whether it was the in-
tention of the Government to reduce the fore° at present
stationed in New Zealand. He bad seen 'some time since
two bills adverting to tenders fe, the transport to New
Zealand of 39 officers. 010 awl) 83 women, and 113 chil-
dren,p 1,1650ui
d :ing back
is
inakij' and proposing that the same
from Portland to Portsmouth
„ snr el;
1,703 persons in all. By this means the effective
force in New Zealand would apparently be reduced by 252
men. He begged to ask whether this was the intention.
The governor, Col. Gore Brown, had lately written home
asking for 3,000 men. He thought it was a curious 'way of
meeting this request. The settlers also, he understood, com-
plained bitterly of the great loss of property which omurred
to them from these disturbances, arising out of no dispute
of theirs, but out of a quarrel between the Govt jrnment
troops and the natives.
Mr. C. FORTESCUE said he believed he could/ remove
all alarm from the mind of his noble friend. The: tenders
alluded to were only conditional tenders. The disturbances
in New Zealand had so far ceased that he hoped the ser-
vices of troops would be required no longer; but-the second
battalion of the 14th was going out, and woad remain in
New Zealand as long as any fear of danger existed,. When
the disturbances were at an end, the 66th Reniment wont&
be relieved, and then permission would be giTen to the men