The Sun.
London, England, 1858-07-20 00:00:00

PRIVATE BUSINESS.

The Lancashire and Carl;file Railway Bill was read a
second t;mti'• and the Newport, Abergavenny, and
Her, ford Railway Bill, Plymouth Great Western Dt:eks
B:11, and the Middlesborough Improvement Bill, were
read a third time and pass,d.
THE STATE SERVICES OF THE criunca.
The gracious answer of her Majesty to tie address of
the House of Lords having been read,
The Duke of MARLBOROUGH moved that an hum-
ble address be presented to her Majesty, praying her
Majesty, if it should be her pleasure, that the services of
the sth November, the 30th January, sod the 29tH May,
should no longsbe annexed to the Book of Common
Prayer, in accardance with the address of the House of
Lord.i ; to direct that there be hereafter inserted in the
form of prayer and thanksgiving appointed for the 20th
day of Jo.ne, being the day on which her Majesty began
her happy reign, such feral of thanksgiving 83 her Ma-
jesty may see fit, for the great deliverances vahich by
the mercy of God have been vouchsafed to this nation ;
namely, the rtscue of the estates of Parliament from
the conspiracy of the sth of November, 1605 ; and
the restoration of the church and monarchy in 1660
and the deliverance from papal subjection and arbitrary
power through the landing of King William 111. in
1688: of which several events the nation is still enjoy-
ing the blessings in the security of her Majesty's throne.
The motion, after a short discussion, was nega.dved.
The Police (Scotland) Act Amendment B 11, and
the Lunatics (Scotland) Act Amendment Bill were read
a second time.

SCHOOL TRUSTEES BILL.
L-ird,STANLEY of ALDERLEY inovtd th. second
reading of thiq bill.

The LORD CHANCELLOR regret ted he could not
assent to the secand reading. The bill was a very un-
pretending ono in appearanc?, coritaining only one
ollue, but involved most important consequences ; and
he had hoped the noble !ord would have yielded to his
tuggestior, and not pressed the hill, which could not
possibly be di :cussed as it required at so late a period of
the sesiion. He - begged to move it be read a Renal
time that day three months.

Lord ORA.- NWORTH admitted the bill was not ac-
curately worded ; but it was a most useful measure, and
in committee could easily be altered so as to meet the
objections of hip noble and learned friend. By the
recent decision the whole law was at sea, and something
should be done.

The Earl of DERRY wa,, o! peed to legislation on
tl ct' j et wt ..hat period of the session.
The amendment was agreed to without a division.
The bill was therefore lost.
UNIVERSITIES (SCOTLAND) BILL.
The house went into committee on thin
On clause 1,
Tte Earl of AIRLIE moved an amendment, the
effect of which was to keep the King's and Marischal
Colleges in Abord-en distinct.

Aft-er a short :iscussion, thCamendrnent waq negatived
withc,ut a divhion, and the clause was agreed to. •
On clause 2,

The LORD CHANCELLOR proposed an amend-
ment directing that the Cnancellor should be elected by
the other members of the general /council.
The clatv:.e as amended was agreed to.
Clause 3 wasi_expunged by consent.
Clauses 4 to 20 wire agreed to, with little discussion.
On clause 21,

The LORD CHANCELLOR proposed to insert
giving compensation to profesors and others fcr the loss
of e mo'uments.

The amendment was agreed to, as were also the remain.
intt clauses of the bill; which passed through committee,
ruE DURHAM COUNTY PALATINE JURISTIC-

'PION BILL.
The Commons' amendment to the Lords' amendments
were coneidered and agreed to.
COPYRIGHT OF DESIGNS BILL.
The hili paned through committee.
NEW GENERAL POST-OFFICE (EDINBURGH)
BILL.
This bill was read a third tine and passed.

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA 13111..
Tho house went into committee on Vila bill.
On clause 34,

The Earl of ELLENI3OROUGII said he must ft r a
few mieutes draw their lordships'aitention to this clause.
It, for the first time, introduced competitive examina-
tion for coremistions in the scientific corps of the Indian
army. That principle was not in the bill of the late Ge-
vernment, and had been introduced for the first time
now. He had ah twilight that the introduction ofvayfie
competitive. examinations was the most impracticable
and dangerous system that had been introduced in mo-
dern those. Its practical effect was to substitute people
of an inferior position in the place of those who had led
our army to victory and hal well conducted the affairs
of the state. In the ease of the scientific corps of the
army there was no defect to be removed, the existing
system was perfect, and no attempt could be made to
ravesttacmhpa7retweirt.4
theao
alter it without dangers of the o•
knew nothing more dangerous than to
scientific corps of the army ; for a failure in that arm
would affect the
success of a siege, or of a battle, and that
might come about from the inferior character of the offi-
cers in command. Such a failure went to the fate of a
campaign or of an empire. This change also was pro-
posed at the moment of the highest perfection in both.
The boldness of the operations of the engineers in front
of Delhi—the extraordinary resources and the audacity
that accompanied all their operations at Luckno,.v, had
actually introduced a new era into the war. These things
seemed to establish for the scientific comps such a claim
for consideration as be should have thought the Govern•
meat would have listened to. Their lordships were no
doubt aware that at this moment Ultra was competition
at Addiscombe, and it was through that college that the
officers for the engineers and artillery were obtained.
They were educated under men of the highest ability and
character. They We' e impressed with the g,eat moral re-
sponsibility of their duties, and theirs was not an exami-
nation on a particular day for which they were crammed,
but their moral character was ascertained as well as
their educational standing, and the men so selected were
such as the ceun, ry could entirely rely on. There was
no possibility of introducing into the propcs, d competi-
tive examination a security of that kind. (Floor.) All
they could find out was that a gentleman on a certain
day attained a certain apparent degree cf superiority
over another gentleman. There were other advantages in
the present system which it aas perfectly impossible to
obtain by means of open competition. They could have
no doubt, from the manner in which these officers from
Addiscombe had obtained their commissions, that they
were gentlemen. He could not speak too strongly of the
advantage of having, especially in India, gentlemen,
with all that gentlemanlike feeling which prevailed in
society in this country, to te.ke the command cf the lei- •