The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-23 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS.—(YESTERDAY.)
The LORD CRANORLLOR took his seat on the woolsack
at 5 o'clock.
The attendance of peers this evening was not very
numerous. The only members of the late Government
present when the Lord Chancellor took his seat were the
Marquis of Lansdowne, the • Earl of Clarendon, Lor:
Panrnure, Lord Stanley of Alderley, and the Marquis
of Clanricarde. Earl Grey occupied his usual seat.
Earl Granville entered the house about 5 minutes after
5, and entered into conversation with the Earl of
Malmesbury for a few minutes, and then retired
to his usual place. On the Opposition side of
the house were the Earl of Ellenborough, the Earl of
Malmesbury, the Earl of Hard wicke, Lord St. Leo-
nerds, the Earl of Egllnton, the Marquis of Salisbury.
The attendance of strangers in the space before the
throne was rather large, and four or five ladies occu-
pied seats in the galleries.
THE ALIEN LAW.
Lord LYNDHURST begged to ask his noble and
learned friend as to a certain statement attributed to
him with respect to the law affecting aliens.
Lord CAMPBELL said that his attention had been
drawn to the statement, and that he had been sur-
prised and distressed at it. He would not
cad it a misstatement of law, but a misapprehension,
and it was of the utmost importance that the facts of
the case should be stated, as otherwise they would be
held in a most odious light by foreign nations, it aliens
residing within the Q peen's allegianoe could suppose
that they might with impunity commit crimes of the
deepest dye—
. Lind GRANVILLE rose to order.
Lord CAMPBELL—Then, at a later part of the
evening I shall feel it my duty to recur to this question
again.

RESIGNATION OF MINISTERS.
Earl GRANVILLE then rote, and, amid profound
silence, said—My lords, I nee to make an announce-
ment that most of your lordships must already be pre-
pared for. In consequence of a circumstance that took
place in another place on Friday night, her Majesty's
Ministers have thought it their duty to tender
their resignation to her Majesty, and that her
Majesty had been phased to accept that resignation,
and to communicate with Lord Derby. I understand
that that noble lord has undertaken to form a Cabinet,
and it was the wish of that noble lord that the house
should adjourn until Friday next. I understand from
my noble and learned friend on the woolsack that the
house will sit to-morrow for judicial business,
but I think it convenient that no other business should
be transacted. I have now only to announce that we
hold office merely till our successors are appointed.
The Earl of MALMESBURY said he was too well
acquainted with the noble lords opposite as men of
honour and having a high sense of public duty to doubt
for a moment the course they would pursue. (Hear,
bear.) He was. free 'to admit that ho felt justi-
fied, however, in saying that he was much gra-
tified that men whose politics were in accordance
with his own had been called by her Majesty to her
counsels. (Hear, hear.) He could not help feeling a
satisfaction in looking back that their debates in that
house had been carried on without acrimony orill-feeling
on either side, and he would only add one word to
inform their lordships that his noble friend Lord Derby
was at that moment occupied in fulfilling the task her
Majesty had imposed upon him, and it was his wish that
the house should adjourn until Friday.
The motion for the adj ournment of the house until
Friday was then agreed to.
THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE AND THE
ATTORNEY-GENERAL.
Lord CAMPBELL resumed his statsinent upon the
subject of the law affecting aliens by saying that he did
not impute anything to any individual, but he read in
the public journals the following :
" The state of the English law I believe to be this—
that foreigners are able to do in this country that which
your own subjects are unable to do, and that which
would be a crime in natural born British eubjects is a
matter of impunity in foreigners."
Now, that was not the law of England, and it W 23 of
the last importance that it should be known to the
country and to Europe that it was not the law of Eng-
land. (Hear, hear.) He appealed Obis noble and learned
friend (Lord Lyndhurst) to confirm his statement, that
there was no distinction whatever between natural born
subjects and aliens with regard to acts committed within
the realm of England. If al ens were in England, within
the Queen's allegiance, they were her subjects as long as
they remained there, and they were fields to the same
procedure as natural born subjects. (Hear, hear.) If
they were tried for high treason, or any offence between
high treason and the lowest known to the law, done
in England, it would be wholly immaterial whether they
were aliens by birth or foreign subjects, and it would be
most disastrous if it were supposed that such was the
disgraceful state of English law that they, owing allegi-
ance to England, were not subj-ot to the law which
bound English subjects. He said that while they were
under the protection of English law they were bound to
obey it, and were liable for any infraction of English law
exactly in the same manner as any person who was born
within the sound of Bow belle For conspiracy and every
other offence they were amenable to tho law of England.
c(lllairne
(Hear.) It
oth
woeuldwobreldmtohnasttrotubsey whothatit l shouldived b
heree pa rnod-
enjoyed an asylum could commit with impunity crimes
for which English subjects might be punished. If a
foreigner in a foreign land committed a crime and came
to England we could not punish him for what he had
done in a foreign land. It would be contrary to the law
of nations to attempt to do so. But we could legislate
for our own subjects all over the world, and make them
amenable in an English court for anything which they
had committed abroad. With regard to a foreigner who
committed a crime abroad, we bad no jurisdiction over
the offence, but for everything done within the realm of
England he was equally amenable as a native born
British subject. (Hear.) He had heard with astonish-
ment that it was made a question whether it was an ,
offence in England to conspire to murder the consort of
the Emperor of the French at the time she was about
to i give birth to an heir to the throne. He was
shocked that there could be the smallest doubt upon the
aubject. To conspire anything which was malum in se
in England was an offence to the law for which the
conspirator would be liable to be prosecuted, and if it
were to murder one of the lowest subjects in a foreign
country, such an offence would most undoubtedly be
committed. With regard to the consort of a Sovereign
there was the instance of Lord George Gordon, who
was found guilty of libelling Marie Antoinette, The
Bill which had been brought in elsewhere did not create
any new offence ; it only altered the punishment, and
if it had been introduced as an amendment of the Eng-
lish code he should most unwillingly have supported it,
because he thought there ought to be uniformity of
punishment in every part of the United Kingdom.
He would advise any future Government to go on with
this bill, and if it cams up to that house he felt certain
their lordships would support it. (Hear, hear.)
The LORD CHANCELLOR felt bound to say a
few words in vindication of his hon. and learned friend
the Attorney-General, with whom he had bad no commu-
nication whatever on this subject. He ventured, how-
ever, to say, without authority from his honourable
and learned friend, that if he had been reported to have
said what his noble and learned friend had impeted to
him he must have been misrepreneetod. It was able-
Intely impossible for his hon. and learned friend so to
have expressed himself. It was so very difficult a task
to report the debates in Parliament that occasional mis-
takes were not to be wondered at. He apprehended there
could be no doubt that if a native of another country
committed a crime abroad and then came to this country
it was perfectly impossible to punish him or give him up,
except so far as it could be done by a treaty of extradi-
tion. The Attorney-General probably spoke with refe-
rence to a case of this sort, or perhaps he referred to the
question that had of late been much mooted—namely,
what would be the offence of a British subject who
should murder a foreigner abroad. Their lordships might
remember the case of a man named Azzopardi, who was
tried for that offence 10 or 12 years ago. The case of
this man was carefully considered, and the judges ruled
that for a British subject to murder a foreigner abroad
was puniehable as much as if the crime had been coin.*