The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-06 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS--(YEsTEmpar.)
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat at 5 o'clock.

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RELIGIOUS WORSHIP AMENDMENT ACT.
Lord DUNGANNON presented a petition from St.
Asaph against the Religious Worship Amendment Bill ;
also a petition from the rural deanery of Ellesmere, in
the diocese of Litchfield, to the same effect.
Lord SHAFTESBURY presented a number of peti-
tions in favour of the bill.
THE PASSPORT SYSTEM.

Lord STANHOPE, seeingth;;Ol;l;earl the Secre-
tary of state for Foreign Affairs in his place, begged to
ask what course would be pursued for the f attire with
respect to
giving passports to British subjects going to
the Continent. He had been informed that the French
Government had given notice to Her Majesty's Govern-
ment that they would not, for the future, recognise
passports given to foreign subjects by the French con-
suls in this country. He thought that the present
moment was a good opportunity of doing away with the
anomaly altogether.
The Earl of CLARENDON said only a few days
ago, they had received an intimation from the French
Government to put an end to the system of French con-
sular agents granting passports to British subjects. He
entirely concurred with the object if it was intended
to adhere to the passport system, as at present any
person calling himself a British subject obtained a pass-
port without the slightest difficulty. By this means
some of the most dangerous persons—persons to whom
the French Government had the greatest objection—
might travel through France as British subjects. We
had never interfered heretofore with the sys-
tem of passports, because we attached no
importance to them. Any person was free to leave or
enter this country without being provided with such a
document ; and he did not think there was any reason
at the present moment to break through the rule.
He had no doubt that the whole system
would soon be abolished, as it was the in-
tention of the Government to invite other countries
to abandon the passport system. (Hear, hear.)
THE ENGLISH ENGINEERS AT NAPLES.
Earl GREY presented a petition urging upon her
Majesty's Government to interfere to procure the
liberation of the two British subjects at present in
confinement at Naples. The noble lord urged on
the Government the necessity of attending to the prayer
of the petition.

The Earl of CLARENDON said the subject alluded
to by the noble earl had excited great interest, and at
the outset he begged to inform the:house that those two
persons had not suffered any inconvenience from the
interruption of our amicable relations with the Neapoli-
tan Government. 1, was but just to the Govern-
ment to say that no unnecessary harshness bad
been exercised towards those men ; on the contrary,
ho believed that they bad been treated with much more
consideration than they would have been had they been
natives. The noble lord then detailed the
circumstances connected with the arrest of the
men on board the steamer Cagliari. He thought
the government had no right to interfere so long
as the Neapolitan Government pursued the regular
course hid down.by the law of the land. There was
no doubt the engineeee had nut been parties to the in-
surrectionary movement of the Sicilians who took pos-
session of the steamer in July last. He knew it had been
said her Majesty's Government ought to have taken more
vigorous measures, but they had no right whatever
to call upon the Neapolitan Government to depart from
the ordinary course of law