The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-13 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—THIS DAY.
The SPEAKER took tho chair at 12 o'clock.
TESTS ABOLITION (OXFORD) BILL.

The house went into committee on this bill,
Sir W. HEATHCOTE moved an amendment to the
first clause, the effect of which was to exclude from Con-
vocation all those who had been admitted to degrees
withoutmaking the declaration of conformity to the Church
of England.
Mr. COLERIDGE objected to the amendment. He con-
sidered it went to the root of the bill, and if the house as-
sented to it the measure would become entirely worthless.
He frankly admitted that the object of the bill was proposed
for the purpose of bringing Dissenters into the University,
but not to introduce them into colleges to :interfere with
religious teaching.
Mr. B. HOPE supported the amendment.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said it had
been hinted that the Government, if such a measure as
that now before necessary, were the parties who ought to
deal with this matter, and he might say the Go-
vernment was quite ready to acquit themselves of the
task if they saw a favourable indication in the house that
the bill would pass. Much required to be done before the
question was settled, and, under all the circumstances, he
thought it would be the wisest course for the present to
withdraw the bill. Ile was not speaking on behalf of the
Government in asking the hon. and learned gentleman to
take this course ; but it was his individual opinion that
dealing with the matter as proposed by the hon. and
learned gentleman was most imperfect. He objected
to the continual nibbling by Parliament at the principle on
which university education was founded, and therefore, as
the bill would not effectually settle the difficult and deli-
cate matter, he could not give it his support. (gear, hear.)
Mr. G. DUFF regretted the determination to which the
right hon. gentleman who had just resumed his seat had
'come. He had hoped that he might have been induced to
support the bill, instead of opposing it in a manner as
strenuously as any of the hon. gentlemen who occupied
the Opposition benches.
Sir S. NORTHCOTE supported the amendment.
Mr. C. FORTESCUE opposed, and Viscount CRANBOURNE
supported, the amendment.

Mr. EVANS supported the amendment, because he
thought the bill tended to promote religious freedom.
After a few words from Mr. Locxz and Lord J. MAN-
XERS,

Sir G. GREY said the Government were not prepared
to interpose in this matter, because it was one in which the
greatest liberty of conscience was necessary. His right hon.
f riend the Chancellor of the Exchequer had expressed his opi-
nion, and ho (Sir G. Grey) could not agree with him in
opposing the amendment, therefore he should give his
vote in favour of the class as it stood in the bill of the hon.
member for Exeter.

The house then divided, when there appeared—
For the amendment 172
Against it
Majority
Sir W. HEATHCOTE said, after such a majority
against him, he should not press the other amendments.
(Hear, hear.)
The clauses in the bill were agreed to, and the bill was
reported to the house without amendment.
POOR RELIEF (IRELAND) LAW AMENDMENT
BILL.
Mr. C. R. BARRY moved the second reading of this
bill, the object of which was to alter the system of poor-
rating in Ireland by substituting an union rating in
place of that of electoral divisions. (Hear, hear.) He
said that the present system had worked most mis-
chieviously, in consequence of the inequality of the towns
compared with the rural districts, and it was to remedy
that state of things that the present bill was introduced.
Mr. GREGORY, as an amendment, moved that the bill be read a second time that day six months. He was of
opinion that it was a measure altogether uncalled for and
unnecessary.
Lord C. HAMILTON, who seconded the amendment,
was addressing the house at a quarter to six, at which hour
the debate, according to the standing order, ceased.
The other orders of the day wore thea disposed of and
the house adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS--LAST EVENING,
The SPEAKER took the chair at 4 o'clock.
PRIVATE BUSINESS.

The following bills were read a third time and passed :
Mold and Denbigh Junction Railway (Branches, &c.),
Shrewsbury and North Wales Railway (Deviations, &c.),
and Somerset and Dorset Railway.
GASLIGHT AND COKE COMPANIES BILL.
Mr. ADAIR moved the further amendment of the re-
port on this bill.

Mr. TITE strenuously objected to the bill. It sought
to erect a series of immense gas works in the neighbour-
hood of Victoria-park, and for that reason he would
not be a party to giving the powers asked by the bill. He
pointed out a site which might be most advantageously
occupied by the company, but they refused to entertain
the proposal, and they proposed to erect works in close
proximity to Victoria-park, which had recently cost
the house £75,000. The Board of Works had
spent £25,000 in making approaches thereto, and
the expense of the park, which was now about
to become permanent, was £6,000 per annum, all
this was to go for nothing, because the gas company
had made up their minds to erect the works on a site
which would inconvenience and discomfort thousands of
the poorer classes. Ho moved that the report be further
considered that day three months.

Lord J. MANNERS seconded the amendment. If it
was proposed to erect gas-works in the neigh-
bourhood of Trafalgar-square a great and irre-
pressible outcry would arise in consequence of
the injurious odour that would be emitted from
the works, and would totally destroy all vegetation in St.
James's Park. He could seo no difference between Vic-
toria and St. James's Park ; and as he should stand up to
the utmost of his power for the one proposal, so he strenu-
ously objected to the powers sought to be obtained by this
bill.

Sir J. TROLLOP said the hon. member for Bath had
adopted a most ungracious course in moving the rejection
of this bill, because that was the effect of his motion. The
Board of Works had petitioned against the bill, and they had
done their best to impede the bill in committee, and after the
best consideration their objections bad been found unten-
able. The hon. gentleman, despite all that had been done,
now moved the rejection of the bill on the consideration of
the report of the bill. He, as chairman of the committee
to which the bill had been referred, said ho hoped the
house would not agree to the proposal of the ion. member.
It was not, as was generally supposed, intended to vote to
erect gas works in the middle of Victoria-park; the
site proposed was a marsh ; not a house near
it for a considerable distance, and it was surrounded by

water, so that the graat outcry that had been got up
against it was absurd.
Mr. B. HOPE said he had visited the spot, and he
_ . _

assured the house he could not call the proposed site a
desert waste. The gasworks, if erected, would become an
motionintolerablef
tnhuel s
hnoc en
0,
uarnadblthereforeehr e
fsohr o
Badt
hs p of rtt h the
works were sanctioned it would in effect be inviting
people to disfigure and make the metropolis as objection-
able as possible. The whole question appeared to him to
be whether the company should be called to lay down a
little more piping by moving their works from the re-
quired site or not. He hoped the house would give the
motion of the hon. gentleman the member for Bath its ap-
proval and assent.
Mr. AYRTON said the question to be decided by the bill
was not confined to the erection of a limited amount of gas
works, but whether they would allow two gas works to
unite, and for them to concentrate their whole establish-
ment near Victoria Park. He thought that because a
nuisance already existed near Victoria Park it could not
be laid down as an argument to introduce a far greater
one. (Hear, hear.) Apart from that he was of opi-
nion that the erection of these immense works would,
in addition to becoming a nuisance, be positively dange-
rous to the surrounding property from fear of explosion.
Mr. W. COWPER said the erection of those enormous
and gigantic gasworks near Victoria-park would be ex-
ceedingly objectionable. (Hear, hear.) He, for one, could
not consent to become a party to subjecting all those who
went to the park for enjoyment to breathe the noxious
vapours that emanated from gasworks. On public
grounds he thought it the duty of the house not to sanc-
tion any bill which would endanger the health or pollute
the air near Victoria-park. The country had spent a great
deal of money in forming the park for the benefit of the
working classes at the eastern extremity of the metropolis,
and now all was to be destroyed because two great
companies proposed to unite and concentrate
all their works within six hundred or eight hundredyards
of Victoria-park. He could
not y
see why the gas
companies could not go elsewhere, as there were pof
places away from habitations where gasworks mightnty
be erected without injury to any one. He hoped the house
would
not reject the proposal of the hon. member for
Bath. (Hear.)
Sir J. PAKINGTON said he had been solicited on the
part of a large hospital established to combat with con-
sumption to use his utmost endeavours to prevent the
erection of ages works in close proximity to that establish-
ment. He thought such a proposal at once highly inju-
rious, and therefore he should support the motion of the
hon. member for Bath. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. S. BUTLER trusted the house would giveits assent
to the amendment of the hon. member for Bath, and thus
rescue hundteds of thousands of industrious artisans from
the nuisance that was sought to be imposed upon them.
(Hear, hear.)
Mr. PAULL said he should give his vote in support of
the bill, because he thought the great outcry that
had been got up against it totally groundless. The great
opponent of the bill was the popular preacher and public
agitator of the neighbourhood. (Hear, hear, and laughter.)
It was for the house to say whether this redoubtable per-
son should dictate to them where they should allow the
erection of gas works. He contended that the gas works
would not produce a nuisance, because all the gas manu-
factured was to be purified by a process which would alto-
gether relieve it of its noxious properties.
Sir R. PEEL said he thought the opinion of the com-
mittee ought to be maintained. He objected to the hon.
member for Bath standing up in that house as the standard
of taste. He thought that when a committee of that house
had decided that the site selected was a fit and proper
one, it was highly ridiculous for the house to blindly
follow the advice of the hon, member for Bath. He
should like to know whether Battersea Park was
de-
stroyed by the gas works that existed in the locality—
(hear, hear)--or whether Bath, which was one of the most
beautiful places in the country, was disfigured by the gas
works that existed there. (Hear, hear.) He hoped the
house would support the determination of the committee.
Mr. LUSK supported the amendment of the hon. mem-
ber for Bath.
Mr. STANILAND said as a member of the committee
to which the bill had been referred, he hoped the house
would support the decision it had, after the greatest consi-
deration, arrived at.
The house then divided, when there appeared—
For the amendment l3B
Against it
Majority
The amendment was therefore lost, anal the report was
further considered, and the bill ordered to be read a third
time.

Lord DUNKELLIN gave notice of his in, ention to move
in committee on the Reform Bill that the .c 7 borough fran-
chise be a rating, not a renting franchise.
In reply to Mr. SANDFOItD,
Mr. LAYARD stated that the papers relating to the
Conference would be shortly hid on the table.
Mr. H. VIVIAN, in a long and interesting speech, full
of elaborate scientific calculations, and showing as well a
minute practical knowledge of the subject, moved for a
Royal Commission to inquire into the extent of our coal-
fields, the consumption of coal, and other points connected
with this question. After some prefatory remarks, he
divided his subject under these heads—the depth at which
coal could be profitably worked; the amount of coal actu-
ally known to exist, and which might possibly exist in
undiscovered coalfields ; the rate of consumption, and the
necessity of economy. In dealing with the first point he
combated Mr. Hall's assertion that coal could not be worked
below 4,000 ft., remarking that it would cut off from the
South Wales district 24,000 million tons, of the value of
£64,000,000, and showed by relating a series of practical
experiments which had been made that the objections to
deep pits on the ground of temperature, pressure, and ex-
pense R ere unfounded, and that they could be worked
with as much health, comfort, and safety to miners, and
with as little expense comparatively, as shallow pits; and
that hitherto, as a matter of experience, the additional cost
of sinking deeper had been more tan compensated by the
additional amount of coal obtained. He gave some inte-
resting details as to the extent of our known coalfields
which he placed at 2,770 square miles, containing 84,000
million tons, but gave many strong reasons and quoted
high authorities for believing that under the Permian and
other strata there existed coalfields three or four times as
extensive, which were within the reach of man, and that in
all probability the south of England was full of attainable
coal. On the question of future consumption he declined
to make any predictions, but contended that consumption
ought not to increase at a more rapid rate than the popu-
lation, which was at present about one and one-fifth per
cent. ; and applying it to the manufacture of iron, he showed
by a reductio ad absurdum that Mr. Jevon's theory of geo-
metrical progression in the consumption was fallacious
and entirely untrustworthy, concluding that there was no
ground forthe dismal prophecies which had been uttered on
this point. By the adoption of the " long wall" system, in
place of the "pillar and stall," he showed that considerable
economy might be obtained in the working of coal, and in
regard to its consumption he indicated various inventions
which had been and might be expected to be made to effect
a large saving. He adverted, in conclusion, to Mr. Tor-
ren's amendment for confiding the inquiry to the Geologi-
cal Survey, and gave his reasons for preferring a commission
composed not only of scientific but practical men.

Mr. LIDDELL seconded the motion, and, ilTough not
apprehending any imminent failure in our coal supplies,
urged the necessity—looking to the importance of the ma-
terial to our commercial superiority—of adopting every
safeguard for the economical consumption of coal.

Mr. WC. TORRENS moved, as an amendment, " That
a special report as to the extent, quality, and cost of work-
ing coal in the United Kingdom be directed to be made by
the persons charged-with the conduct of the Geological
Survey." He did not press it very forcibly, but insisted
that, in whatever form it was conducted, the inquiry should
be thorough.
Sir G. GREY intimated that the Government, being
fully sensible of the importance of accurate information on
this subject, would grant the inquiry, and being unwilling
to delay the completion of the important work on which
the Geological Survey was engaged, they preferred the
proposal of Mr. Vivian, to confide the inquiry to a Royal
Commission, on which it was hoped Sir R. Murchison
would serve.
Sir R. PEEL, Mr. SAMUELSON, and Col. SYKES expressed
a preference for obtaining the information through the
Geological Survey.
Sir G. Bowyer, Mr. Bayley, and Mr. Pease thanked the
Government for granting the inquiry, and
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, in reply to
some reflections of Sir G. Bowyer in a former speech
of his,
explained that he had not shared in the apprehensions of
an actual exhaustion of the supply of coal, but had simply
expressed an opinion that we could not go on producing
our present amount without risking a rise in
_aurd,
in defending the decision of the Governmentt as to thee form
of the inquiry, pointed out the superior d
commission on which both practical and a scientificvas of a
men
could meet.

The amendment having been withdrawn, the motion
was agreed to.

Mr. MELLOR movod for a Select Committee to consi-
der the importance of creating a harbour of refuge at New-
haven ; but Mr. M. GIBSON objecting to the motion, it was
withdrawn after a short conversation.
Mr. .MORRIS called attention to the state of the law re-
gulating the removal from Great Britain to Ireland of per-
sons receiving relief, and to the injustice of maintaining
system which, ho contended, acts in favour of Great
Bri-
tain
VILLIERS admitted that in former times the law
alone.
Mr.
had worked harshly, but maintained that the recent Union
Chargeability Act had removed many
ha rfd shi
ps, promis
ing, however, to consider favourabl
yfurther changes
which might be proposed if a longery
Aetshoo.ulod,LshooGwAhEemN experience of that
Sir
toobbteainecessary,leave
.
to regulate and improve the tenure of land in Ireland,
object of which he explained to be to foster the granting the
of
leases for 21 years.
Mr. LEEMAN obtained leave to bring in a bill to amend
the law in respect to themsale and purchase of shares in
banking and other comP
Various other ordersweriees.forwarded a stage, and the
howAdjouruod at B.YO minutes past 1 o'clock