The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-28 00:00:00

THE RED RIVER.

Mr. L. PALI( asked the Under Secretary of State for
the Colonies whether any steps had been taken by her
Majesty's Government to open the territory on the Red
River and the Saskatchewan, in British North America, to
colonisation, in pursuance of the recommendation of the
select committee of 1857.

Mr. C. FORTESCUE said this question was attended
with more difficulties than the hon. member seemed from
his question to imply. A bill had been prepared on the
subject, but before it could be brought in, some negotia -
tions that were going on between Government and the Hud-
son's Bay Company must be concluded, which he believed
would shortly be effected.
THE UNIVERSITY, OF DURHAM.
Mr_ FENWICK asked the Secretary of State for the
Home Department, whether the attention of her Majesty's
Government had been turned to the endowments in the
hands of the university of Durham, and the educational
results, shown by a return recently presented to this house,
and whether it was intended to take any steps in conse-
quence ?
Mr. CLIVE said his right hon. friend the Home Secre-
tary had had his attention directed to the subject, which,
he believed, was now under his consideration.
THE HARVEST.

On the motion for going into committee of supply,
Mr. CAIRD called the attention of the house to the
serious deficiency of last harvest, and the consequent neces-
sity for increased economy in the public expenditure. He
considered it his duty to bring this subject forward on the
present occasion in consequence of there having been no
allusion to it in the Royal Speech or by the Ministers of
the Crown. There were no certain data to proceed on with
respect to this subject, and therefore they were unable to
ascertain the results of the last harvest. Owing to the
severity of the October of 1859 there had been a
great failure in the crops of the following autumn from
the injury which the seed had sustained, and there was
also a considerable failure both in the corn crop and the
potato crop this year. It was true that the crop in Scot-
land was good, but that crop would not do more than sup-
port the population of the United Kingdom for ten (lave
He collected from the .Agricultural Gazette that there was
a deficiency in the crops for the last six months even much less
than in the same period for the 15 years preceding. Having
referred to the Custom-house returns to show the vast in-
crease that had taken place in the imports of foreign grain,
the result of free trade, and which alone had been means
of averting the horrors of a famine in this country, he
considered that under the circumstances it was the bounden
duty of the house to reduce the public expenditure as low
as was consistent with the exigencies of the public service,
and he appealed strongly to lion. members not to pass an
estimate that was not clearly necessary.
• AFFAIRS AT CONSTANTINOPLE.
Mr. S. FITZGERALD asked the noble lord the Foreign
Secretary whether he had received any information as to
a note said to have been presented by Prince Labanoff to
the plinister of Affairs at Constantinople, commenting on
the report made by the Grand Vizier-to the Sultan of the
result of his enquiries into the complaints of the Christian
subjects of the Porte, whether that note had received the
support of the French Minister at Constantinople, and
whether the subject of the note, and the demands it, con
tains had been brought under the notice of the Con-
ference at Paris. He contended that Russia ad-
hered to her old policy of interfering in the in-
terfering in the internal affairs of Turkey, and,
therefore, it was most desirable that measures should be