The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-19 00:00:00

CHURCH RATES.

The Duke of MARLBOROUGH gave notice that on
Friday next he should introduce a bill to amend the law re-
lating to Church Rates.

PRIVATE BUSI NESS.

The following bills were read a second time :—Aloa Rail •
way, Bonelli's Electric Telegraph, Clitheroe Gas, Corn-
wall Railway, Dewsbury and Batley Gas; Dumfries, Loch-
maben, and Lockerby Junction Railway (Deviation) ; Dum-
blane, Doune, and Callendar Railway.; Edinburgh' Perth,
and Dundee; Grand Junction Water; Kinross-shire Rail-
way, North British and Peebles Railway, Portsea Gas,
South Essex Water, Southwark and Vauxhall Water, &c:
INDICTABLE OFFENCES (METROPOLITAN DIS-
TRICTS) BILL.
This bill passed through committee.
FICTITIOUS SAVINGS' BANKS.
This bill also passed through committee.
CONSTRUCTIVE NOTICES BILL.
This bill passed through committee.
THE WAR IN CHINA.
Earl GREY rose to move that an humble address be
presented to her Majesty for copies or extracts of any
despatches received by her Majesty's Government explain-
ing the objects of an expedition reported to have been
ordered to proceed up the Yang•tze-kiang, and to call the
attention of the house to the papers relating to
China laid before it by the command of her
Majesty. He said, in moving for the papers mentioned, he
had no intention of pressing for them if the Government
opposed the motion for their production. His great
object was to bring the subject of China before their
lordships for discuss on, and had any other noble lord in-
timated that he intended to bring the subject forward he
should not have taken upon himself to do so. He
did not propose to dilate upon the disasters at
the mouth of the Peiho, nor upon the events which
mighthave happened had thatcatastrophe been avoided, but
what he wished to do was to call attention to the present
condition of our relations with China, and in acquiting
himself of the task it would be necessary] for him to
look back on the history of our past intercourse with China.
When China was originally upened to our commerce, the
spur given to trade wait„;..great, though not so
great as had been expected. In the beginning of his
remarks he must say that he considered the Eng-
lish Government had no more right to interfere with
the regulations of trade laid down in China, any
more than it had to interfere with those of France or
Spain. For a time all things went on quietly,
but at last a circumstance occurred by which we
considered ourselves justified in forcing a change, and by
fsrce and corruption we re-established a large smuggling
trade in 'opium. At the conclusion of the Chinese war
large concessions had to be made by the Chinese,
and as we had completely subdued them, they
had to accept any terms that might be dictated to
them. In consequence of the large concessions
that had been obtained by treaty, traffic in opium
had been resumed, and ever since it had been re-
garded as a regular article of commerce by the Bri-
tish Government. The whole of the trade of China
became in consequence demoralised, and no attempt
to correct abuses was made, but, on the contrary,
the consuls vied with each other in their efforts
to impose their frauds on the Chinese Government.
But a much worse trade had sprung up, ho referred to the
trade in Coolies. The Coolie trade had been vigorously
carried on, and a system of gambling had, been carriel to
an extent that many unfortunate Coolies had gambled
away their liberty. In one case a widow was possessed of
two children ; the son gambled away his liberty, and the
mother, anxious to redeem her son, actually sold her other
child, a daughter ; bat when she went to release her boy
she found he had been shipped to a European colony.
CLEFT SPEAKING.]

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—(THIS EVENING).
The SPEAKER took the chair at four o'clock.
NEW MEMBER.
Mr. BARNES took the oaths and his seat for Bolton.
PRIVATE BUSINESS.
The standing orders were reported to have been
complied with in the case of several railway
and other bills. The following bills were read
a second time :—Colcford, Monmouth, Usk, and
Pontypool Railway ; Dewsbury, Batley, Gomersal, and
Bradford Railway; Elland Gas; Exeter and Exmouth
Railway ; Galashiels and Peebles Railway ; Hawiok
Police and Improvement ; Kingstown Improvement ; Mid-
dleton Improvement ; Oldham, Ashton-under-Lyne, &c.,
Junction Railway; Tonge Improvement; Universal Pri-
vate Telegraph Company ; and Wexford Harbeur Com-
missioners.
STREET RAILWAY COMPANY BILL.
On the motion of Mr. CHILDERS the second reading of
this bill was postponed for a week in order to enable the
promoters to consider whether it should be dealt with as a
private or a public measure, as it affected the country
generally.
COMMITTEE OF SELECTION.
The members to serve on this committee were sworn, and
the committee will sit at 3 o'clock on Thursday next.