The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-10 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, _ AITGUST 10, I ftt).

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—(Tars DAY.)
The SPEAKER took the chair at twelve o'clock.
NEW MEMBER.

HOUSE OF LORDS.
(Before the Lord Chancellor.)

Admiral Sir Michael Seymour took the oaths and his
seat for Devonport.
PRIVATE BUSINESS.

The amendments to the following bills were considered
and agreed to :—Bridport Railway, Central Wales Rail-
way, Cohie Valley and Halstead Railway, Falkirk Police
and Improvement, Lancaster and Carlisle Railway, Mid-
Sussex and Midhurst Junction Railway, North Staf-
fordshire Railway, Stockton and Darlington Railway, Wells
and Fakenham Railway, West London Railway, Ken-
sington Station, and North and South` London Junction
Railway, Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (Rochdale
and Royton Branches), and Midland (Erewash Valley)
Bills.

The following bills were read a third time and passed :
Dickinson's Divorce (India), Sir John Ramsden's Estate,
Thames Watermen and Lightermen.
The Pneumatic Despatch Company Bill (Lords) was
considered.

SALE OF GAS BILL.
Several petitions were presented in favour of this bill.
OATHS, &c.
Mr. W. EWART moved an address for returns showing
what oaths are required as a qualification in order to the
under-mentigned persons being allowed to practise their
respective professions, viz. :—Doctors, advocates, proctors
of civil law, queen's counsel, sergeants at law, barristers,
attornies, notaries, physicians, schoolmasters, and ushers ;
and, showing also under what authority such oaths are ad-
ministered ; distinguishing such as are administered in a
court of law from such as are administered by any society or
body of persons especially authorised in that behalf.—
Agreed to.

PONTEFRACT ELECTION.
Mr. BRIGHT moved for a.select committee to inquire
into the allegations contained in the petition of Hugh C.
E. Childers, Esq., presented (9th August) ; and that the
said committee (la consist of the following members :
Mr. Walpole, Mr. Crawford (Ayr), Captain Jervis, Lord
Robert Clinton, Mr. Selwyn, Mr. Phillips, and Mr. G. C.
Glyn.

Mr. OVEREND said it was with no small degree of
mortification aid humiliation that he felt called upon in
addressing the house for the first time, to vindicate his
character from charges made against him the day preced-
ing. He had no reason to complain of the conduct of Mr.
Childers, who brought the case openly before the house,
and gave him an opportunity of making an explanation,
He was also obliged to the hon. member for Birmingham,
in moving for a select committee which would fully investi-
gate the whole affair, and from that investigation he
had nothing- to fear. He had not received any notice
whatever of this motion being brought forward until yes-
terday evening, when he received a telegram at Lancaster,
that a notice of such a motion had been given. He objected
strongly to a term used by the hon. member for Birming-
ham, which only the strongest proof of culpability could
justify, and which had never been previously used in con-
nectionwith his name—he meant the word "fraud." (Hear.)
It was true that he had been returned by a majority of only
ten, and that a petition was presented, imputing to him all
the offences usual in such cases ; but he pledged his honour
as a gentleman that he had not been guilty of bribery him-
self, or that he was aware it was committed by his agents.
He gave instructions to his agents to defend his return, and
then helwent on a circuit,and had no communication on the
subject until some time afterwards, when he received a
telegram while he was engaged in a nisi prius trial at
York, which was as follows :—" L offers to withdraw the
record on my agreeing with him to refer the late action"
(alluding to the election) " to a member of the house of our
side, of high character, both parties to be bound by his de-
cision." He consulted with some of his friends, and they
came to the conclusion that the reference proposed would
be a breach of the privileges of the house, but that is was,
in fact, a dignified withdrawal by Mr. Childers of his oppo-
sition to his election. He then telegraphed to his agent in
London to the effect that he placed himself in his hands,
and requesting him to do the best he could. [Here the
hon. and learned member read a correspondence which
took place between him and his agents, in which
one of the latter described the reference as
merely illusory ? He acted throughout under the convic-
tion that the reference was thus correctly described, and
he never considered that his seat was endangered by that
reference, for he denied most solemnly that he consented
to it pur et semple. He concluded by disclaiming the
slightest intention of acting in any way other than the
most honourable and straightforward.

Mr. BRIGHT said it was Rot his intention to appear as
an accuser of the hon. and learned member for Devonport.
Mr. Childers had requested him to present the petition,
and Mr. Cairless, the solicitor of Mr. Overend, had notice
last Friday of his intention to present the petition. With
respect to the term complained of by the hon. and learned
member, what he did say was, that Mr. Childers
considered that he had been, what he would say
from the want of a better word, "defrauded" of
his seat. It was no secret that Lord March was the
member selected as a referee, and that he has doubts as to
his being justified in undertaking to arbitrate, and that the
hon. and learned member did not consent to any other
member of the house being applied to. (Hear.) In
his opinion, the hon. and learned member was erroneous
in assuming that his seat was not in jeopardy by the pro-
posed inquiry before the referee, because the only object of
the inquiry must have been with reference to the validity
of the return of the hon. and learned member. He con-
sidered, from the statements of the hon. and learned mem-
ber, that Mr. Rose, the Parliamentary agent, had acted
very improperly.
After some remarks from Sir W. SOLLIFFE,
Mr. DISRAELI stated that he considered the vindi-
cation of the hon. and learned member for Devonport,
and defended the conduct of Mr. Rose, who was an
honourable member of the body to which he belonged.
Under the circumstances, however, he would vote for the
motion.

Sir G. GREY made a few observations in the course of
which he said, that the petition contained an allegation to
the effect that the agent of the sitting member had made a
pecuniary offer, in order to induce Mr. Childers to with-
draw the petition, a charge so serious that it should be in-
vestigated
The motion was then agreed to and the committee ap-
pointed seriatim.

NEW MEMBER,

Mr. DuNN took the oaths and his seat for Dartmouth.

THE VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF

TRADE

Mr. DISRAELI inquired if it was true that the office of
Vice-President of the Board of Trade bad been offered to
an hon. member of that house; and, if so, whether the
right hon. gentleman who held it at present had accepted
the office in India ?

Mr. M. GIBSON said he was not aware of any suoh
offer being made, and with reference to the latter right
hon. gentleman alluded to, he had no information further
than that he was considering whether or not he would ac-
cept the appointment which had been offered to him.

LEFT SITTING.]
[

THIS rs MARKETS.

CORN EXCHANGE.

The supply of English wheat here to-day was very
limited. Owing to the change in the weather there was an
improved demand for all kinds, and, in some instances,
selected qualities were the turn higher than on Monday.
There was a fair inquiry for foreign wheat, and fine dry
samples were mostly held for more money.
The barley trade was inactive, yet prices were supported.
The malt trade was in a sluggish state, on former terms.
Oats, the supply of which was good, were a slow sale, but
not cheaper.

In the value of beans, peas, and flour no change took
place.

ARRIVALS THIS WEEK

Wheat. Barley Malt. Oats Flour.
English 730 1 10 ; 1,560 ' 880 : 1,020
Irish
Foreign 5,750 ( 1,030 I
9,860 160 sks
bls
1

BOROUGH HOP.
There is very little inquiry for any kind Of hops, and
prices are almost nominal.

WHITECHAPEL.
Each kind of meat was in fair request, at full quotations :
—Beef, from 2s 8d to 4s 2d ; mutton, 3s Od to 4s 4d ;
lamb, 4s 4d to 5s Od ; veal, 4s Od to 4s 8d ; and pork, 4e
Od to 4s 8d per 81b., by the carcase.

COURSE OF EXCHANGE.—YESTERDAY.
Amsterdam
Ditto
Rotterdam — 11 15/ 11 15
Antwerp
Brussels —. 25 25 25 32
Hamburgh
Paris
Ditto
Marseilles
Frankfort on Maine — 117/ 1171
Vienna — 12 90 12 0
Trieste
Petersburgh — 341 341
Madrid
Cadiz — 491 50
Leghorn — 30 0 30 121
Genoa — 25 70 , 25 80

Naples
Palermo — 1221
Messina — 122
Lisbon
Oporto
Rio Janeiro
New York --• •

40}
122 f
123
51f
52

Foreign Gold in Bars (Standard)....per oz. £3 17
Mexican Dollars
Silver in Bars (Standard)

AN ALLEGED LUNATIC MURDERER.-It was re-
cently stated in the Times that James Atkinson, who was
acquitted last year at the York assizes, on the ground of
insanity, of the murder of a young woman, his sweetheart,
at Dailey, near Harrogate, had been removed, after show-
ing some violence in York Castle, to St. George's Lunatic
Asylum, London. It seems, according to the York news-
papers, that the violence of Atkinson and some of his other
conduct was assumed for a purpose. One of the local
journals says :—" Prior to his removal Atkinson made
some attempts at suicide, but we are now in a posi-
tion to state that these attempts were mere feints,
got up to serve a purpose with an ingenuity very in-
consistent with the mental abilities of an imbecile. On the
6th of May Atkinson volunteered a statement to a fellow-
prisoner that the attempts he had made to hang himself
were done with no other view than to lead the prison
officials to believe he was insane, that he might be re-
moved to St. George's Hospital, which he anticipated would
lead to comparative ease and luxury. On the occasion of
his attempting to hang himself in his cell he distinctly
stated that when he was cut down he feigned being sense-
less, and that he would continue acts of this kind until he
was removed. He also proposed that he should tie himself
up in the airing-yard, when the other prisoners were in the
day-room, and that one of the prisoners was to give an
alarm and cut him down, when he would remain apparently
unconscious for a time. He was to write a letter beforehand,
addressed to his friends, and wisjiing them ' good bye on
earth.' Atkinson further informed his confidant that he
would give the officials of the prison all the trouble that he
possibly could, by various studied insubordinate acts, in the
hope thereby of forcing extra diet and other indulgences, if
it did not lead to his immediate removal. These particulars
we have from authentic depositions, and they clearly prove
that Atkinson had a method in his madness, and that by
his perseverance he has accomplished the great object he
had determined to attain—his removal to an asylum.

LA IF INTELLIGENCE.-(Th: LS DAY.)

HOPEWOOD AND ANOTHER V. HOPEWOO D ET AL.

This was an appeal from an order of the Master of the
Rolls, affirmed by the Lords Justice's, allowirog the respon-
dent a double legacy of £5,000 each under his father's Will
and codicils.

Their lordships were unanimously of op inion that the
respondent was not entitled to a double lef ;acy of £5,000,
but a single legacy of £5,000 only under b is father's will.
Their lordships altered the decision of the Court below to
this extent, and remitted the case to the Court below 'to
declare accordingly.
SIR WILLIAM A. CLAVERING, BART., I/. ELLISON AND