The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-09 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS—(YESTERDAY.)
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the woolsack
at 5 o'clock.
The LORD CHANCELLOR presented a petition
from Mr. Grimshaw, of Bank House near Burrley,
praying Parliament to pass a law to settle the question
whether a married woman should have the power of ap-
pointing trustees of property acquired by inhelitaece.
The Earl of DERBY, referring to the statement he
made last night respecting the transmission of troops to
India, said the authority upon which he relied was now
in Paris, but a letter had been written to that person,
and he thought he should be in a position, either
to show that the President of the Board of Con-
trol laboured under a defective memory, or to make
an apology for the statement.
PROVISION TO SIR HENRY HAVELOCK.
The CLERK at the table having read her Majesty's
Message,
Earl GRANVILLE said he had now the gratif) jug
duty to propose to their lordships to mdse a reply
to her Majesty in answer to her most gracious message
just read. He felt sure in doing so he should meet with
the most cordial unanimity of both sides of the hot se.
(Hear.) General Havelock was not a young officer,
he entered the army in 1815, and had taken part in j
every campaign in India up to 1854, including the
Persian war. (Hear.) He felt it would be tedious to
their lordships if he detained them by detailing
the number of medals and honours which he
had acquired, so he would pass from that
part of the subject. Gen. Havelock arrived in India
almost simultaneously with the outbreak in India, and
he immediately hastened to join Gen. Neill at Allahabad,
who was at that moment endeavouring to effect the
relief of Cawnpore ; but they all knew that that object
was not effected until too late to prevent the dreadful
massacre of women and children which bad taken place. j
General Haveloek, shortly atter this event, had defeated
the enemy no less than four times between the 12th arid
16th July, and after so doing he marched towards Luck-
now, and on the 29th July he again enc •untered the
enemy and fought two battles, in both of which he was
victorious, the mutineers being defeated with an immense
loss of life. He trusted that G- id in his divine mercy
would still protect this gallant hand of heroes. Haviie,
passed a glowing eulogiurn on Gen. Wilson, the uobll
earl concluded by moving a resolution, which was in
effect an echo of her Majesty's message, assuring her
Majesty that their lordships would gladly co-seerue
with her Majesty in granting a pension of 1,0001. per
annum daring the period of his natural life. (Cheers.)
The Earl of DERBY rose to second the motion pro-
posed by his noble friend, but having so recently enlarged
at considerable length on the great achievements and
gallant deeds of Gen. Havelock, it was not necessary for
him on the present occasion to do more than express his
most cordial concurrence t u the address in answer to her
Majesty's gracious message. However, he could not sit
down without reminding their lordships of the brilliant
services of another gallant officer who had borne a sig-
nal part in the dangers and glories of this contt st—he
referred to Col. Inglis, who had so long commanded the
garrison of Lucknow. (Loud cheers) lie hoped the
services of that gallant officer would not go long unre-
quited, and that his name would never cease to be held
in that honour which his great deeds merited. (Loud
cheers.)
The motion was agreed to unanimously.
RELIGIOUS WORSHIP ACT AMENDMENT
BILL.
The Earl of SHAFTESBURY then rose, not for the
purpose of moving the second reading of this bill, but
simply to explain the reasons which induced him to
give notice of the measure. The noble earl
then proceeded to detail the whole of the
circumstances connected with the prohibition of a series
of religious services announced to be given in Exe-
ter Hall. The grounds stated for this extraordinary
proceeding were, that the services had not answered the
purpose for which they were intended, and that they
were not attended by the class of persons for whose
special instruction they were given. He had been asked
to postpone this bill for the convenience of the Bench of
Bishops. He knew what that meant. But it was a
scandal to the Church when the Bishops confessed their
impotency to relieve, and betook themselves to words—
confessing, in fact, that the Church of England was no
longer competent to the task she had undertaken. His
lordship then postponed the second reading.
The Earl of DERBY deprecated discussion as prema-
ture.

The Bishop of ST. DAVID'S denied the advantage
of the movement, and defended Mr. Edouard's conduct.
The Bishop of LONDON thought so great a move.
ment should net be stopped by the veto of a single in-
cumbent, and according to the canon law, which gave
the bishop of the diocese a concurrent jurisdiction in
every parish with the incumbent, he doubted the legality
of Mr. Edouard's refusal.
Lnrd PANMURE regretted the termination of the
services. He had attended them, and been much edified.
After a few words from the Earl of SHAFTESBURY,
The debate was adjourned to the Bth Feb.
THE AUSTRIA TRANSPORT.
The Earl of HARD WICKE moved for a copy of the
contract made with the owners of the steamship Austria
for the conveyance of the 94th Regiment to India. The
regiment, he said, was ordered to prepare for.lndia in the
mouth of August ; it had been 16 years in India, had
returned home only one year, and was therefore well
adapted by its experience for service in India. The
regiment ,tarted from Cork on Oct. sth, in the Austria,
the ship had put back three times into Plymouth, and
the men were now under orders to go overland to India.
The Austria was the property of some Dutch owners,
and although a very fine ship, was not in the opini in of
the surveyor, fit to take troops to India, and she was
ordered to be fitted with another deck. The Austria,
however, sailed without th:s_additional deck, the conse-
quence was, that after touching the Bay of Biscay, she
was obliged to return to Plymouth. A second time the
step returned in consequence of some accident to the
engines. The crew were foreigners, the captain was a
foreigner, and the ship was very difficult to steer, and
without her engines was almost unmanageable. From
the SLII of Oct. to this day the regiment has arrivedoilly
at Plymouth from Cork, and is now waiting for embarka-
tion for India. While all this delay was taking place, the
country had a reserve force of 10,000 men and an im-
mense navy, which were lying perfectly idle and unem-
ployed. In the port of Plymouth, was lying the St. Jean
d'Acre, with her engineers and officers perfectly ready
to go to sea. Of all ships in the world a British man-of-
war was the most perfect and convenient transportinthe
world. The Belle Isle bad carried troops on several
occasions to China and other places, and with the greate st
economy. Now that we had lost 100,000 men in tit-
Bengal army, and it was necessary that more frequent
communication should be kept up with that country, it
was well worthy of consideration whether it woul t
be of great advantage to this country if a transport
service were formed at once out of some of the ships of
the navy. The country really might as well contract for
the defence of the nation and the supply of a navy, as, in
the present state of naval science, leave the transport of
troops to be performed by contract, and by the mercan-
tile navy of the country. (Hear.)
Lord PANMURE said that the contract referred to by
the noble earl was not one made by the Government at all,
but by the Eastlndia Company, who took up all theships
that were required, and paid the expenses of the convey-
ance of the troops' and who were responsible for their
safe delivery in India. This had been the practice
since the Queen's troops were sent out to India. With
respect to the case of the Austria, it would be found
that among all the numerous vessels which were taken
up by the company for the conveyance of nearly 50,000
men, this ship had been the only one in which any.
casualty had occurred. It was the only instance of com-
plaint having been brought forwitrd against the East
India Company for having failed to attend to the com-
fort and safety, and everything that related to their in-
ternal economy. He felt bound to say for the Court of
Directors that they had shown the greatest auxiely to
secure for the army the best vessels which they could
obtain, and that they were also anxious to secure for
themselves from the army in India, whose services were
required at the earliest possible period. No doubt the
Austria was not a suitable vessel for the conveyance of
the troops. But as soon as the noble duke the Com-
mander-in-Cbief heard of the delays which had taken
place, he, in conjunction with her Majesty's Government,
had determined that the regiment should be sent over-
land to India, so that it would probably even now arrive
at its destination almost as soon as if no casualty had
occurred. With respect to the employment of the ships
of the navy for the conveyance of troops, there was no
objection on the part of the Government so to eieploy
them when the necessity for doing so arose. A short
time since, one of the ships on the Mediterranean station
had brought home a reeiment with great comfort and
convenience to the men ; but on ordinary occasions the
Government was enabled to obtain readily the use of
vessels in every way adaptel for tLe conveyance of
troops. lie was not aware that the board of directors
would offer any objection to the production of the copy
of the contract moved for by the noble earl, but he re-
peated the Government were not responsible for what
occurred in reference to the Austria, and the noble earl
ought not to lose sight of the fact that that was the only
case of any casualty having occurred in sending out a
large body of troops to India.
In answer to a question from Lord MELVILLE,
Lord PANMURE said that the Austria wrs surveyed
by au officer in the employ of the East ludia Company.
The motion was then agreed to.
GENERAL HAVELOCK AND THE. INDIAN
OFFICERS.
The Duke of CAMBRIDGE said he was unavoidably
absent from the discussion in the earlier part of thef
h
evening, and he was fully aware thato he
twhaesi r out of
order
order in now referring to it. But he he
was e xtremely
hoped
lord-
ships would permit him to do so,
u
concuranxiou in
sthaetveirtytehhfonegild thatnothad been said thatbesujtpossedoof Sir
hedhu
itnro;
dh etior
dl oord
honourships ttboa tthatone
navieni havelock.
that (Hear.)
house was jmi eo
more assureddi sp o s et
gallant and distinguished soldier than he was. No doubt
many greater campaigns could be found in history, but
he questioned whether any service had ever been per-
formed by an officer commanding his troops with greater
zeal, greater devotion to his country, greater judgment,
and greater discretion, than had been shown by the die.
tinguished officer whom their lordships had honoured
that evening. (Hear, hear.) Not alone had his troops
been exposed to very large masses of the enemy, who
had surrounded them on all sides, but they had had to
cwohnitoehn
ad
na
gn against
homn
ae nof
couldt he b ne
eo
xs tp
ods ee sdp. e a t
(Hear.)e e nlant
de
es e tdo,
it had often been said that Europeans could not march
and fight in summer in India. But these troops had bad
to perform that service, and had performed it most nobly.
(Hear.) In such circumstances much depended upon
their leaders ; the troops looked to them, and be
believed that General havelock, among his other dig!.