The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-01 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS--LAST EVENING.

The house took up lir. Monk's bill for conferring
the franchise on revenue officers. It was read a second
time soma weeks ago under peculiar circumstances, and its
committal was now opposed by

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, whose chief
argument was the importance of keeping apart from poli-
tical strife, and above the suspicio❑ of political bias, the
class which has in its hands the difficult and often donuts
task of administering the revenue laws. He pointed, too,
to the great power the change would give the permanent
heals of departments, who, if their tenure was lung, could
fill the departmant with men of their own politics, and to
the interference with the discipline of the departments
which must flow from giving revenue officers this direct
influence over members of the house. He doubted
whether the revenue officers themselves wore desirous of
the franchise, and further objected that the bill would not
remove all anomalies of the present system ; for instance,
it would leave the durability of the notice untouched.
Mr. GLADSTONE also opposed the bill on much the
same considerations,—the expediency of keeping apart
from politics the men who collect the revenue, sometimes
by very delicate processes, and the apprehension of in-
creasing class influence upon the House of Commons,
which he characterised as the scandal of the Reformed
Parliament. Another objection on which he laid much
stress was that the first nominations to the service now
proposed to be enfranchised were in the hands of members
of Parliament, though no doubt many held them to be a
nuisance, and he predicted from the change a perpetual
temptation to members to interfere with promotion. The
question, in Mr. Gladstone's opinion, involved much
larger considerations than the simple enfranchisement of
one class, and there ought to be no legislation except
after very careful inquiry.

The debate which followed, interrupted by an attempt
to " count out," was entirely one-sided. Sir H. Verney
put the opponents of the bill in the dilemma of consenting
to the enfranchisement of all public servants or of dis-
franchising filo dockyard men. Mr. Clay testified to the
desire of the revenue officers to be relieved from this dis-
ability, and Mr. Grayei acknowledged that if the change
were made members ought to give up their patronage in
these services.

Mr. Otway, Mr. M. Chambers, Mr. Alderman Lusk, and
Mr. P. Wykehain-Martiu, also spoko for the bill; and
after Mr. Monk's reply the stage was carried by 79 to 47.
The bill was then passed through committee without any
amendments.

An Irish controversy occupied the remainder of the
evening. The adjourned debate on Mr. Sergeant Barry's
bill for prohibiting the presence of military at.. Irish elec-
tions, which com uenced some six week back at 1 o'clock
in the morning, was resumed by Mr. Bagwell, who main-
tained that the use of soldiers on these occasions was not so
much to protect the voters from violence, as to compel
them to vote according to their landlord's dictation. The
same argument was enlarged on by Mr. Synan, Sir P.
O'Brien, Sir J. Gray, Mr. Esmond°, and lively reciproca-
tions of angry fooling wore provoked by occasional refer-
ences to the unfortunate Dungarvan affair. The sole op-
ponent of the bill who spoke was the Attorney-General
for Ireland, and he argued that the power of employing
military was necessary for the preservation of the peace
and the freedom of election.

On a division the bill was thrown out by 96 to 55.
The same fate befell Mr. Mill's Municipal Corporations
(Mo:ropolis) Bill, the second reading of which stood ad-
journed from Wednesday week. Mr. Mill uow said a few
words in reply to the arguments urged against him in the
previous debate, and the bill was at once negatived with-
out a division.

Some other bills were forwarded a stage, and the house
adjourned at 20 minutes to 2 o'clock.

We are requested to state that on and after the
Ist of July next the now Foreign-office will be opened for
business. The entrance to the office for general business
is by the northern portico in the Quadrangle. The en
trance to the Passport-office is under the archway, on the
:eft hand side, entering from Downing-street, and the
office is on the first landing.
Representative E. B. Washburne has been reno-
minated from Galena, Illinois, whore his set-to with
Donelly has evidently been appreciated. George J. M.
NPOreery has been nominated from the lowa District, now
represented by one of the Impeachment Managers, Mr
Wilson.