The Sun.
London, England, 1845-07-25 00:00:00

TURNPIKE ROADS (SCOTLAND) BILL.

Order for Committee read ; Motion made, and Question Proposed,
" That Mr. Speaker do now leave the • Chair :"---Amendmeat pro-
posed, to leave out from the word " That" to the end of the Question,
in order to add the words "this House will, upon this day three
months, resolve itself into the said Committee," instead thereof:---
Question put, " That the words proposed to be left out stand part
of the Question." The House divided '

MINORITY-AYES, 16.
Bowring, Dr. Muntz, G. F. Wilde, Sir T.
Brotherton, Joseph Norreys, Sir- D. J. Williams, William
Corry, Henry O'Connell, M. J.
Ferguson, Sir It. Pringle, Alexander; TELLERS.
Hawes, Benjamin Tower, Christopher Stewart, P. M.
Hindley, Charles Warburton, Henry Duncan, George
Manners, Lord J. Wawn, J. T.

MAJORITY-NOES, 42.
Acland, Sir T. Gardner,J. D. Palmer, Robert
Arkwright, George Goulburn, Henry Peel, Sir R.
Austen, Colonel Graham, Sir J. Rashleigh, William
Barkly, Henry Greene, Thomas Bolleston, Colonel
Borthwick, Peter Hamilton, C. J. B. Sibthorp, Colonel
Broadley, 11. Henl,y, J. W. Smith, T. B. C.
Bruce, Lord E. Herbert, Sidney Spooner, Richard
Bruges, W. H. Lincoln, Earl Thesiger, Sir F.
Buller, Sir J. Y. Mackenzie. W. F Vesey, Thomas
Cardwell, Edward 31`Neill, Duncan Wellesley, Lord C.
Cripps, William Masterman, John Yorke, Henry R.
Darby, George Moffatt, George Young, John
Denison, E. B. Mundy, E. M. TELLERS.
Escott, Ilickham Nicholl, John Scott, Francis
Flower, Sir James Packe, C. W. Campbell, Sir Hugh

NEW ZEALAND.
HOUSE OF COMMONS, JULY 24.
PAIRS.
Acland, Sir T. Ebrington, Lord
Acland, T. D. Berkeley, H.
Arehdall, Captain Clements, Lord
Ackers, J. Butler, P. S.
Bateson, T. Rawdon, Colonel
Balfour, J. M. Ellice, E., jun.
Barneby, J. Winnington, Sir T.
Bell, M. Standish, C.
Baillie, Colonel Morrison, J.
Blakemore, R. Phillpotts, J.
Bruce, C. Howard, J.
Buck, L. W. Heathcoat, J.
Burrell, Sir C. Collins, W.
Burroughs, H. N. Ord, W.
Buckley, E. Smith, R. V.
Brownrigge, J. S. Elphinstone, H.
Campbell, Sir H. Fitzwilliam, G.
Charteris, F. Worsley, Lord
Compton, H. C. Hayter, G.
Copeland, W. Matheson, J.
Clerk, Sir G. Pattison, J.
Cochrane, A. B. O'Brien, C.
Carnegie, S. Sheridan, R. B.
Conte, Sir C. Redington, T. N.
Christopher, R. A. Maule, F.
Cole, H. Hallyburton, Lord F.
Douglas, Sir C. Fox, Colonel
Deedes, W. Labouchere, H.
Douro, Marquis of Byng, G.
Dawnay, W. Berkeley, C.
Dugdale, W. S. Morrison, General
Drummond, H. H. Train, G.
Duncombe, A. Duncombe, T. S.
Eaton, R. J. Humphery, J.
Grimsditch, T. Philips, M.
Godson, R. Cowper, W.
Gordon, Captain Gore, R.
Gore, W. R. Bellew, R. M.
Hale, R. B. Howard, Captain
fteatheote, Sir W. Ramsbottotn, J.
Heneage, G. W. Pechell, Captain
Hepburn, Sir T. Gisborne, T.
Hodgson, It. L. White, S.
Hogg, J. W. Osborne, Captain
Knight, F. W. Busleild, W.
Knight, H. G. Archbold, R.
Knightley, Sir C. Cayley, E. S.
Lawson, A. Gill, J.
I.indsay, H. H. Dundas, J.
Marton, G. Bell, J.
Morgan, C. Dundas, W.
Maurhell, T. P. Cavendish,
Ryder, G. D. Bright, J.
Oswald, A. Dalrymple, Captain
Smollett, A. . Ricardo, L.
Stanley, E. Rutherfurd, A.
Stewart, J. Trelawny, J. S.
Somerton, Lord Pendarves, E. W.
'I hompson, Alderman O'Conor, Don
Tollemache, J. Bannerman, A.
Villiers, Viscount Duncan, G.
Vivian, J. E. Grey, Sir G.
Wal,h, Sir J. Thornely, J.
Wall, C. B. . Scrope, P.

PARLIAME Y BUSINESS.
THURSDAY, JULY 24.
The Lords' amendments to the following Bills were
agreed to :
Caledonian Railway
Scottish Central Railway
Clydesdale Junction Railway
Dundee and Perth Railway
Aberdeen Railway
Edinburgh and Northern Railway
Newcastle and Berwick Railway
Liverpool and Bury Railway ( Bolton, Wigan, and Liverpool
Railway, and Bury Extension)
Edinburgh' and llawick Railway
London and South Western (Metropolitan Extension) Rail-
way (No. 1)
Newport and Ponty Pool Railway.

Standing Orders Committee,—Resolution reported ;
" That in the case of the Winchester College Estate Bill,
the Standing Orders ought to be dispensed with :—That the
parties be permitted to proceed with their Bill."
Resolution agreed to.

Message from the Lords,—That they have agreed to the
Loan Societies Bill ; Highway Rates Bill ' • Art-Unions (No.
2) 13111; Unlawful Oaths (Ireland) Bill ; Turnpike Acts
Continuance Bill; Militia Ballots Suspension Bill; Cromford
Canal Bill; to the amendments to Bail in Error Bill, without
amendment ; Turnpike Trusts (South Wales) Bill; Scottish
Midland Junction Railway Bill, with amendments.
That they have passed a Bill, intituled, "An Act for fa-
cilitating execution of the treaties with France and the United
States of America for the apprehension of certain offenders."

SINGULAR AND FATAL ACCIDENT.—On Tuesday
Mr. Bedford held an inquest at St. George's Hospital on the body
of James Conner, aged twenty-eight years. It appeared by the
evidence that on Friday last the deceased was employed at same new
houses now in the course of erection in Eaton-square, Pimlico.
Seme other workmen were building a platform near the top, beneath
which deceased was standing, when a large iron chisel, about 18
inches in length, fell from the platform, and struck deceased upon
the head, cutting clean through the cap. He was immediately
picked up, covered with blood and quite insensible, and conveyed to
the above hospital in one of Mr. Cubitt's vans. Mr. Johnson,
house surgeon, said deceased, when admitted, had sustained a lace-
rated wound, between two and three inches in length, on the back
part of the head, through which his brains were protruding, and
adhering to the hair and clothes; a considerable quantity of brain
appeared to have been lost. Deceased died on the following day
Verdict, " Accidental death."
ANOTHER YOUNG ONE.—A new journal has
been started at New York, called Young America. We believe
the principles it advocates are—universal repudiation, mint-juleps,
no taxes;
and a tarnition thrashlnif to all the world,—Panch.

PROTEST ON PRIVILEGE OF
PARLIAMENT, JULY 4, 1845.
DISSENTIENT
1. Because this House is now for the first time inter-
fering. to stop by force an action brought against a party
for a wrong done to a fellow-subject in slanderous words,
alleged to have been falsely spoken, and in thus inter-
posing its power, under the name of privilege, between
the subject and his strict legal right, sought to be made
good in a court of law by the course which the law has
prescribed.
2. Because, whatever right the House may be supposed
to derive from precedent, that is, from former instances
in which it has exercised similar powers, there can be no
doubt that in former times both Houses of Parliament
were wont to do many acts, under the name of asserting
their privileges, acts which, in the present day, and for a
long time past, both Houses of Parliament have wholly
abstained from doing, and which would now be consi-
dered by all mankind to be gross and wanton violations
of all justice. _ _

3. liecau,e, though the right, however founded, or
however proved, to do such acts as these, or even such
acts as the present of a far less ob'ectionable kind, were,
admitted, yet it is always a question of expediency and
discretion whether or not this power, even if it be pos-
sessed by right, shall in any given case be exercised ;
and it ever behoves both Houses of Parliament to be most
cautious and abstinent in the use of powers like these,
which are assumed by them over parties charged with
offending against themselves, and are used by them in
their own case without the intervention of any impartial
and judicial authority.
4 Because it is, in a peculiar manner, the duty of
both Houses to abstain from such acts when they reflect
that there is no code of privilege promulgated whereby
the people may know against what law they offend, that
the law is in each case declared, possibly made for the
first time, after the alleged breach of it has been com-
mitted, and made in the heat of the strife occasioned
by the alleged offence, that the Members of the two
Houses always differ among themselves both as to the
law and its application, and that they who promulgate
it are at once the lawgivers, parties, prosecutors, jurors,
judges, and executioners ; while in this instance alone
no power of extending mercy to the offender exists in
the State.

5. Because it behoves this House in a more peculiar
manner to avoid placing itself in so strange and ano-
malous a position, seeing that as it is the supreme court
of justice in the last resort in all cases criminal and civil,
so it ought to be most anxious ever to set the example
of strictly just, regular, legal procedure, and should most
carefully shun all violations of law and justice, and should
especially be slow to interfere with pending actions,
which may, in their result, come before itself as a high
court of appeal.
6. Because the cases in which it is expedient and jus-
tifiable, from absolute necessity, to interfere with the
rights of individuals and the ordinary course of the law,
are of a description wholly different from the present,
being actual obstructions offered to the proceedings of
the Houses, and which must be removed without any
delay, else the arm of Parliament would be paralysed ;
and because no objection could ever be raised to such
an exercise of power, and of rightful power, either
by the two Houses or by any other tribunal. But
constructive contempts like the present are of a wholly
different description, and no harm whatever can
arise from allowing them to be dealt with by the course
of the law as administered in the regular courts of jus-
tice, those courts to which the Sovereign as well as the
meanest of his subjects must always resort for the esta-
blishment of rights and punishment of wrongs—those
courts to which the Houses of Parliament may most
safely resort as the abodes of strict justice--courts pure
from all taint of corruption, free from all bias of in-
fluence, uncontrolled by the threats either of regal
authority or aristocratic insolence, or popular violence,
and to which neither faction nor fear can ever gain
access.

i. Because the argument that witnesses must be pro-
tected from vexatious and costly suits is wholly inappli-
cable to the case, inasmuch as no one pretends to doubt
that they may be prosecuted at the instance either of the
Crown or any individual, whether a Member of the
House or not; and if so prosecuted never could recover
one farthing of their costs, though ever so honourably
acquitted.
8. Because no punishment which can be inflicted
either, by a prosecution or by the house upon a witness
for the most wanton and the falsest slander of an indi-
vidual, can afford any reparation whatever to the party
thus injured, as the House has not by law the power, if
petitioned, to give any such compensation.
9. Becaule' the protection of witnesses before the
Houses of Parliament never can be regarded as more
essential to the public weal than the protection of wit-
nesses before the courts of civil and criminal judicature ;
yet no one pretends to doubt that an action may be
brought against any person for slanderous words
falsely spoken by him in giving his evidence before these
courts, and though no damages could be recovered if the
words were spoken in answer to a question put in the
cause, yet it is quite certain that the action must take
its course, and that nothing could be done by the court
to stop it ; so that the witness must be exposed to ex-
actly the same vexation and expense which are alleged
to form the only ground for interfering to stop the
action in the present case.
10. Because the order to prevent a defendant from
pleading, or the commitment of the plaintiff for a con-
structive contempt, never can really stop the action,
which may proceed through all its stages whatever be
done to the parties; unless, indeed, the greater and un-
heard-of vialence were committed of arresting the
judges and their officers, and destroying the record and
tearing the proceedings from the file.
11. Because all the arguments drawn from alleged
analogies in a court of equity are wholly
wide of the question, inasmuch as the granting
an injunction to stay actions at law, or to prevent
receivers and other officers, or quasi officers, of the
court being sued for acts done under its authority,
are not granted discretionally, but are matter of strict
right ; and inasmuch as snail injunctions only prevent
the party against whom they issue from obtaining his
re.aedy in one form, reserving it to him in another, nay
securing it to him in the court which stays the action •,
whereas the present proceeding deprives the party of all
remedy whatever, the House having no power or autho-
rity to grant him redress-
-12. Because it is a great aggravation of the mischief
so justly complained of, that for the last nine years the
other House of Parliament has sold all the papers printed
by its authority, allowing a discount to encourage the
trade in those publications ; and that though this House
has not as yet engaged in this branch of business, yet it
communicates its prints to the other, which sells them
with its own.
13. Because the inexpediency, injustice, and cruelty
of exercising the alleged privileges of the House is
strongly illustrated by the peculiar circumstances of the
present case. A cosnplaint is made by a peer that an
action has been brought against a witness. The defen
dant is publicly described as a most respectable person,
who had served well in the Peninsula ; to the plaintiff is
applied the most severe and even coarse expression,
while in no court that tried the case could such praise
or censure of the character borne by the parties ever be
heard for an instant, much less proved in evidence ; and
while it is also manifest that precisely the same course
must have been pursued had the respectable man
been the slanderer, and the censured man been
the injured party. Under the prejudices excited by
such statements, the parties are examined at the
bar. The plaintiff is compelled to disclose his case
ti the defendant. He describes himself as grievously
injured, and as severely suffering from the effect of the
attack made upon his character by he defendant. He
farther declares that he was wholly ignorant of the
privileges of the House, wholly unconscious of his having
acted in breach of them by bringing his suit—a thing
the more easily believed when we reflect that the nature
of Parliamentary privilege was distinctly stated, in de-
bate, to be wholly unknown to the judges of the land,
and only understood by the House itself. Finally, the
attorney, who has been seized and imprisoned for fol-
lowing his client's instructions, declared that he acted
under the advice of counsel ; and afterwards informed
the House, through a Peer, that he had received direc-
tions to discontinue the action ; yet both client and
attorney are imprisoned, the attorney after this com-
munication was made ; and nothing whatever is done
against the counsel who deliberately advised the whole
proceeding.
14. Because nothing can be more unlike all the judi-
cial proceedings to which the present has been compared
than the course now pursued, inasmuch as whenever the
law has declared that a Court shall not proceed in any
case by reason of another jurisdiction being interfered
with, a particular mode of preventing this proceeding is
provided by the known law ; and in another and im-
portant particular, the present proceeding is extremely
unlike that of injunction, to which it has been likened,
for an injunction is commenced to stay proceeding in
one Court, in order that justice may be done in another
which has possession of the suit ; nor is any one pre
vented unless he disobey the order so given ; whereas
we issue no order, but at once proceed to to punish the
party before he has been guilty of any disobedience, or
had any oppartunity of doing what we desire he should
do, and we punish him on the sole ground of his having
broken some privilege unknown to him, and which we
admit is understood by nobody but ourselves.
15. Because, finally, it is all along affirmed in the
course of these discussions, that whatever privilege we do
not in any case exercise, we cease to possess ; whereas
there are many privileges most undeniably belonging to
us, some which in former times were constantly exer-
cised—some which we still declare to be ours on the face
of our standing orders—and none of which have now for
a long time past been exercised at all ; and in illustra-
tion of the varying usage which exists respecting such
privileges, it may further be remembered that a very
great change has come over this question, even within
the last forty years ; as no one can affect to think that
either the Houses of Parliament or the Courts of Justice
would at this day punish summarily for contempt these
acts which frequently were thus visited within that pe-
riod of time, including the very publication for which Sir
Francis Burdett was sent to the Tower, and which raised
the last great discussion of the privilege question in
Parliament, in the Courts of Law, and in this place.
BROUGHAM.
WICK LO W.
At

-ANCTIESTER.—STATE OF TRADE.—There has been
no material change in the demand for goods his week. The mar-
ket does not exhibit much animation, but is very steady, and prices
perfectly Arm. For yarn the demand still outruns the production,
and prices, especially of warps and the common counts of water-
twist, have an upward tendency. There has been a failure, in
Liverpool, of a house engaged in the Mexican trade; the liabilities
are understood to amount to about 60,0001., a considerable portion
of which is due to parties in this town. It is understood that the
failure is owing, in a great measure, to unsuccessful mining specu-
lations.—Manchester Guardian.
A man named George Robinson, sixty-eight years
of age, who was said to be an illegitimate son of George IV., was
charged at Bow street Police Court, on Wednesday, with having,
when intoxicated, indecently assaulted three boys. He was ordered
404 bail 4 and Artawer the charge et the ecotone,