The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-15 00:00:00

SYRIA.

Lord HOWDEN said that.in the absence of the Noble
Lord, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, he
wished to ask the Noble Lord, at the head of the Admi-
ralty, whether the official reports received from the Con-
sular authorities in Syria,- confirmed the accounts which
l►e received yesterday by the mail, from respectable par-
ties there, that that country was rapidly progressing to a
state of disorganisation. They had had an Ambassador
at Constantinople, who was determined to go to war with
somebody. They had—
The Duke of WELLINGTON—This was exactly tan-
tamount to making a speech, without intending to make
a motion. The Noble Lord vas asking a question, with-
out having given notice, which was not according to the
principle of that House. His Noble Friend would for-
give him for calling him to order.
Lord HOWDEN briefly explained.
Lord HADI)INGTON said, that in the absence of the
Noble Lord, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,
he was not able to answer titleslims of the nature whiCh
had been proposed to him. The best thing his Noble
Friend oould do would be to give notice, and no doubt
the Noble Lord, the Secretary*r Foreign Affairs, would
be in his place to answer the question. He might state
that he had seen communications from the officers of
some of those stations, but %he thought the fullest infor-
mation on the subject would be obtained at the Foreign-
office.— (Hear.)
The Earl of STANIIOPE postponed the presenta-
tion of the petition of which he had given notice, on the
subject of the Anatomy Act,, to Thursday.
Lord DENMAN presented several petitions against
enforcing certain persons to take oatbs.
COPYRIGHT BILL.

The LORD CHANCELLOR said he had consulted
with his Noble and Learned. Friend, and they had arrreed
to certain amendments, which would be inserted in
the Bill.

The Bill then went through Committee, and was or•
dered to be read a third time on Thursday,

WITNESSES INDEMNITY
On the Order of the Dur<rr the second reading of the
Witnesses Indemnity Bill,

Lord BROUGHAM rose to bring forward his mo-
tion that the Orders of the Day be suspended, to facili-
tate the progress of the Bill. Notwithstanding the
House of. Commons had rejected the Bill which he had
brought in, and which their Lordships had sent down to
the other House, for ComMittees of both Houses to
inquire into practices of a corrupt nature at
elections for Members of the other House, still he was
convinced that a Committee of Members of the Commons
alone could never do justice to such cases. He denied
that their Lordships had any desire to interfere with the
rights and privileges of the other House ; but what was
contemplated now in both Houses wus to legislate pros-
pectively on a matter of criminal justice. That House
(the Lords) was a co-ordinate branch of the Legislature,
and was the highest Court of Criminal Justice ; and was
it not a place in which legislation upon criminal justice
should commence ? To • deny this, and say that the
House should be excluded from legislating for crime be-
cause that crime was connected with elections to the
other House, was so extravagant that he would not
stop to combat it. The iirikery of an officer of justice
• was a crime on which thesit'ause had already legislated,
and the bribery of a man at an election for a Member
of Parliament was as much under the cognizance of
their Lordships as any other act of bribery unconnected
with elections. Suppose it was proposed to amend the
law with respect to riot, larceny, assault and
battery, conspiracy. or even murder, Were they
to be told that they Might legislate respecting
these as committed in ail other places but at elections,
and that they should expressly enact in any Bill com-
menced by them that the Bill was not to extend to any
riot, larceny, assault and battery, conspiracy or murder,
connected with an electioß for a Member of the House
of Commons? He held it perfectly clear that it was com-
petent to the House to take up this subject as much as
that of any other crime. He thought that after what
passed recently as to the extent of crime which was
committed all over the country,. in England, Ireland, and
Scotland, and that these enormities were of such a na-
ture as to prevent the possibility of a free choice of the
people, mid to render elections a mockery—when all
morality was set at defiance, and immorality scattered
abroad, cast over the land—and when there was no pu-
nishment for the past, and rus prevention for the future,
in the present state of the law, there was nothing left
but to legislate upon the subject, and as that was not
done elsewhere he had moved their Lordships for
a Committee to inquire with a view to legislation.
He had presented for this reason as early as be possibly
could, a Bill for facilitating the inquiry, if the house of
Commons chose to adopt a like course. That Bill
.met
:with the almost universal approbation of their Lordships,
and was despatched to the abet_ House about & month