The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-07-21 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-FRIDAY

Lord PALMERSTON, by command of her Majesty, laid
upon the table the treaty which had recently been con-
cluded between this country and the United States of
America respecting the Oregon boundary. He had had
that day the gratification of exchanging ratifications with
the American Minister in London.

On the order of the day for the house resolving itself
into a committee of supply,
Mr. EWART moved the following resolutions :

" That it is expedient that an annual statement on the
state and prospects of education be made to a responsible
Minister of the Crown on going into committee on the
education estimates.

" That it is expedient that the formation of additional
training schools for schoolmasters be encouraged.
" That it is expedient to encourage the formation of
public libraries, freely open to the public, in large towns.
"That it is expedient that appointments to the subor-
dinate offices of government be made, as far as possible,
on the principle of open examination of the respective
qualifications of the candidates."
Mr. CHRISTIE seconded the resolutions.
Lord SANDON said he could not agree with the whole
of the recommendations of the hon.. gentleman, but
thought the time was come when some general and com-
prehensive plan of education should be devised by the
government, it being evident that private contributions
and charitable donations would no longer carry out the
objects they had, all of them, in view. As all parties
were willing to give the government of Lord John Rus-
sell a fair trial, he thought that that noble lord was in a
position to carry out a liberal and extensive system of
public education.
Sir R. INGLIS hoped that in any plan of education
brought forward by the government religious instruction
would be combined with secular education.
Mr. WARBDItTON was opposed to any religious interfe-
rence with the general education of the people.
Mr. WILLIAMS regretted that political rancour and re-
ligious animosity should have so long interfered with the
education of the people. Sir R. Peel had promised the
house that a committee should be appointed to inquire
into the system of education throughout the country—that
promise had not been fulfilled: but he felt satisfied that
Lord J. Russell would give the subject his earliest consi-
deration.

Mr. Hume complained that the Dissenters were more
opposed to a national system of education than the mem-
bers of the Church of England. He quoted some statis-
tical tables for the purpose of showing that education was
less generally diffused in England than any part of Eu-
rope. If they only voted one-half the sum they annually
paid for the punishment of crime in this country for the
education of the people, they would soon find the benefi-
cial results in the improvement of the rising generation.
After some observations from Mr. HORSM
Lord J. RUSSELL said he agreed with Mr. Ewart, that
a❑ annual statement ought to be made to parliament, not
only as to the mode in which parliamentary grants had
been expended for the purposes of education, but also as
to the beneficial effects which bad been produced. The
whole subject was one to which be would give his best at-
tention, feeling that a scheme of public instruction at once
liberal and comprehensive was due to the country.

After a few observations from Mi. Borthwick

Lord JOHN MANNERS expressed himself highly grati-
fied at the observations which had fallen from Lord John
Russell, _ _ _

and Mr. ilindley, the resolutions of Mr. Ewart were ne-
gatived without a division, and the house resolved itself
into a committee of supply,

RAIL WAY

INTELLIGENCE.

Preambles proved in Lords last week.—Eastern Coun-
ties station enlargement ; Huddersfield and Sheffield ;
Manchester and Leeds amalgamation ; Grand Junction—
Huyton and Aston, and other branches ; Ipswich and
Bury St. Edmunds (Norwich extension).

Tire number of bills which have passed the Standing
Orders of the House of Lords is 38. Twenty-one bills
went through a select committee on merits ; and, in the
cases of the Birmingham and Oxford Junction and Bir-
mingham extension, their lordships decided that the
Standing Orders had not been complied with.
Bills lost in Lords.—Manchester, Sheffield, and Mid-
land Junction; Midland and Eastern Counties (Cam-
bridge and Weedon).
The number of railway bills read a second time in the
Hcuse of Commons was four; a third time, 17 ; and the
reports of 12 agreed to. -

'Bill lost in Commons.—Lancaster and Preston Junction.
At a meeting of the Preston and Wyre Railway Com-
pany last week, it was resolved to amalgamate with the
Manchester and Leeds Company.

GRAND UNlON.—Forgeries of scrip are said to have
been discovered in this line, and the directors are calling
in the certificates to be stamped.
PROGRESS ON RAILWAY BILLS.—On Thursday last,
no fewer than siztv-seven railway bills received the royal
assent. Among these were the Amalgamation Bill of the
London and Birmingham, Grand Junction, and Man-
chester and Birmingham Companies; the bills for various
branches of established Companies; and those for several
Irish lines.

Middlesborough, the railway between which and Redcar
was lately opened, presents a striking proof of what
enterprise can effect. Six years ago it had but one house ;
now it bas it 3 well-built houses, its large iron foundry,
its potteries and other manufactrries, and its docks. The
number of its inhabitants is estimated at about 9000,. a
great part of whom have left other towns on the York-
shire coast.

At a meeting of the scripholders in the Birkenhead and
Holyhead Junction Railway, held on Friday, at the
Clarendon-rooms, a committee was appointed to com-
municate with the directors on the affairs of the company,
and report thereon, to another meeting of shareholders.
In case the committee cannot obtain the information
sought, the holders of 1735 shares agreed to give one
shilling per share to carry out whatever might be necessary.

RAILWAYS' AND CANALS' AMALCAMATION.—TIie
second report of the committee on this subject has just
appeared. It impresses "upon the attention of the Com-
mittees to whom Bills, whether for the amalgamation of
canals with railways, or the conversion of Canals into rail-
ways, may be referred, that a most searching inquiry
should be instituted into the merits of each case ; and that
their sanction should be given only in those instances in
which it shall have been clearly proved that the amalgama-
tion can be effected without prejudice to the public."
RAILWAY LAW.—A cese came on, on Monday week,'
at chambers, before Mr. Justice Wightman, of consider-
able interest. A director of the Shropshire Mineral
Railway Company had pleaded to a claim that another
director had been proceeded against at the same time, for
the same cause of action. Mr. Justice Wightman laughed
at the plea, though supported by its author, Mr. Gibbons,
and gave to Mr. A. A. Fry, the counsel on the opposite
side, an order to have the costs under such a plea, what-
ever the event of the trltl might be.
RAILWAY AMUSEMENT.—The youngsters who haunt

about the railway crossings in and near Canterbury amuse
themselves, when the policeman's back is turned, with
laying small articles on the iron to be crushed by the
train passing over. Pins placed lengthways are thus
curiously flattened to an extreme degree of thinness, and
bear a premium in the charity school exchange far above
the original value. A juvenile speculator having sub-
mitted a fourpenny piece to the process, found that he
could pass it for sixpence : elated with the discovery, be
placed another, which he had received in change for the
first, on the newly-discovered mint, but to his astonish-
ment the wheels of the carriage carried it entirely away,
and he thus remained minus twopence by this luckless
exercise of his ingenuity.—Dover Telegraph.

LAW INTELLIGENCE

BEDFORD ASSIZES.-TUESDAY, JULY 14

COULTAS V. BOWES, CLERK.
This was an action of trespass, in which the plaintiff
charged the defendant, who is a beneficed clergyman and
magistrate of the county, with criminal conversation with
his wife in November last, both she and the plaintiff
being then, and having been for many years before, in
the defendant's service. The case came on at the last
spring assizes, when, after a protracted trial of two days'
duration, a verdict was obtained by the plaintiff, with
£250 damages. Subsequently to that event the Court of
Common Pleas was moved for a new trial, and the rule
b,sving been made absolute, the parties now came down
eget,
, in pursuance of that rule.
OnThursday, after a protracted discussion, the jury,
.
being un:ble to agree, were discharged, agd the question
will again L.ctve to come sub judice,