The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-06-23 00:00:00

ftl.otriai Vadiaintitt.

BREACH OF PRIVILEGE

CANADA GOVERNMENT BILL.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL, having moved the third reading of
this bill, said, he had considered the proposals made, and he
had resolved to adopt the recommendation of the right hon.
baronet the member for Tamworth, that the debts contracted
by the province should not form a charge upon the consoli-
dated revenue before the civil charges. He would not adopt
the right honourable baronet's advice to the representative
body. Then his right honourable friend, the member for
Coventry, had advised the omission of all the clauses as to
district councils. Upon the whole, as there were so many
objections, he proposed to leave out the clauses giving
extensive powers to the councils. He was most anxious that
the bill should pass with every possible unanimity. (Hear,
hear.) If anything should be lost by the omission of the
clauses in point of advantage to the provinces, he thought
infinitely more would be gained by the general agreement of
the house to the bill in the shape he now proposed it.
Mr. HUME was sorry to have heard the speech of the noble
lord, because much that was good in the bill was now, it ap-
peared, to be taken out, and the people were to be altogether
deprived of the self-government of their own resources. The
noble lord would find that he would not carry the opinions
of the people of Canada with him. He knew how useless it
was to offer any opposition to a proposition from the govern-
ment connected with the colonies, whatever it might be ; but
he must enter his protest against the course pursued by the
noble lord, because it would leave the Canadas without those
district and local courts to manage their affairs until the
assembly should have time to make some arrangement. He
begged to enter his protest against the partial destruction of
the little that was useful in the bill. (A laugh.) He thought
a general amnesty should be passed before the bill of the
noble lord was adopted by the house. He wished to ask the
noble lord whether the habeas corpus were still suspended in
Canada ?
Lord J. RUSSELL said, he believed that according to the
last accounts, suspension continued still.
Sir C. Grey hoped the honourable member for Kilkenny
would not press his objections to the establishment of coun-
cils.

Sir R. PEEL said, that he approved of the main provisions
of the bill of the noble lord. He thought that the establish-
ment of the civil list was one of the best provisions of the
measure. He gave his assent without hesitation to the pas-
sing of this bill. He could not conclude the part he had taken
on this measure without expressing his cordial prayer that
the measure which had received the countenance of that house
might promote the interests of the two provinces, which
were as dear to the imperial legislature as to any of their fel-
low-subjects, and that it might lay the foundation for the
prosperous, glorious, and permanent connection between the
two Canadas and this country. (Hear, hear.)
Sir T. COCHRANE had great fears that this bill would be
the virtual declaration of the independence of Canada.
Some discussion took place between Mr. Hume and Lord
J. Russell, on the subject of district councils, which termi-
nated by Mr. HUME declaring that if his lordship, in the
+despatch accompanying the bill, would recommend to the
local legislature to take the subject of district councils into
their consideration, he should not divide the house.
The bill was then read a third time, and passed.
COUNTY CONSTABULARY BILL.
On the order of the day for the further consideration of
the County Constabulary Bill,
Sir E. KNATCHBIJLL moved that the bill be referred to a
select committee. He admitted the defectiveness of the old
system of police, but one great objection to the new measure
was the immense expense which it entailed on the country.
A discussion ensued, in the course of which
Mr. Fox MAULS said, the amendment, if carried, would
exclude the measure from passing during the present session.
Though the system might on the face of it appear to be some-
what expensive, he was sure that in the long run the counties
themselves would approve of it. He would reserve the con-
sideration of the details until the house went into committee
on the bill.

On a division, the motion for going into committee was
carried by a majority of 105 to 39.
The clauses up to 17 were agreed to, after which the Chair-
man reported progress, and obtained leave to sit again on
Monday neat.

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL obtained leave to bring in a
bill to exempt stock in trade and other personal property
from being rated to the relief of the poor.
The house adjourned at a quarter-past one o'clock.

HOUSE OF LORDS.—FRIDAR.
Several bills received the royal assent by commission.
Lord LYNDHURST then, in pursuance of the course which
he had stated his intention to adopt, moved the order of the
day for going into committee on the Irish Municipal Corpo-
rations Bill.

The Bishop of EXETER, however, said that he could not
consent that the bill should go through any further stage.
It would evidently tend most materially to injure the inte-
rests of the Protestant church, by increasing the power of a
large body of persons who were its fiercest enemies. He
would take as an instance the corporation of Tuam, in which,
after it had been thrown open, the Roman Catholics had so
far outnumbered the numbers of the established church, that
they had been able to appropriate all the funds of the corpo-
ration to the support of their own cathedral. The number
of corporate bodies which would be immediately affected was
very great, but it would be, moreover, in the power of the
Crown to make any town having 3000 inhabitants the seat of
a municipal body, which would use all its newly-acquired
rights to the injury of the church. It had been said that
amendments securing a just property qualification would be
introduced, but all experience had gone to prove teat such a
test could never be relied on in Ireland. He trusted that
the bill was not to be passed for the purpose of a
spurious conciliation which sought to silence an enemy who
could not conveniently be opposed, but that appeared to be
the policy which was now acted upon. It had been held
that even in this country the period for the corporations had
passed by, but, however that might be, they had been
established in Ireland for very different purposes than those
which were now urged as the object of their extension.
They were instituted for the special aid of those English who
settled in towns, and the plain fact was that every charter
had been granted with the view of keeping up the Protestant
counexion. He did not think that any amendments which
could be introduced would afford adequate security for the
established church, which it was the particular duty of the
House to protect, as the Roman Catholic population had
proved themselves so utterly unworthy of the concessions
which had been made in their favour. The most strenuous
agitation had been set on foot by men who had on oath
disavowed their intention of subverting the church establish-
ment, but who openly declared that they would use every
means in their power to deprive it, of its revenues. The
measure was itself repudiated by the very class whom it was
intended to conciliate, and he could not certainly join with
tbose who supported the motion.
The Duke of WELLINGTON considered that it would tend
greatly to the convenience of the house if the arrangement
which had been made by Lord Lyndhurst on the preceding
evening were carried into execution, and the objections of the
right rev. prelate
in might then be discussed in committee.
The house having then gone into committee, Lord LYND-
HURST puthis amendments, which were ordered to be
printed, and it was afterwards agreed that the subject should
be resumed on Monday next.
Lord ABERDEEN then rose to present a petition from the
seven members of the Strathbogie Presbytery who had been
suspended by the General Assembly of the Church of Scot-
land. The noble lord proceeded to state the peculiarly diffi-
cult circumstances in which the petitioners were placed,
which were, however, fully entered into in the course of the
debate upon the introduction of the non-intrusion bill. The
prayer of the petitioners was to the effect that they might by
i
some legislative measure be protected n the discharge of
their duties, and that the church courts might be restrained
from punishing those who only acted in obedience to the
supreme court which gives effect to the statutes of the realm.
His lordship concluded by regretting that ministers had
introduced,
without fit to oppose the measure which he had
without themselves bringing forward any bill to put an end to
a state of things which was a disgrace to the legislature.
After a short discussion, in which several peers took part,
the petition was ordered to lie upon the table.
The LORD CHANCELLOR'S bill for the better enforcement
of church discipline was read a first time.—Adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-FRIDAY.

LORD STANLEY'S BILL.
The house having resolved itself into committee on Lord
Stanley's bill without a division, Lord STANLEY proposed,
with reference to the filling up of the blanks for the dates,
that by reason of the lateness of the session, the operation
of the bill, if carried,,should be postponed for one year.
Lord MORPETII said he must at once interpose with an
amendment, which he had no regret in introducing thus
early upon a clause disfranchising the whole existing body of
Irish electors. He thought there could be no fair objection,
where no new circumstances had occurred, to let every voter
now registered retain his franchise during the remainder of
the term for which the law had guaranteed it, but he would
willingly allow the revision in all cases vhere new circum-
stances had intervened to destroy his right. It would be
said that the clause would be in the very words of former
bills introduced by the government themselves. True, this
clause and some others were the same as in the bills of the
( ; but then the clauses in this bill were unaccom-
- 2N 4atied by those qualifying and beneficial provisions which the
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HOUSE OF LORDS.--.THURSDAY.
The Marquis of LANSDOVTNE, seeing the noble and learned
lord (Lyndhurst) in his place, wished to ask him the course
he meant to pursue to-morrow with reference to the Irish
Municipal Corporation Bill. He wished to know whether
the noble and learned lord meant to proceed with the bill,
or to propose amendments, or to adopt a course which had
been taken on former occasions, to propose the amendments
pro/tr.:7u/, and move that they should be printed for the
information of the house.

Lord LYNDHURST said, it was not his intention to oppose
going into committee, but to propose a number of amend-
ments similar to those which he had proposed last year. He
should therefore propose that they should go into committee
pro forma, when he would move that the amendments be
printed.

A long conversation ensued, in which several noble lords
took part ; but the noble and learned lord (Lyndhurst) did
not intimate that he should adopt any other course.
The Bishop of EXETER gave notice, that he should to-
morrow move for a copy of the royal instructions given to
Mr. P. Thomson when he went out to Canada.
The bills on the table of thc house were then forwarded a
stage, and the house adjourned at a quarter to six o'clock.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—THURSDAY.
The Birmingham, Bristol, and Thames Junction Railway
Bill was read a third time and passed.
Sir J. GRAHAM presented a petition from the Leeds and
Manchester Railway Company, praying the house not to
adopt the clause in the bill proposed by the noble lord,
making it imperative upon the railroad companies to pass
their accounts in a particular manner.

Sir J. GRAHAM rose and said, that it had been asserted in
the Morning chronicle of yesterday, that on Tuesday last he
(Sir J. Graham) had stationed himself in the lobby, and
there endeavoured to prevent the members from coming into
the house, for the purpose of making a house. It was well
known that after prayers and before four o'clock, the speaker
sent a messenger to all of the committees, giving them notice
to attend in the house for the purpose of making a house ;
and he (Sir J. Graham) conceived that any member disobey-
ing that order, and endeavouring to obstruct members from
entering the house acted in a manner altogether unparlia-
mentary. (Hear.) As related to his own case, it so hap-
pened that on the day in question he was in attendance on
the committee of the bank commission. He had not imme-
diately obeyed the summons of the speaker, but at four
o'clock he was proceeding from the committee to the house,
when he was informed that the house had been counted out,
and that the speaker had not consequently taken the chair,
and he then instrintly returned to the room which he left.
That was the entire history of the case; and he should not
have noticed the subject if the Morning Chronicle of to-day
had not made a statement which be conceived to be an aggra-
vation of its first assertion. It was said that it was true he
(Sir J. Graham) was not in the lobby on the day in question,
when the house proceeded to prayers, but that there was an
equivocation in that denial, inasmnch as he had previously
taken means for preventing a house being formed. He need
not say, that such conduct on his part had been highly un-
becoming, and in the most positive manner he should be per-
mitted to deny—(hear, hear, hear)—that either directly or
indirectly he had prevented any member from attending the
house.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. WARBURTON said, that, as a member of the commit-
tee, he could confirm the statement of his right hon. friend.
Sir CHARLES BURRELL thought that the repetition of the
charge should not be passed over by the house without some
animadversion.