The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-05-25 00:00:00

3impertal Varliamtnt:

HOUSE OF LORDS.-MONDAY

The Earl of ELLESMERE moved' the second reading of
the Factory Bill in a speech of great ability, and was se-
conded by Lord FEVERSHAM.

Lord BROUGHAM then opposed the Bill at great length,
and having exhausted.all the usual topics of political eco-
nomy which could be brought against the bill, moved that
it be read again that day six months.
The noble lord was followed by the Bishop of London,
the Bishop of St. David's, the Bishop of Oxford, and
Lord Wharncliffe, who all spoke warmly in its favour.
The Duke of Richmond also spoke in favour of the mea-
sure ; but the bill was ultimately read a second time on
a division, in which the numbers were—Contents, 56 ;
Non-contents, 11; Majority for the bill, 45.

HOUSE OF COMMONS

'MONDAY

In reply to three questions from Mr. Ferrand, the
Arr ORNEY-GENERA I, declared that Parliament had an in-
herent authority to delegate to any person or body of per-
sons, whom it thoughttit to select, the. power of making
rules and orders, which should be as binding and authori-
tative upon the people of England and Wales as an Act of
Parliament. He gave a variety of instances of the appli-
cation of this power in our courts of common law, in the
ecclesiastical courts, and in various other institutions of the
country. By the Poor Law Act itself, the people of Eng-
land were bound to obey as law all the rules and orders
which the Ppor Law Commissioners issued; and such be-
ing the case, all persons committed' to prison for disobey-
ing their rules and orders had not been illegally deprived
of their liberty.

There was then a good deal of Poor Law squabbling
about Mr. Mott; after which
Lord J. RUSSELL moved the second reading of the Poor
Laws Administration Bill.

Mr. FERRAND delivered a slashing speech in opposition
to the Bill, and there was an animated debate, which was
ultimately adjourned.

HOUSE OF LORDS

-TUESDAY

The occasion of Lord Brougham's presenting a petition
in favour of the Health of Towns Bill led to some obser-
vations with respect to the corporation of the City of
London by the noble and learned lord and Lord Camp-
bell, which created great laughter in the house.
Lord CAMPBELL observed, that the atmosphere of that
house and theatmosphere inside Temple Bar affected his
noble and learned friend very differently. At Westmin-
ster he censured the corporation ; in London he was elo-
quent in theiryraise. He brought in a bill one year ad-
verse to the wishes and interests of the corporation of
London, and denounced that body in no measured terms,
yet the following year he went into the City, and made an
eloquent speech in praise of them. (A laugh.)
Lord BROUGHAM said, that of all the misrepresenta-
tions, of all the misstatements of a notorious fact that ever
had been uttered by any one, or even by the noble and
learned lord—which was going as far as any one could—
none had ever exceeded the assertion which the house had
just heard. (Loud laughter.) His bill was brought in,
but stopped, because he was told that he had not the re-
motest chance of carrying it in the other house. Upon
that occasion it was said that they would in time yield to
the efforts made to reform their corporation, but it
would appear that they would yield neither in time nor in
eternity. (A laugh.)
After a few words from Lord CAMPBELL, the conversa-
tion dropped.
On the re-committal of the Army Service Bill,
Lord DE Ros moved an enactment, to the effect that
any soldier, within six months prior to the completion of
his term of limited service or, if under orders for foreign
service, within one year, may be re-engaged for six or se-
ven years, and again for five years ; which was adopted.
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH moved the insertion of two
clauses (after clause 4), which proposed to enact, that if
at the expiration of either term of service, a soldier, enti-
tled to his discharge, on a foreign station, shall not be
willing to re-engage, the commanding officer of the regi-
ment shall take measures for conveying such soldier to
England ; providing, that any soldier in one of the colo-
nies claiming his discharge, who shall signify his desire to
remain in such colony, shall not thereafter be entitled to
a conveyance to England at the public expense.
_ _

Lord COMBERMEitE and Lord STANLEY both urged the
latter argument as deserving great consideration, and Lord
Stanley appealed to the Duke of Wellington for his opi-
nion upon the point.
The Duke of WELLINGTON said it would be extremely
inconvenient to discharge soldiers in India, and to leave
them not under the control of military discipline, and
above all he deprecated their being sent by sea anywhere
without such control.

Earl GREY said, after such an opinion from the noble
duke, he should no longer oppose the amendment.
The proposed clauses were then agreed to, and the bill,
as amended, was reported to the house.
The third reading of the Poor Relief (Ireland) Bill was
then proceeded with, various clauses being proposed which
were negatived or withdrawn, after which the bill was
read a third time and passed.

HOUSE OF COMMONS,

TUESDAY,

The friends of the narrow guage experienced a defeat.
On the question of the consideration of the report on
the Birmingham and Oxford Junction, and Birmingham,
Wolverhampton, and Dudley Railways Amalgamation
Bill, Sir F. THESIGER moved that the bill be referred
back to the same committee, with the view of considering
certain petitions against the bill ; when, after some dis-
cussion, the motion was negatived by a majority of 152 ;
the numbers being 62 to 214. The report was then
agreed to.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL said, in answer to Mr. Hume,
that ministers had come unanimously to the opinion that
it was desirable, and had so advised her Majesty, imme-
diately to fill up the office of lord-lieutenant, which had
=happily become vacant. The noble lord, likewise, in
answer to Mr. Ferrand, stated that it was not the inten-
tion of the government to bring in a bill for the purpose
of preventing the use of flour in cotton factories.

On the motion of the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER,
a select committee was appointed to consider whether it is
expedient that any measure should be adopted for sus-
pending further proceedings in all or any of the railroad
bills in the present session, and for enabling the parties,
under certain conditions, to proceed with the same in a
future session of parliament ; and also, whether it is ad-
visable that any further provisions should be made in the
standing orders of the house, relative to bills for the con-
struction of railways.

The adjourned debate on the second reading of the Poor
Laws Administration Bill was then resumed by Mr.
CHRISTIE, who said that warmly approving as he did of
all the principles of the act of 1834, he had only one fault
to find with the present bill, and that was that it was
temporary.
Mr. ETWALL condemned both the principle and the ad-
ministration of the present Poor-law, and contended that
one striking proof of its failure was to be found at the
present moment in the fact, that in the agricultural
districts wages had not risen in the same proportion as
the price of food.
Viscount COURTENAY stated, that, as chairman of the
committee on the Andover Union, the general impression
which he had derived from the evidence presented to that
committee was, that there had been great mismanagement
in the Board of Guardians--that the administration of the
law by the guardians within it had been marked with con-
siderable harshness—and that that harshness had been
greatly aggravated by the general irregularity of the pro-
ceedings of that board. Further, his impression was, that
no evidence had been offered to justify the conduct of the
Poor-law Commissioners, either in the manner or in the
time of the dismissal of Mr. Parker and Mr. Day from their
respective offices as Assistant Commissioners. He then
proceeded to declare how far he agreed with the bill be-
fore the house. To its general principle he was prepared
to give his support ; for he believed that it afforded
grounds for expecting that the future administration of
the law would be conducted with more responsibility and
greater regularity than formerly.
The debate was adjourned to Thursday.

On -the report of supply on the votes for the Ecclesias-
tical Commission, Mr. WILLIAMS, on the ground that he
thought the expense ought to be defrayed out of the reve-
nues of the Church, called for a division, when the vote
was agreed to by a majority of 68, the numbers being
76 to 8.