The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-06-23 00:00:00

HOUSE OF LORDS.-TUESDAY

The hou=e went into committee on the C.rn Bill, when
the Earl of WICK LOW moved an amendment, that a fixed
duty of 54. should 132 imposed on foreign wheat, as well
for the purpost.s of.revenue as for protection.
Lord BROUGHAM contended that a fixed duty would he
a po-itive tax, raising the price of corn by the whole
amount of the tax. In reference to the motives of those
noble peers who supported the bill in the hope that, by a
coalition, subsequently, they would displace the govern-
ment, he expressed his belief that the present government
was perfectly safe, and there would be no coalition such
as was anticipated.

Lord STANLEY disavowed all knowledge of any coali-
tion whatever. The present bill had been forced on the
country by a very strange combination of parties. For
his own part he preferred a sliding scale to a filed duty,
but would vote for the amendment in order to preserve
some porfon of protection until the country should have
an opportunity of deciding upon the whole question at the
next general election.

The Marquis of LANSDOWNE was favourable to a fixed
duty, but would sacrifice his individual opinions for the
sake of a final settlement of a question of such importance
to the country.

A discussion ensued, which was chiefly in reference to
the meeting at Lord John Russell's, in Cheshatn Place,
after which the Committee divided, and the amendment
was negatived by a majority of 140 to 107.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—TUESDAY.
The house was occupied the whole night in the discus-
sion of the recommendations contained in the minute of
the Board of Trade, of the 6th of June, 1846, on the re-
port of the Commissioners for inquiring into the guage
of railways. The adoption of those recommendations was
moved by Sir G. Clerk, and the debate upon them was
ultimately adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-WEDNESDAY,

Sir C. N API SR, upon the order of the day being read
for the second reading of the Naval Civil Department Bill, I
stated, that from the working of the Board of Admiralty,
and the deterioration evidently fallen upon the service, it
was high time that civilians should cease to act as rulers
of the naval affairs of this kingdom. ki e could show from
the registered opinions of naval commanders, that naval
men were wanted to conduct the affairs of the navy. The
building of ships was also imperfect. It was impossible
that an officer not brought up in a dock-yard could have
the requisite knowledge. Here they were in 1846, and
they had not not advanced an inch in the science of steam-
ship building. To prove this, he would refer to the steam-
frigate Retribution, which only carried fuel for eight days,
and could only fire one gun aft, whereas they should be
able to bring three guns to bear. There was also the case
of the Vulture, respecting which there were two returns,
neither of which agreed with the other. The vessels
called steam-frigates were really no such thing; they were
steam-corvettes, and should be so called. He had exa-
mined them all, and be could declare that there was not
one of them in as efficient a state as it ought to be. They
all carried their steam-boxes five and six feet above the
level of the water, and the consequence would be, that if
a war were to take place to-morrow, and a shot struck the
steam-box, every soul below would be killed. If the
Lords of the Admiralty would submit to the experiment,
and take their places in a vessel of war with her steam on,
and the steam-box five or six feet above the surface of the
water, and permit him to fire a 24-pound shot through the
boiler, he would venture to say that not a single lord of
the whole board would be forthcoming afterwards.
(Laughter.) The hon. and gallant officer then proceeded
to remark upon the inexpediency of " cutting down"
ships, and converting large vessels into small corvettes.
The average cost of ship-building for the last four years
amen, ted to £1,300,000, and for the past year amounted
to £1,600,000. (Hear, hear.) He did not think such an
outlay was necessary, and he certainly would not, upon
a future occasion, vote for similar estimates until he had
full and correct returns submitted to him. But this de-
partment of the service could not be efficiently worked
while the Board of Admiralty was constituted as it was at
present. The first lord was a civilian, and he had all the
patronage ; the first sea-lord undertook the ship-building,
another the stores, another the victualling and medical de-
partments, another the appointment of the officers. Now,
he submitted it was perfectly impossible, from his inex-
perience of nautical matters, and on account of the multi-
farious nature of his duties, that the First Lord of the
Admiralty could efficiently discharge them, and the con-
sequence would be that the duties would devolve upon
subordinates, as was the case at present. He believed
that the best way to reduce the Admiralty to what it ought
to be, would be to have it ruled by three men who could
not shift the responsibility from one to the other, and who
would not be members of the government, and on that
account liable to be changed by any alteration of the ad-
ministration. _ _ _

Lord lNaesrae seconded the motion.
111 r. CORRY stated, at the time of the introduction of
this bill, that he could not hold out any prospect of giving
it his support ; and he now found that it was not better
that he was led to expect it would be. But it was diffi-
cult to make out what were the-precise objects of the hon.
and gallant officer, as he had often changed his views;
but now they had a definite plan proposed by the gallant
admiral. and be must say that a more objectionable plan
could not well be conceived. The house, he trusted,
would excuse him from following the gallant commodore
into all the details of the performance of ships, the im-
mersion of paddles in water, &c. These details might be
very proper in themselves, but he denied that the govern-
ment had shewn themselves regardless of the interests of
the navy. As soon as the present government came into
office, they appointed a commission of scientific men to
inquire into the best system of ship-building, and in the
course of the last five years fifty-six ships had been or-
dered to be built, not by the Surveyors of the Navy.
(Hear, hear.) With regard to the returns which had been
mentioned, he was not responsible for their accuracy.
The right hon. gentleman having next adverted to the ob-
servations which were made by the noble lord the member
for Staffordshire, concluded by moving that the bill be
read a second time that day six months.
On a division, after a short debate, the bill was re-
jected by a majority of 107 to 11.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—THURSDAY.
The early part of the evening was consumed in a discus-
sion on the remaking resolutions respecting the broad
end narrow guages. They were ultimately agreed

The CHANCELLOR Of- the EXCHEQUER gave notice,
that on Monday next he would move a resolution conti-
nuing-the existing sugar duties from the sth of July to the
rithof August, in the present year. His reason for pro-
posing their continuance for a month was, that at present,
owing to the length of the debates on the Irish Bill, suffi-
cient time could not be given to that ample discussion of
them, which their importance required, and which must
inevitably take place on the various important amend-
ments which had already been placed on the order book.
The adjourned debate on the second reading of the Pro.
tection of Life (Ireland) Bill was then resumed, and was
again adjourned. In the course of the debate,
Lord F. EGE4.'TON observed that there were certain
broad facts on record which he could not deny. He be-
lieved that there way a diminution of crime generally
throughout Ireland, but only in one of the five counties
affected by this ; white is the other four comities,

which contained a population equal to one-sixth of the
whole population of Ireland, the crimes which this bill
sought, to prevent rather than to punish, had increased full
60 per cent. The question to be really considered by the
house, before it assented to this bill, was this :—" Were
the ordinary powers of the law sufficient to repress the
existing disorders ?" He frankly confessed that he thought
that they were not. Nay, he would venture to predict,
that it Lord John Russell should, as was expected, shortly
become minister, and if his benevolent projects for the
conciliation and ameliora ion and regeneration of the peo-
ple of Ireland should lag behind the progress of these so-
cial evils, which all lamented,—as it was very probable,
that without any fault of his they would,—he would be
found coming down to Parliament to propose a measure
with clauses, either analogous to those of the present bill,
or only differing from them in departing more widely
from the constitution. There were portions of the pre-
sent debate to which he had listened with great pain. He
did not wish to re-infuse acrimony into a discussion, which
for some time past had been conducted with exemplary
moderation; but he must express his unaffected regret,
that differences on politics had led to the sacrifice of the
feelings of private friendship. On the occasion to which
he alluded, Lord G. Bentinek had been defended with
great zeal by Mr. Disraeli; but be must be permitted to
inform both of these gentlemen, that the House of Com-
mons was not like the Court of Chancery, in which a bad
precedent formed a good argument. Precedents might be
formed for any nonsense or any violence of language; and
therefore he valued little the precedents which Mr. Dis-
raeli had found for Lord G. Bentinck's application of the
term of " paid Janissaries" to Sir R. Peel's colleagues, in
the speeches of that able and generous, though not always
temperate statesman, Mr. Fox. Mr. Fox had once said
that he should not conceive himself safe in the same room
with Lord North, and yet he had afterwards sate- with
him in the same Cabinets. And who knew that all might
not come right yet between Lord G. Bentinck and Sir R,
Peel? He then disclaimed the appellation of a renegade,
which Lord G. Bentinck had applied to several gentlemen
as honourable as any in the house, and amongst others to
himself. He concluded by stating that this measure had
not been proposed as a cure for the evils of Ireland ; that
be did not support it as such cure; but that he did sup-
port it as the means of putting down certain crimes which
were prevalent in certain districts of Ireland.

HOUSE OF LORDS.-FRIDAY

A petition was presented by Earl FITZWI LLIAM, from
a clergyman in Oxford, impressing upon the house the
necessity of taking measures to increase the number of
bishops in the country, which might be done without any
increased expenditure, for the additional bishops might be
paid from the surplus incomes, as the petitioner conceived
them to be, of the present bishops. The petitioner also
suggested that the existing bishops should no longer have
the burden of their parliamentary duties, from which they
should be relieved, in order that their whole attention
might be devoted to their spiritual duties.
After a short discussion, in the course of which it was
on all hands admitted that the subject was one of great
importance, the petition was ordered to lie on the table.
The house then went into committee upon the Corn
Importation Bill, and
The Duke of RICHMOND moved a series of clanses, the
object of which was to give tenants a power of giving six
months' notice to give up their leases within six months
after the passing of the bill, if they should think that they
could no longer cultivate their farms with advantage under
the new state of things.
The Earl of RIPON thought these clauses would give
rise to a vast deal of confusion, without giving any equi-
valent advantage to the tenantry of the country, and he
should, therefore, oppose their introduction.
The Earl of MALMESBURY was of opinion that the
tenantry would be unjustly dealt with if these clauses
were nct agreed to, for otherwise they would be placed
by the modern le, illation of parliament entirely at the
mercy of their landkrds.
After some ob:ervations from Lord ASIIBURTON,
The Duke of RICHMOND withdrew his motion, and the
bill passed through committee.
It was then arranged that the bill should be read a third
time on Tuesday.