The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-05-26 00:00:00

eight years Ct

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-TRURSDAY

Mr. FERRAND put four questions to Sir R. Peel. relat-
ing to the present state of the Bingley poor-house, and
Sir R. Pcel gave to each of them a distinct reply. The
result was, that notwithstanding the retnon.trances of
Mr. Ferrand, Sir R. Peel refused to retract the charges
which he had preferred in June, 1842, against the Board
of Guardians of the Keighley Union.

A number of question; were then put to her Majesty's
government of so miscellaneous a character, that Sir R.
Peel wished to have them placed on record, in order thtat
the public might he aware of the multiplicity of topics to
which the prime minister of England was called upon to
turn his attention in the course of half-an-hour. The

questions related to our own tariff, to the German Zoll-
verein, to the Bingley workhouse, to the visit of Ibrahim
Pacha to this country, and to the erection of an equestri-
an statue to the Duke of Wellington at the top of Con-
stitution-hill. . •

A desultory conversation on the conduct of Mr. Mur-
ray, the secretary of the Ecclesiastical Commission, with
regard to a private bill before the house last week, then
took place, in which the Attorney-General defended the
proceedings of that functionary. The defence, however,
produced in reply a still more severe attack from Mr. E.
Denison. In the course of the conversation, a letter,
which had been addressed to the members of the House
of Commons by Mr. Whyte. a solicitor of the same
Commission, and which bad been declared by the
Speaker, in private, to be a high breach of privilege, was
put in by Mr. Hume, but was not read to the house in
consequence of Sir J. Graham's having expressed, on be-
half of the commission, their regret that one of their offi•
cers should have so misconducted himself. The conver-
sation, which from its commencement to its close was al-
lowed to be most irregular, was stopped at last by Mr
Hume's withdrawal of the letter which he had, ut in as a
breach of privilege. _ _

The SPsAKErtthen.read to the house a letter addressed
1 to himself by Mr. S. O'Brien, dated that morning, from
the prison of the House of Commons. The substance of
it was, that the committee of selection had not been for-
a-tally appointed this session—that its order enjoining him
to attend as a member of a certain committee, and his im-
prisonment for non-compliance with that order, were both
informal and illegal, and that he was therefore entitled to
1 his immediate discharge.

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL.

ARRIVAL OF THE GREAT WESTERN,

Advices have arrived from the United States to the 7th
inst., inclusive, by the Great Western, Captain Mathews,
which arrived in the Mersey shortly after four o'clock on
Thursday afternoon, after a fine run of fourteen days.
The Great Western foriveyed special messengers from
the American Government to Mr. M'Lane, and from Ca-
nada to the Home Administration. It is stated, and con-
fidently so, that the former brings the Oregon notice to
Mr. M' Lane, with instructions for its due delivery to the
British Government. The bearer entertains that belief.
"The form in which the notice was sent (says the Wash-
ington correspondent of the Courier and Enqui,vr), was
to set forth the preamble and resolution as it passed Con-
gress, and then to append to it a formal notice on the part
of the Government of the United States."
The proceedings in the House of Congress are entirely
uninteresting. The Webster and Ingersoll committees had
sent into Maine for witnesses.

Relations with Mexi'm had assumed a more threatening
aspect. The latest accounts from Rio Grande state that
Matamoras was blockaded by General Taylor. Lieute-
nant Porter and three men had been shot by the Mexi-
cans. Further desertions had taken place. Fears for the
safety of the American force prevailed at Washington.
The receipts into the United States Treasury during
the quarter ending the 31st of March last were 7,808,870,
dollars ; expenditure, 4,483,897 dollars.
It would appear that considerable doubt exists as to the
payment of the interest due on the debt of Pennsylvania.
The Princeton steam-frigate was under orders for the
Gulf of Mexico.