The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-07-23 00:00:00

Imperial Varliament.

HOUSE OF LORDS-IVIONDAY.

Lord STRADBROKE moved the third reading of the Bir-
kenhead Dock Bill, when the Marquis of SALISBURY
moved that the suppressed 'douse, agreed upon with the
Shipowners' Association, be inserted. He commented
warmly upon the conduct of the party who signed the
agreement on behalf of the promoters of the bill.
Lord BROUGHAM and MONTEAGLE defended the party.

Lord WicicLoar supported the Marquis of SalisbUry.-
Ultimately the amendment was withdrawn and the bill
passed, there being a manifest disposition in the house to
support the committee in their report.
The Bank Charter Bill was read a third time and passed.
Numerous petitions against the Dissenters' Chapels
Bill, and a few in favour of it, having been presented,
The LORD CHANCELLOR moved that the Commons'
amendments to the bill should be agreed to, and depre-
cated an 'opposition, which he understood was to be given
to the measure at a stage when no such opposition ought
to be raised to the principle of the bill. The only ques-
tion for consideration was the propriety of the amend-
ments, and it was unprecedented for any noble lord to
sei2'e such an opportunity for discussing the principle.
Such a course would be a slight upon the House of Com-
mons, in which he trusted their lordships would not
acquiesce.
The Bishop of LONDON admitted that the course he
'was about to pursue could only be justified by the ex-
treme urgency of the case. In opposing the bill, in that,
its last stage, he might be deemed pertinacious, but when
he found that all the arguments in opposition to the fun-
damental principles of the bill were wholly unanswered,
he could not help feeling that pertinacity became a virtue.
The right rev. prelate spoke at considerable length against
the bill, and concluded by moving as an amendment, that
the amendments of the Commons should be taken into
consideration that day three months.
The Bishop of DURHAM viewed the measure as one
calculated to do justice to all classes, and had no fear that
any evil effects would result from it.
Lord BROUGHAM said it was admitted by everybody,
that the amendments of the Commons were improvements
to the bill, and he could not, therefore, understand upon
what reasonable grounds they could refuse to agree to
them.
The Bishop of NORWICH supported the bill, which
bad his unqualified approbation, in accordance with the
principle of doing to others as be would be done to by
them.
The Earl of RODEN contended that this bill, if it should
pass, would be a blot upon the statute book, which would
be hereafter regarded with regret. He little thought,
some five or six yearsago, when he sat upon the opposition
benches, together with the present Lord Chancellor, with
whom he was united in opposing a measure of spoliation,
known to their lordships as the appropriation clause, that
the day would soon arrive when a measure far beyond the
appropriation clause, as a measure of spoliation, would
be drought forward by those who called themselves con
servatices, and with whom he had so long acted in that
character.
Lord COTTENHAM contended that the measure was
strictly conservative in its principle, for its object was to
preserve to those who had for a long time enjoyed it the
property which they were still in possession of.
After some observations from Lord TExxxAm, the
Earl of GALLOWAY, and Lord LYTTLETON, the house
divided, and the amendment of the Bishop of London
was negatived by a majority of 202 to 41. The Com-
mons' amendments were then agreed to.

HOUSE OF COMMONS—MONDAY.
On'the motion of Sir J. GRAHAM, the house went into
.committee on the Poor-law Amendment Bill ; Mr. Greene
in the chair. On the 36th clause being read,
Mr. CHRISTOPHER said be thought that relief to the
;houseless poor ought to be further extended ; and that
every union workhouse ought to have a vagrants' ward.
lie was certain-that by so doing, and extending temporary
relief to vagrants, it would not be so expensive to coun•
ties as the present mode of sending beggars to the House
of Correction. He trusted the subject had been consi-
dered by the government. He should not move any
amendment.
Sir .1. GRAHAM admitted that the subject alluded to by
the bon. member for Lincolnshire was a most important
one, but at the present moment it should be recollected
that it was open to the boards of guardians, if they thought
proper, to sit apart a portion of the workhouse as a va-
grant ward, 'though the act was not compulsory. He
thought the object of the hon. member would be carried
out by the operation of the 51st clause, and therefore the
committee had better postpone discussing it until they
arrived at that clause.
Sir C. NAPIER said he had strong objections to this
clause, the object of which was to establish district va-
grant asylums in the metropolis and five large towns in
'England.
Colonel WOOD said the house must bear in mind, when
they were legislating upon this subject, that union work-
houses were not to be considered as prisons. He hoped
.a remedy would be provided by affording a lodging at
police stations. He, therefore, wished for the omission
of the clause.
Mr. B. HAWES took a different view of the clause to
the hon. member for Brecon. He trusted the police and
the poor-law officers would be always kept separate and
distinct.
Sir .1. GRAHAM contended that the wretchedness and
misery of the houseless poor rendered it necessary to in-
troduce some such clause as the one under discussion.
It was often in the depth of winter that individuals were
found during the night in the parks or under arches, and
therefore some provision ought to be made. He had the
strongest objection to the proposition of the lion. member
for Brecon to send individuals who bad not committed
any offence to a police station for a night's lodging.
After a few words from Colonel Wool), in objection to
the exaction of four hours' labour for one night's lodging,
Mr. B. COCHRANE said he was convinced the house must
be much pleased with the tone,of kindness and conside-
ration for the poor expressed in the remarks of the Home
Secretary. He had the greatest objection to the propo-
sition of the hon. member for Brecon ; he considered that
proposition complete moonshine. (Hear, and laughter.)
The clause was agreed to, and further progress was
made in tke bill.
Mr. WYSE moved for " a select committee to inquire,
in accordance with the prayer of the petition presented
on, the 17th of June, into the facts connected with the
formation of the special jury in the case of " The Queen,
at the prosecution of the Attorney-General v. Daniel
O'Connell and others."
On a division the numbers were—
For the motion. • • 73
Against it

Majority against the motion lB
The announcement of the numbers was received with
,much cheering from the opposition benches.
Sir Robert Peel obtained leave to bring in a bill to amend
the Church Endowment Act, and after some routine busi-
,ness the house adjourned.

HOUSE OF LORDS.--TUESDAY.

Lord FORTESCUE moved for papers respecting the
restoration to the commission of the peace of Mr. A.
O'Driscoll, an Irish magistrate, who, according to the
noble lord's statement, having on two occasions displayed
gross infirmity of temper, bad been superseded on the
ostensible ground of ill health and old age, but restored
some six months afterwards.
The motion was agreed to after Lord \VHARNCLIFFE
had stated that a memorial in favour of Mr. O'Driscoll's
restoration had been signed by three thousand persons of
all parties.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—TUESDAY.
After several clauses in the Metropolis Improvements'
Bill,
Lord PALMERSTON rose to move for some returns re-
lative to the slave trade, and expressed himself desirous of
making some general observations upon that traffic, al-
though be understood that the particular returns he asked
for would not be refused by the Government. He be-
lieved that few were aware of the cruelties which the slave
trade still caused, or of the vast numbers of negroes an-
nually transported even now from the coast of Africa to
the islands and continent of America. Mr. Bandinell,
in his accurate work, compiled from official documents,
represented those numbers as amounting in some former
years to 130,000 negroes per annum ; Sir F. Buxton esti-
mated them at 150,000. Let any man imagine that he
saw that vast body of men moving to their frightful doom,
and what would his feelings become, if he should be
:told that this was no single sight, but that a like spectacle
was repeated every year ? Moreover, such was the waste
.of life in providing for and accomplishing this great trans-
port of human beings, that for every individual so landed,
three must be calculated to have perished. To procure
.these slaves, the undertakers of the adventure were ac-
customed to fire some peaceful village in the night, and
seize the startled and flying inhabitants. The caverns
where they sought refuge were besieged ; the springs and
wells were occupied ; and the fugitives were thus forced
to come in and surrender. The children were then mur-
dered, to save the expense of maintaining them when torn
from their parents; and the adults were marched hun-
dreds of miles over the burning and stony desert to the
place of ernbarcation. Multitudes perished on this jour-
ney.; and the path of the caravan was marked by thou-
sands orbleaching skeletons. The purchaser on the coast
selected the strong alone ; the weakly and exhausted he
rejected, and these last were put out of the way or left
to perish. Then came the horrors of the voyage. What-
ever the numbers which the vessel would probably carry,
the trader took care to exceed them by a third or a fourth ;
as a tnercbant, sending a hogshead of Madeira to mellow
by a long vastage, added a quarter cask to make good
waste.in-
evitante.
Day after day the dead—too often living
if
also,smittenwith disease, and therefore likely to prove
unprofitable—were thrown overboard. In the hold where
the negroes were crowded the stowage was so stinted,
that all were obliged to lie length, with less room to
each captive than a man occtapattieetwin his coffin. In fine
weather, the grating of the
Lem were ayswereopen ; but, if
rough weather came, h
f necessarily closed, and
the state of the hold below became one o actual
suffoca-
tion.saffoca%lna!' an A third of the negroer, were found,
umi sat
h these
had
of one ship with another, to perish on the voyage. It wase
the British Govern_mmeandte,towbeezeteibnyg
the duty' of
atrocities. Treaties had been
been accomplished. Between France and England mu-
tual sacrifices had been made in the concession o
e
o_ t En or te
right of maritime visitation. England, in rtu ff th
the
services rendered by her to Spainhd b aeined a treaty
from that country. With respect to Portugal, powers had
been obtained which were equivalent to the articles of a
treaty. The effect of these various arrangements with
the European states had been a great diminution in the
numbers of negroes transferred from Africa to the plan-
tations of America. These improvements were the result
of the efforts of the late Government. It remained for
the present ministers to effect the same object with the
United States; but then slat rvolt had boa a Ectiotade