The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-04-08 00:00:00

United K

tons; and that no accounts from them were ever laid before the
house, but only abstracts of them. He contended that we ought to
have a colonial budget annually, and to watch over the receipts and
expenditure of the colonial government with the same vigilance as
we did those of the administration at home. All that he asked was,

that a committee should be appointed at present to report upon the
evidence which the committee of 1837 had collected.

3 object

recommendations of that committee. '
The motion was agreed to.
Mr. SIIF Tr, moved a resolution expressing the regret of

reference to disturbances in the Papal States obtained by such means
sbould have been communicated to a foreign power The hon.
member entered at great length into the political movements in the
Italian states, repeating most of the charges that have at different
times been brought against the Secretary of State for opening Mr.
Mazzini's letters. His res lution, be said, was pointed against the

not of censure, but of lamentation, in which he trusted that a

Sir GRAHAM a,

-himself from the charges

Drought against mm, in doing winch he furnished the house with a
succinct statement of all the information lie had received which
drew his attention to Mr. Mazzini, and connected him with the
movements taking place in Italy. The information which he re-

ceased lrom time to time convinced him that London, under Mazzi-
ni, was made the centre of a great movement in Italy, which was
likely to endanger the peace of Europe : therefore it was that he
did not shrink from issuing his warrant to open Mazzini's corres-
pondence. He gave the house his most solemn assurance that that
warrant was not issued by bim at the instance of any one. much
less at the instance of any Foreign Minister, but that it was issued
in the defence of British interests, and of British interests alone.
. . .

public itr.erests, by opening the letters of Mizzini ,_ ,
Mr. T. DUNCOMBE defended Mr. Mazzini from the charges that
had been brought against him, and, on a division, the motion was
rejected by a majority of 52 to 38.

leave v;as giv;;11 to bring in a bill to repeal the duties on glass,
and the house adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—WEDNESDAY.
After the presentation of a number of petitions against the grant
to Maynooth, the Smoke Prevention Bill was, after a slight oppo-
sition, read a second time.
On Lord Ashley moving the second reading of the Calico Print-
T

wor►cs bill, Nu* J. tiratiam said that though he could not assent to
many of its provisions, he could not deny on the part of the go-
vernment that some regulations for the labour of the children em-
ployed in these factories were necessary. He should, therefore,
give his consent to the second reading of the bill, and in doing so
would state the provisions of it to which he nhipct.d nrni

scribe the provisions which he thought preferable to them. Tla
preamble of the bill lim,ted the operation of it to calico printworks
but the interpretation clause extended it to all works where bleach

cluu=. wnivn mime(' tne pours of labour for child-
ren employed iu calico printworks to eight hours every day, and to
twelve hours on alternate days, was altogether inapplicable to the
works in question. He had shown. on a former occasion, that in
these works labour was never continuous throughout the year ;
that there were " pushes', in the trade, which generally .3,, urred in
spring and in autumn, and that afterwards the demand relaxed, and
a " slack" occurred. This clause, Therefore, could not be carried
into effect, without producing injury, not only to the employer of

•••••• ••••••-M1,42.
of children under eight years of age, and considered it wise and
politic. He also assented to the prohibition of night work, with
reference to children of both sexes under thirteen years of age, and
also with reference to women. He thought it right, however, to
have a definition of night-work introduced into the bill; and he
' '' • • "

would define night as the hours between nine o'clock in the eTeni;g.
and five in the morning. lie should, therefore, propose that chil-
dren between the ages of eight and thirteen should be at liberty to
work at any time between fire in the morning and nine at night.
Some provision must be made for the education of these children;
and as the period of intense demand for labour in these works was
eight months out of the twelve, during which it was expedient to
allow them to work day by day during the hours he had mentioned,
he thought that some regulation should be introduced into the bill
to secure them education during the other portion of the year. He
should therefore propose that, for 100 days in the year, the children
between eight and thirteen years of age employ ed in these factories
should attend a school for three or four hours each day, and that
they should be provided with certificates of their attendance. If
these propositions were adopted, it would be important to make
this bill a substantive measure in itself, and to introduce into it all
the regulations affecting printworks. If Lord Ashley concurred in
this view of the subject, he should be happy to cooperate with his
noble friend before the bill went into committee. After it was al.
tered as lie hat s::ggested, it could be circulated in its amended
form, in order to obtain all the improvements of which it was capa-
ble. With this understanding, he consented to the second reading
of the bill.

Lord ASHLEY said that any struggle between himself and the
government on the points mentioned would be hop .less, and though
he reserved the right of free action hereafter, he accepted the offer
of the government with thankfulness.

After several other memwiers had addressed the house, the bill
was read a second time

The Lottn AnvocATF brought in a bill for the better administra-
tion of the poor-laws in Scotland.

HOUSE OF LORDS.-THURSDAY

Lord Asintualos entered into a defence of the lute treaty with
the United States, which had been attacked a few nights since in
the House of Commons by Lord Palmerston ~nd Lord J. Russell.
He was charged with having given up the Madawaska settlements,
and yet, on more than one former occasion, the very parties eho
attacked him had themselves offered to give up those very Mada•
waska settlements. His noble friend lord J. Russell had said,
that the last act of his before quitting office was to thank Lord
Sydenham for refu-ing to give up the Madawaska settlements, al
though such refusal had put a stop to a treaty in all other respects
accomplished. Now he had a great respect for the noble lord, who
was utterly incapable of stating what he did not believe to be true;
but the fact was that there was no foundation for the statement, no
treaty having been entered into between Mr Webster and Lord
Sydenham; and the only solution of the difficulty was, that his
noble friend must have dreamed of that which he had stated.