The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-05-09 00:00:00

Varlialurntarp 13rorraiing5.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-MONDAY.

On the motion of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the
House went into Committee on the Tobago Relief, &c.,
Bill, Mr. Bernal in the chair. The right hon. gentleman
said the object of this bill was to authorise the Govern-
ment to advance the sum of £5OOO for the relief of the
distress which existed in the island of Tobago.
This vote was agreed to.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER then moved that
the Government be authorised to advance the sum of
£50,000 by way of loan to Tobago, and neighbouring
West India "Wands. The colonies would he required to
give sufficient and satisfactory security for there-payment
of thG loan before the money was advanced.
A desultory conversation ensued, in which Mr. Hume,
Mr. Hudson, Mr. Barclay, and the Chancellor of the
Exchequer took part. After which, the motion was
agreed to.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER then moved that
Government be authorised to advance the sum of £200,000
to promote emigration to Trinidad and Guiana.
Mr. BARCLAY said, if the House consented to this ad-
vance of £200,000 it would not have the effect of enabl-
ing free labour colonies to compete with colonies which
were.cultivated by slave labour.
Mr. HOME said the system of Government relating to
the British Colonies required the most :searching reform.
At all events he should move that the bill be postponed
until the West India Committee had made their report.
Mr. HERRIES said, if the Chancellor of the Exchequer
would confine the vote to the expenses already incurred,
and abandon the prospective portion of the grant, he
would support his proposition ; but if he pressed for the
whole of the £200,000 he thought there was no resisting
the justice of the amendment moved by Mr. Hume.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER assented to take
the vote in the usual form as " not to exceed £200,000;"
or he would pledge himself not to spend more than
£l61;,000 until the House should have considered the
matter, but some margin must be left to cover any unfor-
seen,excess of expenditure.
After some further discussion, the CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER said, he was prepared to take a vote for
£170,000 on account.
Mr. HUME was dissatisfied and divided the House, when
his amendment was negatived by a majority of 76 to 21.
The Irish Public Works Bill and the Alien Bill fol-
lowed ; the second reading of the latter was carried by a
majority of 141 to 22.
Sir W. SOMERVILLE moved for leave to bring in a bill
for regulating and defining the franchise in Ireland.
After a short conversation, leave was given to bring in
the bill.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-WEDNESDAY.

Mr. HAMILTON inquired of Sir G. Grey, if the govern-
ment had received any official information of the truth of
the report, which had that morning appeared in the
newspapers, of a collision having taken place between the
Old and Young Irelanders, and of the intervention of the
military having been found necessary to save the latter
from the fury of their assailants ?
Sir G. GREY observed that the fact of such a collision
having taken place had been communicated to the go-
vernment by the Lord-Lieutenant. It appeared that it
was quite true that it was to the intervention of the mili-
tary and police that Messrs. O'Brien, Mitchell, and
Meagher owed their safety.
The Poor Removal Bill, introduced by Mr. BAINES,
went shortly afterwards through committee.
Mr. B. COCHRANE then moved the second reading of
the Small Debts Bill.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL, after a few observations,
moved an amendment that it be read a second time that
day six months.
After a short discussion, the amendment was carried
without a division.
The house then went into committee on the Great
Yarmouth Freemen Disfranchisement Bill.
On the motion that the preamble be postponed,
Mr. STAFFORD moved, as an amendment, that the
chairman report progress.
The committee di4-ided, and the numbers were—For
the amendment, 16; against it, 107; majority against, 91.
The various clauses of the bill then went through com-
mittee, and it was reported, with some amendments, to
the house. _

The house then went into committee on the Joint
Stock Companies Bill, in the discussion of the various
clauses of which the remainder of the sitting was spent.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—TnunsnAy.

After a prolonged conversation between Lord PALMER-
STON, Mr. URQUHART, and several other gentlemen,
respecting the strange despatch lately sent by Lord Pal-
merston to Mr. Bulwer,
Lord PALMERSTON explained that the Prussian and
Danish Governments had accepted the mediation of this
country on the Schleswig question.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL moved the third reading of the
Jewish Disabilities Bill.

Sir F. THESIGER made a stout speech in opposition to
the bill, and concluded by moving that it be read a third
time that day six months.
Mr. Trelawny, Mr. Westhead, and Mr. C. Lewis sup-
ported, and Mr. W. F. Campbell, Mr. F. Scott, and Mr.
A. Raphael opposed the bill.
Mr. BROTIIERTON supported the bill as an act of na-
tional justice, and because the people of England were in
favour of it. lie expressed his surprise that Mr. Raphael,
who twenty years ago was not himself entitled to sit in
that house, should exercise the power which he had so
recently acquired to exclude his fellow-subjects from par-
liament.

Mr. NAPIER stated, as he said, with elaborate simpli-
city the reasons which induced him to vote against the
third reading of this bill. Hitherto England had always
sanctioned a national religion, but if it admitted Jews
into parliament, there was an end at once to our acknow-
ledgment of the true faith of Christians.

Mr. R. PAnamt gave his support to the bill on Chris-
tian as well as on political grounds, and replied in a very
argumentative and eloquent manner to the speech of Mr.
Napier.
Lord MAHON obeyed his own conscientious conviction
in voting against this measure. As a matter of principle
Jews ought not to he permitted to legislate for a Chris-
tian community like our own ; for if they were, it might
become necessary to separate the Church from the State.
Sir R. INGLIS observed, that as he had opposed the
first introduction of this bill, he would avail himself of
this, the last stage in it, to state that a further considera-
tion of the subject had only deepened his conviction of
its inexpediency. He then attempted to refute the speech
of Mr. Palmer, whom he accused of having propounded
some latitudinarian theories, which greatly disappointed
him.

Mr. NEWDEGATE insisted that the passing of this bill
would lead to a severance of the connexion between the
Church and the State, and reminded Lord J. Russell that
the severance of that connexion in France had led to the
recent abolition of the French monarchy.
Lord J. RUSSELL, in a brief reply, answered the vari-
ous objections which had been made to his bill in the
course of the present debate. He wished to disabuse the
public mind of a false impression which had been created
in the first debate on this subject, and which still appeared
to exist in the minds of several members. It was no part
of his 'argument that religion had nothing to do with poli-
tics, or that Christianity should be kept out of sight in
the discussions of that house. His opinion was directly
the reverse ; for he held that Christianity was the source
of the most enlightened laws which modern legislation
had produced. What he had maintained was, that you
could not by special declarations, or words introduced at
the fag end of an oath, or by the formalities of a statute,
obtain. either a religious spirit or a general acknowledge-
ment of Christianity. He then, like all his predecessors
in the debate, repeated his former arguments on this sub-
ject, contending that it was contrary not only to the spirit
of the British Constitution, but also to that of Christi.
anity, to keep up religious exclusions, and to deprive men
of political franchises on account of their religious opinions.
The House then divided, when the numbers were—For
the amendment, 173—Against it, 234—Majority against it,
61. The bill was then read a third time and passed.

HOUSE OF LORDS.—FRIDAY.
The Jewish Disabilities Bill was read a first time, with
notice of second reading on Monday, the 22d. A debate
then ensued at the instance of Lord Stanley relative to the
recent interference in the affairs of Spain and Italy.
Lord LANSDOWNE defended the course pursued by the
government as necessary and proper under existing cir-
cumstances.
Lord BROUGHAM thought the debate eminently useful,
inasmuch as it was now shown that the advice to Spain
was only to be offered if an opportunity should arise for
so doing.
The motion for the production of the Spanish corres-
pondence was then agreed to, and laid on the table.