The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-03-09
HOUSE OF COMMoNs-FR1DAY, FEB. 49,


Lord Palmerston moved the second reading of the
Conspiracy to Murder Bill The bill had been called
an alien bill, it had nothing to do with Aliens and
it conferred no arbitrary powers upon the govern
ment. 1t was true that the attention of the Gov
ernment had been called to the state of our law
upon this subject by the recent calamtous event in
Paris. Upon examination they found that there
was no punishment for the crime of conspiracy to
murder beyond what was inflicted on all other
conspiracies.
In Ireland on the contrary, the law had been
passed in times of disorder and inflicted the penalty
of death. Those times had passed away, and this
penalty had become ooserious. The proposed mea-
sure was OF general application; it conferred no
power of expellng foreigners who would still find
an asylum In this country Hnder the BILL so long
they obeyed its laws. The bill left the enforcement
OF the law to the courts of the lawt conferred no
power upon the Government and related lust as
mnch to Englishmen as to foreigners. But obiec-
tons had been raised the ground that before the
House was asked to pass the bill, some answer
should have been sent to the despatch of the French
Government of the Goth January.
Now, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs had at
that time expressly explained to the Ambassador
the state of feeling in this country; that it was i'm
possible to alter our Alien Bill so as to meet the
views of the French Government; and that bill was
only for our own protection against foreigners Was
1t not the government of France which had the
most right to complain that we had shown a want
of courtesy in not replying to that despatch. The
present bill introduced not in Difference to the
French government, and without asking whether it
would satisfy it or not. He called on them not to
refuse their consent to the second reading of the
bill.
Mr.. Miner Gibson moved, as an amendment that
this House hears with much concern that it is al
legged that recent attempts upon the life of the En-
peror of the French have been devised in England
and expresses its detesaton of such guilty enterpr-
ses that this House is ready at all times to assist in
remedying any defects in the criminal law which,
after due investigation, proved to exist vet it
cannot but regret that her Maestys Government
previous to inviting the House to amend the law of
conspiracy at the present tme has not felt it to be
Their duty to make some reply to the dispatch from
the French government dated Paris, January the
2Oth 1858, and which has been laid before Parlia-
ment.
Such matters, by which the honor of the country
was affected, ought not to have been left to casual
conversation, but should have been placed upon
written record. He had no wish to enter into ir-
rtative personal discussions with France, and had
no fear that the noble Lord would engage in any
serious conflict with that power. His resolution
would not necessarily involve the rejection of the
BILL but he made it for the purpose of enabling the
Government to express its opinion on question rel
atiye to the important despatch to which he had al
luded. There was nothing which should be more
carefully considered than prosecution on charges
of conspiracy, which often included the innocent as
well as the guilty.
When the laws were reformed by the Statute
Law Commission they had the power to alter the
law relating to conspiracy but thev did NOT tbink
tnat under the actual law there was power of in
hicting, if not the punishment of death, at least
that OF penal servitude, such attempts as that
which had recently taken place. He called on the
House to express its regret that the Government
had not replied to the despatch of the French Am
nassador distinctly putting upon record declara-
on OF the sanctity of the right of asylum, respect
ing which misconception existed in Europe as to
the actual state of our law.
If that despatch had been met with proper an
swer, they would have been much more ready calm
" to consider the conditions Cf the proposed bill.
The noble lord had not found that foreign nations
had met the friendly advice which he had sometimes
rendered with the same silence. This a ques-
tion not between and the French nation, but was
between Parliament and the Government, whether
the servants of the country had preserved its dig