The Press. — 1857-04-18 (London, England)

plitttal.  THE CONSERVATIVE MEMBERS for West Suffolk, Mr. H. S. Waddington and Captain P. Bennet, were entertained at a public dinner at the Town hall,Burf St. Edmund's, this week. Mr. Waddington, in the course of his speech, observed : After the election of a Speaker by the new Parliament, other questions would be brought forward, and he thought an attempt would be made at a new Reform Bill, but until the Conservative party knew exactly what that Reform Bill was, they could not pronounce any judgment upon it. There had been great alterations in the new Parliament.  TBE PRESS.  The house had lost, in the first place, the Manchester squadron, who were good orators in their way, and expressed themselves generally well, according to their own ideas and opinions. With regard to taxation, he could not help expressing his satisfaction that some reduction had taken place in the income tax, and he hoped that before long that tax would be entirely extinguished. He hoped also that more money would not be voted away than the Government had in hand, as the country would then be called upon for more taxes.  Captain BENNET, M.P., after appealing to the company to promote the Conservative interest in the registration of the division, said he believed the Times bad stated that the present Government was a Conservative Ministry :  He doubted this altogether. He believed the present Cabinet was, as Burke had said, a " tesselated Govern• ment, made up of courtiers arid republicans." He was going to Parliament to support Conservative measures, and he trusted the part would not be a " tesselated " one on the side of the house on which he should sit.  Sir R. BUXTON, adverting to the probability of a new Reform Bill, said he believed the question was one which would affect agriculturists more than free trade or protection; for, in the case of free trade, the farmers' skill and energy had enabled them to triumph over their difficulties, while in the case of a Reform Bill no skill or energy would avail the farmers if they allowed the power which they now legitimately possessed to be wrested from them : The immediate result of a sweeping measure of reform, which degraded the suffrage into the bands of the ignorant and unlettered, would be that additions would be made to the already heavy burdens of the agricultural interest; and such a measure, instead of elevating the condition of the people of England, would tend to degrade them, by introducing the worst of all tyrannies, the tyranny of a democracy.  THE PARLIAMENTARY RETURN, relating generally to the Chinese coolie trade and especially to the late remarkable mortality on board the ship Portland, where, out of 382 coolies taken on board at Hong Kong and Macao, 128 died before reaching the Havana, has been published. The correspondence upon the subject in some measure illustrates the nature of the coolie trade. The captain of the Portland, in his evidence, stated that the Chinese were no sooner all on board than they attempted a mutiny. A police force came on board, and the coolies at length were driven below at the point of the bayonet. This disturbance arose from the men having been cheated of their bounty, eight dollars each. The mate states:—" I understood from the interpreter that the cause of the disturbance arose from the promised amount of money in advance not having been paid." The interpreter states :—" I believe the men got only one dollar." The captain, indeed, states that he " believes" they received their eight dollars ; but the only reason he assigns for his believe is, that "there had been a previous row about it in the John Calvin." The captain also states " I believe one-third of them had been kidnapped." The attempt was suppressed, and every precaution taken to prevent its repetition. A limited number of coolies at a time were only permitted on the upper deck ; the ship's crew were armed, and the captain "never lay down without his cutlass." The coolies soon after sailing became dispirited, committed suicide, or fell sick and died like sheep. " The third day," says the captain, " I had the first suicide, and on an average I had three suicides daily between Hong Kong and until l passed the Straits of Sunda." It was a low typhoid fever that broke out. " Within a week after sailing," says the surgeon, "as many as sixty cases had appeared. The number of deaths," he adds, " was neariy the same all the voyage, but increased in malignity." Suicides and attempts at suicide were frequent. " Those of the Chinese who attempted to commit suicide and were picked up, generally made a second attempt; they were then more carefully looked after." " I had usually," says the captain, " twelve to eighteen in irons for riotous behaviour or attempted suicide." The poor creatures refused to take food. "When they would not eat,', says the captain, " I have tried to force their food down their throats." The cause of this frightful mortality appears mainly to have arisen from an infringement of the Chinese Passenger Act, which re• quires for each passenger a space of five superficial feet on the upper and twelve superficial feet on the lower deck. In the case of the Portland, about three superficial feet above and eight below were only allowed. A despatch from the Secretary of State for the Colonies to Sir John Bowriog, calling his attention to this palpable infringement of the Passenger Act, concludes the correspondence. THE REPORTED RESIGNATION by Mr. Horsman of the Irish Secretaryship is, we believe, premature.  THE Emu. OF ELGIN will be accompanied in his diplomatic mission to China by his brother, the Honourable Frederick Bruce, and by Mr. Oliphant as his private secretary. Some further appointments will be filled up from the Foreign Office. 

Article type: NotIncident