POSTSCRIPT.

ElkTURDAY.

The House of Commons was engaged last night until past midnight, mainly on two questions—the alteration of Parliamentary Oaths, and the clauses of Sir George Grey's Bill on Secondary Punishments.

The House went into Committee to consider the Parliamentary Oaths. Before stating what he would do with them, Lord PALMERSTON apologized to Lord John Russell for taking out of his hands a subject which he had dealt with in a manner that entitled him to great credit. He assured his noble friend, that he takes it up now because those most interested in the question tell him that the chance of the bill pleasing into law would be increased if it were introduced by a member of the Government. Hewes sure Lord John would forgive him for appearing to take it out of his hands.

The moment is peculiarly favourable for dealing with the subject, because every Member has recently been compelled to subscribe to oaths containing many things repugnant to his feelings. The changes intended to be proposed apply solely to oaths taken by persons who are not RC■Mall Catholics.; the object of the change being to relieve Christians from oaths they ought not to take, and do away with those words that exclude Jews from Parliament. After reading s portions of the oaths with a running commentary, and explaining what ho should keep and what throw away, Lord Palmerston read the form of the one oath which he proposes to substitute for the three. "Ida sincerely promise and swear that! will be faithful and bear true allegisnce to her Majesty Queen Victoria, and will defend her to the utmost of my power against all conspiracies and attempts whatever which shall be Made against her person, crown, or dignity ; and I will do my utmost endeavour to disclose and make known to her Majesty, her heirs and successors, all treasons and traitorous conspiracies which may be formed against her or them : and I do faithfully promise to maintain, support, and defend, to the utmost of my power, the succession of the croon, which succession, by an act intituled • An Act for the further limitation of the crown and better securing the rights-and liberties of the subject,' is and stands limited to the Princess Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and the heirs of her body being Protestants, hereby utterly renouncing and abjuring any obedience Or allegiance unto any other person claiming or pretending a right to the crown of this realm : and I do declare that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate, bath or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority, prerminence,. or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm." He concluded with a pithy summary of the chief arguments for the admission of the Jews.

"The exclusion of the Jews is the last remnant of prejudice and intolerance with which we have to deal. What is it that you fear from sdmittingz Jews to Parliament ? Are you afraid that the admission of a few Jews will shake the Christian religion ? Why, Sir, I have heard of many Jews whohave become Christians, but it never fell to my lot to hear of a Christian who became it. Jew. (" Hear !" and a laugh.) The progress of mankind is governed by laws which admit of no retrogression. The Old Testament prepared the way for the New Testament, but the New Testament will never lead us back to the Old. Of what, then, are we afraid ? We cannot for a moment suppose that the introduction into this House of a few persons professing the Jewish religion will at all affect the Christian character of the country. I am convinced that such wembers, from their know,ledge and intelligence, would render us material assistance in our deliberations; their positinn, as men of considerable property would. be a guarantee for their intek,st' in the welfare of the country ; and by admitting them to Parliament we should carry out that system of liberal legislation for the establishment of religious liberty which has of late years made so much progress. I trust, therefore, that the House will give its most serious attention to this subject. Many Members of the House areunfettered by pledges, and are free to act upon their own judgment. I do trust that this measure will be carried by a large majority of the House ; and then, if the opinion of the House should be stamped upon the bill in approbation of the principle it contains, I cannot but indulge the sanguineexpectation that those obstacles which elsewhere have hitherto impeded the realization of the ardent wishes of my noble friend the Member for the City of London may give way to an impulse proceeding from a new House of Commons, and that at last we may have the satisfaction of giving the finishing-stroke to that which has been too long delayed, but which I hope will now be conceded." (Much cheering.) Sir FREDERICK THFSIGER said he should not oppose the introduction of the bill ; but he wished, for the sake of consistency, that the Govern-. meat had treated this question as it had treated all other questions of Parliamentary reform. Mr. Locke Ring was told the other night, not to carry farther his bill dealing with property qualification. This-is a question of oath qualification ; why should not it also be postponed ? For the benefit of the tow Members, Sir Frederick gave a history of the Jew question from 1831 to the present time. It is not a question of civil and religious liberty, but a question of power. Lord JOHN RUSSELL, in reference to the apology offered by Lord Palmerston, said that he should have given him the same advice as those most interested in the question. The measure has a far better chance of success in the hands of Government ; and as he only desired to see it carried, he could not feel at all envious. He smartly replied to Sir Frederick Thesiger. Sir Frederick is not under the ban, and can talk at his ease about civil and religious liberty ; but what would he say if it were proposed to exclude all the gentlemen of the long robe I—and there might be some plausible reasons for such a measure, the saving of the time of the House for instance : would he not exert himself to show that it was impossible for a House that respected civil liberty to exclude "a most respectable class of persons" ? Lord John said he thought the bill was now put in a shape that would best effect the object in view, and he should give it his hearty support. Mr. NEWDEGATE and Mr. HENLEY regretted that the removal of surplus phrases from the oaths had not been separated from the question of the admission of the Jews.

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Mr. LOCKE Kix°, in reply to Sir FrederickThesiger's remark about his bill, said that he was no party to the postponementof all questions of Parliamentary reform, and that he should proceed with his Property Qualification Bill.

Leave was given to bring in the bill, and it was read a first time„. Lord PaLsrEnsroN stated that the second reading cannot place until after the Whitsuntide recess. [It stands on the paper for the 8th June.] On the motion for going into Committee on the Transportation and Penal Servitude Bill, much time was taken up in discussing a motion by Lord ADOLPHUS VANE TEMPEST, that the bill should be referred to a Select Committee. A great number of Meinbers spoke during the debate; branching out into disquisitions on the practicability of recurring to transportation, of employing convicts in penal colonies at home, and_ subjecting them to reformatory treatment. The House, however, seemed to be of opinion that there has been investigation enough already, and. the amendment W88 withdrawn. In Committee, Mr. ICEAMG moved an amendment on clause 1, which, he said, would have the effect of abolishing the ticket-of-leave system. After a spirited discussion the amendment was negatived by 173 to 83; and the clause was agreed to. On clause 2, abolishing the sentence of "transportation" and substituting that of "penal servitude," Mr. S. Frrznmi irD moved an amendment intended to prevent the abolishing of the sentence of transportation. This was-negatived without a division. Sir GEORGE GREY consented to fix the minimum at three instead of four years of penal servitude. The bill passed through Committee, and the House resumed. In answer to a question from Mr. Cotaxciasx, the ATTORNEY-GENERAL said that he had watched the proceedings in the ease of the British Bank from the beginning, and had long ago requested Mr. Linklater to supply him with, copies of the examinations. The law throws great duties on the Attorney-General, but supplies him with no means of executing them. In this case, he will be indebted entirely to the courtesy of Mr. Linklater, who will supply the papers at the expense of the creditors. "If I shall be reluctant at all on the subject of the prosecution, supposing a case fit for prosecution to exist, that reluctance will be due entirely to the reports and statements which I find repeated day by day in the public newspapers, which would render it almost impossible to expect when persons are indicted for an offence so ill-defined and so elastic as that for which these persons can alone, according to my present apprehensions, be indicted, that they can be fairly tried while the public mind remains in its present excited state."

The House of Lords was engaged for nearly two hours in two conversations: one on the improvements in St. James's Park, to which the Earl of MALMESBURY called attention, coupling it with warning against the increase of the Miscellaneous Estimates, and an attack on the Minister of Works, who wishes to be thought "Benjamin the Magnificent." The -second conversation was introduced by the Duke of SOMERSET, questioning the wisdom of proceeding with the scheme for building public offices at a ruinous expenditure.

The Attorney-General's motion for leave to bring in a bill to make Fraudulent Breaches of Trust criminally liable has been postponed until Tuesday next.

A public meeting was held yesterday at the Mansionhouse, to consider Sir George Grey's Bill on secondary punishments. The meeting was addressed by the Lord Mayor, Mr. Charles Pearson, and Mr. M. D. Hill. Resolutions were adopted stating that it is desirabl to introduce clauses in the bill fixing the hours of labour for convicts, for providing them with moral and religious instruction, and for enabling the Justices of one county, city, or borough, to exchange prisoners with another in order to further the classification of the convicts.

The fifty-second annual meeting of the British and Foreign. School Society was held yesterday ; Lord John Russell in the chair. The marked feature of the proceedings was a motion by Mr. Mark Philips, objecting to the practice of teaching what are called orthodox doctrines —the Trinity and Atonement—in the schools, as contrary to the rules of the Society. Ile wished to restore the schools to what their founders intended them to be—schools wherein no 'peculiar religious tenets arc taught." Lord John Russell appealed to Mr. Philips to withdraw his motion but in vain, and it was negatived, by a:large majority. The Unitarians also failed in placing two of their candidates on the Committee.

At a meeting of the Court of Directors of the East India Company, on Wednesday, Captain George Grenville Wellesley R.N. was sworn in Commander-in-chief of the Indian Navy.

One of the most distinguished "Waterloo men "—General Sir James Macdonnell—died last night, after a protracted illness. He entered the Army. in 1796; served in Italy and the Peninsula; and commanded the Guards who defended the Chateau of Hougoumont on the 18th June 1816. Sir James was Colonel of the Seventy-first Highlanders, and wore several military decorations, including the Grand Cross of the Bath.

The Gazette of last night contains a number of despatches from Sir James Outram and other officers in Persia, detailing the operations on the %swoon.

"News from Constantinople of the 8th instant," forwarded by telegraph from Trieste, states "that the treaty of peace had arrived at Teheran on the 4th of April, and been received with satisfaction by the Shah."

By the Turin Gazzetta Militare we find that the proposal for sending a Sardinian naval contingent to the war in China originates with the Morning Post, "the direct organ of Lord Palmerston." From the tone of the Gazette, however, and of the independent Ministerial journal the Opinione, we gather that the Piedmontese Government will not agree to this proposal for "an untimely diversion" of its marine strength. The Gazzetta adds, on its own part, that if England and France were willing to assist Piedmont, or at least not to thwart her, in the great enterprisewhich she has to accomplish for the political redemption of Italy, they would find her disposed to second their every project with alacrity.

The Vanderbilt arrived at Southampton last night, with advices from Now York to the 5th instant. A despatch from Washington, of the 4th instant, says that the rumour of the rejection by Great Britain of the Dallas-Clarendon treaty was confirmed by the receipt of a letter from Mr. Dallas to the President. Lord Napier was expected shortly to communicate the fact officially to the Government, -when the subject would be considered by the Cabinet of Washington.