Debates an 113roteenings in Varliantent.

OPENING THE REGENT'S PARK.

On Tuesday, Mr. EWART moved an address to the Queen, praying that the propriety of the whole of the Regent's Park being thrown open to the public might be taken into consideration. He said that it could be done without any infringement of private property ; for he bad made inquiry, and he found that the leases of certain individuals who owned property in the Park did not contain any clause, as had been alleged, providhig for the exclusion of the public. Mr. E. .f. STANLEY, however, said otherwise. The fact was, consi- derable portions of the Regent's Park had been given to several public institutions, by which the public would be greatly benefited. The Toxophilite Society, and the Horticultural and Zoological, had each pieces of ground assigned to them. Then there were portions let out to private individuals, who had expended large sums in the erection of villas, and to whom a guarantee had been given that the public should not have access to their grounds. A large tract of ground opposite the Colosseum might be thrown open ; but it would occasion some expense in providing additional police to keep order. It would be better to leave the matter in the hands of Government.

Mr. Hums said that the tract mentioned by Mr. Stanley had already been opened. Lord TEIGNMOUTH added, that out of 286 acres in the Park, 200 might be opened to the public. Sir ROBERT Nous supported, the Motion. He was not one of those who thought that the manners and morals of the people could be materially improved by the establishment of parks and public 'walks; but he thought that they greatly contributed to the rational, the healthful, and the innocent enjoyments of the people. Mr. WAHLEY declared that the Park was wrongfully wield:wad from the public, to whom it belonged. That which now was called the Re- gent's Park was formerly Marylebone Fields it was then called Mary. lebone Park : then it was enclosed, under the pretext of rendering it more fit for the use of the people : but up to this moment it had never been fully restored to them ; on the contrary, a considerable portion of it had been let out to private individuals.

After ineffectually pressing for a more explicit statement as to what Government meant to do, Mr. EWART withdrew his motion. Sir Ro- BERT PEEL suggested that the intentions of Government would be more intelligible if they laid a map before the House, showing what parts of the Park they intended to open.

LORD CARDIGAN.

In answer to inquiries from Mr. HUME, on Tuesday, respecting the- recent flogging of a private of the Eleventh Hussars at Hounslow, on a Sunday, Mr. MACAULAY said, it was true that such punishment had taken place, but the circumstances had been much exaggerated. The punish- ment was not inflicted immediately after the conclusion of divine service. The soldiers of another regiment, which had come to the riding-school at Hounslow to attend divine worship, were, when the service was con- cluded, marched to their barracks : the troops of the Eleventh Dra- goons were then marched out, and underwent an inspection which lasted half an hour ; they were then ordered back into the riding-school, and then the punishment was inflicted. Lord Cardigan could not be accused of inhumanity, for since 1839 there had been no instance of flogging in his regiment : the real gravamen of the charge against him was, that he had allowed the punishment to be inflicted on a Sun- day unnecessarily. Though punishment on Sunday was not without a precedent in the service, yet all the officers of great experience, whom Mr. Macaulay had consulted on the subject, stated that corporal punish- ment was never inflicted on that day except under circumstances of great and peculiar exigency—circumstances which certainly did not exist in this case. However, such notice had been taken of the me- ss would effectually prevent its recurrence.

NEW SOUTH WALES LAND-FUND.

On Thursday, Mr. Guam renewed the motion which he made on the 25th of March, on the subject of the land-fund and police and gaol expenditure of New South Wales. He reproduced the same resolutions which he then moved ; setting forth the advantages which the Mother- country derived from the assignment of convicts to private service, by saving the cost of their maintenance ; and the extent to which the fund accruing from the sale of lands is misappropriated to defray the charge for police and gaols. The last alone of the series of resolutions was altered ; Mr. Grote omitting the assertion that the House concurred in the opinions of the Legislative Council, which were quoted in the reso- lutions, and simply declaring, "That this House will, on Wednesday next, resolve itself into a Committee of the whole House, for the purpose of considering the manner in which the cost of gaols and police in New South Wales has been defrayed, and the man- ner in which the land-fund of New South Wales has been expended since 1835."

Mr. Grote supported his resolutions in a speech which more briefly went over the same ground as on the former occasion. One-third of the population of New South Wales, he said, consists of convicts front this country ; and it is obviously unfair to charge upon the colony the whole expense of correctional establishments, rendered necessary by so large a criminal population. And the mode in which the burden was imposed was still worse ; for by laying it on the land-fund, the colonists were deprived of the legitimate means of supporting that regular emi- gration which they so much needed. Even the poorer classes of this- country suffer from the injustice ; for it withholds from them the means of being transferred to the better labour-market of the colony. Colo- nial Ministers, too, had given assurances that the land-fund should not be so misapplied. Lord Goderich, in 1831, decided that it ought not to be considered as part of the ordinary revenue of the colony ; and in 1836 and 1837, Lord Glenelg distinctly declared that the land-fund should be applied to emigration.

The CHANCKLLOR of the EXCHEQUER corrected some-misunderstand- ing as to the course which had actually been pursued— Originally the Mother-country had the whole expenses of the colony, and received its revenue the revenue being less than the expenses, and the defi- ciency being made good by a Parliamentary grant. That was a highly incon- venient arrangement, and it was changed by Lord Goderich in 1827; but he still left the expense of police and convicts on the Mother-country. In his despatch, however, he distinctly held out to the colony, that if its revenue should at a subsequent period be sufficient, it must take half the expense of the convict establishment ; and he more especially pointed out the mixed ex- pense of police as proper to be borne in part by the colony. From 1827 to 1834, the arrangement continued as it had been fixed by Lord Goderich. In 1834, the revenue of the colony very much increased, and it was thought ad- visable by the Treasury to make a new arrangement. It was not correct to say that this was a case in which the whole expense of police was thrown on the colony without equivalent. Some Crown revenues, not very large cer- tainly, were given up, and the colony was not charged with the expense of con- victs employed on public works. This was according to the general principle upon which the expenses of colonial government should be arranged : in the infancy of a colony, the mother-country usually paid the whole of its expenses ; as it grew stronger, it was left to pay its own internal charges, the mother- country affording it the protection of her davy. If the internal ex- penses of New South Wales had increased; it was owing to the increase of the colony itself. And in the mean time, the charge upon this coun- try had increased : the issues from the colonial military chest had ad- vanced from 156,0001. in 1830 to 332,885/. last year. If so large a sum as half a million was to be expended upon the colony, it would be mach more satisfactory to take a Parliamentary grant to be spent on emigra- tion, which might be controlled by the Government here, than to send the money out to defray the expense of police and gaols under the con- trol of a distant authority. Mr. Baring therefore moved "the pre- vious question." Mr. CHARLES BULLER wished to know whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer was willing to spend the sum he had named upon emi- gration ? The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER—" No."

Mr. BULLER—" That is a very brief explanation:" It merited furthbr consideration, however, whether it would not be worth while to spend 40,000/. or 50,000/. upon emigration to New South Wales, as an invest- ment for the advantage of this country. In the mean time, it was most

unjust to charge upon the colonists of New South Wales the monstrous expenses entailed upon them by the prison system, which originated in England. At present the colonists of New South Wales are taxed at the rate of 21. a head ; exactly double the rate of the taxation in this country, for the interest of the National Debt may be taken to consume half of the amount actually collected in the United Kingdom.

Viscount MartoN described the injury which had been inflicted upon the colony by measures which, in rapid succession, threw upon it the coat of police and gaols, and deprived the settlers of the use of convict labour by the abolition of the assignment system. The result had been the most grievous distress in the colony. At present the amount of labour was wholly insufficient ; and the lambs were actually left to perish in the fields from the want of persons to tend them. Mr. Gibbon Wakefield had recently stated in evidence before a Committee of the House of Commons, that that distress had by no means reached its worst, and that a very dangerous state of things was approaching. The demand of New South Wales for emigration was strengthened by the fact, that it was the interest of this country, oppressed by a redundant population, to comply with that demand. Lord Mahon read an ex- tract from a petition transmitted from certain destitute labourers in Scotland, by the Glasgow Protestant Emigration Society, describing the misery of the petitioners for the want of employment, and asking for relief by means of "a well-timed, continuous system of emigration," "profitable to the colonists, profitable to those who emigrate, and profit- able to the Mother-country." Country gentlemen, said Lord Mahon, would find after all, that emigration was the best Poor-law.

Lord Jona.' RUSSELL was continually receiving representations of grievances in the Colonies, with strong reasons why each colony should be exempt from some expense, and the burden transferred to the public funds of the Mother-country. The Ionian Islands, poor and heavily taxed, complained that they had to pay 35,000/. for military contribu- tions; Malta had a similar charge of 5,000/. to complain of; and in Ceylon the payment of a large sum for such purposes was a grievance ; Jamitica complained of her expense for courts of justice, education, and the clergy. There is scarcely any colony but has some such grievance to allege ; and the Governors of colonies never fail to urge the Mother-country to relieve their own colonies of part of the expenses. Sir Colin Campbell, for instance, had not been appointed to Ceylon more than a week before he recommended that it should be exempt from part of the military expenses. Of all colonies, that which had derived most advantage from the Mother-country, and had the least cause of complaint, was New South Wales. It was the grievance of its dependency, Port Phillip, that New South Wales was unduly favoured. Lord Mahon said that a case of distress had been made out for New South Wales— Now, when he heard gentlemen from Ireland complaining of the very great distress that existed there, and stating that the labourer could not earn six- pence per day, and was subjected to the use of bad food, that he could under- stand as a case of distress ; but when the noble lord told them that the demand for labour caused very high wages, and that very large and comfortable rations of food were allowed, that was a reason why a colony might not be making so much progress as it might make if there were a greater supply of labour, but it was no account of distress, but the reverse : it arose from the fact that there was so much capital that there was not labour sufficient for its profitable employment. Did that, again, arise on account of labour having been sub- tracted from the colony That such was not the case was proved by papers on the table of the House, signed by the Bishop of Australia and the Com- mittee of Council; which showed that in Government ships, and from charges defrayed from the Colonial land-sales, 18,000 persons had been sent out to New South Wales, whilst 5,000 had arrived there unassisted. Did the distress alluded to by the noble lord arise from the number of emigrants having de- creased ? On the contrary, the fact was that the number had very much in- ckeased ; and if they added to the number he had stated the 15,000 or 16,000 sent out before the land-fund was charged with the expenses complained of, that would give about 40,000 persons added to the population of this colony at the expense of revenues created by the acts of the Government. The whole complaint of New South Wales was reduced to this, that its prosperity might advance more rapidly if this country gave 50,000/. a year for the purpose. Unquestionably, if they set aside all considera- tion of religious and moral welfare, the assignment system had contri- buted to the welfare of the colony ; but there came a time when the in- crease of the convict population became dangerous, even to the future prosperity of the settlement. That system had laid the foundation of great commercial prosperity, and the change secured political and moral prosperity ; while the new system of disposing of Crown lands established by the Earl of Ripon, of selling instead of granting them gratuitously, went to neutralize the ill effects which arose from the as- signment system, by promoting the emigration of respectable settlers. The complaint of distress was disproved again by the increase of the revenue since the transfers of the prison expenses to the colony, from /50,000/. in the years 1822 and 1834, to 207,878/. in 1837 and 1838, and 427,368/. last year. Mr. Buller said that the colonists were very hea- vily taxed ; but the amount of hard money paid per head was a very fallaCious test in comparisons of the kind— The real question was, what burdens the colonists of South Australia ac- tually had to bear : and, no doubt, if it were found that they had to pay a heavy window-tax, heavy stamp-duties, and heavy duties upon tea and all other ar- ticles of general consumption, including an import-duty upon cotn, then in- deed, a people so much burdened and ground down by taxation might have some right to come to the lightly-taxed people of England and call upon them to give them some assistance. But supposing the very reverse of this hypo- thesis to he the true case, then he would ask what right remained for such an application. Now, in considering the taxation of New South Wales, it was impossible not to be struck with the peculiar circumstances both of the re- venue and the expenditure. With respect to the latter, it was to be observed that many charges which were in this country of a local and municipal nature, grid Were paid out of the county-rates or poor-rates—which he thought the pre- ferable plan—were in New South Wales defrayed out of the general revenue ; just am if in this country the police and lighting of London and other large towns should be pail out of the duties levied on sugar and rum in the ports. With respect to the revenue, he found that in 1838 a sum of 145,2781. out of a total of 202,000/. was levied by imposts on spirituous liquors, wine, tobacco, and other commodities, which he thought were as proper objects of taxation as any that could be named. It ought also to be borne in mind that a portion of this revenue was made up of quit-rents and land-fines, which were no burden to the objects of the Queen in New South Wales, but arose from the produce of the lend, 'old there.

In truth, New South Wales was very lightly taxed; and the Mother-

country was already sufficiently burdened on account of that colony. He concurred in what had been said as to the importance of emigration, and Government had not been neglectful on that head— He had more than once expressed his concurrence in the principles laid down, first by Mr. Gibbon Wakefield, and afterwards acted upon by the Co- lonial Secretary in 1831, of applying the proceeds of the sale of lands to the encouragement of emigration. He thought that a most wholesome system, far preferable to the method of occasionally voting a sum of 50,000/. or 100,0001- for the same purpose out of the public revenue. It was in the details of a system of emigration that the chief difficulty lay. Those whose destitution would induce them most readily to quit this country, and whom others would be most willing to assist to emigrate—weavers, for example, with large families—were not likely to be most acceptable to the colonists, nor fitted for the hardships of emigration or the pastoral employments for which labourers were quired in New South Wales ; while the young and strong did no, the bulk of those who were most desirous to emigrate, or whom the local authorities were most anxious to remove.

Great discrimination and caution, therefore, were requisite in this matter ; and he did not think that any scheme could be better than that which com- bined the sale of land with the promotion of free emigration; because the sale of land operated as a check upon emigration, and a guarantee that it was not misdirected. In New South Wales this principle had been adopted under a peculiar form, entitled the Bounty system. To hear the noble lord opposite, and the honourable gentleman who bad moved this question tonight, it would really be supposed that the Bounty system had been abandoned and put a stop to. But what was really the fact ? It appeared from the statement of Sir George Gipps, that the proceeds from the sale of lands in 1839 was 152,000!.; and that during the same period the land-sales account had been charged for the purposes of emigration to the extent of 158,000/., being actually 6,000/. more than the proceeds of the land-sales.

Sir George Gipps had been instructed to demand that the colonists should tax themselves for local purposes, but never to say that the Bounty system should be discontinued. The question before the House was, whether they should take 50,000/. off the burdens of New South Wales, to add it to those of the United Kingdom ; and that he was not prepared to do. Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH pointed to the peculiar circumstances in which New South Wales was placed, from having been so long is penal colony. No one uninformed upon the subject could have any idea of the amount of crime generated among the vast criminal population ; and it was most unjust to make the colony pay the pi• 'In expenses for the convicts of the Mother-country.

Sir ROBERT PEEL agreed that 50,000/. a year might be well spent in swamping the criminal population of New South Wales and encou- raging emigration ; but it was not well to restrict the view to particular cases : there were other interests to be defended— He was induced to take a part in this debate from a regard for that unfor- tunate sufferer the public treasury, which he firmly believed to be the most oppressed and helpless object of any presented for public sympathy. If colony were poor—if she had no commerce—if her export were rapidly decreas- ing—there was strong ground, it was urged, fur the Mother-country affording her relief. If, on the other hand, there can be shown an enormous increase ei prosperity—that the amount of the wool-trade, for example, had quadrupled, and that trade was in a flourishing state—then it is said the Mother-country gained a large percentage on the amount of exports, and that nothing would be more unwise than to check the supply of funds from the Mother-country, which had already supplied so rich a harvest. So that whe,her a colony were rich or poor, equally strong grounds were urged why the public treasury should bear the whole of its burdens. (" Hear, hear ! " and a laugh.) Sir Robert took occasion to deprecate the general disposition re, cently manifested by governments to add to national expenditure— It was not alone in this country that an alarming disposition was exhibited to depart from a due proportion between its expenditure and its avails% resources. After twenty-three years of peace, he saw in every country, whether goyerned by despotic authorities or by popular institutiona, the alarming prospect which the growing defalcation of revenue as compared with expenditure exhibited—the ultimate paralyzation of industry, and the sus- pension of that career of prosperity which had hitherto prevailed. It was certainly a new feature in the history of nations, that with professions of pro- found peace a government should expend in fortifying a city so enormous a sum as 30,000,000L The only effectual means of checking the evil to which such a state of things must give rise, was by disposing the minds of the people to alter those warlike pusuits, instead of encouraging feelings of hos- tility, of jealousy. and of military rivalry. (Loud cries of "Hear, hear !" from. both sides of the House.) The motion was supported by Mr. WARD and Sir ROBERT INGLIS ; and opposed by Mr. HomE. On a division, "the previous question " was carried, by 52 to 8. The motion was therefore lost.

IONIAN ISLANDS.

Lord CHARLES Frrznov moved, on Thursday, for a Select Committee to take into consideration the papers relating to the Ionian Islands, printed by order of the House on the 2d June last. He contrasted the benefit which Ireland had derived from a conciliatory mode of govern- ment, with the reliance which Sir Howard aniglas, the Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, placed upon his police power. Lord JOHN RUSSELL saw no reason for appointing the Committee. The Ionian Islands were not a colony under the immediate control of the Crown, but they formed a state specially constituted by treaty under the protecting sovereignty of the Queen— Under these circumstances, it was necessary to abstain as far as possible from any immediate or direct interference on the part of the Crown with tint proceedings of the Local Government of the Ionian Islands. He did not say that special circumstances might not arise under which the state of these islands might properly become the subject of inquiry by Parliament ; but the House ought to be extremely cautious how, by any act of unnecessary inter- ference, it excited feelings of jealousy among the inhabitants of the Ionian Islands. The present state of the Ionian Islands was, that all the authorities, with one exception, were acting harmoniously together. No disturbance existed amongst the people; no distress was complained of; but, on the con- trary, it appeared that they were generally employed at high wages. With regard to the proceedings that bad been adopted by Sir Howard Douglas, he believed that they were perfectly justified by circumstances.

Although he did not think that any serious discontent existed in the islands, it would not he well to foster the restlessness of certain parties, on all subjects connected with the social and political condition of the islanders. He should meet the metion by a direct negative. Sir HENRY HARDINGE defended Sir Howard Douglas from a charge of having caused a letter to be opened at the Post-office. Mr. HUM supported the motion ; accusing Sir Howard of having elected his last Parliament with the aid of fixed bayonets. Sir ROBERT PEEL objected to the precedent which such a motion would set up. It was ultimately rejected, by 28 to 10.

ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN IRELAND.

In the House of Lords, on Thursday, the Earl of CHARLEVILLE re- ferred to the statement of Lord Normanby, on the evening before the Easter recess, that Mr. Biddulph had expressed himself satisfied with the Jury by whom the two men who had shot at him were tried, at the Lent Assizes in King's County. Lord Charleville had made some in- quiries on the subject ; and Mr. Biddulph had written to him to say that the moment the Jury was empanelled he felt convinced it was one that would never agree to a verdict, whatever the evidence might be.

The Marquis of Not:lawsuit said that he had given his authority at the time for the statements which he had made ; he had read the very words of the Law-Officers of the Crown who conducted the trial. He could not hold himself responsible for misunderstandings that might occur between them and Mr. Biddnlph. The Earl of WICKLOW and the Marquis of WESTAIEATH thought an imputation was fixed on the officers of the Crown, and that Lord Nor- manby was bound to make an inquiry into the subject. The Marquis of NORMANBY promised that inquiry should be made. MISCELLANEOUS.

REGISTRATION or VOTERS IN IRELAND. Lord MORPETH informed

the House of Commons, on Thursday, that the only material alteration which he intended to propose in the Irish Parliamentary Voters Bill, would be to augment the qualification to Si. Mr. O'CONNELL expressed much regret at the announcement.

CORN-LAWS AND WAGES. Sir WTLLIAM MOLESWORTH gave notice, on Tuesday, that on the 4th of May he would move for the appoint- ment of a Committee to consider the influence of the price of pro- visions upon the wages of labour.

NATIONAL MONUMENTS. On the motion of Mr. Hume, on Tuesday,

the following Members were nominated a Select Committee to consider the propriety of throwing national monuments open to the people—Mr. Hume, Mr. Gonlburn, Mr. Ewart, Mr. Mackinnon, Mr. Cowper, Lord Francis Egerton, Mr. Thomas Duncombe, Mr. H. Broadwood, Sir G. De Lacy Evans, Lord Granville Somerset, Mr. E. J. Stanley, Mr. H. T. Hope, Mr. Slaney, Colonel Salwey, and Mr. Manes.

MR. CANDLISH AND THE BIBLICAL PROFESSORSHIP. At the instance

of Sir GEORGE SINCLAIR, on Thursday, Mr. Fox Menus gave an expla- nation of the circumstances under which Mr. Candlish's appointment to the Professorship of Biblical Criticism in Edinburgh University had been withheld, not substantially differing from that which Lord Nor- manby gave in the House of Lords a few weeks back. Mr. Maule added, however, that the interdict of the Court of Session which Mr. Candlish had broken, was not issued against him individually, but against the General Assembly : it had been issued more than a year ; and it had been before broken by several eminent ministers. The per- sons who had obtained it ex parts, had not had the manliness to apply to the Court of Session to bring the matter to an issue. Until further proceedings were known, Lord Normanby could not be expected to make any declarations of his future intentions.

OFFICIAL INFORMATION ABOUT CHINA. Sir ROBERT PEEL asked whether any official accounts had been received of an action in Canton River, in which some lives had been lost ; and if so, why they had not appeared, as usual, in the Gazette ? Lord JOHN RUSSELL said there had been accounts received through India of such an action, but not official accounts of it. When received, they would of course be printed.

NEW Warr. On the motion of Mr. E. J. STANLEY, on Tuesday, a new writ for the borough of Nottingham was directed to be issued, in the room of General Sir Ronald Ferguson, deceased.