Debates anb Thottebings in Vadiantent.

THE INCOME-TAX.

The order of the day having been moved in the House of Lords, on Tuesday, for the third reading of the Income-tax Bill, the Marquis of CLANRICARDE rose to move an amendment. If it were said that at that stage it would be improper to reject the bill, be replied, that that House did not sit to register the edicts of the House of Commons. At great length he enumerated objections to the bill, which may be summed up as follows : it will be perceived that they go over much beaten ground— To prove that the measure was "obnoxious" to the people, he referred to the petition of the City of London in 1815; and the present bill has all the bad characteristics of an income-tax in their grossest and most aggravated form. In speaking of it, on Friday, Lord Melbourne left it to be inferred that he himself might possibly have proposed an income-tax if the country could have borne it : that was the first time that Lord Clanricarde had beard that Lord Melbourne or the late Ministers entertained such an opinion. Lord Melbourne said that the tax would raise money ; and the Duke of Wellington, catching at the argument, said that the tax would produce money and the people would not know it; a most unconstitutional argument. The necessity of the measure ought to have been proved. He objected to a measure which established the principle of raising a large part of the revenue by direct taxa- tion. It was said to be necessary to equalize our income with our expendi- ture ; but it was not stated why they were not equaL Our financial difficulties were exaggerated and our commercial and social energies were underrated ; and while no hope was held out of relief from the Corn-law, persons so long con- versant with our commercial duties as Ministers were suddenly awakened to their tree character, and went out of their way to create a necessity for this tax. It was said that the old tariff was based on no principle ; neither is the new tariff: and although the new tariff is a great improvement, yet he would sooner have the old one without the Income-tax than the new one with it. More than 22,000,000/. of taxes have been taken off since 1821 ; and 3,000,000L of additional taxes imposed had so little of disastrous effect that in three years afterwards 2,000,0001. more were repealed : that indicated a better source than an income-tax. The Marquis then alluded to the timber-duties and the coffee-duties; deprecating the sacrifice of revenue on those articles. He declared it a deception to say that the Income-tax would be repealed in three years. He objected to the arrangement by which Ireland is saddled with a permanent taxation of 400,000L, while England and Scotland are to have an additional charge of 4,000,0001. for three years only. The powers of the bill are tyrannical, and inconsistent with free government. The Duke of Rich- mond had said that the landed interest had a preponderating influence, and that they had taken care of themselves: the Income-tax favours them, for it is se disposed that 114,000,0001. the profits of trades and professions will have to pay more than double the amount paid by 83,000,0001. the value of land. He regarded the exemption of incomes under 150L as a most dangerous precedent; and he objected to the facility with which the amount of the tax could be en- hanced, and still higher incomes exempted: instead of three, six per cent might be levied; and incomes of 2001. or 300/. a year might be exempted. As to the boasted rise in the Funds, he believed that to be owing to the fact that parties will not now venture on speculations because they obtain no profits in trade; and so they invest their money in the Funds. Government, in dealing with the financial difficulties of the country, had merely endeavoured to ascer- tain how easily they might obtain money, neglecting to provide a permanent remedy for the evils under which the nation suffered. He moved that the bill be read a third time that day three months.

The Duke of RICHMOND observed, that he had not made the remark attributed to him this session ; and he did not suppose that the present Government paid the smallest attention to any thing that fell from him.

The Earl of WICKLOW regretted that by not imposing the tax on Ireland Government seemed to pronounce that country unable to bear it ; while the country is really as heavily taxed as it would have been under the bill, for the two provisions which exempt property under the yearly value of 1501. and rate the tenant at only half his rent would practically have exempted the whole tenantry of Ireland. He wished to see similarity of legislation, of taxation, and of benefits, existing in both countries.

Earl STANHOPE supported the amendment in a random speech, which may be thus outlined— The new Corn-law and the Income-tax go together, for both would con- siderably reduce the incomes of the landed proprietors. Be did not attribute the deficiency in the revenue to the depressed state of trade, but to the mis- management of the late Administration ; and first of all, to the experiment in which they followed the idle opinions of Mr. Rowland Hill, at a cost of 1,200,0001. He was not one of those "provincial Chancellors of the Exchequer" who obtrude themselves on any Minister; and he was perfectly satisfied that his advice would not have been followed—(Laughter)—he doubted whether it would have been well received. (Renewed laughter.) But he would have suggested other measures,—a well-regulated house-tax; an addition to the Assessed Taxes, exempting professional persons keeping one horse, one man- servant, or one carriage, and rising in an increasing ratio ; a twopenny postage; a duty on French wines ; and he would have reviewed his expenditure, to see what reduction could be made. Be asked whether there is such prosperity and content among the middle classes as to make the measure safe to the peace of the country; and he predicted that if there were to be a war, " Peel's Bill" would be blown to atoms. Not an instant should be lost in applying a remedy for the distress, for it is most alarming; and if it continued it might involve the country in anarchy. He declared that the country ought not to be called upon to pay the expenses of the Chinese war; for Parliament was uninformed of the war, the Queen never having formally come down and stated that she had entered into a war with China because they would not permit the introduction of a most noxious drug. And finally, he expressed the utmost alarm at the prospect, that the first imposition of a tax on foreigners, the holders in the English Funds, would cause the withdrawal of capital to the amount of 12,000,000/. or 14,000,000/., ruin the Bank, and injure our already crippled commerce. For these reasons, he considered the measure as pregnant with danger ; although it was the least mischievous of any of the measures which the Government had proposed ; and he would willingly give his support to the motion of the noble Marquis opposite. Lord BEAUMONT agreed that it was absolutely necessary to adopt some method to retrieve our disordered finances, at which every scrib- bler on the Continent pointed; but he declared that in their financial scheme Government had thrown over revenue and protection together ; and hence the necessity for the Income-tax. It was the most difficult thing in the world to arrive at the expectations of the Government with regard to their new measures : sometimes the answers in the other House were different ; and if ever an answer was obtained in that House, it was always different from that given in the other House. Did they look to the extension of the linen-trade with France ? or did they think that Mr. Tyler was inoculated with a low tariff, or that Mr. Clay had become an advocate of free trade ? Did they look to Prussia and Northern Europe ? to the East, where the Black Sea is closed against them, and where the Dardanelles have just been shut? to Central Asia, where envoy after envoy has been rebuffed? Having repeated some other objections against the Government measures generally, and the Income-tax in particular, Lord Beaumont said that the Lords who had addressed the House in opposition to it were continually harping on the Corn-laws : if they had left that argument out, he might have been induced to reconsider the question ; as it was, he should give a qualified vote in favour of the Income-tax and against Lord Lansdowne's reso- lution.

Lord Frrzczasen AND VESEY explained, that three years bad been fixed as the duration of the Income-tax, in order that at the end of that time the whole finances of the country might come under the revision of Parliament. On the part of Government, he repudiated responsi- bility for the wars in which, on entering office, they found the country engaged ; but they were called upon to acj, without considerations of a party nature and without reference to the origin of those wars, so as tq provide for the exigencies of the state. As to the foreign relations and commercial interests of the country, he did not despond: he took a more cheerful view than Lord Beaumont of the negotiations pending with foreign countries. There were no doubt strong objections to be urged against an income-tax ; but the speeches against it answered one another. Lord Clanricarde said that it would be justified by proving its necessity ; Earl' Stanhope had proved it for him ; and Lord Mel- bourne, if he said nothing in defence of the late Government, certainly gave to the measure of the present Government his sanction. Lord Fitzgerald repeated a variety of arguments constantly used in support of the measure,—the growing deficiency ; the recorded opinions of Lord Althorp, Lord Congleton, Mr. Poulett Thomson, and other au- thorities; the state of the Indian finances ; and the loss in the postage- revenue. He willingly admitted that it would be impossible to revert to the old postage ; and that if it were possible it would not be desirable ; but the new system ought to have a fair and he hoped a successful trial. The abrogation of the Standing Order in the House of Com- mons which hindered the reception of petitions against a pending tax had been of service in showing that there was no strong manifestation of public feeling against the tax : 130 petitions had been presented ; the odd 30 being from attornies and solicitors who objected to particular provisions affecting themselves; and of the 9,000 signatures, if they were all those of persons affected by the tax, he could only say that there were many persons in easy circumstances whose education had been very much neglected. He defended the mode of taxing Ireland : she was subjected to no tax not already imposed on England and Scot- land ; but she was exempted from the Income-tax, a burden which her social position renders her peculiarly unfitted to bear.

Lord MONTEAGLE predicted, that as soon as the surcharges shall be counted by thousands, there will no longer be few petitions against the measure. He objected to the enormous bribe to the country to submit to the tax, and the enormous amount of revenue relinquished, by the ex- emption of incomes under 1501.: of 282,000 dividend-warrants issued, only 1,300 are for amounts above 1301. a year. In 1801 the assessable property amounted to 80,600,0001., and incomes under 601. a year were exempt ; and it could not be a great miscalculation that the amount of income between that limit and that of 150/. a year was equal to one quarter of the whole—namely, 20,000,0001. Lord Monteagle entered into a calculation to show, that from 1831 to 1841 the excess of income over expenditure was 2,600,000/., which was the Whig surplus on their ten years of administration. The deficiency of the year was all that the present Ministry had to deal with ; the deficiency of 10,000,0001., an amount accumulated by the addition of many items, having been abun- dantly provided for. He warned the Ministers against making to foreign countries the announcement that the springs of Customs and Excise were dried up, even if they were so ; and he made a further cal- culation to show that, if the Emancipation-loan and the conversion of permanent into terminable annuities (the best species-of sinking-fund) were excluded, the increase on the annual charge would only be 140,000/. ; and then he entered on some general objections to the bill before the House.

In his reply, the Earl of Riven" showed that accounting for the de- ficiency did not disprove its existence. He admitted that the revenue had not decreased ; but during the last six years there had been an 'in- crease in the naval and military services of 3,500,000/. ; which *as at first supposed to be of a temporary nature, but it had now assumed the character of a permanent expense. Lord Clanricarde seemed to think that some new light had broken in upon Government on the subject of relaxing commercial restrictions ; but Lord Ripon himself had always maintained the principles of what is called Free Trade.

On a division, the amendment was negatived, by 99 to 28.

The bill was then read a third time, and passed. It received the Royal assent on Wednesday.

THE POOR-LAW.

The order of the day for the Committee on the Poor-law Amend- ment Bill having been moved, in the House of Commons, on Monday, Colonel SLBTLIORP opposed the motion. Sir James Graham ought to be more straightforward, and declare that he intended at once to render the Commission perpetual. The Colonel objected to its expense: the cost had increased from 6281. in 1834 to 41,8341. in 1840 ; and with the expenditure of the last two years the total cost would probably be 641,3961. He moved that the bill be taken into further consideration that day three months.

Mr. WAE1.EY seconded the motion. He reproached the Tories with having placed themselves in power by taking advantage of the Whig error in proposing the measure, and now supporting it themselves. But they were not to make a scapegoat of Sir James Graham— The right honourable Baronet exhibited no inconsistency—no dishonesty in advocating the present bill ; and honourable Members ought not to speak of it as the right honourable Baronet's measure, but as the measure of the great Tory party. It was the measure of that party which, when out of power, were almost unanimously vociferous in condemning it. (" No, no I" from the Mi- nisterial benches.) Be knew that there had been exceptions. For instance, the right honourable Baronet at the head of her Majesty's Government was an exception ; he stood perfectly excused in the matter, having been throughout the consistent advocate of the principle of the New Poor-law. But did the party suppose that the measure would be less odious out of doors because it was supported by them ? There was to him something startling in the votes which were given on the second reading. He could not comprehend the matter. The House had decided by five to one in favour of the second read- ing; whilst out of doors, the tradesmen—the parties who returned Members to that House—were nine to one against it. There was something incomprehen- sible in that. Was there a secret alliance existing betweeu the aristocracy and the voters ? He feared that there was an implied understanding to that effect; and that Members thought they were serving the interest of electors at the expense of the poor by voting as they had done. The most disastrous re- sults might be anticipated from such conduct. Was the House prepared, in the present state of the country, amidst the frightful distress which prevailed on all sides, to declare that a poor man should be punished simply because he was poor ? Were they prepared to make that announcement in the present frightful aspect of affairs?

The tower of the Commission would expire on the 31st of July ; and if he possessed the physical power, he would prolong the debates until after that day, to get rid of the abominable institution. It was said that the law would have the effect of raising wages ; but in that respect it had totally failed. And the law was to produce uniformity ; but there was the greatest diversity in the treatment of paupers. In one Union, the maintenance of a pauper cost 53. Old. a week ; in another, only ls. id. ; and the lowest cost was adopted in agricultural districts, where wages were lower. Mr. Wakley went on to read extracts from the reports of the Commissioners, interpreting their principle not to make the dietary of the workhouse better than that of the workshop, to mean, "if you will not starve in the one, you shall starve in the other." He objected to the size of Unions, which obliges the pauper to walk miles and miles in search of relief. He predicted that the Tory party would not remain in power long ; for addressess would be sent to the Queen from all parts of the country to dissolve this Parliament ; and should the Queen accede to that desire, a very different House of Com- mons would be returned. He regretted that Dr. Kay had not been ap- pointed Poor-law Commissioner in place of Sir Edmund Head ; against whom, however, he had no complaint to make, for he was a valuable officer. But such an appointment as that of Dr. Kay would have been gratifying to the medical profession, and would have been productive of great benefit to the poor. He approved of the increased payment allowed to medical officers ; but objected to a scale of prices varying from 11. to 51. for certain surgical operations, as being a " premium on amputation "; while he objected also to the absence, in the enumeration of payments, of any mention of internal diseases, and to some other details of the medical arrangements. He insisted that the management of the poor-fund should be intrusted to local Boards of Guardians and the ratepayers themselves. Viscount COURTENAY supported the 'commission as essential to the working of the Poor-law. Mr. Wakley should bear in mind, that the principle of the dietaries was, not to hold out temptation to enter the workhouse ; not in order to save the money of the ratepayers, but to restore habits of independence to the people. He doubted whether under the old law medical officers received more adequate remuneration than at present.

Mr. Lswsost opposed the law.

Sir ROBERT PEEL agreed with Mr. Wakley in condemning the dis- position of some gentlemen to make Sir James Graham peculiarly and personally responsible for the measure : the measure was the measure of the whole Government—a Government concurring in the opinion that it was for the permanent welfare of the paupers of this country. Sir Robert himself had supported the Whig Government which pro- posed-the existing law, from a deep sense of the evils engendered by the old system ; and as there were many gentlemen recently entered upon public life, who had formed their judgment of the Poor-law upon the defects of the present system, without reference to the evils of the old system, Sir Robert Peel read extracts from an account of the Work- houses under the old law, given by such men as the Bishop of Chester and the Bishop of London- " Few such parishes could supsupporta workhouse, though they may have a poor- house, a miserable abode, occupied rent-free by three or four dissolute families, mutually corrupting each other. Even the parishes which are somewhat mare populous, those coutaining from 300 to 800 inhabitants, and which amount to 5,353, in the few cases in which they possess an efficient management, obtain it at a disproportionate expense. In such parishes, when overburdened with poor, we usually find the building, called a workhouse, occupied by sixty or eighty paupers, made up of a dozen or more neglected children, (under the care, per- haps, of a pauper,) about twenty or thirty able-bodied adult paupers of both sexes, and probably an equal number of aged and impotent persons, proper ob- jects of relief. Amidst these the mothers of bastard children and prostitutes live without shame, and associate freely with theyouth; who have also the ex- amples and conversation of the frequent inmates of the county-gaol, the poacher, the vagrant, the decayed beggar, and other characters of the worst description. To these may often be added a solitary blind person, one or two idiots, and not uufrequently are heard, from among the rest, the incessant ravings of some neglected lunatic. In such receptacles the sick poor are often immured." Sir Robert quoted details bearing out this general description; and then he read a different account, of fine accommodation for the paupers in St. Pancras Workhouse in 1833, with a liberal expenditure—at the expense of those who were scarcely removed above the condition of paupers. In that workhouse the officers were obliged to admit women of the worst character, who decoyed away the young girls. The parish of St. Botolph in Aldgate, in order to avoid simi- lar contamination, used to send their poor out to farm ; but the farm-house keepers used to give them as much liberty as possible, in order to save their keep ; and the paupers often wandered about in a state of intoxication. "Call the Act of Elizabeth the Charter of the Poor, if you please," exclaimed Sir Ro- bert ; " say that the poor have rights upon the property, and the first lien upon the land of the country—say this as often as you will, yet I tell you, that all those doctrines, if practically enforced, will end in the degradation and ruin of the very class whose cause you profess to advocate." If the management of the poor were intrusted to local authorities, there would be no guarantee against a return to these abuses. As far as political motives were concerned, it would be easy for Ministers to join the outcry against the law ; and there could be no conceivable motive why they should support it, except as believing it conducive to the permanent good of the country. Government now proposed the continuance of the Commission with no definite intention of making it permanent ; but many improvements had been effected which would have been impossible without the aid of the Commissioners ; and even Mr. Wakley, the great enemy of the Commisssion, wished for the ap- pointment of a particular Commissioner, Dr. Kay. It was impossible to read the Report of 1833 and not to see that a gross system of jobbing prevailed under the old law ; when five or six little tradesmen acted as Guardians or Overseers, and 30 or 40'per cent was considered a moderate charge on articles purchased for the use of the poor ; and the first at- tempt to enforce economy was met by a combination of those who pro- fited from the abuse. The Commission had enforced a system of rigorous account ; and under it the medical superintendence was more complete.

Colonel Sibthorp's amendment was rejected, by 219 to 48.

Mr. FERRAND then moved that the debate be adjourned till that day week. Sir James Graham rested the whole of his argument for intro- ducing the measure into the North of England on certain charges of corrupt jobbing in the Union of Keighley, preferred by Mr. Mott : but Mr. Ferrand denied the truth of those charges ; and he was prepared to move that the Assistant-Commissioner had produced the report for the purpose of misleading the House. Mr. FIELDEN seconded the motion ; avowing that he would do any thing to delay the passing of the bill ; and he recommended Government to delay it for a year. Mr. MARK Primps said that he had had an interview with a large body of his consti- tuents, and he found that the principal objection to the law entertained by many of those gentlemen as Guardians of Unions was, that they felt it a degradation to be compelled to submit to orders and directions of a Central Board of Commissioners sitting in London. Mr. Philips saw many causes operating to produce that lowness of wages which was attributed to the Poor-law ; and he wished that the House could be induced to grapple with those causes. Sir JAMES GRAHAM said that the report of Mr. Mott on the gross mismanagement of the Keighley Union had been confirmed by the report of Sir John Walsham, which came down to the 9th of June ; and if Mr. Ferrand would move for a Committee to inquire into the mode of administering the Poor-law in the Keighley Union and the veracity of Mr. Ferrand's statements, Government would not resist it. Mr. FERRAND would withdraw his amendment, on condition that there was to be a Com- mittee to inquire into the conduct of Mr. Mott and Sir John Walsham ; but Sir JAMES GRAHAM stuck to the terms of his offer ; and Mr. FER- RAND divided the House. The numbers were, for his amendment, 18; against it, 255.

The House went into Committee, and almost immediately adjourned.

MINES AND COLLIERIES BILL.

Lord ASHLEY presented several petitions on Wednesday in favour of the Mines and Collieries Bill ; and among them one from five hundred colliers at Barnsley, and another from wives and daughters of the col- liers at Barnsley working in the pits, both expressing gratitude for the measure. Mr. Scorr read some documents which went to show that South Staffordshire had been improperly included in the condemnation of practices that prevail in other parts ; and he, Mr. ALDAM, and Mr. LAMBTON recommended delay, in order to allow further time for the consideration of the measure. Mr. WARD said that the bill was ap- proved of in those parts of Yorkshire with which he was connected ; and he urged despatch.

The House went into Committee, and some slight amendments were made. Lord ASHLEY himself made two of considerable importance. He said, that in consequence of statements from the representatives of the great coal-districts in the North of England, respecting the interests of the children themselves, he had altered the provision respecting the employment of boys, so as to permit boys between ten and thirteen years of age to work on three alternate days in the week a day's la- bour not exceeding twelve hours ; and boys already employed, who have reached the age of nine, will be allowed to continue at work under similar regulations. And he inserted an additional clause, giving to the Secretary of State power to appoint Inspectors to examine into the state of mines and collieries and the machinery used therein. The bill passed through the Committee.

THE BALLOT.

Mr. WARD brought the question of the Ballot before the present House of Commons for the first time, on Tuesday. Deprecating com- parisons of himself with Mr. Grote, he yet derived an advantage in the recent disclosures, which had given to this Parliament the name of " the Bribery Parliament "; and which rendered some remedy for the evils indispensable, unless they wished to forfeit the respect and con- fidence of the country— He admitted that the Liberals had had recourse to corrupt influences as well as the Conservatives : it was not difference of principles between the two parties, but a difference of means. There was, however, a disposition on both sides to look at the dangers which such a system must entail. One accession to the supporters of the Ballot must be counted—Lord Howick ; who had formerly denied that landlords influenced their tenants; but who, at the poll for North Northumberland, made, in the most unmeasured terms, a sweeping charge against the whole landed proprietary of the county. No penal enactumts would put a stop to briberty or intimidation; for a century. ago De Foe re- marked that bribery had increased after the penal enactments which had just then been adopted. These practices could not safely continue while the eyes of the unrepresented millions are fixed upon our electoral system, and see the manner in which the franchise is exercised by those who possess the property test. They see the tenantry of England in slavish submission to their land- lords, end in the towns wholesale, barefaced, unblushing profligacy ; they see that out of the election-seats for the United Kingdom seventy -eight bad been petitioned against by while petitions, hile many escaped investigation by a community of guilt between the parties.

The opponents of the Ballot place themselves in this dilemma—they first limit the franchise, and then they say that it is necessary to con- trol those who possess it because they will not exercise it properly. But if the electoral body are not fit to exercise the franchise, that evil

should meet its fit remedy ; but the freedom of opinion ought not to be interfered with. At present one moiety of the electoral body is coerced, while the other is bought. In confirmation of that view, Mr. Ward read an extract from a pamphlet by Mr. Milnes ; in which the

writer argued, that if Parliament could check bribery it could not pre- vent intimidation : "the corruption which gives pleasure may perhaps be checked, while the corruption that gives pain goes its way unchal- lenged." Without a single exception throughout the counties of Eng- land, the tenautries are regarded as the chattels of the estates, and neutrality itself is an offence. Even a death or a purchase will decide an election— In the West Riding of Yorkshire, at the last general election, the can- vassing was carried on with great activity. There was, however, a little oasis in the desert ; there was one quiet spot which for upwards of a fortnight had been exempted from the canvass. It was occupied by the tenantry of the Duke of Leeds, who had died just as the canvass had been begun. No one could venture to say what the opinion of the present Duke of Leeds was to be, and the tenantry remained uncanvassed ; being obliged to wait for the impulse which was sure to come from above, before their sentiments could be:ascertained. During his own contest in Sheffield, he was walking with a friend when he met one of the Duke's tenantry, who said, in reply to a question from his friend, " We have got our orders at last, we are all to be Yellows' this time." The man was well pleased to vote for Lord Milton and Lord Morpeth; but if he had been a Blue to the backbone the result would have been just the same. At the Wigtoushire election, in Scotland, the parties were nearly balanced; and for upwards of three weeks Lord Stair was most bitterly attacked by the Con- servative press for what they termed the shameful profligacy and iniquity with which he had ventured to purchase a large estate, having upon it no less than thirty votes,just at the critical period when these thirty votes were certain to turn the scale, though in fact Lord Stair had been negotiating the purchase for some time.

In the boroughs, similar means were resorted to, with greater facili- ties for finding out every man's business and the means to "get at the vote"— Dealing, then, with the facts he had described, he asked if it were not dis- gusting, looking at the amount of political profligacy that existed, and to the inquiry that bad been instituted by the House, to perceive that the strings of the whole machinery of corruption were held by five or six Members on either side of the House, and worked by them for the benefit of the party to which they belonged ? They appointed the candidates, they allotted the funds, they pitted individuals against one another according to their means ; and then they came back to that House, talked of political purity, and showed their respect for it by censuring and condemning some unhappy gentleman who happened to be found out.

He affirmed of the Ballot, that it would break up this system— Once let the voter be aware that he had a safeguard in secrecy, and he would begin to act conscientiously ; no man would venture upon individual bribery, knowing that he was without the means of redeeming the condition on which his bribe was paid. He believed that it would place the solicitation for votes on a proper footing, and that canvassing would become an appeal to the good sense and personal interests of the electors. Lord Howick had spoken of the fran- chise as a trust: but the non-electors could not now interfere; influence reached the electors from above, but the influence from below, that of the non- electors, was only to be exercised by an intimidation from numbers, which was immediately repressed by the law.. And as to the argument that the Ballot would destroy the legitimate influence of property, he believed that under the Ballot, character, intelligence, fitness for the public service, and even worldly advantages, would maintain as much influence as ever : but, as it is said by Mr. Bailey, in his work On Republics, the aristocracy have found it easier to acquire by corruption that influence which they might have gained by virtue and public utility. No power, however, is so fleeting as that which is based on corruption,

Mr. Ward concluded by moving, " That in all future elections of Members of Parliament the votes be taken by way of ballot."

Mr. H. BERKELEY seconded the motion; and opposed the saying that the Ballot is on-English, by referricg to the beast-like manner in which voters are driven to the poll by their landlords' servants. He contributed some extracts from a canvassing-book-

The name of the voter was first set forth, and then followed the memo- randum: " Works for Mr. So-and-so—see the foreman ; he borrowed money on a bill—see the attorney and ascertain his politics." Another ran as follows : " Mr. —, a publican, behind-hand with his brewer—see the brewer and as- certain his politics." Then came another: "Mr. — has money on mortgage—see the mortgagee, and bring up the mortgage." Mr. Fripp had re- fused an invitation to stand for Bristol, because it was made a condition that he should spend a larger sum than had been expended by the two Conservative candidates in 1837. Even in the municipal elections at Bristol, these ominous words were posted on the walls—" Vote for the Blues; money is no object." Mr. Berkeley related instances of coercion even in respect of registration : the elector endeavoured to evade registration by making himself ill, but a Tory physician ordered him to be taken in a sedan-chair.

Captain Levant) asked, whether the Income-tax was not as much calculated to produce falsehood as the Ballot ; and he observed, that Lord John Russell's bill might put down bribery, but not intimidation. Mr. CHRISTIE supported the motion ; referring to the conduct of those who are bribed for proof that the Ballot is not by them thought favour- able to fraud ; as at Sudbury, where the brother of a candidate drew upon himself groans and cries of" No, no!" by saying that his relative was favourable to the Ballot. Mr. VERNON HARCOURT thought that the Ballot would be ineffectual to its purpose. He stated a fact respecting Sudbury, that two candidates were told that the sum of money for an election need not be so large in case of a contest as if there were none. He believed that under the Ballot the leaders of parties in boroughs would make an engagement with candidates to return them for a given sum, to be divided among the voters after the election was over. He suspected that those who declaim most loudly against intimidation and exclusive dealing are jobbing electors in search of compensation for supposititious injuries. Captain BERKELEY found that those were right who told him that the Chandos clause and the admission of freemen, for which he voted, would give a handle to the friends of the Ballot : at that time he opposed it—now he should vote for it. Captain BERNAL stated, that many who had voted for him at the last election were now suffering from the vengeance of an aristocratic Whig, graduating in high Tory doctrines, who turned round and asked " whether he might not do as he liked with his own ? " Mr. MILNES took occasion to deny that he had ever advocated the sin of bribery ; the real cure for which lay in the people's increased intelligence and appreciation of political privileges, just as the character of individual Members of the House had been improved since Sir Robert Walpole's time. He was of opinion that fewer votes had been bought at the last election than at any hard-fought electoral struggle at former periods. As to intimidation, the influence of Earl Fitzwilliam had been defeated in Yorkshire, of Lord Gainsborough in Rutlandshire, of Lord Grey in Northumberland, and a similar case acurred in Bedford. If such in- timidation spread abroad as that at Carlow and Cork, however, the House of Commons might choose the Ballot as the lesser of two evils, and he might be induced to vote for it : but he did not think that exi- gency had yet arrived ; and the measure would lead to endless changes. Mr. C. PONSONBY supported the motion, as all previous measures to prevent corruption had proved ineffectual. Mr. BYNO did not think the Ballot could render any service to Englishmen ; for a real English- man cannot conceal his real feelings ; and it would do away with can- vassing, which promotes useful explanations between representatives and constituents. Mr. MORGAN JOHN O'CONNELL supported it, as a practical remedy for practical ills. Lord JOHN MANNERS said that the constituencies were generally opposed to it.

Mr. SHELL made a long speech in support of the motion ; which he admitted to be a repetition of his speech in 1837, for he said the sub- ject did not admit of new and refined speculation. Mr. Shell's speech comprised a statement respecting the " historical portion of the ques- tion "- Lord Grey's Government appointed a Committee of fire of themselves to frame the Reform Bills; it consisted of Lord Durham, Sir James Graham, Lord Brougham, Lord John Russell, and Lord Duncannon. The report of that Committee recommended vote by ballot and five years' duration of Par- liament. Those two points were not adopted by Lord Grey's Government ; but it was agreed that no decision should be taken one way or other on the sub- ject of the Ballot. When the Chandos clause was admitted, Lord Althorp and Lord Grey declared that it altered the character of the measure, and would furnish a powerful argument for the Ballot ; and even Lord Wharncliffe said that the Chandos clause and the 101. franchise would place a great number of voters at the mercy of the landlords; but, he added, the exercise of such a power would lead almost instantly to a demand for the vote by ballot.

Sir JessEs GRAHAM corrected Mr. Shell's story— The Committee of Lord Grey's Government consisted of only four members; Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon, Lord John Russell, and Sir James. The re- port of the Committee was prepared, not as a measure which they themselves implicitly and fully recommended, or to which they were individually pledged, but as a scheme to be considered by their colleagues in the Cabinet. The mea- sure introduced by Lord John Russell was the measure which, on the fullest deliberation, had been unanimously adopted by the Cabinet ; to which as a Cabinet they were pledged, and to which they were bound, individually and jointly, to give their firm and unflinching adherence. Before the Reform Bill, Lord Althorp had voted in favour of the Ballot; but when, on the 25th of April 1833, Mr. Grote brought forward his motion in favour of it, Lord Althorp opposed it, on the ground that the Reform Bill was proposed and was to be considered as a final measure. And that was the real origin of the word " finality " as applied to the Reform Bill. Sir James Graham did not argue that these considerations were binding except upon the members of Lord Grey's Cabinet ; but upon them it was so : Lord John Russell stood in precisely the same situation as himself.

Sir James went on with general objections against the Ballot— He had no doubt that the franchise was a trust ; and if the great body of the people found that trust exercised secretly, they would claim a participation in the privilege, and universal suffrage would be the inevitable consequence. He himself possessed considerable influence in Cumberland, and his rejection testi- fied the independence of the 501. tenants, many of whom voted against the opinion of their landlords. To avail himself of the Ballot, a man must carry out a system of falsehood—he must belong to the wrong club, wear the wrong colours, drink the wrong toasts, and profess friendship for the wrong man : the system, in truth, was a mean, dirty, paltry, cowardly system. General Jack- son said in 1835, " Our government is upheld by the ballot-box, not by the bayonet "; which was true of America, for the system was compatible only with a Republican constitution : but Sir James was of opinion with Lord John Russell, that " whilst the storm was brewing around us, it was not well to lift the anchors of the Monarchy "; and he should give his decided opposition to the motion.

Mr. Sergeant MURPHY observed, that it appeared that the " mean, dirty, paltry, and cowardly system," had been recommended in the re- port in which Sir James himself bad joined. And respecting the finality of the Reform Act, Mr. Murphy asked, whether it, containing as it did the 501. clause, was really Lord Grey's bill?

Sir JAMES GRAHAM repeated, that the members of the Committee of Lord Grey's Government were not pledged to the points submitted in the report to the whole of the Cabinet.

Mr. O'CONNELL read the words in the report—" It is suggested that the vote by ballot be adopted." He asked if the system under which a father took his son to the polling-booth, as occurred the other day at Newcastle, and caused him to perjure himself, was the system that did not engender aught " mean, dirty, paltry, or cowardly "? He charged the majority with dreading the test of the ballot, which would oblige the candidates to influence the constituency, not by corruption but by public worth and service.

Lord JOHN RUSSELL supplied a correction of the historical statement— to the effect that he had been favourable to introducing the Ballot into the scheme of the Reform Bill, in order to reader that measure final, and to prevent after-debate on the question of secret voting, which might disturb the settlement of the main question: but he was very well contented to take the proposed Reform Bill without that point ; and therefore he considered the members of Lord Grey's Cabinet at liberty to take objection to the Ballot. He objected to the motion, that it did not contain the whole plan with which the proposal of secret voting was to be connected: if one person out of seven were to vote secretly, the other six would be dissatisfied ; the Chartists declared that the Ballot would increase their grievances ; and he called upon Mr. Ward to state the remaining measures which, with the Ballot, would give satisfaction as regards the constitution of the House.

Mr. WAHLEY gathered from the statements of Mr. Shell, Sir James Graham, and Lord John Russell, that important measures were often brought forward by public men holding responsible offices without due examination and reflection. Instead of thinking that the Ballot would lead to Universal Suffrage, Mr. Wakley thought the very reverse— that it would give to constituencies a monopoly of voting ; and if then any extension of the suffrage were proposed, to whom would it be given ?—to persons beneath the electors in wealth, whose numbers would swamp their influence ; and to that the present electors would hardly consent. He should vote for the present motion ; but if the Ballot were carried, and he could not connect with it an extension of the suffrage, he assured the House that no one would give it a more determined opposition than be.

Lord WORSLEY supported the motion. On a division, it was rejected, by 290 to 157.

RAILWAYS BILL.

The House of Commons met at noon on Saturday, on purpose to take the Railways Bill in Committee. Mr. HARDY inquired of Mr. C. Russell, whether, when the Queen travelled from Slough to Paddington, proper care had been taken to prevent any collision, by placing car- riages or vans between the Queen's carriage and the engine ? Mr. Rua: SELL replied, that two carriages had been so placed.

Mr. HODGSON HINDE moved a clause, to substitute in station-houses or other places where fares are collected, printed lists of the rates and tolls, in lieu of the present painted boards containing the rates and tolls, affixed to the toll-houses. Mr. GLADSTONE objected, that the purpose of the present bill was limited to making provision for the public safety ; and he did not wish to introduce provisions not applicable to that ob- ject. The clause was rejected, by 107 to 5.

Mr. ROBERT PALMER proposed a clause empowering the Committee of the Board of Trade to compel the Directors of railways to fence off any turnpike, carriage, or bridle-road. Mr. GLADSTONE said, that in most railway-acts the Surveyors of Roads were enabled to summon proprietors of railways before any two Justices of the Peace, who are much better able to judge of the local necessities in each case than the Board of Trade ; and they have a power of compulsion which is not reposed in the Board. Mr. PALMER withdrew his clause.

Mr. STAFFORD O'BRIEN moved a clause to prevent the locking of the door of any carriage containing passengers on the side nearest those stations at which such carriages stop— Those honourable Members who were so anxious to prevent the imposition of restrictions ought to vote for the clause; for it was intended to prevent not alone a restriction on the food of the people, but a restriction on the people themselves. (A laugh.) To prevent the continuance of a system under which her Majesty's Government might experience the same treatment which our ancestors only applied to idiots and maniacs—(A laugh)—it was most de- sirable that locking in the passengers by railway should be abolished.

Mr. C. RUSSELL opposed the clause, as likely to lead to more mischief than it would prevent— Many accidents which had happened on railways would not have occurred if the doors had been locked. Several accidents had happened to those servants on railways who sit in open carriages, notwithstanding the experience which these men possess. If the system of locking the doors of the carriages bad been invariably observed since the commencement, they would not have to la- ment the loss of one of the brightest ornaments of that House, (Mr. Huskis- son) ; and he would beg the House to recollect that the unfortunate circum- stance to which he had referred was not the case of a maniac, or a drunkard, or an idiot. Supposing that an engine required sight adjustment, and that the passengers were allowed to get out during the delay which occurred in effecting that adjustment, and scatter themselves about the road, what might be the consequence in case another train came up ? But if such an occurrence took place in a tunnel—the Box Tunnel, for example—if the passengers were not apprized in time of the arrival of a train, and they were on the railroad when it came up, it was frightful to think of the consequences that might result.

Mr. GLADSTONE thought that Mr. Russell had shown that there were two sides to the question. The feeling of the public and of the House, however, was, that the second door at least in each carriage which con- tained passengers ought not to be locked ; and whilst that was the feel- ing of the House and of the public, the practice of locking both doors ought not to be resumed. But he doubted whether it would be advis- able to make a legal enactment to that effect. The general subject had been very fully discussed last session ; and the conclusion was come to that it would too much relieve the Directors of railways of responsibi- lity if a compulsory power of making restrictions were given to the Board of Trade. The suggestions made by the Board had received every attention. Nor was the policy of the proposition quite certain—. There was a case at the present moment in which be understood that both doors were locked: the case be alluded to was that of the Greenwich Railway ; and he believed that some regulation of nearly a similar kind ex- isted on the Blackwall Railway. He bad heard no complaint of the practice on the Greenwich Railway : on the contrary, the Inspector of the Board of Trade reported rather in favour of the practice as a balance of evils. On this railway there was not in many parts sufficient space for persons to get out be- tween the railway and the parapets, which were so high over the surrounding ground that it would be impossible for persons to escape over them. Persons, therefore, ,getting out would be obliged to get out upon the track of the other rail; whi& in many cases would be certain death to a great number of persons.

Captain LAYARD was in favour of the plan of locking carriages— He had lately been travelling on the line to Liverpool, and an accident having occurred, the passengers finding the doors of the carriages open, leaped out. Now if a train had been passing at the time the moat serious consequences might have resulted. As it was, one gentleman had lost his hat. (Laughter, and cries of "Name, name!" amidst continued laughter.) It was really a very serious matter ; for in looking after his hat he very nearly lost his head. (Great laughter.) Sir ROBERT PEEL cautioned the House against being governed by consideration of individual cases- " I hope that the House will not be led away by any apprehensions that may have been excited by the occurrence of such an accident as that which lately took place on the railway between Versailles and Paris, to adopt any principle different from that which should be a principle of legislation with respect to all railways. I venture to say that if you adopt a proposition of this kind on the ground that a great accident has lately occurred, whenever the next accident shall occur, some other honourable Member will come forward with a clause respective of that particular accident, and to meet cases of a similar kind. If you enact a clause to prevent the locking up of railway-carriages, you will com- mit the very same error which the Directors of the Great Western Railway now commit when they presume it to be necessary to assist the personal dis- cretion of individuals with respect to providing for their personal safety. My honourable friend who addressed the Committee in the course of this discus- sion says that people will not take care of themselves, and that they must be locked up. 1 confess my own opinion is, that people travelling on railways, like those travelling by turnpike-roads, will take care of themselves, and that the Directors of the Great Western Railway may dispense with the precautions which they think necessary to preserve the safety of those who travel by t ear line. I see that no regulation such as that on the Great Western line is ob- served on the Liverpool and Birmingham Railways ; and I do not see why it should be thought necessary on the Great Western. But, as I have already said, as individuals will always be desirous to take care of themselves, 1 think that the Railway Directors will ultimately adopt whatever regulations may be found best for the public and most conducive to the safety of those who travel by railways. I was a member of the Committee which sat last year upon the subject of railways : it appeared that on some railway or another one train had run into another, and that injury was thereby caused ; and it was found that on this railway there was an interval of only ten minutes be- tween the starting of each train : it was therefore proposed that the trains should not be permitted to succeed each other at intervals of less than fifteen minutes ; and when the subject was discussed in the Committee, various other suggestions were offered—some said that it was absolutely necessary to prevent the railways travelling at a speed of more than twenty-five miles an hour. It was proposed to recommend an enactment to that effect, when Mr. Brunel proved to demonstration, that if twenty-five miles an hour was to be the maxi- mum speed allowed by law on the Great Western Railway, it would be abso- lutely impossible to carry on the concerns of that company : Mr. Brunel said that there were parts of the line of the Great Western Railway on which a speed of thirty-five or forty miles an hour could be accomplished with perfect safety; that those parts of the line were perfectly well known to him, though they could not be to others who had not the same experience or acquaintance with the line; and that if a law was passed to limit the speed on that railway to twenty-five miles an hour, it was impossible that the concerns of that rail- way could continue to be conducted. We came to the conclusion that it would be better to pass an act which would give a general superintending power to the Board of Trade; a power of sugoesting to the Directors of Railways what regulations they ought to adopt or discontinue, so that, whilst they exercised no compulsory power, the Directors would find that their responsibility to the public would be considerably aggravated by their neglecting to adopt any sug- gestion thus communicated to them. It has been proposed that only the door at one aide shall be locked, and that the other shall be left open : well then, suppose that a carriage is overturned, and that the locked door happens to be uppermost, all chalice of escape by their own exertions is cut off from those who happen to be inside. (" Hear ! " and a laugh.) I think, with respect to regulations of this kind, the best way is to allow public opinion, which gene- rally acts in the right direction, to operate on the Directors; and if there may happen to be some timid old gentlewomen or ecclesiastics—(Laughter)—who are exceedingly afraid of travelling in locked carriages—(Renewed laughter)— I believe that the best way would be to allow them and these railway-com- panies to settle the matter among themselves ; for I cannot doubt that the Railway Directors will find it to be most to their own interest to adopt those regulations which public opinion shall point out to be most conducive to public convenience and safety."

Ou a division, the clause was rejected, by 92 to 69.

Mr. PLUMPTRE moved the insertion of clauses to prevent the use of railways on Sundays except in cases of charity or necessity. He read memorials signed by clergymen and others complaining of the evils that resulted from travelling on the Sabbath.

Mr. MACAULAY was opposed to all legislation on the subject of Sun- day travelling. Mr. Plumptre should have given them some notion of the mode in which the clause would work. Who, for instance, was to be judge of the necessity— A man may learn that his daughter was run away with in Bath : was there not a necessity for his speedy travelling? Mr. Macaulay remembered the case of a great country banker, who was a strong and sincere advocate of the due observance of the Lord's-day, travelling on a Sunday to get gold to meet a panic run on his bank. The adoption of the clause would destroy the arrangements of social life.

Lord SANDON hoped the House would not debate the question, or expose itself to discussion on such a subject ; and he advised Mr. Plumptre to withdraw his clause : counsel which was strengthened by Mr. GLADSTONE, Mr. VERNON SMITH, and Sir ROBERT INGLIS. The clause was rejected, by 105 to 8.

Lord ROBERT GROSVENOR moved a clause giving to the Committee of the Board of Trade a compulsory power of arbitration in cases where the owners of railways, having a common terminus or part of a line in common, cannot agree to arrangements for conducting their joint traffic. The clause was rejected, by 41 to 40.

The other clauses were agreed to ; the House resumed; and adjourned shortly after, at five o'clock.

THE GOLD COINAGE.

Mr. CHARLES BULLER drew the attention of the House of Commons, on Monday, to the state of the gold coinage, and to the recent proclama- tion on the subject ; objecting to the proclamation at great length— It has caused the utmost inconvenience, and especially to the poorer trades- men and the working-classes ; for while the payments of the rich arc paid chiefly in notes, the small daily and weekly payments above twenty or even above ten shillings are made in gold. The proclamation bad been suddenly issued, on the 3d of June, without preparation, and unaccompanied by any statement of the law which it enforced respecting cutting and defacing coin ; and by its vagueness it discredited the whole gold coinage of the country, though it was now understood to apply specifically to the coin of the reigns of George the Third and George the Fourth. The effect would be to cause large sums to be paid into the Bank of England and Government departments in gold, and to drive that coin out of circulation. And it was most unjust that the loss arising from twenty-five years' wear and tear should fall on those who happened to be the holders of coin on the 3d of June. There are about six millions of gold in a deteriorated condition ; and, according to the computation by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that the loss on each sovereign is about 1i per cent, the total loss will be about 90,0001.,—a sum very light for this country to pay to secure so great an object as the goodness of the coin of the realm. Mr. Buller examined a variety of historical precedents, to show that in every previous instance since the reign of Henry the Seventh, Government had made a distinction between the loss occasioned by reasonable wear and tear and that caused by other means. In 1774-7, 151,0001. had been paid to make up the lose and for recoitiage ; and the cost of the silver recoinage in 1816 was 750,0001. In 1816, every man who had a shilling with any mark upon it of having come from the Mint might present it to persona who were appointed in thousands through the country for the purpose, and receive a per- fectly new coin in return. Mr. Buller suggested that the sovereigns of the reigns of George IV. and William 1V. should be received by Government at their full value, though deficient in weight by 4 per cent; about the amount caused by fair wear and tear. He might be told that this mode of dealing would make the public cautious; but he knew no greater evil than that people should be obliged to exercise caution upon every sovereign they took; indeed, this was to defeat the whole object of a metallic currency. No preparations have been made to supply the place of the bad money by a new coinage,—except, indeed, that there was a recent proclamation for a coinage of half-farthings: Govern- ment seemed to know the wants of the country and its diminished means, and they supplieda coin which would enable the people to make very small payments. Nor had the Government, in announcing the depreciation, originally specified the proportion of it ; so that the poor were at first imposed on to the extent of three or four times the amount of the real depreciation. In some instances the extortion was frightful : one shilling was stopped out of ten shillings in the payment of wages, and two shillings out of a sovereign. Nay, it was re- ported that the Bank itself had been issuing, in one part of its building, sove. reigns which immediately afterwards in another part of the building it refused as under weight. He wished the Master of the Mint, Mr. Gladstone, who was engaged, as Vice-President of the Board of Trade, in defending the Tariff, had left that burden to others ; for the poor would lose more by the coinage in one fortnight than they would gain by the Tariff in a year.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER replied, with a long explanation of the reasons for the proclamation— It is a standing law, that when the coin is deficient in weight it is not a legal tender; and it cannot be for the advantage of the poor any more than of the rich to have such a circulating medium among them. No plan could be devised to effect a change without pressing more or less upon society; and the lower orders of course suffer most, because they are most easily deceived by those who profit from their ignorance. He admitted that it would be better if the public were more frequently reminded of the law ; and he took some blame to himself for not having done so when he was in office before. As to the charge that no measures had been taken to let the public know, before the proclamation was issued, that a large portion of the coin was depreciated, it was distinctly brought before the country by the Committee on the Banks of Issue; and the Bank and some branches of the revenue had always adhered strictly to the law, refusing money under weight. The precedents cited by Mr. Buller were inapplicable. That of 1816 was confined to silver, and the silver coin was a mere token, coined at a profit by Government. If the expense of the rccoinage of 1774 was set down at only 151,0004 although the coin was taken at 3!. 17s. 100., it was obvious that a greater portion of the loss must have fallen on the holders ; and the present measure was intended to prevent falling back into that universal depreciation of the coinage which took place at that time. The state of the foreign exchanges, which was bringing a large quantity of gold into the country, made the present time a peculiarly eligible one for making the necessary correction; and if he had postponed it, no equally favourable period might for a long while have occurred. If new sove- reigns had been issued during the calling-in of the old ones, as Mr. Buller had been suggesting, the new ones themselves would have been immediately sweated and carried in for other new ones.

He took the opportunity of stating, that those who refuse to take sovereigns of the full weight render themselves liable to imprisonment.

Mr. HAWES declared Mr. Goulburn's statement unsatisfactory in several particulars : he could see no distinction between the case of 1774 and the present merely because in 1774 the gold coinage was universally depreciated, or between the present and the case of 1816 because the silver coin was merely a token. Mr. BARLNG (Chan- cellor of the Exchequer in the late Ministry) believed that Mr. Goal- burn had chosen a suitable time for the measure. Mr. BERNAL in- sisted that the people were not prepared for the change; for though the Bank had always refused light coin, no private banker would dare to refuse the tender of sovereigns. Trade within the last few days has been quite paralyzed by the impossibility of passing gold.

Sir ROBERT PEEL observed, that every hour of further delay would only have aggravated the evil ; and he thought Government rather to be praised than blamed for not authorizing certain ex officio paragraphs in newspapers as to 'their supposed intentions. But public attention had been called to the subject ; for the bankers of London wrote to Govern- ment on the 20th January urging Government to authorize the Bank of England to cut up light sovereigns ; and Sir Robert read an extract from a communication by Mr. Horsley Palmer, which stated that Go- vernment was bound to provide a remedy for the growing evil of the depreciation in the gold coinage. He differed with Mr. Buller's position that the Government should bear the loss on the coin. When, in King Wil- liam's time, the Parliament acted against the advice of Mr. Locke that the silver coin should be received according to its intrinsic value by weight, so great an encouragement was given to the clippers that more coin was clipped under that general licence than before it. The charges of the Mint for recognizing the deficient coins was enormous. But people were willing to pay any thing out of the public purse to relieve themselves from the distress and confusion. Had Government whis- pered the intention of the change three or four months before it was made, the time would have been used by every man applying his atten- tion to the question haw he might best clip the coin.

Mr. HUME maintained that Government ought to have sent to every town in England a public officer to exchange sovereigns under weight at a certain charge. Captain BERKELEY stated that some men of the Pique man-of-war had been charged a shilling each for the exchange of sovereigns with which they had been paid. Sir GEORGE COCKBURN replied, that Admiral Bouverie denied that the men had been paid in light sovereigns.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER mentioned that several branches of the Bank of England had received directions to exchange light sove- reigns in the same way as at the Bank.

The subject then dropped.

Mr. CHARLES BULLER had stated that Messrs. Howell and James had charged 6d. on each sovereign which they received ; and on Tues- day he amended that statement, in consequence of a communication which he had received from them— They stated, that the moment the proclamation relative to the gold coin was issued, they directed their cashiers to receive all sovereigns tendered to them at the nominal value of 20s., regardless of weight. In the course of ten days they had received about 2,000 sovereigns; of which 150 were light, and the loss sustained by them was 11. 14s. 6d., or about 3d. each.

In reply to Mr. FOSTER and Dr. BOWRING, Mr. GLADSTONE said that complaint had been made of the want of additional silver currency. He believed, however, that there was no actual deficiency ; but that the half-sovereigns had suffered a greater depreciation from the wear and tear than the sovereigns, and that consequently there was a greater de- mand for silver to supply their place. An issue of half-sovereigns would take place at the earliest period possible. Should it be found that there is a real deficiency of silver, means would be taken to remove the inconvenience ; but a few weeks ago bankers were complaining of a surplusage of silver.

THE AFGHAN WAR.

Mr. R. J. BAILLIE brought forward this subject in the House of Commons, on Thursday, by moving,

" That there be laid before this House copies of the correspondence of Sir Alexander Burnes with the Governor-General of India during his mission to Cabal in the years 1837 and 1838 ; also copies of the correspondence of the Governor-General of India with the President of the Board of Control, and with the Secret Committee of the East India Company, from the 1st day of September 1837 to the 1st day of October 1839, relative to the expedition to Afghanistan."

Mr. Baillie illustrated his motion by a long speech, condemnatory cf the Afghan war. He had reason to know that a great military autho- rity (Sir H. Fane) had warned the Governor-General, before the war, that it was both impolitic and unjust. Impolitic in a political point of view with regard to Dost Mahomed; and impolitic in a military point of view, as placing the British army in a position so distant from the resources which must form the basis of its operations, and thus increas- ing the possibility of defeat and the impossibility of retreat. Sir H. Fane thought the Indus should be made the boundary of our Indian possessions. The opinion of Lord Hill and the Duke of Wellington on the war had not been consulted.

The reasons for the expedition, as stated in a manifesto published by Lord Auckland before he went to Afghanistan, and dated Simla, the 1st October 1838, contained this passage—" It has been clearly ascertained from the infor- mation furnished by the various officers who have visited Afghanistan, that the Barukzye chiefs, from their disunion and unpopularity, were unfitted, under any circumstances, to be useful allies of the British Government, and to aid us in our just and necessary measures of national defence." Now, this was con- trary to the information received from other quarters. Speaking of Dost Ma- homed Khan, Captain Burnes, in his Travels, said—" The reputation of Dost Mahomed Khan is made known to a traveller long before he enters his country, and no one better merits the high character he has attained." Again—" The justice of this chief affords a constant theme of praise to all classes : the peasant rejoices at the absence of tyranny, the citizen at the safety of his home and the. strict municipal regulations regarding weights and measures, the merchant at' the equity of the decisions and the protection of his property, and the soldiers at the regular manner in which their arrears are discharged. A man in power can have no higher praise." Mr. Vigne, another English traveller, describes

j

Dost Mahomed as renowned for his justice; and Mr. Charles Masson game a similar account. Now they were the only persons who had visited Ca- bal before the march of our troops, except Sir Alexander Burnes's com- panions. Lord Auckland, in his manifesto, goes on to state—" After serious and mature deliberation, the Governor-General was satisfied that a pressing necessity, as well as every consideration of policy and justice, warranted us in espousing the cause of Shah Soojah-ool- Moolk ; whose popularity throughout Afghanistan had been proved to his Lordship by the strong and unanimous testimony of the best authorities." This statement was equally unfounded with the preceding ; it was contrary to all the information furnished by Captain Burnes, and contrary to all the facts and circumstances that had come to our knowledge. If Shah Soojah bad been so popular as he was here described, why were not our troops withdrawn from Afghanistan after they had achieved the object in view ; unless it was found impossible to maintain Shah Soojah upon the throne without the presence and the aid of British troops? The object of the war was to depose Dost Mahomed, who had been gained over by a Russian agent. But the Governor-General in pursuing that object seemed not to have calculated the feelings, wishes, or opinions of the people, or to have imagined that by the very conquest which should place Shah Soojah on the throne we should produce in the minds of a great and an independent people the most inveterate hatred and animosity towards this country, and dispose them the more to join with: Russia or Persia or any force armed against us in Central Asia. The papers already laid before the House did not suffice for a just conclusion, for they had been garbled. Lord Auckland's only justifica- tion was, that at the period in question he could not make a satisfactory treaty with the Afghan chiefs— Now Captain Burnes said that he found Dust Mahomed Khan not only well- disposed towards the British Government, but so eager to form a treaty with us that he at once broke off negotiations he had entered into with Persia for that purpose. His offers, however, had been rejected by the British Govern- ment. Those offers were described by Captain Burnes, in a despatch dated Cabal, 25th Apri11838, and addressed to Mr. W. H. Macnaghten—" On the 25th, I received another visit from Sirdar Mehir Dil Khan, accompanied by the Newab Jabber Khan, Mirza Samee Khan, and the Naibs of Candahar and Cabal; the deputation was a formal one from both branches of the family. The Sirdar now informed me that the Ameer had agreed to write to the Maharajah through the Governor-General, todismiss Captain Vicovitsch, [a soi-disant Russian agent,] to hold no further communication with other powers, and to write to the Shah of Persia that be had done with his Majesty for ever. The Sirdars of Canda- har, on their part, agreed to address the Shah, recall Ulladad, the agent who had accompanied /Lumber Ali, and to place themselves, along with their bro- ther the Ameer, entirely under the protection of the British Government : in return for which, they claimed at its hands two things—first, a direct promise of its good offices to establish peace at Peshawar and an amelioration in the condition of Sultan Mahomed Khan; and second, a promise equally direct to afford them protection from Persia in whatever way the British judged it best for their interests, it being clearly understood that Candahar was not to be allowed to suffer injury." Now, was it possible to make more fair, more just, or more advantageous proposals? But they demanded distinct pledges as to the pacification of Peshawur and protection from Persia ; for they were not capable of understanding the " moral influence " of Great Britain ; and, sharpened as to their apprehensions by the menacing attitude of Persia, they required tangible acts on the part of their allies. Dost Mahomed actually sent to ask Captain Burnes's advice as to the reception which he should accord to Vicovitsch, who had penetrated as far as Ghuznee ; and the man actually was dismissed, in spite of his alluring promises, " with no more civility than is due by the laws of hospitality. and nations"; and an agent from Persia turned back fur want of an invitation to Cabal. In a despatch to Lord Auckland, dated 28th April 1838, Dost Mahomed put his case thus- " It is well known to your Lordship, that the Afghans expected very much from the English from the day Mr. Elphinstone came to Afghanistan ; for that gentleman made a treaty with the Afghans of the following nature: first, that the Afghans should not allow the united powers (French and Persians) to pass through Afghanistan for an invasion of the British possessions in India, but must oppose those powers on the part of the English ; second, that when the French and Persians come to subdue Afghanistan, the British will give them pecuniary assistance. The time has now arrived that the Afghans should be done by according to the second article of the above treaty ; but, alas! the whole of this nation is disappointed in what they were so long expecting. The British Government has given to us aid of no kind, notwithstanding our ab- staining from friendship with other powers. I have really done so, and in- tended to do so; but your agent (Captain Burnes) not having the power, neither gave us happy news of the restoration of Peshawar, nor of protection from the Persians. Since Captain Burnes discovered that the Afghans were quite disappointed, and he has no powers from your Lordship to satisfy this nation, he is now returning to India with my permission." Captain Burnes strongly urged the conclusion of a treaty with a chief so well-disposed ; and

indeed it was stated, although the fact did not appear in the papers before the House, that that individual had absolutely made a treaty on his own respon- sibility, which treaty the Governor-General refused to ratify, and reprimauded him for making it without authority.

Referring to the expense of Lord Auckland's warlike policy, Mr. Baillie found the average expenditure of India in the three years ending in 1837-8 was 16,967,227!. ; in the four years ending 1841-2, 19,724,9831., that of the last year being 20,750,783/. ; so that the excess of the war-years over the peace-years was 15,000,000/.

Mr. DISRAELI made a very long generalizing speech in seconding Mr. Baillie's motion. He perceived that the Chairman of the East India Company had stated that this country was expected to pay the expenses,

of the war ; but if so, he could not conceive why it had been carried on without a formal notification to Parliament. He drew a distinction be- tween the state of India in Lord Wellesley's time, when military ad- vance was necessary to the consolidation of our empire, and the pre- sent ; and he gathered from the speeches of Sir John Hobhouse and

Lord Auckland, in moving for a vote of thanks to Sir John Keane after the fall of Ghuznee, that Central Asia was invaded in order to pre- vent war in Burmah and Nepaul—that the cure for threatening invasion in the South-east wars by effecting a march towards the North-west. It

was also said that there was some peculiar excitement in India, and that there was an impression that the power of England was on ihe decline, and therefore extensive measures were necessary to the stability of our empire. He did not believe the British tenure of India to be so frail as to be in danger, either from insurrection or from invasion. If that empire should be lost, it would be by financial disasters, by such defici- encies of revenue as these ill-advised wars had a tendency to produce— Our civil service, our commercial connexion, our territorial possession, that isolation and segregation of native powers which our policy had effected—these were strong securities for British ascendancy. Indian politics, formerly a sub-

ject of no interest, had become interesting since the Income-tax. In 1837, the Indian markets had been in a highly prosperous state; but they had been

grievously impaired by the drain of the circulating medium to pay for these

hostilities. He illustrated this proposition by references to the fall of the prices of various important British manufactures in the Indian markets : the

price of cotton-twist fell from 9 rupees in 1838 to 5i in 1842; of woollen- pieces, from 7i in 1835 to 4i in 1842 ; of cochineal, from 4 in 1838 to in 1842. No wonder, when the whole commercial intercourse of India had been

cut up by the seizure of the camels, by which in that country all traffic was conducted,—an event producing much the same effect there as if in Eng- land every railroad and every cross-road were destroyed in a day. Thus we had lost the trade with Tartary, transferred to the Russians.

For the wars which had produced all these evils no tangible cause had been assigned. Was it that Lord Palmerston had wanted a bar- rier against Russia? If Russia was menacing India, the noble Lord should have checked the Russian power in Europe. But Lord Pal- merston having rather chosen thus to protect English interests by an Indian war, it now became intelligible why India was made a ground for the Income-tax upon England. He condemned the general policy of Lord Palmerston, as an alternation of "fatal inertness and terrible energy": he left our representatives in Persia, at Washington, and at Canton, without instructions ; and now we have the Afghan war, twenty thousand bayonets on the borders of Maine, and the Chinese war : he began by neglecting duties, and then he violated rights ; every thing was let alone until a violent interference was inevitable.

Sir Jon& HOBHOUSE vindicated Lord Auckland's administration; and against Mr. Disraeli's remark, that the expedition to Afghanistan

was a military fault which any schoolboy at Sandhurst could have pointed out, he set the Duke of Wellington's eulogium on the manner in which the preparations had been made and the operations conducted. Sir John reproached the previous speakers with not having brought for-

ward these charges before. Lord Auckland's despatch of the 1st Oc- tober 1838 was known in this country before the meeting of Parlia-

ment in the following February ; yet it had elicited no hostile proceed- ing until now, after the event : even when thanks were moved to Lord Keane, there was no condemnation of the policy that he had carried out; and the East India Directors had thanked Lord Auckland for the saga- city and promptitude with which he planned the expedition. Sir John confessed that there had been a military disaster, but it was no more ; and it was not so bad as those incurred by Lord Lake, and in the war with Burmah and Nepaul. The real question which Lord Auckland and the Home Government had to consider was, whether the country between the Indus and the confines of Persia was to be in possession of a friendly power or one manifestly hostile : if the region could have been perfectly neutral, no one would have thought of the expedition ;

but it was found that its neutrality could not be depended oa. The real

reason of Sir Henry Fane's retirement from the Indian army was, not dislike to the expedition, but because, the siege of Herat having been

relinquished, it was not necessary to send so large a force, and Sir Henry did not consider the command of sufficient importance for an officer of his rank. Sir John entered into an elaborate statement of the events which led to the expedition—

Mr. Ellis was sent in 1835 on a complimentary mission to the Shah of Persia, whose accession to the throne had mainly been assisted by British arms. He

found that the Persian Government claimed a part of Afghanistan, as far as

Herat, as Persian territory; and that the occupation of Herat and Candahar were already contemplated. He wrote home, that he was quite assured that " the British Government could not permit the extension of the Persian mo- narchy in the direction of Afghanistan, with a due regard to the tranquillity of India." The Shah was unfortunately inflamed by passion for conquest; and that passion was flattered by the Russian Minister at the Court of Persia: Count Simonovich advised the advance upon Herat, which is, with its imme- diate dependencies, the most important city and state of Central Asia. Repre-

sentations were made to Russia, but they did not prevent the appearance of the

Russian Ambassador at the siege of Herat. A treaty was entered into, by which the lawful Sovereign of Herat was dethroned, and his dominions were given to one of the Princes of Candahar, a brother of Dost Mahomed; and the Russian Am- bassador was the guarantee of that treaty. It did not stop there : a Captain Vicovitscb, a renegade Pole, was deputed to go to the ex-chief of Cabal; and be

went on a sort of branch mission to the Ameers of Scinde and the Court of La- hore. Lord Auckland considered that the time was come for resistance. Re- monstrances were addressed to Russia : the assurances were quite satisfactory; Count Simonovich was recalled ; and Captain Vicovitsch Las also been re- called, and has been heard of no more—the rumour was that he put an end to his own existence, but he was heard of no more. However, the barbarous states of Asia understood nothing of the Ambassador having exceeded his or- ders; they bad received presents and a letter said to be from the Emperor of Russia, and the effect Lad been produced. The time had therefore arrived when it was necessary to show to Persia the power of England.

Sir John denied that there had been any garbling of papers. He read extracts from despatches by Captain Burnes, to a different effect from those read by Mr. Baillie-

One, dated 23d December 1837, said, " Much more vigorous proceedings than the Government may wish or contemplate are necessary to counteract Russian or Persian intrigues in this quarter than have been hitherto exhibited." In March 1838, he said that it was hopeless that the differences between the Sikhs and Afghans would be healed without an ostensible intervention on our part. In June following be said, it ought to be assumed that Russia was resolved on using her influence in Persia; and that, said Sir John, bad been done. " if," said Captain Burnes, "it is the object of the Government to destroy the power of the present chief of Cabul, it may be effected by the agency of his brother, Sultan Mahomed Khan, or of Soojah-ool-Moolk : hut, to insure complete suc- cess to the plan, the British Government must appear directly in it ; that is, it must not be left to the Sikhs themselves." He added, that Sultan Mahomed had not the ability to govern Cabul; and that "an agent with two regiments were all that was necessary to seat Shah Suojab firmly on the throne." Captain Monson and Sir George Wade also said that Shah Soojah was the person to be protected; that he was popular, and that his rule would be beneficial to the Country.

All this time, speculations as to the progress of the Russians had been freely indulged in India ; and they had a great effect on the native mind. Sir John quoted the precedent of Lord Wellesley, who had sent to call on Persia to attack the Afghans in the rear when they contem- plated invading India, and who had caused Bussorah to be occupied by British troops. As to the effect of the expedition on Burmah and Nepaul, they had manifested less hostility since. To justify the necessity of pushing forward our frontier beyond the Indus, Sir John referred to the great extent of British commerce on that river. He denied that there is any deficiency in the Indian revenue, except 467,000/. from the loss of the opium-revenue ; but the war had led to an increased expense of 3,750,0001. European nations have expressed a practical approbation of our policy ; for Russia has imitated it at %hive, and France in Al- geria; and he had no doubt that the present Government would be obliged to carry it on.

Lord Joceivat condemned the policy of Lord Auckland and the late Government ; but gave them credit for energy and honesty of purpose.

Mr. Homo neither concurred in the policy which had originated the war nor in the present ill-timed motion. Sir John Hobhouse, however, inferred too much in assuming that the forbearance in Parliament from censure on the war was owing to any doubt of its impolicy. Russia should have been left to take the chance of any movement in Asia, and England should have checked her with a fleet in the Baltic. The Di- rectors were adverse to the war ; of which none of them knew a word until they saw it in the papers—except the three members of the Secret Committee. He denied that the Company's finances were impoverished : their last cash balance left 1,600,0001. in their hands. He described how Afghanistan makes an impassable barrier between our possessions and the countries to the West— It was subject to violent alternations of beat and cold ; it was sterile and barren ; it was filled with mountains which were impervious but by passes in which the largest army might be destroyed ; and he felt compelled to say that the people were proverbially faithless. Here were elements combined which made that country an impassable barrier to any army from Russia or from Persia. The policy of this country was to keep the country under the sway of the petty chiefs: but in place of that, we put them down, for the purpose of putting up Shah Soojah; and that was the absurd policy he lamented.

Mr. Hun' considered that the necessity for the war had been made ant, and that it had averted war from other places in India ; and he ob- jected to the proposal of placing a fleet in the Baltic, which would have brought on a European war.

Sir ROBERT PEEL said, the practical question before the House was, whether certain papers should be produced ; and he oljected that their production, while we are in amity with Russia and have accepted her assurances as satisfac.ory, might restore the remembrance of a different state of things that existed at a former period. The uncertain state of affairs in India was another reason against the motion. He repeated that there was a serious deficiency of 2,500,000/. in the Indian finances. He would not pledge himself as to the extent to which the policy of Lord Auckland might be followed out under the present Government, further than by expressing their resolution to maintain the honour of our arms and vindicate the security of our troops. But he certainly could not entertain a feeling of despair, when be saw the high qualities which even defeat had called forth, not only in the persevering valour and endurance of Sir Robert Sale, but in the case of that heroic lady whose example could not fail to have an extensive influence. To show, how- ever, how little he had approved of the policy pursued, and of the war in its origin, Sir Robert Peel read extracts from his speech on first hearing of the invasion of Afghan, in which he likened the forcing of Shah Soojah on that country to attempt at restoring Charles the Tenth to the throne of France, with this difference, that the Shah had been dispossessed of his throne for thirty years.

Lord PAL31EnSTON backed Sir John Hobhouse in a speech of some length ; in which he pointed to the remarkable fact, that the late Go- vernment, and the Indian Government with all its local knowledge, had simultaneously come to the some conclusions as to the policy that ought to be pursued. Mr. Ellis's views, from what he observed in Persia, were corroborated by Mr. M•Neil. He read extracts of private letters by Sir Alexander Burnes, approving of the march on Herat. The dis- asters which had befallen our troops had no more to do with the original policy than the shipwreck of a vessel of war would be an argument against a naval expedition. He expected the speedy restoration of our ascendancy : but he could not feel with those who wished to lay waste a country, and slaughter innocent persons, (for the guilty would be sure to keep out of the way,) for the mere sake of revenge for our massacred troops. He replied to Mr. Disraeli's general attack on his policy in Europe, f by pointing to " its almost invariable success," and to all that the late Government had done for free institutions in Belgium, Spain, and Portugal.

Mr. HOME condemned Lord Palmerston's general meddling; and in- sisted that Captain Burnes's correspondence had been so mutilated as not to bring out his real opinion, which was at first in favour of Dost

Mahomed, and only afterwards, when his previous advice had been rejected, in favour of Shah Soojah.

Lord JOHN RUSSELL said that the late Ministers could have no ob- jection to the production of the papers. No doubt, Sir Alexander Burnes expressed an opinion in favour of Dost Mahomed ; but at the same time, he stated facts which showed that it would have been impos- sible to come to an arrangement with that prince.

Mr. BAILLIE wished to withdraw his motion ; but Mr. Hums ob- jected, and the House divided : fc.r the motion, 9 ; against it, 75.

MISCELLANEOUS.

THE ROYAL ASSENT was given, by commission, on Wednesday, with the Income-tax Bill, to the Australian and New Zealand Lands Bill, and to several private bills.

BRIBERY AT ELECTIONS. On the motion of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, the Bribery at Elections Bill was read a second time pro forma, on Tuesday ; the discussion to be taken on going into Committee on Tues- day next.

DISFRANCHISEMENT OF SUDBURY. When the report on the Sudbury Disfranchisement was brought up, on Wednesday, Mr. BLACKSTONE moved that the bill be recommitted, on the ground that the notice of it had not been served on the proper returning-officer in the borough. But the motion was rejected, by 48 to 19 ; and the report was received.

MR. ROEBUCK'S COMMITTEE. Upon Mr. ROEBUCK'S motion, On Tuesday, Mr. W. Miles and Sir W. Heathcote were discharged from their attendance upon the Election Compromise Committee ; Mr. Eliot Yorke and Mr. Wilson Patten being added in their room. The Com- mittee began its sittings on Tuesday ; but reporters have not been ad- mitted.

THE BELFAST AND SOUTHAMPTON COMMITTEES. Mr. O'CONNELL

moved, on Thursday, that the Select Committee on the Belfast Election be at liberty to appoint an age. t on each side, to assist them in the inquiry into the matters to them referred. Sir ROBERT PEEL thought that the Committee bad better consult precedents—as the cases of Stafford and Great Yarmouth—and then act on their own discretion. He cautioned them against holding out the prospect cf large remunera- tion to the agents ; and reserved to himself the right of exercising hereafter his own discretion on that point. After a short discussion, Mr. O'CONNELL withdrew his motion ; and Mr. STUART WORTLEY, who had a similar motion to make in respect of the Southampton Com- mittee, abstained from pressing it. The Committees assembled on Tuesday ; but their proceedings have been privately conducted.

ENGLISH REGISTRATION. Sir JAMES GRAHAM stated, on Monday, the intention of Government respecting the English registration— In their opinion it would not be expedient to interfere with the progress of registration in the present year under the present law. But at the same time, he might state to the House, that, before the close of the session, it was L6 in- tention, on the part of Government, to ask for leave to introduce an English Registration Bill, with the view, not of passing it this session, but of merely laying it on the table of the House, so that it might be proceeded with in the. commencement of the next session, and be passed, if agreed to, before the 20th of June—the day on which it must have become law to be of effect next year .. IRISH REGISTRATION. In reply to Lord JOHN RUSSELL, Sir ROBERT PEEL stated, on Monday, that Government was not prepared to intro- duce any measure as to Irish registration this session.

IRISH MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS. Lord Emor obtained leave, on Tuesday, to bring in a bill to amend the Act 3 and 4 Vic. " for the Regulation of Municipal Corporations in Ireland."

IRISH MAGISTRACY. The Marquis of CLANRICARDE drew the atten- tion of the Lords, on Tuesday, to the reappointment of Mr. Mansergh_ St. George to the Magistracy in Ireland. Mr. St. George was removed. about six years ago, in consequence of a letter which he wrote to the Marquis of Normanby: Lord Clanricarde forwarded a memorial some time ago from the Magistrates of Galway, accompanied by his own opinion that Mr. St. George should be reinstated ; but without alluding to his letter. The Irish Lord Chancellor refused to reinstate him unless he expressed regret for his letter ; which he refused to do : some strong remarks on his exclusion appeared in the Dublin Evening Mail, and he was reinstated. Lord Clanricarde wished to know whether cone- spondence on the subject could be produced ? The Duke of WELLING- TON expressed his approbation of Mr. St. George's removal ; but said that he bad been restored after deliberate consultation on the subject. The reappointment was due to any other cause than that of gratifying the editor of a Dublin newspaper. He consented to the production of the correspondence.

NEW MEASURES. Sir JAMES GRAHAM introduced a batch of minor measures, on Thursday,—a Bill to encourage the establishment of Dis- trict Courts and Prisons ; a Bill to amend the laws concerning Prisons;. a Bill to continue until the 1st of October 1843 the exemption of the inhabitants of parishes, townships, and villages, from liability to be, rated as such in respect of stock in trade or other property to the re- lief of the poor ; a Bill to amend and continue for one year the acts regulating the Police of Manchester, Birmingham, and Bolton.

BONDED Conte. On the motion of Mr. GLADSTONE, on Thursday, it was resolved, " That it is expedient to permit foreign wheat to be delivered, under certain regulations, from the warehouse, or from the ship, duty free, upon the substitution into the warehouse, or the delivery for exportation, of equivalent quantities of flour and biscuit."

RAILWAY BILLS. On the motion of Mr. WILSON PATTEN, on Thurs- day, it was resolved, " That so much of the Standing Orders of this- House as obliges the promoters of railway bills to give their notices and to deposit their plans and sections in the months of February and March, instead of the months of October and November, be repealed.

THE STADE Durres. In answer to Mr. burr, on Tuesday, Sir Ito- BERT PEEL said that negotiations on the subject of the Stade-duties were not yet concluded. He had had an interview within the last few days with the Envoy of the Hanoverian Government ; and that indi- vidual bad stated, that the proposition of this Government could not be accepted by the Hanoverian Government.

CAPTAIN WARNER'S INVENTION: Sir CHARLES NAPIER stated, on Tuesday, that he had been told by Captain Warner that he wished his invention to be tested by three properly-appointed parties, Lord Hard- wicke and Lord Ingestre being two ; and he complained that be bad

been required to make known the whole of his secret without guaran- tee of compensation. Sir ROBERT PEEL said, that since the last time that the subject had been mentioned, not a day had passed on which individuals had not sought interviews with him on the subject of inven- tions which they represented as entitled to the utmost consideration on the part of the State. He explained the means which had been taken to procure experiments to be made of Captain Warner's invention ; Sir George Murray having named Sir Howard Douglas and Sir T. Hast- ings, by whom the experiments would undoubtedly be conducted with the greatest fairness.