23 MAY 1857, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEL

Tim proposed marriage of our Princess Royal with Prince Frederick William of Prussia was communicated to both Houses of Parliament on Monday, in a message from the Crown, inviting the concurrence and the " assistance " of either House in making such provision for the Queen's eldest daughter as should he suitable to " the dignity of the crown and the honour of the country." The message was treated as a matter of form, but also as something more. The leading speakers on both sides, Lord Granville and Lord Derby, Lord Palmerston and Mr. Disraeli, stood forward to express those assurances on the part of the two Houses of Parliament which were embodied in a formal address. Lord Granville recommended the marriage as likely to promote the happiness of the Princess Royal ; and Lord Derby affirmed that the marriage, like that of the Queen herself, was founded on "personal acquaintance and attachment." Lord Palmerston deviated from state forms and personal allusions into polities, and recommended the alliance on the score of the "political prospect which it holds out to the country." The personal ground was far the safest, but the reference to politics did not provoke any talk of forbidding the bans.

The next question, not mooted in the House of Commons until last night, was how to make the suitable provision. Ministers proposed a sum of 40,0001. down and an annuity of 8000/. Mr. Roebuck anticipated the motion by a suggestion which he afterwards embodied in an amendment, proposing in general terms that the whole dowry should be given in one sum down ; but he admitted that he objected also to the scale of the allowance. The loud cries of " Agree ! " gave voice to the prevalent feeling in the House ; and to restore " unanimity " Mr. Roebuck withdrew his amendment. The idea of settling the matter once for all by paying down a single sum was first mentioned by the Times, and it appears to have been received with some favour out of doors ; Ministers and the House of Commons are of an opposite mind.

In Committee of Supply, the First Lord. of the Admiralty asked the House of Commons for 8,109,0001. for the Navy,— only half the amount that was asked under the reduced. estimates last year ; but there appears to be some doubt whether the actual sum to be paid may not be larger. Sir Charles Wood explained that he intended to bring the number of men down to 38,700, but that the reduction would be a work of time ; so many of the men desiring to continue in the service. He also explained that the reduced expense is effected at the cost of relinquishing the squadron of evolution ; to form which, indeed, there are not sufficient vessels at home. A supplemental estimate will be presented hereafter, for the transport of troops and the lodging of them in China. The statement gave satisfaction for its style and clearness, hardly for its matter ; but none of the criticisms led to any amendment, and the Government got through the Committee of Supply without effectual damage. That troublesome matter is over for the session,—always excepting the Chinese postscript.

Ministers'-money in Ireland has assumed unusual importance from the success achieved by Mr. Fagan, with the patronage of the Government. His bill stood for the second reading : it proposes to transfer the charge to the funds at the disposal of the Irish Ecclesiastical Commissioners, which would get rid of an unpopular and sectarian impost, without injury to vested interests. But the merits of the measure are far less interesting than the arrangement of parties and persons : it became a Ministerial question in the hands of a private Member ; and Lord John Russell, who had once officially opposed the bill, now supported it : hence the majority for the second reading, of 313 to 174.

Mr. Spooner has made his standing speech against the Maynooth endowment, with a scanty array of Members listening to him on his own side, and opposite a larger array of Liberals, who met his arguments with cries of " Divide " His motion for a Committee of the whole House on the Maynooth Endowment Act was negatived by 125 to 91,—burying that fanatical mission for the veer at least, if not "for ever and a day." The 'Attorney-General has introduced his bill for bringing under the control of the criminal law fraudulent breaches of trust,

with a supplemental bill to improve the Winding-up Acts. The Breach of Trust Bill is in its nature principally declaratory ; giving to Judges the power of punishing offences now distinctly enough perceived and but too substantially felt, but protected from punishment by legal technicalities. Had this bill been already law, many a widow or orphan would have been protected from spoliation by fraudulent trustees' and " conspiracies" like that of the Royal British Bank would have been impossible. In like manner, the new Winding-up Bill would have prevented the ruin inflicted by the cross-jurisdiction of Bankruptcy and Chancery, the cross-purposes of litigious individuals, and the interested. suggestions of predacious lawyers.

The Lord Chancellor's two bills, for amending Testamentary Jurisdiction and the law of Marriage and Divorce, have passed their second reading in the House of Lords. The two bills necessarily go together. The former establishes a new Court of Probate, with a central office and a system of registrars throughout the country : the proceedings to be viva voce, and the expenses to be regulated ; with an appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.* The present Judge of the Prerogative Court is to be Judge of the new "Court of Probate." He will also be Judge Ordinary in the new "Court of Marriage," before which will come suits for separation and divorce. On the minor class of cases, the Judge Ordinary, assisted by one of the principal Judges of the Common Law Courts, will decide ; and in such cases the practice will be limited. to the advocates and proctors of the Ecclesiastical Courts. Questions of fact will either be referred to one of the Courts of Westminster or a Jury will ho summoned. Suits of divorce will come before the full Court,--that is, the Judge Ordinary with the three principal Judges of the Westminster Courts ; and in this court barristers, attorneys, and solicitors, will be free to practise. The present law remains unchanged as to the causes for which divorce may be granted ; but the separation will be guaranteed by a much greater certainty of the law ; the Court will be able to allot alimony ; and the wife will have the same control over her property or earnings as a "femme sole." The Archbishop of Canterbury, with the new Bishops of London and Lincoln, rather supported the bill ; but most of the Prelates, especially the Bishop of Oxford, opposed. it, as contrary to the Scriptures and the Fathers, and. contrary to the example of Continental Courts, which are drawing closer the law of marriage. Its chief support came from Lord Lyndhurst. He traced the whole history of the marriage-law, through the middle ages, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Reformation ; and explained the inconsistencies which have been imported into it by the struggles of rival churches. Contending for greater equality of the sexes, and larger extension of justice than the bill afforded, he announced. that he should embody his objections in amendments, more especially to give the wife equal Tight of divorce from the husband in case of adultery, and absolutely to abolish the trial for criminal conversation. The majority of the speakers appeared to be against the bill ; in the votes it had 47 in its favour to 18 against.

At the farmers' ordinary of Newport Pagnell, Mr. Disraeli has taken up a new position, suited to the Reform movement which is anticipated for next year. He has managed it with even more than his usual adroitness. He declines to go back upon the

* Last night, at the instance of Lord St. Leonardo, this provision was altered—the appeal will be to the House of Lords. controversy respecting "unrestricted competition " ; apologizing for the failure of any disastrous consequences, by ascribing the prosperity which has followed free trade to "Providential interposition," the effect of the gold-discoveries, and the development of industrial energies. Thus he has cleared the political slate, and has squared accounts both with the Liberal party and with his own constituents. His next care is to make his own prospective position perfectly safe. He disclaims any origination of " Reform " ; he has no Reform Bill to bring forward in competition. with the Government. But should the Government propose a Reform Bill, he promises to it a "candid and sincere consideration on its merits." The representative system, he says, has three elements—he acknowledges property and population as two of those elements, but adds "prescription." The fault of the Reform Bill of 1832 was that it was perverted by faction; that it gave a preponderance to the towns at the expense of the country ; and here Mr. Disraeli combats statistics with statistics of his own, wielding the comparative statement of figures with the sleight-of-hand of a statistical reformer. His object is to show that, on the gross population, the Boroughs return one Member for every 25,000, and Counties only one Member for every 61,000. If there should be a new Reform Bill, he insists that the balance must be redressed. By anticipation, he advises the agricultural population to agitate : thus "an individual" is becoming the first agitator in the contemplated Reform movement of 1858!

It is to be hoped that a disagreeable chapter in the military history of India closes with the disbanding of the Nineteenth Bengal Regiment at 13orrackpore. The danger appears to have been by no means exaggerated in the earlier accounts. The regiment did not confess its fault, but kept up its mutinous communications with other regiments ; and it is calculated that a body of some 5000 men at Barrackpore were prepared to resist authority in pressing their grievance, whatever it may have been. The vacillation of the officer previously in command had, no doubt, encouraged the men to hope for some further concession on the part of the authorities ; but none was made. The regiment was drawn up with an overpowering force of artillery, cavalry, and European regiments, around. The men asked leave to petition : it was refused. They were ordered to lay down their arms ; and they did so, not without emotion.

The mutinous spirit had not been entirely suppressed ; in another regiment, the Thirty-fourth, a drunken Sepoy had attempted to murder an officer ; and when the assassin was hanged, it was thought necessary to keep down the mutinous spirit of his follow soldiers by executing sentence under the protection of shorted guns and European regiments. A further disbanding is anticipated ; though there seems to be no doubt that the great mass of the Native soldiers are faithful, and that the example is likely to have a wholesome effect.

The Bourse of Paris has been agitated by an event more distressing than the failure of M. Place, one of the directors of the Credit Mobilier, last year, or the decamping of Ciupentier and Grelet, the clerks of the Great Northern of France Railway, whose defalcations the Baron James de Rothschild has taken upon himself. The new defaulter is M. Thurneyssen, nephew of that eminent banker who has been, in conjunction with M. Isaac Pereire and other leading financiers of Paris, one of the chief promoters of the Russian Railway scheme. The example is alarming in every way. The younger M. Thurneyssen had been intrusted by private persons with large sums of money ; it is probable that he obtained those sums for purposes of investment on the highly profitable plans which the Credit Mobilier exemplifies : his defalcations are estimated at 800,0001. or 1,000,000/. It is not probable that he stands alone ; there must be a large number of persons whose property is imperilled in a like manner ; and should this affair be followed by others of the same kind, we might anticipate not only frightful disclosures for individuals, but a terrible shook to the credit and the money business of Paris, and through that of Europe. It is probable that the affair will be " arranged " as quickly as possible ; the more so if M. Thurneyssen should be in a position to involve others besides himself in his confession. The event created little surprise in London City ; whence a watchful eye had been kept on Paris, the more steady for that local dulness which has made the City so contemplative this week.