POSTSCRIPT.

SATURDAY NIGHT.

Parliament got through a great deal of business yesterday. The Commons, with a short interval, sat from noon till two o'clock this Parliament got through a great deal of business yesterday. The Commons, with a short interval, sat from noon till two o'clock this morning, and forwarded a number of measures. The first of any importance was the Customs Bill; the Committee on which was op- posed by Colonel SIBTHORP, with his usual semi-voluntary jocularity ; but the motion was carried, by 40 to 15 ; the bill passed that stage ; and it was read a third time in the evening ; the discussion on the Heligo- land clause being renewed without result.

The Poor Relief (Ireland) Bill was read a third time. Mr. CHARLES BULLER moved the omission of the 16th clause, which authorized Poor- law Guardians to help the destitute to emigrate. He objected to mixing up the Poor-law and emigration : emigration should be held out to the people as a substantial benefit, not as a penal alternative to the workhouse. Under the bill too, the colony selected would always be that

to which the paupers might be conveyed cheapest, not that where they might thrive best. Canada, being nearest, would engross all this kind of emigration, though Canada was one of the settlements where labour was least wanted. And many regulations necessary to emigration would be neglected by those merely engaged in removing paupers.

Sir JAMES GRAHAM explained, that the emigrants, as soon as they be- came suchy would be under the management of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, who would apply all needful regulations.

Under the working of the existing emigration-clause in the English Poor-law, 10,575 emigrants had been sent out during the last seven years-6,737 to the North American Colonies, 864 to the United States, 114 to the Cape of Good Hope, and 2,860 to the Australian Colonies. Mr. BULLER explained, but did not press his amendment. The bill then passed.

On the motion that the Speaker leave the chair, in order to the com- mitment of the bill framed to execute the 8th article of the Washington Treaty, for the surrender of offenders in America and England mu-

tually, Mr. VERNON SMITH desired that some provisions should be in- troduced in favour of future slaves. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL ex-

plained, that the free or servile state of the accused could not be allowed to enter into the question of the right to reclaim him for his alleged 'offence. Mr. MACAULAY said, the laws of the country where the offence

was committed became an important question. If a woman in England

stabbed a man attempting to ravish her, she would not be guilty of murder ; but such an act would be murder if committed in Georgia by

a Quadroon girl against her master. If freemen kidnapped should

seize the vessel in which they were carried off, that act would not be piracy ; but it would be piracy if committed by slaves. He would ask, too, what was to happen where the supposed criminal,

being a slave, should, when sent back, be acquitted? The Arrow:Ex-- GENERAL was of opinion, that if the offence took its character only

from the slavery of the accused, as in the supposed cases of murder and piracy, he would not under the proposed enactment be delivered up. In reply to Lord PALMERSTON, Lord STANLEY said, that the Governors of English Colonies had orders to extend protection to slaves in vessels driven to English ports by stress of weather. After some further dis- cussion, in which Mr. THOMAS DUNCOMBE questioned the bong fides of the American Government in respect to the treaty, and Sir ROBERT PEEL said that he saw no reason for suspicion, the House resolved itself into Committee; and Mr. HAwEs proposed an alteration confining the operation of the bill to offenders being freemen. This proposal was negatived, by 59 to 25 ; and the bill passed through Committee : as did a similar bill founded on a like convention with France.

The Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Bill passed through the Com- mittee.

In reply to Mr. SHELL, Sir JAMES GRAHAM intimated the intention of Government to introduce an Irish Registration Bill in the next session.

In the other House, Lord CAMPBELL obtained a Committee to see what had become of a bill, generally approved of by Scotch lawyers, which had been sent down to the Commons, and which had in fact

been thrown out on the second reading— a =o In Scotland, at present, the principle of representation was not admitted in the succession to personal property, and the bill went to remove that flaw. It had been thrown out on the second reading ; and because of what ?—Because a single individual, the Lord-Advocate of Scotland, was said not to have approved of it.

Lord BROUGHAM withdrew the bill which he had introduced on Thursday to check seditious meetings in Ireland ; having discovered that aq act of the Irish Parliament, which had been rendered perma- nent by the Imperial Legislature, in a great measure answered the pur- pose; and the difficulty of forcing even so short a bill through Parlia- ment during the brief residue of the session, induced him to rely upon the existing law. The Duke of WELLINGTON assured the House, that however Mr. O'Connell might plunder the public in Ireland or excite the lower classes to crime without exposing his own person, he could not corrupt the Army.

Among other measures that were pushed forward, was the Theatres Regulation Bill ; which passed through the Committee : the seventh clause, however, which prevents the playing of Shakspere at licensed theatres within five miles of the Patent Theatres, being strongly opposed by Lord BEAUMONT and Lord MONTEAGLE, was postponed.

Both Houses sat today for the furtherance of business. In the House of Peers, Lord MONTEAGLE laid on the table the resolutions relating to the revenue which he is to move on Monday. They express dis- appointment that instead of a surplus of 500,0001. on the year ending on the 5th April 1843, there was an actual deficiency of 2,421,0001., notwithstanding the imposition of the Property-tax, the receipt of 511,4061. of Chinese money, and the receipt of 1,300,0001. import-duty on grain ; note that the charge for the permanent debt has increased during these last two years ; and they urge economy and measures cal- culated to give the utmost extension and largest reward to British in- dustry as a means of increasing the ordinary revenue.

Several bills were brought up from the Commons, including the Church of Scotland Benefices Bill, and the Cohlwhippers Bill.

In the other House, among the many measures forwarded, was the Customs Bill, which passed. The order for the third reading of the Machinery Exportation Bill was discharged ; it being the intention to add the provisions which it contained to the Customs Bill.