POSTSCRIPT.

SATURDAY.

The subjects of discussion in the House of Commons last night were, the reconsidered Government measure for reform of the Court of Chan- cery, explained by Lord JOHN. RUSSELL; . and the Government delay in granting representative institutions to the Cape colonists, brought under the notice of the House by Mr. ADDERLEY in Committee of Supply on the vote of money for the Caffre war.

The Government measure for Chancery reform is a bill for improving the administration of justice in the Court of Chancery and the Judicial Committee of Privy Council.

Refetving to the explanations given by himself on the 27th March, on ob- taining leave to introduce a measure on this subject, [now abandoned,' he stated that he found the House agreed with him in the necessity of relieving the Lord Chancellor from some portion of his excessive duties, and also in the desirableness of not restricting the Lord Chancellor to the discharge of his judicial functions, and of retaining the political connexion between him and the Executive Government; but objections had been made to the particular mode in which he had proposed to accomplish those objects, namely, by giving the Lord Chancellor the assistance of the Master of the Rolls and of a Common-law Judge. Lord John has endeavoured to obtain the opinions of those most conversant with the subject; he has reconsidered the whole subject, and his present proposal is founded on the suggestions he has received. The late Lord Cottenham, in particular, advised him that the point to be aimed at is rather the relieving of the Lord Chancellor than the relieving. of the Court over whieh he presides. The plan now recommended to him by a great concurrence of opinion is that two new Judges, to be styled "Judges of the Court of Appeal,' shall be appointed for the special purpose of sitting either at times with the Lord Chancellor, or, in his absence, of sit- ting together, to decide in cases which are to be reheard on appeal from the Master of the Rolls and the Vice-Chancellors. While the Lord Chancellor is employed elsewhere,—if he is sitting in the House of Lords, or attending any bill in the House of Lords, two Judges of the Court of Appeal shall sit for him. And in case of the illness of the Master of the Rolls, or any of the Vice-Chancellors, the Lord Chancellor shall have the power of calling upon one of the Judges of the Court of Appeal to sit in the court of the judge who is absent from illness, and to dispose of the business before it.

Thus desirable ends will be obtained : the Lord Chancellor will be en- abled, in accordance with the general wish for a reform and improvement of the law, to devote his mature and deliberate attention to subjects of that kind ; and he will be able to attend to those political questions also with which it is considered to be desirable that he should retain his connexion ; while the power is obtained to continue the action of the other Courts of Chancery at any time when by the accidents of illness under the present arrangement they are paralyzed and thrown into arrears.

The plan embraces also a change which relates to the Judicial Com- mittee of Privy Council. There has hitherto been great difficulty in main- taining the quorum of four which is necessary ; and it is objectionable on constitutional grounds that one or other Puisne Judge should be dis- tinguished from the rest by being made a Privy Councillor in order to be competent to sit in this court. The bill proposes to reduce the quorum to one of three ; and to enable the new Vice-Chancellors to sit as members of it, with the uniform dignity of Privy Councillor.

The expense is the only difficulty : but the object is great. A bill which Lord John Russell introduced at the same time proposes to make the salary of future Lord Chancellors 10,0001. instead of 14,0001. as at present, and to reduce the salary of the Master of the Rolls from 70001. to 6000/. ; the saving of 50001. being subtracted from the salaries of the two new Vice- Chancellors, who are to have the same pay as the Master of the Rolls, leaves the total new expense 70001., to be taken from the Suitors' Fund.

Lord John moved for leave to bring in the two bills.

The Government explanation met on the whole a favourable reception, both from the professional and the lay Members of the House. Mr. STUART, however, strongly urged the propriety of allowing full time for the consideration of a measure differing so completely from the one in- troduced by Lord John Russell in March. Mr. BETHELL, with his fa- vourable opinion, added the observation that the bill is but an instalment of the reform that is wanted. He hoped it would not now, before the middle of June, be thought too late to discuss such important proposals. Mr. WALPOLE thought that if the bill secured the main objects explained by Lord John, it would be a great im- provement, and deserve his cordial support. Mr. ROUNDELL PALMER acknowledged gratefully the candour of Lord John Russell, and thought there could scarcely be a cheaper mode of conferring so great a benefit as the measure will give. Mr. ELLICE, Mr. HENLEY, and others, referred to the tedious tortures of the Masters' Office; and produced explanations by the Sotterron-GENERAL, that the County Courts Bill, lately come down from the other House, will greatly ameliorate the evils from that source. Mr. Hums regarded the measure as a material step in advance : whatever additional salary was requisite would be well bestowed.

Leave was given to bring in the bills.

The discussion on Cape affairs would have been raised by Mr. ADDER- LEY through a statement before going into Committee of Supply on the Caffre-war vote, but, at the request of Lord Joan RussELL, he consented to let the House go into Committee first. Government thus gained the advantage of prefacing a more favourable statement by the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER than was expected. Sir Charles Wood stated, that the first estimate for extraordinary expenses at the Cape was 400,0001. for six months ; but circumstances have intervened in our favour. The last war was managed from a point that was remote, and through Commissariat agents wholly in- experienced; the cost of transport was great, and the supervision that could be exercised over the distribution of supplies was almost no- thing. Now, however, we land the troops and supplies at a convenient port near our centre of operations • and the officers who obtained experience an the last war are again employed to exercise a rigid system of accounts and supervision. The result is, that instead of the sum anticipated—though full accounts have not been rendered—the Commissary-General states the expen- diture up to the 5th July at 202,0001. In April, about 30,000 persons were receiving supplies. It will be satisfactory to the House to see that the Go- vernor-General has done so much towards keeping the expense within the narrowest possible limits. Sir Charles moved, "That a sum not exceeding 300,0001. be granted to her Majesty towards defraying the expenses of the Caffre war beyond the ordinary grants for the Army, Ordnance, and Commis- sariat services in 1851-52."

Mr. ADDERLEY saw no reason in Sir Charles Wood's statement, for fix- ing on this sum, any more than on a vote of half-a-crown, or any other arbitrary sum, as an exponent of the gigantic expenses now incurring at. the Cape : for not the least ground had been given, no data or estimate

produced, to show why it should be that sum, or any other sum much larger or smaller.

The accounts of the expenditure in the last war were not properly kept, and have never been audited to this time and they now lie an unselected heap at Cape Town—where they will remain, for no one here wishes to see them, and no one there wishes to send them. The inferences that the ex- pense will be less because the agents now employed are experienced must be entirely fallacious; for this is not the second Caffre war but the seventh ; and if experience had not been gained up to the sixth war, why is it all at once to show its effects on the seventh war ?

It was desirable that the Committee should consider the causes of this vote, and what are the chances of its continuing or increasing. Mr. Adder- ley therefore recalled the facts of the last few months. No man more than Earl Grey has emphatically stated that every colony having the power of its own internal government should pay its own expenses. Why, then, has not the Cape at this moment a representative govern- ment ? Early in 1850, the Queen authorized the Governor of the Cape to form such a constitution; for there had been no Legislative Coun- cil for two years, and for three years no government but that of the Governor. The Governor resorted to popular recommendation to fill up his Council. The four members selected by the people were quite ready to consider the constitution recommended by Earl Grey ; and there was no dispute about the nature of that constitution ; but the Governor desired to get the estimates of the two previous years passed, as he knew that he could not face a real representative Parliament without the previous sanction of the Council to that expenditure. Now, the four members selected by the people had been selected only to be members of a Constituent Assembly, and they felt that they were forbidden to forestall the financial powers of the ordinary and representative Assembly, which would succeed them ; so they refused to consider those estimates, and declared they must confine themselves to framing the constitution : the new Governor's majority outvoted them, and they resigned ; and by their resignation the Council became too few to go on with the constitution. Nine-tenths of the people ratified the acts of those selected members, and commissioned them to prepare a draft constitution ; and when the draft constitution was prepared, the people met again in pub- lic assemblies, adopted the draft, and commissioned Sir Andries Stockenstrom and Mr. Fairbairn to bring it to this country and place it before the Govern- ment. One of those gentlemen arrived here four months ago ; on his arrival he immediately proceeded to Earl Grey ; but to this moment Earl Grey has postponed giving any answer. The House of Commons was equally unsuc- cessful in obtaining any information from him, until the arrival from the Cape of the despatch which has been lately laid on the table. And what does that despatch show ?

As soon as Lord Grey read a statement of what had occurred in the colony, his first act was to reprimand Sir Harry Smith, and that on two grounds,— first, because he had appealed to a popular election in filling up the Council; and secondly, because when the four gentlemen so elected resigned, he did not carry on his government with the remainder of his Council. Sir Harry Smith defended himself for appealing to a popular election on two grounds,--first, that he had no other mode of filling up the Council, he having tried to do so for two years and having failed ; and secondly, that his having so appealed to popular election had been done at the suggestion of Earl Grey himself. With regard to the other point, Sir Harry Smith defended himself by alleging that he consulted his law-officers as to whether he could go on with his government after the four eleeted ssefiikeri koziped ; and thu -r,in,e him. their decided opinion that he could not go on with the remnant of his Council—that when his Council was reduced below a certain number of members it would have been distinctly illegal for him to have proceeded. Having received this answer from Sir Harry Smith, Lord Grey wrote back to say that "he could not himself personally agree in opinion with the legal officers of Sir Harry Smith, and he ti i fought if he were to ask the opinion of the law-officers of the Crown at home they would give a different opinion. However, it was too late to make it worth while to dispute that point; therefore he had ad- vised her Majesty to send out fresh instructions, which would enable Sir Harry Smith to carry on the ordinary affairs of government with thp,ye- mainder of his Council, constituting them a legal CounciL" Whe- ther her Majesty has the power to issue those fresh instructions after the letters-patent of 1850, is a matter more for the consideration of the law-offi- cers than of Mr. Adderly, but he should suppose there was considerable doubt upon that point. Lord Grey himself seemed diffident on the matter : for he cautioned Sir Harry Smith that he should not do anything more than observe the ordinary routine of government with the remnant of his Council; that he could not proceed with the powers given to him by the letters-patent; and that he must wait till a better season occurred, when he wouldlbe able to fill up the Legislative Council, and then proceed with the formation of a new constitution. The epitome of the last despatch of Earl Grey to Sir Harry Smith is simply this—" If you cannot find four men in the whole of your colony to fill up your Legislative Council, then you must govern the colony without one single Colonial legislator." If this be acted upon, then Sir Harry Smith will be the first British governor who had sole authority—, a more than Russian authority over the colony he was appointed to govern. Even if Sir Harry Smith were residing at Cape Town, such power would be most unconstitutional ; but he is not even within the frontiers, but out of the colony altogether, and acting in a totally different capacity from that of the Governor of the Cape. He is at King William's Town, in Caffraria, in the character of a general in command of her Majesty's forces; so that at this moment the government of the Cape of Good Hope, if governed at all, is under the sole control of Mr. Montagu, the secretary to Sir Harry Smith. No one man in the world has to do with the colony of the Cape but Mr. Montagu. It is under the secret, irresponsible, and nameless power of Mr. Montagu. He alone writes the despatches- he alone conducts the government; having no Governor, no Council, and 'being re- sponsible to no one. While such an anomalous state of things has existed in the colony, how have the expenses of the government been carried on ? For three years there has not been a single vote legalizing the appropriation of the revenue of the colony. It has been during that period appropriated illegally. The revenue, chiefly arising from permanent taxes, has been raised and appropriated by a secret irresponsible Government, the parties trusting to have their conduct sanctioned by some future Legislature. The revenue has not, however, met the expenditure during those three years, and how has the excess been made up ? By the Governor borrowing from the Orphan Guardians Fund—a fund arising from the estates of minors, of which the Governor is the guardian. In the midst of such a state of things the Caffre war broke out. Mr. Adderley passed over that war, as a matter recently discussed, and came to a point that would be new to the majority of Members, and one bearing most materially on the question whether the policy which has led to that war is being brought to a conclusion and reversed, or on the contrary being carried out and exaggerated.

" In Sir Harry Smith's despatch dated 12th July 1850, he speaks of a new lake having been discovered about two degrees beyond the Southern tropic

2 and some 700 miles North of the present boundary of the Cape colony;, ant states that the Dutch Boers are pressing on towards that lake, because they wish to get out of the reach of the act 6th and 7th William IV. c. 57, which extended our jurisdiction beyond the frontiers of the colony. The Boers, discontented with our rule, 'are rejoiced to find this fertile lake in the interior of the country. Sir Harry Smith congratulates Lord Grey that he (Sir Harry Smith) has heard of it in time, and says his own impression is that it would be advisable to accredit a British agent to reside with the chiefs in the neighbourhood of the lake ; he would select a mis- sionary for the purpose. He also advises the noble Lord to extend the act 6th and 7th of William IV. to the Equator. ("Hear, hear !") He has held out to the natives that the Boers arc their enemies, and that they will incur imminent danger if they allow the Boers to come among them. He said— giving your Lordship this advice, I am following the same principle which has guided use in inducing her Majesty to proclaim British sove- reignty between Orange and Veal rivers.' Lord Greys reply to this despatch is dated in November last. His Lordship begins by telling Sir Harry Smith that his determination not to declare the whole country under British rule was right, because he does not wish to extend the British territory : at the same time, he advises Sir Harry Smith to enter into friendly rela- tions with the chiefs, and advise those chiefs to combine against the Boers under general authority. He is to tell them that the British Government will help them, and that they are to get three or four of their chiefs to conduct their affairs at the Cape ; and the Governor will send an officer to reside among them, to advise them in their proceedings. The first step is to in- duce the chiefs to establish a confederacy against the Boers, and to invite the residence of a British officer, who, as commandant of Caffraria, would vir- tually direct the government of the confederacy. His Lordship concludes by expressing a hope that he shall introduce a bill next session to extend the act of 6th and 7th William IV. to the Equator." That extract shows, that instead of the past policy being changed or checked, it is to be extend- ed and aggravated to such an enormous and gigantic extent, that all the expenses hitherto incurred will be nothing, as it were, compared with what may be expected from the future policy of Lord Grey. In conclusion, Mr. Adderley stated in a style of narrative complimentary to Lord John Russell, how Sir Andries Stockenstrom and Mr. Fairbairn found at least a more considerate reception of the case which they were commis- sioned by the colonists to state, than had been vouchsafed in other quarters. But here too the first favourable impressions seemed to be effaced by sub- sequent antagonist influences. Lord John requested the delegates to state what alterations they wished in the constitution : they stated that they wished none, only to be reinstated in the Legislative Council with the constitution before sthem, with this material difference, that there should be no previous legiggion. In answer to this, Lord John al- luded to technical difficulties ; said he must await further information from the Cape ; and postponed his definite answer till he could better see the chances of finishing the war immediately or remotely. i

Mr. Adderley suggested, that as Sir Harry Smith is beyond the frontier, Lord John should act on the precedent of Canada, and send out a person of rank and position as Commissioner to carry the constitution into effect. The instant that is done, the Boers will resist the Caffrey without our assistance, as they promised to do twenty-three years ago.

Lord J.011ST Mussela vindicated the policyof Sir Harry Smith; observed that we have no intimation from the colonists that if we give them re- presentative government they will vote taxes, but a contrary intimation against sustaining the expense of the war; traced the history of the Con- stitution movement up to this time from the Downing Street point of view, to show that it is the colonists' own fault that they have not a con- stitution now ; and while reasserting that Government does not retract, and is more fully than ever resolved that there shall be a representative constitution for the Cape, he declared that the raging of war is an insu- perable difficulty in the way of immediately putting the constitution in force in the colony.

Hr. HAWES expanded the Government reply, and assured the Com- mittee that there is not the least intention of extending the territory of the Cape. . Mr. Hume followed Lord John Russell with corrections of his dis- torted statement—he had seldom heard a case more misrepresented. The colonists have again and again offered to pay for themselves when they get self-government, and arc now ready to do so. Mr. VERNON Serra criticized again the deceptive and impolitic step of appointing the assistant Commission recently associated with Sir Harry Smith. Mr. Baron urged the Government not to reject Mr. Adderley's proposition on mere grounds of etiquette to Sir Harry Smith. Lord Jonas RUSSELL corrected Mr. Adderley's impression that he proposed to defer the completion of the constitution till the end of the war. Thereupon, Mr. Bina= suggested the withdrawal of a motion to report progress, and adjourn the subject for a few days, as " there is no knowing but that after all a constitution may go out by the next maiL" Mr. ADDEBLEY took the advice, and withdrew his motion. The vote then passed.

Mr. HUME succeeded last night (assisted, one supposes, by Sir Charles Wood during the week) in nominating his Select Committee on the In- come and Property Tax. The Members are—

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Thomas Baring, Mr. Cobden, Mr. Disraeli, Mr. Horsman, Mr. Henley, Mr. Vesey, Mr. Forbes Mackenzie, Mr. James Wilson, Mr. Ricardo, Mr. Roebuck, Colonel Romilly, Lord Marry Vane, and Mr. Sotheron.