POSTSCRIPT.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON.
The House of Commons sat yesterday morning and evening, to dis- pose of pressing business.
The morning Flitting was occupied by a debate in Committee on the clauses of the Mines Regulation and Inspection Bill. On clause 2, Mr. RINNAIRD moved the insertion of words limiting the labour of children to ten hours. Negatived by 79 to 61. Words were inserted allowing coalowners to employ youths under ten years of age until the 1st of July, 1861. Mr. Paarr moved an amendment providing for the education of boys employed in collieries adopted with slight modifications from the Factory Act. Negatived 1:y 131 to 69. Mr. Buries moved an amend- ment to the effect that the five hours to be spent by the boys at school might be spread over the week. Negatived by 106 to 84. An amendment was carried by 132 to 31, providing that no youth under eighteen years of age should have sole charge of an engine. Here the sitting wee suspended. The evening sitting opened with a debate on foreign politics. First Mr. GRIFFITH asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether any account had been received that a Neapolitan frigate had captured two yeas/flit presumed to be carrying reinforcements to Garibaldi by hoisting English colours, and offering to tow them into Palermo, and that, having got them in tow, she then hoisted Neapolitan colours and steered for Gaeta. And whether, if so, such use of the British flag will be permitted to the Neapolitan Government. Sir ROBERT PEEL then said that before the noble lord andwered the question he wished to draw attention to the foreign policy of the Govern- ment. He believed, and the public believed, that the noble lord was endeavouring to shirk the responsibilities of his office. His own expet rience of the noble lord's policy was anything but of a satisfactory cha- racter, for he believed his policy to be both weak and vacillating. Sometime since the noble lord at the head of the Government brought in a Conspiracy Bill, and the noble lord now the Secretary for Foreign Affairs expressed himself in terms of indignation, because, no doubt, he wanted to succeed tlab Prime Minister,—that, however, had since been made up. (Laughter.) The noble lord obtained the reputation throughout the country of being an indignant and exasperated patriot. If what he saw in the papers that morning from M. Thouvenel were true, it was a disgrace to the policy of England. M. Thouvenel had said that although France ap- pealed to Europe to sanction the annexation of Savoy, that although France wanted the consent of the Powers of Europe, the Court of the Tuileries would not agree to any reduction of the Savoyard territory in favour of Switzerland. There had been solemn assurances from France that the Great Powers of Europe would be consulted before the annexation, and a letter from Lord Cowley stated that the Emperor had consented that he should eommunicate that intention to Lord John Russell. In the name not only of Switzerland, but of every man of principle and honour, he (Sir Robert Peel,) protested against what the Em- peror of the French had done for the independence of Switzerland was from this time at an end. He had only to say, that if this country had been consulted at all, the Government had given an opinion without consulting that House. He believed that in February a proposal was made to Lord John Russell, that France was willing to cede a portion of territory adjacent to the Lake of Geneva, in order that an amicable settlement might be coa • to in reference to the annexation of Savoy and Nice. He thought this ought to be met by a determined protest on the part of the English people, for he believed that the liberties of Switzerland were now seriously menaced by the cruel hypocrisy of France. Lord Joule RUSSELL in answer to Mr. Griffith's question' said that ac- counts had been received of the capture of the two vessels, but with re- gard to the truth of the reports alluded to in the last part of the ques- tion, the Government had received no corroboration. If the British flag was used in the way described, it was of course unwarrantable. He then turned to Sir Robert Peel :-
With regard to the Conspiracy Bill he need not say anything, as it had no reference to the main question at issue. The honourable baronet had seen accounts in the newspapers, that M. Thouvenel had transmitted a note, in which it was stated that Trance was notprepared to cede any of the territory of Savoy and Nice. He (Lord John Russell) could not have given any information on the subject yesterday, but this afternoon at half-past three o'clock he saw the French Ambassador and the note was handed to him but there was not a word in it of what the honourable baronet complained. It was to this eftt.et. It is stated in the treaty of Turin, that France would come to an understanding with reference to the neutralized portions of Savoy, and according to the view of the French Government that under- standing was to be arrived at by endeavouring to reconcile the 2d article of the treaty of Turin with the 32d clause of the treaty of Vienna. That the French Government thought it might be done in one of three ways :—First, either the Powers which signed the Treaty of Vienna might meet in conference with the Foreign Minister of France; or, se- condly, additional notes might be exchanged, the French note stating that France is ready to take upon herself the whole of the obligations which Sardinia was engaged to during the time she held Savoy ; thirdly, by
France and Switzerland combining to substitute for former engagements those whieh those two powers might agree to. That was the nature of the note to which the honourable baronet had adverted, and her Majesty's Go- vernment would answer it in such terms as they thought fit. It would be impassible for them to express themselves satisfied with the proposal, or to accept it as affording an equivalent security to Switzerland. With respect to the offer which the honourable baronet had said had been made by France, he had to say that no such offer had reached the Government. In the early part of February, the Emperor of the French and his Ministers declared that they were ready to yield Cbablais and Faucigny to Switzerland ; but shortly afterwards the Emperor declared to a voluntary deputation wh;ch .waited upon him, that he would not consent to the dismemberment of Savoy, and that he would not consent to the cession of Chablais and Fau- eigny. Colonel Dicitsox called attention to the state of the Army. He desires to see an increase of our force. Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT endeavoured to satisfy him by a long explanatory statement, similar to that he made when he brought forward the Army Estimates. The motion for going into Committee on the Savings Banks Bill give Sir HENRY WILLOUGHBY an opportunity for setting forth his views, and initiating a discussion. Finally, however, the House went into Commit- tee, and made progress with the bill.
In the Lords, the Loup CHANCELLOR moved that the Law and Equity Bill be referred to a Select Committee. Ile explained that the object of the bill was to secure the fusion of law and equity, by enabling the com- mon law judges in certain cases to deal with questions of equity, in order that the expense and inconvenience of a double course of procedure might be avoided. Lord LYNDHURST supported the motion. Lord Sr. Luenesuns believed the principle of the bill to be unsound, and therefore opposed it. It would throw m'bre labour upon the common lay', judges than they had time to discharge. After a few words from Lords BROUGHAM and CHELMSFORD, the mo- tion was agreed to. In reply to Lord DUNGANNON, the Duke of Somattssr stated that the wages of shipwrights at Cherbourg were only 3 francs a day, and there was only one transport building there.
The Arabia arrived yesterday at Queenstown from Boston, with ad- vices to the 14th. She brings important and interesting news :— " The North Star had arrived from Aspinwall with 11,400,000 In tree- Sure, and brought advices from Japan, via California overland, to the 23d of April, and from China to the 10th of April. The Chinese had oousented to pay the English and French Governments their expenses, find to accede to their demands. The Chinese ports and rivers were to be free. The Chinese authorities had issued a proclamation against the Coolie trade.
"The Emperor of Japan was assassinated on the 15th of March. While on his way to the palace he was attacked by fourteen Japanese dressed, as travellers. Six of the Emperor's guards were killed and several wound el. Thirty suspected persons had been beheaded, and two Princes of high runk were permitted to disembowel themselves. An insurrection was threat- ened."
A telegram from Baden, dated yesterday, assures us that "it is now an incontestable fact, that the Prince of Prussia particularly insisted on the presence of the reigning Duke of Saxe Coburg Gotha at the irAfyiew of the German Sovereigns with the Emperor of the French. "The Prince Regent insisted upon the Duke's preeenserliseiusli, as a German Sovereign who is so intimately connected with the **pal family of England, he could, having been a witness, inform the Court of St. James's of all that passed in that interview, and would be enabled to state that the interview in question, far from being a subject of mistrust for the other Great Powers, was a fresh guarantee for the peace of the whole of Eu- rope." It appears by letters from Naples (17th June)' that the remonstrances of the American Ambassador, combined with those of Mr. Elliot and Count Villamarina, have so frightened the Court, that there is every probability of the indemnity claimed by the owners of the captured ships being paid, and the 800 men let loose again upon the blue waters. The • illegality of the capture is admitted even by Neapolitan jurists.—Globe Paris Correspondent.
M. Prevost Paradol, author of the pamphlet Lea .einciens Partis, was yesterday sentenced by the Police Correctionnelle to one month's im- prisonment and 3000f. fine. The editor is fined 3000f., and the pub- lisher 500f.
Advices from Palermo to the 19th of June, vitt Genoa state that the Neapolitan troops had entirely evacuated that place. The Neapolitan frigates had quitted the roads of Palermo.
The French troops at Rome will not, as was asserted by several journals some time since, leave that city during next montb. They will remain to defend the city against any attacks that may be made.
France will guarantee to Pius IX. Rome as his residence ; beyond that the French Government cannot interfere.
All the appeals made to the Roman Government, urging it to retrieve its position by well-considered reforms, having been met with no atten- tion, France can no longer interpose in behalf of the Pontiff, should his own subjects revolt against the tyranny. and ill-treatment of the foreign mercenaries that form the gendarmerie in the Papal dominionte—iforts- ing Chronicle.
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