Brbates anb Vrourbinas in Varliament.

NATIONAL EDUCATION.

In the House of Commons, on Tuesday, Lord ASHLEY moved, " That an humble addresss be presented to her Majesty, praying that her Majesty will be graciously pleased to take into her instant and serious consi- deration the best means of diffusing the benefits and blessings of a moral and religious education among the working-classes of her people." The present, he said, was a favourable time for the opinion which he was about to propound, when the public mind is almost equally distant between the two extremes, that education would be a panacea for all our difficulties, and that it would do nothing. To suppose that educa- tion would do every thing, was absurd ; that it would do nothing, still more so— John Locke said, " I thick I may say that of all the men we meet with, nine parts in ten are what they are, good or evil, useful or not, by their educa- tion; it is that which makes the great difference in mankind "; whilst the language of Solomon was, " Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Had any one shown any other means by which to attain so desirable an end ? The growing spirit of Democracy makes it especially necessary to the safety of the country that the public mind should be enlightened, by means of a sound moral and religious education, so that the working classes might acquire that sober self-control which would enable them to govern and repress the workings of their passions. In spite, however, of all that had been done by the National Society and Dissenting bodies, there still remained a terrible wilderness of spiritual destitution. Lord Ashley illustrated that position by statistical figures— In 1801 the population of England and Wales was 8,872,980, whilst in 1841 the returns gave 15,906,829, showing an increase of more than 7,000 000 in less than half a century. Taking one-fifth of the present population, (which, by the way, was understating,) as the number supposed to be capable of some education, we should have 3,181,365. Deducting one-third from those as per- sons presumed to be educated at private expense, there would still remain 2,120 910. Making a further deduction for children supposed to be in Union- houses of 50,000, and also deducting 10 per cent for absence and casualties, which would be 212,091, there would still remain 1,858,819 to be provided for at the public expense. Now, it appeared from tables made out by the Reve- rend Mr. Burgess of Chelsea, that the total number of daily scholars in con- nexion with the Established Church was 749,626; and from the same table it appeared that the total number of daily scholars in connexion with the Dis- senting bodies was 95,000. The total number, then, of daily scholars in Eng- land and Wales, was 844,626; leaving, without any daily instruction, 1,014,193 persons capable of some education. The number of commitments in 1841 of persons of all ages, was 27,760; and of those, 111 per cent on the whole amount were under sixteen years of age. Lord Ashley quoted a great number more of local statistics, taken from the Reports of the Children's Employment Commission, of the Factory Commissioners, and private correspondence ; mainly relating to the large manufacturing towns and the mining districts. Of these we take an extract respecting Manchester, as a specimen of the facts set forth— By the Police-returns for Manchester, made up to December 1841, it ap- peared that 13,345 persons were taken into custody, of whom 10,208 were dis- charged by the Magistrates without any punishment. Of these, 3,069 were under twenty years of age, and 745 were females. The return for the next six months, namely to July 1842, of persons taken into custody was 8,341: and if the whole year bore a like proportion, the number would be 16,682. Of the 8,34Pthere were 5,810 males, and 2,531 females. What was the state of edu- cation in Manchester ? He would set but little by the mere fact of reading and writing; but yet it should be remembered that when a child was unable to read, one channel of instruction was closed upon him. Of the persons so com- mitted, it appeared that the number who only read, or who read and wrote im- perfectly, was—males, 1,999; females, 863. Of those who neither read nor wrote— males, 3,098; females, 1,519 ; making a total of 4,617. The number of those from fifteen years of age and under twentyswas 2,360; and of these 1,639 were males and 721 females. Take what might be called the curableportion, at ten years and under fifteen, at 665; of these 547 were males, and 118 females. There were discharged by the Magistrates in the course of six months, without punishment, 6,307 persons; which was at the rate of 12,614 in a year. Was it so be wondered at that crime should so abound, where there was every incentive to its committal ? In Manchester, there were 129 pawnbrokers, 769 beer- houses, 498 public-houses, 309 brothels, 119 brothels lately suppressed, 168 houses where prostitutes are kept, 223 houses where they resort, and 763 street- walkers in the borough. The thieves known to reside in the borough, and who did nothing but steal, were 212. The persons following some lawful occupa- tion, but who augmented their gains by habitual violation of the law, were 160. There were 63 houses for receiving stolen goods, and 32 others had been

lately suppressed. Of lodging-houses, where the sexes indiscriminately slept together, there were 109. Another cause which tended to increase the amount of juvenile crime in Manchester was, that a vast number of children of tender

years were allowed by their parents to roam through the streets, where they necessarily contracted the most idle and dissolute habits. The number of children found wandering about the streets, and restored to their parents by the Police, in 1836, was 8,500; and in 1840 the number so restored was 5,500. It was calculated, that in the borough of Manchester 1,500 children are an- nually added to les classes dangerouses. Lord Ashley gave similar accounts respecting Birmingham ; where the mistress of a dame-school, asked whether sl e gave moral and reli- gious instruction. said that she could not afford it at threepence a week. Leeds presents the same spectacle ; the juvenile depravity being seen in its most horrid forms- " The spirit of lawless insubordination," says Mr. Symons, the Sub-Com- missioner, " which prevails at Leeds among the children is very manifest ; it is matter for painful apprehension. James Child, Inspector of Police, said, ' There is a great deal of drnnkenness, especially among the young people. . . . I have seen children very little higher than the table at these shops.' . . . ' John Stubbs, of the Police force, confirms all the above testimony. We have a deal of girls on the town under fifteen, and boys who live by thieving. There are half-a-dozen beer-shops where none but young ones go at all; they sup- port these houses.' " The Reverend Mr. Livesey, minister of St. Philip's, where there is a population of 24,000, almost exclusively of the labounng classes, stated, that " the moral condition of the children was, in numerous in- stances, most deplorable. . . . On Sunday afternoons it is impossible to pass along the highways, See. beyond the police boundaries, without encoun- tering numerous groups of boys, from twelve years and upwards, gaming for copper coin. . . . The boys are early! initiated into habits of drinking. But the most revolting feature of juvenile depravity is early contamination from the association of the sexes. The outskirts of the town are absolutely polluted by this abomination ; nor is the veil of darkness or seclusion always sought by those degraded beings. Too often they are to be met in small par. ties, who appear to associate for the purpose of promiscuous intercourse; their ages being apparently about fourteen or fifteen." And the Reverend Mr. Farish ads, " There are beer-houses attended by youths exclusively, for the men will not have them in the same houses with themselves." Mr. Hugh Parker, Justice of the Peace, gave the following account—" A great propor- tion of the working classes are ignorant and profligate . . . the morals of their children exceedingly depraved and corrupt . . . given at a very early age to petty theft, swearing, and lying; during minority to drunkenness, debauchery, idleness, profanation the Sabbath, dog and prize fighting." The like accounts were given of Wolverhampton and its neighbour- hood, Warrington, the Potteries, Nottingham, Sheffield—where the Sub-Commissioner of Inquiry into the Employment of Children gave a most startling instance of reckless ferocity among the young- " Within a year of the time of my visit the town was preserved from an or- ganized scheme to fire and plunder it merely by the information of one man, and the consequent readiness of the troops. A large body of men and boys marched on it in the dead of night, and a very large quantity of crow's-feet, to lame horses, pikes, and combustibles was found on them, at their houses, and left on the road. Several were pledged to fire their own houses. I name this as a further illustration of the perilous ignorance and vice prevailing among that young class, between boys and full-grown men, who were known to be among the chief actors in these scenes." At Bilston, the moral condition of the young, though with some ex- ceptions, was on the whole very superior : there, owing to the great exertions of some persons in the place, there is "the dawn of educa- tion." The evidence of John Corbett, a Birmingham mechanic, who was examined by Dr. Granger, was very striking— This poor but intelligent man stated, " I have seen the entire ruin of many families from the waste of money and the bad conduct of fathers and sons seeking amusement and pastime in an alehouse : from DO other single cause does half so much demoralization and misery proceed." He then added a most valuable sentence ; and, speaking of what he had seen at his own house of the conduct of his own father and mother, said, "My own experience tells me that the instruction of females in the work of a house, in teaching them to produce cheerfulness and comfort at the fireside, would prevent a great amount of mi- sery and crime. Then there would be fewer drunken husbands and disobedient children. As a working man, within my own observation, female education is disgracefully neglected. 1 attach more importance to it than to any thing else."

Some of Lord Ashley's correspondents attributed the spirit of dis- affection to waut of education— A correspondent in the disturbed districts wrote, "I took down myself the following words as they fell from the lips of a Chartist orator—' The prevalence of intemperance and other vicious habits was the fault of the aristocracy and the millowners, who had neglected to supply thepeople with sufficient means of moral improvement, and would form an item of that great account which they should one day be called upon to render to a people indignant at the discovery of their own debasement.'" From another he had learned, that "a working- man's hall is opened on Sundays, and in this three hundred poor children are initiated into infidel and seditious principles. A wild and Satanic spirit is infused into the hearers."

Nothing can be more degraded than the condition of the people in the great iron-fields- From Yorkshire, Durham, Lancashire, North Staffordshire, and Cumber- land, the following accounts of the replies of children who bad been examined had been received—" I never heard of France." " I never heard of Scotland or Ireland." " I do not know what America is." James Taylor, eleven years old, n has never heard of God ; but has heard men in the pit say ' God d—n them.'" A girl of eighteen years of age said, " I never heard of Christ at all." This was very common among children and young persons. "I never go to church or chapel "; and again, " I do not know who God is." From Halifax there was this evidence : " You have expressed surprise," says an employer, "at Thomas Mitchell not having heard of God; I judge that there are very few colliers hereabouts that have."

Although the habit of drinking has somewhat abated, drunkneness is one great source of evil ; and its prevalence may be judged from the fact that the outlay on ardent spirits is estimated at 25,000,0001. The chaplain of a county gaol had told Lord Ashley that three-fourths of the crime committed was the result of intemperance. Dr. Corcelles, the Superintendent of the Wakefield Lunatic Asylum, estimated that intemperance was the exciting cause of one-third of the cases of insanity of that institution : Dr. Rensselaer, of the United States, attributed one-

half the cases of insanity to that cause. — _

Lord Ashley compared the sums expended in punishment and in education—

In the year 1841, the expense of gaols was 137,449/., the expense of houses of correction was 129,1631.; making a total of 266,6121. The expense of pro. vecutions in 1841, 170,521L, of the conveyance of prisoners, 23,2421.; of the removal of transports, 8,195/. ; of vagrants, 7,167. The cost of the Rural Police, only in a few counties, was 139,228/. ; thus giving a total expenditure for the punishment of crime of 604,9651. In the county of Lancashire alone, in 1842, 25,6561. was expended in prosecutions. The annual vote for educa- tion for all England was 30,0001. He urged the expediency of gradually re- trenching the criminal expenditure, and appropriating the funds so derived to education.

Among many injurious influences, Lord Ashley ascribed much to the truck system, to the payment of wages in public-houses, and to the bad state of dwelling-houses ; for they made it impossible for the adult topractice that morality of which he should be an example to his children. He did not presume to present to the House any scheme, because it demanded all the collective wisdom of the Legislature. Punishment fails to repress crime. Even the criminal statistics furnish no measure of the extent of crime : the females are becoming daily more demora- lized; an eye witness described them as " becoming similar to the fol- -lowers of an army ; wearing the garb of women, but actuated by the worst passions of men." If this state of things were allowed to continue, before twenty years should have elapsed there would be a general con- vulsion and dispersion of the whole system of society. Lord Ashley concluded thus-

" We call the working population improvident and immoral, and so they often are ; but that improvidence and immorality are the results in a great measure of our neglect, and in not a little of our example. We owe them, too, the debt of kindlier language and more frequent intercourse. This is no fanci- ful obligation. The people of this country are more alive than any other to an honest zeal for their welfare and sympathy for their condition ; and, though that sympathy may often fall on unimpressible hearts, it never fails to find some that it comforts and many that it softens. Only let us now declare that we will enter on a better course—that we will seek their temporal through their [eternal interests—and half our task will be accomplished. There are many hearts to be softened—many minds to be instructed—many souls to be saved. 0 patria! 0 Distils domes! If we engage in such a task the bles- sing of God will rest on our labours, and the oldest among us perhaps may live to rejoice for himself and children at the opening dawn of the immortal be- cause the moral glory of the British empire." (Cheers.) Sir JADES Greenest touched briefly on the points alluded to towards the close of Lord Ashley's speech. The Legislature had, in the Mines and Collieries Act, expressed its disapprobation of the truck system ; • and in the debate on that measure, the sense of the Legislature had been pronounced on the payment of wages in public-houses. He concurred in what Lord Ashley had said respecting dwelling-houses of the poor : and a moat useful servant of the public, Mr. Chadwick, had been em- ployed in framing a measure on the subject : which would be referred, together with the whole subject of the drainage of large cities, to a Commission about to be appointed by the Crown. Turning to the main subject of educati in, he contrasted the conduct of England with that of other countries— All the material powers of this nation bad been developed and improved in the most remarkable manner ; but the nation, individually and collectively, ap- peared to have been absorbed in this grand object ; and the moral condition of the people had, as it appeared to him, been all the time most lamentably ne- glected. And it was with peculiar grief and mortification that he said this; for he at the same time could not but bear in mind, that while all the other Governments of Europe, warned by the melancholy events which darkened the latter years of the last century with scenes which it would be too painful to dwell on—warned by those bad lessons, had directed their earnest their un- ceasing attention to the moral training and religious education of their people, England alone, Protestant Christian England, had neglected this all-important duty of giving her people that training, that education, which so intimately concerned not only their temporal but their eternal welfare. The police and soldiers had done their duty ; it was now time that moral and religious instruction should go forth among the people ; and if the House would throw aside party feeling, and their religious differences, as they seemed at that moment disposed to do, some neutral ground might be found on which to build something approaching to a scheme of national education, with a due regard to the just wishes of the Established Church on the one hand, and the most studious attention to the honest .scruples of the Dissenters on the other. Sir James Graham briefly re- capitulated what had recently been done— He alluded to the grants made to the Normal Schools at Glasgow and Edin- burgh, 10,0001. in all, which he believed would provide Scotland with school- masters; to the grants of 5,000/. each to the National and British and Foreign School Societies, and 1,0001. to the training-school at Battersea. Between the years 1833 and 1839 the Treasury had directly granted 160,0001. towards the building of schools ; and 793 schools had been built, giving aecommodation to 160,000 scholars. Since 1839, the grants of the Privy Council for the same purpose amounted to 112,000/. ; and these sums being granted under limita- tions which proportioned the amount granted by the Privy Council to the amount subscribed by private persons, it would be seen that the total outlay for these purposes had been 348,0001. He praised highly the simultaneous system of education, as the best that has been devised ; and he proceeded to state what Government proposed to do for the furtherance of education ; intending for the pre- sent only to deal with those classes of children who could be brought within control, and to whom what he would call compulsory education could be applied—pauper children and factory children— District schools were proposed to be established for the education of pauper children, and those whose parents and guardians might consent to their edu- cation, in the Metropolis and large towns, under the superintendence of the clergy of the Established Church, with provision for the instruction of the children of Dissenters by ministers of their own persuasions. These schools were to include an area having a diameter not exceeding fifteen miles, or ten miles in the Metropolis, and to be erected by a rate not exceeding one-fifth of the annual assessment for the previous three years. Factory children had been already legislated for, but the intentions of the Government and the Legis- lature were rendered inoperative by various causes. He proposed to prohibit the employment of factory children between the ages of eight and thirteen, for more than six hours and a half in any one day ; certificates of their attendance at school to be granted by the National and the British and Foreign Schools, and by the Roman Catholic Schools in the case of Roman Catholic children ; the schools to be open to the Inspectors appointed by the Committee of Privy Council on Education ; grant, by the Government to be made in aid of local exertions for the erection of such schools; and a sum not exceeding threepence per week, or one-twelfth of the earnings of each child, to be retained by the employer in aid of a fund for education. In these schools, religious instruction to be administered, through the medium bf the authorized version of the Scriptures, with the aid of portions of the Li- turgy, under the superintendence of the clergy of the Established Church, bat with elaborate provisions in favour of the children of Dissenters and to pre- vent proselytism. He proposed that these schools should be managed each by seven trustees—the clergyman of the district, two churchwardens, and four elective trustees, two at least to be freeholders. Two bills were already pre- pared for carrying out the objects he bad stated : he hoped that they would not be viewed in a party light; and if they were passed during the present session, a large advance would be made in favour of the moral and religious im- provement of the rising generation.

Lord Joust 13.11SSELL generally expressed cordial approbation of the plan ; but objected to its being confined to the manufacturing districts, while the agricultural districts were not better off in respect of educa- tion than the towns ; and he reserved his opinion as to the details. If the plan at all answered to Sir James Graham's view, it would be not only folly but wickedness to oppose it : the jealousies of opposing par- ties in the question could only be overcome by an Executive supported without distinction of party. It would be desirable to provide as good an education as possible for the Roman Catholic Irish children in the manufacturing districts. Lord John pointed to the numerous instances of boys who had been to school and yet bad no real knowledge, to sho the importance of qualifying schoolmasters : if the country could nOrisi,„. educate the whole people, it yet might do much to elevate those who are to teach. And.he thought that inducements might be devised to make working-people willing to send their children to school.

Viscount SANDON heartily agreed with Lord John Russell, that when a fearful mass of ignorance existed in this country, it did not behove men on either side of the House to stick too closely to their peculiar opinions. Mr. EWART expressed his concurrence. Sir CHARLES BURRELL hinted some vague objections. Mr. Szaw hoped the measure would eventually be extended to Ireland. Mr. CHARLES,BULLER gave to the measure his entire concurrence, and pointed out a large sum available for education in existing charities: the gross amount of those charities was 1,200,000/., but by proper management it might be made 2,000,000/. ; of that sum 312,0001. is devoted to purposes of education ; and much of the remainder, especially that now expended in the mis- chievous shape of small money-gifts, might be devoted to the same pur- pose. Sir ROBERT Ittcras objected to Sir James Graham's checks on proselytism, and to Mr. Buller's proposal to divert charities from their original purposes. Sir GEORGE GREY expressed his satisfaction at the Government plan.

Sir ROBERT PEEL trusted more to the moral effect of the demonstra- tion that night, in encouraging individual exertion, than he did to the direct interference of the Legislature. He expressed a strong sense of Lord Ashley's character and discretion, which had produced the unanimity that had marked the debate. To Sir Robert Inglis he pointed out, that if they said they would establish no schools in which they would not make converts to the Established Church, they would alienate a great amount of support, thousands of children would beJeft subject to the worst temptations, and the interests of true religion would be prejudiced, not advanced ; and to his " honourable friend opposite," Mr. Buller, he pointed out the prejudice which would accrue to the cause of education by accompanying the measure with a diversion of former charitable bequests.

Mr. HAWES objected to the constitution of the proposed school-trusts, as likely to be thought too exclusive by the Dissenters. Mr. AcLarrn uttered some cautions against special points ; and particularly against prejudging the question which system of education is the best. Mr. SMITH O'Bsurav concurred with Mr. Hawes, and objected to the exclu- sion of Roman Catholics.

Lord ASHLEY thanked the House for the attention which he had received ; and the motion was agreed to.

Mr. EWART, who bad a motion on the paper to the effect that "every year a statement should be made to the House by a responsible Mi- nister, on the state and prospects of the education of the people," said that he, had been most anxious to bring this subject before the House ; but after the debate that evening, he would not at present press it.

THE CORPORATION OF LONDON.

Lord BROUGHAM drew the attention of the House of Peers, on Thursday, to the management of the city and the administration of justice by the Corporation of London. He explained the delay in deal- ing with the subject— The Commission appointed by the Crown to investigate the constitution

and affairs of the Municipal Corporations of the country devoted great part of their report to London ; but the bill founded on that report only embraced 178 of the country corporations. When interrogated on the point, Lord John Russell said, that on account of the difficulty and importance of the sub- ject, the reform of the London Corporation was postponed, to be treated in a

separate measure. Years passed by without a word being said of the Corpora- tion of London ; but something occured in 1839 which threw light on the rea- sons for the postponement. A bill was introduced to effect salutary changes in the whole system of Metropolitan Police, the first ten clauses being devoted to the Police within the City : the love of an efficient Police, however, stopped short at Temple Bar ; not indeed with the people, but among those who as- sumed to represent them in the corporation meetings and conferences took place : Government discovered that their majorities were very small, varying from two to five; and the City Members discovered that they had no small weight with Government : the bill was suddenly referred to a Select Commit- tee; Mr. Fox Maule reported, that the Committee had unanimously resolved that the Police of London should be left in the hands of those to whom it was at present intrusted, convinced that a good and efficient system could not fail to be exercised under their superintendence ; and the first ten clauses were abandoned. The Committee which had previously sat on the subject had made the very opposite report, that " if a scheme could be contrived for the purpose of increasing vice and crime, nothing could have been better calculated than the system of Police in the City of London." In fact, the Government of the day could not carry the measure. But the present Government laboured under no such difficulty ; and be was confident that Lord John Russell would, by his support of such a mea- sure, redeem as Member for the City of London that pledge which he had given as Member for some place of less note. He spoke of the City with no disrespect— Its importance, wealth, and the immortal services which it had rendered to the state, rendered it deserving of the fatherly but scrutinising care of the Le-

gialature. Both in the middle of the seventeenth century, when our liberties were fought for in the field, and at the end of that age. when they were esta- blished by legal enactment, it was chiefly by the exertions of the citizens of London that the civil and religious rights of their countrymen were preserved. But the gratitude he felt for past services did not blind him to the existence of present abuses.

He explained the constitution of the Corporation—

The government was vested in a Mayor, a Court of Aldermen, and a Court of Common Councilmen; a form which offered a remote and illusive resem- blance to the constitution of this kingdom. The Common Council consisted, properly speaking, of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Common CounciL The Common Council were the Commoners of the City, its elective body, somewhat analogous to though totally different in all material respects from the Com- mons House of Parliament, as the Aldermen might be said to resemble their Lordships, and the Mayor the Sovereign. Aldermen and Common Council- lors were both elective officers; the Aldermen chosen for life, and the Com- mon Councilmen yearly. The City was divided into twenty-four wards, and each chose a certain number of Common Councillors and Aldermen. The right of voting resided not in householders nor in freemen, but all who com- bined in themselves the character of householders and freemen, and who hap- pened to be rated at the amount of 30s- to the City-rate. Every such person had a vote for an Alderman in case of a vacant ward, and a vote for so many Councilmen as belonged to the ward in the case of a yearly election.

He pointed out abuses resulting from this constitution—

Did it secure in practice, as in theory it appeared to do, the accession of the most important citizens to the management of the City affairs—the Barings, the Grates, the Prescotts, the Curtises, the Hutchinsona, the Goldsmidts the Bobartses ? Not at all. The freemen, with some brilliant exceptions, formed a very inferior class of voters, and by the freemen the Corporation was "swamped." The numbers of the electors and elected were the reverse of well distributed : for the Ward of Bridge, in which there were 198 houses, eight Com- mon Councilmen were chosen ; while the Ward of Farringdon Without, which contained 3,030 houses, or fifteen times as many as the Ward of' Bridge, only elected sixteen Common Councilmen.

The City-revenue is enormous, and one of the greatest abuses is its administration— The income applicable to the government of the City, which is only one• fifteenth part of the entire Metropolis, is 620,0001., arising from rents, fees, and taxes ; equal to 61. a head on the population of 129,000 citizens. The income of Paris ut 30s. a head on the population ; and of the Paris revenue 40,0004 is expended on education alone. But. including charities and the like funds, the sum administered by the Corporation is much greater : the poor-rates amounted to 80,0001., the parochial charities to 38.705/., the royal hospitals to 128.0001., and the charities administered by chartered companies to 85,000/. ; making a total of 895,3821. As to the expenditure of these funds, the Mansionhouse, including its repairs, coat 25.000/.; the expenses of the Lord Mayor and his establishment amounted to 17,000/.•. there were the Chamberlain, the Remem- brancer, the Town-Clerk, the Clerk of the Justices, and all that contributed to the show and substance of the City Monarch amounted to a sum little less than 35.0001.; and this was exclusive of the administration of justice. Some time back, the Queen visited the City ; and, of course, on so auspicious an oc- casion a large sum of' money must be given in presents. To whom? to the Queen's friends? to the Lord Chancellor? [Lord Cottenliant dissented] the Attorney-General? [Lord Caqqabell dissented] Lord Monteagle? No, it was to the people who received the Queen! 300/. was given in gratuities of 501. or so to the Chamberlain and other officers! Contrast this charity, beginning and ending at home, with the 181. 4s. a year given to Miss Myddleton, the lineal descendant of Sir Hugh Myddleton, the great benefactor of the City. The wars and means were raised from large estates : nearly the whole of the county of Londonderry is owned by the Corporation—and he must confess that they are the hest of landlords. Another source was the fee to enter certain incorpo- rated crafts which have a monopoly—as that of the Carmen of London, which every person who wishes to have a cart for hire must enter with a fee of 5.31.4s.; every carman not of the Company pays 2d. on entering the City. Similar privileges are enjoyed by the watermen, porters, and others. The City levies rates and taxes on coal, wine, oil, and other articles of consumption on the river ; the price of coal in particular being seriously affected by the restriction and heavy duties; and as a protection to those who send coal by the river, there is a duty on coal sent from Staffordshire by the canal.

The government of the City is no less heaped with abuses— It is open to gross jobbing; as an instance of which, Lord Brougham men- tioned the impediments to the removal of nuisances. Close to that magnifi- cent building, in Leadenhall Street, which is intended for the accommodation of those who govern our Eastern empire, is the nuisance of Leadenhall Market; yet no exertions for its removal have availed, because its continuance benefits same individuals of weight in the City : 10,0001. has been expended to prevent its removaL The publicans and bouseowners resist the removal of Bartholo- mew Fair, because it keeps up their rents. Lord Brougham compared the ad- ministration of the City, with a population of 129,000, and that of Marylebone parish, with a population of 138,000: the Police of Marylebone costs 20,0001., of London 50,0001.; yet, while the excellent system of the Metropolitan'Police has been extended to the country districts, that of London remains as bad as ever. The management of highways and roads, paving and lighting, sewerage, and other executive duties, is intrusted to some nineteen or twenty chartered bodies, all squabbling, clashing, and encroaching on each other. The administration of justice, the very bond which holds society toge- ther, is anomalous and defective—.

The Corporation of London is a feudal body in origin ; in feet, in early charters, of John and Henry the Third, the citizens are called " Barons" and the Aldermen "Earls." One peculiarity of the feudal system was, that the lord was commander in war and judge in peace. The Monarch was judge over the whole kingdom, the Bishop of Durham and the Duke of Lancaster within their Palatinates; but they have ceded their judicial functions to the Judges; and,.except the hereditary Sheriff of Westmoreland, and the lord of the manor of Havering-at-Bower in Essex, who have the right to appoint Justices, there remains no instance of a feudal office connected with the administration of jusfce. The Barons of London, however, remain clothed with theirjudicial functions : two Aldermen may form a quorum on the bench in the Central Criminal Court ; their title being, that they are elected by freemen who happen to be rated at 30s. a year to the taxes of' the Corporation. The Aldermen appoint the Recorder, one of the highest judges of the land. Lord Denman once filled the office—he canvassed for votes 1—his opponent was Mr. Bolland ; and what rendered the opposition formidable was, not Mr. Bolland's learning and ability, but the fact that he was City Pleader, an office to which sundry Common Councilmen desired to appoint their relatives ; and so they voted for Mr. Holland's election to another office. Precisely the same cause lost Mr. Matthew Bill the election for the office of City Sergeant. The Aldermen not only administer justice ; they have invented another jurisdiction : he alluded to the "asking for advice,' under which name persons make accusa- tions against absent parties. A late Lord Mayor thus listened to a story told by a man, that a Duke withheld an estate from him and the Lord Mayor actually had the assurance to write to the Duke and ask him why he did so? A woman went to a Lord Mayor and complained that a person bad "swindled" her ; an offence unknown to law—but some City Magistrates appear to be anxious for a reputation of driving what they call " swindlers " out of the City : the accused was arrested, and detained for six or eight weeks in the custody of the Marshal, and then he compromised the affair, to avoid the ex- posure of having the whole story published in the newspapers. The system afforded opportunity fur a worse abuse. " A. publisher of a newspaper had been convicted of libel, but was not brought up for judgment, on condition that he should cease libelling the party. The libel of which he had been convicted was of a most atrocious nature. A villain who had procured the insertion of the libel in order to extort money, went to the same newspaper and offered some kind of indemnity to the publisher to induce him to publish another libel on the same party. The publisher said, • No; if I do that I shall be brought up for judgment : but do you go before the sitting Magistrate and tell your story, (it was a matter with which a Magistrate had nothing to do,) we will send a reporter to take down what you say, and it shall be pub- lished.' Whether this conspiracy was actually carried out I do not know ; but I do know that the villanous scheme I have described was suggested."

Lord Brougham concluded by moving,

" That a humble address be presented to her Majesty, praying that her Majesty would be graciously pleased to take into early consideration the Report of 1834 on the Municipal Corporation of the City of London, with a view of introducing some legislative measures on the subject."

The LORD CHANCELLOR said, that the motion, in its extent, was tic- expected either by himself or their Lordships—as was evident from the thin attendance; and he was sure that Lord Brougham would give their Lordships time to make up their minds. With respect to the adminis- tration of justice, he entirely concurred in Lord Brougham's argument, assuming the facts : nothing could be more reprehensible than for persons sitting on the seat of justice to express opinions on the character or conduct of parties not before them, or to allow others to make charges which they had no jurisdiction to try. He did not suppose that they would be inclined to repeat such conduct, particularly after the inti- mation thrown out of the consequences of their doing so. He sug- gested that it would be a better course for Lord Brougham himself to introduce a bill ; to which he promised the serious attention of Government.

Lord CAMPBELL said, that if Lord Brougham meant to join the Go- vernment, to which, in ostensible opposition, be sometimes'rendered very available service, the course recommended by Lord Lyndhurst would be a very expedient one. There were, no doubt, abuses in the Corporation, but he thought that Lord Brougham had exaggerated. He hoped, however, that the debate would be adjourned, in order that Lord Brougham's motion might not end in smoke: and he remarked that the time was passed when Government measures were obstructed to get up the cry that Ministers could not carry their measures. The enormous evil of "asking advice" was contrary to law, and a nuisance which ought not to be endured for an hour : the publishers of such libels and the Magistrates who stimulated them ought to be severely punished. Lord BROUGHAM at first proposed to adjourn the debate, but after- wards expressr-d his willingness to withdraw the motion ; observing, that Lord Campbell's speech did not tend to confirm his prophecy that the days of obstruction had passed. The Duke of Wzi.rrucrow supported the proposition to deferAte matter—

" This is not a question to be decided off-hand in this or any other place. What ought to be done must be maturely considered. Whether it is brought forward by either of my noble and learned friends does not much signify ; but it is quite impossible that a servant of the Crown should get up now and say what measure he means to bring in on the subject."

The motion was withdrawn.

PRIVILEGE.

The Sergeant-at-Arms appeared at the Bar of the House of Commons on Monday, and made the following statement-

" I have to acquaint the House, that William Bellamy, a messenger of this House, and myself, have been served with a writ of summons to appear to an action of trespass issued by Thomas Burton Howard, by Thomas Howard, his attorney. As the writ did not state the nature of the trespass, I thought it proper to enter an appearance to the action. On Saturday last, I was served with a declaration, which shows that the suit was in consequence of my having taken into custody Thomas Burton Howard, and was against William Bel- lamy, for having taken him to the prison of Newgate : but as both there acts were done under the order of the House, and under your warrant, Sir, I hope we shall have the protection of the House, and the direction of the House as to the course we shall pursue." The SOLICITOR-GENERAL gave notice of a motion on the subject for the following night.

On Tuesday, accordingly, the SOLICITOR-GENERAL made a formal motion. There were, he said, two courses : either the officers of the House might be forbidden to plead or to defend the actions, and the Juries, in the absence of all explanation, would assess damages, which must eventually be paid ; or the officers might be allowed to follow every precedent for the last forty years, and to plead the authority of the House ; and the Court would of course recognize the constitutional powers and privileges of the House of Commons. Sir William Follett entered into a long examination of precedents ; resting strongly on the case of Burdett versus Abbott in 1810, an action of false imprison- ment brought by Sir Francis Burdett against the Speaker, by whom he had been committed to the Tower— The Speaker, and the Sergeant-at-Arms, against whom another action was brought, were authorized to plead ; and their plea distinctly put in issue the question whether or not the House of Commons had the right to vote a person guilty of a breach of privilege ; and, having voted him guilty of a breach of its privileges, whether it had legal and constitutional power to direct his com- mittal to the Tower. That question was argued with great learning and ability in the Court of Ring's Bench ; which pronounced a solemn and deliberate opinion that the House of Commons had the power of voting a per- son guilty of a breach of privilege, and that it had the legal and constitutional power to follow that up by the committal of the party. Sir Francis Burdett brought a writ of error to that judgment; it was argued in the House of Lords; and the House of Lords confirmed the judgment of the Court of King's Bench. In the action of trespass brought against Sir William Gossett and Bellamy, in 1840, for the execution of the same warrant as gave rise to the present actions, the Judge recognized the validity of the warrant ; but the defendants were convicted of excess in the execution of their duty, and the Jury assessed 1001. damages. He -moved that the Ser- geant-at-Arms and William Bellamy be allowed to appear and Plead'th the actions. Sir Thomas WILDE opposed the motion, as little better than an ab- solute surrender of the privileges of the House. All u-age was at va- riance with the recent precedents quoted by the Solicitor-General : and those very precedents ought to be a warning ; for, in the case of Burdett versus Abbott, Sir Vicary Gibbs recommended that the Speaker should be allowed to plead, in the fall belief that the Court would not entertain the question ; but that supposition turned out to be unfounded : Sir Francis Burdett had been committed to the Tower for declaring that the House did not represent the people ; and Government suffered the plea to be put in rather than continue the discussion or appeal to the people ; anticipating that the Court of Queen's Bench would sympathize with the House. In the search for anterior precedents, he had met with case after case, in which the House, on actions being commenced against their officers, had arrested the parties and held them in custody until the actions were relinquished. In the case of Burdett versus Abbott, too, the Court of Queen's Bench might have given an opposite decision ; and the question was actually referred to the House of Lords, a coordinate jurisdiction, which thus sat in judgment on the privileges of the House of Commons. The effect was to displace the House of Com- mons from its true position in the constitution.

At this point Sir ROBERT PEEL stated, that the plea must be put in next day, and a summons for further time to plead must be given before nine that night. After some conversation, it was agreed that further time should be demanded to plead ; and the debate was adjourned till Thursday. There was " no House," however, on Thursday.

ARMY ESTIMATES : THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON : DISTRESS.

Before proceeding with the order of the day on Monday, for going into Committee of Supply on the Army Estimates, Lord JOHN RUSSELL took some exception, on constitutional considerations, to the Duke of Wellington's occupation of two posts, as Cabinet Minister and Com- mander-in-Chief of the Army— No one could for a moment compete with the Duke of Wellington in fitness for that office; but be believed it had very seldom been the case that a member of the Cabinet had been intrusted with the executive command of the Army. General Conway, indeed, for a short time, was a member of the Cabinet and intrusted with the command of the Army ; but there were very few cases since. With respect both to the Duke of York and the noble Lord (Hill), whose decease they all lamented. although they had their political sentiments, yet persons of all parties and grades relied on the professional zeal of the one and the high impartiality of the other, with perfect confidence in any applica- tions they might make either fur favour or justice. The Duke of Wellington, with all the great qualities he possessed as a military man, had yet for many years taken a very decided part in the politics of this country. He cited the authority of the Duke himself in favour of his ohjec- tion—

There being a Commission to examine into the practicability of consolidating certain departments in the civil administration of the Army, the noble Duke gave an opinion on the subject, which bad the greatest weight with his noble friend Lord Melbourne, then Prime Minister of the country : at the end of a statement with respect to several matters of detail, his Grace added—" The Master-General of the Ordnance is an officer very useful to the Government at all times; they can refer to him on all subjects. I have always been of opinion that the Commander-in-Chief should not be a member of the Cabinet. My lawn for thinking so is, that he ought not to be supposed to have any poli- tical wfluence or bias on his mind, partioularly on the subject of promotions in the Army." in 1828, when the noble Duke took the first office in the poli- tical service of the Crown, as First Lord of the Treasury, the whole of his colleagues represented to him that he should resign the office of Commander- in-Chief; which he accordingly did resign, and which was then intrusted to Lord Hill.

H6 wished to know whether the Duke of Wellington had changed his opinion?

Sir ROBERT PEEL said, that there was no constitutional rule against the tenure of a seat in the Cabinet by the Commander-in-Chief. Lord John. Russell had himself mentioned the precedent of Marshal Conway. Constitutional analogy was not against it : the Master-General of the Ordnance had frequently had a seat in the Cabinet, and the Duke of Wellington himself had sat in that capacity. The First Lord of the Admiralty had a seat in the Cabinet under the late Administration, and all the other Lords had seats in the House of Commons. Sir Robert went on to explain, that on Lord Hill's resignation it was desirable to fill up the post in the best manner, but that it would have been too great a sacrifice had the country lost the Duke of Wellington's civil services. There had been objections to the holding of the offices of the First Lord of the Treasury and Commander-in-Chief by the same individual ; but the case was very different of a Peer not holding any civil office. He would put it to the House to judge whether in the conduct of the Army the Duke could be guided by political motives. (Cheers.) In retain- ing his seat in the Cabinet, the Duke of Wellington had deferred to the unanimous opinion of the Government ; and, for himself and his colleagues, Sir Robert Peel would take the whole responsibility.

On the motion that the Speaker do leave the chair, Mr. SHARMAN CRAWFORD moved the amendment of which he had given notice. It would be impossible to lighten the burden of taxation unless they took into consideration the whole expenditure of the country ; and he would put it to the Government, whether it was necessary to keep up a stand- ing army; whether 38.000 men were required to keep in order the people of the United Kingdom ? If it were so, what rendered it ne- cessary? if they were compelled thus to coerce the people of Great Britain, there must be something wrong in their ins itutions or their legislation. He called attention to several items of expenditure as ex- travagant; and he concluded by moving his amendment- " That at the present period of extended distress, it is the duty of the House to consider the means of lightening the pressure of taxation on the people, by reducing to the ereatest practicable extent the expenses of the military as well as of the civil establishments of the country : that, therefore, it is expc- di, nt that the voting of any supplies should he postponed till the estimates of the whole expenditure, and the means to meet that expenditure, be first fur- nished to the House."

After a little discussion, the amendment was rejected, by 62 to 15. The House then went into Committee.

Sir Henry HARDINGE brought forth the Army Estimates— The estimate proposed for the present year, ending on the 31st March 1844, was 6,225,103/.; which showed a decrease, as compared with the former year, of 139,3231. The number of officers, non-commissioned officers, and rank and file, proposed to be maintained, exclusive of the troupe employed in the East Indies, was 100,846. It was, however, intended to effect a reduction in the rank and file of the above numbers, by suspending the recruiting in 59 regi- ments at home and abroad, until their number were reduced to 740 rank and file each. The total reduction intended to be effected, as compared with the numbers provided by the supplementary estimate of July 1842, was 5,740 rank and file. The amount of expenditure would thus be this year reduced by 330,0001. It was also intended to withdraw two regiments from China, two from India, and three from Canada. Sir Henry, at considerable length, vindi- cated the necessity of keeping up as large a force as that contemplated, in order to relieve the regiments abroad, which are kept from home for the enormous periods of ten, fifteen, and twenty years. The whole of the effective service of the Army amounted to 4,005,4691., and showed a diminution upon those of last year of 94,8261. There would be a decrease this year on the charge for half-pay allowances of 15,0001., and on that fur foreign half-pay of 2,5081.

He moved the •first vote of 100,846 men.

Mr. Home contended that there was no necessity for keeping up such a large force in the Colonies. He moved to reduce the vote to 90,846 men.

After some desultory discussion, Mr. Hume's amendment was re- jected, by 106 to 20. The vote, and several others, were agreed to, and the House resumed.

THE AFGHAN WAR.

Mr. ROEBUCK, on Thursday, moved for a Select Committee to in- quire into the causes that led to the late war in Afghanistan— The subject lie was about to introduce was so important and intricate, that .∎ no person could come to a correct conclusion upon its merits unless he gave it his undivided attention. He was about to ask for inquiry; which involved much that might reflect on some, if not all the members of the late Administra- tion. He should be obliged to accuse that Administration of rashly rushing into a war which was wholly unnecessary, impolitic, and unjust; and of doing all that without that Parliamentary sanction which it was their duty to obtain, and in direct opposition to the weal-known wishes of the majority of their own supporters. Ile was about to accuse them of dragging this country into an unjust and unnecessary war with the people of Afghanistan, without Parlia- mentary adiice, and solely ou their own responsibility. He asked fur inquiry, in case he made out a prima facie ease against those who had waged this war. If he showed that the war was impolitic and unjust—that it had been under- taken without the sanction of Parliament or the concurrence of the India, Com- pany—arid, lastly, if he showed that the party who waged it, when put upon their defence by the country, garbled and falsified the evdence which they offered as a defence for their conduct—lie thought he should have fixed on them a responsibility from which that House would not allow them to escape. if be established all these grounds, he expected that the gentlemen against whom he made the charge would be the foremost to support his motion; and that they would be able to show to the House and to the world, that there lay something behind the evidence which bad been produced, which would fully justify them to their countrymen. If he made good his charges against the late Administration, the House had two courses from which to choose. and one of which they must adopt—condemnation, or inquiry. For immediate condemnation he was not prepared ; justice to the parties accused required that they should have the fullest opportunity fur exculpating themselves ; and therefore what he asked the House for was inquiry. It might be difficult to lay ground for such an inquiry, from the extraordinary mode in which the evi- dence relating to the war in Afghanistan had been laid on the table; but, if the House would allow him, he would attempt to unravel the web, and to show that there were at least abundant groands for suspicion.

He cited as precedents the motions for inquiry by Mr. Burke and Mr. Dundas, which involved even the wider subject of the whole admi- nistration of the Indian Government. To be just, a war must be de- fensive. A war, indeed, aggressive in appearance, might be defensive in reality : but if an aggression was made, it ought to be on the party from whom they expected attack ; and the onus of showing that an aggressive war in appearance was a defensive one lay upon those who undertook it. He confessed that he looked with extraordinary suspicion and doubt on the proceedings of the noble Lord late at the head of Foreign Affairs, in every matter connected with our foreign relations— He could not help thinking that the noble Lord had exercised a most per- nicious influence upon the destinies of England. ("Hear, hear! ") If the character of England had been brought into bad odour in the estimation of other nations, it was owing to the mischievous activity of the noble Lord. In fact, he thought that the conduct of the noble Lord while in office was best typified by a production of modern science—he meant a lucifer-match; fur no sooner did the noble Lord touch any thing, and meet with obstruction, than a flame was sure to rise. (Cheers and laughter.) First, we were on the point of entering into a war with America, which would have been attended with evils akin to those of a civil war; it was only by a miracle that we were saved from a war with France ; and it was not for any thing the noble Lord had not done that we were not engaged in a war with Russia. He searched with mischievous activity the whole world, from the Western Shores of Ame- rica to the coasts of China, identifying the English name wherever it was known with war and injustice. (Loud cheers.) Far be it from him to accuse the noble Lord of a treasonable alliance with the enemies of England : such a charge was insane, and answered itself. But he did charge him with being most unfortunately ignorant of the true manner of dealing with foreign nations, so that they should respect the nation which he represented ; he charged him with mischievous meddling with affairs with which he had no concern, and with dragging this country into disputes from which his prudence ought to have protected it.

In laying the grounds of the special charge he had undertaken, Mr. Roebuck began with a brief sketch of the country to which his motion referred ; pointing out the relative position t,f the English territories. He then traced the later history of Afghanistan— It was in the earlier part of last century rescued from Persia by Ahmed Shah. Ile was succeeded by Timour Shah ; who left five sous,—Zumalm, Mohammed, Sujah, Gaau, and Zeman. Zurnahu was dethroned by his brother Zeman; he was dethroned by Mohammed ; he by Sujah. In 1809, Mr. Elphin- stone went on a mission to Cabul, and a treaty was entered into by this coun- try with Sujah; but he was soon hurled from the throne by Mohammed, and retired to Loodianah, where he lived in dependence. Mohammed seized the leader of the Baruksye family, Futteh Khan, by whom he had been assisted to the throne, and put out his eyes: the family rebelled, put Gasu on the throne, afterwards dethroned him. and parcelled the country between themselves.

Such was the position of affairs when Lord Palmerston thought fit to embroil us in the transactions of Central Asia. In a letter to Mr. Bligh, dated September. 1834, he declared the necessity of maintaining the independence and integrity of Persia, and offered to coOperate with Russia for the purpose. Mohammed Mirza succeeded to the throne of Persia, and manifested a desire to " maintain the integrity" of his empire ; which in his opinion included Herat, Candahar, and Gbuzni ; and, unfortunately, in the year 1814 we had made a treaty with Persia, in which we distinctly undertook not to inteifere in any dispute between Persia and Afghanistan, unless asked to do so by both parties. In 1836, Captain Burnes was sent up the Indus to establish ",commercial intercourse with Central Asia": under the lame pretes.t of sending some dray-horses to Runjeet Singh, he was used as a spy. In the form of reports, he excited an unfortunate impression of some overwhelm- ing designs on the part of Russia; and in consequence of those representa- tions, Burnes was sent to Dost Mahomed, the de facto ruler of Cabul, on a mission of peace and security for the British Government. In 1834, Shah Sujah had attempted to regain his kingdom with the aid of Eng- land; but the Governor-General's answer had been, We cannot do it— our policy is neutrality. And Mr. Roebuck read several official docu- ments to show that up to the time of Burnes's mission, such had indeed been the uniform policy of the Auglo- Indian Government. But now a most extraordinary hallucination possessed the minds of those who were sent on an exploring mission to Central Asia, of the Indian Go- vernment, and of the Government in England— The notion ass, that Russia desired to possess herself of all Central Asia, to come through Afghanistan, then to establish herself on the Western bank of tree Indus, and thence to invade British India. Here was the hallucination increased by the representations of agents of the noble Lord ; one of whom would say, "A Russian emissary is here!" " No," cried another, " he is here! "—till at last the will-o'-wisp cry rose, " Good God, he is everywhere !" (Cheers and laughter.)

Dost Mahomed feared the loss of Herat, and the advance of Runjeet Singh ; and, telling Sir Alexander Burnes that there was a Russian agent in his territory, he offered to drive the formidable being away, and be friends with the Governor-General for ever, if Great Britain roald protect him from Persia and the Sikh. What then, fearing Rus- sian invasion and the fall of Herat, did we do ?

" Did we attack Russia ? No. Did we attack Persia ? No. Kam= pos- sessed himself of Herat ; and did we make Host Mahomed our friend ? think I may lay it down as a proposition that a man had no right to knock down Richard because he is afraid of Thomas. Here you are afraid of Russia- vou fear Russia at Herat, and upon the Caspian—and you attack Dost Ma- homed at Cabal ! (Cheers and laughter.) You are afraid of the powerful, and therefore you generously and gallantly attack the weak. In the whole series of unjust wars, I defy you to show me any thing so degrading as this to British honesty and honour. Is this your honour, your candour, cr even your fair- dealing ? Are you not rather a set of mercenary and cowardly marauders, turning upon your friends, because you dare not assail your enemies? I ac- cuse you, en the face of the united world, as the basest of dastards, seeking your own commodity and abandoning every principle of honour and honesty.'

There were two pretexts,—that Dost Mahomed had entered into an alliance with Persia ; and that he desired to regain Peshawar. But Dost Mahomed had as much right to ally with Persia as we had ; and he did it in the fear of being overwhelmed. Captain Vicovich ap- peared at Candabar, and Sir Alexander Burnes ran away from Cabal. Within a month afterwards, it was determined to crush Dost Mahomed, as if he were a rival of our power, and to restore Shah Soojab, who had no legitimate claim either upon us or the throne. Mr. Roebuck cited, as an example which stamped that proceeding with infamy in the contrast, the Marquis of Wellesley's declaration that he would not restore the Peshwa to the inusnud of Poona if he were opposed by the majority of the Mahratta jaghiredars and the body of the people : and he quoted from Burnes a few sentences in praise of Dost Mahomed'srule. Not only, how- ever, was Shah Sujah sent back, but a proclamation was contributed for him by Lord Auckland, which asserted that he returned supported by his own troops ; as gross a falsehood as ever diplomatist penned. The war was unjust in every sense of the term-

" It was a war against an unoffending people. It was undertaken not for the purpose of resenting any wrong we had suffered—it was undertaken not for the purpose of redressing any injured right. It was undertaken on a pretence. What was that pretence ? The danger which might result from the seige of Herat and the quarrel which had taken place between Dost Mahomed and Runjeet Sing. Now, Peshawur had been part of Afghanistan ; it had been wrested from the Afghans unjustly by Runjeet Sing; the people said that it was a portion of Afghanistan, and they desired an attempt to be made to re- store it ; they thought that one word from an old ally would put it right. But besides this pretence, the Government put forward the danger of a Russian occupation of Herat. On the 1st October 1838 was issued that famous procla- mation of Lord Auckland, stating that the siege of Herat was the cause of the war. Before a single regiment of the army he had collected had started on its march, the siege of Herat was raised. The danger was gone. Why did not the Governor-General, then, apply to the Government at home to know whether the war should be continued ? Having cut from underneath his feet the excuse of the danger from Russia, where did a pretext remain ? There was none : it was gone. °But, said the Governor-General, 'I have taken great pains; I have collected a great army together, and I must do something with it.' (Ministerial cheers.) Now I really believe, that Lord Auckland for no other reason marched his army."

The war was impolitic-

" Danger from Russia was the pretext : what means did we propose to take to guard against that danger ? In the first place, we proposed to make an ally to the West of the Indus, to interpose between ourselves and the advancing power of Russia; and secondly, we desired, by eel abliahing friendly relations with the nations on the Indus, and with the people of Afghanistan, to acquire the means of making that vast river a highway for our commerce over the whole of that part into the heart of Central Asia; and for that purpose, we knocked down Dost Mahomed and set up Shah Soojah. I am prepared to say that there was no danger to be apprehended from Russia ; that it there were manifest danger, the best way of warding off the danger was not by gaining an ally to the West of the Indus; and that even if such an ally were desirable, we took the most effectual means of preventing its being found in A Vianistan." In the first place, would any man who knew that the nearest point of the Russian dominions was the Northern shore of the Caspian—who heard of the moun- tains, the deserts, the vast tract of savage country which a Russian army must traverse before it arrived on the banks of the Indus, and the nations it must conquer in its way—could any man, with this knowledge, place implicit faith in the alarming immediate dangers that were expressed ? Had the noble Lord studied Airman? Alexander the Great was certainly the divinity of war ; he was at the bead of the best-disciplined, the best.provided, and the most power- ful army of his time : but he was able to advance uo farther than the Sutledge. But if the noble lord's reading did not remind him of this, he might have read RaynaL The Mahomedan invaders of India did not find a British army to cope with : they did not find the country, from Cape Comorin to the Himalayas, under the consolidated rule of the ablest and most efficient government in the world. No, they found a weak, enervated, and disunited country, distracted under the jarring claims of petty princes. But even then the conquest was found difficult. He knew he should be told that our empire in India was an empire of opinion; but so was every government : the government of this country, and that of the United States, were especially so; and he would say, that if our empire in India was an empire of opinion, it did not imply that the people of India obeyed us because they believed us to be invincible. The mean- ing was, that the people of India saw the British government to be the best which they had ever known. They loved our authority as well as obeyed it, because they saw that we did them good, and governed them for their interest as well as for our own. If, therefore, we were conquered in India, it must be by an army better-disciplined and braver than our owe; and he was one of those who would own the conviction that such an army could not come from Russia—(Loud cheers)—who asserted the improbability of a Russian army piercing the deserts of Central Asia—passing through the mountains and eternal snows of the Khoord—coming through Afghanistan, arriving at the Southern bank of the Sutledge, and ultimately planting its banners in Calcutta. Strong in our justice, we need not fear even the Russian storm, if not under the government of the noble Lord. (Cheers and laughter.) It was his firm belief that no such attack was to be feared; but if it were, how, he asked, ought it to be met by England ? Was it to be met on the Indus ? The noble Lord's schoolboy recollections might inform him that Hannibal attacked Rome in Italy, not in Carthage. lf, then, they went to war with Russia, let them at- tack her in the Baltic, not on the Indus : if we are to oppose her machinations— after they have been definitively established, not by the swarm of idle alarmists, who went about picking up something for the noble Lord's restlessness to feed on—but the moment it was really and thoroughly understood that Russia meant to make aggressions, declare war at once, and prosecute it in the Baltic, not in Cabal. (Cheers.) One single month would sweep from the seas every sail that Russia possessed. That was the proper way in which to tight Russia, not by sacrificing an unoffending nation. (Cheers.)

And even if it were advisable to obstruct Russia on the Indus, was it the wisest plan to raise up an ally on the West of that river? Mr. Roebuck thought that things had been done quite as dishonourable and more foolish than taking possession of the Punjab-

" Runjeet Sing is dead; and every one who knows any thing of the govern- ment of India knows that we must be called in to settle the disputes as to this succession. We shall do as we have always hitherto done ; the temptation will be too great for our virtue. If we take that course, it may be a wise proceed- ing; but it will be the better and the wiser, because the more honourable course, to keep away, with the Sutledge defending us from the Punjab, and the Punjab with its five rivers defending us from Afghanistan, and Afghanis- tan defending us from Central Asia, over which it is impossible for a moment to think that a hostile army can pass."

Lord Auckland himself had practically condemned the course which he had adopted ; for he had ordered the withdrawal of the army from Afghanistan ; having in the mean time made the Afghans our enemies, and given Russia the opportunity of offering to be their avengers and protectors. Mr. Roebuck, in passing, vindicated Akhbar Khan—a -brave though mistaken chief—the Wallace of Cabul—who had been accused of atrocities committed on the English. He had been told that his wife and children, who were in the hands of the E.,glish, might be sent to Calcutta or England ; but that there were no means of bringing the children up as Mahoruetans—enough to break the heart of a Mos- sulman : yet how did he treat our helpless women ?

The charge of garbling the evidence laid before Parliament, Mr. Roebuck made distinctly against Lord Palmerston and Sir John Hob- house— A part of Sir Alexander Burnes's papers, which had been suppressed by the late Government, proved that the authority of that officer had been falsely stated; and that he had been made to appear as an evidence in favour of the war, whereas he was altogether opposed to it. In short, his despatches had been garbled in a manner that, if left to a jury of twelve men, would have the effect of covering those who did it with shame and confusion. Not content with omitting passages, they had actually altered them by the union of sen- tences having an opposite meaning to that conveyed by the document in its entire state. Sir Alexander Burnes said, in his letter of the 5th August 1839, that when he got the Parliamentary papers, he found that they were, in so far as his documents were concerned, garbled trash ; and that all his implorations to the Indian Government in the case of Cabal were made to appear the direct contrary to that which they originally meant. On the 6th November in the same year, he designated the exposition of the Government in these papers as a pure trickery. The authority on which Mr. Roebuck made these statements, was a collection of letters privately printed ; and the way he got them he felt bound to state to the House— Sir Alexander Burnes placed them all, sealed, in confidential hands, lest in the event of his death the noble Lord and his colleagues should do his memory any injustice. And though Mr. Roebuck did not give Sir Alexander Burnes credit for all his divinations, he could not deny it to him for that which led to this precaution. Again, a late noble Governor-General of India, whose ad- ministration had been of the most brilliant as well as solid character, had writ- ten a letter to the Government, detailing his views in respect to the war in Afghanistan—every one knew he alluded to the Marquis of Wellesley : some time afterwards, the noble Marquis, not having made a copy of ,this paper, ap- plied for one to the late Government; but the answer he received was that it had been mislaid. Now, Mr. Roebuck wanted to know where was that letter ? No doubt the letter of thanks acknowledging it was in the records of the office ; why should the letter itself not be forthcoming ?

In conclusion, Mr. Roebuck made an earnest appeal to the House to inquire into these matters ; and to reprobate, if reprobation were neces- sary, those who had, in provoking an unjust war, departed from the great principles of pare and exalted morality which should always go- vern the proceedings of this country. Mr. HUME seconded the motion. He believed that if a Committee was granted, Mr. Roebuck would be able to prove his case. He had the documents of Sir Alexander Burnes in his own handwriting; and a more flagrant case of garbling public papers he had never known in all his experience. Some seconds elapsed after the question was put from the Chair before any one rose to speak to the question.

Lord Joe RUSSELL then rose to defend the late Ministry. He re- ferred to the repeated occasions on which the subject had been before the House; the last time in 1842, on a motion for papers, when only 9 voted with the mover. He denied the applicability of the precedents cited by Mr. Roebuck ; for they occurred when it took a year to com- municate with India, and Parliament could only learn the facts by means of a secret committee. In the present case, the war was undertaken four years ago ; and all its circumstances and causes were known to Parliament. Alluding to Mr. Roebuck's language, he said that terms had been applied to Lord Auckland and Lord Palmerston which were not very fitting ; and he felt strongly the force of the Great Conde's remark—" These libellers impute to us exactly that sort of motive by which, if they were placed in the situations in which we stand, they would be themselves actuated." Lord John denied that Sir Alexander Burnes's papers were garbled : Mr. Roebuck had brought no proof of the charge, and in his specimen the passage omitted was quite im- material. Lord Fitzgerald had testified that there was no unfair garbling. Nor did the question depend upon the opinion of a single officer, however meritorious. Lord John proceeded to touch upon the points of Mr. Roebuck's review. The views of Lord Auckland did not depend on the succession to the throne of Cabul, but upon the threatened aggression on our empire. Sir John Macdonald, who rather decried the notion of a Russian invasion of India, said that it would be made under the mantle of Persian authority, by Persian troops officered by Russians. Sir John Malcolm said the danger was, lest through too much caution and reserve, England should allow the policy of Russia to be carried so far that Russia could not return. The events of the last few years justified their foresight : the King of Persia actually began the aggression on Herat, to be extended to Afghanistan. Lord John read a letter by Lord Auckland, dated 13th May 1838, in which he spoke of recent circumstances having altered his views, as it might now be necessary to oppose the advances of Persia and the activity of Russian agents ; which proved that originally he was not disposed to a rash interference. Dost Mahomed's own demands had defeated the alliance with him— It was the opinion of Sir Alexander Burnes, that the dangers which are described were best to be met by cultivating the friendly disposition of Dost Mahommed, and by indulging him in the requests and demands which he made. Lord Auckland had to consider what those requests were. In a letter to Captain Burnes on the 23d April 1838, he distinctly declared the object which he had in view; and it is clear then, that the object of Dost Mahomed was to obtain the delivery to him by the British Government of Peshawur. The question was, whether these being the terms on which we could gain the friendship of Dust Mahomed, with whom we had no political connexion, we were bound to accept them, when by doing so our connexion with Runjeet Sing, with whom we were in alliance, would be threatened. Lord Auckland considered that it was impossible that he should make this sacrifice to Dost Mahomed. The consequence was, that Dost Mahomed immediately desired Captain Burnes to leave his territory ; that all communication was at an end ; and that he turned to listen to the advices of a Russian sent to him by the Russian Minister in Persia, who, although, according to Count Nesselrode, ordered by his Government to maintain peace, actually went to the siege of Herat.

Lord John cited official letters and the Indian newspapers, to show the state of feverish excitement and apprehension which the rumours of Russian intrigue kept up in India : a newspaper declared that " the conquest of the Heraties by the Persians is indeed the conquest of the Punjab and Hindostao ; " and the worst forebodings were strengthened by the advance of a Russian army to KItiva. At the same time, it must be remembered, the ground of India was strewed with ruined thrones and broken sceptres ; and there are those always to be found who are ready to seek the revival of their lost power. The British power in India depended upon displaying that boldness in eucounte:ing danger which had formerly displayed. The opinion of Sir Henry Fane, the late Commander-in-chief in India, had been cited against the expe- dition : Lord John read letters from Sir Henry offering himself to re- lieve Herat ; though he had doubts as to whether Dost Mahomed or Shah Soojah should be supported ; and after the army had advanced four Mildred miles, he did express an opinion against the continued occupation of Afghanistan ; but that was a question altogether dif- ferent from that of its original occupation. Lord John cited several precedents of interference in the affairs of foreign nations,—as that of Holland in the affairs of England after the Revolution ; of France and England in Spain ; and of the British Government in supporting the Great Mogul. He also quoted the testimony of Mr. Masson, Dr. Lord, Major Tod, and Sir Alexander Burnes himself, in favour of Shah Soojah's popularity. As to the military disasters on which Mr. Roebuck had touched lightly, they formed no necessary result of the occupation of the country ; and had they not happened, he believed that we should have left the country in a state of neutrality, with the arts of peace prevailing : but undoubtedly, that able officer Sir William M'Naghten was deceived into a state of undue security. He brought the testimony of General Gubbin and others, that the proclamation of Simla 1838 had had a great effect in restoring confidence and tranquillity in India. He enumerated several internal improvements which Lord Auckland had effected in India, the Earl's favourite pursuit. Mr. Roebuck said that Russia should have been met in the Baltic : that would have brought war on this country, whereas the object was merely to repel the advance in India ; and the result had been satisfactory to the se- curity of India and to peace with Russia. Lord John contended, that Lord Palmerston's policy had tended to maintain the peace of the world—as in the case of the settlement of Belgium, and Turkey de- fended against a rebellious vassal ; and he concluded by offering a direct negative to the motion.

Mr. DISRAELI said that Lord John Russell had made no answer to Mr. Roebuck ; and he went on to argue against the policy which had disturbed the natural barriers to invasion of India. Russia, from no moral fault of her Government, but from her physical and geogra- phical circumstances, holds a position menacing to the whole world, and might ultimately possess both the Sound and the Dardanelles, com- manding points now in the possession of the two weakest powers iu Europe : bat it was not on the Sutledge nor in the Hindoo Cush that encroachments were to be met. If the inquiry were refused, the re- sponsibility of the Whig Ministers would be voted but a dream.

Mr. Escorr supported the motion in a vigorous speech, following up several of Mr. Roebuck's arguments. The question was, whether the representatives of a free people were not to be allowed to inquire into the causes of the war, and its necessity for the true interests of the country.

Sir ROBERT PEEL remarked, that two distinct and separate questions had been brought under the consideration of the House,—whether or not the expedition into Afghanistan was consistent with sound policy ; and whether it was fitting that the House of Commons should appoint a Select Committee to inquire into the policy of that proceeding. From the first, when the expedition was mentioned in the Queen's Speech, he had entertained strong doubts of its policy ; and had said that the restora- tion of Shah Soojah was the same as if Charles the Tenth were forced upon the French. The Duke of Wellington too had predicted that the difficulties would commence when the military operations had sac-

ceeded. If, therefore, he opposed the present motion, it must not be inferred that he approved of that policy. Subsequent events, indeed, had confirmed his opinion that Shah Soojah was unpopular : Colonel Dennie had remarked that the Prince's court was composed solely of Hindoos, with not a single Afghan in it. Even if it were granted, there- fore, that the suspicions of Russia were well-founded, he doubted the policy of supporting a prince who could not command the affections of the people ; and of separating the army at a distance of six hundred miles from its resources, with passes in the interval that could not be commanded. It was a different question whether he should lend the in- fluence of Government to procure an inquiry into a great operation that had taken place four years ago; and he could not disregard what had been the usage and practice of Governments on succession to the secrets of office. Thg foreign policy of Ministers would always be a subject of con tention-

Revolutions of Governments have taken place; has there been an instanc where those who have succeeded to power on such revolutions have ever neon the influence of their office to condemn the acts of their predecessors ? (Cheri P. 1.) tat the And would it be just to establish such a precedent ? (Renewed cheers.) I • say, that those who are in power and in office ought to be most careful th use of that Particular authority and power which office gives them shou be influenced by party considerations. (Repeated cheers.) I for one wi a not be influenced by them. If I were to submit to such influence, certainly p of considerations might induce me to give my vote in support of this motion. I complain of the course intended to be adopted towards the present Governor- General : a right honourable gentleman opposite proposes to move a vote of censure upon that noble Lord : I think that vote unnecessary and uncalled- for : here is an opportunity for retaliation ; but I decline being influenced by any such feelings." Nor could he forget, that in 1840, when he was in Opposition, the subject was equally open to debate, and they then possessed nearly all the information that they now had- " We had at that time the means of judging of the policy of the operations : the papers then produced gave us that power; but while in Opposition no motion was made founded upon those papers ; and I must say, that now we are in power, having few better means of judging, I will not be the man to adopt a course which I did not adopt in Opposition, and at a time when there were better grounds for doing so." (Loud cheers.)

When he opposed the grant of money to Lord Keane, some of those who were now loudest in reprobating the principle of the war were then loudest in approbation of it ; and among them was no less a person than Mr. Hume-

" When I made a reserve as to the general policy of the war, and objected especially, to the grant of money, the honourable Member for Montrose ap- proved of the policy, and also assented to the appropriation of the money." (Loud laughter.)

Mr. Huste—" No, I did not : the policy was not the question." (Renewed laughter.) Sir ROBERT PEEL here very deliberately turned round, and, amid much meriment, produced a volume of Parliamentary debates, previously brought to

him from the Library by Mr. E. Tennent. Having found the passage he sought for, he continued—" if I were trusting to my general impression, I might doubt the correctness of my recollection ; but I must bring the honourable member to book—(Shouts of laughter)—as he gives me so emphatic a denial." Mr. Hustle—. But I don't deny it." (Renewed laughter.) Sir ROBERT PEEL (shutting the book)—" Oh! very well; then,"—

Mr. FICME—" Oh ! read, read."

Sir ROBERT PEEL (re-opening the book)—" Certainly, I'll read. (Shouts of laughter. Addressing Mr. Hume, in a good-humoured way.) This is all stated you know—[ Turning over the pages]—I don't know where to find the sen- tences, I'm sure; but I suppose I shall find them somewhere in the climax. (Roars of laughter.) We usually find the strongest points in that part of the speech. (Afore laughter.) Oh! here it is : I am of opinion that the results of the expedition will go far to strengthen the British power in India.' "

Mr. HOME—" Very good, very good." (Great merriment.)

Sir ROBERT PEEL—" Eh ? what did you Say ? " Mr. flumE—" Oh ! read on, read on.' t Sir ROBERT PEEL—" Very well! Having seen the lamentable results of inefficient arrangements, I think the greatest credit is due to the British authorities.' (Great laughter.) Oh, but he goes further than that : here's another passage—' I think the conduct of Lord Auckland is marked by the greatest wisdom.' (Roars of laughter.) Then here's another : now what will the honourable gentleman say to this ?—'I believe that it is an expedition more likely to be beneficial to India than any which has previously taken place.' (Repeated laughter.) So I have struck the honourable gentleman above and below, and I hope he's satisfied." (More laughter.) If this Committee were granted, there ought to be another on the Syrian war. [Mr. Hume—" There ought."] There would then be a separate Committee sitting on the Syrian war ! It would end in trans- ferring the Executive Government from the Crown to the House of Commons- " Because, observe : if on every point of questionable policy this House is to have a Committee of inquiry—if such Committee is to have the power of sending for persons, papers, and records—if it is to ransack every public office for official documents, and summon every Minister of the Crown to give evi- dence before it—why, the practical result must be that the Executive Govern- ment will be suspended."

Sir Robert Peel bore testimony that the published papers were not garbled, but that they gave such an account of the motives for under- , taking the expedition as enabled the House to form a fair and unbiased judgment on the policy which led to its adoption. The proposed

inquiry would lead to a development of all the grounds of suspicion against Russia ; Russia might retort with complaints of English agents in Circassia, and avow that her agents had been sent to Cabul in re- taliation ; and the inquiry would be forced on at a time when our re- lations with Russia are on the most friendly footing, and when by the new treaty the foundation had been laid—and it was but the founda- tion—of a more liberal commercial intercourse with Russia. That Russia had taken no advantage of our military disasters in Cabal, proved the sincerity of her friendly disposition. On the contrary., her

influence had been exercised in attempting to save the lives of Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly in Bokhara. The power of the British

arms had been vindicated on the scene of their reverse, and our un- friendly relations with Afghanistan have ceased. Let them not, there- fore, establish a precedent at once prejudicial to public interest and the peaceful relations at present subsisting. (Amid the cheering which ensued, some merriment was created by Mr. Hume's stepping up to the table and seizing the volume of Hansard to which Sir Robert Peel had referred.) Lord PALMERSTON contrasted the hardness of Mr. Roebuck's terms with the softness of his arguments ; and remarked, that it was singular that Members should have lain in ambush for four years and then at- tacked those whose position was altered, and who had not the same means of defence. He declared that the accusation of garbling was false and unfounded : the letters of Sir Alexander Burnes were printed with no omissions such as Mr. Roebuck had alleged. Sir Alexander urged the necessity of active measures in Afghanistan ; though at one time he was disposed to favour Shah Soojah, and at another Dost Idaho- med ; shades of difference which related merely to the mode of operation. Lord Palmerston read extracts to show, that the " hallucination,' which Mr. Roebuck only had not shared, extended at the time to the press ; quoting the Times, a paper not favourable to :he Government of that day. It was said to be a fault that we did not attack Russia herself: we did gn to St. Petersburg, though not with a fleet ; an explanation was demanded: Russia disclaimed hostile intentions, and disavowed the vests of her agents ; and they were recalled. How, therefore, could the 'Lash Government have sent a fleet to the Baltic ; and how would WI" have cured the anarchy in Afghanistan, fomented by Russian the IO s mistaking the intentions of their Government ? Lord Palmer- '.eered at calling Akhbar Khan a •• mistaken " man—him who hould ere, a_ s.rously murdered Sir William M'Naghten, and massacred thou- (es of our countrymen and defenceless camp-followers! He proved lee unpopularity of Dost Mahomed by the fact that his own army would not fight for him ; and he finished by asserting that the policy of the late Government had succeeded in all parts of the world. Sir ROBERT INGLIS was not one of those who idolized the privileges of the House, but still he did not wish to see it abdicate its just func- tions; and he wished to be informed if it were not to inquire into such a case as had been now brought forward in one of the most remarkable speeches he had ever listened to, on what occasions were the functions of the House as regarded inquiry into public transactions to be exer- cised? Was the House to be confined to the considering how far she- riffs-officers should be arrested for executing legal process, and allow cases of alleged misconduct on the port of the erown's highest officers to pass uninvestigated ? Sir Robert censured the defences which bad been set np for the war ; and in doing so, he was loudly and ironically cheered; which made him say, that he was not to be put down by clamouriand that he saw one honourable Member who was very perse- vering. Mr. W. 0. STANLEY snd Mr. PROTHROE each supposed that they were alluded to; but Sir ROBERT Isecus denied it. _The motion was supported by Mr. BORTHWICH and Lord JOHN MAN11ERS. Mr. ROEBUCK began his re} ly by congratulating the late Ministers on the support which they received from Sir Robert Peel ; and he made a prophecy—

The time would come when it would he suggested in party debates—" Oh, recollect the painful motion on which we treated you with candour and gene- rosity, and from which we rode off on that happy mode of getting out of a diffi- culty, namely, that that was not the proper time for such a motion. Recol- lect that we, in our generosity, opposed it with all the influence we possessed." He justified the language which he used, which had been called "libel," "abuse," "calumny," and "vituperation": he bad said, for in- stance, that Lord Auckland's proclamation set forth as facts what were not facts : was not that " false "? As a further precedent to satisfy Sir

into the Peel, he referred to Lord Porchester's motion for inquiry nto the Walcheren expedition. He adduced further evidence that Sir Alexander Burnes's despatches had been garbled ; referring to a despatch to Sir William M•Naghten dated Cabul, 26th July 1838— The extract given in the Blue Book went no farther than to say that Dost Mahomed bad designs on Peshawur, and there it stopped ; but reading on, it appeared that the writer added, " It seems that the chief is not bent upon possessing Peshawar, or on gratifying his personal enmities, but that he is simply securing himself from injury." All this was left out. The despatch went on to say that the views stated were worthy of consideration, and the more so when an avowed partisan of Dost Mahomed Khan supported them. Any man might see why those parts bad been lett out ; and he did maintain that it was an instance of very gross falsification. Here was Burnes, your own Minister, sent to the court of Cabul, stating distinctly that Dost Mahomed did not desire to make an attack on Peshawur, but only to defend himself against aggression ; and yet you came forward and declared as broadly as it was now denied, that Dost Mahomed had such designs on Peshawur, and that he did make certain demands in furtherance of those designs. He had adduced one instance—the book was full of similar instances.

Asking who was to pay the bill, be threatened, that if be found in the Estimates one tittle of charge towards payment of the expenses of the Afghan war, he should exercise the right of inquiry which it was incumbent on the House to exercise On a division, the motion was rejected, by 189 to 75.

SLAVE-TRADE. In the House of Lords, on Tuesday, the Earl of ABERDEEN said, that four gentlemen—Captain Denman, Dr. Lusbington, Mr. Robinson, and Mr. Bandinell—had, at the request of Government, been for some time engaged in revising all the various and conflicting instructions issued during the last twenty years to the slave-cruisers, and the several trea- ties into which we had entered on the subject of the stave-trade, for the purpose of forming them into one uniform code of instruction for the guidance and assistance of the officers employed on this most difficult and responsible service. These instructions, when thus digested, would be made public to the whole world, and would, be hop d, remove many prejudices and misapprehensions, especially in France.

MISCELLANEOUS.

NEW Wows were ordered, on Monday, for North Warwickshire, in the room of Sir Eardley Wilmot, the newly-appointed Governor of Van Diemen's Land ; and on Tuesday, for Ashburton, in the room of Mr. Jardine, deceased. 'TEE REGISTRATION OF VOTERS BILL WEIS read a second eine OD Monday ; the discussion to be taken in Committee. • CORN-LAWS. A motion which Lord MONTEAGLE is to make on the subject of the Corn-laws has been postponed, on account of Lord Ripon's illness.

KratrrsFonD GAOL. In the debate on Lord Abinger's conduct, Mr. buncombe made some incidental statements respecting the severe treat- ment of prisoners in Knutsford Gaol ; and in particular he stated, that one Lees had been ordered on to the treadmill for the amusement of some ladies and gentlemen, who desired to see it at work ; and

that one Wild was threatened by the gaoler, that be should be well punished ; with the remark in addition that the gaoler would not give much for his constitution when he should leave the prison. Mr. TAT.. TON EGERTON now, on the authority of the prisoners themselves, who had been examined by the Magistrates, stated that Lees was quite ig- norant of the occurrence mentioned in respect to him ; and that Wild was cautioned by the gaoler, in a friendly way, lest by breaking the rules, which were very severe, he should incur punishment that woqld injure his constitution. Mr. THOMAS BUNCOMBE observed, that state- ments from prisoners, through Magistrates, were to he received with very great caution ; especially in this case, as the prisoners had two years imprisonment to undergo. His authority was Mr. Allison, a person living at Stockport, whom he had requested to make inquiry. The turnkey stated to Mr. Allison, that the prisoners were only allowed to see their friends once in three months. Wild was reduced to a mere skeleton. Sir JAMES GRAHAM said, that the case merited inquiry ;'and he undertook to send down a Prison Inspector for the purpose. CRUELTY IN A COLLIERY. Lord ASHLEY called attention, on Monday, to a case of alleged cruel t. eatment of an apprentice by his master, a collier, at Blackley, near Halifax. The man is reported by the Halifax Guardian to have subjected the boy to a series of beatings and duckings in water, until he was a mass of sores and boils. He ran away, and was ultimately taken under the protection of the Overseers of the Poor; who procured his indentures to be cancelled by the Magistrates. Sir JAMES GRAHAM promised to send a trustworthy person to institute an inquiry. He was glad to take this opportunity of stating to the House, that, notwithstanding any thing which had occurred elsewhere with respect to the act of last session, no one was more anxious than he was. to give effect both to the letter and spirit of that act, and adhere most strictly to all its provisions. THE SOMNATH GATES. Lord CLANRICARDE has given notice, that on the 9th of March he will submit to the House of Lords a motion on the subject of Lord Ellenhorough's proclamation.