/Orliutrg uuh rurrrbtugo tu Varliatutut.

PRINCIPAL BUSINESS OF THE WEEK.

Timms: OF Loons. Monday, July 1. Irish Franchise : Parliamentary Voters (Ire- land) Bill, in Committee ; Lord Desart's Amendment, substituting a qualification of 151. for one of 8/., carried against Ministers, by 72 to 50. Tuesday, July 2. Education Grants ; Lord Ilarrowby's Motion for a Select Com- mittee, negatived by. 31 to 26. Thursday, July 4. Death of Sir Robert Peel; Testimonies of respect—Show of Industry; Lord Brougham's Motion against the Hyde Park site, debated and with- drawn—Metropolitan Interments Bill, referred to a Select Committee—Larceny Summary Jurisdiction Bill, read a second time.

.Friday. July 5. Parliamentary Voters (Ireland) Bill, considered in Commitce ; amendment carried against Ministers by 53 to 39—Australian Colonies Bill, read a third time and passed.

HOUSE Or COMMONS. Monday, July I. Show of Industry in Hyde Park ; Ques- tions and Ministerial Statements—Mr. Smith O'Brien's Captivity—Civil Service Es- timates ; Mr. Ewart's call for a Government Statement on Education, lke.

Tuesday, July 2. Landlord and Tenant Bill; read a third time by a vote of 53 to 17, extended to Ireland by a vote of 64 to 14, and passed. Wednesday. July 3. Death of Sir Robert Peel; the House adjourned, in token of respect, without proceeding to any business.

Thursday, July 4. Death of Sir Robert Peel; Ministerial testimony of respect— Business of the Session—Show of Industry; Colonel Sibthorp's Motion on the Hyde Park site, withholding Parliamentary sanction, negatived by 166 to 46; Sir Benjamin Hall's Amendment, withholding Royal sanction, negatived by 166 to 47—Home- made Spirits in Bond Bill, read a second time.

Friday, July 5. Peace between Denmark and Prussia—Malt-tax; Mr. Cayley's Motion for Repeal, negatived by 247 to 123—Railways Abandonment Bill, read a third time and passed.

The Lords.

Hour of Hour of Meeting. Adjournment.

The Commons.

Hour of Hour of Meeting. Adjournment.

Monday 511 . ills 12m Monday 411 .... 12h 3010 Tuesday — . 121i 40m Tuesday Noon .... 2h 15m

311 5h 45m Wednesday No Sitting. Wednesday Noon .... Oh 15m Thursday Iii 91i 10m Thursday ''oon Oh 3010

4th (m) lh 45re

Friday

— 9h 40m Friday 41.1 ... (in) 211 3010

Sittings this Week, 4; Timeigk m h 4222ni

this Session, 75; DEATH OP SIR ROBERT PEEL.

In the House of Commons, on Wednesday, soon after the Speaker took the chair at the noon sitting, Mr. HOME rose and briefly referred to the great public loss by the sudden death of Sir Robert Peel. He had not e power to describe adequately the sorrow which he felt so deeply ; but when he considered the sacrifices of "power, office, and everything," made by Sir Robert Peel, more particularly in later years, to pass mea- sures which he believed the imperial interests of the country demanded, lie hoped that the House would, even if there were no precedent for such a course, adjourn without proceeding with any business whatever.

Mr. GLADSTONE seconded the motion, seeing no other Member present who had been officially connected with Sir Robert Peel.

Every heart, he observed, was much too full to allow them to proceed so early to the consideration of the amount of the calamity with which the country had been visited in the premature death of his friend. "I will say, the premature death of Sir Robert Peel ; for, although he has died full of years and full of honours, yet it is a death that in human eyes is pre- mature, because we had fondly hoped that, in whatever position, by the weight of his ability, by the splendour of his talents, and by the purity of his virtues, he might still have been spared to render us most essential services. I will only quote, as deeming them highly appropriate, those most touching and most feeling lines which were applied by one of the greatest poets of this country to the memory of a man even greater than Sir Robert Peel. Sittings this Week, 7; Time, 3211 Ora this Session,104 ; —792112310 Now is the stately column broke; The beacon-light is quenched in smoke ; The trumpet's silvery sound is still, The warder silent on the hill.'" The tribute of respect would be the more valuable, and the more readily received, from the silence which had prevailed ; a silence not arising from a want but from an excess of feeling. Mr. NAPIER rose willingly to waive his motion on the paper ; observing as a curious circumstance, that a large portion of the measures on which he was about to ask the attention of the House had been suggested by the legislative wisdom of the great man who has just been gathered to his fathers.

The records of his enlightened wisdom in connexion with the criminal jurisprudence of the country will entitle him to the respect of all classes of the community. "When the news came to me of his death, and when I reflected how short was the period since I had beheld him standing on that spot in the full vigour of a matured intellectual power—chastened but not impaired by age and experience—I was reminded what shadows we are ; that the life of the wisest and strongest of us is but a wavering flame which the passing breeze may extinguish."

Sir ROBERT Nous felt that perhaps the silence which had been sug- gested would be more eloquent than any words, on such a loss as the souse, and the country, and he might almost say the whole European community, has sustained; but as the silence had with equal feeling and imeittlatizsonboy Mr. Napier, terSirolftt7thiadenr thhi9ey humble teatsmony "As one who has now sat for some time ia Parliament, I rise and state that I believe there never was a man who made greater sacrifices for the public good than Sir Robert PeeL Power he sacrificed willingly ; and I think he would have sacrificed everything except that which he regarded as para- mount, namely his duty, to the good of his country. Those who might have differed. fromlim on political subjects will, I am sure, unanimously concur in the expression of one cordial feeling of grateful respect for the memory of the man who really did more to distinguish this House among the delibe- rative bodies of the world than any one individual who ever sat m it." In the absence of a member of the Cabinet, [Lord John Russell had gone into the country the day before, and the motion seems to have come on unexpectedly,] Sir WILLIA3f SOMERVILLE concurred in the expression of profound respect for the memory of the departed statesman, and wil- lingly acceded to the motion. The question was put and carried unanimously, and the House ad- journed at once.

As soon as the urgent private business had been disposed of at the extra noon sitting held on Thursday, Sir GEORGE GREY moved that the con- sideration of all the orders of the day be postponed tall the afternoon ; announcing, with great emotion, that Lord John Russell was anxious to take the earliest opportunity of a numerous attendance to propose some expression of that feeling which they all entertained. Sir George ex- pressed his deep personal regrets that in the unavoidable absence of Lord John, on Wednesday, he himself had not been present to join on behalf of the Government in the appropriate mark of respect unanimously paid by the House to the memory of the great man so suddenly removed by a painful and mysterious dispensation of Providence. The House imme- diately adjourned, till half-past four o'clock. A little before five, the House being very full, Lord Jonw RUSSELL ad- vanced to the table. His countenance was pale with emotion, and he began with a faltering and almost inaudible voice ; not a few Members appeared to be in tears ; the House with one accord uncovered, and a most solemn silence prevailed. Presenting papers with a formal motion, he asked leave to take the opportunity of mingling his sorrow with that of the House for the great loss which the House and the country has sus- tained.

"At the first contemplation of that misfortune, it is impossible not to be overcome by a feeling of awe, that one who so late as Friday night last informed this House by his judgment, and took the part which became him in one of the most important discussions of the year' should already be numbered among the dead ; and that not by attacks of disease overcoming nature amidst the exertions of public life, but by one of those common ac- cidents through which we are apt to think that lives so gifted could hardly be taken from us. Speaking of that great man, it is impossible not to regret that, hereafter, this House will no longer be guided by that long and large experience of public affairs—by that profound know- ledge, by that oratorical power, and that memory, copious, yet exact, by which the House was wont tobe influenced, enlightened, and instructed. It is not for me, or for this House, to speak of the career of Sir Robert Peel : it never happened to me to be in political connexion with him; but so late as that last debate to which I have alluded, I took occasion to thank him for that fair and frank support which he had given to the present Government. Sir Robert Peel, in that speech which preceded the one which I addressed to the House, in speaking against the policy of the Government, spoke with such temper, with such forbearance towards all those who might hold oppo- site opinions to his own that it must be a satisfaction to those who remain that his last accents in lig House should have been those of such candour and kindliness to all around him. There can, I think, be no doubt, that however history may deal with the wisdom of the course that he pursued, it will be admitted that, on two great occasions, when he held power undis. turbed, and apparently almost without a rival, and when he proposed mea- sures to this House which shook and after a short time subverted his Government, he did so from those motives of deep love to his country, and from that deep sense of duty, which always distinguished him. Of these occasions I shall not speak; but there is one part of his career to which I would wish but briefly to refer, and of which I trust I may be allowed to speak, because I feel it due to him to pay that tribute which has not perhaps been hitherto paid to his merits. I allude to that period which elapsed from 1832 to 1841. After the contest which took place upon the Reform Bill, it was to be dreaded that those who had opposed that bill, expecting results from it calamitous to the country, would have retired in disgust from public contests, and thereby have left a war of classes to be carried on which would have involved per- manent injury to this country. I consider Sir Robert Peel to have been the man who prevented such a contest from taking place. Although he had op- posed the Reform Bill, yet he addressed himself manfully to the situation in which he was placed : he addressed himself to the country on behalf of those principles of which he was the most eloquent defender ; and brought back again the various powers of the state into harmony, and showed himself not afraid of abiding by the verdict of the people upon those measures and prin- ciples of which he was the advocate. But, beyond all this, I consider, also, without entering into the merits of particular questions, that, gifted as he was, and having the means of keeping apart from the struggles and con- tentions and labours of political life, and haying likewise a love of literature and a taste for art which might well have given him a happy life apart from all such struggles, the example of such a man devoting himself to labour and to incessant toil for the sake of the benefit of the country, is an example which ought not to be lost, and which I hope will not be lost on the people of this country. With respect to those questions upon which he differed from a portion of this House, I do. not wish to enter into or discuss them; but this I must say, that my testimony will always be, that that harmony which has prevailed for the last two years—that safety which loss been enjoyed during a time of peril, during a -time of contention in other countries—was greatly owing to the course Sir Robert Peel thought it his duty to pursue. " With these feelings, I wish to say, that if it should appear to the friends of Sir Robert Peel that it will be desirable to take that course which was taken upon the death of Mr. Pitt, I should for my own part, though I shall not proceed to make any motion or raise any discussion on such a subject, give my willing support to any motion that may be made for a public fu- neral. Or if it should be thought that the example which was adopted with respect to the funeral of Mr. Grattan should be followed, I should be ready to concur in any course of that kind. I may perhaps be permitted to add that, thinking it right to obtain the sanction of the Crown before I made any such propl, I feel assured that anythig which could do honour to the memory of Sir Robert Peel, or which could add any further tribute of respect to his name, would be unhesitatingly sanctioned by the assent of her Ma- jesty. Sir, I wish, in concluding these few words, to say, that I place myself entirely in the hands of the nearest friends of the late Sir Robert Peel. Having had no political connexion with him myself, perhaps this propoeal may come more fitly from me, as not being moved by anypartsahty but I do feet tbat.thi.s country now, and that posterity hereafter, in reckoning the names of eminent statesmen who have adorned the annale of this country and have tonteibuted to their lustre, will place that of Sir Robert Peel among the fore- most" (Cheers.)

Mr. GoULBURN stood forward as one who had enjoyed the inestimable advantage of connexion with Sir Robert Peel by most intimate bonds of friendship during forty years, as one of those selected by him to carry out his dying wishes and intentions, and as one authorized by his family to express their views.

Be• would add nothing to the testimony of the noble Lord to the public worth and services of the deceased ; and it he were to attempt to enlarge on his other qualities, the wound to his friends would be too soon reopened, and the tongue would forbear to utter what the heart would feel. He received the proposition of the noble Lord with gratitude, with equal gratitude to a gracious Sovereign for her disposition to acknowledge the merits of a great public servant, and gratitude to the House of Commons for its offer of the highest tribute which it can pay to an individual, whatever the extent of his abilities, virtues, or public services. "But," said Mr. Goulburu, "I may be permitted to state the other feelings which influence my conduct. Those who were unacquainted with Sir Robert Peel can have but little idea of his simplicity of character, added to all his other great merits. If ever there was a man who was peculiarly distinguished by a desire to avoid pomp and ostentation that individual was the late Sir Robert Peel ; and that .a,p and ostentation, he particularly reprobated in cases connected with funereal obsequies. In a very early period of my connexion with him those feelings were repeatedly expressed by himself; they have been continued to a later period of his political career. I will read the injunction which he signed on the 8th of lay 1844, when he was in the full possession of his mighty faculties—when he was in the full plenitude of his power—when he was at the head of a large party in this House—when the measures he had brought into Parliament had been crowned with success even beyond the ex- pectations of those who supported them ; and when, if any man could be tempted by fortuitous circumstances or a desire of public renown, it was the individual by whom the paragraph I am about to read was left. That para- graph is as follows= I desire that I may be interred in the vault of the parish-church of Drayton Bassett, in which my father and mother were in- terred, and that my funeral may be without ostentation or parade of any kind.' ("Hear, hear!") Nor did those sentiments undergo any alteration; for not later than six weeks since, when an alteration was made in that par- ticular church to which this memorandum refers, Sir Robert Peel pointed out to Lady Peel, on an inspection of the church, the very spot in the vault in which he wished and trusted his body would be laid, without any of that parade and ostentation which, in all cases, he so earnestly deprecated, and the absence of which he so admired and approved in the case of the funeral of the Queen Dowager. Under these circumstances, I am sure the House Will feel that I have but one duty to fulfil—that his family have but one wish to express—and that is, thankfully to acknowledge the intention both of her Majesty and her Parliament, in conferring upon him what I before stated is the greatest honour that can be paid to a subject by the Commons House of Parliament, but at the same time to say they are compelled respectfully to decline the proposi- tion. It is no doubt a satisfaction to all of us who were connected with him to have had this tribute of respect paid to the man whom we admired as a statesman and whom we loved as an individual friend ; and I only entreat the House, that in addition to the mark of respect which they have paid to his abilities and public services, they will consent to pay this further mark of respect to his simplicity of character, and give effect to his intentions as to the manner in which lie wished to be buried ; and I feel sure that the House of Commons will readily comply with the wish his friends have ex- pressed, because they have already recorded in the most feeling manner their sense of his high merits by spontaneously adjourning, the moment his de- cease became known,—an honour that will live for ever in the journals of this House, and which I believe was never before paid to a subject, what- ever might be his station. Under these circumstances, I throw myself on the indulgence of the House, that they will not feel in declining the pro- posal there is anything but a sense of the deepest gratitude for the offer made, which I trust they will not force, as it is one we should feel it our duty to resist. I will only further entreat the House, upon a subject of this nature, when the wound is so recent, and the feeling so strong, that this dis- cussion may not proceed." ("Hear, hear !") Mr. HERMES ventured, as the oldest political friend of Sir Robert in the great party which had become estranged from him, to express how undisturbed had been his personal friendship for him to the last. Sir Robert had his undiminished admiration, and retained the continued re- gard of his heart.

The mournful subject was then dropped_

The Lords, on the same evening, deviated from the ordinary course of their proceedings, on the invitation of the Marquis of LANSDOWNE, and listened to words of eulogy from the lips of their leaders. "For myself," said the Lord President, "I can only say that, it having been my fortune from a prolonged life to assist at the commencement and at the development of the career of the late Sir Robert Peel,—having witnessed his first exertions and the commence- ment of his career, which in the ordinary course of nature and of human events I did not expect myself to see the close of,—I have, by the events of more than forty years, been made more aware perhaps than many others of the unremitting zeal, exclusively devoted to public objects and to no others, by which the life of that eminent man was given up to the service of the state, bringing to that service, as he did, talents equally great and distin- guished both for business and for debate. Such having been the case, such exertions having been continued to the last, it would be impossible to witness the sudden and unexpected close of such a life, so employed, without a pass- ing expression of sympathy, sorrow, and condolement, in which I believe that all the people of this country will join, and especially all those con- nected with its legislative and public proceedings, who have witnessed an event which has filled all hearts with sorrow and many minds with appre- hension. My Lords, I shall say nothing more. Whatever has been felt in another assembly is now felt here and throughout this country ; and I per- suade myself that, however feebly, I have only given vent to your feelings and my own in endeavouring not to let such a casualty mid such a loss pass unmentioned in this House. Such an occasion perhaps justifies me in de- parting from the ordinary course of our proceedings." (Cheers.) Lord STANLEY added his tribute of personal attachment. "It has been my deep regret that, during the last four years of his life, I have been separated from him by a conscientious difference of opinion on an important matter of public policy. It is with deep regret that I know that that difference prevailed between us up to the last period of his valuable life. Rut it is a satisfaction to me personally, my Lords, to know that, whatever political difference there was between us, there was no personal hostility on either side. I am confident that there has been none on my side—quite as confident that there was none on his. I never was one of those who attached unworthy motives to a course of conduct which I cannot but deeply lament. I believe that in that step which led me te differ from him, he was actuated by a sincere and conscientious desire to obtain that which he believed to be a public good. Mistaken as he was in that view, I am satisfied that upon that occasion, as upon all others, the public good was the leading principle of his life ; and that to promote the welfare of his country he was prepared to make, and did actually make, every sacrifice. In sonic cases those sacrifices were so extensive, that I hardly know whether the great and paramount object of his country's good was a sufficient reason to exact them from any public man. But this is not a time to speak of differences—to speak of disagree- ments—when a great man and a great statesman has pawed away from us by the sudden and inscrutable dispensation of Providence." Lord BROUGHAM could not refrain from an acknowledgment of the splendid merits and conscientious motives of the deceased-

" At the last stage of his public career, checkered as it was—and I told him in private that checkered it would be, when he was differing from those with whom he had been so long connected, and from purely public-spirited feelings was adopting a course which was so galling and unpleasing to them —I told him, I say, that he must turn from the storm without to the sun- shine of an approving conscience within. Difliaing as we may differ on the point whether hewas right or wrong, disputing as we may dispute on the results of his policy, we must all agree that to the course which he firmly believed to be advantageous to his country he firmly adhered ; and that in pursuing it he made sacrifices compared with which all the sacrifices exacted from public men by a sense of public duty, which I have ever known or read of, sink into nothing."

Lord Bentonasi was about to proceed with Ilia motion on the Show of Industry, but it was intimated that the Duke of Wellington was anxious to speak, and he instantly gave way.

The Duke of WELLINGTON stood forward, and with tears pointed to that which he believed was the strongest feature in the character of his friend and fellow servant under the Crown—

"In all the course of my acquaintance with Sir Robert Peel, I never knew a man in whose truth and justice I had a more lively confidence, or in whom i I saw a more variable desire to promote the public service. In the whole course of my communication with him, I never knew an instance in which he did not show the strongest attachment to truth ; and I never saw in the whole course of my life the smallest reason for suspecting that he stated any- thing which he did not firmly believe to be the fact."

The Duke of CLEVELAND mentioned some biographical points in Sir Robert's college life.

Sir Robert and himself entered at the same College, Christchurch, Oxford, in the same year. Sir Robert arrived there a few months before him ; and, as he had never been at any public schools, and had few acquaintances in the University, Sir Robert Peel took him by the hand, and they lived together for three years in the University on terms of the closest intimacy. Unfortu- nately, while he was at Oxford he was fonder of pleasure than of study, whereas Sir Robert Peel was fonder of study than of pleasure. Sir Robert, however, like himself, was fond of athletic exercises. -lie took great delight in cricket and in boat-racing and exercise on the river. He must mention another incident which would never be effaced from his memory : they went in a hack post-chaise from Oxford together to be present at the trial of the late Lord Melville, in 1806. There were circumstances in their after lives which had not weakened the impression of early years. This was the last opportunity he should over have of paying a tribute of affection to one for whom he had ever felt the highest regard, and whose memory would be long appreciated by a grateful country.

Puirtic Busncrss.

Lord Jens RUSSELL stated, on Thursday, what eourse Ministers will pursue with regard to the various measures before Parliament, as the advancing session has affected their chance of success.

The House of Commons has decided in favour of the principle of the bill for abolishng the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland ; but as a good deal of cussion is intended on the mode of exercising the power of the Crown in Ire- land, the bill would not probably reach the other House before the end of August ; that would be too late for proposing a very large change in the customary mode of governing Ireland ; so, having got an assent to the prin- ciple of the bill, he did not mean to proceed with it this session. The Se- curities for Advances (Ireland) Bill will also be postponed. The Merchant Seaman's Bill cannot be well proceeded with this session ; and the Woods and Forests Bill, which the House has approved of in principle, will need a good deal of alteration in detail ; so he will not proceed with that either ; and the Railway Audit Bill must be given up for this session. Ministers propose to fix a day for a debate on the second reading of the Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Bill: but they will not go beyond that stage —all they expect to do is to lay the foundation of future legislation.

The Mercantile Marine Bill will be taken in a morning sitting next Mon- day ; the Ecclesiastical Commission Bill, next Monday ; the Parliamentary Oaths Bill, next Thursday week. The Chancellor of the Exchequer will proceed with the Stamps Bill when he can fix a day. After Monday, Lord John proposes to go on with Supply—taking the next Friday, and the Mon- day and Friday following.

IRISH PARLIAMEMTARY FRANCHISE.

Lord Brioricatem reminded the House that it was not legislating for England nor for the sober-minded people of Scotland, nor merely for the North of Ireland ; not for some fairy-land, where all the people, how- ever low in circumstances or mean in rank, have virtue, independence, and knowledge—whatever constitutes respectability in an elector ; and no right reverend Prelate had yet vouched for the knowledge and the high respectability of the paupers in the Southern part of the sister country. There, one in three of the whole population are paupers; here, only one in twenty or twenty-two : if only one-twentieth are paupers here, and one-third there what signifies your statistics? (Great cheers from the Opposition.) The Marquis of LANSDOWNE, believing that there was a considerable majority of their Lordships of opinion that the eight-pound franchise would be too low, intimated that he should vote for the omission of the word " eight " from the clause, in order that the question might be put directly whether 15/ or not should be the franchise to be insisted on. This being done, and a division being taken, it was carried by 72 to 50 that "15!." should be inserted.

STATE ASSISTANCE TO EDUCATION.

In Committee on the Civil Service Estimates, when the vote of 125,000/. for Public Education in Great Britain was proposed, Mr. EWART moved the following motion- " That a statement be made on the part of the Government, on going into the Education Estimates, (as is done on going into the Estimates for the Army. Navy, and Ordnance,) of the sums appropriated each year to the purposes of Education; the attribution of those sums ; the relative increase of Common schools of all sorts, receiving grants from Government ; the number and progress of schools of design ; and of all educational institutions (including public libraries, and museums or gal- leries of art and science) for which money is voted by Parliament." On this text he briefly discoursed. What he wanted was, not a mere state- ment respecting the grants appropriated by the Committee of Council, but a statement that should present a complete view of the present condition and future prospects of education all over the country, including all sorts of in- stitutions. The details respecting the present vote, for instance, would be very important; and so would be those respecting education in Ireland. With respect to the schools of design, it would be desirable to know what has been done; and there should be detailed information about the votes to Professors at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and London, the Univer- sities of Scotland, and the various educational institutions in Ireland, which re- ceive public money. What additions have been made to the National Museums, in arts, literature, or the other departments? what are you doing at the new and interesting place the Museum of Practical Geology ? and so on. It is not the preparation of blue books that is wanted—that is the entombment of knowledge, whence there is no resurrection to be hoped—but a condensed general statement, such as is given in foreign countries. Delivered viva voce, such a statement would strike attention, and go abroad through the press, so as eventually to promote the cause of education. Sir GEoRGE GREY admitted the importance of the general view; but he apprehended that it would be difficult for one Minister to make a general statement of the kind referred to, respecting all the different points men- tioned in the motion, because they came under the cognizance of the dif- ferent departments of Government. Mr. HUME pointed to the reports made by M. Guizot to the French Chambers, which gave a complete view of all the branches of education; and he repeated his often-expressed wish for the appointment of a Minister of Education, with the duty of bringing the subject yearly before Parliament.

• The vote was agreed. Hi.

ADMINISTP.ATioN OF EDUCATION GRAN-TS.

The differences between the Education Committee of Privy Council a.nd the National Education Society were temperately reviewed by the Earl of Hentiowev, and made the ground of an application for a Select Committee to inquire into the operations and effect of the system under which the annual grant of public money for the purposes of education has been administered. Such a Committee would inquire into the facts, and suggest remedies for a state of things in which, rather than concede the demands of the Church, the Government will choke up and destroy all that is good in the present system. It would also inquire whether the present system of inspection is managed on a model either intrinsically efficient or efficient for carrying out the objects of the Legislature. The Marquis of LAwsnowism declared, that he would have had no objection to the Committee at an earlier period in the session, but the inquiry could not now be prosecuted to a practical result; and as Lord Harrowby him- self admitted that much ex-parte evidence might be expected in the first instance, prejudices would be excited which could not be removed till next session. If the Committee were moved for at the beginning of next session, when full justice will be done to the subject, and when the other House, where these grants originate, will have an opportunity of dis- cussion, he would then offer no opposition; and in the mean time, if it were wished, he would take care that every minute of importance should be laid on the table of the House while it sat, and freely communicated to the people during the recess. After a discussion in the course of which Lord STANLEY supported the motion, the House divided, and negatived the resolution by 31 to 26.

THE SITE FOR THE EXPOSITION OF 1851.

In both Houses of Parliament the Government has been questioned on the subject of the projected operations in the Parks,—in the Mall in St. James's. Park, for the formation of a new site for the Marble Arch ; and in Hyde Park, for the purposes of the Show of Industry, In the House of Peers, on Monday, Lord BROUGHAM was the questioner. A grove of elm .

trees Hyde Park had already been cut down. The ems were

nine in number, and forty years old, and had been cut down at an early hour in the morning, when none but the woodcutters were present. So clas- sical a personage as his noble friend would recollect the lines of Virgil- " Fortimatus et ille Deos qui flout agrestes."

He also was in the habit of reading Virgil sometimes, and thought that the reading must in future be-

•• Fortnnatus et ille, Dees qui movit agrestes

Panaque Syivanurngue senem, Nymphasque sorores."

Ito was a petitioner for those injured deities in Hyde Park, and hoped that they would be spared from further violation, as well as the trees in the Mall and in the Green Park. The row of trees in the Mall had existed there for two centuries, having been planted at the time of the Restoration.

The Marquis of Loisisowani gave an inaudible answer. • In the House of Commons, Colonel SnrrHorte, according to notice, asked the Attorney -General by what legal authority the nine elm trees had been cut down? The ArrouNny-GrisERAL answered, that Hyde Park and the Royal Parks belong to the Crown in fee, and that on the accession of each Sovereign the Parks as well as the hereditary revenue of the Crown are transferred for the Sovereign's life to the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, as trustees for the public., in consideration of the

Civil List. The powers of the Commissioners are regulated by the 10th George IV. ' • and those powers warrant them in cutting down all ripe timber without the sanction of the Crown, and enable them to cut down all timber whatever with the sanction of the Crown. No doubt, that sanction has been or will be given for the cutting down of the trees in question. The Commissioners may also erect any temporary buildings on the property, though no permanent ones. The Humane Society's House is an exception, and is not temporary ; but there the trespass was waived.

Mr Themes Dunces= drew from Lord some RUSSELL some further information. The latest period at which the Exhibition will close will be the 1st of November 1851 ; and within seven months from the dosing the contractors will have removed all materials and replaced the ground in its former state. With regard to the selection of Hyde Park as the site, the Commissioners held full sittings on Saturday and Monday, and went over the original reasons for fixing on Hyde Park, and over those which now make it advisable to adhere to that site : those reasons have been drawn up in a report, for the production of which he moved the House, that Members might weigh the reasons.

Again on Thursday, both Houses were at the subject. To the Peers, Lord CAMPBELL presented a petition from an architect named Elge ,r who has erected, at a cost of 150,0001., a number of houses near the Prince's Gate on the Kensington Road : those houses are rendered un- saleable, and are left empty of tenants, by the prospect that the Exhi- bition of 1851 would take place just in front of them on the South side of Hyde Park. He also read a letter from Chief Justice Cre,sswell, vouch- ing the truth of Mr. Rigor's statements of the depreciation which his pro- perty suffers, and illustrating it by his own case : he has bought one of Mr. Rigor's houses but he never should have thought of doing so had he anticipated any sueh project would be formed ; and he has no doubt that no more houses on Lord Listowell's estate will be sold at present. Justice Cresswell added, that it was not in his power adequately to express the dread which his invalid sister has of the Exhibition.

Lord BROUGHAM took the presentation of this petition as the oppor- tunity for advancing his general objections to the use of Hyde Park for the site of the Exhibition.

He could almost offer a reward for the production of any person, uncon- nected with the Commissioners and their friends, who did not express in the strongest possible language astonishment at the perseverance which has been shown in this affair, and the deep indignation at the attempt to destroy pub- lic property in the Park, and the sacred rights of private property in its neighbourhood. What right had any body, of persons to erect a tower of Babel, or a building the like of which hadn't been seen since the pyramids of Egypt—covering twenty acres of the finest part of the Park, and with a monstrous cupola considerably bigger than that of St. Paul's ?—to cut up the roads so that the inhabitants will not be able either to reach their honses or to leave them, without the greatest inconvenience, difficulty, and danger? There are to be 12,000,000 bricks, and at least 40,000 tons of material : this will take 400 carts, carting at the rate of one in every minute and a half during the working day. They were to have, therefore_, all these carts for a long period of time going into the Park loaded with lime and bricks—im- mense waggons groaning under huge beams and loads of wood, extending fore and aft over the vehicles—these tremendous carts and waggons rumbling along, that there might be no want of noise to grate upon the ear as well as huge forms to appal the eye. If the roads were paved, even the stones would be ground to dust, and the road literally ploughed into furrows. There are 70,000 or 80,000 persons in London who have no visible means of subsistence; add to these the thousands from every great town in the empire, with some good specimens of Socialists and men of the Red colour, whose object it will be to ferment the mass; and how will property be safe without 1,000 or 2,000 additional Police? and how are they to be trained and disciplined in time? It is impossible to believe that the beautiful pillars, the elegant arcades, the magnificent dome, and the ornamental architecture, will be removed as a whole when once put up ; but even if it be, to put it there for months, and to cut down groves of dais forty years old, is too monstrous an interference with the rights of the public. Mr. Justice Cresswell without hesitation questions the legality of doing so without the authority of an act of Parlia- ment; and within twenty-four hours the injurious _proceedings might yield the bitter fruit of an injunction from the Court of Chancery. Go to Batter-

sea Fields, i where you may have twenty acres directly, and more by sum- moning a jury and putting n force a cheap and easy process; or go to Kew at once, where there is a site to which no one 'sees any objection. He moved that the petition of Mr. Eiger be referred to a Select Committee.

The motion was opposed by Earl GRANVILLE, with a statement embody- ing the reasons put forth in the letter of the Commissioners to the Trea- sury, of which the substance appears in a subsequent page. Lord CAMPBELL applauded the plan of the Exhibition, but deemed the choice of Hyde Park unpopular; and entertained a doubt of the legality of that choice, so grave as he hoped would induce the Government to re- consult the Law Officers of the Crown.

The 10th of George IV. chapter 50, section 25, prohibited the Commission- ers of Woods and Forests from letting any portion of the Park. If they let any portion of it at a peppercorn rent for two years, such letting would be illegal, inasmuch as that statute secured to the public the means of air and exercise in the Park. It would be as great a violation of a specific enact- ment so to let it for building purposes as for feeding sheep or cattle.

Lord REDESDALE and the Earl of LONSDALE disapproved of the site. The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH thought the site good in one respect : being between the Barracks and the Serpentine, it afforded facilities for quelling a riot or quenching a fire.

The motion was withdrawn.

Similar attempts were made in the House of Commons. Colonel SurrHorte moved that the report of the Commissioners of the Treasury on the subject of the site in Hyde Park be referred to a Select Committee, and that before tiny further proceedings of the Commissioners the sanc- tion of the House be given. Ile pronounced the Exhibition, by which the Park is to be desecrated, the greatest trash, the greatest fraud, the greatest imposition ever attempted to be palmed upon the people of this nountry—intend.ed■to bring down prices, and pave the way for the cheap and nasty trumpery system. When all the bad characters are attracted to the Park, he advised people living there to keep a sharp look-out after their silver forks and spoons and servant-maids. The building will cost 200,0001., and be prejudicial to the best interests of the country. Mr. ALeoux seconded the motion, from objections to the site only, as he approved heartily of the object. ste BEN/AXIN HALL moved as an amendment, an address to the Queen, praying her to stay the erection of a building in Hyde Park. This was seconded by Mr. A. B. HoPE. Mr. ROBERT STEPHENSON, a member of the Royal Commission, stated that he was at first in favour of the Battersea Fields site, as adjacent to cheap and convenient water-carriage ; but on personal examination of the ground, he found it unfit, and the site extremely inconvenient—the de- sirable portion is below high-water-mark, and flooded in winter. The apprehensions as to the obstruction by traffic and passengers may be tested by experience. On Hungerford Bridge, 15,000 persons daily pass through and pay toll at a narrow turnstile at the Camden Town station of the Birmingham Railway, with but turnstile; entrances, 8,000 tons of goods are received weekly. After a desultory discussion, Sir BMiJAMIN HALL wished to withdraw his amendment; but Colonel SMTHole would not consent. The amendment was negatived by 166 to 47; and the original motion was negatived by 166 to 46.

MR. &ars O'Brums.

On the question for going into Committee of Supply, last Monday, Mr. Astssarr moved as an amendment for an inquiry into the circumstances under which a letter addressed by Mr. William Smith O'Brien to a Mem- ber of the House of Commons, complaining of his having been placed in solitary confinement by the present Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land was intercepted and opened in that colony by the local authorities.

Mr. Smith O'Brien having refused a ticket-of-leave, he was sent to the pe- nal settlement of Darlington, on Maria Island, off the coast of Van Diemen's Land. He thought the prisoff-regulations had been unduly stretched for the purpose of inflicting additional hardship on him ; and he wrote a letter to Mr. Anstey, which he 'addressed: ""I. C. Anstey, Esq., House of Commons, London," and forwarded to the Chief Superintendent of Convicts. It was opened by Sir William Denis' on's authority, that Sir William might inform himself "of the complaints, or misrepresentations as he called them," which Mr. Smith O'Brien might make. When the letter 'reached Downing Street, Earl Grey, in a manner than which nothing could be more fair, courteous, and candid, forwarded it, and invited Mr. Anstey to call and read what Sir William Denison had written. If Sir William had sent the letter with the seal unbroken, Earl Grey would have forwarded it so. Now there are regu- lations under which the letters of prisoners may be opened in this country and in Ireland; " but for allsnuyese,s of police whatever, there is no dis- tinction between free and bond ni Van Diemen's Land" ; the Post-ofiice there is regulated by a local act; under which the same permit,: is attached to opening the letter of a convict and the letter of a freeman. If there bad been information on oath: that Mr. Anstey Was a suspicious person, or that the letter was addressed 'to him for an improper purpose, Sir William Deni- son would have acted with authority ; but as it is the case is one for inquiry.

Sir GEORGE Gnst stated, that the letter had been opened in accordance with the universal practice with regard to convicts not possessing tickets- of-leave ; and if that practice were not observed, measures of escape might be concocted, or articles sent to the newspapers to make the punishment a laughingstock end defeat the ends of justice.

Sonic conversation followed on hardships -said to have been heaped on Mr. O'Brien. But Sir, GEO.RGE GREY stated, that Government has done so much to mitigate the severity of his sentence as perhaps to be open to censure on that ground.

The letter from the Commissioners of the Show of Industry to the Treasury, explaining the grounds on which Hyde Park was chosen for the site, and also for adhering to that choice, has been printed as a Par- liamentary paper.

When the question of site was first considered, it appeared to the Com- missioners that there were only three available spaces about the Metropolis which would afford the necessary a.coommodation,---fwat, the North-eastern part of Hyde Park ; second, the long space between her Majesty's private road and the Kensington road in the Southern part of Hyde Park ; third, the North-western portion of Regent's Park. Tho Woods and Forests raised objections to the first, and not to the second ; so, as the second was better than the third, the second was chosen. The choice having been made, ad- vertisements for plans and suggestions of the building were issued, in the English, French, and German languages. It was notified • to all Foreign Consuls in England, and to all Foreign Governments, and to our Co- lonial and Indian authorities, that her Majesty had ; granted the site in Hyde Park "lying between the Kensington drive and the ride commonly. called Rotten ROW." Two hundred and forty-eight plans were-received, a large number of them very elaborate and able ; and in all Of those, plans the form of the building and its internal arraugemente had been determined with a view to the peculiarities of the site. The work- ing drawings and specifications have been prepared, with great labour and at considerable cost, and lamed in a form which will certainly obtain in a few days bona. fide, tenders for the execution of a design, presenting every facility for construction within the time prescribed. "The mechanical difficulties have been surmounted ; and all , the preliminary arrangements, even to the extent of provision for an effective dminage and a sufficient water supply, have been entered into. The 'Whole of these preparations have reference to this particular site only, and are inapplicable or unsuitable to any other."

The attention lately drawn to the subject of-site has, however, caused the Commissioners anxiously to reconsider their choice; and they give in detail the reasons for adhering to the conclusion that they have find on the only spot suitable and practically available for the purposes of the Show. Of the other sites suggested these five only are worthy of consideration—I. The North-eastern portion of Hyde Park ; 2. The North-western portion of Regent's Park; 3. Battersea Park ;: 4. Victoria Park ; Wormwood Serubbs.

No. 1; in Hyde Park, Would he very eligible, but it is not available : the Woods and Forests object ,that it-would, interfere with important thorough- fares. No. 2, in Itegerit'a Nils is not available; the Grown is bound to the lessees round the Park by stringent provisions, that.".no , new building of any kind shall be erected within the limits of the Park." No. 3, Battersea Park, is not available : only a small portion of the ground for Battersea Park has yet been purchased; and this proportion consists of numerous de- tached pieces utterly insufficient to accommodate a building of the contem- platefficare, and separated by intervenbigplots highly cultivated and owned by a multittide -of proprietors t the site is also low—much of it many feet below high-water-mark, and of unfavourable nature for building-ground. No. 4, Victoria Park, is in an inconvenient and inaccessible part of the town ; and the building would most seriously interfere with the plantations and orna- mental water recently laid out there. No. 6, Wormwood Scrubs, is objec- tionably- distant, and the rights of the commoners present an in- superable obstacle. As regards Primrose Hill and the Isle of Dogs, also suggested, the want of level space on the former and the objectionable situation and dampness of the latter, render them obviously

unfit. But, could the foregoing objections to any of these be removed, the sacrifice of the time, thought, and labour, already expended in advancing to the present point of preparation for the site first chosen, would be tanta- mount to postponing the Show till another year; and a postponement would under the circumstances certainly lead to the abandonment of the scheme altogether. Two hundred and forty local etimmitfees have been formed; 64,000/. is already collected; and arrangements have been made by the

working classes in all directions for saving out of their wages a fund to enable them to visit the Show. Several individuals have incurred expenses of several thousand pounds in preparing articles for exhibition. The Rus- sian Government has announced that it will ship the goods intended for ex- hibition in the ensuing autumn; and the Austrian Government has postponed the Vienna exhibition of 1851 till 1852.

In fine, the Commissioners explain away some misapprehensions. A small clump of ten trees has been removed ; a corresponding clump will be planted elsewhere : the turf is to be replaced in the same state alter removal' of the building as before—it will in fact be improved, by the mowing of the sur- face with grass-seeds, and by the improved drainage of the land : and for the steam-furnace anthracite or coke will be used, which will make no smoke.' The traffic has been calculated : "it will not in the whole exceed the ordi- nary amount of three weeks' general traffic of a single railway station; and as this traffic will be spread over a period of more than six months, it is manifest that its amount has been enormously exaggerated by public estima- tion."