QUESTION. SIR GEORGE BOWYER said, he wished to inquire how the matter now stands regarding steam communication between this Country and Malta; and whether the Government will endeavour to prevent the cessation of such communication by means of the steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental Company? MR. ADDERLEY said, in reply, that there were several propositions at present before the Government for a new Mail service between Marseilles and Malta. The Government had not yet decided which of those propositions was the best. He hoped, however, to be able to inform the House shortly of a satisfactory substitution for the service between Marseilles and Malta having been made. grounds. I freely admit that there are] POSTAL STEAM COMMUNICATION special grounds in this case. It is quite BETWEEN ENGLAND AND MALTA. true that upon Tuesday last Her Majesty's Government was prepared to make a declaration of Irish policy; but, at the same time, we must all feel, I think, that, owing to the prolonged and unhappy absence of the noble Earl then at the head of the Government from London, it could not but be that the Cabinet must have approached the consideration of that question in a partially crippled or restrained condition. And I own it is very much with reference to the extreme gravity of the questions we shall have to consider during the present Session with respect to the sister country, that I should feel a special reluctance, even if I were inclined upon other grounds, to show any disinclination to accede to the proposal of the noble Lord. I think that Her Majesty's Government, having undergone a modification, of the precise nature and extent of which, of course, we who are outside cannot at present estimate the amount and significance-Her Majesty's Government being charged with these grave responsibilities, and asking this time at the hands of the House-I do not look at it merely as a question whether the formal arrangements of election and reelection would warrant the request; but I think, upon a grave consideration of the policy they will have to dispose of, that they are entitled to expect, both on their own account and on account of the country, that they should not be unduly pressed for time; consequently, I freely and cheerfully, upon these special grounds, accede to the proposal of the noble Lord, that another week should be granted before we proceed to business, although we must all be aware that we shall then have to commence the business of the Session, which promises to be severe rather than otherwise, at a very much later period-later, I think, practically, by a whole month than is usual. Motion agreed to. IRELAND-DIETARY OF COUNTY PRISONS.-QUESTION. MR. BLAKE said, he wished to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland, When the Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Dietary of County Prisons in Ireland will be presented; and if he proposes to introduce a Bill to amend the Laws relative to County Prisons in Ireland during the present Session? THE EARL OF MAYO, in reply, said, the Report would be laid on the table of the House that evening. Inquiries had been made into the whole subject, and the Commissioners were generally of opinion that there had been a deficiency of dietary; but at the same time they were much struck by the healthy appearance of the inmates of the gaols. They recommended that there should be a classification of prisoners in Irish gaols as in England, and as that could only be effected by legislation, he proposed to bring in a Bill very shortly with that object. The Commissioners also recommended that an additional meal should be added to the dietary of the House, at rising, to adjourn till Thurs- prisoners in all the gaols in Ireland, and day next. PUBLIC SCHOOLS BILL.-QUESTION. In reply to Mr. NEWDEGATE, MR. WALPOLE said, that on Thursday next he proposed to go into Committee, pro forma, on this Bill for the purpose of inserting certain Amendments, and that he should be prepared, upon that day, to state when he would proceed with the measure. that there should be a change as regarded variety in their food. Next week he proposed to bring in the Bill referred to by the hon. Gentleman. IRELAND-MEDICAL OFFICER OF MR. BLAKE said, he would also beg to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whe THE NEW ADMINISTRATION. MINISTERIAL STATEMENT. THE EARL OF MALMESBURY: My Lords, on Tuesday, the 25th of last month, I had to inform your Lordships that the Earl of Derby had resigned the office of Prime Minister, and that Her Majesty had been graciously pleased to command the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, my right hon. Friend Mr. Disraeli, to form an Administration as soon as possible. I say, my Lords, "as soon as possible," because I was not correctly reported in my former statement. I was supposed to have said and a very natural mistake it was-"if possible," which words have since given rise to some remarks and witticisms on the part of journalists who assumed that I had made that statement. It is now my duty to inform your Lordships that Mr. Disraeli has formed an Administration, and that it is now complete. I think your Lordships, when you consult precedents and look back to circumstances analogous in their nature, will find that it would be hardly possible for my right hon. Friend to have met Parliament in his new capacity sooner than he has done, although he is most anxious, as we all are, that Parliament should enter at once upon the consideration of the very important questions which must occupy its attention during the present Session. My Lords, so small are the changes in the personnel of the Cabinet, being confined simPly to two Ministers, that I may call it preceded it; but certainly I may say with confidence that its policy is and will be the same as that of the Administration of Lord almost the same Cabinet as that which No Derby. Lord Derby, up to the last moment at which he resigned office, has been entirely cognizant of all our deliberations and resolutions; he has formed part of our councils as if he had been in London in person; and up to this very moment our policy, which will soon be developed in the House of Commons and to your Lordships, meets with his entire approbation. doubt, from the character of the measures which will be propounded, this must be a very important Session. The Government has to proceed to perfect that great work of Parliamentary Reform which it began last year. The Reform Bill for Scotland and the Reform Bill for Ireland will have to pass through both Houses of Parliament. for the people has received very serious The general call for extended education consideration, and a Bill on the subject will speedily be presented to one of the two Houses of Parliament. We have had the misfortune to enter office at a moment when we find the liberties of Ireland shackled, and exceptional laws prevailing in that country. It is, indeed, a sad necessity, and it will be our duty, no doubt, to direct our most earnest consideration to the removal of those evils which exist in Ireland, and which are, with more or less truth, supposed to be the real cause of disturbance there. I think, however, your Lordships will agree with me that as, on a very early occasion-within four or five days from this time-an ample declaration of our Irish policy will be made to the House of Commons, it could not be advantageous to the public service, or for the convenience of your Lordships, that I should now go into details of what our policy is to be. If I were to do so, it would probably lead to misunderstanding and misrepresentation, and give rise to a desultory debate which would not be advantageous to the general welfare, and would not assist us in carrying through the measures we shall soon lay before the country. All I can now say is, and I repeat it here -that our policy will be the same as to its guiding principles as that by which Lord Derby's Government was actuated up to the last moment; that we are most anxious to remove all grievances which can be possibly removed without creating still greater anomalies and interfering with the spirit of the Constitution. make a larger reduction in the franchise than was proposed by the Liberal party. The consequence was a course of deception -a course which might be called by another name-and which, I think, ought to prevent any reliance being placed in a Government which openly avow that they do not mean what they say, and which openly profess one thing and mean another. THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH: I am really at a loss to understand the meaning of the allusion of the noble Earl. He says that the Government of Her Majestywhich was recently the Government of Lord Derby, and is now the Government of my right hon. Friend the late Chancellor of the Exchequer-has for three years been carried on on a system of positive deception; and that for the three years during which that Government has been in office, the pretence put forward was that no reduction of the franchise was intended to be effected, while, covertly and at the same time, the Government were meditating a considerable reduction, much lower than that which had been advocated by the noble Earl opposite when he was in Office. The true state of the case was this-that as soon as the Government of Lord Derby came into existence, as soon as the time arrived for the meetings of the Cabinet to be held, at which it could be properly considered, the subject of Parliamentary Reform immediately occupied their attention, and in the very next Session of Parliament, the matter was brought before the House with a proposal that was ultimately adopted by Parliament. Whatever opinions the Government of Lord Derby may have entertained previously; whatever opinions the necessities of the time forced upon them subsequentlythere was no question and no hesitation that when the time came for proposing an adequate reduction of the franchise, that proposition was made in a way consistent with the Constitution of the country, and in an open and straightforward manner. EARL RUSSELL: With regard to the change which has taken place in the formal character of the Cabinet, there can, I imagine, be no objection in point of precedent to such a change. It has not been unusual for the Leader of the House of Commons, when the Prime Minister has been removed by illness or, still worse, by death, to ask for an adjournment with a view to the formation of a new Ministry; but looking at the new Ministry which has been formed, I cannot avoid making the protest which I made on former occasions EARL RUSSELL: If the noble Duke with regard to Lord Derby's Ministry, that wishes to know the meaning of what I I think no confidence can be placed in a said, I must refer him to a speech made by Government which openly professes to say the present Prime Minister at Edinburgh, one thing and to mean another. We now in which the course taken by the Governknow that for three years the Government ment was not called a course of deception has been carried on upon the principle it was not called, as Mr. Disraeli forthat, having declared there ought to be no reduction whatever in the franchise, the Ministers of the Crown, while they" were persuading people to follow them in that course, meant all the time to merly called the Government of Sir Robert Peel, "an hypocrisy," it was called a process of education." But the use of that word does not prevent the fact being quite clear, which the present First Lord of THE APPROPRIATION ACT IN VICTORIA. LORD LYVEDEN, premising that he wished a statement of the whole case to be laid before their Lordships, moved that an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty for Copy or Extract of further Correspondence respecting and arising from the Non-enactment of the Appropriation Act in Victoria and the Recall of the Governor of the Colony, since the Letter from the Right Hon. C. B. Adderley, M.P., to Sir C. Darling, K.C.B., dated 7th March 1867, with the Enclosure. THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM said, that the Papers would be ready in the course of three or four days; but they probably would not carry the history of affairs in the Colony so far as was expected. Motion agreed to. Address for Copy or Extract of further Correspondence respecting and arising from the Nonenactment of the Appropriation Act in Victoria and the Recall of the Governor of the Colony, since the Letter from the Right Honourable C. B. Adderley, M.P., to Sir C. Darling, K.C.B., dated 7th March 1867, with the Enclosure. the Treasury did not endeavour to excuse or apologize for, of which he even boasted, that during seven years during which the fears of the country had been excited respecting a reduction of the franchise against which Mr. Disraeli protested in the House of Commons, afterwards congratulating the electors of Buckinghamshire that no such reduction of the franchise had taken place, during all that time he had been educating his party with a view to bring about a much greater reduction of the franchise, and what he would at one time have called a greater "degradation of the franchise than any which his opponents had proposed. It was by that means that many gentlemen who formerly were members of the party to which I have the honour to belong, expecting that the Tory party would never reduce the franchise, were induced to desert their own colours and go over to the party of Mr. Disraeli, believing that they were thereby insuring the country against any lowering of the franchise. That was the promise which induced these gentlemen to withdraw their adhesion to the late Government; and these also were the professions which induced the Earl of Carnarvon, Viscount Cranborne, and Gene-(The Lord Lyveden.) ral Peel to join the Government of Lord Derby, believing that no such measure TENURE (IRELAND) BILL.-QUESTION. would be proposed. We can all remember in what indignant terms Lord Carnarvon, in the course of last Session, declared that he was no party to the attempt to persuade others to agree to the lowering of the franchise while they were themselves not persuaded that the lowering of the franchise was necessary. It is, I believe, a thing unexampled in the history of party that such a deception, or such an "education" -if you choose to call it so-should have taken place. It is a course of conduct, I must say, which not only men like Mr. Fox, Earl Grey, or Lord Althorp would have spurned, but which men like Mr. Pitt, Lord Liverpool, the Duke of Wellington, and Sir Robert Peel would likewise have disdained to adopt. It is a course of conduct which destroys all trust and reliance upon Governments, because we never know that what is declared to-day as the solemn intention of the Government may not be disavowed to-morrow as not having been their intention, and that their course may not be quite different. THE EARL OF MALMESBURY said, that the noble Marquess who had brought in this Bill had given notice of his intention to move the second reading on Monday next. He wished to ask the noble Lord, Whether it would not be convenient to postpone the second reading to the following Thursday? He had just given reasons which sufficiently showed the desirability of putting off the debate for a day or two. THE MARQUESS OF CLANRICARDE, in assenting to the postponement, expressed the hope that the debate would proceed on Thursday, and that the postponement would not involve any delay in the appointment of the Select Committee. LEGITIMACY DECLARATION (IRELAND) BILL [H.L.] A Bill to enable Persons in Ireland to establish Legitimacy and the Validity of Marriages, and the Right to be deemed natural born SubjectsWas presented by The Lord SOMERHILL; read 1a. (No. 27.) House adjourned at half-past Five o'clock, till To-morrow, a quarter before Five o'clock. HOUSE OF COMMONS, Thursday, March 5, 1868. MINUTES.]-NEW MEMBER SWORN-The Marquess of Lorne, for Argyleshire. First Reading-Fairs (Ireland) [48]; Metropolis [24-47]; Railways METROPOLITAN TRAMWAYS BILL. (By Order) SECOND READING. Order for Second Reading read. Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Bill be now read a second time." as a financial agent; the next was also a financial agent: the third was a well-known bookseller in Parliament Street, who is down for one share; then there was a merchant, a shipbroker," and an 46 PUBLIC BILLS-Ordered Fairs (Ireland); Me-"auctioneer's clerk," from Camberwell, tropolis Gas.* who holds one share. He would now call attention to some of the clauses. The Company proposed to take power to make iron tramways without asking the consent of the authorities of the parishes through which they would run, aud there were other clauses of an equally extraordinary and objectionable character. This was not the first time either that this proposition had been before the House. The Bill further proposed to take powers to break up the roads in all places where such a course was necessary, in order to the laying down of the tramways, a proceeding which would entail an enormous expense upon the ratepayers; and, in addition, it was proposed to give power to take up pipes in streets and to break into drains. The company did not wish to purchase land for their tramways-they wanted to take the open streets, and create for themselves a monopoly within them. When the proposition, or one very similar to it, was made before, in 1858 and 1861, Lord Llanover (then Sir Benjamin Hall) proposed, on the Order for the second reading, that the Bill be a second time that day six months, on the ground that it would be very detrimental to the public government of the metropolis. The Bill was on that occasion thrown out. On the subsequent occasion, in 1861, a similar fate befel the measure, Mr. Massey, the then Chairman of Committee, opposing it strongly, on the ground that it ought to have been introduced as a public, instead a Private Bill. That objection, of as apposite then, was much more apposite now that the Bill proposed to affect very materially the public interests of the metropolis. He therefore hoped, for these and other reasons, that the House would consider well before consenting to hand over the metropolis to the auctioneer's clerk and his influential companions. MR. HARVEY LEWIS, in moving that the Bill be read a second time that day six months, said that, as the proposal, very seriously affected the interests of the metropolis, he hoped the House would consider very carefully before deciding to refer it to a Committee in its then form. He thought that if it were considered desirable to make any number of tramways in the metropolis, the direct and proper course would be to refer the whole question to a Committee, in order to have the metropolis mapped out, and to have it decided where tramways should be placed and where they should not. At present the streets of London were too narrow, and if half of the present width were to be occupied by a tramway, those streets would many of them be made absolutely impassable. The Bill was what may be described as a fishing Bill. It had no real company at the back of it, but was in the hands of persons who would, no doubt, be able to make money of it when passed. The article of association stated that the Company was the Metropolitan Tramways Company (Limited), and that the registered offices of the Company would be situated in England.". Yet this was a company which proposed to take power to break up twentysix miles of streets in London. The Company was stated to have a capital of £450,000, but who were the proprietors? One of them-a very respectable man, no doubt-described himself, or was described. Amendment proposed, to leave out the word "now," and at the end of the Question to add the words " months:"-(Mr. Harvey Lewis.) upon this day six MR. SEELY supported the second reading of the Bill. It was proposed to lay down tramways-with double and single lines-in the metropolis, but the rails were to be flush with the streets, and the flanges |