ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

the question, for otherwise the labour of the Commission would be thrown away. A most excellent work would be done by put ting an end to practices which had been made the means of advancing doctrines alarming to the great body of the laity, He did not mean to engage this House in anything like a polemical discussion. But it was the right, as it was the duty, of their Lordships to concern themselves with the general good order of the Church and the uniformity of its forms and ceremonies. He hoped the Report of the Commission would lay the foundation for a settlement of a question which now vexed and disturbed the minds of so many persons, and would thereby strengthen the Church of England, and add to the satisfaction and contentment of her members.

THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY in answer to the noble Lord, begged to inform him and the House that the Ritual Commission had been very busily engaged in preparing their second Report on the ornaments of the Church, and they hoped to be able to present it to Her Majesty in a short time. He was sure that their Lordships would not expect him on this occasion to enter into a discussion of what the nature of that Report might be.

their own experience must have told them, | Commission, however strong their wish to without the Report of the Commission- avoid offence to any party in the Church, ers, were deeply alarming and offensive would be so clear and practical as to settle to many, whilst they were considerably censured by some. He had no doubt that the reprobation of those practices on the part of those Commissioners did produce some effect. He happened to know some clergymen who had come to the conclusion, which he believed others would come to, that they ought to give up the practices referred to on the grounds stated by the Commission. He was afraid, however, that, as a rule, the Report of the Commission had put no effectual check upon those practices, but, on the contrary, had produced a very different result. That was the case especially in the diocese of London. Some of the clergy argued in this way: "Our time is short; Parliament or the Church may step in and prevent these things from being carried on; so let us get them as deeply-rooted as we can in the public mind while our opportunity lasts." Now, under these circumstances, the Commission ought not only to deal with the subject, but to do so as promptly as possible. In order to guard himself against any misapprehension, he might say that he would be one of the last persons in the world to desire to impose any too stringent restrictions. Nothing could be a greater misfortune to the Church of England than to endeavour to narrow the limits, so as to exclude from its pale any of the various schools of thought which had hitherto existed. But it was quite another thing for clergymen to parade party emblems in their churches, and especially in those parish churches which ought to be common to all members of the Church of England, whether their sentiments inclined to one school or another. The church ought to be common property, where all could meet together, and not have their consciences disturbed or their feelings excited by that of which they disapproved. He hoped the most rev. Prelate would be able to assure their Lordships that the second Report of the Commission would be presented in a very short time. Probably the most rev. Prelate would not enter into explanations on the subject, and any lengthened discussion would be quite out of place on the present occasion. Such a discussion would naturally take place when-the Report having been presented-the Members of the Commission in the House would feel more free to enter into the debate. But he hoped that the recommendations of the

METROPOLIS - SPECIAL CONSTABLES.

MOTION FOR A RETURN.

LORD CAMPBELL, in moving for a Return of the Special Constables who had enrolled themselves in the different parishes of the Metropolis after the explosion in Clerkenwell, said, that possibly a short time ago the Notice would have more easily commanded the attention of their Lordships. The part which devolved upon the special constables at the close of last year and the beginning of the present may be no doubt a little overshadowed by the per sonal vicissitudes affecting party life which have more recently engaged attention from the world. A few weeks ago they were the topic of the press and of society. And one reason they have ceased to be so may be found in the tranquillity they were intended to establish. So long as alarm prevailed, the public eye was fixed upon them. The good effect they have produced may now be seen in the comparative oblivion they have fallen into. But as no record of the times would be complete un

less they were included in it, some authen- | Government, until municipal authority and tic document as to their numbers seems to public feeling overcame them. No wonder be required; those numbers being, in fact, that the climax should present itself, and an index of the disorder which prevailed, that a few weeks later it should be deemed and of the loyalty which met it. There is possible and even prudent to explode by thus sufficient ground for asking the Re- gunpowder a prison wall, in order to return. But it also rests upon a claim of lease political offenders it contained. If more political importance. As yet no al- parks could be occupied in spite of proclalusion has been made to the special con- mations of police, of military power; if a stables in Parliament. No mark of appro- coup de main could rescue prisoners by bation, no symptom of acknowledgment, daylight; if a Department of the State, has been informally or formally conceded close to the Horse Guards, could be into them. If an inquiry is made as to the vaded and insulted; to overwhelm a wall nature of their services, the fact which in a remote and little known part of the stands out most conspicuously is that at metropolis did not seem to be an enterthe time of the Clerkenwell explosion, ter- prize of ill-grounded temerity or uncalcuror took possession of society, that special lating hardihood. The tragical result of constables came forward in large numbers; the proceeding excited consternation in that the demonstration of their readiness society. In point of fact, under the form controlled the elements of danger; that of special constables, society came forward no considerable breach of law has subse- to defend itself, and was driven to the quently happened. But we must go a little course it would adopt, if law, police, and further back to seize the essence of the Government were all suspended in the function they performed, to measure the country. In such a state of things it is degree of obligation they imposed upon by organizing and arraying special constasociety. The real fact is that about No- bles that the public is enabled to do for vember and December-it was frequently itself what its appointed guardians betray asserted at the time-the Executive, rather their incapacity to do for it. A vigour by a series of misfortunes, than any single greater than its own is thus communicated lapse, had fallen into the lowest state of to the feeble will and torpid hands of the decadence and of discredit. It began in Executive. Regarded in this light the July, 1866. The Government at that time special constables who recently enrolled suffered in Hyde Park a deep and well-themselves known humiliation, of which the visible result is still allowed to catch the gaze of all who by one direction enter the metropolis. From that moment it was felt that lawlessness might dare because authority, to say the least of it, had hesitated. In May, 1867, therefore, lawlessness effected a triumph more consummate-of which I need not specify the nature - as it was brought before the House, with his wanted power, by Lord Cowper. In the middle of the autumn the rescue of the prisoners at Manchester did not tend to restore the fallen dignity, or re-invigorate the shattered force of the Executive. In November, a riotous assemblage felt themselves entitled-and, by what had taken place, undoubtedly they must have been encouraged to take possession of the Home Office, at least to have a meeting in its walls; and after such an outrage on law, decency, and government, they all escaped with absolute impunity. After the executions which took place on the 23rd of November, processions were organized to insult the law, and to do honour to the criminals. They went on wholly unmolested by the

were more important than those of 1848. On the well-known occasion which drew them forth upon the 10th of April of that year, there had not been any previous triumphs of disorder, or any previous disparagement of the Executive. At that time the demonstration might do something to augment the force; but in December last it had done more to revolutionize the weakness of a Government. I will only detain the House by one more remark, to illustrate the true position of the body I refer to. The striking inability of the Executive, since July, 1866, has been usually described to some deficiency or error on the part of Mr. Spencer Walpole. Mr. Walpole had been long known to the world, and had given no reason to expect that he would be unequal to the maintenance of order, so far as it depended on his office. Between his resignation and the event of December last, no visible improvement had taken place under his successor, whose personal capacity had not been called in question. The real cause of the inherent weakness in defence of law which has characterized the Government ought not to be traced so much to indi

MATES.

PUBLIC BILLS-Ordered-Petit Juries (Ireland)*;
Representation of the People (Ireland).
First Reading-Petit Juries (Ireland) [70];
Representation of the People (Ireland) [71].
Second Reading (£302,398 19s. 9d.) Consoli-
Third Reading-Sea Fisheries [42]; Fairs (Ire-
dated Fund.*
land) [48], and passed.

RAILWAYS.-RESOLUTION.

viduals as to circumstances. From the | SUPPLY-considered in Committee-ARMY ESTIbeginning they have been without a Parliamentary majority. The late Minister (Earl Derby), in a passage frequently referred to, had enumerated the many deep humiliations which await a Government to whom that essential basis is denied. One. however, he omitted, which might well have been included in the series, that such a Government, aware it does not fully represent the nation it ostensibly controls, is constantly obliged to truckle to disorder, with a view to escape unpopularity. So long as such a system is permitted to endure, society must defend itself against the movements which attack it. On grounds of policy, as well as justice, it is therefore worth while to show the special constables that they are not forgotten by the Legislature. A Return of this kind is no doubt a most inadequate acknowledgment of what they have effected; but I could think of no other which appeared to be consistent with our usages and precedents. If it is not possible to offer any tribute to their merit, it may be worth while at least to notice their existence. The noble Lord concluded by moving an Address for

MR. TREEBY said, the Resolution he wished to propose had been rendered necessary by the Railway Act passed in 1867, which gave to insolvent railway companies the power of applying to the Court of Chancery for a scheme of arrangement with their creditors, which had all the effect of an Act of Parliament. This was done without giving any notice to the outside creditors and landowners, and without even making them aware of what was being done. If the Resolution he had submitted to the House were adopted he believed it would be the means of preventing dishonest railway companies from again preying upon the public, and he hoped the House would co-operate with him in the achievement of so desirable an object. He might be permitted to explain that the scheme in Chancery was obtained by an ex parte statement, no notice, as he had already said, being given to the creditors or others forming part of the company. It was true that they were obliged to make known their intentions by publication in The Gazette; but this was not a sufficient protection, as comparatively few people read that newspaper. Insolvent companies the Sale of spirituous and fermented Liquors, and had thus power virtually given to them to for the more effectual Suppression of Breaches of confiscate the property of all outside crethe Peace and other Offences arising from Drunk-ditors-a privilege which was granted to enness-Was presented by The Earl of LICHFIELD; read 1a. (No. 45.)

Return of the Number of Special Constables who have respectively enrolled themselves in the different Parishes of the Metropolis after the Explosion in Clerkenwell.-(The Lord Campbell.)

LORD CLINTON said, there was no objection to the production of the Return. Motion agreed to.

LICENSING BILL [H.L.]

A Bill to regulate the granting of Licenses for

[blocks in formation]

no other debtor in England. Granted
that the creditors could apply to Parlia
ment by petition, it did not decrease the
evil, for the expenses of such a proceeding
were almost ruinous. He held that it was
the interest of all legitimate companies to
defeat the schemes of dishonest companies,
which entailed both loss and discredit upon
the community. People had very little
idea of how some of the companies he was
complaining of were got up. For instance,
a meeting would be called of Parliamentary
agents, contractors, and engineers.
of these gentlemen was probably acquainted
with some rich landowner who possessed an
estate through which it was proposed to
carry the line. It might be of the greatest
importance to the landowner that the pro-

One

14. Full particulars of all payments made by the said Company, whether in cash, or in shares, debentures, or other stock of the said Company, to whom and for what the said payments have been made, the cash payments to be kept separate.

jected railway should be made, and upon solicitation he was easily induced to become chairman of the company. Upon the guarantee of the respectable name of this landowner the public were tempted to purchase shares, and the scheme by this means was put into operation.

He felt assured

that procedures of such a character would not obtain the sanction of the House. He would not have troubled the House with his Resolution had it not been for the great importance of the subject, the deep interest taken in it by a large number of persons, and the conviction that its adoption by Parliament would remedy the evils of which he complained.

Motion made, and Question proposed,
"That in case of an Insolvent Railway Com-
pany applying for an extension of time or for any
other power, and where such Railway Company
have applied to the Court of Chancery for a
scheme of arrangement under the Railway Act
of 1867, such Railway Company shall on or be
fore the 30th of November immediately preceding
the application for the Bill, deposit in the Private
Bill Office a Schedule setting forth the full de-
tailed particulars disclosing all transactions of
such Company, and to answer all and every ques-
tion or questions hereunder set out :-

1. The name and address of the directors of
the Company, together with the shareholders
and others forming the said Company.
2. The number of shares or debentures or other
stock held by each of the above persons.
3. The money paid to the said Company for
such share or shares, debenture, or stock.

4. The amount of stock, shares, or other secu-
rities of the Company issued or upon which
money has been raised by the said Company.
6. The quantity of land taken or agreed to be
taken by the said Company.

5. The name of each of the landowners.

15. The amount of deposit, and in whose name
or names it now stands.

16. The length of the line for which the Act or
Acts of the said Company was obtained.
17. The number of Acts which have been applied
for or obtained, with the date of the Acts so
obtained, and of the application." — (Mr.
Treeby.)

SIR LAWRENCE PALK thought the new Standing Order submitted by the hon. Member was one that would not hold water. The greater part of the information which he desiderated could be easily obtained under the law as it at present stood. There was really no necessity for such a Resolution as that now under discussion. The explanation of the matter was, that the hon. Member had bought property in his (Sir Lawrence Palk's) county close to where a railway was about to pass, and there were certain arrangements with the railway company which had been acquiesced in by the hon. Member's predecessor, which the hon. Member declined to accept.

MR. TREEBY rose to order. The hon. Baronet was not speaking to the question.

SIR LAWRENCE PALK maintained that the hon. Member had no right to come to that House to defeat arrangements which his predecessor in the property had acquiesced in. The hon. Member complained of resident county gentlemen for giving the sanction of their names to speculative railway schemes. Perhaps, when 7. The parish in which the land belonging to the hon. Member had been as long a resieach of the said landowners is situated, to-dent county gentleman as he (Sir Lawrence gether with the sum paid or agreed to be Palk) had been, he would speak more paid to each of the said landowners; stating separately the names of those paid and those charitably of his neighbours. He did not remaining unpaid, and from which of the think that the hon. Member had offered said owners the Company have obtained pos- the slightest grounds for the change he proposed.

session of the land.

8. The name of the engineer and contractor to the Company.

9. Copy of the specification, contract, or contracts, for making the said Railway. 10. The amount paid on account of the said contract in shares, debentures, or other stock

of the said Company.

11. The amount paid in cash to the said con

[blocks in formation]

LORD HOTHAM suggested that the hon. Member for Lyme Regis should postpone his Motion. Even if the proposal were adopted, it was too late in the Session for any action to be taken upon it. Moreover, it was probable that before the present Session closed some further alteration would be made in the Standing Orders.

MR. TREEBY said, he had no objec tion to postpone his Resolution.

Motion, by leave, withdrawn.

POOR LAWS-PAUPER IDIOTS AND

LUNATICS.-QUESTION.

he will direct that steps be taken to acquire a selection from the specimens already found for the Science and Art Department of the South Kensington Museum; and, whe ther he will enter into communication with Messrs. Bell and Black, with a view to the further prosecution, on their property at Bow, of discoveries so important and ininteresting in the History of English Art?

LORD EUSTACE CECIL said, he wished to ask the Secretary to the Poor Law Board, Whether it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government to introduce, during the present Session, any measure relating to Pauper Idiots and Lunatics Workhouses?

SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH said, in reply, that there were clauses relating to pauper idiots and lunatics in workhouses in the Bill introduced by his noble Friend the President of the Poor Law Board, and on Monday next, when the Bill was proceeded with, the noble Lord would state fully the effect of those Clauses.

LORD ROBERT MONTAGU said, in reply, that some fragments of porcelain which had been dug up at Stratford-leBow were sent to the Museum of Practical Geology, and Mr. Trenham Recks wrote concerning them as follows:

"I immediately identified in these fragments patterns which exist on some perfect specimens in our collections, but of hitherto unknown manufacture. I subsequently visited the locality and found that many very interesting specimens had been collected by the engineer of Messrs. Bell and Black's new Patent Safety Match Manufac who most liberally offered to open out the dig tory.... On Monday I called on Mr. Bell, gings' again if any good is likely to result to the history of British art." Directions have been given to enter into communications with Messrs. Bell and Black.

ARMY PROMOTION.-QUESTION. CAPTAIN VIVIAN said, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for War, Whether his attention has been drawn to the extraordinary supercession of the Colonels of the Imperial Army by Colonels of the Indian Army; whether he is aware that Colonels of 1864 on the Indian list will, in all probability, be promoted to the rank of Major-Generals, while Colonels of the Imperial Army of 1854 remain still REPRESENTATION unpromoted; and, whether it is proposed to take any steps to remedy this great injustice, which is keenly felt by officers of the Imperial Army?

SIR JOHN PAKINGTON, in reply, said, he was quite aware that Indian Colonels were being promoted over the heads of Colonels in the Imperial Army, but he was afraid the case was an excep. tional one with which he could not deal, These promotions were taking place under the Royal Warrant of 1864, which had been prepared with very great care, and had been confirmed by the then Secretary of State and the Commander-in-Chief. At present the Warrant operated in favour of the Indian Army; but there was reason to believe that, in a short time, the advantage would be on the side of the Imperial Army.

OF THE PEOPLE ACT, 1867-PAYMENT OF RATES-THE COMPOUNDING SYSTEM.-QUESTION. MR. EVANS said, he would beg to ask Mr. Attorney General, Whether the attention of the Law Officers of the Crown has been directed to certain arrangements alleged to have been concluded, or to be in process of being made, in several Metropolitan and other parishes, under which the owners of small tenements are to collect and pay over the Poor Rates on behalf of their tenants, and are to be remunerated for their trouble by a money compensation; whether these arrangements are in accordance with the provisions the Reform Act of 1867; whether the right of any occupier, on whose behalf payment of the Poor Rates is made under any such arrangements, to be registered as a Voter is thereby in any way affected; and, whether, in the event of any one Rate, between the 5th day of January and the 20th day of June in the present year, MR. SCHREIBER said, he wished to being made or collected contrary to the ask the Vice President of the Committee provisions of the Reform Act of last year, of Council on Education, Whether his at- the right of such occupier to be registered tention has been called to recent discoveries as a Voter will not be vitiated? on the site (hitherto lost) of the Manufac- THE ATTORNEY GENERAL said, tory of English Porcelain at Bow; whether in reply, that the attention of the Law

ENGLISH PORCELAIN AT BOW.
QUESTION.

of

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »