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Leader (1850-1860), 28th March 1857, Edition 2 of 2, Page 3, THE GEMRAL ELECTION,; - . —?—— ¦ ¦ THE P...

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      March 38,1857.] The Leader. 2$1

      March 38 , 1857 . ] THE LEADER . 2 $ 1

      Imperial Parliament. Saturday> March 21s...

      IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT . Saturday > March 21 st . THE PROROGATION . Thb two Houses met for the last time on Saturday at two o ' clock , for the purpose of hearing the announcement by Commission of the Royal Assent to various tills , and of being formally dissolved . Very few peers were present in the House op Lords , but some interest - was excited by the presence on the Episcopal Benches , 5 a the rear of tlie Bishops of London and Carlisle , of Terukk Khan , the Persian Ambassador , who had recently arrived in London , and who was attended by his suite . The Commisioners—viz ., the Lord Chancellor , Earl G-ranville , the Earl of Harrowby , Lord Stanley of A 1-. derley , and the Marquis of Breadalbaae—were seated upon a woolsack immediately iu front of the throne . In obedience to the summons delivered by Black Rod , the Speaker of the House of Commons , accompanied by Xord Palrnerstoii , Sir George Grey , Mr . Lowe , and several other hon . gentlemen , presented himself at the bar shortly after two o'clock . The Royal Assent was then given to the following Bills : —The ¦ Speaker ' s Retirement , ' Exchequer Bills ( 21 , 049 , 700 ) , Consolidated Fund Appropriation , Commons' Enclosure , Commissioners of Supply ( Scotland ) A . ct ( 1856 ) Amendment , Income-tax , Indemnity , Copyhold and Enclosure Commissions , & c . ; Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction , Lighting of Towns ( Ireland ) Acts Amendment , Customs Duties , Racehorse Duty Act Amendment ,. Pauper Maintenance , Extra Parochial Places , Mutiny , Marine Mutiny .

      The Lord Chancellor then read the following Speech la the names of himself and the other Commissioners : —? " AT y Lords and Gentlemen , -. . " We are commanded by her Majesty to inform you that , in releasing you at this early period from your attendance in Parliament , it is her Majesty ' s intention immediately to dissolve the present Parliament , in order to ascertain in the most constitutional manner the sense of her people upon the present state of public affairs . "Gentlemen ofthe House of Commons , -...-

      " " We are commanded by her Majesty to tliank you for the liberal provision which you have made for the exigencies of the public service during the period that will elapse before the new Parliament , which her Majesty will direct immediately to be called , shall have been able to give its deliberate attention to these matters . " M ~ ij Lords and Gentlemen , ¦ " "We are commanded by her Majesty to express the satisfaction she feels at your having been able during the present session materially to reduce the burdens of her people .

      " Her Majesty commands us to assure you that it is her fervent prayer that the several constituencies of the United Kingdom , upon whom will devolve the exercise of those high functions-which by the constitution belong to them , may be guided by an allwise Providence to the selection of representatives whose wisdom and patriotism may aid her Majesty in her constant endeavours to maintain the honour and dignity of her Crown and to promote the welfare and happiness of her people . " The Commission for the prorogation of Parliament having been read by the Clerk at tho table , The Loud Ciianokllou formally prorogued Parliament until Thursday , the 30 th of next April .

      In the House ov Commons , much merriment was excited by the SricAKEn raying , " Mombors waiting to be sworn will come to the table . " Straightway , The O'Donoghue advanced , and , amidst considerable laughter , took the oaths and his seat for Tipperary , for ¦ which place he was elected only a few clays previously . NAPLES . Mr . Duncombb asked whether , since the -withdrawal of the legations of Franco and England from Naples , any overtures liad been made by the King of Naples to tho English and French Governments for tho return of those embassies ; and , if so , whether those overtures were likely to fce acceptable to the two Governments' ? Ho asked this in consequence of tho appearance in the papers that morning of a statement that an envoy has gone from Paria with a view to settling the differences which exist botween the Neapolitan Government and those of England and France .

      Lord Paj-miskston ropliud that no overtures , properly so called , had been received by tho English and French Governments from tho King of Nnplca since the discontinuance of diplomatic relations . An iudireat intimation had , however , reached them that the Neapolitan Government wus anxious to know whether , if the King of Naples were to carry into execution the convention made- with tho Argentine Confederation , under which tho political prisoners now retained in the prisons of Naples were to bo banished to tho Argentine Republic , that would bo considered by the two Governments as a substantial beginning of that more moderate system of government which they wished to nee established ut Naples . Spooking only for the English Government , ho ( Lord PalmerHton ) did not think that clearing tue prisons of Naples by sending tho prisoners into banishment in South America , with tho intention , no doubt , of roplenialnng thoeo priaona by meawa of fresh arrests

      ( hear , hear ) , would be such a change of system as could be considered as accomplishing' the purposes for which , diplomatic relations wene broken off . ( Jffear , hearJ )

      THEATT WITH MOROCCO . Lord Palmerston laid on the table a treaty which our minister at Tangier has concluded with the Sultan of Morocco , by which great facilities are secured for English and European commerce throughout the dominions of that potentate . . THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPII TO INDIA . Lord Palmerston , in answer to Mr . Bowyer , stated that the protection of the line of electric telegraph in the Turkish territories is part of the general system of police established by the Turkish Government iu that portion of the empire . —The Chancellor of the Exchequer added that the English Government is in no respect answerable for the construction of the telegraph , or for its protection from injury by the Arab tribes . CAPTAIN WOOD . '

      Captain Arciidaix ., -who h ad . previously presented a petition from Captain Wood , late paymaster of the depot battalion at " Winchester , complaining that he had been called upon with the assistance of only one clerk to discharge duties , in the performance of which two paymasters and seven . clerks had afterwards been engaged , and had thus been compelled to resign , thereby losing his chance of an additional pension of 2 s . a day , moved for the production of copies of the correspondence which had taken place between Captain Wood and the War Department from the date of his appointment to the present time ; but , upon it being represented to him by Lord Palmeuston that the order , if made , would be of no value , owing to the dissolution of Parliament , the motion was withdrawn . ; DESTITUTION OF SOLDIERS' WIVES AMD OIIILDRKN AT

      COLCHESTER . Sir De Lacv Evans asked whether any steps had been taken to relieve the destitution of the wives and children of the soldiers who are quartered in the camp at Colchester ?—Lord Palmeuston replied that he was quite sure that the War Department had every disposition to make all practical arrangements for the relief of this distress . The members were then summoned to the House of Peers , to be present at the Prorogation , and , on their return , after hearing the Royal Speech read over , as usual , they crowded round the Speaker to bid him farewell in his official capacity . And thus terminated the brief session .

      The Royal Proclamations officially announcing the dissolution were published in a Supplement to tho London Gazette of Iriday -week , and the -writs were issued last Saturday .

      A Parvenu's Funeral. " Even In Our Ashes...

      A PARVENU'S FUNERAL . " Even in our ashes lire our -wonted fires , " said Gray , when musing in the country churchyard ; and that some people who have worked their way out of poverty into riches like to blazon the fact even on their path to the last homo of their mortal bodies , or that their relations love to blazon it for them ,-was shown in a singular action brought at the Kingston Assizes last Saturday . The plaintiff was an undertaker , named Alexander , and the defendants were the executors of ono Hayton , whose funeral Alexander supplied . The claim made for that ceremony was no less than 405 / . ; but the defendants paid into court 225 ? ., and denied further liability . Hayton was formerly a person in a humble position of life , "but by successful railway contracts he succeeded in amassing a large sum of money , and at his death , which took place in last December , he was represented to be worth between 40 , 000 / . and 50 , 000 ? . One of the defendants , Mr . Kirby , was a surgeon who attended Hayton in his last illness , and he was named one of the executors of his will , and engaged Alexander to conduct the funeral . The ceremony nppcars to have been performed in the most extraordinary and extravagant

      manner . The deceased wtis placed in a brass-bound comn , and there was a sort of " lying in state , " after the body was screwed down ; and for the expenses connected with this ceromony , among which was a charge for anew suit of clothes , a black silk scarf , and hatband and gloves for a person to " show up" the company who camo to see tiio ' lying in state , " a very considerable sum was charged in the bill . Another item was 109 / . for " remembrances" in the shape of scarfs and gloves , and " elegantly embossed cards , " which were sent to sixty-nix persons .

      The defence was that the exponscs were not incurred on the authority of the executors , and that it was absurd to supply silk scarfs and black gloves to a number « f ' navvies' who attended the funeral . The jury , however , returned a verdict for the full amount claimed . Mr . Alexander has written to tho Times to dispute the accuracy of tho items " brass-bound coffin" and " new suits of clothes and blnck silk Rcarf for the man in attendance to show the coflln . " There wore no such entries in tho bill . " The ' navvies' who followed the deceased to the grave were his old confidential foreman and men , and were selected by Mr . . Shelley , ono of tho executors . Tho brothers or tho deceased and his residuary legatees have authorized me to state they are perfectly content with my charges , and much annoyed tlint my bill should have been disputed by the executors . "

      The Gemral Election,; - . —?—— ¦ ¦ The P...

      THE GEMRAL ELECTION , ; - . —?—— ¦ ¦ THE PREMIER'S MANIFESTO . TO THE ELECTORS OK TRrEETON . Gentlemen , —Parliament having been dissolved in order that the electors of the United Kingdom may toave an opportunity of expressing their opinion on Xhe existing state of public affairs , I present myself to you as a candidate for the continuance of that confidence with whicli , as your representative , I have so long been honoured . The question which is submitted to the judgment of the country is , which shall be the men to whose hands shall be committed the destinies of the nation , and whether that charge shall continue to bo confided to the present Administration , or whether it shall be transferred to that aggregation of hitherto discordant elements by whose combined action on a late occasion a vote of censure was passed upon her Majesty ' s Government .

      The claims of the present Administration to the confidence of the country rest upon facts and events which will form an important chapter in the history of theso times . We undertook the conduct of affairs , in obedience to the call of our Sovereign , at a , moment of no small difficulty , in the midst of a great war , and when those men who had heretofore been looked up to as the leaders of parties had for various reasons declined the responsibility of office , or had been unable to form such an

      Administration as was in their opinion equal to the crisis . Wo carried on with energy and vigour the war in which tho country was engaged , and in hearty co-operation with our gallant allies—the Trench , the Sardinians , and the Turks— -we brought it to a successful termination , and the result was a treaty of peace which accomplished the objects of the war , and which secured for the Allies conditions which some of those to whom I have alluded had deemed it unreasonable to propose and impossible to obtain . ' —

      In the execution of the stipulations of this treaty difficulties in regard to matters of great importance arose ; those difficulties , by firmness in negotiation , her Majesty's Government mainly contributed in a satisfactory manner to remove , and the full attainment of the objects of the treaty in regard to the matters in which those difficulties related has thus been secured . At the beginning of the recent-session of Parliament we announced our intention of taking off the war portion of the income-tax , and we proposed a budget which was approved b y a majority of eighty votes .

      The Persian war , which had originated in aggressions and breach of engagement by the Persian Government , wasput an end to by a treaty of peace concluded at Paris . Our diplomatic relations with the United States bad been replaced upon their usual footing by the appointment of Lord Napier and his departure for Washington . Papers had been presented to Parliament explaining the reasons why the British and French missions had been withdrawn from Naples , and no notice had been given of any motion to be founded on those papers . Upon none of these matters did the Opposition deem it possible to found any successful attack on the Government . But events of much importance had happened in China , unforeseen by her Majesty ' s Government , aud not the consequence of any steps talcen by them .

      An insolent barbarian wielding authority at Canton had violated the British flag , brolcen the engagements of treaties , offered rewards for the heads of British subjects in that part of Chinn , and planned their destruction by murder , assassination , and poison . The British officers , civil and naval , on tho station had taken thoso measures which appeared to them to bo proper and necessary to obtain satisfaction and redress , and her Majesty ' s Government had approved tho course pursued by those officers in vindication of the national honour and for the assertion of our national rights . A combination of political parties , not till this last session united , carried a resolution declaring tho course pursued by our oflicora in China unjustifiable , and consequently censuring her Majesty ' s Government for having approved that course .

      Hut , if tliat course was unjustifiable , the British Coverumcnt , instead of demanding an apology , ought to malcc ono , and instead of expecting satisfaction ought to offer compensation to tho Chinese Commissioner , and this course tho combined opponents of the Government , if their Parliamentary victory had installed them in office , must in consiHtency have been prepared to pursue . Will the British nation give their support to men who ha-vc thus endeavoured to make tho humiliation and degradution of their country tho stepping-stone to power ? 3 confidently assort that such will not be tho answer that will bo given to the appeal now made to tho electors of tho United Kingdom .

      Wo offer to the country a Government founded upon fur different principles . Abroad , it will bo our earnest endeavour to procure peace , but peace with honour and with safety , peace with th « maintenance of national rights , pence with security to our fellow-countrymen in foreign lands . At homo , our guiding principles will bo : judicious mid well-regulated economy , progreHHiv « improvement in all that coucurna tha welfare of tho nation ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 28, 1857, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28031857/page/3/