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Leader (1850-1860), 28th June 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 598, Untitled Article

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      The compact union which exists aroonjf the Northern despots is daily made more manifest . Not in tbe palmy days of the Holy Alliance did they flatter each other more obstinately . That celebrated " Baiser de Lamourette" in the old Convention of ' 92 , is outdone by these re * al hypocrites . Now it is the King or Prussia who invests a couple of Russian Princes with the command of Prussian cavalry ; then the Russian Emperor , who flings a shower of orders among the Austrian Generals , and bestows a command on the Prince of Prussia ; and grateful Austria surrenders the brave Bakoonin to the Czar , to be forthwith whirled away into Siberia , and destined to a life of exile and anguish among its snows .

      And these humane potentates have found a fitting tool in the poor Pope . The tender father of his people has become the rival of Haynau . In Rome , now-a-days , a man is sent to the galleys for twenty years if he attempt to persuade another fi om smoking tobacco . That is mild compared to what they inflict upon women for the same offence . It is scarcely credible—nay , would be quite incredible , if the story were not in the official Giornale di Roma , —that at Perugia , on the 9 th of June , a woman , by order of the " constituted authority , " was condemned to receive , and did receive , twenty lashes !

      Among the disasters of the week , some have been striking from their magnitude , or the personal traits which they have called forth . The great fire near London-bridge was a terrible memento of our scanty command over " the devouring element . " By the accident at the Bed minster colliery , more than thirty poople were buried alive—hopelessly , as some assumed : they were all rescued , unhurt , mainly through the courageous example of James

      North , a youth whose name may be added to the list that is adorned by that of Grace Darling . And the gallant conduct of Mr . Crampton , in traversing the steps of a railway train in motion , to let the guard know that it was on fire , is scarcely the less admirable because he was among the people endangered : courage and presence of mind are qualities too absolutely good to depend on selfish motives .

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      The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill was at length reported from the Committee to the House , on Monday night , •? amidst loud and general cheering . " Precarious to the last , the Ministry barely cairied their own preamble . In committee Mr . Walpole moved that words be inserted in the preamble which in effect declared , not only tl-at the Pope had no temporal or civil jurisdiction , but no jurisdiction whatever . This declaration he asserted was ntces * ary to make the bill , which was ineffective as a remedial measure , a national protts ' , or as Mr . Disraeli said , a measure of retalia ion . The amendment was opposed by the Solicitor-General and Lord John Russell , who naturally thought that their own preamble was perfect , and who neither ngre < d with the ultra-ProUstamB , nor with Mr . MoohE , the nearly solitary spokesman of the Irish Bngide , in thinking thut it was a moot and reserved point , whether , in taking the oath of abjuration , the Koinan Catholic members abjured the spiii-ual as well as the temporal power of the Pope . When the committee divided , ihere

      • w ere — For the amendment , 130 ; againct it , 140 . Majoiity for Ministers , 10 . Mr . Walpole then proposed another addition , descriptive of whut was done und « r the rescript in the ¦ wa y of uBHuming titles . Lord John Russkll tl ought ihe preamble " better English" without the addition . The Committee did not stop to discuBS the question , but almost immediately divided again ; theie being—For the amendment , 117 ; against ft , 141 . Majority for Ministers , 24 . The preamble was then put— - For the preamble , 200 ; against it , 30 . Majority for , 161 .

      The preamble being thus adopted , the House resumed , und the bill was reported to the House , which agnin immediately resolved itself into a Committee on th * Oath of Atjuration ( Jews ) Bill . No opposition was offered . Sir Kobbht Inolis und Mr . Plvmp-Ibk Agreed in the policy of not dividing the Committo * . Strong protea n * were the weapons of hostility , la reply t » an illuatured remark of Mr . Nafijul , Lord John Hvbukll made a statement which may possibly be usefully remembered bo me day . Ho taid : — " It appeared to him that whil « they were perfectly right in doing all thfy could to promote the Chiiaiinn rrligion , and its diffusion throughout tho £ \» >< r , they ahould feel that Christianity deiived uo r «« Croat any mod * of * xtinal < n which could in any w * y or degree be called civil | w » c « ut » uu—( A « ar » k ** r ) - —

      and it certainly appeared to him that the exclusion upon any such grounds of persons from office by the power of the Legislature , they being loyal subjects of her Majesty , was a species of persecution altogether inconsistent with the high and pare spirit of Christianity . ( Cheers . )" The bill passed through Committee , the House resumed , aud the bill , without amendment , was reported . On the motion for the resumption of the adjourned debate on the report upon supply , Mr . Humh drew attention to the vote of £ 300 , 000 , the first instalment of the cost of the Kafir war . He stigmatized the Government of the Cape as grosa

      mismanagement . The war had been brought on solely by the aggressions of the Government of the Cape , -which had taken possession of what is called British Kafraria , and thus usurped the territories of the Kafirs . The colonists had nothing to do with the war . It was our affair . He asked Lord John Russell to review the decision to which he had come a lew nights a « o , when he declared that he did not intend to grant a Constitution to the Cape until the termination of the war . The draft of a Constitution had been sent out from Downing-street , to be revised and settled by the Council at the Cape , subject to the approval of the Imperial Government . There were five vacant seats in the Council at the time of its arrival at Cape Town ;

      and the Governor , Sir Harry Smith , instead of appointing nominees , of whom the rest of the Council was composed , had caused these vacancies to be filled up by delegates elected by the colony , in order that the sense of the colony might be taken upon the proposed Constitution . These gentlemen went with th »» t unde ^ tan ing ; but the Governor had thought fit to bring under their attention , and to demand thtir assent to the financial estimates of the colony . Upon this four res gned , believing that they had no power to vote away the money of the co ' onists , and that their sole business was to settle the basis of a future representative government for the Cape . They had agreed to almost every principle of the Constitution ; but upon their secession the work was abandoned . Mr . Hume did not think it fair of the noble lord to

      charge the seceding members with being obstructive . He h <» ped Government would not delay ihe grant of institutions so ofun promised ^ o the Cape . Lord John Russell , in reply to Mr . Hume , gave his version of ihe story . He eharnctevized the result of 'he lib rty to elect the five members granted hy Sir Harry Smith as " not very fortunate . " He did not impute any bad motives to the seceders ; but , upon the authority of Sir Karry Smith , he stated that th « y had intended to resign from the first , if defeated upon a particular question . Sir Audries Stockenstrom had ' taken a most unfortunate course , " in Lord John Russell's opinion . He denied that the elected member * were called , or led

      to believe that they were callt d , solely to frame a constitution ; and it was quite impossible for the Governor not to bring on the estimates . If the Legislative Council had decided what those estimates should be , setthd the Constitution , and forward * d the ordinances dt during it t <» London for the sanction of MiniMters , representative government would at this time have existed in t' > e colony . He believed it would be far better that the colony ' should have representative institutions ; but now there were great difficulties : — ** Still he thought it would not be right to say , if the war should continue for an indefinite time , that a representative c < nstitu'ion should be withheld from the colony during that indefinite time . "

      As to the occupation of British Kafraria , that hnd been done simply as a measure of defence for the frontier . The plan had been approved of by Sir B . d ' Urban : — " But now it was eaid by some of the colonists , or on their behulf , ' If this is a question of defending the frontier , and our own farina and posneBsions , we are ready to appear inarms for their defence ; but if this is aqucfion of defending Dritixri Kafrnria , that is no affair of ours ; with ihtt the colonists have nothing to do ; but you are bound with the money of Great Britnin , and by the arms of her Majesty ' s troops , to defend that territory . ' That he thought was not a very reasonable proposition . "

      He hoped these dissensions would come to an end , and that the Cape , though expensive now , would become prosperous and flourishing . The vote now asked for was to carry the colony through its present crisis . The report was agreed to . As the session draws towards a close , the House of Commons makes a greut show of work . On Tuesday , they nut at twelve o ' clock , and proce * ded at once to the consideration of tho Metropolitan Water Supply Bill . Mr . Mowatt moved , that the Standing Orders be suspended , and the bill be sent before the same . select committee as the Government bill . This motion whs met by Mr . Wilson Pattkn with the objection that the Standing Ordeis had not been complied with , as notices hud not been properly served upon the parties who would be affected by the bill . After a bhort discussion Mr . Mowatt withdrew his motion . On the motion that theSmithrWld Market Removal I Bill be xead a tkird time , Mr . Staiwobd onttred hi *

      protest against it , and Mr . Hume , seconded bv Hr W . Williams , moved that it be read a third t that day « ix months . The debate was wholly important , though the opposition was determin ^* On a divUion there were— a * For the amendment , 32 ; aprainst it , 81 . Majority against , 49 .

      The bill was then read a third time and passed Sir Geobob Obbt moved that the Church Buiidin Acts Amendment Bill , which came down from tli Lords on Wednesday week , should be read a second time . He said that the object of the bill was " t enable the Church Extension Commissioners to divid ° large parishes into districts , to build new churches and to endow the ministers of the same by means of pew-rents . " One of the clauses of the bill would enable the conami-sioners to impose p w-rents upon pews hitherto occupied by the poor gratis ; a clause which had been objected to , and ceitainly , it would appear , that such a power would operate unjustl y .

      The bill , which is a result of Lord Ashley ' s celebrated speech in favour of the sub-division of lar « parishes , was strenuously opposed . Mr . Httmb , who called it a dead robbery upon the public , and especially upon the poor , " and denounced it as a means of creating " fresh patronage" for the promoters , at other people ' s expense , moved that it be read a second time that day six months . Sir Benjamin Hall said that the bill was nothing more than a ? ' project of the Bishop of London for taxing the poor , in order to aggrandise his own patronage and power . " The bishops refused to consecrate churches built by

      private individuals , unless they were endowed . He declared it was ** preposterous" in Sir George Grey to press the bill to a second reading , when it had only come from another place five , and only been printed three days . Mr . W . J . Fox asserted that it was a tax bill , and a tax of all others the most inexpedient , as it taxed people for going to church . " Sir Robebt Inqlis defended the bill against the charge of creating patronage , on the ground that the incomes of the clergy would be small ; that one-third of the pews in these churches would be free , and that strong restrictions would be laid on the pew rents .

      The hostility to the bill was so strong that the debate was adjourned until Friday . When the House of Commons met on "Wednesday , Mr . Anstey slated that he wished to know from the Under-Secreiary for the Colonies whether the state prisoner , Mr . M'Manus , was not discharged fiom the custody of Sir William Denison ' s Commandant at Port Arthur by a solemn order of the Supreme Court of Van Diemen ' s Land declaring such cust < dy illegal ; whether the said state prisoner , after having , in

      consequence of such order , with the connivanceol Government , quitted Hobart-town and returned to his own house at Launceston , had not been a ^ ain arrested by Sir William D < ni-on upon the same charge on which his Excellency had caused him to be placed in such custody ; whether it was true that he was , upon such his second arrest , brought all the way back from . Launceston to Hobart-town , a distance of 120 miles , on foot ; and whether he was not , at the date of the last advices , suffering from fever occasioned by such treatment ? Mr . Hawes would state to the House all

      the information which her Majesty ' s Government possessed on the subject . From a communication which the Secretary of State for the Colonies had lecelved from the Governor of Van Diem n ' s Land , it appeared that Mr . M ' Manus applied to the Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus , in consequence of which he was brought before that Court , but the return to the writ was deemed insufficient , and Mr . M'Manus was subseqmntly , though for what cau < e he knew not , arrested , and the quiStion was likely to be again raised before the Supreme Court of the colony . Wiih regard to the othe . matters to which the honourable and Lamed gentleman ' s questions referred , the Government had no information .

      The order of the day first on the paper was for the second reading of the Universities * ( Scotland ; Bill , the object of which was to repeal certain religious tests , which affect the candidate for protes-Bonhips in the Scotch universities . Mr . CoWA moved the second reading of the bill . Ho iT ^ c historically the imposition of the tests , wbith ongi - ated in times of trouble and dissension ; » ntl ,. denied that they were now applicable to the state the Scotch Church . One of the tests bound the professors to follow no divisive course" which wouj have the effect of splitting the Church into bocu ^ . But numerous secessions had since taU « n P'aC' * ' » the Scotch Church was no longer the united rjouy

      which it waa in 1600 . "The teats which it was the object of thia »'" " aboliah were impo . ed , «¦ he had aaid , for the p « rp «»« e « excluding PrelatUU from the oliaira of 1 ** « niver . " Jo but lh « fact was that , in spite of tho « # t « tfl » tt , ? L number of Episcopalians did fill thos « eualr « . ftnu - was glad to admit , filled them with cr « ditto lnomi ^ ., | and advantage to the country . ( ITgnr , hear ) ' all he wanud wun , that other DitneiiteM , , ' ? _ i t « xt » wen never intended to e « olud * . a » M »• * admitted to fill thoa « chairs without let or *» i » uraiay Xh « bill « xtend « d te all oliairu wtcopt th « ti »« olog *«»' r

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      598 ! Kfj $ ULt&Xlt t * [ Saturday ,

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      PARLIAMENT OF THE WEEK .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), June 28, 1851, page 598, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1889/page/2/