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    wants than we . There was too strong a tendency to a ¦ war policy in India ; and , if we were to wait for a surplus of Indian revenue before internal improvements were tnade , the delay would probably be a very long one . — - Mr . SKYMOtm , ia moving the previous question , said tliat the , facts on which , Mr . Smith had erected his theory were mostly obsolete . What , is wanted to promote the growth of cotton in India is capital and European superintendence . — On the motion of Sir Erskine Perry , the debate was adjourned to that day week .

    SALARIES OF SCOTCH OFFICIALS . Mr . Black moved a resolution , that the salaries of the Scotch inspectors and surveyors of taxes are inadequate for the duties they have to discharge , and that the remuneration for their services should be placed on the same scale as those of England and Ireland . —Mr . Wilson could not consent to a motion which would impose upon the House a function properly belonging to the departments connected with the revenue of the country . —The motion was negatived . The Alehouse Licensing Bill , was read a third time , and passed j various other bills were advanced a Stage ; and the House adjourned about half past one o ' clock . Wednesday , June 14 th . JUTK 5 MENTS EXECUTION , ETC ., BILL .

    The House of Commons went into committee on this billj when a good deal of discussion took place—firstly , as to whether the Chairman should report progress ( a course proposed by Colonel French , but negatived on a division by 93 to 31 ) ; secondly , whether the Government wculd adopt the bill ( a question which elicited from the Solicitor-Gexerai . a favourable opinion of the measure ) ; thirdly , a return to the question whether progress ; should not be reported ( a proposition again defeated , this time by 141 to 50 , and once again by 175 to 54 ); fourthly , whether the bill should not be

    committed pro Jbrmd and recommitted ( a suggestion to which the IiOBD Advocate agreed ); and lastly , whether Ireland should not be excluded from the measure . The Irish members contended that Ireland ought to be excluded , and offered so much opposition to the progress of the measure that the Lord Advocate accused them of factious conduct—a ' charge which they warmly denied . At length ( only two clauses having been passed ) , Mr . " Craufurd , with whom the bill originated , consented to progress being reported , and said that , on the ' first open Wednesday , he would bring forward the

    measure again . The House then resumed , and went into committee on the Scientific and Literary Societies Bill ; bnt , before the second clause could be disposed of , the time for discussion had expired . BOCHDALE ELECTION . —REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE . Mr . Henley brought up the report of the select committee appointed Co inquire into the charges contained in the petition of Jehn Newall . The committee stated that Peter Johnson was not produced before them , though it appeared that means had been taken to find him in Rochdale and in London . They found that Abraham Rothwell was served with the Speaker ' s warrant on the 12 th of May , to give evidence before the election

    committee on the Rochdale petition , and that the fact of his being a person likely to be examined as a witness oh the election petition was well known in Rochdale , and before the 18 th of June was known to John Lord . That John Lord and Peter Johnson having come to London , Peter Johnson personally applied to John Lord for the address of Abraham Rothwell , and from what passed between them , it appeared that Peter Johnson requested John Lord to tell Abraham Rothwell that if he wished to leave the country , he would find money to the extent of 501 to enable him to do so . That , through the agency of John Lord , Peter Johnson and Abraham Rothwell met , and that in the presence of John Lord , Peter Johnson , « n the evening of Thursday , the 18 th June , offered Abraham Rothwell % o supply him with

    money to the extent of 50 / ., if he would quit the country and go to America . Under the circumstances , the committee were of opinion that the necessary inference would be . that the purpose of Peter Johnson was to prevent the examjination of Abraham Rothwell on the trial of the Rochdale election petition , and that suoh purpose of Peter Johnson -was known to John Lord ; but the evidence waa so inconclusive , and the manner of the witnesses in giving their testimony was bo unsatisfactory , that the . committee were unable to state that inference as being the clear result of their investigation . The committee desired to add that nothing appeared in the evidence before the committee to connect the sitting member , or the ? agent of the sitting member , with the transaction in question . The report was received , and the House adjourned a little after six o'clock .

    Thursday , June 26 < A . DIVOKOK DILL . In the Housh of Lords , Lord Rkdesoale introduced a bill on the subject of divorce , whioh he said was so framed as not to be liable to the objections which , wore contained in the bill whioh had recently passed that Hou » o .- —The bill was read a flrat time . THE PROBATE AND DIVOKOB BILLS . The Earl of Wioklow wished to ask a question with rofetouie to tha Probate and Administration , and the

    Divorce and Matrimonial Causes , Bills . Neither of them was extended to Ireland ; and , as regarded the latter , he wished to know if the action for damages in cases of criminal conversation , and all the other proceedings which had hitherto been necessary for the procuring a divorce , were to continue in force in Ireland . —The Lord Chancellor could only say , in reply , that it was not only the intention of Government to introduce similar bills for Ireland to those which had just passed their Lordships * House , but a bill for remodelling the Court of Probate had been prepared ( he did not say it was ready to be introduced ) , and the Attorney-General for Ireland hoped to be able to pass it this . session . It was impossible to make the present "bills applicable to the two countries , because it would be necessary to create two new tribunals .

    OBSCKNE PRINTS AND PUBLICATIONS BILL . Lord Campbell moved the second reading of this bill , by which he proposes to give power to the police , after obtaining a warrant on affidavit , to enter any house where improper publications are sold , and to seize and carry them away . —Lord Brougham , while heartily agreeing that the trade sought to be suppressed is of a most infamous and disgusting character , suggested that it would be impossible to define clearly what an obscene book is . Many works of art , and many of the writings

    of modern and ancient poets , might be objected to on the ground that parts of them are obscene . —Lord Campbell said he by no means designed to extend his measure to such cases as had been alluded to by his noble and learned friend , but only to such publications as have the single purpose of corrupting the morals and shocking the decency of any well-regulated mind , bales of which are imported into this country . He would take as a test only books for the sale of which an indictment would lie .

    The Lord Chancellor and Lord Lyndhurst poke to the same effect as Lord Brougham ; and Lord Lyndhurst put some imaginary , but at the same time possible , cases , to prove his assertion that the bill waa impracticable . Having g iven Doctor Johnson ' s definition of ' obscenity , ' which turns chiefly on the idea of immodesty and unchastity , his Lordship continued :- — " Under this bill , a policeman might apply to a magistrate for a warrant authorising him to seize , anything which might happen in his view to be obscene . He would go to a magistrate , who would issue his warrant , and , armed with that , he might go to Colnaghi's , and say , ' I want to look at a print of Jupiter and Antiope ' - ^ -a picture which represents a woman asleep—very

    beautiful—with a strange expression in her countenance , herself perfectly naked , and a satyr standing by her side , with an expression in his face showing most distinctly what are his feelings . The policeman seizes it . ' By what authority ? ' asks the shopkeeper . ' Lord Campbell's Act , ' he replies ; and , despite all remonstrance , the print and printseller are carried before the magistrate , who , if he took the same view as the policeman , would probably sentence the one to be destroyed , and the other to imprisonment . ( Hear , hear . ) There are many other valuable prints of the same description —' The Rape of Danae , ' for instance , which would come most distinctly within this act , and be liable to seizure . The shopkeeper might be imprisoned for

    exhibiting it , while the painting from which it was engraved would be hanging in the large square room in the Louvre , in front of an ottoman on which the most delicate-minded women in the world might be seen daily assembled contemplating its beauties . ( ITear , htar . ~ ) But this was only one part of the case . Suppose the policeman happens to go inside the studio or residence of a sculptor ; he might see the statue of a man perfectly naked , or a naked group—a oast , perhaps , from one of Palladio ' s groups—and , as all the statues from the antique are naked , and some of them in attitudes which he ( Lord Lyndhurst ) did not choose to describe , of course they would be seized , and the artist would be liable to punishment . There is a third class

    of works that would be liable to seizure under Ins noble and learned friend ' s bill—those of the poets . Not a circulating library in the country but would be open to an information , and their books to seizure . The policeman looks over the catalogue , and finds Rochester ' s poems , with which his noble and learned friend was doubtless familiar ( 'hear , hear , ' and a laugh ) : those might be seized . He ( Lord Lyndhurst ) admitted that there is as much difference between the licentiousness of Rochester and that of the ancient classics as there is between the nakedness of an Indian and tint of a common prostitute , But they might go further : there was the great master of English poetry—Dryden , Ho hud translated some of the worst parts of Ovid—somo of the most

    licentious epistles of Ovid to his mistress ; but , beyond these , there was not a single volume of that great master which would not como under the denunciation of his noble and learned friend ' s bill . And what would bis noble and learned friend say to the bulk of modern French novels ? Was there anything , eithor ancient or modern , calculated to excite licentious deairoa equal to those ? There was nothing that he had montloned that would not , under this bill , bo liable to sotaure . Every library and ovory bookseller ' s shop would lo exposed to expurgation at the hands of the police ; not ovou Don Quixote' could bo retuinod . " Ho moved that the bill bo road a Beoond tlmo that day six months . At tho conclusion of Lord Lyndhurat ' 9 remarks ,

    Lord Campbell rose and said , speaking wuTgZTIr phasis : — " My noble and learned friend ' s are- « m to this , that all remedy for this evil should \ goes end to . He says » Here Lord Ly ^ ^ > ™ order . His noble and learned friend bad no J w reply until the end of the debate . To ( his Lord P * ' ' bell replied that , as an amendment had been ™ l > ~ he was privileged to speak . Lords BwuSlHS Rkdesdale thought differently , and a aome what eL ^ and angry controversy ensued ; Lord Campbem £ quently beginning his observations afresh , and beimr constantly interrupted . At length , the Lord qSJ ? cellor decided the rule in his favour , when Lord cltnT bell said that , having asserted and maintained his riX he was perfectly willing to waive it—Lord Wenslpy dale then opposed the bill on the same ground as th t assumed by its other opponents—Lord Wynfobd avJkl in favour of the measure . —Lord Campbell replied and observed that the very word ' obscene , ' to which Lord Lyndhurst objected , is the word used in the for m of in

    dictment under the existing law , and it was left for the jury to determine the application . » His noble and learned friend seemed under great apprehension lest that choice collection of literature , which had evidently made a deep impression on his mind , should be seized . He could dispel his noble and learned friend ' s fears . His collection , whether literary or artistic , would be in no danger ; for his noble and learned friend , he imagined did not mean to sell it or exhibit it , but to keep it for his private gratification and the amusement of his leisure hours . " ( Cheers and laughter . ) There would be no difficulty in introducing words which should draw the distinction required . —Earl Granville said that , as his noble and learned friend was ready to introduce words removing objections , he thought the best way would be to permit the bill to be read a second time . This was accordingly done .

    VEXATIOUS SUITS PBEVENTIO . V BILL . Lord Brougham moved the second reading of this bill , and cited many examples showing the necessity of repressing frivolous aud vexatious actions at law . It was not , however , his intention to press the measure during the present session , and after some remarks from the Lord Chancellor and Lord Campbell ( who thought the bill would be ineffectual ) , the debate was formally adjourned . Their Lordships adjourned at twenty minutes past seven o'clock .

    PASSING TOLLS . In the Housk ok Commons , Mr . Lowe , in reply to Mr . Inohah , said that he feared there would be no chance this session of carrying the measure of which he had given notice with respect to passing tolls . It must therefore be deferred to next session .

    QOVERSMENT STOKES . Major Sibtiiorp asked the Under-Secretary for War whether it was true that largo quantities of gunpowder were stored in various places in the immediate neighbourhood and town of Waltham Abbey , and if so , whether they were to remain there ; also , if it was true that any persons connected with tho Government had threatened with instant dismissal any of the workmen or others at tho mills , if they divulged anything relative to the quantity of gunpowder stored there . —Sir John Kamsden replied that there was no amount of Government stores in the neighbourhood and town of Waltliam Abbey , and that no Government official had been threatened with dismissal .

    TIIK CHURCH IN CANADA . Replying to Mr . Collins , Mr . Laboi / cheke sah \ the Royal assent had been given to a bill passed by the Parliament of Canada to enable the members of the tinted Church of England and Ireland in Canada to meet in Synod , in order that they might exercise the rights of self-government ; and , without giving an opinion upon a difficult point of law , ho believed that tho act vested the appointment of Bishops of that Church in the Synod . l'AYMKNT OP MI 8 DIOAL OFFIOKH 8 . rela

    In reply to a question from Sir John Thom . opk - tive to tho payment of medical officers in poor-law unions , Mr . Bouvkrib said that tho committee wiuon had considered tho subject had mado three recomniondtttions—nrstly , that the medical ofTicora appointments should bo more permanent than they had Pr 0 V 10 rf been ; secondly , that from time to time opportunltUM should be takon of increasing tlio amount of no ^ remuneration j and , thirdly , that menns should bo town to diminish tho area of tho districts which they were n quired to superintend . Tho first recommendation hja been substantially complied with , under an orde ¦ l » u « by his predecessor in office , and by a nubaoquont one iflsuod by himself . Tho other two recommendation ! could not bo acted upon conveniently at tho sumo time

    OATHS MIX . .. .. , On tho order for tho third reading - of this bill ,, « Marquis of Blaniword moved to defer tho third reaanj for six months . Ills fu . idamo . Ual objection to tw » was that tho crown of till * realm w avowodO " > by tho praoe of CJo . l , ' , In tho . Christ an . ^ ° Cod . The * Divino Boing was ignored by tho sure , whioh did not recognize "l 0 "J 1 Wttd religion ( ho did not merely moan the »*» W w Church ) , though in tho old oath ChristianIgrwj « tinotly reeoffnlaod . —The amendment wna second ,

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    6 q 4 THE LEADER ,

    [ No . 379 , S ^ nhmAv

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 27, 1857, page 604, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2199/page/4/