airy, jaunty manner; his speech was cheer- | Baring, A. H. Motion made, and Question put- The House divided:-Ayes 99; Noes 102: Majority 3. Baring, T. Churchill, Lord A. S. Deedes, W. Disraeli, rt. hon. B. Estcourt, rt. hn. T. H. S. Puller, C. W. G. Brady, J. Brocklehurst, J. Du Pre, C. G. Patten, Col. W. Bury, Visct. Elliot, hon. J. E. Butler, C. S. Elmley, Visct. Pevensey, Visct. Byng, hon. G. Nicoll, D. Calcutt, F. M. Norreys, Sir D. J. Farquhar, Sir M. Repton, G. W. J. Ogilvy, Sir J. Ferguson, Sir R. Russell, Lord J. Forester, rt. hon. Col. Saint Aubyn, J. Scott, Major. Spooner, R. Stewart, Sir M. R. S. Gard, R. S. Grogan, E. Jervis, Capt. Schneider, H. W. Kekewich, S. T. Ewing, H. E. C. Scholefield, W. Ker, R. Taylor, Col. Ferguson, Col. Smith, J. B. Foley, H. W. Somerville, rt. hon. Sir House adjourned at Ten o'clock 31st March last, relating to the postal service for North America had not yet been made? He had studiously avoided anything which could place a limit on the time for the preparation of the Return, and he wondered it had not yet been made. SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE said, the Government had communicated with the Admiralty and the Post Office Departments on the subject, and they had complied with the request from the Treasury ; but there were some Returns required from the Irish Government which had not yet been received; but if they did not speedily arrive, he would have the Returns already obtained laid upon the table, so that those which were wanting might form a supplement to them. CONVICT PRISONS ABROAD BILL. Order for Committee read. MR. SOTHERON ESTCOURT said, that this was in point of fact a Consolidation Bill, to unite a number of provisions scattered through a variety of Acts. It referred only to the establishments at Gibraltar and Bermuda; it provided for the appointment of a visiting justice or director of prisons at each place. The greater portion of the Bill affected only the penalties imposed for a number of offences within its HOUSE OF LORDS, Thursday, April 14, 1859. MINUTES.] PUBLIC BILLS.-1a. Consolidated Fund (Appropriation); Exchequer Bills(£13,277,400). 3. Savings Banks (Ireland) Act; Affidavits by Commission, &c. THE THAMES WATERMEN AND PERSONAL EXPLANATION. LORD EBURY hoped their Lordships would extend their indulgence to him for a few minutes, while he referred to a matter somewhat personal to himself. He was the more reluctant to trespass upon the patience of the House because he knew that their Lordships had assembled in greater numbers than usual for a far different purpose; but he had always understood that whenever a member of their Lordships' House was put in a position whereby his motives were liable to misconstruction, their Lordships were accustomed to afford the earliest opportunity for removing any imputation which might seem to attach to him. On Tuesday last a Motion was made by a noble and learned Lord (Lord Campbell) which certainly in effect called in question the proceedings of a Committee of which he (Lord Ebury) was the Chairman. He regretted that he was not in the House at the time, for he was not only willing to share in the general vidual members of the Committee, but to responsibility which attached to the inditake to himself all the especial responsibility which attached to him in consequence of his being the Chairman of the Committee. The circumstances which gave rise to the Motion took place ten days ago. The Committee concluded its sittings on a Monday between two and three o'clock, and as he did not suppose that any notice was likely to be taken of their proceedings in the House, and having occasion to go into the country, he requested a noble Friend to present the Report of the ComOrder for Second Reading read. mittee formally to the House. When the MR. M'MAHON moved that the Order notice of the noble and learned Lord's be discharged. It was a most mischievous Motion was sent to him, it was sent to his Bill, and he could not tell how it could town house, and not to his country resihave escaped from the House of Lords. It dence; and it was not until he saw the had not even been printed as yet. report of what had occurred in the House MR. SOTHERON ESTCOURT admit-in the newspapers that he was aware there Scope. SIR GEORGE GREY said, it was very desirable that the Acts on this subject should be consolidated. As he understood, no new offices were created, but a new name was given, and they were assimilated as to appointment to the corresponding offices in this country. Bill passed through Committee. Amendment. VEXATIOUS INDICTMENTS BILL. ted the matter was too serious to be disposed of at this period of the Session. Order discharged; Bill withdrawn. House adjourned at One o'clock. was any motion for the purpose of referring the matter back to the Committee. He had no intention whatever of seeking to reverse the decision which had been arrived INDIA-VOTE OF THANKS TO THE GO- THE EARL OF DERBY: My Lords, the subjects are very few which a Ministry already condemned by a vote of the House of Commons can with any propriety submit to the consideration of a Parliament on the eve of its dissolution. Under such circumstances, which I am sure your Lordships will concur with me in thinking ought to last for as short a time as possible consistently with the exigencies of the public service. Under such circumstances the authority of the Ministry and of Parliament are alike weakened; under such circumstances-at all events within the walls of at. He understood the Committee were blamed because they did not hear all the evidence which was tendered, nor hear counsel sum up the case. The fact was, that the opponents of the Bill adduced evidence which it took a whole day to hear, and at the termination of that day it struck both the Committee and himself that the testimony given against the Bill entirely proved the case of the promoters; and, under those circumstances, he indicated on the following morning that, with respect to the points on which they had heard evidence, the Committee were perfectly satisfied, but that they were ready to hear any evidence upon other points. Another day's evidence was received; but the additional witnesses only accumulated evidence upon the points already settled. On Parliament-the strife of political parties that ground the Committee thought proper to stop the case-on the ground that the testimony adduced against the Bill really went to justify the allegations of the preamble. He did not, therefore, acquiesce in the decision of the House, but he did not desire to alter it. He assured the House that he never saw a Committee more patient or more anxious to do justice to all parties. It had been his lot to perform an honourable, arduous, and it now appeared an invidious duty, and he accepted and took upon himself, without reluctance or hesitation, the whole responsibility of the proceedings of the Committee. LORD CAMPBELL said, that no blame whatever was cast upon the noble Lord or the other members of the Committee. What had been stated was, that the case had been decided before the whole of the evidence had been heard, and the decision of their Lordships was grounded upon that fact. FOREIGN AFFAIRS. MINISTERIAL STATEMENT POSTPONED. THE EARL OF MALMESBURY: My Lords, I believe it will be conducive to the interests of the public service that I should postpone the statement I have to make on our foreign relations until Monday next; and I trust that the courtesy and indulgence of your Lordships will allow me to defer it until that day. THE EARL OF CLARENDON asked when the Ministerial statement upon that subject would be made in the House of Commons? THE EARL of MALMESBURY: On Monday also. My is suspended, and the ordinary legislation It is, have referred, and who is the last man to spare himself or to shrink from the discharge of any duty as long as he thought the country required his services, felt himself warranted, in the state of affairs, in returning to Simla for the purpose of there recruiting his health, which had been shattered in the course of those most trying operations. I think, therefore, I may assume without any further preface, that the time is come when we may congratulate ourselves on the complete termination of this dangerous revolt, and when we may offer the tribute of our public thanks to those by whom that happy result was obtained. we happily see it brought to a satisfactory and suffered the most severely. And, and a successful issue-it is peculiarly as a further proof, I may state that the fitting that Parliament should not separate same noble and gallant Lord to whom I without expressing its sense of gratitude and the public estimation in which are held the services of those to whom, under Divine Providence, we are mainly indebted for the suppression of that revolt, and the restoration of public tranquillity. That revolt has subsisted for a longer period than the not very protracted existence of the present Parliament; and it is fitting that one of the last acts of that Parliament should be an expression of its gratitude for the suppression of that great and most formidable rebellion. The only question, then, which can arise is, whether we have arrived at a period when we are enabled to announce the satisfactory tidings that the revolt is completely suppressed. I And the first person to whom those would certainly not have delayed until the thanks are due is the man who stood in present period submitting to your Lord- the foremost position, who has had thrown ships a Vote in payment of the debt of upon him the greatest share of public regratitude which we owe to those who, whe- sponsibility, and who has been naturally ther in a civil or a military capacity, have overwhelmed with the largest and heaviest aided in bringing the revolt to a termina- weight of public anxiety. But in order tion, had I not hoped that the period was fully to appreciate the services rendered not far distant when I should be enabled to by Her Majesty's Viceroy the Governor announce to you its complete suppression. General of India, Viscount Canning, it is And I rejoice to believe from the intelli- right that your Lordships should bear in gence which reaches me, not only from all mind what were the circumstances under public sources, but also from every private which he assumed his present onerous quarter, that the period has arrived when office. Almost contemporaneously with we may say that the rebellion is altogether the noble Lord's arrival in India there suppressed. The illustrious Duke on the occurred the first appearance of disaffeccross benches has been good enough to tion in that country. A spirit breaking communicate to me a letter addressed to out which had for a considerable time been him by Lord Clyde, which he received by smouldering, and which was, perhaps, misthe last mail; and I am sure that any of understood and neglected; and just at the your Lordships who know that noble Lord period when he entered on the duties of would not believe that he would place any- his arduous office he was encountered by thing in regard to the complete success of the sudden explosion of that outbreak; the great undertaking in which he has been at a time when he was necessarily unacengaged in a stronger light than the circum-quainted with many of the circumstances stances of the case warranted. These are of the country which he was about to goLord Clyde's words :-"I am happy to say vern. That explosion not only took the that the tranquillity of the country is every noble Lord by surprise,-it equally took day becoming more and more solid, and by surprise those who had the greatest exthe Government have every cause for con-perience in India, and upon whose councils gratulation in this matter. Within my ex- it was most necessary to rely. It is no perience I have never known India more quiet than it now is." I might add to this, as the evidence of facts is still stronger than than that of words, that the Governor General, in his discretion, has felt himself authorized in sending back to this country a very considerable portion of the troops forwarded to India, including of course those who have seen the longest service marvel, therefore, that Viscount Canning, on his first arrival, did not fully appreciate the magnitude of the danger with which India was threatened; but from the time and it was not long-when he became alive to the full peril with which the empire was menaced, he applied, in grappling with the difficulties he foresaw and the dangers to be encountered, all the powers of a vigorous mind, all the faculties of an active and energetic disposition, and he endeavoured sedulously, diligently, and earnestly, to meet the great exigency by which he found himself suddenly surrounded. It is due to the noble Viscount to state that from first to last, calm, sagacious, resolute, he has pursued a tenacious, steady and consistent course-that he has never permitted his mind to be thrown off its balance by representations of exaggerated fear on the one hand or of extravagant and passionate resentment on the other. He has steadily watched the course of events; he has left untried nothing which could be done by indefatigable industry, by constant assiduity, and by the most patient and diligent attention to the details of business and to all the means by which this great revolt could be encountered. He has been constantly in communication-and I say it emphatically, in most friendly communication-with the Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty's forces in India. He has brought to the consideration of the difficult problem which it was left to him to solve, and which he has had the happiness and the credit of solving, the characteristic spirit of an English gentleman and the sagacity of a professional statesman. I think that, considering the successful issue to which the noble Viscount has brought this great undertaking, your Lordships will not grudge him the tribute of praise and thanks involved in the Motion I am now submitting to you; and I believe your Lordships will also feel that Her Majesty could not have chosen a more graceful or a more fitting opportunity than the time at which the two Houses of Parliament are expressing their gratitude for the services of the noble Viscount, for testifying her sense of those distinguished services by raising him to the dignity of a British Earl. My Lords, I hope that none of your Lordships will think that if you find omitted from this Vote of Thanks a name which appeared in the Vote of last year, it is thereby intended to involve the smallest slight or to impute any neglect of duty to the noble Lord the Governor of Madras. The fact is, my Lords, I think it of the deepest importance that Votes of this kind should not be made to assume a merely formal character, by conferring them on persons merely because they fill high positions without having had any important share in the events to which the Votes re. fer. It is no discredit to the noble Lord the Governor of Madras (Lord Harris) that from the circumstance of his Presidency having been itself free from any taint of revolt, and having contributed but slightly towards the suppression of the rebellionalthough undoubtedly some of the Madras forces were engaged in this campaignI trust your Lordships will think that no discredit attaches to the Governor of that Presidency, and that no slight to him is involved if his name is not included in the list of those to whom Parliament is now about to tender its thanks. I am aware that some surprise has been expressed at the omission from the Vote of another name-the name, not of a civilian, but of a most distinguished military officer. I have heard the fact commented on, and more especially by the noble and gallant Viscount behind me (Viscount Gough), who has himself personal experience and knowledge of the service of India, that the name of that distinguished officer, Sir Patrick Grant, is not included in the present Motion. But, again, I say that the omission of his name can imply no disapproval of and no want of respect to that gallant Officer, whose services are too well known to require any eulogium from me, and who has already been three times honoured with the Thanks of Parliament. But upon the present occasion his name has been intentionally omitted-first, because, although for a short time he held the nominal command of the army soon after the lamented death of General Anson, and although in that capacity I doubt not his services in Calcutta, in co-operating with the Governor General, were of signal advantage to the country, yet from the brief period during which he held that high command he had not an opportunity of appearing personally in the field. And moreover, I beg your Lordships to recollect that the Vote which I am now proposing is not a Vote of thanks for the whole of the services in the Indian revolt, but that it is limited to those services which have been rendered within the last fourteen or sixteen months, and which were not acknowledged in the former Vote of Parliament. The services of Sir Patrick Grant I need hardly say were included in that Vote; and it is on that ground, and upon that ground alone, that no reference is made to them in the Motion which I have now the honour of submitting to your Lordships' consideration. But, my Lords, there is a noble Lord who, governing another Presidency, has |