regard to a Question put by the noble EARL GRANVILLE reminded the Duke (the Duke of Somerset) he was noble and learned Lord that a few weeks

a able to state that the 25-ton guns in- ago he declined to reply to a Question tended for the Monarch and Captain had which had been put to him, on the been proved with charges of 83} lbs. of ground that, having already spoken, he gunpowder, of which two rounds were was precluded by the rules of the House fired, the weight of the projectiles each from doing so. Such being the practice time being 580 pounds.

of the House—though their Lordships The noble Lord then laid on the table were always willing to grant leave for a Correspondence respecting New Designs personal explanation he was surprised for Armour-clad Ships. (No. 52.) that the noble and learned Lord should

now have risen a second time.

LORD CAIRNS said, that having had SALMON FISHERIES (IRELAND) BILL. a much shorter experience in their Lord(The Lord Dufferin.)

ships' House than the noble Earl, he was (No. 43.) SECOND READING. always glad to receive a lesson from him LORD PUFFERIN, in moving that on the point of Order. On this occasion, the Bill be now read the second time, however, he thought the lesson was not said, its object was to enable the Lord required, for he apprehended it was Lieutenant to appoint two Inspectors. allowable, if a Question which had been The late Government made such appoint- put to a Member of the Government had ments; but as the powers of the existing call attention to the fact, and this was

not been distinctly answered, to rise and Commissioners did not expire till the 1st

all that he had done. of August next, and as the Fisheries (Ireland) Act provided that they were at

EARL GRANVILLE said, he did not that date to be replaced by Inspectors, quite see the distinction drawn by the the Government had been advised that noble and learned Lord between the two the appointments were invalid.

cases, but did not wish, after his explaLORD CAIRNS said, he understood nation, to insist on the point. that legal opinions differed as to the va

LORD REDESDALE asked whether lidity of the appointments. He wished the Inspectors had exercised any functo know whether the gentlemen ap

tions which would require confirmation ? pointed were to be reinstated, or whe- their proceedings had been merely mi

LORD DUFFERIN said, he believed ther it was intended to supersede them. THE MARQUESS OF CLANRICARDE

nisterial. said, that he had presented a Petition

LORD CHELMSFORD repeated the signed by the principal fishfactors and question put by his noble and learned fishmongers of Dublin, complaining that Friend, whether the existing appointunder the existing law salmon was higher ments would be confirmed or superin price and more scarce than it had been

seded ? heretofore. He thought that the Go

LORD DUFFERIN thought his former vernment ought to institute an inquiry reply would have been a sufficient intiinto the subject. It appeared to him mation that the decision on that point that salmon was a fish that ought to be remained at the discretion of the Governmade, if possible, accessible to all classes.

ment. He should certainly submit an Amend- Bill read 24, and committed to a Comment when the Bill went into Committee. mittee of the Whole House on Thursday

LORD DUFFERIN said, that when next. the noble Marquess was prepared to submit his Amendment the Government would give it every consideration. In FINE ARTS COPYRIGHT CONSOLIDATION AND reply to the noble Marquess he had to

AMENDMENT (NO. 2) BILL (H...] state that the question of the re-appoint

A Bill for consolidating and amending the Law ment or otherwise of the Inspectors was sented by The Lord WESTBURY; read 16. (No.81.)

of Copyright in Works of Fine Art-Was preone for the Government to determine.

LORD CAIRNS remarked, that the noble Lord had not answered his Ques.

BEVERLEY ELECTION. tion-namely, whether the Government

Message from the Commons that they have intended to affirm the appointments al-agreed to an address to be presented to lier Ma

jesty, to which they desire the concurrence of ready made or to promote other persons? | their Lordships.

landed and sent to London by the regular Mail, arrived at Plymouth so late that the letters had to be sent by special train; and, whether the weather was not most favourable for her to accomplish the distance in the shortest possible time?

THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTON, in reply, said, that the mails arrived in time to be sent on by the ordinary train; but in consequence of some delay in the landing they had to be sent a considerable part of the distance by special train. Inquiries had been made on the subject, and he believed arrangements had been made by which, when mails arrived near the time of the departure of the ordinary train, they would be landed immediately, so that no such occurrence should again take place. He believed the weather had been most favourable, and that the Tasmania had accomplished the distance in the shortest possible time.

"The Reports of Secretaries of Legation and of Consuls are now published monthly, as received the information therein contained at the disposal at the Foreign Office, the object being to place of the commercial classes, with as little delay as possible. Originally, these Reports were only published whilst Parliament was sitting, and they could be formally presented to the House; but it poned till too late to be of service. With the inwas found that much information was thus posttention also of giving the earliest circulation, the Foreign Office supplies copies every month to the Chambers of Commerce."

With regard to the Board of Trade, my advantageous to produce a Report peown opinion is, it would not be very riodically of the proceedings of that Devast variety of subjects and go through partment, because they extend over a numerous and almost numberless details. I have considered the matter myself, and the balance of my opinion goes in this way, that it would not be desirable for the Board of Trade to make any such general and comprehensive Report as that hinted at in the Question of my hon. Friend.

ST. JAMES AND ST. PAUL'S, LAN-
CASHIRE.-QUESTION.

MR. R. SHAW said, he would beg to ask the hon. Member for North Devon, Whether the ecclesiastical districts of the vicarages of St. James and St. Paul's respectively, within the ancient parochial

TRADE RETURNS.-QUESTION. MR. POCHIN said, he wished to ask the President of the Board of Trade, Whether it is not desirable that Annual Reports should be rendered by the Master of the Mint, and by the Marine, Commercial, Foreign, and Statistical Departments of the Board of Trade, the same in character as the present Annual Reports rendered by the Board of Cus-chapelry of Burnley, in the county of toms and Board of Inland Revenue; and, if it would not be a measure of economy and convenience to discontinue the present separate publications of the Reports on Foreign Trade from Consuls Abroad and Secretaries of Legation, and issue quarterly, in a collected and arranged form, all Reports received during the previous three months? He was aware that it was no part of the duty of the Board of Trade to issue these Reports.

MR. BRIGHT: Mr. Speaker, my hon. Friend in his Question has said what is very true-namely, that it is no portion of the duty of the Board of Trade to issue these Reports; but I am happy to be able to inform him that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has given orders that a Report with respect to the Mint should be prepared, and therefore as far as that part of the Question is concerned it is answered. With regard to the Foreign Department, I have a note from the Foreign Office, which I will read for the benefit of the House

Lancaster, have within their limits the requisite population to entitle the vicars thereof to the augmentation of their endowments to the sum of £300 a year out of the funds vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners; and, if so, what are the reasons for withholding from the said vicars the augmentation to which they are entitled by the rules and practice of the said Commissioners?

MR. ACLAND replied that parishes possessing the population of those two districts would, under ordinary circumstances, receive the augmentation, but the Commissioners did not recognize the principle that population alone, without consideration of other circumstances, entitled a district to receive it. These two districts were formed about twenty years ago out of a larger district (Burnley), which was now a rectory, and were endowed by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners with an income of £150 a year, the patronage being vested in the Crown and the Bishop of the diocese alternately. On

at Swatow, by Chinese soldiers, in which eleven seamen were wounded; and, further, whether the acting Consul at Swatow reported the operations of Her Majesty's gunboat "Bustard," Lieutenant Johnston, in conjunction with and at the request of the Taotae of Swatow against the insurgent town of Choo-chi?

an application being made to augment the | Taiwan-foo, and for the recent attack endowments to £300, the attention of the upon the boats' crews of Her Majesty's Commissioners was drawn to the fact that gunboat "Cockchafer," Lieutenant Kerr, the mother church, in the rectory of Burnley, was very largely endowed-to an amount, indeed, of £3,000 and upwards, as he had heard stated. The Commissioners were prepared to augment the endowments of the two districts up to £300 a year, immediately, and to continue the augmentation during the incumbency of the present rector of Burnley; but they proposed on the next vacancy of the office of rector of the mother church-the patron being a private gentleman-that the augmentation should be a charge on the revenues of the mother church, and that the patronage should be transferred to the patron of the rectory. The patron, however, refused to entertain the proposition. On the 3rd of March, the Commissioners recorded in a Minute the principle which guided them in these cases, which was to the effect that, as the funds at the dis-extend the commercial interests of this posal of the Commissioners for relieving spiritual destitution were limited, they could not be, with a due regard to the wants of the country, applied in providing an augmentation of endowments in districts where there were large local revenues available. These were the grounds on which grants had not been made to the two mentioned districts.

MR. OTWAY: Sir, it is unquestionably true that in China, lately, some occurrences have taken place that are much to be regretted, which have resulted in the wounding of several men in Her Majesty's service and in a large loss of life to the Chinese. But these proceeding, so far from being the result of our policy in China, have been, in consequence of action, taken in opposition to that policy. Our policy in China is to establish and maintain friendly relations with its Government and people and to

country with the Chinese Empire. We maintain at Pekin a Legation for that purpose, and it is the duty of Her Majesty's Minister there, in case of damage done to British subjects, to represent that damage to the Chinese Central Government and to obtain from it redress. Sir Rutherford Alcock has, on all occasions on which such damage has been made known to him, made the necessary

CHINA-HOSTILITY TO FOREIGNERS. representations to the Central Govern

QUESTION.

COLONEL SYKES said, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, with reference to the following extract from the "China Mail," quoted by Mr. Horatio Nelson Lay, exSuperintendent of Maritime Customs in China, in a letter to the London "Times," 2nd December 1868:

"The result of our present policy in China is that on every side we hear of hostility against foreigners, at Wuchang Kiu-Kiang, Formosa, Chefoo, Chin-Kiang, and Yangchowa. From every part of China we hear complaints of the Chinese authorities resisting the clearest and most unquestionable claims.”

Whether the Diplomatic and Consular Agents, who directed the solution of these cases, have reported officially or otherwise to the Foreign Office, and whether the Reports, if any, can be laid upon the Table. What redress was obtained for the attempted assassination of Mr. Hardie and Mr. Pickering at VOL. CXCV. [THIRD SERIES.]

ment, and has obtained from it either redress or the immediate promise of it. But if Her Majesty's officers — consular or others- take upon themselves to use Her Majesty's forces to obtain that redress which they conceive to be due upon a question of commercial law or other matters in dispute, such conduct will not be approved of by the Government. Now, without referring to the various questions to which the hon. and gallant Gentleman has drawn attention-for this is not the time, as we are about to lay all the Papers before the House, and it will then be in his power to make any comments he likes on the proceedings-without referring to these various matters in detail, I will say that although the proceedings to which he refers have been, as far as the naval and military operations were concerned, conducted with great skill and gallantry by the officers employed, they were not such as could possibly meet

U

with the approval of the Government, MR. MONSELL, in reply, said, he looking to the instructions given specially had to inform the hon. Gentleman that to the consular officers in China; and there were at present two Commissioners in one case the consular officer at For- of Emigration, Mr. Murdoch and Mr. mosa so far departed from the spirit of Walcott, an assistant-secretary, seven the instructions he received, that it has clerks, and twenty - three emigration been thought right by the Government officers in various ports of the United to remove him from the post he occupied. Kingdom. The salaries of the CommisIt may be satisfactory to my hon. and sioners and clerks amounted to somegallant Friend to know—notwithstand where about £8,000, of which £1,300 ing the very lugubrious opinion he has was paid out of the colonial funds. The expressed in his Questions—that we have salaries of the emigration officers and received a telegram from Sir Rutherford assistants amounted to £3,912, so that Alcock, conveying a very different im- the total annual expenses were £11,595. pression. It runs thus

£9,829 came out of the Parliamentary “ March 30, 1869. At Yangchowa, Formosa, Vote for Emigration, and £1,766 out of Swatow, entire sincerity and improved position. funds supplied by the colonies to which At all the ports accounts received of the restora- emigrants were despatched. There was tion of order and peace. Lord Clarendon's

in- a fund arising from deposits of intending structions of the 13th of December have been communicated to Prince Kung, and the consuls, emigrants who had afterwards altered and the admiral. The best understanding exists their intention. Its amount was £9,652 with everybody at Pekin. There is no more cause in Consols, besides £1,000 in Exchequer for anxiety on any point. Our relations have never Bills. The duties at present discharged been more satisfactory."

by the Commissioners were to carry out With regard to the last Question, I can the provisions of the Passengers Act only say that my hon. and gallant Friend with regard to emigration from this appears to receive earlier information

country, to select and despatch certain from China than we do. The Govern- bodies of emigrants to Victoria and ment have received no information of any Western Australia ; to superintend the such occurrence as that to which the hon. emigration from India and China, and and gallant Gentleman refers. All the also the return of emigrants to Asia from Papers on the subject shall be laid on the the different colonies, and to decide all table.

questions regarding colonial Crown lands,

leases, or grants. In 1868 the CommisTHE EMIGRATION COMMISSION.

sioners received 20,000 letters, and the QUESTION.

number received during the present year MR. HARDCASTLE said, he wished up to this time was 6,306. The emigrato ask the Under Secretary of State for tion to the Australian colonies, excepting the Colonies, The present number of Her Victoria and Western Australia, was at Majesty's Commissioners for Emigration, present inconsiderable. The colonies of and their names, and also the number of Queensland and New Zealand had inclerks and assistants employed by the dependent emigration agents of their Commission; the amount of the salaries own, as also the colony of South Ausof such Commissioners and their clerks tralia, but the superintendence of emior assistants; the total annual expenses gration to South Australia was in the of the Commission, and to what pur- hands of the Commissioners. They were poses the expenses are devoted; out of at present engaged in sending out the what fund such expenses are paid, and discharged artizans from the dockyards. whether there is a fund consisting of It was under the consideration of Gomonies retained from deposits of intend- vernment whether the Commission should ing emigrants who have afterwards be continued. There was no doubt, from altered their intentions, and, if any, the what he had already stated, that the amount of it; what duties are at present duties had very much decreased, but the performed by the Commissioners; whe- difficulty with respect to the abolition of ther Colonial Emigration is not now the office was that, on account of the almost entirely managed by agents of large pensions that would have to be the Colonies, acting independently of the paid, there would be very little saving Commissioners; and, whether the Go to the public, who would likewise lose vernment proposes to continue the Com- the advantage of the services of two mission in its present form ?