quired, and the changes which were taking | curred in the opinion that Parliament and place from day to day, it was impossible to the country had not paid too much for arrive at any estimate on which reliance witnessing an exhibition of feeling of could be placed; and he thought it far which any Englishman might be proud. better to give no estimate at all than one which might afterwards lead to disappointment. As far as his department was concerned, the heads of all the expenditure had, he believed, been collected, and hon. Members would have an opportunity of testing the accuracy of the accounts. Every person in his department had toiled most assiduously and honestly, not only, he believed, with the view of carrying out the arrangements effectively, but also with a desire that everything should be done as economically as was consistent with the solemnity of the occasion.

MR. HUME said, he wished to remind the Committee of a very good rule which had been hitherto observed, that when a Minister undertook expenditure, he always laid an estimate on the table, and assumed the responsibility; but when an estimate could not be supplied, no money was paid till an account was produced. Why not wait in the present instance till all the accounts were collected?

MR. S. CARTER again rose to address the House. He said he was entitled to a hearing, and he was determined to exercise his privilege. [Loud cries of "Divide, divide!"] They could not put him down by uproar-he was of a different kind of metal. The question before them was, whether they should vote away 80,0001. of the public money? The sum was greatly too much. And he complained of it as a breach of public faith. Hon. Gentlemen on that side of the House did not intend to give their sanction to the expenditure of an unlimited sum; but only that a sum should be expended bearing some relation to precedents of cases before the House. Now, he was making a serious charge, and he had a right to state his grounds for doing so. Really it was only by the grace and favour of Government that they were not voting more. The Government had had all they had asked for granted them almost without a word, and he was really much obliged to them for not asking 10,000 men and 160,0007. This Vote was five times that required for the funeral of the great Lord Nelson. He called that unjust, and a fraud upon the MR. HUME said, he commended the confidence of Members on that side of the hon. Member for Tavistock (Mr. S. Car-House. What was the good of precedents ter) as having, on a former occasion, if they were to multiply them by five? done his duty. He (Mr. Hume) considered It had been said that this was a Vote that the Committee were acting in the most disorderly manner. If the Government would not keep their followers in better order, and the Chairman could not obtain that order which was necessary to let the hon. Gentleman speak, business could not be proceeded with. He (Mr. Hume) should, therefore, propose that the Chairman should report progress, and ask leave to sit again.

MR. S. CARTER rose to address the Committee, but was received with loud cries of " Oh, oh!" from the Ministerial benches.

MR. HUDSON said, he regretted that the hon. Member for Montrose should have been the party who moved that progress be reported. It was his wish that this Vote should have been passed unanimously and without observation, expressing the conviction that, whatever the sum bestowed on the solemnity, it would not be grudged after the satisfaction which had been afforded to every Englishman who beheld the scene. The hon. Member for Montrose would have acted more in accordance with the universal feeling of the country had he agreed to pass the Vote, aud con

that could never occur again. That was as good as saying that they would never have a great man in future. Well, perhaps, that was true, and the people would be too wise to spend their money on the splendour of war. If, however, they should be unfortunate enough to have a great man again, or another great funeral, they would have Government multiplying this precedent by five, and asking for 400,000l.

COLONEL SIBTHORP said, he had one remark to make relative to the hon. Gentleman who had just sat down. He had heard little or nothing of what fell from him, but he did hear the word "metal" escape from him. Now, from the specimen they had had of the hon. Gentleman, he thought they were likely to find a great deal of "dross" in him. Sure he was that, whatever circulation might take place of the hon. Gentleman's metal, it would never be circulated through the United Kingdom. From all that he (Col.

Sibthorp) had witnessed, heard, and read, he did not believe there was a poor man or a poor woman in the country who would not willingly give their mite to testify their veneration for the memory of one of the greatest men who ever lived.

LORD DUDLEY STUART said, he wished to repeat the question he had previously put as to whether the estimate of 80,000%. included the expenses of the foreign officers of distinction?

MR. G. A. HAMILTON said, he believed that the sum in question would more than cover every possible expense of the funeral.

Vote agreed to.
House resumed.

TENANT COMPENSATION (IRELAND)
BILL.

Order for Second Reading read.
Motion made, and Question proposed,
"That the Bill be read a Second Time
upon Monday next."

VISCOUNT MONCK said, that he thought it was the interest of the landlords to give the tenants such an interest in the land as would induce them to invest their capital in it. [Cries of "Question!"]

An HON. MEMBER submitted that there was no question before the House.

MR. SPEAKER said, that the question before the House was, that the Bill be postponed till Monday.

MR. KEOGH said, he begged to ask the right hon. and learned Attorney General for Ireland what was the course he intended to pursue with respect to the several VISCOUNT MONCK said, he did not Bills he had introduced? He hoped an mean to offer any captious objection to opportunity would be given for discussing the Bill; but when he heard the right hon. them. With respect to two of the Bills, and learned Gentleman the Attorney Gehe considered them to be of the most ob-neral for Ireland describe the grievances jectionable nature. He begged to say, that one Bill for which the right hon. and learned Gentleman had taken the most credit to himself, was one which not fifty Members of that House could think of sanctioning-no, not a single line of it. [Laughter.] This might appear to be a strong observation, but he challenged the right hon. and learned Gentleman to disprove it. In fact, the provisions of the Bill were rank nonsense. Instead of postponing the Bills, he called upon the right hon. and learned Gentleman to bring them forward. He knew that the right hon. and learned Gentleman was anxious to postpone them, and that he had been negotiating to postpone them, but they were anxious to test the sincerity of the right hon. and learned Gentleman, and therefore they asked for an early opportunity to discuss them.

MR. NAPIER said, if the hon. and learned Gentleman really entertained the objection he now stated to the Bills before the House, he ought to have given notice of his intention to move that they should be read that day six months. He understood that to three of the Bills there could

that arise from the right of distress for rent, he was not prepared for the conclusion he had come to. He (Viscount Monck) was prepared to hear him say that having given great facilities to the landlord to recover his rent and possession of his land, he would abolish that incident to the feudal tenures, the right of distress for rent. He was very anxious that an early day should be fixed for the discussion of those Bills; and as Thursday was unoccupied by any other business, perhaps the right hon. and learned Gentleman would not object to fixing that day.

MR. JOHN SADLEIR said, he thought the right hon. and learned Gentleman could have no difficulty in perceiving that it was the intention of the Members for Ireland to give an honest opposition to these Bills. He (Mr. Sadleir) did not approve of their being sent to Ireland without previous discussion in the House of Commons; for that was alone the means of enabling the people of that country to understand them. He hoped, therefore, that Thursday next would be fixed for the Bills being brought forward.

SIR JOHN YOUNG said, he was in

he hoped the right hon. and learned Gentleman would give them an opportunity of doing so.

MR. WHITESIDE said, he wished to make some observations on the remarks of the hon. and learned Member for Athlone (Mr. Keogh), who had pronounced these Bills to be all nonsense.

MR. KEOGH said, he had pronounced thus unfavourably of only one of the measures, and with reference to which Bill he adhered to every word that he had said.

clined to approve generally of the Bills, with the exception of the proposition to continue the law of distress, which, after the statement of the right hon. and learned Gentleman, he thought should be abolished altogether. But he must say that he could not award equal praise to the ineasure regarding compensations for improvements. He represented a county in which Mr. Sharman Crawford's Bill was made the point of contest, and he had opposed that Bill; but on the other hand, he was prepared to say that the landlords of the county were prepared for greater concessions than were proposed by the right hon. and learned Gentleman. He thought the measure should be discussed at the earliest possible period, because the question connected with land was one of intense inter-mation, and leave the work of patient legisest in Ireland; and if there was one class in Ireland more than another whose interest it was to have a speedy arrangement of the question, that class was the landlord class. He trusted that the right hon. and learned Gentleman would not remit the Bills to a Select Committee, for if he did they would be lost.

The CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER said, he thought there was no chance, if the Bills were fixed for Thursday, that they could be got through on that day, and then the discussion on the Budget was appointed for Friday, which he did not think was likely to be terminated on that day. On Thursday, too, there was a subject of considerable importance, the Motion of the hon. Member for Westbury (Mr. J. Wilson), was appointed for discussion, which had an intimate relation to the financial statement of Friday last. With respect to the Bills themselves, he was confident that the more they were known, the more they would be appreciated. He did not think if they were brought forward on Thursday they could be fully discussed; therefore he would recommend his right hon. and learned Friend not to move any further with the Bills until after the

recess.

MR. GLADSTONE said, he had not heard why to-morrow should not be taken for the discussion. It was important that measures relating to Ireland should be approached by the House in a temperate and friendly spirit. Under all the circumstances, he thought these Bills should not be postponed till after the recess.

MR. G. H. MOORE said, he was quite prepared to meet the discussion of these Bills in a calm and temperate spirit, and

MR. WHITESIDE said, he was not at all surprised at the hon. and learned Gentleman adhering to a criticism of which he thought he ought to be proud. It was the privilege of genius to exhibit itself in decla

lation to inferior minds. The hon. and learned Member had spoken most severely of the measure, and the hon. Member for Carlow (Mr. Sadleir) said that the House of Commons is the place for the discussion of this question; but if he (Mr. Whiteside) was to believe the hon. Member, a public discussion and decision had taken place elsewhere. Hon. Members were prepared to come to a discussion after deciding the question in another place. They undertook to speak the sentiments of the people of Ireland; but he (Mr. Whiteside) was sure that it was of a portion only, for those hon. Members who sat around himself and his friends were the representatives of a large portion of the Irish people, and were in no way inferior to those opposite. In submitting this Bill to the consideration of the House, he felt conscious that it possessed many defects; but however defective it might be, either in matter or style, or however defective it might be for the amendment of those evils which existed, he felt sure that the justice and wisdom of the House would discuss it in calmness, and improve all the defects it contained.

MR. J. BALL said, he left to Her Majesty's Ministers the boast of discussing these Bills in calmness, but he thought the proof, so far as they had gone, was not shown. He hoped, however, that measures of so much importance would have all the calmness and moderation which the subject deserved. He desired to press most earnestly upon the mind of the right hon. and learned Attorney General for Ireland the great importance of these Bills. The subject was one upon which honest men might differ in opinion; but he thought a fair and temperate discussion would bring

them to be of one mind.

Ireland were waiting for the decision of that House. The Commission appointed seven years ago reported that the measures were of the utmost importance to tenants' improvements. They had waited all that time for something to be done, and a deep-rooted dissatisfaction existed in many parts of the country. The decision of the House, he hoped, would be speedily taken and prove satisfactory to the inhabitants of the sister island.

The CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER said, he could not secure the Bills coming on to-morrow, that not being a Government day; all they could do was to put them on the paper for that day, and take the change of being able to bring them on.

Motion, by leave, withdrawn.
Bill to be read 2° To-morrow.

NEWSPAPER STAMP DUTIES. The ATTORNEY GENERAL said, that, in moving for leave to bring in a Bill to amend the law relating to the Stamp Duties upon Newspapers, he would not detain the House at any length. By the 6 & 7 Will. 4, chap. 76, which was the Act imposing a duty on newspapers, a definition was given of what should be considered a newspaper within the meaning of the Act, and it was as follows:—

The

The people of object being to decide whether the publi-
cation was liable to stamp duty or not.
An argument took place in the Exche-
quer, and the result was, that three of the
four Judges were of opinion that the paper
was not liable to duty, but the fourth,
Mr. Baron Parke, was of opinion that it
was liable. The difference of the opinion
of the Judges turned entirely on the ques-
tion whether the definitions be (the At-
torney General had read, were separate
and distinct definitions, or whether the
third definition was a qualification of the
former. The three Judges thought it was
a qualification of the former; but Mr.
Baron Parke considered it a separate defi-
nition. The argument took place before
the present Government came into office,
and when he (the Attorney General) be-
came Attorney General he found the law
officers of the former Government were of
opinion that the decision of the Exchequer
was not satisfactory, and that it was ne-
cessary to take the opinion of a higher
Court of appeal. He certainly should have
agreed in the course taken by his prede-
cessors, and, finding their opinion so ex-
pressed, an appeal to the Court of Exche-
quer Chamber was determined on.
House would recollect that great anxiety
was manifested as to those proceedings in
the Exchequer, and the course that would
be adopted by the Government; and ques-
tions had been put to him with very great
courtesy by hon. Gentlemen on the other
side, and he had explained to them as well
as he could the state of the question.
However, his right hon. Friend the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer thought it was
right to adhere to the opinion expressed
by the majority of the Court of Exchequer,
and was extremely desirous, for the sake
of literature, and to prevent the litigation
likely to occur, that a measure should be
introduced that should support that opin-
ion. It was under these circumstances
that he asked leave now to introduce a
Bill to repeal that portion of the schedule
to which he had called attention, and upon
which the doubt rested, and give a sub-
stantive definition of a newspaper, which
would exclude from the operation of the
stamp duty the publication in question and
other publications of a like nature, con-
taining news, but not published at inter-
vals of less than twenty-six days. He
hoped hon. Gentlemen would not think it
necessary to avail themselves of the oppor-
tunity of the introduction of this Bill for
entering into any discussion of that very

"Any paper containing public news, intelligence, or occurrences printed in any part of the United Kingdom to be dispersed and made public; also any paper printed in any part of the United Kingdom weekly or oftener, or at intervals not exceeding twenty-six days, containing only or principally advertisements; and also any paper containing any public news, intelligence, or occurrences, or any remarks or observations thereon, printed in any part of the United Kingdom for sale, and published periodically, or in parts, or numbers, at intervals not exceeding twenty-six days between the publication of any two such papers, parts, or numbers, where any of the said papers, parts, or numbers respectively shall not exceed two sheets of the dimensions hereinafter specified (exclusive of any cover or blank leaf, or any other leaf upon which any advertisement or other notice shall be printed), or shall be published for sale for a less sum than 6d., exclusive of the duty by this Act imposed thereon." Now, a paper called the Household Narrative of Current Events had been published by Messrs. Bradbury and Evans, and it was the opinion of the Stamp Office that that paper, although published at intervals of more than twenty-six days, was liable to stamp duty, and, accordingly, an information was filed against the publishers to recover the penalties incurred, the