Friday dependent on the honouring of bills | The House of Commons is called upon toof exchange in London on Thursday, might night to perform a sorrowful but a noble be subjected to great inconvenience, MR. WALPOLE said, in reference to what had fallen from the hon. Member for Guildford (Mr. Mangles), as to the propriety of extending the operation of the Bill beyond London; that he had considered that point a great deal, and it seemed to him that as the inconvenience to be provided against namely, the obstruction to business likely to be caused from a dense mass of people, would not extend beyond the metropolis, it was useless to make the measure applicable to the whole country. As to the general question mooted by the hon. Member for Kendal (Mr. Glyn), it was well worthy of consideration whether it would not be expedient to introduce a general Bill repealing former Acts, and giving the Crown power, by proclamation, to place days devoted to any peculiar solemnity on the same footing-as regarded bills of exchangeas Sundays, Fast days, and Thanksgiving days. MR. J. L. RICARDO said, that as the Bill provided that a bill of exchange paid before two o'clock on Friday should be subject to no notarial charges, it might be assumed that it would be duly honoured if paid under those circumstances. duty. It has to recognise, in the face of the country and of the civilised world, the loss of the most distinguished of our citizens; and it has to offer to the ashes of the great departed the solemn anguish of a bereaved nation. Sir, the princely personage who has left us was born in an age more fruitful of great events than any other period of recorded time. Of its vast incidents, the most conspicuous were his own deeds-deeds achieved with the smallest means and against the greatest obstacles. He was, therefore, not only a great man, but the greatest man of a great age. Amid the chaos and conflagration which attended the close of the last century there arose one of those beings who seem to be born to master mankind. It is not too much to say that Napoleon combined the imperial ardour of Alexander with the strategy of Hannibal. The kings of the earth fell before his fiery and subtle genius, and at the head of all the Powers of Europe, he denounced destruction agaiust the only land that dared to disobey him and be free. The Providential superintendence of the world seems scarcely ever more manifest than when we recollect the dispensations of our day-that the same year which gave to France the Emperor Napoleon, produced also for us the Duke of Wellington; that in the same year they should have em MR. WALPOLE said, that the Bill would make bills of exchange due on the 18th presentable and payable on the day before, in the same way as if the 18th wore a Sunday; but, inasmuch as the pre-braced the same profession; and that, nasenting of bills on the 17th might subject payers to certain notarial charges, it was provided that in the event of their meeting their liabilities by two o'clock on the following Friday those notarial charges should not be enforced. An HON. MEMBER asked whether it would not be better to make all bills due on the 18th payable on the day after the funeral? MR. WALPOLE, in reply, said, that the point had been fully considered. All the commercial authorities whom he had consulted strongly recommended that there should be no departure from commercial usages. Bill read 3o, and passed. FUNERAL OF THE DUKE OF WELLING TON-THE QUEEN'S MESSAGE. The Queen's Message considered. The CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER rose and said: Mr. Speaker, Sir, tives of distant islands, they should both have repaired for their military education to that illustrious land which each in his turn was destined to subjugate. During that long struggle for our freedom, our glory-I might say for our existenceWellesley fought and won fifteen pitched battles-all of them of the highest class— concluding with one of those crowning victories that give a colour and a form to history. During that period that can be said of him which can be said of no other captain-that he captured three thousand cannon from the enemy, and never lost a single gun. But the greatness of his exploits was, perhaps, even surpassed by the difficulties which he had to encounter. For he had to encounter a feeble Government, a factious Opposition, a distrustful people, scandalous allies, and the most powerful enemy in the world. He won victories with starving troops, and he carried on sieges without munitions. And as if to complete the fa this with genius is sublime. Doubtless, to be able to think with vigour, with clearness, and with depth in the recess of the cabinet, is a fine intellectual demonstration; but to think with equal vigour, clearness, and depth amidst bullets, appears the loftiest exercise and the most complete triumph of the human faculties. tality which attended him throughout life | our lives we see ordinary men who may be in this respect, when he had at last suc- successful Ministers of State, successful auceeded in creating an army worthy of the thors, successful speakers-But to do all Roman legions and worthy of himself, this invincible host was broken up on the eve of the greatest conjuncture of his life, and he had to enter the field of Waterloo with raw levies and discomfited allies. But the star of Wellington never paled. He has been called fortunate, but fortune is a divinity which has ever favoured those who are at the same time sagacious and intrepid, Sir, when we take into consideration the inventive aud patient. It was his own prolonged and illustrious life of the Duke character that created his career-alike of Wellington, we are surprised how small achieved his exploits, and guarded him a section of that life is occupied by that from every vicissitude; for it was his sub-military career which fills so large a space lime self-control alone that regulated his in history. Only eight years elapsed from lofty fate. Vimiera to Waterloo; and from the date Sir, it has been of late years somewhat of his first commission to the last cannonthe fashion to disparage the military cha-shot which he heard on the field of battle, racter. Forty years of peace have, per- scarce twenty years can be counted. After haps, made us somewhat less aware how all his triumphs he was destined for anconsiderable and how complex are the other career; and the greatest and most qualities which go to the formation of a successful of warriors-if not in the prime, great general. It is not enough that he at least in the perfection of manhood— must be an engineer, a geographer, learned commenced a civil career scarcely less sucin human nature, and adroit in managing cessful, scarcely less splendid, than that men-he must also be able to fulfil the military one which will live for ever in the highest duty of a Minister of State, and memory of men. He was thrice the Amthen to descend to the humblest office of a bassador of his Sovereign at those great commissary and clerk; and he has to dis-historic Congresses that settled the affairs play all this knowledge, and to exercise of Europe; twice was he Secretary of all these duties, at the same time, and State; twice he was Commander-in-Chief under extraordinary circumstances. At every moment he has to think of the eve and of the morrow--of his flank and of his rear. He has to carry with him ammunition, provisions, and hospitals. He has to calculate at the same time the state of the weather and the moral qualities of man; and all these elements that are perpetually changing he has to combine, sometimes under overwhelming heat, and sometimes under overpowering cold-sometimes even amid famine, and often amid the roar of artillery. Behind all these circumstances, too, there is ever present the image of his country, and the dreadful alternative whether that country is to welcome him with laurel or with cypress. Yet this image he must dismiss from his mind; for the general must think-and not only think he must think with the rapidity of lightning, for on a moment more or less depends the fate of a most beautiful combination, and on a moment more or less depends the question of glory or of shame. Unquestionably, Sir, all this might be done in an ordinary manner, and by an ordinary man, as every day of of the Forces; once he was Prime Minister of England; and to the last hour of his life he may be said to have laboured for his country. It was only a few months before we lost him that he favoured with his counsel and assistance the present advisers of the Crown respecting that war in the East of which no one could be so competent to judge, and he drew up his views on that subject in a state paper characterised by all his sagacity and experience; and, indeed, when he died he died still the active chieftain of that famous Army to which he has left the tradition of his glory. Sir, there is one passage in the life of the Duke of Wellington which in this place, and on this occasion, I ought not to let pass unnoticed. It is our pride that he was one of ourselves-it is our glory that Sir Arthur Wellesley once sat on these benches. If we view his career in the House of Commons by the tests of success which are applied to common men, his career, although brief, was still distinguished. He entered the Royal Councils and filled high offices of State. But the success of Sir Arthur Wellesley in the House of Commons must not be tested by the fact that he was a Privy Councillor or a Secretary of a Lord Lieutenant. He achieved here a success which the greatest Ministers and the most brilliant orators may never hope to accomplish. That was a great Parliamentary triumph when he rose in his place to receive the thanks of Mr. Speaker for a brilliant victory; and, later still, when at that bar to receive, Sir, from one of your predecessors in memorable words the thanks of a grateful Senate for accumulated triumphs. Sir, there is one source of consolation which I think the people of England possess at this moment under the severe bereavement over which they mourn-It is their intimate acquaintance with the cha racter, and even the person of this great man. There never was a man of such mark who lived so long and so much in the public eye. I will be bound there is not a Gentleman in this House who has not seen him; many there are who have conversed with him; some there are who have touched his hand. His image, his countenance, his manner, his voice are impressed on every memory and sound almost in every ear. In the golden saloon and in the busy market place to the last he might be found. The rising generation among whom he lived will often recall his words of kindness; and the people followed him in the street with that lingering gaze of reverent admiration which seemed never to tire. Who, indeed, can ever forget that venerable and classic head, ripe with time and radiant as it were with glory? "Stilichonis apex et cognita fulsit Canities." To complete all, that we might have a perfect idea of his inward and spiritual nature -that we might understand how this sovereign master of duty fulfilled the manifold offices of his life with unrivalled activity, he himself gave us a collection of military and administrative literature which no age and no country can rival. And, fortunate in all things, Wellington found in his lifetime an historian whose immortal page now ranks with the classics of that land which Wellesley saved. Sir, the Duke of Wellington has left to his country a great legacy-greater even than his fame; he has left to them the contemplation of his character. I will not say of England that he has revived here the sense of duty-that, I trust, was never lost. But that he has inspired public life with a purer and more masculine tone, I cannot doubt; that he has rebuked by his career restless vanity, and regulated the morbid susceptibility of irregular egotism, is, I think, no exaggerated praise. I do not believe that among all orders of Englishmen, from the highest to the lowest, from those who are called on to incur the most serious responsibilities of office, to those who exercise the humblest duties of our society-I do not believe there is one among us who may not experience moments of doubt and depression, when the image of Wellington will occur to his memory, and he finds in his example support and solace. Although the Duke of Wellington lived so much in the minds and hearts of the people of England-although at the end of his long career he occupied such a prominent position, and filled such august offices, no one seemed to be conscious of what a space he occupied in the thoughts and feelings of his countrymen until he died. The influence of true greatness was never, perhaps, more completely asserted than in his decease. In an age in which the belief in intellectual equality flatters so much our self-complacency, every one suddenly acknowledges that the world has lost its foremost man. In an age of utility, the most busy and the most common-sense people in the world find no vent for their woe, and no representative for their sorrow, but the solemnity of a pageant; and wewho are assembled here for purposes so different-to investigate the sources of the wealth of nations, to busy ourselves in statistical research, to encounter each other in fiscal controversy-we offer to the world the most sublime and touching spectacle that human circumstances can well produce-the spectacle of a Senate mourning a Hero. Sir, I beg leave to move a Resolution "That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, humbly to thank Her Majesty for having given directions for a public interment of the mortal remains of his Grace the Duke of Wellington, in the cathedral church of St. Paul, and to assure Her Majesty of our cordial aid and concurrence in giving to the ceremony a fitting degree of solemnity and importance." the authorities and the agency by which MR. HERRIES, in moving for the reappointment of the Select Committee on Indian Territories, said, he would remind the House that a Select Committee was appointed early in the last Session of Parliament upon this important subject. The Government had lost no time in nominating that Committee, in consideration of the near approach of the time when it would be indispensably necessary that some conclusion should be arrived at with regard to the future government of India. He did not anticipate that any objection would be raised to the reappointment of the Committee on the present occasion-for though, in point of form, a new Parliament being now returned, the Motion must be for the appointment of a Committee, yet the Mo-vernment of that country should continue tion would be practically for the reappointment of the Committee which sat in the late Parliament. That Committee had prosecuted its inquiries with continuous application, and with great success. If hon. Gentlemen would take the trouble of looking into the very voluminous report of the evidence taken by that Committee, they would find that it contained a mass of the most useful and valuable information, both oral and written. The inquiry was arranged under six principal heads; and the first of these, and by far the most important-namely, that which concerned to be conducted upon the principles of the Act which was now in force-that of the year 1833-or whether any other system should be adopted. He had adverted to this point, because it was necessary to remind the House that the period within which legislation must take place was now comparatively narrowed. In the year 1854 the Act for the better government of Her Majesty's Indian Territories would cease and determine, unless in the meanwhile it should be the pleasure of Parliament to renew it. It was obvious, therefore, that in the course of the present Session-and Motion agreed to. Select Committee appointed "To inquire into the operation of the Act 3 & 4 Will. IV., c. 85, for effecting an arrangement with the East India Company, and for the better government of Her Majesty's India Territories till the 30th day of April, 1854." MIDNIGHT LEGISLATION. he called the present Session the sitting right hon. Gentleman; but there were inwhich would be extended through part of terests in connexion with India which renext year—it would be indispensable that quired very considerable attention at the some Act should be passed providing for present time, for since 1833, when the the government of India; and it was for last Act on the subject had been passed, this reason that he moved thus early for the aspect of Indian affairs had completely the appointment of a Committee. He changed. He trusted that one or two could not avoid pointing out to the House Scotch Members might be added to the the fact, that in the course of the late Committee. general election they had unfortunately lost some important Members of the Committee, as it stood in the last Session of Parliament; it would be necessary, therefore, that he should do something more on the present occasion than merely nominate the Committee as it existed last Session; and that he should propose some additional names to the Members of that Committee. The total number of the Members of the Committee last year had been fixed at MR. BROTHERTON rose to move a thirty-one; and it was so well attended that Resolution to the effect- "That in the he was sure the House would agree with present Session of Parliament no business him in thinking that that number was shall be proceeded with in that House after quite sufficient to be assembled for the pur-midnight; and that at Twelve o'clock at pose; for they were aware that there were night precisely, Mr. Speaker do adjourn some subjects which did not attract so full the House without putting any question." an attendance as others. He thought, He looked upon his Motion as one of conthen, that a greater number than thirty-siderable importance, and when it was conone was not desirable on the Committee, sidered that every Legislature in Europe and that was the number which he in- and America conducted their business in tended to propose. Of these, only twentysix who had served on the last Committee would be available for the present; and he should, therefore, besides moving the appointment of the Committee, also move that the following five Gentlemen be Members, in the room of the five Gentlemen who were not available-namely, Mr. Macaulay, Mr. E. Ellice, Lord Stanley, Mr. Robert Clive, and Lord Palmerston. the daytime, he thought it most preposterous that the British Legislature should not be content to close its proceedings by Twelve o'clock at night. He trusted he should have the support of the Government on the present occasion, as also the support of the Members of the legal profession, who, when they were obliged to sit late in that House, must find it impossible to attend to their avocations the next morning. As MR. HUME seconded the Motion. He matters now stood, the officers and clerks regretted that the East India Company had of the House were sometimes obliged to renot shown any intention to bring before main at their posts for fifteen or sixteen the Committee the testimony of educated hours, and the persons who were connected and intelligent native chiefs and gentlemen with the Administration could not pay that as to the feelings and sympathies, the full attention to their business which they wants and desires, of the natives with re- might do if the House would only close its spect to the government of the Company. proceedings at a reasonable hour. It might However, he trusted advantage would be be objected that inconvenience would arise taken of the exertions of native societies from adjourning the House always at a which had been formed at Bombay and fixed hour, as in such case some hon. MemBengal to collect information on this sub-bers might occasionally speak against time; ject, and that the persons who would be sent over to this country by these societies would be examined before the Committee. but on Wednesdays they terminated the sitting at a fixed hour, and that inconvenience had not practically been felt. MR. J. MACGREGOR thought that a And even if there should be inconvenience little more time should have been allowed now and then, it would be a less evil than before appointing a Committee of this im-wasting time by debating for two or three portance. Of course there could be no hours after midnight whether the debate objection to the names proposed by the should be adjourned or not. It might be |