days' notice of the holding such election. | opportunity of consulting his Colleagues He believed that the Bill would be greatly improved by the introduction of these clauses. upon the subject. If his hon. and learned Friend would withdraw his instruction, the House might go into Committee on the Bill at once, and proceed to the consideration of its details without further delay. LORD HARRY VANE said, he was of opinion that, if the Bill passed, additional polling places in counties would be indispensably necessary. In the hope that the objectionable parts of the Bill would be rectified in Committee, he would not oppose it in its present stage. LORD JOHN RUSSELL said, that the principle of the Bill having been agreed to by the House, it was desirable that they should carry it into effect with as little delay as possible. With respect to the polling places, no doubt if the polling was confined to one day, it would not only be desirable but necessary to increase the number of those places, for he thought that a person going to vote at a county MR. BECKETT DENISON did not think that any hon. Gentleman would object to the substance of the hon. and learned Gentleman's proposition, as the feeling of the House was, that all these proceedings should be shortened as much as possible; but with respect to the period between the nomination and polling, he certainly thought that, if the polling should be limited to one day, it would not be unfair to allow more time than at present for preparation between the nomination and the poll. He had been informed by election agents that there would be no difficulty in taking the poll in one day, provided the number of polling places was increased. He thought, too, that as little trouble as possible should be given to the voters, and that the election should be taken to the electors instead of the elec-election ought not to travel further than a tors to the election. He would not at present refer further to the suggestion that the poll should be taken by voting papers; but as it was the disposition of the House to deal very stringently with treating and the expenditure of money during an election, it was quite clear that if the candidates were not allowed by Parliament to bring voters up to the poll, they would not be got up. There was only one point more, and that was, that in some districts it would be impossible to get the poll-books up in time to make the declaration of the poll on the day following the election, and he would therefore suggest that the declaration should be deferred until the day but one after the election. person who had to vote for a city or borough, and resided within seven miles of it; but that could be accomplished by the law as it at present stood. It was competent for Justices of the Peace to propose any increase in the number of polling places that they might think expedient, and the power of carrying out their recommendation was reserved to the Queen in Council. There was no reason to suppose that the magistrates would not be actuated by a desire to consult the convenience of the electors, by recommending the erection of additional polling places in such situations as they, judging from their local knowledge, might consider most advantageous. The hon. and learned GenMR. WALPOLE said, he had supported tleman (Mr. G. Butt) who moved the inthe Bill on its second reading, and intend-structions had raised a question as to the ed to support the Motion for going into time between the issuing of the writ and Committee upon it now; and if the noble the time of the election. He thought it Lord (Lord R. Grosvenor) confined it to would be better to propose that in a sepathe object he had just stated, he had no rate Bill; but he would ask whether, doubt that much time would be saved, and rather than abridging the time, it would the Bill speedily passed. As to the Mo- not be better to extend it. Suppose a tion of his hon. and learned Friend (Mr. Member of that House died, and the writ G. Butt), he would not say whether his were issued immediately, the constituents hon. and learned Friend's Amendments ought, in such a case, to have time to conwere desirable or not; but the House sider which candidate would be the best should consider whether it ought to enter-representative, and he thought three days tain an instruction to the Committee on a question of this kind, which instruction had been placed upon the Votes only the night before. For his part, he had not seen his hon. and learned Friend's notice until that morning, and he had had no would not be too much for that purpose. The question was one of importance, and perhaps the hon. and learned Gentleman would bring it forward in a separate form. MR. MÜLLINGS said, that in the course of twenty-five years' experience he had had the management of many county elections, and from that experience he could say that if the polling was confined to one day, and the polling places, consequently, were increased in number, the expense would be also greatly increased, inasmuch as there must be a large additional staff of persons engaged to conduct the proceedings. If, too, the polling were confined to one day, the halt, the lame, the maimed, and the blind would all be brought up the first day at a great expense, whereas now they were reserved for the second day, and not brought up unless they were really wanted. There was one thing, however, in the Bill that very much counterbalanced the disadvantage of the increased expense-that the polling being confined to one day would tend very much to prevent the occurrence of those dreadful scenes that had in many elections been the result of the first day's polling. MR. HUME said, he was surprised that difficulties should be interposed in the way of this measure. Let hon. Gentlemen look at the evidence taken before the Committee of 1836, and they would find what were the practices resorted to for the purpose of bringing up the halt, the lame, and the blind, after the polling had commenced. The whole pressure of an election was now over at 12 o'clock, and he thought that any measure would be a great improvement which would put a stop to the scenes of bribery and corruption which had heretofore disgraced our elections. MR. HENLEY said, that the county papers were generally only circulated once a week in the county, and the notice of nomination and of the election was often not published in the county paper for several days after it had been determined upon. Thus, three-fourths of the county by this means did not know what the other fourth was doing. In his opinion, therefore, more time ought to be extended, instead of having it diminished. MR. VERNON SMITH said, he believed that, by having more polling places, much expense would be saved to the voters, and that an end would be put to those practices which generally took place on the first night of the election. He, therefore, hoped that the noble Lord (Lord R. Grosvenor) would not risk that which was good in his measure by mixing it up with the question of voting. MR. G. BUTT said, that after what had taken place, he would beg to withdraw his instructions; but after the recess he would introduce a measure embodying the provisions to which he had adverted. MR. VINCENT SCULLY said, he considered the Bill of great importance, not only in regard to England but to Ireland also. He was, however, afraid that the machinery of it could not be beneficially applied to Ireland. By the system which was generally adopted at the elections in the sister country in administering the bribery oath, and two other oaths, for the purposes of delay, only from 100 to 200 votes could be conveniently polled in one day. This was a scandalous practice, and should be put a stop to. He knew a case in which only sixty persons were enabled to poll in the one day in consequence of the many difficulties which the existing law permitted the opposing parties to throw in the way. He was of opinion that a beneficial change would be effected in the law if those oaths were ordered to be taken before a magistrate, and not at the polling booth. MR. MONSELL said, he was anxious to see how the measure would work for England before the principles of it were made applicable to Ireland. CAPTAIN SCOBELL said, he knew that many of the disturbances which took place at contested elections, arose principally from the circumstances of the polling booth being errected on the premises of a publichouse. He would in Committee move a proviso to prevent the continuance of that practice. COLONEL SIBTHORP said, he had always entertained the same opinion upon this subject. He thought that the Reform Bill was intended to settle all questions of this kind, but it appeared that that was not so. The present measure was essentially a mean one. He must say he did not wish to see any change made in the law of elections. He was perfectly satisfied to represent the city which he had had the honour of representing for so many years, and he had the vanity to think that his constituency did not wish to see any change in their representation. The House was told that this measure would check bribery. Now, he had heard a great deal about bribery, He supposed it would be considered an act of bribery if a man held out his hand to discharge a mere Christian duty to his suffering fellow-creature. He had no reliance on the House of Commons, and therefore what he should do, would be to keep clear of the present proceeding. He relied on another place, which was not had any means of affording protection to so liable to be actuated by violent party the passengers on board the ships that carmotives as that House; and he hoped that ried Her Majesty's mails? Because, if as they had done on former occasions, they had not, the public ought to be they would again exercise that constitu- warned not to take passages in vessels tional care for the liberty of the subject which had a Government contract, for, in which the Upper House had ever displayed; such cases, they would obtain no redress and that they would throw out this Bill, for any grievance they might have to comwhich was a mean, dirty, shabby contri- plain of. vance to save money going out of their pockets. Hon. Gentlemen would no doubt go to the hustings, and tell their beer constituents that they wished them all to be happy, and that their pledges should not be broken, but upheld. All this time it was well known that their conduct was influenced by selfish motives. He would therefore take every opportunity to check these pretences, which he thought would reflect little credit upon the honour and character of that House. MR. DEEDES said, he had no objection to the principle of confining the taking of the poll to one day; but he thought it should be accompanied with other provisions of an important character that were necessary to remedy many evils of their present election law. He should like to see a much more extensive measure introduced than the present one. MR. GEORGE said, he quite concurred in the necessity of limiting the polling in the counties of Ireland, as well as elsewhere, to one day. MR, PACKE, said, he would not press his Amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Main Question put, and agreed to; Bill considered in Committee, and reported; as amended, to be considered on Friday. THE MELBOURNE" STEAMER. MR. DRUMMOND) moved for Copies of Reports received at the Admiralty from Commander Wolridge, of Her Majesty's ship Inflexible, relative to the Melbourne (late Her Majesty's screw steamer Greenock), now belonging to the Royal Australian Steamship Company, having put into Lisbon in a defective condition. He would beg to refer to the sufferings which had been endured by the passengers on board the Melbourne in consequence of the defective accommodation which had been provided for them. He wished to know whether the Admiralty had received any information respecting the amount of daniage that had been done to the mail-bags that were on board, and also whether they MR. STAFFORD said, that there could be no objection on the part of the Admiralty to granting the Returns which the hon. Member asked for; and he begged to take the opportunity of this Motion to say a few words, which, if they did not give the exact state of the case as regarded the Melbourne, would, at all events, be far nearer it than that which had appeared in the public papers-he meant at least as regarded the Admiralty. And the reason why the public could not possibly be in possession of the whole state of the case was this-that an inquiry had been ordered into the conduct of the captain on his return to this country, which, of course, had not yet taken place, though it was known that the Company had sent out Captain Henderson with orders to supersede Captain Cox, and to send out the vessel under the charge of the officer next in command, or to act otherwise in the matter as he should think best fitted for carrying on the voyage. The hon. Gentleman had asked if the Admiralty had received any account of the extent of the injury which had been done to the mails. The facts on that point would be found fully detailed in the papers which had just been moved for; but in the meantime he might state that the accounts which had appeared in the papers of the damage to the mails were very much exaggerated, and that the statement that the mails had been saturated in the brine of the Bay of Biscay was altogether erroneous. The state of the case with regard to the Admiralty and the Melbourne was this: the Melbourne was one of the four iron screw steamers which were ordered by the Admi ralty in 1845. This vessel, however, was not built till 1848, and was not finally launched till April, 1849. On trial it was found that she stood too deep in the water; and, to remedy this, her engines, which were 500-horse power, were taken out, and replaced by engines of 250-horse power. He had no wish to express a premature opinion of the conduct of the captain, but this at least he might be permitted to say, that though it was notorious that the Admiralty had found the engines too heavy, and had replaced them by lighter engines, the first thing the captain did was to take on board 160 tons of pig iron at Woolwich. The responsibility of this rested of course with the Company and the captain, and not with the Admiralty. The Admiralty could not be responsible for a ship that was altered subsequent to its sailing. In the contract between the Company and the Government it was expressly provided that an Admiralty surveyor should be permitted to survey the vessel before sailing, and that proper accommodation should be provided on board for the officer who had charge of the mails. With respect to accommodation for the passengers, that was left to be arranged between the Company and the passengers themselves. If the accommodation was good, passengers would be more likely to avail themselves of it; and if it was bad, the interests of the Company would suffer from the consequent loss of remuneration. All that the Admiralty were bound to look to was the security of the mails and the accommodation of the naval officer who was placed on board to watch over them. MR. DIVETT said, that from the time the Australian Royal Steam Company had commenced its operations till now, there had been a continual series of complaints against their management; and he thought that it was the duty of the Admiralty, who were paying the Company an immense sum for the conveyance of the mails, to take every precaution to secure the safe and rapid transit of the passengers. He hoped that the hon. Secretary of the Admiralty would take care that there should be a proper investigation in this case. MR. HUME wished to know whether any complaint had been made to the Admiralty respecting the conveyance of the mails, to the effect that the Company had not fulfilled their agreement with the Admiralty for that was the point to look to ? MR. A. DUNCOMBE, in reply, begged to state that no such complaint had been received by the Admiralty; and, in the absence of correct information, it would be injudicious in the House to prejudge the case. He had to request the hon. Member to add to his Motion the words " also copies of letters from Captain Phillimore, the Government agent on board the vessel." Motion agreed to. COMMERCIAL LEGISLATION. The MARQUESS of CLANRICARDE: My Lords, in reference to the conversation which took place the other evening, I wish to state shortly to your Lordships the course I now propose to take, in regard to a Resolution which I had intended to move, and which, I thought this House should adopt. I stated the other evening that nothing was so much in my mind as to obtain from your Lordships' House an unanimous Resolution, or one as nearly unanimous, as the great and important subject to which it referred would possibly admit of. I think there would have been the greatest possible advantage if the noble Earl opposite (the Earl of Derby) had thought it right to adopt the Resolutions which have been come to by the other House of Parliament. I think there would have been great advantage, great force, and great weight in the two Houses adopting a concurrent vote on this question. But I am free to say that I think there will still be great advantage in recording the opinion of this House to be unchanged-such as it was when it passed the measure of 1846, and such as it has been proved to be on different occasions since that time, when the commercial policy of the country has been discussed in this House. I think, I say, there will be a great advantage in a unanimous, or nearly a unanimous, vote on this subject, by which your Lordships may avoid all those personal and "That this House acknowledges with satisfaction that the cheapness of provisions, occasioned by recent legislation, has mainly contributed to the comfort of the industrious classes; and that improve the condition of the country and increase unrestricted competition having been adopted, after due deliberation, as the principle of our commercial system, this House is of opinion that it is wise and expedient unreservedly to adhere to that policy." recriminatory attacks to which unfortu- tainly think it my duty to take a stand nately the subject might lead, but which on the Resolutions passed by the House would tend to no public advantage. With of Commons. I shall not have foregone this view it was my hope, indeed, that the advantage which I think I shall have your Lordships would have adopted the had, of being supported by the high authoResolutions adopted by the House of rity which passed those Resolutions; nor Commons; and I was very much surprised should I have abandoned them except for when the noble Earl stated that he had the chance of obtaining that which I wish an objection to those Resolutions. I am so much-namely, a unanimous vote of not going to canvass the grounds of this House. I wish, however, that this that objection, such as they might be indi- matter should not be hostilely moved or cated from anything which fell from the discussed at all. I shall not oppose the noble Earl on that occasion, or such as I adoption of the form of words which the myself might suppose them to be. I am noble Earl thinks the most advisable. But not going to argue on the subject at all. it is only proper that I should read to your It has been my desire to find words which Lordships the Resolution which I myself should accord with the suggestion thrown have prepared, and which I think most fitout by the noble Earl as well as I could, ting under the circumstances. It is in in order to attain as nearly as I could the these words :main object I had in view-namely, the pronouncing of an opinion by this House, if not unanimous, yet agreed to by a large majority, although I might fail in obtaining a concurrent vote with that of the other House of Parliament. I therefore thought it right to take a Motion which was made, by way of Amendment, by the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the House of Commons, and upon that to frame a Resolution for your Lordships' consideration, which would be in substance and in meaning the same as the Amendment moved in the House of Commons, but which should contain some difference in language, which I thought, upon constitutional grounds, and upon other grounds, it might be advisable to make, without introducing any matter that might be deemed objectionable to your Lordships, especially to those by whom that Resolution must have been approved. I have conferred, however, with the noble Earl opposite; and, he approving rather of the words which he himself has prepared as the draft of a Resolution, I certainly shall not give this House the trouble of dividing, or entering into any violent or warm discussion, on the subject, provided the noble Earl, on reconsideration, thinks that the form of words, to which I see no strong objection, is calculated to convey the meaning which we all desire to express, in the least objectionable terms. I shall read the Resolution which I have prepared, and which I had intended to offer to your Lordships, provided it had been accepted. But this I think it right to say if I find myself driven to come to a contest in this House, and to a hostile controversy and division, I shall cer I confess I see nothing that any noble Lord on either side of the House ought to object to in such a Resolution as this. I only hope that the opinion of this House may be recorded in a satisfactory manner on this question. I do not wish to make any repetition of any of the hostile controversies we have had on the subject. All I thought it my duty to do was, in a constitutional point of view, to see that, at a time when Parliament was assembled to pronounce their opinion on a great question, the opinion of this House should be taken, as well as the opinion of the other House of Parliament. I thought it right in a constitutional point of view; and I only wished to submit such a Resolution to your Lordships as I could concur in without any dereliction of principle, and as noble Lords with whom I formerly differed in opinion on this question might concur in without any feeling of pain; and I shall be content that the opinion of this House shall be recorded in any language that fully recognises the policy on which the country has entered. The EARL of DERBY: My Lords, I must, in the first place, express the satisfaction which I have felt at the calm and temperate manner in which the noble Marquess has treated the question of which he had given me notice, that he intended to |