GENERAL SUMMARY.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XII, Issue 513, 30 September 1867, Page 1

GENERAL SUMMARY.

(From the Home News, 20th July.)

Jacta est alea. The Reform Bill has passed the Commons, and has been read a second time by the Lords, without a division. The committee is fixed for Monday, but it is not expected that any amendment of importance will be submit-j ted, and it will certainly not be admitted. The Bill will have become an Act in less than a fortnight.

The details of the debates subsequent to the despatch of the last mail may be very briefly told. No atteration of principle, if the bill can be said to have a principle, was made. There was an attempt to throw the legiimate expenses of elections on the county rate, so as to enable a man to become a candidate, although he were not the possessor of large pecuniary means. But this was just the kind of proposition calculated to be distasteful to the present House of Commons, which is remarkable for its “ excessive solvency,” and though I supported by Mr Mill and Mr Gladstone, the amendment was defeated by a very large majority. An attempt to substitute declarations for oaths was equally unfortunate, but wo are not sure that this was equally to be regretted, for it is notorious that the terrors of the oath have weight! with a very large number of the lowcrj orders, who have not the slightest belief io any other obligation to speak the truth. I'he only struggle of interest was in connection with the compulsory demand for the rates. Originally, the committee had thought this very desirable, but the' opinions shifted a good deal, and Govern* I ment thought it had a chance of evading! an implied undertaking to carry a clause] whhfli should bind the overseer to give! notice of unpaid rates. By a bit of man-i agcment—another name was given to it| by the aggrieved—such a clause, though! introduced by the Ministers, was defeated! by a small majority. But Mr Gladstone was “imperious” (the word has been freely used by his political adversaries), and charged the Government with breach of faith. It will complete the story to say that such a provision was re-introduced, and that Mr Disraeli assented to it, and much stress is laid upon this clause, as it certainly will prevent a large number of electors from being defranchised by their own neglect, or by any cleverness on the part of an overseer. Various proposals were made by independent members, but they mostly fell to the ground. All hired canvassers were deprived of rotes. Additional members were given to Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, and Leeds, but it was done by taking away as many members from places which it hud been proposed to enfranchise. Sheffield and Bristol were refused new members. Candidates were forbidden to pay the travelling expenses of borough voters. An attempt to preveut committees from sitting in public-houses was rejected, as was an endeavor to close all puolichouses on election days. An interesting debate on the cumulative vote ended in the defeat of that scheme by 314 to 173, at which time Lord Cranborne announced that the Monarchy was dead, that Aristocracy was sentenced to death, and that Democracy was to be the one ruler, and Mr Disraeli denied and ridiculed all three propositions. Then there were two enactments, or rather there was an enactment and a refusal to enact, which have made the scoffers very merry. The committee decided that no policemen should be allowed to vote. It refused to strike off the register the name of any one who had been convicted of felony. Thus we give a vote to the felon, and we take it away from the policeman who captures him. Mr Gladstonesoughttogetauotliermemi b t for South Lancashire, but was defeated i After some minor squabbles the Schedules passed, and on Monday, the loth of July, the House met for the third reacting. The debate, though animated, was scarcely worthy of the theme. Lord Cranborne 'delivered himself of a long and very bitter i attack upon Mr Disraeli, whom he charged {with treachery to his party, and he prognosticated that the greatest evils were {about to fall upon the country. Mr Lowe I delivered himself in the same manner, but with additional vehemence, and ended a long prophecy of ills with a declaration that every educated Englishmen viewed the bill with shame, scorn, indignation, and despair. He professed himself to have become a sudden convert to compulsory education, for it would now be necessary to induce our new lords and masters to learn their letters. Mr Bright believed that, the people would elect quite as good a House of Commons as the present. Mr Disraeli kept his countenance well while declaring that the bill had been framed upon Conservative principles, and that he believed that it would secure the welfare of England, which was safe in her national character, her lame, and the traditions of a thousand years. And so the .Reform Bill passed, amid Opposition cheers. It went up to the Lords, and two nights were occupied with a very good debate on ihe second reading. Into the details of this discussion it is not necessary to go, but it may be mentioned that few persons bad a good word to say for the measure itself; and that there was the expected amount of complaint that the question of Reform had got into wrong hands. But Lord Derby boldly declared that when he took office ho had resolved that he would not for the third time be a mere stop-gap which would serve while the Liberals should re-adjust their differences, and he had determined to carry a large

bill- Lord Shaftesbury’s speech had interest, because Lb was held to be well acquainted with what is called the “micium ” —the order below the skilled artiaan—and he gave a very unflattering picture oi those for whom he labors so hard, and sketched them as ignorant and selfish. Lord Grey’s protest against the measure was a failure in ever? way. and not only because his physical powersbroks down. A smart personal speech from Lord Grenville, who related an anecdote to the effect that Lord Derby, in private, had defended the bill only because it “ dished the Whigs,” and an able speech from Lord Cairns, who brought his great debating power to the aid of the Government, are the only addresses that need be noted here.

We have not much else to offer in the way of Parliamentary news, the great debates having deprived the small of interest. Lord Strathnaira has stated in I the House of Lords that he had himself been personally harrassed in the field by the present clumsy system of transporting and supplying troops, but the changes which the committee proposed are evidently disliked by the Horse Guards. In small and in large matters, however, the bunglers have it all their own way. Cavalry were moved from Aidorshott to Hounslow the other day, for the review which was then intended, and on arriving at 8 in the morning there were no rations for them, nor had they any till 4, Such a hardship, in peace time, and in the middle of England, may not seem great, but the same idotic mismanagement which left it nobody’s business to inform somebody when the soldiers would come would equally tell on another reinforcement. Ifc is to be hoped that we are not to go through another baptism of disaster before we get the authorities to act like men of sense. If they could hear the way in which clover officers speak of them in private life, it might enrage but could hardly fail to quicken them. Captain Jervis’s dismissal from the Service, after the Mansfield business, was confirmed, but as his case was thought a hard one, the country is to pay the price of his commission. A bill for enabling private persons to endow three new bishoprics has nearly passed through Parliament, but it is to bo hoped that a provision enabling the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to subscribe will bo struck out.

Some minor Ministerial re-arrangement has been made, in consequence of the death of Lord Justiee Turner The Attorney-Ge-neral, Sir John Holt, who cares a great deal about equity and nothing about politics, is glad to take the vacated justiceship, and Sir John Xarslake therefore succeeds him, and Mr Selwyn, member for Cambridge University, becomes Solicitor • General, Vacancies in the House have also ocoured. The death of Mr Scholefleld caused a stiff contest for Birmingham, but Mr Bright went down and implored that a Tory might not be put in, and a Liberal, Mr Dixon, won by a largo majority, though his antagonist obtained a very great number of votes. Coventry had also to be fought, Mr Treherne having died, and Mr Ferrand, the roaring, unscrupulous partisan, who calls himself Conservative, haabeen beaten by Mr Jackson. The empire of Mexico has collapsed,, and Maximilian was shot on Juno 19, We have, meagre details of his death, but it is clear that he died gallantly, and his last words are said to have been “ Poor Carlotta.” That unhappy Empress remains in a state of merciful unconsciousness of hep widowhood. The murder, which it is attempted to justify as a reprisal, caused the gratest indignation in k'urope. The Courts went into mourning. The Emperor of the French suspended all the splended festivities with which he was entertaining the Sooltan. Our owu Queen countermanded a review. In Parliament it was proposed to denounce the deed, but the Government, while expressing the utmost detestation of it, could not assent to our interference. On the side of J uarez ir*is urged that it is a Mexican custom tomurder prisoners, and that Maximilian had caused several Mexican Bepubiicans to be put to death. One Escobedo, now in high oilice, hopes to kill all the foreigners in his country. The United States are very indignant. That the Mexican Republic e lists is owing to the States’ resistance to Maximilian, and the disinclination of .Napoleon to quarrel with the Americans, and yet the demand for the life of the Prince was refused. The severity with which the leading journals of the United States attack Juarez is very great. We may bracket with the mention of this assassination the fate of Berezowski, the young Pole who fired at the Czar m Paris. The criminal has been tried, and the jury, we assume, under a bint from the court, found extenuating circumstances, so he is sentenced to penal servitude. No person believes that he had accomplices ; hie act was that of a fanatic, excited by the recollection of Russian severities to Poland, It is stated that when he was led from the court, all the junior bar shook hands with him. a demonstration meant, of course, for Poland, and perhaps for a nearer quarter.