GENERAL SUMMARY

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 1, Issue 39, 30 September 1867, Page 239

GENERAL SUMMARY

(From the Homs News, 26th Jacta est aled. ' 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 Mon- • day, but it is not expected that any amendment of importance will be submitted, 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 alteration of principle, if the bill can be said to have a principle, was made. There was an attempt to throw the legitimate 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 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 we 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 numbei- of the lower orders, who havo not the slightest belief io any other obligation to speak the truth The 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 Government thought it had a chance of evading an implied undertaking to carry a clause which should bind the overseer to give [notice of unpaid rates. By a bit of management —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 “iinpertous ” (the word has been freely used by his political adversaries), and charged -jtlie 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 larue 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 votes. Additional members werejjgiven. to Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, and Leeds, but it was done by takiug away as many members from places which it had been proposed to enfranchise Sheffield and Bristol were refused new un-tubers. Candidates were forbidden to pay the travelling expenses of borough voters. An attempt to prevent committees from sitting in public-houses was rejected, as was an endeavor to close all puolichouses on election days. An interesting dehate on the cumulative vote ended in the defeat of tiiat scheme by 314 s 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 Disr-icli 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 ofl 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 Gladstonesougiit to getanother member for South Lancashire, but was defeated. After some minor squabbles the Schedules passed, and on Monday, the 15th of July, the House met for the third reading. The debate, though animated, was scarcely worthy of the theme. Lord Cranborne delivered himself of a long and very bitter attack upon Mr Disraeli, whom he charged with treachery to his party, and he p •ognosticated that the greatest evils were about to fall upon the country. Mr Lowe delivered himself in the same tr.anner, 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 bo 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 fame, 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 had 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 he 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

•Mffia&Eford Shaftesbury's speech had iahe was held to be well acquainted what is called the “resicium ” —the order below the skilled artisan—and he gave a very unflattering picture of 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 every way, and not only because his physical powers broke down. 'A smart personal speech from Lord Grenville, who related an anecdote to the effect chat 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 Govern* ment, are the only addresses that need be noted here.

We have not much else to offer in the way of Parliamentary news, the groat debates having deprived the small of interest. Lord Strathnairn has stated in

the House of Lords that he had himself been personally liarrassed 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. Iu small and in large matters, however, the bunglers have it all their own way. Cavalry we® moved from Aldershott 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 mid-, die of England, may not seem great, but the same idotic mismanagement which left it nobody’s business tp inform somebody when the Boldiers would come would" equally tell on another reinforcement. It 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 clever 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 liis commission. A bill for enabling private .persons to endow three new bishoprics has nearly passed through Parliament, but it is to be hoped that a provision enabling the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to subscribe will be struck out.

Some minor Ministerial re-arrangement has been made, in consequence,of the death of Lord Ju-tice Turner The Attorney-Ge-neral, Sir John Holt, who car -s a great deal about equity and nothing about politics, is glad to take the vacated justiceship, and Sir John Karslake therefo.e succeeds him, and Mr Selwyu, member for Cambridge University, becomes Solicitor-General, Vacancies in the House have also occured. I’he 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 large majority, though his antagonist obtained a very great BUtnber of votes. Coventry had also to be fought, Mr Treherne having died, and Mr Ferrand, the roaring, unscrupulous partisan, who calls himself Conservative, has been beaten by Mr Jackson.

The empire of Mexico has collapsed, and Maximilian was shot on J u m 19. We have meagre details of his death, .but it is clear that he died gallantly, ana bis last words are said to have been “ Poor Carlotta.” That unhappy Empress remains in a state of merciful unconsciousness of her widowhood. The murder, which it is attempted to justify as a reprisal, caused the gratesb indignation in Furope. The Courts went into mourning. The Emperor of the French suspended all the spleuded festivities with which he was entertaining the Sooltan. Our own 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 u&rez it'is urged that it is a Mexican custom to murder prisoners, and that Maximilian had caused several Mexican Eepuolicans to be put to death. One itscobedo, now in tiigh office, hopes to kill all the foreigners in hi? country. The United States are very indignant. That the Mexican .Republic ■exists is owing to the States’ resistance to Maximilian, and the disinclination of .Napoleon to quarrel with the Americans, and yet the demund for the life of the Prince was refused. The severity with which tus leading journals of the United State* 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 hint from the court,.

found extenuating circumstances, so he is sentenced to penal servitude. Ho person believes that he had accomplices ; hisact 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.