POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 104, 19 October 1858, Page 3

POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE.

The composition of the first Indian Council excites much speculation, and lists are in circulation containing the names of eight members to be nominated by Government, and seven to be elected by the Court of Directors. Nothing, however, is as yet known with certainty, except that amongst the Government appointments certain names may be accepted as a matter of course. According to some reports, the following are the eight gentlemen to be nominated by the Crown:—MajorGeneral Sir Robert John Hussey Vivian, X.C.8., Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Creswick Rnwlinson, M.P., the Right Hon. Sir Lawrence Peel, Mr. John Pollard Willoughby, M.P., Mr. Henry Baillie, M.P., Mr. John Stuart Mill, Sir James Melvill, and Mr. Arthur Mills, M.P. We apprehend that there are some names in this list which, for different reasons, will not be found in the Council. It is extremely unlikely, for instance, that Sir Lawrence Peel or Sir James Melvill would be disposed to serve on the Council; and the appointment of Colonel Rawlinson may be doubted on other grounds." The same report assigns the following, with .more probability, as the names ot the seven- members to be elected by the Court of Directors :• —Mr. Ross, D. Mangles, M.P., Colonel W. H. Sykes, M.P, Sir Frederick Currie, Captain Eastvvick, Captain Shepherd, Mr. M,T. Smith,-M.P., and Mr. H. T. Prinsep. The day of the prorogation of Parliament is not yet fixed. We mentioned in our last that the 26th of the present month,would probably terminate the labors of the session. From existing appearances they are'not'unlikely to continue for another week or ten days. The Indian Bill has yet to be sent to the House of Lords, where it will be discussed at length; and should any alterations be carried by that assembly, it must be sent back again to the Commons. Without venturing to speculate upon the time which may thus be possibly consumed, we may indicate other measures which musfc.be disposed of before the prorogation can take place. There is a considerable amount of. business to be got over in connection with Supply before the Appropriation Bill can be introduced; and it is pretty well known that Government will not recommend a prorogation without submitting, or at all events approving of, some scheme for the purification of the Thames. | Taking these matters into consideration, and looking at the minor measures before the House, and which must be disposed of, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the day of prorogation will be advanced to the first or second week of August. . The report and resolutions of a Sub-Committee of the Indian Mutiny Relief Fund, acknowledging the munificent contributions of the colony of Victoria, have been published. Our readers are aware that the Legislature of the colony granted the sum of ,£25,000 in aid of the fund, and that, in addition- to this, a large amount was raised by private donations. It is stated that Sir Stephen Lushington is to succeed the late Sir John Dodson in the Arches Court. The sum of ,£1,682,683 was the amount repaid by the Indian Company in the year 1857-8 to her Majesty's Paymaster-General. The "Hon. W. G. E. Eliot, first paid attache at Constantinople, is appointed in the same capacity at St. Petersburg'; and Mr, 'Bulwer'Lytton, first paid attache at St. Petersburg, takes Mr. Eliot's place. A bill of Sir. R. Bethell, the late AttorneyGeneral, and Mr. Acton Ayrton, enacts that no British subject dying abroad shall be deemed to have acquired a domicile unless residing therein for three years preceding the death, and.the same with respect to foreigners resident in-England,' The act will, of course, depend on a convention between her Majesty, and any foreign Stated. When subjects of foreign States shall die in theUnited Kingdom, and there shall be no persons to administer to their estates, the consuls of such foreign States may administer. ~ The Earl of Malmesbuiy has brought in a bill to legalise all marriages hitherto solemnised in the Chapel of the Russian Company in Moscow, either by its chaplain or by any minister in holy orders, according to the rites of our own Church; all marriages solemnised at Ningpo by or before Mr. C. A. Sinclair or Mr. T. T. Meadows, and all marriages solemnised in the island of Tahiti by or before Mr. G. C. Miller. There are some doubts respecting the validity of such marriages, and to remove these is the object of the bill before the House of Lords. " The question as to the nature of'the security held by the public creditors of India," says the Times, "has been adjusted beyond possibility of further cavil. A clause has been adopted that all debts and liabilities in connection with that country now and henceforth are to be chargeable, as has hitherto been the case, on its revenues alone. An effort was made to have the point left open by the omission of the word 'alone,' so that, in the j event of the Indian revenue proving at any time inadequate, claimants might come upon the Imperial Exchequer. As this would have been tanta- ! mount to making a present out of fhe public purse to Indian Stock, bond, and shareholders equal to about 50 per cent, on the existing value of their property, of about £110,000,000 sterling; since Indian 5 per cent, railway shares, under the guarantee of the Home Government, would be worth, perhaps, 150, instead of 100, the public will not be surprised that it was negatived without a division. As far as the contract between the Indian Government and its- creditors is concerned, every pretext for misconception is now happily removed. Persons must not expect to buy at 5 per cent- ! stock at the price of the 3 per cent. Consols, and to have'-the power at any time of"insisting that they fully understood the security for the one to be precisely the same as that for the other. The House of Commons has put the covenant into plain words, and, if respect is to be cultivated ' among Englishmen for engagements of any kind, -j there must be no future fancy that it is intended to be departed fx*om." Four of the directors of the Royal British Bank, I who were convicted of conspiracy after a trial of 15 days' duration before Lord Chief Justice Campbell, are now in the full enjoyment of their j liberty. The seventh director, Mr. Stapleton,' was discharged upon payment of a nominal fine, j The petitions of Mr Owen and Mr. Kennedy have j not hitherto been laid before the public. The former made an unsuccessful appeal to the Home Office for a mitigation of his sentence, and a second application was made contemporaneously with that on behalf of Mr. Kennedy. Both proved successful, although the paydon in Owen's case was unconditional, and in that of Kennedy it was limited to a few days'further imprisonment. No less than 15 memorials in Mr. Kennedy's favor were presented to the Home Secretary, signed by the present Lord Majror and above 20 Aldermen, besides a great number of Common Councilinen, and by almost eveiy inhabitant of the ward of Cheap, which Mr. Kennedy presided over. Perhaps, however, the most important influence was the zealous support he obtained from the Board of East India Directors, with whom he had been for a lengthened period associated. The costs, of the defence are about £5000, and with tjie ■ £5000 which Mr. Kennedy paid as a contribution under the winding-up of the bank to the official manager, makes together £10,000. Mr. Kennedy's intention is to withdraw altogether from public life, and with that view he has left London for Herefordshire. The next and more recent case is that of Mr. Humphrey Brown, whose friends have for some weeks past "been most diligently exerting themselves in his favor. On the Ist of July Mr. Brown received the gratifying intelligence- that his application had been favorably received, and that the necessary papers were in course of preparation to receive the Royal assent, and at a late hour on the following day this welcome news was confirmed by the arrival of a special message from the Home Office at the Queen's prison, bearing the Royal unconditional pardon. On the same day a pardon arrived for Mr. Auchmuty Glover, ex-M.P, for Beverley, the last

victim of the Property Qualification, now abolished. Mr. Cowper \ Bill to regulate the (Jualifieatibn^ of Practitioners in Medicine and Surgery has been reprinted, with the amendments introduced by Mr. Walpole, and there is every reason to expect that it will pass the House of Commons substantially in the form which it has now assumed. By the amendments no material alteration is made in the constitution of the General Council for medical education and registration which is about to be .established. In addition to the six members nominated by the Crown, it is proposed to add a president, also to be nominated bythe Crown; and an arrangement by which the Scotch universities are to unite in electing members of the General Council is slightly varied. The principal amendment introduced is that which concerns the powers of the General Council. These powers are limited to requiring from the "various bodies engaged in the education of candidates for medical qualifications information as to the nature of the studie3 and examinations to be gone through by their respective candidates, and if these studies and examinations appear to be defective, of representing these defects to her Majesty, who may thereupon, by order in Council, suspend the privilege enjoyed by the erring body of conferring a qualification upon any candidate for registration. Provision is likewise made for an examination of all candidates in general and preliminary education by examiners specially appointed, whose certificate will be necessary before registration; and no person will in future be, entitled to have his name on the register unless his qualifications extend to both medicine and surgery. Mr. J. St. Aubin has been elected member for West Cornwall, without a contest. His -speeen - on the hustings was liberal. He expressed his willingness to vote for the introduction of the ballot into such constituencies as applied for it. He approved of the foreign policy adopted by the present Government. In Paris and Constantinople there are rumours jof a proposed visit of the Sultan to the Emperor Napoleon.