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man Catholics and their clergy, Protestant | with much justice apply the language of and dissenting clergymen seem to be amal- Milton's Samson to the noble and learned gamated with Roman Catholics at present Lordindeed, there seems an amalgamation of "His race of glory run-his race of shame." all sects on this question; and I think it And well, and appropriately, might his time the House should resolutely legislate friends add, Would that his tongue and on it. I hope the noble Lord at the head pen were now at rest!" I think it would of the Government will take measures for be better for the noble and learned Lord's sifting this question thoroughly, and that reputation that they were at rest. But, he will submit a Bill early next Session of as regards the labours of the particular a simple and conclusive character, and Committee, I think they were very useful press the question on the House with the much more useful than those of many same earnestness he did some other Bills, Committees which have sat of late years. which were rather of a questionable char- MR. STAFFORD said, that as hon. acter. There is business also in this Gentlemen who sat on his side of the House-Committee business-apart from House did not act together as a party, and the more prominent business of the House. as the hon. Member for Montrose and the There is one Committee-the Committee hon. Member for Manchester, with some on Official Salaries-which has been made others on the opposite benches, had proved the subject of criticism in another place. A extremely rebellious during the present noble and learned Lord (Lord Brougham) Session, it was obvious that machinery has asserted in another place that the intended for two parties in the conduct of Committee was composed of a most igno- public business, was not suited for the purrant body of men. It probably was very pose. He had heard with astonishment the true that we did not pretend to be as proposal of the hon. Member for Mancheslearned as that noble and learned Lord.ter to divide the House into sections to conBut, Sir, we pretend to possess information on some matters of a practical nature; and I doubt very much if the noble and learned Lord was correct in stating that the Committee was composed of ignorant men. The noble and learned Lord complains that he himself was not examined, and then jumps to the conclusion that we were ignorant men. Sir, if we did not examine that noble and learned Lord, it was not because he did not ask to be examined over and over again; and when the noble and learned Lord's application was submitted to the Committee, I believe they were unanimous in feeling that the noble and learned Lord could give no information that would be of the slightest importance to the Committee, or that would have the slightest weight with the House or with the country. I believe the House and the Committee will not regard the noble and learned Lord's remarks as very formidable. I recollect distinctly having had a passage of arms, or rather of pens, with the noble and learned Lord some few years since; and I am pretty well satisfied, and, I believe, so are the public also, that I succeeded in foiling him in the combat. Since that time the noble and learned Lord has not made himself more formidable; because the course he has taken has been so erratic, so extraordinary, that he who was once respected and admired, has come to be very much pitied. I think I might

sider matters of detail. Who were to decide
what were matters of detail, and what were
matters of principle? The attempt to de-
cide that point on such a question, for in-
stance, as the Irish Franchise Bill, would
involve the House, not only in long debate,
but in acrimonious dispute.
He deeply
deplored that Government had not attempt-
ed to legislate on the subject of landlord
and tenant in Ireland; and the reason given
by the noble Lord for his abandoning it,
that the demands from one side were so
unreasonable, would be of greater validity
next year than now. Had the recent con-
ference exhibited any moderation of tone,
the noble Lord might have withdrawn the
Bill, if the Irish representatives had op-
posed it; but they had no opportunity of
expressing any opinion upon the measure,
and it had been withdrawn sub silentio,
leaving nothing but exasperation, irritation,
and disappointment in Ireland for the re-
cess. Ile would like to know on what
principle the hon. Member for Manchester
would act with respect to this question.
Would he carry out his own principle of
buying in the cheapest and selling in the
dearest market, as far as the landlords were
concerned; or did he think the tenant-
right agitation could be reconciled to his
free trade doctrines? He certainly would
like the hon. Member to show how he
could combine the principles he advocated,
with the principles of the tenant confer-

ence. Was it the new free trade doctrine | been laid on the table, and he could hardly that the Irish landlord was not to sell his have supposed that after that the House land for the best price he could get, and would follow the ridiculous course of withthat while all agricultural produce should holding it. Yet the noble Lord at the be open to competition, the land was to be head of the Government had given notice locked up under a compulsory value? The of an Amendment to his present Motion. hon. Member by his speeches and writings Her Majesty's Ministers were, in his opinhad excited considerable expectation among ion, equally culpable with Lord Torringthe people of Ireland, that he would do ton. He admitted that that House could something for them during the present re- not supersede the courts of law. Here, cess; but it was far easier for an indepen- however, was a Governor who had thought dent Member to counsel Ministers than to proper to suspend the constitution of bring forward a substantial measure of im- Ceylon, had tried almost innumerable inprovement. He would ask the hon. Men-nocent parties, executed eighteen, banishber what had become of his long-promised ed and imprisoned many more, and allowed game law? Let the farmers of Ireland the military wildly to confiscate and sell judge of the hon. Member's ability to serve property, and had afterwards got a Bill of them, when they saw the farmers of Eng- Indemnity passed in the island which preland waiting in vain for the redress of cluded the injured parties, or their relagrievances which the hon. Member had tives, from having recourse to the courts promised them. If he raised false hopes of law to obtain redress, and left them no among the tenantry of Ireland, that Par- resource but an appeal to the British Parliament would transfer the fee-simple of liament. Into the circumstances of this the land to them, no one knew better than case Parliament had ordered an inquiry. himself that those hopes never would be Every possible obstacle had been thrown realised. Nothing could be more certain in the way of obtaining the requisite into scare away English capital from Ireland, formation; but at last the Committee came than the idea that there was a distinction to a conclusion, though not till after divibetween the law of property in the two sions of six to six and seven to six, and countries. He foresaw a formidable agita- such extraordinary proceedings as the histion on the question, and hoped the Lord tory of Committees could scarcely parallel. Lieutenant would not be called upon to The noble Lord had given notice of a exercise the powers with which they had Motion for submitting the consideration again intrusted him. not to Members, but to the Colonial SecMR. BRIGHT begged to explain. The retary and to Her Majesty's Government. practice of dividing the House into sections In his opinion Lord Torrington ought to was practised in the United States and be brought to serious account. He doubtFrance, and with success. The hon. Gen-ed whether the Governor General had the tleman mistook him if he supposed that he (Mr. Bright) approved of all that had been said and done by the Dublin conference; but he wished to call attention to the fact. As regarded the game laws, he should say the tenant-farmers were powerless at present to carry any measure of the sort through that House. But with corn at 40s. a quarter, he thought landlords and tenants would be brought to their senses speedily, and then the question would more easily be set at rest. That was his reason for not bringing the question before the House. Motion, by leave, withdrawn.

CEYLON COMMITTEE.

MR. HUME moved that the evidence taken before the Ceylon Committee be printed. It would be in the recollection of the House that though the Committee had not thought fit to report the evidence to the House, it had, on his own Motion,

power of proclaiming martial law, except in such a case of emergency as had not arisen; but even if he had that power, be doubted whether it could be deputed by him to a Lieutenant General, and by that officer to a major, and whether all parties entrusted with it could proceed without any Judge Advocate to take care that justice was done. But there being no forms of law, no rules observed, nothing but the will of one man, it was in evidence that after a number of persons had been shot, Lord Torrington wrote to the Judge Advocate to know what powers he possessed. He was continuing shooting till the Judge Advocate interfered. [Mr. HAWES: No!] He would say yes. Lord Torrington went on until the Judge Advocate told him that if he did not stop, he would come and impeach him. His complaint was, that after petitions had been presented for two years from thousands of inhabitants of

J. WALMSLEY bowed in acknowledgment of the allusion.] The Committee came to a resolution that inasmuch as certain parts of the evidence were personal and confidential, an effort should be made to sepa

Ceylon, containing charges of high crimes and misdemeanours against the Governor, the Government stepped in to prevent the publication of the evidence by which he believed the accusations could be proved. He learnt from a newspaper that the Go-rate those parts from the rest, and an vernor had been removed. But was the House to be satisfied with that? After the destruction of so many human beings, and the punishment of so many who had since died, was the matter to pass away unexamined? Were they to be content with referring the matter to the Colonial Office? When he considered the noble Lord's (Earl Grey's) persevering obstinacy in Demerara; his approval of what had taken place in the Ionian Islands and in Malta; and the sanction which he had given to the proceedings in Ceylon without having before him the facts of the case, he could not feel satisfied with the course proposed by the Government. All he asked, then, was, that the evidence which lay on the table might be printed, with the view of enabling Members who ought to be, and who ultimately must be, the judges in the case, to come to a conclusion. As to Her Majesty's Ministers, they would be put on their trial; and, unless he were mistaken, something more than ordinary skill would be required to defend their conduct. He hoped the House would not refuse his reasonable request that the evidence be printed.

effort was made by some Members of the Committee to effect that separation. The Chairman of the Committee, however, would not consent to put the question in that form. It was resolved that no further evidence should be reported to the House. Why did the Committee come to that resolution? For the simple reason that a particular portion of the evidence was of an entirely confidential character. That evidence materially affected the Governor of Ceylon: and it was thought that as he was not aware that his own private and confidential letters were to be read before the Committee, it would be most unjust to publish those letters to the world. He believed that whenever the subject should be debated in that House, many Members would be disposed to raise the question whether or not the Committee were justified in taking such evidence; and, for his own part, he should rely on the good feeling and sense of honour which prevailed in that House to decide in the negative. As to the other portions of the evidence, the Government had no desire to exclude any of them from public observation; and when the report thus constituted had been published, it would enable him to meet many of the charges which had been preferred. He ventured to say, that until the private evidence was MR. HAWES said, it was not in his laid before the Committee, scarcely a sinpower to refer to the evidence to contra- gle Member of it thought any charge dict the statements of the hon. Gentleman; could be brought against the Governor of and no Member who had not been on the Ceylon; but undoubtedly when that maCommittee could form a correct judgment. terial evidence had forced itself on the The report of the Committee contained minds of the Committee, so great appearthis sentence :- "Your Committee are of ed to be the differences amongst the pubopinion that the serious attention of Herlic servants of the Crown in Ceylon that Majesty's Government should be called to the evidence taken in the course of this inquiry;" and his hon. Friend the Member for Montrose was one of those who voted in the majority. With regard to the printing of the report, a Motion was made and a question put to this effect "That the whole of the evidence taken before the Committee be reported to the House." For that Motion the Ayes were only two; the Noes were ten, and the hon. Gentleman whom he saw on the third bench was one of those who agreed that the evidence should not be laid before the House. [Sir

Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Minutes of the Evidence taken before the Select Committee on Ceylon be printed."

it seemed utterly impossible that Lord Torrington could continue to administer the public service with advantage to the Crown, and on that ground alone did the Government take the step of recalling him. He was most anxious that the whole of the evidence should be laid on the table; but it would be most unjust to print private letters at a moment when the writer had not the slightest idea of their being used for such a purpose; and he trusted, therefore, that the House would not consent to their production. Under these circumstances, being precluded from