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freedom of conscience conferred on the country . They established beyond all doubt that when a Government recognised freedom of conscience , private enterprise always succeeded , and that facb afforded a strong argument in favour of the religious freedom which had so long existed in this country . ( Cheers . ) The hon . gentleman , in the instances he had quoted , had forgotten to enumerate the cases of Tuscany and Spain ; in the eighteenth century the wool of this country was largely sent to both those states for the purpose of being used np _ in manufactures , but as those states became inimical to civil and religious liberty , the wool trade between them and this country gradually sank into decay . At the same time he must repeat that there was a manifest difference between a state giving simple instruction in manufacturing art , and undertaking it with a view to pecuniary profit ; institutions for that purpose already existed in Paris , Liege , Berlin , and other places on the continent , and he was not
prepared to say that in Ireland similar institutions rnight not be undertaken by the Government . However , without giving any opinion as to the success of the experiment in Belgium , oi elsewhere , he must decline at the present moment to give the hon . gentlemau any promise or pledge that his proposal would be adopted . A small debate followed ; Mr . James Macgregor and Mr . A . Pellatt insisting on political economythe former -warning Ireland not to "believe State support couW create manufactures—the latter suggesting to the Government that this sort of demand was made because Government ( in Lord Clarendon ' s time ) had undertaken to instruct the farmers in the aTts of agriculture . Some Irish members expressed their dissatisfaction , without any justice , at Lord John ' s speech * . The subject then "dropped ; " but the originality of the proposal made it a topic in Parliamentary circles for the week .
MR . JEREMIAH SMITH . Mr . . J . Smith , " ex-Mayor of Rye , convicted of improper electioneering practices * and sentenced to a lengthy imprisonment , has been liberated by our secret police- —viz ., by an order from the Home Office . On Tuesday , in the Hpusse of Commons , Mr . FnEWEjf begged to ask Viscount Palmerston if he had any objection to lay upon the table of . the house a copy of a certificate which , it had been stated was signed by every one of the jury who had tried
Mr . Jeremiah Smith , the late Mayor of Rye , and found him guilty of liaving committed wilful and corrupt perjury , before a committee of the House , and who had lately represented to his lordship that they believed Mr J . Smith to he innocent of crime ; and whether , in consequence of this representation , his lordship had advised , her Majesty to grant him a free pardon ? If sucb a certificate had really been given , he ( Mr . Prewen ) must look upon Mr . Smith as a person who had been virtually acquitted .
Viscount Palmers-ton said the case of Mr . Smith had been brought under his notice by a great number of petitions ; but upon full consideration of the case , and of the evidence upon which he had been convicted , he ( the noble lord ) had not felt it his duty to advise the crown to interfere "between Mr . Smith and the execution of the law . He had received a memorial dated the 20 th of July , and signed by t he jury , which he should certainly have no objection to produce . It was as follows ;— " We , the undersigned jurors , who tried Mr-Jeremiah Smith , of Eye , and pronounced him guilty of ' wilful and corrupt perjury , ' hereby express our strong aecommendation for mercy on the ground of its having been represented
to us , and our believing it to be true at the time when we gave our verdict , that the seat for Rye had not been abandoned when he gave his evidence , and that las false swearing was with a view and oorrupt motive to retain his seat ; but believing now that such seat had been previously abandoned , and hence that there was no corrupt motivo , we trust and pray that a free pardon may be granted to him . " Now his ( Lord Pahnerston's ) general rule was to attach more weight to what jurors said when they pronounced their verdict upon the evidence given before them upon oath , than to what they might afterwards suggest upon statements made to them out of court , nnd therefore not subject to the same sifting as if
they had beon made l > y witnesses under examination . It was not , therefore , in consequence of the memorial of the jurors that lie had advised the crown to interfere and to extend its clemency to Mr . Smitli . The ground upon which he had taken that stop was the following letter , which ho had received from the Burgeon of Newgate , dated the 25 th July : — "I feel it my duty to state to your lordship that the present condition of Mr . Jeremiah Smith , a prisoner hero , is most critical . Ho is very feeble in every way , and ia suffering now , from head symptoms of a very serious character ,, threatening apoplexy . I consider
his illness the more alarming on account of several members of hia family having died from similar attacks , and I cannot answer for the effects of a prolonged imprisonment upon a person thus ill whoso habits hove previously been very active . " Now , although ho might think that Mr . Smith liad been vory justly sentenced to imprisonment , ho certainly did not think that he merited n . sentence of death ; and it was on that ground alone , and not at all in consequence of the memorial of the jurors , that ho had thought it his duty to recommend her Majesty to Rrant a flreo pardon to Mr . Smith . TIiq House expressed no astonishment : —indeed " cheered . "
THE BOARD OF HEALTH . On Monday and Tuesday the House of Commons was occupied for an hour or two in considering what should be done for the public health . On Monday , Lord Palmerston moved the second reading of the bill to continue the existing Board of Health for two years . His speech was merely official : nominally urging the measure i really not being in earnest- about it . Lord Seymour opposed , in a speech of malignant acuteness and personal spite , which was loudly cheered by the many personal enemies of Mr . Chadwick . Mr . Monckton Milnes deprecated Lord Seymour , and defended the board .
Mr . Henley was convinced that the board stood condemned both in the eyes of the country and of the Government . The bill , he contended , would effect no further change than that of transferring the control of the board from the Chief Commissioner of Works to the Secretary of State for the Home Department , the practical result of which would be merely nominal . He recommended that a short Continuance Bill should be brought in , and the present measure rejected . Lord J . Russell ( in a speech marked by a want
of earnestness , which accounted for the fate of the bill—that is , for the Ministerialists staying away from the division ) reminded the House that the measure now proposed was but to endure for a year . In that time the whole subject might be investigated by a committee . The existing board had been exposed , as he believed , to undue censure , although he admitted that too little regard had been paid to the principle of self-government , and he had himself warned Mr . Chadwiek a year ago of the consequences which might arise from this negligence .
Mr . Heywoop , after a warm tribute to Mr . Chadwick , announced that that gentleman had been recommended by his medical advisers to discontinue the very arduous duties incumbent upon Ms office in ¦ the Board of Health . . Mr . Hume confessed that his -vote ivpon the present bill would turn upon the question whether Mr . Chadwick remained or retired . The statement that this gentleman had been professionally advised to retire was corroborated by Lord PaLMEBSTOIJ . After some observations from Sir T . D . Acland , the House divided—I ? or the second reading , 65 ; for the amendment , 74 ; majority against the bill , 9 .
Next day the new bill , which tlie Government had prepared ( evidently , therefore , having arranged for the defeat of the first one ) , was brought in by its author , Sir William Molesworth . Sir W . Molesworth moved for leave to bring in a bill to make better provision for the administration of the laws relating to the public liealth . The opinion of the legislature having been pronounced against the continuance of the Board of Health , as at present constituted , as also against the subordination of the department to which the care of the public health
was intrusted to the Home Secretary , the Government , he said , had determined to remodel the Board of Health , and assimilate it to the pattern of the Poor Law Board . The new bill would accordingly provide for the appointment of a new functionary , with the title of president , with a scat in the House of Commons , who was to be assisted by two secretaries , and undertake the whole responsibility of administering the la-ws relating to the public health . A clause would also be included in the hill granting an allowance of 1000 / ., by way of compensation to Mr . Chadwick .
opinion of the House of Commons , in reference to the Russo-Dutch Loan . There was , of course , a very tliin House . The noble lord had appended to his notice of motion a series of explanatory resolutions , and which he now strengthened by a variety of arguments and intentions tending to prove that the engagements into which this country had entered in 1815 for the payment of the loan in question , were practically bound up in a treaty concluded in 1831 with various other conditions which llussia had undertaken to fulfil . As these conditions , and especially one whereby the free navigation of the Sulina mouth of the Danube was to be kept free
from all natural qt diplomatic obstacles , had been flagrantly violated by the Russian Government . England was , he contended , exonerated on her side from the obligation of performing her part of the convention . The observance of treaties , he argued , should not be one-sided , and any infraction of their articles on one part justified reprisals on the other . Even if peace had continued this country would have been freed from all further obligation according to the rules of international law . War having broken out , there was a fresh argument in favour of his resolution , under the hypothesis that all treaties lapsed upon tlie occurrence of hostilities .
Sir W . Molesworth saw no difference between the conclusion arrived at by the motion now offered to the House and the doctrine of repudiation . During war he urged the country was more strictly bound in honour to pay its debts than even in time of peace , and all modern publicists agreed in deciding- that nations were bound to keep faith with their public creditors , without inquiring into the nationality of those creditors , or the accidents of war or peace between their respective sovereigns . This doctrine was sanctioned by all modern practice ; it was the sign and token of our improved civilisation ; and any attempt to revert to the system of reprisals was a retrograde step towards the custom of a byegone barbarism . After laying down these general principles , Sir W . Molesworth adverted to
the special circumstances under which the engagements for paying the Dutch loan to Russia had "been entered into by this country . These he alleged involved the payment by England of a largo sum by way of purchase-money for the colonies of the Cape , Demerara , Esseqxiibo , and Berbiee : and -the continuance of pur liability depended not upon war or peace , but simply upon the abstinence , on the part of llussia of any interference with the territorial arrangements of Belgium and Holland , llussia not having infringed this condition , the obligation of England still remained ; and international law , acts of Parliament , and public honour , alike bound her to its fulfilment . The speech of the riylit honourable baronet was an able and lucid statement of the case .
Mr . D . Seymour supported the resolutions , eonlending that the loan was secured to llussia by a solemn covenant , which Russia herself had broken . The Attorney-General , in opposing the motion , argued that the character of tlie transaction was not the payment of a debt , but the honourable completion of a bargain . Lord D . Stuaut replied ; and after a few vonls from Mr . Ca \ i . i : y and Sir IX Nqiuieys , The House divided—For tlie motion , 5 ; against , 57 ; majority , 52 .
After some remarks from Sir G . Peohell , Lord Seymour , Mr . Henle y , Lord J- Russell , and other members , leave was given , and the bill brought in and read a first time . In the Lords , on Tuesday , Lord SiiAFxrcsnunY , unpaid president of the defunct board , made some explanations in answer to Lord Seymour ' s speech in the Commons . The concluding sentence speaks of the conscientious earnestness with which Lord Shnftesbury has discharged his weary and gratuitous duties at the board . The quaarel between the two nobles is also suggested : —Was it just that assertions should be made pf this kind on such evidence as this ? Theso -wore fair samples of the whole of Lord Seymour ' s speech ; and be did not believe that
Till ! ittJSSIAN SECUniTIES KILL . This bill was again in committee in the House of Commons on Wednesday : giving rise to some damaging talk against the Government differences on it . Nearly all the "business" members—City men and Manchester men—condemned it as an absurd and impracticable measure ; only the patriotic , but silly , members , such as Lord Dudley Stuart , supported it . Mr . James Wilson consented to forego his opposition ; for , said ho , though 1 opposed its introduction , yet it would look strange in the eyes of foreigners if the House of Commons were now to reject such a measure ; and let us , therefore , make- it ns good as wo can . Mr . Thomas liaring made n most effective speech in describing the " split" in the Government on the question . Lord . John Husskij , bi \ id :.
—that speech contained a singlo statement that might not bo mot by a flat contradiction . But lie had said enough to show tlio spirit of the man , and the character of those attacks by which the Board of Health had been assailed ,. Lord Seymour appeared to speak very contemptuously of him ( Lord Shaftosbury ) and of his principles and his conduct ; and it might bo from prejudice , infirmity , or inability ; but ho should not rnako any reply to these things > yet lie felt coneciontiouBly that he did not care much about the opinion of Lord Seymour upoatho matter . Ho had a conviction that by God ' s grace ho should bo ablo to do hia duty hi that state of life- to which it had pleased God to call him and that conviction could not bo taken away by Lord Seymour , or by what took place in the Houbo of Commons , ( Cheers . ) KUBBO-DUTOH LOAN . On Tuesday . Lord Dudlidy Stuaiit at lnst got an opportunity of stating his viown , and testing the
Tho mo . imiro would , it was said , not lower tho vnluo of Riisni . 'in scrip by more tliiin one-lmlf percent ., Iml , if it . ii . l not do ko by moro than ono-cighth nor cent ., ho thought , it \ v « s proper and becoming to lecMaio upon tlio Hubjut . Whether or no it wnu worthwhile for Inn noblo friend to bring in such u Lill was not n question upon wbidi ho wliouhl givo mi opinion , Tho question now bdoio tlio committ < v was , whether , tliia not having boon introduced , they uhould think it proper tlmt , whilu it wna high treason to ndvancii money to tho Kmpcror of liumn . It whould bu no oilenoo to deal in tho scrip of Unit country . Mr , Bniairr said : —
l' -vory ono in tlmt House wsia convinced Hint thoy worn engaged in diBGiishing n uhmn , more com plot o , more hollow , itud moro childish tluin had ovov Icon brought bufuro any leginlativo nBficmbly , Tho nob )< j lord tlio Socrelniy of . Slate for tlio Homo Deportment dmribed thin lill as n moral demonstration ; but what was tho use of a . moral dcinonbtra-Uon when floottt and nrinintj hud been doiipalohcd ? JI <' wished m ) bo to know how Una bill wiih to apply under certain circumstanced , 'Ihero wore in Ituunia about 1500 KiirIIhIi r « sidontB , and ho prcBiuncd that I ' urliaincnt did not wish to
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724 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 5, 1854, page 724, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2050/page/4/
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