PRISONS (IRELAND) ACT-MEDICAL OFFICERS.-QUESTION. MR. ERRINGTON asked the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether the General Prisons Board (Ireland) has submitted to the Treasury any pro Whether he is aware that the orders for putting women to the tread wheel, crank, &c., said to have been sent to Kirkdale Gaol only, were also, to the number of 350 copies, sent to Salford Hundred Gaol, and in a few days recalled because "the standing order of the 9th September, respecting the furnishing of mat-posals for increasing, under the protresses and pillows to plank beds modifies the rules for female prisoners," and after nearly a month's delay revised orders were substituted, omitting the provisions as to tread wheel and crank for female prisoners; whether the original draft was submitted to the Commissioners, and any copies sent to any other gaols; and, if he has any objection to lay upon the Table the Correspondence between the Visiting Justices of Lancashire, himself, and the Prison Commissioners on this and other matters relating to the prisons of the county since the coming into force of the Prisons Act? MR. ASSHETON CROSS: Sir, the story detailed in the Question of the hon. and learned Member carries its own refutation on the face of it. As I stated the other day, the documents referred to were not fresh rules or orders issued for the guidance of the prison officers. They were merely abstracts of existing rules intended to be posted in the cells for the information of prisoners, in the same manner as abstracts of the Factory Acts are posted up in factories. The abstract of the rules applicable to males was submitted to the Commissioners and printed, and they directed that similar abstracts of the rules relating to females should also be printed and submitted to them. The latter were printed at the same place as the former; but by some mistake the abstracts relating to females were issued without having been sent to the Commissioners for revision. The latter abstracts were issued on Thursday and reached the prisons on Friday; and the mistake being discovered, they were recalled on the following Monday. Having been properly revised, they were finally issued in correct form on the 6th of December. If the hon. and learned Member for Stockport will call at the Home Office, the whole of the Correspondence on the subject will be at his service; but we do not think it necessary to print it and to lay it upon the Table of the House. visions of the Prisons Act, the pay of the surgeons of county infirmaries in proportion to the considerably increased duties thrown on them by that Act; and, whether, as these surgeons have, in spite of the repeated applications to the General Prisons Board within the last twelve months, been performing these increased duties without extra pay, he can hold out a hope that the sanction of the Treasury will be given without further delay to a reasonable increase in their salaries? SIR HENRY SELWIN-IBBETSON: Sir, in answer to the hon. Member for Longford, I can say that it is only within the last two or three days that the Irish Government have submitted to the Treasury proposals for the remuneration of medical officers in Irish prisons. I have not yet had an opportunity of examining them properly, and therefore I cannot give information as to what effect they may have on the pay of surgeons of county infirmaries in Ireland. I assure the hon. Gentleman I shall lose no time in looking at these proposals and coming to a conclusion, and I hope before long to settle the question. THE NEW FOREST-STONY CROSS MR. FAWCETT asked the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether, as his predecessor stated on the 7th August 1876, that the Law Officers of the Crown were considering the legality of an inclosure made a short time previously near Stony Cross, in the manor of Minestead, in the New Forest, he can now inform the House what conclusion has been arrived at as to the legality of the said inclosure; and whether, if it is illegal, the Government intend to take any action in the matter? SIR HENRY SELWIN-IBBETSON, in reply, said, that the opinion given by the Law Officers had been to the effect that they could not say that any rights of the Crown which it would be possible to enforce had been infringed by the in closures made by the lord of the manor | ther he will move to enlarge the reof Minestead. In these circumstances, ference to the Select Committee to it was impossible for the Government to take any action in the matter. MR. FAWCETT asked whether there would be any objection to lay the opinion on the Table? SIR HENRY SELWIN-IBBETSON: No. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS-REPORT QUESTION. MR. HANBURY-TRACY asked the Paymaster General, When the Report of the Royal Commission, appointed to inquire into the privileges and revenues of certain Municipal Corporations, will be laid upon the Table of the House? which the Coroners Bill was committed, in order to enable that Committee to take evidence and report on the whole question of the appointment, duties, and payment of Coroners ? MR. ASSHETON CROSS, in reply, said, that the way in which the Bill was drawn would give ample opportunity to the Committee to which it had been intrusted to report on all the subjects alluded to in his hon. Friend's Question. He had ordered a statement to be prewhich he hoped would give them valuable pared for the use of the Committee, information. He would venture to suggest that the Committee should, in the first place, go through the Bill without taking evidence; and if they should afterwards think it advisable to take evidence, he would have no objection to the Reference being enlarged to enable them to do so. FACTORY LEGISLATION (INDIA). QUESTION. MR. ANDERSON asked the Under MR. STEPHEN CAVE: Sir, I am not surprised at this Question. The inquiry has been prolonged far beyond quiry has been prolonged far beyond what I expected when I undertook it. There were 101 Corporations on the original list, to which 10 others were afterwards added. We have examined a large number of witnesses from most of these places, though nothing like all who were anxious to come; and we have Secretary of State for India, If the Inhad to wade through a mass of Corre- dian Government has yet decided to inspondence, former Reports, old charters, troduce Factory legislation into India; and other documents. A Royal Com- and, if he is yet prepared to lay upon the mission is not like a Parliamentary Com-Table the Report that was obtained as to mittee, which can sit on stated days the condition of the Factories in India? throughout the Session. The Members MR. E. STANHOPE: Sir, I am sorry of this Commission, over which I have to say that we do not yet know the dethe honour to preside, are men fully cision to which the Government of India engaged elsewhere. One is a member has come upon this subject; but a Bill is of the Judicial Committee of the Privy certainly under their consideration. The Council. There are three Queen's Coun- only Report we have at present is one sel; there are, also, Chairmen of Quar- of July, 1875. It would, therefore, be ter Sessions in distant counties. I my-probably better to await more recent inself was Chairman of four Committees formation before laying any Papers on of this House last Session, and, of the Table. course, my time was much taken up. Nevertheless, we have held 118 sittings, QUESTION. of which 46 were during the Recess. THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE RED SEA. We have completed 65 boroughs, and have received evidence with respect to all the rest; and I hope we may report before Whitsuntide. The hon. Gentleman may rely upon our losing no time, for I can assure him that we have had quite enough of the subject. CORONERS BILL-THE SELECT COM- MR. PELL asked the Secretary of MR. ANDERSON asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, If there have been any recent negotiations with Turkey on the subject of Slavery in the Red Sea, and what is the present footing of that question? MR. BOURKE: Sir, a despatch, dated the 3rd of February, has been received from Her Majesty's Ambassador at Constantinople, reporting that the draft of the Anti-Slave Trade Treaty which was submitted to the Porte last summer has passed the Council of Ministers, and that Caratheodori Pasha has been instructed at once to enter into negotiations with the British Representative for its conclusion. FINANCE-EXCHEQUER BONDS. QUESTION. MR. WHITWELL asked Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether the Exchequer Bonds for £2,750,000, which become payable on 16th, 23rd, and 27th of March next, and which are enumerated in a Paper recently laid upon the Table of the House, comprise the whole of last year's deficiency to be provided for before the 31st March next; and, whether he intends paying the bonds off out of the surplus income of the present year or renewing them; and, if the latter, for how long? THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER: Sir, I believe there will be no COLONEL STANLEY, in reply, said that, so far as he could trace the matter, some application of that kind was made two or three years ago; but the service performed at Perak was not thought to be of so important a nature as to render it the subject of a special medal. At the same time there was some hard fighting; and he was, therefore, prepared to place himself in communication with the | Colonial and the India Offices with the view of seeing whether the medal for frontier service could not be so extended as to include a special clasp for Perak. DIVINITY SCHOOL-THE UNIVERSITY, DUBLIN.-QUESTION. MR. PLUNKET asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether he will now state what course the Government intend to pursue in regard to the recommendations of the Royal Commission of last year relating to a Divinity School in the University of Dublin? MR. J. LOWTHER, in reply, said, the He further deficiency disclosed by the Ap-matter to which his hon. and learned propriation Accounts to be provided for Friend referred was one involving the this year. But with regard to the more greatest consideration, and still engaging important part of the hon. Gentleman's the attention of the Government. Question, I would, with his permission, hoped shortly to announce the decision request him to wait two or three days, at which they had arrived. when I shall have to make a proposal to the House with regard to the necessary provision for meeting the bonds. which are in question. MR. CHILDERS asked whether, before the right hon. Gentleman made his proposal, a Statement of the Supplementary Expenditure for the present year would have been laid on the Table? ORDERS OF THE DAY. PARLIAMENT-BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE. RESOLUTION. [ADJOURNED DEBATE.] Order read, for resuming Adjourned Debate on Amendment proposed to the First Resolution, as amended [20th THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHE-February], QUER, in reply, said, he hoped he would be able to lay on the Table in a few days a Statement with regard to some of the Supplementary Expenditure; but he was not sure that he could give a complete Statement. THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS-THE QUESTION. COLONEL NORTH asked the Secretary of State for War, Whether any application has been made to confer a medal on the officers and men who composed the expedition to Perak? "That, whenever the Committee of Supply appointed for the consideration of the ordinary Army, Navy, and Civil Service Estimates stands as the first Order of the Day on a Monday, Mr. Speaker shall leave the Chair without putting any question." And which Amendment was, After the word "Monday," to insert the words "provided there be not on the Paper any Amendment relevant to the class of Estimates about to be discussed."-(Mr. Anderson.) Question again proposed, "That those words be there inserted." Debate resumed. MR. O'CONNOR POWER: Hon. Members who have discussed these Resolutions at some length have incurred an amount of censure which it seems to me is entirely undeserved. The House of Commons would be unworthy of its name, and it would be false to its character as the Representative Assembly of the people, if it did not offer a determined resistance to these despotic and reactionary Resolutions. The more these Resolutions are considered, the more objectionable they appear to independent Members on both sides of the House. We were told at first that the Resolutions had nothing to do with obstruction; but the hon. Member for North Warwickshire (Mr. Newdegate), who loves to persecute opinion, religious or political, when it differs from his own, declared the real motive of these restrictive proposals. By the first Resolution the Chancellor of the Exchequer would push us at once into Committee when Supply is down; and when he gets us into Committee, without any previous discussion, he will then still further restrict our freedom of debate; and yet we are told, in the blandest possible manner, that all this will facilitate the discussion of the Estimates. If you want to facilitate the discussion of the Estimates, why do you propose, in the second Resolution, to gag Members in Committee, to limit their freedom of speech, and restrict their right of taking divisions? While many plausible excuses are put forward for these proposed alterations in the Rules, the principal argument urged in their favour is that they will facilitate the despatch of Public Business. Now, this is the one important point which the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and those who have spoken on his side of the question, have, I venture to say, entirely failed to prove. The hon. Member for North Warwickshire says the time has come when something must be done to maintain the dignity of Parliament. I quite agree with him; but when he suggests that the House of Commons shall put on a straight jacket and wear a strong chain, held in the hands of the Executive, in order to look dignified and respectable, I fail to appreciate the force of his reasoning. If the House were capable of that, it would be capable of sacrificing at once both its character and dignity; and no one ought to be surprised, therefore, at the opposition which noxious Resolutions. The right hon. Gentleman the Member for Sandwich (Mr. Knatchbull-Hugessen) has distinguished himself among the champions of Parliamentary coercion on this side of the House; and he asked us the other night to consider what was the complaint of the country against the House, and he told us that it was that the House was unequal to its work, and unable to get through the legislation urgently demanded. The country has certainly a right to complain of the deadlock in legislation; but I venture to contend that the remedy which has found favour with the right hon. Gentleman will aggravate the disease instead of removing it. If you stifle the expression of popular wants in the House of Commons, where shall they find utterance? You may say these Resolutions do not go so far as that. But, remember, they lead the way in that direction, and the experience of all history shows that if encroachments of this kind are not sternly resisted at the outset, they will be repeated again and again, and they will find you on each successive occasion less able to repel them, until finally you are obliged to succumb without raising a murmur of opposition. The right hon. Gentleman the Member for Chester (Mr. Dodson), who has been referred to as a high authority on the Business of Parliament, told us he had endeavoured to induce the House to part with some of its work. I regret very much that his efforts in that direction were not successful. He was then on the right track, and pursuing a more statesmanlike course than he is now pursuing in lending his support, however cautiously, to the proposals of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. There are only two rational courses, by either of which the difficulties of the House can be removed. You must either so enlarge the powers of local government as to give Home Rule to Ireland for Irish affairs, Home Rule to Scotland for Scottish affairs, and Home Rule to England for English affairs, while at the same time maintaining the Imperial Parliament in all its strength and integrity for carrying on the government of the Empire, and for the transaction of all Imperial affairs; or, taking the Representatives of the three nationalities as they are in this House, you must assign to each tion affecting the country which each man that some of the questions of the represents. With the continued accu- day, to which I allude, are questions mulation of work you must introduce which it would be dangerous to ignore. the principle of the division of labour, The transformation which the work of or get rid of such portions of the work Parliament has undergone has been well as you are unable to perform. The described by my hon. Friend the Member latter is by far the more sensible course for Newcastle-on-Tyne (Mr. J. Cowen), to adopt; and I assert, emphatically, and the evils of which he complains that this House is utterly incompetent arise from the tendency to centralization, to legislate satisfactorily for the internal which has been growing stronger and wants of the three Kingdoms, besides stronger every year, and which the pregrappling with the multitude of affairs sent Executive has forced to a point comprehended in the management of a which is simply intolerable. It flatters vast and widely-extended Empire. One the vanity of the House to assure it that day the House is summoned to discuss when local institutions are brought under a question of high Imperial interest, on the control of the Government they will another to debate the merits of a Turn-be under the control of Parliament pike Bill-or, as somebody said a few also; and that, as the people condays ago, a road across Hyde Park; trol the House of Commons, they will but no one has undertaken to show why always rule, no matter who may govern Parliament should stoop to questions of Statements of this kind were put forward this description. What should I, as an in support of the Prisons Bill; but Irish Member, know about the merits of nothing could be more delusive. The the Scotch Roads and Bridges Bill, and prisons were handed over to the Governwhy should I be obliged to master its ment. But does any unofficial Member details to the possible neglect of matters of this House imagine that any word or in which my constituents take a deeper act of his will influence prison discipline interest? Why, on the other hand, or prison management? No; it was the should Englishmen and Scotchmen in-officials of the Home Office, and not the sist on having a voice in deciding the merits of Irish Water Bills, Gas Bills, and Railway Bills? These are plain questions and urgent questions which the Select Committee on Public Business seems to have entirely ignored; but they are important questions which will one. day force themselves on the attention of statesmen, and demand recognition and settlement. You have sanctioned a policy which is extending the Empire every day and adding to your tremendous responsibilities. But domestic affairs are not less pressing on that account. They are constantly growing with the growth of modern civilization. There is now a school in every village, and the land is dotted with libraries and reading-rooms, like oases in the desert, where the people resort to drink of the fountain of knowledge. There is education, and information, and enlightenment everywhere, accompanied by discussion; and the consequence is that a thousand new problems of social, industrial, and political interest spring up every year which demand the consideration of the highest statesmanship. Looking at the condition of Germany and other countries, it must come home to the mind of every thoughtful Members of this House, who obtained |