SIR GEORGE GREY said, he hoped the hon. Gentleman would defer to the very large majorities which had already affirmed the Bill, and that the House would not be put to the trouble of dividing. They had heard how beneficially a similar measure had operated in Wales, and he must repeat his belief, that so far from the system it proposed being expensive, it would, while improving the roads, also turn out to be an economical one.

MR. THOMPSON said, that although that Bill had been very handsomely abused in that House, the number of petitions that had been presented against it were few, and indicated a great falling-off as compared with the number presented in 1860 and 1861 against a similar measure. As to the supposed addition which the measure would entail to the taxation of the country, he had taken the opinion of some of the best surveyors in his neighbourhood, and one of them said that he would keep the roads in his district in repair for £100 a year less than they now cost. Other gentlemen having practical knowledge bore their testimony with equal emphasis in favour of the theory that the division of the country into districts each sufficient to occupy the whole time of an experienced person would really be an economical proceeding. He must also deny that the Bill would sever the connection between taxation and representa tion. It only applied to the highways of the country that principle of union and co-operation which had produced most of the great improvements of the age.

MR. NEWDEGATE said, in the constituency which he represented there was but one feeling in regard to the subject, and that was that the proposed intervention of justices in the highway boards was but a means of superseding the legitimately expressed voice of the ratepayers. Ile regretted to hear hon. Gentlemen representing a large town argue in favour of that invasion of the corporate privileges of the country parishes. The House, it appeared, was about to pass a Bill which was calculated to create the greatest discontent throughout the whole of the counties in England. Let them not flatter themselves

that the measure would prove agreeable to the ratepayers. Parishes might certainly have neglected their duties in regard to the repair of highways, but there were ample means under the existing law of compelling the surveyors to discharge their duties. No reasons had been adduced to justify so extensive an alteration of the existing machinery for the maintenance of highways as was was proposed by the present Bill. If the House were about to legislate for the convenience of the higher classes, they might depend upon it they would purchase good roads at a severe cost. It was unnecessary to cast that element of discontent upon the country. Hon. Members who cited their own experience, and their own cases of grievance, had neglected the means which the law afforded them of procuring the object they sought. If individuals felt aggrieved, individuals had a most ample and ready remedy. Hon. Members who complained of the badness of their roads should have indicted them. The passage of the Bill would be a proof of want of courage in the class which complained; and he was confident that the fact would add much to the discontent which the Bill was calculated to produce. The people of England did not like to be governed by a class which had not the courage to assert their own just rights. He trusted that in another place, where the members were exclusively of the class for whose benefit the measure was especially intended, they would take due care that they did not purchase somewhat improved roads at the expense of the feelings of their poorer neighbours. By casting on them a sudden expenditure which was not allowed for in the agreements under which they held their farms and land, the Bill would inflict class taxation in its most aggravated form.

MR. HARDY thought it only fair that he should bear some of the brunt of adverse comment which had been directed against that measure. So far from the Bill deserving the strong language which had been used against it, he believed that it would not only improve, but cheapen the roads. Good roads were in themselves cheap; for they tended to save horses and carts to a degree of which many persons seemed to have no conception. As to putting a new tax on the tenant, there was not the least ground for the assertion.

MR. NEWDEGATE: The hon. Member is misrepresenting me. I said by creating

a sudden change the agreements under which the tenants hold their land, and the calculations on which those agreements are founded, will be defeated.

MR. HARDY said, the sudden change could only amount to three tenpenny rates, and to that amount the tenants were liable at present. If a parish had neglected its roads the rates might at first be high; but he did not think that would be an evil. A fallacy seemed to have pervaded the arguments against the Bill. The roads were not made for the parishes through which they passed, but for the public at large. At present, there was no audit of the surveyors' accounts; but under the Bill there would be an audit, and an efficient one. He did not altogether approve of the Bill, for he would have made it compulsory. He believed the magistrates would only put it in operation where it was required; and both the ratepayers and the public would derive great benefit from it.

Question put, "That the word 'now' stand part of the Question."

The House divided:-Ayes 152; Noes 31 Majority 121.

Main Question put, and agreed to.
Bill read 3o, and passed.

MERCHANT SHIPPING ACTS, &c. AMEND

MENT BILL.-CONSIDERATION.
Order for Consideration read.

Clause (Rules for Harbours under local Acts to continue in force) brought up, and read 1o.

Motion made, and Question proposed, That the said Clause be now read a second time."

SIR HUGH CAIRNS said, it was impossible to begin to discuss this Bill at midnight.

Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Debate be now adjourned." Motion, by leave, withdrawn.

Main Question put, and agreed to.
Clause read 2°, and added.
Another Clause added.

Further Consideration, as amended, deferred till Thursday.

ARTILLERY RANGES BILL.

COMMITTEE DEFERRED,

Order for Committee read.

SIR GEORGE LEWIS said, he would move that the House go into Committee on the Bill.

AMENDMENT BILL.

[BILL NO. 134.] COMMITTEE.
Order for Committee read.
Bill considered in Committee.
Clauses agreed to.

SIR GEORGE LEWIS said, that the number of bullets fired into the Volunteer butts was so large that the practice prevailed among boys and others to disturb the soil, in order to get at the bullets. Much injury to the butts was caused by these trespassers; and as the criminal law did not reach the offence, he wished to propose an additional clause, imposing, on summary conviction, a penalty not exceeding £5 for the offence. Clause agreed to.

House resumed.

Bill reported; to be considered To

morrow.

House adjourned at half after Twelve o'clock.

HOUSE OF LORDS,

Tuesday, June 3, 1862. MINUTES.]-PUBLIC BILLS.-1a Highways; Education of Pauper Children.

3 Peace Preservation (Ireland); Local Government Supplemental.

Royal Assent.-Customs and Inland Revenue; Bills of Exchange (Ireland) Act (1861) Amendment; Limerick Markets; North Devon Railway and Dock; Rathmines and Rathgar Improvement; Queenstown Improvement; Bristol and Exeter and Chard and Taunton Railways; East London Water; Berwick-upon-Tweed Harbour; South Molton Corporation; Barnsley Local Board of Health; Leeds New Gas; Brean Down Harbour, &c.; Bristol Water; Falmouth Water; Tendring Hundred Railway; Bollington (Prestbury) Improvement and Lighting; Trammere Improvement; Dublin and Meath Railway; Dundee and Perth and Aberdeen Railway Junction and Dundee and Newtyle Railway; Uxbridge and Rickmansworth Railway; Leadburn, Linton, and Dolphinton Railway; London and South-western Railway (Additional Powers); Dundee Water; Kent Water; Frosterley and Stanhope Railway; Carlisle and Silloth Bay Railway and Dock; Edgware, Highgate, and London Railway; North British Railway and Carlisle and

Silloth Bay Railway and Dock Companies North British Railway and Port Carlisle Dock and Railway Companies; North British Railway (Monktonball and Ormiston, and Dalkeith Branches); Dublin (Borough) Fire Brigade, &c.; Leeds Water; Edinburgh Roads and Streets; Halifax Corporation; Stockton and Darlington Railway (Towlaw and Crook); Deaf and Dumb Poor Asylum; Dollow and Kilmore Commons Inclosure.

THE SLAVE TRADE-TREATY WITH THE UNITED STATES.

OBSERVATIONS.

LORD BROUGHAM said, he regretted the absence of the noble Lord the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, as he wished to put a question to him in reference to an opinion which, he said the other evening, had been given by the law officers of the Crown, to the effect that the Slave Trade Abolition Act did not make it a felony to fit out a foreign vessel in a British port for the slave trade. If that were really the state of the law, not a day ought to be lost in passing some measure to put a stop to that abominable traffic in our ports. Recently a vessel had been fitted out at Liverpool for the slave trade, and had been subsequently captured with 640 slaves on board. He wished to know whether the opinion of the law officers of the Crown, or of other legal authorities to which the noble Lord referred, was given before or after the case of the Nightingale?

EARL GRANVILLE suggested that it would be better for the noble and learned Lord to give notice of his Question for a future day, when the Government would supply him with all the information in their power on the subject.

the old law, as well as provisions for the suppression of the practice of illicit sale of intoxicating liquors. The subject was one on which legislation was urgently needed, and he trusted, that notwithstanding some opposition had been manifested, the measure would be allowed to proceed.

Moved, That the House do now resolve itself into a Committee on the said Bill.

THE EARL OF AIRLIE said, he thought it inconvenient and unbusiness-like to discuss the principle of a Bill and then to go forthwith into a consideration of its clauses upon the same evening. The measure involved a principle of some novelty as regarded Scotland. It gave very arbitrary powers to magistrates to relax the rules of evidence, imposed on the police the duty of reporting against the keepers of public-houses, and afforded the keepers of those houses very scanty opportunity of rebutting the charges that might be made against them. Mr. Munroe, the town clerk of Glasgow, and Mr. Smart, the superintendent of police in that city, had furnished him with evidence tending to show that the very stringent provisions included in the Bill were not necessary. He did not desire to obstruct the measure; but he believed that if a little further time were given for its consideration before proceeding with the discussion of its clauses, it might be passed this Session in a much more perfect shape. He begged, therefore, to move that the House resolve itself into Committee on the Bill on Friday, the 13th of June.

Amendment moved, to leave out "now," and insert." on the 13th instant."

THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH hoped the noble Earl would not divide the House against going into Committee that night. Their Lordships generally were, he believed, as ready to enter into the discussion of the provisions of the Bill now as they would be a fortnight hence. The measure was the same in principle as Home Drummond's Act, and it merely sought to amend the defects which had crept into the details of the existing law.