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122 ®f> * yLtattet. [Saturday,
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PARLIAMENT.
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HISTORY OP THE WEEK. Among the earliest ...
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Ceaseless As The Movements Of The Ground...
tional position . The Archbishop of Turin in vain urges the parish priests of his diocese to protest against and impede the civil authority . The Sardinian Government seizes his circular , and threatens to prosecute him ; he is obliged to retire to his country seat to escape the exasperation of the people . The days of the Papacy are numbered , Spain seems sunk in degradation , A military Mother rule
adventurer and an intriguing Queen a hopeless people . In the Palace is nothing but intrigue and scandal—too vile even for comment $ beyond the palace walls intrigue of party against party , imbecility and shainelessness . No man capable of even pointing to a better future . Keep down the last exposure , and so wear on—that seems to be the sole policy . So little of even the shadow of freedom remains , that the Clamor
Publico of Madrid abandons political writing , since no fewer than six actions are pending against it , and it is seized almost daily at the Post-office for the slightest expression against the " Government . " No further news from Greece , though it was prematurely reported that the affair was arranged by the payment of 60 , 000 drachmas and an apology . A change of Ministers is spoken of in Turkey . The Erfurt players have adjourned . Rumours multiply of coming conferences of crowned heads , doubtless to put down what his restored Holiness
calls the "hydra of anarchy" : they too , perhaps , referring to the " kingdom of France , " Pio Nono unhappily phrases it . Men begin to think whether the immense armaments gathering in the East can be only for the pacification of Germany . Are the Cossacks again looking across the Rhine ? Certainly the French Government does not fear their coming . May the French people have as little need to fear them ! The future looks gloomy . All things seem tending towards a second great crisis .
122 ®F> * Yltattet. [Saturday,
122 ® f > * yLtattet . [ Saturday ,
Parliament.
PARLIAMENT .
History Op The Week. Among The Earliest ...
HISTORY OP THE WEEK . Among the earliest business in the House of Commons , on Monday , was a question respecting the rights of British subjects abroad . Jvlr . Cockburn asked for information respecting the assumed right of the authorities of Charleston to go on board any British vessel in the harbour , to seize any persons of colour ' whom they may find in the vessel , and imprison them during the whole time that the vessel remains there . Lord PalHerston said , the subject had been brought under the notice of Government some years Hgo , and in 1847 a note had been presented to the Government of the United States remonstrating against such a law as inconsistent with the usual established courtesy of nations , and at variance
with certain parts of the treaty of 1815 . The answer , made verbally , and not in writing , by Mr . Buchanan , then American Secretary for Foreign Affairs , was , that the Federal Government had no powers to induce the Legislature of the Carolinas to abolish the state law ; and that , if the British Government insisted upon a strict interpretation of the treaty of 1815 , the Federal Government of the United States , finding the question not merely difficult , but impossible to be dealt with , would be forced to take advantage of the clause enabling either party , after due notice , to put an end to the treaty . Under these circumstances our Government did not think that any advantage would come from pressing the matter .
The Government bill to amend the law relating to Savings' Banks was introduced by Sir Charles "Wood on Monday evening , in a long speech , in ¦ which he took a glance at the rise and progress of these institutions , pointed out the defects of the present law , and explained the alterations which he intends to make . It is not much more than thirty years since those societies were recognized by the Legislature , and little more than forty years since they were first formed . The society at Tottenham may be taken as a fair specimen of what these institutions were at first . In that case six benevolent individuals undertook to receive the savings of the labouring classes , and to pay five per cent , for them , each person being responsible for £ 100 ; if more
were deposited than £ 600 they were to add another trustee for every £ 100 . They appointed the trustees as they plea « ed , and invested the deposits as they pleased , on condition of paying interest for them . In 1817 a bill was passed to prohibit the trustees from receiving any profits , and to allow the investment of the deposits in the public funds . In 1 S 24 a new act was passed , which rendered it imperative on the trustees to transmit the whole of the money invested in the savings' banks to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the interest on the National Debt ; from that time , therefore , Government became responsible for all the money transmitted to them . By another act pwRsed in 18 * 28 the amount , of deposits , which had been hitherto unlimited , was fixed nt a certain amount , and at the same time the rate of interest was
reduced from £ 4 It * . 3 d . per Sent ., to £ 3 16 s ., and in 1814 it was again reduced to £ 3 5 s . As regards the liability of trustees , the act of 1828 restricted it to instances ot neglect or omission on their part ; but , in 1844 , their liability was entirely removed . The present position of a savings' bank is , that the trustees -have merely to get their rules certified by the proper functionary , and to furnish annual accounts to the National Debt Commissioners ; who are responsible only for the sums the trustees may remit to them . In many cases the actuary or secretary receives deposits at his awn house ; and it is said that nearly all the losses which have occurred have been owing to this departure from the strict rule .
The mode by which the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposes to give increased security to deposits in savings banks is this . The appointment of the treasurers will be vested in the Commissioners for the reduction of the National Debt—local bankers to be generally chosen . The treasurer thus appointed will either have to attend himself , or to send a clerk to be present at the appointed hours on which the savings' bank is open ; and all money must be paid directly to him by the depositors , or to the depositors by him ; the receipt of any money by anv other personor at any other place than the savings
, bank , will be deemed illegal , and any other officer of the institution who receives money shall be guilty of a misdemeanour . As a check upon the management , the treasurer will be required to furnish a . daily statement of the tranactions of the bank , and the National Debt Commissioners shall have power at any time to send down a person to test the accuracy of the accounts of any particuar bank by comparing the number of the passbooks with the ledger . As regards the rate of interest on deposits , which is at present £ 2 18 s . 4 d . per cent ., it will be reduced to £ 2 15 s . This reduction is required
to protect the country from loss , as the rate of interest hitherto paid on deposits has been so much higher than was obtained by the Commissioners on the same amount when invested in the national securities . During the last thirty-two years the loss to the country from this cau * e has been £ 2 , 000 , 000 . The amount of deposits from one person is not to exceed £ 100 , and when they reach that sum , the payment of interest will cease ; but should the parties wish it , the £ 100 thus invested , will be invested in the funds , where they will obtain the market rate of interest on those securities ; so that the savings' bank depositor will thus be converted into a fundholder without any expense , and may then sell the amount at any time , or enable any person to receive the interest for him .
As regards friendly societies it is proposed that no farther investment shall be made by them directly with the National Debt Commissioners , except in payment of insurances already made . In the case of new societies the investments shall take place through savings' banks . The privilege of investing in the name of trustees , which has been much abused , will be limited . No person shall be allowed to invest money as a trustee , except on behalf of lunatics or idiots . Money may , of course , be invested on behalf of minors , but in that case it must be invested in their name , and not in that of the parents . The power of purchasing Government annuities will be greatly extended . The minimum instead of being £ 4 , as at present , will be reduced to £ 1 , and the depositor having paid in sufficient for a £ 1 ann unity , may go on adding to it until it has reached a £ 30 annuity , beyond which the operation is not allowed to go .
In the discussion which took place after Sir Charles Wood had made his statement , there was a very general expression of opinion in favour of Government ' s making good the losses of depositors by the late mismanagement of the Rochdale , Aylesbury , Scarborough , and other savings' banks . Mr . Hume , Mr . Sharman Crawford , Mr . Fagan , Mr . Slaney , Colonel Thompson , and Mr . Henry Herbert , ail spoke in favour of Government doing so . In reply to a question from Mr . Grogran the Chancellor of the Exchequer said the present annual limit of £ 30 would not be altered . Mr . Slaney complained that the limit of deposits was to be reduced from £ 150 to £ 100 . The motion for leave to bring in the bill was put and carried without a division , and the Attorney-General proposed as the member to bring it in .
Sir George Grey moved the second reading of the Ecclesiastical Commission Bill , and explained the character of the new measure . The chief feature appears to be the appointment of a smaller working body within the commission , to be called the Estates Committee . This will consist of three persons ; one to be appointed by the Crown , as chairman , with a salary of £ 1200 a year ; one by the Archbishop of Canterbury , at £ 1000 a year ; and a third by the Crown , to receive no salary . These three
commissioners shall not be enabled finally to decide , but must report to the full commission . Their recommendations , however , will be virtually final , in most cases , from the weight they will carry . Among other provisions of the bill , it proposes to enable the commissioners to make the income of the Bishops and Archbishops fixed , instead of fluctuating . To consolidate the two funds , the Common and the Ecclesiastical Funds , making them applicable to all purposes for the good of the Church ; and to augment the salaries of certain deaneries from £ 1000 to
£ 1500 . The result of the proposed change in the constitution of the commission , us shown by Mr . Housman , will be , that the exqf / icio members of the board will he virtually superseded by paid and responsible persons . But , as there will be only two paid commissioners , of whom one will bo the nominee of the
Archbishop of Canterbury ,-removable at his pleasure * and as the whole of the Bishops will still remain at the board , the public will gain nothing by the change . Now , as the Ecclesiastical Commission is formed entirely for the management of temporal and secular affairs , there is no more reason -why there should be Bishops at the board than there is that they should be at the Board of Admiralty or any other public commission . It may be said that the Church ought to guard its own property . But what is the Church ? The Church is not the Bishops , but the laity ; it is they who compose its members , its
life , its strength . The Church has not to be guarded against the people , but against Bishops and Ecclesiastical Commissioners . Besides , in an age like the present , Bishops have something else to do than attend to the management of property . Th s is an age of active speculation . Christianity has to encounter many active enemies , to defend itself against the assaults of active and acute intellects , and to revive and kindle faith in an age peculiarly unsusceptible of belief . These are not times when easy , good-natured , benevolent , irreproachable gentlemen duties of
are likely to perform the required them as Bishops ; nor is it good for the Church that men styled Fathers in God should be seen busily engrossed with worldly affairs , vigilant of Church property , and stubbornly tenacious of Churrh rank and episcopal emoluments—asserting the divine institution of episcopacy , but regardless of its duties—not visiting the sick , not consoling the dying , not preaching the Word , not disseminating the faith among the people , nor exhibiting the example of men indifferent to the pomp and wealth of this world and living for another : —
A Bishop ought not to grasp at temporalities — he ought not to be absent the one-half of the year from his diocese to show his expertness as a senator , nor the other half the . year in a country palace , in which he is unapproachable by any but the aristocracy . Nor is it any part of his office to hold large estates , and to farm them out under a ruinous system of fines on leases , for the purpose of extracting an immediate provision for his family , to the ultimate impoverishment of the Church . It is not necessary that the Bishop should be a Peer of Parliamentnominated absolutely by the Ministers under
, the strong temptation of postponing the interests of the Church to the interests of party . When the Parliament , the People , and the Clergy swell the national cry , and the Government is prepared to give way to the national demand , it is not the part nor the character of a good Bishop to outrage the common sentiment by brandishing a majority of episcopal votes in the Minister ' s face , and warning him that he holds the passage of the House of Lords , and is determined upon defeating any measure in which the spiritual necessities of the Church are more cared for than the temporalities of the Bishops . "
The discussion was enlivened by a personal attack which Mr . Goulburn made upon Mr . Horsman , whom he taunted with having been disappointed of a situation in the Cabinet , to which he was aspiring . Mr . Osborne did not think such an attack came well from a man who , ever since he came into that House , had been tied like a tin kettle to the tail of the Member for Tamworth ; and who , whenever the honourable Baronet crossed the floor of the House , still followed rattling at his tail . Sir Robert Inglis was astonished to hear such low language applied by
him to the member for Cambridge , " his superior every respect—in station—in talent—in temper—and in eloquence . " Mr . Horsman would not bandy epithets with Mr . Goulburn , but he might remind him that at last election he was only saved by the magnanimity of his opponents . The debate on Mr . Henley ' s motion , on Tuesday evening , in favour of a reduction of official salaries , was not calculated to promote the objects of the Protectionist party . Looking merely at the terms of his motion there was nothing in it which differed materially from a Radical motion on the same subject . He merely asked : —
" That an humble address be presented to her Majesty , humbly to request that she will be graciously pleased to direct that a careful revision be made of the salaries and wages paid in every department of the public service , wiih a view to a just and adequate reduction thereof , due regard being had to the efficient performance of the several duties . " In favour of this motion , Mr . Henley urged the great and general reduction which has taken place in the luxuries and necessaries of life . Comparing 1828 with 1849 the reduction in the following articles has been—on bread , corn , beer , hay , straw , woollens , furniture , and ironmongery , 20 per cent . ; on
groceries , hosiery , and fuel , 25 per cent . ; on cotton , ou per cent . ; on linen , 16 per cent . ; on beef und mutton , 17 per cent . From public documents also it appeared that of late years the people of this country were suffering great distress . In proof of this he pom tea to the immense increase in the numbers of emigrants , and the great increase of criminals as compared with the population . He thought therefore that it was the duty of Government to take prompt measures to reduce the national expenditure , with the view of affording relief to the suffering classes , and tins might be done by a general reduction of official salaries , whereby , according to his showing , at least £ 1 , 000 , 000 might be saved annually .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 4, 1850, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04051850/page/2/
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