The subject of a sinecure office in the Archdiocese of Canterbury has attracted some attention. It seems that the emoluments of the office of Register of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, have been from £9000 to £12,000 per annum, and that the office itself is a sinecure. The usage has been, that the archbishop for the time being should nominate the incumbent of the office and two successors. Archbishop Moore appointed his two sons, and they in succession held the office. Dr. Manners Sutton appointed his grandson, the present Lord Canterbury, to the reversion of the office—that grandson being then ten or twelve years old. The late Dr. Howley made a communication to the government, that, in the conscientious fulfillment of his duty he could not fill up the reversion of this sinecure when it became vacant in 1845; and it remained vacant at his death. When Dr. Sumner, the present archbishop, succeeded, he found the reversion of the office vacant, and immediately filled it up, by appointing his son, a young gentleman studying in the Temple. Lord John Russell stated that the matter was under inquiry and that the office would either be abolished or greatly altered.—The general subject of reducing the salaries and wages paid in every department of the public service, has also been discussed. The general sentiment seemed to be that the servants of government were not overpaid, and the motion for an address upon the subject was negatived.
While the bill for the government of the Australian Colonies was up, an amendment was submitted to deprive the Colonial office of all interference with the local administration of the colonies, and to give them the uncontrolled management of their own affairs. Sir W. Molesworth, who moved the amendment, closed a speech in support of it by saying that there was a striking analogy between the government of the United States and that which ought to be the system of government in their colonial empire. "For," he said, "the United States form a system of states clustered round a central republic; our colonial empire ought to be a system of colonies clustered round the hereditary monarchy of England. The hereditary monarchy should possess the powers of government, with the exception of that of taxation, which the central republic possesses. If it possessed less, the empire would cease to be one body politic; if it continue to possess more, the colonies will be discontented at the want of self-government, and on the first occasion will imitate their brethren in America." The motion was negatived by 165 to 42. This vote is important as an indication of the sentiment of Parliament in regard to Colonial government.—A motion to form an ecclesiastical Constitution for the Australian Colonies was defeated.
The bill reducing the franchise required to constitute a Parliamentary voter in Ireland to £8, has been passed. The discussion of this bill, and the action upon it, is important as showing the tendency of public sentiment in England toward a greater infusion of the democratic element into the government. The bill was opposed expressly upon the ground of its democratic tendencies by Lord Bernard, Mr. Napier, Lord Jocelyn, Mr. Disraeli, and others, and its principal supporters were Mr. Shell, Sir James Graham, and Lord John Russell. Sir James Graham's speech was remarkable for the broad ground on which he supported the measure; alluding to the objection that the bill would unduly enlarge the constituent body, he said, "I do not object to it on that ground. I must say, considering the increase of the democratic element in our institutions, that I see the greatest danger in erecting an immense superstructure upon a narrow electoral basis. Sir, if that superstructure can not stand upon an extended electoral basis, I am sure that a narrow basis can not long sustain it. On principle, therefore, I can not object to this bill as it extends that basis. Allusion has been made to what has lately been witnessed elsewhere, and I think it is not good policy to neglect examples which are patent and before our eyes. If I were to mention what in my humble judgment was the immediate cause of the fall of the kingly power of Louis Philippe, it would be, that he attempted to maintain the semblance of representative government with a constituent body, which, as compared with the great bulk of the population, was dangerously narrow, and utterly inadequate. What was the consequence? A tumult arose in the metropolis, and the government was overthrown without a struggle. His power was buried in this ruin; and the consequence has been, that for the last two years the nation has been plunged into anarchy, and property and life have been rendered insecure. But what is the return of the wave, and the reaction from that state of things following the universal extension of the suffrage in France? The return is a desire to base the suffrage, restricted as compared with universal suffrage, on household suffrage, on permanent residence, and the payment of local taxation. And, I am sure that that is a safe basis on which to rest the franchise." These remarks were loudly cheered throughout. The result of the division was that the third reading was carried by 254 to 186, and the bill passed.
Other questions not directly political, but involving interests of importance, have been brought in various ways into discussion, of which we find a summary notice in the "Household Narrative." The Metropolitan Interments bill has made no further progress in the House of Commons. Lord Ashley has withdrawn his opposition to the government proposal for giving practical efficacy to the Ten Hours Act; and all the more rational of the Ten Hours champions have signified acquiescence in the compromise. When the bill shall have passed, factories will be worked from six to six on five days in the week, and between six and two on Saturdays, with perfect leisure after two on the latter day, and with an hour and a half for meals and leisure on each of the former. A measure not less interesting to masses of the most industrious part of the population, is the scheme for securing more direct responsibility in the management of Savings Banks, and for extending the power of government to grant annuities and life assurances of small amounts through the medium of those institutions, which is now before the House of Commons for discussion. Various projects of law reform have been started. A commission has been issued, preparatory to a reform of the system of special pleading. Lord Campbell has introduced a bill to simplify criminal pleadings, and prevent the lamentable and too notorious defects of justice on small technical points; the same dignitary has declared, in judgment on a case in the Queen's Bench, that the intervention of an attorney is not essential in the employment of a barrister, but that the latter may receive his instructions directly from the party to the suit. A spirited attempt is in progress, by Mr. Keogh, to reform the Ecclesiastical Courts in Ireland; and the Lord High Chancellor Cottenham has issued a series of orders which will have the effect of dispensing, in a large class of suits, with the formality of bill and answer, and of providing for the reference to the master, on a mere observance of certain very simple forms. A motion to repeal the advertisement duty was lost, 208 to 39. A motion to inquire into the sanitary condition of the journeymen bakers was negatived, 90 to 44. A bill, the principal object of which was to place in the hands of the Board of Commissioners the regulation of all the Irish fisheries, was lost by a majority of 197 to 37. A bill proposing to allow railway companies to buy waste lands on the margins of their railways and establish cemeteries on them, was thrown out by 123 to 4. Lord John Russell has introduced a bill to abolish the Viceregal Office in Ireland. The bill gives power to the Queen to abolish the office by order in Council; to appoint a fourth Secretary of State, chargeable, like the others, with any of the functions of a Secretary of State, but in practice with Irish affairs: some of the functions of the Lord Lieutenant will be transferred to the Secretary for the Home Department, others be given to Her Majesty in Council. The Lord Chancellor of Ireland will be President of the Privy Council in Ireland. The bill was opposed by several Irish members, but leave was given to bring it in by 107 to 13.
An official correspondence on the intention of Ministers to issue a Royal Commission of inquiry into the state and revenues of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge has appeared in the newspapers. Lord John Russell, after announcing the Ministerial intention in his place in Parliament, wrote to the Chancellor of the two Universities "to explain the views of her Majesty's confidential servants in recommending this measure to her Majesty's approbation." His letter is now published; and the other portion of the correspondence given to the public, is the letter of the Duke of Wellington to the authorities of the University of Oxford, requesting them to take the Premier's letter into consideration, and give him the assistance of their opinions in a report; and the report of the University authorities rendered in compliance with that request. Lord John Russell, in his letter, after alluding briefly to the legality of the Commission, puts forward the following general considerations: "No one will now deny, that in the course of three centuries the increase of general knowledge, the growth of modern literature, the discoveries of physical and chemical science, have rendered changes in the course of study at our national Universities highly expedient. The Universities themselves have acknowledged this expediency, and very large reforms of this nature have been adopted both at Oxford and at Cambridge. These improvements, so wisely conceived, reflect the highest credit on those learned bodies." He then proceeds to state the general line of the limitations of the proposed action of the government, saying that it is not to obstruct, but only to facilitate the changes and improvements already in progress. Both the Universities have warmly protested against the Commission.
Preparations for the Industrial Exhibition of 1851 continue to be made. It is stated that about £50,000 has been subscribed toward the grand Industrial Exhibition, and nearly 200 local committees formed to promote. A project has been started to connect with it a religious congress of the Christians of all nations. To questioning in Parliament, it has been answered by the Minister that no government supply was contemplated beyond the expenses of the Royal Commission. The various German Powers have united, and the Commission in London has apportioned 100,000 square feet of space to the service of the German exhibitors generally, 60,000 square feet being reserved for the States of the Zoll-Verein 30,000 for Austria, and 10,000 for the North German States and the Hanse Towns.
The transactions of the London Scientific Societies for the month present nothing worthy of record. The Zoological Society has received a new and valuable collection of animals, and among them the first live hippopotamus ever brought to Europe.—Letters from Mr. Layard, who is prosecuting his researches in the East, have been received to the 18th of March, in which he mentions the Arab reports of remarkable antiquities in the desert of Khabour, which have never been visited by European footsteps, and toward the exploration of which he was just setting out, with an escort of Arab Sheiks and their followers, in all, to the number of seventy or eighty in company. During his absence on this new track, the excavations at Nimrood are to be continued by the parties employed on that work, which has recently furnished interesting acquisitions to Mr. Layard's collection. One important inscription is mentioned, and more winged-lions and bulls.
The Times has an account of a new invention for extinguishing fires, the work of Mr. Phillips—the agent used being a mixture of gas and vapor. A public experiment was made with it, at which a compartment of a large open building, quite twenty feet high inside, was fitted up with partitions and temporary joisting of light wood, well soaked with pitch and turpentine, and overhung besides with rags and shavings soaked in the like manner. The torch was applied to this erection, and the flames, which ascended immediately, at length roared with a vehemence which drove the spectators back to a distance of forty feet, and were already beyond the power of water. The inventor then brought forward one of his hand machines, and threw out a volume of gaseous vapor, which in half a minute entirely suppressed all flame and combustion; and to show that the vapor which now filled the space was quite innoxious, Mr. Phillips mounted into the loft, and passed and repassed through the midst of it with a lighted candle in his hand. The machine with which this effect was accomplished, was rather larger than a good sized coffee-pot, and consisted of three tin cases, one within another, and mutually communicating. There was a small quantity of water in the bottom of the machine, and in the centre case was a composite cake, of the size and color of peat, containing in the middle of it a phial of sulphuric acid and chlorate of potash. In order to put the machine into action this phial is broken, and a gaseous vapor is generated so rapidly and in such quantity that it immediately rushes out from a lateral spout with great impetuosity Mr. Phillips explained that a machine of any size could be made according to the purpose for which it was intended.
Some recent experiments on light, in Paris, have attracted a good deal of attention in the scientific circles. M. Foucault is said to have practically demonstrated that light travels less rapidly through water than through air, though he made his experiments with instruments devised by M. Arago, and mainly under his direction. The importance of the discovery may be judged of from the fact that for the last twelve years M. Arago has been pondering over it, and on the means of effecting it.