the welfare of the people, ought not to be lightly passed over, and he desired to hear further explanation. MR. KENDALL said, he believed that the evil was owing to the practice which existed in some Unions of ordering poor persons to attend for vaccination on particular days in the week. The parties did not come, and so the thing was neglected. MR. WILSON said, he had no doubt the Act of 1853 was beneficial, and last year several hon. Members pointed out its great utility. At the same time he did not deny that improvements might be made in it. The 300l. to which the right hon. Baronet (Sir J. Pakington) alluded, consisted of a fee of 100l. each to the three eminent medical men who had been named. There was an Annual Report from the institution which afforded every information, but he had never before heard its utility called in question. MR. BRADY said, he did not find fault with the institution. All he said was, that it was not sufficient, and that the country was deceived in supposing they had an effective vaccine institution. doubtedly have a claim for similar aid. The building referred to by the hon. Gentleman was the property of the Board of Ordnance. It became necessary to sell it, and of course the Board was bound to get the highest price for it. The parochial authorities had competed for the purchase with the charitable institution. SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE said, he wished to know if the Government would extend the principle of contributions to institutions that received female prisoners on their discharge from gaol to all institutions of that nature? MR. WILSON said, no general rule had been adopted; the present Vote depended on the peculiar circumstances of the case. Vote agreed to. (63.) 4,200l., for Polish refugees and distressed Spaniards. SIR WILLIAM JOLLIFFE said, he wished to know what was the decrease in the Vote for this year, and by what department the fund was distributed? MR. WILSON said that the Vote, which was formerly very large, had been transferred from the civil contingencies in 1843. Some five or six years ago the House resolved that there should be no further therefore cease when the present recipients died off. There was no diminution this year, as none had died within the year. The fund was distributed by trustees. Vote agreed to. MR. HENLEY said, small-pox last year had raged like a pestilence; and therefore they had grave reason for doubting whe-charge made in respect of it: it would ther the operation of vaccination was efficiently performed under the present system. He did not believe they wanted more Acts of Parliament. What they wanted was, adequate remuneration to medical men. If medical men were paid properly for doing their duty, vaccination would not be performed in so hasty a manner, and the poor people would be more ready to avail themselves of it. Vote agreed to. (62.) 3251., Refuge for the Destitute. MR. COWAN said, he wished to draw attention to the unfair manner in which Edinburgh had been treated with respect to this Vote. While a pecuniary grant was made to the institution in London, a similar one in the northern capital had actually been compelled to purchase, or promise to purchase, for 5,000l., a building belonging to the State, in which its inmates (400 in number) had been lodged for years. He doubted the propriety of these eleemosynary Votes altogether. MR. WILSON said, he must explain that the 3251. was paid to the institution on account of twenty-five women, who had been admitted into the Institution, on being discharged from prison. If the Edinburgh institution had similar cases it would un (64.) 4,371., Miscellaneous Charges formerly on Civil List. SIR JOHN PAKINGTON said, there was an omission in the Estimates of a Vote which ought to be included, as formerly, in the Colonial Estimates. He had last year called attention to the peculiar and painful position in which the Bishop of New Zealand was placed, which was acknowledged by the Government, who granted him an income for the year. The right hon. Baronet (Sir G. Grey) also wrote a despatch to the colonial Government of New Zealand, expressing a hope that the Parliament of New Zealand would pass a Vote for the support of the bishop from the colonial funds. He understood that this hope had been altogether frustrated, and that the Legislature had met and been dissolved without having passed any such Vote. In March last the term for which the income had been granted, expired, and the bishop was now without any income whatever to compensate him for his services as Bishop of New Zealand. WAYS AND MEANS. On the Order of the Day for going into Committee of Ways and Means, He now begged to appeal to the noble Lord (Lord J. Russell), as he had done to his right hon. predecessor, and he would remind the noble Lord that he was the Minister who, twelve or fourteen years ago, appointed the Bishop of New Zealand, and entered into the arrangements made on his appointment. He trusted that the noble Lord would keep faith with the bishop, and, either by a Colonial Vote, or, if that could not be obtained, by a Vote of that House, would take care that no breach of faith was committed towards that exemplary prelate. LORD JOHN RUSSELL said, he would inquire into the circumstances of the case, and would inform the right hon. Gentleman and the House of the opinion that the Government might entertain upon it. Vote agreed to; House resumed. Resolved, "That whenever The House shall be informed of the unavoidable Absence of Mr. SPEAKER, the Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means do take the Chair for that day only. "And, in the event of Mr. SPEAKER's Absence continuing for more than one day, do, if the House shall think fit, and shall so order it, take the Chair in like manner, on any subsequent day during such Absence." Whereupon MR. FITZROY, the Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, took the Chair. VOL. CXXXVIII. [THIRD SERIES.] THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER said, that in moving the postponement of the Committee till Wednesday, he would take the liberty of making a short statement to the House in reference to a Bill which stood in his name with respect to the duties on spirits. The House would probably be aware that, as that Bill now stood, it was proposed to extend the drawback on malt spirits to England and Ireland as well as to Scotland. The present state of the law with respect to the drawback on malt spirits had given rise to considerable dissatisfaction, and had been the subject of examination by several Committees of that House. He would not trouble the House with the result of these investigations, and he was conscious that, though the Bill he intended to introduce would be an improvement upon the existing law, it would not finally and satisfactorily settle the question. He had considered a plan for permitting the distillation of spirits from malt in bond, the effect of which would be that, instead of the duty being paid in the first instance, no duty would be charged on malt, and spirits would be distilled without any previous imposition of duty upon the premises of the distiller. In order to adjust the plan properly it would be necessary to make a small addition to the existing duty, there being by the present arrangement an allowance of 2d. for the duty on malt used in all species of distillation. If the House should be pleased to give their consent to the Bill on the table, he should be disposed in the course of the present Session to introduce a Bill embodying the change to which he had adverted, so as to enable the alteration of the law to take effect some time during the year. He believed this explanation would be satisfactory to gentlemen connected with the trade, who were at present watching the Bill now before the House, and would relieve their apprehensions with regard to any measures that might be proposed by Government. MR. MACARTNEY said, that on the part of the Irish Members and Irish distillers, he considered the statement of the right hon. Gentleman was most satisfactory. MR. ALEXANDER HASTIE said, he had heard the proposition of the Chancellor of the Exchequer with very great satisfaction, and was certain that it would meet with the approval of the Scotch distillers. I He believed it would prove beneficial to the revenue, and stop illicit distillation. He hoped the promised Bill would be introduced in time to pass both Houses during the present Session. MR. HANKEY said, it was his intention of asking to-morrow if the right hon. Gentleman proposed to make a similar concession in favour of sugar. Motion agreed to. He held in his hand statements with regard to the effects which had been produced in the City of London by the cleansing of those places which were the chief causes of disease in the metropolis, and by the use of deodorising and purifying appliances. The practical result of the course pursued was that the mortality of the City was, under the energetic superintendence of Mr. Seymour, the officer of health under the corporation, reduced from one-twentieth to one-fiftieth part of the mortality of the whole metropolis. Under these circumstances, what he desired was to bring in a Bill, first, to enable the Commissioners of Sewers to apply a sum not exceeding 25,000l., which would, it was thought, be sufficient to put in a tolerably safe state some 5,000 houses, where there was every reason to fear many deaths, if not from cholera, from some other epidemic, would otherwise occur during the approaching hot season; and, secondly, to remove some which at present prevented the application of the provisions inserted in the Metropolitan Sewers Act to meet this numerous and distressing class of cases. He was convinced that the sum which he proposed should be expended would be speedily recovered. If the palliative measure which he now proposed were adopted, the effect would, he believed, be to save thousands of lives; and if nothing of the sort were done-if they allowed themselves there, as they had done in the case of Balaklava, to be enslaved by routine-and if, in consequence, no precautionary measure were adopted, he should have the melancholy satisfaction of having devolved on the Government the responsibility of preventible deaths. SEWERS (HOUSE DRAINAGE) Bill. VISCOUNT EBRINGTON moved for leave to bring in a Bill to empower the Commissioners of Sewers to expend on house drainage a certain sum out of the moneys borrowed by them on the security of the rates, and also to give to the said Commissiouers certain other powers for the same purpose. He had, some time since, moved for Returns which showed that the house drainage of the metropolis was in a most imperfect and unsatisfactory condition. There were in London some of the legal and technical obstructions 300,000 houses, about 4-5ths of which had most defective basement arrangements, and in many cases, where new and expensive sewers had been constructed in the streets, the cesspools of comparatively few houses communicated with those sewers. This was particularly the case in Seven Dials, in Berwick Street, and in Great Pulteney Street-a district the inhabitants of which had been almost decimated during the last visitation of the cholera. He considered that the battle against the cholera must be fought, not so much upon the banks of the Thames as in the houses, and they had only about six weeks, during which works could be carried on before that fearful epidemic might again break out and devastate this City. To illustrate the benefits which were derivable from house drainage, he would refer to the case of Lambeth Square, situated on the south side of the Thames. In that square the cholera committed fearful ravages in 1848. In the autumn of 1852, proper conveniences were provided, and a good supply of water was secured, at an expense altogether of 51. or 6l. per house. From that time to the present not a single life had been lost through cholera, though the whole of the neighbourhood had suffered severely, and the houses which previously let at 261. a year had since been eagerly taken at 281. Experience showed that even where there was not time to carry out a proper system of drainage, much good might be done in the same direction. SIR JOHN SHELLEY said, he had no wish to oppose the introduction of the Bill, but he must remind his noble Friend that the money in the hands of the Commissioners of Sewers was raised for the specific purpose of carrying out arterial drainage. Moreover, until he saw the Bill, he of course could not tell how his noble Friend proposed to invest the Commissioners with the power of entering private dwellings, until some one had complained of a nuisance. VISCOUNT EBRINGTON said, he fully intended that the money should be recoverable. The measure was to be viewed entirely as one having reference to an emergency. Leave given. Bill ordered to be brought in by Viscount EBRINGTON and Mr. MONTAGU CHAM BERS. Bill read 1°. tude of which could scarcely be described without an appearance of exaggeration, and which was at present lowering the character, injuring the habits, and destroy The House adjourned at half after ing the morality of the people of the Eleven o'clock. northern counties of England. He thought he should able to prove satisfactorily to the House that the measure which he now proposed would not interfere in any way with the established principles of the Scotch law that it would not alter the constitution of the marriage law as established in Scotland-and would not render penal or prohibit any act which was not rendered penal or prohibited by the existing law: all he sought was to give effect to the principles of that law, because those principles had in some respects become obsolete, and having become obsolete, it was necessary to renew them in accordance with the forms of modern legislation, in order that the evils he had hinted at might be redressed. According to the present Scotch law, a marriage might be effected in Scotland simply by a declaration of consent in the presence of witnesses. There was not the slightest investigation as to the condition of the parties giving that consent; and the consequence was, that minors, children, boys and girls in their teens, in the north of England, were constantly going over the Border to contract these marriages. There was no inquiry as to whether the parties had been married before or not, and in numberless instances persons were remarried again and again. A strong feeling was entertained in Scotland against marriage with a deceased wife's sister; but, under the present law, a man might marry with perfect impunity, not merely his deceased wife's sister, but his own sister, or the sister of his wife while his wife was living. Many marriages were contracted while the persons contracting them were in a state of intoxication, and had only known each other a few hours before the ceremony took place. No public record was kept, and a man was enabled to desert his wife and children and to leave them chargeable to the parish without the parish having any means of redress against him. He had received numerous letters complaining of the present law; in one of which, from a poor man in one of the Border towns, it was stated that servants on the hiring day, becoming intoxicated, finished the day's carouse by a marriage, which generally only lasted for that term. When the next hiring day came round either the man wanted another woman, or the woman another man. In one town, where the writer of this letter resided, one man had five wives, with whom he had contracted marriages of this description, all of whom were living. Other men in the same town had four, some three, and others two wives. The fact was, that, as soon as any difference occurred, one or other of the parties contracted another marriage. He had also received communications from clergymen and others in the Border counties, all complaining of the evils of the present system, showing how it operated in the several districts, and urging him to proceed with this Bill. As a general rule, it might be said that the irregular marriages to which he referred were contracted principally by the people on the English side of the Border, who crossed over to Scotland for the purpose, and he believed that the fact of the people of Scotland not following the practice to any great extent was to be attributed to the efforts made by the parish ministers to prevent such marriages. According to a statement published by the governor of the General Assembly, the marriages of this description in eighteen parishes, where both parties were resident Scotch, were twenty-five in 1850, twentysix in 1851, and twenty-nine in 1852; of parties one of whom was Scotch, there were eleven in 1850, six in 1851, and fifteen in 1852; and of parties both of whom were English, 1,091 in 1850, 1,093 in 1851, and 1,110 in 1852. It appeared from the report of a committee of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland that, in 1850, 6,207 couples contracted marriage in England before the registrars, while during the same year 1,091 English couples were married on the Scotch Borders; and the committee recommended that, in order to repress the evil, all judges and magistrates should be requested to carry out the Clandestine Marriage Act of 1601. He wished the House to understand that the present Bill would not violate in the slightest degree the principles of the law of Scotland with respect to marriage. According to the Scotch law there were four different forms in which marriage might be contracted. One was by a regular public marriage performed by the Church, which was the mode by which ninety-nine in every hundred were celebrated; the second was by consent before witnesses, which was the mode he wished to prevent; the third was by declaration in the court of session; and the fourth was by cohabitation as man and wife. His measure referred only to marriage by exchange of consent, or the mere declaration of consent in the presence of witnesses. All he proposed to do was to impose penalties upon persons contracting these marriages, and upon public-house keepers and others who made a trade of celebrating such marriages. A Scotch Act of Parliament of 1698 provided that the celebrators of marriages of this description should be punishable by pecuniary fine, by imprisonment, or by banishment; and therefore he was not violating the principle of the Scotch law in proposing to visit similar offences with moderate penalties. The Bill provided that any persons-blacksmiths, innkeepers, toll-gatekeepers, or others-celebrating these clandestine marriages upon the Border should for the first offence be punished by a fine of 107., and, in the event of non-payment, by imprisonment for three months; and for a second offence, which would show that the person charged made a practice of celebrating such marriages, by a fine of 50l., or six months' imprisonment. The Bill would also impose a moderate penalty upon parties who contracted marriages of this kind. He hoped the House would assent to the principle of the Bill, which he believed would have the effect of preventing these clandestine marriages. Motion made and Question proposed, "That the Bill be now read a second time.' THE LORD ADVOCATE agreed with many of the remarks of his hon. and learned Friend, and would admit that the Bill would not make any alteration in the principle of the law of Scotland, but would only increase the penalties which were imposed by the existing law upon parties contracting these irregular marriages. Indeed it was so far from being the case that these irregular marriages were not punishable by the existing law, that one of the most usual modes of preserving a record of such marriages was for parties who had contracted them to go before a justice of the peace to declare their offence, and, having been subjected to the small fine inflicted under the law, to obtain a certificate of the conviction. The object of the hon. and learned Member was, to render a penalty which was now merely nominal a real punishment, and therefore it could not be said the Bill violated the law of Scotland. According to the law of Scotland, marriage was constituted by con |