Court of Bombay against the subjects of Princes in alliance with Her Majesty, ju st in the same way as they are now enforceable against British subjects. Another defect which was brought to light by the judgment I have referred to we also propose to remedy. It turned out that there were no means of taking evidence by commission at the distant places where the offence was committed. If a slave trader is discovered at Zanzibar and sent to Bombay for trial it is almost impossible to send with him the actual witnesses necessary to prove the case. Some may be sent, but all cannot. In the case of British subjects there is a law under which evidence can be taken by commission, and we propose to extend that law by the Bill to the cases with which it deals. Another power we propose to take which, though it is not of very great importance, I think it right to mention. By the existing law all subjects of the Queen committing those offences are tried in the High Court of Bombay, but only Native subjects are tried under the law of England. The result is that the High Court of Bombay has to administer another law in the case of other subjects of the Queen not coming under the denomination of Native Indian subjects. I need not say that there is no difference in substance between the two laws; but there are differences of detail, and inconvenience sometimes arises in the case of persons guilty of the same offence but of dif ward at an earlier period. I postponed doing so, because I hoped the Report of the Royal Commission on the Slave Circular might be in your Lordships' hands before I introduced the Bill, and that I might be certain that in the provisions of the Bill there was nothing that required to be amended in consequence of that Report. The case is this-the slave trade on the coast of Africa had been pointed out by Dr. Livingstone to be in the hands of agents of British Indian subjects. This was not strictly correct. It was in the hands, to some degree, of those who were under British rule; but, speaking more exactly, it was in the hands of the subjects of Native Princes, who are under the protection of the Queen. Until lately it was believed that the laws against the slave trade at Mozambique, Zanzibar, and other places in those seas applied as much against the subjects of Native Princes of India as against those who were under the direct protection of Her Majesty. But in 1874 the case of a Cutchee, the subject of the Rao of Cutch, was brought before the High Court of Bombay. A charge of slave-dealing was preferred against him at the instance of the Consul at Zanzibar; and it appeared by the decision of Mr. Justice Gibbs that the Court had no legal power to try a subject of a Native Prince for offences against the English law; and the result was that he was released. Now, this was an obvious failure of justice. In the case of independent Princes nego-ferent extraction. They are tried under tiations might have been set on foot, and the subjects of those Princes might have been bound by Treaty between the Sultan of Zanzibar and the other Native Princes. But we have bound the Native Princes in alliance with the Queen not to enter into Treaties with foreign Powers. They have surrendered their foreign relations into our hands, and that remedy, therefore, is not practicable; and it is necessary, as you give them protection and undertake all the duties which fall to the Foreign Office with respect to their subjects, to undertake also the duty of punishing them if they commit crimes against the law. The proposal of the Bill, therefore, is to remedy the defect which was discovered by the judgment of Mr. Justice Gibbs, and to enact that the laws against the slave trade-we propose to limit it to that shall be enforceable in the High two different laws, and the Court has to administer a law with which it is not familiar. We propose that all subjects of the Queen in custody in India and tried for the offence of slave dealing shall be tried at Bombay under the Indian Criminal Code. That Code is recited in the Bill, and provision is made for its amendment, should amendment be found necessary. These may seem small provisions to attach importance to; but any person who has studied the subject will know that it was necessary to remedy the defects I have pointed out. If Africa were left to herself the slave trade would very rapidly disappear. The very want of civilization, the very savagery which exposes the populations of that Continent to the ravages of the slave dealer-would cure the evil by preventing the appearance of persons of sufficient enterprize and capi consent of their Rulers might easily be obtained; and unless that consent were given this country had no right to inflict penalties on those subjects, and he would feel bound to offer all the opposition to it in his power. EARL GRANVILLE observed that it would not be convenient at that stage to discuss the provisions of the Bill. From the information the noble Marquess had afforded them he felt convinced that the inclination of the House would be to give the Government all the power they required to carry out the object they had in view. Motion agreed to; Bill read 1a; and to be printed. (No. 135.) LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD'S PROVI tal and skill to carry on those nefarious | zibar, and probably they belonged to operations. The great evil comes from a very small number of States, and the the fact of there being men of a higher stage of civilization, of Arab or Indian extraction, possessed of sufficient knowledge, arms, and organization to enable them to make victims of the helpless populations of Africa. If you reach those men of a superior civilization by the penalties of the law, you will do more to stop the slave trade than you can in any other way; and we who have under our rule, directly or indirectly, 250,000,000 of Orientals, furnish no small contingent of the capitalists-if I may call them so--by whom this traffic is carried on. It is essential that the arm of the law should reach the crime they commit. Especially after the judgment which has been pronounced in Bombay there would be no security for the administration of the law; for not only would you be exposed to slave deal-SIONAL ORDERS CONFIRMATION (BINGLEY, ing on the part of the subjects of the Native Princes, but it would be impossible to distinguish between those who had been born on their soil and ours, which would practically leave the traffic open to the whole of the Indian population. There is one thing I ought to mention-namely, that the Rao did his best to check his subjects in these nefarious operations, but the Court of Bombay was unable to give effect to his Proclamation on the subject. I believe, my Lords, that if this measure be passed, a great and beneficial advance will be made, and that other Sovereigns and Chiefs will be led to give us power to deal with their subjects, and that we shall come nearer and nearer to the object of deterring from this traffic all those races whose superior civilization now enable them to engage in it. The noble Marquess then presented "a Bill for more effectually punishing offences against the laws relating to the Slave Trade," and moved that it be now read the first time. LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEY said, he had no objection to the objects of this Bill; but unless the consent of the various Indian Sovereigns whose subjects it was proposed to punish by the Bill, had been given, the measure would propose to enact that which was contrary to the law of nations and an usurpation. The Bill was apparently intended to operate against the Banyans, who traded principally at Zan The Marquess of Salisbury &c.) BILL [H.L.] (NO. 136.) A Bill to Ulverstone Union: And LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD'S PROVISIONAL ORDERS CONFIRMATION (BILBROUGH, &C.) BILL [H.L.] (NO. 137) A Bill to confirm certain Provisional Orders of the Local Government Board relating to the District of Bilbrough, the Improvement Act Districts of Bournemouth and Cirencester, the Districts of Claylane, Eccleshill, Felting, Nelson, and Normanton, the Improvement Act District of Runcorn, and the Districts of Stowon-the-Wold, Sunderland, and Tormoham : Were presented by The Earl of JERSEY; read 1a; and referred to the Examiners. House adjourned at a quarter past Seven o'clock, till To-morrow, half past Ten o'clock. HOUSE OF COMMONS, Thursday, 22nd June, 1876. MINUTES.]- NEW WRIT ISSUED-For Birmingham, v. George Dixon, esquire, Chiltern Hundreds. SELECT COMMITTEE Employers Liability for Injuries to their Servants, appointed and nominated. PUBLIC BILLS Ordered First Reading- Select Committee-Toll Bridges (River Thames) * Third Reading-Commons [184], and passed. EDINBURGH IMPROVEMENT BILL. [Lords.] (By Order.) SECOND READING. contracts to be made at some future time, it might be considered as not coming within the Standing Order; but he had thought it his duty to call attention to it, lest the door should be opened to a general disregard of the Rules. Having cleared his conscience, and it being impossible for him to make any report on the contract, he had nothing further to say. He did not wish it to be supposed that he was opposing a Bill which was, undoubtedly, calculated to confer great benefits on the City of Edinburgh. MR. M'LAREN said, the House was much indebted to the hon. Chairman of Ways and Means for bringing the subject forward. It appeared that there were large botanical gardens in connection with the Medical School at Edinburgh, and as there were now in the market 30 or 40 acres of land adjoining, this Bill proposed to purchase that land by means of a local Order for Second Reading read. MR. RAIKES said, there were certain matters in the measure to which he, as Chairman of Ways and Means, felt bound to call attention. The Bill proposed certain improvements in the City of Edin-rate. The expenditure would probably burgh-and so far he had nothing to say be £20,000. The Corporation having to it; but Clause 10 proposed that after purchased the land, it was to be handed certain lands had been acquired by the over to the Board of Works and the Corporation they should be made over to Treasury. There had been many pleasant Her Majesty's Commissioners of Public conversations between the Government Works for the purpose of being utilized representatives and the Corporation, and for scientific instruction to the students the latter had been persuaded that if the of the Medical University and others. City of Edinburgh would impose the That was obviously a very excellent ob-rate and purchase the land, the Goject, and one which he would be very sorry in any way to impede; but inasmuch as an arrangement was contem plated which would require some outlay of public money by the Commissioners of Works, the Bill seemed to come within the purview of Standing Order No. 90, which required that in regard to any Bill involving a contract between the Government and some other body, the Chairman of Ways and Means should, three days before the second reading, make a Report of the said contract to the House. He would have been glad to comply with that Standing Order, and to lay the contract on the Table of the House; but, as a matter of fact, that would be a physical impossibility, inasmuch as the contract in question did not yet exist. Had the first part of the Standing Order stood alone it would have been incumbent on him to call for the production of the contract; but it was clear from the second section of the Order that it only referred to contracts already concluded, or at all events contracts in esse, or which it was proposed to conclude immediately. As the Bill referred only to hypothetical vernment would maintain it in all time to come as part of the existing Botanical Gardens. There were many of the inhabitants of Edinburgh, however, who did not like that kind of mere conversational agreement between the local authorities and the representatives of the Government, and they wished the Standing Order to which the hon. Gentleman had referred had been complied with. If the Government meant to keep up these grounds for the benefit of the inhabitants, it should either be clearly set forth in a Schedule to the Bill what they really did intend, or else some Treasury Minute or a Board of Works contract should be produced on the subject. He appealed to the noble Lord the First Commissioner of Works to inform the House definitely as to the terms of the contract into which the Government proposed to enter with the local authorities. At all events, he trusted the inhabitants of Edinburgh would not lay out a single shilling on the purchase of the land until they had a distinct understanding as to the conditions under which it would be taken over by the Government. NAVY-NAVY MEAT.-QUESTION. MR. PLIMSOLL asked the First Lord LORD HENRY LENNOX said, that | considered, and the Board of Trade have the Chairman of Ways and Means had decided to present Captain Gifford with been more than justified in making the a piece of plate of the value of £21. remarks with which he had opened the There was little or no risk, and it is not discussion. There was, however, no con- a case for a medal. The sacrifice of the tract yet existing such as was contem- voyage falls on the owner, unless satisplated by Standing Order No. 90, be- fied by the underwriter. The Board tween the City of Edinburgh and the of Trade are endeavouring to ascertain Office of Works. What was proposed if any compensation should be made. was this-that if the Corporation agreed to acquire by a rate certain property on the outskirts of Edinburgh, the Government would then enter into communication with the City of Edinburgh with a view to throwing the land in question into the Botanical Gardens, and keeping it up at the public expense. As there was no contract to lay before the House now, the House might rest perfectly satisfied that it would not hereafter be done without its sanction. If the agreement he had referred to should be made -as he hoped it would be-it would be necessary to confirm it by a Vote of the Whole House. There would then be an ample opportunity for discussion, and the hon. Member for Edinburgh and others would be able to state their views. The hon. Member had challenged him to say what the rules and regulations were which the Office of Works intended to lay down; but it would be premature to make any statement of the kind as to property which had not yet been handed over to the Board. He repeated that before this property could be utilized for Botanical Gardens, a Vote of the House would be taken. of the Admiralty, Whether, with refer2nd day of February 1876, signed Robert ence to the written statement, dated the Hall, from the Admiralty, Sessional Paper, No. 117, 1876, p. 182, to the to remark that no meat is ever sold effect that "it seems almost unnecessary which is not perfectly fit for food," he would explain to the House why the loss of public money is incurred which is involved in selling large quantities of meat at prices ranging from 18s. to 30s. per tierce, and even lower sometimes, such meat having cost the country from £7 to he is willing to give the House an assur£7 108. and £8 per tierce; and, whether ance that no more meat shall be so sold whilst fit for food for the Navy, and, food," that it shall be destroyed, seeing when it is no longer "perfectly fit for that its sale has caused disease in the Mercantile Marine? MR. HUNT, in reply, said, the statement to which the hon. Member referred was not so precise in its terms as it should have been. It should have been -"that no meat was sold for human Bill read a second time, and com-food which was not perfectly fit for mitted. MERCANTILE MARINE-THE "STRATH MORE."-QUESTION. ADMIRAL EGERTON asked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether his attention has been called to the Report of inquiry into the circumstances attending the loss of the "Strathmore;' and, whether, with regard to the seventh paragraph of that Report, it is intended. to take any official or public notice of the conduct of Mr. D. L. Gifford, master of the American whaler "Young Phoenix," who is said to have sacrificed his voyage in order to assist the survivors from the wreck? SIR CHARLES ADDERLEY: The case of the Strathmore has been fully human food." Meat unfit for human food was occasionally sold to soap boilers and fat boilers for their business. The only assurance he could give was that meat unfit for human food should be declared to be so at the time of sale, and that a record should be kept of the names of the purchasers. MERCHANT SHIPPING ACTS-THE 66 'SKERRYVORE."-QUESTION. MR. PLIMSOLL asked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether his attention has been called to the case of the "Skerryvore," which is stated to have arrived in New York Harbour on the 18th May last in a sinking state with five feet of water in her hold, and found on being docked and examined to have a large hole bored in her bottom, and to be without any other source of leakage; and, whether he has directed, or is in a position to direct, an investigation into this matter with the view of bringing to justice the perpetrator and instigator of this crime? SIR CHARLES ADDERLEY: The hon. Member for Derby may have seen reported in The Devonport Independent, with which he is connected, the proceedings against the master of the Skerryvore, on trial, and several times remanded, ever since the 29th of May. The case is delayed for evidence from New York, where the ship lies; but the proceedings have been going on as fast as they can against the master from the earliest moment that they could have been taken. ARMY-RETIRED OFFICERS. QUESTION. MR. PRICE asked the Secretary of State for War, If he can state when the Report of the Royal Commission on Promotion and Retirement in the Army will be laid upon the Table; and, whether he has any objection to consider the expediency of extending to Officers of the regular service the privilege which has been already accorded to Officers of the Militia and Volunteers of retaining their rank and wearing their uniform on retirement after a certain length of service? supplied with new clothing every eight months, consisting of coat, over-cloak, trowsers, and cap; if Rural Post Messengers are supplied only with hat and coat every twelve months; and, whether he will make such additions to the latter supply as will place both branches of the service on the same footing? LORD JOHN MANNERS, in reply, said, he had no information that would lead him to believe that the clothing supplied to rural letter-carriers as compared with urban letter-carriers was insufficient. It would lead to a great expenditure, which he was not prepared to incur, to put the rural letter-carriers on precisely the same footing as the urban. EDUCATION DEPARTMENT-KEYNSHAM BRITISH SCHOOL.-QUESTION. MR. MUNDELLA asked the Vice President of the Council, If he is able to inform the House as to the legality of the proceedings of the Education Department in refusing a grant to the British School at Keynsham; if he is aware that since the re-opening of this school the names of 110 children have been inserted on the register, of whom 80 had not previously attended the parish school; if his attention has been directed to the fact of the announcement by the vicar that the children of parents attending the British School would be deprived of the benefits of the Parish MR. GATHORNE HARDY: I am Clothing Club; and, what precedents sorry that I cannot give any information there are (if any) for the refusal of as to the date when the Report of the a grant to an efficient Elementary Commission on Promotion and Retire-School in a district where there is no ment will be laid on the Table. The School Board? privileges of retaining rank and wearing uniform on retirement after a certain length of service which are enjoyed by retired officers of the Militia and Volunteers were granted probably to render those services more popular. I have no objection to consider the expediency of the extension of these privileges to officers below the rank of field officers of the Regular Army, and, I believe the question will be brought to my notice by His Royal Highness the Field-Marshal Commanding-in-Chief. POST OFFICE-LETTER-CARRIERS' UNIFORM.-QUESTION. MR. EARP asked the Postmaster General, If Town Letter Carriers are VISCOUNT SANDON: As far as I can ascertain, this is the first instance of a request to the Education Department for an annual grant to a new school in a locality where, in obedience to orders from the Department, the necessary additional accommodation has been supplied by existing public elementary schools. This is, therefore, the first case in which a decision has had to be come to on the subject, though in the analogous cases of localities where there are school boards, we have refused annual grants to Church of England and other schools where, owing to the locality having supplied the additional accommodation which the Department demanded, such new schools were unne |