themselves participators in them. Acting accounts which have reached him, he finds a under this encouragement, many of us have most unhappy unanimity as to the low state entered into arrangements either here, or in of feeling which has of late years crept into England, which we could not at once dissolve the civil service, particularly among the junior without great loss and difficulty. The know- members, and it has been in general characledge by the public that civil servants cannot terized by want of that zeal, ability, and exescape the comparatively immediate and un-clusive devotion to the public interests, withconditional sale of their property, must, with- out which it is impossible that the public serout fail, depreciate the value of their estates to vice can be conducted in a manner advantagea most ruinous extent. Indeed, we are pre-ous to the people or acceptable to the Governpared to prove to your Lordship that such an ment." expectation has already induced parties, before fully intent upon purchasing, to hold back in the hope of very great reductions in the prices. Looking, therefore, to the share which Her Majesty's Government has had in encouraging and allowing civil servants to invest their money in this manner, we hope we shall not be deemed unreasonable in asking for a more extended period to enable us to comply with your Lordships' directions; the limit to which, we would submit, should not be announced to the public."

Supposing these parties to have been deserving of censure, was it just to publish such an accusation in the newspapers and the Gazette? This censure on the civil servants was regarded by them as a most decided and uncalled-for insult. But how was this low state of feeling to be accounted for? The noble Secretary himself, in the subsequent paragraph, said—

income."

If this was the case, all the fault rested with the Colonial Office in allowing such a state of things to exist. He would proceed to refer to the remonstrance of the civil servants, drawn up after this minute of Lord Stanley had been issued. They stated—

"His Lordship is disposed to attribute this He did not object to the condition for the unsatisfactory condition of the service princifuture, that the civil servants in Ceylon pally to the paralysing effect of a constant atshould not be engaged in agricultural pur-quent absence of any hope of advancement by tention to seniority in promotions, the consesuits; but after they had been so long reason of superior merit, and to the smallness allowed to do so, and after they had been of the salaries (in the absence of any provision encouraged by former Governors to em- for pension), which has induced a great probark in such pursuits, and of which the portion of the civil servants to look to agricul Government at home was aware all along, tural pursuits as a means of improving their and never interfered by a single objec tion, it was only common justice that they should have ample time to dispose of their plantations; for a sudden sale must depreciate the value of land to a most ruinous extent, as it induced persons otherwise anxious to purchase to hold back till the expiration of the period. He had been informed that the Colonial Office offered to extend the period from one to two been republished by the local newspapers, "The minutes in question have already years; but he hoped that the noble Lord they have been transferred to the papers of the Colonial Secretary would listen to the India, will be generally canvassed on the Conurgent representations of those parties, tinent, and can only be productive of a very and would not object to an extension of low opinion of the civil servants here. We the period, and that this limit should not beg most respectfully, but most distinctly, to be published. He thought that nothing liar juncture in the condition of the Colony, impress upon your Lordship, that at this pecucould be more reasonable than this re- nothing is more essential to its ultimate quest, and he trusted that the Secretary welfare than that those public servants who of the Colonies would agree to this pro-really endeavour to do their duty should meet posed alteration. He now came to a with firm and steady support from the Gomore serious charge. The former provernment. It is impossible for any person ceeding was an act of injustice, as it in- not thoroughly conversant with local affairs volved a sacrifice of property; but this justly to estimate the increasing difficulties was still more, for it involved an attack who hold important and responsible office are and pressure to which those public servants upon character. He would refer, on this subjected. At such a time as this the service point, to the minute published by the Go-had no reason to expect, but laments to find, vernor of the Colony, which contained the the Government joining in the imputations accusation to which he referred. The that have from time to time been cast upon it. minute was as follows:Unmerited abuse from interested and frequently misinformed parties we have hitherto "His Lordship has observed that, in all the borne with indifference; but how far different

though the juniors were not. The Secretary of State's observations, therefore, were directed to the junior officers only. Upon the whole, it did appear obvious that it was impossible for persons having these private interests fully to discharge their public functions consistently with the engagements into which they had entered on being appointed to their offices.

Viscount Ebrington understood that there was a toll levied on the passage of Coolies from India to Ceylon. Some of the planters had presented a memorial on the subject to the Governor, representing this tax as a most impolitic measure. It besides acted as a great hardship on the Coolies themselves, as these poor people were often reduced to the greatest suffering in their efforts to evade it.

Dr. Bowring said, that every encouragement had been held out by the Government to parties to make purchases of land in Ceylon. There had been no voluntary emigration to that island until it was encouraged by the Government. Consider

dispensable preliminary to the due discharge of their duties. Therefore, he could not consent to the general denial of the inefficiency of the public service. It was no new charge of the desertion of public duty for the sake of their private property; and since the coffee plantations, there was a great complaint. Coffee planting required constant attention, and the cultivators were subject to the bankrupt laws. The prohibition commenced as early as the year 1813, and the civil officers were required to take an oath not to engage in any trade as principal or partner unless licensed by the Government. In 1834, a question arose as to the cultivation of cinnamon, which was not more of a trade than the cultivation of coffee, and so far from there being a relaxation there was a minute published by the Governor, stating that he had received authority to explain that there would not be in any respect a relaxation of the restrictions against trading. In 1835, the coffee planting began, and in 1836 the former minute was republished. With regard to the pur-able sums of money were then invested in chase of cinnamon, but not with reference to the growing, the complaint was, that remittances could not be made home except in cinnamon, and it was allowed to save Bills; and the prohibition was continued against growing, and had never been relaxed by any Secretary of State from that time to this. Sir R. W. Horton was most distinctly opposed to the practice of allowing coffee growing; and great evils resulted from it. But he need not argue the impolicy, as the hon. Gentleman assented to the propriety of the prohibition, and only objected to the manner in which it was enforced. The manner in which it was done was this:-The despatch was sent in confidence to the Governor, and referred very much to individuals, and it ended with giving a summary to the Governor, not with the view of publication; and he was as much astonished as the hon. Gentleman when he saw the publication of the minute. The main cause of the evil was a very unwise reduction made in 1833 by the Commissioners, who seemed to consider that the whole object was a reduction of expenditure. The abolition of the pension fund, and other causes, materially affected the condition of the service. That cause had, however, been for years in operation, and did not apply to the senior civil servants, who were still entitled to the pension fund,

land, and when these speculations were entered upon by the civil service there had not been a single word of disapprobation uttered. In fact, the language of the Government all through was the language of encouragement. But, suddenly, these Gentlemen had incurred the displeasure of the Colonial Office, and not only were they divested of their lands, but a sort of opprobrium was attached to them. It appeared that instead of one year, as at first announced, they were now to have two years to dispose of their property; but that would, after all, make very little difference in their case, as they could have no chance of obtaining the full value of it as long as the purchaser knew that the sale was compulsory. The lands might, in a word, be considered as being in the hands of a bailiff, to be sold by a certain time, no matter at what terms. He thought the Government ought to prevent the evil for the time to come, but not to do wrong in correcting that which arose in the time past.

Mr. Aglionby said, he thought the hardship of the case had been aggravated by the speech of the hon. Gentleman the Under Secretary for the Colonies. These gentlemen ought not to be under the imputation of having broken their caths, for having merely cultivated their private estates, under the sanction of the Go

3a and passed :-Birmingham and Gloucester Extension | guilty of a breach of the privileges of that

Railway (Stoke Branch); London and South Western
Railway; South Eastern Railway (Greenwich Exten-

sion); South Eastern Railway (Tunbridge to Tunbridge Wells); Gravesend and Rochester Railway; Rothwell PETITIONS PRESENTED. By Duke of Buckingham, from Clergy and others of Aylesbury, for Abolishing Punishment of Death.-By Bishop of Norwich, from Rother

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field, and several other places, for the Suppression of Intemperance, especially on the Sabbath.

House." Curl was then reprimanded by the Lord Chancellor for allowing the advertisement to be printed, and also forbidden to publish the work. In the course of the proceedings upon that occasion, a Committee was appointed; but he could not find that that Committee ever made any Report to the House, though he had made diligent search on the subject. On the 31st of January following, the matter was, however, again taken into consideration, and the Resolution was duly passed as a Standing Order. That was the Order now appearing on their Lordships' Books, and which had remained in force to this hour. He found that the Order was not intended to remain as a dead letter, for an attempt had been made to enforce it in the year 1735. In that year the same Edmund Curll issued another advertisement, which was published in the daily journals, and which gave great alarm to the Members of their Lordships' House. On the 12th day of May, 1735, this advertisement was brought under the notice of the House. It was published in the Daily Post Boy, and was to the effect that there had been just published Mr. Pope's literary correspondence for thirty years, namely, from 1704 to 1734, being a collection of letters written by him to the right hon. the Earl of Halifax, the right hon. the Earl of Burlington, and many

DECEASED PEERS.] Lord Campbell said, that he should take the opportunity of calling the attention of the House to a subject of one of the Standing Orders, No. 113, with respect to which he had given notice. The Standing Order was to the effect, that any person presuming to publish the works, or life, or will, of any deceased Lord of Parliament, without the consent of the heir or executor of such Lord, should be deemed guilty of a breach of the privileges of that House. He should best discharge his duty on that occasion by referring to the history of the Standing Order. It took its origin from the proceedings of the well-known Edmund Curll-the infamous, the dauntless, the shameless Edmund Curll. In 1720 died John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, a celebrated poet of that day; and in 1722 Curll published an advertisement in a London paper, called the Daily Journal, in which he announced that he intended to publish a libellous life of the deceased nobleman. In consequence of this, the family of that nobleman inter-others-printed for Edmund Curll, in posed, and caused a complaint to be made to that House on the subject. He found this stated in the Journals of the House of the date of the 22nd January, 1721-22, and the advertisement was read, announcing that the Life and Works, in prose and verse, of John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, together with a true copy of his last will and testament, would be published on a certain day named by Edmund Curll, over against Catherine-street. This person was summoned to the bar of the House, and ordered to attend next day. The Journals for the next day stated that the House being informed that Curll was in attendance, he was called in and examined as to the advertisement, and was ordered to withdraw. The House then came to this Resolution, "That it is resolved by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, that any person presuming to publish the life, or will, of any deceased Peer, without the consent of his heir or executors, was

Rose-street, and sold by all booksellers. It was ordered by the House that the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod should go and seize all the copies of the book, and that the said Edmund Curll, together with John Wilford, by whom the newspaper had been printed, do attend the bar of the House next day. The parties accordingly attended on the following day, and being examined, were ordered to withdraw. The Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod then reported to the House what he had done under their Lordships' order. He stated that he had ordered all the copies of the book found at Mr. Curll's house to be seized, and that he believed they might be 500 in number. A Committee was appointed, to whom the copy of the book presented by the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod was referred; and Edmund Curll was ordered to attend the Committee. The Earl Delawarr brought forward the Report of the Committee in the House, and it appeared from it that