in any part of the world. It might be stated broadly that when labour for wages ceased to be a necessity of existence to the labouring class the existence of the employer of labour became precarious and eventually impossible, and this had gradually come to pass in Jamaica, except in those fertile plains where there were no waste lands, and where the people, whose strong local attachments prevent their moving, gave their labour more regularly to the estates. As whole districts were abandoned the small freeholders lost the advantage of occasional employment. They had at length killed the goose which laid the golden eggs. The same cause deprived them of a market for their provisions, which, as Sir H. Barkly wrote in 1854, they lost by the cessation of immigration and the return of the immigrants. The loss of inducement to work produced habits of idleness. The idle lived, as elsewhere, by robbing the industrious, and a general feeling of dissatisfaction prevailed, which was increased by the drought of the last two years. Up to a certain point the case of Jamaica was the same with that of the other sugar colonies with superfluity of land and deficiency of population. But Mauritius, British Guiana, and Trinidad were Crown colonies, and as soon as the Colonial Office, after years of ruinous obstruction and delay, discovered that the only way to enable free labour to compete with slavery was to provide a sufficiency, and that this could only be done by immigration under contract, enactments were passed to that end. The system was violently opposed, not only by parties at home, but by those classes in the colonies who did not directly benefit by it. Their opposition was overruled, and now they acknowledged their error, and confessed that they had profited even to a greater degree than the planters themselves. Let him read to the House an account of the results in Trinidad exists because of the displacement of one by the other. Coolie labour opens a wide field of exertion to the negro." Hon. Members would not think this picture was overdrawn, when they heard that it was from the pen of Dr. Underhill. In Jamaica the same short-sighted views were entertained as in the other colonies; but, owing to the Constitution, which gave so much power to those who advocated them in the Lower House, they triumphed to such an extent that either Immigration Bills were thrown out altogether, or departed so widely from the model ordinance, that they were disallowed at home; and, therefore, while the other colonies were augmenting their population, and increasing their products year by year, large tracts in Jamaica were relapsing into wilderness. Since 1843 no less than 313,538 immigrants had been introduced into Mauritius, while in Jamaica, which was nearly ten times larger, there had come only 18,569. Let it be remembered, moreover, that the same Assembly which objected to immigration for the fancied good of the negro, or on the ground of economy, levied the high Customs duties of which the negroes so much complained, maintained many costly and useless offices, and wasted enormous sums in their disputes with the Governors or with the other branch of the Legislature. That ancient body had now terminated its existence by its own act, and he believed it was really a "happy despatch." The present Bill prevented the chance of its coming again to life, and it now rested with the Colonial Office to be doubly careful in the choice of fit Governors to wield the vastly increased power which would now be vested in them. MR. REMINGTON MILLS said, that there were only 36,000 members of the Church of England in Jamaica. The revenues of the island were taxed to the amount of £28,000 for the benefit of 100 "This system is approved by every class of ministers of the Church, so that not a persons. I conversed with Government officials, twelfth part of the population absorbed more planters, missionaries, storekeepers, and coolies than one-tenth part of the whole revenue themselves. I did not hear a single complaint. Men of the most opposite opinions agreed in this, of the island. The Church was not conthat immigration is a success. Contrary to anti- tent with this tenth portion of the revenue cipation, it has improved the condition of the of the island, but received out of the Connegroes. The command of coolie labour has in-solidated Fund, under an old Act of Parcreased the growth of the sugar cane. With this there has necessarily arisen a demand for hedges and ditches, drainage, carpenters, coopers, enginemen, &c. The demand for ground provisions to supply the wants of the coolie labourers has increased. The garden produce finds a better marAll these occupations are taken up by the negro. The coolie is therefore no competitor with in his diocese for many years, and spent the negro in the labour market, and no ill feeling his time chiefly in Europe. The other Mr. Stephen Cave ket. liament, a further sum of £7,000 a year, which was distributed among certain bishops, archdeacons, &c. There were two bishops attached to the Church in Jamaica. One of them had not been seen bishop received £2,000 a year. There the pain, the dissatisfaction and the disgrace were also three archdeacons in the receipt which arose from the want of a provision of of £3,000. If the Church of England this kind. They should not grant such a wanted bishops and archdeacons, they sum as this for creditors. It was an ample ought to be maintained out of her own re- amount to secure the country against such venues. It was time the House received obloquy and disgrace, and as there should from the Colonial Secretary an assurance be no temptation to traders to give credit that as these offices became vacant they to one in the position of His Royal Highwould not be filled up until Parliament had ness, the allowance should be for his absoan opportunity of expressing its opinion. lute enjoyment. The Blenheim estate was When the Act of Parliament to which he inalienable, and so was the estate purchased referred was passed, the West India in- for the Duke of Wellington. For public terest was dominant in that House, but the services they made grants with regard to principle now recognized was to leave the annuities and property which they took maintenance of public worship to the co- care the individual who first received them lonies. should not dispose of. He would not mention names in the past, but, hypothetically, might not a person who was to receive an income like this be so incumbered that without it he might be in want? Supposing creditors had the power of coming upon property of this kind, an inducement would be given to credit, and such an inducement, MR. CARDWELL said, he entirely agreed with his hon. Friend, that the general views of Parliament and the country with respect to these ecclesiastical endowments had very much changed since the passing of the Act, imposing the change upon the Consolidated Fund, to which he had referred. He trusted, how-in the case of grants for public services, ever, that his hon. Friend would be satisfied with the answer he had given on a former occasion to the hon. Member for Sheffield (Mr. Hadfield), that it would be premature for the Government, in the present state of affairs, to make any declaration with regard to any detailed changes which it was their intention to propose. The Legislature were now engaged in laying the first stone of the new building. When that foundation was laid the Government would endeavour to build upon it the edifice of future prosperity for the colony. Motion agreed to. Bill read the third time and passed. PRINCE ALFRED'S ANNUITY BILL. [BILL 43.] SECOND READING. (Mr. Dodson, Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir George Grey.) Order for Second Reading read. had led to families being very much incumbered. Since the accession of Her Majesty the prudence, economy, and good management which had marked the Royal Household had given great satisfaction to the country and great strength to the Throne. But if one, possessed of these means, should be seduced by creditors they knew not what might happen. Money might be lost by gambling for instance. Therefore, for the satisfaction of the people who bestowed this magnificent sum on His Royal Highness, which he begged to say he did not begrudge, he hoped to receive an assurance that it would be reserved for his own personal enjoyment. THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER: Sir, the remarks of my hon. Friend may be understood as having reference to two perfectly distinct objects, both of which are of great importance in themselves, and both of which may legitiParliament. The first is the security that mately be held in view by Members of there will not be a renewal of the demand made in respect of Prince Alfred, in consequence of the waste and disappearance of this provision. This is one object-that MR. HADFIELD said, he did not wish Parliament should know that it will not be to oppose the grant of £15,000 a year; called upon to do over again that which it but, looking to the experience which the is now called upon to do. Unfortunately, country had in former years, he thought in former times-very different times, the grant should be made inalienable. which I hope I may say will never return Creditors should not have the means or the there were many examples which jusmotive for extravagance and debt. Those tified Parliament in exercising a wise who recollected past times would remember jealousy on this subject. With respect to time." Bill read a second time, and committed for To-morrow. House adjourned at a quarter before Three o'clock. the other object contemplated by my hon. | Prince Alfred, with regard to whom in Friend the welfare of the Prince himself, every respect we have reason to entertain which, as my hon. Friend says, would be the most favourable anticipations. He is seriously compromised if we supposed it one whose illustrious birth has been accompossible that this annuity could be impro- panied by an education, careful and judicious, vidently used, I would make this remark. as becomes his high station and its responI am bound to say that the more absolute sibilities; who has matured many manly this grant is to the Crown-and this is a and valuable qualities in the pursuit of a grant to the Crown, and not to Prince profession which is dear to the people of Alfred-the more does the House dis- this country, and who is endowed by nature charge itself of responsibility and make it with gifts and talents which make him in difficult for any renewal of the demand on every way worthy to be the son of his disParliament. If we were to attempt any tinguished father. It is not, therefore, limitations on the Crown as to the mode of from anything connected with the character dealing with the annuity, we should be of Prince Alfred-and I am quite sure I more likely to lay ourselves open to a re- am now speaking for my hon. Friend as newal of these demands. I speak in the well as myself-that this short discussion abstract. Practically, as it is not pro- has taken place, but upon the grounds of bable the contingency will occur, we need general prudence which it is the duty of not apprehend any likelihood of the kind. the Government and of Members of ParliaOf the precise legal incidents attached ment invariably to keep in view. to this annuity it is not for me to speak Motion agreed to. with great confidence. My hon. Friend will observe that the Bill leaves it to Her Majesty to determine the manner and the conditions of the grant of the annuity. I apprehend that this being a grant to the Crown, and intended for a permanent provision for the Prince, Her Majesty will proceed in the regular course to execute a deed, and on the terms of that deed will depend the precise legal incidents of this annuity. I think I may venture to assure my hon. Friend that this annuity will not be in the position of property which can be conveyed away. Beyond that I do not know that it is possible to go, because we are all perfectly well aware that indirect understandings may be entered into between those who borrow and those who lend, and attempts to fetter or prevent such understandings commonly have no other effect except that of raising the rate of interest on the money lent. I quite agree in the prudence of my hon. Friend's view, with respect to placing this annuity in a position of absolute certainty, so that it may not be taken away from the person for whose benefit it is intended. I confess, however, I think he may rest at ease upon this subject. Having made these observations, which apply to such a contingency as he has mentioned, it is but just, fair, and respectful to the Royal Family that I should say on my own part, and I am sure I may say so on the part of my hon. Friend, that these remarks are made on the one side and on the other on grounds purely abstract and general, and that they have no reference whatever to the case of The Chancellor of the Exchequer HOUSE OF LORDS, Thursday, March 1, 1866. MINUTES.]-Several Lords took the Oath. SELECT COMMITTEES-On Standing Orders, The THE CATTLE PLAGUE-SLAUGHTER OF CATTLE. PETITION. OBSERVATIONS. THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH said, he had to present a Petition signed by cattle salesmen of Edinburgh, and by several other persons interested in the importation of cattle, praying for the Amendment of the Cattle Plague Bill. The petitioners referring to the Cattle Diseases Act passed the other day, which stated that no animals imported by sea to any port of Great Britain should be removed from that place alive except by sea, said that in a clause in the Bill now before their Lordships' House there was power reserved that animals imported into London, Leith, Bristol, and Liverpool might be removed to certain slaughterhouses under licence of the local THE EARL OF LICHFIELD said, he understood that the Select Committee which had been appointed to consider the Cattle Plague Bill would meet to-morrow, and he therefore wished to know whether the Government intended to insert any provision in that Bill for the proper treatment of cattle conveyed by railroad and in steamboats. In the despatch of Her Majesty's Consul General at Odessa, dated the 8th of January, there was this passage authority. In reference to the port of LORD BERNERS rose to call attention Granton, however, there was no provision, to a communication which he had received and the petitioners prayed Granton, to that afternoon on the subject of the cattle which nearly all the trade of Edinburgh plague. The writer said he regretted to in foreign cattle came, might be included learn that cows were still imported into in that clause. He wished also to draw London from Holland and smuggled into their Lordships' attention to the enormous sheds, and that in many instances they loss which had been inflicted upon a num- came either from infected districts or ber of persons in consequence of the opera- passed through infected provinces. He tion of the Act which had been passed with trusted that an immediate inquiry into the such extraordinary haste-with almost as subject would be instituted. When it was much haste as the Habeas Corpus Suspen- taken into consideration that already no sion Act. The result had been that in the fewer than a million and a half of cattle northern part of the island the provisions had been sacrificed, every one must allow of the Act were not known before it had that the strictest measures ought to be come into operation. In consequence of taken in order to prevent animals from this, numbers of animals which had been being brought into the country in the sent by sea and also by railway had been manner he had referred to. intercepted at different points of their journey. In one instance seventy animals were landed at Granton from Orkney, and uninfected districts; and yet they could not be taken to Edinburgh for slaughter, because, having come by sea, the railways were forbidden to carry them, and they could not be driven along the highway. Some of them were conveyed by steam tugs from Granton to Leith, whilst others remained at Granton unhoused, with the greatest difficulty to feed them and with no proper means of slaughter. Their Lordships would recollect that the mere slaughter of animals was not sufficient, because the carcasses must be dressed before they could be legally removed from the place of slaughter. He had received a letter complaining that thirteen loaded cattle trucks had also been stopped on the railway at Carstairs, a station which was in the middle of a moor, where there were no means either of housing or feeding the cattle. If the owners had received timely notice of what was about to be enacted, they might have sent the cattle away and so avoided the heavy loss to which they had been subjected, and no less than 5,000 cattle had been stopped at different places; and all this had happened in consequence of the want of proper notice of the Act coming into operation. The loss consequent upon this state of things was a heavy fine to impose upon the unfortunate owners of the cattle because of the excessive haste with which the measure had been forced through Parliament. In conclusion, he moved that the petition which he had presented should be referred to the Select Committee to which the Cattle Plague Bill had been referred. Motion agreed to. "It is to be observed that the disease rages more violently in the south of Russia than in the north; that it generally breaks out in autumn, and not during the great frosts. Therefore it the first cause of it, but has not even any influseems clear that cold is not only far from being ence over it. It is well remembered that before the year 1846 (when free trade in corn began "This seems to be really the sole cause of this terrible disease, and the waggons returning to their several homes spread it throughout the country." The manner in which cattle were treated in steamboats and railway trucks was of itself sufficient to account for the outbreak of disease among the animals. Certainly, it must be well known that when those animals arrived at their destination they were in a conditon which rendered it impossible that they could resist any conta gion or disease. He had received from a gentleman a letter containing this statement "A truck containing nine horses was forwarded from Manchester to Stoke yesterday, the horses intended for the knacker's yard at Hanley. On arriving at Stoke four of the animals were dead from suffocation, and the remainder in such a state that Mr. Campbell, the magistrate, ordered them to be killed on the spot. The trucks containing nine horses measured 12ft. 3in. by 9ft." Animals in the charge of dealers and others frequently had to travel very long distances in steamers and railway trucks; and he feared that in very many instances the poor beasts were without water or food during the entire journey. He hoped that in the Bill now before their Lordships' House the Government would insert a clause for the proper treatment of the animals on railways and on steamboats. The present system was disgraceful. the Report of the Board of Trade, which was laid on the table some days ago and circulated among your Lordships, that there are no less than thirty-six different Railway Bills affecting the metropolis at present before Parliament. I understand that these schemes involve capital to the amount of very nearly £20,000,000, and I find that these lines run in all directions and at various levels, some above ground, some under ground, some only partially covered, and some running on the level of the street. I may remind the House of the course adopted in 1863 with respect to this class of Bills. When an almost equally large number of railway schemes were launched, and a panic was created at the consequences which those schemes, if allowed to take their course, would involve, your Lordships will remember that a Committee was appointed to consider the whole question, and they agreed to various recom EARL GRANVILLE hoped his noble Friend would excuse him, but as three or four Questions were now asked each even-mendations. The undoubted purport of ing without notice, it was time to revert to the regular practice of requiring a notice. THE EARL OF LICHFIELD observed, that he had not concluded with a Question, but with a suggestion. LORD FEVERSHAM asked the President of the Council when it was likely the Select Committee on the Cattle Plague Bill would report, and when the third reading would be taken? EARL GRANVILLE said, that though the noble Lord had given him ample notice of his Question, he was quite unable to answer it. RAILWAYS IN THE METROPOLIS. QUESTION. THE EARL OF CARNARVON: My Lords, I rise, in pursuance of notice, To inquire of Her Majesty's Government their intentions with regard to the various Bills affecting Railway Communication in the Metropolitan District now before Parliament. And I do so the more readily in consequence of an opinion intimated in another place a few nights ago, which opinion, I would hope, is not a fixed one on the part of the Government. The intimation to which I allude, my Lords, was to the effect that in respect of the Railway Bills for the metropolitan districts promoted in the present Session, there is no necessity for departing from the ordinary course of legislation. I hope that that conclusion is not final. It appears from The Earl of Lichfield these recommendations was to impress on Parliament the necessity of exercising the greatest care and discretion in dealing with railways in the metropolis-and above all, so to deal with them that there should be a uniformity in the system adopted. But, in order to make the matter more clear, the Committee made a special recommendation to the effect that all the Bills for railways in the metropolis before they went to the second reading should be subjected to a preliminary inquiry, and that after the second reading all such Bills having any connection with each other should be submitted to one and the same Committee. But in the following year, 1864, Parliament went beyond the recommendation of the Committee of 1863. A Joint Committee, consisting of five Members of this and five Members of the other House, were appointed, and they drew up a very valuable Report. They disallowed some Bills; they allowed others to follow the ordinary course of legislation; and as to the rest, they laid down certain principles which were not to be departed from, but which, I imagine, would be departed from if the present proposed Bills were allowed to pass as they now stand. I am very much surprised to see that a similar course has not been adopted in the present Session. But, on the contrary, the Board of Trade wind up a statement on the subject of the Metropolitan Bills by saying it is not necessary that the course taken last Session should be followed now, |