the government. The resolution was carried by 169 to
132; a majority of 37 against the government.

The Irish Encumbered Estates Bill was read a third
time on Tuesday the 18th. The Marquis of WESTMEATH
moved the addition of a clause restricting the
commissioners from selling any estate for less than fifteen
years' purchase. It was opposed by the Earl of Carlisle,
and supported by Earl Fitzwilliam, the Earl of Stradbroke,
and Lord Stanley. On a division it was carried
against ministers by 32 to 30. Another clause, to
protect from arrest the proprietors of encumbered
estates during the legal formalities preliminary to sale,
was moved by the Marquis of WESTMEATH, and carried
without a division, the Earl of Carlisle merely expressing
his disapprobation of it. The bill then passed.

On Friday the 21st Lord BROUGHAM stated that he
and other lawyers had grave doubts whether, by law,
the Crown was able to give the directions, in reference
to Sunday Labour in the Post Office, which the address
from the House of Commons had prayed. The Marquis
of LANSDOWNE said that the point should receive serious
consideration.—The Marquis of LANSDOWNE moved for
the appointment of a committee to take into consideration
the accommodation of the diplomatic body as
visitors of the house. After some explanations from
Lord Brougham, and remarks from Lord Grey and
other peers, the motion was agreed to.

The matter of the New Post Office Regulations
was brought forward on Monday the 24th by Lord
BROUGHAM, who insisted forcibly on the hardship and
inconvenience they produced.—The Marquis of
LANSDOWNE said that the Crown had the power to make
regulations as to the transmission of letters, though he
feared that the new scheme would tend greatly to the
desecration of the sabbath.

On Tuesday the 20th, on the presentation of a petition
against the Post Office regulations, Lord BROUGHAM
recurred to the subject. He had received a letter from
a manufacturer who stated that his waggoner was killed
on his road home to Derby on Saturday last, and in
consequence of the recent postal arrangement he could
not ascertain whether any goods had been stolen from
his waggon without sending special messengers to
Birmingham, Manchester, and other towns where it
had stopped. Therefore, in this case, instead of sending
letters quietly through the Post Office, this gentleman
had been obliged to send men, who, of course, could
not go to church, and the consequence was a greater
desecration of the sabbath. The day before yesterday
the sabbath had been compulsorily broken in every
part of the kingdom. All over England this breach of
the sabbath was going on, because the Post Office would
not employ a few clerks on Sundays. In Liverpool,
for instance, where commercial intelligence was of the
highest importance, fifty or sixty clerks might be
despatched by the railroad to obtain intelligence which
might easily have been transmitted by letter, with the
employment of only five or six persons.

The intended Resignation of Lord Chancellor Cottenham
was announced by Lord John RUSSELL, in the
HOUSE OF COMMONS on the Tuesday the 28th of May.
His Lordship added that any person accepting the great
seal must take it subject to the decision of parliament
with respect to the amount of pension. As to the
separation of the judicial and political functions of the office,
that was a subject which required very serious consideration.
—Mr. MILES moved a resolution that the government
should take immediate steps to forward the
emigration of orphan girls, inmates of workhouses in
England and Wales, to Australia as apprentices.—
Mr. STAFFORD moved, as an amendment, the substitution
of the United Kingdom for "England and Wales," on
the ground that such steps would be peculiarly beneficial
to Ireland.—Mr. HAWES objected on the grounds, first,
that there was no longer the same demand as formerly
for female servants in the colonies, and next, that
the available fund was too small. The discussion was
proceeding when the house was counted out.

On Thursday the 30th the Commons met at 12 o'clock
for the first time in their New House. The sitting
being experimental, no important business was done.—
At the evening sitting, in the old chamber, Lord
ASHLEY brought forward his motion for the suppression
of Sunday Labour in the Post Office. Admitting that a
good deal had already been done, he explained his object
to be that all the provincial towns should be placed on the
same footing as the Metropolis. He had no desire to
interfere with the passenger traffic on Sunday; all he
wished was to stop the transmission of the mail bags.—
The motion was opposed by the CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER, who observed that it was a curious
illustration of the way in which subjects were sometimes
taken up in England, that the measure which had
caused all the agitation had, by temporarily employing
25 clerks in addition to the 27 previously employed on
Sunday, relieved 8000 persons from all Sunday work,
which would interfere with their religious duties. He
conceived that what had been done should be accepted
as a pledge of still further reduction, and would make
every inquiry into its practicability. But he believed
that the proposed change would produce much hardship
to the great majority of the people, especially the poor,
who have not the means to command express trains,
electric telegraphs, and other expedients for speedy
communication. The motion was carried by 93 to 68.

On Friday the 31st, Sir Edward BUXTON moved a
resolution "that it is unjust and impolitic to expose the
free-grown sugar of the British Colonies and possessions
to unrestricted competition with the sugar of slave-
trading countries." He took a review of the combined
effect which negro emancipation, with the successive
measures for throwing open the sugar trade, have had
on the economic and social state of the West Indies;
and contended that the steady and progressive increase
of the trade of Cuba and Brazil, in consequence of the
advantage of slave labour, is crushing the prosperity of
our own colonies. To suppress the slave-trade had been
found impossible, and the only protection for our
colonies was the imposition of differential duties
on foreign sugar.—Mr. HUME apprehended that the
evil lay in the difficulties interposed by the British
government to an adequate supply of free labour for
our colonies from Africa and other places; and moved
an amendment to that effect.—Colonel THOMPSON
supported the original motion, in which he saw nothing
inconsistent with the principle of free trade.—Mr. James
WILSON denied that our recent free-trade legislation had
done any injury to our colonies, and contended that,
since that legislation, the production of sugar had
increased in our own colonies at a greater rate than in
Brazil or Cuba.—Mr. E. H. STANLEY (the son of Lord
Stanley) in a maiden speech, much complimented for
ability, described, from his own personal observation,
the desolate state of the West India colonies, and
ascribed their condition to their inability to contend
with slave-holding countries.—Sir J. Pakington and
Mr. Gladstone supported the motion; and the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Hutt, and Lord Palmerston,
opposed it. On the division, it was negatived by 275
to 231.

The Metropolitan Interments Bill was considered in
committee on Monday the 3rd of June, a discussion
having been previously raised on a motion by Mr. Lacy
that the bill should be referred to a select committee.
This motion was supported by the metropolitan members,
who, however, expressed approbation of the principles
of the measure; but the prevailing opinion was that
the details of the bill could be best amended in a
committee of the whole house.—Sir R. PEEL, supporting
this opinion, enlivened the debate by a joke, "If the
bill were sent to a select committee, it would be one of
the most extraordinary cases of Extra-mural Interment
ever heard of."—Mr. Lacy's motion was lost by 159
to 57, and the house went into committee.—On clause 2,
Mr. DUNCOMBE (whose appearance in the house for the
first time since his long illness was hailed with
acclamations) moved the omission of that and several of the
clauses, for the substitution of provisions giving to the
parish authorities of certain districts powers which, as
the bill stood, would be given to the board of health.
This amendment was negatived by 135 to 57, and Mr.
Duncombe intimated that he would not offer any
further opposition. The clauses up to 18 were then
agreed to.