8th.—St. Alban's Election Committee; Arrest of evading
Witnesses ordered.—Church Rates; a Select Committee
appointed on motion of Mr. Trelawny.—State of Ireland; Sir W.
Barron's motion for a Committee of the whole House negatived
by 138 to 129.
9th.—Smithfield Market; second reading of the Corporation
Bill negatived by 246 to 124; second reading of the Government
Bill carried by 230 to 65, and Bill referred to a select committee.
—Expenses of Prosecutions Bill, and Compound Householders
Bill, in committee.—Annual Indemnity Bill read a first time.
10th.—Colonial Expenditure; Debate on Sir W. Molesworth's
Resolutions begun and adjourned.
11th.—Agricultural Distress; Mr. Disraeli's Resolution
negatived by 263 to 250.
14th.—St. Alban's Election; Report of committee received that
Mr. Bell was duly elected.—Income Tax Bill, second reading
postponed till after Easter.—Assessed Taxes Bill considered in
committee; Resolutions for a new House Tax agreed to.—Coffee
and Timber Duties Bill considered in committee.—Expenses of
Prosecutions Bill read a third time and passed,
15th.—St. Albans' Election; Edwards, charged with keeping
Witnesses out of the way, committed to Newgate.—Relations
with the Kaffirs; motion for a Royal Commission negatived;
motion for a Select Committee carried.—Adjournment till
Monday the 28th inst.

A Political Banquet was given to Lord Stanley on
the 2nd inst. at Merchant Tailors' Hall. The requisition
to Lord Stanley to accept it was signed by about
100 peers and 200 members of the House of Commons.
Mr. Thomas Baring, M.P. for Huntingdon, presided;
and the company numbered about 280. Lord Stanley,
on his health being given, entered at great length into
the present state of public affairs. He declared
himself to have been a firm adherent of Sir Robert Peel's
liberal policy, and a supporter of that statesman's
judicious relaxation of our commercial code up to "the
fatal period of 1845 and 1846," when Sir Robert, by
the measures he then adopted, gave a shock to confidence
in all public men, and shattered the great Conservative
party which it had been his policy to build up. After
paying a warm tribute to the memory of Lord George
Bentinck, Lord Stanley touched on the condition of
parties in the House of Commons. "There is, no doubt,
a very considerable majority against us in the existing
House of Commons; and I confess that, constituted as
the present House of Commons is, I see no escape from
the position in which we are now placed; for, whoever
may hold the reins of office, there will be a weak
government, at the mercy of a majority who cannot
combine for any useful purpose, but who can always
combine for the purpose of destroying any government.
Gentlemen, I know no position more dangerous to the
public welfare than such a position as that which I
have described; when the government of the day is
obliged to catch at support here and at a stray vote
there, to concede this point and to abandon that
measure, and then to promise some distant scheme, and
hope to stave off the adverse motion of a soi-disant
supporter by vague promises of something to be done at a
future time, or at the spur of the moment, can issue an
illegal commission to inquire into the Universities, for
the purpose of getting rid of an awkward motion which
it dares not support. This is the situation in which a
weak government is placed now, and always will be
placed; and it is the situation in which, I fear, with
the present House of Commons, any government
attempting to hold the reins of power must for a considerable
space of time be placed. Gentlemen, it is for the
country to remedy this great national evil. It is for the
country not to halt between two opinions. It is for
the country to say in whom they have confidence and
in whom they have not." Lord Stanley then adverted
to his own views of sound policy at the present time.
"I deprecate hasty and ill-considered and violent
changes; and in this course of downward progress in
which we are involved, though true prudence and true
statesmanship point, I think, not to the hasty reversal
of all that has been done, I would at all events cry,
'Halt!' in that downward course. I would say, watch
the progress that has already taken place; modify the
effect of measures, if they have had a greater effect
than even their proposers contemplated; and prudently,
discreetly, but firmly and determinedly, apply on sound
principles legislative relief to those classes which your
legislative action has made to suffer. How that relief
may be afforded, this is not the time to consider." He
had nothing to add to his recent statement in Parliament
on this head. "My own views undoubtedly are,
that there is no course so simple and effective for
removing agricultural distress, and at the same time for
returning to a sounder system, as, by the imposition of
moderate duties on foreign imports, at once to afford a
certain though moderate check to the unlimited influx
of those foreign articles, when they are not required in
this country; and, at the same time, to obtain from the
foreigner, in imitation of all other nations, a contribution
towards the revenue of the state, and to enable us
to take off other taxes which press more heavily and
immediately on the springs of our domestic and national
industry." On the subject of the Papal aggression,
Lord Stanley said: "I desire an immediate and peremptory
reply by Parliament to the actual insult, and
subsequently an inquiry as to the legislation which might
be necessary for the purpose of placing the Roman
Catholic subjects of the queen in a position which would
at once secure their own civil and religious rights—nay,
which might even extend them, and, at the same time,
secure the people of this country, whether Protestants
or Roman Catholics, from any interference with their
temporal concerns, and from the control of an ecclesiastical
hierarchy appointed by a foreign power. It may
be well to say that the authority of Rome is a spiritual
authority. I don't call that a spiritual authority which
acts on the tender consciences of infant girls, and the
superstitious fears of the death-bed, for the purpose of
robbing heirs and relations. Still less do I consider it
to be an authority essential to the free exercise of
religion to prohibit acts in themselves legal, or enjoin acts
if not illegal, at all events in violation of the express
and determined will of the legislature, under those
awful penalties which the Roman Catholic Church holds
over and has power to exercise over the minds of those
of its persuasion. I say, then, that the majority upon
that principle was not unimportant. But I say, further,
that I consider it the duty of Parliament, and I trust I
shall consider it my duty, while I do not press for a
more extensive application of measures than those which
the government themselves have thought fit to institute,
in the first instance, to take care in Parliament, as far
as I can, that that which the government professes to
check we really shall give them the power to check. I
certainly shall not be satisfied if I do not see that that
which the government professes to make effectual shall
be really and substantially effectual." In conclusion,
Lord Stanley appealed to the constituencies. "I have
said that I look with anxiety to the present state of this
country. I look also with anxiety to the future: but
the degree to which that anxiety may be removed
depends upon you in your places in Parliament; it
depends upon you in your respective neighbourhoods
throughout this country; it depends upon the
constituencies of this country; and, in their hands, whenever
a general election shall come—and all the signs of the
times show that that election cannot be far distant—in
their hands will be the destinies of this country for
good or for evil, for a length of time which it is impossible
to predict."

The committee on the Aylesbury Election decided, on
the 3rd, that Mr. F. Calvert was not duly elected,
and that he was, by his agents, guilty of treating at the
last election, but that it was not proved that the acts of
treating were done with his knowledge. The
committee further found that a practice prevailed in the
borough of Aylesbury at the last election of issuing
printed tickets for refreshment to the extent of 5s. each
to voters, both before and after the polling. The election
was, therefore, declared void.

The Committee on the St. Alban's Election concluded
their sittings on the 14th. At the late contest for that
borough, Mr. Bell had 276 votes and Mr. Garden 147,
Mr. Bell consequently became the sitting member, but
his return was petitioned against on the ground of
bribery. There were nine cases of bribery; four of
which the committee went through; but they were
prevented from investigating the others by the necessary
witnesses having absconded; warrants were issued for
their apprehension, but to no purpose; and on the