PREPAYMENT OF LETTERS. MR. RICH, who had given notice of his MR. NEWDEGATE said, he wished to ask the Secretary of State for War whether the Balance Sheet, showing the total cost and total production of the Enfield Estab-intention to move a Resolution condemning lishment from the period of re-construction in 1854, has been prepared? GENERAL PEEL replied that the Balance Sheet had been prepared and would be laid on the table. MR. J. D. FITZGERALD said, he wished to know whether Her Majesty's Government had received any information of the arrival in Cork Harbour of an American vessel, having on board Poerio and other exiles from Naples, and whether it was true that they had murdered the master of the vessel on its way to America, and then brought the vessel to Cork? LORD NAAS said, he had received an account of the circumstances to which the right hon. Gentleman alluded, but that account was merely to the effect that an American vessel, with sixty-two Neapolitan the order of the Postmaster General which made the prepayment of all inland letters compulsory said, he was happy to know that the Government had withdrawn their obnoxious order with regard to the inland letters; therefore on that point he had not a word to say. But the attention of the public had been much roused on this question, and it was found there were some fixed principles as to the conduct of a Post Office, from which that establishment had departed most widely. They had forgotten that the convenience of the Post Office was quite secondary to the interests of the public; in fact, that the Post Office was made for the public, not the public for the Post Office. A still weightier forgetfulness was of the reverence due to the sanctity of the seal of every letter that passed through the Post; no letter should be opened unless in case of sheer necessity-a necessity not growing out of the rules of the establishment, but from circumstances entirely external to it. The order with regard to home letters, which so grossly sinned against this principle, had been rescinded, but the Colonies still suffered under the same infliction. The public was not so much interested in what affected the colonial and foreign as in what touched its home letters; but the Government should not inflict on the Colonies an injury to which we would not submit ourselves. Foreign and colonial letters were often written at the last moment, and if by accident a stamp were omitted or displaced, then a fortnight, or even a month, was frequently lost. He hoped the Government would take the regulations affecting these letters into consideration. It had reverted to the old successful and practical system of enforcing double payment for unstamped letters at home, why not adopt the same rule for letters to the Colonies? The responsibility for these matters rested entirely with the Govern- | There was no doubt that the Act of Parliament; alterations of the postage could ment referred to required that companies only be made by the formal authority of to have the benefit of it, should register the Treasury; it was not fair to throw the before the last day of December in the blame on Mr. Rowland Hill. The House year in which it was passed; but there attached the responsibility to the heads was nothing whatever in the Act which and not to the subordinates. He, therefore, prevented a company from registering after thought Mr. Rowland Hill had been very the last day of December in that year. On unfairly dealt with by being put forward as the contrary, all the Act said was that if a kind of scape-goat in this matter. In they did not register before the last day conclusion he would move his Resolution, of the year they must not pay dividends merely to bring himself within the forms or exercise the corporate rights which were of the House, leaving it then to drop or given by the Act; but there was no pronot, as the House might desire; for he vision in the Act which would disable a had no wish to pursue the matter further at company from registering after the expirapresent. His Resolution was as follows:- tion of the year, and in point of fact many "That while this House will support measures companies had registered after the end of for the correction of any abuses of the privilege the year. If, however, there were any of transmitting letters through the post without doubt upon this point there was a Bill previous payment, and for the gradual restraint of which he hoped to see come down shortly the practice itself, yet it considers that the Order from the other House of Parliament conby the Postmaster General of the 27th day of January last, under the authority of a Treasury solidating into one Act the whole of the Warrant of the 29th day of January last, which law with regard to the constitution, the absolutely deprives the public of this privilege, by regulation, and the winding-up of jointdirecting that all home letters posted after the stock companies. If the hon. Gentleman 10th day of February last, and not prepaid, shall be opened at the Post Office and returned to the then adhered to the same opinion that a writers, will expose individuals to serious incon- practical impediment stood in the way of venience and injury; and further, that the com- the registration of these bodies, any Amendpulsory prepayment of foreign and colonial letters, ment which the hon. Member could satisfy under like penalties, requires revision." the House was desirable would be naturally introduced into that Bill. He hoped, therefore, that the hon. Gentleman would not insist upon bringing in a Bill which would only add one more to the dreadful crowd of enactments on joint-stock banks, which already encumbered the Statute-book. The Motion not being seconded, the matter dropped. JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES. LEAVE. MR. COX said, he rose to move for leave to bring in a Bill to empower joint-stock companies who were unable to register, with limited liability, under the provisions of the Act 19 & 20 Vict. c. 47, to do so at any time during the present year. Some companies had been utterly unable to register at the time prescribed, and he desired simply to extend the period of making the register. Motion made, and Question proposed "That this House will immediately resolve itself into Committee, to consider the Act 19 & 20 Vict. c. 47, for the Iucorporation and Regulation of Joint-Stock Companies and other Associations." THE SOLICITOR GENERAL remarked, that if the circumstances of the case had remained unchanged no person would have objected to the Bill. He did not wonder that there should be a misapprehension with regard to the state of the law upon this subject, and that the hon. Gentleman should have fallen into it. MR. COX said, that he happened to be a member of a company which could not register itself, and which, upon consulting eminent counsel, had been advised that it was impossible to register under the law of limited liability. As, however, there would be an opportunity, when the Bill came down from the House of Lords, to bring the question under the notice of the House he would adopt the suggestion of the hon. and learned Gentleman, and withdraw his Motion. Motion, by leave, withdrawn. THE "CHARLES ET GEORGES." ADDRESS MOVED. MR. KINGLAKE said, that in drawing the attention of the House to the correspondence which had taken place respecting the Charles et Georges, he desired to say that it was his intention to treat the matter temperately, and with a complete avoidance of all topics justly calculated to create irritation in any Foreign States. He could not venture to predict, and of course he could not suggest, the course which any hon. Member might take who followed him in the debate, but he was anxious to declare that in his view any discussion which tended to throw blame upon any foreign potentate was alien to the question which he sought to raise; for the question which he was now asking the House to consider was not one involving our friendly relations with foreign states, but was a question which, in one sense, was purely domestic. No question was at present pending, well or ill-the whole matter had been settled; but it still remained for the House to say whether the manner in which the negotiation had been conducted on the part of England was such as the House could approve. It remained for them to say whether the Foreign Secretary had conducted that negotiation with a fair amount of diligence, a fair amount of firmness, and a due attention to existing treaties, and to those other obligations, not actual treaties, but not less sacred, which we had incurred in consequence of arrangements between Portugal and this country with respect to the slave trade. It appeared to him that the House could not shrink from the discussion of this question. Official documents had been laid before the Legislative Assembly of a foreign State. Those documents had been republished in journals whose liberty of printing was not very large, but which, nevertheless, had been permitted to waft from one end of the Continent to the other impressions not altogether favourable to the honour of England. Unfortunately it was difficult to attempt even to discuss the questions which arose upon this matter without glancing at the treaties in existence between this country and Portugal. Quite lately we were congratulating ourselves that at a time when our empire in Bengal appeared to be failing us the fidelity of the western Presidency remained unimpaired. At that time few of us, perhaps, recollected that the territory of Bombay was ceded to us nearly two centuries ago by the Portuguese Government, and that it was in consequence of the relations which began at that period, or, rather, which were then continued and from that period rendered more close, that our character as a guaranteeing State towards Portugal had arisen. By the treaty of 1661, made on the marriage of Charles II. with a Princess of the house of Braganza, the island of Bombay was ceded to this country, and amongst the considerations for which that cession was made there was a guarantee binding this country in very large terms to defend Portugal against all foreign enemies. The kind of alliance thus created, though in terms somewhat too large, was nevertheless maintained in practice, and in 1703 another treaty of a more definite sort was entered into between England and Portugal. That treaty was in Latin, and it seemed to him that the translation of it ordinarily given fell a little short of the strenuous language in which the terms of the original treaty were couched. That treaty was between Great Britain and the States General on the one part, and Portugal on the other; and its object was to effect a defensive alliance between the two States first mentioned and Portugal. Now, when a defensive alliance was entered into, it of course followedand common sense would suggest-that the guaranteeing State must necessarily have an opportunity of looking into the state of affairs which existed previously to actual hostilities. But this treaty seemed not to have left that inference to the common sense of the parties; for it provided, in very express terms, that if there should be even a suspicion or fear of hostilities against Portugal it should be the duty of Great Britian and the States General to urge the case of Portugal against the Power so threatening her. That provision had been translated, he observed, as a mere engagement to give Portugal the good offices of the two guaranteeing States. The original Latin, however, went further than that the words amicé contendent. That was, that it was agreed that the guaranteeing States should strenuously urge by peaceful means the attainment of the object, which, failing those peaceful means, they might have to attain by the use of their forces. The treaty provided that, failing the success of peaceful means, the guaranteeing States should be obliged to support Portugal with all their forces, and that for the purpose of carrying on hostilities-as he read the instrument-in the kingdom of Portugal there should be a force of 12,000 men. This stipulation had been interpreted as if 12,000 men only were to be employed on the whole continent of Europe. As he understood the treaty, it meant that they were to defend Portugal with all their forces-totis viribus; but that for the purpose of defence in Portugal itself the amount should be limited to 12,000 men. In 1810, when Lord Wel-ed the slave trade, and exerted themselves lington was preparing the lines of Torres to put an end to it, that under the semVedras, we entered into the treaty of Rio blance of importing free labourers to the Janeiro, which was afterwards abrogated; French colonies, there was going on, in but which engaged Portugal to prohibit the point of fact, a practice very nearly akin to slave trade in all her possessions north of that of the slave trade. He did not wish the line. In 1815, England at Vienna, to impart into this discussion those warm fresh from the triumphs she had achieved and strong feelings which were associated in Portugal-triumphs which she owed in with our horror of the slave trade, and he great part to the bravery of the Portu- would admit that there was much to be said guese soldiery-deliberately, and in the on both sides of the question. On the one face of Europe, renewed her engage-hand the French were able to say that these ments with Portugal, and in very clear and emphatic terms, engaged that the former treaties should be considered as still in full force, and that the terms of friendship, alliance, and guarantee should still subsist. Here it seemed necessary to pause for a moment, and to consider what was the liability which England had incurred by entering into those large engagements with Portugal. According to the opinion of the noble Lord the Secre tary for Foreign Affairs-an opinion given after these events had occurred, and which was to be found in the papers before the House-this was a guarantee which bound England, under all circumstances, to defend the territory of Portugal against all aggression. He (Mr. Kinglake) did not give such a broad interpretation to that treaty. He thought that, under this treaty England was bound to aid Portugal in any just cause, but not to aid her if she were engaged in a defensive war which she had brought upon herself by undue resistance to just demands. Having thus noticed the position in which England was placed by her political treaties with Portugal, he had next to glance at the arrangements which were made with a view to the prevention of the slave trade. In 1810, as he had before stated, Portugal engaged to prohibit the slave trade north of the line. In 1815 she renewed that engagement. But it was not until 1836 that she extended that provision to her territories south of the line. In 1836 she made a decree which also prohibited the slave trade south of the lime, and that prohibition extended to the coast of Mozambique, the territory near which the vessel in question was taken. For many years after the prohibition of the slave trade on the Mozambique coast there continued a practice of carrying the negroes from that coast to employ them, he would not say as slaves, but as workmen in the French island of Bourbon or Réunion. After a time it occurred to that great body of humane men who in this country watch people being probably slaves in their own country became freemen when imported into Réunion; while, on the other hand, the enemies of the practice maintained that, though theoretically free when on board a French ship, they were practically in subjection, and that the demand for them upon the coasts led to the carrying on of slave wars in the interior. The result was that a strong pressure was put upon Portugal, both by France and England. France strenuously contended for a continuance of this practice of importing free colonists, England as strenuously resisted. Ultimately the counsels of England prevailed, and Portugal, at our instance, was induced to prohibit the exportation of negroes from the Mozambique coast. The contest was renewed, and renewed with great vigour, in 1857, when Count Walewski wrote a despatch pressing upon Portugal in the strongest terms the policy and good sense of submitting herself to the practice which he advised her to enter upon. On the other hand, the Earl of Clarendon pressed Portugal to maintain a firm resistance to the deportation of negroes from Mozambique, and in the end Portugal repealed the decree that she had issued against the practice, and finally resolved to prohibit the practice altogether. But the contest did not end there. It was sometimes easier to make laws than to enforce them, and it was found by England, that although Portugal had made these laws against the deportation of negroes from the coast, those laws were systematically evaded. The Earl of Clarendon remonstrated in strong terms against the connivance of Portugal at the practice, and called upon her in the most energetic language to be faithful in her determination to carry out her prohibition. Accordingly, a Portuguese Governor who was supposed, and justly he believed, to have connived at the evasion of the law, was recalled, and at our desire a Governor was sent out with stringent instructions to enforce the prohibition which Portugal had issued at the instance of this country. | places where he might lawfully obtain them, Now, although the Government of France Captain Rouxel appeared to have thought had strenuously resisted this determination that he might also transact a little business on the part of Portugal, it was only just of the same description on the Portuguese towards the French Government to say territory. He accordingly sent his interthat they acted at that time with great preter ashore and obtained fifty-nine negroes loyalty, and that, having been defeated in from the Mozambique coast, eleven of whom the contest with England as to which of were brought on board with their hands the Powers should carry out her views in pinioned. The French documents, while the matter, she loyally acceded to the de- they admitted that these men were brought termination which Portugal had arrived at, on board with their hands pinioned, yet and sent out distinct orders to her naval said it was by their own free consent. commanders in those waters, informing This seemed a strange demand to make them that Portugal had prohibited the upon one's credulity, that they should voluntraffic, and ordering them to give effect to tarily submit to be bound; but so it was the prohibition. In a despatch written by stated in these papers. On the 23rd the the Earl of Clarendon, and dated the 17th French vessel sailed away, the negroes of November, 1857-a despatch he would having been taken on board on the 21st not read, because if he once commenced and 23rd, and there was reason to believe to read documents, he knew not when he that her departure was occasioned by a should come to an end-his Lordship cor- suspicion that some Portuguese vessels dially thanked the Portuguese Government were on the look-out for her. The fact for the firmness with which they had acted was that on the 21st of November, a day in maintaining their prohibition; and whilst or two after she came into the Bay, her he was writing that despatch the vessel to transactions were denounced to the Portuwhich the present Motion related, the guese Government as an infraction of the Charles et Georges, was nearing the Mo law. Now, who thus denounced her? It zambique coast. The Charles et Georges was the British Consul and the result was was a vessel freighted for the purpose of that in consequence of his representations, obtaining negro workmen. Her papers instructions were given that cruisers should were made out in such a way as to indicate be sent to look for the vessel. Captain that she was to obtain those workmen in Rouxel remained at sea for some days, but portions of the African territory where she on the 29th of that month the Charles et might lawfully do so. She had on board a Georges returned to Conducia Bay; and on person called a delegate." Now, the the result of her second visit there might House would observe that this delegate was be something like a question whether she a person employed by the French Govern- anchored within cannon range, for it was ment, but not armed with that kind of au- said that she was then three or four miles thority which, under similar circumstances, from the shore; but this much was certain a naval or military officer would possess.that at the time she was boarded by the This delegate was charged with the duty of seeing, so far as he could, that the regulations prescribed by his Government were adhered to, and that unnecessary hardships were not inflicted upon the negroes. This vessel, on the 17th of November, came near the Mozambique coast, and entered Conducia Bay. There could be no doubt that she was in constant communication with the shore and anchored very near it. The British Consul stated that she was anchored with in two miles of his house, and therefore, as the House would be aware, quite within the range of cannon-shot, that being the distance over which in ternational law has extended the sovereignty of a State beyond the actual shore. This vessel being in Conducia Bay, and having already taken some negroes on board at 66 Portuguese Consul, her boats were actually There |