{COMMONS} luctant to be made the means of prosecuting poachers in consequence of a tax being levied on guns.

MR. M'LAGAN said, he would make the common-sense suggestion that game preservers who sold their game should be made to take out the dealer's licence. MR. GRAVES said, he wished to know whether it was meant to include, as subject to the tax on guns, the large number of guns in the armouries connected with the shipping of the country? THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER: The tax is to be, not on guns, but on the carrying of them.

MR. GRAVES said, there was a large number of guns carried annually between the armourer's shop and the ships.

SIR JOHN LUBBOCK: Sir, I rose at the same moment as the hon. Member Bill read a second time, and committed for North Warwickshire (Mr. Newdefor Thursday 9th June.

the original Motion, because it would effect the same object in a simpler and more expeditious manner. Neither, indeed, will it effect all that I myself should wish; but the Amendment will at least strengthen the hands of the Commissioners, and enable them to throw open some of the Governing Bodies. Under these circumstances, I trust that it will be accepted by the hon. Member for Frome, and by the House.

SIR CHARLES ADDERLEY said, he did not see the use of prolonging this discussion night after night; but would, after making his protest, yield to the overwhelming numbers of hon. Gentlemen opposite, and consent to the adoption of the Motion, for it was useless to oppose a Government that argued with legions at its back.

MR. GATHORNE HARDY said, the House was called upon to ask Her Majesty to act under a statute from the operation of which the public schools were expressly excluded, and therefore this matter could not be carried further without special legislation. There should be legislation before Her Majesty was asked to do anything.

proposed statutes seems to me to possess very little importance. Take, for instance, the case of Winchester. The Governing Body of that school will be composed as follows:--The Wardens of New College, Oxford, and Winchester, one member each elected by the Wardens and Fellows of New College, the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and London, the Royal Society, the Lord Chief Justice, and the Head and Assistant Masters; and two or four by the Governing Body for the time being, a provision which will materially strengthen the Conservative element in the Governing Body. Sir, I hope the time may come when all these bodies will elect the best man, independent of his religious opinions; but, as matters now stand, out of the 13 members of whom the Governing Body will consist, there is obviously MR. T. HUGHES said, he was willno chance that more than one or two willing to accept the Amendment in prebe Nonconformists. Even that is doubt-ference to the Motion of which he had ful, for though the Royal Society of the himself given Notice. University of London will certainly elect those whom they consider most fit, irrespective of their religious opinions, they will certainly not elect anyone because he is a Nonconformist. I submit, therefore, that in the interests of the Church of England it is undesirable to fight this question. No doubt there are some privileges necessary to the existence of an Established Church; but this is not one of them, and it does seem to me very unwise on the part of friends of the Church to grasp at the mere shadow of a privilege, thus jeopardizing the substantial advantage of popular sympathy and support. Moreover, Sir, this privilege seems to me to be one of a very dangerous cha-pressed. racter, since it excites hostility without, COLONEL BERESFORD said, he must on the other hand, conferring any submit that the House could only direct strength. As regards the schools them-existing legislation to be carried out, selves, however, the limitation seems to me of considerable importance, since it will exclude some whose presence all would regard as most desirable. I regret, therefore, that all the public schools cannot be thrown open, and for the same reason I should, of course, like to see the 19th clause of the Endowed Schools Act reconsidered, as it seems to me contrary to public policy that anyone should be able to tie up his property, and thus offer a premium to the teaching of certain opinions-a premium, which if they are right they do not require, and if they are wrong they ought not to have. Sir, the Amendment seems to me preferable to

MR. BRUCE said, he believed the Commissioners were perfectly right in the course they had pursued. There was nothing to prevent the Commissioners from acting without special legislation. MR. DENMAN said, he hoped the Motion for Adjournment would not be

and there was nothing in it affecting the schools mentioned. He must oppose the Address, considering it a step towards the disestablishment of the English Church, at which the artillery of destruction was now pointed on that (the Opposition) side of the House.

the Debate be now adjourned.”—(Mr. Motion made, and Question put, "That Newdegate.)

The House divided:-Ayes 30; Noes 55: Majority 25.

Question again proposed, "That the words proposed to be left out stand part of the Question."

Question put, "That those words be Committee - Norwich Voters Disfranchisement there added."

or until pardon, for any public employ- | convict at the time of his conviction ment under the Crown, whether naval, thus remedying the anomalous state military, or civil, and for holding any ecclesiastical benefice. The disqualification also extended to sitting in Parliament, and to the exercise of any Parliamentary or municipal franchise. The 3rd clause enacted that persons convicted of treason or felony might be condemned to pay all or any portion of the costs, as to the Court might seem fit; and the 4th enabled the Court to award compensation to an amount not exceeding £100 by way of satisfaction or compensation for loss of property suffered by the injured party. The convict was, moreover, disabled from bringing any action or suit at law, and from alienating property during the time he should be subject to the Act. As he had already stated, the goods and chattels of a person convicted of felony were forfeited to the Crown. But though this consequence of conviction was still in force, its operation had been much mitigated, partly by the operation of various statutes, but chiefly by the practice pursued by the Crown in making grants from the forfeited property for the relief of the convict's family and other purposes. Indeed, in minor cases, it had long been the practice not to seize goods and chattels with a view of deriving any profit from them, but to deal with them in a merciful manner for the purpose of meeting the necessities of the convict's family. He held in his hand a Return of goods and chattels forfeited to the Crown since 1864, which showed that the application of them had been very capricious, and not regulated by any definite principle. In 1864 such property amounted to about £1,500, of which only £407 was restored to the convicts' families; in 1865 to nearly £600, £440 being restored; and in 1868 to £1,800, of which £1,111 was restored. It was very desirable that the disposition of the property of a felon should be placed under some systematic rule; and this Bill proposed that henceforth such property should be vested in an administrator to be appointed by the Crown; that after all expenses incurred by the administrator in recovering the property had been paid it should first of all be liable to defray the costs of the prosecutor, if he had not been otherwise entirely reimbursed. It proposed that the property should next be liable for the payment of debts justly due by the

of the law under which creditors, unless they had obtained judgment, were debarred payment, no matter how large the amount of personal property which the convict had forfeited. It next proposed that the administrator should be empowered to make compensation to a limited extent to any person defrauded or injured by the criminal act of the convict; and, lastly, that he should make allowances for the support of the convict's family, and, indeed, for that of the convict himself if he should be at large under a license. The administration would operate until the sentence pronounced, or any sentence substituted for it, had been fully completed, or until a pardon had been issued. During this period any property accruing to the convict would come within the possession and control of the administrator: who, on the expiration of the term, would be bound to restore to the convict all that remained of his property, and to give him a full account of his administration. In cases where no administrator should have been appointed, the justices of the peace in petty sessions might appoint an interim curator of the property of the convict, upon application of any person who should be able to satisfy such justices that such an appointment would be for the benefit of the convict, or his family. The powers and duties of the interim curator would be generally the same as that of the administrator, and would abate on the appointment of an administrator in due form. There was one other provision in the Bill to which he desired to bring under their Lordships' notice. The 31st clause repealed the barbarous provisions of the statutes still, he was ashamed to say, in existence, by which it was enacted that the judgment required by law to be awarded against persons adjudged guilty of high treason should include the drawing of the person on a hurdle to the place of execution, and, after execution, the severing of the head from the body, and the dividing of the body into four quarters. Henceforth, this relic of the barbarism of our ancestors would cease to disgrace our statute book. The Bill had passed without the smallest opposition in the other House, and was referred to a Select Committee, by whom certain alterations were made; after which it received the marked approval of Her Ma