IRON-PLATED SHIPS.-QUESTION. that he had no information from the teen gentlemen waited on him at the factory inspectors on that subject, except Mansion House, and urged the establisha Report from Mr. Redgrave, whose dis-ment of some kind of organization by trict, as Inspector, comprised far the which relief could be collected. In congreater part of the manufacturing dis- sequence of that, he spoke from the judicial tricts in the North, stating that great ex- bench at the Mansion House, in the preertions had been made to remove the sence of the public press, stating what difficulties attending the working of In- had taken place and expressing his willdian cotton, and that there were machines ingness to be the recipient of the public in many factories which were also avail- bounty with a view of transmitting it to able for working the shorter kinds of the distressed districts. But he accomcotton. panied that with this condition. He said he could not undertake himself to distribute it, but that he would receive it and transmit it to some central organization, which, from what he had heard, was much needed and he had no doubt would soon be formed. The public responded to what he said at the Mansion House by sending large sums of money, and he soon had a large amount at the bankers and little use made of it. Referring then to the deputation that had waited on him, he requested them all to assist him as a committee of advice. Eight of them acto this he had been assisted by them, cepted the invitation; and from that day they giving up to the matter a large portion of their time, although largely engagFinding SIR JAMES ELPHINSTONE said, he wished to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty, If he will, during the recess, procure for the House a list of the ironplated or iron-clad vessels built or building, with their tonnage, dimensions, armour, and draught of water. He asked this Question in consequence of a similar Return, ordered on the Motion of the hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Laird), having been incorrectly worded and misunderstood to refer only to the old floating batteries. LORD CLARENCE PAGET said, in reply, that if the hon. Member would let him know what the particular Returns were which he wanted, he would endeavour to obtain them. THE EASTER RECESS. VISCOUNT PALMERSTON moved that the House at its rising do adjourn till Monday the 13th of April. THE STALEYBRIDGE RIOTSTHE MANSION HOUSE COMMITTEE. EXPLANATION. MR. ALDERMAN CUBITT said, that as he had just been precluded, by the forms of the House, from saying a few words in vindication of the Mansion House Committee, he trusted the House would now indulge him for a few moments. On the 14th April he received a letter from a gentleman enclosing a cheque for twenty guineas. The writer expressed a belief that the distress then exhibiting itself in the cotton districts would grow to a great magnitude, and that something ought to be done in the way of relief. He put the cheque by for two or three days, and then sent for the gentleman and had some talk with him on the subject. The result was that in a few days a deputation of thirteen or four ed in mercantile transactions. It AFFAIRS OF POLAND.-OBSERVATIONS. tion, and were being interfered with by his conduct; and, whatever difference of new people, whereas the reverse was the opinion there might be as to the later case. The Mansion House Committee management of the Committee over which would have been glad to have ceased he presided, there was not a single person their labours and abdicated their functions; in the county of Lancaster who did not but the money was coming in in large entertain the same feelings of gratitude amounts, and they hesitated to do so till towards the hon. Gentleman which he they ascertained how far the public would (Colonel Wilson Patten) had now expressbe satisfied with what was going on in ed. Whatever other differences there Manchester. It was not till some time might be, there was no difference in that afterwards that he felt satisfied that the respect. He hoped that he had said nopublic might be content to let the whole thing to wound the feelings of his hon. matter be left to the Manchester Com- Friend. If he had done so, he had mismittee. He accordingly suggested this represented the feelings of the whole of course; but what was the response? All his constituents. their meetings had been held in open day, and they had never been without the presence of representatives of the public press. On one occasion they discussed the propriety and expediency of handing over all their money to the Manchester Committee. They did not come to a decision on that occasion; and before they met again they received nnmerous letters imploring them to go on as they had hitherto done; and they were encouraged in acceding to those requests by continually increasing subscriptions being sent to them. The total amount received by the Mansion House Committee up to the present time exceeded £470,000. The Mansion House Committee looked on this as a great manifestation of the public opinion; and although they might be stigmatized as going out of their way and interfering improperly, on the whole he thought they must feel assured that up to the present time the public had been satisfied with them. He was very sorry to occupy the time of the House, but he would say for himself that the work had for the last twelve months been to him one of great anxiety; and if he could satisfactorily divest himself of all responsibility, he would be very glad to do so. COLONEL WILSON PATTEN said, he did not know what the object of his hon. Friend was in making these observations; but he trusted that it was not on account of anything which had fallen from him. If he had said anything to detract from the merits of his hon. Friend, he deeply regretted it; he certainly did not intend to do so. He hoped he had never said anything that did not render ample justice to the kindly manner in which his hon. Friend first opened the subscription, and to the liberal and patriotic spirit with which he had carried it out. He gave his hon. Friend the highest possible credit for MR. HENNESSY said, that before the House rose for the recess, he was anxious to repeat the Question which he had asked on Monday, but to which the noble Viscount at the head of the Government declined to give an answer. He would remind the House that in again asking the noble Lord what was the policy of Her Majesty's Government with regard to Poland, he was only putting a question which had been asked in every Parliament in Europe, and which had been answered in every country except this. Strange to say, whereas in France the Government had fully and frankly explained their policy to the public of France, and a similar course had been pursued in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Sweden, in fact wherever a representative assembly met to discuss public affairs, and even in Berlin Count Bismark had stated the course his Government intended to pursue, yet the Government of this country had not deigned to afford that House any information. When he remembered what in former times had been the policy of the noble Lord with regard to Poland, no one could say that he was prepared to trust the present Government implicitly: they knew that in all the past diplomatic history of Europe in relation to Poland, which the noble Lord had, unfortunately for that country, whenever the question turned up, had in his own hands, the policy of the noble Lord had been always adverse to Poland. But there was now an additional reason why they should wish to hear from the noble Lord a statement of what he was about to do. In July 1831, the noble Lord was asked, as had been frequently stated in that House, to enter into a joint mediation with France. Louis Philippe asked him form Count Orloff said to me in a friendly manner, Do not, in the interest of the Poles, bring the subject forward in the Congress; for I can tell you nothing there, nor admit your right to interMy answer, therefore, must be disrogate me. to enter into a joint mediation. In March | foreign pressure, which would deprive him of the 1831 the noble Lord had written de- grace of the spontaneous acts he meant to perspatches to the Government of Russia, and Lord Heytesbury wrote to the noble Lord in reply. In one of these despatches Lord Heytesbury told the noble Lord that whatever view the Russian Government took of the policy of England-that what-heartening to the Poles, and the Emperor may perhaps think it a matter of dignity to postpone ever they thought of getting advice from what he intends to do.'" England-there was one thing, and only one thing they feared, and that was a joint mediation of France and England. Lord Heytesbury went on to say— "As Prince Lieven is instructed to read this despatch to your Lordship, it will be unnecessary for me to say more than that the apparent understanding between England and France upon this subject is a much greater source of regret to this Government than anything contained in the representations I was called upon to make." It was all very well for the noble Lord to tell the English Ambassador to make representations of what were the feelings of England, but as long as Count Nesselrode could isolate the policy of France and England, he would be content. In the year 1855, as they now knew, thanks to the Emperor of the French, who had published papers which had been kept concealed from the House of Commons, the French Government again asked the British Government to adopt a joint mediation with regard to Poland. The noble Viscount again refused. In the year 1856 his own Minister at the Congress of Paris, Lord Clarendon, spoke to Count Orloff upon the subject of Poland, and they had, within a few weeks, seen for the first time Lord Clarendon's despatch printed. In his despatch of April 15, 1856, Lord Cla rendon said "On the 9th instant, at the request of Count Walewski, I held a conversation with Count Orloff on this subject. I said that the condition of Poland had been discussed, and its future organization determined, by the Congress of Vienna, and that the present Congress could not view the question with indifference; but that, to the best of my belief, the Poles would be tolerably well satisfied if national institutions were restored to them, if their religion were respected, if they were allowed to use the Polish language, and if all their children were educated at Polish schools, instead of, as now, a limited number of them only at Russian schools. I suggested at the same time to his Excellency that he should volunteer some assurance to this effect, or should be prepared to declare it in answer to a question put to him by Congress. "Count Orloff replied that the Emperor had determined to restore to his Polish subjects every thing I had suggested, but that the announcement could not be made to the Congress, as that would be misrepresented in Russia, and his Imperial Majesty would be thought to have yielded to Well, the British Minister gave way; and what did Her Majesty's Government say to it? The noble Viscount said, in a despatch of the 17th April My Lord,-I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's despatch of the 15th inst., reporting your conversations with Count Walewski and with Count Orloff on the question of Poland, and I have the honour to acquaint your Lordship that Her Majesty's Government entirely approve the course pursued by you, both in bringing the subject into discussion with Count Orloff, and in abstaining, in consequence of what Count Orloff said, from mooting the matter in the Congress." In 1855, then, they found the noble Viscount accepting the Russian promises, and refusing to do anything. In 1856 they learnt from the papers laid before the French Senate that the French Government solicited the joint action of England, and that England again refused. Whenever the noble Viscount refused to join with France, he always adopted this tone-he said that the Emperor of Russia was prepared to promise something to Poland, and he would believe Russia; and in a despatch, describing the first transaction to which he had referred, the noble Viscount, in speaking of the Emperor Nicholas, at the time he was committing barbarities quite equal to the conduct which the noble Viscount the other day stigmatized as barbarous, the noble Viscount spoke of the "generous and high-minded sentiments" of the Emperor Nicholas; he appealed to the "moderation and mercy," which he believed to be congenial to the highminded sentiments which were well known to belong to his Imperial Majesty," and to his "humane forbearance and lenity." This was written at a time when the Emperor Nicholas was slaughtering his subjects in Poland wholesale. Now, as long as they found the noble Viscount praising the Emperor of Russia, relying on his benevolence, trusting to an amnesty, talking of his merciful disposition, so long the noble Viscount's policy required to be closely He would scrutinized by that House. strongly urge upon the noble Viscount to pay more attention to what he (Mr. Hen nessy) believed to be the sentiments of the a Motion for other papers which would people of England and the disposition of throw additional light on the subject. But that House than to the sentiments of the in the present state of public feeling, both Grand Duke Constantine, and the merciful in this country and in America, there disposition of the Emperor of Russia. He might be advantage in the Government begged in conclusion to ask the noble being able to give at once some exViscount, generally, what Her Majesty's planation which the facts, as presented Government proposed to do with regard in the papers already published, seemto Poland; and, in particular, whethered to demand. He would endeavour Her Majesty's Government had accepted or had refused any kind of mediation jointly with the Government of France in the affairs of Poland. UNITED STATES-THE FOREIGN EN LISTMENT ACT.-QUESTION. briefly to state the circumstances of the case. On June 23rd, the American Minister, having already had experience of one armed vessel leaving their shores and being engaged in the destruction of American ships, wrote to the Foreign Secretary, and after referring to the case of the Oreto, said "I am now under the painful necessity of apprising your Lordship that a new and still more ture from the port of Liverpool on the same powerful war steamer is nearly ready for deparerrand. This vessel has been built and launched from the dockyard of persons one of whom is now sitting as a Member of the House of Commons, and is fitting out for the especial and manifest about to be commanded by one of the insurgent object of carrying on hostilities by sea. agents, the same who sailed in the Oreto. The parties engaged in the enterprise are well known at Liverpool to be agents and officers of the insurgents in the United States." It is The American Minister, in confirmation of this, enclosed a statement from the American Consul at Liverpool, who said— "The evidence I have is entirely conclusive to my mind. . . . The foreman in Messrs. Laird's yard says she is the sister to the gunboat the Oreto, and has been built for the same parties and the same purpose." The vessel was apparently built under circumstances which suggested concealment, for he added— MR. W. E. FORSTER said, he rose to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether the attention of Her Majesty's Government has been called to the danger to our friendly relations with the United States resulting from the fitting out in our Ports of Ships of War for the service of the self-styled Confederate States, in contravention of the Foreign Enlistment Act and of the policy of Neutrality adopted by this country? A danger such as he had referred to in his Question did really exist, because many persons, British subjects or acting under the protection of British law, and in defiance of the Queen's Proclamation and of the statutes of the realm, were breaking the law, and were engaged in efforts to break it to an extent which did certainly place this country in the danger of being involved in war. This was notorious from the papers that had been presented with regard to the most flagrant of these cases-the case of the Alabama. From these papers there arose two questions for consideration. The first was, whether Her Majesty's Government had done all they could-had used every possible exertion-to prevent these breaches of the law; and the second, whether they were impressed with the necessity of the duty of doing their utmost to prevent them for the future? And he must acknowledge that his object in addressing the noble Viscount the Question now was, that he thought that so great was the danger that they could not separate for the recess without obtaining an answer from the Govern-nister's statement, which was so fully justiment, more especially with regard to the second question, as to the future. With regard to the past, it would have been more convenient had discussion on it been postponed, because his hon. Friend the Member for Brighton (Mr. White) had VOL. CLXX. [THIRD SERIES] "The strictest watch is kept over the vessel; no person except those immediately engaged upon her is admitted into the yard.” The despatch was forwarded to the Foreign Office on the 23rd of June, and the Foreign Minister transmitted it to the Customs authorities at Liverpool; who replied that they were unable to take any steps to prevent the departure of the vessel. One point on which they required imformation was, as to the steps the Customs authorities had taken to find out the truth or falsehood of the American Mi fied by the result. The next letter was dated July 22nd, in which the American Minister again wrote to Earl Russell, and enclosed sworn depositions which abundantly proved that the vessel was on the point of sailing as an armed vessel of war. C MR. ROEBUCK: The hon. Gentleman | Crown, and that he had telegraphed for Bays "armed"-but was she armed? the seizure of the vessel. Now, how was MR. W. E. FORSTER: The evidence it that five days elapsed after the receipt was that the vessel was to be built and of this letter before any action was taken fitted up as a fighting ship in all re- by the Government? Earl Russell had spects. [MR. ROEBUCK: She had no guns.] been informed that the vessel was ready No; but one of the depositions-that to sail, and he had the strongest possible of a seaman who had been enlisted by grounds of suspicion that she was going out the Confederate agent-stated that she in the service of the Confederate States. had a magazine, shot, and canister racks The House ought also to know how it on deck, and was pierced for guns, and was that the Customs authorities, whose was built and fitted up as a fighting duty it was to prevent the breach of the ship in all respects. The depositions law, independently of the action of the proved the connection of the agent of the Foreign Office and of the American GovernConfederate Government, Captain Bullock, ment, took no steps whatever in the with this vessel as superintending her con- matter. There was another question upon struction in Mr. Laird's yard, while an which, as he saw the Solicitor General old man-of-war's-man deposed to his hav- present, he should like to have informaing been enlisted by the agent of the Con- tion. In his letter to Mr. Adams dated federate States, Captain Butcher, to sail the 22nd of September, some time after in the vessel. This deponent joined the the vessel had sailed, Earl Russell said— vessel in Messrs. Laird & Co.'s yard at Birkenhead, and he went on to say- There "The said vessel is a screw steamer of about 1,100 tons burden, as far as I can judge, and is built and fitted up as a fighting ship in all respects. She has a magazine, and shot and canister racks on deck, and is pierced for guns. are now about thirty hands on board her, who have been engaged to go out in her. Most of them are men who have previously served on board fighting ships. It is well known by the hands on board that the vessel is going out as a privateer for the Confederate Government, to act against the United States under a commission from Mr. Jefferson Davis." The next paper he would read was the opinion of the hon. and learned Member for Plymouth (Mr. Collier), which was given at the request of the American Government. It was as follows: "I have perused the above affidavits, and I am of opinion that the Collector of Customs would be justified in detaining the vessel. Indeed, I should think it his duty to detain her; and that if, after the application which has been made to him, supported by the evidence which has been laid before me, he allows the vessel to leave Liverpool, he will incur a heavy responsibilitya responsibility of which the Board of Customs, under whose direction he appears to be acting, must take their share. It appears difficult to make out a stronger case of infringement of the Foreign Enlistment Act, which, if not enforced on this occasion, is little better than a dead letter. It well deserves consideration whether, if the vessel be allowed to escape, the Federal Government would not have serious grounds of remonstrance." That opinion was dated July 23, 1862, and its validity appeared to have been allowed by the Government, because Earl Russell wrote five days afterwards he had submitted it to the Law Officers of the The report of the Law Officers was not received until the 29th of July, and on the same day a telegraphic message was forwarded to Her Majesty's Government, stating that the vessel had sailed that morning. Instructions were then despatched to Ireland to detain the vessel should she put into Queenstown, and similar instructions have been sent to the Governor of the Bahamas, very day that the Law Officers gave their It was certainly a curious coincidence that the day on which the opinion of the Law Officers was received was the very day when this vessel got away. She left professedly on a pleasure excursion, and notwithstanding the suspicion which attached to her, the Customs authorities did not find out that this pleasure excursion was her actual departure. She sailed out under the British flag, and in Angra Bay was joined by two other vessels under the British flag, and was supplied with arms and stores. It was said, that at that time she ceased to hoist the British and hoisted the Confederate flag; but had the Government attempted to find out whether she did really make this change; for if she had not ceased to be a British ship, she was, of course, still under British jurisdiction? She made good use of her |