260

cei nenialeinlh eaten AL

~~

stood. He did not say that there were not many \ were not only short of seed-grain, but also of the mea of purchasidg it; but, whilst they consider the poor iar- mer, let them not altogether banish a due consideration

ans

The Government he

of the claims of the poor trader. dhold him wuuarmed.

considered was bound to step in an

He (Mr. L.) had very little doubt but that prices would a 7 | Oats, he| large concessions of the above nature were made, the

ffects for the peace and happiness of | Members, it follows that I cannot ¢laim any authority to |

be immediately, and considerably depressed.

expected would not, in a few days, realize more than|most beneficial e housands| both countries would be the result.

two shillings ; and he considered there were t

and tens of thousands of bushels more than would be re-| ; ; wer He would like to know, if, as it so DENMARK — THE |

quired for Seed. : said, the people were destitute, how it was possible they

could purchase the grain from the Merchants. They!

had paid Cash for it, and if the Government did not step in to hold them unharmed, it would neither be honest nor just; but, on the other hand, it would be a breach of faith, | and a downright imposition practised upon the traders, | who had made their arrangements, and some of whom}

had actually engaged the vessels to ship off their pur-|

i chases.

Viewing the measure as one of a most arbitra-|

|

vholallocation of the revenues of the Established Church,

THE EXAMINGR.

EES aT

‘saving life interests, to purposes of charity and education. 'Mr. John O'Connell impressed upon the Minister the ne- ‘cessity of immediate action; but Lord John Russell de- ‘clined to make known the intentions of the Government; ‘and the interview, which lasted an hour, ended by Mr. ‘John O’Connell assuring the noble lord, that if some

DANES VICTORIOUS.

By the arrival of the Hamburg, Captain Brown at) Hulij, we have the Borsenhalle, of the 11th inst., from/ which we extract the following :—

Hostilities have seriously commenced between the forces of Denmark and those of Schleswig-Holstein. A very fierce battle has been fought near Flensburg, in) which the Danes had a decided superiority in numbers) as well asin their cavalry and artillery. The Schles-|

er EERO AT ER EE RR OT Ee

_ ee ca eC Eel

| I think therefore the course pursued by your prede- cessor, Sir Henry Huntly, on the first occasion, when the seat of Mr. Coles was declared vacant, was the cor- rect one ; and Ihave to instruct you, not to refuse to ‘to issue a Writ, to fill up a seat in the Assembly, which ‘that Body shall have in the same manner declared to be vacant. Having acknowledged the exclusive right of ‘the House of Assembly to decide who are its own

do more than merely express an opinion, which of

‘course is not binding upon it, on the second question— FIRST BATTLE. — THE

as to whether, in this particular instance, the House has decided correctly, or the reverse. If fam called upon for an opinion, I am bound to say that, upon a careful consideration of all that has been urged on both sides, { concur in that which has been given by your Lad Ad- visers. The doctrine that the acceptance of a seat in the Executive Council vacates one in the Assembly, seems to me to be erroneous—in the first place, because it is contrary to the received practice of the Island, no such construction having hitherto been put on the Act of 6th Will. 4th cap. 24; while it appears that some of

+ 7 1 : 7 | ry nature, and uncalled for as regarded Oats, he felt) vig-Holetein army was defeated, and compelled to re- the gentlemen who now contend that a vacancy has

bound to oppuse it. (To be continued.)

very great on both sides. | he Danes entered the city of Schleswig, yester-| day. The Prussians have received orders to drive the

. y , ead | .. s ; MONDAY, MAY 1, 1548. | Danes aut of Schleswig, in order to the re-establishment

Another English Mail,

——

On Saturday morning another Engilsh Mail was re-| immediately advance into the Danish territories aa ‘vigorously prosecute the war.

ceived, and the intelligence it furnishes is of a charac- ter similar to what has been brought by the last two or three Mails. The revolutionary spirit is still in the as- cendant throughout Europe; bat while the “dogs of war” have been “ let loose” in some of the foreign States, the warlike movements of the British Isles have as yet been confined to the discharge of paper bullets. Our Paper to-day will admit of the insertion of the follow-

The Duke of Augustenburgh and Prince Waldemar arrived here yesterday from Berlin, and immediately left for Rendsburg.

The Duke brings the order for the Prussian troops to) enter Schleswig,

Pursuant to this order, two Prussian battalions have] been directed to advance, but it is stated that they’ will have to await the arrival of cavalry and artill-

ery.

|

ing paragraphs only :— | THE CHARTIST AGITATION. {From the European Times.]

The present has been anexcited week with regard to domestic politics. ‘The great demonstration by the body of people called Chartists, in London, passed over without any of those lamentable eonsequences which have attended similar assemblages in the other capitais of Europe. The Government took the most precaution- ary measures previously to the meeting on Monday last —warning the people against any infringement of the law, or proceeding in large bodies in procession to the House of Parliament; and vast military arrangements were made to preserve the peace of the metropolis. ‘The alacrity with which all the middle classes turned out tended more than anything else to preserve tran- quility. No fewer than two hundred thousand special constables were enrolled in London, presenting a force| which would vie with any similar body of men in the world ; and the consciousness of this overwhelming force, and the other judicious arrangements made, secured the tranguility of the capital. The Chartists assembled in vast numbers on Kennington Common, collected from all the various districts around; and there, it being in- timated to their leader that they would not be allowed to march in procession across the bridges, two or three of the delegates advised them to relinquish their design ;

Throughout al] Europe the greatest excitement con-| tinues to prevail. The general marching of troops for’ offensive or defensive operations, the actual hostilities going on in Lombardy, the threatening aspect of the quarrel respecting the Duchies of Schleswig-Holsteir, and the vast preparations of Russia and France, all con- tribute to keep up a state of confusion and anxiety, which, for the mercantile interests, especially those in relation with France and Germany, is highly distressing. The invasion of Lombardy by Charles Albert, under the pretence of fulfilling his “ mission,” or rather to seize the, whole of Lombardy, and perhaps Venice, in order to ag-| crandise his dominion, is daily viewed more and more as an act of unjustifiable aggression, which, when the present disturbances and “ disastrous change, preplex-'| ing monarchs,” shall subside into more general tran- quility, may not turn out so advantageously to this am- bitious monarch as his present conquests seem to pro-

mise.

DESPATCH FROM EARL GREY ON THE SUB- JECT OF THE HON. MR. WARBURTON’S SEAT.

House or AsseMBLY, Apri] 26th, 1848. The following extract of a Despatch from the Right Hon. Earl Grey, Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, to his Excellency Sir Donald Campbell, and laid before the House of Assembly by command of

and their petition, signed, it was said, by above five mil- lions of persons (but which in fact was not signed by even two millions, and a great part of these signatures hoaxes, Queen Victoria’s name figuring therein, besides the Duke of Wellington’s, 20 times, and Snooks, and ail kinds of nick-names), was despatched to the House of Commons by two of the delegates. Some slight endea- vours were made by the thieves of London to pass over Westmineter Bridge, but the police force, without any other assistance, completely frustrated the attempt; and a shower of rain coming on opportunely, the crowd gra- dually dispersed.

In various parts of the country public meetings are called, for the purpose of presenting loyal addresses to her Majesty.

AFFAIRS OF IRELAND.

Pending the excitement going on in the metropolis during the week, the affairs of Ireland have hung in sus- pense, awaiting the issue of the legislative proceedings in the House of Commons, respecting the Crown and Government Security Bill, and of Mr. John O’Connell’s motion for the Repeal of the Union. This honourable gentleman had last week an interview with Lord John Russell. with a view to induce the Government to make some large concessions of relief to Ireland in the present critical state of the country. Mr. John O’Connell urged strongly the necessity of immediate relief, by distribu- tion of food to the distressed districts for the next few months at least ; a measure of tenant-right ; a reconsider- ation of the Colleges’ Act, and other matters, in which the Gevernment was at variance with the hierarchy and clergy of Ireland; the Repeal Bill to be brought in, and the abandonment of the prosecution, Ata subsequent

weriod the Poor-law was required to be amended, and the

His Excellency, was ordered to be published once in ‘each of the Newspapers printed in Charlottetown. | JOHN M‘NEILL, C. H. A.

Downineé STREET, March 27, 1848.

(ExTract.) | No. 21. Sir—

I have to acknowledge your Despatch No. 20, of the 21st February last, in which you report the circumstan- ces out of which a difference of opinion has arisen be- tween your Law Advisers and the House of Assembly of Prince Edward Island, with its enclosures, containing the opinion of the Law Advisers, an Address and Re- solution of the House of Assembly, and other communi- cations relating thereto.

It appears that two questions are raised by this Des- ‘patch; whether the House of Assembly has the exclu- ‘sive right to decide that a vacancy has occurred in its, list of Members—and secondly, whether the House rightly decided that a Member vacated his seat by ac- cepting a seat in the Executive Council.

Oa the first point, [ regretto have to direct you in, opposition to the opinion of your Law Advisers. But I ‘ean entertain no doubt, that the House of Assembly is ‘the proper judge, whether or not a vacancy exists. [| think the House correctly holds, that under the Act of Assembly 6th Will. 4, cap. 24, Sec. 24, the House is to report a vacancy through its Speaker, and that the functions of the Lieutenant Governor are only minis- terial. The words of the Act might apparently bear either this construction, or that put on it by your Law Advisers, its meaning therefore must be determined by fair analogy to the practice which prevails in the Bri- tish Parliament, and by that practice, the House of

‘treat towards Rendsburg. The loss of life has been been created, have themselves, on former occasions, ac-

cepted seats in the Executive Council, without having been required to be re-elected ; next, because the words “ His Majesty’s Council,” contained in the Act, could only at the trme they were used, have been intended to refer to the Legislative Council, since no other Body to

—==\of the status quo ante. This being done, the King of) which they could apply, was then in existence; and Denmark is to be informed that should he, in retallia-| lastly, because the opinion that a seat in the Procutive \tion for his step on the part of the German powers, Stop Coyncil is an office of emolument, (which is also put ‘the passage of the Sound, the Prussian forces would forward in support of this decision,) appears to be not

only entirely new, but also without substantial founda- tion. And, to referagain to the practice of this country in an analagous case: a Member of the House of Com- mons does not vacate his seat by being sworn into the Privy Council, unless he at the same time accepts some office of emolument.

For these reasons, I am of opinion, that the majority of the House of Assembly has been wrong in determin- ing to regard the appointment of one of its Members to the post of Executive Councillor as vacating his seat, but as the House was acting strictly within its proper jurisdiction, its decision cannot be questioned.”

I have the honor, &c., (Signed) GREY. Lieutenant Governor Sir Donacp Camree.t, Bart., &c., &c., &c.,

Prince Edward Island.

THE TWO SIDES OF A QUESTION ; OR, DOWNING STREET LOGIC,

PANDARUS.— ——What says HE there? TRorLus.—Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart.

TROILUS AND CREssIDA. Some eight or ten yearsago, we enjoyed the high honor of membership ina Debating Society, wherein it was the practice, especially on occasions when there happen-

ed to be a scant attendance of the juveniles, and few to

bear the burthen of debate—for some of the youthful Ciceros to argue for and against the same question. The practice was found to be a very amusing one, and it did not unfrequently happen, that a clever debater, who exerted all his ingenuity at one moment to sustain the affirmative side of a question, would, in the very next speech, advance arguments in support of the negative, ‘which would appear to be more cogent and conclusive to the mind of the speaker himself than those he had before adduced, and which at the time his conviction favoured. One would imagine that Earl Grey novici- ated in a Society of a similar character, and practiced in his official life the lessons which he there inbibed,

It was a favourite expression with the late Mr. O’- Connell, that he could drive a coach-and-six through an Act of Parliament. Certainly, a Colonial Office Despatch —such as the one we have above printed—would, in our opinion, much more readily admit of this interesting performance. The English language does not contain any terms adequate to a description of it. It is neither the one thing nor the other: it is not a vindication of the views of the majority of the Assembly on the subject of the Hon. Mr. Warburtan’s seat; nor does it fully sup- port the position assumed by the minority on the same subject. It is in fact, “neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring.”

When this precious specimen of State jugglery—this Downing Street riddle—was read the other day in the House of Assembly, even the “melancholy Jaques” might have puckered his cheeks with laughter to notice the glorification of the Speaker and the legal luminary who represents the metropolis of the Island. These leaders of the valiant Ten shouted Victory! for their followers, and the Despatch was proclaimed to be a

Commons is the only judge on all questions touching the right of its Members to their seats.

clincher on the absurdities of the Crown Officers. The

7