if the hon. Member persisted in the Motion he must put it, but the hon. Member must be aware that, in putting a question, by the rules of that House he must confine himself to such few remarks as were necessary to render it intelligible.

COLONEL JACOB'S RIFLE-QUESTION. COLONEL SYKES said, he wished to ask the Under Secretary for War whether the War Department, in continuing the experiments with the Whitworth rifle, would simultaneously cause experiments to be made with the weapon known as Colonel Jacob's rifle, to which the attention of the War Department has been officially drawn by Reports communicated from India?

SIR JOHN RAMSDEN, in reply to the question, said that some experiments had already been made with Colonel Jacob's rifle at a short range, and it was intended, when the rifle shells and balls were made, to make some further trials at a longer and more satisfactory range.

THE NEW CARTRIDGES.-QUESTION.

MR. STANLEY said, that, in accordance with the rule laid down by Mr. Speaker, he should explain the question which he was about to put, by stating a few simple reasons for putting it. That he might be in order, he should move that the House at its rising adjourn to Monday.

MR. SPEAKER said, that of course

MR. STANLEY said, that was all he meant to do; but, as the feeling of the House was against him, he would merely ask the Under Secretary for War if the various plans submitted to the War Department during the late war, of attaching the cap to the cartridge, or other contrivance obviating the troublesome necessity of the soldier having to bite the cartridge, have received the attention of the Secretary of State for the War Department, and if any of them is likely to be adopted?

SIR JOHN RAMSDEN said, it was quite true that a very ingenious contrivance had been submitted to the consideration of

the Government to obviate the necessity of the soldier biting the cartridge in loading his musket, but certain objections in detail rendered its adoption impracticable. The object, however, had been obtained in another way. The cartridges for the new Enfield rifles were made in such a way as to open by the hand, and when that rifle had been supplied to the whole of the army there would be no necessity for the soldiers to bite the cartridge at all.

REVENUE POLICE (IRELAND).

QUESTION.

COLONEL FRENCH asked the Secretary that the Revenue Police in Ireland are to to the Treasury if the Report is correct be dismissed, the men to be transferred to be given to the officers now serving? the constabulary, and a small gratuity to

intention of the Government to abandon the MR. WILSON said, that it was not the Police in aid of the constabulary in Irepresent system of employing the Revenue land, which had been commenced under the Act of 1854; but as that Act expired in the present year, Parliament would be asked to renew it with certain modifications.

THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS BILL.

QUESTION.

VISCOUNT GODERICH said, he wished to ask the hon. Member for North Staffordshire (Mr. Adderley) whether the Amendments introduced by him in the Industrial Schools Bill provide for the omission of all

clauses authorizing any charge upon the poor rate?

MR. ADDERLEY said, that in deference to the opposition to this Bill, of which the noble Lord had been the chief author, every allusion to the boards of guardians, and every charge upon the poor rates, had been omitted from the Bill, with the single exception of a permissive clause enabling boards of guardians, with the sanction of the Poor Law Board, to make use of these schools.

CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION.

QUESTION.

MR. MACARTNEY asked the Chan

cellor of the Exchequer whether there would be any objection to lay on the table the Report of the Civil Service Commission on Monday next, prior to the Appendix being printed?

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHE

QUER said that the Report of the Commissioners had been presented, but the Appendix had not yet been received. He was given to understand that it would be ready in the course of the next week, and as it would be more conducive to the proper investigation of the subject to have the two together, the Report would be delayed until the Appendix could be presented with it.

THE SLAVE TRADE. QUESTION.

MR. P. O'BRIEN asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the magistrate who, according to the Report of Mr. Fitzpatrick to the Lieutenant Governor of the Gold Coast (dated Cape Coast Castle, in the year 1853), refused to give information respecting the slave trade to Commander Philips, of Her Majesty's ship Polyphemus, unless he was guaranteed some reward, still holds the Commission of the Peace at the Gold Coast; and whether the two other magistrates stated in the same Report to have been holders of slaves and pawns still hold the commission of the peace for the Gold Coast, and whether the two other magistrates stated in the same Report to have been holders of slaves and pawns still hold the Commission of the Peace for the Gold Coast?

MR. LABOUCHERE said, that none of the magistrates to whom the questions referred continued to hold the Commission of the Peace of that colony.

THE WHITSUNTIDE HOLIDAYS.

QUESTION.

MR. WALPOLE asked the noble Lord

at the head of the Government whether he intends to propose that the House shall adjourn over Tuesday next, the day on which Her Majesty's birthday is to be kept. It would also be convenient if the noble Lord would at the same time state what adjournment he proposes for the Whitsuntide recess.

VISCOUNT PALMERSTON: Sir, I intend to propose that the House shall, as usual, adjourn over the day on which Her Majesty's birthday is kept, and also over the following day, on which our Isthmian Whitsuntide, I shall propose that we adgames are celebrated. With regard to journ from Friday to the Thursday followMotions of private Members are taken, I ing. Thursday being a day on which the do not think it would be right to adjourn would be unnecessary to ask Members to over that day; but I consider that it come up on Wednesday for a morning sitting.

TORTURE IN INDIA-QUESTION. On the Motion, "That the House at its rising adjourn till Monday next,"

LORD CLAUD HAMILTON said, he rose to ask the President of the Board of Control if he will state to the House what steps have been taken by the Government to put an end to the practice of Torture in the Presidency of Madras, since the Report of the Commission that has proved its prevalence in that Presidency? And whether similar investigations have been instituted in Bombay and Bengal; and, if so, whether it is intended to communicate the result of such inquiries to the House? It must be in the recollection of hon. Members that in consequence of the statement made by the Government of Madras a Commission was appointed to investigate the subject. That inquiry extended over seven years, and the result was that the Commissioners produced a book which showed not only that the practice of torture prevailed in India, but to a far greater extent than had ever been stated in that House. One of the purposes for which it was employed was to enforce the payment of the revenue. With regard to torture to extort confession, it appeared that there had occurred in the Madras Presidency 1,690 cases in which persons had been forced by torture to confess them

selves guilty of offences with which they were charged, and out of that number not less than 890 were afterwards acquitted. It was impossible to conceive a more infamous state of things. Then, with respect to torture by the police for the purposes of plunder. The Commissioners stated that the practice was universal, and they stated the means of torture employed, which were of the most harrowing character, and, as regarded females, were too disgusting and indecent to be described. Moreover, the Commissioners stated that these instances which they had collected were only samples, for from the system pursued by the local authorities inquiries were obstructed; and even when parties were convicted their punishments were utterly inadequate; so that these outrages were rather encouraged. [Cries of "Oh, oh!"] Hon. Gentlemen opposite might attempt to put him down by clamour, but he would maintain that the system was disgraceful to a free country. He considered that he was addressing an English assembly, representing the rights of freemen, protecting the interests of the subjects of the realm, and they ought not to try to drown the voice of an independent Member who was exposing a system of abuse degrading to the country. By attempting to silence him by clamour, hon. Members would involve themselves in the disgrace which attaches to those infamous_practices of the native Hindoo police. There was another statement in the Report which showed that this hideous system was not maintained by the native police alone. It stated

"In this investigation one thing has impressed us even more painfully than the conviction that torture exists, it is the difficulty of obtaining redress which confronts the Hindoo nation."

The Commissioners then drew a dreadful picture of the state of the native police. The police were under paid, which no doubt was one great cause of the evil; and the Commissioners stated,

"

The police are banded together from the highest to the lowest for the purpose of extorting illicit gains, and violence, fraud, and torture are the chief means of detecting crime, or rather of implicating innocence."

MR. STANLEY said, he rose to order. He was refused a short time previously the opportunity of saying a few words, but the noble Lord was allowed to make a speech. ["Order, order."]

MR. SPEAKER: The two cases are very different. There is now a Motion before the House (that the House at its

rising adjourn), which gives the noble Lord the privilege of speaking; and if I am asked whether the noble Lord is strictly in order I am bound to say that he is.

MR. STANLEY rose again, as if desirous to address the Chair. He was met by loud cries of "Chair, chair," but continued still standing.

MR. SPEAKER: I have answered the question of the hon. Member for Beaumaris, and as I have stated that the noble Lord is in order, I consider that he is entitled to continue his address.

LORD CLAUD HAMILTON said, he thought that the hon. Member for Beaumaris had not selected a very suitable task in rising to speak to "order." During the long period through which he trusted that Mr. Speaker would continue to hold the Chair he hoped never again to see him treated as he had been on that occasion. The present was a question affecting so many millions of our fellow-subjects, that he was sorry to see it attract so little the attention of hon. Members opposite, who had little respected its magnitude and importance. However, as they were so impatient he would take another opportunity of entering into details, and would conclude by requesting an answer to the question which he had asked.

MR. VERNON SMITH said, he certainly should not follow the noble Lord into his details, considering that they had been a most inconvenient abuse of the Orders of the House. ["No, no!"] It certainly was admitted that questions might be taken up on the Motion for Adjournment, but that was usually understood to be confined to questions of urgency, and not to extend to questions of such a magnitude and nature as these asked by the the noble Lord should have taken the prenoble Lord. He the more regretted that sent opportunity of introducing the question, because the inattention with which it had been met might be regarded here, but above all in India, as arising from indifference to the subject; whereas it arose only from the inappropriateness of the occasion. The answer he had to give to the questions of the noble Lord simply was, that he intended to move for the production of all the papers on the subject since September 4, 1855, which was the date of the last return. There had been a great deal done already in consequence of the valuable labours of the Commission, and he fully participated in the horror expressed by the noble Lord at the atrocities they had dis

say that two Committees had, in the course of the Session of 1856, been appointed, the one to investigate the state of the public offices, the other, of which the right hon. Gentleman had been the Chairman, to take into consideration the condition of the old Westminster Bridge, and the course which should be adopted in reference to the of the progress new bridge. The former Committee had come unanimously to the Resolution that it was desirable to concentrate the public offices in the immediate neighbourhood of Downing Street, and the Government having taken that Resolution into their consideration, had determined that, in consequence of the state of the Waroffice and the inconveniences which arose in the conduct of the business of that department, it was expedient that a new War-office should be erected. They had also come to a similar conclusion with reference to the building of a new Fo. reign-office, and he felt assured that the right hon. Gentleman would concur in the propriety of that conclusion when he recollected that the noble Lord who had been at the head of the Foreign Depart

ment under the Government of Lord

Derby, might have suffered most seriously in consequence of a portion of the ceiling of one of the rooms having fallen in, owing to the dilapidated condition of the building. The Government, under these circumstances, had endeavoured, in order that the new edifices might be worthy of the metropolis, to procure by means of competition, the services of the best architects, not only in this country but throughout the world, and had with that view sent out specifications to almost every quarter of the globe. The appeal had been most nobly responded to, as was clearly shown by the designs which were now being exhibited in Westminster Hall. In connection with the designs for the two public offices to which he had alluded, however, it had been deemed expedient by the Government, taking into account the report of the Committee upon Public Offices, that specifications for designs for laying out the ground between Richmond Terrace on the north, Great George Street on the south, the Thames on the east, and St. James's Park on the west, should also be sent out. His noble Friend the President of the Council had, however, said correctly that it was not the intention of the Government to purchase the whole of that site, but he might state that they were

prepared to propose a Bill with a view of acquiring the property which lay between Downing and Charles Streets, in order to build upon it a War-office and a Foreignoffice, should Parliament sanction their erection. One portion of the Report of the Committee on Westminster Bridge had been to the following effect :

"Your Committee are of opinion that, subject to the consideration of professional advice to be to the security of the old bridge, the further proobtained by the First Commissioner of Works as gress of the works of the new Westminster Bridge should remain suspended until the Government have had an opportunity of considering and deciding on the advice to be offered to Parliament upon this last subject, when the site of the new bridge might be considered in connection with any general plan of alteration and improvement in the neighbourhood, as well as the all-important subject of the headway under the bridge." Now, in deference to the opinion which had been expressed by that Committee, he had set forth in the specifications the necessity of taking into consideration in any block plan which might be furnished the fixing of a site for the new Westminster Bridge. He had, a short time ago, with the sanction of the Government, appointed which had been sent in, in accordance some gentlemen to consider the plans that those gentlemen would make their with the specification, and he expected. Report about the middle of next month. As soon as that Report had been presented, he should lay it upon the table of the House, when an opportunity would

be afforded to hon. Members to enter into the whole subject, and to determine whether the new Westminster Bridge should or should not continue in its present site, and if so, whether it was expedient that the works should be proceeded with upon the present or upon a totally new plan. Motion agreed to.

House at rising, to adjourn till Monday

next.

MESSAGE FROM THE QUEENMARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS ROYAL. Order for Committee read.

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER having moved that the House should go into Committee to take into consideration the Royal Message on this subject.

MR. ROEBUCK: Sir, I am reluctant to interpose at the present moment, but I believe that the opinions I am about to express are those which are held by a large body of my countrymen, and for that reason, and that alone, I believe that they