MR. W. E. FORSTER said, that he had directed inquiries to be made on this subject. At Antwerp and in Belgium there was no sheep-pox. From Rotterdam he had heard that the sheep-pox had entirely disappeared from South Holland and Zealand. From Hamburg he heard that there were no fresh cases in Mecklenburgh and Holstein. TEACHERS.- QUESTION. SIR FREDERICK W. HEYGATE said, he wished to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether he has any intention of revising the scale of salaries of schoolmasters and schoolmistresses under the National Board of Education in Ire land? MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUE intention of doing so; but the question said, in reply, that he had no present considered in connection with the nawas an important one, and would be tional system, which would have to be taken in hand as soon as the Government Commissioners now engaged in inquiring were in possession of the Report of the into the whole matter. to whom the diseased sheep belonged. ¡ prevail at Hamburg, Antwerp, and There was no reason to suppose that the Schleswig-Holstein? rest of the sheep were diseased, but all were killed. So with regard to the cargo that was landed at Harwich, only four sheep were diseased out of 375, but the whole were killed. As to the latter part of the Question, he had to say that his noble Friend Lord De Grey was giving the subject his closest consideration; but, as they were at present informed, the Government did not think it was necessary to re-enact the Orders in Council for IRELAND-EDUCATION-SALARIES OF the slaughter of sheep, and if the House. would allow him he would state why this was not thought to be necessary. Hitherto they had been able to contend, and to contend successfully, with all the cases of diseased sheep that had been imported; but if the Orders in Council for the slaughter of sheep were re-enacted the effect upon the consumption of the country would be very considerable. The House would, perhaps, allow him to state that a large portion of the consumption of mutton in London was supplied by foreign importation. In 1865, 41 per cent of all the live sheep brought into London were imported from abroad. In 1866, the importation was more than 50 per cent; in 1867, it was nearly 50 per cent, while in 1868, when the Orders in Council for the slaughter of sheep were in force, the importation was only 12 per cent, but up to the present time this year the importation had been 48,000, against 25,000 for the same period last year. The hon. Member (Mr. Corrance) would therefore see that if these Orders in Council were renewed it would be a real hardship to the consumers. He might also state this other fact, that there was a great difference between the cattle disease and the sheep-pox. The cattle disease, when it had once broken out, could only be stopped with great difficulty; whereas, since the sheep- pox made its appearance in 1865, in every case they had been able to stamp it out, without allowing it to do any harm. Taking all these considerations together, they were not prepared to renew the Orders in Council. CANADA-DOCKYARD EMIGRANTS TO. QUESTION. MR. KINNAIRD said, he would beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty, If he has received any official Communication from the Government of the Dominion of Canada respecting the prospects, on arrival at Quebec, of the Artizans and Labourers who were last year discharged from the Royal Dockyards and Ordnance Factories, and who are now proceeding to Quebec in the "Crocodile" and "Serapis ;" and, if so, whether he would have any objection to lay the Communication upon the Table of the House? MR. MONSELL: In answer, Sir, to my hon. Friend, I have to inform him that a Despatch such as he inquires about has been received from the Governor General of Canada. He states that MR. HENNIKER-MAJOR said, he the emigrants sent out by the Admiralty wished to ask the Vice President of the will have the same facilities afforded to Committee of Council, Whether, with them as other emigrants that arrive in reference to the recent importation of Canada. There is a tax imposed on sheep infected with the "Sheep Pox," it is emigrants for emigrant hospitals; that true that this disease has lately largely tax will probably be dispensed with in prevailed, and does at present, largely their favour by the Government of the VOL. CXCV. [THIRD SERIES.] 3 I Government Dominion. emigration ment to proceed without delay to acquire NEW COURTS OF JUSTICE.-QUESTION. MR. W. H. GREGORY said, he wished to ask the First Commissioner of Works, Whether the Government have decided finally on the site for the New Law Courts, suggested in his speech on Tuesday the 20th by the Chancellor of the Exchequer; and, if so, whether the proposed site can be acquired without delay; and in what manner and how soon will the subject be again brought before the House of Commons? Perhaps the right hon. Gentleman would be able to state the precise spot mentioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer as a desirable site for the New Law Courts. MR. LAYARD: In answer, Sir, to the Question of my hon. Friend, I beg to state that the Government have finally decided to propose to the House a plan for the erection of the New Law Courts on the site mentioned by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Tuesday last. As much misapprehension appears to exist in the House and out-of-doors as to the nature of the scheme suggested by my right hon. Friend, I may take this opportunity of stating that the site proposed to be acquired by the Government is that comprised between Somerset House and the Temple, bounded on the south by the Thames Embankment, and on the north by Howard Street and and several small alleys and passages connecting that street with the Temple and King's College. This site will furnish six acres of building ground. Mr. Street, who is now occupied in adapting the plans which he has already prepared for the Carey Street site to this new site, informs me that he will be able to erect all the Law Courts, and every office necessarily dependent thereon, upon these six acres. It is my intention to introduce very shortly-if possible, before Whitsuntide -a Bill which, should the House think fit to pass it, would enable the Govern that I have received a communication words-the Thames Embankment should Courts. MR. HUNT said, he wished to know if notices have been given to the parties. Gentleman will wait till I have an opMR. LAYARD: If the right hon. portunity of introducing the Bill he will obtain every explanation. CRIMINAL LAW-THE CONVICT WILT SHIRE. EXPLANATION. MR. BRUCE said, he desired to correct an involuntary omission to answer one of the Questions put to him the other day by the hon. Baronet opposite (Sir George Jenkinson) respecting the convict Wiltshire. The hon. Baronet had asked whether Wiltshire was the man of that name who, since his conviction, attempted to murder a warder in Gloucester Gaol. The best answer he could give would be to read a letter from one of the Visiting Justices of Gloucester Gaol, who was, of course, a competent authority. The justice wrote "It is my duty to communicate to you that at sentence to death I reported on the 8th of April, 2 a.m. yesterday morning Charles Wiltshire, whose committed a violent attack on the warder who was placed to watch over his safety during the night. The night patrol being within hearing, promptly gave the alarm and called assistance. When I inspected the prisoner about a quarter of an hour afterwards, he had become calm, and my believe is that the warder in attendance for the night, though a very steady and experienced man, must have fallen asleep on his seat, and the prisoner seized the opportunity to attempt to escape, believing erroneously that the warder had the keys of the prison on his person." The hon. Baronet being a magistrate would understand that a wide difference existed between an attempt to murder and a violent attack, and would appreciate the extent to which this report should have influenced his judgment. He had to decide whether, because of this occurrence, no serious consequences having ensued, the original sentence should be executed. He decided in the negative. GREENWICH HOSPITAL BILL. LEAVE. MR. TREVELYAN rose to ask for leave to introduce a Bill to make better provision respecting Greenwich Hospital and the application of the Revenues thereof. The hon. Gentleman said that in a Session when so many measures of such gravity in their principles, and demanding so much time for the consideration of details, were being submitted to their consideration, he did not propose to detain the Committee by a lengthy exposition of the circumstances which had induced the Government to ask leave to lay this Bill upon the table; and he ventured to introduce the Bill to the notice of Parliament with less hesitation and with greater brevity, because it had been framed in accordance with the spirit of the present House of Commons -a spirit which demanded that every piece of business, small as well as great, should be done boldly, should be done thoroughly, and should be done once for all. He would not enter upon an historical disquisition with regard to the formation and the object of Greenwich Hospital, or dilate upon the terms of the charter and the original intentions of the founders-the House had enough history of that description on its hands already; he would confine himself to reading a single clause from the charter of 1694 "Whereas, the Seamen of this Kingdom have for a long Time distinguished themselves throughout the World by their Industry and Skilfulness in their Employments, and by their Courage and Constancy manifested in Engagements for the Defence and Honour of their Native Country; and for an Encouragement to continue this their ancient Reputation and to invite greater Numbers of His Majesty's Subjects to betake themselves to the Sea, it is fit and reasonable that some competent Provision should be made that Seamen who by Age, Wounds, or other Accidents shall become disabled for future Service at Sea, and shall not be in a condition to maintain themselves comfortably, may not fall under Hardships and Miseries, may Children of such disabled Seamen, and also the be supported at the public Charge, and that the Widows and Children of such Seamen as shall happen to be slain, killed, or drowned in Sea Service, may in some reasonable Manner be provided for and educated. And also the Widows of such Bargemen, Keelmen, and Sea-faring Men, who Seamen, Watermen, Fishermen, Lightermen, shall be slain, killed, or drowned in the Sea Service, and the Children of such Seamen, Watermen, Fishermen, Lightermen, Bargemen, Keelmen, or Sea-faring Men so slain, killed, or drowned, and not of Ability to maintain or provide comfortably for themselves, shall be received into the snid Hospital, and there be provided for."-[7 & 8 Will 3, c. 21.] These were the words - the very apt and expressive words in which the Royal founders conveyed their benevolent intentions towards those gallant seamen who, by their conduct at La Hogue, had shown that the great Revolution had done as much for the Navy of Britain as it had done for her other in stitutions. Those were the words which it was the duty of our generation to interpret according to the best and highest of its own ideas, as it had been the duty of generations past to interpret them according to the best of theirs and our interpretation of them was that King William and Queen Mary were bent upon providing that British seamen who had served their country and their Sovereign faithfully should not, at the close of life, or in sickness, or after wounds, look forward to being maintained, at the fall into distress, but should confidently public expense, in decency, in comfort, and in self-respect. These ends they undertook to carry out, after the notions of the age in which they lived, by erecting a great asylum in which the old men might, to the end of their days, lead a life in common, much resembling that which they had led on shipboard, where they might be fed, clothed, and nursed, and physicked, and preached to, and prayed to, and subjected to a little mild discipline. For those were days when no one had yet questioned the belief that charity was best promoted by gathering people into almshouses, and that learning was best promoted by herding them together permanently in richly-endowed [ remembered that these men were the Colleges. And it was probable that those most highly educated and often the ablest who followed that course knew very well persons of their time, with every inwhat they were about. It was evident tellectual resource at their command, we that some great change must have passed might judge what must be the state of over the ordinary social and domestic mind of an uneducated man, who had habits, when we remembered that the consumed the prime of life in hard but founders of the Charterhouse, wishing not unexciting manual labour, when to treat broken-down gentlemen as gen- he found himself amidst hundreds of his tlemen, collected them together in a fellows in the same plight, condemned charitable institution, and dressed them to do nothing from morning to night, in a peculiar dress, called them "poor and night to morning, except to take his brethren," and that under the same roof stated meals at the stated hour, cut off with a great school of boys. But times from all the associations of home and had very much altered since then, and friends, and all the thousand little inwith the times the feelings of men; and terests and cares of the happy private that alteration told nowhere more than citizen. What wonder, then, was it, at Greenwich Hospital. The symptoms that they were only able, by sweeping which indicated that that institution did together to use the expression of Dr. not square with the modern condition of Liddell-the very dregs of the Navy, to things became so evident and so scan- collect 1,600 men in the Hospital-a good dalous, that it became the duty of those 1,000 below the number it was built to responsible to ask whether the existing contain. And on this miserable number organization of this great charity did or of 1,600-a mere drop in the great sea did not conduce-as far as it could of naval destitution-£99,577 was exhumanly speaking be made to conduce-pended, not leaving a single farthing for to maintaining our worn-out seamen in out-pensions to that great number of comfort, in decency, and in self-respect? infirm and helpless seamen for whom The question was duly asked, and was answered in a most unmistakeable manner by the Commission of 1859. He would not quote from the Report of that Commission. It was notorious at the time, and was easily attainable now. But the gist of it was that the expense of the establishment was only equalled by the discomfort of its inmates. Good seamen would not surrender their pensions to enter Greenwich Hospital to live in a barrack under vexatious discipline, with nothing in the world to do, and 18. a week of pocket money out of which to maintain their wives and families. Their places were filled by a class of men who, to say the very least and mildest, were utterly unfit objects for so noble a charity; and yet, even thus, only 1,600 people could be got together; and the only wonder was that 500 real sailors could have been induced to enter upon such a career of restraint and idleness when they compared it with the busy roving lives which they had hitherto led in the pursuit of their calling. When we thought of the distaste with which College Fellows so frequently regard that life of compulsory celibacy and retirement into which they have drifted, or been tempted, under our present University system; and when we King William and Queen Mary had ordained the benefits of the Hospital, and for whom successive Sovereigns had loaded it with the produce of fines, confiscations, shares, stoppages, and percentages. An institution, out of gear with the customs and ideas of the age, it had become pre-eminent for evil among other institutions of the same faulty nature. While at Greenwich, £99,000 a year supported 1,600 inmates, the 3,500 pensioners of the Invalides were maintained on very much the same scale of personal comfort for £112,000. There probably was not an extravagant or corrupt Board or Committee of Management, from one end of the island to the other, that did not plume itself on the reflection that the establishment at Greenwichthe salaries to military and civil officers, clerks and servants, with rates, taxes, and repairs to buildings - consumed £48,667, at the rate of £28 18s. 4d. per head to each individual pensioner. It was very much this state of things that the Board of Admiralty found in 1865, and that they considered it an imperative duty to remedy. It was their duty to see that the intentions of the founder were fulfilled as far as the varying circumstances of generations would admit. And those intentions evidently were-for The William was both a wise and a thrifty | mission. The beneficial action of the man-that his bounty should not be change upon the men's health had been jobbed and should not be wasted, but most marked-the annual death-rate that set aside as it was for the advan-among the out-pensioners being 6-4 as tage of our Navy-it should be made to against 12.3 per cent among the inmates go as far as possible, and in the direction of the Hospital. The saving that had most agreeable to the Navy itself; and, been effected in the management of the therefore, the Board resolved upon a funds had enabled a further pension of policy by which that bounty should be 9d. a day to be paid to every out-penso expended that the greatest number sioner over the age of seventy who had of seamen and marines should be bene- been on the books for ten years, and 5d. fited in the way which they themselves a day to those over fifty-five years of would individually prefer. That policy age who had been on the books five may generally be described as the con- years. It was only within the last two version of Greenwich Hospital into an in- months that the present Board of Admifirmary for infirm, decrepid, or imbecile ralty had found themselves in a position pensioners, and the engrafting once to enter into this arrangement. more a system of out-pensions upon the Board of Admiralty were anxious that funds of the institution: once more, for this beneficial state of things should be to satisfy the consciences of those who carried still further, and with that view, loved precedents, up to the year 1829, they had determined to propose a reduceither the whole or part of the out-pen- tion of the number of in-pensioners to sions to seamen had been paid by Green- such as could be accommodated within wich Hospital. This policy was carried the walls of the infirmary. Any person into effect by offering to the men inside visiting Greenwich Hospital would see the Hospital certain pensions and money there a large building of quite a difallowances which made up £36 10s. a ferent description to the rest of the year, or 28. a day. It was obvious that buildings. That was the infirmary, and if these men preferred to live in their within that it was proposed to lodge the own homes, at a cost to the Hospital of in-pensioners. There would then be at £36 10s. a year, instead of living inside the disposal of the Government the it at a cost of £60, both parties in the large building designed by Inigo Jones; transaction would be largely benefited. but the Government had not determined Admission was then afterwards only to to what use they would apply it-whebe given to real seamen and marines ther to some naval or to some other who could prove their claim to the title purpose of great national interest. All -who were actually infirm, helpless, the Government knew was, that the and in real need of being nursed, housed, building could not be profitably utilized and tended. It was calculated that this for the purposes to which it was at premeasure would enable the staff to be sent devoted, because they found this imdiminished to what would be sufficient mense building with its great corridors for 600 patients, and the Bill of 1865, and fine rooms-a palace in itself-actuaccordingly provided for reducing the ally deserted. It was simply a lodgovergrown establishment to more man- ing for clerks and others connected ageable and defensible dimensions. Such with the establishment, and the exan infirmary, it was estimated, would be pense of keeping the place in repair maintained for £45,000 a year, which amounted to something just below would leave, therefore, about £60,000 £5,000 a year. In order to reduce the available for outpensions. The anticipa- number of the inmates of the infirmary pations which had been entertained with several of the patients were to be sent regard to this change had been fully to Haslar and Portsmouth Hospitals, borne out. No less than 987 out of where they were to be maintained at 1,382 inmates of the Hospital had at the cost of Greenwich Hospital. Henceonce accepted the terms offered and had forward the admission to the infirmary become out-pensioners, and 150 more would be. given only to naval pensioners would also have accepted the terms if who were helpless and infirm, to seathey had come within the circle that men and marines who had served for would have been been benefited by the ten years, or to men discharged from offer. Only thirty-one of those who had the service on account of wounds reaccepted terms had applied for re-ad-ceived in the service. After their exa |