moved the Second Reading of the Cheshire Returning Officer Bill, and in doing so begged to explain that Chester was a county palatine in itself, and that consequently until the passing of the Act 1 William IV., cap. 70, the writs were always directed to the Chamberlain of the County Palatine of Chester, as the Queen's writ did not run in the county. The 1st William IV., c. 70, abolished the practice; but, nevertheless, since then all the writs for the county had continued to be directed to the Chamberlain, and had been consequently perhaps irregularly issued, and all the hon. Members returned by the various constituencies had been elected under writs issued by that officer. As the practice could prevail no longer, it was necessary to pass the short Act which he had introduced on the preceding evening, under which, for the future, the writs would be directed to the sheriff of the county, or the sheriff of the county of the city of Chester, and former elections would be declared valid. He trusted that the House would allow the Bill to be read a second time, committed, and engrossed, and to be read a third time that evening, or as soon as possible after being engrossed, in order that it might be made law before next Saturday, when the writ issued for the city of Chester should be returned.

begged to ask the noble Lord the question of which he had given notice, namely, Whether the attention of the Government had been called to the frequent application of flogging, as a punishment for petty offences, in the island of Hong-Kong, it being stated that no less than fifty-four persons were so punished on Saturday, the 25th day of April last, for not having obtained tickets of registration; and after such infliction, were deliverd over to the Chinese authorities to be subjected to further penalties under the criminal code of that empire?

had received no account whatsoever of the affair alluded to by his hon. Friend; and the only punishment he had received accounts of, as having been inflicted for such an offence was fine and imprisonment, or imprisonment with hard labour. The circumstance, however, to which his hon. Friend had alluded, would receive attention and be inquired into, and by the next mail orders upon the subject would be issued.

begged to hand his hon. Friend the best evidence he possessed of the affair, the Hong-Kong newspaper.

would take that opportunity of asking the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary for Ireland, whether he would undertake to direct his attention during the coming recess to the subject of a petition from certain tenants of Trinity College, Dublin, together with the other landlord and tenant questions in Ireland, with a view to carry into effect the recommendations of the Landlord and Tenant Commission? He did not ask with the petitioners that their leases might be converted into perpetuities, but merely that such corporations as they held under might have larger and more extensive powers of granting leases.

replied, that his attention had been called to the subject, and all he could say was, that he would endeavour to bring forward a measure which would remove the existing grievances, whilst preserving a due regard to the interests of Trinity College, as well as of the tenants.

rose to ask the Attorney General if he would propose an Amendment of the law, affording means of obtaining compensation in the following case, viz.: in the poorer part of St. John's parish, Westminster, there are various persons who have resided for a series of years in the same dwellings without leases, relying on the good faith of their landlords that they would not be dispossessed; and whose families have been supported, and livelihood depends on the good will or business connexion they have established in the locality—they are now about to be removed compulsorily without compensation, and their houses taken down, in order to construct new streets, under the provisions of a "Westminster Improvement Act," passed last year, empowering a building company or association to this effect.

replied, that although every one would admit the hardship, yet the question of landlord and tenant's relative rights was so complicated, that it was wholly impossible the hardship could be satisfactorily remedied.

felt it to be his duty not to let the matter rest.

begged again to call the attention of the House to the subject of the Tobacco Duties. Upon a former occasion he had presented to them facts and figures, showing the enormous increase in the numbor of seizures which had taken place in the United Kingdom, and that five-sevenths of the whole amount of those seizures were connected with tobacco smuggling. Since the year 1842, the convictions under the excise laws had doubled in this country, and had become fivefold in Scotland, and they were chiefly for smuggling tobacco, for which a vast number of receiving houses had been established. He had shown them a publication, which contained 100 folio pages, of the names of sufferers under the penalties of the tobacco excise law. Those persons had been taken before the magistrates and imprisoned, whilst struggling in a successful contest against the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He wanted the House to look into the state of the law, and to inquire into the causes which occasioned so many people to be, under one particular Act, crowded into prison, whilst the public were placed under heavy charges to carry out the punishments to which they had been sentenced, with, as he believed, and as the facts would show, exceedingly little benefit to the revenue. He thought a duty of 1s. per pound would be productive to the revenue, and would prevent a great deal of fraud. The hon. Member concluded by moving a Resolution, that the state of the Tobacco Duties require the revision of Parliament, with a view to their early reduction.

said, that there was no doubt the evils resulting from smuggling were very great; but the hon. Member, when he suggested a reduction, ought to recollect that the reduction would involve the sacrifice of a large amount of revenue, which, in that case, must be made up from some other source. He was not, therefore, prepared, on the part of the Government, to agree to the Motion.

supported the Motion. The maintenance of a large coast-guard establishment, and the adoption of other means to prevent smuggling, were causes of a very great expense to the country.

moved that the House be counted, and there being only thirty-five Members present, it was adjourned at a quarter before Six o'clock.