from the Earl of HARDWICKE and the Earl of
SHAFTESBURY, the address was agreed to.

The Earl of HARDWICKE presented a petition
respecting the Postal Arrangements with Australia.

Lord CANNING observed that the government
intended to re-establish a line of intercommunication by
means of steamers with Australia.

In the HOUSE OF COMMONS, on Monday, February
26, New Writs were moved for in the room
of members who had accepted office in the new
administration. When Mr. Hayter moved the new
writ for London, Lord John Russell having accepted
the office of colonial secretary, Sir JOHN PAKINGTON
inquired when Lord John Russell will return from
Vienna, and whether an under-secretary for the
colonies had been appointed? Colonial questions of
great interest are pending; there are gentlemen from
Victoria and New South Wales waiting in London to
transact business; and the absence of the colonial
minister is very inconvenient. To this Mr. Roebuck
added, that there was a gentleman in town from
Newfoundland, seeking neither more nor less than the
removal of the governor: he had waited on three
Colonial Ministers; should he attend on Lord John
Russell, that would be the fourth.—Lord PALMERSTON
said, that Lord John Russell had accepted the office
of colonial secretary, but Sir George Grey had undertaken
that no inconvenience should attend his temporary
absence. The under-secretary had not yet been named.
He could not say when Lord John would return, but
he had no reason for supposing, whatever way the
negotiations might terminate, that his absence would be
so protracted as Sir John Pakington seemed to think.

Before the house went into Committee of Supply,
Mr. W. S. LINDSAY made a statement of the results of
his recent observations in France respecting the
Conduct of the War. He found the war minister was a
plain man, who thoroughly understood his business.
On the wall was a large map, with moveable coloured
patches representing the armies of Europe, so that at
all times, by moving the patches be possessed an exact
knowledge of the positions of troops. The minister
readily replied to all his questions as to the quantity of
stores at different depôts, and seemed to know where
everything was. On further inquiry, he found the
system pursued in that country was very simple. There
were five directors—one of transport, another of
infantry, a third of cavalry, a fourth of the commissariat,
and a fifth the nature of which Mr. Lindsay had
forgotten. Under these directors there were twenty or
twenty-five different heads of departments in the various
districts of the country, whose duty it was to send an
accurate report daily of the state of the departments
under their charge. They had the transports, the stores,
and the army under their charge. Those gentlemen, on
receiving reports, summed them up; and the five gentlemen
every morning waited on the minister of war, who
entered these condensed reports in a small book, from
which he was able to give Mr. Lindsay the information
he sought for. That appeared to be a simple plan; it
had worked well with an army of 750,000 men, and
why should not some such system be adopted here?
It is time (said Mr. Lindsay) to apply the knife to the
stupid redtapery that encumbers our institutions. Look
at the transport service. There are, according to the
returns, 220,000 tons of shipping attending upon 25,000
men; but since that return was made 30,000 additional
tons have been added, and there are quite 100,000 tons
besides the regular transports—in all, 350,000 tons of
shipping waiting upon 25,000 men. Now with that
amount of shipping, by an orderly system of lines,
constantly employed, he would undertake to convey both
the British and French force in the Crimea and all
their stores. He strongly objected to the proposed
Transport Board, and recommended that Captain
Milne should be placed at the head of the transport
service.—Mr. G. DUNDAS referred to special cases of
mismanagement in the transport service. In one case,
a ship was hired to convey stores, and among them
some strong acids, which it was thought advisable to
place on deck: but when the ship dropped down the
river to take in the acids, somebody said, "Why there
is a large quantity of acids already in the hold!" It
was so; and the ship had to be unladen and reloaded.
—Admiral BERKELEY denied that the whole of the
tonnage employed by the government was in the service
of 25,000 men; it was employed in the service of the
French and Turkish as well as the British forces—or
100,000, instead of 25,000 men.—In reply to several
members, Mr. PEEL said that he could give the house
little fresh information. In the Transport Corps there
will be one responsible head, to see that what is proper
to be done is done at the right time and place.
Although the number of drivers will consist of 8000
men, all these will not be raised at once, but that will
be the permanent strength of the corps. With respect
to medicines, and quinine especially, more has been sent
than can be consumed. At the present moment, a
commission, consisting of three officers, one Engineer officer,
and one Artillery officer, are inquiring at Paris into
the state of the French army: and he was glad to be
able to state that the French government are affording
them every assistance in prosecuting the inquiry.

In committee on the Army Estimates, votes were
agreed to of £314,984 for general staff officers of
hospitals; of £153,588 for allowances to officers of the
public departments; £17,795 for the Royal Military
College; £23,367 for the Royal Military Asylum and
Hibernian Military Schools; £88,000 for Volunteer
Corps; £3,813,383 for the Embodied Militia; £22,000
for rewards for distinguished military service.

In answer to questions respecting the Militia, Lord
PALMERSTON said that there is no intention of resorting
to the ballot at present.

On Wednesday, Feb. 28, the Marquis of BLANDFORD
moved the second reading of the Episcopal and Capitular
Estates Bill. He repeated at great length the reasons
which call for the bill, and explained its provisions;
which he had already explained on several occasions.
The bill vests in the Estate Commissioners the management
of Episcopal and Capitular estates; proposes to
empower them to enfranchise the property of the
chapters, and to pay fixed incomes to the bishops.—
Mr. H. G. LIDDELL moved that the bill be read a second
time that day six months; he described the bill as a
stepping-stone to a direct attack upon church property.
—Mr. HEADLAM seconded the amendment. As no
minister was present, Mr. H. T. LIDDELL moved the
adjournment of the debate.—Upon this Sir BENJAMIN
HALL, empowered by Sir George Grey, stated that the
government was anxious that the second reading should
be agreed to, and the committee should be postponed
until the report of the Cathedral Commission had been
received and considered. Mr. Liddell consented to
withdraw his motion for the adjournment; but Mr.
Hadfield and Mr. Thomas Duncombe objected, and the
debate continued. Mr. Cowper, Mr. Henley, Mr.
Wigram, Lord Robert Grosvenor supported, and Mr.
R Phillimore, Mr. Mowbray, Mr. Apsley Pellatt, Mr.
L. Heyworth, Mr. Barrow, Mr. Miall, and Sir John
Duckworth, declared themselves against the second
reading. A division was first taken on the motion for
the adjournment of the debate; which was negatived
by 102 to 71. Next the house divided on the second
reading, and it was carried by 102 to 66. The
committee was fixed for the 23d May.

On Thursday, March 1, Lord GODERICH moved an
address to her Majesty respecting the present system of
Promotion in the Army. Under the peculiar circumstances
of our army in the Crimea, he observed, and
when the people were asking what was the cause of the
evils which had befallen it, the house, he thought,
would not grudge the time occupied in the discussion of
a question relating to the efficiency of that army. The
earnest demand of the people, and their just requirement,
was that the government should act upon a
principle applicable to all offices—namely, that that
man only should be appointed to an office who was the
best fitted to fill it; and it could hardly be argued that
this principle had been adopted in the present system of
military promotion—a system which had never been
established by law, and which involved not only
anomalies but injustice. He should confine himself, he
said, to a part of the question— namely, to the manner
in which the existing system affected the great mass of