fied with the present moral condition of the children under their charge?

of the powerful Monarch who had liberated them from the yoke of the infidels, and would world. The Czar wished, through him, to acdefend their independence against the whole quaint the Bulgarians with the fact that in deference to a letter addressed by him to the Turkish Sultan, the latter had abandoned the Henceforth, East Roumelia will be a free country, exempt from the oppression that might be exercised by the Turkish troops in the Balkans, at Ichtiman, or at Bourgas. To neither of these places would an Ottoman soldier approach again under the arrangements arrived at.”

LORD GEORGE HAMILTON: I have here the report of the discussion at a meeting of the Birmingham School Board. The motion which was brought forward by the chairman, which was ul-idea of sending any troops into East Roumelia. timately carried, was met by an amendment that such moral instruction was not necessary. That amendment was lost by four votes to nine. The next amendment was that instruction should be given based on the Bible, and it was lost by five votes to seven. The original motion, which was to the effect that moral instruction might be given, was carried, there being 11 votes for and nine against.

MR. CHAMBERLAIN: The noble Lord has not answered the Question that I ventured to put to him—namely, what authority he has for the statement that the majority of the Birmingham School Board are of opinion that the moral condition of the children under their charge is at the present time unsatisfactory?

LORD GEORGE HAMILTON: The

MR. BOURKE: Sir, I am sorry to say that I have not seen The Standard, nor have I heard anything about the Notice which the right hon. Gentleman read to the House. In regard to the Question on the Paper, I have only to tell the right hon. Gentleman that we know of no such agreement as is described in his Question.

CONTAGIOUS DISEASES (ANIMALS) ACT,

1870-CATTLE FROM THE UNITED STATES.-QUESTION.

MR. MUNDELLA asked the Vice President of the Council, If he is aware

statement which I made, and the only that Professor W. W. Williams, of the information I possessed, was derived Edinburgh Veterinary College, had from the public Press, from which written a letter to Dr. Laidlaw, veteit appeared that, in the opinion of the rinary pathologist of Albany, New majority of the Board, the moral condi-York, denying in the most emphatic tion of the children in their schools was terms that pleuro-pneumonia has existed not altogether satisfactory. If the moral in any cattle hitherto imported from the condition of the children in the Bir-United States; whether his attention mingham schools be thoroughly satis- has been called to a letter of Professor factory, I cannot understand why the Williams, dated 29th of March, in chairman made the motion which he did. which the following passage occurs :-

TREATY OF BERLIN-THE BALKAN

GARRISONS.-QUESTION.

MR. BAXTER asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, If it is true that the Governments of Turkey and Russia have come to an agreement by which the former gives up the right of placing garrisons in the Balkans and of occupying with troops any places in Eastern Roumelia? He also wished to ask, Whether the Government can confirm the intelligence which was published in the "Standard" of to-day? The correspondent of the "Standard" says

"Since first arrival of Ontario' with cattle, others have arrived at Liverpool, and I have examined the lungs said by Privy Council inspectors to have pleuro-pneumonia, and satisfied all who have seen them that no pleuro-pneumonia has arrived here from America; indeed, everybody is surprised that such a gross mis

take should have been made. The last lot-
seven in number-examined by me had bron-
chitis, with collapse of the lung; but not a
trace of pleurisy nor of pneumonia, yet they
were declared by the authorities in London to
I have the
specimens most carefully preserved, and am
have typical pleuro-pneumonia.
ready to show them to the whole world if neces-
sary;"

and, what steps he proposes to take to
satisfy himself of the correctness of
these statements?

LORD GEORGE HAMILTON : Sir, a statement of Professor Williams was forwarded to the Privy Council Office

"General Obrutscheff, the adjutant general of the Czar, stepped up to the altar, and, surrounded by the leading ecclesiastics, addressed the crowd who filled the nave and aisles. He had come to them, he said, as the representative by the Canadian Government last month,

Mr. Chamberlain

and upon receiving it the Privy Council | way as will allow of the opinion of the requested Professor Brown, the head of House being taken on the financial posithe Veterinary Department, to investi- tion of India? gate the subject. I will read the Memorandum which he has drawn up, and which was sent in reply to the Canadian Government

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER, in reply, said, that he had consulted with his hon. Friend the Under Secretary of State for India as to the most convenient course to be adopted, and, having reference to the Notice of the hon. Member for Kirkcaldy (Sir George Campbell), he thought the best course would be to proceed with the Committee on the Indian Loans Bill. The House would be in Committee when the Amendment of the hon. Gentleman as to the amount of the loans would be moved. On going into Committee, his hon. Friend the Under Secretary of State for India would make a statement of the financial position of India; and he presumed that the question to be then submitted would be of such a character as to give ample opportunity for discussing the financial position of the country. There would also be other opportunities for raising other points in connection with the subject.

"On January 26 the steam ship Ontario arrived at Liverpool, having on board 195 cattle and two carcases; 87 head of cattle had been thrown overboard, making the total number shipped 284. On examining one of the carcases, the Inspector at Liverpool found evidence of pleuro-pneumonia, and forwarded portions of the lung to the Veterinary Department. This specimen was found to represent the characteristic indications of the contagious pleuroIneumonia of cattle so well known in this country. By direction of the Lord President, I immediately instructed Mr. Duguid, one of the Inspectors of this Department, to proceed to Liverpool and report as to the condition of the animals which had been detained there. Mr. Duguid remained at Liverpool and superintended the slaughter of the cattle, and in the course of the post-mortem examination he detected 13 cases of pleuro-pneumonia in various stages. Since the landing of the cattle from the Ontario in January, cases of the disease have been detected among cattle from the United States by the Inspector at Liverpool in three other MR. FAWCETT: Mr. Speaker, I want cargoes, and in one cargo by the Inspector at to ask your opinion upon a very imthe Foreign Cattle Market, Deptford. Portions portant question of Parliamentary proof the lungs taken from the diseased cattle cedure which affects the Privileges of were forwarded by the Inspectors to the Vete- this House. As I understand, the Under rinary Department; and I took the opportunity of submitting some of the specimens to the in- Secretary of State for India will make the spection of several experts who have made Budget Statement-the entire financial pleuro-pneumonia of cattle a subject of special statement of India-on the Motion which inquiry, and they were unanimous in their ex- is already in Committee for raising a loan pression of opinion that the morbid changes of £10,000,000--that Motion being in were indicative of contagious pleuro-pneumonia. I may add that the alterations which are appa- Committee, it will be absolutely imposrent in the lung structure in contagious pleuro-sible to raise any question except for repneumonia, even in the earliest stages, are so ducing by the Amendment the loan, or different from those which occur in any other affection of the lungs of the ox, that no comrejecting the proposal altogether-I want petent pathologist would experience any diffi- to ask you, Mr. Speaker, Whether it is culty in arriving at a correct conclusion as to not unusual, when the Budget is brought the nature of the disease." forward, that the House should not be afforded an opportunity of expressing its opinion upon the general financial condition of India? I understand that under

I may add that since the date of this Report six cargoes of cattle from America have been landed at Liverpool and Deptford in which contagious pleuro-pneumonia has been found to

exist.

INDIA-THE INDIAN BUDGET.

QUESTIONS.

MR. FAWCETT asked Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether he will inform the House on what Motion the Indian Budget will be brought forward; and, whether he will arrange that it shall be brought forward in such a VOL. CCXLVI. THIRD SERIES.]

the arrangement proposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer that opportunity would not be given.

MR. SPEAKER: The more usual course, no doubt, is for the Indian Budget to be proposed either in Committee or on the Motion that the Speaker leave the Chair. At the same time, I cannot say that the course proposed to be taken by the Government is out of Order, although it is unusual.

MR. FAWCETT: After the opinion expressed by you, Sir, and feeling that the course proposed by the Government

F

would take away from the House its | ironclad ship "Iron Duke" is on shore proper opportunity of discussion, I beg at Shanghai; if so, if he will be good to give Notice that if the Government enough to inform the House what dapersist in their resolution to make the mage the vessel has sustained, and, if Budget Statement, not on the Motion got off, if she can be docked at Hong that you do leave the Chair, but on the Kong or elsewhere in Chinese waters? proposition on going into Committee, I shall resist it by moving, as soon as we get into Committee, that Progress be reported.

VISCOUNT SANDON: Sir, a partial Return, such as the hon. Member suggests, would, I think, be misleading. I propose, therefore, to lay upon the Table as soon as possible an approximate Re-morrow evening. turn of the Income and Expenditure of the Mercantile Marine Fund for the last financial year, which will, I hope, give the hon. Gentleman all the information he desires.

diture properly within the scope of its powers and privileges, it is necessary that the mode and limits of the action of the prerogative should be more strictly observed."

SOUTH AFRICA-THE ZULU WAR-
THE LATEST TELEGRAM.

OBSERVATION.

SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH: Sir, I have received information from South Africa which it may be of interest to the House to hear, as it conveys later intelligence from the Transvaal than any which has yet been published. It is dated Cape Town, April 27

"High Commissioner at Pretoria telegraphs that Boers' camp broke up on the 18th inst. and all have dispersed quietly to their homes. The Conference between High Commissioner and Boers' Committee at Erasmus Farm took place April 12, lasted five hours and a-half, and passed off in a perfectly friendly manner.”

INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS (SCOTLAND).

QUESTION.

MR. W. HOLMS asked Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether, having regard to the fact that the rate of payment for children in industrial schools in Scotland is only four shillings and six pence per week, whereas it is five shillings per week for children in such schools in England and Ireland, and moreover the Secretary to the Treasury having last year given an assurance to the House "that he would consider the question, with a view, if possible, of getting rid of the grievance complained of," he is now prepared to put Scotland, as regards this grant, on an equality with England and Ireland? SIR HENRY SELWIN-IBBETSON, in reply, said, that this matter had been under consideration, but thought the most convenient time to discuss the question was when the Vote came on in the Estimates.

"This House will not recognize or accept as binding any Treaty or other engagements entered into by Her Majesty's Ministers which might forestall or limit the control of this House over the financial resources and taxation of this Country, until full information as to such contemplated engagements has been laid upon the Table of this House, and this House shall have had the opportunity of expressing an opinion thereon."

He wished to meet the convenience of the Government in bringing forward the Motion; and he wished, therefore, to know from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he proposed to proceed with the second reading of the Bill that evening?

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER, in reply, said, he had hoped to move the second reading that evening; but as his hon. Friend was going to raise so important a question in connection with it, it might be convenient that there should be some little further delay. As his hon. Friend, however, had expressed his willingness to move his Amendment on the Motion that the Speaker leave the Chair, the second reading might be taken that evening, and the Committee fixed for some convenient day.

PARLIAMENT

THE WHITSUNTIDE RECESS.-QUESTION.

MR. MAC IVER said, he wished to put a Question to the Chancellor of the Exchequer with reference to the Business of the House. Wednesday, the 28th instant, was the Derby Day, and the following Sunday would be Whit Sunday. The time at which the House would adjourn for the Whitsuntide Recess was, therefore, matter of importance to those hon. Members who had Notices on the Paper for the eve of the Derby Day. He himself happened to have the first Notice on the Paper for Tuesday, the 27th. It was an important Motion relating to the agriculture and manufactures of the country, and he

THE NATIONAL FINANCES AND TREA. thought many hon. Gentlemen besides

TIES-CONTROL OF PARLIAMENT.

QUESTION.

MR. NEWDEGATE gave Notice that either on the Motion for the second reading, or on the Motion that the Speaker do leave the Chair, that the House may resolve itself into Committee on the Customs and Inland Revenue Bill, he would move the following Resolution :—

himself would be anxious to know whether the Government would permit his Motion to be discussed; and, if so, whether it would be at the ordinary hour, or at any other time?

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER: I have considered, in conjunction with my Colleagues, which would be the most convenient day for the House to rise for the Whitsuntide Holi