may "I wish now to refer to another class of vessel which visited Florida during my stay. On July 10th from the north-west. The scene of the murder General's advice, Captain Montgomerie | Bishop Patteson's party, at the time of his declined to prosecute the ship in the murder, and which appears in the last Vice-Admiralty Court. The owners sent Blue Book on the subject of the deportain a claim for £700 damages, &c. Cap- tion of South Sea Islanders, laid before tain Montgomerie declined to pay this Parliament. Mr. Brooke, in his report, stating his intention to plead a section dated Norfolk Island, October 19, 1871, in an old Act of Geo. III., originally after stating some facts about the labour passed more than 100 years ago for the trade, says— prevention of smuggling in the North American Colonies, and subsequently made applicable to the slave trade laws, which section provides that if the Court is satisfied that a seizure has been made "with reasonable cause "-even though the vessel be not afterwards prosecuted-it decree that the seizing officer shall be fined in an amount not exceeding 18., with 2d. costs. In this case there might have been a difficulty, because, in fact, Captain Montgomerie had not, and said he had not, seized the Challenge, but Mr. March. Now, Mr March was, I think, clearly a tres-nity, he swam ashore. He saw a boat come round passer, not being a seizing officer under the Act of Geo. IV. (relating to the Slave Trade), which provides that a naval or military officer, an officer of Customs, or the Governor of a Colony, or his deputy, alone may seize on suspicion of a breach of the Act. It might, however, perhaps have been possible to satisfy the Court that Captain Montgomerie by subsequently taking possession had constructively seized her, and at any rate the matter was allowed to drop. native chief had issued orders to the effect that These no one was to leave the shore; but one canoe did legal difficulties have now been met by put off with five men in it. I stood on the beach the Bill which has recently passed in company with a large crowd, to watch the prothrough both Houses. Whilst upon this gress of this canoe; when it got near the vessel, subject I may remark that I fear that which was a large black brig, two boats were the clause, which has been inserted into what was about to happen, I could not look steadlowered and pulled for the canoe. Anticipating the recent Bill by this House, no doubt fastly at what took place, but I have not the least with a view of making the law more doubt that my companions saw everything plainly. stringent, by which it is provided that At each successive act in the murder of their all vessels engaged in the labour traffic fellow-islanders they raised a loud cry, and at shall be licensed, will make the Act un-length launched a war-fleet, and put off either to popular with those in the colonies who object to the labour traffic altogether, on the ground that by regulating it, it has licensed it. I am, however, aware that there is not much in this argument, because the traffic, if properly conducted, being not in itself illegal cannot be licensed. But besides the abuses which I have drawn attention to, I have little or no doubt that even a worse state of things than kidnapping prevails in the Pacific-namely, what is called "skull hunting." I will refer your Lordships to a report which I received not long ago, made by the Rev. C. H. Brooke, one of from the other side of the vessel with four men in it. He says white men, but it is possible white hair; but that is a detail of small importthat he means light-coloured natives, or men with ance if the captain of such a vessel be a white man. These four proceeded to kill his companions. He gave me the order of their deaths. They with tomahawks, &c. The heads were taken on were first beaten with the oars, and then beheaded board. After searching in vain for the fifth, the vessel took her departure. Another vessel was seen on the morning of August 29th; she was lying about a mile and a-half from the shore. The save their friends or to have revenge. The boats did not wait, and they returned empty. Had my life been taken on the spot who could have been surprised? As it was, the chief came to me and made me promise to do my best to revenge them. The heads were taken as before. The theory concerning this latter class of vessels is this-that the white master takes on board skull-hunters from the north, who are allowed by him to take the heads of these southern people whom they are ever striving to subdue, and that in consideraor trade on their return to the north. This used tion of this aid, the white master may take men, to be done in New Zealand many years ago, so that the credibility of the story is not impaired by its novelty." On receipt of this information, I caused Mr. Brooke's report to be referred to the Crown Solicitor, who, after submitting it | stolen accordingly. Further on Oates since 1868, there were only four. Whilst | which had occurred in that colony that to the Attorney General, placed it in the hands of an experienced detective, who was usually employed in South Sea Island cases, and who in the course of a few days made a report, from which I have extracted what follows: "Detective is informed that there are various means resorted to to obtain possession of the natives, one being when the canoes come off to the ship to trade, the ship's boats are lowered, pull between the land and the canoes, and so cut off the chance of the natives escaping back to land. Detective further reports that he has made inquiries relative to paragraph 3, in attached communication, and is informed that it is a custom with the natives of those parts to obtain the skulls of other natives as trophy of valour; the more skulls a chief gets the greater man he is supposed to be, these skulls being kept by them in their houses. The only brig answering the description of that referred to, known to be in the labour trade, is said to be the Water Lily, owned now, Detective is informed, by the notorious Captain Hayes, and at present sailed by him; and from the antecedents of this man, he is considered capable of any atrocity. Detective is further informed that the rendezvous of the Water Lily is at an island called Bonin," (since ascertained to be Bornabe or Ascension)" to wind ward of the Marshall group, four degrees north latitude of the line." "The captain, Charles Steenholt, said he would give him three days to consider, and if he did not give them he would take them. We had a gendarme named Du Sander on board at the time. On the third day the gendarme said he would not go on shore; he would stop on board, and let the captain go to see if he could get any natives, as he was getting tired of waiting, for he wanted to get the ship filled quick, so that he could get back. The captain then went on shore. He stopped on shore about five hours, then came on board with 37 natives. The men all told me that they had great sport in the bush catching them, and making them fast. These natives were confined down below under lock and key. Next day boats went on shore, and brought on board 15 natives, taken in the same way as the others. Next day boats went on shore, and took seven more natives. The captain said I think we had better clear now, for they are getting too wide awake.'" At one place-Arrowi, in the Gilbert group-the men being frightened said"Do not hurt us, and you can steal all the women you like, so long as you make them fast," and 38 young women were made fast by the hair of the head and The Earl of Belmore stated "I have heard that natives are brought from the north-west and landed in the southern islands by European vessels, who are trading for tortoise shell or other produce. By this means they en force trade, and the skulls go as payment to the natives in return for services. I have never heard of a white man taking part in procuring these skulls, otherwise than bringing the natives from the north-west to the south, and taking the natives back with the skulls to the north-west." My Lords, I daresay he never did hear of anything more, because when people commit murder they do not talk about it. The conclusion I have come to is that Mr. Brooke is mistaken in supposing that "skull hunting" is carried on in connection with the labour trade; but I think it does exist in connection with trade of a different sort. At my request Commodore Stirling wrote to the naval Commander-in-Chief in China to ask him to send a ship to try and bring Captain Hayes to book, and I hope that if my noble Friend learns that anything has resulted from this he will lay the Papers on the Table. [The Earl of KIMBERLEY: Hear, hear! I also wrote to the Governor of New Caledonia, and I have no doubt that he will do all in his power to assist in putting a stop to these abuses. I will only trouble your Lordships with one more quotation. Captain M'Serie, the Inspector General of Police at Sydney, reports as the result of his general inquiries "The plan said to be adopted by the masters and owners of the different vessels is to clear from the different Australian ports with cargoes of gin, tobacco, powder, caps, muskets, fancy cotton cloths, and other articles, ostensibly for the purpose of legitimate trade; but on arrival at Fiji the names and rig of the vessels are changed, and fresh registers and papers are obtained at the Islands, and used during the time the vessels are employed kidnapping." Now, my Lords, I think I have shown that the honour of the country demands some decided action, and I come to the question as to what is to be done to put a stop to this state of things? I see my noble Friend is reported to have said that a ship of war would visit the Islands occasionally, and if this is really the determination which Her Majesty's Government has arrived at, they will be doing very little indeed. But from what I have lately heard I have reason to hope they intend to do a great deal more. present I believe the Australian squadron consists of five ships, and until lately, At I am on this subject I will say-although perhaps it is not altogether relevant that I think some of the ships on the station are not the best suited uited to its requirements. Three of them, no doubt, may answer very well; but the Basilisk, a paddle-wheel steamer, although a fair steamer, would not, I imagine, be of much use in beating to windward, and she replaced a still older paddler, the Virago, which I know by experience could neither, as it is said, "sail nor steam." The Rosario also is a vessel of very little power. I would suggest to the Admiralty that these ships should be withdrawn, and their places filled with fast despatch vessels when they are relieved. There is only one other subject I need allude to, and that is the present position of Fiji. Lately, a sort of responsible Government has been set up by the King Cakoban. At first, they made an unfortunate start; but I see a gentleman has lately been sent for, whose name is, no doubt, well known to the noble Earl (Earl Granville) as having been formerly acting British Consul, who bears the highest possible charac the law was efficient and was impartially and rigorously enforced. His noble Friend the Marquess of Normanby since he had gone out as Governor of Queensland had devoted much attention to this subject; and a law had been passed by the colonial Legislature to put down those practices; and he was sure if that law were found inefficient there would be no want of inclination on the part of the colonial authorities to make such further regulations as might be deemed necessary. That the law was not allowed to be a dead letter was shown by the recent conviction of a captain of a vessel for violating it, and the severe punishment with which he was visited. The Bill alluded to by his noble Friend had passed both Houses of Parliament, and now only awaited the Royal Assent. It was a great mistake to suppose that Her Majesty's Government had in that measure given validity to a practice hitherto held to be illegal. The object of that Act was to regulate and not to entirely suppress this traffic, and it was thought that that object would be best obtained by requiring the master of every vessel ter, and who, if the experiment is to to enter into a bond and obtain a licence traffic. They trusted that they would be | possible to avoid using language that man. The well-affected were discoun- THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY said, that succeed, is the man to make it succeed. I do not know what decision Her Majesty's Government may come to with regard to this new Government. So far, they have not recognized it, further than by instructing me and my successors to treat it as a de facto Government as respects matters occurring within the territory acknowledging its jurisdiction. I now beg to put to the noble Earl the Question of which I have given him Notice-What steps do Her Majesty's Government intend to take to give effect to the law for the prevention of criminal outrages on the Natives of the Islands of the Pacific Ocean? THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY said, that no one in that House had more right to speak on this subject than the noble Earl, who had for some time resided in the vicinity of the places to which he had alluded, and who, during the period he was Governor of New South Wales, had done his best to prevent the evils resulting from this traffic. He was glad to hear from the noble Earl that he was not one of those who were prejudiced against the course that had been taken by Queensland in this matter, and that it was evident from the prosecutions before he engaged in it; and they had endeavoured by a great number of stringent provisions and penalties to prevent attempts to obtain labourers by fraud or violence. With reference to the horrible practice of skull-hunting, he deeply regretted that there should be found Europeans who, in order to facilitate their own legitimate trade, encouraged the natives to pursue this horrible and monstrous practice, and he agreed with his noble Friend that every effort should be used to put an end to such a shameful and barbarous state of things. He trusted that with the help of the China Squadron sufficient force would be on the spot to prevent such crimes being committed in future. The force in Australian waters at present consisted of six steam vessels of war, four of which, assisted by three or four sailing vessels as tenders, would be employed in preventing the kidnapping of the natives. He could assure the House that Her Majesty's Government would take every step in their power to put an end to the atrocities which had prevailed on these Islands, and to render the Bill which had recently been passed an efficient instrument for repressing this assisted in their efforts to check the abuses of this traffic by those who had set up a Government in those Islands, and who were now recognized as the authorities of Fiji. In answer to the EARL OF LAUDERDALE, EARL GRANVILLE said, Her Majesty's Government was in communication with foreign Governments with reference to the subject. STATE OF IRELAND-RECENT COUNTY ELECTIONS. - OBSERVATIONS. LORD DUNSANY rose to call the attention of Her Majesty's Ministers to the last four county elections in Ireland, and to the probable causes of the growing disaffection to the Imperial Government manifested at those elections and elsewhere in Ireland. The noble Lord said that the subject was one of importance, not only to Ireland, but to the whole of the United Kingdom. The state of Ireland, as far as disaffection was concerned, was very serious, and was daily growing worse, and if things went on in the same manner very soon we should have to choose between the disruption of the Empire, or the forcible suppression of what was going on. The few facts upon which he should found his remarks admitted of no controversy -they were generally known and had become historical. Their Lordships were aware that shortly before the end of last Session there was a somewhat discreditable election for the county of Tipperary, when the electors of that county thought fit to elect as their Representative in the House of Commons one of the worst of the Fenian offenders -a man who had been three times convicted. Since then, four county elections had been held, the result being the return to Parliament in unbroken succession of men belonging to the Nationalist, the Fenian, or the Home Rule Party-or whatever they pleased to call themselves, but whom he might safely venture to describe as the Party of Disaffection. One of those counties was situated in the East of Ireland, another in the far South-West, a third in the South, and the fourth in the NorthWest, and therefore they might well be regarded as a fair sample of the state of feeling which existed in the rest of the country. Endeavouring as far as The Earl of Kimberley might be offensive to Roman Catholics, he might say that a recent election had been influenced by what Macaulay had termed the strongest known organization in the world the Roman Catholic clergy, who had so often acted as the electioneering agents of Her Majesty's Government. No doubt it might be said that even if the worst came to the worst, insurrection in Ireland would be at once put down by the strong arm of England. But was that a satisfactory state of things to have arrived at after we had adopted a course of sentimental legislation, and had instituted a series of experiments which, in the opinion of many people, nothing but success could justify? If in five English counties Members were returned who advocated the dissolution of the Empire, it would have meant that revolution was proximate: but in Ireland it meant the spirit of revolution restrained by the power of England. Now, in what position would Her Majesty's Government be placed in the event of their having to repress insurrection in Ireland with a strong hand? In the first place, the course they had taken with regard to the Fenian prisoners would entirely preclude the possibility of their obtaining the conviction of any Irish traitors in future. When a jury composed of respectable men at the risk of their lives found those charged with Fenian crimes guilty, they found that they were made fools of, and that the traitors they had pronounced guilty were released after a short confinement; -- under these circumstances it would be too much to expect that Irish juries could be brought to convict in similar cases in future. The crime of high treason was the highest known to the law, yet the Government in dealing with traitors invariably treated them as political offenders, who were entitled to special favours. The course pursued really amounted to setting aside and repealing some of the most important statutes of the Realm. All the Fenian prisoners had been set at liberty except a few who had dyed their disaffection with the further mark of military treason. These poor soldiers had been seduced from their military allegiance, and were still in prison; but the traitors who seduced them were set at liberty. This was not dealing out even-handed justice between man and tenanced, the seduced were relentlessly punished, the seducers were let off. Notwithstanding all this, the Government could not retain its popularity in Ireland. How did it happen that after two such measures as the Church and the Land Acts, which-for the sake of argument, he accepted as beneficial and just the Government was still unpopular? Evidently because the people of Ireland did not feel they owed the Government anything, although they accepted these Acts as boons. It was true they despoiled the few for the good of the many; but nothing less than the confiscation of the whole of the land of Ireland would satisfy the hopes raised by the speeches of Mr. Gladstone before he took office, and the people of Ireland felt the Government had been well repaid by securing and holding office by virtue of declaring for these measures. One great evil in Ireland was the absence of a Liberal party. The Roman Catholic priests could not possibly be Liberals - their vows forbade it. He might be told there was a brighter side to the picture, as evidenced in thecourageous and manly judgment delivered by Mr. Justice Keogh. It was due to Mr. Justice Keogh, who had had a great amount of injustice done him, to point out that his judgment, which contained apparently some very objectionable expressions, took nine hours to deliver; and what appeared in the public journals was only an abridgment, in which, no doubt, any spicy expressions it contained were extracted; and which, in their published connection, might have had their complexion considerably changed. Nevertheless some of these expressions were justified by the evidence, and as they stood in connection with their context, they were not subject to any such strictures. There were painful rumours of the retirement of that learned Judge. He hoped they were unfounded - he hoped there would be not only a Justice Keogh on the Bench in Ireland, but a long succession of such able and upright Judges. The noble Earl, in conclusion, adverted to Trinity College, attributing Mr. Justice Keogh's independence to his training at that institution, and expressing a fear that, as the "third branch of the upas tree," it was doomed by the Government, with the view of giving the priests the control of education. had the noble Lord impugned the conduct of the Irish Executive his noble Friend (Earl Spencer) was present, and would have given him a complete answer. He had, however, admitted that the conduct of the Executive was creditable, considering the circumstances in which they were placed, and his speech had been rather a general indictment against the Government and the Liberal party. The noble Lord's variety of topics, and his anticipations that no answer could be given to his inquiries, placed him under some difficulty in replying, and therefore he would not attempt to follow him over the whole ground through which he had travelled. As to the recent elections, the most remarkable of them was Galway - the most remarkable, perhaps, in modern days. Their Lordships were, no doubt, aware that the judgment of Mr. Justice Keogh was about to be laid on the Table of the House, and it was undesirable to discuss the matter until an authentic record of the judgment delivered by that able and upright Judge was before them. As to the Land Act, he denied that it took away the property of the few to give it to the many. He (the Earl of Kimberley), on the contrary, would rather describe it as an Act which secured to the many what they were fairly entitled to, and did not infringe the limits of equity and justice. He believed it had given considerable satisfaction to the tenantry, who, the landlords complained, had been too well treated. He did not believe the release of the Fenian prisoners had been followed by any evil effects. So far from its having stimulated disaffection, at no period since the Fenian outbreak had Fenianism been more quiescent, and at its head-quarters across the Atlantic it had never been at a lower ebb. The noble Lord had spoken of general disaffection in Ireland. He (the Earl of Kimberley) feared that at no time could it have been truly said that no disaffection existed in any part of Ireland; but he saw no signs of growing disaffection; and as to Home Rule, it was an evident improvement on Fenianism, since it showed that agitators had reverted to constitutional and legal measures, and that an armed insurrection against the Queen's Rule had been abandoned for the present. With respect to the gene |