§ THE EARL OF DERBYpresented a Petition from certain inhabitants of Manchester praying for inquiry into the Law respecting the Right of Search. The petition was signed by the Chairman and Secretary of the Foreign Affairs Committee at Manchester, and they expressed their opinion that the seizure of the Southern Commissioners on board the Trent was justified by the law of nations, and that our remonstrance involved an abandonment by us of the right of search; and they further thought that there was no validity at all in the engagements entered into by the Earl of Clarendon in 1856; and they prayed that their Lordships would appoint a Committee to inquire into the whole state of international law in reference to belligerent rights. He had informed these gentlemen that he thought that their arguments were founded in error; but as they nevertheless wished him to present their petition, he of course did so. He had also to present, another petition of a like kind from a similar body at Leeds.
§ Petition to lie on the table.
§ House adjourned at half-past Six o'clock, to Thursday next, half-past Ten o'clock.