The Express.
London, England, 1852-12-11 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

HOUSE OF LORDS.—FRIDAY, DEC. 10.
The LUKE) CHANCILLOR wok bi% seat at Sire o'clock.

PETITIONS PRESENTF.D.
Anatee Mast Dnireese.-137 the Duke of RICH-
MOND, front the farmers of Elgin, in Scotland, complain-
big of distress, and praying for relief, more especially in
cheapening and increa-ing the supply of guano.
Meen &stet' ISSTITU ft:l.—By the Marquis of BREAD'
ALBAN K ind the Earl of Sr. tamt MAN S, from mecha-
nics' institutes, praying for a free distribution of path°.
=eatery papera.
Tits Cars or Gum) Hors.—By the Duke of RICH-
MOND, from an initieidual who had served as en officer fur
62 years in the British army, and gained the esteem of all
his commanding officers, and who had been induced to sell
out and settle at the Cape. Ile tonic a farm, and woe going
on very well; be hid a great quantity of stock, and was a
thriving farmer, when the war broke out, in cousequeuce
of which, and the treacheiy ul hie Hottentot servants, all
his rattle and horse' had been stolen from him by the
Rallies; and he and his son, having barely moped with
their lives, were obliged now to work in the field+ for their
daily bread. It was a very hard ea.., end he thought be-
fore the government recommended officers in the army to
settle in the colouies, they should see that they could pro-
tect them against the inroads of savages. lie would advise
old otticen to stick to the army.
The Earl of DESART felt great commisieration for the
nee. It was true that the gentleman in question bad been
in the army for 50 years. Ho sold out in ISIS, and availing
himself ufeerein indulgences given by the government he
invested upwards of 4.0U0/. in the purchase of land, &e. It
was true that all his tattle hail been taken from him, and
he and his son had been reduced to the melancholy position
which his sable Tr end had described. But it must be re-
membered that he hail placed himself ins the position of a 1.
colonist, and it hal always been a state principle that it was
impotsable for the government to give compensation fur
such hoses. In lad; there were two similar cases, and the
government th-n decided that they could not give compels
sabot,. The exception could nut be made in the present
instance, with.ut compensation being given in every such
ease.
TILE LAW OF LANDLORD AND TENANT
(IRELAND).
The Earl of RODEN wished to put • question to the
east at the lie of of her Majesty's government upon • sub-
ject which he thought of the utmost importance, not only
to that part of the empire to which it particularly referred.
hut to the country at large. Ile had to ask the pardon of
his noble friend for introducing a question of which he hail
not given the usual notice, but the matter to which that
question 'cloned was one of the greatest importance. As
it was then Friday. he mould not have an opportunity of
referring to the subject and obtaining an answer until Mon-
day twat, and he thought the time which would elapse
would cause guest society in the minds of many to whom
the subject referred. On re (erring' to the reports of the
other house of parliament, and to those channels
of information which their lordships possessed con-
cerning the proceemags of that house, he confe.scd
he was extremely surprised and alarmed to find that, on
the iatro.uetion of ',ruin bills conuected with the landlord
and tenant arrangements in Ireland, there was, ionongot the
bills presented to the house, one, which is well known by
the name of Mr. Sharman Crawford's Landlord and Tenant
Bill. He begged to remind their lordships that this bill
had been twice, at least, brought under the consideration of
the House of Commons, and twice received the almost
unanimous rejection of that house. (Hese, hear.) It had
been conceded by all parties—not only by gen-
tlemen on one side of the house, but upon the
other—that it was • measure of a kind which
was calculated to overthow the very basis and founds.
tions of property in any country. He was sere there was
no individual in their lordships house who would ever
sanction such a proposition, and he had, therefore,
no fear that this bill would ever become law at any period.
But he was ILIIZiOuS to put a question on • subject which
agitated the minds of all persons possessing property in
Ireland, and which, if unexplained, was calculated to give
a great triumph to those who, having no property them-
selves, wished t s destroy that belonging to others. The
subject to which he alluded was this; on a certain night,
he believed the night before last, this measure was intro-
duced with others to the consideration of the House of
Commons, and it was proposed that all of these measures,
the bill to which he referred forming one of them, should
be read a second time. The proposer of that motion was
one of her Majesty's ministers—a colleague of his noble
friend (the E4rl of Derby). He would not attempt
to times what must have been the feelings of
all men of property when they found that her
Majesty's ministers had sanctioned a proposition which
had twice been rejected as one impossible fur parliament
to assent to with justice. The question, then, which he
begged to put to bin noble friend Wit—whether the proceed-
ings which had been taken in the other house of parlia-
ment, in reference to this measure,were taken with his sane-
lion and whether, if then proceedings had his (the Earl
of Derby's) sanction, the bill was one proper to be adopted,
and one to which her Majesty's government would give
their support, in order to carry it through parliament, that
it might become law ?
The Hart of DERBY had no difficulty whatever in an.
veering the question which his noble friend had put te
hint, because his attention had been called to the matter
yesterday or the day before by some of the representatives
of Ireland, who shared in the apprehensions which his noble
(dead entertained, in consequence of what took place in the
House of Commons. la order to make the matter
intelligible, be begged to be permitted to explain
what really passed. It was in the knowledge of
his noble friend and of most of the laseethele et
their lordships' house, that the attention a the
Irish government, and more especially of the Attorney-
G 1 for Ireland (of whom, in passing, he would say
that no government had ever had the advantage of the ser-
vices of a more zealous, a more able, or a more efficient
officer than that hon. gentleman), had been incessantly di-
rected, sines the accession of her Majesty's government to
office, to the best means of developing the resources of Ire-
laud, of increasing the application of capital to the land,
and of improving the relation subsisting between landlord
and tenant. However difficult and delicate • portion of
the subject this last might be, he assured their lordships
there was no subject which more deserved the attention of
those who were anxious to see the landed property of Ire-
land recovering from the depressed state in which it had
beta for the last few years. In consequence of
the attention which was given to this sethjete,
the government, ur more particularly the •
General, misted by the Solicitor-General eel the f
Secretary for Ireland, prepared what might almastie eas-
sidered u a code of laws upon the relation between iewilent
and tenant, comprised in four separate bilk. bawl sdis.
Una objects but all closely acreseted tweet mei beide,
upon each other. The first had the *het d tedlleatin
the application of capital to land by the Mesa be Idle •
the tenant for life being, under atheist desemereeen,
authorised to charge as an 'dews trees bbeeeit le the
estate his valuation for intprovemetal the wesesi pee
facilities under certain eireemstensee.
of espitai by the tenant, with the menet of theal=3
adds* to the sepeebitesdeese sad aselest of the Sewed
Weeks—the machinery et whit' bed bees ray use-
hay applied in similar ease he belesd with very great
seems ; the third was a met bepeetaat hill for the
=of eeeeelistettag sad leeleglag fa* see sietele the
J ths law Made, b beilleed and linene•-• week
el eery
at dated. end sae lovely*, welghtpmeeklem
lrat whisk if aneseedelly reeseirA imi abet, weld
feeder dealings with real preperty meek mw ay *la
they Were when the law ea this bead wee egesed ewe
beedeede of ateletee; the her* hiY we le weft lee Isms
wake which Neepearetlea of& be aimed by the essest
seines the leedleed la retiree* le errahmeted kaproor
sem& There her bills Need der the esesed ia the
Hews of Comae*, and he (the Let of Daley)
that their lordships would agree that. It they wen to pew
at all, or if they were to receive the deo 6101161111t116 et
parliament, no time ought to be lost in ebleideg the mead
reeding, in order that they might be Wiese* with the
least possible delay to the investigation of • conatittee.
Ho thought that their lordships, who had 'aperient:*
in dealing with questions of this kind, would be
of opinion that in order properly to consider and discuss
in detail the questions involved in the measures, that they
should be referred, not to the committee of the whole
house, at least in the first instance, but to • select Commit-
tee. If these bills had been postponed until after Christ-
mae, considering that Eater falls very soon next year, sad
that, therefore, government would have hate very few dais
et its disposal between Christmas and Easter, there would
have been considerable difficulty in putting these bills be-
fore the Easter recess; it was, therefore, very desirable at
once to bring them before parliament. At the same time
there was before the House of Commons a bill brought in
by an independent member, a learned gentleman, who had
just taken his scat as the representative of oat of the Irish
constituencies, • bill in some respects is pert mareri.,
though founded on different principles to that of the
Attorney-General. It was • mason dealing with the same
question between landlord and tenant, and was substantially
the same as tho one to which his nook friend (the Earl of
Roden) had referred, and which was brought forward in a
former session by Mr. Sharman Crawford, and rejected, es
he (the Earl of Dersy), hoped it always would be rejected,
by the Houle of Givuolle. Ile had no difSculty in saying
wit% his node friend, that the principle on which that
bill was framed was against all the rights of property, and
he was of opinion that it could never be passed by the en-
ittiug or any fettles House of Commons, which should be
disposed to m ,intain the rights of property, while at the
same this it Was disposed to give every encouragement to
irnprovemcnt of the soil. Now as this bill was in pars
WWWW with one of the four bills which were introduced
by the Attorney General, it was thought it would be diffi-
cult to obtain the assent of the llowie of Commons to the
immediate • rend reading of the four bills
the government and their immediate refiesees
to a select committee, without givine an opportunity
the learned gentleman to Introduce his bill and refer
it a 1,40 to the some committee for conoideration. It might,
therefore, he strictly true that the recoil reading of this
lee: named bill was moved by a member of her Majesty's
government; but if so, it was spew • distinct and positive
declaration mole at the time that the second reading wa
merely pro formes, in order that the hill might be referred
to the consideration of the select committee, ant that her
Majesty's government were so for from sanctioning that
bill that they were directly oppse,l to the main principle
on which it was founded. If, therefore, any step had been
taken to forward this measure, it we, only for the purpose
of bringing it in jests position and comparison with the
bill of thu Attorney-General, founded on a very different
principle. He had no hesitation is saying that, although
be thought (certainly he had had no opportunity
of being consulted) the course taken by the house