The Express.
London, England, 1847-12-21 00:00:00

ROYAL COMMISSION.
The Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod (Sir A. Clifford)
fillINDOSed the house to attend in the House of Peen to hear
lie royal assent given by commission to =Tent bills, for
which see Lords' report.
NEW WRITS.
On the motion of Mr. TUFNELL new writs were
ordered for the city of Wells, in the room of W. 0. Hater,
Esq.' who sin= has election had secreted the office of her
Majesty's Judge Advocate General, and for the borough of
Caine, in the room of the Earl of Shelburne, who &Woe his
election had accepted the office of one of the comraimionen
for executing the office of Lord High Admiral.
ELECTION PETITIONS.
The SPEAKER acquainted the house that he hadreceived
a report from the examiner of recognisances stating that the
sureties in the following election petitions were usexception-
able--vin, Carlow, Aylesbury, Bewdley, South Staffordshire,
Nottingham, Harwich, Andover, Lincoln, Hythe. North
Essex, Stafford, Colchester, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Chelten-
ham, and Walsall.
PRIVATE BUSINESS.
Mr. LABOUCHERE roes pursuant to notice to call the
attention of the house to the report of the select committee
appointed to consider the mode of conducting the private
business of the house daring the foment session. He said
that when he moved the appointment of the committee be
had stated that although considerable improvements had
been effected in reducing the expenses and securing propriety
of decisions on private bills, he conceived thatt here was room
for still further improvement, especially in reference to o ppesed
private bills. On this subject the committee had been
furnished with the beat evidence, that of the Speaker ; et
the hen. member for Lancaster (Mr. Greene), who for some
years past had, as chairman of ways and means, superin-
tended the private business; of Mr. Palk, counsel to the
Earl of Shaftesbury; and of the learned gentleman who
filled the office of counsel to the right hon. gentleman in
the chair; and the result was that it appeared that, in
consequence of the strict vigilance exercised by the chair-
man of ways and means in excluding objectionable clauses,
parties desirous to get them =sorted got up a sham
opposition to their own measure, for the chance of the ear
mittee to whom the bill might be referred, either through
oversight or inexperience, passing them. It was, therefore,
proposed in the resolutions contained in the report of the
select committee, that all private bills, whether opposed or
unopposed, or tent down with amendments from the House
of Lords, should be submitted to the supervision of the
chairman of ways and means, therhy to give him the same
authority in this house as was exercised en such matters by
the Earl of Shaftesbury in the House of Lords. He had enter.
twined doubts whether the chairman of ways and moons would
be enabled to discharge the additional duties ; but la the
evidence a sufficient case had nut been made out to warrant
him in proposing the appointment by the hotter of a second
officer, independent of the chairman of ways and means.
He was the less inclined to do so, because the private busi-
ness of the smitten was likely to be much lighter than it had
been of previous years, and because, at least, the experiment
recommended by the committee ought to be fine tried.
With these obserratiens he moved the house to agree to the
resolutions which bad unanimoualy been adopted by the
select committee.
Sir R. H. INGLIS suggested that then should be
furnished to members, not merely breviates of private but of
all public bills, and he also suggested as worthy the con-
sideretion of the government that a measure ought to be
introduced for the appointment of an assistant Speaker, to
fill the chair in the event of the Speaker beins incapacitated
by illness, or any other cause, from taking it. It was re-
markable, that during a period of sixty years there had only
been four occasions on which the business of the house had
been suspended by the unavoidable absence of the Speaker:
the first was in the case of Lord Sten:south, in 1790, whete
anew* was occasioned by the dealt of his father ; the next
wee the case of the late Lord Canterbury, who= absence
was caused by the death i•C his rather ; the third instance
was in 1817, when the late Speaker Abbott was, on the 14th
of April of that year, compelled by illness to retire from the
chair, which was not filled until the 24th of April, being a
suspension of business for ten days, and in the last
there had been a suspension for one day. Now, though these
instances were rare, he thought the house ought to provide
for similar contingencies, lest the business or the country
might be suspended at a most critical period,
The resolutions were then put and agreed to.
JEWISH DISABILITIES.
Lord J. RUSSELL brought up a bill founded on the rap-
lutions on the subject of Jewish disabilities agreed to by the
committee on Friday evening. He moved the first reading
of the bill, and stated that he should move the second read-
ing on Monday, the 7th of February.
Mr. SPOONER said he could not but regret that the
noble lord had proposed an adjournment for so long a period.
Lord J. RUSSELL—That motion has not yet been made.
(Laughter.)
Col. SILiTHORP protested against this additional en-
croachment on " the constitution." He verily believed that
if the devil were to appear in human form he would be
admitted to that house. (Laughter.) He bad always re-
garded the noble lord opposite (Lord J. Russ .11) as a pillar
of the church ; bet he should be glad if the noble lord would
inform him why two or three members of that house (Jews)
were to be exeused from taking en °Ali which was incum-
bent on all other members ? also, what was to be done with
the Jewish memhs rs in ease they refused to attend the house,
or any of the committees, on a Saturday, on which cley they
sometimes eat? (Laughter.)
Lord .1. RUSSELL soil the usual course was, supporting
there was a call of the house, tad any hon. member did cot
attend, that he should be taken into custody, and afterwards
discharged on payment of the fees. (Laughter.) He anti-
cipstee, it there sheiud be a call of tLe house on a Saturday—
Col. SI BT HORP —Not a call.
Lord J. RUSSELL—Or if the attendance of hon. =em-
cee should be required on a Saturday—
Col. SIBTUORP —On Fridge night, Friday night.
Lsughter.)
Lord J. RUSSELL raid in the contingencies eupposed,
he could answer for it that the members of the Jewish per-
suasion,—if parliament should think them madded to sea's,
—would be very well commend to pay the penalty alluded
to. (Laughter.)
The motion was then agreed to.
ADJOURNMENT OF THE HOUSE.
Lord J. RUSSELL moved " That the house at its rising
do adjourn to Thursday, the 3rd of February." Consider.
ing the period at which the hotter had assembled in former
years, and considering that they had already got through
some business - the Queen's speech and the address having
been received and adopted—whereby they would be enabled
Immediately to proceed to business on their reassembling,
be had not thought it necessary to propose an earlier period
of meeting. (Hear.) He certainly thought he was consult-
ing the general sense of the house is proposing the adjourn-
, went until the 3el of February.
Mr. SPOONER repeated his regret that so long en ad-
ioe lord's total ignorancee
eepeo
telthelsttamteeosef tbhee gerweiantglnatenuefbacetnucrtgle
districts. Around Birmingham and in Wales, they were
continually discharging hand., and great distress prevailed.
All the house had done to relieve it was to appoint a come
miter, which wale not possibly propose any remedy till
several months had elapsed. The commercial distress had
been arrested, in some degree, as far as lane houses were
concerned ; but it was now falling on that class whose con-
, dition was of mut importance to the house. The poor man's
' capital wan bin labour; this taken away, the consequences
must be fearful. The railway speculation had been blamed
for the panic there might have bee n improvidence in that
speculaiieu ; but this alone was insufficient to account for s.
the serious derangement of our monetary matters which had
ensued. What was now the case? Could it be supposed
thst the country was benefited by the now general stoppage
of railway works? To say that nothine could prevent fluc-
tuations and panics was but to add insult to injury. In the
iron districts he was informed that in a very short time
eery furnace would be out of work; the baud, would be
discharged ; and en incalculable amount of distress would
be inflicted on retain dependent on them, retail dealers and
ethers, who were now called on to pay the income tax.
Many of the orders recently cent them America had been
exeuted; others bad not been given out, nor would
they be, on account of the monetary distress, having recently
extended to America, where discounts could scarcely be had
on any terms. There was a great scramble, in fact, between
the two nations which should get the largest amount of gold.
Under all these circumstances, he thought it most uncle
visible that the house should adjourn for so long a period
without doing something to unloose the shackles of our fot.
tered turreney. Should another crisis supervene, would
ministers again authorise the susiension of the act of 1644 ?
If s the Bank would be perfectly authorised in refusing to
listen to them, but in acting recording to the letter and the
spirit of the act of 1844, That act authorised the Bunk to
make a certain amount of item's, and, after what the govern-
ment had done, the Bank would be pettedly justified in pur.
suing its own course. Ministers Lad incurred a gr. at ie-
sponsibdity in proposing this long adjournment. He would
propose as en amendment that the adjournment should only
extend to Thursday, the 13th of January. (" Oh, oh.")
Mr. NE WDEGATE said he must also bear testimony to
I the lamentable prospect of affairs in the midland districts.
He seconded the proemial of his hon. colleague.
Mr. MONSELL snuffs d to the state of Ireland, and said
that, if remedial measures were not at once prepared, so
as to be ready to submit to the house immediately on
its re-emembling, it would be impossible to pass
them in time. The large sums of money remedy
spent in Ireland, ao far from affecting the real evils of the
country, hod dealt only with effects. Out of 921,476 heads
of families, no fewer than 840,963 were in a state of depend-
ing*. In thirty-three Irish unions a comparison of the
empalation with the rateable value showed that the average
ties 18e. per head of the population; while in the worst
ends of Doted that proportion was 41. 13.. per head. What
illeeld be the condition of Bore tshire it its population was
eaddenly inernmed five-fold, without any addition to the
arm of subsistence? The result in Ireland would be,
AM the population must gradually sink, and that the die
11111111 would be greater than ever. It was wild to imagine
&Neilsen evils would ever be remedied in what was called
Ileteourse of nature. The population must be thinned, but
them who remained would be still in distress. He trusted
niesters would duly weigh their responsibility, and be pre-
pond with remedial measures ; at the mine time, he did not
alt for such as might tend to decrease self-reliance. (Hear.)
Mr. P. SCROPE-expressed hie Terra that no me Item for
facilitating the employment of the able-bodied poor in Ire-
land had been proposed by the government before the ad-
journment. He did not expect any great reduction of the
number of destitute persons in the next few months as the
result of the mearuree passed last session. The poor law
unions were not empowered at present to give employment
of a productive charader. Power aught to have been given
to beards of guardians to giant employment on waste lands.
It there should.he two or three undred thousand able-bodied
men out of employment in the next two months there would
be throe or four thousand destitute persons in the majority
of the unions. He called upon the government to take the
whole subject of employment into serious consideration. The
ceestioa was one of the deepest interest to England as well

(Laughter.