The Express.
London, England, 1847-02-02 00:00:00

at the em.al'est calculation. Out-dor rto Nun able-bushedelief
would therefore suck up the whole of the renter of trews&
But it might be raid th it this was ol.ly u landlord's ques-
tion. He (Mr. Osborue ) denied that avertaon. In Ireland
it was a eanom fur the tenant tanner to pay half the
rates, and thus the question was as much a tenant farmer's
quistion as a landlord's queroiou. If thes were therefore to
have the E oieli.h poor-law in Ireland. as an hon. member hail
that night recommends d, he prayed the n ble lord to let
them have lo; at once in all it. compreheneiveness. To parcel
it out to them would do more evil tnan go el. Not that he
with the hon. member for Cov.n:ry in thinking that
7e.eoleration of a poor-law ne.uld save lour or five nellions
of people in Ireland from the etfeete of lamlne. The boo.
member must recollect that in 1697, only a few yen.* after
his favourite law was passed, a (Amine occurred in England
which the operatiou of that law was quite unable to meet ;
and in later times, so recently as the year 1800, there wee a
famine in this country with respect to which a committee of
that house reported that a pas or-law was quite insufficient to
check the distrese ocensioued by it. Before lie rat benne must
take leave to refer to a few points, with respect to which he
thought the noble lard hod berg guilty of great o
He had, in the first place, fully expected th it a government,
numbering among its members so able a counsellor as
the .1 udge•AdvocatesOeneral, would hire turned its at-
tention to a scheme of systematic colonisation. Ile much
regretted that no general plan upon that subject load been
submitted to them. Another great mins ohyi, be considered,
was the ab-mice of all reference to the pried jury law.
Until something was done to remedy that defective spasm,
he believed the remedial measures fur Irish grievances never
could be desened complete. And now, haring m tile these
few remarks, be begged the noble lord no. to suppo-c that
be motile them in a bad spirit, or with any other desire than
to assist in the amelioration of the counory in which lie was
so deeply interested. He gave the noble 1 irel Vie full at
credit for a lively and anxious desire to benefit the nation he
was called to govern, though, tekinr the measures ho
had sugeested as a•wbole, he was unable to arrive at the
conclus en that they were calculated to secure the improve-
meat of the people. To paraphrase the words of a cele-
brated writer, the noble lord seemed to him to have rather
"enunciated a seutintent than declared a policy." lie had
told them to " employ their own energies," not to rely
upon parliament." " never to despair of ultimate success :
he had drawu eloquent pictures of Tipp..eery men idling
away their hours by the roadside, root noting their mode of
life with that of, perhaps, their brother* or nearest relatives,
who were easing the reward of their tabour in Liverpool,
Or in London ; but the noble lord, whilst revelling in these
descriptions, had avoided to probe the root of the calamity,
and to expose the real causes of the difference. Had it
never occurred to him, as the real solution of this seeming
Mystery, that there was in reality no such thing as a class of
agricultural labourers in Ireland—(hear, hear)—that, in
consequence of the system of smell holdings, every man
farmed his own ground for himself, without sc.k-
ing for labourers among any class of population
below him? Had it never occurred to the noble
lord that in London an Irishman's labour was highly
paid and greatly sought fn• ; whilst in Ireland is was rarely
sought for and badly paid. A more industrious, honest, or
faithful race than the Irish peasantry he (Mr. Osborne) de-
fies.' the world to produce. The secret of their miseries was
one incidental to the state of the couatry, and which it
would require all the talent of the government t, remedy.
(Hear) Muni bad been said of the evil of absenteeism. For
his own part, however, he believed there was a class of proeri-
stors in Ireland, who did far more injury than the absentees,
—namely, throw nominal prop-ietors of the soil, who neither
enjoyed the rights nor exercised the duties of landowners—
men, whose ',tate, were at Cie merry of agents, who came
down from Dublin once a-year to squeeze ail they could
from the tenantry, and returned to send all they had ob-
tained to be spent by the mortgagee in Lon lon or
Faris. When they talked of lending loans to lend-
lords fur the improvement of their estates, of what
benefit, he begged to ask, could such loans be to men
who were of no use to others or to themselves ? The
evil in this case he believed to be in the state of the law—in
that system of Irish entails which had done so much injury
to the country. That system must be altered, and with it
the whole plan of the Irish executive as at present consti-
tuted. Either they mast make the Lord Lieutenant a real
and an efficient officer, or they should abolish the office
altogether. What Will the use of a Lord Lieutenant, in a
great gilt gingerbread coach, who was never allowed even to
sound the horn except when nearly upset by English jobbers,
on Irish roads, or by another body of men who were the prover-
bial pas iourg of another place. The Lard Lieutenant should
have a scat in the cabinet, and he (Mr. Osborne) also
thought it might be well to consider the propriety of that
house meeting at stated intervals within the precincts of Dub-
lin Castle. (Bear, hear.) In conclusion he (Mr. Osborne)
must confine that he had his doubts whether the noble lord
had nut on the present occasion let slip a great opportunity
for bringing forward a great phut for the redemption of Ire-
land. He must confess also that he could not but view with
great regret the conduct of some people who appeared never
to *how their seal for relirion except when they could
mortify their neighbours, and who, with pharisaical pride,
were on this taxation dispensing relief with their hands
what etey were uttering anathemas with their tongues.
(Hear, beer.) The charity of these people was not the
charity which "heereth all things, believeth all things,
hopeth all thing., endureth all things :" it might be more
properly described as the " sounding brass or the tinkling
cymbal." lie could not help urging upon these people to
beware of the course which they were pursuing—
"Oa thee=tTioeTrioetb.!
Wd
Their proceedings were dangerous, and we had already
en-oach to answer for. M. de Beaumont, in writing of Ire-
land, had justly said that " assuredly the spite of England
toward. Ireland had produced the most cruel acts ever per-
=by one people against another." This country had,
, a vast debt to pay to Ireland for centuries of misgo-
vernment and cppresuon ; a debt that could not be cancelled
by any pecuniary consideration. The only way, in his opi-
nion, to cancel that debt was to pass laws for Ireland in a '
large and liberal spirit : laws which were at once free from
seetarian violence and national bigotry : and this was the
task to which he trusted they would at once apply them-
selves. (Cheering.)
Mr. B. O'BRIEN began by intimating his intention of
reviewing the speech of the noble lord delivered that day
week. It had opened with a painful picture of the state of
Ireland—pan and present. The noble lord, however, had for-
gotten to draw one deduction—namely, that these evils were
the effects of 46 years of misgovernment on the pert of Eng.
land. The calamity with which they hail to deal was an
unexampled one. The loss to Ireland by the failure of the
potato crop could not be estimated at lee than from 20 to 30
millions sterling. How was such a low to be met? With
ct to any contribution which might be made by Eng-
land towards supplying the deficiency, that was a matter
which ho should leave to the judgment of English mem-
bers, reminding them only that if England went to war Ire-
land would be dragged into one also, and would have to
contribute her energy and her blood in like proportion to
Englaud herself. As to the extension of a poor-law
to Inland, he did net apprehend from it those ill effects
which many gentlemen contemplated, but he con-
sidered that no poor law they could devise would
be found equal to such a csiamnowi emergency as
that now before them. (Hear, hear.) A poor law must
be accompanied by subsidiary measures of the most com-
prehensive and efficacious description. Something must be
done to meet the pressure of surplus labour. There win
every probability that after next harvest there would be as
room of this. pressure as ever. He approved of the noble
lord's proposition with reference to advancing money to the
rash landlords on loan, but to provide for the absorption of the
at present surplus labour, you must not rely wholly upon
the landlords; you must also bring the tenants to aid in the
work, by giving them a due share in any improvements they
may effect upon the land in their occupation. (Hear, bear.)
Railways, again, were works upon which government
might make advances without the logs of a single guinea ' •
and he thought that the counties should be encouraged by
government assistance to undertake the construction of rail-
ways within theirlimits. Such construction must tend greatly
to absoo b surplus labour and to relieve the distress. A met-
so re compelling absentee proprietors to do their duty would
also lie most beneficial. At present there was an annual
drain of four millions sterling from Ireland into the pockets
of absentee proprietors. It was rather too hard upon the
nesideot landlord of Ireland, while suffering every privation
in the performance of kis duty, to be slat overwhelmed with
obloquy across the Channel, while the absentee landlord was
tranquilly pocketing his rents, without trouble or annoyance.He cattail upon that house to do its duty, and to endeavour
by every means available to raise his country from that posi-
tion to which English miegovernmeat had reduced her.
Mr. ROEBUCK said, that as the representative of an
English constituency, he was anxious to submit a few obser-
vations to the consideration of the noble lord at the head of
the government. If none but !rid members were permitted
to lay their complaints before the louse, it might be fancied
that misery did not extend beyond the shores of Ireland,
whereas there was also great suffeling in this country,but borne
in a different manner from the which existed in Ireland.
The people in Ragland sufferel without complaining of the
misconduct of the government; they met their own misfor-
tunes by their own energies, end did not throw themselves,
when in distress, in abject helplessness upon the state.
(Hear, hear.) In considerbg the present state of Ireland,
and the remedial measures proposed, he should institute a
trucking inquiry into the position of the various classes of
the Irish community, utterly regardless of any charge of
malignancy that might be brought smarm him, bemuse he
felt that in doing so he was performing a duty
to his own country and acting in conformity with
the general current of public opinion. (Hear, hear )
The noble lord at the read of the government had called
upon the house to legislate for Ireland', present emergency,
but, while doing so, bad introduced other considerations and
other laws, which had for their object not the relief of the I
present distress, bet the permanent regeneration of the
country. The noble lord's object was to refashion the habits
and reconstruct the character of the Irish people, and with
that view he had introduced certain legislation, in the
ewe of bills, which had been laid upon the table.
• Hendee these, however, the noble lord had also
given certain mysterious indications of what farther
be meant to do, should the measures proposed receive
the sanction of the knee. He (Mr. Roebuck) should flint
consider the meastwes he immediate relief, next those of re-
constructive ehmesslw, art belly sabayon? to discover the
ultimate Wielding of the setae lard. Before proceeding to
alleviate the puss et distress dubs Irish people, they should
first consider what ye rendition of that people really was.
(Hese, hear.) The pee* in Ireland were divided mainly
into two Ye Iteepiatore (so called), and the labour-
ing oteapienek°2lhe Beth approached that house on
the Pria"1"1"1"1 MINNS relsef—the people from star.
vation, art lie lialleris hen astletetiee and ruin. (Hear,
hear, ham) In week akeemeleatee It became abso-
lutely iseeesety le media the actual position of both
deem Ist the int piece, lsil perwitie 1111.0 let it be remembered that the
• • • • • •

MA population ware always In a state bordenng on actual e
ItarTstio, caltiviting the land ths !NM pasible swum ; Aim