The Express.
London, England, 1847-01-26 00:00:00

SHIPPINO.

MAtu ASIITTED: 3, Dublin; 2. Waterford; 1, Donaghe-
dee ; 1, French; 1. Filmier.; 1, Ilambar. r.
LONDON, Jan. 26.--Wind this day at noon, S.W. by 8.,
I;ght Meese, and fine clear weather.
DIAL, Jan. 2.5.—W.5.W., strong, with heavy squalls.—
Arrived: Varina. Calcutta; Cation, Penang.
HULL, Jan. 26.—5. W., strong.—Sailed • Peel's One,
Savanilla.
NEWPORT, Jan. M.—S.W.—Sailed William Wright,
Grenada.
Posersmourn, Jan. 25.—W.5.W., seysliv.— Arrived
H.M.S. Relleisle, Barhadoes ; Robert Mac Villism. Quebec.
llowsiont (yawn).—Arrived: Wolfelle, Dalhousie, for
Greenock.
Casammrowm-on-LACE.—Arrived: Highlanders, St.
Kit e.
SWANSEA, Jan. 24.—E B.E.—Arrived Ciressoisn, Cuba.
OALWAT, Jan. 24.—The Manchester, of New York, cap-
sized in the d•ick this morning during heavy squalls, and
remains on her beam ends. The Emma, of New York, and
Redwing, of Dublin, were driven on shore and dismasted.
FALMOUTH, Jan. wrong.--Arrived Cam,
Kerteb.
♦ deopatch has been received at Lloyd's from the Ad- I
miralty, reporting assistance rendered to the St. George, of
01a-wow, by H.M. steamer Rhadamantbus, by means of
paddle-box boats.
VESSEL SPOKEN wrnt.—On Jun. 16. Lt. 39 N., long.
32.30 W., Tao& Castle. homeward-bound.

For Yesterday's .tlarkots see ,aa page.

020fe

There was

in foreign
the last few weeks, and which had INCealiit ated the measures
now proposed. The cue was new very different. Great,
urgent, and general distress prevailed in France, Holland,
Belgium, and throughout Germany. The prices of corn at
Bane, Antwerp, and London, were nearly upon an equal-
ity ; so that the existing. U. duty might operate as a certain
prohibition against the importation of eons to this country,
Particularly when France lied suspended her navigation
aws, and the duty on foreign corn was only equivaleut
to about sixpence a quarter. In such a state of thinr,
to retain our ditty on the importation of grain,
would be really to hold out an advantsge N those
competing with us in the neutral markets of the world. If
an American meretra.t found the prices equal in London
and Antwerp, he wood naturally take his corn to the place
where there wee no duty ; but if our duty of M. was re-
moved, be would not.besitate a moment to go Tither to Lon-
don or Liverpool. It was said, this measure would not
benefit the consumers, but only that much-abused class—the
dealer—whom he considered as public benefactors, to whose '
activity and energy, in times like three, nil were greatly, in-
debted. But tnis would only apply to the corn now in band,
which amounted, incloding Hoer, to 280,000 quarters, nn which
the duty would be abut 50,0001. This would be so far an
advantage to the dealers ; but the consumers would get the
corn ; and it was better that the dealers should reap any
amount of profit than that whole cargoes of grain should be
diverted from our shores, and even the corn in our wire-
homes reiexpo. led, and the sufferings of multitudes ague-
rated. The navigation laws, at this moment, operated very
injuriously on our already limited means of procuring sup-
Gies. By these burs, uo produce of any description could
brought here, except In British vowels, or w.seels of the
country whenc- the produce came. The principal or only
markets to which we now looked for supplies of grain were
Odessa and the United States, whence grain could only be
brought in Russian, American, and Briti h vessels. But in
the Mediterranean there were no Russian vessels, all the
trade being conducted by Greek and French ships; and the
number of British vein-Is was very small, being only 48 out
of the 520 loading at Odessa with corn. All the Mediter-
ninean vessels were employed in carrying corn to the ports
of France; and a the first four days of this year, vessels of
3,700 tons aggregate burden, arrived with grain at Marseille*,
none of which would come here, owing to our navigation
laws. In like manner, if American grain or flour were
taken to Dutch or French ports, and the prices io England
were ouch as to induce the owners of the corn to send it
here, our navigation laws would absolutely prohibit it.
From Odessa, freights were now 14s. • quarter, the usual
rate being 10s. • from Trieste 155., the usual rate be-
ing 10s. ; end from the United States 15s, and ss. 6d.
per barrel for flour, the tasted rate being Bs., and 3s. and
Is. 81. And even at these rates, vessels wore with great
difficulty obtained, the American government hating taken
up all they could procure to convey stores and provisions to
the army in Mexico. This, of course, created great disturb-
ance in the ordinary traneactions of trade, and raised the
freights of cotton and all other merchandise. British vessels
saw had been induced, by these freights, to make long voy-
ages; and the consequence was, great expense. in transporting
provisions at home. The ordinary freight for a quarter a
wheat from London to Cork was la. 3d. ; it had been as low
as Bd.; now it was 3s. fel treble the usual amount. One
benefit to be anticipated from the suspension of the naviga.
tion laws was, that more British easels would be disengaged,
and might be employed in the coasting trade, whereby-the
cost of sending prorisions to Ireland would be lessened. He
did not fluter himself that any great benefit would neult
from the remoyal of these restrictions; but if larger imports-
tions,—nay, if a single importation,—ensued,•--or if the'
prices were prevented from rising higher, (and that was the
e Toot mainly looked at,) we should be in so much better a
situation. At all events, their lordships would hare lins
tatixfaction of knowing that they bad done all in their power
to mitigate the evils under which the country was suffering,
and they would be without the reproach of having aggravated
them.
Lord BROUGHAM said that, es he bad intimated the
other day, he should not offer any opposition to the course
now proposed to be taken.
The Marquis of SALISBURY said aothere was no princi-
ple involved in the measures before the house, which were
merely to meet a temporary emergency, he did not feel called
upon to oppcee them, though ho dissented from much that
the noble earl had id with reference to the navigation
laws.
The Earl of MOUNTCASHEL said, that knowing the
state in which the people of Ireland were placed, he highly
approved of those measures; and he thought that every
noble lord of proper feelings must be disposed to support
them. Hai these measures been of a permanent nature, be
should have felt it hie duty to oppose them ; hut, as remedi.a
or palliatives for a temporary distress, he entirely approved,
of them.
The bill was then read a eceond time; and the standing
orders of the house being suspended, the question that the
house do go into onno.ittee on the bill was put and nega-
tired ; and the bill was then read a third time and passed.
The same course was pursued with the Navigation Laws
Suspension Bill, which was also Yam d.
STATE OF IRELAND.

The Hamraa of LANBDOWNE raid he rope in pursu-
ance of the notice he had given. to move for certain papers
relating to the distress prevailing in Ireland, aho for the
correspondence that hail taken place between the govern-
ment In Ireland and the beard of worka and other officers.
Though the motion was one to which no objection could he
made, one, in fact, of mere form,—out of respect to their
lordships and to Ireland, he would take this early oppertu.
nitv of making some statements relative to the measixes which
had been adopted to mitigate, as far as possible, the unhappy
state of things there prevailing, and also to those mea-
sures, which, instructed by the experience of the put,
and made more and more aware. as the MOOD
had advanced, of the magnitude of the evil they had to con-
tend with, her Majesty's government proposed to submit,
within the shortest possible period, to the attention of parlia-
ment. If this statement, short as he would endeavour to
make it, did not prove wearisome to their lordships, it
i could only be from the deep 'and melancholy interest
I which every one of them felt in a subject of this descrip-
tion. It would be worse than useless to attempt to deceive
themselves as to the magnitude of the evil with which the
were threatened ; that evil had unhappily manifested itself
in oolours too Krone, and in facts too notorious, to leave any
doubt that we had to struggle with the greatest calamity
that had ever fallen en any country in civilised Europe.
There might have been such calamities in oriental countries,
of which we read poetical descriptions; but within that
period of history the facts of which we were accurately
sequsinted with, there had never been a date of things in
which the sustenance of the people had been se rapidly and
almost entirely swept away. As unwise would it be to
attempt to deceive themselves with respect to the magnitude
of the evil, a., in a war or an invasion, to underrate the
power, numbers, or resources of the enemy. He would state
what, according to the best calculation. that could be formed,
was the amount of loss in Ireland. Taking a valuation of
10/. per acre for potatoes, and 31. 10s. for oats, the
deficit in money 'mounted in potatois to 11,350,000 t.
in oats, to 4,600,0001 ; in all 16,000,0001. In
weight between eight and nine millions of tons of pota-
toes had been destroyed; and the loss had been equivalent
to the absolute destruction of 1,500,000 arable acres. Two
obvious considerations arose from the statements of the,.

facts. The calniniry was one which, as a dispensation
of Providence, we were bound to submit to, and to en-
deavour, as for as practicable, to alleviate ; but it was one to
which, in the noun* of things, it was imporile to apply
• complete and direct remedy. The other consideration
which would not fail to impress itself on all acquainted
with the history and dee of society in that country, wee,
that great as the calamity would have been in any country
in the world, there were circumstance' in the habits and the
simat'on of the people of Ireland which aggravated its weight
and measure upon them, and deprived them to a greater de-
gree than any other people could be deprived of any means of
relief, by taking refuge in other sustenance, or in different
habits from those to which they had been accustomed. Out
of times considerations arose another, which he hoped would
be general—that whatever disposition there might have been
to cast blame in particular quarters, there was no person, nor
body of persons to whom the weight of this calamity eonld '
be justly attributed. lie stated this, because many persons
said the conduct of the landlords of that country had con-
tributed to proluce the calamity which all deplored.
Whether any blame might attach to the landlords
of Ireland more than to a similar class in any
other country, he would venture to say that there
was nothing within their reach as a body, no effort that
they could have made at any period within the last ten

locally by boards of guardians—ii. was doubtful whe-
ther these efforts would have been sufficient to avert such
a calamity as • scarcity of food. True that it was
in the power of the government to abstract food
from one place and to carry it to another ; or
to take money from one man's pocket and put it into the
pocket of another man • but by none of t hem means could they
produce what was wanted, vie., a supply of food adequate to the
wants of 8,000,000 ofpeople deprived of the lowest description
of the food on which they had been accustomed to live.
Supposing the question had been one of money, he (the
Marquis of Lenselowne)was prepared to say that there was 00
sum which it would not have been the duty of the sneers.
ment to propose to parliament to grant for the extinction, if
possible, of so great an evil, but if the governmeut bad
applied 10000,0001. to that purpose, would it bare been ado.
quote ? Did those persons who stated objections sod °pis
irons as to the conduct of the government remember that
every action of the government in aquestion of this sort, to
instant it was known, would add incredibly to the difficulty,
end would produce an artificial plenty for the moment, bat
within the next week or month would increase the scarcity?
(Hew.) If 10,000,0001. had been applied, before that mum
Reald have been brought into operative, or poured into those
Markets whence corn is brought, prices would have risen,
sad they would have been told that 20,000,0001. were neces-
sary, and before th it amount could be applied, they would
have been told that 40,000,000/. were wanted, 40C31111C the
miry moment the action of the government, es a powerUl
tr, was known in the markets of the country or in
, no otter purchaser could contend against them,
and ough they might obtain a supply of corn for the mo-
ment, yet the effect of such a course would be to raise prices,
and the scarcity would become infinitely greater than it was
before. It was universally admitted that a government was
the worst of cultisators, the worst of manufacturer', and
the worst of feeders, and yet this course, suggested by soma,
weld have converted the government into one or other of
these characters ; and he must say, both with respect to the
beta and the present government, nothing could have
Justified their going as purchaser, into any market,
while, on the other hand, the extreme prudence and
asserve with which they had gone into the different mu-
latto without exciting any degree of attention or alarm, and
without diverging the natural current of trade, could alone
be depended upon in times either of plenty or of scarcity.
(Hear, hear) With this brief statement he should now
plowed to describe the course pursued to mitigate the dis-
Mee when it arose, and when its magnitude increased towards
the close of the year; and after that, to state what amended
measures the government intended to propose with a
view to the amelioration of the condition of the Irish people.
Their lordship. would recollect that at the close of the last
session the government did not allow parliament to separate
without makiug a prdviston which the mover= at thought
must relieve a considerable portion of the distress which was
theu apprehended; that measure proved at the time, as hr
believed, some alleviation to the existing distress, but he
must now admit that from the magnitude of the evil with
which it had to ettubet—from the more extended operation
of that act in different parts of Ireland which bad produced
a greater number of presentments for public work, than
could ?lave been expected, and to an extent which had been
attended with many evil consequences, which their lordships
would do well to bear in mind, when they came to consider
the measures now intended to be proposed; it had failed.
(Hear.) That measure had been intended as a sort of bridge,
by which to pus over to the harvest time of another year,
ad it had been adopted without the least expectation on the
yarns of any man that the succeeding harvest would he so I
entire a failure as to be three time* worse than the' of the I
pneseding years The Labour Rate Act undoubtedly
owned ups principles which, in • permanent mea-
Mee PA ma e.uld give bit assent to. Under these
ebeemetemeas be (the Marquis of Lansdowne) felt no nor-
piled the sentiment peon:illy eapreseed in Ireland in the last!
autumn, that the advances of public money which ought to be
administered only for purposseof relief should also be adminis-
tered for pure omsof effecting useful private works where a,
useful public works could be found. On this subject appli-
cations were made to the government of Ireland, and the
lord-lieutenant, with the sanction of the government of
England, had authorized under what was called Mr. La-
bosschtre's letter, an extension of the principle of the act of
last session, and by means of this extension bodies of proprie-
tor' applying for electoral divisions, and for those adrenals
de works of a useful hut private character, had their appii-
Isamu acceded to. These applications had however nut
base made to the extent which had been expected, and
therefore under the act of last session, end its extensium
by Mr. Labouthcre's It tter, though a great amount of
relief bad been afforded, neither measure had sac-
onwiell in effecting any beneficial improvement's Her
lertl's government had, however, not confined themselves
et of parliament, and the endeavour to extend its pro-
visions in the way which had bees stated. Relief committees,
with their concurrence, had been established in every part eft
Idol- of these, 960 had, in a greater or less degree, ro.
idled Ss sountenance and pecuniary resistance of the
govenuesent. They had also fulfilled the engageme its they
made with the merchants and trade'. of the City of London
Let year not to interfere with the foreign trade, and yet they
had been active in purchasing, quietly and safely, such an
amount of provisions as mislit enable them to make depot.
IL or places. They had done this without interfering
the regular current of trade, end without producing
the Abet in very remote places of raising an exorbo
Yet meant of pnce. Her Majesty's government had
she furnished all the assistance in their power by opening
public raffia for grinding corn, and thus to ensure • regular,
Mastant, and cheaper supply to the people. Again, though
the admiralty could not interfere with the rejrular course of
ilisulw trade, yet so far as related to the distribution of food,
tin WIM of that board had been instant and successful.
Mawr Idtchens had also been established tey the donations of
bailers, and other means found in the military stores which
had been placed at the disposal of relief committees. (Hear,
bear.) auch had been the efforts made up to the present
Moment; and he had now to state to their lordships
ill what way the government proposed to administer
Inure relief under the present constitution of society in Ire-
' bad. To continue in their present extended scale the whole
eras works which had been commenced, or to add to their
member if no ether source of employment could be found,
warald, he was sure, appear to their lordships to be, if not
Impracticable, unwise, and attended with most misc.hievons
at unfortunate consequences, inasmuch as it deterred the
FM* from engaging and persevering in that labour to
tbir,h they were accustomed, namely, the cultivation of
(s 4 own soil. (lies:, hear ) The .feet of the establish-
ant of these works, from which the people could gain their
laakeieteace out of the public money, had been such, that
the most fertile lands were now not cull-
' Mai& The only means of limiting the desire to
take the labour on public works, had been by
adopting a system of task-work. This system, though pro-
ductive of • great amount of work done, had been attended
with much mischief, because under it only the best labourers
were employed, while the only labour accessible to the pro-
prietors of the soil was of an inferior character, so that the
public works monopolized good labour. He was convinced
that to ensure a foundation for the good-being of inland, it
must be established and founded ore sound principles for the
improvement of the land. The indiveluel proprietor was
the best judge of what works ought to be done, and of the
means by which they ought to be effect d. He was the belt
able to select the labour and machinery by which he
would carry out improvements, and he was the indi-
vidual who bad the deepest interest in the success
of the plena. In proportion, therefore, as it was
possible through the medium of the individual proprietors to
call forth a great amount of active exertion and of labour
into existence, to an equal amount would the prosperity and
benefit of the whole country be increased. If so, he was
sanguine enough to hope, that by the measure about to be
proposed every proprietor would, if he chose, be placed in
a position to give a very great amount of employment on
works most beneficial to himself and to the country at large,
and that they would prove, Rot merely a temporary ellen*.
tion, but a permanent remedy for the evils of Ireland, by
securing, not only for this year, but for years to come, the
steady, regular, constant, and well-understood application of
large sums of money for the purple of promoting the best
interests of that country. (Hear, hear, hear.) With
this view it was proposed to give a further development
to the former act, and that every landed proprietor who
I should think fit to carry on any improvements, should, if a
substantial improvement, receive a loan, for which he should '
pay into r.st at the rate of 31 per cent. for the next 22 years,
Peurecarriedutio7l tObeirife takrenaaaea toellecutt iloreprtohvennirepartooTtnS7UTß7ei"Of
1 the estate. In entailed estates the life pro;lict9r /mull be