The Express.
London, England, 1847-02-17 00:00:00

IRISH PAUPERS IN LIVERPOOL.

bet via W ILLIAM acid Ae wouldtake thepresent op-
pereseity of bringing under the notice of the house some
Sods relating to the influx of Irish pauper' into Liverpool.
In the papers which had been laid before the house yester-
day, ;it was stated that no less than 24,000 Irish paupers
had been relieved in Liverpool. The last day on which
say large number had been relieved wee on a Monday—he
supposed Monday the Ist of February. But the nest day,
when a new system of administering relief had been intro-
duced is consequence of the representations of the assistant
poor-law commissioner, the number of persons relieved was
reduced from 22,348, which was the amewat on Monday, to
4,900, which was the number relieved ea Tuesday. This
reduction was caused in coesequenoe et sore active samenres
being taken to ascertain who wen eldest' of mast and
he believed if the parochial autboottleo bad taken
more efficient reps in the first indoors elm the/ had,
the would not have hoard so much sheet tar Mono of Liver-
. It wee said that there had beta ON 'institutes in
Mayo, and that there was anise ceinsostion between this cir-
cumstance sad the laden of I, into Liverpool.
Nothing could be more or TOMIIOIIB • could be more
untrue. The landlords of Ireland vane to defend them-
selves gooiest the feel sopowions wbiak antbs be earn upon
them is this or the other beam el pediatrist, but he thought
it most uafair towel* lkst volheammie esualry that state-
=onto such as these shoal he aosie.

THE CASTi.EBAR UNION.
The Earl of LUCAN said he was desirous of defending
hinmelf from the char, attacks and accusations which
had been made against him in another place, with respect to
the Castlebar Union. He was charged with three things;
first, that he was a debtor to the union, inasmuch as he bad
not paid the poor-rate; second, that he shut up the work-
house ; and third, that he refused to strike a rate for the sup,
port of the poor. With regard to owing the rate, all he
could say was, that while he was in Inland he attended the
board of guardians at Castlebar every day as chairman, and
he was treated with great forbearance if he owed the rate.
• had never bean taxed in any instance with nonpayment
of the tans. On the contrary, he had used all his authority
with the rate-collector to make him collect the rates that were
due, there being upwards of 100 distress warrants against
persons in Castlebar, which had been issued by the board
of guardians at his instance. With respect to the letter of
the assistant poor-law commissioner, he called upon the
home secretary on the subject, and protested against it as
libellous throughout. He was a large occupier of land
himself, and be asserted that not one teething of rate was
due on any land in his occupation, not even for one month
after the rate had been struck. (Hear, hear.) The next
charge was that he shut up the workhouse. What were the
facts? The first day that he could attend the board of guardians
on kis return to Ireland, after having come over here to re-
present the state of the country, was the 28th of September,
and on that day he was told that every contract stopped,
and consequently there could be no provisions. There was
not a single tender, not a farthing of money. Such being the
state of things he (Lord Lucan,) raid " I will relieve you
from this difficulty by keeping the house open for you."
(Hear, hear.) He could positively say, that for the five
years the workhouse was open, not a single applicant
or relief bad been refused admittance. The work-
house was made to tannin 600 persons, but, till
the ,late calamity, 170 was the largest number it ever con-
tained, there Ming a ern.: tae aimiust receiving relief
in the workhouses throughout Ireland. But it was
house was not full because the board of guardian refused to
receive the poor. Such was not the fact. Matters went on
as he had stated from September to the 24th of October. He
then recommended that the rate collectors should be compelled
to ;do their duty, and to collect 1,2001. of the outstanding
rate, which he thought ought not to be given over
as lost, and which he was of opinion might be collected.'
The resolution of the board of guardians, which had been so
much condemned, was to the effect that they should not feel
themselves justified in admitting any more paupers into the
house, and the question was not whether the people were to
starve outside the house, but inside it. On the 21st
of November the assistant poor-law commissioner, Mr.
Otway, arrived, and he favoured them with a great deal of
declamation as to the horror' of starvation, sad aid the doors
ought to be opened immediately. When asked how the
people were to be fed, he replied "strike a rate." That,
however, wee no any thing to do, for it would take three
weeks or a month to get the hooks ready in consequenee of
the mintier of small occupations. He (the Earl of Loma)
stated that until they could see how the poor were to be fed,
he did not gee the use of opening the doors, and he thought
the people hod better starve out of the house than in it, and
he thought it an impolitic thing to strike a rate when there
was so much outstanding on the existing rate. As to the
present condition of the board, he need not say that it was
dissolved; and the noble lord in another place whose obser-
vations had induced him to make this statement, insisted on
having a paid board; perhaps he looked to be appointed
chairman of it. He, however, could scarcely endure to be
lectured by a Scotehman about relief to the poor ; and when
the noble lord referred to the blue-book on the subject of the
Irish poor, he could point him to another blue-book which re-
proached Scotland with her niggardly relief to the neceasitous.
In conclusion, he could not help saying that the
tone of the language used towards Ireland did not meet
with that discouragement on the part of the government
which it deserved ( Hear, hear.)
Earl GREY was not going to defend his noble friend in
the other house, whose speech had called forth the animadver-
sions of the noble lord, because he thought the practice of
answering speeches in one house which had been made in
the other was inconvenient, and had the effect of lowering
the credit of both houses. (Hear, beer.) But he thought
it his duty to say that tee censure on Mr. Otwsy—a merito-
rious public officer—wee most unjust. He must say, that,
having read the statements of Mr. Otway, and heard th,.
epee& of the noble earl, it was his sincere opinion that Mr.
Otway's censure of the baud of guardians of the Castlebar
Cana was, in no respect, mere severe than the circumstances
justified. He bad not used any expressions personal)
condemning the noble earl es chairman of that ooard,
but, by the noble earl's own statements, it did ap
pear that the gravest censure rested on the heard
of guardiens-- hear, hear)—and be thought the commis-
sioner. were hilly justified in dissolving that board.
What ware the hate? During a period of the most fearful die-
tress, the workhouse did not contain by very many the
number of poems it wee capable of accommodating, and
thou, who wen odaelemed Imo it were not supplied with
Prone* fond, delbing, we bedding. It was raid the board of
gumbos' was nails te min funds; but were due efforts
made be then impose ? Why, the noble earl himself said
that a memideraide portion of the arrears wen due from
solvent parties, and it was the duty of the gusrdians to take
can that the rate was properly collected. (Hear, hear.) No
new rate had been Inn& although application had fre-
quently been made to the guardians to do so, by the poor-
law commissioners. He could not help saying a
word before he sat down se to the statement of the noble
a word before he sat dawn as to the statement of the noble
earl who sat near him (Earl Fitrwilliani). From what he had
been told, he believed that a large number of persons, against
whom processes had been obtained in Mayo, had not
waited to have them enforced, but had collected their goods
and fled to Liverpool. The noble earl had said that the
statement with reference to the ejertments in Mayo was in-
tended to influence the public mind in Englond against the
Irish people, and prevent England from do rag her duty to
Ireland. He was persuaded that the noble lord had used
the word " intended " unintentionally ; otherwise, consider-
ing that the statement had been made by a near relative of
his own (the Chancellor of the Exchequer), he should have
met such en imputation most indignantly. It wee the duty
of hie right hon. friend, from the situation which he held,
not to withhold such facts. It had been stated that the go-
vernment had not sufficiently discouraged the tendentious of
Irish landlords but if any one bad read the papers presented
to parliament, he thought they would be of a different opi-
nion, and would think that the government bad done much
to shield the proprietors of Ireland from the censure which
had been cast upon them ; but he was no true friend to the
proprietors or the population of Ireland who, in the present
fearful state of things, concealed from them the truth. It
was better that they should know the truth now, than that
the consequences should fall upon themselves some
months hence. Did not his noble friend know that
Ireland could not remain for any considerable time
dependent on England—(hear, hear)—that she most
help herself, and not look for constant madman' from
this country ? (Hear, beer.) Heise did net, the time would
speedily come when public opinion in this country would be
far too strong for any ministry, end would declare that such
a system must cease. (Hear, hear.) In many emes, the
proprietors of Ireland had nobly done their dut7,.bet that had
not been by any means universally the ease, arising, perhaps,
from inexperience; and this he must say, that there had
been a failure among all ranks in Ireland, to assist and co-
operate with the government in carrying that country
through this period of dreadful affliction. (Aar, hear.)
Lord MONTEAOLE thought the noble earl who had just
at down had not said a word to relieve the noble and I
gallant Aker opposite (the Earl of Loan) from a most
cruel charge which had been made against him, and he
would have been lea than • man if he bad not come for-
ward to vindicate himself. He (Lord Montesgle) had often
been made a butt of in the other bootee, and never had
noticed it excepting a few nights ego on some questions of I
fact; but he thought the noble earl was bound to make the
statement which he had made. Wes it right that the noble
earl, as chairman of the board of guardians of the Castlebar
union, should he held up to obloquy by Mr. Otway, without
his stating at the same time, that the noble earl had, out of
his own private resources, supported, at the time n (erred to,
and since, all the inmates of the union workhouse? (Hear.)
Such instances es these were in this country rare, but if a
noble lord came forward in England to support et his own
expense, every single inmate in an union workhouse, no
such act of injustice would be done to him as to deny he
generosity, end hold him up as an object of obloquy and con-
tempt. With respect to the lands on the estate of the noble
and pliant Aker opposite, every mingle farthing of rat* was