The Express.
London, England, 1848-05-02 00:00:00

much on imperial as on colonial pounds. He had always
been a opittion that it svai not desirable that colonies should
mortgage their revenues. Lord Stanley, and the right hon.
member tor Oxford Univereity, had authoriesd suet loans,
but the dirt."' of the colonies and the state of the money
market prevented their realisation ; and it then became a
question whether we should not theist the colonists in liqut-
datine the expenses already liieurred. Undoubtedly parlise
ment could reject the vote altogether, but he ilid,not think
such conduct would he fair to the colonists, nor would it be
acting in tho manner tiondly hollowed in matters of this kind.
He hail n• objection, on principle, to the proposition of the
right hon. member for S amford, namely, that the amount
already spent should be voted, and the 34P601. be held over
until the report of the committee should be received.
The CHANChI.LOR of the EXCHEQUER said that It
the colonies had incurred certain exits nice they would theme
aelvi s be ultimately liable. The government had not, there-
fore, spent this money in the =neer the right hon. gentle
man appeored to suppoae. The government proposed to lend
the money to the colonies which they had voted, but were
not able, in consequence ot the state of the money market.
They hed no corn a accounts of the actual amount already
expend. d; 166,0001. they knew had been paid, but that was
probaely not all, and there might be, besides, coolies now on
their passage the expense of which passage would have to ho
met. He, therefore. proposed to take a vote of 200,0001. as
the full extent to which they were prepared togo, whether
fogiast or present expenditure.
Mr. HUDSON thought it would be better to take a vote
for the sum which had been actually incurred, and come
again to parliament for what further sum might he needed.
(Hear, hear.) lie hoped, therefore, that the right hon.
gentleman (Mr. Hereto.) would, if necessary, divide the
committee on his propositiou that the vote be reduced to
166,0001.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER had pro-
posed the 200,00111 , thinking it better to bold occupying
the time of the house by two discussions when one would ho
suffigeat—rather, however than go to a division he would
make the vote 170,0001. (Cheers.)
Mr. HUME objected, on principle, to any colonial secre-
tary pledging the credit of the House of Commons without
its sanction. (Cheers.) He wished, before votirg any
money, to have the orders of the colonial secretary (Lord
Stanley) before them, together with the whole corre-
spondence on the subject, in order that they might know the
full extent rf th; it liability. By a letter of Lord Grey's to
the colonial governor, he perceived Out he undertook, on
the part of the government, to guarantee on advance of
200,0001. Lord Grey had as much right to do that without
first obtaining the sanction of parliament as he had to raise
the income tax to five per cent. (Hear, hear.) The whole
proceeding wee most unconstitutional, and, as • matter of ,
principle, and in order that time might be given to pro-
duce the perm, ho would move that the chairman report
progress and ask leave to lit again.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER could not
accede to tho hon. gentleman's proposition. Ho wished
again to impress on the house that this was money which
would have eventually to be paid by the colonies, and had
actuary been voted by the colonial legislature.
Mr. Ht:ltE intimated his intention of dividing; and after
a few words from Mr. CaltDAYrtz. the committee divided.
For the vote, as amended 76
Against it 2l-55
Mr. HUMP. gave notice that he would move for the pro-
duction of the papers to which he had referred, in order that
the house might know the extent of its responsibility.
The Earl of LINCOLN concurred with the hon. member
for Montrose that the letter of Lord Grey ought never to
have been written. He had supported the vote 'or the money
actually tepee ed, because, alter whet hail taken place, it
would have been unjust to the colonies to refuse it ;
but he was anxious not to he understood as approving of the
practice of ally c denial minister authorising the drawing of
bills on the credit of this country is ithout' the sanction of
parliament. (Hear.) Under the arrangement now made
the whole question would again come under the notice of
the house, when the vote for the remaining mum was

proposed.
The house then resumed, and the resolution was ordered
to be reported to morrow (this day).
Mr. HUME wished to know when the ways and means
for providing for these pat melts were to he laid before par.
hutment. There was already a considerable deficiency in the
revenue, and it was not consistent with the character of a
country like this to go on spending mosey, or increasing
liabilities, without first providing the ways and means.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER proposed to
take power to make these advances out of the consolidated
fund, or by means of Exchequer Bills. The money was
borrowed on the credit of this country, and advanced on the
credit of the colonies, that credit having been already
pledged by the act of the colonial legislature.
PUBLIC WORKS (IRELAND).
The house having resolved itself into committee,
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER. having re.
here,' to the works undertaken in In land for the relief of
the distress in that country, and which had been carried ou
during the last two years by means of loans and grants made
by this country for the purpose, reminded the cuinmittee of
the provision made last year for repaying the loans by half-
yearly instalments, under which the whole amount advanced
would be paid off in ten years. The object of these works
be ing the relief of the people when the extreme pressure
consequent upon the tamiae ceased last year, those
works were, to a great :extent, stopped. It was
complained that the consequence of tins had been
that many useful works had been left in on incomplete state;
and also it had been made matter of complaint that many of
the works undertaken had not beer. of a permanently bene-
ficial character. The answer to this latter objection was
that the works had been undertaken at a period of extreme
difficulty and pressure to relieve the people from the homes
of famine, and in this object they had been eomplet.ly suc-
cessful, and had been the means of saving many lives.
(Hear, hear.) No doubt parties had been employed upon
them who ought not to have been, but this abuse was, under
the circumstances unavoidable, and war nothing as com-
pared with the good which had been Effected. And net.
withstanding such abuse, and the difficulties under which
the relief had been extended, the total expense per head
bad not been great. In Clue, which afforded •
fair average of the whole of the counties, the
average cost per day for each person relieved, iron NOWA:
ber, 1846, to June, 1847, was one shilling; the number of
persons relieved being on the average 37,666, the charge
upon the country—one-half being a grant—being 61. per
head, only. But then it was said that some of the works
which had been stopped would he permanently useful to the
country, and should be completed, but the counties having
to repay the half-yearly instalments could not previde the
aeceesery funds. The deputation of Irish members who had
waited on bins requested two things—first, that the present-
ments fur completing the works might be made in the sum-
mer, instead of being delayed to the winter anises, which
had been provided for since by a bill introduced by his
right hon. felted the Secretary for Ireland, secondly, that
the instalments paid into the Exchequer should be
readvaaced for the purpose of prosecuting the works. And
seeing how desirable it was that theta works should he con-
tinued, in order that the people of Ireland might enjoy the
fan benefit of them, and as • means of giving employmeet
to the people during the ensuing autumn and winter, go-
vernment had thought it right to accede to the latter request
also. The total amount of the half-yearly instalments pay.
able under all the acts was 316,000/. a year. He proposed to
take powers to re-advance any sum not exceeding three years'
instalments, or 945,000 L, but limiting the advance in all
cues to the amount actually repaid into the Exchequer.
The right hon gentleman having proposed a resolution to
that effect, explained, in reply to a question from Mr. Hume,
that these re-advances would be made under the same rules
and regulations for repayment as were provided in the exist-
ing act.
Sir O. NORREYS urged on the government the necessity,
as the only means of preverting the general adoption of out-
door relief, to adopt the same principle in regard to the re-
payments of the advances to the several Irish union., in
order to enable them to increase their workhouse accommo-
dation.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER remarked
that that was a totally different sul,ject, and could not pored
bly he included in the present bill. He would give no
opinion as to the propriety of adopting the hen. baronet's
suggestion; but, he might observe that at present the
amount repaid by the uniocs was very small, indeed not
mere, he believe], than £lO,OOO or £ll,OOO, though there
was a very large amount due.
After a few words from Mr. M. J. O'CoteteaLL, Mr. Mow-
sett., and the CIIANCULLOIL of the EXC.:Hew:ER, who said
that in making advances for the purposes of drainage prefer-
ence would be given to those counties which had made re-
payments, the revolution was agreed to.
The house then resumed, anal the r. solution was ordered
to be reported to morrow (this day).
ALIEN BILL.
Sir G. GREY, in moving the second reading, would stein
very shortly the reasons which had induced ministers to pro-
pose this measure, and,what were its main provisions. In
the first place, he wied to state most distinctly thut her
Majesty's government entertained no doubt whatever as to
the correctness of the
,policy which had of late years rogu-
ish el the admission cod residence of foreigners in this
country. (11, er.) It had long barn the boast, and justly
the beast, of England that she was on all occasions the pro-
tectress of constitutional principles throughout Europe, and
that her shores laud always presented a refuge and asylum to
exiles, who from the force of political events were driven
from their own country. (Hear, hear.) But the
grounds on wleth they Low proposed this bill were
those of sclfenotection, grounds which were under all
circumstances recognised as sufficient. (Hear, hear.)
The great advantage this country had derived from the free
a 'mission of foreigners at various periods of her history, werE
too well known to make it necessary for him to advert to
them now, and he trusted that at no Nun; time
would any such cheer- in the p011e.7 eeel practice of parlia-
ment or the government in this respect take place as eliculd
deprive the people of (England in ordinary times of the full
benefit of that free admission. Owing, however, to erects
which had recently occurred, this was no ordinary
time—(hear)--and special provierons applicable to existing
, circurastencee might, as in the present case, be necessary
without interfering with the gene:al policy the country had
adopted. It must have been observed that a great impulse
had lately been given in France and other countries of Europe
to the republican principle. Of that principle he would say
nothing, hut while •we did not interfere with foreigners
in establishing in their own countries whatever
form of government they pierced, we had a right
to take measures to prevent them from acting as the apostles
of republicanism here. (liver, hear.) And there could be
no doubt that emissaries had gone forth from those countries
which had adopted republican principles to endeavour to
propagate those principles, and to interfere with the estab-
lished institutions of this and other countries. With
regard to the governments of those eeuntries where-
in the republican principle hod been adopted, he
was Inued to say that there had been nothing what-
ever in their conduct which gave the slightest ground
for complaining of them. (Hear, bear.) And he believed