The Express.
London, England, 1847-01-20 00:00:00

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Lord CAREW rise to second the address. (The noble
lord spoke in so low a tone of voice, that it was quite
impossible to catch even the purport of the greater part
of his observations.) He said, that in rising to second
the motion of his noble friend, he could say with truth
that it was always with pain and reluctance that he
eddremed their lordships, but he felt he would not have
been justified in refusing to come forward to testify to the
misfortunes of Ireland, and he felt he should have been de-
serting the interests of his country if ke bad shrunk from
the duty imposed on him. Etsggeration was impossible as
rw,rded the state of Ireland, and although he had been
asked whether such things were possible, he was grieved to
be obliged to say that they were. Last year distress bad been
confined to some places, but in this it was universal. Unfor-
tunately the poorest part of the population depended on the
potato for existence, and it was that which made them liable
to, and was the CALM of, their d nitres.. When a whole popula-
tion depended on a single article of food, and that was struck
by the inscrutable decree of Providence, the people must starve.
Allusion had been made to outrages. No doubt there were
outrages in some parts of the country, but in
others the people bore their sufferings patiently. In
his own county there was nothing which could be
called outrage. Much had been said with regard
to the
.purchase of arms. It had been said tb .t the
money gimp for fool had been laid out in the purchase ot
arms. He believed the accounts were exaggerated. The
majority of purchases were by farmers themselves.
It was difficult to deal with an Arms Act, and still more
difficult to say that a man should not protect himself. It
was his (Lord Carew's) opinion, that the people of Ireland
were struck by a dispensation of Providence, and that they
so considered it. (The noble lord concluded by secondiug
the address.)
Lord STANLEY assn happy to say, that as the govern-'
meat in the speech from the throne had wisely abstained
from any expressions calculated to provoke discussion, there
was no wish on the part of those who had no confidence
in their measures to embarrass them by premature or
vexatious opposition. He could not but remember the pee,.
liar circumstances under which the government occupied
their seam He would do them the justice to my that they
attained those seats by no factious proceeding or unjustifiable
tasma, and he would say further that they obtained them by
as eat of their own, but by a combination of circumstances—
and he believed many of them had accepted office with
sincere reluctance. Whatever might be their
politi-
cal opinions, there was in both houses • feeling that the
government was so situated that they had every claim
to the forbearance of parliament, and that it would
be their duty net to mobegrare them by vexa-
tious opposition. He would go further, and em,
that whatever might be the claims of party, the higher
claims of the country should induce forbearance and modera-
tion. The government did not hold office in ordinary or
easy times. Weighty and serious responsibilities pressed
upon them, such as required not only that every man should
abstain from harassing them, but, without regard to party,
should lend his aid earnestly, to ev-operate with those on
office in alleviating the miseries under which the country
laboured, and averting the serious dangers which threatened
her. On his own part and on that of his friends around
him, he could assure the government that, while he could
not my that the composition of the ministry in this, and
more especially in tie other, house of parliament, was ouch
as to enable them to rely with confidence on their measures,
yet, so long as they walked in the path of the constitution,
and abstained from tampering unnecessarily with existing
institutions—(hear).--and would resist the inducement held
out to them by their more violent supporters to eater on a
course of dangerous innovation, so long the. might rest
assured that they would find on that side of the house no
factious opposition, but a ready support. (Hear, hear.)
The speech from the throne made no allusion to the financial
condition of the country, and that spipeared to him to be a
serious omission. (Hear, hear.) the revenue returns ex-
hibited is almost every department • considerable increase
over the corresponding quarter of last year; and it might
have been expected that the government would have con
gratulated the country upon that circumstance as a mark of
its prosperity ; but the fact of no notice having been taken
of the subject rather signified, in his opinion, that the state
of the financial condition of the country was not as satisfac-
tory as those returns would make it appear. He did not
doubt the fact to be that there bad been a great con-
sumption of excise articles, and also • large import
of foreign articles, which swelled the customs and
made sip for the reduction of other articles; but he
feared that the indication of prosperity denoted by the state
of the revenue was not one that could be trusted. (Hear.)

There had net been, to say the least of it, a corresponding
increase in the exports of the country, and although the re-
venue might have been benefited by large importations, the
home industry of the country had not been encouraged to
the same extent. (Hear.) If this were the case, he antici-
pated
that it would be the painful duty of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer in the present session to mi.° the interest
upon exchequer bills, in the premium upon which a very
great reduction had taken place since this time last year.
Already, too, had there been a very conddcnble export of
bullion from this country, and before the expiration of six
months he apprehended that the excess of imports over ex-
ports would show such a reduction in the amount of bullion
as to make it a matter of serious consideration. In the pros-
. . . .•

pect of a general peace held out by the Speech he fully con-
curred, but he confessed that he did not altogether found his
confidence in that respect so much upon the state of our
foreign relations as upon the growing conviction in this and
all other countries of the impolicy, the folly, and the mis-
chief of war. (Hear, bear.) But he did not look
with satisfaction to the state of our relations with foreign
powers. Amongst the powers of Europe there was no one
with which it was more essential that this country should be
upon terms not only of amity but cordial co-operation and
union, than the great and neighbouring state of France. In
every quarter of the globe we meet that state in innumerable
points of contact, and unless there was a good understanding
between their governments those points of contact would
become poi to of collision, leading to an inharmonious action
between two powers, and thus invading the peace of the
world. With this sentiment he could not but deeply regret
the altered tone which appeared to have been taken by the
governments of this country and France. Ile did not
apprehend from it any disturbance of the public peace,
and he admitted that, before the correspondence was sub-
mitted to parliament, it would be inconvenient and unwise
to enter upon a detailed examination of the statements con-
tained in that correspondence ; but it was impossible for him
not to see, and seeing not to regret, that that cordial under-
standing which in the time of his noble friend (Lord Aber-
deen) subsisted between this country and France, had been
materially altered for the worse by the events of the last four
or five months. He regretted extremely, in the case of the
marriage of the Spanish Infanta, in which there was every
prospect that a conclusion would bare been arrived at har-
moniously and unanimously between the representatives of
the two governments, that the coisupondenceshould exhibit,
what indeed it was melancholy to behold, two statesmen,
who represented foreign nations, bandying mutual recrimi-
nations of interpolations of documents, and of underhand
proceedings, and of secret intentions to execute that which
they were debarred from executing by the principles of
honour. He did not say whose was the fault, but he had
read that correspondence with pain, not only on account of
the statesmen themselves, but more particularly because be
saw in it a change of tone which boded ill for the existence
of a cordial understanding between the two countries.
He altogether dissented from the construction put by the
noble lord at the head of our foreign affairs upon that por-
tion of the treaty of Utrecht, in reference to which that
noble lord had entered Ids formal remonstrance and protest;
but he also differed from the construction put upon it by
M. Guixot and the French government. He did not pre-
tend to pus any judgment upon the comparative merits of
the ease; but this he would say, let the fault rest where it
might, that the correspondence had come to an unfortunate
close, and! that France had adopted views which he would
not say were detrimental to the imperial interests of this
country, but which had been carried on in a mode and
manner amounting, in point of fact, to a slight
upon and a discourtesy towards, this country, to
which he thought it would not have been subjected
had his noble friend (Lord Aberdeen) remained at
the head of the foreign department of the government. Bat
this misfortune of the noble viscount who now filled that
office, and this altered tone between the governments of
England and France, was not single, extencling, uit did,
to another measure against which they were told the British
government had entered a formal protest—the annexation of
Cracow. It was said that that measure was at variance with
the stipulations of the treaty of Vienna; yet be was not sure
that good grounds might not be shown, by the example of
former treaties, and even of this treaty of Vienna, for the
violation of stipulations incorporated in a subsequent treaty.
provided that violation met with the consent of all the parties
consenting to the original treaty. He would suspend upon
the subject a positive opinion until be saw the papers . and
he hoped the government se.uld lay before the house, not
only the protest after the fact, but any explanation that
might have been offered by those three powers' or that her
Majesty's government might have received from their
diplomatic agent', to enable them to take steps
previous to the accomplishment of the fact. He
now approached • subject infinitely more interest-
ing to the well-being of this country. lie referred
to that awful visitation which had afflicted the sister inland
from one end to the other, and of which he believed no ex-
aggeration could in men, instances exceed the dreadful
reality. (Hear, hear.) For the palliation of present suffer-
ing, and the prevention of future misery, and for the pur-
pose of rescuing the country from the guilt of knowingly
permitting a large portion of its population to starve, he was
sure that there was no sacrifice and no effort which her Ma-
jesty's government could call upon the country to make
which would not be cheerfully responded to by the members
of that house, and by the representatives of the people. He
was aware that the extent of that visitation came upon the
government by surprise, and, under such circumstances, he
knew the difficulty of obtaining in Ireland socurate and
trustworthy information. He knew, too, that notwithstand-
' ing the best exertions of the government, they could not
prevent local abuse. He bad no wish to speak disrespect-
fully of the gentry of Ireland; but of this he was con-
vinced, that the administration of relief, especially when it
came from the public purse required on the part of the go-
vernment a degree of watchfulness and care which would not
be required in this or almost any other country. He was not
there to embarrass the government by any captions objections
to the measures they had adopted for the relief of Ireland in
its present difficulty. That great errors had been committed
he required no more than the speeches of the mover and
seconder of the address to prove. The Labour Rate Act for
instance was a great blunder—preventing as it did those land-
lords who were so disposed from employing their capital in •
manner most advantageous to themselves and their tenantry,
and compelling them to apply it to the filling up of ironerceptible hollows and the lowering of invisible hills —the effect
being that large sums of money were absolutely squandered
'n the process of mae'ng the face of the country impassable.
This was no exaggeration, and he made the remark in no
captious spirit. He readily admitted that govern-
ment on et well in the difficulty iq not enllina paths-
ment together, and that the Lord Lieutenant had exercised
a s...und discretion in taking upon himself the responsibility