The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-06 00:00:00

MALTA

Sir G. BO WYER asked the Under Secretary of State for
the Colonies whether Government had received a petition
from Malta, praying for r,forms in the constitution and
government of the island ; and whether it would be laid
before Parliament ?
Mr. C. FORTE SCUE had not heard of any such hav-
ing been received, or being expected to be received.
Sir L. PALK askei. the President of the Board of Trade
whether a cargo from a Prussian port, consigned to an
English merchant, on English account, would be respected
in case of capture, so that it might be reshipped in an Eng-
lish ship ?
Mr. M. GIBSON said that the case referred to a cargo
on board of a Prussian vessel. He supposed Denmark
was a party to the declaration of the treaty of Paris, by
which goods of a neutral country under a foreign flag would
ho respected by that country,
THE ADDRESS TO THE ROYAL SPEECH.

Lord RICHARD GROSVENOR brought up the report
on the Address to the Royal Speech, which was read.
Mr. WHITESIDE objected to that portion of the
econder's speech which spoke of the internal prosperity of
the empire, although he bore testimony to his high ability.
,How could that apply to Ireland ? He quoted the words
of Lord Macaulay as to the vast importance of Ireland to
the Imperial interests, before which dwarfed all our colo-
nial possessions. He alluded to the statements of the
right hon. gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer last
year relative to the state of Ireland, which he described as
couch depressed as it was painful. He cited the state
meats of other gentlemen to show that the prospects of the
country had undergone no improvement. He described
the legislation of the right hon. gentleman (the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer) on two important branches
of production which affected land, namely, distil-
leries and paper, as most injurious. He quoted statis-
tics famished by certain paper manufacturers in Ireland
in support of his argument. Two of those paper manufac-
turers resided in Galway and the county of Cork. The
result was that a large number of persons were thrown out
of employment. The emigration from Ireland between the
years 1841 and 1863 was 2,718,567, and that emigra-
tion was increasing. Mill was a political economist
of great ability, from whom they might differ, and whom

it was often difficult to answer. According to his
theory cottiers or possessors of only one acre should ,
be displaced, which would amount to 40,000 such posses-
sors and their families, and if the same principle was
extended to holders of five acres, 14,000 with their families
would be expelled from the land. If the doctrine were
still further extended it would depopulate the country to
the extent of 2030,000. (Hear, hear.) After some
further observations to the same point, he thought
that there should have been some expression of sympathy
for the sufferers in Ireland, similar to that with respect
to Manchester. He had no hope of improvement from
the efforts of the heal government in Ireland. The
right hon. gentleman having referred in humorous terms to
the statement of the member for Stroud (Mr. Horsman) when
Secretary for Ireland, that he had nothing to do, next
adverted in the same strain to Sir Robert Peel, wham
he described tea having dashed into the country,
and represented himself like Julius Calsar to the Senate.
Veal vidi vici. (Laughter.) He deprecated the exclusion
from the Government of Ireland of its native property and
intelligence.
Sir R. PEEL was sorry his right hon, friend had not
adopted the recommendation made by the leader of the Op-
P°sit'on, anti abstained from introducing a controversy on
the address in answer to the speech from the throne. Al-
lusion had been made to what it was asserted had been the
subject of common, conversation in the Four Courts at
Dublin, and his right Lon. friend had drawn an amusing
picture of what he wished the house to believe was the state
of the Government officers in Ireland. He (Sir R. Peel)
would earnestly assert his belief that those matters were
not so bad as had been stated. With reference to the sub-
j,ct referred to there might no doubt have been some insig-
:aificant difference of Opinion among the members of the Go-
vernment; but as regards the members of the local govern-
ment in Ireland he could assure the house there was very
little truth in the statements made by his right hon. friend.
(Laughter.) Reference had also been made to some gossip
about an " Old Tory." His right hon. friend might surely
have abstained from introducing, a subject of that kind in a
discussion like the present. In reply to the assertion that
Ireland was governed by Lareom and the Police, he begged
to remind his right hon. friend that General Lareom held
the post he now so ably occupied during the time his right
hon. friend was in power. The right hon. gentleman was
wrong in his statistics respecting the number of emi-
grants. The truth was that, between 1801 and Ibo 3
about 1,400,000 emigrated from the country. Ile was