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

of opinion that the emigration had nothing whatever
to do with political or religious questions. Nor had it any-
thing to do with the land question. It simply resulted be-

cause it was impossible for the vast number o a_ ricultural

labourers in Ireland to procure remunerative employment.
The condition of agricultural labourers in Ireland was year
by year improving, and there had been a vast increase in all

the social comforts of life in the homes of the poorer classes.
The prospects of the country were, upon the whole, satisfac•

tory. As for Ulster being more prosperous than 'the other

provinces, it should be remembered that flax was cultivated in
Ulster to the value of four millions sterling; and this was
manufactured into linen goods worth about twenty-five
millions. He was glad to find there was a movement set on

foot for extending the flax culture into the other provinces,
He believed that the prospects of the coming year were full
of promise, and he thought that Ireland would soon recover
from the depression which the last two or three seasons
had occasioned.

Mr. BENTINCR wished to ask whether the vast amount
of emigration was not the result of the financial policy of
1816. It had been said that the famine had been the cause of

the exodus ; but, if such were the case, how was it that
emigration continued at a time when, according to the right
hon. baronet, the country was in a state of comparative
prosperity? Among the few things they had learnt from
the discussion on the address was, that a great and por-
tntous quarrel was now going on in Europe, all the par-

ties concerned in which were in the wrong. The chief
cause of the quarrel was the development of liberal

principles, which always led to anarchy and revolution.
If the Government were sincere in the desire to preserve
peace in Europe, they should abstain from availing them-

selves of every possible opportunity to stimulate anarchy
and revolution. He would not discuss the wording of
Earl Russell's despatches in reply to the Fr:nch proposal
for a congress; but he must say he thought the noble earl

could have taken no other course than that of rejecting the
proposal. He believed that the proposal of a congress had
bean rightly described as a proposal for the assembling of a
large number of persons in order to decide what they were
to quarrel about. He joined in the regret that no allusion
had been made in the speech to American affairs, or to the
conduct of the Federal Government upon recent occasions
towards this country. They ought also to have been told
how much longer that paper blockade, which was every day
becoming a greater farce, was to be endured ; and the in-
tentions of the Government with respect to recent outrages
upon the British flag. Much had been said on the front
benches as to the threatening tone assumed by Earl Rus-
sell, and to his doing nothing; but the blame of that must
be shared by the House of Commons. If the noble earl
was wrong in giving utterance to vain threats, what was to
be said of a House of Commons which night alter night
could discuss the propriety of embarking in a great war, at
a time when they had neither troops nor ships sufficient for
home defence. If they meant to place themselves in a posi-
tion to enforce their advice in the councils of Europe, the
first thing they must do was to put the naval and military
forces of the country on a footing to enable them to give
effect to their words. Would they not learn a lesson from
the precipitation with which they rushed into the ill-ad-
vised declaration of war against Russia ? In consequence
of that precipitation the narrative of the Crimean war must
ever stand as one of the darkest chapters in the history of
England. Nothing but the bulldog courage of the Eng-
lish army in the Crimea saved it from destruction. But
they had no right to expose a band of heroes to such
fearful odds—to send a band of 20,000 or 30,000 men to be
massacred on the continent of Europe in order to maintain
the honour of England. Were they going to repeat that
insane proceeding of the Crimean war ? Were they going
to embark in a great war in the present state of their army ?
Before doing so they must get rid of the cheeseparing
policy of the Chancellor of the Exchequer with respect to
the army, and of the counsels of the peace-at-any-price
party and of the member for Birmingham (Mr. Bright).
As for the navy, they had merely skips enough, at the very
utmost, to protect our ports and our commerce abroad ; but
none for the blockade of foreign ports. And yet, at such a
moment, there were rumours afloat of the intention of the
Government to reduce our armaments. If they did so, he
could only say that a commission de lunatico inquirendo,
of which they had heard so much recently, should be ex-
tended to the Treasury Bench. The Government were still
undecided as to the question of war or peace; but they were
bound to tell the house before the discussion closed how, in
the event of their deciding upon war, they proposed to carry
on warlike operations, and to give an assurance that the best
blood of the country would not be again sacrificed through
a shortsighted policy.
Mr. WEI LE said that any one who had read the de-
spatch of Admiral Kuper must feel perfectly astonished at
the doctrine proclaimed in the Royal Speech, namely, that
the destruction of Kagosima arose from inadvertency. He
referred to that subject now, as he believed the resolution
of which the hon. member member for Maidst one (Mr.
Buxton) had given notice to be quite innocuous. Although
Mr. Richardson, who was murdered, was a personal friend
of his, he did not think the security of British life and pro •
perty abroad was best secured by such high-handed pro-
ceedings as had been undertaken in Japan. Generally
speaking, it was the non-fighting men who were to blame
for them. They might be sure it was not Admiral Kuper,
! but Colonel Neale, the Minister, who instigated the cala-
mity o:Kagosima. With respect to Poland, the least they
should have done was to have withdrawn the British am-
bassador from St. Petersburg; and he saw no reason why
they did net accept the Emperor's offer to enter a congress.
This policy of mutual distrust had led to an augmentation

of armies much greater than during the great continental
wars of the First Napoleon. 'W hen he remembered as one
of the reasons for the proposed congress that the Emperor
Napoleon pointed out that it would lead to a mutual dis-
armament, anJ when he remembered how the light hon,
gentleman the member for Bucks had deecanted on our
" bloated armaments," and when it seemed desirable that
some understanding should be come to with respect to the
reduction of our armies, he might say that it was with some
feeling of regret that he saw a proposition so reasonable re-

jetted in the manner it was. He regretted that no refer•
once to reform had been made in the Royal Speech ; and tha
the people outside, who said those within the house were
political Pharisees, must unfortunately knock at the door
and make themselves disagreeable before they received at-
tention at the hands of this house. (Hear.) He trusted
that when those measures of reform which would be intro-
duced by his hon. friend the member for Leeds and his hon.
friend the member for Surrey were brought forward, this
house in its moribund state would treat the question in a
better manner than it did in the days of its youth.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL for IRELAND regret-
ted that the sympathy exhibited so remarkably last night
and on the present occasion, in the cause of Ireland, was
not shown when circumstances would more have justified
the exhibition of it. He defended the Lord Chancellor of
Ireland from the attacks that had been made upon him,
and said that never in his experience did he hear strictures
more unfounded. The Lord Chancellor was always a true
and genuine Liberal; he was the friend of Daniel O'Con-
nell, and it was true that he had subscribed to a statue to
O'Connell, who was one of the ablest supporters of the
Liberal party that ever appeared in that house. He (the
Attorney-General) had subscribed to that statue. (Hear,
hear.) Men of all shades of opinion in Ireland had
subscribed to that statue; and he said that the attack
made upon the Lord Chancellor of Ireland was unworthy
of his right hon. friend. One charge made was that a young
man, the son of the Lord Chancellor, had written some
anonymous letters under the title of "An Old Tory" to an
Irish newspaper; and in a discussion before the House of
Commons, and in a discussion affecting the character of a
man who had stood high in his profession for many years,
his right hon. friend was not afraid to put before the
house the absurd act of that clerk, the son of the Lord
Chancellor of Ireland. God help them if a man was to
answer in that house and before the world for the acts of his
subordinates. As to the general question, no one felt more
deeply than he the miseries of his own poor countrymen.
Their sufferings during the last few years had been very
great indeed. It had been said that emigration was an
economic necessity ; but he believed the true explanation of
the continuance of that emigration was due to the strength
of that family affection which once bound the Irish people
to their own soil, and which now led them away to that
country where their nearest and dearest had gone before
them. Ireland was at this motaent, had been for a long
time, and would be for a long time to come, in a state of
transition, and in that transition emigration and suffering
were painful phases. Only for some quarter of a century
—a very little incident in the life of a nation—had Ireland
been entirely free from the calamities which the misgovern-
ment of centuries and the domination of faction always
caused. (Hear.) In that period intelligence had le:Tn more
widely diffused than ever it was before; they had had the
removal of an insolvent proprietary, and they had had the
way opened to them for the simplification and security of
tenure. They had had just laws, justly administered by im-
partial judges commanding the confidence of the people of
Ireland as it never was commanded before, when the laws
were administered adversely to them, and contrary to their
interests. (Hear.) The strength of her religious feeling was
unexampled in the world, and he believed that for Ireland,
suffering as she was, depressed as she was, there was yet to
be a happy and blessed future. The people were saving their
earnings, and he could tell the house, with great respect,
what his. right hon. friend did not tell the house, that there
was not a country in the world at this moment so free from
crimethethemtaahis,that,
kingdom of Ireland. (Hear, hear.) He told
although there were now and then out•
rages in Ireland, although agrarian crime did creep up here
and there, generally these were stimulated—at present, at
all events—by a sense of real and personal wrong. That
crime was lccal—they might hope that crime was excep-
tional, and that the normal condition of Ireland was that
of
peace, eTrE, aSnldDaßordtn, ton.a
the right lab'arte hon. . gentleman re-
sunling his seat, rose to offer some explanation, but was
called to order.
Mr. P. HENNESSY objected to the statement that the
Government of Lord Derby had never promoted any of
their political opponents, citing several instances in which
that had been done during their brief tenure of office. The
right hon. gentleman had defended the Lord Chancellor of
Ireland for being a party man. What would ba said if the
English Government selected men for promotion to the
bench merely because they were party men ? Neither the
bar nor the public would allow it ; yet in Ireland it was the
practice to select only Whigs, The question of the promo-