The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-29 00:00:00

THE PARLIAMENTARY WAR.

Mr D. GRIFFITH gave notice that on the standing
orders next session he would move that the fees of Parlia-
mentary counsel be regulated in accordance with the fees
of counsel in common law and equity.
THE NE W CANON OF WESTMINSTER.
In answer to a question from Mr H. SEYMOUR,

Mr BARING said ho believed the salary of Mr Con-
way, the new canon of Westminster, would be £l,OOO a-
year, but the whole question was under consideration, as
the canon would be ex-officio rector of St. Margaret's.
THE CHURCH IN IRELAND.

Mr H. SEYMOUR gave notice that early next session
he will move for a Royal commission to inquire into the
resources of the Church in Ireland.

MEXICO.
In reply to Mr KINGLAKE,
Mr LAYARD said the French troops were in possession
of several places in Mexico. It was difficult to say whether
for a long time past any Government had been in possession
of the republic. It had always been the practice to recog-
nize the de facto Government, and the Archduke Maxi-
milian was in the possession of the capital.
RAILWAYS CONSTRUCTION FACILITIES BILL.
The Lords' amendments to the bill were considered,
and with one or two exceptions, agreed to.
RAILWAY COMPANIES' POWERS BILL.

The Lords' amendments to this bill were considered and
agreed to.
PIER AND HARBOUR ORDERS CONFIRMATION

BILL.

The Lords' amendments to this bill were considered any
agreed to.
PARTNERSHIP LAW AMENDMENT BILL.
_. _ _

The order for the committal of this bill was discharged,
and the bill withdrawn.

CONVICTIONS (IRELAND).
Mr HENNESSY moved for a return of the number of
persons convicted in Dublin and the county of Dublin of
using or having in their possession any false or unjust
weights, measures, or balances for the year ending the 25th
day of March, 1864, showing the nature and extent of such
inaccuracy, the business carried on by the offender, and
the date when the offence was committed, distinguishing
between offences committed in any shop, warehouse, or
other premises, and those committed in the public streets
er other open places ; also the amount of the penalty and
costs in each case imposed, and whether any such
weights, measures, or balances were seized and condemned,
and how the said, penalties, costs, and articles condemned
were diTosed (A.—Agreed to.
EMIGRATION (AMERICA).
Lord E. HOWARD called attention to the subject of
emigration to the United States of America, in reference to
the prolongation of the war now raging in that country.
The gravity of the subject would be his justification for
bringing forward the subject at that late period of the ses-
sion. In consequence of his position as a member of the
distress relief committee at Glossop, one of the towns most
affected by the cotton distress, he found it became necessary
to have a census made of the population in that district,
and one of the elements of that census was the question of
emigration, He found that a large emigration had prevailed
from that district, and in the course of the inquiry he disco-
vered that it was also large from the cotton districts in gene-
ral. In '22 towns taken promiscuously from the cotton dis-
tricts—he did not know that they were the largest towns—
and in the course of a few months, setting aside single men,
of married men not less than 1,460 had left this country for
the United States, of whom not less than 780 had deserted
their wives, leaving 2,160 persons chargeable upon the rater.
Besides that. he had the names of fourteen persons who had
emigrated from one locality in Manchester within three
months, and of these not less than twelve bad deserted
their wives and families, and probably most of these were
young and newly-married men. These circumstances
showed that there must be some deep cause at work. It
would not meet the argument to say that these men had
emigrated intending afterwards to send for their wives and
families, because they knew that there had been instances
in which the manufacturers of America had sent for manu-
faoturing hands from England, paying the expenses of the
voyage for themselves and their families, the agreement
being that this amount was to be deducted afterwards from
their wages. He had further to say that great caution was
exercised by those agents who took these people out of
the country, for they did not give written documents or
money until the emigrants were safe on board the vessels
which were to convey them to America. He would instance
another case, which showed how these emigrants were dis-
posed of when they reached the other side of the Atlantic.
Holed a letter in his hand relating to the ease of a man
who was a private in the Manchester volunteer. This
letter was written by an officer of that corps, who stated
that a young man in his company had been decoyed to
New York. A companion pf his had seen an advertisement
in a newspaper stating. that young men were wanted in
Canada, and that they would have permanent employment
at the rate of 353 per week. Ai: interview took place
between this young man and his agent, and the young
man agreed to go. The statement made Vets, that on ar-
riving in Canada emp:elment would be ()Wined imme-
diately. On this under-titan:lingsix men were loduc ed to
ances were wan.:'ng to
go. On arriving at Liverpool ce.7"7
yard the Virginia tusW
take them to the ship. On getting on th.
York, but they
found that this vessel was bound for Nei
were told that on their arrival there they with:: Pe reshipped
for Canada. When they arrived at New York til.eY were
provided xith refreshments, and they were told that
would be conveyed to Long Island. Oa their arrival there
two of the men enlisted at once; this young made his
escape, and succeeded in getting into the hold of one of the
Cunard steamers ; and on his arrival at home declared
himself " a miserable victim of Yankee rascality." Nor was
that a solitary instance. There was a case now before the
Foreign-office in which a man named Macartney was landed
at New York with a letter for £lO. He was drugged, robbed,
and, while in a state of stupefaction, enlisted into the Federal
navy. He was not enlisted voluntarily. fie believed that on
all the large passenger ships sailing from Liverpool agents
of the Federal Government wore on board with the view of
recruiting young men. He was told of such a case two
days ago in which an emigrant was treated by a person on
board an American passenger ship and invited to a house at
New York. He accepted the invitation, he was drugged
with whisky, and the next thing of which he became con-
scious was that he was a Federal soldier. lie deserted, but
was captured, and placed in gaol. If they opened any news-
paper,
and referred to the police-sheet, similar cases would
be found. He had seen the case of a man from Hull, who
had been taken to an island near New York, no doubt Long
Island, where he met with several other Englishmen, who
had been impressed into the
complained that those outrages wore constantly committed.
There was the case of another man who was paid a
cheque for £4O, which sum he received from the Ame-
rican Government, and he was now in General Grant's
Federal army. He looked with great concern upon the
great emigration at present going on, and he advised the
large manufacturers to do their utmost to stop the flow of
skilled labour from their several districts. The noble
lord then referred to the circumstances that occurred
, a short time ago in Ireland, and afterwards
read extracts from letters written by those who had
unfortunately been deluded into quitting England for
America, all of whom advised their fellow workmen to look
with the greatest suspicion upon all inducements to visit
the United States at the present moment. It might be that
the wages given there would be larger than those in Eng.
land, yet the price of the necessaries of life were so enor-
mous that the lesser sum earned in England went further
than that to be obtained in America. Mr Justice Fitzgerald
in a charge he gave the other day, referred to the terrible
frequency with which such acts were committed. Within
the last few days the noble lord said some papers with re-
gard to this question had been presented to the other house,
and copies had also been distributed amongst honourable
members, and ho advised every hon. member who took an
interest in the question to read them, feeling assured that
ho would get up from their perusal with a heart full of sore

row. The scene opened very much like a melodrama, only
he was sorry to say that the jocose part was very little in-
deed. The correspondence opened with an account
of two rascale. One of them pretended that he
was connected with some railway works in America,
and the other (who would not be misrepresented by
describing his actions as such as would well become the
character of an imp of the devil)—(hear, hear) —plotted
and made the necessary bargains with the people. He ac-
cordingly deluded 120 men to leave Ireland on a false
representation of the work and the amount of wages to be
paid, but on board the steamer was a man who was almost
a match for him. One of the men worn his hat ea I:.he
side of his head, and by that means contrived to disguise
the fact that he had but one eye until they were in the
middle of the ocean. Now, having but one eye did not
make the man a worse labourer, but it did a worse soldier,
and on the man Feeney discovering it ho abused him
very much, showing that his real object was to obtain men
for the American army and not for railway works. (Hear,
hear.) When the ship arrived in the docks the men were
surrounded and dosed with whisky. Many of them were
placed in the police cells, and collisions were stated to have
occurred between the policemen and the recruiting agents,
and in the end several of the men who emigrated found
themselves, much against their inclination, in the Federal
army. They applied naturally to our consuls for advice and
assistance, and a correspondence took place bet weep our
consuls and Lord Lyons and the American Government,
and also between Lord Lyons and the Foreign-office upon
the subject. From that correspondence, which, as he had
already said, had been printed, it appeared that emigrants
were made drunk, inveigled into the army, and robbed by
the recruiting agents of the bounty, so that the sharks
who preyed upon them made large profits; and many
of she scenes which Mr Consul Lousada witnessed at
Boston involuntarily recalled to his mind his experiences
in Cuba. It was, however, to be hoped that the publica-
tion of these facts would check the traffic. (Hear.) It
was stated that many of these speculators otten cleared
500 dole and more by these transactions. The man Feeney,
who took this cargo of slaves out to America, was arrested
in Ireland on the charge of endeavouring to enlist men for
the Federal army, but ho was released because it was
thought he produced proper and sufficient proofs that his
enterprise was a legitimate one—that of procuring men
for a railway undertaking. (Hear.) On the 7th of April,
1864 Consul Murray wrote to Lord Lyons with regard to
the men taken out by Feeney, that there could be no
doubt there was a systematic attempt to get the men drunk
for the purpose of enlisting them. The poor men
who left Blackburn under the direction of Ainsworth,
whom they first sent out to Canada to see if labour could be
found there, it was to be hoped had not shared the same
fate, but Ainsworth had turned up in a wretched state at
Portland, and his scheme had failed. (Hear.) Hie object
,in bringing the subject under the consideration of the house
was to ware his fellow-countrymen for the future against
these designing agents, and not for the purpose of making
any charge against the American Government. On the
3d of May, 1864, Lord Lyons, in a despatch to the Foreign
Secretary, stated that the number of British subjects serv-
ing in the United States army and navy was very conside-
rable. IThe most laborious, painful, and unsatisfactory
part of his duty since the war had broken out was con-
nected with the complaints of British subjects, and no
pains had been spared by himself or the consuls in inves-
tigating them, and every effort was made to obtain redress
in those cases that were well founded, but in few cases only
had their efforts produced any satisfactory results. (Hear,
hear.) Major General Dix, the military commandant at
New York, had informed the American Secretary to the
Navy that almost every imaginable form of fraud, outrage,
and dissipation had been developed by the American re-
cruiting agents to obtain the recruiting bounty. Boys
had been deluded from their homes ; men had been
drugged ; and, in short, every artifice and fraud had
been resorted to, and men labouring under incurable
diseases had been pressed into the service, in order to
plunder the American Government of the bouaty money.
The unfortunate men from this country were deceived
and kidnapped in Oa* most scandalcus and inhuman man-
ner in New York. Whilst they were unconscious from
drink they were clothed in the uniform of the Federal
army, and on coming to their senses they suddenly found
themselves absorbed in an army, and called upon to take
part in a war the objects of which they were not only igno-
rant of, but indifferent to its results. The noble lord then
further quoted from Lord Lyons's despatches which de-
picted the horrors of the system in America, and which was
corroborated by Major-General Dix; and in one of Lord
Lyons's despatches he stated that British subjects who
claimed exemption had, contrary to the general rule, been
sent to the army, and many of them had been shot and
others wounded pending the inquiry into the justice of
their claims. In a war of defence it was the duty of
every man to take up arms in support of his country ; but
a war of aggression he looked upon as wicked, and those
who foisted themselves into it and took part in it did no
other than commit murder. It was true there were some
men—filibusters or buccaneers—who drew down on them-
selves a certain amount of approbation from a large
portion of mankind ; but he doubted if any right-minded
man applauded the conduct of those, who joined in it, and
thereby prolonged that which every one would wish to see
stopped. (Hear, hoar.) Ho had no wish to say anything
about the United States Government or army. Ho cared
not what government a country had so long as it protected
industry, was just, and gave the necessary amount of pro-
tection and happiness to its people; and with regard to the
American army, and also the Southern army, they had
shown themselves to be composed of men whose
fighting had not been equalled ; but he could not help
thinking that it would be more just towards those bravo
men that their numbers should not be added to by men who
had nothing to do with the struggle that was now raging
in America. (Hear, hear.) It was time that this struggle
should cease, and he thought we ought to do everything
in our power to prevent those evils being increased by the
emigration of our people to America. (Hear.) There were
now on both sides widows, sisters, and brothers wishing and
crying out, though not so audibly as they could desire, for
peace—(hear)—and it was our duty to prevent, as far as we
could, any fuel being added to the devouring flame. (Hear.)
What was the opinion of the man who was best com-
petent to pronounce an opinion upon this subject? Earl
Russell, in his despatch to Lord Lyons, dated May 27, 1864,
referred to the case of Irishmen enlisted at Portland and
Boston for the American army, and said it appeared to her
Majesty's Government to be clear, from the reports received
from her Majesty's consuls at those ports, that those en-
listments were effected by the most fraudulent schemes,
and contrived and executed in disregard of the neutral
rights of Great Britain. It appeared that when they
landed at Portland the unfortunate emigrants were plied
with drink. They were then dealt with in a manner
which made it natural that they should yield to the temp-
tations and persuasions of the recruiting officers, who
obtained access to them by the aid of the police autho-
rities. Those facts having come to his (Lord E. Howard's)
knowledge, he felt it to be only his duty to bring the ques-
tion before the house with the view of warning those who
might still be seduced into those ruinous engagements.
He thought that the Secretary for the Colonies might be
better able to warn the public generally through the many
emigration agents against this abominable system. The
right hon. gentleman, he believed, had applied to the
agents at Liverpool on the subject, but they said that
they could not aid him in his object. He held in his
hand a card distributed by those agents, headed " Notice
to Emigrants," which, as far as it went, was very good and
unobjectionable. But at the bottom of it he observed a
very significant notice—" Remember that in America
a dollar is equal to 4s. 2d. English money, and that
a cent is equal to one farthing." (Laughter.) Now, he
flu:tight there ought to be some special warning to the
publk in respect to that particular point, inasmuch as we
all knew that an American dollar was worth nothing like 4a
English ooney at the present time. It was a mere ques-
-47 to do all they could to prevent some of
s, ss from enlisting in the United States
cue
tht;,qe poor wret.
itnionof humans..
at,
.to.assist in preventing that unneces-
,ch was a disgrace humanity.
sary e u threats, At the same time the
army' ff'.ined'obny odfoibnigood wh.
He did not vs, .qh to utter any .
United States Government ought to know that our resources
were ample, and that we were in a
pcsition to become, if ne-
cessary, the arbiters of the world. If it were possible he
should like the Government to give sonl'e expression of
opinion upon the subject; but, at all events, ;:e felt certain
the Foreign-office would do All that was vssible to
protect those who had been kidnapped from their native
land to take part in a war which was A disgrace to hots`k of
the contending parties.

Mr LAYARD said the noble lord had done good service
in calling attention to the subject of emigration to America.
He could not see how many of the difficulties mentioned
by the noble lord were to be avoided, but he advised the
greatest caution to be observed by al! quitting their native
land. The Government had directed the proper authori-
ties to do all that was possible to protect Engl;sh emigrants,
but at the sane time he hoped that those parties who went
to America, because it was idle to suppose that emigration
could be stopped, to exercise the greatest discretion. The
emigration officers, the nolle lord might rest assured, would
do all in their power to prevent unfair practices, but he
felt certain that blame was not to be attributed to the Ame-
rican Government. He would willingly give the papers
the noble lord desired.
Mr P. HENNESSY, seeing the Secretary for Ireland
in his place, wished to know whether the emigr
onat 93. e
ation from
Cork, to enlist in the American army, was goin beginning
present time to the same extent as it was at the g
of the year ?
"Nlr LINDSAY said it was of the g emireatest importance
that extreme caution should be exercised by
grants.
The present value of the American dollar was certainly not
49. 2d. To show the extent of the horror of the present
stru and the sacrifice of hurnanlife, it was said sent
up theggle 30th of June upwarcht of a million lives have been

already lost. l to the hon and learned member,
Sir R. PEEL in repY • d
said a proclamation had been issue by the Lord Lieutenant,
which he hoped would check the tide of emigration from
Ireland. The greatest efforts were being made to make all
parties well acquainted with the state of affairs in America,
After a few words from Mr P. TAYLOR,
Lord J. MANNERS thought the Emigration Commis-
sioners should issue a warning stating that it was not safe
for the humble people of En gland to go to America to fiud
a home.
The motion was agreed to.
The house thEn adjourned.

WEST INDIA AND PACIFIC MAILS.

SOUTHAMPTON, JULY 28.

The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company's ship
Atrato, with the above mails, passed Hurst Cast ie
at 3.35 p.m.