The Sun.
London, England, 1830-03-12 00:00:00

they paid for their passage to this country, and
brought with them the gifts which nature had con-
ferred upon them—(Hear, hear, and a laugh)—their
strength and their sinews. They a'ked for employ-
ment, and if they obtained it, gave in their labour a
fair recompense for the money they received. He
did not mean to say that vagrants and vagabonds
did not come from Ireland, or that the House might
not legislate upon vagrants; but he did protest
against the industrious Irish, who earned all they re-
ceived from this country, being confounded with
Irish vagabonds who came to ask English alms.
Let him, however, tell the House that they could
not, by legislative enactments, prevent labour from
finding its level. As to relieving Ireland and better-
ing the condition of the people, Hon, Members
speculated upon emigration and the poor laws, while
an obvious mode, which presented itself to the view
of every one, was passed over. Give the Irish
employment in Ireland. ibis might be easily done.
There were in Ireland 2,000,000 acres of bogs,
which were a standing reproach to the Government.
By the reports of Commissioners, it appeared that
if these bogs were drained, they would in ten years
be converted into fertile land, at a profit. of 200 per
cent.

Mr. SLANEY had applied neither the term
vagabond nor vagrant to the Irish who came over
here. He had not wished to apply such terms to
them, and if he had so wished, still, surrounded as
he was by so many sensitive Members from the sis-
ter kingdom, his prudence would have got the better
of his wish.

MONCK did not think that the influx of the
Irish was so great an evil es it had been represented
to be, its regard to its effects upon our own peasantry.
For, in the first place, the influx was chiefly con-
fined to London and the great towns. In the
country it lasted only during havest-time. Against
this evil, however, such as it was, our poor laws
were our security, and did not, as it had been sup-
posed they did, increase the evil. For, if the Irish
offered their labour at 50 per cent. under our own
labourers, the farmer would not accept the offer,
because he knew that if he did, the English would
next day be returned upon him as paupers.
Mr. O'CONNELL begged to notice an expres-
sion which had fallgn from the Hon. Member for
Shrewsbury. The expression was calumnious; and
although he was sure the Hon. Member had not so
intended it, yet he felt it necessary to notice and to
correct the expression. The Hon. Member had
talked about raising the moral character of the Irish
peasantry. Now he begged leave to tell the Hon.
Member that there was no example in England by
which this could be done. On the contrary, while
crime was rapidly increasing in England, it was on
the decrease in Ireland. With respect to the sub-
ject before the House, he would not detain the
House by any observations of his upon it. Only
let him remind them that that distress, which was
on all hands admitted to exist in Ireland, existed in
a country peopled with industrious and numerous
population, and blest with a most fertile soil. Would
it be said that no remedy could be applied to dis-
tress in such a country as that ?
Sir C. COLE said, that with his experience of
the mischiefs of the poor laws in this country, it
would be inhuman in him to wish to transfer such
an infliction to the sister kingdom.
Mr. SLANEY, in explanation, said that he had
not used the words " moral character" in the sense
in which the Hon. Member for Clare bad under-
stood them.

The motion was then agreed to, and the following
Committee appointed:—

Mr. Spring. Rice, Lord Francis Leveson Gower, Sir
John Newport, Mr. Secretary Peel, Lord Viscount Al-
thurp, Lord Viscount Milton, Lord Ashley, Mr. Brown-
low, Mr. Dawson, Mr. Maurice Fitzgerald, Mr. Charles
Grant, Lord Viscount Stopford, Mr. Hope, Lord John
Russell, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Lamb, Mr. Sturges Bourne,
Mr. O'Connell, Lord Oxmantown, Lard Viscount Pal-
merston, Sir Henry Parnell, Mr. Leslie Foster, Mr.
Doherty, Mr. Vernon Smith, Mr. Stanley, Mr. Williams
Wynn, Mr. Villiers, Mr. Ponsonby, Mr. Daly, Mr.
Spencer Percival, Mr Slaney, Mr. Macqueen, Mr. Philips,
Lord Clifton, Sir George Hill, Sir Thomas Acland.
Mr. TRANT moved, " that it be an instruction
to the committee, to inquire how far the, 434 of
Elizabeth might be made applicable to the poor of
Ireland."
The SPEAKER said that the Committee, from
the wording of the motion, had already power to ex-
tend their inquiries to that point; and it was un-
usual to give an instruction to it to do that which
it already had the power to de.
Mr. HUME said, that if there was no objection,
he would move that Mr. Trant's name he added to
the. Committee, in order that he might have an op-
portunity of enlightening it by any plans of his own
if he had any.
Lord L. GOWER could have no personal objec-
tion to the Hon. Member's name being added to the
Committee ; but, on general principles, he objectad
to the proposition, because other Hon. Members
might make similar ones, and so extend the Com-
mittee to the whole House.