The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-11 00:00:00

THE SHANNON JOB.

(From the Times.)
Mr. Spring Rice's Budget had been waited for by the
public with exemplary and surprising patience—we
mean the general budget of the present year, put off by
the Right Hon. and superficial Gentleman to the sth
day of the month of July, a very late period for making
known, or pretending to make known, the financial con-
dition of the country.
But Mr. Rice was by no means thus tardy and pro-
crastinating in the preparation of another budget—his
own particular and especial budget, which °`touched
him more near" than that whereby he was to provide
for army and navy, and for the interest of the national
debt.

There is a Bill before Parliament entitled the " Shan-
non Navigation Bill," which has been hurried through
the House of Commons with an alacrity quite edifying
as contrasted with the slow and dirge-like pace of the
Right Hon. Gentleman's movements in conducting any
matter of general finance.
The proceedings relative to this scheme for extract-
ing money from English pockets, and burying it in Irish
bogs, bridges, potato fields, and pleasure grounds, have
been so managed as to conceal the true nature of it
from public observation.

"Job" is an ugly name for an Act of Parliament, but
let Englishmen judge for themselves.
On Friday, the 28th ult., Mr. Spring Rice is re-
ported to have stated, in reply to a searching question
from Captain Boldero, and after a good deal of fencing
upon the subject, that the total sum required to. be ex-
pended for the purposes of the Shannon Navigation Bill
" would not exceed 2.30,000/."
We do not.Of course, say of any official functionary
that he told the House of Commons what he knew to be
an untruth, but surely Mr. Spring Rice has placed
himself in another predicament, which equally shocks
credibility.
According to the Report of the Shannon Commis-
sioners, and in pursuance of the literary provisions of
the Bill, the total expense of the improvements is lo be
advanced by
,i,Ae Treasury in Exchequer bills, and
amounts to no less a sum than 584,805/. 17s. 64d.
That large sum, moreover, is exclusive of the 50,0001.
already paid by the British public for charges of the
Commission itself. So that, in the first instance, the
Shannon Improvement Bill will have entailed upon
the country an outlay of 634,0001. and upwards.
Here we have, therefore, a Chancellor of the Exche-
quer sn litCe conversant with vulgar arithmetic, that he
cannot perceive any difference worth mentioning between
250.000/. and 630,000/.

There is of course a verbal salvo—a make-believe
provision of the Bill—that a moiety of the money is
to be repaid to the Excheqier. But how repaid, or
when, or under what available stipulations ? From a
fait construction of the report, it is to be concluded that
no such repayment is to take place, except under a
failure of the prospective tolls authorized and created
by the Act of Parliament. We know by experience
what is to be expected fro:n Irish undertakers in the
nature of repayments to the Treasury when money has
once been issued.

But the project of taking up public works by the
Government is surely one which, with reference to
Ireland, the people of this country will not be brought
to sanction. Mr. Rice, when in opposition, con-
demned the practice of his predecessors in the ad-
ministration of Irish public works, and lost no time
on becoming Minister in a remodelling of the whole
system, to suit his own peculiar objects. In conjunc-
tion with Lord Lansdowne, the Right Hon. Adven-
turer established the present Board of Public Works,
pensioned off the old functionaries at the cost of the
nation, introduced his own friends to the best places,
obtained from the " Liberal" Parliament 500,0001. to
begin with, and brought the expenditure of every shil-
ling of the money under his own immediate patronage,
whether grant or loan. The consequence is, according
to Mr. Eneas Macdonnell's calculation, that the county
(Kerry) in which lies the main property of the Marquis
of Lansdowne has received 130,0001. The county of
Limerick, Mr. Rice's county, 100,000/. Why is this ?
Wla4t other counties have met with equal favour ? In
tie County of Kerry, besides Lord Lansdowne, there is
another leviathan of the same faction, viz. Mr. D. O'Con-
nell, who, we suspect, when good things were going,
would not suffer himself to bc. overlooked.

(From the Spectator.)
Forced to relinquish the Irish Railway scheme, and
havitng shuffled out of a settlement of the Irish Bank
question, the Chancellor of the Exchequer concentrates
his energies upon this Shannon job.
Our readers were apprized last week that the Shan-
non Bill passed the second reading in the House of
Commons on Friday ; when Mr. Rice undertook that
the cost to the public should not exceed 250,000/.*
Something was indistinctly added about money to be
advanced ; but 2.50,000/. was the declared total which
the British public were to furnish " out and out."
Now, what can we think of this Minister and his
confederates in Parliament, when it is found that, at
one o'clock on Tuesday morning, in a very thin House,
and the notice on the paper specifying no amount,
a resolution was " considered" in Committee, authoriz-
ing a grant of 290,717/., and a loan of 294,0901. more
A sum of 50,000/. had previously been obtained; so
that, instead of 250,0001. the public will have to pay
340,0001. for the improvement of the Shannon, besides
the 294,0901., of which, though it is called a loan, in all
probability sixpence will never find its way again to the
Treasury. This large sum of nearly 600,000/. is voted
without a word of comment. When the bill was read a
second time, Members, with the exception of Captain
BoldLro, talked about Irish Railways; and the Cap-
tain, who put some pertinent questions, was silenced by
an absolute untruth. Say nothing of the previous
50,300/., and assume that Mr. Rice referred to sub-
sequent outlay, still the 250,0001. was 40,000/. less than
he asked for and obtained by way ofgrant.
The resolution, thus smuggled through the Com-
mittee, was ordered to be " reported " next day.
There was no House on Tuesday evening—Mr. Rice
fled from a threatened motion on the affairs of the Bank
of England ; but on Wednesday the resolution was re-
ported : on Thursday it was impossible, from the pres-
sure of other business, to push forward this job ; but it
stood in the paper, and was to have been passed with-
out a day's breathing-time. What adds to the gross
indecency of this precipitation, is the fact, that one-half
1 of the plans which the House of Commons has sane-
-1 Boned, and furnished the means of executing, are not
yet published. Members are voting money upon a
scheme with which they are at the best only half ac-
quainted. The plans may be good or bad, but no
Member has seen more than half of them. They may
be well designed for profit and improvement, but Mr.
Spring Rice's word is the only guarantee for their feasi-
bility and success.
It is stated that only one Commissioner on the
Shannon Board is to receive a salary : Sir John Bur-
goyne and Mr. Griffiths serving gratis. But Sir John
Burgoyne, at least, knows that .` gratuitous" services
are sometimes very profitable. He received nothing
as a Railway Commissioner, hut, concurrently with his
appointment to the Railway Commis ion, his salary as
Commissioner of Public Works was raised 900/. a-
year, and he obtained promotion in the army ; thus
securing a permanent advantage instead of temporary
pay while the Railway Commissionership lasted. As
it was before, so it may be again. What are the odds
that the unpaid Shannon Commissioners are not richly
recompensed for their trouble ? Nor is it expected
that they should work fbr nothing ; but then, let the
public see the account in black and white, and let
not the passage of a Bill through Parliament be
smothered by deceit.
There is yet another point connected with this Shan-
non job which requires notice. Why should the Grand
Canal Company and the Limerick Navigation Com-
pany
meet with different treatment at the hands of Mr.
Spring Rice ? The Canal Company are to get 5/. for
thqjg vested right ; while the Navigation Company are
to Iwtain twice the amount of their capital, with mono y
are
to pay their debts. To be sure, the Canal Com
a seattered body, with no particular influence navy Lim-
erick ; whereas the Navigation Company arc powerful in
?Cat city,i.returning two Members to Parliament, and
desirable as a place of refuge for the scion of Mount
Trenchard, or it may be the proprietor himself. Have
we rightly conjectured the cause of favour to the Li-
merick Company ?

It must not be inferred from our remarks on this sub-
ject, and reprobation of this job, that we would deny
l assistance to parties anxious to effect improvements
in Ireland. At the present time, the navigation of
"le of the Irish rivers is undergoing improvement,
under the auspices and with the means of the landed
and mercantile interests naturally connected with them.
If let alone, the proprietors of estates on the banks of
the Shannon would follow the example set them else-
where. Colonel
Wyndham has offered to contribute

SO repprted in the Tilll4B ; not contradicted by the
Morning atronicle.