The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-10 00:00:00

for their assuaging " nine oils" and their attend-
ant " Merrylegs"—it will be idle to expect the
sympathy we have spoken of from the general
mass of the community : that sympathy being, as
Mr. DISRAELI seemed to intimate by some of his
remarks on Saturday evening, a sentiment of
benevolence emanating hardly more from a gentle
heart than from an educated and refined imagi-
nation.

Conciliatory treatment of the poor on the part
of the Government, at all times desirable, becomes
a duty of the highest importance at the commence-
ment of a serious war. We would press, therefore,
on the attention of all our readers how rapidly the
" Irish difficulty," in regard to the Settlement and
Removal Bill, is vanishing in the light of facts.
Several members during the recent debate anti-
cipated that it would be so, and now two most
important, we might say decisive, facts are before
the public; showing that the Irish panic was a
, groundless one. One chiefly concerns the law.
Mr. JOHN BALL, who, as an Irish gentleman, and
having for some years been a Poor-law Commis-
sioner, must be well informed on the subject,
tells us in his recently published letter that " the
Irish Vagrant Act subjects a person going from
one union to another to seek relief to a month's
imprisonment with hard labour ; and an opinion
was given by a late Attorney-General, that a
Board of Guardians aiding or encouraging such a
practice would be liable to indictment under the
same Act." There can be little doubt that the
Attorney-General was right ; since, besides the
general liability to prosecution for misdemeanour
for obstructing an Act of Parliament, what is un-
lawful for the pauper to do himself, must bring
others, who instigate • him to do it, into the
same legal as well as moral guilt ; espe-
cially when several persons being engaged
in the illegal and fraudulent practice, it would
amount to a conspiracy. One thing •Mr. BALL
observes is certain. There are in the west of
Ireland distressed district?, and there are unions
in Leinster and Ulster as well off as any in Eng-
land, the rates not averaging 6d. in the pound ;
yet, either from fear of the law, or of the social
disgrace—perhaps both have their influence—it
has never been attempted to shift the paupers
from the poorer to the richer unions in Ireland
itself. So far therefore as law and custom in
Ireland can enlighten us, it is clear that, under
the strongest temptation, the evil so dreaded at
the English Western ports and in the metropolis
will never occur.

Another fact is, that the Irish exodus still con-
tinues, and continues in such vigour that the pre-
dicted result is plainly becoming probable of our
having too few Irish, not too many ; they are, in
truth, rapidly increasing the industrial facilities of
our great competitor America, building her rail-
ways and digging her canals, in preference to
squeezing each other out of their mud cabins upon
our English coast. We have long been accus-
tomed to regard Ireland as a perennial supply of
hewers .of wood and drawers of water to the
English skilled labourer and his English master,
but this state of things bids fair to draw to a
close. The Connaught peasantry are still flying
the land of their fathers, and leaving weeping
relative,, who will no doubt follow them as soon
as money can be remitted by the emigrants,
or earned at home, for the purpose.
The Twos Herald mentions that last week
17'7 persons left never to return ; and that the
mania seems to be unabated. The Scotchman
used to wander, to return with a competency to
his native Highlands, but the Irishman emigrates
to gather, if possible, the beloved circle of his
youth around him, and to create for them all a
new and a happier home. It is mentioned as a
perfect novelty in Irish industry that some have
actually saved money under the Board of Works
sufficient to carry them across the Atlantic. Till
very lately all such savings would have been
squandered as fast as earned. Great difficulty is
indeed being felt by the Board of Works in getting
an adequate supply of hands ; and the farmers,
who have obtained in many instances but just
sufficient labourers to get the seed into the
ground, are beginning to entertain serious appre-
hensions whether they shall have enow to reap
their crops. It really seems, therefore, that any
serious influx of Irish pauperism is little to be
feared—certainly none which should for a moment
interfere with a measure so desirable as Mr.
BAINES'S for the English labourer. We sincerely

hope that the deferred second reading will only
afford time to clear up all misunderstandings, to
dissipate what we believe to have been the ground-

less fears of many honest members, and to unite
all the friends of the poor, and the advocates of
`• unrestricted competition" in labour as in all

things else, in a hearty, ungrudging support of
the bill.