The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-08 00:00:00

gennuity of man could have given birth. (Hear.) That
failure had arisen from the impossibility of procuring the
co-operation of the present session and the relief com-
mittees with the-Board of Works. The local agencies had
in fact completly broken down, and the whole businesshad
been inevitably thrown upon the officers of the Govern-
ment.. What would have been done in England b 7 boards
of guardians, churchwardens, overseers, magistrates, and
relieving officers, was obliged to be performed by military
and naval officers—any one whom the Government could
find to superintend the works. When, however, Parliament
again met, they passed Sir John Burgoyne's act which had
been the object of general panegyric. He did not think,
then, that there was much to blame in the conduct of the
Government. They had acted upon what all previous ex-
perience had shown to be a successful plan ; it had failed,
and then -they proposed another measure which had met
with general approbation. Reference had been made to
the inutility of the works, and to their having been unfin-
ished. Now, the truth was, that the great object of the
Government was to afford relief-and to save life. That the
remedy had been inadequate to the disease could not be
denied ; but that he had been instrumental even in the
humblest way in passing a measure which had done so
much good, was a matter for which he could never feel too
thankful. Now it was quite true that the works were
many of them useless, but then it was imperatively neces-
sary that they should be brought alinostto the doors of the
poor peasantry. For instance, in improving a river, the
proper course would have been to begin at the mouth, but
then how could they have assisted the people in the in-
terior of the country ? The hon. member for Wexford,

said that it would I.;e unfair to throw the whole burden
upon the people of Ireland; but the fact was that
the grants Were 4.4.03M31., while the loans were only
:3,700,00X (Hear, heir.) The hon. gentleman had at-
tempted to draav a parallel between the case of Ireland and
a distressed coluaty in England ; but no English county
would ever have dreamed of applyine- to the Treasury.
Hear, hear.) So, again, with za7spect 'to the question of
interest, it should be borne in mind that the extension of
the time had been granted tho request of the inhabi-
tants thelll3lves. ( Hear, hear.) The repayment was
spread over forty years, anal the interest was only 3 per
cent. Was not that a boon ? But it, was in the option of
each union to fix the period within which the repayment
should take place, so that they had no right to complain.
Other loans, in like manner, had bean spread over a great
number of years, but the interest had been 5 per cent. In
the, last case it had boon reduced to 3, while the period for
repayment was left to be fixed by the unions themselves.
-He had never complained of the want of puntuality in the
repayments ; he thought they had been made very faith-
fully, and groat credit was due to the parties on that ea:-
Count. ,After the announcement of the Chancellor of the
:Exchequer he did not see much advantage in pressing the
motion ; but if it were pressed he hoped it would be nega-
tived. Under these circumstances he thought it would be
unwise for the house to occupy longer time in discussing
the motion. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. NAPIER contended that there was a well-grounded
claim for granting •what the motion asked, which was
merely a more equitable settlement. He imputed nothing
to the government or to Sir Charles Trevelyan—whose
'conduct was perfectly satisfactory to himself. The real
question was this : Sir C. Wood had just admitted that the
act had been a total failure experience having shown
them that what was intended for a boon for Ireland had
turned out quite the reverse, the question was whether
-there were not grounds for asking the Government to take
the matter into their consideration, with a view to an
equitable settlement. The Chancellor of the Exchequer
said the presentments were entirely in the hands of the
parties locally interested a but from the account given by
one of the witnesses before the Lords' committee, it ap-
peared that the business was done in a very hurried man-
ner, under the pressure of starvation, as it were ; and
when the works were ordered, the grand juries had no con-
trol whatever. Seeing what had been the result of the
act, there was a strong claim on the consideration of the
Government and if the hon. gentleman went to a divi-
sion he should vote with him. (Cries of " Divide.") '
Mr. MOORE, in reply said, he had made no charge
against the personal character of Sir Charles Trevelyan,
but had merely spoken of his public conduct, and the
Chancellor of the Exchequer assumed too much if he sup-
posed that members of Parliament were to be excluded
from canvassing the conduct of public servants. Though
Sir Charles Trevelyan was not in that house, he appeared
to be everywhere else, and he would seem to be adept in
" the noble art of self-defence," as far as that meant as-
sailing others. (Laughter.) The hon. gentleman justified
the use he had made of the report of the Lords' committee,
and enumerated the names of its members. Every speaker
on the other side had admitted that the act had failed, but
though the Government was warned by their own servants
in November that the system had completely broken down,
they continued to employ millions of men in this way for
six months after. (Hear.) The Chancellor of the Exche-
quer had, on a former occasion, promised to give an answer
on this question before the budget was brought forward ;
but now he declined to do so. Unless the right hon. gen-
tleman would agree to take the matter into consideration,
with a view to an equitable adjustment, he should press
his motion.
The house then divided—
For the motion 95
Against 143

Majority against the motion 4B
The house then at 12 o'clock adjourned.

PARLIA JENTARY DIVISION

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—APRIL 7.
( From the Votes and Proceedings of the House of
Commons. )
IRISH CONSOLIDATED ANNUITIES.
Motion made, and question put, " That in the opinion
of this house, it is the duty of her Majesty's Government
forthwith to take into consideration the Irish Consolidated
Annuities, in order to effect a more equitable settlement
of the claims for which those annuities were granted, by
remitting the amount charged on account of the Labour
Rate Acts, 9_and 10 Vic. c. 107, and 10 and 11 Vic. c: 87,
whils t the repayment of thelVorkb.o use Loans, the Advances
for Temporary Relief, Act 10 Vic. c. 7, the Advances for
Public Works, under the Acts 1 Vic. c. 21, and 9 Vic.
c. 1, and for Aid to the Distressed Districts, under the
Act 13 Vic. c. 14, aro fully provided for." The house
divided : ayes 95, noes 113.