The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-19 00:00:00

(IRELAND) BILL

The Marquis 'of LANSDOWNE moved the first
reading of this Bill, which bad been brought up from.
the Commons, and gave notice that on its second read-
ing, which he fixed for Monday, he should move that the
standing orders be suspended. The Bill was cue to
which he attached the greatest importance. It made
advances to the landed proprietors for local works, and
insured repayment of the advances so made. Hitherto
the repayment of the advances made had not been at-
tended with any difficulty. There was still a wide scope
for arterial drainage in Ireland, independently of the ne-
ce.bity which existed for completing the works which
bad been already begun, lest by being left unfinished
they should prove more injurious than beneficial.
The Bill was then read a first time, and it was re-
solved that the standing orders should be suspended as
to the future stages of this Bill.
RATE-IN-AID.

On the motion for the third reading of this Bill,
Earl GLENGALL said as there had been a full dis-
cussion on that measure before, he did not intend to
trespass on their Lordships' time at any great length.
He certainly objected to the measure, because he did not
think that 330,000/. could be raised in Ireland, conditioned
as she was at present, by this sixpenny rate-in-aid, for
the 13,000,000/. that have been generally represented as
the rental of Ireland, does not amount to more than
9,000,0001., and consequently it was impossible that the
330,0001.tc0u1d be collected from that income. It should
be known to their Lordships that this was not the only
Measure touching the rating system in Ireland, for there
was another proposed by the Government in another
place, which would place the majority of unions in Ire-
land under an additional chilling rate. He considered
that this latter Bill should be a part of the former
measure, that is, of the rate•in-aid. Ile felt assured
that 330,000/. would not answer to meet the distress
of- the 21 or 23 bankrupt unions in Ireland, for if
the distress and famine that prevailed in the three
past years were to occur in 1849 he felt assured that
thirteen of those unions would not only swallow up all
the money callected last year for the relief of the dis-
tress, but would after a short time require more. He
warned the Government against the general feeling pre-
vailing in Ulster against this measure, and apprehended
that it was a dangerous measure, and might tend to the
separation of the two countries. The people of Ulster
had strong grounds for complaint, because they were not
able to meet such an exorbitant tor, for instead of the
4s. or 6s. that had been stated to have been the maximum
of the rate, be was authentically informed by a Noble
Friend of his that in some unions it amounted to ss. 9J.,
and in many other unions to 6s. in the pound. He should
also remark that there were many unions represented as
solvent in the county Cork which were rated at from 9s.
to 10s. and lls. per pound, and that these unions were
not able to meet such a heavy tax, and he therefore
contended that, on the authority of gentlemen whose
opinions should be valued by their Lordships,
the people of Ireland, after three years' famine, could
riot and would not contribute this tax for the support
of their poor. Ile thought it very curious fur Govern-
ment to propose to perform three miracles in the condi-
tion of Ireland, which miracles he felt assured, would
break down. The first was the supposition that this
rate in aid would support the twenty-three bankrupt
unions, which he felt assured would not be the case.—
(Hear, hear.) The second miracle was the advances of
certain sums for the relief of Irish distress out of the
Consolidated Fund, must be repaid through this mea-
sure. This too, he did not think could be done. The
most extraordinary in his opinion e as, that the sums
collected through this Bill, as shown by one of its
clauses, was, that a part of it should go to aiding and
misting emigration, for the purpose of remedying the
evils arising from a superabundant population. lie, fir
his pars, had no objection to any measure that would re-.
lieve distress and assist emigration; but some other
means should be derived, for he look upon this Bill as a
perfect fallacy. He, therefore, wished that the Irish
Member:, would press more strongly on the Government,
and induce them to alter their unsound and prejudicial
opinions on the sulject, and introduce some other mea-
sure, for he considered as there existed a political union
between the two countries, so should there be also a
fiscal union. The condition of the Irish landed proprie-
tors should be also consulted, for most of them have not
'received their rents for the last three yea,rs
in conse-
quence of their tenants pocketing the
price of their
produce and emigrating to America, which is now well
known to be a very prevalent system in Ireland. Nor
did he wonder that the Irish farmers should emigrate to
America, as they do not now get half the price for their
corn that they formerly got. When Sir Robert Peel
introduced the repeal of the corn-laws, he Sir Robert
Peel) said that his greatest apprehension of that mea-
sure would place Ireland in a dilemma, and words
more true he (Earl Gengall) believed that the Right
Honourable Baronet never spoke. He thought,
considering the loss of the export trade in Ireland,
that the Government had taken a most extraordinary
view of the state of that country, particularly when
the Poor-law Commissioners represented that the
country was overtaxed. He certainly made some allow-
ance for the Government respecting this measure,
pe-
cause he knew that they were severely presSed by the
Manchester school to desist from giving any more grants
to Ireland; but the gentlemen of that school should
have considered that Ireland had been at all times pre.
viously t the last three years of famine an invaluable
market for the sale of English manufactures, for every
article of iron, from the steam engine to the nail, was
brought to that country fiom England. It was owing
to the British legislature that that country was without
bee own manufactories. For from the days of Oliver
Cromwell to the year 1782 there was a heavy prohibition
imposed on the manufacturing trade of Ireland. From the
time of their setting foot in Ireland to the reign of Henry
the Second, down to the reign of William the Thiid, their
aim had been to invai:o unecruptilously the rights and
privileges of the middle classes of that country, and
to condsceto property without discrimination; and now
they were going to root out the body of the landed aris-
tocracy by throwing their lands into the hands- of trium-
virs. Instead of excusing this spliation, and driving
irem Ireland the 8,000 Anglo-Norman proprieters, they
ought, to know those men were their mainstay and the
chief supporters of the Irish Protestant Church, and that
they could not enforce this system of legislation against
them without endangering their establishment in that ,
country, not to say the full sway of their authority.—

(Hear, hear.) These were momentous considerations,
and they were the more deserving of attention, since he
believed the t the line of policy which gave rise to them
was not that which Ireland required, or which was suited
to her in her present condition. lie thought that a ju-
dicious system of emigration, and a better management
of the Irish fisheries, so:oething similar to that which
prevailed in the Scotch fisheries, would be far more
Likely to bring about a better state of things in Ireland
than the system upon which they now based their mea-
sures. The Noble Earl concluded by moving as in
amendment, that the Bill be read a third time that day
three me othe.
Lord CREMORNE supported the Bill, and said that
although the Noble Earl who had just addressed their
Lordships had disapproved very strongly of the measure
under discussion, he had not ventured to propose a sub-
stitute for it, as he thought he was bound to do, for there
were only two alternatives before them, he apprehended,
either they must pass this Bill, or allow tie_ usands of
their countrymen to perish before the harvest. The
rate in aid had this advantage, that it could be easily col-
lected and estimated, but how could they estimate either
the amount of an income-tax or the inconvenience of col-
lecting it? Besides, he thought it would be but a poor
satisfaction to a landowner to know that money paid by
him, and intended to be applied to the relief of the poor,
should go directly into the pockets of the tax-collector.
For those reasons, he could not thing of adopting the
view of the Noble Earl opposite, and considering the
urgency of the distress, ho was quite disposed to hasten
the progress of the Bill.—(Hear.)
Earl DESART said he could not agree with the pro-
position broached by his Noble Friend opposite, who
had just addressed the House, that in case any one of
their Lordships thought the measure before him objec-
tionable, it was his duty to provide a substitute. He
confessed, for one, that this was a measure which was
by no means calculated to strike the mind as being fitted
to the present circumstances of Ireland. Their Lord-
ships, he thought, should be unanimous in rejecticg it.
It was a temporary relief instead of a permanent remedy
for evils which went on continually increasing. After
three years of unexampled famine, and after all the
legislation they had been engaged in, whilst endeavour-
ing to provide a remedy for deeply:rooted mischief, they
were called upon to pass another inadequate temporary
measure, to meet a distress which was, if possible,
greater than at first.—(Hear, hear.) Bat that was not
all; the Bill they were to pass x proceeded upon prin-
ciples acknowledged by many to be utterly fallacious—
it made the areas of taxation larger, and proclaimed to
the people that they must pay for poverty, over the
amount of which they had not the slightest control.
Feeling thus upon the question, he believed it to be his
duty to vote against the motion.
The Earl of MOTJNTCASHEL said that, after hear-

ing the evidence of a large number of witnesses, all o
whom stated that in their opinion this measure would
not be productive of benefit—shaving had no evidence
offered on the other hand to support the contrary view
of the question, it was with utter astonishment that he
found the Government persisting in pushing forward a
measure diametrically opposed to experience so acquired.
The newspaper press of Ireland had been unanimous in
condemning this line of conduct, and he challenged them
to produce a precedent in this country or elsewhere,
which could afford them the slightest justification. He
had searched for them, and had found two instances of
a similar policy adopted abroad, which had occasioned a
complete failure of the object in view. The Pacha of
Egypt imposed a land tax on the whole country, with
the exception of a certain district, which he intended to
benefit. The censectuence was, that not only did he fail
in relieving the poor district, but he actually impo-
verished the rest of his dominions.—(Cries of " Hear,
hear.") The other instance was the levy of a
heavy tax by the East India Company on a large tract of
their territory. Is was soon found that the occupiers of
a certain district of this land were unahle to pay the
tax, and the company compelled the other part to make
good the deficiency. The same result followed, and this
was exactly whet they wished to de in Ireland. Money
had become so scarce in Ireland that a " sovereign" was
scarcely now to be seen in that country—(Laughter)—
and even silver had disappeared to a great extent in it,
so that there was not enough of currency to meet the
wants of the people. How, then, was the rate in aid to
bf, paid? The money was not there, and the rate-
payers, therefore, had not the means wherewith to meet
the demands that would be made upon them. This want
of money had put a stop to all employment, to all la-
bour; the lends were lying waste, and credit was gone.
The progress of this state of thiugs would leave but two
classes in the country—namely, a very few landlords and
a great multitude of paupers. As to the rate in aid, it
was too childish to be spoken of, unless in the ridicule of
Punch, and he predicted that it would prove an utter—an
entire failure.
Lord STUART DE DECIES said, the question was,
were the poor to be allowed to starve or not? The op-
ponents of the measure now before their Lordships had
not shown that they had ant thing better to propose, and,
therefore, having nothing better to propose, he thought
the House were bound to support the measure proposed
by her Majesty's Ministers.—(Hear, hear.) Some per
sons had spoken of the substitution of an income-tax;
but he thought they required a more convenient season
to consider such a measure as that, in relation to the
prevailing distress; and he contended that the measure
now under their Lordships' consideration was calculated
to impose a far lighter burden upon the resources of the
rate-payers in Ireland thin an income tax, which was
advocated by a Noble Earl of their Lordships' House
(the Earl of Wicklow). It had been said, it this Bill
should be thrown out, that it would cause the mortality
of many thousands week after week. In that statement
he entirely agreed; and he, for one, would not be a party
to any such tearful responsibility.7—(Hear, hear.)
The Eerl of WICKLOW assured their Lordships
that be had never proposed to substitute an in-
come-tax for a rate in aid; but what he did propose, and
what he did say was, that this most dangerous experi-
ment—this rate in aid—if they were to have a rate in
aid at all, should be paid out of the combined revenues
of the United Kingdom. They should not impose an
income-tax for the benefit of the Irish poor alone, but if
any persons in the United Kingdom should stand in
need of the relief, then should a rate in aid be levied for
their joint aid out of the revenues of the United King-
dom, and if such an impost were levied, it was quite
clear that the Minister by whom it might be proposed,
would not have the power to renew it, when the two
years for which it might be proposed would expire.
Suppose they had a Cobden for a Prime Minister, and a
" Lord Roebuck " for a Finance Minister or Home
Secretary—(Laughter)—suppose they had any such po-
pular Ministers in power—(Renewed laughter)—what
guarantee haetthey that they would not, at the end of
the two years, propose that the rate in aid be renewed ?
fle thought, then, that for her Majesty's present Minis-
ters to say that the rate in aid would not be renewed at
the end of two years was illusory, and he must, on all
considerations, oppose the measure.
Lord DE ROS opposed the Bill, and recommended
Ministers to be cautious how they excited the anger and
opposition of the inhabitants of the north of Ireland.
The Earl of CARLISLE said, that after the length-
ened statement which through the indulgence of the
House he had very recently made upon the subject now
under the consideration of their Lordships—after hav-
ing within so short a time brought fully under their no-
tice the grounds upon which the Queen's Government
thought it their duty to urge the adoption of the present
measure, he felt it would not now be necessary for him
to occupy much of their time or attention. He felt that
the proposition to which he now asked their assent rested
upon a basis so simple that now, at its last stage, very
few observations from him would suffice to recommend
this most indispensable measure to their Lordships' ac-
ceptance; and most especially he bad no wish to detain
them with any observations as to the immediate and
pressing necessity for coming to a decision on the
merits of the Bill. With respect to 301330 of
the objections urged against the Bill, founded
upon the absolute necessity of its being ac-
companied by other measures, he must be al-
lowed to say that his Noble Friend the President
of the Council distinctly stated his belief that the Bill
now before them was only preliminary to other mea-
sures of a more extensive and searching character; it
being the clear understanding that the duration and ope-
ration of the measure were to be strictly limited to the
period assigned in the 13:11. It had been hinted at that
his Noble Friend the President of the Council was not
destined much longer to be a member of that Govern-
ment to which his presence now imparted both strength
and ornament; but he trusted their Lordships would
remember, in convention with that hint to his Noble
Friend, that a similar announcement respecting the du-
ration of the measure ha I been made elsewhere by his
Noble Friend at the head of the Government, no longer
ago than last night. But then the terrible prospect had
been held out to them of a total change in the Adminis-
tration of the country; and there had been shadowed
out for their edification the sort of persons who might
become their successors in the event of that change tak-
ing place which the Noble Lord believed to be within the
range of possibility. Ile should not now stop to discuss
the probabilities of such events or the consequences
even of such an awful certainty—(Hear, hear)—but he
would rather remind the House that it might be all very
well for Members of that House and of the other to say
that her Majesty's Government ought to go on further,
as now, in issuing sums of money for the relief of pau-
perism Ireland without Parliament.
in consent
It might be very well
forthe
people
to saythat of
thescruples
which he and his colleagues entertained upon the subject
of issuing money without the consent of Parliament
were mere constitutional twaddle. His colleagues in the
House of Commons had already said enough to render
it unnecessary for him to do more than to repeat his
former declaration of opinion, that it would be incon-
sistent with the duty which the responsible advisers of
the Crown owed to the country if they were to have ad-
vanced money under any other than a full understanding
that the Bill now before the House was, with the least
possible delay, to become the law of the land; and now,
until it should become law, he did not think that the Go-
vernment could safely proceed a single step in the ad-
vances necessary for the poor of Ireland. For himself, he
must be permitted to say, that although he should not
consciously abandon a large number of his fellow-coun-
trymen to all the horrors of starvation, he did not see
his way very c!early if the Bill now before their Lord-
ships were to be rejected. They all that evening
heard the proposition made by a Noble Lord near him
for the imposition of a property-tax—that proposition,
as they could not fail to remember, was nut to be the
establishment of a rate on income for the relief of the
poor, but tl! e creation of an impost for the purpose of
equalising the taxation of the two countries, and that
thenceforward the provision for the Irish poor was to be
derived from the Imperial Exchequer. Now, even ad-
mitting that all objections to the imposition of an in-
come-tax in Ireland under present circumstances could
be got over, he would put it to the House to say whe-
ther, while' they were engaged with so many measures
deeply affecting the interests of Ireland—the pour-law
for example, and the transfer of landed property—
, whether, when the other House of Parliament were
ecn,idering the important subject of the tenure

of land in that country, and found it scarcely possible
to arrive at a satisfactory solution of that, he would
ask them whether it would be wise to throw in such a
bone of contention as now to propose for the first time
the imposition of an income-tax in Ireland?—(Hear,
hear.) As to coming to a decision now on the qeestion
whether or not the measure before the House would be
sufficient to meet and counteract the distress of the Irish
people, he had only to say that such a result must de-
pend upon a great variety of circumstances—upon the
potato harvest, for instance, and other means of supply-
ing food for the use of the people, and the efficacy of the
Bill in preventing disease and diminishing the rate of
mortality. The framers and promoters of the measure
did not expect that by means of it any miraculous agency
could be brought into operation, and he should feel no
surprise even though all its probable results shoal fail
to be realised. They produced the best measure that,
under the circumstances, they could hope to carry, or
hope, when enacted, to bring into beneficial operation.
In that hope they proposed the Bill, and they pro•
ceeded with it, earnestly desiring not to shut the door
against what appeared to them the only method of relief.
A Noble Lord had spoken to them that evening of famine
in Egypt more recent than the times of the Pharoahs,
when two districts of that country gave assistance to a
third; but if the doctrine had then been carried out
which the opponents of the Bill now demanded, the
whole of the Ottoman empire would have been taxed for
the relief of that single Egyptian province, because
Egypt was held to be an integral portion of the Turkish
dominions. In the midst of all the debates that they
had heard upon the subject of the poor-law generally,
and on the subject of out-door relief,—in the midst of the
imputations cast sometime upcn landlords, sometimes
upon priests, and doubtless at different times they all fell
into many and great blunders; but in the present case, at
least, there could be no doubt that every effort of
legislation and Government seemed almost powerless—
that the events taking place in Ireland seemed to de-
pend upon a higher agency and a more powerful con-
trol than that of man. As in " the tale of Troy divine,"
where the delineation of events, supposed to be superna-
tural, and related under the influence of a false religion,
gave no imperfect picture of that which, under the in-
flnence of a true faith, men might impute even now to the
immediate interference of an overruling Providence, so
he might be permitted to say—
" Non tibi Tyndaridis facies invisa Lacrenm,
" Culpatusve Paris ; Divitm"—
he used the reading of Dr. Bentley, almost as much in-
spired as the original—
" Disfem, inclementia Diviim,
" Has overtit opus, sternitqee a culmine Trojam.."
It was not in the quality of the Irish soil, neither did it
arise merely from the measures of legislation applied to
that part of the United Kingdom, that the present dis-
tress and suffering arose. Doing full credit to the exer-
tions made by the landed proprietors of Ireland and by
the other inhabitants of that country not actually reduced
to pauperism, he at the same time could not avoid bring-
ing to remembrance the fact that 10,000,000/. had been
granted by Parliament for the relief of the Irish ; that
1,500,0001. had been contributed by private benevolence,
besides large sums obtained from British colonies and
r andist
ia
n evenity.
fortahmer
fdaerepiegnndennocuinetsroisfstbheeyConrodwtnneof
Under such circumstances, ho could not help asking
pale England,of Ct
whether it ought to be a source of ill-will and hostility
that the more favoured districts of Ireland should now
be called upon to pay 6d. in the pound for the relief of
those parts of the country in which the suffering was
most intense, the more ezpecially when such contribu-
tion would not amount to above half a million in the
course of two years; and when the purpose of it was to
rescue their fellow-countrymen from famine, surely it
was not too much to expect that the more favoured por-
tions would give their aid and simpathy to other and
less fortunate districts.—(hoar, hear.)
Earl FITZ WILLIAM observed that his Noble Friend,
at least fur the present, objected to the proposition of
an income-tax, but chose rather to impose a burden on
the pevei ty than the property of Ireland. If the Noble
Lord did not know the fact, others well knew, that
amongst the ratepayers were many exceedingly poor
men, so humble as to be on the very verge of requiring
relief themselves. From such persons it was expected,
by means of the Bill now before them, to exact a sum
of 320,0001. It was unhappily the case that at the pre-
sent moment hundreds and thousands of persons were
perishing in Ireland, notwithstanding the poor law,
and he feared they would continue to perish, not-
withstanding the rate-in-aid. The c ffsct of the Bill
would be to reduce all the unions of Ireland to one
common level. He would not say whether the rate
would be le. or 20s. in the pound, but, whatever might be
the general rate necessary for maintaining the pauperism
of Ireland, the effect of this Bill would be to bring all the
unions to the same rate of payment. It was held out
that the effect of this measure must be to throw all the
unions of Ireland under the administration of vice-guar-
dians. Now he would admit that the substitution of vice-
guardians for ex officio and unpaid guardians had been in
some cases beneficial, but at the same time he was of
opinion that it would be a great misfortune to the ad•
ministration of the poor-law if every portion of that ad-
ministration were thrown into the hands of paid guar-
dians. Ia the first place, it was in principle a very
unconstitutional thing that two gentlemen not connected
with the country should be sent down from Dublin by
the Poor-law Commissioners to determine the amount of
rate, and distraiu upon the persons who did not pay it.
That was as unconstitutional a thing upon a small scale
as to send over money without or contrary to the will of
Parliament. They had heard of taxation and represen-
tation going together; but what was the history of the
present Bill? Where was the representation? Out of
105 representatives of the Commons of Ireland in the
Imperial Parliament, no less than SO voted against this
, Bill. The measure was, therefore, one of taxation with-
out representation. But their Lordships were told they
must either have this Bill or starvation in Ireland. There
would be, unhappily, starvation in Ireland if this Bill
should pass, but he supposed it would be said there
would be more starvation if this Bill should be rejected.
In Committee on the Irish Poor-law he had moved a
resolution that it would be better to impose a property-
tax than a rate in aid, and a majority of the Committee
voted for that resolution. Where two modes were sug-
gested for the purpose of relieving the distress, the
odium of opposing the second alternative was much
greater than that of opposing the first. Now, he op-
posed this Bill because there was another alternative,
and some other alternative he should feel bound to sup-
port if the present Bill was thrown out. lie had
always been favourable to the imposition of a property-
tax, but if the House had thrown out the proposal of a
property-tax then it would become a very different
question whether, under these circumstances, their Lord-
ships would he justified in opposing the rate in aid. But
now there was another alternative, and if the House re-
jected the present Bill, he and Noble Lords who thought
with him would be prepared to support that other alter-
native, to which he believed very little opposition would
Le made. If the Government withdrew the present
Bill a substitute would easily be found in a week which
none of their Lordships would feel themselves justified
in opposing.
'Their Lordships then divided, when there appeared:—
For the third reading
Against it
Majority for the third reading
Proxies were not called.
The Bill was then read a third time.
LEASEHOLD TENURE OF LANDS (IRELAND)
BILL.
On the motion to go into Committee on this Bill.
Lord BEAUMONT objected to the Bill that it made
no provision whatever to remunerate the owner for the
loss of the reversion.
After a few words from the Earl of MOUNT-
CASHELL,
Lord MONTEAGLE suggested that if a party had
forfeited his privilege of perpetual renewal by any
breach of covenant, he ought not to be placed in the
same position under this Bill as if he had retained this
privilege. The courts of equity had in one or two cases
decided that parties claiming under a lease of perpetual
renewal had forfeited their right in consequence of com-
mittingwaste, and such leases ought not to be placed in
position as if they had performed their cove-
n
The LORD CHANCELLOR said that the point sug-
thaentssame
and agreements with the lessor.
sug-
gested by the Noble Lord had been provided for by the
e
Bill, which declared that no owner should be required to
a grant where the right of renewal was lost both
at law and equity. This would provide for the event of
under renewal
his covenant, had forfeited it, because such
a party being a lessee who, having a right to perpetual
persons would not be entitled to demand the benefits of
the Bill. The object of the Bill was to convert what
was a payment inconvenient to all parties
be .ach wouldparties into a Fel--
manent and regular rent-charge, w
conve-
nient to all parties, while it inflicted injustice upon none.
The Bill then went through Committee.
And their Lordships adjourned.
--

HOUSE OF COMMONS, May 18.
The Speaker took the Chair a few minutes before
Four o'clock. •
LORDS' AMENDMENTS.
The Lords' amendments to the North- Western Rail-
way (Extension of Lancaster Branch, Abandonment of
William Lands Branch, New Road to Settle Station,
Extension of Time for Purchase of Lands and Construc-
tion of Works) Bill were considered and agreed to.
THIRD READINGS.
_

The foilowing Bills were read a third time and
passed :
Black Sluice Drainage Acts Amendment (Amendment
of Acts, Extension of Time for Completion of Works,
Powers to levy and raise further Rates and Monies,
to alter existing Rates and Tolls, and fur other Pur-
poses) Bill.
Charing-cross Bridge (Amendments of Acts, Powers
to alter authorised Approaches, &c.) Bill.
Edinburgh and Glasge Railway, and Wilsontown
Morningside, and Coltnestailway Amalgamation
York, Newcastle, and Berwick Railway (Barmcor and
Alnmouth New BranchPE es,
T &c.) Bill.
ITION.

Mr. BROTHERTON presented several petitions
from Yorkshire against granting new licences to beer
shops.
Mr. MUNTZ presented a petition, agreed to at a
public meeting at Birmingham, praying for universal
suffrage, vote by ballot, payment of -Members, annual
Parliaments, electoral divisions, and abolition of property
qualifications.
Mr. ANDERSON presented a petition, signed by
10,000 inhabitants of Kirkwall against the Registi ation
of Marriages, &c. (Scotland) Bill; also a petition com-
plaining of the operation of the Scotch poor-law.
Mr. IfAGAN presented a petition from the Cork
Union praying for some amendment of the poor-law.
Sir R. H. INGLIS presented a petition from Maid-
stone against the ParliAmen'ary Oaths Bill.
Mr. GLYN presented a petition against granting ad-
ditional licenses for beer. shops.
Sir J. HOPE presented a petition against the Scotch
Marriage Bill.
Mr, 1:10DGSON presented a petition from railway