The Sun.
London, England, 1849-02-02 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 2, 1849

assistance of their moral influence for the recovery of these
rights to the nation. In their interference they had ex-
pressly limited themselves by the same principle which had
ruled the negotiations of former Governments with the same
kingdom. He might quote, from more than one document,
a precedent in support of the course adopted by the Govern-
ment in this case, but he would confine himself to the in-
structions given by Lord Castlereagh, to Sir William A'Court
in circumstances precisely similar. The Noble Marquis then
read a passage from these instructions, which made the
consent of the Sicilian Parliament a condition of Sir Wil-
liam proceeding with the negotiation. What did the Noble
Lord think of that? But it was very convenient for
the Noble Lord to despise any mention of moral obliga-
tion, as though the Government had had nothing to do
with mediating between the parties. The Government had
warned them that they would not go to war, and could they
do more? But, at the same time, they had ❑ot disclaimed a
warm interest and a strong feeling on their behalf. The
British and French squadrons then, without any preparations
for war, and without any instructions either to make war or
to be prepared for it, lay in the waters over against Ales-
sina, and observed the motions of both parties in that city.
They were surprised to see, without notice or warning, a se-
ries of hostilities commenced, and a terrible bombardment
began, and continued throughout the whole of the day. A
struggle, which both the admirals of the combined fleets had
been called on three different times to assist in terminating,
and towards a successful:determination of which their efforts had
been as often all but successful, hoping that, with a little delay,
another might succeed where they had failed; this struggle was
thus suddenly and unexpectedly recommenced, and pro-
secuted with barbarities which, as described by the Noble
Lord himself, exceeded those that had been perpetrated in
the streets of Frankfort, as much as these exceeded the
character of civilized war. Those who, by their course of
life, might be expected to have their feelings somewhat har-
dened to the scenes presented by warfare, saw with horror
not only the houses demolished or burned down, bat hos-
pitals even—(Hear, hear)—thrown down and their unhappy
Inmates, the diseased, the sick, and the infirm, dragged out
and butchered ; they saw;' and saw with horror, women
dragged from their houses, and dragged from the churches
to which they had fled for shelter, and violated and killed.
Could those men in the English and French fleets allow
such barbarities to proceed, notwithstanding that they
had been thrice invited to negotiate a friendly issue, and
had thrice almost succeeded in conciliating the contending
parties? Could they, although accustomed to the scenes of
war, remain indifferent while the same parties who had in-
vited their interference were perpetrating barbarities that
outraged humanity? The Noble Lord, however, must not
think, as he seems to do, that the interference of England
was all on one side. The patriots or the insurgents, which-
soever it might please the Noble Lord to call them, had been
successful against Palermo, and had taken the city ; but the
garrison which still remained within the city was in danger
of being butchered, except for the presence of English men-
of-war. The Noble Lord's arguments, however, might be
stretched so far as to countenance the butchering of that
garrison; yet he (the Marquis of Lansdowne) would
not do him the injustice to suppose that he would
practically acknowledge the natural consequences of
his own reasoning. The interference, then, was ne-
cessitated by the circumstances which he had narrated,
and was sanctioned by the authority of the Admiral, Sir
William Parker, whose conduct while employed in many of
the most difficult and delicate negotiations had been of the
most meritorious character.—( Hear, hear.) Her Majesty's
Ministers, he might say, were at that moment in negotiation
for a happy termination of these painful contests, and al-
though he might not venture to express a definite opinion,
he would express his sanguine hope that their negotiations
would be brought to a prompt and acceptable issue.
In regard to what the Noble Lord opposite had said upon
the subject of the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, he
could only assure the Noble Lord that the negotiation was
proceeding, if not speedily, yet satisfactorily, and that the
difficulties had in a certain degree disappeared. With re-
gard to Spain, we understood the Noble Marquis to say that
he expected the Spanish Government would fully
recognize the injustice of the charges they had brought
against our Minister. The Noble Marquis then passed to that
part of the speech of Lord Stanley, in which he had com-
mented upon the Government policy in Ireland, and had
made remarks not borne out by the facts. He was not there
to contend that the poor-law in that country required no
modification or change, and he trusted that at an early period
of the session that subject would be fully taken into con-
sideration. As regarded the renewal of the increased powers,
which had been granted last year, those powers had been
exercised mildly ; and he intended to lay before the House a
dispatch received from the Lord-Lieutenant, containing the
grounds upon which he had made that recommendation to
the Government—and in which they bad acquiesced—of
askir.g for the renewal of those powers, and that dispatch, he
trusted, would satisfy the minds of their Lordships as to the
propriety of the course which had been taken in this respect.
The Noble Marquis next drew the attention of their Lord-
ships to the ready improving state of commerce, and of the
manufacturing districts. There bad lately been a much
greater demand for manufactured goods. The state of the
revenue was also, happily, one of progression—( Hear) ;
and he trusted he should be able to satisfy the Noble Lord
opposite that there was proof of improvement in the revenue
altogether independent of the corn duty. Putting aside the
corn duty altogether, there had been an improvement of
20C,0001. in the Customs in the course of last year.—(Hear,
hear.) He then alluded to the returns from the savings
banks, which he described as encouraging, and concluded by
saying he felt justified in the opinion that there was a return
to prosperity in every branch—a prosperity which he
earnestly hoped might be permanent.—(Cheers.)
The Dulls of RICHMOND could not undeastand why the
Noble Marquis should have added insult to injury in his in-
flictions upon the agricultural interest. While a protection,
ranging from five to fifteen per cent., bad been continued,
and rightly, on the manufactures of this country, the agricul-
tural interests of the country had at the moment he was
speaking, no protection at all.—(Hear, hear.) The farmers
could not afford to pay a large number of labourers, and they
were forced to keep on as many as they could of those men
who had large families, and to discharge the others. He had
always thought the new poor-law a good law, and had sup-
ported it; but he declared before heaven that he had never
dreamed it possible that by an Act passed by men voting
against their consciences as he deeply regretted to say
many of their Lordshipsidid—honest industrious men seeking
only to support themselves and their families; by doing a
good day's work for a good day's pay, would be driven into
the workhouses. The Noble Duke then expressed his dis-
approbation of the proceedings of the financial and other
agitators in Liverpool and Manchester, who, he believed,
were doing great injury to the country. Was it possible the
Government could consent to the reduction of the army and
navy of this empire, at the bidding of such a despicable
body of men? Ho hoped his Noble Friend, when he pro-
posed his reductions, would stateexplicitly the reasons which
had induced him to think that this country was now in such
a condition, that her power might be reduced. Were the
Government going to take men away from Ireland? If so,
what did they want with a Coercion Act? The best co-
ercion act for the Irish insurgents was the know-
ledge that a British regiment was at hand and
ready to act. Reduction of this kind in the army
was false economy. The parish rates would be
increased because, if men were discharged, he apprehended
the Government would not part with the most efficient, and
the men so discharged were unfit for agricultural pursuits;
and even if they were there was no demand for their labour,
and so these men would swell the already over-crowded
workhouses. He trusted protection would again become the
law of the land. He might be told that it was unlikely or
impossible, but what was unlikely when it was remem-
bered that, in 1846, the Peelites voted for the repeal of the
corn-laws? He would contend to the last for the princi-
ciples of protection, and to his dying day it would be a source
of regret to him that so many of their Lordships had voted
for the corn-laws against their own convictions.—( Hear.)
Earl FITZ WILLIAM had so much confidence in the
honesty of his Noble Friend, that he entertained no doubt
he would redeem the pledge -he had given, that he would
contend for iprotection ; but he must remember that public
opinion in this country had grown, and that a mass of
ability, energy, and untiring perseverance had grown up in
the middle classes of this country, by the power of which
protection had been torn away. It was not the Anti-Corn-
law League that would have carried the repeal of those laws,
if it had not found a basis in the feelings and opinions of the
mass of the people, and his Noble Friend must win the
opinion of the country to his principles. As to the taxation,
the weight of it did not press exclusively upon
agricultural property, but upon factories and other property
that might be called realised, but was totally distinct from
agriculture. The Noble Earl proceeded to deprecate
that sort of warfare between classes which the language
used by his Noble Friend unfortunately tended to encourage.
He recommended his Noble Friend and those who acted
with him not by their own conduct to place those who ca-
villed at the landed interest, and regarded it as injurious to
the country, in the position of being really in the right.
This much he would say—tbat the gentlemen of 1841
might, if they had chosen, have made a much better bar-
gain than they did, and if they had now no protection at all
it was their own fault. With respect to Ireland, his Noble
Friend (the Marquis of Lansdowne) had given notice of his
intention of moving for the appointment of a Committee on
the subject of the Irish poor-law. Whatever was to be
done with respect to the amendment of the Irish poor-law
should be effected without delay, and he feared the appoint-
ment of a Committee might occupy a considerable period.
The Earl of YARBOROUGH wished to state shortly the
reasons which would induce him to vote against the amend-
ment. He was not prepared to say that they should retrace
their steps with regard to the removal of protection, for by
doing so they would only expose the agricultural interests to
all the agitation to which they had been exposed during the
last three or four years. He was glad that her Majesty's
Ministers had made no allusion in the Speech from the
Throne to the agricultural interest, and he had hoped that
no allusion would have been made to it in the course of the
debate.

The Duke of ARGYLE thought that it would be nothing
short of a great public calamity, if the amendment of the
Noble Lord was adopted. He conceived that in 1845 the
question of protection was Betted, and it would only be pro-
per again to agitate the question when there was an obvious
failure of free trade. He denied that there had been any such
failure.—(Hear.) He had lately. returned from Scotland
where he had been in communication with some of the most
intelligent farmers of the country, and he knew that they
did not regard the change with alarm. They believed that
the present state os the price of corn was owing to this
being the period of transition. He should heartily give
his vote against the amendment.
The Duke of WELLINGTON addressed the House as fol-
lows :—Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, I cannot
refrain from addressing a few words to your Lordships to de-
precate the voting this amendment to the Address, and also
shortly to state my reason for
giving a voft against the amend.
ment.—(Hear, bear.) I greatly admired the speech which
my Noble and Learned Friend (Lord Brougham) delivered
in the early part of the evening. My NoblePand Learned
Friend was the first person in that House fully to appre-
ciate the state of affairs on the Continent, 'which rendered
it extremely difficult for this country to succeed in its exer-
tions to maintain the peace of Europe.:—(Hear, hear.) I
was always sensible of the extreme delicacy and difficulty
attending the position of public affairs on the continent of
Europe during the whole of the year 1848—(Hear, hear)--
and I have been all along most anxious that nothing should
be done to throw the smallest difficulty or impediment in the
way of the Government, or which should give occasion to
the smallest ground for believing that the Government was
not supported by the public opinion of this country.—(Hear.)
For this reason, I confess that I was relieved' from intense
anxiety, when, in the Speech from the Throne this day, I heard .
her Majesty read that paragraph in which was stated that,
as soon as " the interests of the public service will permit, I
shall direct the papers connected with these transactions
to be laid on the table of the House." I was gratified
to hear this declaration from her Majesty, as I
had hoped that it would have had the effect of preventing a
discussion on those delicate affairs until the House was fully
informed of the measures adopted by her Majesty's Govern-
ment, and of the reasons which had actuated them. The
House, however, entered upon the discussion of these ques-
tion, notwithstanding her Majesty had promised that the
papers should be furnished as soon as was consistent with
the. public service, or that they might have an opportunity of
discussing them with a knowledge of the facts of the case.
My Lords, I am aware that a great deal must be explained.
A Noble Lord on this side of the House (Lord Beaumont)
has expressed a strong opinion with respect to Naples