The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-12 00:00:00

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TO THE SECRETARY r , HE' 17,
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METROPOLITAN REFORM ASSOCIAION. `9.2---1 (-1)
1 Sir,—On Wednesday the 7th the -remarkable L-ri_
facts in the House of Commons were--that the Go-
vernment should have opposed a Bill for improving -..-,-.''. ~.,' h. the Registration of Real Property, at the cost of beinr2...:,l-'. ~„t-*>
in a minority of 45 to 55; and that a Bill for esitc.:',' "
stituting affirmation for oaths, should have been ,read
a second time without opposition.
From the last, it is clear that the world grows
better. Fancy all we should have heard thirty years
ago, about the outrage to public opinion in letting
sectaries have their whims.
On the same night came on the great Parliamen.
tary contest, in reliance on which the King of Naples
had been implored to hold out against the British
diplomacy brought to bear upon him. When counter-
action of this nature is discovered in the field, all
nations have summary methods of dealing with the
concerned. But the British Absolutists profess to
keep open shop, where any failing despot in contest
with his people, may come and buy without money
and without price. It is the same class of politicians
that bawl for " the execution of a great capital," and
call a continental Parliament " a German romance.'
The strength of this party was brought to the test
on Wednesday, and when weighed in the balance was
found wanting, by 124 against 39. " Our ally the
King of the Two Sicilies" may calculate what he has
taken by the motion.
On Thursday the Member for Buckinghamshire
made his promised effort for redressing the wrongs
of the agricultural interest. His speech was charac-
terised by much of that ability which takes a crowded
audience to a Nisi Prius court, for the sake of hearing
how the two sides of a cause will be defended, one of
which is held pretty certain of being intrinsically bad.
And it had this further advantage to set it off, that
all which was urged in the,.shape of op-position from
the Free Trade side of the House, was
pointless, tame, and in fact not true. The only collectible .statemenrwas,
.that the landowners
had bought their land subject to certain taxes, which
therefore ought to be continued whether just or not;
an argument which has been advanced against every.
body, and exploded by everybody ; which has been
brought in defence of iChurch Rates, and would
have told just as well Against_ the;,owners of manu-
facturing property when) they, urged i.the! removal
of the Corn-Laws. ,It would be matter of
regret that a cause should thus apparently
be thrown into the enemy's hands, if it
was not relieved by the addition it makes to the proof
that the House of Commons is not the place where
the opinion which rules the country is formed, but on
the contrary is only a registrar, and a backward one,
of what is formed elsewhere. The Anti-Corn-law
Leaguers would not have had a hundred followers, if
they had fed their flocks on such diet as was pro-
duced on Thursday. The further debate was ad-
journed to Wednesday next.
On Friday came on again the question of the Navi-
gation Laws. The debatelwas opened by a speech of
dreary length on the part of the Protectionists, ending
in nothing but the assertion that they liked their mo-
nopoly, and would keep it if they could. A scion of
nobility tried the pathetic, on the sufferings of dill
charged shipwrights, now enjoying remarkably high
wages, being all the while entirely " pachydermous"
to the sufferings of discharged workmen at Bradford
and elsewhere, who must pay for the emoluments of
the others. The old fallacy was put forward, which
it is certainly not "a nation of shopkeepers " that
submits to, declaring that duties of all kinds
are as well on as off, because foreigners
would only lay the difference upon their prices. The
Member for Westbury made some useful observations
in detail, on the various ways in which the shipping
interest had benefited by the movement towards free
trade. A county Member used very coarse language,
which would not have been endured in any but a man
of his rank, in reiterating the assertion that in a cer-
tain hypothesis the Government intended " a lie ;"
and he said nearly everything he had, four times
over (for I counted), and sometimes six. This
is the way things go on. In proportion as a man
is wearisome and violent, is his certainty
of being heard; while one who had anything sub.
stantial to say, would stand about as much chance of
being allowed to speak, as a Quaker at Moultan. A.
curious principle is evidently in operation ; which is,
that the House must be wearied to a certain extent
before it is brought to divide, and as the first
class of speakers are inevitable evils, the others would
only be so much added to the time. All of which,
you will see, is confirmative of the principle touching
the office discharged by the House of Commons, sub.
mitted in a preceding paragraph.
The debate on the Navigation-Laws was finally
adjourned till Monday; and the further debate on
Mr. D'lsraeli's motion put off to Thursday.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
AN OLD REFORMER.
1 London, March 12, 1849.

SIR ROBERT PEEL'S PLAN FOR
IRELAND.

TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD J. RUSSELL, M.P., &c.
My Lord,—Sir Robert Peel is running the course
of all quacks ; first, with ostentatious importance
declaring that he should not think of prescribing for
the suffering industry of the country unless he was
regularly called in and a suitable fee administered—
then dispensing his nostrums, until hurled from his
position by those he had deluded--now vending his
drugs, his own auctioneer.
The public will not forget that when your
Lordship introduced the Bill for the reclamation of
waste lands, it was defeated by Sir Robert Peel aided
indeed by his protege in your Cabinet, and this, too,
on the plea that it was contrary to the rules of politi-
cal economy ; had that measure not been defeated,
thousands whom this country has fed in idleness
would have earned their bread by honest industry.
And Sir Robert Peel's measure is far more opposed,
not only to the principles of political economy (for
that I should care nothing) but to the dictates of
common sense, aye, and of common honesty, although
in perfect keeping with the worship of his leading
star—the moneyed class.
Does not Sir Robert well know that the majority
of the estates in the distressed unions, which he pro-
poses the Government to purchase, are mortgaged
beyond their present value ? Does he not know that
the very first step in carrying out his scheme would
be to use the money of the industrious classes to pay
these bad debts ?

And this is precisely the same game Sir Robert
Peel played respecting the twenty millions given for
the emancipation of the slaves ; Lord Stanley, as the
organ of the Cabinet, brought forward an honest and
statesmanlike proposal to lend the West India pro-
prietors fifteen millions to enable them to meet the
difficulties which were inevitable in the transition
from the date of slavery to that of free labour.
Sir Robert Peel, as the leader of a powerful Oppo-
sition, forced the Government to change the proposed
loan of fifteen millions into a gift of twenty mil-
lions, not given to the West India proprietors, who
were to bear the heat and burden of the experimem,
but given to the mortgagees in this country, who
pocketed the money, and left the West Indian Pro-
prietors to their fate.
So will it be with proprietors in the different
unions in Ireland, if Sir Robert Peel's plan were
carried, the money wrung from the industrious
classes would go into the pockets of the mortgagees,
who would rejoice in the measure, and the landlord
and the people would be left in a far worse situation
than at present.
For the mortgagees dare not foreclose—the land-
lord acts as their bailiff without :salary, and in that
position they will keep him until by such a measure
as that proposed by Sir Robert Peel they
of the mess. can get out

If the Irish landlords who are involved would act
as the British merchant is too often obliged to do,
viz., call their creditors together and propose honour-
able terms, now is the time, for then the mortgagee
would be obliged to assist in getting affairs set right ;
at present he does nothing except wait for Sir Robert
Peel.
tthherepataytomfeonrtec of
se, it would
the rates in
o.
Your Lordship would have compelled theselniort.
gagees to assist, if the estates, or a competent portion
be the last thing they would do.
arrears and
'awn de were
es
soldfbr theiribr
What Ireland wants is employment f
and the reclamation of waste land or the people,
thousands for the same sum, which s would employ
by Sir Robert Peel's megSU • would be absorb,d
re in setting hundreds to
work.
The country has now before them the plan of Lord
Stanley and the Protectionists
on the one hand, and
that of Sir Robert Peel and the Peelites on the other ;
the former containing the views of statesmen, the
latter of charlatans. When will your Lordship pro-
pose the plan of the Government ?
I have the honour to remain
Your Lordship's most obedient,
RIGBY WASON.

HERNE BAY PIER COMPANY.---In the Court of
Bankruptcy on Friday, an application for a fiat of
Bankruptcy against this company, under the provisions
of the Joint-Stock Companies Winding-up Act, was
applied tor. His Honour said that the clauses in the
Act favoured the conclusion that tho Legislature meant
to confine the enactment strictly to trading companies.
Hence, he was bound to say, that it appeared to him this
was not a company which could be adjudicated bankrupt.
ST. JAMES'S
THEATRE.--This evening will be
produced (for the first time in this country) Auber's
popular opera in ono act, entitled Act Eon; also Adolphe
Adam's favourite opera comique of Le Calet ; and on
Wednesday, March 21, Auber's celebrated opera of Le
Diamans de la Couronne will be produced on the OCCR•
sion of Mdlle. Charton's benefit.
A young man, named Tootel, the son of the
Post-master at Edgeware, was charged at Bow•atrest on
Saturday with having forged several money order& g,
MB remanded until Wginetdisb when...lie will be co.
Witted.