The Sun.
London, England, 1849-02-10 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSL: OF LORDS, Feb. 9.

The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat upon the Wool-
sack shortly after Five o'clock.

The Earl of CLARE presented a petition from some
pinee in Ireland, praying for an alteration in the Irish
poor•laws. _ _ .

Lord FARNHAM presented a petition from Galt, in
the county of Galway, praying for an inquiry into
the working of the Irish poor-laws; also several peti-
tions, praying for an alteration in the area of taxation to
the relief of the Irish poor.
IM NIIGRATION-TAX.
Lord STANLEY rose to ask the Noble Lord the
Secretary for the Colonies, what measures had been taken
-to induce the Colonial Legislature to reduce the tax
imposed upon immigrants entering the British colonies
in' North America. Several of his own tenants were
about to emigrate, and he wished to know whether it
would be prudent to advise them to go to Canada, or to
traasfer their labour to a mare hospitable, though foreign
region:
Earl GREY said that he had received a dispatch, stating
' that it was the intention of the
.Government of Canada to
propose to lessen the tax on immigrants. It should be recol-
lected, however, that in Canada much greater assistance
was afcc to immigrants than in the hospitable state to
which alfdlion had been made, New York. In Canada
they were forwarded to the remotest part of the colony
at the public expense, whereas in New York no assist-
ance was afforded them, and it was necessary that the
towns of Canada should adopt some measures to prevent
the immigrants from becoming burdensome to them.
and last year, notwithstanding the tax, the emigrants
sent out from this country were fully as numerous as
the colony could absorb. The greater number who
went out were unskilled labourers. The dispatches
would be presented to Parliament in a very few days,
and then the House would be in possession of much
valuable information on the subject.
Lord MONTEAGLE was not surprised to hear that
there had been difficulty in providing for the emigra-
tion of 1847. The great objection made by the Cana-
dians was not to the number of the emigrants, but to the
disease, the fever,which the emigrants brought with them.
The tax was so heavy that it had failed to increase the re-
venue of the colony. It was too high, and therefore it failed.
Be could show that as emigration had been diverted by
the increase in this tax from the British colonies, so had
emigration to the United States increased. At the time
the Passenger Act was passed in this country, we were
not aware of the passing of this measure of taxation by
• the Canadian" Legislature, and thus emigration to
Canada suffered a double discouragement. He denied
that the tax was applied to promote the comfort of emi-
grants. In New B.runsWick it was applied solely to
colonial purposes, and with regard to the transmission
of the emigrants in Canada, it was so singularly de-
fective that the spread of fever in Canada was almost
solely attributable to the method adopted for forwarding
these emigrants. The United States 'provided for the
transmission of emigrants.
Earl GREY—No, no.

Lord MONTEAGLE was at issue with his Noble
Friend. The United States Legislature had enacted that
railway companies should provide cheap trains for the
transmission of emigrants,and surely that w as an assistance.
He wished to see a better system of emigration to Ca-
nada established, and the question would ere long force
itself on the attention of their Lordships. He concluded
by giving notice that he should on Monday move for a
return of the number of emigrants who had left the
'United 'Kingdom, during the course of last year, and the
ports from which they embarked.
Earl GIVEY thought the British colonies had been
mast unjustly censured, more especially when he re-
membered the noble efforts which those colonies had
masse to mitigate the distress which prevailed in 1847.
thought it was impossible to find a country in which
public affairs were more efficiently conducted than in that
colony, and the statesmen of that country had recorded
theiebpinion that as many immigrants had arrived in
that colony as the colony could absorb. He repeated
that immigrants and their baggage were forwarded
for Quebec and Montreal gratuitously, while in New
York the railroad arrangement, alluded to by the
Noble Lord, was merely of a similar charac-
ter to the enactment making it compulsory on
railway companies in this country to run trains at a
penny a mile. It would be most impolitic to endeavour
to force the British American colonies to take emigrants
faster than a demand arose for their labour.

Lord MONTEAGLE explained.
Earl FITZWILLIAM thought it would be advisable
that the Colonial Legislature should be encouraged to
undertake such public works as would afford additional
employment to immigrants, and he would not object to
El grant by the Imperial Parliament for that purpose.
_ The subject then dropped.
CONFERENCE.

Their Lordships then proceeded to appoint the Lord
Privy Seal, Lord Hawarden, Lord Beaumont, and seve-
ral other Noble Lords to manage a conference with the
Commons on the subject of engrossing Bills. Their
Lordships, so appointed, left the House, and after an ab-
sence of ten minutes returned and reported that the
conference had been held.
IRISH POOR-LAW.

The Marquis of LANSDOWNE then rose to move
that a Select Committee be appointed to consider the
administration of the poor-law in Ireland. The Noble
Marquis was almost inaudible at the commencement of
his observations, and was throughout heard very indis-
tinctly. We understood, him to say that their Lordships
would hardly expect him to make out what was called a
Parliameatary case against this law. Whatever might
be its defects it had been loudly and generally called for,
and far from its being a wonder or a solitary case that a
Committee of inquiry should be asked for under such
circumstances, it was in accordance with the usual course
of Parliament. They had now some experience of its
actual course and operation, and were therefore in a
position to remedy defects that they could not have
foreseen. The difficulties which obstructed its appli-
cation had proved to be of a peculiar character, and
in some districts they had been almost overwhelming,
for their Lordships would recollect that it was a law
for which the country was not prepared. It could not
be expected that a country in which no such law had
had previously existed, and which had been subjected
to the calamity of a repeated failure of the crop upon
which the population mainly subsisted, should be
prepared for the operation of such a law. He was not,
therefore, surprised at the difficulties which had ob-
structed the law in some districts, and especially those
which had suffered most severely by the last failure; but
he was at the same time prepared to show that there
were some parts of the country in which the law had
been completely and wholly successful, and if in other
parts it hat', not been so, it was owing to causes which
either could not have been foreseen, or, if so, which
could not have bees prevented. The calamity of a
failure of the potato° crop had again visited those parts
of the country which had previously suffered from the
some cause, but in those parts where new kinds of pro-
duce harL been introduced the law had, so far from
being overwhelming, acted beneficially, and the bur-
dens it imp9eed had been borne fairly and cheerfully.
Thst these burdens were not in themselves exorbitant,
was shown by the fact that the average rate last
year wa, 2e. 92d. in the pound, though no doubt there
were many parts in which they had been 75., 10s., and
20s. in the pound, and in one union they had been
2e 3s. ld. in the pound.—(Hear, hear.) This excessive
inequality, and heavy burden, showed the necessity for
some inquiry into the operation of the Act, with the
view of effecting such modifications as might be prac-
ticable in it.—(Hear, hear.) Her Majesty's Gotern-
merit were prepared with any specific recommenda-
tions, but their Lordships must not suppose that they
had therefore bi en indifferent to the expression of opin-
ion on the subject which had reached them from various
quarters. Various suggestions had been made, and
sopecially by Major Lareoin, who had entered into
details Upon the matter, particularly with reference
to ttie queseion of electoral divisions, which were of
a meet valuable and practical character.—(Hear.)
Her Majest)'s Ministers would bo prepared to give the
Committee all the assistance in their power from this
end other sources, in order that they might come to a
sound opinion. Among the points that would come be-
fore them would be the advisability of renewing the
appointment of vice-guardians in some districts, in pre-
ference to the elected guardians who had not carried out
the law. In mealy districts these vice-guardians had
proved most efficient administrators. As he had said
before, it was not the intention of the Government to
make anrspecific recommendation, or to lay down any
rule for the guidance a the Committee. They would
leave the whole subject to it, and when their Lordships
bad the report before them they would then be able to
decide what was required in the matter. The Noble
Marquis concluded by moving that a Committee be ap-
pointed. . •
Lord STANLEY said that if he had on that occasion
consulted the dictates of his own feelings, he should have
deferred to the opinions exprefssroemd b the petitioners
thyem as to the value
however much he might' differ
was,
,he should abstain
of the inquiry,
any , opposition at het
from offeringßut if, in to the appoint-
ment of , thk' defer-
ence Committee. to these opinions, he
.did
.so abstain, he could
not abstain from expressine, his disappointment at the
nature of the,. speech. of the Noble IYI rquis, who had
moved for the appointment of the Coammittee, and at
the same time his own firm conviction that this Com-
mittee would only lead to the postponement of any real
remedy for pegreat and pressing grievance. There were
no doubt cases in which inquiry by a Committee was
most desirable: If 24iy member of the Government was
desirous of. proyineihe extent and magnitude of an
evil, of providing a practical remedy—or of pointing
out a new, mode by which any,particular object could be
more legitimtstely and *certainly effected—a Committee
was useful as giying the'pwer of bringing the whole
subject fully before Parliament, and before the public;
of showinglibesi the law acted, and the mode in which it
was propoio Ito amend it; that was the course pursued
with regardio the amendmeat of the English Poor-law.
It was uece,44q. that they should show the public not
only the Magnitude of the evils engendered by the
old law, Ittet to convince them of the applica-
bility of th 6 remedy which the Government had in
view. In suvh a case inquiry was both justifiable and
useful; but"in this case there were no new facts to be
obtained—there was nothing ,to be elicited by a com-
mittee which was not already known to every man con-
nected wifil the south or west of Ireland—which was
not notorious'and palpable to every man who had, in the
slightest degreee inquired into the state of the country,
or given any attention to the papers which had been
laid, by the Government themselves, on the table of their
The Government' themselves Lordships House.o their own
minds, re-
quired nothing to enable them to make
minds, except the power of doing so.—(Hear, hear.)
But instead' of this, they threw upon a Committee of say-
ing what were the amendments required by the law.
This was not the duty of a Parliamentary Committee, but
of her Majesty's Ministers,
upon whom the responsibi-
lity of proposing such administrative amendments in ex-