The Sun.
London, England, 1822-06-15 00:00:00

PARLIAMENT,

J. USE OF LORDS, FRIDAY, JUNE 14.
The Recognizances' Bill was read a third time
and passed.
PUBLIC RECORDS. _

The Marquis of DOWNSIIIRE presented a petition from
a respectable individual called. Rowley Lascelles, complaining
of injury done to himself by the Commissioners for examining
Public Records in Ireland, and of the great expenditure in-
curred by those Commissioners in the course of their examina-
tion. The Noble Marquis trusted that his Majesty's Govern-
ment would inquire into the -allegations Cif, this petition, as far
as both the individual and the public •were concerned.—Laid
on the table.
The Duke of NORTHUMBERLAND presented a petition
from the Shipowners of Newcastle and South Shields against
the Navigation Acts' Amendment Bill. —Laid on the table.
The Bishop of St. DAVID'S presented six petitions from
the Clergy of several deaneries within his diocese against the
Catholic Peers Bill.—Laid on the table.
The Annuities Memorial tVa.,:.ginvatgis -..a-Committee,
and was reported.
Sir T. ACLAND and others brought up several private Bills,
from the Commons.—Read a first time.
IRISH STATIONARY.

The Earl of DARNLEY trusted that the Noble Secretary
of State, whom he was glad to see once more m his place, would
be able to give him such information respecting the progress
of the inquiry into the abuses which he had pointed out last
year in the mode of supplying the public offices in Ireland with
stationary, as would prevent the necessity of his recurring to
the subject.
The Earl of LIVERPOOL stated,, that in consequence of
what had passed in that House, a full inquiry had been made
respecting the contract for the supply of Stationary. Ava
riety of propositions had been submitted, with a view of coming
to an arrangement on the subject. What was the state of the
question at present he could not immediately say ; but if the
Noble Earl wished to know the correspondence which had
passed, and the propositions made, he (Lord Liverpool) would
have no objection to lay copies of both before the House.
A few words then passed between the two Noble Earls, which
were inaudible below the bar.
STATE OF IRELAND.

The Order of the Day having been read,
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE rose, pursuant to his notice,
to call the attention of the House to the state of Ireland. How-
ever liable he might be to the charge of presumption for doing
so, he had the satisfaction to feel, that after all the pledges held
forth by Government in that House and elsewhere, that Ire-
land should obtain the attention of Parliament—after the aus-
picious circumstances of his Majesty's visit to that country
last summer, which promised it so many blessings—after the
subsequent change in its administration, which confirmed the
hopes excited by that visit, and after so considerable a period
of the present Session had elapsed without any proposition
being made by his Majesty's Ministers on the subject, he was
only discharging a duty which it would have been neglect any
longer to delay. He was also discharging it in the presence
and hearing of many individuals, who possessed a practical
knowledge of the country, and could therefore judge how well
founded was all that he should state. In order to save their Lord-
ships' time, he should only remind them, that to all the distress
arising from a change in the currency, and from a depreciated
value of agricultural produce, Ireland had been liable. She
had been affected in the same, and even in a greater degree,
than-England ; because, whilst in the latter the operation of
great manufacturing interests diminished the evil, Ireland be.
ing almost entirely agricultural, bore them with unmitigated
weight. He should, therefore, omit the painful recital of those
calamities which Ireland had borne, in common with this coun-
try, to call their Lordships' attention more specifically to those
which were peculiar to Ireland. And if it were necessary to
show that the state of that country was one of misfortune, the
Statute Book on the table of the House would speak more elo-
quently than any thing he could say. Let their Lordships
look at the Legislation' for the last twenty years on all occas
sions, an.l at the language used when new laws had been intros
duced. Was it proposed to suspend the trial by Jury ?—to
confide arbitrary power to the officers of Government and to
the Magistrates ?—to interfere with the laws of supply and de-
maw!, or to suspend the execution of works of public utility?
It was unanimously admitted that the Trial by Jury was an ex-
cellent institution, but then there was something peculiar in
the situation of Ireland which made it inapplicable and dan-
gerous in that country ! Arbitrary power would undoubtedly
be injurious in England, but there was something peculiar in
the situation of Ireland which required that it should be com-
mitted to the hands of the Government and the Magistracy !
To interfere with the question of supply and demand would be
quite wrong here, but the same peculiarity made it right in
Ireland ! If this were true—if what produced good in all
other parts of the world only produced evil in Ireland, and the
cup which conveyed to others a salutary draught, no sooner
touched the lips of that country, than its contents were con-
verted to a deadly poison, was he not entitled after twenty
years of union between the two countries to ask for an inquiry
into the state of Ireland ? As well might her condition be as-
cribed to some visitation of Providence as to any peculiarity of
her own. Was it because her insular situation was favourable
for trade, because her climate was temperate, because she pos-
sessed all the means of navigation, and had been blessed by
Providence with every thing calculated to make a people rich
and happy, that she was found poor, in the midst of surround-
ing wealth, barbarous, in the midst of civilization and dis-
contented beneath the shelter of a Constitution, of which it was
boasted that it gave freedom and protection even to the meanest
individual ? The causes of hefsituation must be looked for in
the institutions of the country, and it was those institutions
which their Lordships were now called upon to investigate.
In the very outset he would disclaim attributing the exist-
ing evils to any class of individuals. It would be un-
worthy of a Statesman to do so, except as far as indivi-
duals were connected with the institutions of the country.
It was not therefore into the misconduct of the Land-
lords or of the Clergy that he called upon their Lordships
to inquire. He wished them to look at the state of the
amount of the population of Ireland, at the burthens which it
had to bear, at the mode in which justice was administered,
and at the nature of the local imposts, including tithes. In the
first instance, he would show what extraordinary increase had
taken place in the Irish population. In 1695 it amounted only
to 1,034,000 souls. In 1731 to 2,010,000. In 1791 to
4,200,000. In IQII to 5,400,000; and in 1821 it had risen,
according to the last census, to the enormous number of
6,846,000. It had been calculated that in commercial and ma-
nufacturing countries three acres and one-ninth were applicable
to the support of each individual. In Ireland there were no
more than 2 acres and 5-6ths for each, which shewed a state
of population scarcely ever equalled in the world. It had also
been calculated that only one-fourteenth of this mass of popu-
' lation belonged to-the Established Church, another fourteenth
were Dissenters, and the other twelve fourteenths were Ro-
man Catholics. He wished to remove the error that this in-
crease of population indicated an increase of wealth and pros.
perity in the country, and to shew, on the contrary, that so-
ciety in Ireland had fallen into that state in which it was pos-
sible for the population to increase whilst the wealth of the
country diminished. This arose from that system of gradual
degradation which had forced the people to abandon all com-
forts, and to look only for a mere subsistence. Driven from
all other hope and ambition, individuals thought themselves
justified in increasing 'their families with no other means of
subsistence than the most precarious support of apotatoe
crop. It was on account of the state of degradation into
which the peasantry of Ireland had fallen, that scenes had
been witnessed which had been so faithfully anticipated by the
Poet :
" While scourged by famine, from the smiling land,
The mournful peasant leads his humble band ;
And while he sinks, without one arm to save,
The country blooms—a garden and a grave."
It was true that Ireland exhibited the greatest degree of human
want in the midst of abundance. The produce of the land was
carried away to supply the existence of a richer man, whilst
the population were left a prey to famine. In most of the
measures adopted towards Ireland, there existed an artificial,
bounty to increase of population. The Act for extending the
elective franchise had a particular clause, which had become,
a source of constant and increasing evil. The object now had
in view in consequence of that clause, and he was sorry to
say but too often in connection with corrupt motives, was to
increase the number of wretched voters or slaves, in the man-
ner most likely to produce that effect. One practice consisted
in letting lands in common to several individuals,- so that each
s could swear that he bad a freehold in a particular