The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-03 00:00:00

entening

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 1847.

The Lords met at Five o'clock.
The Duke of RICHMOND moved for the appointment
of a Select Committee to inquire into the operation of
the law of settlement.

After a short conversation, in which the Marquis of
LANSDOWNE, Lord BROUGHAM, Lord CAMPBELL, and
Lord BEAUMONT took part, the motion was agreed to.
Earl FITzwILLIAII, in presenting a petition from the
grand jurors of Wicklow, in favour of Irish railways,
took occasion to express his opinion that the public
grants ought to be made to carry out Railway projects
in Ireland. The Noble Earl likewise defended the con-
duct of the Irish landlords.

Earl GREY reminded his Noble Friend of the measures
which had been proposed by Government for the relief
of Ireland. He believed there was a ♦ast amount of
capital in Ireland, of the existence of which few were
aware.

Lord MONTEAGLE fully concurred in the statements oi
the petitioners.

The petition was laid on the table, and their Lordships
adjourned.

The Commons met at Four o'clock.
Mr. C. BULLER brought up the second Report of the
Committee on the law of settlement.

Mr. E. DENISON postponed his motion for a Com-
mittee to inquire into the working of the ecclesiastical
commission for a fortnight.
Dr. BOWRING postponed his motion on the public
accounts to the 16th of March.

Sir G. GREY having stated that in his opinion
Messrs. LYON and STUBB, justices of the county of
Lancaster, had improperly convicted four wcrking men
for leaving their employ, and that the four men were
entitled to take advantage of the informality in their
conviction,
Mr. T. DIINCOMBR withdrew the motion, of which he
had given notice, on this subject.

Mr. BOUVERIE moved for a Select Committee to in-
quire into the circumstances under which certain pro-
prietors of land in Scotland had refused to grant to the
members of the Free Church, sites fur the erection of
places of worship.
Mr. EWART seconded the motion.

Sir GEORGE GREY was ready to assent to the inquiry.
Sir. R. INcus, while opposing the measure, admitted
that no proposition had ever been advocated in a manner
more calculated to gain for it friends.
Sir J. GRAHAM—Although he regretted that the pro-
prietors had refused sites, felt bound to oppose the
motion.

Lord G. BZNTINCIE. opposed the motion. Wherever
the members of the Free Church had been refused sites,
it was because they wished to build their churches in
offensive situations.
Mr. F. MAULE defended the conduct of the members
of the Free Church.
Mr. S. WORTLEY considered the motion based on a
most dangerous principle, and would, therefore, op-
pose it.

Lord J. RUSSELL supported the mettion, and as they
had no hesitation in interfering with the rights of pro-
perty to form a railroad, so they ought to interfere with
those rights, if necessary, to provide for the people
places of worship.

Mr. SCOTT opposed, and Colonel MunE supported, the
motion. On a division, there appearcd—
For the motion for inquiry B9
Against it
Majority

-28

Mr. BANKES then drew the attention of the House to
the report of the Committee on the settlement and
poor removal Acts, and complained that the Go-
vernment had determined to postpone for the present
the consideration of the working of the measure as it
affected the comforts of the poor. He believed the abo-
litii,n of settlements would be most prejudicial to the
poor.

Mr. C. BULLED defended the conduct of the Com-
mittee.

After a long discussion the motion was withdrawn.
Lord G. BENTINCK then brought forward his motion
for returns relative to the expeiThe of English railways.
The Noble Lord entered at great length on the subject,
in order to prove the erroneous calculations of the late
Chancellor of the Exchequer on this question.
Mr. GOULBURN replied to the Noble Lord ; and after
a short discussion the motion was agreed to.

The Consolidated Fund (8,000,0001.) Bill went
through committee, and the House adjourned at Half-
past Twelve o'clock.

Yesterday we expressed it as our decided opinion
that the annexation of Cracow to the Austrian do-
minions was an evil supervening upon the dishonest
policy of the French Government. Upon the atrocity
of that monstrous annexation we have already and
repeatedly commented. The indignation which it
has excited among all civilised nations is at once an
evidence that the deed is a direct violation of the
natural rights and constitutional privileges of the
people, and an indication that the time has elapsed
in which such crimes could be perpetrated with im-
punity. So earnest and resolute is this feeling of
wrath in Western Europe, that her Most Gracious
Majesty the QUEEN protested against the act of the
Northern spoliators in her MAJESTY'S royal address
to the British Parliament. In the language then
uttered by their SOVEREIGN the people have con-
tinued to feel a deep though silent sympathy. Only
through the medium of the Press had the
popular sentiment hitherto been able to find
a medium for its enunciation until the large
and interesting meeting, the proceedings of which are
fully reported in the columns of The Sun, was con-
vened in the Freemasons Tavern. A more impor-
tant assemblage of a strictly public character has not
taken place for many years in the metropolis; and a
more competent chairman could scarcely have been
selected than the Noble Lord the President of the
Royal Society. The unanimity and enthusiasm
which were evinced by the audience, and the accla-
mations which greeted the speeches of Earl FITZ-
WILLIAM, Lord WHARNCLIFFE, Sir EDWARD COD..
RINGTON, Lord BEAUMONT, and Sir CHARLES NA..
PIER, sufficiently attested the cordiality with which
the citizens of Great Britain engaged in the discussion
of the predatory conduct pursued by the imperial rob-
bers of St. Petersburgh and Vienna towards the last
remnant of heroic but unfortunate Poland. Pos-
sessing the privilege of holding public meetings of a
political kind at pleasure, and possessing this extra-
ordinary privilege almost exclusively in Europe, it is
always a subject of gratulation when the English
people avail themselves of it, but especially when
the object of their convocation is one of such a noble
and sublime description. Since the first villanous
partition of Poland the sympathies of Englishmen
have never been so emphatically enunciated as they
were last evening in the large hall in Great Queen-
et.
spoil of theEveryPolish
scornful allusion to the division of the
territories was " rpplauded to the
echo ;" every
resolutionith
of
an earnest and positive
character was passed w
of. the Poles, and of
acclamation ; every expres-
sion of sorrow for the evil destinies
indignation at the barbarian viihuion their insi-

dious neighbours, was responded to with a propor-
tionate enthusiasm ; and of these allusions, of these
resolutions, of these sorrowful and indignant ex-
pressions, there were abundance ! We presume that
as this is the first meeting which has yet been held
in reference to the seizure of Cracow, it cannot be the
last; as the invasion of that neutral republic is un•
paralleled in the records of political atrocity, so
should the utterance of the latent wrath of such a
community as that of Great Britain be unparalleled
in the history of constitutional states. The com-
mencement has been adventured upon, let the good
labour for the promotion of civilisation and the
universal spread of liberty be consummated !
Lord BEAUMONT spoke with so much eloquence on
proposing the third resolution, that we should
scarcely be fulfilling the duties of a discerning
journalist were we to make no direct reference to his
observations. There was no glozing over the hard
truths which are alone deducible from this profligate
spoliation, there was no connivance at the petty pre-
judices of an oligarchical character, there was
nothing feeble or indefinite in the harangue uttered
by that Noble Lord. Scanning not merely the vest-
ness of Continental Europe, but the extension of
Time, Lord BEAUMONT estimates the consequences
of this deed both upon the lesser principalities
of the globe, and upon future generations. Rising in
indignation as the full atrocity of the transaction
unfolded itself before his imagination, the Noble
Lord supposes that the principle proclaimed by the
Northern Powers was carried into operation with im-
partiality, namely, that the nations of Europe generally
regarded the violated treaty of Vienna as a dead
letter, and acted accordingly. We might,
then, he proceeds, slay the aggressors with
their own weapons of destruction ; we might
become the rigid scrutineers of the map as it
is now delineated ; we might interrogate Austria
what she did south or the Carpathian Alps ? why
she mingled her guttural accents with " the soft tones
of sunny Italy ?" we might demand of Russia, why
she has reached the limits of Moldavia? why, from
the steppes and glaciers of Siberia she has pene-
trated to the shores of the Mediterranean,
" blowing with her cold breath on the western
coast ?" We might finally conquer them by
the emphasis of their own logic, and the keenness
of their own swcrds. We are rejoiced that Lord
BEAUMONT spoke thus explicitly, and that the meet-
ing which he addressed evinced such a ready co-oper-
ation in a cause so intimately blended with the pro-
gress of nations and the development of knowledge.
If a similar spirit continue to be displayed it is im-
possible to conjecture but that inestimable good may
result from apparent evil, and that from the final
spoliation of Poland may arise the permanent advan-
tage of humanity, as there is a virtue in the oozings
of a wounded gum-tree.

We some time since asserted that landed property
in Ireland still constituted as good a security for the
several charges and incumbrances by which it is
affected as it has ever been ; that, although the pro-
prietors may have been subjected to temporary incon-
venience and embarrassment, there was no real
cause why they should fear any undue depreciation
in the value of their estates ; that creditors
should not by any harsh or oppressive proceedings,
at the present time, increase that inconvenience,
to the great injury as well of themselves
as of the inheritors of the estates on which their
charges are liens ; and that there was nothing very
formidable in the account of the burdens that would
be entailed on them by reason of the Labour-rate
Act, and the expenditure occasioned thereby, and by
the other measures which might become necessary
for the relief and mitigation of the fearful distress and
destitution in that country. The soundnels and ac-
curacy of these opinions has just received the
strongest confirmation from the proceedings which
have taken place on the occasion cf a sale of
several valuable freehold estates situate in the county
of Kerry, which were recently brought to the ham-
mer in Dublin, under the auspices of the well-known
and justly respected Mr. W. W. Simrsorr, of this
city, a full report of which will be found elsewhere in
our columns.

The Ministerial intentions have now been fully
developed with respect to the temporary
measures, some of which have already received
the legislative sanction, and a tolerably fair estimate
has been put forward, on competent authority,
as to the amount of outlay that will be necessary to
carry them into full execution—to provide for and
feed the people, and also the portion thereof that will
be chargeable upon the real property of the country.
The nature of the greater part of the permanent
measures have also been explained. It is fully un-
derstood that a comprehensive poor-law, embracing
the principle of out-door relief to the able-bodied, is
to be enacted with all convenient speed, and that a
principle which the landowners have asserted
will be equivalent to a confiscation of
their interests arid rights will be brought
into immediate active operation. It is there-
fore impossible to contend that every circum-
stance of the times that could awaken the fears of
purchasers was not fully known, and taken into ac-
count, before those gentlemen decided on entering
into the competition. No better test could possibly
be adopted for ascertaining the views of capitalists
with respect to the social condition of the country,
and the permanent value of property therein, than the
prices realised at such a sale, and yet we find that the
average rate was no less than twenty-seven years'
purchase-money of the lands—a rate as high as al-
most any that has ever been obtained during the most
prosperous period.

This result, following so speedily the high prices
obtained at the sale of the Blessington estates in the
county of Tyrone, affords the strongest evidence that
there is abundance of capital ready to be invested in
the acquisition and improvement of land, and that the
Ministerial measures, while they will afford main-
tenance for the destitute and needy, will not in
any degree injure the owners of the soil.
The opinions of a gentlemen of Mr. SIMPSON'S ex-
perience and judgment, of one so conversant with the
value of real property, must, even if alone, be en-
titled to great weight ; and we find him asserting
that "the loans contemplated by Government, instead
of weakening the security of the present incutn-
brances, will place them in a much more secure posi-
tion "—that " the hands of Government are on the
plough," and " that with such a paternal Govern-
ment Ireland, at no distant time, will rise to
that high scale which is her natural posi-
tion amongst the kingdoms of the earth."
These are cheering ptedictions, and the credit at-
tached to them may be estimated from the spirited
nature of the competition and the high prices ulti-
mately obtained. Such an indication is far more
valuable, and may more fairly be relied on, than the
expressions of discontent which are from time to
time put forward by those whom it would be im-
possible to satisfy by any means, and may be re-
garded as the best rebuke to their protests and
grumblings.

The Port Ampt Gazette of Frankfort has the follow-
ing from Stutgard, 23d ult. :
" The Second Chamber of the States having solicited the
Government to enlighten it respecting affairs connected with
the liberty of the press, and declared that it regarded the
censorship as unconstitutional, the King of Wurtemburg re-
plied in the following terms :—' If we maintain the censor.
ship it is solely because we are forced to do so by the Federal
Legislation and Article 3 of the Constitution ; and, if the
censorship extend to internal affairs, it is a necessary con-
sequence of the resolutions of the Germanic Diet of 1813
and 1814. A change of the censorship in general or in parti-
cular could oak be the result of a modification of the Federal
Legislation. We reserve to ourselves to communicate to
the States, in the next session, the steps that we have taken
to tffeet such a change.' "

Madrid papers to the 24th ult. have been received.
The debate on the Address was still going on in the
Chamber of Deputies. It is said that the Ministry will
adopt the Address as proposed by the Committee, rather
than run the risk of increasing the divisions in the Mo-
derado party.
It appears that the Carlists aro making considerable
progress in the north of Spain. In Biscay they as-
semble in great numbers, and the inhabitants
generally are prepared to take arms on the first appear-
ance of a regularly organized Carlist force. In Cata-
lonia they are traversing the province in large bands,
and notwithstanding the vigilance or the cruelty
of the merciless savage, BRETON, who is Captain-General
of the province, they have entered several large
towns, levied contributions on the authorities, and after-
wards taken their departure without hindrance or moles-
tation.
The Espanol says that the Count of MoNTEmoLizr has
been proclaimed at Estella.
The Three per Cents. closed on the Madrid Stock Ex-