The Sun.
London, England, 1841-06-15 00:00:00

(LEFT SPEAKING.)

HOUSE Old ,COMMONS.
The- SPEAR.Int took the Chair at Four o'Clock.
- The Lords amendments to' the Totness Small Debts
Bill, and the Wigan Small Debts Bill, were agreed to.
Passavant's Naturalization Bill was read a third time
and passed.
The Abingdon Road Bill was read a third time and
passed. .
On the Order of the. Day for bringing up the Report
of the St. John's Hospital (Winchester) Estate, Bill,
LEADER opposed the Bill on the ground
that it would be a . violation of nrivate interests.
The • lessee of this- estate had bi.en promised . a
•renewal of hiS . lease for a termof 2l years,
_and
.
that was all he •asked for. He thought, moreover,
the interests of the charity were net promoted by selling
the prOperty by private, contract instead of by public com-
petition. No injury could arise from the postponement
,A 4 the Bill until the next Parliament, which would meet
is about a couple of months, and he trusted, therefore,
the House would not object to a motion for its recommittal.
de should therefore move that the Bill be recommitted.
Sir J. GRAHAM defended the Bill, and said the pur-
chase had been narrowly scrutinized, and was approved
and sanctioned by the Court Of Chancery.
Mr. BRISCOE supported the motion.
Sir E. SUGI/8N said nothing was more absurd than
to tall: of the ten ant an interest in this property.
:t appeared that he had nothing but a verbal promise of
renewal of the lease, which was of no legal effect what-

Sir DE LACY EVANS said an appeal was made to
the House to confirm or annul any decisions. • They were
simply asked to allow a re-consideration of the question,
in which he trusted they would consent.
The House then divided--
For the motion
Against it

23
80

• Majority- against the Motion... —57
The South Metropolitan Gas Bill was read a third
time. and passed.
On- the motion of Lord MORPETII the Railway
(Ireland) Bill was read a first time.
On the motion of tiir R. PEEL the Elections' Peti-
tions Trial Bill -was read a third time and passed. •
On the motion of the CHANCELLOR of the EX-
CHI QV the Appropriation Bill was read a third
time and gassed. •
Colonel SALWEY wished to call the attention of the
Under-Secretary of State to a matter which, though it
had affected him personally, was also of some importance
to the public. From time immemorial there had. been
a highway through Windsor Park leading from
Staines to Reading ; but on Wednesdai night last
al he (Colonel Saiwey) was pawing through
the Park in his carriage after ten o'clock,
he found the gate on the road closed, and on ordering it
to be opened, he was assailed with the most unmeasured
abuse, and told that though he would be allowed to pass
on that occasion, he had no right to travel on the road
after ten o'clock. Now, he wished to ask the Under
Secretary of State whether such conduct had been in
any way authorised ? -
Mr. E. J. STANLEY said that the keeper had no
r,uthority to act as the Hon. Member had represented,
and his conduct must have originated in some mistake,
which he would take care to see rectified.
The Militia Pay Bill was read a third time and passed.
Messengers from the Lords brought down various
Bills.

The Lords' Amendments to the Gourdon Harbour Bill
were ageed to.
The Lords -amendments to the Stoke-upon-Trent
Small Debts Bill, were agreed to.
DISTRESS OF THE COUNTRY. CORN-LAWS.
On Mr. SCHOLEFIELD rising to bring forward the
motion of which he had given notice on the sukect of
the distress so generally existing throughout the country,
Mr. GODSON -rose, and claimed precedence for the
motion of which he had given notice relating to the peti-
tion of Edward Kilbean Cox, as his motion related to a
matter of privilege. -
The SPEAKER did not consider that the petition of
Cox could be considered as relating to a question of pri-
vilege, and therefore the Hon. Member for Kiddermin-
ster could net bring on his motion out of its regular order,
lla therefore Called upon Scholeileld to proceeds Mr. SCHOLEFIELD then rose to move the following
resolution That the extreme suffering of the indus-
trious classes, from want of employment, low wages,
and hsgh price of provisional renders it the itiaperiitilt
duty of Parliament to devise means for the alleviation
of the great misery which now pervades all the manu-
facturing districts of the country."• The Hon, Member
commenced his address in a very low tone ef *Oiee: We
understood him to any that the nblihe rlf dniittriong app
peered to him to be hardly aware that such a thing
as distress existed in the manufacturing districts,
and if those who were aware of the distress seemed
to be totally ignorant of the cause. The pressure of
taxation upon the industry of the country *as the cause
of these sufferings.- At the present tittle the thanufactur-
ing interest woe in H itibst depressed state ; nearly all the
msrkots In the world were, in a great measure, closed
-,[fainst them. The manufactures of many other coun-
tries were excelling :those of England I those of Ger-
many, for instance, excelled those of Sheffield: One pe-
culiar feature in the suffering which ekinted Ms, that the
eonUition of the tnithile elasees was scarcely superior to
that of the Woiking classes—(Hear, hear, hear)—so low
wore the pro its afforded by the various branches of ma-
nufacture. He begged to call the attention of the Rouse
to the state of Birmingham at the present time. The
following documents bearing upon this sulAiect were
then read by She Hon, Member,
" The canditicn of the inhabitants cf Birmiremm .is
more deplorable than ever. Crutl mortgagers are dis-
posing of property on which they have advanced money,
for less than one third of its value, or rather, I hod(' say,
they are purchasing buildings at that rate. In consequence
of trade being so bed, and levies, and taxes so high,
mortgagers have not been able to be punctual in the pay-
ment of interest a their 'property has baen advertized
to be sold, and no sale being practicable, a legal
process has been gone through, and the property
been transferred' from the legitimate owner to
the, mortgagee, and this has been the case, lately, in a
gmat many instances."
Trade is daily getting worse. Whilst the number
of bankrupts is less, the number of insolvents is greater
in all the manufacturing districts, and the poor
debtors are crying " Make room, the prison is too
small for us." .I..leis was actually the case in Bir-
mingham only a few weeks ago, when the Commis-
sioners held a Court for the relief of insolvent debtors,
and those miserable men have been scntforth into the
world, pennyleas, and nothing but an alteration in trade
can prevent their coming to the workhouse. Although
it was so recently emptied of its inmates, there is it fresh
succession of unfortunate debtors, many of whom have
lived respectably, and contributed largely by the pay-
ment of taxes and poor-rates to the community, but who
are now about lo perish in obscurity." . .....
Tradesmen, with very few exceptions, are in
jeopardy every hour. They apply [to the pawn-.
brokers in vain, for they have granted . loans
till , they have
,no money to lend ; and the .con-.
saquence is, all the heads of families are in ill health,
:and medicine 'is of no avail. Hope deferred
'" maketh the heart sick," and One need not be skilled in
physiognomy to. be able todiscover,. by a man's counte-
nance, that he considers himself standing on a quicksand,
and unless he is unexpectedly suppOrted, that he must
shortly sink: .•

obliged to go to tr.e
Another class of cxtreme sufferers were those who were
pawnbrokers, and he lied most
paiLful evidence of that. The Hon: Member here read
the following documents, in order to prove the distressed
state of various parts of the country.
A list of one week's pledges at one shop, containing 65
pledges, cut of which only two lots exceeded 3s. each.
Jpwards of 30 plelges are gowns, shifts, women's petti-
coats, and children's frocks ; the rest are shawls, men's
waistcoats, and jackets, a bed cover, a pillow, awed-
ding ring, and other small articles" the whole averaging
only Is. 9d. each in value.
Birminghaia contains 94: pawnbrokers, and if each has
65 pledges per week, the weekly number of the town, ol
small pledges, not exceeding 3s. each, exceeds 6,000.
A former statement sent me shows that the master ma-
nufacturers had to many goods in pawn, already, that
the pawnbrokers are unable to furtherfindi money to ad-
vance upon them.
As an ins:ance of the great distress in Birming-
ham, he would refer to a letter that had been written to
a Clergyman of that town :
" A week has passed, ani you have vouchsafed us no
reply. Nine weeks have gone since the CoMmittee con-
cluded its labours, reporting, that they had found above
40,000 individualt so miserable as to be grateful,—yes,
humbly grateful—for a donation of less than lid. per
head per week. Nine v 3 e- _