The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-13 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 1847.

The Lords met at Five o'clock.
The Earl of RIPON presented a petition from the Bir-
mingham and Worcester Railway Company, complain-
ing that the London and North-Western Railway
Company had bought up the Birmingham and Oxford
Railway, in order to defeat the policy of the Act passed
last session.
Lord LYNDHURST thought the petition should be re-
ferred to a Committee. The North-Western Company
had purchased 38,000 shares, out of 50,000, in this com-
pany, in order to defeat its rival company.
A short conversation ensued, in the course of which,
the Marquis of LANspowsE suggested that the petition
should be referred to the Railway Board.
The further consideration of the subject was post-
poned to Tuesday, on which day Lord LYNDHURST will
move for the appointment of a Select Committee to in-
vestigate the allegations contained in the petition.
Lord BROUGHAM, in presenting a petition from Black-
burn, complaining of the influx of Irish paupers, stated
that paupers were sent over from Ireland by the land-
lords, who paid 2s. 6d. a head for their passage.
The Earl of DEVON complained cif this statement, as
a reflection upon a highly-respectable body of men.
Lord BROUGHAM was prepared to produce bis inform-
ants before a Select Committee, where they would on
oath confirm the statements which they had made to him.
The Marquis of LANsnowNE defended the conduct of
the Government in relieving the Irish poor in their pre
sent state of extreme exigency. They had already in-
troduced a poor-law, the object of which was to impose
as far as possible the support of the pose rty of Ireland
upon the property of Ireland.
The subject then dropped.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE, in answer to Viscount
STRANGFORD, explained the present state of the nego-
tiations between her MAJESTY and the King of Mario
VER with respect to the jewels claimed by the latter
Sovereign as heir looms.
Their Lordships then adjourned.
The Commons met at Four o'clock.
In answer to Mr. 11. BAILLIE, Lord JOHN RUSSELL
said that the Government did not intend to prohibit the
exportation of corn from this country, for if the mer
chant had a security that if he brought corn to this
country he could.re-export it, if he thought proper, he
would bring it here, but if he were prohibited from re-
exporting it, if he thought proper, he would avoid this
market.
The Custody of Offenders Bill and the Prisons Bill
were respectively read a first time.
Mr. SIIEIL, in answer to Mr. HUME, stated that the
authorities of the Mint would do their best to put a stop
to the practice of giving policemen double pay when
engaged in Mint prosecutions.
On the motion for the reading the order of the day for
the House going into Committee on the Poor Relief
(Ireland) Bill,

Lord JOHN EUSSFLL stated generally to the House
what had been the proceedings of the Government with
respect to the calamitous state of affairs at present existing
in Ireland. The sum expended in relief to the destitute
during the month of February, had been 9-14,1411. The
number of persons employed had greatly increased; dur-
ing the week ending Feb. 6 Government had given em-
ployment to 615,051 ; during that ending Feb. 27, to
780,268. The amount of task-work exacted from per-
sons in a weak state had been reduced, and some of the
able bodied had endeavoured to take advantage of this
arrangement, which had given rise to some irregularities.
Another evil had been, that those labourers who were
able to earn ls. 6d. a day were averse to the cultiva-
tion of the soil. The Government had therefore deter-
mined, as the season for ploughing and sowing came on,
to reduce, as far as possible, the number of those em-
ployed on public works ; from the 20th of March they
would be reduced 20 per cent., and orders had been

given to take off the public works all persons receiving

rations of soup or food. The Noble Lord then alluded
to the memorial which had been presented to him from

the landlords of Ireland, at.cl declared, amidst loud
cheering, that he could not agree to the resolutions
which those gentlemen had adopted, and which went to
preclude the House from entertaining at all the question
of out-door relief. He admitted that there was
a great deal bestowed in private charity in Ire-
land, but it was by the poor cn the very poor ; but
there was no burden whatever imposed on the large ab-
sentee proprietor, who did not choose to contribute to
private charities, and might avoid altogether any pay-
ment towards the support of the destitute ; and he knew
of no way of providing for their support but by the
measure before the House. His proposition was that if
a person were starving he should be relieved in the
workhouse so long as there was room in the workhouse,
but out of the workhouse if he could not be afforded
proper accommodation within it. With regard to the
composition of the board of guardians, if ho thought the
er-officio guardians would use their power to annoy their
Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, he would alter the com-
position of the board, but he entertained no such fears.
He believed that they would see Tory, Whig, Radical,
and Repeater, differing, as they no doubt would continue
to do, on political questions, yet blended together in
social compact, prepared to act together for the common
weal, and to distribute justice without any bias from
political feeling. He emphatically denied that the Irish
proprietors,
who were members of the Cabinet, had in-
fluenced its deliberations favourably towards property.

They were prepared to bear the burden which might ho
imposed upon them, and it was with their sanction that
he asked the House to go into Committee on the Bill.
The House was subsequently addressed by Mr. Staf-
ford O'Brien, Mr. Gregory, Mr. D. Browne, Sir W.

Molesworth, Mr Shaw, and Sir B. Hall.
The debate, on the motion of Sir W. CLAY, was ad-
journed till Monday.
The report on the Drainage (Ireland) Bill was
brought up, and the Bill ordered to be read a third time

on Morday.
The House adjourned at a Quarter past One.

A moral revolution has utterly subverted the social
fabric of Ireland : a new edifice—an edifice based upon
centuries of awful experience, and proportioned to the
greater enlightenment of the Legislature of these times
—bast° be erected upon the ruins caused by that revo-
lution. It was from the agony of prophecy that were born
the books of Sibylline wisdom ; and it is from the very
torments of her present condition that Ireland is ex-
tracting the sureties of her future happiness. The old
and accursed system, by which one entire moiety of her
p )pulation was continued in a perpetual state of des
titution, has been slowly undermined by ages of in-
creasing woe—it has tottered to its foundations from
the shocks administered by the late visitations of
PROVIDENCE—its irrevocable doom was pro-
nuouusnscFcd list evening in the speech of Lord JouN
y as the
fporroptriiieetamryanoiffolldrelawnid.onhgass
deserv'edL. retrihution
by which they have reduced their country
it
to
aatstate
of continual wretchedness, and rendered
riodical intervals subject to the deathful scour
elpeo-
gf
famine, the Government is effecting the redemption of
the innocent million without sacrificing the interests