The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-20 00:00:00

ebtilins

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1847.

The Lords met at Five o'clock.

Sir J. Y. BULLER said that the Committee of Selec-
tion had communicated to all the principal railway
Companies a list of the Members appointed to serve on
Railway Committees, in order that the parties inte-
rested might object to any names they found in the list.
They had only received answers from the Great Western
and the South-Western Companies, and the Great
Western had certainly objected to a much greater extent
than the South-Western Company.
Mr. ELLICE, as one of the members objected to,
begged to say he had not the slightest interest in either
of the companies, and he thought the Committee
of Selection ought not to have entertained the objections,
unless the objectors had stated their reasons in each

case.

Mr. WILSON PATTEN defended the Committee of Se-
lection. A long conversation followed, in the course of
which it was stated that the objection was not to Mr.
ELLICE personally, but to the place which he repre-
sented. After which, the subject dropped.
In answer to a question from Mr. BORTHWICK,
Lord PALMERSTON said that the Government had re-
ceived no official information of any intention on the
part of the French Government to establish hospitals
and coal depots at Port Mahon, and that the tendency
of such information as they had received induced them
to believe that such a report was unfounded.
On the order of the day for the House going into
Committee on the Poor Relief (Ireland) Bill,
Mr. CALLAGHAN, on the part of the gentleman re-
siding at Mallow, who, it bad been stated, had 10,0001.
a year and kept hounds, and had yet refused to subscribe
to the relief fund, denied the statement that had been
made. He certainly was indignant at the conduct of the
Rev. Mr. M'CAP.TKY, and had not sent his subscription
to him, but he had employed the people around him,
and had given the Rev. Mr. BALDWIN 104 fur the relief
of the poor of Mallow.
Sir B. HALL had made his statement on the authority
of the Rev. Gentleman whose name he had mentioned.
He regretted that anything ho had said should have
annoyed Mr. COURTENAY, the gentleman to whom Mr.
CALLAGHAN had alluded.
Mr. CALLAGHAN said that the gentleman had not,
for the last six months, kept one dog.
After a few words from Mr. SHAW, Mr. J. O'CoN.
NELL, and Sir. W. BARRON, the subject dropped.
After requesting Mr. P. SCROPE, who had notice of a
motion on the paper, not to offer any opposition to the
House going into Committee, Lord J. RUSSELL said, "
wish to avail myself of this opportunity to state, that I
have observed with great pleasure and satisfaction the
munificent subscriptions that have been raised in the
United States of America for the relief of the destitute
poor in this country and in Ireland. I think it is not
improper in this House for me, a British subject, to state
that I am extremely gratified to find that the United
States have nut forgotten their common origin; and that,
actuated by charitable feelings, they are making great
exertions to collect large sums of money for the relief of
the existing distress."
The House then resolved itself into Committee on the

On the first clause being put,

•
MI. . POULETT SCROPE objected to limiting out-door
relief to the permanantly disabled, and moved as an
amendment, the omission of the word "permanently."
This amendment was opposed by the Government,
and after some discussion was withdrawn, and the clause
was agreed to.

On clause 2 being proposed,
Mr. SHAW objected to the unlimited power the clause
gave to administer relief to the able-bodied poor.
Mr. STAFFORD O'BRIEN moved an amendment, vesting
the power of giving out-door relief solely in boards of
guardians, which amendment was opposed by Sir G.
GREY, and ultimately withdrawn.
_ _

Mr. SHAW proposed the omission altogether of the
clause authorising the giving out-door relief.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL having addressed the House at
some length, and Mr. SHAW having replied, the Com-
mittee divided, their numbers being—
For the Clause
.. 242
Against it 36
Majority
The House then resumed, the CHAIRMAN reported
progress, and obtcaned leave to sit again on Monday to
consider the remaining clauses of the Bill.
The PriP,ons' Bill, and the Custody of Offenders' Bill
were read a second time, and ordered to be committed.
The other orders having been disposed of, the House
adjourned at a Quarter before One o'clock.

There is a consistency about the explanatory
observations by which Lord JOHN RUSSELL endea-
vours night after night to reconcile his opponents in
Parliament to the measures proposed by Government
far the relief of Ireland, that promises admirably for
tho operation of measures so well digested and so
cautiously arranged. The Prime Minister is showing
himself fully competent for an emergency which is
altogether without any parallel. Unappalled by the
accumulated perils of the moment, he has entered
veorously upon labours greater than all the fabulous
labours of HERCULES, combined—he has to slay the
Nemean Lion of Famine—he has to cleanse im-
purities from the landlord-and-tenant system of the
sister island more numerous and more loathsome
than the impurities of the Augean stable—he has to
stitangle the serpents of selfishness and mendicity—
he has to lop off the penury and idleness which sprout
more exuberantly from the odious practice of ab-
senteeism than the heads of the Lerncean
hydra. On the assumption of office by her
M.AJesTy's present Ministers there were embarrass-
m!,nts enough to overcome the confidence of the most
sanguine and veteran statesmen. There were indi-
cations of foreign misunderstandings and of domestic
destitution such as would have induced men of less
reliance upon the integrity of their own position and
upon the soundness of their own abilities to despair of effecting any diminution of those foreboding

In the course of a conversation which arose out of
the presentation of a petition by the Duke of Men-
MOND, complaining of the unjust operation of the Poor
Removal Act, Lord PORTMAN entreated the Govern-
ment to introduce some measure to amend that Act
without delay.

The Marquis of CONYNGII.4.3I complained that his
name had been improperly inserted in the list of the
dvputation of Irish landlords who had waited upon Lord
JOHN RUSSELL. He mentioned the circumstance in
order that he might not be supposed guilty of the
absurdity of appearing as a member of a deputation
in favour of a measure to which he was opposed.
Lord MONTEACLE explained, that the Noble Marquis
had attended the meeting at which the deputation had
been agreed to, but had left the room before the pro-
ceedings were over, and that his name had been inad-
vertently handed iu as a member of the deputation.
Their Lordships then adjourned.
The Commons met at Four o'clock.

Mr. BOLIVERIE asked for some explanation on the
subject of the wholesale objections which some of the
railway companies had made to the lists of Members to
serve on Committees which had been drawn up by the
Committee of Selection. The Great Western Com-
pany, he understood, had objected to three hundred
Members.