The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-27 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1847.

The Lords met at Five o'clock.
The Royal Assent was given by Commission to the
Destitute Persons (Ireland) Bill.
After a short conversation on the subject of the pro-
gress of public business, in the course of which Lord
BROUGHAM paid a high compliment to the genius of
Mr. BARRY, the architect of the New Houses of Parlia-
ment, it was stated that that portion of it which was ap-
propriated to the accommodation of the House of Lords
would be ready by Easter.
In answer to Lord STANLEY,

Lord CAMPBELL explained the circumstances under
which the members of the Council of the Duchy of Lan-
caster had been appointed.
The Earl of EGLINTON meved for copies of certain
corespondence between the Scotch bankers and the late
Government on the subject of a Bill for regulating
joint-stock banks in Scotland.

The Earl of CLARENDON said that the documents
moved for were not in existence.
The Earl of CLANCARTY asked if it was the intention
of the Government to introduce during the present ses•
sion any measure with respect to the medical relief of
the suffering poor in Ireland.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE could not promise that
any Bill would be introduced, but the subject should
receive the best attention of the Government.

Their Lordships then adjourned.
The Commons met at Quarter before Four o'clock.

Mr. MONAGHAN, the Solicitor-General for Ireland,
took the oaths and his seat for Galway.:
Mr. LABOLCHERE, in answer to questions from Sir R.
INGLis and Mr. P. SCROPE, said that no measure was in
contemplation to supply seed to the Irish tenants, taking
a lien for re-payment on the growing crop.
Mr. ROEBUCK, in putting a question as to the intended
introduction of the poor•law into Ireland, admitted that
the new poor•law in England had failed, not through the
defect of the law itself, but through the misconduct of
the Commissioners. He thought some inquiry ought
to be instituted before the Poor-laws were transferred to
Ireland.

Sir G. G nEr objected to any delay in the introduction
of the Irish Poor-laws.

Mr. HUME said that the report'of the Andover Com-
mittee showed, that every act of the Poor-law Commis-
sioners, since 1841, had been illegal.
Mr. STAFFORD O'BRIEN would support any motion for
taking the English Poor law, clause by clause, and ap-
plying it to Ireland.
Lord J. RUSSELL said that when those reports had
been referred to the law officers of the Crown, they had
reported that the Poor-law Commissioners would be
called upon for further explanations. With regard to
the opinion of Mr. M. D. HILL, which he had published,
that opinion was founded upon an anonymous case which
was founded upon nothing. He should move the Com-
mittee of the Poor•law (Ireland) Bill on Monday, when
he would also propose a Bill for the loan for Ireland.
Mr. J. O'CONNELL complained of the supply of food
to the people of Ireland. Soup only was now supplied,
which would be productive of dysentery and typhus.
Solid food ought to be supplied.
Mr. LABOUCUERE said that enormous quantities of
solid food had been sent over to Ireland ; but there was
a disposition there to over-rate the powers of the
Government, and there was a feelinz. on rho
people of Ireland, there ought to be a corresponding
exertion on the part of the Irish themselves.

Mr. SHARMAN CRAWFORD moved an address praying
that vessels in the navy, not otherwise employed, should
be used for the conveyance of provisions from foreign
countries into the ports of the United Kingdom.
Lord J. RussELL said that several of her Majesty's
vessels were so employed, but that he could not accede to
that motion, as it would take up much time to tit up all
the unemployed vessels in the navy for such a service.
He thought the quantity' of grain they might expect
from abroad was very small indeed, and the instant it
became known that her Majesty's vessels were to be so
employed, merchant ships would go out of the trade,
The motion was then withdrawn.

Sir CRARLES NAPIER in a long and interesting speech,
replete with statistical detsils, drew the attention of the
House to the system pursued in her MAJESTY'S dock-
yards, with respect to the building of vessels in the navy
and to the abuses which prevailed as to the use 'of sLips
which had been built at an enormous cost to the country.
After a short conversation, the House resolved itself
into a Committee of Supply, in which Mr. WARD
moved the naval estimates.

Several votes were agrerd to, and the other orders
having been disposed of, the House adjourned.

After receiving throughout his peregrinations in
France and the Peninsula the expressions of that
spontaneous homage to which his benevolent and
philosophic labours in legislation have so eminently
entitled him, Mr. COBDEN has at length been wel-
comed with befitting enthusiasm in the spiritual
metropolis of Continental Europe. Passing through
the mercantile principality of Genoa, he has entered
the venerable precincts of Rome, and in that ruin of
the heroic past the liberality of his sentiments, both
commercial and political, has been responded to with
acclamations. Among all the striking incidents of
our generation this is by no means the least; among
all the signs of our progressive advancement this is
one of the most consolatory and propitious.
Forty-seven, thirty, nay fifteen years ago, we
should have regarded that man as either demented, or
as possessed of a marvellous imagination, who
might have pictured to us the possibility
of an English merchant being received as
an honoured guest under the very shadow of the
Vatican, of an assemblage of Italian patricians in-
viting to a banquet one of the foremost apostles of
British reform, and of a panegyric being uttered on
that festive occasion by the lips of an earnest Pro-
testant upon the political and ecclesiastical character
of the Sovereign Pontiff. Yet such were actually
the characteristics of the festivity of the 10th of
February, 1847, within the walls of the Eternal

City. On that day the leader of the late Anti-Corn,

law League was present at a superb entertainment
given in his honour, in the Chamber of Commerce at
Rome, by its most influential nobility and its most
enlightened and enterprising citisens. To com-
plete the apparent incongruity of the spec-
tacle, there was numbered among those Roman
patricians the Prince of CANINO, the nephew of the
Emperor NaroLEort. If ever there was an occur-
rence which more peculiarly indicated the extra-
ordinary progress of knowledge which constitutes
the distinctive characteristic of this country, it is
discoverable in this splendid tribute of respect
to the heart and intellect of RICHARD CORDER. It
needed only a circumstance like this to assure us that
our most sanguine anticipations, as to the universal
acceptance of free trade as a principle in government,
are not destined to be futile or illusory, and that our
most dazzling hopes as to the future destinies of the
human family are neither chimerical nor exaggerated,
That the successful champion of the wise and
beneficent doctrines which require the complete
emancipation of commerce should be honourably re-
ceived in the antique city whose dominions once
embraced the furthermost limits of the known world,
wasmost appropriate and significant. It was appro-
priate and significant, because it formed a sublime
example of the truth of that immutable principles
nita
which maintains that
s"uerafanceobotnaimn
otrhee various
productions of the
ear
tageous terms by free trade than by the exclusive

conquest of territory." Lord BYRON had exclaimed
of Rome—

" The Niobe of nations ! there she stands
Voicelesa and tearless in her wordless woe 1"

And through the whole catalogue of her historians,
from TACITUS to GIBBON, one of the main causes
of that woe and desolation had been avowedly
the total reliance placed by her Government
upon the compulsory contributions of cereal
food from the agriculturists of her remote and
vanquished provinces. The consequence of that
fallacious system of political economy was first in-
dicated to Rome by the predatory incursions of a
barbarian race, and ultimately by her tremendous sub-
jugation ; it is perpetually manifested to posterity in
the ruined palaces and prostrate columns strewn over
the desolate Campania. From their insane reliance
upon the subsidiary granaries of Egypt and Sicily
had followed the decadence of the Peninsular agricul-
ture of the Romans, and by necessity their ultimate
enervation. And it was, therefore, sufficiently ap-
propriate and significant, we repeat it, that the victor
of free trade should travel from that remote island of
Britain, which had of yore tempted the banner of the
first C.msaa to receive the felicitations of his Italian
descendants in the vicinity of the ancient forum.
Often as we have had occasion to comment upon the
tact and delicacy with which Mr. COBDEN has enun-
ciated his aspirations for the continental diffusion of
the civilizing principles of free trade, they have never
yet been more conspicuously evidenced than in the
speech delivered on his reception at Rome. Without
presuming upon anything approximating to direct
advocacy, he contented himself with the utterance of
a single aspiration beautiful aspiration, in
which we cordially coincide " that the illus-
trious man who now fills the pontifical chair,
and who has filled the world with the fame
of his public virtues, may signalise his reign by carry-
ing out in his dominions the peaceful and philanthropic
principles of free trade 1" And we sympathise the
more in the sentiments in which that aspiration
originated, because we can perceive in it nothing be-
yond the limits of a reasonable probability ; because
the liberalising efforts of Pio IVono have already ad-
vanced so far beyond the limits of a "protective"
policy ; because, in the readiness with which that re-
markable man has pronounced himself in favour of
railway communication through the States of the
Church, we recognise a bias kindred to that of the
advocates of free trade ; and because, above all, his
judgment appears to be mellowed in proportion to
the ripening of thought in the minds of the civilised
million.

In the pilgrimage of RICHARD CODDIN we behold
the symptom of a future development of civilisation
and of a more comprehensive extension of happiness.

Nothing can be more unwise than to retain in our
statute-book laws which have become obsolete. Laws
partake of this character from one of two causes ;
either the circumstances to which they were meant
to be applied are no longer in esse, nor expected ti
be revived ; or their nature is so repugnant to the
spirit of the age, that no man in his right senses
would dream of attempting to put them in force.
Whenever laws have become useless or inefficacious
from one or both of those causes, they ought to be
repealed. A great service is rendered to the state
whose laws are made as simple and as few as possible.
It Li not always easy to attain to these ends, par-
ticularly in a highly artificial state of society.
Nevertheless laws, pure in point of principle,
and small in number, are blessings of such price
(being really nothing but what is, in common justice,
due from the ruling powers to the people, who are held
in the eye of the law to be fully cognizant, and rendered
responsible for every violation of them), that all So-
vereigns who are wise and benevolent should be de-
sirous of conferring these blessings upon their sub-
jects to the utmost practicable extent. Great and
e'ectrifying as were many of the deeds of the re-
nowned NAPOLEON, yet that from which he will ac-
quire, through after ages, the most durable fame is
his celebrated code. From a crude, multifarious, and
undigested mass of legislation, he extracted and em-
bodied a compendium of law which has proved
of signal service to his country, and is re-
garded with admiration as one of the most ardueus,
philosophical and dignified efforts ever made by an
imperial legislator for promoting the happiness of a
nation. England has in vain long aspired after the
acquisition of a similar boon. No doubt our wishes
knt`tir une extensive and complicated interests neces-
sarily incidental to, and interwoven with, the elabo -
rate system of the British empire and its vast
dependencies. Still we ought to feel grateful to any
one who devotes his mind towards the abrogation of
laws that have either fallen into desuetude, or are re
proachful in their enactments. The existence of bad
laws exercises a prejudicial influence upon those that
are unexceptionable. By weeding out the former,
we increase the moral force of the latter. The
wisdom of the Legislature is enhanced in the opinion
of the people, whose affections for their lawgivers is
augmented or diminished in a ratio corresponding
with the perfection or imperfection of the laws to
which they are expected to show an implicit obedience.
In the House of Commons, on -Wednesday evening,
Mr. WATSON moved the second reading of the Ro-
man Catholic Relief Bill, of which the object is, first,
to abolish the obsolete statutes that were left remain-
ing in 1844, when an Act was passed repealing a
great number of laws quite inconsistent with the
prelitical status which has been conceded to the Roman
Catholics during the present century, and particu-
larly since 1829. The next object of Mr. WATSON'S
Bill is to repeal some of the provisions of the Act of
1829; and the last is to get rid of penal enactments
against certain religious orders. Upon the two latter
subjects we do not now propose, neither have we
the space at present, to enter. They both of them
present matter for serious reflection. But, as the
second reading of the Bill in question has been car-
ried chiefly on account of its provisions in further-
ance of the first above-mentioned object, we so far
rejoice that antiquated, inconsistent, and oppressive
laws will very probably be soon eradicated
from oar code. The clauses affecting the
second and third objects will undergo con-
siderable discussion in Committee, and, if
desirable, can be easily struck out, so
as not to endanger the passing of the measure for the
accomplishment of the first. It is idle to attach
penalties to the acknowledgment of any other
spiritual supremacy than what is professed by Pro-
testants, seeing that, by the common law of the
land, spiritual supremacy is vested in the Crown,
and seeing, moreover, that there is no power by law
to enforce any other spiritual authority. If Roman
Catholics are not obliged to take the oath of supre-
macy to entitle them to seats in the Legislature, it is
a glaring absurdity to continue a severe law, of a de,
grading and invidious character, towards the grew
body of the Roman Catholics.

The Journal de Constantinople publishes a decree sub-
' octing vessels coming from Greece, which have not
their bills of health vised by the Ottoman Consul, or by
a consul of some state in alliance with the Sublime
Porte, residing at the port of departure, to the same
quarantine to which vessels coming from a Turkish port
without having their bills of health visid by the Greek
Consul, or, in his absence, by some European consul, are
subject in Greece.

Madrid journals of the 18th have arrived.

The Gaceta publishes a decree appointing a commis-
sion to inquire into the expediency of establishing rail-
roads in Spain.

The Herald* announces the arrival of a French
squadron of six ships at the Balearic Isles. It is said
that General TACON, Captain-General, was by no means
pleased with their arrival, and received the officers
coldly. The Spaniards, in the meantime, are fortifying
Port Mahon, and reinforcing their other garrisons in
thf.se islands. In commenting on this intelligence tho
Ileraldo says—
" The Spanish Government does its duty by takine that
dotermination (receiving the French squadron and fortifying
the place), and as fur the French Government, we are not
surprised that in its own interest even, all consideration fur
the affairs of Spain apart, it should do its utmost :o prevent
any attempt or pretext for the taking possession of these
beautifal islands, the key of the Mediterranean, by England,
or by any other nation that might be disposed to further her
views."

The Phare de Bayonne of the 20th has the following:—

" It appears that Cabrera bad abandoned the cause of the
Count de Montemolin, and has retired for the present to Nice.
The Carlists attribute this defection to different motives, but
particularly to the tolerant language held by the son of Don
Carlos. It to this be added the impossibility of raising pecu-
niary resources at Loudon, and the dissensions subs:sting
between the principal leaders of the absolutist party, it will
IA easy to conceive the complete disorganisation of 04'3