The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-21 00:00:00

6IPERIAL PARLIAMENT

ROUSE OF LORDS. Dec. 20.
ROYAL ASSENT.
The House sat to-day at Four o'clock, when the
Royal Assent was given by Commission to the Public
Works (Ireland) Bill, the Crime and Outrage (Ire-
land) Bill, and the Railways Bill.
The Lords Commissioners were the Earl of
Shaftesbury, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord
Campbell, and Earl Fortescue.
DENUNCIATIONS FROM THE ALTAR.
Lord FARNHAM presented petitions from dif-
ferent parts of Ireland, Devonshire, and Dorset-
shire, against the denunciations by Catholic priests,
and praying that some measure might he introduced
on the subject.
AUDITING RAILWAY ACCOUNTS.
Lord MONTEAGLE laid on the table a Bill for
the better auditing of railway accounts by the Rail-
way Commissioners, which was read a first time, and
ordered to be printed.
WORKHOUSES (IRELAND).
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE laid on the table
of the House papers connected with workhouses in
Ireland.

IRISH RELIEF FUNDS.
Lord MONTEAGLE wished to know from the
Noble Marquis whether the funds collected in Ireland
for the relief of the poor were being distributed
according to the electoral or union division ? There
was a report current that they were being distri-
buted according to the union divisions, and he was
anxious to set all doubt at rest.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE could not answer
the question positively, but he believed the distribu-
tion was being made according to the electoral divi •

sions.
BRIBERY AT ELECTIONS.
Lord BROUGHAM gave notice of his intention
shortly after the recess to bring in a Bill to prevent
bribery at elections unless the other House of Par-
liament should originate some stringent measure upon
the subject. He thought some measure ought to be
introduced by which every Member of the House
should make a declaration at the table on his honour
that he had not either directly or indirectly procured
his election by bribery or treating. He had merely
mentioned the subject now in order that her Majesty s
Government might consider it during the recess.
While he was upon his legs he would also impress
I upon her Majesty's Government the necessity of
adopting some arrangement for preparing the drafts
of public Bills, in order that legislation might be
consistent and systematic, and the courts of law might
not have their time occupied as they now had in con-
sidering and trying to expound Acts of Parliament.

.. .
SANITARY COMMISSION.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE laid on the table
the first report of the Metropolitan Sanitary Com-
missioners.
ADJOURNMENT OF THE HOUSE.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE then moved the
adjournment of the House to Thursday, the 3d of
February.
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH felt compelled
to disagree to the motion of adjournment. He
thought it better that they should go on with busi-
ness while gentlemen would work, than defer their pro-
ceedings and thereby get into July, when it was well
known they would not. He thought it expedient
also, that Parliament should continue sitting in
order to watch the carrying out of the Crime and
Outrage (Ireland) Bill, which had received
the royal assent that day. He was convinced
of the necessity of this from his knowledge of
the fact, that if they attempted to put that Act
in force without the eye of Parliament being
on the parties against whom it was to be
put in force, it would produce no effect.
He considered the Act in itself totally inadequate for
the purpose for which it was intended, but it would
be doubly so if Parliament was not kept together.
Parliament, in his opinion, ought to be kept
together, in order that Government might come
down at any moment for further powers. It might
be as well, now that they were about to separate for
upwards of a month, to look to what they had been
doing. Every measure they had been intro-
ducing was in order to patch up the lathes
of the Minister and the late Parliament.
The Government conducted the administration of
affiairs as much by letter as by Act of Parliament.
They had last year Mr. Labouchere's letter suspend-
ing an Act of Parliament, and this year they
had a letter from the Prime Minister and the
Chancellor of the Exchequer suspending another Act
of Parliament. The only measure that they had
proposed was a measure to admit a Jew millionaire
to Parliament. This was called a bold measure ; so
it was called a bold measure to attempt to force a
Bishop on the Church. He did not call them boll
measures, but paltry measures. A bold Minister would
have proposed measures to meet the present peril of the
country, would have explained to Parliament the ne-
cessity that existed for the adoption of stringent
measures to put down the lawless state of affairs
existing in Ireland and would have adopted them.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE said that the Go-
vernment would not shrink from the adoption of
any measures that might be necessary for the
repression of crime in Ireland, and it was only
because they believed that at the present moment
legislative enactments beyond those already enacted
would not be useful, that they had abstained from
proposing such measures. If during the recess cir-
cumstances should arise to manifest the inefficiency of
that measure the Government had the power to con-
vene Parliament in a short time, and to demand fresh
powers, and, if it should be necessary, that power
the Government would exercise. He would not
trouble their Lordships by alluding to the other por-
tions of the speech of the Noble Earl, as the subjects
to which he had alluded would come before their
Lordships' House for discussion hereafter.
After a short conversation between Lord
BROUGHAM and the Marquis of LANSDOWNE, which
was inaudible in the gallery, and a few words from
the Earl of ELLENUOROUGH, on the subject of a
dispatch to India calling for the remittance of certain
amounts of bullion,
Their Lordship 3 adjourned to the 3d of February.

ROUSE OF COMMONS, Dec. 20.
The SPEAKER took the Chair shortly before Four
o'clock.
Mr. C. Buller (Liskeard), Mr. Kershaw (Stock-
port), Mr. Christy, and another Hon. Member, whose
name we did not catch, took the oaths and their
seats.