The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-28 00:00:00

11 24:111,

LONDON, WEDNESDAY. APRIL 28, 1847.

The Lords met at Four, and
The Royal Assent was given by Commission to the
Fever (Ireland) Bill.
Their Lordships re-assembled at Five o'clock.
Several petitions haring been presented,
The report on the Harbours, Docks, and Piers'
Clauses Bill, was brought up, and received.
The Customs' Duties Bill, the Portland Harbour of
Refuge and Breakwater Bill, and the Insolvent
Debtors' Act Amendment Bill, were severally read a
third time and passed.
The LORD CHANCELLOR moved the second reading
of the Encumbered Estates (Ireland) Bill.
The Marquis of WESTMEATH, the Earl of WICK-

Low, and Lord ASHBURTON supported the Bill.
Lord MONTEAGLE hoped that in the sale of estates
under this Bill, the land would be sold in smaller
parcels than it generally was.
The Bill was then read a second time, and their
Lordships adjourned.

The Commons met at Four o'clock.
Sir Ch ARLES NAPIER obtained leave to introduce
the Navy Enlistment Bill, authorising the SOVE-
REIGN to issue a proclamation when necessary calling

upon all seamen in Great Britain and Ireland to
come forward and enter themselves for the navy
within five days of the date of such proclamation, or
in default to be liable to impressment.
Mr. WARD did not oppose the introduction of the
Bill, but would not, on the part of the Government,
undertake the responsibility of such a measure.
Dr. BOWRING then brought forward his motion,
for the adoption of a decimal system of coinage cur-
rency and account.
Mr. HUME seconded the motion.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER admitted that
much might be urged in favour of a decimal system,
but still he thought the prejudices existing on the
subject were so great, that whatever was done should
be done gradually. He was prepared to agree that
two-shilling pieces should be struck.
Mr. STAFFORD O'BRIEN congratulated the Hon.
Member for Bolton on his partial success.

Mr. SIIEIL said, that as far as silver was concerned
the alteration was easy enough, the great difficulty
was with regard to coppers. He had no objection to
having a twc•3hilling piece to be struck, to be called
a Royal.
After a few words from Mr. Baovvx and Sir G.
CLERK, the motion was withdrawn.

Lord Jolts MANNERS then rose to call the atten-

tion of the House to the present state of affairs in
Greece, but before the Noble Lord had concluded his
speech, the House was counted out.

CABINET COUNCIL.

Summonses were issued yesterday to the Cabinet
Ministers, to attend a Cabinet Council this afternoon
at the Foreign Office, Downing•street. The meeting
will be held after the Queen's Levee, and the
Ministers are expected to assemble about half-past
three o'clock.

Among the many evils by which the social condi-
tion of Ireland is affected, the prosperity of the
island deteriorated, improvements retarded, and the
national resources diminished, the embarrassed state
of the landed proprietors throughout the kingdom
may be considered as one of the most obvious ; con-
siderable portions of the rental of the different estates
belong not to the nominal owners, but to the mort-
gagees and encumbrancers, who have charges affecting
their lands. Those persons, although receiving so
large a proportio❑ of the produce of the land, have
no interest whatsoever in its permanent improvement,
or in the welfare of the tenantry. Provided their
interest money is punctually and regularly paid, they
care not whether the farms are let at a rack-rent, whether

hey are properly cultivated and brought into the
highest state of fertility, or suffered to remain com-
paratively waste and unproductive, without yielding
half the produce that could be obtained under a better
system of husbandry; whether they are inhabited
by thriving and industrious occupiers, or crowded
with a dense body of paupers, wallowing in filth and
misery. They cannot be benefited if the produce
should be quadrupled by a judicious expenditure;
and, generally speaking, they take care that a suffi-
cient surplus shall be left to cover any loss that may
be sustained by the scantiness of the harvest or the
failure of the tenantry, so that as they cannot be
benefited by the prosperity, they cannot be injured by
the poverty of the district. In the most propitious
seasons they cannot hope to receive more than the in-
terest on their demand. They will not receive less in the
most adverse. They cannot be called upon to contribute
to the poor-rate, no matter how heavily it may press
on the industry of the country. They will not,
therefore, exert themselves to provide useful occupa-
tion for the able-bodied peasant—to direct the vast
amount of unemployed labour into profitable sources,
by which it might be made to contribute to, and in-
crease, the national wealth, in place of being a heavy
burden thereon—to enable the people to become pro-
ducers in place of unproductive consumers thereof.
What those encumbrancers will not, the em-
barrassed owner is unable to effect. Under
any circumstances, he must, before he can apply
a single shilling to his own wants or exigencies, make
provision for the payment of the interest money. He
may call the estate his own, but the chief part of the
income goes into other hands. He is little more than
an agent to collect and distribute the rents. If there
is any failure on his part he is involved in litigation,
sultiected to heavy costs, and perhaps the estate put
into Chancery. He would, in many, instances, gladly
sell his property, if in his power to do so ; but he is
deterred from such a course, not merely from feelings
of pride and an unwillingness to part with a pro-
perty that had remained in his family for many
years, but chiefly on account of the ruinous expenses
attendant on the sale, and the preliminary legal
charges and delays.' Anything calculated to dimi-
nish those charges, and to shorten the period of
bringing encumbered estates to the hammer, will
therefore be hailed es a valuable boon by both
debtors and creditors, and will be highly beneficial to
the kingdom in general.

The Bill introduced into the House of Lords by
the Lord Chancellor, and which was read a second
time last night, is intended to attain this important
object. It was, mirabile dictu, received with the most
perfect unanimity. Every one admitted the impor-
tance and pressing necessity for some such enact-
ments. The grievance is too manifest to admit of
any controversy or doubt as to its existence. Great
caution, however, is necessary as to the details, to
guard against the possibility of any injury being done,
either to those having present or prospective interests.
Until the year 1843, it was necessary, in filing a bill
for the sale of an encumbered estate in Ireland,
to bring every person interested in the
subject-matter of the suit before the court,
either as plaintiff or defendant. Although he might
be only entitled to a small charge affecting the pro-
perty, he was compelled to put in an answer,
and to coriside.rable. expense, all of which
go to
the court by the Ire
ultimately fell on
which, when no account, was effected in the practice of
the inheritor. In that year
otrders then introduced, by
con-
siderable arneliorat"
payment, conveyance, or
against a party, it was
other direct relief was snou'gsuc_ti
tpoart 1 to
not necessary to compel
wash
parties
answer the bill; he appear and
to in' spoectara as
he
a notice, stating the names ofe servedh with
in the cause and the object of the suit, se f
was concerned, and was at liberty
of. the bill in the hinds_ of the plaintiff's solicictoopry-
he was at liberty to answer in the ordinary manner'
that would be 1
if he thought proper to risk the costs

occasioned thereby. If he did so unnecessarily, and
if he did not appear, he was bound by all the pro-
ceedings in the cause. A great saving was effected
by this judicious regulation, without the slightest
injury being sustained by any one whatsoever.
The present measure goes still further, and
establishes a new and most important prin-
ciple. It enables the parties interested to apply
by petition to the Lord Chancellor, stating
the nature of the encumbrance, and praying
that the case should be referred to one of the Masters
to inquire into the whole circumstances, having, if
necessary, all parties before him. The Master is to
be enabled to report that the estate should be sold and
the money paid into court, and that from thence-
forward all litigation is to take place with
respect to the money and not to the estate.
It is impossible to estimate too highly the
value of this enactment. It will prevent es-
tates from being locked up for years in Chan-
cery, to the serious injury of all parties. It
will speedily substitute a solvent and healthy pro-
prietary for the embarrassed and impoverished per-
sons who are unable to discharge the duties incidental
to the possession of their properties. It will afford
the greatest stimulus to the industry of the country,
and tend to the full development of its resources. It
will eventually lead to what may be termed a free
trade in land itself, the advantages of which have
been so ably and fully detailed by Mr. STEWART,
the eminent conveyancer, in the addresses which he
directed to the members of agricultural societies, and
others, in the latter end of last year ; and in propor-
tion to the facility and cheapness of disposing of',
land will be the increased desire to acquire its
possession, and the consequent improvement of its
value in the market.

An extraordinary alteration in the system of im-
pressment for the naval service has just been brought
under the consideration of the House of Commons by
Sir CiuutLits NArIER. Any reasonable change in an
arrangement at present so ineffective, so protracted,
and so preposterously expensive as the present, would
be welcome ; but in the one proposed by the Gallant
Admiral the Member for Marylebone we discern
advantages which demand especial recapitulation, and
which, if carried into operation by the Legislature,
must redound to the credit of Parliament, and sustain
the interests of the community, Now that provisions
are made for manning the mercantile marine with

comparative economy, and with a tolerable degree of
dispatch, it is but just to anticipate the passage of
some measure which shall ensure the same con-
veniences to the Royal Navy. Are those vessels which
tend to enhance our commercial prosperity to receive
a greater amount of benefit, from the careful super-
vision of the Government, than those vessels which
are the sureties of our national safety ? Is it pru-
dent to look rather to the extension of our re-
sources than to their preservation ? to foster a pre-
dilection for barter at the expense of the acknow-
ledged safeguards of the empire ? to deteriorate the
means of defence for the sake of encouraging the
facilities of trading? Such a one•sided distribution
of attention is assuredly calculated to destroy the
proper balance of power and the requisite proportion-
ing of energy.
The differences traceable between the two ser-
vices, the naval and mercantile, in regard to their
numerical strength and tonnage are not
more remarkable than the differences visible

in reference to the manning of their vessels. While
in the mercantile marine there may be enumerated
so many Alps above one hundred tons burden, that
their aggregate comprises 189,569 tons, and so many
under that rate that their aggregate exceeds 1,350,000
tons, and so many registered steam-vessels, again, that
their aggregate comprises 8,838 tons—in the naval
service there are a hundred sail of the line, with a
proportionate number of frigates and smaller vessels,
and somewhere about 1.50 steam-ships, capable of
employment in war. That is the difference percep-
tilele between the two services in reference to their total
capacities. But the advantages secured to the mercantile
marine in the arrangement of the plans of impress-
ment are immeasurably more remarkable. They afford
every inducement to the able-bodied mariner to seek
employment in the merchant service rather than on
board a man-of-war : by a spasmodic reversal of the
attraction they endanger the interests of commerce
in cases of emergency, by luring the seamen
from their mercantile employers by extraordinary
bounties. A sum is thereby drained from the
Exchequer varying from 300,0001. to 400,000/.
for every 2,000 or 3,000 men required. Is there
not something marvellously incongruous in all
this—a linking together of a niggardly provision
and a profligate expenditure ? Absolutely, there is
scarcely a preference between this blundering con-
trivance and the old, tyrannical, brutalising, insane,
and cruel system of impressment.
Sir CHARLES NAPIER very happily instanced the
brutality, the insanity, the tyranny, and the cruelty
of forcible impressment, by a reminiscence of the
times when he was a youngster. The Gallant Admiral
mentioned that when a reefer at the blockade of Bou-
logne he was dispatched by his superior officer to press
the men aboard a vessel of 800 tons. On picking
ten or fourteen out of the crew, the whole comple-
ment turned below, and comforted themselves, ac-
cording to the Hon. Representative for Alarylebone,
with such a " regular jollification," that on again
making their appearance on deck there were scarcely
half•a-dozen individuals among them but were in-
toxicated. It is not, however, in solitary instances
that the abhorred system we allude to is shown to be
fallacious in its operation, and unconstitutional in its

practice.
But the proposition of Sir CHARLES NAPIER would
tend in a very great measure to diminish the
evils arising from the ancient custom, and those
arising from more recent mal-administration.
The amendment proposed by that Gallant Officer is,
that her MAJESTY shall, at any time, whether in peace
or war, by proclamation, call out whatever seamen
may be required—these seamen being called in ro-
tation, according to the period in which they had been
released from their apprenticeship. By that gradu-
ated arrangement large sums of money would be
saved to the Exchequer, forcible impressment would
become scarcely ever necessary, and the complements
of every vessel in the Royal Navy might be mustered
without the usual disastrous procrastination. Sir C.
NAPIER, at the very least, is acting wisely in agi-
tating this matter before Parliament.

If ever there was a measure introduced into Parlia-
ment entitled to public approval, both for the object
for which it has been framed and for the machinery
by which it is proposed to be carried out, it is Lord
MORPETIL'S Health of Towns Bill. Nevertheless this
measure has been already attacked by isolated
bodies in terms of undeserved reprobation. The
people at large, and especially the: poorer classes, for
whom in particular the Bill is calculated to produce
the greatest benefits, as regards their future cleanli-
ness, comfort, happiness, and morality, cannot be
roused into any show of resistance to this scheme of
sanatory reform. Indeed, any appeal to the humblest
ranks of the population for a collective remonstrance
against the proposal of the Government would end in
certain failure; for their present physical condition
in all crowded districts is such that they would
readily furnish the appellants with the practical
answer that no change could injure them, whilst the
probability was that it would be found to result to
their advantage. Moreover, if they were to be truly
informed of the intrinsic merits and benevolent ten-
dency of Lord MORPETH'S Bill, they would
lose no time in pouring in their petitions
to both Honse3 of the Legislature to give
their sanction to the measure with the utmost
promptitude. But, as we have before observed, the
attempt of the Government to minister to the con-
servation of the public health has been subjected to a
degree of vituperation quite undeserved, under the
mistaken idea that it would unduly interfere with the
principles of local self-government. Corporate autho-
rities and parochial authorities have assembled in
various districts to protest against any interference
with their rights—rights which, as far as regards the
adoption of sanatory measures, may be considered as
this general
almost forfeited for non-usor. The truth is, that
the public ends, to be compassed by the sanatory
some
measure in question, cannot be obtained without
necessity,
nevercontrolling
waspower,
e principlean d , consistently
o f
w h
local
government
more scrupulously regarded than it has
been in this instance. But, supposing the eaistence of