The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-08 00:00:00

ARMY-RETURNS.

Mr. F. MAULE said that two days ago the Hon. and Gal-
lant Member for Liverpool obtained assent to a motion as an
unopposed return. It was a return of the surgeons, paymas-
ters, and quartermasters, with the dates of their services. He
(Mr. F. Maule) did not object to that, but the motion con-
cluded with an order for the grounds why those parties had
been excluded from the benefits of the recent advances made
in the officers of the army. He wished to make this state-
ment ere he made a motion on the subject, and he now gave
notice, that on Monday next, he would move that that portion
of the order be rescinded. Consideration for that department,
and the public service, required that this return should not be
made.

INCREASE OF PENSIONS TO THE SOLDIERS.

In answer to a question from Captain LAYARD,
Mr. F. AIAULE said that it was the intention of the Go-
vernment to recommend the alteration of the warrant formerly
issued, so as to increase the minimum rate of 6d. to M. a day.
Also, to provide for an extra pay for good service after 21 years.
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE.

Mr. HORSAIAI4 wished to know which measure the Go..
vernment intended to proceed with on Monday neat. He
thought the Health of Towns Bill was in the list of orders for
that day.

Lord JOHN RUSSELL replied, that it was his intention
to proceed with the Prisons and Transportation Bill on Monday,
but preliminary to that, the Chancellor of the Exchequer would
bring some business under the consideration of the House.
STATE OF THE MONEY MARKET.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said—Sir, I
are about to take a course which is somewhat irregular in point
of form, but which is necessary, in order that on Monday
next I may take a step which is called for by the monetary
state of the country, and I hope that the fever ish anxiety which
prevails on this subject, not only in the City, but throughout
the country, may be allayed by my stating shortly the inten-
tions of the Government; and I am: sure I need hardly say
that the subject has occupied the anxious consideration of her
Majesty's Government.—( Hear, hear.) My Noble Friend and
myself have received from day to day communications upon
this subject; we have had interviews with deputations from
various parts of the country in relation to it; and we are
daily, in fact hourly, in communication with those who are
hest able to give advice and information on the state of the
money market, and the steps which ought to be taken under
the circumstances which exist.—(Hear.) The communications
made to us might be classed into two divisions, and of these
the parties from the country suggested a course to be taken by
the Government, or the Bank with the concurrence of the Go-
vernment, which would, in fact, amount to a suspension of the
present law by which the currency of this country is regu-
lated. I shall not go into that question on this occasion fur-
ther than to say that such a course is one which her Ma-
jesty's Government are not prepared to adopt—( Hear, hear,
and cheers)—and having made that statement, I think it
right to state that, consistently with the existence of the
present law regulating the currency of the country, every
facility should be given which could be consistently and
legally given, and that no course ought to be taken on the
part of the Government which would have a tendency to in-
terfere with that accommodation which has been usually freely
given on good security.—(llear, hear.) It is just a week
ago since I stated in this House that the stringent measures
which had been previously adopted need not continue to the
extent to which they had been put in operation, but I must
have been misunderstood if I am supposed en that occasion to
have said that the danger was over. What I said on that oc-
casion was, that the necessity for the stringent measures
which had been adopted had ceased, and I added that two days
before the Batik had relaxed its regulations, and that it would
be enabled to give within reasonable and moderate bounds a
greater degree of accommodation than it had some days before.
What I then said has been borne out by the fact that 400,0004
in gold and silver bullion have been received since last Satur-
day, and that the Bank will thus have been placed in a position
to give increased accommodation to that extent. I cannot in-
terfere with the measures which may be taken by the Bank of
England, but so far as the Government securities are con-
cerned, I wish to place them in such a position that they
may be rendered as available as they usually are
to those who hold them, and I am ready to the
utmost of my power to aid in lightening the
pressure by that means. It appears the Govern-
ment securities which labour under the deepest depression at
present are Exchequer-bills, and although the time for doing it
has not arrived, I think it right to state, in order to relieve the
anxiety which exists, that from the day in June at which the
exchange takes place, it is my intention to propose that the
rate of interest on Excisequer.bills shall be raised to 3d. per
diem. I find that the mode of raising money on Exchequer-
bills is one with respect to which great difference of opinion
prevails but lam happy to be able to state that the Bank
finds itself in a condition to make advances on Exchequer-bills :
it has done so to-day, and a communication was made to all
the brokers that it would do so; it met all the demands of that
nature which were made on it to-day, and the whole sum
which it so advanced to-day did not exceed 170,0001. That
determination of the Bank will be a great accommodation to
the public.—( Hear, hear.) With regard to the Exchequer it
is exceedingly desirable that it should not be under the neces•
sity of requiring larger advances than usual, and I am happy
to say that, notwithstanding the difficulty of obtaining money,
the average payments of accounts last week were made, asid
on the whole matters are much easier, and the extremity of the
pressure is passed. In order to carry out the view which I
have described, I propose to offer an inducement to persons who
have contracted for the Government loan to pay up the instal-
ments of the sums for which they have contracted, and I fully
believe that a great number of them will pay up the whole or
part of their instalments between this and the sth of July.
In order to carry this plan into effect, I shall propose on Mon-
day, that the Houseresolve itself into a Committee toempower
an offer of advance of interest on the prompt payment of those
instalments.—( Hear, hear.) That discount is to he allowed
on all sums of money paid on this account before Friday, the
18th of June. in this manner :—Any person paying before
the 18th of June an instalment due on a day subsequent to
the 18th, will receive this advance of interest in the way of
discount, to be calculated from the day on which it shall be
paid, to the day on which it is due. Thus, if any one pays
early in May an instalment true in June, it will entitle him to a
month's interest; if the instalment paid in May be due in July,
it will entitle the party to two months' interest ; and if the in-
stalment so paid be due in August, to three months' interest.
In proposing to adopt that plan I must re-assure the House of
my hope that considerable sums of money will be paid up in
this manner—sums sufficient to place the Exchequer in a very
satisfactory position. I propose, therefore, that the House
will, on Monday, go into Committee, for the purpose of consi-
dering the propriety of authorising the Exchequer to pay
a certain rate of interest by way of discount on any instalments
of the loan which may be so paid up.
The motion was then agreed to.
PUNISHMENT OF VAGRANTS (IRELAND) BILL.
On the question being put for going into Committee on this
Bill,
Mr. P. SCROPE said he wished to ask a question of the
Noble Lord at the head of the Goverment. It was of the
utmost importance that this question should be decided, and
that the House and the eoentry should know whether the poor-
law for Ireland was to be of a permanent, or only of a tempo-
rary character. If it were to be permanent for three years
only, much uncertainty would be created; and he would draw
the attention of the House to the fact, to the belief, that if it
were to be only of a temporary character, it would be worth-
less and hopeless. The poor would not confide in it, and the
rich would not act upon it, or in any way promote the general
welfare of the country ; for the absentee landlords, who are
now spending their incomes in France or Italy, would not
return to do their duty to their country, and look after
their property.—( Hear, hear.) On the contrary, if it
were to be of a permanent character, it would be in
every way useful, and he trusted, therefore, that the Bill would
be of a permanent nature. The people of this country had
come to the decision that the time had arrived when some
measures should be taken for preventing the people of this
country from falling into the deplorable state of misery which
had fallen upon the people of Ireland. They had come to that
opinion from motives which were quite justifiable. He knew
that they hail to maintain their own poor, and that unless some
provision of a permanent nature was made for the relief of the
poor of Ireland, the industrious people of England would come
into the condition of the potato-fed and miserably paid people
of that country. He therefore wished to ask the Noble Lord
whether he was prepared to-night to state what the permanent
character of the Bill would be?
Lord JOHN RUSSELL said the Hon. Gentleman had
asked him for an explanation as to whether the Government
should go on with the present Bill pending the proceedings in
another place. In the first place, he might answer, he was
more than ever convinced that such a Bill for the relief of the
poor of Ireland was necessary. Still, he he did not think that
a reason for postponing., the present Bill. He thought, how-
ever, that if the Poor-law Bill was limited in its operation in
point of time, he could not ask the House to pass the present
measure, which was of a penal character, without a similar
limitation. He did not think it would be proper to give way to
a feeling of jealousy in regard to the proceedings elsewhere.
or that they should say, that unless the Poor Relief Bill was
passed in another place, they would not agree to the Vagrancy
Bill here. He hoped they would go into Committee now,
and at some future stage of the Bill they could consider
whether they should introduce clauses to limit its dura-
tion. With regard to such a poor-law for Ireland as
they had agreed to, he was more than ever convinced of its ne-
cessity, and that the Bill as it had passed through that House was
absolutely required. He had only that day received a state-
ment respecting a poor 403. freeholder, who, for many years,
had been the serf or slave of a landed proprietor, who having
accepted a small sum for his freehold, was turned out and
allowed to starve, and his wife and child had died for want of
food refused by those on whose lands he had lived for many'