The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-26 00:00:00

IRELAND.

Sir R. H. INGLIS, seeing his Right Hon. Friend
the Secretary fur Ireland in his place, he begged
to ask him in what form the grant of 50,000/.
was to be made to the landlords of Ireland; for at the time
it was before the House the Right Hun. Gentleman said
it would not be made in money? He begged to ask him
also what use had been made, or might be made, of the
seed which had been granted by the Government to the
farmers in Ireland, what prospects there were that it
would alleviate the condition of Ireland and prevent a
continuan, e of the present miseries over next year.
Mr. LABOUCHERE said hi was sorry he could give
no definite and distinct answer to the Hon. Baronet's
questions. But he was sure that the House would not
be of opinion that the cultivation of the soil depended at
all on the small grant of seed which had been made by
the Government, It could not be for a moment sup-
posed that the Government, by any grant, could
supersede the necessity of private exertion. As to the
prospects of the soil being cultivated, although he could
give no definite answer to the Hon. Baronet, still he was
glad to say that there was a larger extent of land laid
out for wheat this year than in any previous year;
at the same time, in other parts of Ireland,
there were districts which, he feared, would
remain uncultivated during the coming year.
Much, however, depended on the next six weeks whether
exertions were taken in time to remedy the evil which
it was not yet too late to avert. He implored the upper
and middle classes to do all in their power to bring about
this desirable object, and he was in hope that Ireland
would yet recover herself beyond their anticipations.
Mr. I'. SCROPE had understood that where the land-
lord had neglected to supply seed to the tenant,
some power should be given to those who supplied such
on credit to enforce a first lien upon the growing crops,
so that the produce should not all go to the credit of the
landlord. If that were the case, he believed that a large
supply would be given, on the faith of repayment from
the growing crops.
Mr. LABOUCHERE said that no such measure was
in contemplation.

BANK RETURNS.
Mr. HUME said that he would move the returns,
which stood on the paper of yesterday, relative to bank
accounts, &c.—Agreed to.

DRAINAGE ACTS.
Sir G. GREY said that, on Monday, he should beg
leave of the House to bring in a Bill for the amending
of the Drainage Act passed in the last session of
Parliament.
LIMITED ENLISTMENT ACT.
_ _

Mr. FOX MAULE gave notice that, on Monday, he
should move for leave to bring in a Bill for a limited
enlistment in the army.—(C;heers.) He would merely
move the first reading, and take the discussion on the
Bill in a future stage.

Sir G. GREY said that with reference to the first
part of the observations addressed to the House by the
lion. and beamed Mereber, ho theught it •.e be
but right to slate to the Ilouee the course to be adepted
by the Government. 01 receiving the re pert of the .
Committee of inquiry into the circumstances connected
with the administration of the Poor-law, he (Sir. George
Grey) had addressed to the Poor-law Commissioners a
letter, calling upon them to state what might have been
the course followed by them in conducting the business
of their office. He had received a full report upon that
subject, and that report had been referred to the opinion
or the law officers ot the crown, to aseertaie how far the
practice of the Commissioners trail it be in confernery
with the law under which they held their powers.
ho rt suit of that reference was, that the
opinion given was not such as to leave her
Majesty's Government no doubt as to the legal.ty of the
Acts, or the validity of the law under which they were
performed. He was surprised that the Honourable
Gentleman should have proposed to delay by a long in-
quiry the measures to be adopted with regard to Ire-
land, when he himself had approved of them.—(llpar,
hear.) The Noble Lord at the head of the Government
had stateA the (eirs.- he was to i..ursue upon this point,
and had asked arid obtaieed leave to brine in u Bid epic
this subject. That Bid would shortly be in the hands
of Honeureble Members, and would be under considera-
than upon the Bth of March, the day for which the dis-
cussion on the subject was fixed.
Mr. HUME wished to call attention to another im-
portant document. He wished to call attention not to
the evidence, but to the report of the Committee ap-
pointed to inquire into the subject of the Andover
Union. That report showed comp!, tely that every act of
the Commissioners since the year 1841 was illegal,
When the Committee were asked to condemn the con-
duct of the Commissioners, their reply was that the con-
duct of the Commissioners was not referred to them by
the House. The Commissioners had carried on their
business in private rooms without having a secretary
present to record it. The proceedings were noted down
un slips of paper, instead of being recorded in books,
and that was an additional reason why Government
I should take up the question. It was rather too bad when
an inquiry had been instituted into a particular matter,
Government should decline to take any notice of its
results.

Mr. STAFFORD O'BRIEN stated that as an indivi-
dual he buliev(d, after ktving carefully examined the
working of the two Poor-law Bills, in England and Ire-
land, that it would be a benefit to Ireland if the English
Poor-law were taken clause by clause, and applied to Ire-
land, and any Hon. Member who would bring forward
such a measure should receive his cordial support.
Mr. SHAW wished to know when the House were
likely to have in their hands the Bill for the reconst;tu•
tion of the poor-law board for Ireland, and whether
it was intended to bring the measure of the Irish
poor-law under discussion at the same time as the
Landed Property (Ireland) Bill, which was to be brought
forward on the Bth of March.

Lord JOHN RUSSELL before he answered the ques-
tion of the Hon. Member for the University of Dublin,
would make a remark upon what had fallen from the
Honourable Member for Montrose, that lion. Member
seemed to suppose that the reports of the District
Assylums Committee and the Andover Union Com-
mittee were left unheeded and neglected by the Govern-
ment, who stood by as though they were nut
concerned in the matters referred to in those reports.
He would ask, then, whether any higher authority
could be appealed to, for knowing whether the mode in
which the (Anmi,sioners did their business in a legal
manner or not, than the Attorney General, at least
so long- us the administration of the Poor-law was
under the management of Governmen ? Oa that
appeal the only answer they got was, that
the Commissioners could b • asked for any further ex-
planation. It was true that there had been a seer's of
letters in the newspapers, signed by Mr. M. 1). in
which allegations Here matte that the Commissioners did
their bthiress illegally, but all these allegations were
founded on an anonymous case, which was itself founded
upon nothing, and it wini a little hard that such grave im-
putations as these should he thrown out against the
poor law commissioners ou the asserti,ais of this unani-
mous gentleman. Fur his own part, he could not help
tieing of opinion that, if the commissioners had thus
violated the law to such ar. extent they must have been
conscious of the fact. So much f• r the legality part of
the affair. With respect to the d,•lay in bringing or ss ard
the measure, the li.use knew as well as lie did, that,
what with the measut es for the ityroducti,,n of corn,
the Sugar Distilleries Bit!, the discussion on the Noble
Lord's proposition of railways for Ireland, that while
carrying forward the measures for the relief of that
country, it was utterly impossible with the few days at
the command of Government to bring the Poor-law Bill
under the notice of the House, and he would have
been highly imprudent if he had forced it forward.
With respect to the alter..tion of the poor-law in Ire-
land, he hoped that they should .be enabled to lay on
the table papers containing ink rtnaion relative to the
administration of the poor• law in Ireland. He would have
wished to go pro forma into Committee upon
the Poor law (Ireland) Bill, but it would be too late to do
it, but on Monday evening he should move that it be
committed. He would then propose a Bill for the loans
fur Ireland.

(LEFT SITTING.)

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