The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-10 00:00:00

IRELAND.

DITBLiN; MARCH B. The following resolutions have
emanated from the grand jury of the county of Limerick;—
"That England is greatly indebted for -her prosperity to
the in'imate knowledge possessed by her rulers of- her -wants
and interests, .and to the close connexion which subsists be-
tween -the interests of those Governing and those Governed,
rendering thereby false moves in legislation events of not
frequent occurrence, and affording, when they do occur,
secnrWeapproaching to certainty, that they will be,of' short
dulation. _ _

"That, in ohr opinion, bad England been unhappily
afflicted.with the same calamity with which -it 'has' pleased
ProVidence to visit us,-such an Act as the Labour-rate Act
would never have been devised for the relief of that calamity;

and if unfortunately it had been enacted, that as soon as
its mischiefs had developed- themselves-, and were made
known. to our rulers by the frequent and urgent remon-
strances of all parties affected by its evils, Parliament would
havebbeericalletl together, and some measure more beneficial
to the poor, and less exPensive to the State and to the country
would have been immediately enacted 'in its stead.

; That by that Act the Irr-perial Treasury has been dimi-
nished, and the lands of Ireland heavily encumbered by ex-
travagant expenditure on useless and unproductive works ;
self-reliance on the part of the owners and occupiers of the
soil has in most districts been rendered impossible ; our pea-
santry have been demoralised; our entire social system has
been disorganized ; our fields have been left uncultivated ;
our prospects for the ensuing year have been darkened ; la-
bour has been diverted from the produCtion of food • and
the transition to a better system rendered doubtful and' clan-
:`that its enactments, by adopting in the first in-
stance too large an area for taxation, and then refusing to
allot to productive labour on each property its proportion of
the taxation of each barony in which it was situate, operated
as a bounty to the proprietor who neglected his duty, at the
cost of the one who performed it.
" That we do not attribute these failures in legislation to a
want of the best intentions in the Government, but to a
want ofknowledge on the part of the most influential of our
rulers of the peculiarities of our social condition, and to the
too limited proportion of responsibility and confidence placed
in those who, by their residence in Ireland and amongst us,
are conversant with our position.
" That we express our fixed conviction that the deep-
rooted social evils of this country can never be removed in
their causes until such changes are made as will place a
greater control, as well over the making the laws by which
we are to be _governed, as over the administration of those
laws when made, in the hands of those who are conversant
with the social, moral, and political circumstances" of this
country.
"That, having expressed these opinions, we feel it the
more incumbent upon us to express our deep and heartfelt
gratitude for the truly Christian exertions and sacrifices
made by the people of England for the relief of the famish-
ing poor of th 4 country.
" 2. That thls present rate of expenditure for the relief of
the poor in this country far exceeds 20s. is the pound of its
entire value.
That, unless a large amount of labour be given by pri-
vate enterprise, we see no reason to hope that this expendi-
ture will be reduced within any reasonable limits.
" That, if it continue, each levy for the poor will reduce a
large number of the ratepayers to pauperism ; gradually the
land—the proceeds of which will be absorbed by taxation—
will go out of cultivation, and while property will be confis-
cated, it will soon be found impossible to collect a suffi-
cient amount on rates to preserve the destitute from starva-
tion.

a That private employment will not be given in any
amount sufficient to avert those calamities, unless the area
of taxation be made smaller than the present electoral divi-
sions' which were laid out by persons evidently, by their
acts, hostile to the principle of electoral division rating.
"For, if large electoral divisions be preserved, individual
ratepayers will feel that they can but • little diminish their
rates by giving increased employment, and .an inducement
will be held out to them to employ as few labourers as pos-
sible, and to get for the poor in their own neighbourhood as
large a proportion of the public funds as they can; while in 1
small electoral divisions, the exertions of every proprietor
will sensibly diminish the amount of his taxation, and when
the only choice left to him is, whether he shall pay for the
support of the poor in his neighbourhood, or employ them
productively, he will, of course, do the latter.
"That the employment of additional labour would be
greatly encouraged by giving tenants compensation for per-
manent
improvements on fair and equitable terms.
" That, in order to prevent the possibility of the rate of
any electoral division being so high as to inflict an unjust
and dispiriting burden upon towns and villages, a limit
should be fixed, beyond which no division should be taxed
for its own poor, and the surplus rate required for such dis-
trict should be paid by a national rate, to be levied from all
descriptions of property, as well personal as real.
"3. That the affliction with which it has pleased the
Almighty to visit us, if not an imperial must at least be con-
sidered a national calamity, and therefore the burden of it
should be borne by all interests in the nation, whether they
be moneyed, mercantile, or agricultural, and that all funded
property, productive capital, and income arising from land,
should bear a just proportion of the burden.
"That the placing of this burden exclusively upon one
class, that class being itself the greatest sufferer by the
calamity, would be an act of manifest injustice and oppres-
sion.

Adopted unanimously.
"WILLIAM MONSELL, Foreman."

NAVIGATION-LAWS.

The committee on these laws re-assembled yesterday in
Room No. 2. There were present—Mr. M. Gibson (chair-
man), Mr. Ricardo Mr. Liddell, Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Lye,ll,
Sir Robert Peel, Mr.i Hume, Sir G. Clerk, Admiral Dundas,
Mr. Alderman Thompson, Sir Howard Douglas, Mr. C. P.

Villiers, Mr. Thomas Baring, and Mr. Mactirth}.. On the
commencement of the business the room was cleared for
some time, and on the readmission of the reporters, Mr. Hume
was urging on the committee the necessity of confining the
examination of the witnesses to mere facts, and not asking

for opinions.
Mr. Al•Grregor was then called, and examined by the
Chairman—ln 1815 there were higher tonnage duties on
British ships in the United States than on American ships,
and in England the duties on American ships were higher
than on British ships. The reciprocity treaty put an end to
the differences of the duty, but did not affect the navigation
laws of either country, it merely placed equal charges on tha
ships and the cargoes of both countries. According to the
English navigation laws an American ship must be built,
owned, manned, and commanded in a particular way to en-
title it to the privileges or the reciprocity treaty. The 16th
clause of Victoria 8 and 9 provided that no American ship
should be deemed national unless built in America, owned,
manned, and commanded by Americans. Unless this clause
were complied with, the ships would not be considered Ame-
rican; they might, however, claim to be admitted under the
treaty. The British navigation laws prevented foreign coun-
tries from competing with the United States in bringing
American produce to England. If the English navigation
laws, by providing that English ships should be manned and
owned by English sailors, give an encouragement to British
shipping, they also give encouragement to American ship-
ping, by providing that the American ships should be manned
and owned by Americans.
By Mr. Liddell—Our intercourse with the United. States
was based upon the strict footing of reciprocity by treaties,
and it was necessary to define by such clauses and regu-
lations what should constitute reciprocity between the two
countries. There was an article in the Treaty of Hol-
land which defined what a national ship was. Questions
certainly did arise with regard to the nationality of South
American republic ships, after the declaration of indepen-
dence on the part of the Spanish American provinces.
By Mr. Ricardo—The object of the navigation laws with
America was to obtain, in conjunction with America, a
monopoly of the trade between. the two countries; it ex-
cluded all other vessels from the carrying trade between
the two countries except for the purpose of warehousing.
By Mr. Villiers—The object of the navigation-laws was in
part defeated by the Warehousing Bill. Articles warehoused
were not for home consumption.
By Mr. Ricardo—The bulk of the articles warehoused was
imported in British ships.
Mr. M'Gregor, in continuation—Very great difficulties had
been represented and reported to the Congress of the United
States by the Committees of Commerce and Navigation, as
existing in the colonial intercourse, that the ships of the
United States were not on the same footing in the British
colonies as British ships arriving from the colonies in any
United States port. Complaints had also been made by
English merchants from the Canadas and at different periods
from the other colonies. They complained of the restrictions
that were put upon the intercourse between the colonies and
the United States. The great whale fisheries in the South
Seas had certainly fallen almost entirely into American
hands; but he believed that the majority of the vessels em-
ployed in the South Sea whale fishery were employed at a
loss, especially in the sperm fishery. The black-finned
whale fishing was profitable. The Americans had above 700
vessels employed in the whale fishery. He did not think that
the decline of the British fishery was owing to the removal
of the protection ; certainly that would have been the case if
the Americans retained all the oil for home consumption, but
they looked more to its exportation than to home consump-
tion for a return.

By the Chairman—The object of the 16th clause of the
Navigation Act was the encouragement of British trade and
navigation. It might appear at the time to have been the
policy of England that every foreign country should have ,a
mercantile marine of its own, but its policy was quite dif-
ferent. He was not prepared to say that the effect of the 16th
clause would be the encouragement of foreign mercantile ma-
rines. There was not the least difference in the principle,
why it should not encourage other ships in the same manner
as our own. With respect to the tariff of 1842, be could say,
having had much correspondence on the subject, that a simi-
lar reduction of duties had been immediately made in the
United States' tariff, and that in every case where relaxa-
tions had been made in England, a corresponding reduction
had taken place in the United States. Reduction had re-
cently been made in many articles on which a very high
duty was levied, mainly for the purpose of revenue, which
he was certain had been done in consequence of the measures
past last session. The cause of the decline of the British
whale fishery he attributed to the much more formidable
competition with the chemical discoveries, and with vegetable
oils now in use.
By Mr. Hume—Lord Cathcart, in a dispatch to Mr. Glad-
stone, dated 12th May, 1846, said that the prosperity of the
British colonies on the fit. Lawrence depended mainly on an
alteration of the regulations of the inland trade.
Mr. M'Gregor, at Mr. Hume's desire, quoted several para-
graphs. from a memorial presented by the Montreal Free
Trade Association against the navigation laws (the memo-
rial being a paper printed by order of the Housd of Com-
mons). Mr. M'Gregor was proceeding with the memorial,
when air. Liddell objected to the evidence.
The committee-room was cleared, and on our re-admission
Mr. Hume said that he should not continue the examination

...
on the memorial.
By Mr. Ricardo —Complaints of the stringency of the
ilvigation laws had been made from Russia, Prussia, Den..
mark,a the Hanse Towns, till 1842, and by the United States)
though not to this country, but in the report of the com-
mittees of Congress. The United States complained, in
the first instance, that a British ship could go from any
British port to any port in the United States, discharge part
of its cargo there, and with the remainder, after filling up
the room, continue her voyage from the United States to
'any British possession. They also complained of our steam
ships going direct to Halifax, and from there to any port in
the United States. Russia complained that we limited her
trade to the direct trade between Russia and this country.
Prussia's complaint was similar to that of Russia; but
Prussia also complahied of the privilege granted"to the