The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-20 00:00:00

Monti

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1847.

The Lords wet at Five o'clock.
Li the course or a conversation which arose out of
the presentation of a petition by the Duke of RICH-
MOND, complaining of the unjust opera ion of the Poor
R.-moval Act, Loral PORTMAN entreated the Govern-
ment to introduce some tne.tsure to amend that Act
without delay.

The .Marquis of CONYNCHAM complained that his
nature had been improperly inserted in the list of the
deputat;on of Irish landlords who heel waited upon Lord
JOIIN RUSSELL. Ile mentioned the circumstance in
order that he might not he supposed guilty of the
absurdity of appearing as a member of a deputation
in favour of a measure to which he was opposed.
Lord MONTEACLE explained, that the Noble Marquis
had attended the meeting at which the deputation had
been agreed to, but had left the room before the pro-
ceedings were over, and that his name had been inad-
vertently handed in ag a member of the deputation.
Their Lordships then adjourned.
The Commons met at Four o'clock.
Mr. BOUVERIE asked for some explanation on the
subject of the wholesale objections which some of the
railway companies had made to the lists of Members to
serve on Committees which had been drawn up by the
Committee of Selection. The Great Western Com-
paoy, he understood, had objected to three hundred
Members.
Sir J Y. BULLER said that the Committee of Selec-
tion had communicated to all the principal railway
companies a list of the Members appointed to serve on
Railway Committees, in order that the parties lute
rested might object to any names they found in the list.
They had only received answers from the Great Western
and the South-Western Companies, and the Great
Western had certainly objected to a much greater extent
than the South-Western Company.
Mr. ELLICE, as one of the members objected to,
begged to say he had not the slightest interest in either
of the companies, and he thought the Committee
of Selection ought not to have entertained the objectionit
unless the objectors had stated their reasons in each
case.

Mr. WiLsoN PATTEN defended the Committee of Se-
lection. A long conversation followed, in the course of
which it was stated that the objection was not to Mr.
ELLICE personally, but to the place which he repre-
sented. After which, the subjecr dropped.
In answer to a question from Mr. BORTHWICK,
Lord PALMERSTON said that the Government had re-
ceived no official information of any intention on the
part of the French Government to establish hospitals
and coal depots at Port Mahon, and that the tendency
of such information as they had received induced them
to believe that such a report was unfounded.
On the order of the day for the House going into
Committee on the Pour Relief (Ireland) BA!,
Mr. CALLAGHAN. on the part of the gentleman re-
siding at Mallow, who, it had been stated, had 10,0001,
a year and kept hounds, arid had yet refused to sub3erib,
to the relief fund, denied the statement that had beer

made. He certainly was indignant at the conduct or the

Rev. Mr. APCARTHY, and had not sent his subscription
to him, but he had employed the people around him,
and had given the Rev. Mr. BALDWIN 10/. for the reh, f
of the p rof M Mow.

Sir IL lieu, had ma le his statement on the authow:,
of the H. v, Gentleman whose name he had mentioned
lie n.gretted that anything he had said should hay.•
anno..-d Mr. COURTENAY, the gentleman to whom 11r.
('ALLAGEIAN had allud,.o.

Mr. CALLAGHAN said that the gentleman had not,
for the last six months, kept one dog.
After a few words from Mr. SHAW, Mr. J. °Vox
NELL, and Sir. W. BARRON, the subji ct dropped.
After requesting Mr. P. SCRoPE, who had notice of a
motion on the paper, not to offer any opposition to the
house going into Committee, Lord J. RUSSELL said, I
wish to avail myself of this opportunity to state, that 1
have observed with great pleasure and satisfaction the
munificent subscriptions that have been raised in the
United States of America for the relief of the destitute
poor in this country and in Ireland. I think it is not
improper in this House for me, a British subject, to state
I that I am extremely gratified to find that the United
States have not forgotten their common origin; and that,
actuated by charitable feelings, they are making great
exertions to collect large sums of money for the relief of
the existing distress.
The House tiien resolved itself into Committee ou the
Bill.

Oa the first clause being put,
POULETT CROPE objected to limiting out-door
relief to tho permanantly disabled, and moved as an
amendment, the omission of the word " permanently."
This amendment was opposed by the Government,
and afier some discussion was withdrawn, and the clams,
vvas agreed to.

On clause 2 being proposed,
Mr. SHAW objected to the unlimited power the clause
gave to administer relief to the able-bldied poor.
Mr. STAFFORD O'BRIEN moved an amendment, vesting
the power of giving out-door relief solely in boards of
guardians, which amendment was opposed by Sir G.
GREY, and ultimately withdrawn.
,fir. SHAW proposed the omission altogether of the
clause authorising the giving out-door relief.
Lard JoHN RUSSELL baying addressed the House at
some length, ;and Mr. SHAW having replied, the CUM-
mittee divided, their numbers being—
For 'he Clause 242
Against it 36

Majority -206
The House than resumed, the CHAIRMAN reported
progress. and obtained leave to sit again on Monday to
consider the rimamning clauses of the Bill.

The Prisons' Bill, and the Custody of Offenders' Bill
were read a second time, and ordered to be committed.
The other orders having been disposed of, the House
adjourned at a Quarter before One o'clock.

An absentee-tax is among the most equitable in its
motive, but it is among the most unjust in its opera-
tion and among the must injurious in its consequences.
Theoretically it appears to be about the surest means

for enforcing that wholesome circulati )n of money
which can alone conduce to the national welfare.
Practically it would be destructive to all enterprise,
subversive of all mutual reliance, and an infringe-
ment upon all the liberties of the subject. No one
can feel more disposed than ourselves to sym-
pathise with the indignation so temperately ex-
pressed against the habitual non-residents of Ire-
land by the Honourable Gentleman the Member for
Limerick. To the systematic selfishness of that por-

tion of the Irish proprietary is attributable, we are
satisfied, the principal amount of the wretchedness
by which that unfortunate country has been in-
cessantly desolated since the Legislative Union at
the commencement of the nineteenth century.
Drawing from their Irish possessions incomes
which amount, according to the estimate
of Mr. BMITII O'BRIEN, to the enormous
sum of 4,000,0001. sterling; deriving this, let
it be moreover remembered, from the toil
and sweat of their tenantry, they nevertheless
deprive that tenantry of the advantages conse-
quent upon the local expenditure of their individual
rentals, to which advantages they are fully entitled
both by the principles of our Constitution and the
laws of Nature. The effects of this unnatural and

indefensible deprivation are obvious. From the
withdrawal of the landlords the fecundity of their
estates remains, of course, hut partially developed ;
the energies of the agricultural population are al-
lowed to lie dormant, or to arouse themselves to a

feeble and isolated excitement at the pleasure of the
neglected peasantry ; all competition is blighted upon
its first budding into existence ; the field-labourers
receive just sufficient to maintain a precarious balance
between poverty and destitution, or are abandoned to
the doles of a fluctuating benevolence. Those are
the immediate consequences of this atrocious and
ruinous system. The ulterior consequences are
more enormous. They reduce the nation to a multi-
tude of paupers, they bring upon the land a periodical
famine, they foster discontent, they hold out lures to
insubordination, they dwarf the vigour of the island,
they deteriorate the general property, they excite the
poorer classes to decrease the sureties of our national
prosperity by emigration. And let the absentees re-
member this significant and undeniable fact, that they
furnish by their cruel and insane conduct the most
rational argument to the irratioual_scheme of a Repeal
of the Union. It is they who have sharpened the
sword of famine ; it is they who have lit the brand of
agitation ; it is they who have imparted its most
deadly and deleterious influence to the potato mur-
rain ; it is they who have stunted the capacities of the
empire, by pampering their own indolence and consult-
ing their own convenience; it is they who have ren-
dered Ireland a Lazar-house and her inhabitants
beggars. Look at Ireland in its present condition ;
look at the dearth and disease by which it is ravaged ;
look at its people dying by dozens, by scores, by
hundreds ; look at its fields unsown, its markets
empty, its fisheries almost forsaken, its pea-
santry penniless, workless, and foodless; look
at it as it now is, the pensioner of
the State, the receiver of the alms and the broken
bits of its neighbours—and see in all that misery, in
all that degradation and want, the criminal effects of
absenteeism. When Queen MART, better known by
an exqui&itely brutal soubriquet, was (13 ing, her
clamour was, " Calais ! Calais ! Calais !" When
Lord NELSON was chasing the French fleet in the
Mediterranean, before his immortal victory at
Aboukir, his.cry was, "Frigates! Frigates! Frigates!"
Could Ireland give voice to her woe, could Erin
again sing her lamentations, her cry would be,
, " Absentees ! Absentees ! Absentees !"

Regarding the system of nonresidence with such
unmitigated abhorrence, we are, nevertheless, opposed
to the proposition of the Honourable Member for
Limerick, first, because we regard the imposition of
an absentee-tax as contrary to the liberties of the
individual and as opposed to the interests of the com-
munity, and, secondly, because the resolution of Mr.
SMITH O'BittEsi has been entirely forestalled by the
extension of the poor-laws throughout Ireland. From
being so perfectly self-evident and from being so fre-
quently repeated, it has almost grown into a proverb,
that the establishment of an effective poor-law is
virtually the imposition of an absentee-tax. For it
must be remembered that the poor-rates
will be levied, nut upon the annual incomes
pent in certain localities, but upon the
annual incomes derived from certain localities. By
this arrangement a per-centage will be drawn fron.
the absentee landlords, and consequently the neces-
sity for a separate taxation upon the rentals squan-
dered out of the island is altogether removed. Besides
this enactment, there is another measure calculated to
effect the most salutary changes in Ireland—% e moan,
of course, the Bill introduced by Government for the
facilitation of the sale of estates. " Amongst other
benefits likely to accrue from them"—meaning the
last-mentioned measure and the Poor Relief (Ire-
land) Bill—" I hope," says Mr. LABOUCHERE, " that
they will have the effect of obliging proprietors of
land in Ireland to contribute their fair share to the
expenses of maintaining the poor." Let the con-
scientious advocates of an absentee-tax tarry there.
fore until the operation of those enactments can be
properly estimated.

The present session will be remarkable in Parlia-
mentary annals for the extraordinary amount of
business, partly achieved and partly initiated, which
has been brought under the consideration of the
houses of Lords and Comnhons previa*.to the
Easter holidays ; and altogether the current session
promises to be more fruitful in legislation than any
preceding one for many years past. Not only have
(he measures introduced into Parliament since
its commencement been not few in number.
but, in regard to their nature, they have been of the
most important character. The expedition with
which some of the Bills have already obtained the
assent of the Crown is undoubtedly attributable to
the severity of the national emergencies which they
were designed to mitigate; and the celerity with
! which these have been engrafted on the statute-book
augurs satisfactorily for the ultimate success
of the others, which are meant to ex-
ercise a permanent influence upon the socia!
condition of Ireland, and to prevent a recurrence
of the fearful crisis in which that country is now in-
volved. Independently, however, of these measures,
we have already ample evidence afforded us by °ther.
of the extreme activity which has pervaded the dif
ferent departments of the State, demonstrative of the
earnest desire of their several chiefs to obtain for the
Government the honourable distinction of having, in

a peculiar degree, promoted the social progress of tht•

_ .
empire. From the tenor of his address to his consti-
tuents in assuming the reins of power, it was mani-
fest that Lord JOHN RUSSELL desired his administra-
tion should found its claims to the gratitude of pre•
sent and future generations by a provident attention
to the social and moral wants of the nation. Accord-
ingly, we perceive already that public health, public
education, and the reformation of criminals, are all
matters upon which they haVe bestowed great atten-
tion. Lord MORPEYII has the first rubject under
his immediate cognizance, Lord LANSDOWNE
the second, and Earl GREY the last. Besides which,
we have had gratify in.; and convincing proof, during
the present week, by his eloquent speech on the Fac-

_ .
tories Bill, that, to subjecti of a kindred nature to the
foregoing, the Premier has faithfully devoted the
powers of his mind. To those who consider that " the
great mass of the people are only born to work, eat,
drink, sleep, and die," the chronicles of Lord J. Rus-
sELL's Cabinet will be greatly devoid of interest;
hereas to those who believe that the duties of the
statesman extend to objects of a far more elevate.]
chiraeter, they may be consulted delectando pariterque
monendo.

Whilst the Government are endeavouring their
utmost to improve the mental and physical condition
of the population other public associations are work-
ing laudably and effectively in the same direction.
We published yesterday a report of the fifth annual
meeting of the Early Closing Association, held in
Exeter Hall, where the Marquis of WESTMINSTER
presided. When we find that important towns
like Liverpool, Birmingham, and Manchester,
have given in their adhesion to the principles
of this benevolent movement, we may be certain that
before long both employers and employed throughout
the kingdom will become convinced of the advantages
of not continuing their daily toil beyond the limits
of reason. It is clear that commercial prosperity is
quickened by mental energy, which rises or droops
with the strength or lassitude of the human frame,
and that, therefore, any system which taxes the bodily
powers too much is detrimental and vicious. We
think the moral benefit would be great, if the thousands
who are parents of families, and who are now kept up
to a late hour in the shops and warehouses of the
metropolis and other leading towns, were allowed to
repair to their homes at an early period in the evening.
The Association recommend that no purchases should
be made after seven o'clock. This is a reasonable
suggestion ; we shall rejoice to see it universally
adopted.

During the past session many of the restrictions
by which commerce was fettered and impeded were
abrogated, the great principles of free trade received
the legislative sanction, and the strongest guarantee
was given to the country, that vi ith all convenient
speed the remaining shackles should be struck off,
that the industry of the nation might flourish with-
out let or hindrance, and attain the highest degree
of vigour and efficiency. A gigantic monopoly was
prostrated, never again to embarrass the producers of
national wealth by its baneful influence; but, although it
wasswept away, many miner enormities, deeply injuri -
ous to the mercantile interests still remain, to which
•atensive and sweeping measures of reform must be