The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-24 00:00:00

cal • tiliff Vint

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1847,

The House of Lords met at Five o'clock.
The Destitute Persons (Ireland) Bill was, after u
short debate, read a third time and passed.
The Royal assent was then given by commission to
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the Buckwheat Importation Bill, the Brewing from
Sugar Bill, the Distillation from Sugar Bill, and the
Chelsea Pensioners' Bill; after which their Lordships
adjourned.
The house of Commons met at Four o'clock.

Mr. ELLICE moved that all railway Bills in the pre-
sent session he referred to the Railway Commissioners,
for their report to this House upon the following
points, previously to such Bills being considered in
Committees of this House:—That every report so to be
made upon each Bill should state the amount of the
capital proposed to be raised, and of the loans proposed
to be authorised by the Bill; and if, under the pro-
visions of such Bill, any powers were to be given to any
company already incorporated, of raising further capital
or loans, or of making alterations, branches, or extensions
of their existing lines, or of purchasing or leasing any
other lines made or to be made, or of subscribing to the
capital, or guaranteeing the capital of, or amalgamating
with, other companies ; such report should also state
the powers granted by any former Act or Acts to such
companies already incorporated for any of the above
purposes, and of the manner in which, and extent to
which, such powers had been exercised ; and the report

should further state the opinion of the Commissioners

Ithereon, and also their opinion as to any special pro-
►isions with which it may in any case be expedient to
accompany the grant of any special provisions of any
powers for any of the above mentioned purposes. That
every such report be referred to the Committee of this
House appointed to consider the Bill to which the same
may relate.

Mr. HUDSON would not object to the motion.
Lord J. RUSSELL thought considerable benefit would
arise from the motion proposed.
The motion was then agreed to.

Mr. T. DUNCOMBE moved for leave to introduce a Bill
to amend the Reform Act, the object of which was to do
away with the rate-paying clauses of that Act.
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. . „
Lord JOHN RUSSELL felt it his duty to oppose the
motion.

Mr. GISBORNE supported the motion, as did Sir DE
LACY ETANS.

Mr. P. IlowAnD opposed the motion.
Mr. HUMS regretted to hear that the Noble Lord at
the head of the Government opposed the motion.
Sir B. HALL thought the repeal of the rate-paying
clauses absolutely necessary.
Mr. D'EvNcounT was in favour of the Bill.

Mr. WAKLEY thought that those who had attempted
to show cause against the Bill had failed, and he
trusted it would be pressed to a division at once.
Sir G. GREY opposed the Bill.
Sir C. NAPIER thought that the franchise should be
more extended, and therefore he should support the
Bill.

After a few words from Mr. WILLIAMS, Lord G.
BENTINCK, Mr. B. Escort', and Colonel WooD, the
'louse divided, when there appeared—
For the motion for introducing the Bill 38
Against it

Majority against the introduction ... —2O

SirJ. PAKINOTON then moved for leave to bring in a Bill
authorising the trial and conviction of juvenile offenders
in certain cases, without the intervention of a Jury. The
House was addressed by Sir G. GREY, and eventually
leave was given.

Lord J. MANNERS obtained leave to bring in a Bill to
amend the law relating to charitable bequests.
The House adjourned at a Quarter-past Eleven.

Eight millions to be granted for the relief of Ire-
land is the paramount feature in the financial state-
ment of the Right Hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of
the Exchequer. Considering the embarrassments
consequent upon the appalling destitution in Ireland
and in various districts of Scotland, taking into
account the vast addition of expense resulting from
that destitution, the extraordinary deficiency of pro-
visions, not only in the United Kingdoms, but in
France, Germany, and Poland, and the diminution of
wages in our manufactories, the speech of Sir CuARLES
WOOD is singularly satisfactory. Although the Right
Hon. Baronet requested the lenient consideration of
the House, because of the indisposition from which
he was a sufferer, and because, likewise, of the almost
unprecedented demands which it was his duty to
make upon the Legislature, there was little reason
for either apology or indulgence. Possibly
the statement delivered upon the Budget last
evening may be regarded as the most lucid
speech yet uttered in the house of Commons
by Sir CHARLES WOOD. In the arrangement of his
materials, in the enunciation of the different amounts
constituting the national revenue, and the numerous
charges (usual and unusual) upon the Exchequer,
the Right Honourable Gentleman evinced very re-
markable capacity, and reduced these complicated
calculations to the comprehension of the most medi-
ocre understanding. In so much was the lucidity of
Sir CHARLES WOOD manifest, as to have elicited the
cordial commendation of Mr. GouLnunal and the re-
peatedapplause of the Members generally. It were un-
necessary to enter upon any synopsis or analysis of
the particular financial statement submitted to Par•
Lament by the Chancellor of the Exchequer ; it were
unnecessary, from the elaboration of the Parliamen-
tary
reports and Parliamentary summary, and es-
pecially unnecessary because the gist of that state-
ment may be expressed in the compass of a few syl-
lables.

Contrary to the expectations of the multitude tl,•

estimates made by Sir CITARLE3 WOOD, as to the
balance of our national accounts on the close of the
year ending sth of April, 1848, are propitious and
consolatory. Not%ithstanding the remarkable abate-
ment of our manufacturing industry, in consequence
of the scarcity of food both at home and on the con-
tinent; notwithstanding the certain injury which
must result to the revenue from the diminished con-
sumption and the enormous drain of 10,000,000/. for
the assistance of Ireland, it is calculated by the
Right Hon. Baronet that there will still remain a
surplus of 332,0001. over and above the total expen-
ditures. As compared with the surplus of the year
ending sth April, 1847—a splendid surplus, reach-
ing no less a sum than 9,000,000/.—that anticipated
for the forthcoming twelve months is insignificant
enough. But, bearing in recollection the lamentable
condition of Ireland and of the northern portions of
Great Britain, the circumstance of there being any
surplus whatever is matter for earnest gratulation.
What is particularly remarkable in the Budget for
1847 is the fact of there being no additional
taxation. Under existing calamities this is an unex-
pected and thrice-welcome announcement. Taking
the entire surplus for the ensuing year at 489,000/.,
it is proposed to burden the community by borrow-
ing no less an amount than 8,000,000/. for the relief of
Ireland. Borrowed at three and a half per cent., the
interest upon these 8,000,000/. will amount to 280,000/,
and the inevitable consequence of this loan must be the
advance of interest upon Exchequer-bills from lid. to
2,1. per: diem, making an additional sum of
142,000/. Upon the proposed debt of 8,000,000/. the
entire interest for the year will be 422,0001., which,
subtracted from the expected excess upon the balance-
sheet, would reduce the surplus upon the financial year to
67,000/. Now, the residue of the Chinese silver, con-
sisting of 450,000/., will, on the abstraction of
185,000/. for our increased naval expenditure, raise
the surplus for the sth April, 1848, from 67,000/. to
not less than 332,0001.—an amount beyond the most
sanguine expectations of the most hopeful observer.
It will therefore have devolved upon the empire to
sustain the terrible visitation at present scourging
the sister island, to the enormous extent of
10,000,000/., of which 2,000,000/. have been ad-
vanced and distributed. In this balancing of the boun-
ties and the economy of the nation the Government
has displayed a sagacity proportioned to its courage
in dealing with so many enormous difficulties. If
the Ministry are in no manner prepared to diminish
the taxes still imposed upon the people by precipi-
tating the extension of the principles of free trade,
they cannot at least be regarded as imitalores ser-
rum pecus in respect to the increase of taxation for
the payment of the interest upon a loan of actually
10,000,000/. It is insinuated that the landlords of
Ireland will exhibit no readiness to repay even a
moiety of this magnificent assistance, that they will
grudge the restitution of even 4,000,0001. out of
the eight which still remain to be advanced.
The insinuation gained some colouring of probability
from the merriment expressed by the Hon. Gen-
tlemen of the House of Commons on the allusion to
that repayment uttered by the Chancellor of the
Exchequer. 'Whatever may be the actual sentiments
of the landlords of Ireland on this point, we can
assure them as one of the Voices of the People, that
the nation will never submit to such a sublime act of
swindling, supposing they had the temerity to at-
tempt its perpetration. England is evincing a noble
generosity—a generosity proportioned both to the
magnitude of her wealth and the vastness of her
present troubles ; but let it never be forgotten by
those who would impose upon her generosity and
batten upon her benevolence, that her security is the
rigour of her determination.

The attention of the House of Commons was on
Monday night directed by Mr. E. ELLIC➢ to the ex-
traordinary destitution unfortunately existing in the
Western Highlands of Scotland. No time could more
properly have been selected by the Hon. Member for
that purpose than that immediately preceding the
financial statement of the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, when the extraordinary exertions of the Go-
vernment on behalf of the Irish people, and the mode
of providing for the gigantic outlay thereby rendered
necessary, was about to be detailed by the Minister
whose especial duty it was to provide the necessary
funds and to regulate the income and expenditure of
the country. The primary cause of the distress in
both Ireland and part of Scotland is the same ; we
have in both countries a large and crowded popula-
tion, whose usual and accustomed article of food, that
constituting, if not the sole, by far the largest portion
of their ordinary diet, has been destroyed, and swept
away by the mysterious visitation of PROTIDNNCE.
In both cases, we find the crops, on which the fami-
lies of the poor cottiers were fed, decaying and rot-
ting in the earth, so as not to be worth the
trouble and expenditure of digging them from
the soil, and the visitation borne with extraordinary
patience and resignation by the unhappy sufferers,
who, on the total failure of their own resources, were
driven to seek from others that maintenance with
which they were unable to supply themselves or
families ; but here the comparison ends, for in Scot-
land we find the landed proprietors, or at least the
great majority, availing themselves of every means to
provide for the poor of their respective estates, casting
themselves into the breach with a noble devotion,
and resolving that, so long as any means were left to
them, so long as by any sacrifices on their own
part they could he enabled to do so, they would
continue to afford that support and maintenance
This generous, humane, and Christian conduct is
worthy of something more than the praise that
cannot be withheld from it. The Highland land-
owners have set their own shoulders to the wheel—
they have relied on their own exertions, and have
not been disappointed. By these efforts they have
preserved the lives of their people, and deaths
from starvation, or its effects, so frightful to
contemplate—so unworthy of a Christian country,
where. some of the inhabitants are surrounded with
all the appliances of wealth, and the comforts and
luxuries thereby obtainable--and so disgraceful to the
localities in which such harrowing and fearful scenes
are suffered to take place—have been averted, and
banished from the Scottish coasts. In Ireland, we
regret to say, that a like praiseworthy conduct has
not been pursued by the majority. True it is that
many, very many, landlords have acted in a manner
b..yond all praise, and have entitled themselves to the
marked thanks of the community at large, and better
still to the proud consciousness of having performed
the arduous duties imposed upon them, but such, un-
fortunately, cannot be said of the general body-
Whatever may hare been the exciting cause, whether
the debts and encumbrances affecting their properties,
that cramped their energies, and fettered and re-
strained their action, the Irish people were suffered
to fall into a state of suffering and destitution hap-
pily unknown in Scotland to anything like the same
extent, until the cry of affliction and distress re-
verberated on the air throughout the length and
breadth of unhappy and afflicted Ireland—and this
notwithstanding the extraordinary power afforded to
her people by the Labour-rate Act, and the vas
sums drawn by means thereof from the national Ex,

chequer for the relief and mitigation of the distressh
that country.
We do not desire to be understood as deprecating
the aid that has been already afforded, or is about to
be given to Ireland. We do not regret that the sum of
ten millions should be advanced to ward off, as far
as possible, all future mortality, and to provide for
the wants of her people. We do not object to the prin-
ciple that the calamity should be considered a national

one, and a moiety of the expenditure should be borne

by the State and defrayed from the national purse,

But, if from similar causes great burdens have fallen

on the proprietors in the distressed districts of Scot-
land, we think that a like rule should be observed, that

the calamity should in like manner be considered a
national one, and that a portion of the expenditure

should be defrayed by the State. It is not because
the Scotch proprietors have well and nobly dis-
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_ .
charged their duty, that they should be deserted by
the Executive ; on the "contrary, it is for that very

reason that every possible aid should be afforded and

he greatest assistance rendered. A just precedent

has been afforded by what has taken place in the

cases of the Irish landlords who applied for present-

ments under Mr. LABOUCHEPteS letter, and for

whom the time of repayment was extended to
twenty-two years, in place of ten ; as it was justty

considered that they should not be placed in a worse

footing than those who hung back, and did not exhibit