The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-01 00:00:00

cies in the vvay of the Government. They were al
avt are of the difficulties by which they were surrounded'
and even at the present moment it was with great relue-
tance that he differed from the Noble Lord,
the first Minister of the Crown. He opposed
site measures of the Noble Lord, the Metaber for Lynn,
fsr a siviilar object, and Ile telt bound to
.en t,
prLposti:on was Ites open to eiTetion than the pre- _
tor it was ()tie general in its nature, and not intended 10,
far cur one more than another. But the Bill prop
ose°
only to assist one or two railways at present el"
istence, wiihout having reference to any future schenr-i's:
It appeared to him 1.. he a course open to objection, tn
the Governnoett shoul.i select three railways, and r°
suer. to each ..f them, excluding every 1",1_
,ay that that
rail,vay compsny exseptieg such as might afterward:
entitle th, in:selves to aid by complying with the saw,
condo-toes a, those which procured similar advantage.•
for the three railway s that tvere originally
These were among the considerasions which indueftd.
him to hesitate in voting against the measure which-tn.!
Rit'ht Hon. Gentleman opposite had proposed to tng
House. In the year 1844. he, on the part of the Goverlr.
men:, had proposed that aid should be given to a raitrt
way company which had entitled itself to that suPe.,_
by being the first compel-11 that had established ash t.
way in tout country; and he felt that he „„ii. did e',
selected.
justice when lie, On the part Of thy Government,
an opinion to the Elf, ct that the company having el.
pleted and upend a certain portion of their line, and hs,_
ing so created fiid and ample security to be offered to tr
Government, did entitle their claim to be favouraili
be shoe.
Iconsidered by the Treasury, and he felt that
be bound, the circumstances being the same, to sclog
a similar course with r, gard to other railways of 31,1;j,,
de.;cription But the time and mode of the app"'Certata
tion would necessarily influence its extent.
of those railways declined to accept the proffered 81 by
they saw other railways paying 8 per cent., ands w'',
should the Government, if it lent any money wha(exl as
expreseo.
lend it so much below the market value of the pert bo
5 per cent? It was rather too hard that compact" lot
had previously declined the aid of the Goveriune b
should now come forward and solicit aid eta mtilyetta
lower rate of interest than that which at the time to
ordinarily paid. He did not overlook the fact tht_t!,
two other railways it was proposed to give 130,00ut.:
the sum was small, but the grant of it was wrong is
principle, unless they were prepared—if other railwil),
fulfilled the same conditions—to extend to curb rail
aid of a similar kind and proportionate amount. If t 5
refused to do that, they would lay themselves open 'nit
the charge of partiality and unfairness. But biro
weighed most on his mind, and chiefly disable:a for
from agreeing with his Hon. Friend the Meal— an
Birmingham—if from long acquaintance that Geodes:no
would allow himself' to be called his Hon. Friend'
the peculiar time at which the present proposition
the
tnade. Those were times of peculiar pressure
Bank of England had reduced its securities by
4,1
3,000,0001. ; that sudden and abrupt reduction
led to a panic unjustified by ' any considersP
Still,
which came within his knowledge, or -still,
could be supposed to have any real existence' art
since the proposition of the Noble Member for Licad
had been made to the House important events bad
0
occurred. Exchequer-bills, which previously were lod
premium, were now at a discount ; an increase et,
taken place in the interest on Exchequer. bills, and /we
notwithstanding that. they were at a discount, "%ea
from 2s. to 10s, Besides, a loan had been contras' ot.
for, and that loan was now at a discount of 3 PI °the
Under these circumstances, it would be Wit'u• -1
a wipe
greatest reluctance that he should interpose
word to interfere with the measures that Govererner'S
might take for the purpose of relieving the
urgencessities of the people of Ireland. In such $
t o,sei.
stt!cev.
things he did not care who might be in or out of ori.
He believed that, whoever might be in office, the WI..
nisters of the Crown ought to receive the general bad in
fidence of the House when the object which they hti"
~.
view was to preserve from famine the masses wit° c 0,41
stituted the population of Ireland ; and he could scar-
. blame them if to those particular railways that bad u;;;.
mentioned the Government had lent an attentive .0
could not, however, omit to observe, that to ;it,
labour on railways was not the way to relieve the sell,.
—the true p..licy of the railway contractor wes
it.°A set
ploy the best skilled labour ; and it certainly or'
tO the
appear to him that there would be much advantag-
° e
working classes in Ireland that the fathers 0' ;nwork
should be brought from Connaught to Munster to
railways when employment could be morea•
tageously given to them at home. On the whole,.
ways did not seem to him to be the most fulitcfr
mode of giving relief. All that applied with
to the plan of the Government. It was importan...in!'
Ireland as it was to every other country to IlnainTi.
public credit, and he did find it impossible to give
vote in favour of the Government plan. Perhaps
Chancellor of the Exchequer might say that be P'"
borrowed 8 000,000 t, that he had saved something or° •
public works, that soup kitchens had not proved so er
ef6elol°e!!.
t
pensive as he apprehended, that he had 620,000/. to •
spgr.-, and that he could not do better than apply it '"
the manner now proposed. This was reasoning to which
' he could by no means assent. If there was a sum,
620,0061. to spare, it would be much better to 01;1
thet
ttohainnertoeasaipnigily it
in balancesthem
intended it should be applied. Instead
manner
et hre
wEhxicehhetreer —Meer' s
Right Hon. Gentleman had that night argued, he should
' have strictly applied the surplus of 620,000/• to in-
crease the balances in the Exchequer ; and the House
, of Commons had had so much More expenditure to
provide for than they had expected, that they might
be supposed willing to listen to a demand for an ex-
penditure so much less than they had been led to expect
from the first demand; yet, because the House was
liberal, on that very account, he (Sir R. Peel)considered,
was the duty more incumbent upon them to applY anY
savings that might be in the Exchequer, not for the
crease, but for the diminution of the public liabilities.
If this money were to come out of the 8,000,000 L, which be
(Sir R. Peel) did not, understand on Wednesday night+
at
when he understood that it was not to come from th
source, but out of the Bank, as he thought had been
confidently stated, that would be a different question.
But, if it taifly appeared to the Chancellor of the En'
chequer that, finding difficulties he had not expete"
arising in the money market, and seeing that erryt
mode of relief was necessary to be adopted, he could no,e
go on with the measure for the reclamation of w"Ild
lands, not being able to meet the expenditure it pours.
involve, he (Sir R. Peel) did not blame the Right Hoo
Gentleman for abandoning that measure; he did
blame him at all for saying in days like these it was nrs
expedient to enter upon such an undertaking; thato,iu
any rate, he would not bring the measure forward.rti,.
session, but would at once withdraw it. That, he (SI.
•
Pct.° thought was a manly course to take, and he entirely
agreed with the Right lion. Gentleman in ado') glt •
The loan ought to be an advantage in which
nd mug
the United Kingdom should equally share,
hick Scot-
object to any loan from the Exchequer in w
land and the other portions of Great Britain did ti, •
participate.—(Hear, hear.) Why, he had been told 004
all parts or
so highly thought of was this railway in the south, eb
Ireland, that it did not depend for its support upon soul ash
shareholders, but that great English capitalists had OW"
forward, and invested large sums of money in the under -
taking. It' this Dublin and Cashel Railway did not be'
long to these needy and destitute shareholders, but if'
ti
did belong t" the men of substance, such as the Right
lion. Gentleman behind me—(Great laughter)--- .
Mr. HUDSON—I do not possess a single share
eh
tsosal holding
oi
that
a oft
if a
men share
lk
ei
PEEL—The Right Hon. Gentleman
a n
Sirl Irish s
ROBERTh railway.
•
bh
et.
tl.meantdeniesv prospects
pet
,0
n thean
rihsth Lailatvgeontib°:
gain—if these were the men- to
meaesfiutreed,phroepwosoeudld. alsknflounenweehdatby groundssuch ewason
at
iittihaen, non-resident in Ireland, but.goodgspecuclators ss 10
be found himself obliged to record his vote against the -
Government.—(Hear, hear.) With respect to the Odle;
subject of the debate, he thought he should lave be°,
enough, if a single Member for Birmingham had attacket
him; but a spur on each man was too muoh--(A laugh"
ihdeerPartesioent '
—but really he must say he thought this a very inar .
propriate occasion for entering on a general debate ort
the currency and the monetary concerns of the country
Mr. SPOONER—I did not begin it.
Sir R. PEEL resumed by observing that his lion'
Friend had sanctioned, by following, the example t
had been set Lim. His Hon. Friend represented tooei.'
peculiar doctrines which he had enunciated ; he rePre't,
sented a constituency who had the strongest feelings an
1.b...b.j..t in tho kingdom • and at least, if his lift
Friend had not begun this debate, he had lent his h.
authority to the continuation of it, and of course it 7. s:
not possible that he (Sir R. Peel) should acquiesce, Qt'
silence, in the doctrines that kis Hon. Friend hadl)-
forward. His Hon. Friend had made him a sort of r-ned
wise that it he (Sir R. Peel) would tell him what sp° pair
was, his lion. Friend would tell hie' who' his lion. .r
or any other banker who issued notes to the
when he said on • his note, "I promise to pre the 0"11"--1 end'
But then, when he proceeded to =awe, Ilie.tte-
said that he was an, insidious men--(411.1•%rc,f Arg- d 4
he could not trust his (Sir R. P t Peel s)
_Aged hunt as
But he wished to know, when any one prow— es ant-""
pub, st."-ses"..
holder of a bank-note, to pay him 51., what will' „,--enad at
what was intended by the promise to pay? rh;Con•
the Conquest, and at various other bans since 7.,'" 01 it
quest, might have varied in the quantiti of frm° tit,
represented, but it always had meant a detinit! %-;o3s
of the precious metals; it always, in fact, lis° to
weight. That waight might have varied from. dine
time, but at all times a pound had signified 111)..rn of
quantity of the precious metals. Since the reign
Queen Elizabeth the coin of the country might have u'lly •
defective, might lave been worn.—(Haar, betas'')Belintes'
one Hon. Memler would have nothing but 11;
—(Laughter)—nod another a worn coinage; anti ar,
were the great remedies for national disasters.—t ethe
hear.) But, since the reign of Elizabeth, though k
coin might hare been worn, the law have
ways been that the standard of value should
a definite weigh. The Hon. Gentleman said that •
;
Mr. Pitt had been asked in 1797, 46 What is _
pound?" and hid attempted to answer the questio:;
this nation woud have been lowered in the scale
nations—(Laugher)—and, with rather an anti-clinillit
the Hon. Crentientin went on to say, that he (Sir au
Peel) should not have been seated in the seat he tb
occupied. But, he begged to observe, that if anybadY
had said in 179; to Mr. Pitt, "Is it your intention f
have a paper ctrreitcy ?" Mr. Pitt would hale ssisTo
" God forbid ! Ido not intend any such thing." It
well known thatthe Bank Restriction Act was never 70
tended to last mere than three years;_ but the evil ws°,,
once departing tom a principle. Afterwards, eveti•nn4,#
Pitt could not caitrol the necessary tendency of thick:
What might hare been its effect in earning us the jeer;
of the war he would not discuss; but he would a
suffered most b., the inconvertible paper . Tbal •
that receivt.d the wages of labour. ..
?Jr. SPOONIR expressed dissent. -
Sir ROBE R I PEEL resumed--What were not ths
class the priuctial sufferers who received Oar not