The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-22 00:00:00

THE OU'N99.`
.LONDON, THITBSDAY_EVENING:

vernment, that he felt bound to support the mea-

sure.

Lord Jon RUSSELL regretted the defeat of the
eleven hours' clause, but he did not feel justified in
withdrawing his support from the Bill on that ac-
count, but as the ten hours' plan had never been
tried, he was not quite sure but that the House
might, in some future session, be called upon to re-
vise the course they had adopted.
Mr. ROEBUCK was surprised at the course adopted
by the Noble Lord.
The House then divided, when there appeared—
For the amendment
Against it
Majority
Mr. BROWNE then moved the clause of which he
had given notice, authorising lessees of steam or
water power to make a proportionate abatement in
their rent for the time during which they would be
deprived of the use of such power by the operation
of this Bill.
Mr. BROTRERTON supported the clause.
Mr. ROEBUCK considered that the Bill was sup-
ported by the agriculturists solely with a view to put
a thorn in the side of the manufacturers.
After a short conversation, the clause was with-
drawn, on the suggestion of Sir G. GREY and of Sir
R. PEEL.

Viscount EBRINGTON proposed a clause, excepting
adult women from the operation of the Act, which
was negatived without a division.
The NOBLE VISCOUNT then proposed a clause
enacting that none but medical practitioners should
he appointed inspectors under the Act. This clause
was likewise negatived.
Mr. LEADER moved a clause empowering manu-
facturers to make up time lost by injury to the ma-
chinery at the rate of one hour per day.
Mr. BRIGHT seconded the motion, which, after a
short discussion, was lost by a majority of 63 ; the
numbers being—for the clause 31, against it 94.
The report was then received, and the Bill ordered
to be read a third time on Friday, on the understand-
ing that a day should be fixed on which the debate
on the third reading should come on.
The Naval Prisons Bill passed through Committee,
after a short discussion, and the report was ordered
to be brought up on Friday.
Lord GEORGE BENTINCK withdrew his motion for
copies of the correspondence between the Foreign-
office and the Governments of Spain and Portugal,
on the subject of the arrears of pay due from the
former country to the British Legion, and on the
arrears of military pensions due from the latter
country to the Duke of WELLINGTON and Viscount
BERESFORD.
The House adjourned at Six o'clock.

Happily for the character of Parliament the long-
delayed, long-agitated, and long-desired measure for
a diminution in factory labour cannot continue inde-
finitely before the Legislature. As in all sublunary
matters, there must ultimately be a termination to the
1 discussion upon Mr. FIELD EN'S Bill. Even the
question of preference between ten and
eleven hours daily occupation must, in the
end, be settled. But that Experience assures
us that no Parliamentary consideration can
acquire fur itself a perennial freshness, that it cannot
he fanned into immortality as by the breezes of the
island of CALYPSO, we should be disposed to date
the Royal sanction of the Bill (which is so perti-
naciously squabbled over on Wednesday mornings) at
the Greek Kalends—certainly not before ! Hap-
pily, however, Time is perpetually gleaning
both after the harvests of human mortality and the
harvests of legislative mortality. The waifs and
strays of our senatorial dilatoriness are gathered up
in their allotted season. So must it some time be
with the Factory Bill—even with the Factory Bill!
The very garrulous opposition which has
been excited against the propositions of Mr.
FIELDEN are absolutely becoming intolerably
tedious. Yesterday afternoon the Hon. and Learned
Gentleman, the Member for Bath, explained in some
measure, the origin of this opposition ; he stigma-
tised the scheme then submitted to the deliberation
of the House as a species of punishment inflicted
upon the manufacturers by the agriculturists—as,
in short, an invidious compensation for the accept-
ance of the free-trade principles! That then is
the delusion, that is the hobgoblin, that is the
4pectral monstrosity which has affrighted the
susceptible imaginations of so many honourable
1 Represesentatives. Why, now that the "mur-
-1 der is out," the apprehensions entertained for
so long a period may be very readily dissipated. The
terrible phantom which has appalled so many
stalwart gentlemen may be as easily shown
to be a silly device as the veriest village ghost may
be proved, on inspection, to be a turnip, a rushlight, ,
and a sheet !

Never was a really philanthropic measure so
monstrously traduced as this measure for the eman-
cipation of the over-worked and neglected factory
Artizans! A plan that has originated in the purest
and loftiest benevolence is stigmatised as the offspring
of rancorous animosity and pitiful spite. Accord-
ing to Mr. ROEBUCK, that battle of High Principle,
which has for several years been eliciting the admi-
ration of the GoD-adoring and Man-loving multitude,
is in reality nothing better than a Faction Fight!
According to the hypothesis of Mr. B. ESCOTT, Lord
ASHLEY is—notwithstanding his partiality for the late
anti-corn-law agitation—an unconscious implement
for ensuring revenge to the Protectionists. Accord-
ing to the suppositions uttered yesterday in the
(louse of Commons, her MAJESTY'S Ministers
are very innocently, but very energetically, carry-
ing into effect the invidious projects of Lord
GEORGE BENTINCK and his followers. Deluded
Lord JOHN RUSSELL ! benighted Privy Conn-
‘;illors! deceived Commissioner of her MAJESTY'S
Woods and Forests! are you then, out of the very
plenitude of your charity towards the suffering
children in the manufacturing districts, degenerating
into the tools of your bitterest antagonists, of the
lovers of a fiscal bondage, of the so-called, and satiri-
cally so-called Country Party ? Alas! for the pit-
fals and quagmires of political ambition
But, seriously and solemnly, it is maintained that
the Ten Hours' Factory Bill is nothing more than a
retalliation for the triumph of free trade, and most
seriously and most solemnly we aver that never was
any true struggle in the cause of humanity so shame-
fully and causelessly traduced. As well might we
designate the charitable labours of him who is com-
monly called ST. VINCENT DE PAUL as efforts for
the destruction of all pedlars and costermongers ; as
well might we distort into the patronage of im-
morality the immaculate sentiments uttered by
HOWARD to the inmates of foreign dungeons.
Despite these absurd misrepresentations, however,
the Bill introduced by Mr. FIELDEN has progressed
another stage. In the teeth of a virulent animosity
it has advanced through the ordeal of Committee—it
has passed unscathed over the burning ploughshares
of amendments and cavilled-clauses. On Friday
evening it is to be revived for the third reading, con-
ditionally—in other words, the third reading will
then come on, with the understanding that it will be
postponed for another occasion. By this quibbling
procrastination the discussions have been spread over
a gnat multitude of hours already ; yet, thanks to
the innate goodness and vitality of the principle at

stake, there has been no escape through any one of
the thousand loopholes to reach which its opponents
have striven so perpetually. The numerous
obstacles which the Bill has already conquered form
to us a guarantee that it must ultimately prove
victorious !

A very interesting discus ion took place last night
in the House of Commons in Committee on the Naval
Prisons Bill, of which the object is to substitute im-
prisonment for corporal punishment in cases where
naval officers are at present empowered to inflict the
latter without the intervention of a court-martial. To
invest officers with this alternative would be at once
a wise and humane act on the part of the Legisla-
tpuorwe ,e
rand o
wwe
proposed have t
n o do
boeu ht
giventhat
wt
hhoeeurl i sld bcier e taicocneaprt,y.
able to the commandersof
ships.
Heretofore the officers, whose first duty sisTts
maintain an efficient state of discipline, have felto
themselves compelled to resort to corporal punishment
because they have not had the power in their own'
hands, nor have there been available means, for com.
mitting the refractory seaman to prison. And thus
happened, that an excellent and
iL has frequentlymaneofficer,who has only faithfully discharged

his duty to his SOVERED3H, has had his character for
benevolence wantonly impeached, simply in con-
sequence of the defective and indiscriminately limited
system of regulations which has hitherto prevailed
for the suppression of naval offences. The Admiralty
are, therefore, entitled to great praise for having in-
troduced the measure in question. It is a proof of the
earnest desire by which they are animated to do all
in their power to redress the grievances which have
been reasonably complained of, both before and since
their accession to office ; and that these have not been
light cannot be questioned. Captain PECHELL, him-
self a naval officer, yesterday acknowledged, in the
House of Commons, " his wonder how the sailor
formerly bore the grievances to which he was sub-
ject." The sentence of imprisonment in solitary con-
finement for 28 days, which it is intended to authorise
commanders to pass, can not be carried into effect, unless
it be first approved of in writing by the chief com-
manding officer at the port, place, or station where
the ship to which the offender belongs may happen to
be. This is a proper check and commendable
guarantee for securing the sailor against the exercise
of undue severity, or unjust treatment. Whether
this provision should not be hereafter enlarged, so as
to protect the accused against imprisonment unless
sanctioned by a court-martial, is a point which will
fairly admit of future consideration. The Admiralty
have a great responsibility, and whilst they are pro-
ceeding in a right direction, and making benevolent
experiments in accordance with the public feeling,
we think they are to be praised for framing their mea-
sures with due caution. Too precipitate a relaxa-
tion of power, in the first instance, might have
the effect of defeating the very object which we
believe is entertained by the Admiralty, in common
with the most philanthropic of the nation at large,
that of improving the general condition of all the
subordinate ranks in the navy, and of removing, as
speedily as possible, the various causes which have
hitherto rendered a severity of punishment indis-
pensable. We certainly deem it desirable that naval
and military punishments should be assimilated as
closely as may be feasible, and we except altogether
to the practice of the lash being applied, as it now iss
with greater severity to the body of the sailor than
to that of the soldier. There should be no difference
in the cat•o'-nine-tails in either service; neither do
we see why the instrument should be wielded by
a powerful boatswain in the navy, when, in the army,
it is placed in the hands of a drummer. If the ser•
vices of a boy are sufficient in the one case, they
ought to be considered equally so in the other. At
any rate, were there to be no difference permitted in
the severity of the lash, naval or military, it would
scarcely, we presume, be contended that the services
of a boatswain in the navy, and of those of a boy in
the army, would be justified by any assumed differ-
ence in the relative physical strength of the sailor com-
pared with that of the soldier. Other matters were
elicited in the course of the debate which redound to
the credit of the Admiralty. As soon as ever the
public finances will admit of it, they intend
to increase the pay of the petty officers, and likewise
to introduce some honorary distinction. They have

also in contemplation t) give rewards to sergeants
of marines, whose services for the preservation of
discipline received from the Secretary of the Ad-
miralty a just tribute of admiration. Altogether, it
is manifest that the present Lords of the Admiralty
are not men who hold out expectations to the public
which they suffer to sink into oblivion with the ter-
mination of a debate in St. Stephen's. The country
will feel grateful for the zeal and activity with which
they have applied their minds to the important duties
incidental to their high office.

There are few persons who are at all acquainted
with public affairs, or were in the habit of reading the
public journals some fifteen years since, who must
not have fully in their recollection the daily accounts
of tumultuous assemblies, and too frequently of san-
guinary conflicts taking place in Ireland, occasioned
by the attempts then made by the titheowners of
that country to collect the compositions established
in lieu of tithe from the occupiers of land. What was
termed a passive resistance was organised. No farmer
or cottier paid the portion chargeable on his holding,
without, in the first instance, opposing the recovery
of the demand in every manner possible. Every de-
lay permitted by the law was interposed ; every
means of opposition that legal ingenuity could devise
no matter how vexatious or expensive it might be to
the parties, was bad recourse to before a decree or
order could be obtained ; all the machinery of the
law was brought into operation by the litigants on
either side. No tribunal throughout the land, from
the highest to the lowest, from the Court of Cnancery
to the magistrates at petit sessions, was
free from tithe cases. Bills were filed in
Chancery and in the Equity Exchequer.—
proceedings instituted and nisi prius records made
up from the common law courts—processes before
the assistant barrister at quarter sessions, and sum-
monses at petit sessions, were all in turn adopted,
and in almost every instance successful in obtaining
favourable decisions for the plaintiffs. But that
which usually terminated the difficulties of creditors
in ordinary cases proved, in these instances, but the
very beginning of their trouble. The payments could
not be enforced by any power that could be made use
of. If a small party attempted to take the
goods of the debtor they were beaten off
and compelled to relinquish their seizure, and fre-
quently considerably injured by the assailants. If a
larger force was employed, and the aid of the civil
power invoked, blood was shed either on the side of the
police:or the people—the enforcers or the opponents of
the law. Gortroe, Carrickshock, and many other
places obtained an infamous celebrity for the fearful
scenes enacted, and numerous widows and orphans
had to lament the loss of their protectors, whose

lives were sacrificed, and who became the
victims of the state of demoralisation and
opposition to the law, so universal throughout the
island. The military were called in many instances,
the troops in addition to their ordinary duties were
converted into tithe proctors and bailiffs, to compel
submission to the law. Captions were effected and
triumphantly borne to the neighbouring towns, and
there offered for sale by public auction, in order to
realise the amount of the debt and costs, but the result
was scarcely more favourable for the claimants. True
it was that the overwhelming force employed
prevented the assembled multitudes from using open
violence, or attempting the rescue of the goods by the
strong hand ; but thousands flocked in from every
side of the country, and with folded arms and lower-
ing brows regarded the progress of the sale, and
curses both loud and deep were uttered against every
person participating in the proceedings. Bidders
could not be obtained on any terms ; fat cattle were
knocked down and sold for as many pence as
they were worth pounds, but they had previously
been branded so as to indicate that they had been
sold for the payment of the obnoxious demands, and
the purchaser could not avail himself of his bargain,
or make it in any degree useful, for it was followed
from place to place, and looked upon as something
unholy, to call down the vengeance of Heaven on its
possessor ; while he himself, in his person and pro-
perty, was made to expiate the offence he had com-
mitted in at all meddling. He could not safely show
himself at fair or market; his house and the produce
of his farm were consumed by the acts of incen-
diaries, his cattle houghed or butchered in his fields,
and everything belonging to him devoted to destruc-
tion.

In the meantime the persons who were dependent
on the colle2tion of the tithe composition for the
means of livelihood were reduced to the greatest dis-
tress. Not only were their usual and ordinary sup-
plies withdrawn, but they were further impo-
verished, by being obliged to defray the legal
expenses of the proceedings they had insti-
tuted. Parliament came to their assistance, a loan
of one million pounds sterling was first voted on their
behalf, which was subsequently converted into a gift
from the State to those whose legal rights it was un-

able, with all its power, to enforce, and Parliament
acknowledged that all its authority was set at nought
by the wide-spread, the universal organization and

resistance. The titheowner was compelled to sur-
render a certain portion of his income, in order
to obtain payment of the residue. A bonus of 25

per cent. was given to the landlords, in order
to induce them to take upon themselves the liability
for the balance, and the Act was passed for the abo-
lition of compositions in lieu of tithe and the substi-
tution of s rent-charge in plus thereof. By that

statute the rent-charge was made • a lien upon the
lands, and the owner of the first estate of inheritance
was made responsible therefor, while in the event of
non-payment a summary jurisdiction was given to
the courts of equity to grant a receiver over the
rents, issues, and profits of the lands liable for the
payment ; from thenceforward there has been no pay-
ment of any kind of demand in Ireland made with
such regularity and punctuality as that which
could not previously, by any means, be enforced
or obtained.

The clause in the Poor-law Bill which was
proposed by Lord GEORGE BEN TINCK in the
Commons, and rejected only by a majority of
three, and which will again be brought forward
in the Lords, if made part and parcel of the Act,
will occasion a renewal of the scenes of 1832,
and the subsequent years, and practically render the
law inoperative and inefficacious. The occupying
tenants will believe, and with reason, that they
are treated with injustice that the entire
burden is shifted from the shoulders of the
landowners to their own. By the law as it now
stands they are entitled to deduct from their rents a
certain proportion of the rate, and by a wise regula-
tion that deduction is in the inverse proportion to the
rent they pay. If that is a rack rent higher than the
poor-law valuation, the chief portion falls on the
landlord—if very low, on the tenant. He is, in fact,
entitled to deduct a moiety of the rate per pound
from every pound of rent he pays. If no such al-
lowance should be made from this time forth,
nothing could eonvince the occupier that
he was not seriously aggrieved, and passive
resistance would again be introduced by a people,
who from their former triumph were made acquainted
with their real power. It is incumbent, therefore,
on all friends of the measure to oppose the introduc-
tion of the clause to the uttermost, for, if carried, it
will render the entire enactment worse than useless,
and occasion the greatest confusion and disturbance
in the land it is intended to benefit.

Accounts from Rome state that Don ENRIQUE, on
his arrival there, "demanded an audience of the POPE,
who, in reply, desired that he should be presented by
the Spanish Ambassador; but as this functionary had
made pretension to being present at every audience,
the PRINCE declared that he could not admit of any
witness to any conscientious intercourse that might
take place between him and the Sovereign Pontiff.
Consequently, he announced his intention of address-
ing his Holiness directly, the first time he met him in
public."

A Berlin letter of the 15th states that the pro-
posed Address, in answer to the KING'S speech, was
read at that day's sitting of the States-General, and
immediately taken into consideration. The terms
are said to be rather violent, and if the Address were
voted without modification, it would probably lead
to unfortunate consequences. Therefore, Count
D'ARNIM, late Minister of the Interior, wishing to
prevent all conflict between the SOVEREIGN and the
States, proposed, in a speech which had great effect,
an amendment, which appeared to be favourably
received by the majority of the Assembly. The
amendment maintains the same sentiments, but in
more temperate language. The debate was expected
to last two days at the least.
The Cologne Gazette., states that the Prussian
Cabinet has decided on not renewing the navigation
treaty of 2d March, 1841, between the Zollverein
and England, which is about to terminate. The
southern states of Germany objected to the treaty
being discontinued on account of the effect it would
have on the importation of sugar ; but the Zollverein
states were unanimous in resolving that it should not
be renewed in its present form. The Cologne Gazette
adds, that the dispatches directing the cessation of
the treaty were sent to London last week.

Madrid journals of the 14th have arrived.

The QUEEN attended a bull-fight on Monday, and,
notwithstanding the bando of the Political Chief, was
greeted with loud vivas on her appearance.

The Ministers have introduced into the Senate a
Bill of Indemnity for having banished AVIRANETA and
Caico to Alicant and Almeira. The Minister of the
Interior, who introduced the measure, declared that
he had no moral doubt of their guilt. The Bill
authorising the Ministry to collect the taxes has
passed the Senate by a large majority.
Senor OLOZAGA, who has taken his seat in the
Chamber, had solicited an audience of the QUEEN, in
order personally to thank her MAJESTY for having
permitted him to return to Spain.
The Clamor Public° publishes a memorial ad-
dressed to her MAJESTY by MENDIZABAL, CORTLNA,
MADOZ, and GOMEZ DE LA SERNA, praying that
Generals IRIARTE, LINAGE, RODIL, CAPAZ, and
SANTA CRUZ may be permitted to return to Spain.
The Spanish Government has not received any
official account of the landing of any English troops
in Portugal to protect the QUEEN.

The Tiempo states that the negotiations between
Spain and the Papal See are going on very favourably,
and there is every reason to hope that they will be
speedily terminated satisfactorily.
MADRID BOLSA, Aram 14.--Three per Cents.
•
32 money, 3?+ paper; Five per Cents. 20i money;
Debt without interest 5 money, 6e paper; Coupons
17 money, 17i paper.

We have received the Paris papers of Tuesday.

The debate on the motion of M. REMUSAT for ea•
eluding placemen from the Chamber of Deputies still
continued, and was the subject of comment in all the

papers.

On Monday there was a riot of a somewhat serious
character at the College de France. The Minister of
Public Instruction, M. SALVANDY, had, in pursuance
of the reactionary plan which he has long been
steadily carrying out, forbidden M. QUINET, the
great opponent of the Jesuits, from con-
firming his lectures on the literature of
Southern Europe. In these lectures M. QUINET had
exposed the intrigues and doctrines of the Jesuits,
and it was doubtless at the instigation of that body
that M. SALVANDY issued his prohibition. On Mon-
day M. QUINET presentel M. Duxus HINART as his
substitute. The pupils, considering M. DUMAS
HINART as a mere tool of the parti-pretre, refused
to listen to him, and at length compelled him to re-
tire. It certainly is strange that M. GUIZOT, with
all his experience, should abet M. SALVANDY, in
his absurd crusade against the University. Has M.
GUIZOT forgotten the days of the MiniAtere deplorable,
when he himself was forbidden to lecture ? Has he
forgotten the triumph of his restoration to the pro-
fessor's chair under the Martignac Ministry—a I

triumph which led ultimately to his attaining his
present high position ? But perhaps M. GUIZOT is
anxious that M. QUINET too should become a Member
of the Chamber and a Minister of the State—if so, he
cannot do better than aid M. SALVANDT in these pro-
ceedings.