The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-29 00:00:00

timitil% (*nu.

LONDON. THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 1847.

.
Among the many evils by which
the Social
tion of Ireland is affected, the prosperity "rld '-
of the
island deteriorated, improvements retarded, and
national resources diminished, the embarrassedstthte
e
of the landed proprietors throughout the kingdom
may be considered as one of the most obvious ; con-
siderable portions of the rental of the different estates
belong not to the nominal owners, but to the mort-
gagees and encumbrancers, who have charges affecting
their lands. Those persons, although receiving so
large a proportion of the produce of the land, have
no interest whatsoever in its permanent improvement,
or in the welfare of the tenantry. Provided their
interest money is punctually and regularly paid, they
care not whether the farms are let at a rack-rent,whether
they are properly cultivated and brought into the
highest state of fertility, or suffered to remain com-
paratively waste and unproductive, without yielding
half the produce that could be obtained under a better
system of husbandry ; whether they are inhabited
by thriving and industrious occupiers, or crowded

with a dense body of paupers, wallowing in filth and •
misery. They cannot be benefited if the produce
should he quadrupled by a judicious expenditure;
and, generally speaking, they take care that a suffi-
cient surplus shall be left to cover any loss that may
be sustained by the scantiness of the harvest or the
failure of the tenantry, so that as they cannot be
benefited by the prosperity, they cannot be injured by
the poverty of the district. In the most propitious
seasons they cannot hope to receive more than the in-
terest on their demand. They will not receive less in the
most adverse. They cannot be called upon to contribute
to the poor-rate, no matter how heavily it may press
on the industry of the country. They will not,
therefore, exert themselves to provide useful occupa-
tion for the able-bodied peasant—to direct the vast
amount of unemployed labour into profitable sources,
by which it might be made to contribute to, and in-
crease, the national wealth, in place of being a heavy
burden thereon—to enable the people to become pro-
ducers in place of unproductive consumers thereof.
Mint those encumbrancers will not, the em-
barrassed owner is unable to effect. Under
any circumstances, he must, before he can apply
a single shilling to his own wants or exigencies, make
provision for the payment of the interest money. He
may call the estate his own, but the chief part of the
income goes into other hands. He is little more than
an agent to collect and distribute the rents. If there
is any failure on his part he is involved in litigation,
subjected to heavy costs, and perhaps the estate put
into Chancery. He would, in many instances, gladly
sell his property, if in his power to do so ; but he is
deterred from such a course, not merely from feelings
of pride and an unwillingness to part with a pro-
perty that had remained in his family for many
years, but chiefly on account of the ruinous expenses
attendant on the sale, and the preliminary legal
charges and delays. Anything calculated to dimi-
nish those charges, and to shorten the period of
bringing encumbered estates to the hammer, will
therefore be hailed as a valuable boon by both
debtors and creditors, and will be highly beneficial to
the kingdom in general.
The Bill introduced into the House of Lords by the
Lord Chancellor, and which was read a second time en
Tuesday night,: is intended to attain this importan
object. It was, mirabile dicta, received with the mos
perfect unanimity. Every one admitted the impor.
tance and pressing necessity for some such enac

ments. The grievance is too manifest to admit of
any controversy or doubt as to its existence. Great
caution, however, is necessary as to the details, to
guard against the possibility of any injury being done,
either to those having present or prospective interests.
Until the year 1843, it was necessary, in filing a bill
for the sale of an encumbered estate in Ireland,
to bring every person interested in the
subject-matter of the suit before the court,
either as plaintiff or defendant. Although he might
be only entitled to a small charge affecting the pro-

perty, he was compelled to put in an answer,
and to go to considerable expense, all of which
ultimately fell on the inheritor. In that year con-

siderable amelioration was effected in the practice or
the court by the new orders then introduced, by
which, when no account, payment, conveyance, or
other direct relief was sought against a party, it was
not necessary to compel such party to appear and
answer the bill; he was to be served with
a notice, stating the names of the parties
in the cause and the object of the suit, so far as he
was concerned, and was at liberty to inspect a copy
of the bill in the hands of the plaintiff's solicitor ;

he was at liberty to answer in the ordinary manner,
if he thought proper to risk the costs that would be
occasions ethereby. If he did so unnecessarily, and
if he did not appear, he was bound by all the pro-

ceedings in the cause. A great saving was effected
by this judicious regulation, without the slightest
injury being sustained by any one whatsoever.

The present measure goes still further, and
establishes a new and most important prin-
ciple. It enables the parties interested to apply
by petition to the Lord Chancellor, stating
the nature of the encumbrance, and praying
that the case should be referred to one of the Masters
to inquire into the whole circumstances, having, if
necessary, all parties before him. The Master is to
be enabled to report that the estate should be sold and
the, money paid into court, and that from thence-

forward all litigation is to take place with
respect to the money and not to the estate.

It is impossible to estimate too highly the
value of this enactment. It will prevent es-
tates from being locked up for years in Chan-
cery, to the serious injury of all parties. It
will speedily substitute a solvent and healthy pro-
prietary for the embarrassed and impoverished per-
sons who are unable to discharge the duties incidental
to the possession of their properties. It will afford

the greatest stimulus to the industry of the country,
and tend to the full development of its resources. It
will eventually lead to what may be termed a free
trade in land itself, the advantages of which have

been so ably and fully detailed -by Mr. STEWART,
the eminent conveyancer, in the addresses which he

directed to the members of agricultural societies, and
_ _

others, in the latter end of last year ; and in propor-
tion to the facility and cheapness of disposing of
land will be the increased desire to acquire its
possession, and the consequent improvement of its
value in the market.

An extraordinary alteration in the system of im-
pressment for the naval service has just been brought
under the consideration of the House of Commons by
Sir CHARLES NAPIER. Any reasonable change in an
arrangement at present so ineffective, so protracted,
and so preposterously expensive as the present, would
be welcome ; but in the one proposed by the Gallant
Admiral the Member for Ilarylebone we discern
advantages which demand especial recapitulation, and
which, if carried into operation by the Legislature,
must redound to the credit of Parliament, and sustain
the interests of the community. Now that provisions
are made for manning the mercantile marine with
' comparative economy, and with a tolerable degree of
dispatch, it is but just to anticipate the passage of
some measure which shall ensure the same con-
veniences to the Royal Navy. Are those vessels which
tend to enhance our commercial prosperity to receive
a greater amount of benefit, from the careful super-
vision of the Government, than those vessels which
are the sureties of our national safety ? Is it pru-
dent to look rather to the extension of our re-
sources than to their preservation ? to foster a pre-
dilection for barter at the expense of the acknow-
ledged safeguards of the empire ? to deteriorate the
means of defence for the sake of encouraging the
facilities of trading ? Such a one-sided distribution
of attention is assuredly calculated to destroy the
proper balance of power and the requisite proportion-
ing of energy.
The differences traceable between the two ser-
vices, the naval and mercantile, in regard to their
numerical strength and tonnage are not
more remarkable than the differences visible
in reference to the manning of their vessels. While
in the mercantile marine there may be enumerated
so many ships above one hundred tons burden, that
their aggregate comprises 189,569 tons, and so many
under that rate that their aggregate exceeds 1450,000
tons, and so many registered steam-vessels, again, that
their aggregate comprises /3,838 tons—in the naval
service there are a hundred sail of the line, with a
proportionate number of frigates and smaller vessels,
and somewhere about 150 steam-ships, capable of
employment in war. That is the difference percep-
ti'sle between the two services in reference to their total
capacities. But the advantages secured to the mercantile
marine in the arrangement of the plans of impress-
ment are immeasurably more remarkable. They aflizd
boarrydinducement to the able-bodied mariner to seek
eve •
at
ohnfe- man-of r
endanger: by
employment in the merchant service rather than on
attraction they at
he
interests spasmodic reversalofm e ther ee
ifnromeastehseir mercangteilnecy' by luring the seamen
employers by extraordinary
bounties. A sum is3 thereby drainedoo l
I s. the
, required.
to 400,0001.
there
Exchequer varying from
for every 2,000 or 3,000 men
(
not something marvellously incongruousl ed.
this—a linking together of a niggvoi in all
y ision
and a profligate expenditure ? Absolutely,prov there is
scarcely a preference between this blundering con-
trivance and the old, tyrannical, brutalising, insane,
and cruel system of impressment.
Sir CHARLES NAPIER very happily instanced the
brutality, the insanity, the tyranny, and the cruelty

of forci)le impressment, by a rt,tniniscence of the
times when he was tlycatigster. The Gallant Admiral
mentioned that when a reefer at the blockade of Bou-
logne he was dispatched by his superior officer to press
the men aboard a vessel ~f 800 tons. On picking
ten or fourteen out of the crew, the whole comple-
ment turned below, and comforted themselves, ac-
cording to the lion. Representative tor Marylebone,
with such a " regular jollification," that on again
making their appearance on deck there were scarcely
half•a-dosen individuals among them hut were in-
toxicated. It is not, however, in solitary instances
that the abhorred system we allude to is shown to be
fallacious in its operation, and unconstitutional in its
practice.
But the proposition of Sir CHARLES NAPIER would
tend in a very great measure to diminish the
evils arising from the ancient custom, and those
arising from more recent mal-administration.
The amendment proposed by that Gallant Officer is,
that her MAJESTY shall, at any time, whether in peace
or war, by proclamation, call out whatever seamen
may be required—these seamen being called in ro-
tation, according to the period in which they had been
released from their apprenticeship. By that gradu-
ated arrangement large sums of money would be
saved to the Exchequer, forcible impressment would
become scarcely ever necessary, and the complements
of every vessel in the Royal Navy might be mustered
without the usual disastrous procrastination. Sir C.
NAPIER, at the very least, is acting wisely in agi-
tating this matter before Parliament.

If ever there was a measure introduced into Parlia-
ment entitled to public approval, both for the object
for which it has been framed and for the machinery
by which it is proposed to be carried out, it is Lord
MOUPETH'S Health of Towns Bill. Nevertheless this
measure has been already attacked by isolated
bodies in terms of undeserved reprobation. The
people at large, and especially the: poorer classes, for
whom in particular the Bill is calculated to produce
the greatest benefits, as regards their future cleanli-
ness, comfort, happiness, and morality, cannot be
roused into any show of resistance to this scheme of
sanatory reform. Indeed, any appeal to the humblest
ranks of the population for a collective remonstrance
against the proposal of the Government would end in
certain failure; for their present physical condition
in all crowded districts is such that they would
readily furnish the appellants with the practical
answer that no change could injure them, whilst the
probability was that it would be found to result to
their advantage. Moreover, if they were to be truly
informed of the intrinsic merits and benevolent ten-
dency of Lord Moarvrit's Bill, they would
lose no time in pouring in their petitions
to both Houses of the Legislature to give
their sanction to the measure with the utmost
promptitude. But, as we have before observed, the
attempt of the Government to minister to the con-
servation of the public health has been subjected to a
degree of vituperation quite undeserved, under the
mistaken idea that it would unduly interfere with the
principles of local self-government. Corporate autho-
rities and parochial authorities have assembled in
various districts to protest against any interference
with their rights—rights which, as far as regards the
adoption of sanatory measures, may be considered as
almost forfeited for non-usor. The truth is, that
the public ends, to be compassed by the sanatory
measure in question, cannot be obtained without
some general controlling power, and, consistently
with this necessity, never was the principle of local
government more scrupulously regarded than it has
been in this instance. But, supposing the existence of
a general central authority to be unnecessary,
for the purposes contemplated, then may Lord MOI-
PET}I.B Bill be fairly regarded as a vote of censure
upon those who hare hitherto undertaken to act in
furtherance of the public health ; for, by their own
admission, they have left undone things that they
ought to have done., The parochial authorities will
still continue to exercise the chief practical influence
in all matters of a sanatory measure,.especially in all
corporate towns. We are certain that the opposition
to the Health of Towns Bill will be as short-lived as
it will be futile.

Madrid journals of the 20th and the 21st have
arrived.

The Committee of the Chamber have reported un•
favourably on the Government measure for the
liquidation of the Treasury bonds, and their conver-
sion into three per cent. annuities. A warm discus-
sion is expected in the Chamber, and should the
Ministry be beat, they will, it is said, go out, and
Senor OLOZAGA, who has had another audience of the
QUEEN, will be commissioned to form a Ministry.
General SERRANO has returned to his command, by
order of the Government. General RONCALI having
refused to accept the Captain-Generalship of Gallicia,
it has been conferred on General Vico.

MADRID BOLSA, APRIL 21.—The Three per Cents.
31 ; Fives, 20 ; Exchange on London, 49 75.

We have received the Paris papers of Sunday.
The position of the Ministers is by no means satis-
factory to themselves. The independent Conserva-
tives seem inclined to thwart them by adopt-
ing the annoying Stanley system of obstruction,
and avoiding anything like a direct trial of strength.
The Commerce says—

" We are assured that the independent Conservatives
are determined to make no demonstration in the discus-
sion relative to the demand of the secret service money.
In this decision there is a tact imposed on the party
which desires to regenerate the majority without sepa-
rating from it. They fear, that in voting against the
Ministry on a question of confidence, they would take
with respect to it another attitude than that of friendship,
which is only importunate for good intentions. The
ardour of some independent Conservatives, however,
will have difficulty in restraining itself in the way of re-
forms. Some friends of M. de Castellane, M. E. de Gi-
rardin, M. Sallandrouze, &c., are spoken of as feeling
tempted again to prove the vitality of their political
pretensions. But the party, if it cannot succeed in im-
posing silence upon them, will not follow them. Thus
the Ministry, which, with 195 functionaries, only ob-
tained a relative majority of 49 votes, on the question of
incompatibilities, will probably obtain, on the ♦ote of
the secret service money, its great majority of the first
days of the session. But, notwithstanding this respite,
the Ministry is by no means without alarm. It delibe-
rates, it is affirmed, on the question whether it would be
better to declare open war against the independent Con-
servati►es, and exclude them from the ranks of the ma-
jority, or enter into a compromise with them, which
shall give temporary satisfaction to their progressive
ideas."

The following article from La Presse (the organ of
the independent Conservatives), in reply to the article
of the DEbats on the submission of the Kabyles,
shows how wide is the gulf which now separates the
two portions into which the majority is split:—
" The submission of the Kabylians of the Jurjura, of
which the Government received iatelligence on Saturday
by telegraph, was yesterday the subject of a pompous
article in the Journal des Debats, in which it says it is
but justice to do honour to Marshal Bugeaud for this
unhoped-for result. For our own part, we must confess
that we cannot comprehend the justice of doing honour
to Marshal Bugeaud for a result which he so little fore-
saw, that only a month ago he wished to go with a
strong force and make a military promenade in Kabylia,
in order to give the Kabyles a taste of the French gun-
powder."

After alluding to the opposition which it has offered
for the last five years to the Bugeaud sytem, the
Presse makes the following attack on the Ministry:—
" If we had firm and vigilant Ministers, not sacrificing
to subaltern considerations and to the sentiments of in-
dividuals the great and general interests of the country,
the submission of the liabyles on the very day after
Marshal Bugeaud expressed his wish to be allowed to
make war upon them is a fact that would have com-
pletely opened their eyes, and instead of complaisantly
praising Marshal Bugeaud they would have recalled
him. Is it not clearly proven that they entertain the
idea of preserving such a state of things in Algeria
solely to warrant their keeping up an army of 100,000
men, justifying, if the expression is applicable, the pro-
motions which are there so prodigally made to the pre-
judice of the greater body of the army? But the pro•
longation of such a state of things is so contrary to
nature that it is in vain that they seek for war; it is
peace which comes. If they are afraid of Marshal
Bugeaud, let them, on condition of his returning to
France, give him a civil list equal to that granted to the
King; let them give him 12,000,0001. per annum, and
the country will gain the difference between that sum
and what will be so uselessly expended in Africa."
The National has an article on the same subject, in
which it takes a similar view of the question, but it is
not nearly so severe on the Ministry as is their
quondam supporter, the Presse.

. •
The Commerce, in an article on Portuguese affairs,
asks, in allusion to the alleged settlement, consisting,
as it does, of a mere revocation on the part of the
QUEEN, of her own illegal acts—" Who will again
guarantee the charter, the Cortes, the constitutional
institutions, against this Absolutist Court, whose ill-
will, always continued, will be augmented by the re-
sentment caused by the necessity of accepting a forced