The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-21 00:00:00

unions with the same number of relieving officers as
other unions? _

Sir GEORGE GREY said that the Poor-law
Commissioners would doubtless exercise a sound
discretion in the enforcement of the provisions of the
law.
INACCURATE GOVERNMENT RETURNS.
Lord G. BENTINCK rose to call the attention of
the House to a return for which he moved on the
23d November last. It was headed steam-vessels. A
return ordered of the number and tonnage of British
steam-vessels, and so forth, which had traded between
Holland, Belgium, and France, and also the number
of men by whom the same were manned. Now, with
respect to every one of these matters the officers had
disobeyed the orders of the House. He was well
aware that this was no fault of Hon. Gentlemen who
sat opposite ; but the fact was, that the return was
altogether calculated to deceive the House. It failed
to give the number of ships, the number of men, and
the amount of tonnage. He had himself added up
the number of ships, the number of men, and the
tonnage, and the result was 90 steam-vessels, manned
by 1,369, and measuring 14,811 tons. But he had
accidentally had his attention called to the circum-
stance that there were several vessels bearing the
same name, and on examining the return he found no
less than 15 vessels, eight of them being Govern-
ment steamers and seven ordinary merchant steamers
entered twice. The tonnage was very nearly the,
same, and there could be no doubt that the ships had
been entered twice over. There were three ships,
the Wilberforce, the Ocean, and the Sir William
Wallace, that had been entered three times, each
figuring as three different ships. The numbers of
the crews were exactly alike in each case, but there
could be little doubt as to their being the same
ships. So that instead of 90 ships there were only
72 ships ; and instead of the actual number of men
in this return being 1,369 it was 1,123, and the ton-
nage 12,459 instead of 14,811. Now, it was quite
clear that it was impossible for that House to legis-
late with any truth or satisfaction if the returns were
to be so imperfect as he had shown that one to be.
The fact was, that he had moved for this return as a
correction of another return that had been pre-
sented, in which the protected trade and the
unprotected trade were exhibited, and to as-
certain the truth of Mr. Porter's statement, that
the unprotected trade of France showed the
enormous increase of ftom 82,650 tons in the
year 1824, to 556,821 tons in last year. The re-
turns to which he alluded included all those little
steamers that were continually making short trips
across the Channel. There were 18 of these ships of
about 50 tons each. But, however, this return
which he held in his hand, showed that 72 ships were
manned by only 1,123 men, and were of an aggre-
gate tonnage of 12,459, and yet they figured in the
Board of Trade returns as representing 388,313
tons. He had called for these returns in order that
the country might not be deceived when considering
the navigation-laws. Four of the steamers to which
he bad alluded were manned by an aggregate number
of only 52 men, and those four vessels had made 548
trips across the Channel, upon which they figured in
the return as representing 61,444 tons in our foreign
trade; in fact, they were shown to be of more im-
portance than 60 great Indiamen of 1,000 tons each,
and manned by 30,000 men. He thought it but
right that he should call the attention of the House
to this subjedt, as a warning to the officers who made
these returns.

Mr. PARKER said that the return did not show
the total number of vessels, as it was perfectly true
that there had been a duplication of some; but the
reason of this was, that if a vessel sailed from London
at one period, and from Dover at another, that vessel
was entered twice. The total, therefore, could not
be shown on the return. There was no desire on the
part of the officer making the return to misrepiesent.
ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSION RESIG-