The Sun.
London, England, 1841-09-21 00:00:00

Sir R. PEEL said he meant to give notice that be
should bring in the Bill to-morrow. As he had before
said, he intended to propose ro alteration whatever in
the provisions of the Bill, and as he believed that no
advantage would be derived from discussion under pre-
sent circumstances, he intended to include the Poor law
Bill in the general yearly Bills.

Mr. OTIVAY CAVE said heORN-LAWS would take the op-
portunity of entering his humble protest against
the course which the majority of the House,
under the guidance of the Hon. Baronet at the head of
the present Administration, had thought proper to pursue
with regard to the Corn laws. He protested against
that course, because he feared it would be considered by
the working classes at the present crisis as marked
alike by inhumanity, by impolicy, and by inconsistency,
and when he coupled the course pursued, With the ex-
pressions used by a Noble Duke in another- place, to
the effect that their misery was in a great mea-
sure their own fault ; that in this country such
a state of things prevailed that any working man,
with common honesty and common prudence,
might secure to himself a competency—although he
would not say with the Honourable Member for Fins-
bury that such conduct and language was enough
to drive the working classes mad, yet he would
say that he feared they would drive them to de-
spair. He coupled the expression with another
uttered.on a different occasion by his Noble Friend the
Member for Liverpool, who stated that he thought the
present Corn-laws in no way connected with the present
distress. Such a statement, he thought, his Noble
Friend would find very difficult to make even
the people of Liverpool believe, although proceeding
from so high an authority. He also thought that the
people would be exceedingly grieved when they read
the assertion of the Right Hon. Baronet the Member
for • Dorchester ; namely, that high prices were to
be maintained at all times, and at all hazards, •
When the working classes read such expresSions, and
coupled with it the fact that they had shut the door of
the HouSe of Commons against a starving people for
five months, it needed no prophet to predict what
results would ensue, or what discontent would
prevail throughout the approaching winter. He
thought he might say, moreover, that it was inconsitent
in the Right Hun. Baronet to ask for this delay, and in
the month of April last, when the Noble Lord an-
nounced his measure respecting the Budget, the Ho-
nourable Baronet said that even one month's delay
would, in reference to the Corn-laws, be an intolerable
evil, and yet, when. three or four months had been added
to that period, he still asked for four or five months
longer. He could not but lament the inferences which
he was afraid might be drawn by the starving and suffer-
ing manufacturing classes throughout the kingdom for
such conduct.—(Hear.) lie thought he already saw
the tottering of that Holy Alliance which had been
cemented between the Chartists and the Conserva-
tives.—(A laugh from the Ministerial benches.)
Did Hon. Gentlemen never hear of Nottingham ?
He thought the working classes would very soon dis-
cover that it would have been better to have supported •
lukewarm friends than bitter opponents—that they
would curse the triumphs which in many instances
they had been enabled to achieve, and bitterly
repent changing King Log for the Stork.
illany persons supposed before he came into office that
the Right Hon. Baronet was in possession of some
panacea by which to cure the public distress, and
this idea had been conferred by the language
of the Right Honourable Baronet himself. In his
famous Tamworth speech he asked if a rival
physician would give his advice Unless he were regularly
called in. The sentiment of the Right Hon. Baronet
was the opposite of generous and disinterested, but
even such as it was he had not acted up to it. He had
been regularly called in, he had regularly pocketed
his fee—(" No," from the Conservative benches)—
and in proportion to the hopes and expectations which
he bad excited in the minds of the people would be their
anger and disappointment at his present conduct.
There was another question on which he was particu-
larly anxious to be informed by the Right Hon. Baronet.
He begged to know whether the present Government
would persevere in bringing in the Bill relating to re-
gistration in Ireland, which had been introduced by the
Noble Lord the Member for North Lancashire last Ses-
sion ? Ile (Mr. Cave) wished that it fell to some
Honourable Gentlemen abler than he was to put that
question, but in the absence of one more competent, he
conceived himself bound to do so.—(Hear, hear.) lie
regretted to say that he could not partake in that
confidence which a Noble Lord (Lord John Rus-
sell) who sat near him, said he had in the liberality
of the sentiments which the present Cabinet entertained
with respect- to Ireland. He could not participate in
such confidence when he saw holding the office of Lord
Chancellor, the Noble Lord who declared that the Irish
were " aliens in blood, aliens in language, and aliens in
religion." He could not share in that confidence when he
knew that the Noble Lord, who had brought in a disfran-
chising Bill for Ireland, held high place in the councils of
the chief of the present Administration. He could
not have perfect reliance on the statements of those
Noble Lords with regard to Ireland, and their liberal
feelings towards it. he believed they hated Ireland with
a holy, a pure, and a perfect hatred.—(" Oh, oh !" from
the Ministerial benches.) They thought that Ireland
and the Irish were what they were described to be in a
certain class of newspapers. Not knowing Ireland as
well as he (Mr. C.) did, they gave credence to
every idle rumour circulated about that country ;
and, above all, those rumours respecting elections, and
they thought it right to take the power of election out
of their hands. Of the private and personal character
of the two Noblemen who filled the stations of Secretary
and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Right lion. Ba-
ronet could not entertain a higher opinion than he (Mr.
C.) did ; but, at the same time, he must say that
no Gentleman on either side of the House would
venture to assert that they were either experienced or
practised politicians. The inference the people of Ire-
land would draw from those two appointments would be,
that two politicians unaccustomed to managing public
affairs had been sent over to that country to " try their
'prentice hands"—to make an experimentum in cor-
pore vili.—(Hear, hear, hear.) However well in-
tentioned those Noblemen might be towards Ireland,
still an impression would and did exist, that they would
be controlled, and their best efforts frustrated, by the
Lord Chancellor and the Noble Lord the Secretary for
the Colonies. Therefore he entreated the Right Hon.
Baronet to give him a clear and unequivocal answer to his
question. For let him tell the Right Hon. Gentleman,
if the people of Ireland did not receive a clear
and unequivocal answer on that head, they would think
themselves justified in having immediate recourse to
political agitation as the least of two evils. If the people
of that country remained perfectly quiet, they would be
told that they had no grievances—that it was their
agitating demagogues who put the existence of
grievances into their heads. It; on the contrary, they
got up an agitation against their grievances, they would
be told by English Ministers that they would not grant
to clamour what they denied to justice. So long as
Ministers continued that policy abroad, which had been
acted on by the late Noble Secretary for Foreign Af-
fairs, and which had wrung a reluctant admiration
even from that Noble Lord's political opponents, at home
and abroad-,so long as they continued that course, so
long. would. Ireland be proud of her connection with
England.—(Hear.) If, on the contrary, they adopted
the evils of slavery—if they attempted to impose political
degradation on Ireland—the Irish people would be justi-
fied before God and man in raising the standard of re-
peal.—(llear.)
Sir R. PEEL was understood to say he should beg
leave to confine his answer to the questions of the
Hon. Gentleman to one subject. He (Sir Robert
Peel) certainly did not identify himself with the
Bill brought forward by his Noble Friend (Lord '
Stanley). With his Noble Friend and the House
he should leave it. He should be exceedingly
glad to see the admitted errors connected with
the system of Irish registration corrected ; but, on the
other hand, he should be unwilling to attempt to correct
those errors by any limitation of the franchise granted
to the people.—(Hear, hear.) His endeavour would be
to reconcile these two objects, and such, he was sure,
was the intention of his Noble Friend. He wished'
to reconcile the correction of admitted abuses
in the registration, with the preservation either of
existing franchises or others of a similar extent. Ile bad
no intention to bring forward any measure on the subject
at present, but he meant, with his Noble Friend, to take
it into consideration, and the House would find, if any
measure was brought forward, that they had studious]e
attempted to reconcile these two objects.—(Hear, irear.)
BOARD OF ORDNANCE AND THE AD-
MIRALTY.
Sir C. NAPIER begged to call the attention of the
Right Hon. Baronet to the administration of the
Beard of Ordnance. Hitherto it had been ac-
customed to permit naval officers to sit at
that Board, and he could not conceive how it was
possible to carry on business without them. He was
afraid the present practice would be attended with
serious injury, and he thought it was paying a very bad
compliment to the navy, that, out of 600 Captains
and 200 Admirals, many of them having seats in that
House, not one could be found capale of being
intrusted with that duty. He must also ex..
press his regret that a civilian had been
put at the head of the , Board of Admiralty. He
thought it would not be more absurd to make him
Lord Chancellor or Archbishop of Canterbury---(Loud
laughter)—than to place a gentleman at the head of the
Admiralty who probably could not distinguish between
a line-of-battle-ship and a frigate.—(Laughter.) It was
generally complained of that Admirals and naval
officers should have to go up stairs, hat in hand,
to solicit the rewards of service of those who were
quite incapable of appreciating what their services were,
Sir ROBERT PEEL said that the Gallant Cap-
tain was not quite correct in stating that to.
have a naval officer at the Admiralty Board was
the invariable practice. He did not intend to
enter into the discussion of the general question, but he
believed the Board, as eanstituted, gave. general satis-
faction.—(" No, frog no," very emphatically from Sir C.
Napier, wjs l cooasioned much laughter.)
CAptaiu PECUELL and Captain PLUMRIDGE also com-
plained that the Board should be constituted without.
naval officer.

A
Sir H. HARDINGE said he had sates Or six years
at the Board without a naval officer, As to the Ordnance,
he could only say that he holioved it would be very in-
jurious not to halm A military person placed over
it.—(Hear, 4.10 He could not see how a civilian
could know anything whatever of that department.
In answer to a question put to Lord PALMERSTON
by Sir EARDLEY WILMOT, respecting the vessels
employed upon the coast of Africa, the Noble Lord
said he had every reason to believe that six
vessels were to be employed on that coast,
but he could not say if the information was correct.
He hEd, however, sent to make the inquiry from the
Board of Admiralty.
FIELDEN wished to know from the Right
Honourable Baronet the Member for Tamworth what