The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-20 00:00:00

Mffritiltg irn

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1847.

The Lords met at Five o'clock.

In answer to the Earl of ELLENDOROUGH, it was an-
nounced by the Marquis of LANSDOWNE that the cor-
respondence with the Government on the subject of
advances to Indian railways would be laid before the
House as soon as it should be in a complete state.

Lord ASHBURTON then moved for various returns
relating to the Bank of England ; which, after a short
conversation, was agreed to.
On the motion of Lord REDESDALE, it was ordered
that no Committee on, a Railway Bill should be ap-
pointed after the sth July.
The Earl of CLARENDON then moved that the House
'Lb resolve itself into Committee on the Sugar Brewing
Bill.

Lord STANLEY would not have opposed the Bill if it
had been introduced as a temporary measure, but as
it was introduccd as a permanent measure he should
move that it be referred to a Select Committ(e.

Earl GREY thought that his Noble Friend must have
a very bad case indeed as he had thought his speech
alluded to ever thing but the question before the House.
The House was subsequently addressed by Lord
ASHBURTON, Lord MONTEAGLE, the Duke of RICH-
MOND, the Marquis of SALISBURY, Lord REDESDALE,
the Marquis of WESTMEATH, when their Lordships'
divided on the original motion, and there appeared—

Contents
Non•contents
Majority ...
The Bill then went through Committee without
amendment.

... 35
... 27

The Distilling from Sugar Bill also passed through
Committee without amendment.

Their Lordships' then adjourned.
The Commons met at Four o'clock.
The London (City) Small Debts Bill was read a
second time.

Mr. B. ESCOTT gave notice for Mr. ROEBUCK that
when the Landed Pronerty (Ireland) Bill should be
brought under the consideration of the House, he should
move that any plan having for its object the advancement
of loans to the Irish landed proprietors would be unjust,
unless the same principle of taxation which was applied
to the landed proprietors of Great Britain was extended
to them.

Lord J. RUSSELL gave notice that he would, on an
early day, bring ins Bill to alter the Constitution of the
Ecclesiastical Commission.

Mr. LauoucuEßE said that the Government would
shortly introduce two Bills to amend the Irish Corpora-
tion Act.

In answer to Mr. FORSTER, it W 23 stated by Mr.
LABOUCHERE, that the Government did not intend to
import any more flax seed into Ireland.
On the motion for going into Committee on the
Labouring Poor Ireland Bill, the House was ad-
dressed by Mr. Baillie, Mr. Dillon Browne, Sir B. Hall,
Colonel Verner, Mr. Labouchere, Mr. J. O'Connell,
Mr. H. Grattan, Mr. Roebuck, Lord J. Manners, Mr.
S. O'Brien, Mr. Shaw, and several other Hon. Members,
when the House went into Committee, the whole of
the clauses of the Bill were agreed to, and it was or-
dered to be reported on Monday.

The Ten Hours' Bill was read a second time.

Lord J. RUSSELL brought in the Poor-law Suspension
Bill, which was read a first time.

The other orders of the day were then disposed of,
and the House adjourned at One o'clock.

What is expended in the prosecution and punish-
ment of offenders would go far to reform the more
neglected portions of the community. The accuracy
of this estimate has become so universally obvious
as to have originated a very powerful movement in
behalf of the most despised and degenerated members
of the population. We are satisfied that a continu-
ance of the exertions which have been already corn-
menced with these benevolent intentions is alone re-
quisite to purge from society a vast and horrible mul-
titude of evils, to render the lamentable duties of
correction in our criminal courts, and penitentiaries,
and prisons, and penal settlements less frequent and
less onerous, to reclaim many thousands who have
been hitherto regarded as irreclaimable, and to in-
crease the aggregate of prosperity and happiness of
the United Kingdoms by increasing the num-
ber of the honest and industrious. All

:hat is necessary for the realisation of these

nestimable advantages is perseverance on the
part of those philanthropic individuals who have
undertaken the advocacy of the dregs of the million.
Their cry is not that sublime admonition which has
been repeated and repeated until it has resolved itself
into a proverb—their appeal is not so much Fiat
justitia, ruat ccelum, as it is " Act with justice towards
these miserable outcasts, because their sobriety and
enlightenment are directly associated with your own
well-being and safety !" There is an innate eloquence
and persuasiveness in these adjurations which must
perforce in the end prove irresistible. The entreaties
which are rising from the very poor, the very lowly,
and the very villanous, are appeals which strike at
once upon our reason and upon our religious sym-
pathies. They speak to our disinterested
and interested sentiments. In the reclama-
tion of a large concourse of vicious characters,
we perceive simultaneously the blessings which must
necessarily accrue to them and the benefits which
must he conferred upon ourselves by that reclama-
tion. We recognise the triple advantages which must
be the indubitable consequence of the reformation of
our criminal code—the advantages branching off to
the State, to the individual, and to the community
en masse. It is this consideration which has
recently gained so many proselytes to the efforts now
made for the instruction and assistance of the juvenile
offenders—efforts which are substantially visible in
the elaborate reports on the subject transmitted by
the Prison Inspectors to the Right Hon. the Secretary,
for the Home Department ; in the exertions respec-
tively made by Mr. HILL, the Recorder of Birming-
ham, and Mr. CHARLES PEARSON, the Solicitor to the
city of London; in the reiterated supplications of the
sufferers themselves, and especially in those admirable
establishments which have sprung up in different
quarters of the metropolis—the ragged schools and the
reformatory institutions.

Lord BnouG HAM, on Thursday, formally introduced
the matter to the attention of the Upper House, and
the Noble Lord did so with an emphasis and an
earnestness peculiarly in accordance with the fame
acquired by the labours of his illustrious youth. The
manner in which the question of the punishment of
juvenile offenders was laid before their Lordships was
such as to ensure its impartial consideration by the
Legislature. Both the respectability of the peti-
tioners, for whom Lord BROUGHAM spoke so energe-
tlcally and feelingly, and the appalling nature of the
calculations contain in that
rigid scrutin petition necessitate a
y on the part of thca 14islatorR ; and,
beyond that, the eminence of the man who laid that
petition on the table of that Right Honourable