The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-16 00:00:00

awning 2"Ant.

LONDON, TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 1847.

The Lords met at Five o'clock.

In presenting a petition from the Protestant Dis-
senters of Birdrush, against the Government scheme of
National Education, Lord BROUGHAM said that there
was an unfounded prejudice raised against the measure,
which aas one of a most tolerant character to all sects
of whatever religious persuasion.

The Marquis of LANSDOWNE declared that nothing
could be more unfounded than many of the statements
contained in the petitions against the measure.

Lord STANLEY presented a petition from the nigh
Sheriff and Grand Jury of the County of Tipperary, ex-
pressing their alarm at the unprecedented sa!e of fire-arms
in Ireland, and praying their Lirriships to pass a law
to prevent evil-disposed persons from having fire-arms
in their possession. The Noble Lord also presented
petitions in favour of a general scheme of Irish rail-
ways; and a third, in favour of a general scheme of
emigration.

A desultory conversation ensued on the subject of
emigration as a means of draining off the surplus popu-
lation of Ireland; in the course of which, Lord MONT-
EAGLIIC complained of the very inaccurate manner in
which the census had been taken in Ireland.

The subject then dropped, and their Lordships
adjourned.

The Commons met at Four. difoock.
In answer to a question fom Lord GRANVILLE

SOMERSET,

Mr. MILNER GIBSON said that the report which had
last session been presented to the House, as the report
of the Select Committee •on Railways, was merely the
draft report drawn up by the Chairman (Mr. MonnisoN).
The Right 11,31 a. Gentleman moved the re-appointment of
the Committee, which was agreed to.
In answer to various questions, Sir J. C. HonHousE
stated that the Khelat prize money was in course of dis-
tribution ; that the Ghuznee prize money was about to
be distributed ; and that the distribution of the Sinde
prize money awaited the decision of the Board of Con-
trol, which would be giv(n shortly.
It was stated by Lord MORPETH, in reply to Mr. C.
BERKELEY, that the Wellington statue was to be re-
moved.

The adjourned debate on the motion for going into
Committee on the Poor Relief Ireland Bill was then
resumed by Sir W. CLAY.

The House was subsequently addressed by Captain
JONES, Mr. VILLIERS STEWART, who complained that
his name had been attached to a resolution come
to by certain Irish Members against the Government
measures, a ithout his authority ; Mr. HAMILTON, Mr.
Jon` O'CONNELL, who s,id, if he could get a repeal of
the Union, he would. take it immediately ; Lord COUR-
TENAY, DENIIAM NORREYS, who was opposed to
union ratir.g• ; Mr. VEsRY, who denied that the land-
lords of Ireland had neglected their duty ; Lord J.
MANNERS, Mr. LABoucrtEnE, Mr. ROEBUCK, and seve-
ral other Hon. Members.

The House then neut. into Committee pro forma, and
the Bill was ordered to be re-committed on Friday next.
Tho Drainage (Ireland) Bill was read a third time
and passed.

The General Register House (Edinburgh) Bill was
read a second time, and ordered to be committed.

The Mutiny Bill was also read a second time, and or
dered to be committed on Thursday.
The second reading of the Poor Relief (Ireland) BR
was ckferred tall Friday.
The Agricultural Tenants Right Bill, after a short
discussion, was postponed till Friday week.
The other orders of the day having been disposed of,
the Ifoute adjourned at One o'clock.

A grievous impression appears to be prevalent that
Government can and ought to do EVERYTHING for the
starving multitudes of Ireland. The notion is alto-
gether absurd. Government has neither the power
nor the moral obligation to give shelter and suste-
nance to the famishing million:. Were it to under-
take anything so extravagantly beyond its capacities,
the whole empire would become insolvent. I.v ere it
to talc, upon itself the task of feeding and clothing
and employing one-half of the population of Ireland,
the lo.al would be immeasurably beyond its strength
s back would be broken. The emergency is quite
analogous to the insurrection recorded in Roman
history, when the pleteians revolted against the patri-
cian citizens, and were only reconciled to their lot as
Uoure‘rs by the cunning allegory of the Belly and
its Members. Were a different course to be pursued
by the Legislature than that of compelling the rela-
tive portions of the body corporate to support each
other, that body corporate would either be distorted
into an ailing deformity or would perish. The
reasoning is obvious. Without a symmetrical dispo-
tion of the various parts of any production, whether
natural or artificial, health, and power, and comeliness,
and a good organization are impossible. Supposing the
Government yielded to the demands of a clatnourous
and sifish minority, what would be the inevitable
consequence ? Why the whole vigour of the consti-
tutian would be sapped in appeasing the wants of a
fatnishing peasantry and pampering the vices of an
indolent proprietary. Ireland would no longer be
the Ministerial difficulty—it would be the Ministerial
damnation. The of of the Irish representatives
and Peers, who remonstrated with Lord JOHN
Rosser.", upon the impolicy and impracticability of
his Po. r Relief (Ireland) Bill, is to transform the
tenantry of Ireland into perpetual pensioners on the
Exchequer, or to obtain the consent of the Govern-
ment to a system of inaction, whereby the peasantry
would be rapidly and conveniently thinned in num-
bers from the combined influences of famine and pesti-
lence. Criminal beyond all possibility of utterance
as are these endeavours, their criminality
is immeasurably surpassed by their foolish-
ness. Let the men who would thus strive
to debar 3,500,000 of their fellow-countrymen from
all chances cf assistance upon the occasion of their
direst necessity, let these men remember that for
every able-bodied labourer that dies through their
neglect would perish a portion of the national vigour
—for every child, a germ of the future prosperity of the
kingdom—for every woman, a guarantee for the so-
briety or the domesticity of the industrial classes. Hence
it is that a systematic emigration is altogether inde-
fensible. Hence it is that the preservation of human
life is more desirable than the reclamation of a given
portion of land from the ocean, or the transformation
of moorland into arable land, or the clothing of rocks
with turf for pasturage. Hence, in fine, is it among
the most solemn admonitions of Christianity that
the poverty-stricken should be cherished, that the
naked should be clothed; that the hungry should be
fed. in the laeguage of the fine old Latin chaunt,
there is recompense as well as benignity in raising
the poor from the dunghill—de stercure erigensj
pauperent.

During the adjourned discussion upon the poor-
laws fur Ireland, Lord JOHN MANNERS intimated that
by rendering Irish property answerable for Irish po-
verty, Recording to the Government system, the pro-
perty would be either "depressed or annihilated,"
and that therefore ho was disposed to offer the mea-
sure his earnest opposition. Shallow logic, Lord
JOEN 7. What, must the poverty of the peasaut.be de-

nied all assistance from the property of the landlord,
because, forsooth, it would be injurious to the imme-
diate interests of the latter ? That is apply-
ing to the Irish proprietary the principle which
Lord 13Yaos has christened "regal blasphemy"—
it is giving them the fee simple of their es-
tates by " right divine." Now we have seen the
medallion—let us look at the intaglio. The favourite
aphorism of Cowraa, that " Gon made the
country and man made the town," is not one jot more
truthful than that the landlords are only the trustees
of the tenantry, inasmuch as the produce of the land
is the property of the people. In periods of pros-
perity the peasantry is nourished by the wages re-
ceived for the cultivation of the soil, and the surplus
capital realised directly by the crops, or indirectly by
the crops through the rental, is ensured by the State to
the landlord, as a recompense for the faithful dis-
charge of his duties as a guardian of the poor, as a
promoter of local industry, and as a representative
and agent of the Government in a certain divi-
sion of the empire. Whenever a proprietor fails
in the performance of the duties enjoined upon
him by this tacit compac , his right of
possession has virtually evaporated. It is a sacred
part of this mutual agreement, that in moments when
the tenantry and peasantry are reduced to a state of
pauperism by the accidents of vegetation, that
they shall receive from the surplus coming
to the landlord a modicum sufficient to prevent
their death by inanition. And the poor-law is the in-
strument by which this principle is enforced. Now,
in the present destitution of Ireland, Government has
generously relieved the proprietary from the first
onus of the duty of succouring the population. After
a certain time of preparation has elapsed the Legisla-
ture is called upon by the Ministry to stimulate the
memories of the Irish landlords to a recollection
of the conditions upon which alone they are entruste.l
with the laud—to compel them, in short, to fulfil one
of the foremost and most rational and most necessary
of those conditions. At this announcement the Irish
proprietary are indignant—they are altogether averse
to the system of giving relief to able bodied labourers.
This remonstrance has not even the credit of being
enunciated ad captandum vulgus.

In a great trading community there is nothing of
more vital importance to the public generally than
that due and fitting provisions should be made with
regard to the manner in which payment of debts may
be enforced, so that every facility should be given to
creditors to compel those who have the ability, but
not the will, to liquidate their responsibilities, while,
on the other hand, every assistance should be afforded,
and indulgence given, to the honest but unfortunate
debtor, who is willing to surrender all his property
for distribution amongst those who have just and
equitable claims upon him, and who has not been
guilty of any fraud or unfair dealing in the manner
in which his debts were contracted. It is really asto-
nishing that matters should so long have been con-
ducted on false principles in England, essentially a
commercial nation ; and even to this day the entire
bankrupt and insolvent code is susceptible of vast
improvements, which, if adopted, would prove
equally beneficial to all parties--as well to the cre-
ditor as to the debtor. Much has already been
effected, but much remains still to be done. Every
step that has been taken of late years has been
in the right direction, the errors and mistakes of
former years have had remedies gradually applied,
and we may hope speedily to see the law of debtor
and creditor brought to as great a state of perfection
as can be hoped for in any merely human code. It is,
perhaps, well that the ameliorations in the law have
been brought forward with such precautions as not
to shock the prejudices of any whose interests were
involved. It would be next to impossible at once to
build up a system that wiiuld suit every interest.
Even were it desirable in itself, it would prove in-
jurious if the public mind wis not duly prepared for
its reception. "Festiva lade" is a maxim that must
continually be borne in mind by legal reformers ; and
in no department of the law must greater- caution be
used in effecting changes than in that to which we are
alluding. The test of experience must be applied to
the mode of woi king of every former provision. Its
' advantages and abuses must be fully weighed and
maturely considered before any change is proposed.
The opinions of those who, from their positions, are
-competent to form a correct judgment on the proposed
alterations, must be taken as to the defects and defi-
ciencies of the new enactments, and the probability
of their working well, so as practically to attain the
desired object. The new measure introduced by
Lord &tot:Guam to the House of Lords, and which
received its first reading on Thursday last, appears to
have had every possible care and precaution bestowed
upon it. It has been substituted for the former mea-
sure of that Noble and Learned Lord, who very pro-
perly sent a copy thereof to every Commissioner in
the country, and embodied in the present Bill the several
alterations suggested by those learned gentlemen.
Lord BROUGHAM has long held a prominent posi-
tion among legal reformers, and entitled himself to
the marked thanks of the community for the great
and beneficial changes he has effected, but in no re-
spect has he merited greater approbation than in the
present instance.

The present Bill abolishes the jurisdiction given to
the Court of 13ankruptcy and the district courts in
insolvency, under the sth and 6th Vic., cap. 116, and
7th and Bth Vic., cap. 96, and transfers that juris-
diction to the insolvent :Debtors' Court and the
judges appointed under the Small Debts Act of last
session, but that jurisdiction is to remain in force as
to petitions now depending. From the time of the
passing of the Act all persons who shall have resided
in any of the metropolitan counties—Middlesex,
Hertford, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, or Essex—for six
calendar months, are to be within the jurisdiction of
the Insolvent Court, and, in other cases, of the
judge of the Small Debts Court within
whose district the insolvent shall have re-
sided for a like time. It is not stated
within what period previous to the filing of the peti-
tion that residence . must have been, but it is plain
that the party must have been resident for six calen-
dar months within the district before his petition can
be entertained. The Acts now about to be amended
required residence for twelve months immediately
preceding the petition. The chief feature in the new
measure is, that every insolvent, whether possessed of
any property or otherwise, who has resided
within the jurisdiction for the period aforesaid,
may file his petition, and the court or such judge
is thereupon entitled forthwith to grant him an in-
terim order protecting him from arrest ; or if he
should be in custody at the time in execution, to
order his discharge on receiving an undertaking in
writing from the insolvent to attend the court on the
day appointed for his first examination, and on every
sitting day held in the matter of his petition, or ut
any other time when required by the court or judge
so to do ; and every wilful breach of such undertaking
is to be a misdemeanour, punishable by impri-
sonment, with or without hard labour. The court
or judge may at any time suspend or withdraw
this protection and again renew or suspend it at their
or his pleasure. This is a just and humane provi-
sion, and prevents the possibility of any person being
imprisoned to gratify- the malevolence of a vindictive
creditor, unless his conduct shall appear to the satis-
faction of the court to be worthy of punishment.

Our space prevents us from concluding our obser-
vations this day. 'We shall resume the subject to-

morrow.

We published on Saturday, in extenso, a letter

upon the Government Education scheme, written
by Mr. ROBERT ECKETT, and addressed by him, on
behalf of the Committee of Privileges, to ministers of
the Wesleyan Association ; also the form of petition
recommended to be numerously signed by every con-
gregation over which they presided; and likewise
the letter of Dr. KAY SBUTTLEWORTII to ➢ir.
ECKETT, penned with the view of convincing this
gentleman and the Committee of Privileges that the
opinion they had formed of the nature of the plan
and of the intentions of the Government in respect to
education was completely erroneous. It is impos-
sible to suppose that any acting body of so influential
and highly respectable a class of religionists as the
Wesleyans could condescend to misrepresentation ;
but the documents before us afford a striking instance
of how men's judgments may become perverted by
looking at anything through a false medium. In the
present case, the bele noir of the Wesleyans has been
Government interference and patronage in matters •

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