The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-20 00:00:00

is power to render the son of Don Canoe possible. 1
Would the House then believe that till the 26th !
Jule followires the French Government, took no
steps to forward the policy which hat since been carried out:
In June. 1846, the French Government submitted to the Mar-
quis of Villa Franca, six propositions on the subject, promising
the influence of the King of the French in favour of the Conde
de Montemolin, Yet the French Government had taken the
course which was so well known to them all, though the Conde
de Montamolin had shown every disposition to do whatever was
in his power to effect such an arrangement as would terminate
the struggles and bloodshed that had hitherto characterised
that unhappy country. One thing he would state to the House,
t hat if warfare and strife again distracted Spain, the world
•could know that it did not rent with that much injured Prince,
but would be charged to those Ministers who had not hesitated
to pursue the policy they had done with no other object than to
gratify one fatal ambition of the Napoleon of Peace.—( Hear.)
Lord JOHN RUSSELL, on rising, was received with loud
cheers. lie said—Sir, in rising to address the House, on the
present occasion, and during a period of great calamity and dis-
tress, I must express my opinion that I think the disposition
shown to consider not only the extent and character of the ca-
lamity, but the measures that are necessary to meet it, without
party violence or blame, is such as to render that which, under
any circumstances, would be a most difficult question, some-
what less difficult than it would otherwise have been. I cannot
wonder at the observations which have fallen from the Hon.
Member for Limerick, when he takes her Majesty's Govern-
ment so severely to task on the policy they have pursued, be-
cause the opinions of that Hon. Gentleman are quite the oppo-
site of theirs. If his opinion was well founded, then the
Government has been guilty of great neglect ; but 1
maintain that the policy of the Hon. Member for Limerick,
supported as it had been by the Noble Lord the Member for
Lynn (Lord George Bentinck), is a policy which no Govern-
ment should undertake. It is a policy that would lead to cer-
tain failure, and tried by the fairest test would lead to greater
evils than those which existed. A greater number of deaths
from famine would take place than had yet occurred. Whir
would be the effect if the opinion was to get abroad that the
Government of this country wanted to purchase food, that they
were about to became buyers of grain in the marke s of Europe
in order to feed the people of Ireland. In the first instance,
as soon as the intention of Government was declared—as de-
clared and known it would be—there would be an end of all
private enterprise, of all application of the capital, and means,
and skill of the mercantile classes; all traffic in grain would be
abandoned to a Government that had shown itself
so presumptuous—(Hear, hear)—in having the orders of the
Government coming in, with but a limited supply to meet
the demand, what would be the price asked when it was
known that the English Government had become purchasers ?
The Noble Lord talks of an increase from 3s. to 9s. on Indian
corn, but this was nothing compared to what the rise in price
would take place there.—( Hear, hear.) But suppose the Go-
vernment undertook to supply the people of Ireland, they could
not stop there. They must undertake all the retail trade, and
supply every one that was in need of food. We have heard of
the staff of officers now required, in connexion with the Board
of Public Works ; but what is that staff, great as
it is, compared to what it would . be, if we un-
dertook the retail trade for the supply of the people
of Ireland with food.—( Hear, hear.) He would
further be expected to supply provisions at what were con-
sidered fair prices, and under prime cost. What would be the
consequences of should a proceeding to the rest of the popula-
tion of the United Kingdom ? Why, we would be robbing
them, as the price of food must of necessity be enormously
raised in England and Scotland. The labouring people of
other parts of the United Kingdom would thus be made to
suffer, and they would have good reason to turn round and ask
us why we had thus acted—why we should fly in the
face of all principles of political economy in favour of the
starving Irish people alone, and why we should not give the
labouring classes of this country, as well as the people of Ire-
land, the advantage of food at a fair price.—( Hear, hear. )
Some Hon. Gentleman had said that the trade in different
part- of Ireland had been interfered with, by the provisions
which the Government had made for the supply of the people,
and there were some instances in which it was possible that
such might have been the case. There were 21 and 22 places
west of the Shannon, where they had established depots; but
they had chosen places where the provisions of the Govern-
ment would interfere as little as possible with private trade ;
and he had reason to know that in those places whers depots
had been established, severe) persons who intended to set up
shops, had given up the design, as soon as they learned the
intentions of Government, on the supposition that they would be
altogether unsuccessful. 200,000 quarters of corn could not
be issued into the country without disturbing the marker, but
then they had to feed the people of Ireland. There was cer-
tainly one point which arose out of the measure which had been
passed during the last session of Parliament to which there we'
considerable objection—that was, to employ the people under
the Board of Works. N man was more sensible than he was
of the objections in employing the poor on unproductive works,
for the matter was daily under his attention, anti he only men-
tioned the facts now, in order to show the difficulties under
which they laboured in obviating the effects of the great ca-
lamity which had befallen Ireland, and he must at the same
time say that the principle was a sound one. Their object was
to employ the people on useful works, and the question was
not whether they should be so employed, but the means by
which they should be so engaged. The way in which they
attempted to meet the case was not by throwing the people into
workhouses, but by giving them employment. In this there
was nothing which was at all novel, nothing which was
not usual in the endeavour to obviate distress without
disturbing industry in this country. It was a common course
in this country when distress prevailed, to employ the people
in breaking stones—not that there was any demand for broken
stones, but that the labourer might be emplos ed upon a work in
which the labour was the hardest, and the reward was the
worst, until more permanent employment could be obtained.
As soon as a change came over circumstances it was found
labourers entered into private employment, and the rates were
relieved. But, in Ireland, he was sorry to confess, that such
was not the case, for there the labouring population found
the market and the public works the best, instead of the wort
they could find for their exertions ; and that. consequently,
when other opportunities arose the public fund was not re-
lieved. He mentioned this, also, in order to show the diffi-
culties with which they had to contend. In employing
300,000 or 400,000 persons, it was necessary to employ also a
number of persons to superintend them; and many of those
persons were unquestionably people of objectionable character,
yet it was necessary to have them ; and he could not think
that in the employment of 470,000 persons, representin7 ho
conceived, a p•sr•-1-,-,-- -g %--- "'“" `,"'",""u, that-this
was a draw back at all to be taken into consideration. He
ound by the last week's account, that no less a sum than
158,0001. had been paid for work during that week. He quite
agreed with his Hon. Friend, near him, that this calamity was
to be looked upon as a national or general calamity, and not
only as a calamity that had befallen Ireland. No measures
which the Government could adopt, would prevent severe
suffering and mortality in many places. Seeing that there were
not the ordinary resource. there which they had in this country;
that they had no means on which to fall back on, the failure of
their staple food, he could not see that any measures which the
Government could propose. would reach the nature of the
present calamity. With regard to all they had done, he con-
sidered that they alone were to be held accountable, and they
did not consent that any of their sub-ordinate officers should
bear any part of the responsibility. Mr. Trevellyan had been
alluded to in the- course of the debate, and of that officer he
had to state that he acted with the greatest intelligence, judg-
ment, and indefatigable, and untiring zeal, both with regard to
the orders he rec -Omit, and the orders he transmitted. It,
therefore, censure were to be passed let them bear the blame,
not him. It had been said with regard to the proposed sus-
pension of the duties on the importation of grain, and the
alteration in the navigation laws, that these duties should have
been suspended in November last, arid not now. In reference
to that he had to observe, that that subject was carefully consi-
dered at that time, and it wss eonsidered unwise to re..ort to
such a course. He had done so, acting upon the advice of the
Government in Ireland, and of every one of intelligence con-
nected with that country, who were all of opinion that serious
injury would then result by the withdrawal from it of those
who occupied seats in both Houses of the Legislature. Then
with regard to the re-assembling of Parliament, it became a
matter for consideration whether the distress had reached such
a height as to demand so unusual a course. The duty then was
riot 163. or 14s. per quarter, as during the previous year, and
although he thought it right to recommend now the suspension
of the present duties, he did not think that the reduction of
price, which would result from this, would be any thing consi-
derable. With respect to the supplies from America, he did
not think that they would be accelerated in their course
to this country from that cause, and in consequence of what
had arrived, prices in two or three weeks had fallen to 625.
For these reasons, and seeing that the benefit to be obtained
would be so slight, they did not consider it advisable to cal
Parliament together till the present time. They did nol
think that the effect would have been such as to warrant so ex-

traordinary a course, or that the inconvenience attending it
would have been commensurate with the advantage to be
gained by it. With regard to some other points, there were
a few to which he would briefly advert. The Hon. Member

for Bath had alluded to the Nlontpensier alliance, and gave it as
his opinion that it would have been desirable to have maintained a
good understanding, and not to have interfered with the affairs
of France. He should have been quite content to await the
riscussion of this subject till the correspondence of the Noble
Lord had been laid before the House, but he could not assent
o the doctrine laid down by the Hon. Member, that the
British Government had no right to interfere in such matters.
`ibis, however, he knew, that if serious injury occurred to this
country from a cause of this natpre, public opinion would
blame, and blame deservedly, the Nlini,ters of the Crown by
whose neglect it had been produced. He could not bat regard
the matter as one of the most serious moment, and deserving of
she greatest consideration, and though he was of opinion that the
attempts made by , Louis XIV and Napoleon to bring about
the union of kingdoms by such means rather tended to an

opposite effect, still he thought that to obviate dangers that
',night possibly arise to the interests of the country from such
a source was an object not unworthy of the attention of statesmen.
The other subject to which he would turn was the marriage of
the Infanta of Span, and he wished to speak upon this subject
because it had been reported, and was industriously set about,
that it was the desire of the Government to advance Prince

Leopold of Saze Coburg as a claimant to the throne of Spain.
Ile did not know the young Prince entertained any wish upon
that subject, but he had felt it his duty to give an intimation
!u his Sovereign that it was not advisable to support Prince
Leopold as a candidate to the hand of the Queen of Spain, and
j,O must say that his Sovereign had acceded, in a most gracious
manner, to the force of his representation. He was the more
particular on this point because it had been asserted that
t he desire of the British Govornmen- to advance a candidate to
the throne of Spain, in consequence of the impression that
there was a wish on the part of the French Royal Family to
advance a candidate of their own ; and this was made to appear

------ ...........____ . ........ _ . ,
as the proper view of._ the transaction. He did not conceive that
this proposition was entertained at that moment by Prince
Leopold, or that he had recommended the course which had been
imusued, because he believed that we ought not to be at all con-
"toed in the future internal government of Spain. His Hon.
V:ietel the Member far the University of Oxford seemed dis-
posed to
. say that at the present moment we ought to refrain
from interfering inite4rnfeß'ng or expressing any opinion at all. But he
emit:ix
to
the
eneshsell) thought it was more frank and more be-
zys:ter of this nation and its po3itien, to state
t ie objections
I Manta of Spain 4I !I he entertained to the marriage of the
to the Duke de \lontpensier. For these rea-
s Ins they had stated tholeagredothections to the Court of France,
tocause he perfectly
remat with reguil to these matters,
provided the Prince whin
:red in Spain was not one to
o limn they could object upon clear grounds of the treaty, that
they could not complain ; and 14't hger°
of Spain must be considered of paramount
admitted that the, wi,lies
kingdom. Even those who most d importance to this
Vrecht admitted that one and the same prince
the Treaty o
' both ,in France and Spain.
riognThere could be no doubt
of that. Fur his owl part he would say that it
the most sincere regret that he found "a, with
opinion to what had been done himself
oeposed in
Ho did, however, merely 1‘
merely by the
Government of France.
it was that this country should be on the best terms of friend.
sl,ip with France This country had never done anything
which was calculated to disturb that understandirl. He s-n_
o. rely lamented that by no fault cf theirs a separation of good
feeling had taken place between them with regard to the late
loarriage.—(Choers.) With i egaril to other subjects re-
lating to foreign affairs—the extinction of the free state •f
Cracow—he thought there was so little difference of opinion
-in that
_House, or, anywhere else, that he really felt it
unnecessary to say, then, that it seemed as if front the first
partition of Poland to that unholy act which was, perhaps,
the most to be condemned of any act amongst the nations in
the history of modern Europe—from that fatal day misfortune