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took the finances of the Tories under his pro-
tection.

Mr. WAKLEY took the opportunity to renew
(
what has been called his inflammatory harangues.
He referred to the little disposition there was in
the House to satisfy the people, and the still less
disposition there was in the people to be satisfied
with the House. They would require many
acts of substantial benefit before they would
believe that the House intended to do
them any good, and that it did not care for their
interests was plain by the few Members—not
fifty at most—who had attended this important
motion. In particular he missed from the
House those testy Lords—though the people
could well spare them—who on other occa-
sions were so ready to harangue the House.
None of them were present on this important
question—yes, he begged pardon, there was one
Lord present, but the rest, including the leaders
of both sides, showing how little they cared for
the people, were absent. So the Hon. Member,
evidently addressing his observations more to the
public at large than his little audience, paid off
those attacks, which were unwisely, we thought,
made on the " demagogue " on account of his
speech on the Poor-law Bill.
Colonel SIBTHORP said a few words partly
against the motion, but chiefly against the
Whigs.
Mr. MARK PHILIPS had been an avowed ad-
vocate of a property tax since 1831, but, looking
at the very empty state of the House, he advised
his Hon. Friend to withdraw the motion, and
bring it forward on the night of the Budget, when
the House would be crowded, and when he might
elicit the opinions of the leaders of the House.
If his Hon. Friend divided the House, he would
vote with him.

General JOHNSTON wished to know the num-
ber of his friends and his enemies, he disliked
motions which led to nothing, and he recom-
mended his Hon. Friend to divide and try the
strength of the parties on the question.

Mr. SCHOLEFIELD yielding to a general cry
of his friends for a division, divided the House,
and found his motion supported by 27, and op-
posed by 40.
Some other uninteresting business was trans-
acted, and at a Quarter before Twelve o'Clock the
House Adjourned.

We feel profoundly humiliated on learning
that the House of Commons is engaged in a dis-
cussion, night after night, about giving the poor
a little mutton broth, or a table-spoonful of wine,
when sick. 'Tis pitiful, 'tis wondrously pitiful,
to see the Assembly, which has been called the
noblest collection of freemen on the earth—
which votes, without remark or reflection,
70,0001. for building stables, 60,0001. for an ex-
pedition to the Niger to improve the blacks,
hundreds of thousands of pounds to wrest Syria
from MEIIEMET ALI, and maintain the integrity
of Turkey, and even millions sterling- a year for
the household expenses of one person, and for
pensions to the knaves of Royalty—it is, we say,
wondrously pitiful to see this august Assembly,
which squanders a nation's resources on trifles,
engaged, as it were, in measuring out skilagalee
to the poor with the parsimony and ill-temper of
a Mistress SQUEERS. To know that the Assembly
so engaged is the great guide, leader, and law-
giver of the nation, the visible god of its idola-
try, makes us form almost as degrading and
contemptible an opinion of the nation as of this
renowned Assembly of free men. Self-respect
leads men to despise a body engaged in such
miserable discussions and squabbles. Why, there
is not a decent housekeeper to one of the Mem-
bers of that Assembly who would weigh out her
charity to an imploring beggar by grains and
scruples, as this riotously and wastefully extra-
vagant body talks of doling out relief to the
suffering and industrious poor.
This great and deep degradation—for such it
is, and such it will be felt to be throughout the
empire—comes of the House of Commons being
the representative, and lending itself to be the
instrument of the avarice, of the landowners. It
has made a law on the one hand to declare that
industrious people shall have neither work nor
bread, without complying with the impossible
condition Of paying a large tax to the land-
owners ; and on the other, it has made a law to
deprive of all sustenance those whom it will not
allow by labour to earn bread, except on the
hard condition of submitting to the workhouse
test. It has adopted the principle of free trade
as to the labourer, and told him to rely on his
own resources, and it has maintained the prin-
ciple 4protection as to the landlord, and under- ,

takes to secure him an ample allowance, whe-
ther it properly belong to him or not. Rates to
add to wages have been done away, and rates
to add to rent continued. To the industrious the
law says they shall have no relief but merely
to save them from starvation—to the rich it
gives an exorbitant tax, levied on the poor,
driving them to that starvation from which it
will barely rescue them. The Legislature has
converted the nation into a workhouse, and has
become the exacting,"despised, and hated over-
seer of the poor.
The division on Mr. EASTROPE'S motion,
the language adopted by Sir ROBERT PEEL, the
tone recently taken by some of those journals

which were the most zealous supporters of the
New Poor-law, indicate a considerable change in
public opinion. Why is this ? The principle of
the law—to which we do not object—of making
the working classes depend on their own re-
sources, is unaltered. We do not believe any
change has taken place in public opinion on this
point; but last year and the year before there was
great distress in the land, pauperism increased,
those who had to relieve it naturally grew some-
what weary of their arduous work, and harsh in
their behaviour ; numerous cases of individual
suffering—of females driven by destitution to
commit crimes—of aged persons and infants
(lying from starvation, were painfully paraded
before the public ; and the accumulated misery
of a suffering population thus enlisted the feel-
ings of the public against the law. No enactment
could stand such a test. Had a similar scrutiny
been at any time directed against the Old Poor-
law in a season of distress, it would have been at
once enlarged or annihilated.
The New Poor-law is of modern origin. A
considerable party opposed it from the first, and
have closely watched it ever since, exaggerating
all its faults, and ascribing to it much of the
misery which the carelessness or depravity of
individuals have brought on themselves. For
the first three years the law was in existence, its
operations were facilitated by the low price of
food, and by the comparative prosperity of the
people. For the last three years the compara-
tive scarcity and dearness of food, and the vast
distress of the lower classes, have impeded its
operations, and strengthened its enemies. A
portion of the press has ascribed the sufferings of
the people to it, and as they
e have yincreasedeaehantghee
law has become odious. s has arisen in the public sentiment,
and a general election
being supposed at hand
gives that change weight
in Parliament.
great
change law is as good as ever it was,
but a •
has taken place in the Price of food.ln
quarter,in 1839
1836