The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS,
FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.

TIMES.—Lord John Russell does not at all overstate the
difficulty of his path when he says that clouds and darkness
rest over Ireland, and legislation is beset with perils. Often
and often as statesmen may have thought that they had come
to the bottom of Irish distress, no one can deny that a worse
than all has arrived, and, moreover, that a worsestill remains.
The half of a populous island, usually verging on famine, now
actually suffers that dreadful extremity; nor is there any
appearance of early relief. The usual food of the people has
perished, and threatens not to return for a period far beyond
the calculations of man. The only storehouse to which the
public purveyor can look for relief is that natural magazine
created by the industry of the people, over and above their
own simple wants, and usually reserved for the payment of
rent and other outgoings; and the supplies providentially
arriving from distant shores. The former of these is that
which common sense and economy would teach us most to
depend upon. But here is the difficulty. To arrest that
nourishing and fertilising stream on its course, to de-
tain it on the spot, to convert it into the relief of distress, the
wages of labour, and the material of reproduction, is at least
an apparent and possible loss to those who have hitherto
exacted, wasted, or alienated this store. Hence a serious
struggle between the rights of the many and the rights of
the few—between starving peasants and straitened pro-
prietors—between famine and pestilence on the one hand,
and decay of fortune and position on the other. Such are
the perilous alternatives betbre the House. Such the clouds
and darkness over Irish affairs. For our own part, we do
not hesitate to avow, as we have ever avowed on similar
occasions, that at such a crisis the few must give way to
the many,the part to the whole. While we most thoroughly,
and at the same time most gladly, believe that the pro-
prietors exaggerate the sacrifices demanded at their hands,
we assert with all boldness that land was created for man,

and not man for land ; that landlords are made for the
people, and their peculiar interests are only ministerial and
subordinate to the good of the whole. A general in the field
must lay hold of the stores that he finds, and devote them in

the first instance to that purpose which he is bound to con-
sider a paramount object—the maintenance of his army.
The compensation he may think proper to afford to
the owners is another and a secondary question. What is
Lord John Russell but our commander-in-chief in an unex-
ampled campaign; Ireland the field, famine the foe, and the
army a vast population, without magazines, order, material,
or, in a word, any other resource than the boldness and skill
of their chief ? The necessity of the crisis admits not the
usages, or, rather, the abuses of peace. If an evil custom has
deprived the labourer of his hire, this is just the time to
found a more equitable system. Labour and wages, popula-
tion and wealth, have suffered a long divorce, and must now
be reconciled. Grant that the change is great, and what a
man would not willingly undertake ; it is forced on the Legis-
lature. Society is reconstructed in disaster; each new birth
is in throes, and institutions are the monuments of wrong.
In "clouds and darkness" it is necessary to take a short and
simple rule, the guidance of great moral truth. The first
law of nature, that the people must be fed, and that more
particularly from the work of their hands, is the clue of this
labyrinth. IR the public weal an enlightened statemen will
discern the cloud by day and the pillar by night through
this terrible wilderness ; and public weal is an empty
name, unless it includes the relief of those who are
ready to perish, and the employment of those who are able to
work, but have not the opportunity. The Minister takes an
unassailable position when he rests the new Irish Relief Bill
on the new facts of the case. He is entitled to call it the
child of necessity. It is contrary to the theories of his less
experienced age, and less fearful times. Ireland has under-
gone a virtual revolution. The food of independent poverty
has failed. The spontaneous charity of the lower classes has
been exhausted. The armies of mendicancy have been
destroyed or disbanded. All that miserable system which
was rather an apology for society than a civilized society
itself, bas fallen to the ground. Politicians held it up as

long as they could. Secretaries of State found it convenient,
and eulogized the noble and trustworthy custom of a per-
petual and inbreeding beggary. The right of preying on
the infant resources of rising enterprise, and blighting the
first bloom of prosperity, was cried up as a sacred
and irfallible refuge, which it would have been im-
pious to supplant with the coarse expedient of a poor's-
rate. All that is passed. Providence, not man, has put an
end to that folly. The cottier remains without a crop ; the
beggar without a dole. A physical revolution has over-
thrown the reign of mendicancy and conacre. There is no
possible, no conceiveable alternative, but to create another
system on the ruins, or, rather, in the place of the old. Time
is the greatest innovator, and we only submit to his laws
when we erect a new system on a new foundation—that is,
the present facts of the case. Without a real poor-law, offer-
ing relief to the destitute and employment to the idle, how
are we to meet the phenomenon of a people in the midst of
comparative abundance, but deprived of their wonted food;
paying rent, but without a maintenance; depending on a
root that will not thrive, or on neighbours that cannot give?
A great crisis justifies and demands " a great experi-
ment." The dictates of nature are interpreted by the
voice of the people; and from all sides are returned
"innumerable echoes " to the Ministerial decision.
In vain does Mr. Shaw invoke that jealousy of
popular interference, and that reaction against an out-door
pressure, which Legislatures are so apt to experience. For
our own humble selves, we can truly reply that Mr. Shaw
ascribes to us an influence which we neither possess nor de-
sire. The people of this island, who are now imperiously de-
manding that Ireland shall no longer be without a good
poor-law, would be as little disposed to ascribe that unani- 1
mous wish to our simple suggestion, as the House of Com-
mons itself. What would our words have been worth had
we not known that we appealed to a national sentiment, and
to the simple facts of the case? We have no strength but
truth, and we claim no credit but for having stripped the
question of all prejudice and disguise.
CHRONICLE.—The last of the Irish confiscations is at
hand. History records four great ones, which were all, so to
speak, in the same direction. The fifth will be something
like a reversal of three of those ancient injustices. Eliza-
beth, the first James, Cromwell, and William created, by
successive batches, the greater portion of the landed proprie-
tary of Ireland. The plantation of James in the north still
stan:is secure. It can bear an English poor-law almost as
well as England. But the descendants of the Elizabethan
adventurers, and of the Cromwellian and Williamite soldiery,
had their doom pronounced last night by, Lord John Russell.
The Noble Lord spoke with the tone of a man whose mind is
made up. He is navigating in a fog, but he has at least de-
termined upon one thing to be done, and we scarcely expect
to see him waver until he feels that the ship is aground.
Let us not, however, be supposed capable of doing injustice
to a man for whom difference of opinion cannot abate our
respect. In applying an extended poor-law to Ireland, we
have no shadow of doubt that Lord John Russell acts
from a strong conviction that it will improve the condition
of the people of that country. His sanguine anticipations,
the bright colours in which he paints the future, the touch-
ing warmth of language and manner in which he appeals to
every noble feeling in the Irish breast, and the generous
confidence in which he imagines priest, peasant, and pro-
prietor combining to work a poor-law, without a taint of
selfish passion to give rise to abuse, would convince us, if
we did not already know as much from the character of the
Noble Lord, that he has' full faith in the soundness of his
own policy. No Minister, we believe, has ever dealt with
this painful and oppressive Irish question in a more honest
and earnest spirit. We can only lament that facts the
broadest and most palpable fail to make their due impression
upon his mind, that in employing means to attain useful
ends he should seem insensible to all breaks and chasms in
the reasonings by which he connects causes and effects to-
gether, and that he should waste unrivalled opportunities
and resources in reliance upon a delusion which must connect
the memory of his Administration with the discredit of
signal failure. The statement of last night had reference,
first, to the extraordinary relief works, upon which nearly
three millions and a half of the Irish population are now de-
pendent for support ; and, secondly, to the Bill for a perma-
nent extension of the Irish poor-law. With reference to the
first point, we shall simply repeat, as bearing upon the second,
the amount of expense, and the fact of the existence of
grievous abuses. The expenditure upon the public works
has increased thus :

12,0001., wl,ich it declares at the same time cannot be col-
lected. A loan therefore is demanded to prevent twelve hun-
dred wretches from being turned out to die. The Scarill union
likewise wants a loan. The Cavan union has even fingered
a trifle of the Government money. What is to he done,
if the guardians of these western and southern unions
will not, or cannot, collect the rates? Dissolve them, and
send down paid officers. The paid officers can easily assess,
but how are they to collect? Does it seem likely that any
considerable rate can be got from the occupiers? If not, is
there any provision for putting receivers upon the estates of
the landlords? We really do not see bow, if the law is to be
vindicated in the west and south, it will be possible to stop
short of a system in which local agency will be entirely at
an end, and by which the administration of relief will become
purely a Government operation, the rents being collected as
rates to defray the expenditure. What, then, is to be done?
It is clear that some other large measure, something more
than an extension of employment which loans to landlords
will create, something which will reduce the pauperism of
those districts within manageable limits, is an indispensable
preliminary to the working of any poor-law. Here lies the
deficiency of the Government policy. When is it to be, or
is it to be supplied ?

September and October ... £54,000
November ... ... 208,000
December ... 545,000
January ••• •• ... 736,000
February ... 944,000
This is independent of the Commissariat and some other ex-
penses. We are at this moment, then, expending at least
250,0001. per week, out of which, according to the statement
which we published yesterday, ten western and southern
counties must be receiving 160,0001., or at the rate of eight
millions a year, for the relief of their poor. As to abuses, they
were inevitable. The superintendence of the Board of Works
is as perfect as it is in the nature of such a thing to be, but
it cannot secure the honest performance of task work.
It has been necessary to adapt the task to the powers
of the feeble, who without such merciful consideration would
have starved. But the strong, as might be expected, have
taken advantage of the laxity, and we hear of the able-bodied
coming lazily at eleven o'clock in the day to do the easy
work of a woman era child. This has happened, we say in-
evitably happened, even under a vigorous and well-ordered
superintendence. Lord John Russell, however, maintains
that such experience is anything but conclusive against out-
door relief to the able-bodied under a poor•law. The prin-
ciple of giving out-door relief to the able-bodied, we can no
longer doubt, will be legalized in Ireland with a bond fide in-
tention to carry it into effect. In what manner the Govern-
ment is ultimately to withdraw its hand from the immense
mass of destitution which it now sustains, and to let the
weight down upon the boards of guardians, we do not
yet understand. Orders, indeed, are issued to disband
the army of paupers upon the works by succes-
sive detachments, but as they leave the works they
come upon the soup kitchens. They will still feed out of
the Treasury. Six months will bring the harvest, but
what will the harvest bring? Take those ten counties of
the south and west, in which 480,000 persons, representing a
population of two millions, and forming two-thirds of the
whole labouring class, are now hanging npon the Govern-
ment. Assume that the land will be generally tilled—though
how it is become so, when the dismissal of the workmen is
only to begin on the 20th of March, we cannot see. In the
most favourable event that we can hope for, what will the
harvest bring? Not potatoes, except a few as
piesluxures for
the rich. The cheap and productive potato of the nt
will not be grown. The potato acre will require at least two
acres of grain to replace it. But we can scarcely expect so
much as one. The land which, in the ordinary course would
have grown potatoes in the present year, instead of being so
much added to breadth sown with corn, will grow some
green crop only partially usable as human food, or will be
laid down in pasture. How, then, are the two millions of
paupers in the south and west to be got off the soup kitchens?
Suppose them reduced to one million, is the one mil-
lion to be handed over to the care of the boards of
guardians? No one who reads Lord John Russell's speech
can avoid feeling that it does not deal with the tremendous
difficulty arising from the mass of destitution in certain dis-
tricts. He expects a poor-law to work in those districts,
without showing any clear conception of the amount of pau-
perism which the machinery of a poor-law can endure with-
out breaking down. What will be the extent of the ordi-
nary pauperism of the ten counties, if our chief reliance for
removing it is to be placed upon a poor-law? Their work-
houses are built to accommodate 40,000 persons. They now
contain 50,000. Let the aged and infirm be removed, and
let the flood of able-bodied poverty roll into the space so va-
cated. Fifty thousand will be housed. One-twentieth of the
million whom we have supposed to remain destitute after
harvest will be off the roll of the soup kitchens. The towns,
which even now for the aged and infirm only are levying 4s.
and ss. rates, will be making assessments of 10s.in the pound,
though with no great prospect of collecting them.
Still we have the nineteen-twentieths, the 950,000 in
these ten counties, on our hands. Are we to transfer
them, or a part of them, and how many of them, to the
unions as out-door paupers ? The counties in question have
no doubt a rental of five millions to be taxed, but how far
will it go, and by what kind of measure is it to he made
available ? Lord John Russell thinks the sheet-anchor
upon which he can rely for a safe administration of out-door
relief is the local board, with its strong interest in keeping
down the local rate. Suppose the boards should look so very
sharply after this interest, as to refuse to assess a rate four
times, five times, or ten times the amount of any former one?
Castlebar has begun—becoming restive even upon a matter
of a shilling in the pound. The local board there is at an
end, and the rate is to be made and levied by paid Govern-
ment officers. The Balliva board has struck a new rate of

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

PLYMOUTH, MAncmll.—Her Majesty's steam-vessel
\ Bloodhound, Lieutenant-Commander Robert Phillips,
came in this morning from Lisbon and Oporto. Besides
j dispatches for the Admiralty, she brings the letters of
the Oriental and Peninsular Company's steam-ship
Tiber, lost off Oporto ou the 21st ult. The Bloodhound
is the bearer of letters from her Majesty's ships Trafalgar,
120, Captain J. N. Natt ; Hibernia, 104, Captain P.
Richards ; Canopus, 84, Captain F. Moresby ; Superb,
80, Captain A. L. Corry ; America, 50, Captain Sir T.
Maitland ; Thetis, Captain Codrington ; the steam
sloop Medea, Commander Hammond ; and the steam-
vessel Jackal), Commander Western.
Since she came in harbour the Bloodhound towed
from Barnpool into the Sound her Majesty's sloop
Mariner, 12, Commander Mathison, under a salute from
her Majesty's ship Queen, 110, Captain Sir H. J. Leeke.
The Mariner is this day to be paid advance, and in-
spected by Admiral Sir John Louis, when she will be
ready for sea.
PORTSMOUTH, MARCH 19. The Curlew mortar-ves-
sel returned to harbour, last evening, the official experi
mental trial having been declared eminently successful.
Colonel Armstrong, of the Royal Artillery, and Captain
Chads, of the Excellent, were the officers appointed by
the Admiralty to report upon this trial, which took place
at St. Helen s yesterday, under the personal superin-
tendence of the inventor, Lieutenant Julius Roberts, of
the Royal Marine Artillery, and in the presence also of
Captain Henderson, C. 8., of the Sidon steam-frigate,
Captain Wilford, Royal Artillery, Professor Main, of
the Royal Naval College, Lieutenants Schoenberg, Ba -
table, Rains, &c., of the Royal Marine Artillery, Lieuts.
Hodgkinson and Burroughs, of the Excellent, and other
officers.

It is unnecessary to detail the principle upon which
Lieutenant Roberts' mortar is suspended, as a minute
detail was given with th© report of the first experimental
trial.

Yesterday the firing commenced soon after eleven,
with shells (loaded) weighing 90016. each ; two dis-
charges being made with 51b. of powder each, two with
81b., two with 1216., two with 151 b., and 18 with the
full service charge of 201 b. The times of flight with
each of these discharges were as perfect as from any
mortar fixed on a land battery at an elevation of 45
degrees—the angle at which Lieutenant Roberts's mor-
tar was suspended—thereby proving the correctness of
range it would always give (4,200 yards) with a full
service charge.
The whole of the pillars and framework which sup-
ported the mortar were not in the slightest degree shaken
or moved. The deck planking was a little raised by the
explosive effects of the charge. After proving most
satisfactorily the efficacy of the mortar slung upon Lieu-
tenant Roberts' plan, a trial was made of it" fixed" after
the usual manner, to see the difference of the two prin-
ciples more forcibly. The mortar was therefore secured,
as well as its peculiar position would admit, by means of
chocks behind, to prevent its recoiling, and to cause the
shock to act downwards, as in land or other fixed mor-
tars, and fired first with a charge of 51b. of powder,
which produced but little consequence beyond the chocks
being forced out and the muzzle jumping upwards; two
other discharges were then made with 121 b. and 201 b. of
powder, which produced a strikingly manifest impression
on the vessel, causing her to plunge deep into the water,
forcing the muzzle of the mortar upwards with a sudden
jerk and striking it forcibly against the cross bar, on
which it is mainly suspended, flattening the edge of the
muzzle and also the links of the chain cable supporting
it. The ship also commenced to show considerable
weakness from the concussion, which left no doubt but
that a succession of charges fired upon this "fixed"
principle would soon destroy the vessel. This most in-
contestibly decided the question of the vast superiority
of the slung over the fixed mortar.
The Bloodhound steam-vessel, Lieutenant-Commander
Phillips, arrived at Spithead this morning from the
Tagus, last from Plymouth, where she yesterday landed
all her dispatches, mails, &C. She left Lisbon this day
fortnight, when the
.Hibernia, Trafalgar, Canopus, Su-
perb, America, Thetis, and Jackall steamers were there.
The Thetis was ordered home to repair the damages
she sustained by getting aground on entering Lisbon.
The Superb and America were to accompany her to the
chopsofthe
Channel,tbe orderstowhichofticmaeptthaeiny wcoourlry, dcoomfptebtee
in sailing under
or iron steamer
be
bebeach
haatd
Lisbonb en aground,
beingaSnudpeornb.
discovered that the iron on her bottom was worn to
within a quarter of an inch in thickness. Commander
G. Blane, late First Lieutenant of the Spartan, has come
home. The
hauleda e ka
1 upl
The Mariner naval transport, Lieutenant Still, agent,
arrived this morning from Bermuda with 210 convicts,
whose terms have expired, under the charge of Surgeon
M'Crea, RN., and old stores. Captain Frankland, late
of the Alarm ; Captain Noble, late Commander of the
Vindictive ; and Lieutenant W. E. Shaw, late of the En-
dymion, came home passengers in her. She will dis-
charge such of her returned prisoners as have belonged
to the naval service into the hulks at this port, and pro-
ceed with the remainder to the river, where they will be
placed at the disposal of the Home Secretary.
The African steam tug, master commanding Barker
(acting), sailed to-day for Sheerness.
The Monkey steam tug, Mr. W. Bryant, second
master commanding, sailed for Woolwich this evening.
The Talbot, 26, Captain Sir Thomas Raikes T. Thomp-
son, Bart., is hourly expected here from South America
with a second freight of money. We do not clearly
understand the terms on which the naval authorities
manage these things, but we apprehend it is scarcely
reconcileable with the principles of strict justice for one
officer, and that one too, a man of title, and, we may
thence presume, of fortune, to bring home two freights
in the course of one term of service, when there are so
many poor officers to whom such a matter would be a
real God -send. The Talbot is ordered, on her arrival
here, to be paid off all standing, end to be immediately
recommissioned to carry meal and other provisions to
Ireland. It is understood she will be officered and man-
ned from the flag ships.
CHATHAM, MARCH 12.—The Antelope steam-packet
is alongside the Shere hulk, and is now masted. She
has also received on board a sufficient quantity of ballast
to bring her down to the proper draught of water to
enable her to proceed on a trial trip, which it is expected
she will make in a few days.
The Terpsichoracorvette, building by
blessrs.Wigram
at Blackwell, will be ready for going out of dock on the
18th inst , when she will be immediately towed to this
port to be fitted for commission.
The Semarang, 26 guns, in dock, fitting for a guard
ship, at Gibraltar, will be undocked next spring tides.
She is nearly coppered, and will be ready to proceed on
her voyage about the end of this month.
stores
The
for Rochester,portsmo So
Portsmouth
dly
d ga n wick,
imma master,
dockyards.
Messrs. sailed sd ay with
Messrs. Rigby and Co. have taken the contract for the
internal fitments of the new school for the dockyard ap-
prentices at the sum of 3151.
John Vokes, storehouse labourer, which situation he
has filled for some years, has been superannuated on a
pension of 201. per annum.
The Royal Dockyard battalion for the service of this
yard, is to consist of 12 companies; each company will
comprise 75 men. A four gun battery is to be imme-
diately constructed at the east end of the ynd for the
service of the battalion.
A distressing accident occurred on Wednesday to
Edward Benton, a sawyer,
Baker, of Lambeth, and who are the contractors of the
new works carrying on for the enlargement of the yard,
who had his right leg broken by a piece of timber cant-
ing on it. The sufferer was immediately taken to Mel-
ville Hospital, where he now remains.
in the employ of Messrs.

RAILWAY RETURNS.
RAILWAY TRAFFIC.—The following are the Total Receipts of Rall.
ways for the past week—that is to say, up to the date to which the
respective returns are made, together with the receipts of the same
week in the previous year:

,ti
o
Week
ending NAME OF RAILWAY.
1 ~..tr,ri _
U .E,
--- ---- ____
X A
Mar. 6 Arbroath and Forfar ... •••••• • • " '' 212 187
Last.
2
1 ,
~,
5 Chester and Birkenhead .•••••• • • • • • • 586 551
7 Dublin and Drogheda.. ••••••• • • •• • • 738 fi2l
9 Dublin and Kingstown ••••••• • • • • • ' ' 680 706
7 Dundee and Arbroath .••••••• • • • • • • • 263 251
HU . . .
Assoc..• "6:811 55_:
,207
Durham and Sunderland .• . ..... -•• • •
6 Edinburgh and Glasgow .... ........ 3,234 2.965
I Eastern Counties and North Eastern • • 8,655 6.6,4
6 East Lancasihre
Feb. 7
28 Eastern Union ..... .••••••• • • " • • ' • • 41
Mar. 6 Glasgow, Kilmarnock, and Ayr ...... 2,157 1,952
6 Glasgow and Green0ck......... .... 1,008 807
Gravesend and Rochester •••••• • • • • .•
6 Great Southern and Western •••• • • • • 1,045 _
7 Great Western. &c ••••••••• • • • • • • • • • 15,708 16,075
Feb. 28 Ipswich and Bury •••••• • • • • • •_. ••• • • • 334
Mar. 6 London and North Western, Bte. ..... 35,320 35,875
7 London and Blackwall.• ••••••• • • • • • 701 ••
• 12
6 London and Brighton .••••••• • • • • • • • 5,076 4,540
London and Croydon .••..•••• • • • • •• ......
sLin3eoeedltll7senld'a,ananndid Lincolnshire 1,751
7 London and South Western .•• . • • • ~
'-
7'799 700
Feb.
mll araManchester.
.p Manchester,
oh Manchester,
rs tter
528 1,616
Mar. 6 Midland, Bristol, and Birmingham.... 431
and Carlisle ..............
17,013 14,915
6 Newcastle and Carlisle •• • ....... .• •
Newcastle and North Shields .• .... •..
22°2 1,778
6 Newcastle and Berwick .••. .. . .....
7 Norfolk •••• • • • •
6 North British .. • .................... I's" 1 194
8 Paris and Rouen ..••••••• • . • • • • •
... 1,322 '
6 Preston and Wyre ••• • • • ..... .......
5 Shrewsbury and Chester .••• . • • •
.. 540 477
19
6 South Eastern and Branches ........ 5•3„
5 South Devon. •••••.••••• • • • • • • • • •
•• 844
28 5'159
6 Taff Vale .• • • ••• • •
1'307 900
6 York and Newcastle .••••• • • • • •
••
.. 724 685
8,206
, 6 York and North Midland . —..... •• •• ..• 6,584
196 4,593

A NEW ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.--The Leo Sau-
murois states, that at this moment there is being established
on the Tours and Nantes Railroad an apparatus composed of
an iron wire extending from one end of the railroad to the
other. An electric current is to pass constantly along the
wire, and, by means of small pistons placed at intervals of
200 yards, whenever a train is in motion its passage at each
point of the railroad will be indicated to the fixed machire
by the movement of a small piston, which, by interrupting
the electric current for a moment, will designate the number
of the post before which the train is passing. By these means
the director of the fixed machine will receive information
almost every second as to the speed of the train in motion,
and as to the position occupied by it. It is unnecessary to
insist on the importance of such an indication. By always
knowing the exact position of a train on its passage, it will
enable the conductor to moderate the speed of the trains,
and to send assistance with greater promptitude in case of
accident, so as to prevent the interruption of the road as
much as possible.
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH IN THE CITY.—The
intention of forming the central telegraph station at the
Royal Exchange has been abandoned, owing to the limited
space that could be allotted it in that building, for a more
commodious and extensive site in the neighbourhood of
Moorgate-street. It is expected that in less than twelve
months the proposed subterranean electric telegraphs from the
several metropolitan railway stations will be completed and
brought to one point.

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, MARCH 13, 1R47

RAILWAY COMMITTEES.

(YESTE itDAY.)

HOUSE OF COMMONS.
GROUP I.

The Select Committee appointed to consider the merits of
the Bills comprised in this group re-assembled in Room 30,
at the usual hour this morning; Lord Granville Somerset in
the chair.