The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-13 00:00:00

~.qctrienius .7;im.

LONDON, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 184 r.

Their Lordships commenced business at Five o'clock.
The Marquis of ELY took the oaths and his seat.
The Duke of BUCKINGHAM presented a great number
of petitions from places in the counties of Buckingham
and Oxford against any alteration in the corn-laws.
The Duke of BUCCLEUCH laid several reports on the
table.

Petitions in favour of the repeal of the corn-laws were
presented by Lord HATHERTON and Earl GREY.

The Earl of DALUOUSIF laid on the table the report
of the Committee on
The
18 e Nobletoe by
o bof Earlyf ttthe hh ee
his stated
House
o m
a
that the object of the resolu)tiso.ns come
Com-
mittee wa-1 to assimilate the proceedings
lonse
mittces of the House of Lords with tit::
of Commons upon Irish Railway Bills. It way
tention to-mot row to move the adoption of the report -
Lord MONTEAGLE gave notice of his intention On
Monday, in case the motion of Lord BEAUMoNT, with
respect to the burdens on land, was carried, to move, as
an addition, for a return of the burdens from which
they were exempt, in order that both sides of the ques-
tion might be properly understood.
The Marquis of CLANTZICARDE moved, pursuant to
notice, for returns with respect to the commission of
crimes in Ireland. He was shocked to see the increase
of crimes of the deepest dye in that country, and he
could not but think that great blame was due to the
Government. It was not only the combination against
life, but that against property, in Ireland, that ought to

MILNER GIBSON, Mr. T. DUNCOSIBE said he had seen
Mr. M'GREGOR since the attack had been mad •
in his statements the other night, and that it appeared
that the error complained of was merely a typographical
one, and no error of calculation.
Mr. STAFFORD O'BRIEN having stated that he intended
no personal attack on Mr. M'GREGOR, the subject
dropped.
The adjourned debate was then resumed by
Mr. COLQUUOUN, who assured the Right Hon.
Baronet at the head of the Government that he vats
mistaken in stating that he (Mr. Colquhoun) had at one
time held opinions in favour of the doctrine of total and
immediate repeal of the corn-laws, and that now he held
doctrines of protection. He had not been in favour
of total and immediate repeal, but he had been in favour
of a fixed duty, and in 1838 and 1839 he had voted for
the motion of Mr. VILLIERS for a Committee on those
grounds, and in that division he had voted with Lord
JOHN RUSSELL, MT. LABOUCHERE, and Mr. F. BARING,
all at that time advocates of a fixed duty ; and at
the time that he had contested Kilmarnock with Dr.Bo NV-
RING he had declared himself in favour of a fixed duty,
and of the principle of protection to agriculture. He
believed it would be impossible to maintain the prin-

ciple without the sympathy and consent of the
manufacturing classes, and he believed that at that
time those classes had been in favour of a fixed duty,
and he could not help thinking that seven years ago
a fixed duty would bave afforded a satisfactory settle
ment of the question. He would confess that he could
not hare voted in favour of an abstract resolution—in
favour of protection generally—for he held the opinions
which had been propounded by Mr. HUSKISSON ; and
so far as the policy of the Right Hon. Baronet had
carried out those opinions, he had afforded the
Right Honourable Baronet his support. But
the Right Honourable Baronet could not quote the
authority of Mr. HUSHISSON in support of his present
policy. Mr. HusxissoN withdrew protection from
manufactures, but he continued it to agriculture; be-
cause it was the duty of every state to impose upon
foreign commodities duties equal in amount to those
levied on domestic products. Manufacture possessed such
natural advantages in the mineral riches of the country
that it-stood in no need of protection ; but agriculture,
from the uncertainty of the seasons, laboured under
great natural disadvantages, and therefore stood in need
of protection. The arguments of the Right Hun.
ourable Baronet for withdrawing protection were not
tenable. The causes of the enhanced prices of
food were not the alterations of the tariff, but the agricul-
tural panic, which limited the supply, the failure of the
green and grass crops, the murrain in cattle, and the
additional employment afforded to the labouring classes
by the formation of the new railways. Then, with re-
gard to the argument of wages, he could not agree
with the Right Hon. Baronet in opinion, that the
price of wages was not affected by the price of food.
He considered that the arguments brought forward on
that point in 1839 were unanswerable ; and although it
might be very well for the Hon. Secretary to say we
have changed our opinions, and therefore there is an
end of our former arguments—there was not an end
of them—there they stood, as strong, as able,
as convincing arguments as ever.
.Tire Bight
Honourable Baronet might have done With those
arguments, but they had not. Wages did not imme-
diately follow the price of provisons, but they did ulti-
mately ; if from any cause the labour market shoo]:]
become glutted, how low soever the price of food might
fall, the rate-of;yeagei would fall in a still greater ratio ;
and he would direct their attention to the social condition
of Ireland as an example of what must result from such
a state of things. He denied that the repeal of the cot n-
laws would give such an increased development to our
manufacturing industry as to raise the rate of wages
The great development of our manufacturing industry
during the present century had not produced that effect,
and the repeal of the corn-laws would not greatly in-
crease that development. It was practising a delusion
on the working classes to tell them that they would
receive the same rate of wages after the repeal of
the corn-laws that they had received before that repeal.
He did not think it was possible for any measures of

commercial legislation to improve the condition of the
labouring classes or to raise the rate of their wages. It
could only be done by direct legislative interference, or
interference that they were told was contrary to the
doctrines of political economy, but if they did not inter-
fiere to improve thecondition of the labouring classes they
would find that there would eventually be a convulsion
which would shake society to its very foundations.
Admitting that the repeal would produce a develop-
ment of foreign trade, a deficient harvest in this
country would produce a deficient demand
for manufactures from the home market, and
the increased development of the foreign market
would not make up for the deficiency in the home
market. Then, again, they would, by removing protec-
tion, destroy their colonial market, for the loss of which
no development of their foreign commerce could compen-
sate them. The present proposition was not a free trade
code—silks, earthenwares, and lace wereprotected. Why
was that protection retained ? Because the Right lion.
Baronet thought they were not strong enough to stand
alone. Why, then, should it be removed from agricul-
ture ? He would like to see the Honourable Member

for Durham take a farm in Buckinghamshire on a lease,
and cultivate it on the principles of free trade, as be had
once said he should like to do ; and he thought that the
Hon. Gentleman, before his lease was out, would be
glad to take advantage of any flaw in the lease to break
it, and get rid of his bargain. He asked them in com

mon justice, if they continued protection to any
manufacture, to continue it to that which was
the most precarious in its results agriculture.

He had no fear of famine from our being dependent on
foreigners for a supply of corn. It would always be the
interest of foreigners to sell to us, and as long as we were
willing to buy from them they would sell to us, and it
would be impossible for their Governments to prevent
them. He gave his hearty concurrence to the Ministe-
rial proposition.
Mr. G. HEATHCOTE, notwithstanding the levity with
which the Ministry treated the subject, still thought
that consistency was of some value. When his own
friends, the late Government, had brought for-
ward measures which he thought detrimental to
agriculture he had opposed them, and now
that the Right Honourable Baronet opposite had
brought forward measures ten thousand times more
mischievous, and accompanied by a desertion of prin-
ciple unequalled in the annals of political tergiversation,
he should give them every opposition in his power.
They deprived agriculture of all protection ; they conti
nued to manufactures a protection of 10 per cent., and
this they called an equitable settlement of the question.
The compensation of which so much had been talks d
was nothing. The Government would lend their money
npon good security ; any money-lender would do the
the same, and the compensation offered was perfectly illu-
sory. As to their recent prosperity, they were indebted
to the Hon. Member for Sunderland and his railways,
and not to the Right Hon. Baronet and his tariff. The
elections that had taken place of late years showed the
triumph of protection. Free trade had not succeeded
even in great towns. Free trade in England was a
farce until the other countries of the world had altered
their tariffs. It was idle to say that a Corn Bill, which
would not come into operation fur three years, would
have the effect of averting the famine that was im-
pending over Ireland. He felt bound to support the
amendment.
Mr. W. MARTIN supported the Government propo-
sition.
Mr. THOMAS BARING opposed the motion. Consi-
dering the grounds on which the Right Hon. Baronet
at the head of the Government had proposed his
changes, they were inconclusive and uncalled for. It
was with great pain that he voted against those with
whom he was usually associated, but his duty com-
pelled him to do so. Cheap bread was a great blessing,
but that blessing would be greatly decreased if there
was a less demand for labour, which he believed would
be the result of carrying the Right Hon. Baronet's
proposition. He believed the question of the corn-laws
ought to be settled by mutual concessions.
Lord MORPETIL then addressed the House. He be-
lieved that the time for compromise on the subject of the
corn-laws had gone by ; a compromise was
once offered and rejected. He believed that
the recovery of the seat he now filled for the West
Riding of Yorkshire spoke volumes as to the opinion of
the people on the question of free trade. The proposi-
tion of the Right Hon. Baronet was most truly called
comprehensive, for it meddled with manufactures as
it did with agriculture. The manufacturers did not com-
plain of this, all they asked for was a clear stage and
no favour, and why the agriculturists should
wish to have unequal odds with them he was at a loss to
imagine. He thought the Right Hon. Baronet had
nothing to be ashamed of in having been forced to
change his opinions by circumstances over which man
had no control. No aristocracy could stand with the
existence of a corn-law which, in the time of need, would
prove to be prohibitory. tie conjured those who be-
longed to the aristocracy of the country to put aside all
selfish feelings, and join hand and heart in the settle-
ment of a question, which, if not adjusted with them,
would be adjusted in spite of them. Let them be the
leaders, and not the laggers of the onward march of the
British people. He would give his hearty support to
the proposition of the Government.
Mr. GASKILL had still to learn what circumstances
had occurred that called upon a Parliament elected to
keep up protection to put an end to it altogether. He
thought that Gentlemen sitting on the Ministerial side
of the House ought not to promote the measure, and that
the present Parliament ought not to sanction it. He be-
lieved that the change of opinion that had taken place in
the Right Hon. Baronet, and in many Members of the
House, would create the greatest distrust in the country
He differed from the Right Hon. Baronet, after great
consideration upon this question, and felt bound to vote
for the amendment.
Mr. ROEBUCK had nothing to defend upon this ques-
tion, but everything to assail. He thought the proceed-
ings that had been going on out of the House with re-
spect to the resigning of seats, was calculated but little
to raise its members in the opinion of the people. It was
wonderful that the Right Hon. Baronet at the head of
the Gevernment, after a long life, favourable to protec-
tion, should have fixed upon the latter end of the last
year to put an end to it ; and it was equally wonderful
that the Noble Lord, the Member for London, should
have adopted a similar course. It was not a question
with him what party would be broken up by a proposi-
tion to repeal the corn-laws. Whether the measure
would benefit the country it would be impossible to say;
but he thought that the great change ought to be accom-
panied by other great changes, to prevent the evil con-
sequences which must ensue from over-population.
Mr. Honcsoss Hiram, having five times presented
himself on the hustings as the advocate of protection,
and having each time been returned as a protectionst,
felt bound to oppose the Ministerial measure.
On the motion of Sir HCWARD Dotaassas the debate
,was adjourned till to-morrow.
The other'orders of the day having been disposed of,
the House adjourned.

In the House of Lords, last night, the Duke of BUCK.
INGHAM presented various petitions against a repeal of the
corn-laws, " and praying their Lordships not to take any
steps with respect to those duties until an appeal had been
made to the country, in order that the real feeling of the
people might be obtained on the measures brought forward
by her MAJESTY'S Government." By a most curious co-
incidence, almost at the very moment the Noble Duke was
addressing the Peers, his own son, the Marquis of CI-winos,
and Lord HENRY LENNOX, took their seats for the first
time in the House of Commons. May we venture to
ask his Grace, if the election of these Noble Lords
is to be taken as an evidence of the reed feeling of the people ?
It was hardly to be believed that even a Peer, that even a
Duke, would have had the audacity to rise in his place and
speak of " an appeal to the country," and " the real feeling
of the people," while the elections of Chichester, and Buck-
ingham, and Newark, were the subjects of general indigua.
lion and disgust. It is beautiful indeed to hear the protec-
tionist Peers accusing the Premier of inconsistency. It is
true that he is guilty of heinous offences; he has dared
to think of principles rather than parties, to con-
sult the exigencies of the times, not the pages of Hale-
s...RD ; he has dared—unparalleled effrontery—he has dared
to think less of the Peers than of the people ! Most incon-
sistent truly in a Conservative Prime Minister.
But the Noble Lords who venture to teach him, do they
•`themselves excel ?" Are they themselves consistent?
What is now the watchword in their ranks?—"Dissolve the
Parliament—appeal to the country !" But the Noble Lords '
are safe, or they fancy they are safe. Could an appeal to the
country elicit the real feelings of the people, they would'be
the very last to desire it. It is well to call "spirits from the
vasty deep" when the spirits cannot answer; it is well
to talk of an appeal to the people when the
people may not respond to such appeal. Would Noble
Dukes wish for elections were there no pocket boroughs?
Would his Grace of BUCKINGHAM talk of a dissolution were
the Reform Bill not fettered with his own CHANDOIV clause?
Yet let them beware—but no, such caution is now useless.
The day of grace has passed, " concession has reached its
limits." Rather let their motto be "carpe• diem," let them
rejoice while they may, let them enjoy the triumph of bring-
ing their sons into Parliament, or of turning them out ;
it is for the last time. The most violent Anti
Reformer eel' ardly expect things to continue as

Sir ROBERT PEEL, during his brief Ministry, in 1835, said
Ireland was his great difficulty; but he was not the only
Minister who had reason to make the same remark. Ireland,
for ages, has been a constant anxiety and expense to this
country, and though comparatively quiet during the wi e
and humane Administration of Lord NORMANBY, the cessa-
tion from outrage and hostility to the English Government
was only temporary, and rather induced by future prospects
than any material change in the system. That system had
taken too deep root to be eradicated by the best possible
Ministry; it was founded originally on the principle of
keeping one portion of the community, and that the
larger portion, subject to another; one was regarded
as masters, and the other as slaves ; one professed
the Catholic religion, and to a man were prepared
to die for.it—the other rejoiced in Protestantism ; or speak-
ing more correctly, in a political creed, and in the great
victory obtained aver their opponents at the battle of the
Boyne. The antipathies, and jealousies, and hostility excited
by that victory, but still more by the cruel and illegal man-
ner in which the victors used their advantages, have con-
tinued ever since, and seem to have paralyzed the moral
energies of the people, and sunk them into a hopeless state
of destitution and misery. Though every other part of the
United Kingdom, at the present moment, is in a most pros
perous state, and wealth acquired by lawful industry, and
the most gigantic undertakings is furnishing additional
employment for the labouring population, whether English,
Scotch, or Irish, the sister island exhibits a picture
of a very opposite character, and displays not the smallest
symptom of that vast progress in improvements, and discove-
ries, and useful exertion, which distinguishes the present age
above all others. With a fine, soil—with a hardy,
active, and enduring peasantry, and with every ad-
vantage from ready markets for the sale of its
productions, Ireland remains the most wretched coun-
try in Europe. While the land is not half cultivated, and
there is abundant scope for the construction of railways, the
great mass of the working population is unemployed, and
some four millions of human beings out of only eight are
threatened with absolute starvation, and great numbers are
perishing daily from fever or other pestilential diseases, brought
on by want. In such a deplorable and hopeless state of society,
another curse naturally follows, and the unhappy people
are impelled to crimes, at which, under other circumstances
they would revolt. These painful subjects are annually
brought under the notice of Parliament, but no remedy is
found, things go on in their usual way, and the chief re-
commendation from our senators is to coerce the people and
restrain crime by the strong arm of the law. But the " strong
arm of the law" is a mere phrase without meaning; in
many districts there is no law whatever, and even in the
very courts of justice and at special commissions it is laughed
to scorn, by the absence of witnesses, or by downright per-
jury. The Marquis of CLANRICARDE, last night, made one of
the customary speeches on this melancholy topic, and urged
that something ought to be done in the shape of an effi-
cient administration of the criminal law. The reasons he
gave certainly were sufficiently strong. " There were several
associations," he said, "and combinations existing which
had engaged the attention of the Repeal Association as well
as that of the Government, and it could not be denied that
a great part of the country was in a state of insurrection.
Immense masses of people had met in different places, and in
the county of Limerick a meeting had lately assembled in
open revolt in mid-day. During the spring, summer, and
winter of the past year these outrages had increased
to an almost unparalleled extent." His Lordship
therefore recommended some immediate steps to secure pro-
perty and life. Of course crime must be put down, if guns
and bayonets and gibbets can do it, but something else is re-
quired for Ireland. Any new coercive law, as we have
repeatedly contended, ought to be accompanied by other
measures calculated to civilise the people, and render
, the Government of England an object of hope
and esteem, rather than a terror. In Earl GREY'S
judicious remarks, therefore, we cordially concur.
After adverting to the sew Coercion Bill, which is in
the bands of the Government, he thus concluded:—" The
question had long been under the consideration of both
Houses of Parliament, but unfortunately party views had
interfered with its dispassionate consideration, but he hoped
the time had come when they could without reference to
party feelings, all agree in the propriety of investi-
gating into the real causes of this unhappy state of
things and in devising a remedy. He thought it right to
state his opinions, as from what fell from the Noble Lord
the Bill to be introduced by the Government was to be con-
fined to the single object of establishing security and repress-
ing outrage. He considered that the Government would fail
in its duty to the House and the country, if, while it pro-
posed rigorous measures, it did not give a statement of the
general policy and the measures it intended for the perma-
nent improvement of the condition of Ireland."

When once a feeling of obstinacy has taken possession of a
protectionist nobleman, that obstinacy is the most blunt-
headed, leaden-eyed, dogged and incorrigible that the imagi-
nation well could conceive. These conclusions are not what
are commonly designated "foregone," they are discoverable
from the instances of unflinching determination which
several of these right honourable personages had given the
public within the last few months. They behold the ground
crumbling away beneath them, they perceive the precipice
which yawns before them, they hear the uproar of the mul-
titude imploring them to desist, they see the insurmount
able obstacles which must speedily and inevitably prevent
them from proceeding further upon their original pathway,
yet they still endeavour to push forward upon their old worn-
out course, with a persistence so blundering and dull that
their very antagonists are filled with sentiments of
commiseration. His Grace the Duke of NEWCASTLE
has just given this opinion one more additional corroboration.
We yesterday commented upon the unconstitutional manner
in which certain members of the oligarchy took occasion to
meddle with the freedom of elections—we even particularised
his Grace the Duke of NEWCASTLE as an instance of this in-
tolerable and un-English proceeding, identifying his inter-
ference with the electors of Newark ; and, as if to enforce the
correctness of our observations, and at the same moment to
demonstrate the veracity of their application, we learn by
the latest intelligence from South Nottingham that his
Grace has confirmed all the previous rumours of his intention
by authorising his agent, ➢lr. WINTER, to use every exer-
tion in his power to ensure, or at least to facilitate, the
triumphal return of Mr. lIILDYARD. That such behaviour
is opposed to the spirit, if not to the very letter, of the
British Constitution, we have already protested ; and
consequently it would be superfluous to tarry longer upon
the consideration of its malific influence. Turn we,
therefore, to the explanatory address delivered yesterday to
the electors who were assembled in the Town-hall of
Newark by their late representative, Lord LINCOLN. We
regard that speech as satisfactory as far as his Lordship, and
his Lordship's recent conduct, are concerned. We look upon
it as another of those numerous legislative confessions, or
political unburdenings of conscience, which have latterly
streamed with such satisfactory abundance into the pub-
lic ear. Altogether, it is but a repetition of what has been
uttered again and again, both upon the hustings and from
the Parliamentary benches, yet precisely as such a repeti-
tion it rings pleasantly upon the moral tympanum of the
mass. It, moreover, affords us another version of the Irish

The baptism of the Hereditary Prince of Hanover son of the
Prince Royal, took place on the 4th inst. He has received the name,
of Ernest Augustus William Adolphus George Frederick. The intern
was held at the font by his grandfather, the King of Hanover. Th&
godfathers and godmothers were the King of Prussia, the Duke o]
Cambridge, the Duchess of Gloucester, the Princess Sophia of Eng-
land, the Grand Duke pf Mecklinburg-Strelitz, the Duchess Louisa et
Wurtemberg, Prince Frederick of Prussia, and the Duke and Duchess
of Saxe-Altenburg.
The Independant of Perpignan, of the 4th instant, states that
Ibrahim ?ache is indisposed, and that, in consequence, probably his
Journey to Paris may be deferred.
The Grand Council of the city of Bile has Just passed a law, for-
bidding all citizens to accept titles of nobility from foreign States,
under pain of being incapacitated from holding any public employ-
ment at home. Another enactment of the same Rill declares that
citizens receiving pensions from foreign Powers cannot be admitted
to the Council, and that no order or mark of honour can be borne in
any case without authorisation from the superior Powers being first
obtained.

The V Three per Cents. closed on Wednesday at s4f. 900. ; the
Five per Cents., 123 f. 85c. ; the Orleans Railroad shares, 1,287 f. 50c.;
Rouen, 1,612 f. 50c.; Havre, 717 f. 50c. ; Avignon, 992 f. 50c. ; Vierzoo,
702 f. 50c. Bordeaux, 6401.; Boulogne, bilf. 25c. ; Troyes and Yon.
tereau, 455 f. ; Basle, 251 f. 25c. ; Great Northern, 7661. 25e. ; Paris
and Strasburgh, 860 f. ; Tours an Nantes, 591 f. 75c. ; Spanish Three
per Cents., nu.
The following are the quotations for other lines :-The Paris and
Lyons Definitive. 622 f. 50c. ; Lyons and Avignon (Talabot), 5121
50c. ; Ditto (Lecointe), 505 f. ; Ditto (Campignie Meridionale), 502 f.
50c.; Bordeaux and Cette (Mackenzie), 504 f. ; Ditto (Espeleta), 512 f.
boc. ; Carlerol (Kyeaens), 492 f. 510. ; Caen (Delamarre), 501 f.
Lvobls, FEB. 9.-Paris add Orleans, 1,2851. ; Paris and Rouen,
1,0181. 75p.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, FEB: 12.

Barbadoes, F4—Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Cette (Mackenzie), 21A—
East Indian, 114—Great Northern of France Constituted, 15
Great Western Bengal, %—Louvain and Jemappe, 2—Luxembourg
*4—Orleans and Bordeaux, 111:2—Paris and Orleans, 49%—ltouei,
and Havre, 29.

RAILWAY COMMITTEES

(THIS DAY.)

Sub-Committee No. 1.

This Committee met to-day at twelve o'clock ; Mr. Strut
Chairman. _

_______.
The Committee commenced the business by calling on the
adjourned case of the

LEICESTER. AND szprortio.
Mr. BuaKs appeared on several petitions against the Bill.
The allegations were that the standing orders had not been
complied with, inasmuch as the property of the petitioners
was net properly marked on the plans and sections.
A few of these allegations were sustained and the others
overruled.

Sub-Committee No. 2, Cloisters 6.

This Committee met to-day at twelve o'clock, Sir J. Y
Buller in the Chair. There were present, Messrs. Bramston
Walker, Deedes, and G. Philips.