The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-04 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONAON, FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 4, 1846

of inhabitants. They admit our commodities at the
low duty of 5 per cent. on the estimated value. Our
trade with them has been materially falling off, and
this year it has diminished, it is said, to nearly one-
third. We have only to liberalise our tariff in respect to
their chief article of export, to revive and extend our
intercourse with this important race of people. By
an enlarged consumption of tea we should secure a
great stimulus to our manufactures, and, conse-
quently, in a variety of ways, increased demand for
the exertions of our labouring classes. The time
cannot be distant when the tax on tea will be as hap-
pily revised by Parliament as have been those on
corn and sugar.

It has been stated in a respectable Irish newspaper,
the Freeman's Journal, that within the last few
months, in fact, since the real extent of the calamity
by which Ireland has been visited has become fully
known, that no less than 1,200 notices have been
lodged in the proper office in the Four Courts, in
order to foreclose mortgages on Irish estates. We
suppose that our Contemporary means that 1,200 bills
of foreclosure have been filed for the purpose of com-
pelling payment of the money lent on the security of
the several estates. Such proceedings, if instituted,
must entail a fearful amount of suffering on a vast
number of families who have hitherto lived in com-
parative comfort and affluence, and who will be little
enabled to brave the ills of poverty and destitution.
The cost of each of these bills may be averaged at
1,0001. sterling at the lowest computation ; in several
cases, where.there are many different incumbrances,
or persons having charges affecting the land, all of
whom must be brought before the Court, and who
will be entitled to have their costs out of the produce
of the estate, it may be taken at five or even ten
times that amount before the mortgaged premises can
be transferred to a purchaser, and the fund in Court
distributed amongst the several parties who have
established their title to payment thereout. By this
means, therefore, no less a sum than twelve hundred
thousand pounds sterling will be abstracted from the
exigencies of the country, and wasted in useless and
unprofitable litigation. This, however, will be by no
means the extent of the evil. The first step that will
be taken in the vast majority of cases, immediately on
getting in the answer of the principal defendant ad-
mitting the validity of the mortgage, and that a
certain amount of interest is due on foot thereof, will
be to obtain a receiver over the lands. As this receiver
cannot be called on to account for fifteen months after
his appointment, and subsequently thereto only once
in every year ; and also, as when he has so accounted
the balance in his hands must be paid into the Bank
of Ireland to the credit of the cause, from whence it
will take a considerable time before it can be released
and distributed amongst the parties entitled, a great
portion of the income derivable from land will be
locked up, and remain idle and unproductive, at a
time when all the resources of the country should be
brought into active operation. Again, it is only in
the cases of minors and lunatics, who are the wards of
the Court, and for whom the Court is entitled to act in
such manner as in its discretion it may conceive to be
most advantageous for their real interests, that reduc-
tion of rent can be made, that improvements can be
effected, that labour can be employed, or subscriptions
given in aid of the destitute poor belonging to the
property, save with the consent of the inheritor of
the estate—a consent which there will scarcely be a
possibility of obtaining. The whole amount (in case
of such consent) would fall upon the scanty portion
which would remain for the nominal owner after pay-
ment of the full amount of charges and costs. He
would have no interest in the future prosperity of the
property, or the improvement of its soil; he could
not be expected to contribute to the public charities
when, in a brief period, himself and family might
themselves become objects of charity, and he will,
therefore, refuse his assent to any reduction being
made in the rent, as well for that reason as because he
will hope that a higher amount of purchase-money
may be obtained in proportion to the magnitude of
the nominal rent-roll.

The late Lord Chancellor (Sir EDWARD SUGDEN)
wrote several letters to Lord DEvoiv and his associate
Commissioners, when conducting their inquiries into
the laws relating to the occupation of land in Ireland,
pointing out the great evil of such a state of things,
and urging that the Lord Chancellor for the time
being should be permitted to deal with all lands
brought in any manner under the jurisdiction of the
Court of Chancery as fully as if they belonged to
wards of the Court. Such an enactment, which
would appear to be just and reasonable, and which, in
the hands of a person of such sound judgment,
enlightened liberality, and enlarged and compre-
hensive views as the Learned Judge who now holds
the Great Seal of Ireland, could not fail to be in the
highest degree beneficial to the country, and would
go far to remove the national injury which must result
from the present proceedings. Many months must
elapse, however, before such a measure can obtain the
legislative sanction, and during that period a fearful
amount of mischief may be inflicted which cannot
possibly be repaired.
It may be worth inquiring into the causes that
have led to such effects—to inquire how far the mort-
gagees and incumbrancers are justified in taking such
a course, and what foundation there is for the panic
that has evidently set in, and which has induced pro-
ceedings injurious to the persons taking them, and
fatal to the proprietors of the properties in question ?
We hope to be enabled to show that there is no just
grounds for such a panic—that estates in Ireland are
still as sufficient securities as ever for the sums
charged upon them—and that whatever may be the
consequences of the failure of the potato crop, and
the distress resulting therefrom throughout the
country, whatever burdens may be imposed
upon the lands fgr the relief of that distress, and the
employment of the labouring population of the coun-
try ; and, however severely it may press upon the
proprietors of the soil, the mortgagees and incum-
brancers cannot be affected thereby more than the
recipients of equal incomes arising from any other
description of property or security. If this can be
satisfactorily established, we trust that it will calm
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Madrid journals of the 26th ult. have been received,

It is rumoured in Madrid that serious differences
have taken place between the QUEEN and her mother,
and that CHRISTINA will most probably retire into
France. It is said that a reconciliation will take
place shortly between Queen ISABELLA and the Pro-
gressista party.

The Progressistas have Rominated as their candi-
dates for Madrid, ESPARTERO, MENDIZABAL, and
OLOZ AGA.

It seems that the accounts of the desertions of the
troops of FLoass are very much exaggerated.
General FLORES has arrived at Santander at the
head of a very considerable force.

As might have been expected, the Afrancesado
Ministers have dismissed the Judge who dared to
give a decision against Count BEESSON in his affair
with the Tiempo.

The Herakio states that a serious increase of price
in provisions generally has taken place in the capital,
and many other towns in Spain. It attributes this
state of things to three causes—the increase of the
population, the deficiency of the harvest in many
points, and the defective mode of taxation.
MADBID BOLSA, Nov. 26.—A scarcity of money was
felt on the Stock Exchange of Madrid. The Thrce per
Cents. closed on the 26th at 34-1 offered ; there was
subsequently a decline of 1-16th. Four per Cents.,
2of ; Five per Cents., 211 ; Coupons non-Consoli-
dated, 194.

We have received the Paris papers of Wednesday.
The Moniteur publishes three royal ordonnances,
in virtue of the law of 1836, which permits the im-
portation of foreign products for manufacture and
re-exportation ; allowing colza seed to be imported
duty free• in French bottoms, for conversion into oil,
and exportation in that state within a delay of six
months ; madder root to be received duty free, for
grinding and exportation, on the same conditions ; and
tartar its its rough state, to be received in a similar
way, and under the same conditions, for conversion
into cream of tartar or tartaric acid.

The Constitutionnel has an article, which may
be considered as a reply to the articles of the Minis-
terial. press on the subject of England, an expression
of the Alegre of the party of which a Tuaits is the