The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-23 00:00:00

CORN BILL.

The Earl of BANDON presented petitions from places in
Ireland against the Corn Bill. The Noble Earl said that he
could not support the prayer of the petition as he did not par-
ticipate in the alarm that was felt by some persons with re-
spect to the Corn Bill.
CASE OF MR. GEORGE MITCHELL.
Lord BROUGHAM rosa to call the attention of the House
to one of the most cruel cases of hardship that had ever come
under his notice. He had to present the petition of Mr. Gro.
Mitchell, formerly a clerk of the House, from which situation
he had been dismissed. The petitioner stated, that in the year
1845,frosa an accident that he had met with, his face and head
had been greatly injured, and his sight permanently
impaired. Several years ago he had been attacked with
epilepsy, by which he had lost the use of his right side. He
was also afflicted with ulcerous swellings in his legs. In fact,
it appeared that he was subjected to every malady that could
afflict the human frame. Through his maladies his attend-
ance on his duties were necessarily irregular, and he had suf-
fered exceedingly in the loss of his situation at the age of
thirty-six. The petition, which was dated the Strand union
workhouse, prayed that their Lordships would extend their
benevolence to him, and grant him such assistance as it was
in the power of the House to bestow.
The Earl of DEVON said it was an unpleasant task to in-
terpose at any time between individuals and the benevolence of
the House ; still he was bound to say that the petitioner was
placed under the chief clerk of the House, but his conduct had
been such as made it the absolute duty of? the latter to remove
him from the office he held. More than this he (Lord Devon)
would net say.—(Hear, hear.)
Lurd BROUGHAM said the Noble Lord had totally mis-
understood him. The petitioner did not complain of having
been removed, he merely asked their Lordships to extend their
charity to him.
LORDS HARDINGE AND GOUGH'S ANNUITY
BILLS.
_ _

The Duke of WELLINGTON moved that these Bills be
read a first time and printed.

The Bills were accordingly read a first time, and ordered to
be printed.

SEES OP ST. ASAPH AND BANGOR.
The Archbishop of CANTERBURY presented a petition
against the union of these sees.
BISHOPRIC OE MANCHESTER.
The same Most Reverend Prelate presented a petition praying
that a bishop might be immediately appointed to the newly_
established see of Manchester.

THE CORN BILL.
The Marquis of NORMANBY presented a petition from the
Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses of Kingston-upon-Hull,
praying their Lordships to pass without delay the Ministerial
Corn Bill. The same Noble Marquis also presented a petition
from a town in Ireland, praying for the legalisation of tenaqt
rights in that country, intimating, at the same time, that he did
not thereby wish to express any opinion upon this very difficult
subject.

STATE OF CRIME IN IRELAND.
The Marquis of NORMANBY then proceeded, amidst
cries of " Order," for the purpose of asking for a return of the
murders, and attempts at murder, in Ireland during each month,
commencing from the Ist of July in each year,'distinguishing
the hours of day or night at which such outrages were
stated to have been committed by the constabulary force.
He felt it necessary to ask for the attention of the House to
this subject, the more especially as he intended to make a few
observations upon the conduct of her Majesty's Ministers, in
connexion with the Bill which had lately passed this House,
and to the language used by the Right Hon. Gentleman at the
head of her Majesty's Government in another place, in which
he had been personally alluded to. It did so happen, that
about six weeks after the session had commenced, and when he
was unavoidably absent, a Bill was introduced into this House
—called by the opponents of it, the Irish Coercion Bill, and
by those who supported it the Protection of Life (Ireland)
Bill—and no doubt it had been supported by many of his
Noble Friends who had had a long experience of Ireland.
He would not have deemed it necessary to have alluded to
this measure now, but a circumstance which had since oc_
curred compelled him to do so. No man could more deeply
deplore than he did the increase of crimes of
this description, or that Ireland should be made the
subject of such a measure as this, and at a time too when of all
others the country most needed the united sympathies of both
Houses of Parliament. Now he should say that no informa-
tion that had reached him as to the state of Ireland was such
as in his opinion to call for this measure, and be was far from
thinking that it was one which would reach the evil complained
of. He did think it rather extraordinary that her Majesty's
Ministers should have been of opinion at the commencement
of the session that this measure was necessary, and that they
had since had reason to change that opinion, although some
such measure had been alluded to in the speech which her
Majesty's Ministers had advised her to deliver from the throne
at the opening of the present session. He considered that a
timely display of vigour was the most efficacious check upon
crimes of this nature. He wcs still of opinion that a system-
atic, steady perseverence in the administration of the law would
have been amply sufficient to check these crimes. Of this
he was sure, that of all the courses which could
have been taken, and one which seemed to unite
all the evils which could possibly be combined in a
measure, was the course which had been taken by the Go-
vernment on this occasion—an occasion when they adopted
a system of tardy, meddling coercion, conceding, with feeble
hesitation, their arobation of extraordinary powers, while,
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at the same time, an efficient administration of the law of the
Constitution would have been quite sufficient for all purposes.
her Majesty's
seemed to him something of this carelessness at
the time when the Bill was first introduced to their Lordship..
He believed that five weeks had elhpsed from the period of
's speech till the measure was introduced. Even
then it came in with all the humbling deftcts in its construc-
tion which have marked the practice of the law department of
the Irish Government. At last the Bill was sent down to the
other House. He could not then dwell on the tedious nature
of its passage through that House. He knew the difficulties
in which the Government were placed there. He thought the
ignorant might imagine that the delay which took
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which be discharged his duties. Ali he could claim was
as arising from the mode in