The Sun.
London, England, 1848-03-25 00:00:00

difficulty in the garrison's returning the accustomed
salute fired by that vessel on entering the port?
Mr. WARD was understood to reply that he had no
officis.l intelligence on the subject.
HEALTH OF TOWNS' BILL.
Mr. CARDWELL wished to ask the Noble Lord the
lint Commissioner of Woods and Forests, when tie
intended to proceed with the Public health Bill ?
Lord MORPETH said he was afraid he should not be
able to bring it on next week, but the House might rely
upon his proceeding with it on the earliest opportunity.
ELECTION RECOGNIZANCES BILL.
On the question being put that the House, at its
rising, do adjourn till Monday,
Mr. STAFFORD urged upon the Right Hon. the
Chairman of the General Committee of Elections the
propriety of postponing the nomination of the Com-
mittees on the Cheltenham, Leicester, and Bodmin
petitions till after the Election Recogniaances Bill had
been disposed of.
Mr. GARDNER also made a similar appeal to the
Right Hon. Gentleman, insisting that great hardship
would be inflicted on the parties petitioned against if the
appointment of the Committees were not delayed. He
thought the House would do great injustice if it did not
take some further steps in the matter.
Mr. F. MAULE defended the General Committe o of
Elections from the attacks that had been
made against it. Ho did not see what other
course that Committee could adopt other than that
which it had stated its determination to pursue, of com-
mencing the selection from the panels on Monday next.
Any objection that could be urged against the course
the Committee intended to pursue would, ho was sure, bo
attended to en Monday.
Mr. STUART WORTLEY was glad that the Com-
mittee of Selection was open to suggestions upon the snb-
ject, and he trusted that they would do nothing hastily.
He should ask the House to take the subject of the se-
cond reading of the Bill into consideration on Monday
next the first thing, as it was a question of privilege.
After some observations from Sir G. GREY, the sub-
ject dropped.
GAME-LAWS.—MURDER OF THE DUKE OF
CLEVELAND'S GAME-KEEPER.
Mr. BRIGHT, seeing the Right Hon. Baronet the
Head of the Home Department in his place, was desirous
of putting a question to him upon a subject that he was
sure would be painful to him. It was well known that
two men were at the present moment under sentence of
death in the county gaol of Durham for the murder of
the gamekeeper of the Duke of Cleveland. He observed
that a reprieve had been sent down for one of them.
He understood the jury sent up to the Home-office a
memorial in favour of a respite for the unhappy men.
The House, the other evening, seemed in favour ofjuries re-
commending prisoners to mercy when there w ere extenuat-
ing circumstances, in which case the extreme penalty of
the law was not carried out ; but if they had signed such
a memorial, it seemed to him equivalent to a
recommendation to mercy. Ile wished to ask whether
the Right Hon. Baronet had any objection to lay copies
of such memorial or recommendation to mercy upon the
table of the House ? Having received various commu-
nications from the district, must plead ;his excuse for
asking the question.
Sir GEORGE GREY gave the Hon. Gentleman full
credit for being actuated by the best of motives;
but he could Lot help expressing his deep regret that
questions of this kind, the circumstances of which it was
impossible to bring clearly before the House,
.were so
frequently brought before it. Such proceedings, if perse-
vered in, would very much tend to impede the discharge
of the painful duty entrusted to him in this
as in other instances. The matter had received his
serious attention, and the decision he had come to
was one ho should not wish to shrink from.—
(Hear, hear.) The verdict of the jury was not accom-
panied by a recommendation to mercy. He, like the
Honourable Member, had received vari .us com-
munications on the subject from Durham. He
did not think he should discharge his duty
if he produced the copies sought, as such a course, he
believed, in such matters, would be subversive of the
practice heretofore adopted.—(Hear.)
EMIGRATION TO CANADA.

Mr. REYNOLDS wished to ask the Under Secre-
tary far the Colonies whether any additional tax was im-
posed upon emigrants landing in Canada or the North
American Provinces, and if so, the amount of tax?
Mr. HAVES said the Ilouse was, no doubt, aware
of the disastrous consequences that accompanied the
emigration last year. Out of 90,000 emigrants
15,000 died during their voyage or soon after landing.
Under these circumstances Earl Grey recommend that the
tax should remain as now, under ordinary circumstances;
when healthy, that there should be no tax ; but if the
ships were in quarantine, thereby showing her passen•
gera were sickly, the tax was to be doubled, and if the
detention was protracted, to be trebled, but in no case
to exceed 20s. per head. The tax was also doubled upon
helpless and aged emigrants.
LEEWARD ISLANDS LOAN.

Mr. MACKINNON inquired from the Right Hon.
the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether it was the
intention of the Government to call in the loans, or any
pars of them, made after the earthquake in the Lee•
ward Islands, to the proprietors of certain estates
then, or whether the period of repayment was to be
extended?

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER replied
that he had stated on the first day the House met after
the Christmas recess, that the repayment of the balance
remaining unpaid of those loans would be postponed fur
a further period of five years, interest to be paid in the
meantime.

Mr. MACKINNON asked if that would be five yrars
beyond the original period.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said the
exact arrangement was this: from this time, five years
would intervene, during which interest would be charged;
and, at tlw expiration of those five years, the loan
would be put in precisely the same situltion as it was at
that moment, whatever might he the term that re-
mained.

GOVERNMENT MEASURES.

Sir W. VERNER said there were three Bills which
had been postponed from time to time; he wished to
know whether it was the intention of the Government
to proceed with them, and when. They were the Diplo-
matic Relations with the Court of Rome Bill, the Landlord
and Tenant (Ireland) Bill, and the Health of Towns
Bill.—(Bear, hear )
Lord J. RUSSELL said he would answer that ques-
tion in moving the order of the day for going into Com-
mittee of Supply, when he would state genefally the
course that Government intended to pursue with regard
to their measures.
NON-PAYMENT OF POOR-RATES IN IRELAND.
Mr. P. SCROPE said it appeared from a recent return
containing the names of lords, ladies, and other landed
proprietors, that there was an arrear of upwards of
8,0001 in the poor-rates of the Castlebar Union. Ho
wished to ask whether that arrear still continued, or
whether it had been materially diminished? also whe-
ther, during its continuance, any portion of the chari-
table funds remitted from London to Ireland, had been
applied for the purpose to which those arrears of rates
ought to have been devoted.
Sir W. SOMERVILLE said that no efforts had been
spared by the Poor-law Commissioners to enforce the
collection of these rates; every legal step had been taken,
but these law processes were not very speedy. Legal
proceedings were now pending sig,inst the defaulters.
In the meantime the destitution in the Castlebir
Union had been very great indeed. The number new
receiving out-door relief was between 17,000 and
18,000, besides about 3,000 who were fed by the bounty
Of the British Association. To prevent morn dreadful
calamities, the Committee had been induced to use the
funds placed at their disposal by the British Association
—a course which would not be disapproved by those
who knew the intensity of the distress which prevailed.
The last report stated that the amount of arrears was
now 7,9691, but a great portion of this, it was ex-
pected, would be ultimately got in, though the passiVe
resistance of many ratepayers, and the inability of
others, rendered it a work of time. He hoped his Hon.
Friend and the House would have some consideratiOn
for the enormous difficulties in which the Commissioners
were placed. 1
Sir H. W. BARRON said, the queition which had
been asked might create an impression that the land.
lords of the Castlebar Union were wilful defaulters.
Common honesty ought to have prompted the Hon.
Member to add, that in the county of Mayo it was noto-
rious that there were noblemen possessing a yearly
rental of 3,0001, 10,0001., or 15,0001., who had not,
either last year or the year before, received one-teeth
of their income on an average. Many of the. largeSt
propTietOrs had been obliged to sell their carriages and
- dismiss their servants, and were themselves reduced to
the greatest difficulties, owing to the destitution pre-
'veiling around them. Would it not have been fair to
mention these facts, when a question of this insidious
nature was put ?—(Hear.) Not a single case similar to
that of the Castlebar Union could be produced either in
. Leinster, Minister, or Ulster ; this was not therefore a
'fair way of giving information to the public. He knew
that in Mayo the landlords had paid their rates,
though they had not received. anything like the usual
amount of rents. During the last two years they had
made enormous 'sacrifices to support the poor around
them, and this was the thanks which they received in
Parliament, to be vilified as a body. He begged to ask
the Hon. Secretary for Ireland whether it was in-
tended, under the advice of " Lord Devon's Commission,
tocommute leases for lives in Ireland into holdings for
perpetuity?
Sir W. SOMERVILLE said a Bill had been pre-
pared for that purpose, and he hoped it would be very
speedily introduced into the' House.—(Hear.) _
Mr. E. B. ROCHE thought the attack uncalled-for
which had been made on the conduct and character of
the Hon.. Member roi Siiiiud. The character of no one
stood higher for a disinterested advocacy of the-cause of
the poor in Ireland.--(Hear.) The question he had
asked was no sweeping attack oh the landlords of Ire-
land, but simply a reference to documents and returns
which were on the table of the House; and, if there was
any attack in such a question, it was certainly better
founded than the defence that had been offered by the
Hon. Baronet (Sir H.. W. Barron).
Mr. P. SCROPI was not aware that, on this or any
former occasion, ho had made any sweeping charge !
against the landlords of Ireland. He had merely drawn
attention to the vast amount of rates which remained
uncollected in a certain union.
Sir H. W. BARROff said it ought to have been stated
thst not only rates but rents were uncollectable in that
district.
SUGAR AND COFFEE PLANTING.
Lord G. BENTINCK requested Mr. Hume to post-
trEWSPA) tiq the motion of which he had given notice on Tues.
r4t,s, -,-., ;_ "'hex% until a, later period. lie could assure the
..":•---,-,--1
.E-;/...,,- that the Committte on sugar and coff,,e, planting
":ar:-?V--:::.: ----sztr.,,A). ' have terminated its labours to about a week, and
„,,!...,„ ~.,...„.„ , d thee be able to report to the riouse,
t,
„13-;!,-, t,:::/,,-, z r HUME said he should be reluctant to postpone
tl.--''.-t 4,=-.,e. A tion for any lengthened period, but as he did not
T:l‘.-_ r•l ' wpreitidge the questinn; and having the Noble
isz a