The Sun.
London, England, 1848-05-02 00:00:00

the Alien Act of 1793, and only differed from it by the
emission of certain subsidiary clauses, and yet that on
gival Act, which was also only proposed for one year. but
which was renewed over and over again, and continued
for ':33. years, had been consistently and strenuously
opposed throughout that period by every man of note
or au. hority in the stste—including Mr. Abercrombie,
Mr. Whitbread, Lord Grey, Mr. Burke, Mr. Fox, Sir
Rumilly, Sir J. Mackintosh, Lord Fi[zwilham, Lord
Ashburton, Lord Melbourne, Lord Brougham, Lord
Auckland. Lord Lansdowne, Lord Holland, Lord Dur-
ham, Lord Denman, Sir J. C. Hobhouse, and Lord .John
Russell. He believed that the Noble Lord the Member
for the city of London made his maiden speech in that
House against the Alien Bill of 1813; and when the last
Alien Bill was brought forward that Noble Lord ex-
pressed a hope that it was the last occasion he should ever
again have of addressing the House upon such a subject,
convinced as he was that, after the expiration of that
Act, they would look back to it as a measure that ought
never to have been enacted.—(Hear, hear.) Alas for
human foresight! that the very next Bill should be
Proposed by the Noble Lord himself ! He (Sir W.
Molesworth) objected to the Bill upon the same grounds
that the Noble Lord objected to former Bills—as contrary
to, the practice aed principles of our ancestors, the spirit
of our constitutign, and the tenor of our laws prior to
1791 Lords Manville, Castlereagh, and Sidmouth then
contended that the Crown had the power by proclarna•
Linn to send an alien out of the country, and that an
Allen Act would only have the eff.ct of enforcing an
Ilzi-ting power. But surely, in these days, the Queen
might rely upon the affections of her subjects, and trust
.5% them to bring foreigners to justice under the ex-
isting laws, if they infringed those laws. Lord Lans-
downe of that day said that the only wise mode of
riesling with them was to leave them to the
administration of the existing laws, and he (Sir
Molesworth) cordially concurred in that opinion,
snore particularlypassed a Bill for the
getter bett as they had just
security of the Crown and Government against
? Y. one who should compass or imagine the levying of
ar against the institutions of the country. The state
of
r, France was the necessity alleged for an Alien Act in
p 3, but no such necessity could be pleaded now. In
19'
but Murders, massacres, and horrors prevailed in Paris;
now that capital was distinguished by order and
La_nrquillity, accompanied by a wise determination not to
',,e“! !ere in the internal affairs of other countries. And
ii7l:ll.tnis measure was directed especially against French-
(Nu.) It was rumoured abroad that it was di-
.fo,'_'vu against the machinations of a score or two of men
bue took part in the late French revolution, and who had
wela seen in the streets of London. Such men might
b
dangerous in France, where there had been an obsti-
z
ate d3nuarc h • • and
partd, , a ministry that was corrupt, a profligate
:pitied aristocracy, with an indifference on the
the other classes to the institutions of the coun-
try, But those elements of revolution did not exist in
England, and he thought it was paying but a poor coin-
tni'dinn'olt to the English people, and to the institutions
`r which they lived, to say - that danger
was to be apprehended from the machinations
thatsuch individuals. Ia 1816, Lord Auckland declared
Ida! no danger could be apprehended from the machi-
nations of foreigners resident in England. With regard
to Ireland, he thought the measure equally uncalled
for and useless, for if they removed from that country
every foreigner in it, they would not diminish in the
least the deep-rooted conviction of the Irish people that
England had proved herself incompetent to legislate for
Ireland with success, or their just discontent at the ex-
istence of a dominant Protestant Church in a Catholic
country—an injustice and an evil at which every intelli
gent man out of England cried " Shame." This Bill
was, therefore, utterly worthless as regarded Ireland.
As fur an expedition from France to Ireland, he looked
• Upon it as merely chimerical; for who was to pay the
expense- of such a proceeding, if it were thought of?
The last reason given for this Bill was that the Govern-
/Rent would not abuse the powers given under it. That
was the old argument used in favour of the Bill of 1793,
which was so strongly opposed, although Mr. Pitt was
then just es deserving of confidence as any one of her
Majesty's present Ministers. Both Mr. Fox and Lord
Grey denied-the validity of that argument in 1793, and a
fortiori, if they were now in existence they would deny
the validity of it in 1848. He (Sir N. Molesworth)
considered that every measure should be judged of on
its own merits, and those alone ; and he certainly would
not consent to invest a Government with powers which
he believed every gentleman on that side of the House
would refuso to the Right Hon. Baronet the Member for
Tamworth, were he now in office and seeking to obtain
them.—(Hear.) They were powers which were not
needed, and which had not been needed in the most
dangerous period of our history, and which, in the
words of the late Lord Grey, were exceptional in every
point of view. He, therefore, moved that the Bill be
read a second time that day six months.
Lord D. STUART concurred in the sentiments
uttered by the Hon. Baronet, and expressed his surprise
that such a Bill could ever have been brought forward
by a liberal Government, empowering, as it did, a
Secretary of State, without any positive information,
and on mere suspicion, to imprison an alien as long as
he liked, or to send him out of the country. In that
respect the Bill required explanation, as it did not state
where he was to be sent, or how long he might
be retained in prison. Under no circumstances should
such a power to be placed, in the hands of any Govern-
ment. He was more than all surprised at the absence
On the present occasion of the Hon. Baronet the Member
for Harwich (Sir J. C. Hobhouse) who eloquently op-
posed the Alien Bill of ltilei, declared that it ought to
resisted by physical force, and after an unsuccessful op•
position to it, moved that the title of it should he, " A
Bill to Repeal so much of the Great Charter of England
as related to the free ingress and residence of foreign
merchants in these realms, and to assimilate the Execu-
tive of this Government to the despotic Governments of
the Continent." He (Lord D. Stuart) contended that
no tolerable or decent ground had been shown for this
Measure, and if persisted in, the Government ought at
least to-produce their information, so that the House
should not be legislating in the dark. They had not
even shown that any foreigners were plotting to over-
throw this Government. It was true some people saw in
every poor man a Chartist, in every Chartist a traitor,
and in every foreigner a rebel.—(Hear) He enter-
tained no such views, and should, therefore, oppose this
measure.

The ATTOP,NEY- GENERAL said the Noble Lord
laid answered himself, by admitting in the close of his
aPefch that this Bill had very different objects from that
of 1822, and that the circumstances were altogether dif-
ferent. In 1797 and 1814 foreigners had great difficul-
ties in obtaining letters of naturalisation; now they
no-tight do so with the greatest facility and without ex-
pense, if they came without any hostile designs against
the Government, and with the bond fide intention of
r•esiding and carrying on business here. They had only
1 7allow this, to exempt them from the operation of the
. The charge of cruelty had been brought against
`l4llt measure; but it was much less so than the former
an e! Acts; for the Secretary of State could not expel
au alien from the country without information in writing
~-‘"tei.ent to warrant his pursuing such course. Then it
was said the Bill was unjust, and that foreigners might
if . 14 Prison without trial. This was not so; for
preyei,rt had no hostile designs, I there was nothing to
And so them obtaining letters of naturalisation,
the Bill, avoiding the operation of the Bill. As to
pended
,sbeing impolitic and unconstitutional, that de-
ti too °TI offered,y It was said no proof of
~,on been but it could not be expected that
in;k-ichVernment should come down with all the details
fore ;natter. If they suspected a conspiracy by
Leigners another course was to be pursued ; if none
A.sted the Bill would not operate. These were
"a° for main grounds which distinguished the Bill from the
main
Acts on this subject.
Mr. W. J. FOX said he had been unable to discover
tha speech of the Right Hon. Baronet who had moved
the second reading of this Bill anything which could
prove the necessity of the measure. It was a measnre
of timidity and distrust—one that showed a want of con-
• fidence' in the British people, and a want of confidence
In the people of France, who, under the most trying cir-
cumstances, had done nothing whatever to excite hostile
'feelings on our part.—(Bear, hear.) A different sort
of legislation became the Government of such an empire
as this. Convulsed as the world now was, there could
Dot be a better time in which to show our own reliance
on those institutions which had stood the test of so
'many ages, and possessed so eminently the cha-
racter not only of durability, but also of alas-
ticitY; 'Which accommodated them to the spirit of
the ege,"and enabled them to expand themselves so as
to give larger privileges and to comprehend larger
numbers, when the changing state of society required
it, without any of those commotions or convulsions to
which other countries had been exposed.—([fear, hear.)
No necessity whatever had been shown for the bestow-
tirient of powers which, to say the least, were capable of
.'ehonious and cruel application, which placed the con-
venience, the property, and the liberty of individuals at
the. mercy of the Ministry for the time being—which
exposed a man to that sort of attack against which it
Was gO'clifficult- to defend himself—that of anonymous
writinq addressed to the Secretary of State. That
high functionary seemed thus to be brought into
contact with a class of people with whom an
Englith Government never need have anything to do;
office was to hare a back door for the receipt of
lit*ini; and imputation, under the plausible pre-
tez :of:'public safety, which might after all be
cnrf • the emanation of individual spite, and
the desire of gratifying individual vindictiveness.
These poems might be used offensively towards man or
Woman; for it could not be forgotten that the first per-
son deported under the law of 1793, from which in a
great measure this Bill was taken, was a woman, who
Could not seriously threaten the peace of this country—
widow—Lady Edward Fitzgerald.—(Hear, hear.) He
'could not agree with the Hon Baronet the Member for
Southwark that this was a glaring inconsistency on the
Part of ministers. All depended on the point of time
with which the comparison was instituted. By going
back a few years it might be brought out in very striking
.colours; but, looking at the last great measure which
had been carried through the House, it must be admitted
that this was a very consistent and appropriate supple-
bent to the " Act for the better security of the Crown
and the Government."—(Bear, hear.) The one belonged
to the other: they dove-tailed perfectly;—
Sure such a pair was never seen
So justly formed to meet by nature.
They completed the conversion from the policy of the
old Whigs of this country to the policy of Pitt, of Sid-
. month, and of Castlereagh, which, beginning with the
first of these measures, might be considered as carried
on Some way towards its completion in the second.—
(Hear, hear.) The threat which Pitt once used against
great opponent, "to uawhig the Government," could
not be used by the opponents of the present Govern.
meat ; for they had most efficiently unwhigged them-
Belies for the rest of their days.—(Bear and laughter.)
The only reason giverffor the in* a•ure—by-the Right
Ron. Baronet (Sir G. Grey) was, that he was afraid of
Mafioaariee. Bat the dander of Irma