The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-09 00:00:00

Foreign wheat was now subject to a duty of 18s.; but if
the proposed corn-law were in operation, it would be
importeA at a duty of 'As% Oatmeal, also, which was a
grep;, article ,ef (Consumption in Ireland, would, under
tae esew .carti-law, come in at a duty of Is. Indian
ecyrn was only admitted duty free by Treasury Order,
and he therefore urged upon Hon. Members connected
with Ireland, to permit the first reading of the Protection
of Life and Property in Ireland Bill, to take place with as
little delay as possible, in order to expedite the passing of
the Corn Bill.
After a few words from Mr. ILLwxs and Mr.
BORTHWICY,
Mr. Small O'BRIEN urged the Government to the
propriety of facilitating the passing of the Corn Bill, by
postponing the Coercion Bill. lEIe admitted that the in-
troduction of the Indian corn had alleviated the distress
in Ireland, and concluded by asking if there was any in-
disposition manifested on the part of the Irish authorities,
to avail themselves of the provisions of the Public Works
and Companies Works Presentment Bill?
Sir J. GRAHAM was glad to say that the applications to
the Board of Works had been very numerous. He re-
gretted, however, to hare to state, that there was an in-
disposition on the part of some of the grand juries to
carry out the provisions of the Bill.
Several other Hon. Members took part in the conver-
sation, and the subject dropped.
The Committee on the Art-Unions' Bill was post-
poned for a fortnight.
The Railway Deposits Bill passed through Committee.
In answer to Mr. LABOUCHERE, Sir R. PEEtestated,
that he should advise the Board of Trade to issue a cir-
cular to the various railway companies, informing them
of the principles on which the proposed Bill for the re-
gulation of railway companies, to which he had alluded
the other night, was intended to be founded.
In answer to Mr. TUFNELL, Sir J. GRAHAM stated,
that he did not despair of carrying a Bill to amend the
Metropolitan Buildings' Act during the present session;
but that the Bill alterin; the Law of Settlement, the
Highway Bill, and the Militia Bill, besides the third
reading of the Corn Bill, would have to be disposed of
previously.
A long conversation followed on the subject of the
business of the House, in the course of which Mr. J.
O'CONNELL stated, on the part of the Irish Members,
that they were willing to withdraw their notices of
motion for the days fixed for the discussion of the Corn
Bill, but that they were determined to persevere to the
very uttermost in their opposition to the Coercion Bill.
At its rising, the House adjourned to Friday, the
7th instant.

The Earl of DALHOUSIE, on Tuesday night, brought
Forward, in the House of Lords, his statement of the
intentions of the Government with respect to the rail-

AAA
way legislation during the present session of Parliament ;
and the principle of the measure, which was exactly that
stated by Sir ROBERT PEEL. in the Commons on the
previous night, was received with the unanimous appro-
bation of their Lordships. It has been found, that
from the severity of the losses sustained since the
mouth of October last, a very great disinclination
exists on the part of the public to invest any money
in railway speculations, and, consequently, no matter

how promising the speculation might appear, if a new
call were: made the shares would become greatly de-

pressed in value. The great majority of the holders of
scrip who, animated by seeing the large fortunes
realised in the course of the last few years in similar
speculations, have plunged recklessly into the several
schemes, and applied the entire amount of their dis-
posable capital in the payment of the first deposit, er the
purchase of shares in which the first deposit alone had
been paid, are generally unable to comply with
any new demand, and, as a matter of course,
are obliged to sell the shares they hold for
any sum that may be offered,—in many in-
stances glad to get rid of them, even at the loss of all
they have already paid, on being saved from further
liability ; and this, too, at a time when but a small pro-
portion of the first deposit has actually been expended,
and there would be a considerable dividend, if the scheme
could be abandoned and the assets of the company
equitably distribsted amongst the persons entitled thereto,
after payment of all charges and expenses fairly affecting
them. It is, however, in the power of any individual share-
holder to prevent the dissolution of the company and thus
to keep a large amount of capital locked up, the releasing
of which would prove of universal service to the com-
merce of the country. Unfortunately there will always
be found persons ready to job and to disregard the
general interests, so that it is found to be quite impos-
sible to effect any such dissolution, no matter how
beneficial it might be to the shareholders at large. Such
a state of law is manifestly unjust and unreasonable,
and the object of the present Bill is for its improvement,
enabling the several railway companies to wind up their
affairs, if they shall think proper so to do. Many diffi-
culties will be found in carrying this into execution, but
these are merely matters of detail, and the recess will
give time for full consideration. Nothing can be fairer
than the principle of the measure, that persons actually
and bond fide holding a full moiety of the stock of the
company, shall be entitled to call for its dissolution,
and that therefore the funds of the company should
vest in a trustee or official assignee, who would,
after satisfying all claims properly chargeable thereon,
distribute them amongst the persons fairly entitled
thereto. This, however, may be held to give rather too
great a power to the large shareholders. For instance,
it might be worth the while of a large rival company to
purchase a considerable number of shares for the ex-
press purpose of bringing to a conclusion a rival specu-
lation, which might interfere with themselves. We
should, therefore, at present prefer that the majo-
rity of votes be taken according to the scale
established by the Joint-stock Companies Regula-
tion Acts of last session, it having been, after mature
reflection, selected is the scale most proper for
giving to the small as well As the large shareholder the
influence to which he would be fairly entitled in the
management of the affairs of the company. Again, we
think that it would be desirable if a similar number of
shareholders were given the power of suspending for
the present the operations of the company, and getting
back at once a portion of the deposits, leaving a suffi-
cient sum to meet all the liabilities of the company, and
a small sum in hand for the trivial expenses
uhich might be necessary between the present time
and the next session of Parliament. By such a
provision as this a large sum would now be released,
brought into circulation, and rendered applicable
to the general purposes of the country. We know many
instances in which the shareholders, although feeling
the greatest degree of confidence in the soundness and
eventual success of the project, and unwilling to dissolve
the company, after having incurred all the preliminary
expenses, would be rejoiced if it could be suspended for
a given time, and an opportunity then afforded to them
of deciding whether the scheme should be abandoned or
carried into execution, and, in the meantime, the
amount of money, which could not possibly be required
in the interval, would be placed at their disposal. Should
it then be determined to persevere in the schemes
a call could be made in sufficient time to make the neces-
sary deposit in Parliament for next session ; and these
shareholders who did not comply therewith should abso-
lutely forfeit their shares, of which a new allotment
might take place, giving- a preference to the eld
shareholders, if such should be considered desirable.
In the event of a reaction in the money market,
the schemes which have already stood the test
of Parliamentary inquiry would probably be re-
vived, and prosecuted with general satisfaction to
the parties at present interested in their eventual
completion. Sir R. PEEL announced last night that the
difficulties of detail (springing from the law of partner-
ship), for the due development of:the principle he has
laid down, are already under the consideration of the
highest legal men in the country. He also suggested
that, in order to acquaint parties as early as possible
with what they must do to avail themselves of the mea-
sure to be brought forward immediately after the recess,
the Board of Trade, the moment the legal assistance re-
sorted to by the Government shall have furnished them
with the fittest machinery for effectuating their views,
shall issue circulars to the heads of the different Compa-
nies, informing them of the necessary steps to be taken
for obtaining the benefit of the contemplated Act.

A more fearful responsibility impends upon the landed
proprietors of Ireland than is possibly conjectured by
themselves. Morally, politically, and socially, it will be
incumbent upon them to ameliorate, by every means in
their power, the woes and almost unparalleled privations
of their tenantry. Particulars of the three visitations
simultaneously hanging over the Irish multitude— the
visitations of organised murder, of an universal dearth
of provisions, and of mortal epidemics, spreading far
and wide throughout the population ; and yet with
these portentous disclosures before them, how have the
Irish landlords acted ? Why by silence, by neglect, by
desertion ! The Premier conjures them to co-operate
with the Legislature in succouring their destitute coun-
trymen ;—they respond to that solemn and official ad-
juration by resigning their patrimonial estates to the
providence of their agents ! An accumulation of ex-
igencies renders their personal interference in the do-
mestic economy of their possessions more than
ever a matter of woeful necessity ; yet, in spite

of this imperative position of affairs, the only
effect produced by these circumstances upon the
wealthier classes in Ireland is an increase of fashionable
emigration. Since the development of so many contem-
poraneous evils in that beautiful but desolate island,
the pernicious absentee system has been marvellously
and lamentably extended. Not only have the habitual
defaulters is this respect persisted in their most baneful
course, but new secessions, in a like direction, have
tended, more than we have the heart to calculate, to
render the sufferings of the Hibernians more
abasing and more hopeless. For this mis-
taken and inglorious behaviour let them, however,
rest perfectly assured that in some fashion or other they
will ultimately be held accountable. It is futile—it is
impossible, to shirk the duties imposed upon them as the
guardians of the labouring Irish by the inscrutible will
of OMNIPOTENCE. When a contagion, whether moral,
vegetable, or animal, has broken out in a country, it will,
unless impeded by a courageous interference, ravage
every sectional division of the empire indiscriminately.
During the height of the plague at Jaffa, when the
soldiers were stricken by a terror which endangered
the lives of the healthiest veterans in the French army,
NAPOLEON entered the different wards of each hospital,
respired the infectious atmosphere, and himself dressed
the ulcerous sores of the sufferers. History vouches for
this—the pencil of DAVID has immortalized it. By that
sublime act of ♦alour a new confidence was infused into
the soldiers, and the fatal malady actually decreased in
its violence. Let the landlords of Ireland display some
tokens of a similar intrepidity ; let them return to
the scenes of devastation, and endeavour earnestly and
hopefully to assuage the pangs already experienced by
so many millions. Humanity addresses them in the lan-
guage of adjuration, not so much as a class, as indi-
viduals. If some movement of the kind be not adopted,
the consequences cannot by any possibility be computed !
We say this, not so much in reference to present
miseries (frightful as those miseries undoubtedly are), as
in reference to the terrific extension of whatever
miseries are already experienced, as months are per-
mitted to elapse. What are some few of the most recent
facts? Why these—and the deductions to be drawn
from them are as obvious as they are heartrending. First
of all the prospects of the next harvest could scarcely be
one jot more unpropitious. Agricultural labour has been
almost wholly prevented by the bleakness of the tempe-
rature as well as by successive torrents of rain, which
have, according to the, Dublin Evening Post,
" flooded the country to an extent as great
as the fearful year of 1816." Three-fifths
of the oats, usually sown before the 17th March,
rc main still out of the earth, and time must be allowed
before the ground will be sufficiently recovered from this
severe pluvial irrigation to permit of its being touched
by the spade. Then, again, the fears of typhus fever, so
long entertained, have beer., and are being unhappily
realised in various localities. Insomuch so, that the
Tralee Poor-law guardians have taken into consideration
the establishment of a temporary free hospital at Dingle.
An intelligent sojourner in the county of Meath gives us,
moreover, a most desolate picture of the sufferers in his
vicinity. With a vast portion of the respectable inhabi-
tants of that neighbouroood, or, as our informant ex-
presses it, with " the meat-eating people" of Meath, the
supply of :potatoes upon which they are now subsist-
ing cannot last beyond the commencement of
June. After that period what may not be the conse-
quences? GOD knows ! These are but an infinitessimal
portion of the grievances now sustained or to be sustained
by the Irish people. The faint echoes of their woe alone
reach our ears, but those are eminently mournful and
imperative. On these accounts the landlords of Ireland
must rouse themselves from their apathy, if they are
desirous of rendering their own prosperity permanent.
A vast future deficiency both in worldly wealth
and in their reputations as men and Christians might
be prevented by a comparatively moderate disbursement
at the present moment. Their own pockets, as well as
their own consciences, cry out to them for their interpo-
position. Let them take example by that benevolent
gentleman of Arch-hall, who is feeding sixty children
daily at his own private expense. In grati-
tude we will give the name of this true
philanthropist ;—it is Mr. SAMUEL GARNET. Let
them note the subscription made by the soldiers on the
Sutlej ; and the 3,0001. contributed by the inhabitants of
Calcutta for the relief of Ireland. And, looking at
these things, let them be shamed into a compliance with
Sir ROBERT'S requisition. That Right Hon. Statesman
has evinced throughout the present session a sympathy
for the Irish which should be a pattern and an in-
citement to these absentee landlords—not the least
token of the sincerity of which sympathy is, that intro-
duction of the " Protection of Life (Ireland) Bill,"
which has retarded the progress of his favourite measure,
and excited a fresh amount of vituperation upon his
conduct. So earnest is the Prime Minister's wish to
allay the present diseased excitement of Ireland, that he
has actually given a Bill for that purpose precedence
of his great free-trade scheme. Take that exhibition
of self-forgetfulness in the Minister as a stimulus to
your own exertions in the same cause, you landed pro-
prietors of Ireland, and the pangs of your countrymen
may be yet effectually alleviated!

We hare intelligence from Madrid to the Ist inst.
Another Ministerial crisis appears to be at hand. NAR-
VAEZ and his new colleagues have quarrelled about some-
thing, but whether it is the marriage of the QUEEN, or
the new law of the Bourse, or whether CunisTirre and
the Camarilla have got up a plot to destroy NARVAEZ, it
is impossible to say. Little doubt however remains that
a violent Cabinet explosion had taken place, and that the
Ministers EGANA and PEZUELA had tendered their re-
signations, which however had not been accepted.
On the Ist the Three per Cents. closed at 32, at 30
days, with premium ; the Five per Cents. were not
quoted ; the shares of the Bank of San Fernando were
at 270 f. ; ditto of the Bank of Isabel, 170 f.

The only intelligence of interest in the Paris papers
r elates to Spain. The latest accounts appear in the
Presse, a journal generally supposed to be well informed
respecting the doings of Queen CHRISTINA and her few
associates, who now rule the destinies of Spain. It will
ln seen, from the subjoined statement in that journal,
that there is a subject, independent of what is put forth
by public rumour, which " is too delicate to enter upon
for the present." We have no doubt it refers to some
dark scheme now in agitation behind the scenes, and
fcar that another revolutioa must take place before this
in triguing, desperate woman is brought to her senses. "A
rumour was current on Sunday that a new crisis had
again unexpectedly overturned the NARVAEZ Ministry,
and yesterday (Monday) the report assumed a degree of
emsistency. We have j ust read in a letter, received yester-
day by express, dated the 2d, and written by a person whose
information has never misled us, that a very warm dis-
cussion had taken place between General NARVAEZ and
the Ministers of Justice and the Marine on the subject
of the new law for regulating the operations on the Ex-
change. It is known that one of the first acts of the
MIRAFLORES Ministry was to suppress time bargains.

When the General resumed the Government it was pre-
tended that this injunction would be immediately
taken off, and the Heraldo pronounced this to be
a calumnious assertion. The declaration of the
Ileraldo was contradicted by two or three persons
whose intimate connexion with General NARVAEZ
gave them considerable influence, and therefore did not
gain any credit. It appears, however, that it was well.

founded. It is certain that when it was debated what
hould be done in this matter the Ministers could not
come to an agreement, General NARVAEZ, supported by
M. BURGOS, was oppo3ed to the suppression of time bar-

gains, which was maintained by MM.i"EzuELA and EGANA.
General NARVAEZ became outrageously warm, and
MM. PEzuELA and EGANA were so offended by the un-

statesmanlike language of the President of the Council
that they left the Cabinet immediately, tendering their
resignations. The letter in which we have found these
details expatiates largely on the cause of this new ex-
t itement in the mind of General NARVAEz, but the sub-

ject is of a nature too delicate for us to enter upon, at
least at present. The letter adds that General NARVAEZ
sent the same evening for the Marquis DE VILLIIMA
and Baron DE MEER. "If this news be confirmed,"
continues the writer, it will not be long be-
tore I come and shake you by the hand in Paris ;
unless, indeed, events should force the whole
body of the Liberals to come forth in defence of the
throne they have founded, the institutions they have
won, which is not impossible, for the absolutists have
never held their heads so high nor spoken with so much
insolence.' The author of this letter belongs to that
fraction of the Conservative party which is called the
Puritans, and is one of the most influential members of
ir. On the other hand, we have been told that the
NARVAEZ Ministry has withdrawn en masse, and that
MM. Mom, PIDAL, and CASTRO Y OROZCO have been
assembled in council to form a new Ministry. Every
friend of Spain must applaud a crisis which may bring
into power men like CASTRO Y OROZCO. A Ministry
thus composed, particularly after what passed at the
last sitting of the Congress, would find a general sym-
pathy in the people, and an immense majority in the
Chambers. Nevertheless, however great may be the
confidence which we have in the persons from whom we
derive the forgoing information, their news is too im-
portant sad too unforeseen- for us to guarantee their
exactitude."