The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-09 00:00:00

justify hire with regard to the statements he had made respect-
ing the famine in Wexford and other counties. The lion.
Member for Armagh bad stated that the price of potatces in his
county was similar to the price of last year. He was rejoiced
to find that there was one place in Ireland where that descrip-
tion of food was to be had at a reasanable price. He was
sorry, however, to say that in the south-western and southern
parts of Ireland the potato disease was very extensive. He
thought the Honourable Member for Dorsetshire was thinking
of the condition of the poor in this county when he
alluded to Ireland. The poor in Dorsetshire were re-
ceiving only 7s. a week wages, nut of vihich they had
to pay for rent. He (Lord Lincoln) had received a letter
only that morning from Valentia, in Ireland, which
requested a suppy of Indian corn or oatmeal to dispose of to
the poor at cost price. Such applications as these were evidence
that the distress in Ireland had not been overrated. The
month of May, in Ireland, was that period of the year during
which employment was most prevalent. It was the seed time,
and the farmers occupied as many labourers as they needed,
and in consequence the demands on the public purse were not
so numerous. 'the Right Hon. Baronet then read a letter
from a proprietor in the county of Cavan, wherein great dis-
tress existed. His Hon. Friend had stated, that the result of
the alarm that had been raised with respect to the farmer had
been to raise the price of potatoes. A supply of Indian corn
had been furnished to numerous districts in Ireland for the
double purpose of preventing starvation, and of hindering a
combination to raise the price of food. What was the price of
potatoes previous to the issue of meal by the Government?
Why, in Limerick alone, the price was 7-0. per stone, and it
was utterly impossible for the poor to pay that price. When
the issue of meal was made by the Government, the price of
potatoes fell immediately from 7d. to 51d. per stone. He
did not intend to occupy the attention of the House any longer.
He could, however, assure his Hon. Friend that the distress in
Ireland, though not universal, was general and extensive.
Mr. FLOYER thought if the Noble Lord was not prepared
to stand by the quotations of the price of wages in Dorsetshire
contained in Mr. Sheridan's letter, he ought not to have ad-
dressed the House. He (Mr. Flex er) was prepared to main-
tain that the condition of the labourers in Dorsetshire was
never better than it was at present. He would, however, deny
that the rate of wages was so low as had been stated by the
Right Hon. the Secretary for Ireland. He gave an unequivo-
cal denial, as the Member for Dorsetshire, against any insinu-
ation of the low rate of wages in that county.
Mr. STAFFORD O'BRIEN corroborated the statement
of the Noble Lord the Secretary for Ireland with reference to
the distress of Limerick, he thought it a wise precaution of the
Government to supply Indian corn to meet that dis-
tress. He found, when he visited Limerick, that
the vessels is the harbour were attacked by armed men ;
that the cattle were obliged to he guarded by soldiers. In
consequence of the measure the Government had adopted, the
poor people were now employed : there was no fear of out-
break among them. Tranquillity still reigned in that country.
He thought it was his duty, as a magistrates and a proprietor
in that country to urge upon the Government the necessity of
taking some active measures. He found the distress in his
own immediate vicinity very great. There was no seed for
the future, and no food for the present. He spoke only of that
part of the country with which he was acquainted. He
believed that there was very severe distress throughout the
country —( Hear, hear.) He thought the Government had
acted improperly in mixing up Irish grievances with this corn
measure, and that they should propose a humane measure to
meet a temporary calamity. He maintained, and had done so
over and over again, that the distress in Ireland should be met
by the Irish landholders themselves.—(llear, hear.)
Mr. LEFROY stated that the distress had not been so
general, and the number of cases of fever consequent thereon
were not so numerous as the Horse had been led to expect.
He was the first Irish Member who had ventured to state
that, so far as Ireland was concerned, the state of that country
did not warrant the adoption of such measures as those pro-
posed by Government. He thought it would be satisfactory
to the Government to know, upon authority not to be dis-
puted, that the dismiss was not so general as had been feared.
With respect to the county of which he was a Member, he
would read a letter from a gentleman well acquainted with that
part of the country. The Hon. Member then proceeded to
read the letter referred to ; also a letter from the agent of a
large landed proprietor in Roscommon, both of which stated
the distress not to be of so alarming an extent. He had
also accounts from Sligo, Armagh, and Down,
denying the prevalence of fever in those counties.
He would read a letter to prove that even in the case of die.
eased potatoes they were not unprofitable, and the House would
see form this that there were many useful arid commoner pur-
poses to which potatoes in a disordered state could be applied.
—( Hear, hear.) (The Honourable Member having read this
letter, went on to read a number of others, with the view of
showing that the accounts of the suffering, disease, and distress
prevalent in Ireland was exaggerated.) He did not attempt to
deny that there was great and pressing distress in many parts
of Ireland, but it was occasioned, in his opinion, by a com-
bination amongst certain parties to raise the price of provisions.
—( Hear, hear.) Br' re he sat down there was another sub-
ject to which he must allude. The Right Hon. Gentleman
the Secretary of State for the Home Department had blamed
the Irish gentry for not speedily availing themselves of the
public grant which had been made for the purpose of public
works, but the grand juries in many parts of Ireland
thought it would only have benefited the contractor, and not
the tenantry, had they availed themselves of this money pre•
vious to the last assizes, for at those assizes the ordinary road
contracts were let, and that for a time gave sufficient em-
ployment to the people, without resorting to the reserve
fund which Government had placed at their disposal.—
( Hear, hear.) Thanking the House for the attention they
bad given him, he resumed his seat, declaring his intention to
support the amendment.—( Hear. )
>lr. P. BORTH WICK expressed himself strongly op-
posed to the passing of this measure, and blamed the Govern-
ment for having resorted to it to relieve the distress of Ireland,
while they could have fuund a more easy and effective remedy
in appealing to the people for public and private subsctip-
tions to meet the temporary Hear, hear.) Circum-
stances, both in and out of the country, combined
to prove that the corn-laws were politic, aid it
would be unjust to abrogate them. —( Hear, hear.) He
admitted that what was politic last year might be impolitic
this, but justice was eternal ; it never changed • and to him
it teemed rather strange, that the Right Hon. Baronet at the
head of the Government should have been thirty years in dis-
covering what was just and what was unjust.—(Protection
cheers.) flow could this be The fact was that the discovery
was a sudden one. And why did the Right Hon. Baronet so
often entertain them with speeches warmly supporting
protection, and in no less degree denouncing the Anti- Corn-
law Longue and its leadors ? It could nut be concealed, then,
that the discovery was a sudden one. And why was it sud-
den? Why, the secret would be found in the simple fact that
a general election was near at hand. But was it becoming in
a great Minister, with a European reputation, to resort to
so palpable an attack, with the view of securing popularity
on the eve of a general election.—( Hear, hear.)
A falser return than that which had been returned to the
French Parliament, of the number of agriculturists and manu-
facturers, had never been made ; for every village blacksmith,
every village tailor, every man who fashioned the ploughshare
or horseshoe, every sort of artizan, had in fact been returned as
a manufacturer, and he was glad to find that M. Guizet was not
about to be misled by that return, or become a disciple of the
Hon. Member for Stockport. The Noble Lord behind him
(Lord G. Bentinck), had made a speech on this question
during the previous shige of this measure, which was replete
with arguments, to which it was impossible for the Government
to reply. The Hon. Member then proceeded to say, that the
alleged famine in Ireland was not of that alarming character re-
presented by the Commissiouers of her Majesty's Government.
There had in point of fact been a decrease of about 100 cases of
fever in one district alone of that country is the present year,
as compared with the corresponding portion of the preceding
year. He maintained that there was at the present moment
in Ireland sufficient potatoes both for food and seed, notwith-
standing the assertions of the Noble Lord the Secretary for
Ireland (Lord Lincoln). There was also not the least deficiency
of any other description of food in that country. But even
granting for a moment that there was a famine in Ireland,
if this measure were an unjust one, which it had been
proved to be, that famine could not surely form a
ground for the passing of such a measure as the present.
The Right Hon. Baronet at the head of her Majesty's
Government has said, that the people living eastward of an
imaginary line which he had drawn from Inverness to South-
ampton, were careless whether this measure passed or not ; in
fact, that those who were skilful and wealthy farmers, would
profit by the measure becoming a law. But the Right Hon.
Baronet had admitted that the remaining portion of our popu-
lation—the small farmers of England would be utterly ruined.
And it was thus heartlessly that they were about to dispose of
those of whom theyfarmerlyboasted—‘. the hold peasantry, the
country's pride." But these laws, if they injured one class
must injure all classes of farmers; it was impossible that the
large farmers could be benefited by them, whilst the occu-
piers and cultivators of small portions of land were injured. On
the westward of the line which the Right Hon. Baronet had
drawn, the very best of wheat wasproducet adnedeetrhsaetfintheaotpiiontu.s
quantities; and he contended that the p
portant article of food, should not have been_ so lightly treated
as they had been by the Right Hon. Baronet. The Hon.
Alember concluded, by quoting from Burke, for the purpose
of
showing that it would be a very dangerous and unjust step to inter-
fere with the capital of the farmer iu the manner proposed by
this measure. Now, the Right Hon. Baronet foundedi on
d
such statements the argument, What has protection done far
you? He might as well ask, in respect to the state of manu-
factures in Ireland, What has free trade done for that coun-
try ? He said that he was in those measures going to found a
permanent system of trade; but this was, in the very nature
of things, impossible. The world had existed some six thou-
sand years, and the Right Hon. Baronet could not show them
any nation that had ever existed that maintained its prosperity.
Why, commercial prosperity was as variable as the winds and
waves that wafted their traffic from shore to shore.—( Laugh-
ter.) In all the speeches made by the Right Hon. Baronet
he went into no argument—he dealt only in assertions—he
to but
repeated the creed of the Hon. Member tor Wolverhampn.
TLe Noble Lord the Member for London had asked the people
to pour in petitions, and to give the Right Hon. Baronet an ex-
cuse for repealing the corn-laws. But the people had done no
mach thing. They had proved, by the elections which had
taken place in all parts of the country, that they were deter-
mined to uphold the constitutional principles of England. The
Hon. Member for Stockport and the Right Hon. Baronet at
the head of the Government, like Hermia and Helena in the
poem, though with two seeming bodies, had but one heart;
but, if their measures were carried, they would, however bene-
ficial they might be to foreign countries, entail ruin and degra-
dation on this.
Air. HENLEY would not trouble the House with any
lreeengtheiv.ednewditrhuteemarks, but he could not allow the report to be
racking one or two observations, and as they
would be of a characterawehi h had not been often referred to in
th
the debate, he trusted House would bear with him while he
made them. And first, he would refer to the social condition
0( the country, and if they looked to the last four years they
would find a pleasing decrease in the amount of crimes—a de-
crease of nearly one-fourth. The Right Hon. Baronet, how-
ever, attributed this improvement in
moralslook if there were no
to the relaxation
made in restrictive duties. But let the
other causes for this improved state of t;tiings. Was there no in-
crease of prosperity by the railway movement, when at least
20,000,000/. a year was expended among_ the people ? Was
there nut an improved poor-law? Was nothing to be
attributed to the last religious movement?
enercial restriction had, for the last thirty
aybeeatt", diminishing, and he asked—Was the country in
posi-
tion than it was before? If he could show that trade elradincreased, that prices had become lower, and that employment
had become general within the last thirty years, would theyt
saot be ready to admit that crime should have diminished, fur
that was the principle on which they advocated the repeal of
the corn-laws? If they took the test of the population, they
would find that, in 1821, the population of Great Britain, he
did not include Ireland, amounted to 14,400,000; in 1831, it
amounted to 16,34'2,000 ; in 1841, it amounted to 18,431,000.
So that, if he might be allowed to use the expression, it
was increasing in a diminishing ratio—that was, it
should have increased in a far greater proportion than
it had done—( Hear, hear)—and if they compared the benefit
of agricultural and manufacturing pursuits upon the inhabi-
tants of their respective districts, he would show them how
immensely the former was superior to the latter. In Lan-
cashire the deaths were one in thirty-four ; in Liverpool one
in twenty-nine ; in Salford, one in thirty-four ; and in
London, one in thirty-eight. He would now read to them
those of the agricultural districts—ln Wiltshire, one in forty-
ninee ; in Surrey, one in fifty-two ; in Hampshire, one in
-"Y-six. Well, and if they 'mild say that they had
short and merry lives, he would say, let them read
the factory atm*, in which they -would see that some-