The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-18 00:00:00

ment had received any official intelligence respecting the 1
fearful state of parts of the south of Ireland? He alluded to
the fact more particularly of waggons and other conveyances '
loaded with wheat and flour being seized by the people in
several parts or ireianu.
Sir R. PEEL said that the post every day brought to him-
self and the other Members of the Government accounts of
what was taking place in Ireland. He thought, generally
speaking, the people of Ireland had borne their pri-
vations in the most exemplary manner. Every effort had been
made by the Irish Government to mitigate the sufferings
which the Irish people were enduring.
On the question for the resumption of the debate on the
Irish Life and Property Protection Bill.
Mr. S. O'Barxx contended that the provisions that had
been made by the Government were totally inadequate to
meet the necessities of the people of Ireland. Every Irish Mem-
ber would lose the confidence of their countrymen if they did
not resist this measure from its beginning to its end. He felt
convinced that this Bill would never pass the ordeal of the
House of Commons. He believed that whatever calamities
might take place in Ireland the Government were respon-
sible. _ .

Sir J. GRAHAM could assure the House, if it was neces-
sary that he should do so after what he had previously stated,
that the Government were not unmindful of the present con-
dition of Ireland, and that no steps had been neglected
by them to investigate it. It was never supposed by the
Government that the measures adopted for the supply of food
in Ireland would totally meet the demand, but it was thought
that it would place upon a better footing the supply and
demand for that commodity. Everything had been done,
and would be continued to be done by the Government, to re-
lieve the wants of the people of Ireland. He trusted that
Hon. Members would allow the debate on the first reading to
proceed, in order that a decision might be come to with respect
to it as soon as possible.
Mr. E. B. ROCHE assured the House that the landlords of
Ireland, with the exception of the absentees, were doing all in
their power to alleviate the miseries of the people of Ireland,
and trusted that the Government would adopt more stringent
means of furnishing food to the people of that unhappy
country.
Sir R. PEEL said that however much the Government
might be blamed for their apathy towards Ireland, he was
,ure that when all that they had done to relieve the dis-
tresses of that unhappy country was known that blame
would be changed into approbation. It was necessary that
the Government should be cautious, in the course they were
pursuing with respect to the introduction of food into Ireland,
in order that no false reliance might be placed upon them by
Lhose who privately would do all in their power to relieve the
distress of their own countymen.
After some observations from Mr. C. Powell, Sir William
Somerville, Mr. W. Collett, Mr. O'Connell, Mr. M'Carthv,
Colonel Verner, Mr. John O'Connell, Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr.
Ward, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Mr. JOHN O'BRIEN resumed the adjourned debate on the
Irish Life and Property Protection Bill. He considered the
neasure fraught with the most dangerous consequences ;
.mud he should, therefore, give it his most determined op-
mosition.
Mr. C. POWELL and Mr. WARD also opposed the first
eading of the Bill.
Mr. V. SMITH and Mr. M. GORE supported the reading
.if the Bill.
Sir W. SOMERVILLE opposed the Bill.
Mr. J. COLLETT also opposed the Bill, which he designated
is one of the most atrocious that had ever been introduced
into the House of Commons.
Mr. JOHN O'CONNELL moved the adjournment of the de-
bate.

Mr. Smrrii O'BRIEs seconded the motion.
After some discussion, in which Sir R. PEEL, Mr. E.
ELLICE, and Mr. DILLON BROWN took part, the House di-
Yided, and the motion of the adjournment of the debate was
lost by a majority of 57.
Mr. E. B. ROCHE then moved that the House do now
adjourii.

After some discussion the motion was withdrawn, and the
debate was adjourned to Monday.
The other orders of the day were then disposed of, and the
House adjourned.

The speech of M. THIERS, on Wednesday, in the
French Chamber of Deputies, his visit to this country
last autumn, and the complimentary return made by
Lord PALMERSTON, are all favourable symptoms that
:he phrase entente cordiale is something more than mere
words. The condonation, too, has come from the right
quarter—from the angry party that, till very lately,
missed no opportunity of declaiming against the selfish
lisposition of England, and of her wish to overreach
France, and interpret the words of the French KING
)nly to her own advantage. The speech to which we
refer, and which was not finished at the hour of post
)n Wednesday, related to the strength of the French
lavy, and the comparative power of England and France
it sea. Judging from M. THIERS' work on the " Con-
adate and the Empire," we are led to believe that he
;onsiderecl France quite an equal match for this country,
loth as regarded the skill of her naval officers, and the
bravery of her sailors. He never relates an encounter
it sea, in which France had not the superiority, or was
I riot robbed of the victory by some accident, or some
nalevolent, unexpected, and unwarrantable trick on
he part of the islanders. Sea-fights, which En-
glishmen had been taught to believe were
in their favour, and which they had celebrated by the
tiring of cannon, by illuminations and bonfires, were
according to the French historian, no victories at all; they
were all mere delusions ; the French, it is true, had suf-
fered in some instances, hut, as VOLTAIRE says of the
British troops at the battle of Fontenoy, their defeat
was as glorious as a victory. In every instance that oc-
curs to us, M. TRIERS gives the preference to his coun-
trymen for naval tactics, hard fighting, and daring enter-
prise, and is only a little puzzled in winding up his tale
to account for the result. From these facts, we are
justified in inferring that, in his reveries about the vic-
tories which, under the ORLEANS dynasty, should equal
those of the empire, he dreamed of the dominion of the
sea as well as the boundary of the Rhine. All these
visions, however, have vanished, for in the speech to
which we allude, he fully admits that Franca cannot
compete with England at sea. For forty ships of the
line which France can build and maintain, he said Eng-
land could raise one hundred, and the vast difference be-
tween the respective forces, therefore, could leave no room
ror doubt as to which would ultimately prevail. This is
an important admission from one hitherto so vain-
glorious, and who may in a few years be again Prime
Minister of France. But this apparent change of opinion
is accompanied by other circumstances of far more
weight. Latterly the tone of the Paris journals has
exhibited a great diminution of asperity in reference to
the policy and power of England. They reason calmly
on her victories in India—even praise the moderation
of the Governor-General ; and one of them, usually
most hostile to England, admits that " no nation more
extensively fulfils its providential mission." The op.
position in the Chamber has undergone the same re-
generation—even M. BILLAULT can speak of England
with decent composure; and all those violent and un-
becoming displays which some years since made the
events at Otaheite, and especially the PRITCHARD affair,
absolutely ridiculous, are never by any chance re-
peated. At one time it was understood that the
ex-Minister was paying his court to the Duke
DE NEMOURS and his brother JOIN VILLE, in the hope
that they disapproved of the peaceful policy which
has so honourably distinguished the reign of their
father, and that they might join with him in
reviving the glory of the French army, and defeating
England in her own territory by means of steam-boats.
But he evidently has met with no favourable reception
from that quarter, and is obliged to fall back upon the
only chance of recovering power left to him, and become
a warm advocate of peace with England. Lord PAL-
MERSTON is in somewhat a similar position ; Earl GREY
had
pronounced a ban upon him, which went forth to the
whole of Europe and met with warm approbation from
the friends of peace, as well as from all those Powers
who reprobated the Syrian expedition. The French
Opposition were in ecstacies
otofin olnedtlehesgirume, and theostdangerousopponent blackballed by his w
war-
like spirit of Lord PALMERSTON made the real ground
for demolishing the RUSSELL Cabinet. A brand was
thus fixed upon the ex-Foreign Minister, which no ex •
planations, no professions of a sincere desire for peace,
no expressed determination to maintain to its full extent
the entente cordiale, could efface, and the appointment of
Lord PALMERSTON to his former office, in case of a change
of administration, would have been regarded by the
French Chamber as a declaration of war ; for they
might well say—" This is not our opinion only, you
yourselves admit the fact; you wish to live at peace, but
at the same time, men who know your Cabinet secrets
better than we do, tell us plainly there can be no secu-
rity for peace while PALMERSTON is at the Foreign•
office." The impossibility of giving a satisfactory reply
to such an argument has not been without effect, and
probably has mainly contributed to the friendly inter-
course of civilities which are now going on at Paris.
Whatever may be the real cause, however, the friends of
peace will rejoice in the result. By personal communi-
cations,witnessing improvements as observable in
France as by
astn England, by experiencing the hospitality
and the warm congratulations of Frenchmen of all par-
ties, and also by judging more intimately of the real cha-
racter of the people, Lord PALMERSTON may learn an
useful lesson, and he and M. THIERS may the more rea-
dilyll as well as the wickedness, of bring-
ing into collision, theoiiis folly,
ion, from person al pique or some cause
equally undignified,
two
...nations whose friendly co-
operation is absolutely necessary for promoting the wel-
fare of both, and securing the peace of the world.

Another glance at the devastations which still pro-
ceed in our beautiful, but doomed Ireland, is almost re-
quisite, from the terrible chuacter of “1/) most recent