The Sun.
London, England, 1848-04-13 00:00:00

ROYAL COMMISSION.

Sir A. CLIFFORD appeared at the table to sum-
mon the House to attend the bar of the House of
Lords, to hear the Royal Assent given to several
public and private Bills, for the titles of which see
Lords' report.
The SPEAKER, on his return, enumerated the
names of the Bills.
Mr. SCULLY presented a petition from Clonmel,
praying for a repeal of the Union.
PIKES—IRELAND.
Mr. J. O'CONNELL referred to a report in an
Irish newspaper with respect to the alleged pur-
chases of pikes at the instance of Colonel Browne,
and inquired if it was the intention of the Govern-
ment to retain that officer in their service ? It ap-
peared from the report that he had admitted he pur-
chased pikes, but that he subsequently denied it.
Sir IV. SOMERVILLE, in reply, read a letter
from Colonel Browne, distinctly denying that there
was any truth in the allegation that he had employed
Kershaw or any other person to manufacture
pikes. He had employed the person named to pur-
chase some specimen pikes at places where he had
heard they were for sale, in order to ascertain if
the information was correct. He thought the
statement of a person occupying the posi-
tion of Colonel Browne was more worthy of
credit than a newspaper police report. His Excel-
lency had issued a notice stigmatising the conduct of
those who incited ignorant persons to purchase pikes
in order that they might inform against them and get
rewarded.—(Hear.)
Mr. HUME presented a petition from a place in
Scotland against the Government Protection Bill.
THE CONTINENT.

Mr. WILSON gave notice that he should to•
morrow ask a question of the Noble Lord the Secre-
tary of State for Foreign Affairs with respect to the
affairs of the Elbe, Ilulstein, Prussia, and Copen
hlgen.

NATIONAL PETITION.
Mr. TIIORNELY brought up the report of the
Committee on Public Petitions, which stated that

upon the 26th of November last a Committee was
appointed to report to the House the number of
signatures attached to all petitions presented to that
House, and that they had felt it their duty to make
a special report to the House upon the subject of the
National Petition, presented on the 10th of April,
by the Hon. Member for Nottingham, signed by
subjects of the British crown. The Committee
attached the utmost value to the right of pe-

titioning and to the exercise of that most im.
portant privilege by the subjects of this realm,
and felt deeply the necessity of preserving the due
exercise of such privileges from abuse, and having
also a due regard to the importance of a petition so
very numerously signed, had made that petition the
subject of their present report. They felt bound,
in the discharge of their duty, to represent to
the 1-louse that with respect to that petition there had
been a gross abuse of that privilege.—(Hear, hear.)
The Hon. Member for Nottingham, upon presenting
the petition, had stated that the petition was signed
by 5,706,000 persons. Upon the most careful exami-
nation of the number of signatures in the Committee,
with the assistance of thirteen law-stationers' clerks,

......
who acted under the superintendence of the various
clerks of the Committtes, the number of signatures
attached to the petition does not, in the opinion of
the Committee, exceed 1,975,496.—(Hear.) It is
further found, that a large number of the signatures
were consecutively written by the same hand. It
was also observed that a large number of the signa-
tures were those of persons who could not be sup-
posed to have concurred in its prayer ; among those
were the name of her Majesty, signed Victoria Rex,
The Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel,
&c., &c. There was also noticed a large num
ber of names which were evidently ficti
tious, such as " Pugnose' " " Longnose," latnose,"
" Punch," " Snooks," " Fubbs," and also numerous
obscene names, which the Committee would not
offend the House or its dignity by repeating, but
which evidently belonged to no human being.—
(Hear, hear.)
Upon the motion that the report do lie upon the
table,
Mr. F. O'CONNOR said that it would be quite

impossible for any thirteen clerks to count, from the
time the petition was printed, even 1,900,000 signa-
tures, and he should therefore move for the appoint-
ment of a Committee to inquire into the subject.
Tnere was an old raying, " that those who hid
knew where to find," and he believed that
if such abuses did exist, it no doubt was the act of
some of the Government spies.—(Oh, oh.) He fully
believed that the number of signatures he had repre-
sented the petition to contain was correct. He
would apply another test to the petition. The
petition was contained in four or five large bundles,
and it took himself; assisted by four other persons, to
lift the largest of the bundles.—(Oh, oh.) He did
not believe he should have any difficulty in obtaining
a petition upon the same subject signed by 15,000,000
or double or treble that number.
Mr. THORNLEY said that the petition was
treated with all the respect which was due to one
so numerously signed, and if he might take
the liberty to speak of an individual so humble as
himself, he would state that there were points re-
ferred to in that petition with which he cordially
agreed, the vote by ballot, for instance. But
the House would probably remember what
the lion. Member was not aware of, that the Corn.
mittee of which he had the honor to be the Chairman,
was appointed in the early part of the session, and
eutrusted to report to the House the number of sig-
natures to each and every petition presented. It had
been necessary to call in additional aid in order to
ascertain the number of signatures to the petition. He
believed that that number had been ascertained
with perfect certainty.—(Cheers.) The Honourable
Member had referred to the weight of the peti-
tion as a proof of the correctness of his state-
ment of the number of signatures to it,
That petition had been weighed this morning, and it
had been found that the whole of it together
weighed 51 cwt. The Committee was, he trusted,
too well known to render any further statutes upon
the subject necessary. They considered that they
were only acting in conformity with their duty in
laying
the statement with respect to the petition be-
fore the House.—(Cheers.)
Lord J. RUSSELL said that he gave full and
entire credit to the report of the Committee upon
the subject, and considered that it was
stated
svth respectthe many
entitled to the fullest credence.—(Hear, hear.)
that among The Earl of ARUNDEL and SURRE said,
falsehoodstoanythe
meeting
onthat hatibeen
on t
Kennington-
common
the Monday la
believed to be . , the greatest of all he
proclamation that h 1 been
issued
s.,
issued by the Conen •
tion stating that a glorious
demonstration had taken ei'
a million had place,assembledi and that a quarter of
was not there himself, buon Cennington-common. He
t he had been informed by
those who were that there
there. lie believed that thatus not 2.5,000 persons
was an over-state-
ment, and that there were not
persons there.—([lear, hear.)mN?re(Yw than 1,5,000
, he would
;;,k, was it to be supposed that the
countryform would
be deceived by a set of men such a
Convention when they dared to tell thern
such
thea
falsehood ? In his opinion, men who would
so act were the greatest enemies of the peeople
traitors to their country and their Queen, and rebels'
to their God.—(llear.)
Mr. MAURICE 0 CONNELL denied that the
Irish rZepealers had taken any part in the demon -
stration that had taken place on Kennington-common.
Sir 8.. 11. IN GLIS believed that such an expo-
sure as had now been made, not only of gross
exaggeration of the numbers, but of the character
of the parties signing the petition would at
once convince the Legislature how little faith