The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-25 00:00:00

Mantling 241/4

LONDON, MONDAY, MAY 25, 1846.

The House of Commons were on Friday occupied for a
considerable time in the discussion of the notable point
raised by 3fr. Smint O'BRIEN, viz., that the appointment of
the Committee of Selection in the present session was in-
formal and void, and that consequently they had no autho-
rity to.require his attendance, or any of the Committee, and
that he was justified in his refusal to comply with their re-
quest. As mad• easily be imagined, the motion was negatived
by a very large majority, the numbers being 108 to 36; and
of the small number who voted in the minority
WE iailavaced by a pity Or tin fate of

the refractory Member, and an anxiety to be enabled
to restore him to liberty which it was feared his obstinacy
would prevent him from obtaining by any other means.
They, therefore, readily caught at a point however trivial
and unimportant in itself, in order that, by giving him the
benefit of a doubt, they might be enabled to give effect to
their kind and benevolent feelings. How much, soever, we
may respect this feeling, we think it would be much below
the dignity of the Legislature had they suffered it to prevail.
It would exhibit the House in a very humiliating light indeed
if they permitted it to 'go forth to the world that
they had conducted their own affairs in so
slovenly and negligent a manner, that their authority
might be set at nought, their orders despised, and the solemn
decision of the House itself disobeyed ; and that when the
offender was at length brought to punishment, after every
possible opportunity having been afforded to him of recon-
sidering the line of conduct he had determined on, he should
escape from the consequences of his folly by showing the
error of their proceedings. It would indeed have been an un-
worthy means of escaping from the difficulty, if any such
really existed, to enter into such a compromise as
that' suggested by Mr. War:Lay, to say, we have
both been in fault, we'll now discharge you from custody,
let bygones be bygones—let us shake hands and be friends
for the future. The House were either right or wrong in the
course they adopted ; if right, and that they were anxious to
save the Hon. Member from suffering the natural conse-
quences of his own obstinacy, the far more dignified course
for them to pursue would be to say, we consider you have
been sufficiently punished in the three weeks' incarceration
you have already undergone, and we now discharge you,
having sufficiently vindicated our authority; and we truet
that the lesson may not be thrown away, but that for the
future you will act in a wiser and more becoming manner;
on the other band, if they were wrong, and that the Hon.
Member had been unjustly punished, it would not be becom-
ing on either side that they should sneak out of their acts
and cover their injustice by such a paltry compromise. No ;
they should aeknowledge their fault, and as far as in them
lay take steps to repair the injustice of which they had been
guilty. We cannot, however, conceive that there was any
error in the proceedings The arguments of Mr. ERTCOURT,
Sir G. GREY, and Mr. STRUT; distinctly proved that the
Committee were duly and properly appointed by the standing
order of the House, and that it was not competent to the House
itself to alter the constitution of that Committee until they had
in the first instance repealed that standing order. It is ma-
nifest, therefore, that if there was any irregularity, it was
that which took place in the session of 1845, when the
House came to a resolution that such a Committee should be
appointed, and thereby exceeded their powers, as it had been
already constituted by the standing order, and the very
persons indicated who, by virtue of their situations as chair-
men of the Standing Orders' Committee and of the
several Sub-Committees, should constitute the Com-
mittee of Selection ; besides, had the original ap-
pointment been bad in itself, the Committee were
sanctioned and recognised by the House, who
had remitted to it the transaction of business, and by their
own resolution required them to choose the persons to serve
on the various railway Committees; but the broad and
dignified ground was that taken by Sir GEORGE GREY, who
contended that the authority exercised by the Committee
was not material to the real question; that Mr. SMITH
O'Brtittx was not confined for violating any order of any
Committee of the House, but simply because he had
refused to obey an order made by the House that he
should attend a railway Committee which had been
appointed by the House. If there had been no
Committee of Selection in existence, the House had
made an order which one of its Members refused to obey.
That was clearly a contempt, and it was in fact for that of-
fence, and not for disobeying the orders of the Committee of
Selection, that Mr. O'BRIEN was confined. This is the true
point in which to consider the question, and as such we
stated it in our columns yesterday, some time before the
able speech of Sir GEORGE GREY was delivered. We can-
not now conceive why Mr. O'BRIEN should longer refrain
from making his submission to the House; he stood formerly
on the broad question of principle, that he as an Irish Member
could not, and ought not, to be required to take a part in any
proceeding in which Ireland was not in some manner in-
terested. For the sake of that principle, be avowed himself
ready to undergo any penalty the House might choose to in-
flict ; and by bringing forward another, and totally different
ground on which he might obtain his freedom, he has vir-
tually abandoned his former position. He has not abided by
that which he avowed to be his ample and sufficient justifi-
cation. We ,do hope that he will not now permit a mere
dogged obstinacy to prevent his bowing te the authority of that
House, which he himself, as one of its members, is as much
interested as any one in maintaining. We perceive that the
Committee on which he was appointed to act" will terminate
their sittings to-day, and we think that there may then
be an opportunity for the House, without any sacrifice of
dignity, to release the Honourable Member from that custody
in which he was detained during the entire labours of the
Committee in which he refused to bear a part.

The preliminary skirmishing that took place in the House
of Peers on Monday and Tuesday, upon the introduction of
the Corn and Customs' Bills respectively, gives us a faint
outline of the conflict upon which their Lordships will
have to enter this evening. As far as these glim-
merings can guide us, we do not feel much apprehension
respecting the ultimate decision to be come to upon the
Ministerial measures. On both of these occasions the Duke
of RICIDIONM as was to be anticipated, rushed to the
onslaught. On one of them only—the presentation of the
Customs' Bill—did Lord ASHBURTON offer any remarks.
The above-named Noble Lords were the only speakers ofany
weight who intimated their continued opposition to the
commercial policy of the Government. Lord ASHBURTON'S
speech in Hants, delivered some time since, upon the new
measures, which were then shadowed forth as likely to
emanate from the Ministry, was freely commented upon at
that period. The impression it left upon our minds was only
to strengthen the opinions we had previously entertained in
favour of the principle of free trade in grain, and of the ad-
visability of relaxing our duties upon a variety of foreign
products. We are far from participating in his Lordship's
fears, slightly sketched as they were on Tuesday night,
respecting our colonies. His views strike us as being
meagre and selfish, quite unworthy the adoption of this great
and free country. We believe that when this branch of the
subject comes under full discussion Lord ASHBURTON will
find his match in the luminous and powerful mind of Earl
GREY. Parties are said to be generally the best judges of
their own interests, and it is worthy of recollection that, so
far as the Canadas are concerned, the latest accounts show
that those important colonists do not share in the appre-
hensions of Lord ASHBURTON.

We rejoice to have already observed some abatement of
the violence of the Duke of RICIIMOND. Early in the ses-
sion his Grace threatened to encounter the Government
measures with every obstacle of which the forms of Parlia-
ment would admit. Nevertheless the first reading of the
Corn Bill has been permitted to pass under the flourish of
a simple protest. We rejoice, moreover, to have his Grace's
assurance that, on his part, the dignity of debate will not be
compromised by any further indulgence in personality
against the Ministry, and particularly against the Chief of
the Cabinet. Abstinence from this line of argument, and
confining themselves solely to the real merits of the Bills
before them, will best serve to secure the continuance of the
respect with which a great portion of the people are inclined
to regard the hereditary branch of the Legislature. We
have our misgivings that, however laudable may be the ex-
ample hereafter set by his Grace in this respect, it will not
be emulated by his new political ally, Lord STANLEY. To
place this nobleman under a similar restraint will be like call-
ing upon him to play in Hamlet, with the part of Hamlet
omitted by particular desire.
As a rhetorical display, we can readily imagine that his
Lordship's coming speech will gratify his audience
to the full. Lord STANLEY is, as it were, by instinct, an
accomplished orator. In all the essential characteristics of a
statesman he is lamentably deficient. lie has weakened, in-
stead of strengthening, every Cabinet of which he has been
a member. Lord Joinc RUSSELL once told the House of
Commons, that of all his colleagues the services he could dis-
pense with, with the least regret, were those of Lord STANLEY.
The last measure of significance which Lord STANLEY, when
in opposition, took under his own special protection, was one
for the registration of voters in Ireland. The majorities,
though narrow, by which it was supported, unhappily tended
to hasten the fall of Lord MELiaounms.'s Government. The
measure was, however, manfully resisted by Lord Jou•c
IlussaLL, as its operation would manifestly have been to stint
the limited franchise of the oppressed and suffering Irish;
and Lord STANLEY had shortly afterwards the unenviable
satisfaction of filling, till within the last few months, an im-
portant post in the succeeding Cabinet, which not only never
revived the pet offspring of his mind, but actually admitted
in Parliament, through Sir JAMES GRAHAM, that the statis-
tical inquiries, officially instituted in their Governmental ca-
pacity, fully bore out the view-taken of the measure by Lord
JOHN RtSSELL. This is but one of many instances that
establishes the incompetency of Lord STANLEY to be a fit
guide or counsellor upon any great measure of national
import.
what has recently fallen from the Duke of
It is clear from
RICHMOND that the
eupgrohttectetiobnaivstesbete vnillmsatdoeuttloythleabcoouurntto
r;
argue that an appeal
and ought
rnitoittbeed made
encoowm, e btehfoer
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wthe
itmnheeNalsoauvnrde:. tbbeTeryhlegoysb:lewcitl towill
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their argument by asserting
ltibat theetfo
rcountrythe returned
especial
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ua s
ee
f
Conservative
resisting
themajoritiyincpe
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or-
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free trade. This assertion is easily rebutted; itp is a gra-
tuitous assumption. Lord MEt.nounsE went to the country
because the House of Commons, convoked under his own
auspices in 1837, had declared his Government not entitled
to their confidence. Sir E. PEEL, in moving tl.e vote of
want of confidence, recommended it (rightly or wrongly)
upon the grounds, that year after year there had been a
falling revenue, the expenditure largely exceeding the in-
come of the country ; that our foreign relations were, in dif-
ferent parts of the globe, in an unsatisfactory state; that,
for a long period the Ministers had been unable to carry
through certain measures which they had declared to Le
essential to the welfare of the nation ; and that, therefore,
Parliament ought not to allow them to deal with those vast
interests which, for good or for evil, were involved in the
budget they had brought forward, when their strength as a
Government was completely exhausted. The house of
Commons adopted this view. The country was called upon
t 9 decide whether Unit' rpreseatatiyea had oxercised a wiac

discretion, and it decided in the affirmative. It is futile to
allude to casual speeches made here and there upon the
hustings. The constituencies in counties and boroughs are,
for the most part, divided into great parties, corresponding
with the division that sepa-ates the Treasury from the Op-
position benches in St. Stephen's. The English are intel.
ligent, practical men of. business, and upon a solemn and
general appeal being made for their political opinion, they
look, we repeat, not so much to the particular speeches de-
livered upon the platform as to what has passed in the walls
of the Senate and led to the dissolution. Previous to the
dissolution of 1841, Sir R. PEEL frequently and distinctly
declared that he would not pledge himself to support the
corn-laws under whatever circumstances might arise. From
these facts, then, we say that Sir R. PEEL'S early majorities
in the present Parliament were not constituted upon the ex-
clusive principle, as is now, for party purposes, alleged by
the protectionists. Again, we to not see that Sir R. PEEL
should have appealed to the country last November any
more than he should now. The Parliament once elected, is,
by the Constitution, considered competent to decide, free and
unfettered by the electoral body at large, upon all matters
affecting Church and State, except when the Crown, of its
own especial prerogative—which is generally exercised
under the advice of its Ministers—chooses to remit the
Members to their several constituencies by a dissolution.
Such is the theory of the Constitution. To depart from
it would be to convert the H' us:' of Commons f-om being a
,'eliberative assembly into a chailber of mere delega:"s.
The present House of Cemmons wa^ nct convened at t' e in-
stance of Sir Rosenz FEEL. Looking to th' disruption of
political ties of some standing certain to follow the b tro-
ducti uf the measures which, in November, he had decided
to be imperatively called for by the exigencies of Cie empire
—to the storm of invective with which his former agricul-
tural adherents threatened to assail him—rte can readily
imagine that, if the state of public affairs had not been im-
minent, and personal feeli.sgs hid alone been consulted,
the Minister would not hive been loath to have re-
commended a dissolution towards the close tf the past
year. But as this w. s not done, as the Ps rliament
was not his own, we cannot conceive a greater triumph of
reason than that, under such circumstances, the House of
Commons should have passed his measures by an over-
whelming majority.
The argument of no appeal having been made to the
country comes with a very bad grace from the landed mo-
nopolists. Between the resignation and re-instatement in
office of Sir R. PEEL the protectionists had the opportunity
of forming a Government. They declined the responsibility.
Had they embraced the opportunity they would have had
the power in their own hands of effecting a dissolution. The
truth is, they little expected that Lord JOHN RUSSELL
and his party would give the honourable support they
have to the Government. We consider, therefore,
the argument for a dissolution cannot come with
any force from the agriculturists—they are, in fact, out of
court. Should the House of Peers by their vote unhappily
precipitate an appeal to the country, the Government will
assuredly accept the challenge, and will do so with every
advantage derivable from the masterly exposition that has
been given in Parliament to the principles they have advo-
cated, advantages which they would not have possessed'
had the advice of the Duke of RICTIMOND been adopted in
November. But we believe the House of Lords will hold
discretion to be the better part of valour, and that this ses-
sion will yield to us the incalculable benefits of commerce,
liberated from the shackles which have so long impeded its
healthy action.

On Friday, at the second anniversary of the Society for the
Improvement of the Condition of the Labouring Classes, the
Noble Chairman, Lord ASHLEY, characterised the filthiness,
the dilapidation, and the confinement of the dwelling-houses
inhabited by the poor as " the great and crying monster
evil of the day." Within the limits of that brief sentence
are comprised, according to our thinking, the woful degra-
dation, both physical and moral, of many thousands amongst
our countrymen. Viewing the matter in its simplest light, let
us ask ourselves, whether the bodily abasement of the poverty-
stricken does not constitute in itself an almost irresistible in-
citement to a proportionate degeneracy of their more elevated
and spiritualised attributes as men? Whether squalor, and
nakedness, and habitual hunger, are not generative of the
most demoralizing impulses? Whether a human being so
far steeped in wretchedness as to lead a life of sullen de-
spondency must not, in due course of time, im-
bibe from those very feelings of despondency a
spirit of reckless depravity ? Our answer is in the
rags and drunkenness, the nauseous odours, and the blas-
phemous ribaldry which are common to so many dens in our
metropolis, at the very moment these words are being
scanned. Born in these loathsome scenes, nurtured in them
from a sickly childhood to an emasculated maturity (though
this too literal epithet looks like a paradox), the population of
these districts become naturalised as it were in
vice. They have sucked in the germs of immorality
almost with the maternal milk, they are ever sur-
rounded—not from the cradle to the grave—but from
their first squalid covering to the workhouse death-pit, by
contamination of the most depraved and insidious character.
These are literally the unfortunate race mentioned by the
romancer as

" Sodden in steaming courts,
And drunken, hungry dens !"

Never breathing the pure atmosphere of nature, never in-
haling the hopeful and elevating truths of religion, without
the warnings of good precept or the allurements of good
example, it becomes no matter of astonishment that
criminality should become, so to speak, the actuating
principles of their existence. A hereafter, is, if ever
dreamed of amongst them, merely a theme for deri-
sion; a hope of better times, seeing that they have
never experienced anything but want and misery, ap-
pears to them an impossibility; even the GODHEAD is a
name to swear by—nothing else ! These are facts
which may be proved any day for the trouble of
a walk ; they are the dark truisms of London life,
the fillers of our police-courts, the visitors of our peniten-
tiaries. Now it requires no very extraordinary capacity to
demonstrate from all circumstances that these effects, though
flowing undoubtedly from divers causes, are mainly attri-
butable to ONE ; and that predominant cause is no less an
one than the nature of the scene in which these vile
spectacles are evolved. Houses crowded together iu
dense numbers, and with little regard either to order
or ventilation ; rooms scarcely twelve feet square, and
yet harbouring sometimes nineteen persons, men, women, and
children, huddled together without any care for decency or
any distaste for dirt :—these are the description of dwellings
in which the poor lose every natural feeling of
self-respect. Good and evil, right and wrong, are here
either confused with each other, or actually inverted;
and the necessary consequences of this diseased state of
society are that the progess from petty larceny to more
heinous offences is rapid beyond conception—almost as rapid
as the spread of fever and other contagious maladies among
them. The statistics of these parishes are of them-
selves incontrovertible arguments as to the accu-
racy of our conclusion ; as from them it appears
that where 202 square 'yards may be calculated as the area
appropriated to each individual, the annual mortality is one
in forty-nine, whereas, in quarters of the metropolis, where
thirty-two square yards can be alone estimated for each inha-
bitant, the mortality is absolutely one in thirty-six. It is,
however, needless to resort to Arabic figures for
an enforcement of our argument, since the most
ordinary intellect must be conscious on reflection that
no elevation of thought, no purity of principle,
nothing immaculate and nothing peculiarly exalted in
the shape of moral excellence, can be looked for by
any rational man amidst incessant privation, indolence,
intoxication, sic, and uncleanliness. Such an ex-
pectation would be in defiance of all possibility—it
would be contrary to the assurances of experience. Be-
holding these things, and knowing their actuality, it be-
comes a solemn duty, imperative upon every citizen,
to strive individually and collectively for their cor-
rection. By encouraging such institutions as the one
over which Lord AIRILEY on Friday presided, mad
by divulging the real fountain from which all
these abominations flow, the evil may be purged away, and
a wholesome system substituted. Asphalte pavements,
wooden pavements, shop-fronts, and statuary, are not the
only improvements desirable in London a moral sewerage
is, if possible, more requisite than an actual sewerage.

Accounts from Lisbon have been received to the 10th
instant. The Government were in the greatest alarm. For
three days the soldiers of the garrison had been under arms.
Several arrests had taken place—among those arrested
of Finances, and M. LEONEL TAVARES, ex-
are Baron DE VILLARNOVA Foscoi, late Minis-
ter Deputy and editor of the Patriot. Orders had
been given for the arrest of Viscount SA DA BAN-
DEIRA and of Count LAVRADIO, but they had timely
notice, and were enabled to effect their escape. The latest
date from Oporto is the sth. On the preceding day the in-
surgents entered the town, and disarmed the guard at the
Library, but were driven back after an engagement, in
which several were killed. A new battalion of the Muni-
cipal Guard, formed by CABRAL, refused on the sth to march
—they would not give up their arms—they were at-
tacked, and when the mail came off there had been fighting
for two hours. There is every probability that by the next
packet we shall receive accounts of the pronunciamiento of
Oporto.
The directors of the Bank of Oporto having declined ad-
prison, and took by force 80 contos (480,000 f.)
vancing 10 contos (60,000 f.) to the Dictator CABRAI., he
cast them into
and deposited them in the Savings' Bank (caisse economique).
All the telegraphs of the north, as far as Coimbra, are de-
stroyed.

Lieutenant Colonel TABOIZDA, who caused the inoffensive
inhabitants of Villa do Conde, as well as the prisoners, to be
murdered, has paid dearly for his sanguinary acts. A party
of the insurgents has entrapped him and his column into an
ambuscade, and shot them every one.

VALE; has at the
TMhai Madrid
ed e papersraid o d
eocf thes ltshtah have
tGeneral a
i N;Tec,L
urgent request of the QUEEN, accepted the Embassy to
Naples.
The papers announce the appointment of Senor ANTONIO
GIL DE ZVEATE to the office of Director-General of Public
Instruction.
The Madrid Bolsi.' was closed on the 15th.

We have received the Paris papers of Thursday.
The clamber Qf Deputies wero engaged during tho who:

of the sitting of Wednesday in the discussion of the
Budget.
The Courrier Francais says :—" A Council of Ministers was
held yesterday. It sat for a long time, and was exclusively
engaged in the consideration arising out of the application
made by Marshal BUGEAID, and which was introduced by
General MAGNAN. No final decision was come to, and the
Council adjourned till the 25th, by which time important
dispatches from the Duke D'AUMARE are expected to arrive."
It was supposed that the trial of LECOMTE would com-
mence about the 26th of this month.

According to the Constitutionnel, the Emperor of MOROCCO
is anxious to discipline his infantry and artillery after the
European manner, and that he has applied to the Govern-
ment of Algiers for the assistance of French officers. His
application has been favourably received.
The Minister of War received on Wednesday a report from
Marshal BUGEAUD, dated from the Oued• Rouina the 11th.
He merely incloses a report from Colonel PELISSIER, dated
the Sth, giving an account of come alight successes in the
Dahra. Colonel PELISSIEN states that Bon-Maze, who was
still very ill, bad left the Debra for the Ouarensenis. The
Minister has also received a report from General DE BAR,
dated Algiers, the 15th. It states that things were going
on favourably for the French in the Dahra, and that YAIIIA-
UEN-YAIIIA, who has replaced Bou-Maze in command, had
made an unfortunate debut by attacking a party under Colo-
nel CAIYROBERT. The Arab chief had 20 of his men killed,
and the rest of his force was dispersed. The Duke D'AUMALE
was at Som-Ghouzelam on the 9th, organizing the arrange-
ments for his campaign.
Thursday (Ascension) was observed on the Paris Bourse
as a close holiday. The Three per Cents. were done at TOR-
TONI'S at 84f. 15c.