The Sun.
London, England, 1833-03-01 00:00:00

POLAND.

Mr. HILL presented a peition from Kingston-up in.
Hull. praying the House to present an humble address to his
Majesty, imploring him to enter into an immediate negotia
tion with France and the other Powers of Europe, who were
not parties to the dismemberment of Poland, with a view
to restoring that unhappy country to her just rights.
The Hon. and Learned Gent'eman said the outrages that
had been committed in Poland were so numerous and so
violating to the feelings of all the civilized world, that it
wou dbe a wiste of time at present to enter at any length
upon it.—(Hear, hear.) It may appear that this
petition prays the House to enter upon a echem
which might he useless ; hut when, Sr, you recollect
the state of Poland, the enormity of the crime, the
carrying away of a whole nation into captivity. treating
them as the Jews of old were treated by the Babylonish
Kings, putting them in a state for which we must, indeed,
refer to very remote history to find a parallel, I
do think it becomes the duty of all the civilized
world, however hopeless the attempt, to use every
possible exertion to the putting an end of such
dreadful atrocities. It is yet to be seen whether the Em-
peror of Russia will be deaf to the entreati, 9 of the whole
civilized world.—(Hear, hear.) That experiment, at
least, has not yet been tried. The present petitioners for-
bear to allude, in the most distant way, to force, to attain
their object—and they do wisely ; every thing should b,
previously tried, and perhaps, in the event of failure—
even then, in the present state of the world, the expeti.
ment should be carried no further.—Tbe petition was
ordered to be brought up.
Mr. C. FERGUSSON said that it was not his inten-
tion to occupy much time upon this most interesting sub-
ject on the present occasion, but he could not forbear to
deliver a few observations, in addition to what he had said
on a former day. The facts which he had stated, and
the atrocious acts which he had recited, were asserted by
some Hon. Members to have been exagzerated. Instead,
however, of having been exaggerated, they had been infi.
nitely understated. He had done nothing like justice
to the wrongs of that great, honourable, and gallant
nation.—(Hear.) Since he had had the honour of
addressing the House, an edict more barbarous than any
that had ever issued, he believed, from the greatest of
Roman tyrants—(Hear, hear)—bad been sent forth by the
Emperor of Russia, by which he had consigned 500,000
brave people to transportation. He had included in that
edict the transportation of whole families who had never
offended. He had likewise included those who had returned
from transportation and rejoined their families. In addition,
he had likewise included those who had been merely
suspected of tie slightest offences. Surely it was quite
sufficient to state this.—( Hear, hear.) But the outrages
were not thus confined. The whole population of Poland,
men and children, had been carried away to the wilds of
Siberia—there left to forget their country. They were
treated as slaves, and in that way, like beasts, were the unfor-
tunate Poles driven into the most savage corner of the earth.
He thought that if Europe looked upon this conduct with-
out feelings of the utmost horror, and summoning up a
determination to call for a redress of these wrongs, it
ought to be despised and degraded in the eyes of all ages
hereafter. He hoped his M jesty's Government had been
interfering upon the subject. France had undoubtedly
been doing so, and he believed had gone the utmost
length she could go, short of hostilities, to prevent a
con inuauce of the most outrageous and profiivate conduct.
The first time at which he had addressed the House, would
h eve been a proper period for the interference of this
country. because that was the moment at which the nation-
ality of Poland was being destroyed, and the independence
of Poland was as much secured as that of any other nation
at the treaty entered into at Vienna.—( Hear, hear.) He
trusted the House would not think it too late even now to
bestir itself, and do something in favour of unhappy
Poland. He believed the country to be greatly disgraced
by not having done something, and done it effectually,
long ere now. He believed the safety of Poland would
have been preserved if there had been a due and vigorous
interference made on the part of England.—(Hear, hear.)
If there had been any thing like the interference that had
been made in favour of Belgium, Poland would have been
Poland sti 1, and in the eye of a statesman the
independence of Poland was of infinitely greater impor-
tance than the independence of Belgium—(Hear, hear.)
But he would not venture himself to go into the subject-
at present. He believed by giving way as regarded Poland,
Russia was preparing one great s niggle to invade and
subdue every country throughout Europe. In the struegle
he sincerely hope d she would fail. From what had taken
Place to his kno.vledge, he believed that Russia had her
eye upon the Northern Powers of India.—that when she
had made her way secure there, ere meant to advance
upon Turkey, then upon ourselves, and if possible to con-
quer the whole of Europe.
Mr. F. O'CONNOR was glad when the House was
called upon to express their feelings upon the base treat-
ment which was meeted out to Poland, for he did not
know how soon the inhabitants of another, and a nearer
and dearer country to him, mignt be suffering under the
same atrocious treatment.—(Hear, hear.) He alluded
to Ireland. Did not the case of that country demand a
little of the attention of that House, placed, as it was,
much in the same situation as Poland, and treated almost
similarly? He hail asked them last night no longer to
trouhle themselves with the insignificant cases of the 'ut-
tering Gre ks or the injured Poles till they had done jus.
lice to their sister country.

Mr. CORBETT and the petition did grea honour to
the town friim wli:ch it cam-, and both the H in. Gen-
tleman who presented it, and the Hon. M tuber who
had supported it, had done themselves great honour by the
manner in which they had expressed their sentiments on
the subject ; hut ciiiisidering the pact of the country from
which the Hon. Gentleman who supported the petition
came, awl even admitting tat the fiunilies of file tb-usand
gentleme❑ had been thrown into great ciinfusion
by the trarsportinn of their heads, be would call
on that Honourable Gentleman to look nearer
home, when he would find that the population of a
whole county in Sccrland had been forced from their
homes—the people clung to the spots on which they had
been born, and when all other ways of management had
failed, the hayonet was introduced, in order to dive them
from their places, and to prevent their return, their habi-
tations were given to the flames. A similar cise had been
detailed to the House only a few nights ago, as having
occurred in Ireland, and that statement met with cheers.
Surely, the case of the Poles ought to be taken into con-
sideration. Here a whole country had been swept away.
He alluded to the Nl'Gregors, who were driven wholesale
from the county of Sutherland. If the Hon. Gentleman
would institute an inquiry into that transaction, then he
would be glad to support him, and think more of his mo-
tives, because the case was nearer home. He must always
distrust those who went into Tartary to find out objects of
compassion, when, if they had a taste for such things,
they might find them so much nearer home.

Mr. HEATHCOTE rose to deprecate the discussions
which had been going on for some time. First, a petition
was presented in favour of tl,e Jews, which led to a long
discussion as to who were and were not Christians. Then
came a petition in favour of the Poles, and now the Hon.
Member for Oldham was prepared to go into a discussion
connected with emigration from Sutherland. The great
fault of the old Parliament had been, talking too much and
too widely of the questions which were before the House.
That watt a Reformed Parliament, and the people expected
that they were to do something, and not to talk so much.
It would be touch more convenient if Hon. Members
would confine themselves to the questions that were before
the House.

Mr. CUTLAR FERGUSSON did not think that he
deserved the censure of the Hon. Gentleman. Ha had not
departed from the question which was before the House,
yet the Hon. Member's allusions applied to all who had
spoken upon the petition.
Mr. HEATHCOTE said he had been misunderstood
by the Hun. Member. He did not compltin of his depart-
ing from the question. All he had said was, that the
Honourable Member, as usual, began with saying that
he would trouble the House but a very short
time, and then made a very long speech.—(Hear.)
Mr. Roe under other circumstances would nut have obtrud-
ed any observations of his on the House, but be could not
in the present instance deny himself the pleasure of stating

that he fully concurred in the prayer of this petition ;
‘nd he could assure 141inisterq that they could not
:tossibly do an act more gracious in itself, and more
important not merely to the cause of civil and
religious liberty in this country, but throughout
the world, than that they should interfere in behalf of
this pliant and brave nation, and deliver them from all
the horrors and miseries of their present condition.--
( Hear, hear.) .

Mr. R. M'LEOD (as we understood) could not sit si-
le of the most gross and unfunded attack which the
Hon. Member for Oldham (Mr. Cobbett) bad made on the
county (Sutherlandshire) which be had the honour
to represent. In doing so he had to throw
himself on the indulgence of the House, and
of the people of England. He called upon
them to suspend their judgments for the present,
and not to give credit to the gross aspersions that had
~eon cast on those whom he represented. Never had
more infamous calumnies been uttered by any Hon.
Member, without the slightest notice too to the parties
Interested, and without the possibili►y of their comiac
forward to contradict them in that House,.—(Hear.) The
county which he had the honour of representing, belonged in
a treat part to certain noble individuals, who had always
treated him with maks of favour and distinction, to
which he individually had no title ; and he would have
been chargeable with a direlictien of positive duty, if he
had not stood forward to give the most unqualified con-
•radiction to the Hon. Member's calumnious user-
tions.—(Hear, hear.) The transactions, instead of
having produced any decrease among, or inconveni
ence to the inhabitants of the county, had been
productive c.l actual advantage and benefit. The Noble
Individual at the head of the property had done much
more than perhaps any other Gentleman in that House,
for the advantage of any particular locality. He had ac-
tually made five or six hundred miles of road at his own
private expense.—(Hear, hear.) The population of the
country. in place of being diminished, had been increased,
and along the whole line of that road there were to be
seen populous and flourishing villages and arable ground,
in a state of the finest and richest cultivation
that could anywhere be met with throughout England.
He would not detain the House any longer, for he was
not prepared to enter into a discussio❑ of the subject, but
he would sit down, giving a full and complete contra-
diction to the assertion of the Hon. Member.—(Hear.)
An HON. MEMBER, whose name we could not learn,
said it was the duty of the Hon. Member for Oldham to enter
into the investigation himself, and not to throw it upon the
Hon. Member for Kirkcudbright. He was persuaded
that if the Hon. Member did enter into the inquiry, he
would find that what he had stated as facts were totally
destitute of foundation.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. S. TRELAWNEY presented a petition from St.
Callum, in Cornwall, for a better observance of the Sab-
bath.

Mr. O'DWYER presented a petition from Drogheda
against the Bill now before the House for suppressing
disturbances in Ireland. The petitioners stated that they
had learned with much astonishment, that his Majesty's
Ministers had applied to Parliament for power to enact a
most unconstitutional, tyranuic, and despotic measure
against the people of Ireland. They had cherished a hope
that in the Reformed Parliament they would find that
security for persons and property that they had in vain
sought for in an unreformed Parliament ; but that after
years of suffering, they now found coercion was first,
with only a promise of redress afterward. s.—( Hear.) They
implored the House to make inquiry into the state of the
country.—(Hear.) And they knew but little of the dispo-
sition of the House, or they would not ;IA it in vain.
They also stated that Louth was nearly tranquil, although
not long since thrown into a state of great excitement by
the tithe system—by the harsh and unjust enforcement o!
tithes, amounting to pence, with law expenses of pounds.
This, said the lion. Member, was one of many facts which
he should have to oppose to the statements of Ministers on
the proper occasion. Without entering into a general disqui-
sition of the Bill, he would take the liberty of
reading to the House some letters he had received, which
were written in consequence of the pending measures of
his Majesty's Ministers.—(Cries of " No, no.") He would
do so in spite of these intimations of dissent, unless he
were interdicted by the Right Hon. the Speaker. One
letter stared that something must be done to raise the hopes
of the people, or the writer feared that the people would be
found to anticipate the Right Hon. Secretary in his " war
to the death." He would not allude to more of these letters.
—(Hear, hear.) He bad declared enough to put Minis.
term in possession of better evidence than could he obtained
from paid spies. He should take an opportunity when
the subject was in full discussion, to deliver his sentiments
at large on the oppressive measures proposed by Ministers ;
and moved that the petition be brought up.
Sir RICHMOND NAGLE pi esented petitions from
Cas,leton and another parish in Westmeath, against the
employment of coercive measures against Ireland. He beg-
ged to state that he had received a letter from a gentleman
in the neighbourhood of Caatleton, which said that he bait
not, fur ten years, known the country more peacesbie
than it was at the prevent moment. The unfortunate in-
dividuals who a short time back had been driven to com-
mit the nightly disturbances of which they had heard to
touch, had delivered up their armi, and returned to a
sense of duty.—(Hear.) Toe letter added, that food,
employment, and impartial justice, would do more to keep
the country iu peace than Mr. Stanley's Bill, and that
the King's speech had done more to advance the cause of
repeal than any thing else could posslbly have done.
An HON. MEMBER. supported the prayer of the
petitioner,.
Mr. WILKS presented a petition, which had the sig-
natures of the Solicitor- General for Ireland, and of twelve
other Gentlemen, all hai risters or physicians, and Members
of the Committee of the Hibernian Temperance Society.
Toe petitioners prayed fur the total prohibitito
of the sale of spirits on Sunday, and stated it as ti e.r
opinion that great part of the vice, misery, and wretched-
ness of the people of Ireland originatdd in their excessivt
use of ardent spirits.

Mr O'DWIi"ER observed, that there was a law now
in existence to prevt at the sale of spirituous liquors oft
Sundays.
Alt. WILKS presented a petition from a parish it.
Lincolnshire. praying for the total abolition of nest.
siavety.—(The Hun. Member took the opportunity
asking the Noble Lord (Altborp) when his Majesty's Mi-
nisters would be enabled to submit to the House the mea-
sures they h,d prepared on that subject ?)
Lord ALTHOHP said that it was utterly impossible, at
the present moment, to give any precise answer to the
question of the Hon. Member.
Mr. WILKS then presented another petition from a
Dissenring Congregation in the parish of St. Pancras.
praying for tae better observance of the Sabbath.
Mr. ROCHE presented a petition flout the Chamber of
Commerce of the City of Limerick, complaining of the
maladministration of the Corporation of that City.
Referred to the Corporation Committee.
The HON. MEIIIIER also presented a petition from the
leather-sellers of Limerick, complaining of the exorbitant
tax extracted from them on their articles of trade by the
Corporation of Limerick, under the denomination of
customs.
Referred to the Committee.

The Hon. MEMBER. also presented another petition
from St. Mary's, Limerick, signed by upwards of 600
persons, praying the House to institute an inquiry into
the state of Ireland before it proceeded further with the
Irish Coercive Bill. The petition denied the increase of
crime in Ireland in the strongest terms. The Hon.
Member could nut but express his utter abhorrence of the
measure, considering it unequalled for its arbitrary quality
and despotism.
The two petitions relating to the corporations of
Limerick, were referred to the Committee on Corpora-
tions.
o On
the
table,
motion that the petition against the Irish
lie
B
Mr. O'BRIEN said he was certain that the measures
n
of Ministers would give great dissatisfaction. The petition
came from a part of the country which never was quieter
than now. The recollection lie had of the atrocities com-
mitted by the soldiers and police when the Insurrection Act
il
was granted on a former occasion, made him look with
horror upon the present Bill.—( Hear.) On a former
occasion, the police committed the greatest atm
cities under their power of making nocturnal visits.
at the domicile of any person—he knew of an instance
of the police =hatching the roof of a cottage and setting
it on fire, and compelling the inhabitants to provt
what sex they were of. He supported the petition, whit:
declared that nine-tenths of the country were peace/Ail,
and that only one or two counties were in a disturber
state ; and it was very singular that not a single petitior
had been presented in favour of the coercive measure, nu.

zit X -1-
(_
. ..:.
... of the thirty-two Lord Lieutenants had watt forward
to support it.--(Hear.) He understood that &letter had
been received from the Marquis of Anhwei, declaring
that be believed, even if he had the Act of Parliament, he
could not carry it into effect.
Dr. BALDWIN begged to infirm the Noble Lord
opposite (Althorp) that he had a petition signed by
upwards of thirty thousand highly respectable in-
habitants of the city of Cork, but that he had not yet
had an opportunity of presenting it ; he hoped,
therefore, the Noble Lord would be induced to delay his
measure for a short time.
Lord ROBERT GROSVENOR said that almost
all nations under the sun had had a hearing to-day—the
Irish, the Jews, the Poles, and others—exeept that
from which he had a petition (Wales), but it was of
that important nature, and it was so near three o'clock,
that he would give notice that he would present
it on Monday next. The Noble Lord then presented a
petition from Chester, signed by 600 persons, praying for
a better observance of the Lord's Day. He also presented
a petition from a gentleman, named Nicholls, residing
at Chester, who stated that his li'e had been p.m-
ral times attempted by amanitas, who issued from dat k
places.--(Laughter.) That he had frequently complained
to the police of Cheater, but that the Mayor and Magis.
trates hat rudely thrust him out.—(Laughter.)
Several Members, among whom was Lord Althorp,
induced the Noble Lord to withdraw the latter petition,
as from the tenor of it there was some doubt of the peti-
tioner's sanity.
The Srs►ass then left the thiir, and the House
adjourned until fite o'clock.

MEETING of the DEPUTY LIEUTENANTS
AND MAGISTRATES OF WATERFORD.

(Prom the Dulllin Morning .Register.)
A special meeting of the Depots, Lieutenants and Ma
gistrates of the county of Waterford, was he'd on Satur
day. The Lieutenant of the county, Mr. 'Villiers Stuart
presided. The subjoined resolutions, which admit the
peaceable character of the county, are directed against two
rival factions, whose insane folly should be put an end to
by a vigorous exercise of the existing laws, which the
magistracy regard as all-sufficient far the speedy Acc,an-
plishment of that object. A correspondent iidorsis us,
that the Magistrates are anxious to put down those foolish
factions at once, in order to remove any pretext for bringing
‘, the Infernal Statute" into operation in the county of Wa-
terford. We have all along maintained that perfect trail-
can be established without a resource to coercive
and unconstitutional measures. Here we find the Water-
ford magistracy, headed by the Lieutenant appointed by
the Whig Ministry themselves, proclaiming the fact, and
thus, in effect, passing sentence of condemnation on the
atrocious Bill for " Polandizing" Ireland. The following
are the resolutions to which we have adverted :

" That we have witnessed with feelings of itn_xiety and
regret the formation, in certain districts in this country,
of the illegally armed associations best known under the
denomination of Gows and Pauline,.

" That we are of !opinion that energetic measures are
necessary, and shall be forthwith adopted by the local
authorities, for the suppression of the spirit of insubordi-
nation which has recently marked the proceedings of the
above mentioned factions, as the best means of maintain-
ing unsullied the reputation for loyalty and tranquillity
which the county of Waterford has for a long series of
years enjoyed, and of which it is so justly proud.
" That with the view of depriving the said factions of
the power of further invading their neighbours' property,
or of bringing into disrepute the generally peaceable
character of this county, we deem it expedient that all
unregistered fire-arms shall be immediately taken up by
the magistrates, and that the persons in whose possession
the same are found, should be fined, agreeably to the
47th Geo. 111., c. 54, s. 4 ; and also that the names of
those who have heretofore registered their arms, but who
may be considered unfit, from the insecure state of their
houses, or otherwise, to be intrusted with them any
longer, shall be erased from the registry ; and unless their
arms be given up to the magistrates, that the lime shall
be forfeited, and the finer levied.