The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-06 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1844.

The LORD CHANCELLOR last evening communi-
cated her MAJESTY'S answer to the address presented
by the House on Saturday.
Lord. 'BROUGHAM said considerable anxiety pre-
vailed among persons who wished for the abolition of
the slave Trade, in consequence of reports respecting
negotiations which were going on between France
and England on the treaty of 1830 and 1833, and he
would, therefore, be glad to hear from the Foreign
Secretary any statement on the subject that might be
consistent with his public duty.
Lord ABERDEEN said negotiations were going on ;
but the House might rest assured that nothing would
be done which could in any way impair the means
of suppression of the abominable traffic in slaves.
The Duke of WELLINGTON stated, in reference to a
motion of Earl FITZWILLIAM, that he would offer no
opposition to a return relative to the military and
policq., in Ireland. He trusted, however, the Noble
Earl mould forbear all reference to recent events in
irelarid.

Earl FITZWILLIAM expressed his concurrence in
the views• of the Noble Duke, and the returns were

ordered

Lord NORMANBY postponed his motion, on the
state of Ireland, till Tuesday the 13th.
The LORD CHANCELLOR informed the House that
he had received a letter from Admiral PARKER,
acknowledging the vote of thanks agreed to by their
Lordships, for the gallant conduct of the British
naval force engaged in the operations in China.
Lord MINTO thought some further mark of her
MAJESTY'S approbation should have been conferred
on Admiral PARKER, when, after a few words from
the Earl of 11 ADDINGTON, Lord BROUGHAM said it
was most unconstitutional to interfere with the pre-
rogative of the Crown.

A brief discussion then took place on the Duke of
RicinsoND's Bill relative to betting on public sports,
-which was refereed to a Select Committee.

Lord MONTEAGLE gave notice, that he should move
for certain returns on Tuesday (this day) from the
Bank of England, and the House adjoßrned at Six
o'Clock.

In the Commons, on the motion of Mr. STRUTT, a
Select Committee on petitions for private Bills was
appointed. The names of the Members will be found
in the Parliamentary report.

In answer to a que;tion from Sir C. NAPIER re-
lative to the establishment of military posts by the
United States on the Oregon territory, Sir R. PEEL
said he had no other information than that which the
Gallant Officer had.

In answer to:another question from Mr. PATTISON,
relative to any alteration in the sugar duties this
session, the Right Hon. Baronet said the Hon. Gen-
tleman was the youngest Member in the House,
and that alone could justify him in putting such a
question.

In answer to a third question from Lord JoHN Rus-
SELL, respecting the Oregon territory, Sir ROBERT
PEEL said that some progress towards an arrangement
had been already made, and the British Minister who
had gone out had very full instructions on the subject.
In answer to a fourth question from Mr. HAWF.S
relative to the Post-office, the CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER said he did not see any necessity for the
renewal of the Post-office Committee. With regard
to a paragraph in a morning paper stating that the
whole of the revenue of the Post-office was to be ap-
plied to carry out certain improvements in that esta-
blishment, there was not the slightest authority for
supposing that it emanated from the Government.
Lord JERMYN presented her MAJESTY'S answer to
the address.

Mr. BLEWITT said a report prevailed that her MA-
JESTY was in debt, or in the Parliamentary phrase,
that a deficiency of the civil list had occurred, and
that there would be an application to Parliament on
the subject.

Sir ROBERT PEEL said he was sorry to hear any
Member of the House give credence to such a ru-
mour. It was entirely destitute of foundation.
Sir JAMES GRAHAM, in answer to a question from
Captain PECHELL, said he was afraid the report of
the Census Commissioners could not be laid before
Parliament this session.

Lord LINCOLN said, in answer to a question from
Captain BERNAL, that the erection of the Nelson
Monument in Trafalgar-square, was under the
management of a Committee, but the other works
were under the direction of the officer of the Woods
and Forests.

Mr. GLADSTONE moved for a Select Committee to
consider the Standing Orders relating to Railways,
and to consider whether any and what new provisions
should be introduced into new Railway Bills. A
number of Members spoke, but as the discussion was
not long and the subject is of the first importance,
we refer our readers to the Report. The motion was

agreed to.
On the motion of Mr. GLADSTONE a Select Corn.
mittee was appointed to inquire into the Merchan
Seamen's Fund.

After some routine business, the House adjourned
at Seven o'Clock.

Those who hear the tittle tattle about town must
long since have heard the rumour, that immediately
on the meeting of Parliament it was the intention of
the Government to apply for a sum of money to pay
her MAJESTY'S debts. 'The amount so to be applied
for has been stated at various sums, but the sum al-
leged generally was 200,0001. We have heard this
report frequently, and have always been able to trace
it to some of the old Tory party. The last time we
heard it was about:a week ago, when a:gentleman, who
boasts of his intimacy with the Duke of BUCKING-
HAM, and glories in the great services he has rendered
to the good old cause, gravely assured us that
he knew from indisputable authority, closely connected
with the Palace, that 200,0001. was required, and
would be asked for.

The incredulity we then expressed to our un-
doubting informant, was justified by what occurred
in the House of Commons last night, when Sir
ROBERT PEEL, in answer to a direct question on this
subject, said " I give a most emphatic denial to the
rumour. It has not the slightest semblance of truth
for its foundation. There is not one shilling of arrear
in the Civil List."

We presume this will stop the circulation of one
falsehood at all events. And, whilst on this ,topic,
how much it would rejoice us to see condign punish-
ment inflicted on the gang of slanderers, who, ever
since her MAJESTY'S accession, have made the state
of her MAJEsTy's health, then of her children's, next
her domestic habits, and lastly even the Royal visits
among her people, subjects for the foulest and most
malignant rumours. Every slander has been based
in envy, every report has been a wicked lie ; the in-
ventors are well known to belong to the old Cum-
BERLAND clique.

A few words which fell from Dr. BOWRING in
the course of his speech on the late outbreak of the
Irish Attorney-General, in the discussion on Friday,
deserves consideration. After speaking of the causes
which have led to the present excited state of popular
feeling in Ireland, and which have induced a very large
and extensive party in that country to advocate the
repeal of the legislative union, as a panacea for their
miseries, the Hon. and Learned Member proceeded
to press forward the lesson which this state of things
suggests, in reference to questions which lie nearer
home than even Irish commotion. " The more," re-
marked the Hon. and Learned Gentleman, "he saw
of our present mode of government, the greater was
his conviction that local legislation was required. And
when he saw how little the Legislature had done for
Wales, how little for Scotland, how little for Ireland ;
when he observed how much ignorance of the real
wants of the people prevailed amongst the Members
of that House, he could not help becoming more and
more convinced of the great need there was for
local legislation."
This appears to us a most important reflection. At
present, indeed, we are only menaced with a division
of the British empire from one quarter of its ter-
ritory, and we trust that that menace is far too im-
potent to prevail. We believe, indeed, that if only
proper measures are taken that fatal separation
may never occur. The union of the two
countries ,may even be consolidated by means of
a wise, liberal, and enlightened line of policy,

such as the present disastrous state of affairs suggests.

But there is another alternative, and we tremble for
the peace and prosperity of the empire while an in-
fatuated Ministry have it in their power to resort to
it. By spurning all remedial measures as needless—
by regarding Ireland as permanently tranquillised
through physical force—by continuing to treat her
population as they have been treated, as helotes to this

country, " aliens in blood, language, and religion,"
from ourselves—by maintaining a hateful intolerance
towards the religion of seven-eighths of the population
—by denying them, as we do at this very day, the
protection of equal laws—by conduct such as this, a
Ministry may and will jeopardise the u nion between
this country and Ireland.

What is going on in Ireland is pregnant with most

important counsel as to what is taking place in other
parts of the empire. Why Ireland dislikes her rulers
is evident. She has no confidence in them. She has
witnessed their shameful disregard of justice. She
has had too convincing evidence of their indifference
to her prosperity. Carry forward the investigation

nearer home. Men are men all the world over. The
same passions actuate the human breast in all climes
and under every modification of society. A hatred of
injustice is as instinctive in the Russian serf as it is
in the Swiss free man. Natural dictates may be for
the time quelled, but they never can be wholly
eradicated.

Will the people of the remainder of
the British Empire for ever submit to
partial legislation, to legislation conceived in
ignorance, and therefore carried out into oppres-
sion ? Will Welshmen—will Scotchmen—will En-
glishmen for ever endure that their wrongs should go
on accumulating ? It will be replied, they have done
so, why may they not continue? We point to Ireland,
and ask, how is it that a nation, resolute, brave, and
intelligent as she is, has suffered centuries of op-
pression without resistance, deferring the day of her
redemption till the cup of her woes has run over, and
the only answer which suggests itself is derived from
the forbearance and long suffering of man. But there
is a period to all things, and the limit beyon4l which
tyrants may not trample on the privileges, of their

slaves may be near at hand. It is worth the while of
legislators to look for it before it has arrived.

In the House of Commons, last night, Mr. GLAD-
STONE, pursuant to his notice, moved for the appoint
ment of " a Select Committee to consider the stand-
ing orders relating to railways." We have so very
recently commented on the incalculable importance of
the Parliament or the Government taking the initia-
tive in all facture legislation on Railway Bills, that we
have now little to add, in adverting to what trans-
pired in the discussion of Mr. GLADSTONE'S motion
except the expression of our wish, that the views of
her MAJESTY'S Ministers had been somewhat more
strictly directed to first principles, necessary to be
affirmed in dealing with this subject, than we collect
them to have been. For although we cannot deny
that both the terms of Mr. GLADSTONE'S motion
(which will be found at length in our Parliamen-
tary report), and the views announced by

that Right Honourable Gentleman, Mr. LA-
BOUCHERE, and Sir ROBERT PEEL, and the in-
cidental complaints and objections alleged by Mr.
ROEBUCK and Mr. WALLACE,—Were connected, and
coincide with the objects we yesterday touched upon
as those which should form the preliminary basis of
all further legislative proceedings in these matters ;
yet the speeches of these several gentlemen were
devoted rather to details than to principles. These
details were, no doubt, of grave importance ; but to
us it is evident that even their very existence—still
more certainly, all modifications of them—must be
governed by certain established principles, which
never have been yet laid down. The omission of this
vital precaution, in limine, has led to nine-tenths of
the mischiefs, which the public on the one hand—and
the subscribers to and shareholders in those companies
on the other—have had so seriously to complain of,
since the first introduction of these lines of commu-
ncation. From the want of that digested system
• or scheme of railway lines, connecting in
the first place various important, but remotely
situated localities, with the metropolis as a centre,
and these with other points of a previously deter-
' mined radius,—such points being ascertained, in re-
ference to various considerations connected with
local and individual interests, but all of them made
subsidiary to the permanent demands of public utility
and convenience ;—from this want have resulted the
countless annoyances and injury to property of all
kinds, that have not merely carried Colonel SIBTHORP
to (that remarkably short stage) his " wit's end,"
but have even driven " wise men mad." Lines have
been selected, in some cases, by incompetent engineers,
in others by 'interested speculators, which Parliament
has sanctioned with all that "levity" of which Sir R.
PEEL spoke last night in a tone of corresponding indif-
ference. Under that sanction, cuttings of unnecessary
labour and difficulty, danger and expense, have been
encountered, when a little more of previous inquiry
and precaution would have carried the same under-
taking through an easier, and in all respects more
economically worked line of country. Private pro-
perty has been invaded; favourite retreats for pleasure
or for health desecrated; carefully superintended
and costly improvements levelled, rased, destroyed;
beautiful vistas closed up ; easy and valuable roads
to markets, churches, &c., cut off; arable and
pasture cut up or cut through ; valleys filled in ;
mountains tunnelled ; uplands brought to the
" line level ;" the landmarks, and with them
the pleasant associations of centuries, thrown
down; and finally, the public high-roads diverted,
turned, twisted, broken, with water-courses more
or less ill altered, and worse constructed;—all these
changes in, and encroachments on, the former status
of public, and especially of private, property, have
been in too many cases, not wantonly, but needlessly,
and in absolute error, made and committed and per-
petrated under the authority of Acts of Parliament,
which never could have passed had there, in the first
place, existed such an organised and well-digested
scheme of communication as we speak of. The
ancient sage who concentrated the experience and
reflection of his whole life in the profound
counsel, " begin nothing of which thou hast not well
considered the end," must have surely possessed a
second sight vision of the railways, which were " yet
for to come," in the distant ages and remote genera-
tions of an unborn posterity. All these undertakings
among us have been isolated, uncombined, untested,
but gigantic efforts. The ruinous destruction in
excess,—excess to an extent which more forecast and
better matured plans of reciprocating and permanent
railroad intercommunications might have obviated,
has been gigantic also. We do not mean that such
a revolution in our social and domestic economy ,
could have been accomplished under any circum-
stances, without vast prejudice to private property.
But as these affairs have been managed, in a thousand
instances, the victims of the ill-digested plans of re-
morseless speculators have discovered that the axiom
" there can be no public wrong without its legal re-
medy" is moonshine.
Entertaining these views ourselves, we have been
disappointed at finding that the specifications of Mr.
GLADSTONE'S plan of railway reform regard, appa-
rently, such mere details as the reduction of the pre-
sent proportion of paid-up capital (10 per cent.) to
entitle the parties to a Bill :—the modes of construct-
ing the main ways and level crossings, the regulations
necessary to meet the tendency of small lines to
amalgamate into larger ones, and to repress the ori-
gination of competing lines. We agree with Mr.
ROEBUCK, that the Government do not seem disposed
to take ~up the great question in hand on grounds
sufficiently large and national. They are too prone to
merge the main consideration of public utility and
convenience. As to competing lines, whilst we think
Mr. GLADSTONE'S tone one of too decided discourage-
ment, as they are useful checks on growing monopo-
lies, we cannot adopt the extreme opinion of
advocating them to the extent desired by Mr.
ROEBUCK. This would tempt to and involve
further enormous sacrifices of private capital.
With Mr. WALLACE we concur in reprobating
the studied disregard which the great com-
panies—or some of them—display in the non-accom-
modations for the poorer travellers in the third-class
trains ; and we do not envy Mr. WORTLEY the feel- '
ing under which he has discovered that this commu-
nity of passengers have nothing to complain of ( ! !)
as to the cattle-cart like machines to which they are
remitted. But the pervading fault of the whole
debate, we repeat—and especially of the mean-
ingless, wordy, bald, and barren contribution of Sir
ROBERT PEEL on this all important question—
was the total absence of any large and statesmanlike •
views of the whole bearing, scope, and tendencies of '
the present system on which these marvellous corn-
munications are laid down ; and this, at a period, too,
which his own Government characterises as a new
and eventfal era in the history of railroads.

The Protest of the Dukes of SUSSEX and GLOU-
CESTER, of Lords GRENVILLE, WELLESLEY, KING, and
several other Peers, against the passing of the Corn Bill
of 1815—which our readers will find in another part of
The Sun—is a legislative document as important
as it is succinctly and skilfully drawn up. Not a word
is thrown away—not an argument is beside the mark
—but every sentence has its value. The Dissentients
begin by stating broadly the fact that they "are ad-
verse on principle to all new restraints on commerce,"
and then proceed to declare their opinion that the
Corn Bill is founded on a delusive theory, and will
never be productive of benefit to the community
at large. "We cannot persuade ourselves," they
observe, " that this law will ever contribute to
produce plenty, cheapness, or steadiness of price. So
long as it operates at all, its effects must be the op-
posite of these. Monopoly is the parent of scarcity,
of dearness, and uncertainty. To cut off any of the
sources of supply can only tend to lessen its abund-
ance; to close against ourselves the cheapest market
for any commodity must enhance the price at which
we purchase it ; and to confine the consumer of corn
to the produce of his own country, is to refuse to
ourselves the benefit of that provision which Paovr-
DENCE itself has made for equalising to man the
variations of season and climate." These
observations, which were _ mere prophecies at

the time they were made, are admitted facts
now; but indeed the experience of the last
thirty years has abundantly demonstrated the pre-
scient sagacity of every individual opinion put forth
in the Protest. Had the sentiments of Lord GREN-
mix, who is said to have drawn up this. able docu-
ment, been attended to, as they ought to have been,
the country would not have known those commercial
fluctuations and panics, and seasons of severest de-