The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-27 00:00:00

good and fine 3486 d to 36s 3d, and inferior 31s to
548 3d per cwt. For auction on Friday 2,000 pkgs of
Tallow are declared. Rough Fat is 20 per stone of 81bs.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.
HOUSE OF LORDS, Feb. 26.
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the Wool-
sack at Five o'clock.
Lord BROUGHAM presented a petition from an in-
dividual praying to be permitted to sue for a divorce
Bill in forma pauperis. He thought that some altera-
tion ought to take place in the present system, so as to
afford to the poor a remedy as well as to the rich.
The NOBLE and LEARNED LORD also presented a
petition from the Chamber of Commerce in some
town in Scotland in favour of the Bill for
amending the Scotch law of distress; also a petition
from Northampton in favour of the extension of the
jurisdiction of the county courts; and a petition from
the tenant-farmers of Tyrone in favour of an alteration
in the grand jury law in Ireland.
AGRICULTURAL DISTRESS.
The Earl of MALMESBURY wished to draw the
attention of the Noble Marquis to the state of the agri-
cultural population of the parish of Leamington, in Wilts.
The farmers had determined to reduce the wages of the
labourers to 6s. a week ; in consequence, the labourers
riotously assembled, one of them was captured and after-
wards rescued, and several riotous proceedings took
place. He could not blame the farmers for making the
reduction of wages to 6s. a week, as it was only inflicting
on the labourer his fair share of the loss accruing from
the reduced price of produce.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE had received no in-
formation of the circumstances referred to by the Noble
Earl.
ENCUMBERED ESTATES (IRELAND) ACT.
Lord BEAUMONT presented a petition from Lady
Jervis White Jervis complaining of the operation of the
Encumbered Estates Act. The estate which she ad-
ministered, and on which she had a jointure, was an im-
provable estate encumbered to the amount of 29,0001.
The solicitor of the petitioner had lent 1,0001.
on it ; he owing to the estate 5001., the petitioner
sought to set off the 5001. against the 1,000/.
on which the solicitor assigned the judgment of 1,0001.
to a person in London, whereupon he was dismissed
from his office as solicitor, on which the holder of
the judgment petitioned the Commissioners, who
ordered the estate to be sold, unless the en-
cumbrance should be paid off in twenty-eight days.
The petitioner prayed that longer notice should be re-
quired before a sale was ordered, and that jointures
should not be considered as encumbrances.
Lord BROUGHAM said that whatever length of no-
tice had been given, she could not have appeared under
any circumstances.
Lord BEAUMONT considered that the Act gave un-
due facilities to the creditors of persons possessed of
encumbered estates, and opened a door to oppression.
The whole object of the Act was to sell up and to revo-
lutionize the landed interest.
After a few words from the LORD CHANCELLOR,
Earl GREY said that if the owner of the property'had
chosen to oppose the sale he would have been heard;
but as he did not oppose the sale, surely no other person
bad any right to do so.
The Earl of GLENGALL considered that it was un-
just that a junior creditor for a small amount should
have the power of enforcing the sales of' an estate.
This was one of the most outrageous and
brutal cases of which he had ever heard,
and he only regretted that the petitioner had not in-
serted in the petition the name of the agent of the
person to whom he had assigned his interest. The
Encumbered Estates' Commission was not a
court of justice, or of law, or of equity; it was
an auctioneer's court and nothing else, and the Com-
missioners ought to be compelled to take out a licence.—
(A laugh.) By the operation of this Act persons were
robbed of their estates.
Lord CAMPBELL must earnestly request their
Lordships to discountenance petitions such as this,
reviewing the proceedings of' a court of judicature,
against the decisions of which their Lordships
hed decided when they passel the law there
should be no appeal. These appeals, therefore,
were extra judicial. It was clear that the petitioner had
no interest in the estate, for if she had she would have
had a locus standi in the court and have been heard, and
as.the estate was encumbered to more than half its an-
t, ual value it was clear the Commissioners had j urisdiction,
and yet the Noble Earl thought it proper to hold the
Learned Judges of this Court up to ridicule as auction.
eers, because in their zeal to do the best for the holders
of encumbered estates, they had themselves sold the
estates in this Court.—(Hear, hear.) He had no doubt
but that that Court would exercise their powers
properly.
The Earl of GLENGALL said the Act was an
atrocious and unconstitutional Act, intended to destroy
the gentry of Ireland because they were Conservatives.
The Earl of MOUNTCASIIEL considered that a
more arbitrary Act never passed the House than that
Act. It was an Act of injustice and confiscation, which
had been forced upon Ireland against the wish of the
majority of both Houses of Parliament.—(Loud laughter.)
A body more oppressed than the Irish landlords never
were—(A laugb)--and when the Bill was extended to
England then Noble Lords would understand its opera-
tion and tyranny.
Lord BEAUMONT explained that he had not
complained of the Commissioners, but of the opera-
tion of the Act, by which estates had been brought
into the Court, which their Lordships, when they passed
the Bill, had never intended to be brought into it. lie
thought the Act was a wise Act as regarded those hope-
lessly encumbered estates to which alone its operations
t al been confined.
The Earl of GLENGALL explained that ho had
meant no reflection on the Commissioners, who were
most respectable men.
The petition was ordered to lie on the table.
RAILWAY BILLS.
Lord MONTEAGLE then rose, according to notice,
to move that the House do resolve "That ten days at
least bef ire the second reading of any private Bill for
making, improving, abandoning, or in any other way
affecting or varying any railroad, or for erecting, incor-
porating, or affecting the powers vested in any railway
company, or fur the amalgamation of any railway com-
pany, or in any other way touching the same, there
shall be delivered at tne office of the Clerk of the Par-
liament for the use of this House copies of the balance-
sheets of every such company, for the years 1848 and
1849, as required to be kept by the Bth and 9th Vic.,
cap. 16, or by any Act incorporating such company,
together with copies of schemes for dividends, in which
dividends shall have been declared during the years
1848 and 1849, under sections 120 and 121 of the said
Act of the Bth and 9th Vic., cap. 16, or under any other
declared in pursuance of such
company., and' a statement of
the
A
schemes, and the date at which such schemes
simncoournptoroaftdinivgidetnhdes
were agreed to, and the dividends declared." The
importance cf an inquiry conducted on rigid prin-
ciples was amply shown by the returns of the seven
principal railways in the kingdom, amongst which were
the Great Western, the North-Western, the South-
Western, the Manchester and Leeds, the Midland, and
the York and North Midland. In the month of August
1845, 1001. of the average notinal stock of these rail-
ways was worth 2161. 15e, and on the Ist of January,
1850, it was only worth 63/. 65.. being a falling off of
1531. 10s. The object of the resolution which he should
now move, therefore was; that before they came to the
second reading of Railway Bills in the course of the
present year, they should have before them their finan-
cial condition, with a view of :seeing, that if that finan-
cial condition showed:malversationon the part of any of
those companies, their Lordships should, as trustees for
the public, refuse to confer on them new and increased
powers. The Noble Lord concluded by moving the re-
solution of which he had gives notice, and it was
agreed to.
The Earl of CARLISLE presented petitions from
the West Riding of Yorkshire, directing the attention
of the House to the evasion, by Brazil and Cuba, of
treaties made for the prevention of the slave-trade, and
praying the House to take steps to enforce them.
EMIGRATION MEDICAL OFFICERS.
The Earl of MOUNTCASHEL, in moving that there
be laid before the House copies of the testimonials, with
the names of the parties subscribed to them, produced
by Thomas Hammond, upon the faith of 'which he was
lust summer appointed surgeon to the emigrant ship
Una, together with the mhsutes made by the Colonial
Land and Emigration Commissioners on those testimo-
nials, called the attention of the House to the result of
the inquiries which he had made into the circumstances,
which had led to the appointment of this individual to
the medical charge of the Una, and, into his previous
course of life. In his opinion he did not think him a
person at all qualified and fitted for the discharge of so
important a trust, though he did not mean to say that
that was a matter upon which he intended to found any
charge against the Colonial-office. This, gentleman for-
curly lived at Eton, and from following an irregular
course of life became at length deranged, and was far
some time confined in a lunatic asylum, at or near
Norwich. How he got out of it he did not know,
but he did get out, and was appointed medical
surgeon on board this emigrant vessel, Which
sailed for Sydney from one of our ports in the middle
of July last. There were 313 souls on board this
vessel, and he would admit that in the course of his in-
quiries he received testimonials of the highest character
relating to this person, and he admitted it freely, be-
cause his object really was to point the matter out to the
Noble Earl opposite at the head of the Colonial depart-
ment as a caution for the future. Having referred to
several matters which took place in the course of the
voyage, which were very much to be reprobated, he
concluded by mentioning a number of instances of inca-
pacity on the part of emigrant medical officers, the sum-
mary of which was that ten out of twenty of them had
been declared incompetent by the colonial authorities
upon their arrival in the colonies.
Earl GREY said that as to the general statement of
the Noble Earl, of general misconduct on the part of
colonial medical officers, he could safely refer the House
to the papers before them for information on the subject.
That information would show them, that although in so
large a service, 32,000 emigrants having gone out last
year, some cases of misconduct might well be expected
to occur, yet, taking the system as a whole, it was
successfully tnd well conducted.. With regard to
the e chare
6 of general inefficiency which the Noble
.Earl had made against these officers, he would state
a fact derived by calculation from the papers
be fore the House, and that was, that notwithstanding
the drawbacks usually incidental to a long sea voyage,
the .mortality on board emigrant vessels was less than
the steerage mortality occurring among the same class
of persotts, and of the same age, living in this country.
Without going thrc ugh all the cases mentioned by the
Noble Ea.-I, he need only say that it was impossible for
the Emigration Commissioners to know exactly what
kind of mese they were employing, until they had actu-
ally tried h.im. The emigration which it was most de-
sirable to cat ry out was the emigration of large families,