The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-05 00:00:00

nists)—atid if lion, urable Members would do
justice to look over the elivishm list, they would
his name in favoar f .t mea-ure.—kCiiei
.le ix, hear.") He knew tit , Britisn
tre::eversnee. Voltaire said of the people of this
country, that they were des dens flees et hardis, and
the agicultural classes might ho able to overcome their
present difficuLie,, hut free trade roust be carried out.
He had received f, om ahrc a I a letter from a friend who
could not drink British port, and who was in the habit
of getting over a cask of f ign wine. Well, that wit e
paid 5/. duty, and his friend wanted to know how, with
free trade, ho was to pay for that Germ .n wine? Well,
another friend received some Sicilian wine, which cost
22/. in that country, and for which he paid 15/. duty.—
(Rear, hear.) Let there be free trade entirely or not
at all.—Hiar, hear.) If an Irish Member should prefer
his native wine, and bring over a gallon of 4111141:y with
him—(A,latigh)—to Liverpool, he was liable to a penalty
of 1001. Here was free trade in spirits!; The very
best whisky in the world was at this moment in the
Liverpool Custom-Loase, where it had been lying for 30
years.—(Much laughter, arising iron the unctions tone
and relish with which the lien. Member indulged in this
realinisceace.) If an Irish Member brought over a pun-
cheon of spirits, and left it e.t Liverpool while he cam, to
town fur the session—(A laugh)—tie fotindon his return
that a quarter of it had leake I away. He was willing to
pay the duty for the three-quarters left, but the Custom-
house officer made him pay for the whole puncheon, " be-
cause it was free trade." He had had it from Sir Juhn
Newport, that Lord Castlereagh one° told him at the time
of the Union, that he had gut from Mr. Pitt the gr,arest
boon that Ireland had ever, received—viz., the privile4e
of exporting her whisky t) this country free. B.at
that intention hail never been carried out, and Irish
whisky was taxed to protect the West India interest.
—(Hear.) Yes, but let them not impose upon the Irish
people by talking of free trade.—(hear, hear.) Irish
exports had diminished in every single article, even in
that of the whisky exported to foreign parts. Then
what was the state of the Irish revenue? It Lad gone
down more than one-half. In 1817 the revenue was
7,000,000/., and now it had decreased to 3,968,0001.
What did Gentlemen mean to do in that case? They
were giving local governments to other parts of her
Majesty's dominions, and compelling them to attend
on the spot to their own affairs? but would those Gen-
tlemen who were most clamorous in behalf of these
places extend the intro privile,te to Ireland?—(Ht ar,
hear.) Would they tell Irish Members to go home and
mind their own business? No; on the contrary, they
kept them there for six months listening to long ha-

NUE i

rangues about Ireland, sod when they- e eat back to
their respective neighbourhoods they found matters in
the same state in which they left them, and, inde eI,
generally worse.—(Hear, hear.) Look at the corn ex-
ports from Ireland. The annual value of corn exported
used to be 2,000,0001., but now there was not more corn in
all Ireland than of the value of 14,000,000/. They had
nothing to export, and the country was lying like
a lifeless block on t'ao western waves, unassiste 1
by those who were bound to stretch out a
helping hand.—(llear, hear.) In 1792 there was
exported 90,000,000 yards of lir en, and now
they were told by the Hon. Member for Rochdale—as a
proof of prosperity—that Ireland exported last year
87,000,000 yards of linen. So much for the linen trade.
—(hear.) They were told that it was their duty to
assist the poor-law by employing the people; but how
could they do so when they got nothing for their produce
for the turnips, the carrots, the mangold wutzel, &c.,
which the lecturers alio were sent about the country
encouraged them to grow.—(Hear, hear.) Ile knew an
individual who employed 3,000 persons in 1846, 4,000 in
1847, and who at present employed only 900. The
holders of the land were unable to employ the people,
who were accordingly to be found standing in the vil-
lages and by the road sides Legging for work. The
question connected with the poor-law amounted to this
—not, whether the property of Ireland should support its
poverty, but whether tie little property remaining could
support the great mass cf the people in idleness.—(Hear,
hi ar.) The workhouses were becoming a pest to so-
ciety, and should be levelled with the ground. Chil-
dren of the tenderest years were associated with
grown-up people of the worst character, and he lied
no hesitation in saving that morality was sapped in
the union-houses of Ireland. If he was correctly in-
formed, there war an atrocious syritim going on, by
which women were brought from one of the workhouses
of his country to supply houses of an improper descrip-
tion in England.—(hear.) Ireland had, indeed, Leen
ruined by tuisgo‘ernment, her trade had teen destroy ed,
her debt enornaou,ly increased, an army was sent to
keep down her discontented people; and when Ireland
roes beggared they reproached her with always asking
charity. He would tell them, however, they wanted no
charity; they despised their charity; but give them the
means and the power, arid they could raise money in
Ireland as well as they could do iu Leadenhall street.—
(Ele.ar, and a laugh.) He would now give one word of
advicu to the Hon. Gentleman opposite, the Member fur
the West Riding of Yorkshire. lie would tell him that
the worst coarse a man could pursue was to attempt t)
advance his cause by calumny and abuse.—(Hear, hear.)
He would advise him the next time he spoke about the
landlords of Ireland, not to allow himself to be libelled
by having put into his mouth the most foul and
monstrous atte ks that ever were made upon any
body of men.—(Year, hear.) He was prostituting his
talents by going about in this way from post to pillar to
abuse the few remaining landlords who were endeavour-
ing to rescue Ireland from the misery in which it had '
been placed by the policy of their predecessors.—(Hear,
hear.) If he thought he would propitiate the favour of
the party with whom he was now associated by slander-
ing the few proprict ire who %%ere doing their duty in
Ireland, he would tell him that he was mistaken, for he
might depend upon it they would, in the end, cut his
throat just as (so we understood the Hon. Gentleman)
they would cut the throats of the Irish landlords.
—(Hear, hear, and laughter.) The lion. Member fur
Manchester had spoken of the Irish landlords as being
uniaersally despised, but he denied the truth of that as-
sertion. There might be landlords who had acted un-
justly and harshly, but was a whole body of gentlemen
to be condemned for the misconduct of a few?—(hear,
Lea-.) The Hon. Gentleman then read extracts from
several letters addressed by Protestant clergymen in
Ireland to a society established in Dublin, for the pur-
pose of showing the extreme distress to which they
had been reduced. One clergyman wrote to the
eff.?ct that he had four children, but he hod
received no income for the last two years; an-
other expressed his gratitude for a donation of 51.
which he had received, and stated that he had only got
41/. to live on, with his ten children; a third, also wit
ten children, in addition to the two orphans of a brother
clergyman, who died of fever, had been long without
tasting animal food, though he had had his tea, and
when he wrote had neither food nor money in his pos-
session.—(Hear, hear.) What did they mean to do with
Ireland? When Lord Althorp was Minister, he (Mr.
Giattaa) advised him to sell the country and get r.d of
her. They were then told by Sir J. Yorke that she
ought to be sunk below the sea; and now they were told
that they were beggars; but give them back their money,
give them back their absentees, and they would no longer
be open to that reproach. By a Parliamentary paper it
appeared that no less than 275,0001 of Crown rents and
quit rents had been taken away from Ireland, and ex-
pended for the benefit of England, while a number of
Irish Protestant clergymen were left to linger in a state
of starvation. No less than 700 verdicts had been re-
turned of " Died by starvation," in the west of Ireland
witbiu a very short period; and what had become of
their remains? The people were obliged to beat away
the (legs from eating the entrails of those miserable and
starving paupers. For such things as these the mem•
bars of the Government deserved not merely to be called
to the bar of that House, but they ought at once to be
brought to the block.
Mr. P. HOWARD hal seen with satisfaction that

her Majesty's Ministers proposed to extend the now
contractei limits of the Irish constituency. He felt it
would be most satisfactory to the pe Tie of this country
if the Noble Lord at the head of the Government
would take some stop at this time of profound peace to
eattend the limits of English representation. The people:by
their lo) ally and orderly behaviour w e.e entitled to the
elective franchise; and ho was of opinion that house-
hold suffrage might be conceded to them with perfect
safety, and that they would duly a2preciate the mea-
sure. Should the Government not bring forward any
proposition of that nature, he begged t) give notice
that he should take an early opportunity of endeavour-
ing to forward his o Nn views on the subject.
Mr. BENNE r would not have troubled the House
but for several misrepresentations on the part of the
Hon. Mover or the Address (Mr. Villiers) respecting
the condition of the labouring classes e f this country.
That Hon. Gentleman had stated that the labourers
even in the agricultural districts had never been better
off, either as regarded wages or employineat, than they
were at this moment. He (Mr. Bennet) denied the
fact as to their having more wages; on the contrary,
their wages were greatly reduced; and with respect to
employment, he was sorry to say teat a gre.t number
of able-bodied labourers in West Suffolk were altogether
out of work, while others received reduced wages, or
were employed only for a portion of every week. Their
wages were 75., and in some cases only 6?. a week. Bur,
he repeated, great numbers of- able-bodied men were
in the union houses, and in many unions these men had
become unmanageable. Ile begged to ask the Right
lion. Secretary fur the Home Department whether he
had received any information as to the military being
obliged to be called out to aid the civil power in the
unions of Rougham (as we understood) and of New-
market, in the county of Suffolk?
Sir G. GREY was understood to say that no such
information had been communicated to the Home-
office.
Mr. BENNET said that such disturbances had
occurred, and he thought the circumstance would have
been communicated to the Right Hon. Baronet. With
respect to the ability of the English farmer to compete
with foreigners, no doubt he could do so if he were
placed on a level with the rest of the community by
having all those local taxes which now so peculiarly
pressed upon him repealed. The malt-tax, also, which
operated as a burden equal to a charge from 31. to 41. an
acre, must be remove], in order to place the former in a
fair position. The Hon. Gentleman concluded by ex-
pressing his regret that the agricultural labourers had
not been mentioned in the Speoch from the Throne, as
well as the owners and occupiers of land.
Colonel SIBTHORP had felt extremely anxious to
speak the other evening, because he had had the honour
of seconding a resolution at one of the most importail
public meetings that had ever been held in Lincolnshire.
There were from 15,000 to 20,000 men assembled at
that meeting. Ile had thought it fair to put a question
to one of the most earnest opponents of the landed inte-
rest in that county—he meant Mr. John Norton, mercer
and draper of the city of Lincoln. He asked that gen-
tleman, " What sort of a meeting do you think we have
1
had to-day ? " His reply was, "An excellent one."
"Do you not think that you are dead beat?" Ilis
answer was " Decidedly." "Did you ever see a more