The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-20 00:00:00

i4itening :-=-)Allt

LONDON, THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1845.

The House of Lords did not sit last night.
The House of Commons met at Twelve.
The Railway Clauses Consolidation Bill was read
a third time and passed.
The Land Clauses Consolidation Bill was read a
third time and passed.
The report on the Railway Clauses Consolidation
(Scotland) Bill was brought up.
The third reading of the Land Clauses Consolidation
(Scotland) Bill was postponed.
In the course of the discussion on these Bills,
Mr. lIAwEs protested against these morning sittings
so early in the session.
Colonel SIIITHORP also expressed his objections to
them. Bills of the greatest importance were hurried
through at these sittings, when only 15 or 20 Mem-
bers were present.

Mr. LABOUCHERE admitting that, in the case of

these Bills, the Government had only a choice of
evils, thought that on the whole it was inexpedient
for the House to sit at that early hour. In the long
run, they would not get through more business than
if they sat at the usual hour in the evening.
Lord G. SOMERSET admitted the inconvenience of
morning sittings, and regretted the necessity that had
existed for having recourse to such a procedure.
The House adjourned at half-past One o'clock, and
re-assembled at Five.
Mr. PAKINGTON brought up the report of the Dart-
mouth Election Committee, declaring JOSEPH SOMES,
Esq., duly elected.
After the transaction of private business,

Mr. C. BULLER moved that the petition of the mer-
chants of London, on the subject of New Zealand, be
printed, which was agreed to.

Jn answer to Sir R. INGLIS, it was stated by Sir R.
PEEL, that the intention of the Government was to
proceed by way of Bill in proposing the increased
grant to Maynooth and the grant for the establish-
ment of academical institutions in Ireland, as he
thought great advantage would be derived from doing
away with the annual discussion on this subject. The
Right Hon. Baronet further stated that he had no
objection to make the Regium Donum, and the grant
to the Presbyterian Church of Scotland also per-
manent.

Mr. ALDAM, in reference to President TYLER'S re-
cent Message, put a question on the subject of the
state of the liberated negroes in the West Indies.
Sir R. PEEL said they were perfectly free there.
There was no apprenticeship—they were not com-
pelled to labour, and were in the state of free men—
and if the United States chose to appoint a Commis-
sion to investigate their state, every facility should
be afforded to that Commission for ascertaining the
facts of the case. With respect to the allegation that
both the subjects of the United States and those of
this country were concerned in carrying on the slave
trade, that was a subject for serious consideration.
He was not prepared to deny the fact. lie hoped
that if the law did not reach this application of Bri-
tish capital, the Legislature would be prepared to
apply a remedy.
In answer to a question by Sir D. NORREYS,

Sir J. GRAHAM said it was not the intention of
the Government to propose any measure with regard
to Medical Charities in Ireland, nor to propose any
measure with regard to th• railway system
in Ireland.

In answer to a series of questions from Mr. B.
DENNISON and Lord llowloc,
Sir G. CLERK denied that any negotiations had
taken place between the Board of Trade and the
promoters of the Direct Northern and the Cambridge
and Lincoln Railway Companies, or with the Newark
and Sleaford Railway Company, or that the Board
had given any intimation to to those companies to
form a coalition ; and that no facilities were given to
those companies to make communications to the
Board, which were not equally given to the London
and York Direct Railway Company.
In answer to Mr. SoMEs, Lord INGESTRE stated

that he did not intend to bring the subject of Captain
\VARNER'S invention again before the House; but
that Captain 'WARNER would abide by his offer to
destroy a line• of battle ship at fire miles distance at
his own expense.

Sir C. NANER hoped that the Right Hon. Baronet
would permit Captain WARNER to try this •xperi-
mFnt, at his own expense, behind the Goodwin Sands,

Sir R. PEEL had no doubt but that, if Captain
WARNER did intend to make' the experiment at his
own expense, he would get permission to do so from
the Board of Ordnance.

Lord JOCELYN, in answer to Mr. HonsmAN, said
that a communication had been received from India
stating that the Governor-General in Council had
taken into consideration the recommendation of the

Home Government, to devise measures for placing
Penang sugar on the same footing as Indian sugar,
and had referred the subject to the Governor of
Penang.
The House then went into Committee on the
Customs' Act.

The various articles in the tariff were gone
through, and, after seme discussion, were agreed to.
The House then went into Committee of Supply;
and, after voting the Ordnance Estimates, adjourned
at Five Minutes past One o'clock.

What is Sir ROBERT PEEL about? Does he under-
stand the position which he is compelled to maintain?
Is his occupation of it his own voluntary, spontaneous
act, or the effect of circumstances which he cannot con-
trol? Does he retain office as the head of a party, or of

a principle? If of a party, what is it? Between bim

self and the Whigs there is nothing in common, but the
reciprocity of mutual repudiation. True,—he talks of
his intimate relations with the Conservative community
of the empire, and the identity of his views with those of

the Conserratire section of the House. But the com-
munity in question di:avow his political doctrines, as
being too liberal for the scope of their own opinions and
wishes. The section reject him, as having compromised
their interests, and falsified his pledges to them, by the
line of policy which he has adopted since he last resumed

the reins of power. Neither the Duke of BUCKING-
HAM, nor his Grace of RICHMOND, nor even Mr. W.
MII.Es, hesitates to remind him that the landed interest,
which each of them conceives himself to represent,
placed the Premier in his present position; or forbears
to hint that they can, at any time, displace him when

they shall be so minded. It is not with their patty,
therefore, that he is identified. "What, then, is the
principle of which he is the exponent? Of the pro-
tective monopoly-class-legislation system? Why, it is
very true that he has avowed himself over and over
again the champion of the corn-law monopoly ; and,
until lately, of agricultural protection. It is also cer-
tain that, by an unfortunate inconsistency, he has greatly
marred the effect of his relief to commercial enterprise
and trading industry, and to the pocket of the home
consumer, by an ill •judged positive increase of protec-
tion to our West Indian colonist, although it is accom-
panied by a reduction of the duty on foreign sugar, the
growth of free labour. But, on the other hand, the
author of the tariff of 1842-43, and of the financial pro-
ject of February, 1845—the one largely reducing the
rate of duties on articles of extensive consumption (corn
always excepted)—the other striking off, altogether, at
one erasure, the duties on 430 articles, and contemplating
the virtual extinction of all export duties whatever ;
this man cannot be said to embody the principle of pro-
tection. Sir ROBERT PEEL, then, is a ministerial ano-
maly, an official nondescript. His influence and his suc-
cess aro not the less palpable facts. The strength which
supports him is in the inverse ratio of the basis on which
it apparently reposes. If consistency in a public man be
strength, the Premier's public position should be weak.
If inconsistency be a principle of weakness, it works—
in Sir ROBERT PEEL'S case—to the consolidation of his
strength. Many previous Idinisters have been upheld