The Sun.
London, England, 1817-03-06 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

the Proceedings. in the House of Lords, six the
Last Page.]

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HOUSE OF COMMONS, MAticti 5.
The second reading of -the Game ?reser 'cation
Bill was postponed till Monday.
. .
-General Tiroatii.ON.postponed- his • motion re-
lative to the diminution of the AssesSed Tares,
-on account of the number of absentees, which
stood for Tnesday, till Wednesday.
Mr. Johnson,.from the office, of the Chief Se-
cretary for Ireland, presented ACconnts of the Or-
dinary Revenkes rlf Ireland, and Papers relajive
to its Trade and Navigation, which were ordered
t'o be printed.
Mr. LYTTLETON postponed the motion of which
he had given notice', respectidg Lotteries, till
Tuesday the 18th inst.
Mr. L. KECK presented a petition from
.Bur-
bage, itt,, Leicestershire; complaining of the pres-
sure of the. Parochial.POor LaWs, and praying re-
lief.--Ordered to lie on the-table.
Mr.iG. LANGTON presented a petition from the
Cloth-workers of Yorkshire, praying
.that the use
of machinery may be restrained--. Ordered to lie
on the table.

(1011 C to 5o numerous and respectable a body 'of
men as that by whiCh it was signed.

SCARCITY- OF PROVISIONS IN IRELAND.
Mr. M. FITZGERALD, in calling the attention of
rite House to the present'senrcity of proviiions:in
Ireland, disclaimed any wish of eminurassing

nisters. Ile had-hear►l with pleasure,' on a recent•
occasion, that no political disaffection was inipuceti

Ireland; but sot:ie. 4!ist'urbances ball occurred of ft

serionsuature in that country. ALltaliinah arint
hall taken place, which four lives were lest
seventeen persons wounded. Fir was satisfied,
that where any thing of this kind had been w•it-
nessed, it was caused by a scarcity of provisions
and apprehensions of famine. NVhert it wits eon-
slaved this fear was entertained thus early, and
,that some months must elapse before any home
supply could be procured, he thought the s►►bject
demanded the most serious attention at Govern—
ment. The inclemency of the late season had
so affected the harvest in most of the countries iu

Europe, that front these a supply could hardly be
expected. The harvest in England had been un-
favourable; that in Scotland, worse ;' and, in Ire-
land, all the craps had been not only deficient in
quantity, but bail_ in quality. The principal food
of .the poor in Ireland, the potatoe, was so poor .
in quality, that it was not expected it could be
kept beyond the spring months ; and it was thure-
fore necessary to consider how Ireland could be
supplied with food for the summer. 1-lis object
was twofold. Ile wished, first, to inquire into the
-expediency of prohibiting distiilatinn from grain ;
and secondly,- to consider, if, without very mate-
rially interfering with the Markets, a supply ebnld
be 'obtained front a foreign country. lie vas
against •arty such interference on the part of Qn-
yernmetit, but in a case of extreme emergency 5.
and the question now, was, whether such a case
of emergency could at present be made out, as
Windt' justify it. In the two-years -of scarcity,
• 1800 and. 1812, masures like those which he now
recommended - had been resorted to. ln 1800,
Lord Cornwallis, foreseeing the crisis which did
arrive, provided for it by settling out orders for
Corn to America early in the .year. At that time
Oats were in Dublin los. per barrel ; their price
Was a( present 235. ; oatmeal was 225. per pun
Bred--last -month it was_ 28s. Front this .state-
Anent it %you'd . be seen there. was a- serious tiller •
ence between the present prices and those of the
neriad to which be bad referred.. Ile thought'

to stop the distilleries would Word a•coosiderable
resource, and.Lhe z,lock, of spit its .already.,on, band
was, he apprehended., sullicient in the present im-
poverished state of the country fur the con,ump-
lion of the year. It there were reason to•stip-
pose that at present Ireland did not contain such
provisions for •its inhabitants for the uekt avec
months, as the people .cotild purchase, • measures
ought to be taken to draw a )stipply from Kog-
hold,- or from some foreign country. • lie hoped
Ministers wool,' • see thin was a subject which
ought to, be attended to Without. ticloy. • lie
moved, ",That•an humble Address 'be. presented
to his Royal Highness .the Pi inee Regent,
prat}'-
log his Royal Highness to order a prompt loves-
tigation be.made into the amountr.and state of
human, food troar. in Ireland, with a ,vices to ,de-

termitic Whether ior not it was proper to pet a
stop to the Distillation from Grain in that
Cornatry."' • e
Mr. I),:eEt, did justice to the motives, .of Abe.
flon.,Gentleman, and admitted the :impOrtance‘
of the-subject ; but the question on which. the,
louse hod to decide was,: first, whether there
was a scarcity of provisions in /Ireland ; and se-
condly, whether the prollihi'sion of legel distilla-
tion- of gra;n ttunld give the country any ein,i-
deioble supply.; Af.i this were done,. the effect of
such n measure would be merely to give the Eng-
lish Distiller an advaetage in the Irish ker,
noleis that free' intercourse were suspended he-
tWeell the two nationi, which was thought to
have been scented by the • Act. of Union. But
putting aside all minor* considerations, he would
apply himself to• this eptestionei—would sueb a
measure tend mat-Melly. to increase the ,qeantity
of human food in Ireland ? Iu the first place, he .
Would observe that the supply'was not :so defi-
cient in quantity as rin quality. This would he
seen from the prices of corn in .the laSt market
note. These were as follows
Oats pr 11.11 ref
NV 0.14 trum..
park}' how,. 148
From this statement, it woitid he clear that much.
of the eon) now on hand could only be :cotittme..l
in :he distilleries, anti to deprive the' farmer of
that market for it, would he to add to the general
tilvres?. to the saving that t 0.1141 yaw be el-
feeted, it would not be great. The quantity of
spirits on Which duty had been._ paid: in the - List
year was 3,600,000 gallons. lie had no right to
assume the consumption of the present yeas
be greater. Taking it at the saute time, had
no '-'doubt the whole year's stock would be ali:eady
diStilied before the Bill the Ilea GCntlenian Might
Irish to bring in could be pa!sed into as law, as he
could state, On the antlimity of 'an official paper
that would btelaid on the table to-Morrow, that
on the sth of February the quantity alrenic!y dis-
tilled amounted to 2,357,00 vibes, tieing
more than two-thirds of the Whole anticipated
consumption of the .year: If the motion of the
Gentle Man were acceded to, :the ennse-
quence
.would' be, the distillers wettld lose no
time in molting down as much grain as possible,
so that, without great loss, it could not beeon-
verted into human food, and they, in copserpienee
• must be suffered to consume it in distillatioe.
From the priers of Crain in some parts of Ireland,-
. it was not possible to ascertain Whether oir not
there was a general scarcity.. In the not tit of Ire-
: lend there were '2OO 411'6r-illations for still:fines to
abe trier! at Ole next assizes, From tilts it would