The Sun.
London, England, 1845-05-30 00:00:00

rentnj 24114

LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 30, 1845.

The House of Commons met at Four o'Clock.

The SOLICITOR-GENERAL presented the report of the
Committee of Privileges, in the case of HowARD v.
GOSSETT. The discussion on this subject will take place
to-morrow—(this day.)
Mr. HENRY BERKELEY then moved for a Select
Cummitee, to inquire into the operation of the Insol-
vency Act of last Session, with a view to remedy
the hardship inflicted by that Act upon creditors below
M. On receiving an assurance from Sir J. GRAHAM and
the SOLICITOR-GENERAL that the subject had occupied the
attention of the Government, and that the LORD CHAN-
CELLOR was about to introduce a measure to remedy the
evils complained of, the Bon. Member withdrew his
motion.

Mr. Sergeant MURPHY then brought forward the
questions of the payment of Ministers' Money in Ireland.
No decision was, however, come to, as the House was
counted out shortly after the Learned Sergeant had con-
cluded his statement.

In resuming our observations on the speech in whic
Lord JOHN RUSSELL, the other night, introduced his
series of declaratory " resolutions" connected with the
condition of the poor and the general state of the coun-
try, we shall confine ourselves, to-day, to the serious
exceptions we feel compelled to take as to the statements
advanced by him with regard to the operation of certain
specific causes on that condition of vur industrial classes
which the Noble Lord is so anxious to remedy.
Among these causes, Lord Jont; RUSSELL assigns a
foremost place to the measure of 1797, for restricting the
Bank of England from cash payments ; and, in com-
menting on the subsequent effects of that bold proceed-
ing, he contends that it was a measure of the most enor-
mous oppression and injustice ever inflicted on the
industrial labour of the kingdom. He maintains that
the wages of labour have never since been increased in
proportion to the depreciated value of money consequent
on the Restriction Act, and to the corresponding en-
hanced prices of commodities attendant on such depre-
ciation. He considers that, although the Act of
1819 for the alteration of the currency was intro-
duced by Sir ROBERT PEEL with no due regard
to the consideration how far its adoption could then
take place without too seriously prejudicing the various
economic interests of the empire, and though it did
work, at first, very serious inconvenience and injury—
to the industrial and manufacturing classes more parti-
cularly—those evils have since disappeared, and their
traces are now scarcely to be discerned. We really
know not which of these several propositions to indicate
as that which is most valuable, both as to the real facts
of the case, and the arguments to be founded
upon them. As to the Bank Restriction Act
of 1797, we would respectfully submit to his
Lordship that no man living can now undertake to
point out what alternative, what middle term there was
between a national bankruptcy, and that, as we are pre-
pared to contend, most salutary expedient. If anybody
had imagined, previously to the publication of the last
volume of," Lord MALMESBURY'S Memoirs and Corres-
pondence," that our Continental enemy was in no condi-
tion
downfal of
to ai:e
ourad commercialvantage of
such
sysatecm andatast therophe ruin of toeffect
ourthe
political strength, by forcing the immediate paralysis of
' those productive energies of British
t:fcapital, to whose
unimpaired integrity,under the blessingPROVIDENCE,
and
I and
and in a degree next only to the irresistible s
nationality of the people, the salvation of the empire
as
been owing—we could have allowed that he was fairly
entitled to argue on any case, however extensive, to
which the illustration of the abstract principles of main-
taining to the letter every contract with the public credi-
tor, might lead him. So long as there was no practical
and imminent peril of endangering the public credit, and