The Sun.
London, England, 1845-02-17 00:00:00

trrning

LONDON, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1845.

The prospects of the House of Lords for the pre•
sent session are truly deplorable. Regarding them
as coadjutors of the Commons, and equally bound by
duty to attend to the affairs of the community. the
public must look with apathy on a body which rarely
originates any measure of importance, and which has
absolutely nothing to do till the commencement of
the dog-days. But they are to be pitied chiefly for
their own sake. Idleness is one of the greatest of
calamities, and it is therefore painful to see their
Lordships trotting down to the House, as if they were
in urgent haste to commence business, and after
hearing prayers, presenting two or three petitions,
and getting up occasionally some amusing con-
versation, return as they came. It would be in-
finitely better to adjourn on the first day of the ses-
sion till after Easter, and attend to their estates in
the provinces than to waste their time in empty show
and mockery of legislation. The whole business
announced for the session consists of a Bill on bail in
error and an amendment to the Charitable Bequests
Bill. These were announced by the Lord Chancel-
lor. The other law Lords have announced little,
whether from the effects of the epidemic so con-
genial to the House, or from jealousy and a well-
grounded fear that if one starts a good measure, the
others, true to their vocation, will fight against it till
it is torn to pieces, we have no evidence to show.
This is a lamentable waste of time, but that is the
least evil, for when the Bills of the Commons come
up in shoals, one half of them are thrown aside, many
of the rest are sadly mutilated, and only a few occupy
their Lordships' attention, because they have not time
to do them justice. Last session, for instance, fifty-
two Bills came up in July, while not half the num-
ber, and these chiefly of minor importance, came up
during the five preceding months, being in the pro-
portion of fifty to five. This is the more inexcusable,
as there is one measure adverted to in her MAJESTY'S'
Speech which is peculiarly adapted to their Lordships
House, adorned as it is with the Bench of hB. is ops.
" The health of the inhabitants of large towns and
populous districts in this part of the United King-
dom," said the QUEEN, " has been the subject of
recent inquiry before a Commission, the report of
which shall be immediately laid before you. It will
be gratifying to me if the information and suggestions
contained in that report shall enable you to devise the
means of promoting the health and comfort of the
poorer classes of my subjects." Her MAJESTY on
pronouncing these sentences must have bad the
Bishops in view, and, no doubt, thought they would
be much better employed in devising means to pro-
mote the comfort of her poorer subjects, than in
reviving antiquated and Catholic practices, disturb-
ing the peace of families, throwing the Church
into confusion, and endangering the best interests of
the Protestant religion ; and, besides, who are so
well fitted from experience, as Bishops, for relieving
the distresses of the poor ? They have all been
curates, and rectors, or vicars ; they, of course have
mixed with the lower classes, visited them in their
sickness and on their death-beds ; have inquired into
their wants, and the causes of their sufferings ;
witnessed with pain the degradation and irreligion
of the mind, caused by ignorance and poverty, and
consequently acquired information ten times more
valuable than could be obtained by a few paid Com-
missioners, who take many things on hearsay, and,
at best, can give only a meagre outline of the melan-
choly causes of their depressed condition. This is a
duty befitting a Bishop, and would form a noble
contrast with that of those worldly-minded pre-
lates who consider the only object of their mis-
sion to the House of Lords is to look after their
temporal and pecuniary affairs. Poverty and
crime and infidelity are near neighbours. But for
want of the very necessaries of life, and the miser-
able state of ignorance in which the lowest classes
are left by their spiritual teachers, three-fourths of our
gaols would be empty, and our penal settlements
abolished, yet Parliament goes on, year after year, in
increasing the severity of punishments to which the
Bishops give their assent, while, neither by their
speeches as legislators, nor their deeds as the guar-
dians of the poor, do they show any disposition to
avert crime by the only proper means—by destroying
ignorance and relieving suffering. Would they adopt
a different system, there are lay peers ready to assist
them, and none more ready and willing than the
Marquis of NORMANDY, who has humanely turned
his attention to these subjects. We fear, however,
that the idleness of their Lordships arises not from
dire necessity, but the want of will, and that they will
go on in the old monotonous system till an outbreak
greater than that of the Reform Bill rouses them to a
sense of their danger, and makes them again lay elaim
to the title of " Tribunes of the people."

The revelations of the last few days, on the subject
of railroad projects, appear to us to have so intimate
a bearing on the tendencies of our present monetary
system, under existing circumstances, that we cannot
forbear from once more directing attention to the
dangers they indicate. It was recently admitted,
in the house of Commons, that no less than 240
new applications for Bills, either for the extension
of old and working lines, or the construction of new
ones, are coming before Parliament for its sanction.
We have no doubt that Sir ROBERT PEEL correctly
infers that, upon being submitted for discussion, this
astounding number of fresh projects of railroad in-
vestment " will be found very considerably to di-
minish." Let us suppose that that diminution may
be in the ratio of, say .50 lines, there will remain
190 of the sifted and tested and debated projects, of
which, after such preliminary treatment, we may
fairly assume the success. Suppose that each of
these lines shall demand no more than an average
capital of 150,0001. ; that average will not exceed the
actual demand, if we go upon the presumption
that being bond fide schemes, not less work-
ing capital will be called for than will be actually
requisite for their accomplishment. The aggregate for
the 190 lines would be little short of 30,000,0001.,
in addition probably to nearly as much more locked
up in the several tmremunerating lines, that are either
at a discount or paying but a nominal interest to their
shareholders. We perceive from TRUEMAN and
COOK'S " Circular" overland dispatch to India, that
" A large amount of English capital is embarked
in French railroads, which are absorbing fully
20,000,0001."

Now, this process of absorption, taking only our
unproductive completed lines, and our new incipient
lines, with the 20,000,000/. thus to be provided from
English capital-worked railroads in France, will re-
present about 80,000,0001. withdrawn from the
ordinary channels and services of our general trade
and commerce. And this huge amount is independent
of whatever portion of the vast capitals of the greater
established lines, such as the London and Birming-
ham, Great 'Western, Midland Counties, South-
Western, &c., is not in circulation. All parties
in Parliament admit, with alarm, the fearful
extent to which railway scrip speculation con-
tinues to be carried; and the mercantile authority we
ban just quoted supplies this ihformAtioh to to the