The Sun.
London, England, 1845-06-10 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 1845.

The House of Lords met at Five.
After a short conversation on the subject of Mr.
BARRY and the new Houses of Parliament,

The Small Debts Bill was read a second time.

The Marquis of LONDONDERRY then complained of
the want of sufficient accommodation at the Harbours of
Port Patrick and Donaghadee, after which—
Lord STANLEY brought in a Bill to enable tenants in
Ireland to obtain compensation for improvements which
they might make in the land occupied by them. While
awarding all due merit to emigration as a partial remedy
for some of the evils under which the Irish laboured, the
Noble Lord said that he did not consider it as capable of
relieving the general distress which now prevailed in
Ireland. They must, therefore, increase the em-
ployment at home so as to make it adequate to the
wants of the population. There were vast districts in
Ireland, capable of being brought into cultivation, and
by thus affording employment to the population, fur,
taken as a whole, Ireland was not an over-peopled
country. What they wanted was capital for the em-
ployment of labourers, and the object of the Govern-
ment was to induce the occupying tenant to expend
capital upon the improvement of the land ; and the
only way to do that was, to give the tenant some security
for his investment. The Government therefore pro-
posed, that if a tenant were obliged to leave his farm
before he realised the benefit of his improvements, that
compensation should be given him for any improve-
ments he might have made in building, draining, or
fencing. He proposed that with respect to buildings
they should be valued at thirty 3 ears' purchase, di-
minishing a thirtieth every year ; so that if a tenant
remained in possession thirty years, after the erection
of a building, he should be entitled to no compensation.
In the same manner, he proposed to estimate drain-
ing at fourteen years' purchase, and he proposed
that the land gained by the removal of embank-
ment fences should be added to the holding of the
tenant, and estimated at twenty years' purchase.
The Noble Lord then proceeded to detail the machinery
by which he proposed to carry the plan into effect,
namely, by the establishment of a Board of Commis-
sioners in Dublin to act as arbitrators between landlords
and tenants, and to whom tenants might refer before
commencing the improvements.

The House was afterwards addressed by several
Noble Lords, ultimately the Bill was read a first time
and ordered to be read a second time on Monday next.
After disposing of the other orders of the day, their
Lordships adjourned at ten o'clock.
The House of Commons met at a Quarter before
Four o'Clock.

Lord EDWIN HILL took the oaths and his seat for
Downshire.

The ratification of the treaty with Franco on the sub-
ject of the Right of Search was laid on the table by Sir
H. PEEL.

In answer to Mr. S. WORTLEY, the Right Hon. Ba-
ronet stated that there were no negotiations pending for
a commercial treaty with Portugal.
The House then resolved itself into Committee on the
Scotch Banking Bill, and the whole of the clauses were
agreed to.

The House, after some preliminary discussion, then
went into Committee on the Irish Banking Bill.
Clauses 1 to 32 were agreed to, when the CHAIRMAN re-
ported progress, and the House adjourned at one o'clock.

The motion of Lord ASIILEY, of Friday evening last,
professed for its object purposes which must ever be dear
to humanity. He did not call for the repeal of any
existing Acts respecting the treatment of lunatics or the
substitution of such other enactments in their place as
time and circumstances may have rendered necessary,
without ample reason for such an appeal. In the com-
mencement of his speech the Noble Lord carefully di-
rected attention to the fact that the two Bills he pro-
posed to introduce regarded only England and Wales.
He wished, however—though certain technical objec-
tions existed to such a course under the present
state of the law—that he could extend his Bills
to the cases of Ireland and of Scotland. As to
the latter ccuntry, he was sorry to declare that
he believed there was no portion of her MAJESTY'S
dominions at home or in the colonies—no country in
Europe—in which the condition of pauper lunatics was
more painful or degraded. The Noble Lord showed
that in England and Wales, until the Act of 14
GEO. 111., the law, or rather the abuse of the law in
respect of the most forlorn and helpless class of our
fellow-creatures, was of a laxity so disgraceful as scarcely
to be credited in all that regarded the sort of warrant

on which private individuals might be consigned -to
private or to county asylums, the treatment they expe-
rienced therein, the difficulties interposed to their visita-
tion by friends and kindred, or the precautions
adopted touching the periodical visitings of
such establishments by duly authorised, competent,
and disinterested authorities. The Noble Lord
insisted that, however particular deficiencies of this kind
might have been remedied V statutes passed subse-
quently to that of 14th of GEORGE 111., no man in his
senses could doubt that enormous abuses—most seriously
affecting the private rights and personal liberty of the
subject—continue to exist until Parliament should make
up its mind to discharge the urgent and important
duty devolved upon it, of placing the pauper lunatic
asylums of England and Wales upon a rational and in-
telligible footing. With great wisdom, as we think, he
has limited for the present, at any rate, his benevolent
labours to two classes out of four, into which he
divides the statutes affecting the treatment of lunatics.
These he classifies thus-1. Those affecting lunatics com-
mitted to, and confined in, county asylums. 2. Those
applicable to licensed asylums, private or public
establishments, and their visitations. 3. Those having
reference to parties found to be of unsound mind,
upon inquisition by commissions, &c. 4. Those relating
to criminal lunatics, detained as such after trial and con-
viction, in gaol or other place of confinement. Lord
ASHLEY'S Bill addresses itself only to the two former of
these categories, and is entitled a " Bill to regulate the
law and treatment of lunatics in England and Wales."
It provides by a simple, and, we trust, efficient ma-
chinery, the most probable means of obviating in future
the recurrence of these enormous acts of moral delin-
quency and heartless oppression to which, in this land of
corporated private rights and personal liberty—in the
ahstract—the law has hitherto extended the most in-
credible facilities. Grevious indeed has been the sin of
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to whom they have stood in legal or kindred relation,
giving them the opportunity or the power to invoke the
scandalous aid of statutes that are a reproach to Our
notions of freedom in all that regards our system of
social civilisation.

It is gratifying to find the Government not only ten-
dering its support to, but expressing its warmest appro-
bation of, the Bill introduced by the Noble Lord, of its