The Sun.
London, England, 1829-05-29 00:00:00

SPIRET OF THE LONDON JOURNALS.

We witnessed yesterday one of those contribu-
tions which British beauty and fashion pay with
pleasure almost annually, and would pay oftener if
walled upon, to the necessities of foreign or domestic
afEiction. On the present occasion, the object was
to relieve the distress of the Spanish Refugees---a
class of persons, to whom even their enemies impute
none but political faults, and to whom England at
least owes the obligation of having risked their lives
and fortunes in that cause, the steady advocacy of
which, with all the moral and all the physical energy
of this country, saved Europe from slavery, and
England from a tame submission, if not a disgrace-
ful subserviency to that despotic ruler who knew no
principle_ but that of might. But these are topics
not suited to our present object, which is to tic-
lice the brilliant exhibition which the Hanover
Rooms displayed yesterday, when some of the
most distinguished of the female aristocracy of
England showed that they knew how best to
justify their rank by acts of kindness and cha-
rity. Several ladies of the highest condition (we
need not repent names already published in our
advertisement) did themselves (we trust we may
be, on such an occasion, allowed this expression)
the honour of acting in the capacity of shop-keepers
for the sale of those wares which they themselves
had manufactured. It would be absurd to suppose
that the benevolent feelings of our countrymen re-
quire any excitement beyond the thorough know-
ledge of the case, to lend their aid for the relief of
the distressed; but it would be equally absurd to
suppose that even the cause of truth may not be re-
commended by the attraction of female loveliness.
At all events, we would recommend all the philoso-
'pliers of our acquaintance to try the experiment,
whether their abstract notions of charity will not
be somewhat quickened by the solicitations of fe-
male beauty and female grace. We will not quote
the original words of Catullus, not because the
ladies would not understand them, but because we
fear the beaux might not ; but we say in the lan-
guage, a little altered, of a well known translation—.
" Let those go now, who never went before ;
" Let those who always went, now go the more."
—Times.

The Session of Parliament is advancing rapidly
to a close. The Chancellor of the Exchequer
moved last night, in the Committee on the Exche-
quer Bills' Bill, the reception of the appropriation
clause; which, as Mr. Hume observed, was the
last and closing act of the financial measureseof the
Session, The House adjourned over to Monday.
The proceedings in Parliament, ever since the Ca-
tholic Relief Bill received the Royal Assent, have
indicated with sufficient clearness a determination
to get rid of all beyond mere routine business, that
the Session might be terminated without delay.
Parliament would seem to be yet unable to compre-
hend how it could achieve such a wondrous work as
the Emancipation of the Catholics. The Member
for Montrose, indeed, last night observed, that
" with the. exception of one great measure—the im-
portance of which no man was less disposed to deny
than himself—Government and Parliament had done
nothing for the public interest throughout the Ses-
sion,. He for one, however, was not to blame
for this; but he must say, that both on his own side
of the House, as well as on that of the Treasury, he
found no disposition to second his views. So little
inclination had indeed been shewn to check the ex
pentliture of his Majesty's Ministers, that he
thought the country much indebted to them for
their forbearance in not being more extravagant
than they were." But Mr. Spring Rice observed,
" that the entire attention of both sides of the House
hail, from the commencement of the Session, been
ao engrossed by ore deeply important question, that
it was no imputation upon them that they had been
unable to attend effectually to those subjects to
which the Hon. Member for Aberdeen alluded."
The excitement has been too powerful for the nerves
of lion. Members; but time, it is hoped, will act
on them as a sedative and restorative, so that by
next Session we may again have his Majesty's Mi-
nisters and his Majesty's Opposition performing
their respective parts.—Morning Chronicle.
Among the ten thousand functions which Parlia-
ment pretends to exercise, but cannot exercise to
any good purpose, is the manufacturing of local and
private Acts. These Acts are often of the most
objectionaVe nature, and it must be mere accident if
they are ever otherwise. On the third reading last
night of the Rotherhithe Poor Bill, Mr. Littleton
said, " he should oppose this Bill upon principle,
but that he feared his opposition was not likely to
be supported by many Members of that House, the
more especially as some of the objections to the
details of the Bill were now to be got rid of by a
clause that was to be proposed by way of rider. It
did seem to him, however, that the principle of
altering the Statute Law of the Land by local Acts
and private Bills was one that ought not to be en-
couraged." Encouraged ! unquestionably not. The
House ought not to make itself the common sink of
all the ordure of the country. One meet: occa-
sionally with people who are constantly over head
and ears in business—who fly at every thing, and
literally do nothing. This is the case particularly
with the Hon. House. Parliament should divest
itself of a number of functions, which it cannot
exercise to any advantage, and for the retention of
which the only argument we have ever heard is
the fees of the different Officers of the two Houses.
Any man who has a well-filled purse, and
dislikes the law as it exists, endeavours to obtain a
law for himself—a private law ; and he canvasses
eithtr personally or through his agents, sometimes a
little unceremoniously it would appear, the Mem-
bers of the " Collective Wisdom." In this case of
the Rotherhithe Poor Bill, Mr. Littleton said,—
" The Gentleman who was professionally interested
in this Bill, without having any communication with
him on the subject, had written a circular letter—at
least he thought he might call it a circular, since it
had been sent roust(' to not less than twenty-nine
persons, a number rather exceeding that to which a
private letter was usually addressed—accusing him
of conduct of which he was sure he had never been
guilty. The letter requested of each of these gen-
tlemen a perusal of his case, as the writer stated that
he had been given to understand the Bill would be
opposed by Mr. Littletoa, of Staffordshire, who had
no local knowledge on the subject, and who had
been invited to the course lie proposed to adopt by
a person residing in his neighbourhood; and who
was, as the writer under-tood, the attorney for the
opposing parties. That letter imputed it to him
(Mr. Littleton) that he opposed the Bill merely on
the representation of a neighbour of his, and with-
out any knowledge of it himself. It did appear
to him that this ludicrous assumption of authority
by gentlemen; out of doors ought to be put a stop
to." The Speaker dwelt, as he was bound to do,
on the heinousness of taking such liberties with
Hon. Members. Now, though we believe the charge
against Mr. Littleton to be perfectly groundless, yet
it is not the less true that Hon. Members do make
themselves the mere puppets of those who wish
their services in these matters. The idea has so
thoroughly taken possession of the public mind,
that no man ever doubts for one moment that Hon.
Members are to be managed, though he may not
know exactly how. The Parliamentary Agent in
this case would have acted more skilfully if he had
avoided writing, and confined himself to verbal in-
sinua:ions, which would have told much better, for
language is powerfully aided in such ticklish] mat-
ters by the look, gesticulation, &c., and a conver-
sation cannot be produced in evidence so easily. We
have more than once alluded to the utter useless-
ness of Parliament for all purposes of legislation—
first from its composition, and next from its omni-
vorous propensities. We are glad to see the subject
taken up as it ought to be, in a publication
just issued from the press, under the title
of " An Argument for more of the Division
of Labour in Civil Life in this Country, Part 1.,
in which the Argument is applied to Parliament.
By William Wickens." We shall advert to this
publication on a future day; and with respect to an

observation of the author, that with the bare possi-
bility of occurrences such as we here detail taking
place at the fountain head of all law and order, the
Wonder is that ere this all law and order among us
have not come to be set at defiance, or that, at the
least, the community has not lapsed into a state of
total disorrnitatitm," we have merely to remark,
that the existence of the people of England in a
more prosperous state than the people of any other
country, with a Legislature emptying its rubbish-
cart on them every day, affords a proof that the
tendency in nations to thrive is not easily counter-
acted. The Legislature of Pennsylvania lately
passed a law, making it penal to circulate the notes
of other States within the:r bounds. A traveller,
having no other notes, mentioned his embarrassment
to a landlord when the bill was presented to him.
" Oh (said the landlord), when that Act passed,
we immediately passed a resolution to tar and
feather any man who took advantage of it." Thus
in every country men contrive to exist, in spite of
bungling Legislatures and bad lases.—lbid.
We are truly glad to perceive that the opposition
which ought to have been trade in the House of
Commons to the Anatomy Bill, is about to be made
in the House of Lords. The principle of that Bill
is not only at variance with every maxim of justice,
but from its selection of the poor and the unpro-
tected, most disgusting to the feelings of every
well-regulated mind. According to its provisions,
not only are the bodies of all those who die in hos-
pitals, and are unclaimed during 48 hours, liable to
be cut up, but also those of the unfortunate debtors
►yho may have ended their days in prison ! This
latter is assuredly a clause to which no rational and
feeling mind would give its assent ; for who is there
who may not, from some unavoidable misfortune, be-
come liable to imprisonment, and being so, to end
his days in gaol ? And are- a man's misfortunes to
subject him to be halved, quartered, and dissected
as a Professor of Anatomy may choase to indicate ?
We think that if the sacred precept of " Do unto
others as ye would that others do unto you," had
become a standing order of the House of Commons
—the Bill in question would never have been, per-
mitted to be brought into it ; and, on a little reflec-
tion, we think its Members will be convinced that
before sacrificing the feelings of their constituents,

they ought at aii events to` have proved the correct-
ness of the principle of the Bill, by devoting their
own bodies to the same sort of inspection to which
they have manifested such readiness to consign those
of others.—Morning Advertiser.

EARL DARNLEY'S SPEECH IN MAY 1828.

POOR LAWS IN IRELAND.

We should take some shame to ourselves for
not having hitherto noticed the publication of
the speech of the Earl of Darnley, on the Ist of
May, 1828, on the state of the Poor in Ireland,
as well as the motion on Friday last, in favour of

the establishment of Poor Laws in that metalled
country, had not our columns been so crowded
with various and important matter, as to have
put it wholly out of our power. The subject is
one of great importance and great difficulty, and
though late, a few observations may not yet be
altogether out of season.
The object of the speech of the Earl of Dant-
ley—a speech characterised by much ability and
industry in the collection of facts—was to induce
the House of Lords to institute an inquiry into
the state of the poor iu Ireland, with the view of
ascertaining, not whether a code of poor laws, in
every respect similar to the poor law system of
this country, might be established in that coon•
try, but whether that part of the Act of Eliza-
beth which provides for the administration of
relief to " the lame, the impotent, the old, the
blind, and such other as are poor, and not able
to work," might not be beneficially extended to
it; and assuredly, were we to measure the ne•
cessity and policy of such an A ct, by the miser-
ably destitute condition of the Irish peasantry,
the subject would not bear a moment's conside-
ration.

" The Irish peasant," (says the Earl of Darn-
ley), " is certainly in possession of the inestiin-
able blessing of liberty—but in other respects his
condition is worse than that of the slave in the

West Indies. The physical evils of poverty and
misery are in him more real and apparent—his
wretchedness is more squalid—his hut, clothing,
and food, inferior to those of any other popula-
tion on the surface of the habitable globe. It
is true he has the liberty of propagating his race
—of leaving heirs to his misery and degradation
—a liberty of which the professors of the unin-
telligible science of political ecbnomy would seek
to deprive him. He possesses also the liberty of
locomotion ; of which the people of this country
are beginning to feel he avails himself to an ex-
tent that excites their wall-founded alarm of
its injurious consequences to them, and that
consideration daily pressing mere and more upon
us, calls for the anxious attention of the Legis-

lature."
Such indeed is the utmost happiness—the
511171171 UM bonum—of which the Irish peasant
can boast ; and there being no provision what-
ever for the poor of Ireland, except the bounty
of their neighbours, and no finding of employ-
ment by public authorities for those who are
willing to work, but cannot find work for them-
selves, the consequence has been, on the one
hand, that many unhappy persons have perished
from actual want, and, on the other, that
a tide of emigration has set in on Scot-
land and England which threatens to de-
prive the English and Scotch labourer of his
last miserable morsel—to reduce the wages of
the working classes in this country far below
even the minimum of necessary subsistence—
and ultimately to spread over the whole king-
dom that universal desolation, and poverty, and
misery, which are now more peculiarly confined
to Ireland. " Every year," says Dr. Elmore,
in his Letters on the State of Ireland, " it is
ascertained that increasing thousands are coming
over, and in a short time it is to be apprehended
that, driven by want, and aided as they now are
by the subscriptions of the richer classes in Ire-
land, they will conic over in hordes, like the
Goths and Vandals of other times, and make a
settlement in this country, where they hope their
labour will be duly rewarded, and from which
no Act of Parliament will be able to dislodge
them. By competition for employment they will
defeat every human effort to keep up the pre-
sent condition of the labourers of England.-
-Their necessities will oblige them to work for
half the usual wages of labour in this country ;
the English workman must either work for the
same rate, or he will not get employment ; he is
thus thrown on the poor-rates for parish allow-
ance, and in this way is the burden of supporting
the Irish poor put upon the parishes. Such
considerations are by no means chimerical, for to
a certain extent, it is already actually the case."
But these are not all the evil consequences,
dreadful as they are, of the poverty and misery
under which the Irish poor labour—for ulti-
mately, as the Earl of Darnley observes, " the
English poor-rates will be applied to the main-
tenance" (they are partially so already) " to the
maintenance of the Irish poor, and thus imii;
rectly to the payment of the Irish landlord's
rents ;"—a boon assuredly which no aristiscracy
ever deserved less than the Irish, and Viitich it

ought to be a first consideration of the tritish
Legislature to prevent them from obtaining.
What then is to be done ? Are the poor
laws, in the limited application of them recom-
mended by the Earl of Darnley, to be adopted ?
That would not cure the evil, nor even mitigate
it to any considerable extent ; for after relief had
been provided for the " aged, the infirm, the ho-
potent, and such poor as are unable to work'," the
whole of that unemployed mass which is able to
work, but can find no work except at the most
reduced rate, and by driving the English and
Scotch labourer from his own proper field, would
still have to be provided for. But what in our
opinion militates still more against the adoption
of a poor law system, we consider any, almost
the most limited, application of poor laws, next
to impossible in Ireland. Between that wretched
country and England there are no points of
resemblance ; and what, in consequence, might
be fitting here, it would either be impossible to
carry into effect, or from other causes, be wholly
inapplicable. In Ireland there is between the land-
lord and the tenant, a class of lazy drones, or ra-
ther blood-suckers, denominated middlemen, who
draw a large income from the land, without contri-
buting either by labour or capital to improve the
soil, or increase its produce; and in addition to the
enormous tax which this unnecessary and per-
nicious class imposes on the industry of the
countrv, the farmers, who are principally Catho-
lics, have not only to pay tithes to the Established
Church, and maintain their own pastors, but to
contend for their little all with proctors, to tithe-
contractors, and law agents, who, like locusts,
devour their whole substance—leaving them the
land to work upon ; but swallowing up every
thing in ti►e shape of property that remains to
them. From what source, then, ate poor-rates
to be derived ? How can the poor be enabled
to maintain the poor ? For this is literally the
case with Ireland, in which, in so far as the soil
is concerned, there are only t►wo classes—the
pauper and his master—the owner of the soil
and his slave.

No. No Act of Parliament can ever esta-
blish a wholesome system of poor laws in Ireland ;
arid, even if it could, we question much whether
they would not be productive of more evil than
good. had there been poor laws in Scotland,
as there have unfortunately been in this country,
its naturally barren soil would never have exhibited
that degree of cultivation which it now boasts,
nor its population that industrious and inde-
pendent spirit by which they are characterized.
The poor laws in this country have done more
to pauperise the people, break their spirit, and
increase crime, than all the State taxes together ;
ar d with such experience before us—confessing,
as we do, the miserable condition of the people
of Ireland, and the necessity of legislative inter-
ference to improve it—we own that we should
witness with regret the establishment of any
regular fund, beyond that of healthful employ-
ment, for their maintenance.—Morning Ad-
vertiser.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.