The Sun.
London, England, 1845-06-11 00:00:00

rafiMilta 5111 t

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1845.

The House of Lords met at Five o'clock.

Lord PORTMAN gave notice that, on Thursday, he
would introduce a Bill to amend the law of landlord and
tenant in England.

The report of the Commissioners on the Criminal
Law was laid on the table.

The order of the day for the House going into Com-
mittee on the Maynooth Bill having been read,
The Duke of LEINSTER defended the College against
the aspersions which had been cast on it.

The Earl of CLANCARTY moved the committal of the
Bill that day six months, but after a short discussion,
withdrew his motion, and the Bill passed through Com-
mittee.

Lord STANLEY gave notice that he should move the
second reading of the Landlord and Tenants (Ireland)
Bill on Friday, and their Lordships adjourned.

The House of Commons met at Four o'clock.

Lord PALMERSTON gave notice, for the Bth of July, of
a motion for the production of the evidence taken before
the mixed Commission of Inquiry into the best means
of suppressing the Slave Trade.
Mr. H. BERKELEY gave notice, for the same day, of a
motion for an address to tho Crown to reward the ser-
vices of the officers, seamen, and marines engaged in the
late war in China, and

Mr. T. DIINCOMBE gave notice of a motion, for the
same day. for the repeal of the rate-paying clauses of the
Reform BilL

Mr. VILLIERS then brought forward his motion' on
the subject of the Corn-laws. The Hon. Gentleman
concluded a long and eloquent speech, replete with va-
luable statistical information, showing the baneful effects
produced by the present prohibitive system of corn-laws,
by moving—

" That this House resolve itself into a Committee of the
whole House, for the purpose of considering the follow-
ing resolutions :
" That the corn-law restricts the supply of food, and pre-
vents the free exchange of the products of labour.
" That it is therefore prejudicial to the welfare of the
country, especially to that of the working classes, and has
proved delusive to those for whose benefit the law was de-
signed.
" That it is expedient that all restrictions on corn should
be now abolished."

Mr. OSWALD seconded the motion. A very animated
debate followed, in the course of which the House was
addressed by Mr. Christopher, Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Buck
Mr. M. Philips, Sir J. Graham, Mr. Bright, Mr. S.
O'Brien, Dr. Bowring, Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bankes, Lord
John Russell, Sir R. Peel, and Lord Howick; after
which the House divided, and the motion was negatived
by a majority of 132.

The motion of Lord ASHLEY, 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 t‘a. 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 obj, c-
dons 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 country, he Is as 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 by 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 mo►al delin-
quency and heartless oppression to which, in this land of
corporated private rights and personal liberty—in the
abstract—the law has hitherto extended the most in-
credible facilities. Grevious indeed has been the sin of
successive legislatures which have for years past so
recklessly armed the sordid, the crafty, the designing,
tmstgsheoci
eenvawaitnunnmhdngs
oeap
mot
scandalous
hrtites unprincipled, i
satiating
yaatlgihetldhdieuna, t
ogovtaiipen.
ntphdssgottetraoti hthrot
opportunity
rapacity,
itsnyvt
vengeance malicious,
reraggttehal oaenrrowpcerg
gratifying
twakhaueitprrnai
ofedytnsproiarenfodtigehan
cevatrhhnoekedl
aieoret victimsaotorhsuenye-:
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
objects and of its machinery. How many a rightful
heir of property has been for ever segregated from so-

~ .'L,
- ,--'` ,
7 ~,,.,,,11.,, qr
ri`,;
1."6/
...A. _ a
ilt
\.. -- - •-.1„.-
..,,,,,i,44 Ar• ' ', 'rq't- 1 ' .i..\ t .0., 'N
' , , si- •"," i,
TH
X4114.441•64it0 3041rates00Seymiun / -b.k OIT il or"'":::
A. :4114111t0 .. ‘.l APZ,---
'. • g
"' -1, -'' . -•••-•.';' ' 4 ''"