The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-02-09 00:00:00

imprrial Varhament.

HOUSE OP LORDS—MoNDkv.

Lord BROUGHAM presented a petition from the mayor,
magistrates, and a number of highly respectable inhabi-
tants of Liverpool; complaining of the influx of Irish pau-
pers into that seaport. The petition stated that in four-
teen days no fewer than 11,104 paupers came over from
Ireland, (being at the rate of 800 a day,) exclusive of
Thursday last, when upwards of 1,100 were brought over
in two steamers. The petitioners stated they had reason
to believe that thousands of persons were at the present
moment begging their way to the various seaports of Ire-
land with the intention of seeking their food in this
country, and, if 'possible, in Liverpool. They therefore
prayed their lordships to interfere for their relief, and ex-
pressed a hope that Parliament would not separate with-
out passing a law by which the people of Ireland as well
as the people of England should be compelled to support
their own poor. Upon the subject of a poor-law for Ire-
land. he would not express any opinion until the proper
moment arrived for discussing it. Meanwhile the griev-
ance to the people of Liverpool was of an extremely seri-
ous character ; for, although under a recent act these
paupers could be sent back, yet the expenses of their main-
tenance until that could he done, and the expense of their
transmission, fell very heavily upon the 'ratepayers. He
was aware that the public press contended that the land
of Ireland ought to be taxed for the support of the Irish
pEibr, but that would only be taxing the landlords twice
°Vera because the mortgagee would call in his mortgage.
Such a proposition was a species of cheap humanity that
reminded him of a saying of Lord Milbank,s, that there
were to o things of which most people were exceedingly
generous7-other people's money and their own advice.
These persons were proclaiming the right of the poor to
be fed, but he denied the right of the poor man to be fed,
unless by his own labour. The government were not
bound to feed the poor, or even to find them work. The
only duty of the government in that behalf was to remove
all obstacles in the way of the people finding work for
themselves. Some persons were calling out for more pub-
lic works in Ireland, and others demanded a loan of
£20,000,000 for making the railways. He would not stop
to inquire whether these !atter had first bought shares in
the Irish railways, and wished to raise the price of them.
But he warned the house that all.the millions they might
give would not stop the mouths of those who were crying
for food. He trusted that whatever steps their lordships
might take respecting the maintenance of the Irish poor
would be in the right direction, and that they would not
suffer themselves either to be driven, or coaxed and se-
duced, into any other by compliments to their humanity.
He feared that complaints would soon be heard from Glas-
gow, Greenock, Bristol, and other ports, unless some
measures could be devised for checking the immigration
of Irish paupers.
The Marquis of WESTMEATH, as a representative peer
of Ireland, adinitted that the town of Liverpool had a
grievance. The inhabitants thought they could trace it to
the landed proprietors of Ireland ; but he said it did not
lie at their door, but at the door of those laws which were
directed against the management of their estates,
.and
from which they could not escape. lie felt it to be his
duty on all occasions, as he did on the present, to rise and
enter his protest against the aspersions and imputations
that were constantly cast upon the Irish landlords.
Lord BROUGHAM disclaimed having cast any imputa-
tion on the landlords of Ireland.