The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-01-26 00:00:00

THE OPENING OF THE SESSION.

This interesting event,—the opening of the first session
of a Russell-Whig Administration,—to which the country
has been looking forward, for months past, with an inte-
rest deepening in intensity, as day by day fresh difficulties
have been added to the complicated web of evil which the
legislative wisdom is called upon to unravel, has at length
taken place. Parliament has met. The Queen's speech
been spoken—a meagre. bald affair, as ever was ut

P-
into the hands of royalty to utter. The address has been
moved in both houses and agreed to, with scarcely the
semblance of an 'opposition, and certainly nothing like
the materials out of which a vigorous opposition can be
formed.; and the Premier, like an apprentice upon trial,
has been patronizingly permitted by the elder hands to
handle his tools and set at once about his work.
The first great task to which his lordship set himself
has been to provide a remedy 'for the existing distress in

Ireland, and-to give facilities for providing an increased
supply of food for the whole empire. For this purpose he
proposed the suspension of the existing corn laws, by which
foreign grain is admitted at a duty of 4s. the quarter, and to
allow it to come in duty free. This step he justified on
the ground that France is at present allowing importations
to take place at a merely nominal duty of 7d. per quarter ;
and stated that his proposal was necessary to prevent the
surplus grain of other countries going to that country in-
stead of coming to our own. A further measure to pro-
mote his object was the repeal of the navigation laws in
favour of foreign vessels freighted with grain. This
course he stated was necessary, from the fact that there
was a great scarcity of shipping in American ports, from
which our principal supplies must come, owing, In part,
to the underwriters there being averse to insure large
grain-laden vessels, and in part to a great quantity of
American tonnage being employed in the transport of
stores to Mexico.

The motion was seconded by Mr. G. Bankes, (Protec-
tionist) who intimated that no opposition would be offered
by the country party to any measures haying for their ob-
ject the relief of the existing distress in Ireland. A some-
what long discussion, however, took place, with respect
to the mode in which relief had already been distributed
in Ireland, in which the Chancellor of the Exchequer
proved -with tolerable clearness that Lord Grey was a very
dear bargain to the Premier, at the price put by himself
upon his official talents, viz., the privilege of bringing in
with him, and foisting into one of the most important
posts of government the very mediocre and bungling
gentleman who now fills that office—Sir Charles Wood.
An episode from his speech, in reply to charges urged by
the Irish members, that government had neglected the
iuty of providing food for the people of Ireland, by the
establishment of depots in various parts of the country,
will show the kind of aid which Lord John Russell is
likely to derive from this luminous personate. Govern-

merit, he said, were disinclined from'interfering with pri-
vate mercantile enterprise, by coming into the market as
avowed purchasers of food, from a fear lest, " instead of
having to support a large number of poor in Ireland, they
would have to maintain those vs hom their own operations
had deprived of a supply of food upon reasonable terms.
The orders therefore given were, to buy, always following,
but never leading the market." A pleasant kind of oper-
ation this for the speculator, who knew that for every

shilling per quarter extra h
rice, he had a zovernment

what v

ith those Purchases

We quote from ti

? is the question:
as reported in the

Le right lion. bar

London, Times

"At an early period nine large depots had been esta-
blished in different parts of Ireland. Up to the present
time there were 26 depots in all : 25 of which were to the
east of the Shannon. There were two in Galway, one in
Clare, three or four in Cork, besides one at Banager, &c.
Therefore, as regarded either the supply of food or the

management of depots, which an hon. gentleman seemed
to think the government had entirely neglected, measures
it appeared had been taken for meeting the emergency
when the time arrived to' fall back on the resource thus
provided. It was perfectly true that, generally speaking,
those depots had not recently been opened. Last year
there was a pressure to open the depOts at an early period
of the year, which was resisted by the Government. It
was thought desirable that the deptits should be reserved
- -

ple could they should be -left to maintain themselves.
,Some of these depth's never had been opened throughout
,the whole autumn. The depOts in Galway were opened
from time to time in the course of the autumn, as were

ose in Westport, Sligo, and other places.' 1;1U
-aces it was found that the moment the Govern-
ment interfered all private enterprise ceased."
Clearly, whilst the people of Ireland have been dying
of hunger by thousands, and food has been at fa-
mine prices, the Government has had an ample supply
stored up in their depOts ; yet they have looked calmly on,
waiting until the last penny of the famishing population
was exhausted. They kept their stores closed "in reserve

many c

for the coming (!) emergency".
emergency than that of the 1