The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-05-12 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-FRIDAY.

The report on the Corn Importation Bill was brought
up. On the question that it be now received,
Sir C. Bu RH ELL moved that the report be received that
day six mon'las.

Colonel VERNER. in seconding the amendment, ob-
served that his reason for doing so was the alarm which
he felt at the enormous change which this measure would
produce not only in the condition of the small farmers of
Ireland, but also in the whole commercial and financial
system of the empire. The repeal of the corn laws would
be a great national calamity, and was ❑ot requred by any
well-grounded apprehensions of famine in Ireland. Sir
R. Peel, in proposing it, had deserte. the friends who had
stood true to him for thirty years.
Atter a few remarks from S'r W. JOLIFFE, Mr. G.
BANKES combated the ministerial assertion as to the
famine in Ireland, which, he said, though severe in some
parts, was far from universal ; and called upon the Secre-
tary for Ireland to disprove his position.

Lord LINCOLN admitted that for all the statements
made by Sir ft. Peel and Sir J. Graham respecting the
severe pressure now existing in Ireland, and the still se-
verer pressure which mieht soon be apprehended. he was
responsible. He now affirmed, in his place in Parliament
that those statements were not exaggerated. He appealed
on that subject to Mr. Stafford O'Brien, who had gone
over to Ireland almost as sceptical as to the existence of
distress there, as Mr. G. Bankes himself, and yet within
24 hours after his arrival on his estate, had written to him
a letter of the most urgent nature on the amount of the
existing destitution in his locality, asserting that there
was a demand for aid, which, if it were not supplied in a
few hours, wr,uld render it difficult to maintain the tran-
quillity of the district. He admitted that the distress in
Ireland was ❑ot universal, but he contended that it was
still general and extensive After twitting the hon. mem-
ber with the state of the agricultural labourers in Dor-
setshire, his lordship described the steps which had been
taken by the government to relieve that distress, and
pointed out the difference of circumstances in the appre-
hension of famine existing in Ireland in the year 1822
in the year 1846.
Mr. FLOYMa replied to the remarks of Lord Lincoln
as to the state of the Dorsetsbire labourers, after which

Mr. STAFFORD O.l3n.rEN gave the strongest corrobo-
ration to the testimony of Lord Lincoln, so far as the
counties of Limerick and Clare were concerned. As far
as he could judge, there was at present great distress in
Ireland, and the house mint he prepared to hear of its in-
crease. He lamented that Sir IL Peel had made confu-
sion worse confounded in that country by mixing up with
its distress the alteration of the corn laws. He ought
not to have applied to a temporary distress a permanent
measure.

Mr. LEFROY, Mr. BonTnwtcx, and Mr. HENLEY,
then addressed the house Against the measure, atter
which Mr. ROEBUCK made an attack upon Mr. Disraeli,
for having misrepresented, in a late speech, the opinions
which a friend of his, Mr. John Mills, had expressed in
his pamphlet on the laws of interchange, and proceeded
to comment upon the changes in that hon. member's po-
litical career.

Mr. DISRAELI replie 1 in a vein of well applied sar-
casm to the attack made upon him by the hon. member
for Bath. •
Mr. S. HERBERT replied to the speech of Mr. Hen-
ley, and reiterated many of the arguments which he had
formerly employed in defence of the comonercial policy of
Her Majesty's Ministers. He thought that Mr. Banker,
on being reminded of the condition of the labouring po-
pulation io his own county of Dorset, must have re-
pented of the call which he had made upon Lord Lincoln,
to give him a description of the condition of Ireland.
Mr. Bankes had found fault with the government for ap-
plying a permanent remedy to a temporary evil; but was
Mr. Bankes' sure that the evil would be merely temporary ?
Lord G. BENTINCK denied that he had ever appeared
in the capacity of a " political agitator." He had not ad-
dressed any meetings out of doors, but had confined the
expression of his sentiments to that house, the legitimate
place for them. He had not sought the leadership of the
party with which he was acting; on the contrary, when
this measure was first propounded, he had expected that
he should have had the pleasure or opposing it under the
leadership of Mr. S. Herbert. Lard Lincoln had that
night admitted that he was responsible for all the state-
InetaS, respecting the existence of famine in Ireland,
which had been wade to the house by Sir 11. Peel and Sr
J. Graham. Ile was afraid that leis lordship was a very
credulous minister ; for he had stated on the hustings
that a compact had been struck between himself and Mr.
S. O'Brien, a compact which had no existence whatever.
He thought tt.at Lord Lincoln must lend his car to every
eaves-dropper, and that thus we had so much exaggera-
tion as to the prevalence of famine in Ireland. He (Lord
G. Bentinck) affirmed, that there was at present greater
abundance in Ireland than was ever known before, and
charged ministers with having been guilty of propagating
wilful exaggerations with respect to the famine which they
professed to apprehend. He should like to see all the
reports which they had r ceived on that subject. He
should like to sue the reports of the Cemmander-in-Chief
in Ireland, of the Poor-law Coministeoners in Ireland,
and of the Inspector of Prisons in Ireland ; for he knew
something already of their contents, and that something
was very different from some of the reports already before
the house. He contended that no laws had ever worked
better for the public than the corn-laws, and insisted that
they ought not to be changed, and denied that in resisting
the alteration of them he was endeavouring to serve any
selfish interest. He then made a bitter attack on Lord
Lincoln, contrasting his language at his last election for
South Nottinghamshire with his recent language in that
house and on the hustings at Falkirk. Who had turned
the noble lord out of that county ? The tenant farmers of
that district. All regard felt for his private character, all
the money which he had spent in bribery or otherwise had
not saved him. His defeat in South Notts, and of Lord
Ashley in Dorsetshire, was a proof that Englishmen hated
tergiversation, and did not like to be betrayed, and were
opposed to the present alteration in the corn laws.
Lord LINCOLN, after an apology for his irregularity in
addressing the house a second time, proceeded to reply to
what he called the prepared and elaborate attack of Lord
G. Bentinck, who had reserved his " envenomed bitter-
ness'' a,,ain-t him for the present occasion. Ile would
not detain the house at present by any attempt to explain
his
but would confine his observations
to
against his conduct at the last elec-
tiont hustingsh
e charge
brought speeches,
for South Notts. He told Lord G. Bentinck to his
teeth that it was untrue that he (Lord Lincoln) ltd been
guilty of either bribery or corruption. Considering the
ordinary legal expenses which candidates were compelled
to incur in contesting counties. his late contest fer
tinghamshite had been a cheap contest. Whilst on that
subject,. he reminded Lord G. Bentinck that a meniber of
his lordship's family had subscribed largely to the ex-

penses of his opponent, and that he could mention the
exact amount of that subscription, if be was anxious to
hear it.
Sir C. BURRELL then asked leave to withdraw his
amendment ; but was met with a loud cry of no, no, from
the Ministerial and Liberal members.
An a,,im ted discussion took place on this paint of
form. At one period of it, a motion for the adjournment
of the debate was made by Mr. Law, but was subsequently
abandoned in consequence of the interference of Sir It.
Peel. At last leave was granted to withdraw the amend-
ment. The report was received, and the bill was ordered
to be printed. and to be read a third time on Monday.

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL.

LATEST FROM AMERICA.
THE OREGON QUESTION.-THE NOTICE.

We have received. via Havre, most important advices
from Weshington to the 16th ult., inclusive. They bring
the result of the debate in the senate upon the Oregon
question. On the 16th of April, in the senate, Mr. John-
son, of Maryland, moved the following resolution :
" Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled.
that the President of the United States be, and he is
hereby authorised, at his discretion, to give the British
government the notice required by its sec" and article for
the abrogation of the 6th of August, 1827.
Mr. Allen moved to amend this substitute by striking
out the second and third paragraphs of the preamble, and
inserting an extract from the President's message, com-
mencing, " And whereas it has now become the duty of
Congress," &c.
The question being taken on the amendment proposed
by Mr. Allen, it was decided in the negative by a vote of
—yeas, 22; nays, 32.
Mr. Allen moved to lay the resolution reported by the
senate committee on foreign affairs on the table, in order
that the resolutions adopted by the House of Representa-
tives might be taken up and acted upon, which was agreed
to.
Mr. Breese, of Illinois, then moved to amend the sub-
stitute by striking out the words " at his discretion" in
the :resolution. The question being taken, the motion
was decided in the negative by a vote of—yeas, 22; nays,
32.

The question was then taken on the adoption of the
substitute, and decided in the affirmative by a vote of—
yeas, 30 ; nays, 24.
•

The committee of the whole house bating reported the
amendment to the senate, it was concurred in.

The question then recurred, on ordering the joint peso.
lotions to be engrossed and read a third time, which was
decided in the affirmative by a vote of—yeas, 40; nays, 14.
So the senate agreed, by a majority of 26 out of 54
votes, to adopt the resolution as amended, which will now
have to be sent back to the House of Representatives for
its concurrence.

WASHINGTON, APRIL 16.—Mr. Slidell has returned
from his mission to Mexico. Simultaneous as it would
appear with the orders for Mr. Slidell to return to the
United Ftates, General Taylor received orders to march
the troops under his command from Corpus Christi to the
Rio Grande, and they are now opposite the city of Monts-
moras, having put th 3 Mexicans into a tremendous fright,
so that the government official there set fire to the cus.
t..m-house, and ran off as fast as he could.

It is said that the seiate will not act upon 'any measure
of any importance sent to it by the house, until that body
has acted definitively upon the resolutions of notice,
which the senate passed yesterday.
The tariff bill, which had been reported by the com-
mittee of ways and means, is hardly expected to pass
Congress this session, or, perhaps, the next, either.

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.