The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-11-30 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-WEDNESDAY.

On the bringing up the report on the address,
Mr. OSBORNE entered into a general review of all the
topics alluded to in the Queen's speech, dwelling more
particularly on the condition of Ireland. As an Irish
landlord, he bore his testimony to the success of the Irish
Poor-law, and censured the conduct of many landlords
for their eager desire to get possession of the land, driving
families from their homes into bogs and drains. He ad-
mitted the necessity of some coercive measures to sup-
press outrage, but as long as the peasantry were ill-housed,
ill-clothed, and worse paid for their labour, there would
be no safety for life and property.
Lord G. BENTINCK expressed his surprise that the go-
vernment had not thought it worth while to state their
reaaons for giving the bank permission to violate their
charter. He attacked the government for their tardiness
in granting even this relief, and reviewed the pressure that
was obliged to be brought to bear on them to cause them
to yield. He then contrasted the commercial condition
of this country with that of other European nations, to
show that the misery we were now suffering was the re-
sult of free trade. While our factories were almost stand-
ing still, and our operatives famishing, other countries
were sending to our markets, and actually buying cotton
in Livernool at three halfpence per pound less than it
could be obtained in the country where it was grown.
Thus, also, was it with sugar and with tea, so that the na-
ture of our free trade commercial operations was to ena-
ble us to supply foreigners in Europe with tea, cotton,
sugar, &c., at a less price than we paid for those articles
in the markets from whence we bought Clem. This was
a clear proof that other countries which adhered to pro-
tection, aid which would concede nothing without an
.equivalen, were in a state of great prosperity, profiting
by every loss we sustained ; while on the other hand Eng-
land, with its free trade principles, was reduced in the
eyes of Europe, to a state of shame, bankruptcy, and dis-
grace. (Cheers.) Could anything be more disgraceful
than for the government to sanction a grossly usureus
rate of interest which, they must well know, com:f theaerc
could not legitimately pay ? (Cheers.) They had been
and still were enabling the hank to play the part
usurer and the monopolist, and to say in the words of Sir
Giles Overreach, "All men must be sellers—we the only
buyers." The noble lord then referred to the dreadful
calamity which had fallen upon our West India colonies,
upon the Mauritius, and the East Indies, and entered his
solemn protest against proceeding in so rash a course.
Low changed were the whole circumstances of the country
since the time when it enjoyed the blessing of protection !
Now the people are starving in the midst of plenty, and
at the moment of our returning thanks to Providence for
granting us an abundant harvest. The noble lord ridi-
culed the notion that the distress could be attributed to
the absorption of capital by railways—the whole amount
;thus abvrbed not exceeding £85,000,000 from 1841 to
1847 (both years inclusive), pr about £12,000,000 or a

'little more per annum. He concluded an argumentative
speech amidst very general cheering.
Lord J. RUSSELL said, that the. measures of last year
respecting Ireland, referred to by the hon. member for
Middlesex, were in full operation, and would bethe means
of giving a considerable share of employment in the course
of the winter to the people of that country. It was the
intention of government to bring forward a measure to
improve the grand jury system; and also a measure to
settle in an equitable manner the relations between the
landlords and tenants, which, in their present condition,
were the fruitful source of so many outrages in Ireland.
With respect to the speech of his noble friend (Lord G.
Bentinck), he must say that he appeared to have thrown
away a large share of very excellent indignation, merely
because it appeared to the government more convenient to
take the debate on Tuesday, when the whole subject
would come under the consideration of the house. Every
information, however, should be given on the whole sub-
ject to the noble lord, who had raised a song of triumph
on the present distressed state of the country, as if the
latter were a proof of the unsoundness of the principles of
free trade. From anything that had fallen from the no-
ble lord in the shape ofargunnent in support of his asser-
tion, he might as well have asked the house to assume
that Tenterden steeple was the cause of the Goodwin
•Sands. The fact was, that in a great commercial country
which sometimes entered into engagements beyond its
capital, such periods of depression must occur, and much
suffering must necessarily follow. He should be sorry if
our monetary laws could truly be said to have reduced this
country to a state of shame, bankruptcy, and disgrace, but
he could give credit to no such statement, and h bad no
fear that ere long England would be again in a position to
enter into competition with any country in the world.
They were suffering under, certainly, a severe, but he be-
BevA a temporary calamity._