The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-06-23 00:00:00

which contained a population equal to one-sixth of the
whole pophiation of Ireland, the crimes which this bill
sought to,pt event rather than to punish, had increased full
HOUSE OF LORDS.—MONDAY. GO per cent. The question to be really considered by the
Their lordships went into committee on the Corn Im- house, before it assented to this bill, was this :—" Were
portatien Bi 1. the ordinary powers .of the law sufficient to repress the,
The Duke of BUCKIN HAM moved as an amendment existing disorders ?" He frankly confessed that bethought
to the first clause that the words " until the lst of Fe- that they were not. Nay, he would venture to predict,
bruary. 1849," be omitted. that. if Lord John Russell should, as was expected, shortly
On a division, the amendment was negatived by a ma- become minister, and if his benevolent projects for the
jority of 33, when the original clause was agreed to; after conciliation and ameliora ion and regeneration of the peo-
which their lordships adjourned. plc of Ireland should lag behind the progress of these so-
cial evils, which all lan-Jented,—as it was very probable,
that without any fault of his they would,—he would be
found coming down to Parliament to propose a measure
with clauses, either analogous to those of the present bit,
or only differing from them in departing more widely
from the constitution. There were portions of the pre-
sent debate to which he had listened with great pain. He
did not wish to re-infuse acrimony into a discussion, which
for some time past had been conducted with exemplary
moderation ; but he must express his unaffected regret,
that differences op politics had led to the sacrifice of the
feelings of private friendship. On the occasion to which
he alluded. Lord G. Bentinck had been defended with
great seal by Mr. Dime li ; but he must be permitted to
inform both of these gentlemen. 'hat the House of Com-
mons was not like the Court of Chancery, in which a bad
precedent formed a good argument. Precedents might be
formed for any nonsense or any violence of language; and
therefore he valued little the precedents which Mr. Dis-
raeli had found for Lord G. Bentinck's application of the
term of " paid Janissaries" to Sir R. Peel's colleagues, in
the speeches of that able and generous, though not always
temperate statesman, Mr. Fox. Mr. Fox had once said
that he should not conceive himself safe in the same room
with Lord North, and yet he had afterwards sate with
him in the same Cabinets. And who knew that all might
not come right yet between Lord G. Bentinck and Sir R.
Peel? He then disclaimed the appellation of a renegade,
which Lord G. Bentinck bad applied to several gentlemen
as honourable as any in the house, and amongst others to
himself. He concluded by stating that this measure had
not been proposed as a cure for the evils of Ireland ; that
he did not support it as such cure; but that he did sup-
port it as the means of putting down certain crimes which
were prevalent in certain districts of Ireland.

imptrial Vartianunt.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—MONDAY.
The adjourned debate on the Protection to Life (Ireland) •
Bill was resumed.
Sir R. INGLts and Colonel VERNER severally con-
demned the delays which had taken plave in passing this
bill ; but at the same time would support it, havirg heard
since they had voted for the firsr reading no reason which
should induce them to take a diffaeht course on this stage
of the bill. _ _

Lord J. RUSSELL maintained that this bill was not ne-
cessary, for if he referred to the-increase of crime in Le-
land, he found there was nothing which might riot be met
by increasing the mili!ary forces in che dist urbi-d disti icts,
as had been done when the peace of the country was
threatened to be interfered with in the manufacturing dis-
tricts of the north of England. He also taunted minis-
ters with having adopted all the measures of the
administration without having the candour to admit that
they were doing so.
Mr. D'ISRAELI said that the whole nation at once ad-
mitted tbat the noble lord ( L.,rd J. Russell) had been
harshly and unjustly treated. He then argued at great
length against tee course pursued by government in re-
spect to the Coercion Bill, and finally referred to the re-
ply of Sir R. Peel to the a!tack made upon him by Lord
G. Bentinck of having hunted Mr. Canning to death, al.
though he bad previously avowed to Lord Liverpool that
something should be done rfspecting the Catholic ques-
tion, and had subsequently in 1829 carried that very ques
tion through Parliament. Toe reply was, he contended,
no answer. The right hon. baronet only retie] on his
speech of 1827, taking no .cotice of his speech of 1829.
But in the speech of 1829 he avowed, seem ding to there-
ports in the Mirror of Parliament, and in the ,morning
papers, that in 1825 he had stated to Lord Liverpool that
something should be done with respect to the Catholic
claims, and that he would retire from office till the bill
were carried. This was his statement in 1829, although
the corrected report in Hansard gave a cliffi rent version
of the speech, so far as omitting its most importt.nt por-
tions. The hon. gentleman also quoted passages from a
speech of Mr. Canning, in which he treated Sir R. Peel's
affected neutrality as open hos;ility, and expressed his sa-
tisfaction at finding it at length unmasked. The right
bon. baronet. bad no right to shelter himself beneath the
cover of the courtesy which induced Lord G. Bentinck to
designate him in parliamentary phraseology r• his right
hon. friend."

HOUSE OF LORDS.-FRIDAY.

A petition was presented by Earl FITZWILLIAM, from
a clergyman iu Oxford, impressing upon the house the
necessity of taking measures to increase the number of
bishops in the country, which might be done without any
increased expenditure, for the additional bishops might be
paid from the surplu., incomes, as the petitioner conceived
them to be, of the present bishops. The petitioner also
suggested that the exiting bishops should no longer have
the burden of their parliamentary duties, from which they
should be relieved, in order that their whole attention
might be devoted to their spiritual dutit-s.
After a short discussion, in the course of which it was
on all hands admitted that the subject was one of great
importance, the petition was ordered to lie on the table.
The house then went into committee upon the Corn
Importation Bill, and
The Duke of RICHMOND moved a series of clauses, the
object of which was to give tenants a power of giving six
months' notice to give up their leases within six mood's
after the passing of the bill, if 'hey should think that they
could no longer cultivate tbeir farms with advantage under
the new stare of things.
The Earl of RIPON thought these clauses would give
rise to a vast deal of confusion, without giving any equi-
valent advantage to the tenantry of the country, and be
should, therefore. oppose :heir int oduction.

Sir R. Past. said the whole titlegtion turned upon the
fact as to whether be had sated to Lord Liverpool in 1825
that something should be done with respect to the Catho-
lic claims. In that year he had opposed those claims, and
asked Lord Liverpool to be relieved from his office, find-
ing that he was in a minority respecting matters so essen-
tial to the administration of afftirs in Ireland. ,After such
a lapse of time it was not to be expected that he should be
prepared to reconci!e confi:ct.ng reports of what be had
said; but he at once challenged the oroduction of his let-
letter to Lord Liverpool, and he pledged his honour to the
house that if the letter wes in exist-rnce it should be laid
upon the table in extenso, and at once show its nature
and obje.ct.
The debate was then adjourned.

The Earl Of MALMFSBURT was of opinion that the
tenantry would be unjustly dealt with if these clauses
were nct agreed to, fur otherwise they would he placed
by the modern le islation of parliament entirely at the
mercy of their landlords.
After some ob•ervatinns from Lord ASHBURTON,
The Duke of RICHMOND withdrew his motion, and the
bill passed through committee.

It was then arranged that the bill should be read a third
time on Tuesday.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—FRIDAY.
The whole evening was consumed with a debate on
Lord George Bentinck's attack on Sir Robert Peel with
reference to the right hon. baronet's treatment of Can-
ning. Sir Robert entered into a long explanation on the
subject, the chief fvatures of which we give elsewhere.
Lord G. Bentinck and Mr. IY Israeli contended that the
charge was sustained, whilst Mr. Goulborn, Lord John
Russell, Sir John Harmer, arid others, considered Sir
Robert's explanation a most triumphant defence.
Lord SAN DUN deprecated the course pursued by Lord
George Bentinck, as the leader of the great country party,
in persevering in those charges after their having been so
completely re*tred. It was the first time after a Minister
of the Crown had denied statements attributed to him that
he ever remembered an attempt made to convict hi an of a
falsity. He could have wished that Sir R. Peel had in-
terposed the weight of his authority at the time to save
Mr. C inning from the persecution directed against him by
others, but this charge brought by the noble lord could
not be sustained.

After sev• rat other members had spoken the sutject
dropped. In the course of the debate, however, the fol-
lowing sharp retort was made. Lord George Bentinck
said that it was not from pers .nal motives, but upon high
constitutional grounds, that he now came forward to de-
nounce the crime of political tergiversation, and to plead
the cauge of betrayed constituencies.

Mr. B. Escorihere asked the noble lord to name the
constituencie, which had been betrayed.

Lord G. BENTINCK, turning wittisome warmth to Mr..
B. E4cntt, " You ask me who has betrayed the constitu-
encies ? I answer you—l have the honour to be one of
your constituents, and I know something of what passes
at Winchester." The noble lord then went on with his
speech.
The debate on the Coercion Bill was adjourned to last
night.

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL.

OVERLAND MAIL.

The express in anticipation of the Overland Mail
reached London on Saturday morning. The dates are,
from Bombay, May 12; Calcutta, May, 3; Madras, May
8: Ceylon, May 11; and Hongkong, April 25.