The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-02-15 00:00:00

had been suppressed by the regular course of law, without
resorting to extraordinary measures. ( Hear, hear.) Nothing
was now complained of but nocturnal outrages, whilst it was
notorious that, at the period he alluded to, outrages were com-
mitted in the open day. The fact and the truth was, that the
coercive measures proposed were not intended to be directed
so much against the outrages and disturbances of the country
as against the agitation of a repeal of the union. (Hear, hear.)
An Hon. MEMBER, whose name could not be ascertained in
the gallery, stated that it was his intention, as an Irish mem-
ber, to support the government. Until agitation was put an end
to, the country never could be tranquil.
Mr. DAVID ROCHE said that, at present no case whatever
was made out which could justify government in calling for
measures of increased severity. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. J. O'CONNELL said he felt himself called upon to rise
and protest against the fresh attempt which was about to be
made by ministers to oppress his country. In the name of his
constituents he called upon the independent members of that
house not to make themselves parties to this fresh attempt to
trifle with the liberties of their fellow-subjects in Ireland.
The report on the address was then brought up.
On the motion that it should be read,
Mr. H. GRATTAN said he had an amendment which he had
intended to propose the other night, but he was unfortunately
too late. (A laugh.) If the house permitted him, however,
he should now move that amendment. (Hear, hear, and some
cries of No.)
The SPEAKER said that as the hon. member was too late on
a former night, he was too early now. (A laugh.) He must
propose his amendment at that part of the report on the address
where he wishedit to be inserted.

Mr. COBBBTT rose suddenly, and said, " I object to all that
follows." (Loud laughter.) It was his sincere opinion, and
he boldly declared it, in the presence of his Majesty's ministers,
that the proposition which was made to the house to grant them
additional powers had arisen out of the elections in Ireland.
(No, no ; and hear.) The whole nation saw that this was the
cause of the proposition for fresh powers. (No, no; and hear.)
Why then did the ministers not declare what they intended
to do? (Hear, hear.) He very believed that ministers, find-
ing they had not been able to prevent those gentlemen who
defended their country from entering that house, had resolved
to cast them into dungeons. (No, no.) One of his great ob-
jections to the speech was, that no mention was made of the
distress of the people, at a time when there was perhaps no less
than 5,000,000 or 6,000,000 of human beings in the country in
the greatest state of wretchedness and destitution. He could
tell the hon. member for Leeds, who had spoken so boastingly
of the prosperity of his constituents, that in one district in the
West hiding of York there were 40,000 persons out of 175,000
who had only 21c1. a-day to live ou. The people of England
expected to hear some conciliatory expressions fall from his
Majesty's ministers. (Cries of Question.) He assured them
that they would not silence him in that way. (Oh ! oh!)
He would appeal to the Speaker to preserve order. (Laughter.)
"Oh !Oh !") If they proceeded in that way he would move
an adjournment of the house. ("Move, move;" "Go on,"
and coughing.) The hon. member, who was indistinctly heard
for a short time, in consequence of the inattention manifested
by the house, next proceeded to read the amendment which he
intended to move to the address. The amendment was, in fact,
a substitution of an address of his own for the one which had
been proposed.—The hon. member again alluded to the dis-
tressed condition of the labouring population of the country,
and stated that in the town of Leicester the wages received by
the operatives were only 3s. a-week. Thus the poor were kept
in a state of starvation, and their earnings were taken from
them and given to the lazy and undeserving sinecurists. At a
rate of wages he had just mentioned, Lord Greuville's sinecure
would, of itself, maintain 1,200 people for a year; that of the
Herries' family `271; and the public money received by 113
privy councillors, amounting to £657,000 per annum, would
maintain no less than 163,220 people. The money which had
been lavished on the ornaments of one of the palace gates would
supply food to 9000 during a whole year. The hon. and learned
member for Dublin had been attacked with the utmost spite,
for no other cause than this, that he was beloved by the people
of Ireland, and that they, in consequence of the affection and
confidence which they bore him, desired the repeal of the le-
gislative union of the two countries, which that honourable and
learned member had conscientiously declared his conviction
to be the cause of much evil to that country. (Hear, bear.)
Why were powers to be given to the ministry to enable them
to throw him into a dungeon for doing that which men now in
power had done before? He would cite the words of an indi-
vidual possessing some authority in the sister country, the re-
collection of which ought to be sufficient to make him hide his
head from daylight and ashamed to be known by his name.
The person he alluded to, speaking of the union, stated, that
" He would resist it to the last moment of his existence—to the
last drop of his blood; and when he felt his dissolution ap-
proaching, he would, like the father of Hannibal, take his chil-
dren to the altar and make them swear eternal hostility against
the invaders of his country's freedom. * * He should be
proud to send his name down on the roll with those who had
resisted the enemies of their country. * * He bore in his
heart the consciousness of having performed his duty, and when
his death approached he should not be haunted by the thought
of having basely sold or meanly abandoned the liberties of his
native land." This was the language of a man who was now
living, and whom the house would naturally suppose was to be
found in the ranks of the Irish repealers. No such thing; it
was the language of the present Lord Chancellor of Ireland,
who was to be invested with power to put the hon. and learned
member for Dublin into gaol, only because he was endeavour-
ing to obtain a legal repeal of the union • that union, which the
Lord Chancellor for Ireland characterized as the death-blow to
the liberties of his country ; mid against the promoters of which,
like the father of Hannibal, he was to make his children swear
eternal enmity. But where were all the young Hannibals, he
wondered ? (Laughter.) He had a list of them in his hand,
and he would begin with young Hannibal the First. (Hear.)
The hon. member then proceeded to state the details of the
places' pensions, and emoluments from the public, held and re-
ceived by ten different members of the family and connections
of the noble lord (Plunkett), at greater length than our space
will permit us to follow him, accompanying the statement with
ludicrous comments, in his own peculiar style, which elicited
constant peals of laughter. The hon. member afterwards con-
tinued:—Men now say, " You have got reform, and now that
you have got it you have got no good by it." But another day
may come, and people may take something more than the re-
form which they have new got. Many thought that our pre-
sent reform came too late; he had not been of that opinion
formerly, but he would not say that he was not of that opinion
now. Ministers might depend upon it, that if the House of
Commons did not perform its duty to the people, and listen
quietly and attentively_ to the complaints of the people, the
people would say, " We have tried reform, and now that re-
form will not do we'll try something else." " But," say the
Ministers, "we have a hundred thousand soldiers, with such
things as bayonets at the end of their guns." Well, be it so,
but let him tell Ministers that not even a hundred thousand
soldiers will be able to protect the paper money. In May last,
bow near everything was to a blow up! Every body knows
that things could not have lasted as they then were for 48 hours
longer. Let them but drive the people to insurrection in any
one county in England, and they might then blow the crown
off the King's head, as easily as you would blow the down off
the top of a dandelion. (Laughter.) He had now laid before
the house the address which he thought that it should return in
answer to the King's speech. He had given his opinion as to
the gorged apostates now in power ;—he had given his opinion
as to the mariner in which the people were plundered by them,
and how the money of the people was thrown away upon these
aristocratical robbers, at the very time that the people were fa-
mishing. He should divide the house upon his amendment,
and the house might vote upon it as it pleased.
Mr. FIELDEN seconded the amendment, and in doing,so ad-
verted, in a tone of voice so low, as to prevent most of his
observations from reaching the gallery, to the distressed situa-
tion of the working people of Lancashire and Yorkshire, en-
gaged in the cotton, silk, and woollen manufactures. He had
made himself acquainted with the situation of several thousands
of the working people in that country; and he" could assure
the house that the distress of the working people in those dis-
tricts was quite appalling. He called upon the noble lord, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, to grant an inquiry into the
cause of the distress in Irelaud before coercive measures were
adopted. In England the distress was most alarming among
the working classes ; 40,000 out of 150,000 in the West Riding
of Yorkshire were literally starving for want of employment.
(Hear, Hear.) The hon. member concluded by expressing his
intention to supp'mrt the amendment of his hon. friend. (Hear,
hear, and cries of " Question, question.) He assured the
house that the artisans engaged in those manufactures to
which he had alluded, were 100-king up to a reformed parlia-
ment for the redress of the grievances which they suffered. He
was afraid to contemplate the consequences of their disappoint-
ment, if they should be disappointed in obtaining that redress,
He was afraid, that in that case the government would be com-
pelled to demand of parliament the same powers for the coer-
cion of the people of England which they were now demanding
for the coercion of the people of Ireland.
A MEMBER (name unknown) rose and said that he would not
have uttered a word upon this occasion had not the hon. mem-
ber for Oldham said that he would divide the house, if it were
only to show the people of England who were their friends and
who were their enemies. Now, he should vote against the