Swansea and Glamorgan Herald, and South Wales Free Press. — 1847-12-08 (Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales)

SWANSEA & GLAMORGAN  HERALD.  WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1847.  NEWS OF THE WELK. DURING the past week, Parliament has made an initiative movement on the two great que4ions, for the settlement of whieh, it was convened at this  season of the year. On Monday week Sir George Grey brought forward the :ilieisterial measure for the suppression of crime and uutr.,:,e in Ireland,— a "Coercion Bill" we should in conformity nal' established usage have termed it, were we not reminded that the provisions of the bill are so very  mild in their nature—and so eautions in overstep.. .. .  ping the limits of the law that it wo.dd really be an unjustifiable use of language to apply to the measure any word which would associate with it the idea of coercion. It is, among other things, provided, that the whole population of a disturbed district may be turned out in pursuit of the violators of the law—a feature which from the inducement of escaping the the tax, o ill not only prove most effective in bringing the criminal to justice—but will serve as a test to the state of feeling among the population of each district. The only augmentation of force required by the Bill is the increase of the reserved police from 400 to 600 men. Thus then the anticipated "Coercion Bill" dwindles down to a measure whose principal features are an increase in the constabulary force—and the punishment of districts in which violence and outrage are unchecked through  pubic, apathy, with a Sue—in the shape of additional taxation.  In comparison with former measures for Ireland of a coercive nature, the provisions of the present Bill are free from nearly all the harsher features which characterised them. They are as mild as the nature of the evils which it is proposed to provide against will permit. As much force, or if our readers wiil have it ‘. Coercion" is used as will be necessary to put a stop to murder and violence, but nothing beyond this. A civil force is the principal agency for effecting this end. The liberty of the subject is as little interfered with as is consistent with the suppression of murder and the re-establishment of the supremacy of law and social order—and above all it is evident from the very tenor of the bill, that reliance is placed less on its preventalive than effeet;re provisions, the solid motives which it furnishes to tloi inhabitants of each district to repress outrage and discountenance the perpetrators. Thus far then the Whig Ministers have acquitted themselves well. _  In rapid succession to the Irish question followed that of the motley crisis, which was broaght before the Commons ou Tuesday night by the Chancellor ofOlie Exchequer's motion for an inquiry into the causes of the recent commercial distress. In his speech co the occasion, the Right lion. Gentleman, entered into the causes of the late pressure, whidi he attributed to the drain of available capital in 1816, partly for the purchase of foreign grain=partly for permanent investment in rail ways—and to a , reckless mismanagement in the commercial world. With respect to the Bank Charter Act of IM, as an element in bringing about the recent distress, the Chancellor of the Exchequer observes by way of refutation "that greater acr•ommodation to the amount of eight millions of money had been afforded to the public by the Bat k under the Act, than in 1839. These statements were fortified by references to figures which we think go far towards proving that it was not from the mere want of bank notes or accommodation that the late pressure arose, as much as from other causes. Under the head of Foreign Intelligence, 114 prinicipul event of the week is the capture of Lucerne, the subsequent submission of the other cantons of the Sonderbund, and the dissolution of that body itself. An end Las thus been put to civil war in Switzerland. From America, accounts are confirmative of the subjugation of Mexico by the United States army. A strong feeling is developing itself among the citizens of that country, against the further extension of American sway, on the ground of danger to the free institutions and spirit of Republicanism.