LORD MONTEAGLE expressed a most decided conviction of the absolute necessity of such a clause as this to the good working of the measure. The only objection was that of the technical character referred to by the noble Earl; and though, if he believed that the introduction of this or of any similar clause would endanger the Bill, he should not give it his support, he should yet feel it his duty to vote for the Motion, should it be pressed by his noble Friend.

LORD CAMPBELL reminded their Lordships that they had gone through this Bill most laboriously, and entreated that they would now let it pass without creating any further disturbance. He did not question the importance of the principle, and he would say nothing now of the value of the suggestion; but, after the intimation given by the noble Earl, that the House of Commons might resist such an encroachment upon their privileges, he offered his humble but most earnest advice that the clause be withdrawn.

The

The EARL of WICKLOW looked upon this as the most important clause proposed to be introduced since the Bill had been before their Lordships; but if the measure could in any way be endangered by their Lordships assenting to such an Amendment, he would only request the noble Lord to consent to its withdrawal. remark made by the noble Earl, in reference to the privileges of the House of Commons, was decisive. The clause could not possibly come into operation, were it now agreed to, for two or three years; and within that time it was not impossible the Bill might be brought under the revision of Parliament.

LORD MONTEAGLE said, the noble Lord would recollect that when a previous Poor Law was under consideration, the Amendment introduced, while the Bill was in the House of Lords, by the Duke of Wellington, was consented to by the House of Commons, and that that assembly did not consider their privileges had been at all invaded, though the Amendment was moved under circumstances similar to the present.

LORD REDESDALE would not press a division, if the Government feared that the Bill would be endangered, or that the privileges of the House of Commons were

EARL GREY admitted the precedent of 1838, quoted by the noble Lord (Lord Monteagle); but the noble Lord was aware that the Amendment had received the concurrence of the House of Commons, only after much difficulty, and a great deal of debating which had not been made public. He would not say that this clause would cause the rejection of the Bill; but its introduction would undoubtedly lead to this perplexity, that it would make the House of Commons the more unwilling to agree to other clauses introduced in their Lordships' House, and of a most important tendency.

Clause withdrawn.

EARL GREY moved an Amendment to the 16th Clause, to enact that the highest ratepayers having been appointed ex-officio guardians, should, under certain circumstances, be permitted to delegate their authority to their qualified agents, even though such agents should not be among the highest ratepayers.

Amendment agreed to.

LORD ABINGER moved the insertion of a clause limiting the amount of the rate to be levied for the relief of the poor, upon the landlord or tenant, or both, to onesixth of the net rent.

EARL GREY opposed it. It would declare that the rate for the relief of the most extreme case of destitution should in no case exceed 3s. 4d. in the pound. Clause negatived.

The EARL of CLANCARTY asked if a measure for the suppression of vagrancy in Ireland would be brought before the House? They had imposed a great burden on property, and he thought they should enact with the present measure a Bill for checking vagrancy.

EARL GREY concurred with the noble Earl that a Vagrancy Act should accompany a Poor Law; a Bill with this object had nearly passed its final stage in the House of Commons, he believed with the general consent of all parties; it would soon be before their Lordships, by whom he had no doubt it would be as generally supported.

Bill passed.-House adjourned.

The following Protest was entered on the Journals of the House against the Third Reading of the Irish Poor Bill:--DISSENTIENT

1. Because every law, giving to the destitute

a claim to relief, must of necessity have a tendency to induce amongst the objects of its care, improvident habits; and this tendency is increased in more than an equal ratio, as the range of objects to which it applies is enlarged, and the nature of the relief extended.

2. Because the Irish people seem, either from natural constitution or from adventitious cireumstances, peculiarly prone to such habits; and to them their present distress may, in my opinion, be mainly traced.

3. Because the tendency of this Bill, therefore, is, in its result, rather to increase than to diminish the probability of the recurrence of that distress.

4. Because it appears that there is in Ireland a great want of the machinery necessary for the proper administration of this law.

5. Because this Bill contemplates the necessity of giving out-door relief, and it has been proved by experience in England, that it is very difficult to resist the pressure which is at times brought to bear against the checks imposed by law for securing the wholesome administration of such relief; and because the experience of the working of the 9th and 10th Victoria, c. 107, in Ireland, proves it to be probable that the difficulty there will be still greater; and, if those checks are once broken through, the total absorption of the property of the country and the entire demoralisation of the people will be the necessary con

sequence.

6. Because this Bill, intended to effect a complete and lasting change in the habits and manners of the people of Ireland, avowedly an experiment, admitted by all to be a difficult, and characterized by some of its supporters as a doubtful and ha

zardous one, has been brought in and passed under

the excitement of a grievous, accidental, and temporary calamity, which precludes its receiving that calm and dispassionate consideration which so important a measure demands.

7. Because it is notorious that the desire generally manifested for a Bill of this nature has had its origin in the inconvenience resulting from this accidental and temporary calamity, the consequent influx into England of destitute Irish families; and is suggested not so much by the hope that it will benefit the people of Ireland, as in the expectation-which I believe will turn out to be quite fallacious-that it will prevent the recurrence of similar inconvenience.

8. Because, therefore, I consider this Bill in itself objectionable; not calculated to ameliorate the condition of the people of Ireland; incapable of being satisfactorily administered; likely to be destructive to property and dangerous to the independence of the poor in Ireland; introduced and passed at an unfit time and without due consideration; and, though called for by the people of England, called for on erroneous grounds.

RADNOR,

MONTEAGLE, of Brandon. For the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th reasons, FITZWILLIAM.

HOUSE OF COMMONS,

Tuesday, May 18, 1847. MINUTES.] PUBLIC BILLS.-1o Poor Removal Act Amendment; Copyhold Commission; Turnpike Acts Continu

ance; Loan Societies; Stock in Trade Exemption; Highway Rates.

go Westminster and part of Middlesex Sewers. Reported. Juvenile Offenders; Transference of Lands (Scotland); Heritable Securities for Debt (Scotland); Burgage Tenure (Scotland); Crown Charters (Scotland); Cemeteries Clauses. PETITIONS PRESENTED. By the Chancellor of the Exchequer and other hon. Members, from several places, for Regulating the Qualification of Chemists and Druggists. - By Mr. G. Hope, from Southampton, and from the Parish of Saint Olave, Southwark, in favour of the Health of Towns Bill.-By Mr. Beckett, from Leeds, for Alteration of the Health of Towns Bill; and against the Highways Bill.-By Sir De L. Evans and other hon. Members, from several places, in favour of the Medical Registration and Medical Law Amendment Bill-By the Chancellor of the Exchequer, from Persons assembling for Public Worship in Haley Hill Chapel, in Northowram, near Halifax, for the Suppression of Promiscuous Inter course. By Mr. Gill, from the Corporation of the Guar dians of the Poor of the Town of Plymouth, respecting the Punishment of Vagrants, &c. (Ireland) Bill.-By Lord E. Bruce, from Marlborough, for Alteration of the Law of Settlement.

THE DERBY DAY-ADJOURNMENT. LORD G. BENTINCK, who had on the Paper a notice of Motion, "That the House at its rising do adjourn till Thursday," then rose and said, Sir, for more than half a century the Derby day has been a recognised holiday.

MR. HUME spoke to order. The notice of the noble Lord stood No. 18 on the Paper, and there was no reason why the Derby should have preference in the House over everything else.

MR. SPEAKER: It is usual to take early in the evening Motions respecting the adjournment of the House.

MR. HUME wished to know whether

there was any Standing Order ["Chair, chair!"] entitling any hon. Member at any time to interrupt the business of the House by a Motion respecting its adjournment at its rising.

MR. SPEAKER: The practice has always been to take these Motions for the adjournment of the House early in the evening, for the convenience of hon. Members, because they cannot otherwise tell on what day the House will sit, and might not know for what days to fix Motions.

House at its rising to adjourn till Thursday.

LORD LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND-DEATH OF THE EARL OF BESBOROUGH. MR. HUME asked whether the Government had made arrangements for filling up the vacant office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland? It was important that it should be known as soon as possible what was intended to be done with regard to that office.

the commissioner who, under the terms of the Act of Parliament, retired.

SIR J. GRAHAM hoped he might be allowed to confirm the precise accuracy of the statements made by the right hon. Baronet and the hon. Gentleman who had last addressed the House. In 1844 there were ten assistant poor-law commissioners; by an Act of Parliament then passed the number was to be reduced to nine. It was necessary for the Commissioners to select one of the ten to retire; and they selected Mr. Mott. He was not dismissed, in the sense in which the hon. Member used that word as a punishment for any offence; but in making a selection with a view to the relative merits of the then ten assistant commissioners, the circumstance to which the hon. Member (Dr. Bowring) had alluded was considered by the Commissioners, and by himself (Sir J. Graham). On the whole he was not satisfied with the report which Mr. Mott made with reference to the state of Bolton, and that circumstance did weigh in the selection they made of Mr. Mott, by which he ceased to be an assistant commissioner.

SIR C. NAPIER.

ADMIRAL BOWLES rose to ask the Secretary of the Admiralty whether the hon. and gallant Member for Marylebone was appointed to command the experimental squadron this year? and if so, after the very strong language in which he had so publicly expressed his disapprobation of the ships constructed by Sir W. Symonds, he was considered by the Board of Admiralty likely to be an impartial judge on so important an occasion?

ADMIRAL DUNDAS answered, that Sir C. Napier had been so appointed, and that the Admiralty were perfectly certain that he would do his duty, as he always had done.

THE USE OF FLOUR IN CALICOES.

MR. FERRAND rose to put a question of which he had given notice. As it was calculated that 183,120,000 lbs. weight of the best flour was annually used merely for the purpose of dressing the warps for weaving, besides an immense quantity for the purpose of daubing cottons with flour paste to defraud the public, he wished to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether he would bring in a Bill to prohibit the use of flour for such purposes? Very strong opinions had been expressed on the subject by the working population; and

having received the calculations on which he proceeded from a person practically acquainted with the subject, he had every reason to consider them as perfectly correct.

LORD J. RUSSELL replied, that he would not bring in a Bill for any such purpose.

COMBINATIONS AT SHEFFIELD.

MR. T. DUNCOMBE rose to call the attention of the House to a petition of several inhabitants of Sheffield as to the conduct of Mr. Overend. This gentleman was a medical man in great and extensive practice at Sheffield; and he hoped, for the sake of his patients, that his prescriptions were better than his law. Whenever this gentleman was called on, in his capacity of magistrate, to adjudicate between employers and employed, it might be by accident, but it was found that he invariably gave his opinion in favour of employers. The working men of Sheffield were extremely attached to what were called trade unions. Mr. Overend took a very different view from them on this subject; and whenever a case of that kind arose, Mr. Overend was always sent for. It happened in the present case that a sword manufacturer and three of his men had a dispute as to the employment of two persons named Poole and Allen. Mr. Newfold admitted that the men conducted themselves with civility, though that gentleman had used some warm expressions on the occasion. Overend, the magistrate, was sent for to adjudicate. Though other business was going on before the other justices, this gentleman, who was celebrated for his knowledge of the law bearing on those combinations, said, immediately on taking his place, "We'll go on with your case now. When the case concluded, he sentenced the men to three months' imprisonment and hard labour. On an appeal, however, the conviction was set aside. Now, everybody was liable to error; but the fact as regarded Mr. Overend was, that most of his convictions had been quashed. The first design of the artificers was to memoralize the Secretary of State to have him dismissed; but it was afterwards thought better to call the attention of the public to the subject in the present form. They had no complaint against any of the magistrates but Mr. Overend. They did not believe his judgments were impartial, and they prayed the House to protect them from his decisions in future. The

Mr.