HC Deb 30 July 1869 vol 198 cc1053-4

MR. DELAHUNTY, who had given notice of a Motion upon this subject, which the rules of the House would not allow him to move, said the object which he had in view was to do something which might tend to resuscitate in Ireland manufactures yielding profitable employment to the people. If manufactures could be established in Ireland, the people, being employed, would be perfectly satisfied, and the misery and distress that at present existed in that country would disappear. He regretted that the rules of the House prevented him from bringing the subject under their attention in another shape, but he hoped, on a future occasion, to bring forward a Motion for the purpose of inducing the Government to deal justly with Ireland, as far as the currency was concerned. Ireland had suffered much during the last thirty or forty years, and her population, instead of being 13,000,000 as it should have been, allowing for the natural ratio of increase, was only 5,250,000, or exactly what it was in 1801. The famines that had occurred in that country were not owing to a short supply of food, but to the want of employment consequent upon the absence of a circulating medium. In 1822, in 1828, and in 1848, the periods of the greatest distress in that country, food was abundant and cheap, but the people had no money to buy it in consequence of the contraction of the circulation. He hoped the Government would take this matter into their earliest consideration, and would bring in a Bill to assimilate the Currency Laws of Ireland to those of other parts of the United Kingdom.

MR. AYRTON

said, the question brought forward by the hon. Member was a very important one, and at some appropriate time would receive the careful attention of the Government. In the meantime, however, matters of most pressing importance demanded their immediate attention, and would prevent them from giving it that consideration which it would otherwise have demanded. He hoped that the step taken by the hon. Member would be duly appreciated in Ireland.

Main Question "That Mr. Speaker do now leave the Chair," put and agreed to