LORD BROUGHAMpresented a petition from the mayor, magistrates, and a number of highly respectable inhabitants of Liverpool, complaining of the influx of Irish paupers into that seaport. The petition stated that in fourteen days no fewer than 11,104 paupers came over from Ireland (being at the rate of 800 a day), exclusive of Thursday last, when upwards of 1,100 were brought over in two steamers. The petitioners stated they had reason to believe that thousands of persons were at the present moment begging their way to the various seaports of Ireland, with the intention of seeking their food in this country, and, if possible, in Liverpool. They therefore prayed their Lordships to interfere for their relief, and expressed a hope that Parliament would not separate without passing a law by which the people of Ireland as well as the people of England should be compelled to support their own poor. Upon the subject of a poor law for Ireland he would not express any opinion until the proper moment arrived for discussing it. Meanwhile the grievance to the people of Liverpool was of an extremely serious character; for, although under a recent Act these paupers could be sent back, yet the expense of their maintenance until that could be done, and the expense of their transmission, fell very heavily upon the ratepayers. He was aware the public press contended that the land of Ireland ought to be taxed for the support of the Irish poor; but that would be only taxing the landlords twice over, because the mortgagee would call in his mortgage. Such a proposition was a species of cheap humanity that reminded him of a saying of Lord Elibank's, that there were two things in which most people were exceedingly generous—other people's money and their own advice. These persons were proclaiming the right of the poor to be fed; but he denied the right of the poor man to be fed, unless by his own labour. The Government were not bound to feed the poor, or even to find them work. The only duty of the Government in that behalf was to remove all obstacles in the way of the people finding work for themselves. 613 Some persons were calling out for more public works in Ireland, and others demanded a loan of 20,000,000l. for making the railways. He would not stop to inquire whether these latter had first bought shares in the Irish railways, and wished to raise the price of them. But he warned the House that all the millions they might give would not stop the mouths of those who were crying for food. He trusted that whatever steps their Lordships might take respecting the maintenance of the Irish poor would be in the right direction, and that they would not suffer themselves either to be driven, or coaxed and seduced, into any other by compliments to their humanity. He feared that complaints would soon be heard from Glasgow, Greenock, Bristol, and other ports, unless some measure could be devised for checking the immigration of Irish paupers.
The MARQUESS of WESTMEATH, as a representative Peer of Ireland, admitted that the town of Liverpool had a grievance. The inhabitants thought they could trace it to the landed proprietors of Ireland; but he said it did not lie at their door, but at the door of those laws which were directed against the management of their estates, and from which they could not escape. There was also the greatest difficulty in putting the law in force for the ejection of tenants at will. There was much delay at first, occasioned by the length of the notice required; and even after verdict was obtained it was not always easy to eject the defendants, where there were many persons interested in opposing the execution of the law. And even where that was effected, there was the utmost difficulty in getting a new tenant, so fearful were the people of being attacked; so that it was not unusual for a landlord to put a person in possession on his own account, thus rendering him liable to violence, and perhaps to be murdered. He could mention a case which illustrated the difficulty of putting the law in force. He had himself, after much delay and unnecessary expense, recovered verdicts against some persons who were on his land. Some of those were subsequently lodged in prison. They applied under the Insolvent Act, when they were duly called on to give up possession of the land. But they got men to come forward and swear they were not in possession of it, and the court believed those witnesses. The consequence was, that the men were discharged, and they returned and took possession of the 614 land again. He contended that it was not just that the landlords should be called on to bear the whole burden of the consequences of a state of things which they were powerless to prevent. He said this with every feeling of gratitude as an Irishman for the efforts which the English were making to mitigate the existing distress in Ireland; but for his own part he would say give him his estate, and he would not ask the Government for money. He felt it to be his duty on all occasions, as he did on the present, to rise and enter his protest against the aspersions and imputations that were constantly cast upon the Irish landlords.
§ House adjourned.