§ Mr. Wharton brought up the Report of the Committee on the Suspension of the Exportation of Spirits from Ireland on the motion that it be agreed to,
§ Sir J. Newportintreated government not to protract any measures which they might have in view for the relief of the people of Ireland in the present scarcity of grain. Every day's post brought additional proofs of the existence and the pressure of that scarcity, and he hoped the 256 right hon. gentleman opposite was sensible of the serious responsibility under which he laboured on this subject.
§ Mr. V. Poleassured the right hon. baronet, that he was fully sensible of the serious responsibility which attached to him in the discharge of his official duties. To be reminded of this, he need only look at the public prints in Ireland, in which, while on the one hand the distresses of the people of Ireland were exaggerated in the most unjustifiable manner, a kind of proclamation was issued on the other for visiting all those distresses on his head. Still, however, he was firmly determined not to come forward and propose to parliament what he could not but consider a most calamitous measure, namely, the total stoppage of the distillation from grain, until he should be in possession of documents of so cogent a nature as to shew the indispensable necessity of such a proceeding. Whenever that might be the case, he trusted that he should not be found disposed to shrink from his duty. He admitted that every post did bring additional information on this subject of an unpleasant nature, and that the post of this day had conveyed to him the unwelcome intelligence, that corn in Ireland was still higher even than he anticipated it would be; but he repeated, that government kept a watchful eye on what was passing in that country, and that they might perhaps soon feel it to be their duty to propose further measures to counteract the evil.
§ Sir John Newportdisclaimed all intention of throwing any censure on the right hon. gentleman. His information had been derived, not from the Irish newspapers, but from respectable individuals, some of whom were known to the right hon. gentleman, and who entertained for him a high regard.
§ The Resolution was agreed to, and a Bill ordered accordingly.