Mr. Maxwellsaid, that he held in his hand a petition connected with the subject of Emigration. The House would bear in recollection, that sometime ago the case of a number of poor people, inhabitants of Renfrew-shire, in Scotland, came before that House, when, being referred to the committee on Emigration, it was taken fully into consideration by them. The case excited the greatest attention, as it naturally ought to have done, not only amongst the members of the Emigration committee, but also amongst those of the Relief committee, who managed the distribution of the fund supplied by public subscription for the relief of the distressed manufacturers. This committee made a proposition to the Emigration committee, which, under the circumstances, was acceded to by the latter. It appeared, that such was the degree of distress which was then experienced by the Scotch manufacturers, that the London committee proposed to apply a sum of 25,000l. provided that a further sum of 50,000l. could be obtained from government by the Emigration committee, to enable the suffering body of manufacturers to migrate from this country. The offer was, after consideration, accepted by the latter, and a report was made recommending the grant. The report was laid before government; as it was necessary that the sanction of the chancellor of the Exchequer should be obtained before the grant of a sum could be obtained from parliament. He was now desirous of knowing what was the intention of government with respect to this report.
§ Mr. Canningsaid, he could assure the hon. gentleman, that the question was one which had occupied many anxious hours of the time of his majesty's minis- 928 ters; and, if the conclusion to which they had ultimately come was not one which would meet the wishes of the hon. gentleman or his constituents, it was because his majesty's government had preferred that course of conduct, which sound policy, and a due attention to the best interests of the country, recommended. The state of the case was shortly this:—In the progress of the labours of the Emigration committee, there came to their knowledge instances of peculiarly aggravated distress in certain parts of England and Scotland, the urgent nature of which demanded a prompt and separate consideration. The committee, at the same time, received a communication from a committee appointed to manage the funds subscribed by private benevolence for the relief of the distressed manufacturers, in which they proposed to give a sum of money, to be applied to the service of those necessitous persons, on the supposition that the Emigration committee would be able to procure the advance of another and a larger sum for the same purpose. The Emigration committee took this tender into consideration, and the result of their deliberations came before the government. There was no reason why government should not have considered the subject, and why they should not have permitted the application to be made to parliament. But, before any decisive step was taken, reports, he was happy to be able to say, reached government, representing that a gradual, sensible, growing improvement had taken place in the manufacturing districts of the country—that though wages were not high, yet that there was no want of work—and that, as it was represented to him, all willing hands were now in a state of employment. Acting upon these representations, when he saw the gentlemen of the committee this morning, with whom he had an interview preparatory to the present question being put, he thought himself justified in putting this question to them, "If, now that an improvement has taken place, and sensible as you must be of the great impolicy and inconvenience of granting large sums of public money, to redress temporary and local distress, are you, under the circumstances, prepared to enforce your application?" The general and immediate answer was, "Certainly not; for that it was under the pressure of an immediate exigence that they had originally communicated with 929 the government, and that, as the reason for a deviation from the course always pursued by the government had ceased to exist, the committee forbore to urge that it should be acted upon." Government had, therefore, only one principle to follow, and to retract the encouragement which it might have given to the application for a public grant of money. It was impossible to omit that opportunity of doing justice to the merits of the committee, who by their assiduity, their promptitude, their judicious selection of that which was to be refused and that which was to be granted, had kept the country, through a period of peril, in a state of tranquillity; the benefit of which could only be valued by those who remembered what had taken place under the pressure of distress at former periods. If the government was not then prepared to go all the lengths which the petitioners might be disposed to require, it was a happy consolation to know, that the urgency of the distress, which alone would justify the interference called for, was now removed.
Mr. Baringwas of opinion, that it was of the greatest importance to have the subject of emigration fully considered. He hoped that something permanent might be done for the benefit of the country generally, not only the manufacturing, but the agricultural, districts, particularly Sussex, which was overloaded with a wretched population, living on charity and the poor-rates, in the most miserable condition, and constituting, by their wretchedness, an enormous charge on the cultivators of the land. In the course of the inquiries of the Emigration committee, they had learned that there were cases of distress in Lancashire, Renfrewshire, and Lanarkshire, so urgent, that, in conjunction with the Relief committee, they had recommended them to the attention of his majesty's government, with a view to facilitate the immediate emigration of the suffering individuals. The Relief committee considered the whole matter so important, that they thought they could not better employ their funds than by giving relief, not in the evanescent form of passing charity, but in the shape of permanent provision against future distress, by enabling the sufferers to leave the country. The Emigration committee was disposed, in furtherance of this object, to have advised the expenditure of 50,000l. He was quite aware that such a recommendation would alone be justified 930 by a very extraordinary state of things. The resolution was passed unanimously in the committee; but he had no hesitation in saying, that the reasons stated by the right hon. gentleman were perfectly good, for now withholding the grant.
Mr. W. Hortonbegged to declare, on the part of the Emigration committee, that the pecuniary relief they proposed to afford to those who were disposed to emigrate, was intended solely for a particular description of persons, the hand-loom weavers, and founded upon the peculiarity and urgency of their particular case. Now, as it appeared that that peculiarity of case and urgency of distress had ceased, the committee adopted the course which had been already explained. The report of the whole proceeding would, he hoped, be soon in a state to be laid on the table of that House; and it would be then seen, that the money of the country had been in no instance idly expended.