LORD BROUGHAMpresented a petition from the corporation of Kingston-upon-Hull, complaining that the ratepayers of that town, in addition to maintaining their own poor, were obliged to expend considerable sums in supporting Irish paupers. The petitioners alleged that the Irish landlords did not do their part towards the maintenance of the poor, and prayed that Parliament would compel them to do so by passing a permanent and effective Poor Law for Ireland. Lord Coke said that corporations had no conscience, and perhaps some of their Lordships might think the conduct of the present petitioners confirmed the justice of the remark; for, not content with praying for a Poor Law for Ireland, they prayed that its administration might not be intrusted exclusively to Irishmen, lest it should not be impartially carried into effect. It certainly appeared that the petitioners' apprehensions on this score were in some respect justifiable; for he had received a communication from a Baronet residing in the sister kingdom complaining of the unfair mode of rating adopted under the existing law, whereby the owner of 270 acres was made to pay as much as the owner of 1,000 acres. There were, he said, 4,677 acres in the district, of which 2,800 were not represented by any contribution to any fund for the relief of the poorer inhabitants; 3,500 had paid for that purpose, 1,039 were in Chancery, with no facility for contributing anything; and 1,500 were in the hands of absentees, who had only contributed to a very trifling ex- 1134 tent individually, and were not at all contributors to the dispensary or relief funds in the district. The noble Lord then moved for returns of the number of persons transported within the last ten years.