§ The EARL of HARROWBYobserved, that as an inquiry had been made by order of the House into a subject which he really thought was not worthy of its dignity—he meant an inquiry into the health 55 of those Polish refugees who had received the public benevolence—he hoped that he should not he considered as intruding unsuitably upon their Lordships' time if he now asked his noble Friend opposite whether the insinuations which had been thrown out to the disadvantage of those unfortunate individuals were or were not well founded? Were the Polish refugees men so utterly dissolute and profligate as to be unworthy of the sympathy and assistance of the public? Whatever truth there might be in the insinuation that they had acted elsewhere as disturbers of the peace, they certainly had not acted here as such; and he believed, that in private life their morality had over been exemplary.
§ The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNEwas happy in being able to give an answer to the noble Earl, and that, too, in a manner which would be equally satisfactory to his Lordship and to the public. After what had passed in their Lordships' House on a former occasion, he had felt it to be his duty to procure as soon as possible a return of the number of Polish refugees receiving relief from the public funds; and, having procured that return, he had taken such measures as he could to inform himself how far the disease, which had been erroneously supposed to prevail among them, really existed. He could state most distinctly, without descending into particulars, which must be disgusting to their Lordships, that the return of the two medical officers who had charge of those persons when they were the victims of disease, afforded the most conclusive proof that scarcely the slightest imputation of the disease said to prevail among them attached to their characters. One of those medical officers reported, that for one whole year no disease of that kind appeared among them; and the other reported, that in another year it had occurred among them, but in a less degree than it usually occurred among the same number of Englishmen in the same class of life with those unhappy exiles. He considered these returns to afford convincing proof of the general morality and good conduct of the Poles in this country.