THE PRESS.
MR. SADLER'S MOTION ON THE POOR-LAWS.
GLone—Mr. SADLER. brought forward a motion (we cannot say in pursuance of his notice) for the establishment of a system of PoorLaws in Ireland, on the principle of that of the 43rd of Elizabeth." The motion was for a resolution declaratory of the expediency of such a measure, and the mover thus avoided the questions concerning the machinery of a poor-law system in Ireland which have embarrassed the subject. The proposed resolution was put aside on the previous question without a division. Mr. SADLER'S motion was certainly one the nature of which could scarcely be guessed at from the terms of his notice ; and owing to this, among other causes, he was not listened to with favour, or even with just attention. He is, in fact, suffering under prejudices not unlike those which he himself endeavoured to raise against Mr. MALwitus, Mr. WILMOT Horeros, and others : he is in danger of being overpowered by the howlings of the political rabble whom he wished to excite against benevolent and laborious inquirers, by arts and invectives which ought to have been foreign to philosophical discussions. Judging by those fragments of his speech which the noise in the House allowed to be reported, it contained much good sense and apt facts—mixed, indeed, with questionable matter. It was well to show, as Mr. Sainte did, that in every civilized country, except Ireland, there was a legal provision for the poor ; for surely this is a case in which the ill success of the exception proves the value of the general rule. If the effects of a legal provision for the poor be proved, as Mr. SADLER contends, by the general condition of the lower classes in the places where the system is established, and where it is wanting, the evidence taken before the Committee now sitting on the question ought to have had no influence on the fate of the motion. Whether a system of poor-laws shall be established in Ireland, is a question of that description which ought, we are inclined to think with Mr. SADLER, to be determined by principles drawn from the experience of all ages ; and the cloud of petty difficulties which may be raised on the applica.. tion of the system ought only to be looked at with a determination to, make them disappear. It was by referring him to the Committee sitting on the condition of the Poor in Ireland, that Mr. SADLER was met by the official members of the House. Whatever the value of the evidence taken by this Committee may be, its judgment will not be entitled to any overwhelming authority, if it be true, as stated by Mr. GRAT TAN, that ten or eleven of twelve members of whom it is cornposed expressed their opinions, before it was appointed, on one side of the question which they had to discuss. The only practical use of the Committee is to form a ground for others doing nothing during the session, in expectation of the nothing which the Committee is to bring forth at the end of it.
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