The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the course of his speech, made a statement which reflected severely on the landlords in some parts of Ireland, but which was no argument whatever against the Bill before the House.  He said:  A few days since, we received a report of the proceedings of a Relief Committee of a barony in the Queen’s County; the subscriptions were raised by persons themselves but little removed from poverty, and with little or no assistance from the resident proprietor.  The most beneficial results were produced; the whole sum raised was L176; of this L136 were subscribed by the farmers, the policemen, and the priest, and only L40 were contributed by the proprietors of the soil.  I have never, said the Chancellor of the Exchequer, perused a document with greater pleasure and satisfaction, for it gives strong hopes of what may be done if all classes unite their efforts, giving money if they have it, and their personal exertions if they have no money, on behalf of their distressed countrymen.  By this means alone can relief be extended to the starving population.  And I confess it was with pain I can scarcely describe, that I received, by the same post that brought me the above report, an account of very different proceedings in the county of Mayo.  There I find, so far from subscriptions having been entered into to maintain their people, that the landlords, or their agents, are pursuing a system of ejectment, under processes for rent, to an extent beyond what had ever been known in the country.  The number of processes entered at the quarter sessions exceed, very considerably, anything they have been before.  At the quarter sessions of the barony of Ballina, 6,400 processes have been entered, of which 4,000 are at the suit of the landlords for rent.  The same letter further states, that—­“these proceedings have almost depopulated the country, the people having fled with all they possessed to prevent their property being seized, or themselves thrown into prison, under decrees.  There are districts in this barony where the townlands hitherto occupied by 400 or 500 persons are now uninhabited.”  This, he said, may account, perhaps, for some of the thousands landed on the quays of Liverpool from the Irish steamers; and if the same course were to be generally pursued, I should despair of the country ever being relieved.

Towards the close of the debate, Sir Robert Peel spoke against the Bill, and made one of those weak, hollow, plausible speeches for which he was justly famous.  His two chief objections against it were—­(1), that they had not the money to spend which Lord George Bentinck asked for, and (2) if they had, he doubted if they could not find a way of spending it more profitably for Ireland.  He doubted:—­yes, his habit was to kill every measure he did not approve of by doubts and fears.  When Lord John Russell, at the beginning of the Session, proclaimed the determination of his Government to take in hand the reclamation of