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Sept. 1. The Cheltenham Election Committee On the Motion that the
House do now Adjourn-Observations of Mr. Roundell Palmer,
relative to certain Charges made against the Election Com-

mittee

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4. The Cheltenham Election Committee-Motion of Sir Wm. Clay,
That the Evidence taken before the Select Committee on the

Cheltenham Election Petition, together with the Proceedings,

be Printed"-Motion agreed to

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The Ayes and the Noes on Mr. Hume's Amendment to Clause 25
of the Spirits (Dealers in) Bill ...

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The Ayes and the Noes on Mr. M. J. O'Connell's Amendment to
the British Spirits Warehousing Bill

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HANSARD'S

FIRST SESSION OF THE FIFTEENTH PARLIAMENT
THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND,
APPOINTED TO MEET 21 SEPTEMBER, 1847, AND FROM THENCE
CONTINUED TILL 18 NOVEMBER, 1847, IN THE ELEVENTH YEAR
OF THE REIGN OF

HER MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA.

SEVENTH AND LAST VOLUME OF THE SESSION.

shores, it is hardly possible to expect that

carried to such an extent as to produce

emigration to that quarter can ever be

any very perceptible effect upon our popula-
tion here. The cost of conveying an emi-
grant to Australia may be taken, in round
numbers, at somewhere about 201., includ-
ing the passage of the emigrant, and the
health. And if the present number of
expensive outfit which is necessary for his

emigrants were to be materially increased,

this cost would be augmented, as the rate

B

of freight which is now paid would un-tralia do undoubtedly contribute largely doubtedly rise if many more ships were to furnish additional employment for our wanted for this service. people at home. The emigration to these distant colonies is also of very great service in affording additional employment to our shipping. It is, therefore, an object of the greatest interest to the empire that emigration to Australia should be promoted and encouraged to the utmost possible extent.

But the average number of emigrants who left this country during the last seven years has been no less than 122,000; and in the last year the number of emigrants was not less than 258,000. If, then, this great stream of emigration were to be inereased by sending to Australia a number of persons equal even to the average emi- Viewed in this light, and as the means gration of the last seven years, or 122,000 of obtaining the advantages I have now persons a year, the annual expense of this described, rather than of effecting a great addition to the existing emigration would diminution of a population supposed to be not amount to less than 2,500,000l. Now, excessive, emigration to Australia is a when your Lordships remember that even subject which, during the last twenty the large emigration of last year, together years, has certainly not been neglected with the great mortality from famine and by any of the successive Administrations disease that took place in Ireland, have which have in that time existed. It seems failed to produce any marked effect on to me that, in the eagerness to extend those symptoms of excessive population emigration-a feeling which I sharewhich are alleged to exist, it is obviously many persons overlook how much has impossible, looking to our Australian colo- been accomplished; and I am, therefore, nies, that any such great number of emi-anxious to call your Lordships' attention grants can be sent thither as would exer- to a comparison of what our Australian cise any perceptible influence upon the colonies were in the year 1828, with what population at home. But although this is they are at the present time. In looking the case, it is not the less true that Aus- back to this comparatively short period of tralian emigration is of the greatest pos- only twenty years, it is really not a little sible advantage to the empire in general, surprising to see how great a change has as affording a field of enterprise to the been effected by the enterprise, the acmore ardent spirits of the mother country, tivity, and the energy of the people of this who, in the present peaceful times, cannot country, settling in those distant regions. find a suitable career at home; and, also, In the year 1828, the only colonies we ocas creating and increasing thriving com- cupied in that quarter of the globe, were munities in that part of the world, with New South Wales, and Van Diemen's which our manufacturers carry on a large Land. New South Wales was then conand lucrative trade. Our trade with the fined to what were called the Nineteen Australian colonies is one of the most im- Counties. These counties occupied an exportant we possess. The labouring popu- tent of about 300 miles in length, along lation, whom we send out to Australia, are the coast, with an average breadth of chiefly employed in producing raw mate- about 200 miles. In Van Diemen's rials, which we use in our manufactures, Land, the extent of our settlements was and especially in that very important de- very small. The whole population of partment of them, the woollen trade. In both these colonies, in 1828, was estireturn for their produce they take British mated at 53,000, of whom 23,000 were manufactures, and in the same manner convicts, still in a state of servitude; a they pay indirectly for various commo- very large proportion of the free inhabitdities, and more particularly for the tea ants having originally proceeded to the and sugar which they consume, thus creat-colonies as convicts. New South Wales, ing an additional trade between this country and China, since it is well known that the consumption of British manufactures in China is limited only by the means of payment which the Chinese possess, and that the very large quantity of tea consumed in Australia, is paid for by British manufactures, for which the return is received by us principally in wool. The consequence is, that those who go to Aus

including Moreton Bay and Port Philip, now extends 1,000 miles in length, by 300 miles in breadth. Much of this territory is occupied only pastorally; but still it is occupied, and advantageously, the whole area it includes being about three and a half times as large as the area of Great Britain. The coast line from Moreton Bay to South Australia, is 1,500 miles long, being about the length of the

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