The Press. — London, England, 1857-08-15 00:00:00

THE PRESS, AUGUST 15, 1857. part of the Lord Advocate, to exclude Scotland from its operation, Mr. ROEBUCK condemned the measure in strong terms. A debate ensued, in which the principle and de tails of the bill were much discussed, and various amendments were suggested. It was at length agreed that the bill should be recommitted, and that the debate should until then be suspended. The report of the Committee of Supply was brought up and agreed to. in 1854 by the House of Commons, and which minute, in point of fact, contained the accusation which had been made against Sir C. Napier. General CODRINGTON said the house had heard the charges against Sir Charles Napier, and he would be glad to see the answer to them. The hou. member who had just spoken had repeated the charges, and it was but fair to the memory of Sir Charles Napier that his answer should be produced. Mr. ROEBUCK, in order that the house might know the real value of the statement Mr. Willoughby bad read, begged to read the following note which his hon. friend the member for Merthyr Tydvill had received from Colonel Rathbone My dear Mr. Bruce,—l have just received your note, in which you inform me that Mr. Mangles intends to justify the statement as to the sale of grain to the commissariat at fictitious prices, by the authority of Sir George Clerk, who, he says, quotes me as his authority. lit reply, 1 would merely observe that he no doubt has the authority of Sir Geotge Clerk for the statement, because it forms one of the charges against the Scinde Government con tained in that tissue of falsehoods called Sir George Clerk's Schick Minute, but which, in fact, was drawn up for his signature by his then revenue secretary, Mr. Gold. smith. But, though Sir George has been thus unhappily made to father official falsehoods, I am sure he is quite incapable of giving birth to any, and therefore it is im- possible that he could have given me as his authority for so gross a misstatement. Mr. DANBY SEYMOUR said the question now before the house related to a paragraph respecting the sale of corn by Sir U. Napier whilst he was Governor of Scinde. His object in rising was to correct what the hon. and learned gentleman said in reference to his eolleagu?, Sir G. Clerk. S:r G. Clerk was not the man to put his name to a tissue of official falsehoods which be himself bad not inquired into. He did fully inquire into this subject. It was a mistake to suppose that Sir G. Clerk wished to depreciate the eminent merits of Sir C. Napier. He agreed with the hon. and learned gentleman in much that he had said of the supereminent merits of Sir C. Napier, and he believed that the paragraph in question was put in accidentally, and not for the purpose of dis paraging the eminent qualities of Sir C. Napier, whose memory stood so high in the estimation of all. Mr. ROEBUCK said the expression "a tissue of official falsehoods " was not his expression, but that of Colonel Rathbone. Mr. Burr thought there should be some official record of the refutation by Sir C. Napier of this charge. If the hon. gentleman inclosed a copy of the document to the Secretary of the Dian' of Con trol he could send it to the India•house, and inquire whether it was a true copy. If the answer was that it was a true copy, it could then be laid on the table of the house as an official document. That was an indirect mode of proceed.og, but it would have the effect of placing on record the answer which had been triumphantly given by Sir C. Napicr to this unfounded charge. SUPPLY. The house then went into a committee of supply upon the remaining civil service estimates. The resolutions completing the estimates were ordered to be reported. The report of the Committee of Supply was brought up and agreed to. Several votes were passed, after brief discussion, belonging to the civil service estimates, among which was a grant of 50,0001. for the purchase of ground in Downing-street, preliminary to the erection of the new public offices. A vote of 200,0001., being the estimated charge for the militia force which it was proposed to embody, was then passed. With a vote of 32,0001. for the Ordnance Survey in Scotland, the business of supply came to a close for the present session. The LORD ADVOCATE moved the second reading of the Parochial Schoolmasters (Scotland) Bill, which was agreed to. The Pimlico Improvements Bill and the Police (Scotland) Bill were read a third time and passed. The consideration of the Probates and Letters of Administration Bill, as amended, was then re sumed, and the remaining amendment; were dis cussed. Some further business having been dispose& of the house adjourned at about twenty-five minutes before three o'clock. HOUSE OF CONINIONS —Wk:DNEsDAy. NEW MEMBER. Captain HAMILTON took the oaths and his seat on his election for the Falkirk Burghs. He was accom. panied to the table by Lord Duncan and Mr. Buchanan. The house was occupied in considering the Smoke Nuisance (Scotland) Abatementll as amended, and the additional amendments on the report. The bill was ordered to be read a third time the following day. The house having resolved itself into a committee upon the Sale of Obscene Books, &c., Prevention Bill, upon a proposal by Sir ERSKINE PERRY, on the CHAPEL IN PARIS. On the order for going into a committee of ways and means, Mr. WisE, alluding to the rejection the other night of the vote of 1ti,.500/. for the erection of a chapel in Paris, inquired what the Government pro. posed to do with reference to the 2001. advanced from the civil contingencie , 4, and how the money was to be replaced in the Exchequer. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER replied that her Majesty's Government had come to no decision upon the subject of the chapel. INDIAN ARMY. Sir H. WILLOUGHDY asked whether the Govern ment intended to throw the whole of the expendi- ture of the large armament destined to the East upon the East India Company, and, if so, whether they had formed any notion of the expense. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEOHJER replied that it was his intention to give some explanation upon that subject in the committee. TEA AND SUGAR DUTIES. The house then went into committee of ways and means. _ The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, after re minding the committee of the proposal ho had made before the dissolution respecting the altera tion of the duties upon tea and sugar, and of the effect of that alteration, observed that the proposal he was about to make was substantially the same— namely, to continue the existing duties upon tea and sugar for two years from the Ist of April nest. He referred to returns of the amount of revenue yielded by those two articles, whence it appeared that the sugar duties in the year 1855 produced 5,058,000/. ; and in 1856, 5,129,649/. The tea duties in 1855 produced 5,310,2751.; and in 1856, 5,530,4201., thus giving an average revenue for the last two years from tea and sugar of 10,517,5251. He likewise read returns of the comparative consumption of tea and sugar by different classes of society in England, Scotland, and Ireland respectively, which presented some curious results, it appearing that with respect to tea in England the upper and middle classes consume 56 per cent. of the whole quantity, an-i the poorer and working classes consume 44 per cent. In Scotland the upper and middle classes consume 54 per cent., and the poorer and working classes 46 per cent., the proportion in England and Scotland being very nearly the same. Bat with regard to Ireland the ratio is reversel. The upper and middle classes consume 351 per cent., and the poorer and working classes consume 611 per cent. With regard to sugar, it appears that in England the upper and middle classes consume 60 per cent. and the poorer and working classes 40 per cent. of the total quantity. In Scotland the upper and middle classes consume 62 per cent., and the poorer and working classes 38 per cent. Again, the same ratio is reversed in Ire land. In Ireland the upper and middle classes are stated to consume 31 per cent., and the poorer and working classes 66 per cent. . _ _ In reply to the inquiry made by Sir H. Willoughby —premising that his proposal would not add any thing to the ways and means of the current year, merely arresting the fall of duties—he proceeded to say that it had been the duty of the Government to communicate with the Court of Directors of the East India Company on the subject of theirfinances, and the latter, being informed that her Majesty's Government were ready to consider any representa tion they might desire to make as to a change in the law regarding their power of borrowing money, or any financial assistance they might wish to re ceive From the Government, stated that they did not find themselves under the necessity of applying to the Government at present for any financial assistance ; that their present means were ample in the existing state of the Indian treasury. Her Majesty's Government therefore, a s at present advised, did not feel called upon to submit to Parliament any proposition upon this subject. The ways and means placed at the disposal of the Executive Government he considered amply sufficient to meet the probable wants of the present financial year. If they should have season to doubt the suffi ciency of their means they would net be slow in bringing their position before the house, relying upon the liberality and public spirit of Parliament and the country. But there was no immediate necessity for doing so; all accruing demands, including the dis• charge of 2,000,000/. of Exchequer Bonds and the redemption of the Sound Dues, had been paid out of the resources of the present year. Notwithstanding that these large payments had been satisfied out of the growing taxation of the year, it appeared to be adequate to all demands, and he did not anticipate at present any deficiency. With regard to the cost of the armament sent to India, as soon as the regi ments were transferred to the service of the East India Company their expense was charged to the Indian revenue, and ceased to be a charge upon this country. He concluded by moving certain resolu tions, in effect to retain the present duties on tea, sugar, and certain sweetmeats, &c., from the Ist of April next till the Ist of April, 18(10. Mr. GLADSTONE did not rise for the purpose of opposing the resolution, but he thought the Chan cellor of the Exchequer's statement in regard to the payment of Exchequer Bonds, and the redemption of the Sound Dues, was calculated to mislead the house. The right hon. gentleman appeared to take credit for having paid off the charges connected with the redemption of the Sound Dues, out of the re sources of the current year, but the fact was that the money applied to this purpose was the surplus of a loan which remained in the Exchequer after the expenses which it was intended to meet had been paid. Then with regard to the Exchequer Bonds, the right hon. gentleman was called upon in fulfil ment of a pledge given to Parliament to apply the sum of 2,000,0001. to the redemption of that debt. He was glad to find that the East India Company was in such a state as, out of its own resources, to be able to meet for six months the expenses of the operations undertaken in that country, and in that case he agreed with the Indian authorities and the Chancellor of the Exchequer that no application should be made to Parliament upon the subject. The right hon. gentleman dwelt with some force upon the extravagance of the present Government, and upon the rapid increase of the miscellaneous estimates : I may, perhaps, be of a censorious disposition, but I frankly own that the views of the Government with regard to public economy are not my views. Bnt, if they were, is the Government firmly and justly supported by this house? What has happened in the last fortnight? Have we not seen a bill carried, winch I believe unprecedented in our history, for the wholesale increase of the salaries of public servants, in the face of an announcement supported by detailed statements from the Government to the effect that, if we vote for that bill, we must be prepared to see a permanent addition to the public burdens of 200,0001. a year? In twenty years of criticism of miscellaneous estimates this house will not, so far as mere money is concerned, undo as much as it did by passing that most objectionable measure. I hope I shall not be thought to be exceeding the province of an individual member of this house in making these comments on proceedings which have received the sanction of a large majority; but, having been during the whole session a prophet of ill, regarding with alarm the financial embarrassments towards which we are drifting, and having, perhaps too freely, found fault with my right hon. friend for proceedings in matters of finance, I think it but fair to keep in mind an operation so remarkable and so unprecedented as this, which proves to me that the temper of the public, reflected as it is by this house, is not favourable at the present moment to economy, and which makes it the duty of those who think they see a storm coming, and xho wish to mitigate its force, to raise their voice in time in the hope that some thing may be done to avert it, or to render it at all events less formidable. I tender my thanks to my right hon. friend for having made this proposal. There is nothing surreptitious in its character. It bears on its face exactly what it is. Above all, I rejoice in the proposal on this account, that when we come near to a state of financial embarrassu.ent we always have to recollect that two alternatives may happen to us, either of them worse than an increase of taxation —one, an attempt to shuffle and shamble on from year to year with successive deficiencies; the other, to make loans to meet the ordinary expenditure of the country in time of peace. In my opinion, either of these courses is most detrimental and most disgraceful to the country, and I frankly own that I feel the more grateful to my right hon. friend on the present occasion because I interpret the proposal as a clear sign that he is impressed with similar opinions with regard to the weakness, the imbecility, and the disgrace of having recourse to either of those expedients, and as a pledge that, it' the necessity arises, he will propose at once to meet that expenditure of the country by the only wise, honest, and manly course—an addition to its burdens. Sir HENRY WILLOUGHBY Was of opinion that we were " rapidly drifting towards an enormous defi ciency." Mr. DISRAELI, as it was " not probable" that the house would be favoured this session with an Indian budget, thought it expedient that some accurate information should be afforded of the state of our Indian finances : At the time of the passing of the charter, it wns agreed that a guarantee fund of 2,000,0001. should be established, to accumulate at compound interest, to form a security for the Indian stock, for which the British Government then virtually became responsible. It is of the utmost importance that wu should know the state of that fund. We ought to be informed whether that investment was regularly made, and whether the interest was invested in a proper manner, and we ought also to have the amount of the whole aunt fairly before us. I moved about a week ago for a return of that nature, but it has nut yet been presented, though I should have thought it was as simple and straightforward as it is important.