Star. — London, England, 1802-04-08 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS. NOOSE OF LORDS, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7. Counfel were heard at eonfiderable length. and finally, re lative to the Scotch Appeal, the Sockty of Clers of His Ma- Jelly's &god, v. the Society of Solicitors, before the Court of Silhon, ',a. Mr. Galles, as fecond Counfcl for the Refpon daus, and Lir. Adam on the part of the Appellants in reply— As food as Cousid had finithed their arguments, Loed A put the qqueltinu, that the ■ Judgment of die Santa Court, be " On which The Earl of Rossavn rote, and made a few pointed obrer vadat' 40 the Cafe. He confidcred it as a very improper at tempt on the part of the (Accra of the Court in queftioa, to call upon an AprUate Jurifdidlor. to to elate what was a mere termer of pradice. Noble Earl concluded with moving, that time be added to the original motion, " and that the Ap resists do pay tool. as tolls." The queltion being put, thefe Motions pared in the As tnative. The Bills upon the Table were forwarded in their refpative Rages. A few private Bills were brought up from the Commons, by Mdfre. Coa mwoccis and JODDAZI.I., and fever-Ay read a firft time Some arrangements were then nude relative to the hearing of Appeal& After which their Lordllairs adjourned till to 10101TOW. HOUSE OF COMMONS. -INCOME TAX. An Account of the Grofs Affeirment for the Year ending the sth of April .Rot, the Number and Amount of Affaments:— Clans of Amount of Income. Affeffments. Cis Tes of .Amount of Income. Afferments. - - s. . 16.357 3 Si 30,593 3 9 L s. IL 79.7 2 8 7 3 63,285 2 9 li 23,11114 9 75 10,238 6 91 Po 15,290 a 1 85 11,115 if 10} 90 19,45 8 14 li 95 ~ 13,323 7 4 1 , .• 57,916 6 71 105 13,153 16 S no 18,157 0 6 115 13,461 7 61 no 30,667 17 2 125 1 7. 32 9 2 9 130 25, 8 5 0 8 4 1 35 18,301 13 4 140 `32,3 6 9 1 4 51 1 55 17,310 13 II 160 32,010 3 0 1 4 165 19,461 3 tt 370 37.411 7 5 175 21, 975 2 3 380 46,100 7 SA 1 3 5 15,954 2 190 4 1 ,4 86 4 1 95 41,301 t 8 a 200 1,1131111 1 6 5 30 949 , 7 1 7 1. 000 9 0 4, 11 5 8 3 1 1,000 1,040,274 19 1 5, 0030 Pw 1 rd997• 0 3 43 9 31 £..853/'+9 8 of The whole Number of Affe!anent' was 322,759 • Claffes Returns from 1)c-di:Clio= cn of Scotland, Account of CLildren, Income. • in Claffcs, viz. in Clare& C• sC• 1. l. d. L s. I Under 200 2,499 18 91 71,431 4 6 200andunda soct 4,143 8 9 103,60010 4 5 00 • 1,000 3,215 12 7 63,733 2 7 2poo 2,000 3.060 16 2 37599 1 4 8 2,000 spoo 3501 13 4 41,812 13 to 6poo upwards 3,346 t 3 8 51,871 11 31 1 9.7 6 S S Si 37 1 . 4 40 1 7 31 Total 390,829 1 91 Toul Chute Aircirments C. 6.244.438 10 9* The Total Amount of Income,on which the above Atieftments are made, is— _ _ For England 74,676,873 t 8 z For Scotland 5.504321 S 7 Total income brought into the Charge is L.So,z z 7,215 3 An Account of the Grofs AffelTments upon In. come, for the 'Year ending the sth of April, aot, diftinguifhing England from Scotland— diffinguithing the feveral Counties in England— and dttlinguaing the Number and Amount of Affeirments on Incomes below 2001. a Year, and from awl. a Year and upwards:— Amount of At. Amount 'of Af leillnents on in- (effluents on In. cornea below =al comes above aool. a Year. a Year. Counties. L s. A L s. Bedford - - 4.919 z moss 13 3 Pkrlts - 9,410 6 7 64.76 . 0 7 4 9 Bucks . - Cambridge Chefter - Cornwall - - Cumberland Dairy - - Devon - - Dorfet - Durham . •Effex - Gloswefter • - Hereford - - Hertford - Huntingdon Kent - - Lancafter Leicefter Lincoln Norfolk - - Northampton - Northumberland • Nottingham - Oxford - - Rutland - 9,761 3 0 7,480 6 et 21,334 6 91 9,13 s 3 101 3,112 9 10 8,05 6 4 7 26,037 4 71 . 8,385 z 6 zl- 4 7.914 S zo 18.977 15 3 19, 06 3 9 6,167 Es z 1 7428 7 7 3,85 8 9 4 32,469 11 51 35,416 9 5 19.7 81 18 7 17,587 It I 18,801 0 3 11,689 0 6 9,820 7 4 848 s 8 3 10,97218 7 1.477 i 8 6 37,384 16 4i 33. 1 52 3 3 53422 4 3 41.173 8 9 16,838 2 :of 47.305 9 7. 8t,322 0 38,473 16 6 36.145 S 9 9 0 ,7 0 3 17 74.945 4 8 24,72919 2 '32,23310 7 15.488 12 :33,744 0 zo 212,333 9 41,925 17 6 71,956 1 9 1 92,712 :6 40,930 :3 66,347 2 46404 3 _ 1 4791 10 8 6,868 17 8 SaWp - . 31,381 zz 4 Borocrfet - - 33. 1 3 6 7 I Southampton - 22.626 .1 3i. Fugal! - - 12,874 9 9 Sufrolk - - 14462 27 41 Surrey - - 28,241 '8 9 Sulk* - - 31,169 0 • Warwick • 16,217 1 z " Wettmodand - 5,16,5 sp 31 Waft - ' ' 3 5. 1 75 8 4 Worecfter . 10,227 7 4 Ywk,E4ft-litkling 8.475 6 9 —, Wilt-Riding 3093 12 VI —, Norab4tiding 803 p 7 I ondoo - - 29457 1 8 11 Middldcx - - 89.551 18 of WcitaziaftF - 33 ,1 8 2 1 9 42 Medal - - 412 0 9 Sefton - 992 8 3 41.062 5 of 399,551 13 61 189,626 2 S 59,14 6 36 61 67,136118 3 146,383 5 66,737 12 55 ,1 43 1 9 8, 95 8 14 6 69.047 5 1 43.733 39 3 49.343 8 6 1 1770,13 Is 9 35,194 9 1 1,015t616 9 5 35 7 3 is 567,977 18 41 2,363 7 S 3.734 1 11_ Cardigan - - - sah . z 8 s Carmarthen • Ijl2 n 91 Camarvon - • 456 is 9 1,57 z o 11 7,130 3 1 3,393 1 0 6 Denbigh - • 1 .799 S 11 1 Flint - - 9tl 411 Glamorgan 1,7150 9 6 Mcrinneth - 466 ss of 11,163 13 5 9.33 1 2 2 31,114 8 ioi 4,49 3 11 3 Monmouth - % L 43 is St Montgomery -1,58 s 11 Pembroke . 1, 7 36 s s Radnor • (Is 3 9 5 ,759 16 I 3.440 1 3 0 9.61969 11 17 6 1.6 _3l - 43.7 6 33 7 280;460 10 /1 Scotland - - 43.786 13 7 2110,460 to Ir 73 8 .347 1s 2 5,t15231 3S 10 ! Automat ot Affeffinenu in three Diltrids in Scotland, which have not been re- . -• Wad i& Mat • - 1 9,7 68 5Si • . WADNIISDAY, APRIL 7. The Houle in a Committee went through the Elation Treat ing Adt.—Ordcred to be read a third time to-morrow. The Report of the Committee on the Corn Trade was agreed to, 2341 a Eill ordered, which was then brought up, read a firit, and ordered to be read a fecond time to-morrow, and printed. The Committee of Supply waa put off to Friday. I.lr. Cos it y gave notice, that on Friday, in the Committee of Supply, he Mould move for certain Services for Ireland. The Woolwich School Bill was read a kcond time, and com mitted for to-zuorrow. MALT. Mr. WHITBREAD moved, that there be laid be fore the Houfe an Account of the quantity ofMalt, on which the Duty had been paid in Scotland, from the sth of July, 1783, to the sth of July, 8o t. Alfo the number of barrels of Strong Beer on which the Duties were paid within the fame period.—Ordered. He then obferved, that he took the Accounts of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to be ertoneous, and therefore he hoped the Right Hon. Gentleman would poftpone for Tome time the Bill for Taxing Beer, in order that it might be known to what amount the Brewers were taxed, and that Members might have an opportunity of confulting with their Conftituents. The CHANCELLOR of the Exc.+ Egy la faid, he certainly thould not hurry the Bill with fuch pre cipitancy as to preclude Gentlemen from an oppor tunity of gaining information on it; but that could not interfere with the early ftages of the Bill, as the proper place to propofe any alteration was in the Committee. Mr. WHIT saliAD afked, whether it was intended to propofe any ttew re gulations with regard to the collelhon of the Du ties? becaufe, if new regula tions were introduced, as he underflood it was in tended to do, they might be attended with great vexation. Mr. VANSITTART ar.fwered, that it was proba ble there might be fome alteration with regard to the collcdion of the Malt Duty. • TAXES. Mr. N. VANSITTAITI;tCmght up the Mitred Taxes Bill, which was read a hrft time. On the queftion for the fecond reading, Mr. Roasoa rote to protell againft the meature, confideriog it as a commutation for the Income Tax. Mr. N. VANS! TTART obferved, that the produce of there Taxes being only 1,000,0001. it could not be a commutation for 6,000,0001. Mr. Rosson explained. Mr. BRAGG 6 obferved, that an Hon. Member on a former evening had Hated the Malt and Beer Tax to be a commutation for the IncomeTax,and now the Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Robfon) Paid, the prefent was a commutation for the Income Tax. There was 97,000,0001. to provide for, and the whole Taxes were to be taken together, and pot this in particular fingled out, and alerted to be a commutation for the Income Tar. After a few words from Mr. ROBSON, and Sir ROBERT BUXTON, Mr. WHITBREAD faid, that though this was at. fated not to be a commutation for the IncomcTax, yet it was evident, that if the Income Tax had not been repealed, there would have been no neceffity for the greater part of the Taxes that bad recently been brought forward. Mr. BIAGGI! admitted what had been faid by the Hon. Gentleman ; but obferved, that it was a fallacious argument for any Hon. Gentleman to lay his finger upon a particular tax and fay, that this or that was a commutation for the Income Tax, when the whole of the Taxes ought to b, taken together. The Bill was then ordered to be read a fecond time to•morrow. Mr. N. VANSITTART brought up the Beer, Malt, and Hops Duty Bill, which was read a Brit time. Mr. WHITBREAD Paid, that a large quantity of Malt made before the Harveli was now on hand, and he wished to know, whether it was not Fable to exempt that from the operation of the D ti_xy ? The CHANCELLOR of the Exclaves Paid, he did not know that it was praaicable. It would be recolleeted, that the Brewers had lowered the price of their Commodity fiJm 4os. to 355. with a large Stock on hand. The only method they would have of doing this was, by mixing Malt of a high price with Malt fubfequently purchafed of a lower price, and that they could do now. After a Short further converfation between Mr. WHITBREAD, the CHANCELLOR of the ETCHFitYIat and Mr. N. VANSITTART, the Bill was ordered to be read a fecond time to-morrow. CORONBRII. Mr. MAINWAILING moved the fecond reading of the bill for granting an additional allowance to Coroners. Mr. SHAW Lr Fairies, previous to any further proceeding on the Bill, withed the Honourable mover to Hate what was its precife objeit. Mr. Matawaaino accordingly entered into a (holt explanation, the fubflance of which was, that it was his intention to withdraw feveral parts of the bill as it now flood, and to confine it to the tingle point of granting coroners an additional al lowance for travelling expences. Mr. Swam La Favas on this again rofc, and entered at tome length into arguments againft the bill. The topics he infilled upon were fimilar to thole urged when the bill was flrmerly under dif cuffion. He confidered the antiquity and honour able nature of the office at a time when it was ex ecuted without remuneration, and thought that a departure from this pratlice was p roved by expe rience to be impolitic, by 'dining Its dignity, and throwing it in Tome cafes into the hands of thole whole fituation in the county where the office was exereifed, was not Inch as was held to be neief fary by the common law, to render a perfon ca pable of holding it. He adverted to the contells which, in many parts of the country, eleaions to the office excited, which incontrovertibly proved that further remuneration was unneceffary. Mr. H. Lascam.as Paid a few words in fupport of the bill. Admiral Iltsaastint was againil it in its prefent form. If additional burdens for the remuneration of Coroners were to be impofed, he thought they ought to be laid on the Fara% and not on the counties. He difapproved of the prefent applica; tion of the coroners, as calculated to lower them in the public eftimation. If the application, in- Read of being for a pecuniary remuneration, had been for an increafe of dignity and of influence, it fhould have met with his hearty flipport. Mr. Ross thought it very unreafonable to ex pat that the coroners fhould execute the duties of their office without remuneration. Many of thofe now exercifing that office were attornies of confi. derable pratlice, and it was bus fair, when they left their bufinefs to perform a public fervice, that they fhould be recompenfed for their trouble.— Since the time that timid' augmentation had taken place in the allowance to coroners, many other public officers had obtained an increafe of remu neration for their Cervices, and confidering the great change in the price of every article, the co roners ought at leaft to have their claims impar tially confidered. A good deal of firth had been laid on the ardour with which elation to this of fice were conteffed ; but it ought to be confidered that this did not by any means happen in all cafes. Within his own knowledge there were inflances where no perfon could be found to fill the office. Neither could any conclufive argument of the pro- fitable nature of the place be collated from the fums expended in Tome of there contefts which had been alluded to. He himfelf held an office in the gift of the freeholders of the county with which he was connoted, in a conteft for which at a for mer period no lets a Turn than 30,0001. had been expended, but from which, fince he held it, he could Wily declare that he had never derived emolument to the-amount of twenty (billings. Mr. HO/MOUSE contended, that as the Hon. mover of the bill had now confented to give up three of the four oiled: which were in the firlt inflance Jetted to be reafonable and jun, the Houfe ought to look at what was fill aced for with great jealoufy. The language of the coro ners now was," we confent to withdraw three of our requefts if you will grant us the other ;" but if three of thefe requefts were improper, how did the Houfe know that the other had any better claims to be admitted ? The Honourable Mem ber ably enforced the feveral arguments already adduced agnif the bill. He pre fled on the at tention of t he Houfe the ardour with which the office was fought after, as a proof of its lucrative &nation i • he in particular alluded to the conteft for the el ation in the county of Kent, on which four candidates originally appeared. Two declin ed to go on with the canvafs, and of the two who continued candidates, the fuccefsful one had ex pended zsool. and the other not lefs than t 0001. in the conteft. He concluded by moving, That inflead of now, the bill be read a second time this day fix months. Sir EDWARD KNATCHBULL explained the cis-. cumftances of the elation in Kent. It happened immediately after the conclitfion of the conteft for his own elation, while the heat of the oppofite parties had not had time to fublide. The expence incurred on the occafion was not therefore a fair criterion of the profits of the Office. Mr. WIGLEY fupported the Bill. The SOLICITOR-GENERAL read a ftatement to the Houfe, from a Gentleman, who had filled the office of Coroner in the county of Northampton, for a (pace of twenty years. During that time his whole remuneration from the county had not much exceeded 4131. though he had taken no lefs than 304 inquefts, of which 16 only were on per ions who had died in gaol ; to be able to take the inqueft on the others, he had been obliged to ride over an extent of not leis than five thoufand and (even miles. The Honourable and Learned Gen tleman, from fats fuch as thefe, argued that the Houfe fhould at leaft Puffer the Bill to go into the Committee. ' After a few words from Sir WILLIAM ELFORD, the gallery was cleared, and the Houfe divided— For the fecond reading 87 Againft 32 —Majority 55. RESIDENCE OF CLERGY. On our being re-admitted into the gallery, we found the Houfe in a Committee on the At of Henry the VIIIth, for enforcing the refidence of the Clergy. Sir WILLIAM SCOTT was calling the attention of the Houfe to the Reps which had been taken during the laft feffion of Parliament to protect Cler. gymen againft the profecutions brought againft them on the provifions of this Ad. He admitted that the Houfe, in the Reps they had taken, had acted with wifdom ; but independently of the pro fecutions which at that time more particularly called for the interference of the Houfe, he had no difficulty in faying, that from• a confideration of the ftatute itfelf, it was incumbent on the Ls gillature to confider the fubjeCt, not only for the purpofe of applying a remedy to particular cafes, but for the fake of eftablifhing a general principle, which might prevent their recurrence at a future period. With this view the Right Hon. Member entered into a very long, very elaborate, and very learned difcullion of the =cum fiances under which the Ratute originated, as well as of its feveral pro. vifions. Wedo not profefs to follow him through his minttte details, but content ourfelves with a brief (ketch of the points on which he enlarged. He.was fufficiently aware that the Aft in queltion had been the frequent fued of panegyric, and had, by many eminent an d learned perfons, been viewed as highly beneficial to the interefts of reli gion. He knew that no lefs a lawyer than Coke had confidered it at the time of its eftablifhment as produdive of very advantageous effeds, and that at a much later period Lord Hardwicke had ex prefred a fimilar opinion. But with all pollible deference to thefe high authorities, he confeffed, that aftcr all the attention he had been able to bellow on the lubjed, he had ftrong doubts of its policy, or its beneficial confequences, even when originally inftituted. 1 oe doubts he enter tained were founded on the great general princi ples oflegiflation, and of national policy. He beg gad the Houfe to confider what was the zra in which the aft 4,1 originated.' It was at a time when animpfity againft the Clergy was molt rancorous, when on all occafions they were object; of the molt inveterate perfecution, when nothing was loft fight of which could injure their blierCal or degrade their character. In fupport of this tlatemcnt the Right Hon. Gentleman prodeced a variety of proofs, drawn equally from the temper of the people, from the apofition of the Parliament, from the a thitrai y charaeler of the Sovereign. In a contell formed under fuch circumdances, it was not very probable that the interzlis of religion would be very difpailionately confulted, or that the provifions, adapted profelredly for that pur pore, would be the bell calculated to produce their end. What, accordingly, was the principl e adopted to fecure the refidence of the Clergy? It was one altogether novel, one authorized by the. pradice of no period of the Chrillian church. At no former period was the rcfidence of the Clergy a thing to be enforced by informations lodged it the temporal Courts. For mapy ages before the Ad was patted, the Bifhop Communi . 7ure, could alone enforce the refidence of the Clergy under his diocefe; and at the time of the Reformation a fimi far regulation prevailed. In the chinch of Scot land, founded on the ftrideft principles of the Re formation; on the Continent, in the fame way, was the power of bringing complaints againft the Clergy for non-refidence denied to the tempor a l Courts in the met explicit terms. Such a principle as that which he had slated to have at all times prevailed in the church, was betides by no wears peculiar to the facred proleffion. It was a re7u lation founded in jufiice and the nature of thins. s, and accordingly it was a regulation obfervcd - in every other profeflion. It was no folid objedicat to fay, that the Laity had, in the refidence of the Clergy, a particular intereft. If once this intereft were allowed to authorize an enforcement of this refidence, by an appeal to the Civil Courts, the fame principle, only carried fomewhat farther, would equallyauthorize interference with the other profeffions. It was betides to be confidered, that if they had the intereft fuppofed, which he would not deny, they had a means of preferring a com plaint, Itrialy conformable to the fpirit of the cc clefiaffical Conflitution of the country, by bringing it forward in the Ecclefiatlical Court. In pro portion as he admired the Courts of Law as being admirably calculated to promote the ends of ge neral juftice, fo did he conceive them to be unfit for deciding on matters purely ecclellaftical, and that for the heft of all pantile reafons, that the Conftitution of the country had provided that there fhould be difcuffed in a feparate Court. The Hon. Gentleman, after thus dilculling the principle cf the Aft, proceeded to review its fpecial provitionc, which to him appeared (till more harffi and ex ceptionable. By the statute, non-refidence fur one month was to be pimiffied by a penalty of ten pounds, and that too enforced with circumftancp of the molt extraordinary feverity—cirournftances too over which a Court of Common Law had no fort of controul. The only three cafes in which the penalty was at any time not enforced were imprifonment, infirmity of body, and the want of a habitation. The firft admitted of no moth fication, but the fecond had been conftrued into an infirmity of body which left no hope of life, or at leaft deprived life of all f u t ure en j oyment . e en. largedatgreater length on the couflruEtiontttatwaS given to the fort of habitation which was constru ed to be fit for refidence, or for want of refidence, in which a Clergyman would be fubjed to a pe nalty without the leaft mitigation. It was of no confeqnence that every duty of the facred profef lion had been moll affiduoufly and zealoully per formed, that the clergyman was a pattern of every virtue becoming his ilicred funeion, that he was an example to all around him by his diligence in the peculiar offices of a Christian Paftor—all could not proted him againft the penalty which the Ad had fpecified to attach to non-refidence 'in all circumflances. This was no ideal cafe ; it was one which in more than one inftance had adually occurred. What, on the contrary, was the fort of refidence which the Ad was calculated to fe cure ? Did it fecure a faithful difcharge of the facred duties, or compel Clergymen to devote their time to the fpiritual inftrudion of thofe commit ted to their care ? It had no fuch effed. All that was neceffary to elude the penalty, was for the Clergyman to fleep in the heft bed room of his patronage, and to live, if he thought proper, in the molt (keenly negleEt of every duty ofhis fundion. Having thus ffiewn that the Ad was calculated to operate with the utmoft feverity even on the meet confcientious and deferving clergymen,while it did not at all compel the negligent to a more vigilant difcharge of their duty, he appealed to the jrtflice of the Houfe, whether fuch vexatious complaints as the Ad authorized, ought to be countenanced? He anted, whether it was confiftent with huma nity, with juflice, with policy, that clergymen should be (hut out from the common intercourfe, the common purfuits, the Common charities oflife? He believed no one defired that they Ihould be placed in fuch a lituation, and yet in loch a fi. tuation were many o: them placed by the pro vifions of the Aft. They were compelled either to forego many of the moft important calls of civil and domeftie life, or they were fubjeCted to the fevereft penalties. The next point to which he alluded was the farming of the clergy, which he vindicated as by no means incompatible with the due difcharge of the clerical functions, as in a variety of cafes rendered abfolutely necetrary in the eircumilances under which a very numer• ous part of the Parochial Clergy were placed, but which, by the terms of the .Ad, they incurred penalties which they were wholly unable to fur tain. On this head the learned Member prefented 4 great mats of faEts refpeding the (tate of avery large proportion of the livings of the inferior clergy, enumerating the various Iteps taken to afford them relief, particularly by the diftribution of the fund appropriated to this purpofe in the reign of Queen Anne, which he contended had been wifely and beneficially applied, Still, however, the augmen tation of the livings of the inferior Clergy was a point of infinite importance. So far was he from withing any diminution in the rum allot ted for their fupport, that he anxioufly longed to fee them put on a footing of greater independence. To reduce the incomes of the Clergy was to de grade Religion in the charader of its Minifters. It was to lead the way to the introdudion of igno rant, vular,fantallical individuals into the church. ER