The National Register. — London, England, 1816-03-11 00:00:00

MARCH 11. Tt.LNp.tv, IN,tHutu Petitions were presented from East Town, Ross, likliMl bright,ClilppeUllanl, Horsham, LudioW,Kingstoemponv't haloes, J)attwuuth, Lymin o ion, Annanildle; 'Sou diairp ion, 01 ciV GriiMby, CAE.blidge, and Deal, against any renew al of the Property Tax uhtler any modifieritions whatever. Mr. Win. Drintlas presented one bout Edinburgh against the Property Tax. Five others Were presented lion, Ldiaburgh and its vicinity. Mr. S. Thornton presented one Irmo Clapham. Sr: A. Hope presented one from Linlitlicmw, and stated that the importation of butter and cheese should be kir a time sin vended. Mr. Pox SIAM' wished to know if the Noble Lord opposite considered this i'etition as coming from some of those whinii the Noble Lord called clamourers against the ax. Did lie still continue to thank there was only a partial opposition to this Tax, excited by those who sat on his (Mr. P.'s) side of the' House% lie (Mr. P.) F. 6ew Of ilo atielnlolS which hail been made to excite clamour against the Tax ; but this lie knew, that the objection to the TAX was so general. as no endeavour of any set of men, whatever might have been their situation, could kayo excited. It was the real voice of the people limn one end of the country to the other, a voice to which lie wished the Noble Lord would attend. Lord Caertadutaon did not consider the thus discussing the subject partially as a fair or vonvenient mode of disetis g the Property Tax, though he did not c o n s id er it as likely to excite clamour against it. And he had said, that those who were the first to agitate this measure, and who rose it from of to In pt cent, when they were in power, were the last who should argue agaiost the principle of the 'fax. He last night con ceded to Gentlemen opposite, that this was a different mervaire when considered in time of peace to what it was in time of war, and Gentlemen seemed surprized at the coaccasion. He would now concede something more.—He should now argue it still as M ar hear.)--He should argue the necessity for it • continuance whilst we were 3et under the influence of the late contest. He had used the word clamour, and he world floss repeat it, and upon these grounds; namely, that thus en deavont ing to raise debate upon even Petition, ietime the me rits of the question could be gone into, was rather to clamour down than to argue down the 'fax. Mr. Hotta tat couteuded, that the Property Tux and the I:sta blish wilds were so closely connected, that it was impossible to 'harms onc without the other. 3lr. 'Mt 7:EY was sorry to see the Noble Lord so sore as he appeared to he on the subject. The Noble Lord had the talent bloiving hot and cold- - peace and war—ill the same breath. But the Noble Lord shomd have known his own mind and de cided, whelher he would has e it war or peace before he put the Declaration of Peace into the Prince Regent's Speech. But at that time it would appear the Noble Lord wanted a Speech and au Address, and therefore he would have Peace ; he had got his Speech and Address, and Peace had done its duty: but now the Noble Lord wanted the Property Tax, and to ::et it the Noble Lord would have it War--.lbar, hear.) — The Noble Lord said, there was only a factious opposition t o this measure. He (Mr, T.) was ready now, without a single word being said on the subject, to take the sense of the House, man by man, if the Noble Lord would suffer it to be taken Wily upon the measure. Mr. VAIkbITTART would take this opportunity of stating sonic of the modifications under which he intended to propene a continuation of the Tax.. —He had, ou a former night, stated his intention to propose recicim; the Tax to five per cent., and timber, to repeal one million of that part of it which pressed on the agriculturists. On consuitation with those best in formed on die subject, it appeared to him that the best mode to be adopted would be, to make the greatest part of tlos re- iluctimi Schedule R. the Ten: inns Tax. This part of the Tax had heretofore been imposed in the proportion,.t'three-tiruri hs of the n lit. Ile should propose, on this head, that iu dame it should be taken at the third of the value of the hind. Thus a farm paying 6001. a year rent, would be assessed at .4001. and at the rate e ftive per emit. amounting to a charge of 101. ; mid he should also propose, that even this reduced scale should not be br...azait lower than to thrins of .1501. a year. • The Right lion. Gentleman stated, that in ;aspect to incomes of 1501. pier ann. the relief' which would be atbarded was intended to be very considerable. All possessing incomes below that sum would, accerditig to the statement he had before made, be exempt front the Operation of the Tax. It had been said, that in the remoter parts (tithe country, the agricultural and trading part of the community acre incompetent to pay any of the Tax, however I.:riddled it might be. This was a subject for the con sideration of the Committee; and he shank' propose, in the de tails which he should give in the Committee, that a distant pe riod be given them for making their payments. There would be some other poiats of relief for the agricultural part, %ti hick he would also state, Ou the subject of the trading part, there was no mode of assessing ttaders, without requiring them to make returns of their income. This mode had formed a prio cipid ground of objection raised by the opposers of the Tax, and on which much misrepresentation bad gone abroad, as to the levy Mg of the Tax, and the hardship endured by traders. lie heti firrmerly said that it would Mil on them equally, but to this it was retorted, that in fell on the poor, and not on the rich. The fact was, that by returns matte, it appeared that not more than one-fourth of the very low description of traders were charged with the Tax. But, however, the subject would In snore properly discussed in the Committee, and if any plan could be devised, er any new mode of levying the tax en trade be proposed, he :bond be happy to lend an ear to it, and if feasible, to carry it into ettect. Mr. Dant:HAM thought the modifications, however, cof so insidious a nature, in respect to trade, that he trusted nu sanitary gentleman wetad ague h, the tax; Mr, in his opinion, it was a most dishonest mode to relieve one part of the commu nity at the expence or the other. He then observed that tour vears ago the discussions on the Orders in Council lasted near a mouth, and cons Meet! P e titioners that their Petitions were attended to. It had the effect of allaying the ferment in the public "dud, and pittance(' a successfal opposition to the measure then iu question. Much hail been said by the Right lion_ Gentleman about the moditicatiom.; he warnial the coun try against being deceived by a semblance oi modifications. No doubt, as he had said, he was gLal to Like the Tax oil any terms, but he trusted the Right Hon. Gentleman would be driven from modification to god& ,istioti, until at lemah he would be obliged to give it up. Tax, if now opted to, was too large —too tempting a bap.-- for Ministers ever to Sire up. The time to oppose it stie,:essfally vs.:s now, or the oppor tunity was lost, cud therefore he called upon the House and the country to mai,e a stand. Cli RGES AGAINST 1,011 11 ELLEN BOROUGH. Lord Cot IIRMSI: ro.e to bring torward 1114 Slotion n the F4llo4.'et Or the conduct of !And E:,..nhotougli in the t. 1.11 of De fierenger. Th., Noble d exi..e..sell the mate of his ft-cl ings in . resreet to his trial; the infkuuuus sentence passed upon THE NATIONAL REGISTER hint; his e‘pok . front tins jttmse, and ;lie being d, prived of the Order of the pressed so heavily on recollec tion, that they completely overpowi , red Noble Lurd tens here motels nfreetedl --He should, her observed, merely propose to lay the Charges ugainst Lord Ellen;iorongh on the table: as suring the House, that he should be aide to prove, that he nei ther directly or indirectly had any share in the Conspiracy. Indeed u proceedinz was now going on, which he hoped would establish his innocence. He proposed to lay the Charges which he held in his hand on the table ; reserving to hiaiscit future.day fur submitting a Motion on them. The SPLArtrit.-11 the Noble Lord has articles of charge against uny person, lie will deliver those charges in at the table. It is his right so to do, and is not the subject of a motion. The Noble Lord then brought up the Charges, and delivered them into the Clerk's hand. The Clerk v. as proceeding to read ; but the Noble Lord observed it wool i save the time of }louse if they were not read at present, but merely laid on the table. The SPEAXER.—The House will not do its duty unless it hears every word of the Noble Lord's Cbarg'•s. The Clerk will proceed to read them. Lord COCI4II.iNE.---In " the ease of Sir Elijah Impey the Charges were niere•lv laid on the table without being read. The Sri:A House will not proceed one step in the business, nor for an instant listen to the subject, without first bearing the contents of these Charges.—k near, hear.) The Clerl. then read the charges, which were of touch length, and consisted of t 3, Substantially charging Lord Ellenhorough with proceeding at mid night with his trial. against the reprasentation of his Counsel (Mr. ..S•n , jeant Beim), who stated his incapacity Co process!, at that late hour, with justice to his clients, having been engaged for to hours; hawing fepart of the evidence that night, and adjourning the Court for an vaincial reason; hastening on the defence for the same reason; that in so doing he had been gaily of impartiality, injustice, and oppression. The a 1 charge inculpated lihn with confounding the cases of thg de. residents. This charge entered into a comprehensive akw of t . .v stock transactions between the parties, to chew that Lord Cochenne, on the morning of the conspiracy, wan not a stockholder to any aurount, suf. &lent to make him a party in the funds. The 5d charge wa4, that there was no evidence to trace by whom the draft found on De Herenger, n as given. The ath charge was for as,umin,g that the note found on De Berenger came fr ont Lord Cochrane, and evading evidence to aecownfor that note. The sth charge was for injuriously :biting to the Jury, that Lord Cochrane, in using the name of De lierenger, was influenced by an opinion that he had quitted the kingdom. The Gut charge was for unduly and unwarrantably insinuating to the Jury, that I.onl Cochrane 's obtaining leave of absence, in February, tal4, was for the purpose of drawing their attention from other matters. The 7th charge was far misrepresenting the confession voluntarily made by Lonl Cochrane, of his being in company with Mr. C. John. stone, and others implicatol in the wnspirsey. on the morning of the ist of February. The Rth charge was for unwarrantably controverting the statement. on teal', made by Lord Cochrane, that the name on the note of the Ist of l'Lbritary was written so near the bottom, that he could nut read it. The 9th charge was for unwarrantably stating to the Jury, that the statement made on oath by Lord Coelinsne, as to his returning the note o:th. lit of February, was unworthy of credit. The loth chargo was for unwarrantably treating Lord Cochrane's declaration un oath, th.lt he had received a letter from his brother, Major Cochrane, apprising him of the dangerous state of his health. The 11th charge was, for unjustly representing the evidence, on the part Of Lord Cochrane, respecting his itpplication that De Berenger :should go out as an officer on hoard the Tonnant. The Ntit charge tcas tot injuriously passing over Lonl Coehrane's iftidavit respectin,g his refusing to take De Berenger to America ‘vith. out the leave of the Admiralty; and his afterwards recollecting that he had seen certificates of De Iserenger's services signed by Lord Tar mouth, and others in office; and also misrepresenting the evidence of the Hon. A. Murray, as to the way Lord Cochrane became acquainted with de Berenger. The 13th charge was forpassing over the solemn declaration of Lord Cochrane on oath that he had not seen Dc Derenger in a green coat, star, and epaulets, &c. The SPEAKER Wished to know what the course was which the Noble Lord wished to pursue with regard to these charges? Lord Coclilt ANL proposed that they should he 'whited, in order that every au•mber might limn his opinion on them, which it would be impossible to do after once hearing them read. He then moved that the charges should be printed. General MaTnew seconded the motion. The motion was then agreed to, Nem. con. The SPEAKER then wished to know if the Noble Lord %could appoint ally day for taking these charges into consider ation. Lord COCHRANE said, that when the Charges should be printed, and in the hands of Members, lie would appoint sonic day for discussing them.—Adjourned at one o'clock. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6. Petitions were presented from the county of Gloucester, Marshfield in Gloucester, haycock in Wilts, Plymouth, Wigton, Marlborough, Bedford, Peterborough, Aston Abbott, and va rUms other places against the property tax. The Shop-lifting Bill went through a Committee; in which Sir S. 'tonally stated, that provision was made for traaVortir4 persons found guilty of stealing privately in a shop under the value of . . . . . . • Sir W. GEAR% presented a Petition from Chatham against the property tax. Sir G. CLERK presented a Petition from the tenantry of Mid-Lothian against the property tax. The Hon. Gentleman aibuith d the distresses of the farmers of that and every oilier part of Scotland: notwithstanding which, he considered it as a good mettiatri , , and should vote for its continuance.. Mr. LAMI:Ti , N presented a Petition from the city of Dur ham; as did Sir It. Ferguson from the Burgh of Dysart. Lard SLGEST presented a Petition front the inhabitants of Aylesbury, representing the tax on property as unconstitution al—the I:ceping up a standing arts• us dangerous to the liber ties of the' country, and praying for the repeal of the tax. The Noble Lord stated, that the petitioners were men who would Puffer ally privations, if twelfth!: but they felt now, that they were taxed for the support of a profuse military establishment, to keep tip a military taste, .ind a system altogether dangerous to the principles of the Conatitialim, Sir G. IL: tTIII are presented a Petition from the inhabitants of several distriets in the county ef Rutland, on the same subject. Sir N. NOEL thought the tax, proper!) modified. ought not to be risen op. The great grievattce was, the mallet r of col lecting the tax ; and he retaimmeirticil that GocCrlllllClit should oot be too rig'•rous iu collecting it. Mr. VANSITTAUI noticed the objections taken to the re newal of the tax, which he contended, woe formed mum nar row and contracted views oi* the subject. The tax was iatto duced upon the idea, origivally, of raising within the y car softie:eta fur the purposes of war, and as a niea a of relief to the public in time of pence. li. this memo; the mobile were relieved front a barflies' of between nine and ten Kase here and twelve millions.] ul, it might be tWelve millions; he %%4:4 not exactly prepared to state the preeise sans, but they were relieved somewhere to that amount by the opt• rations of this tax. Whim he considered 1101 n large a portion was drawl' from the emin'ry to support the expenditure In time of war (upwards of 170 millions), he was far from think. in; our situation, as some gentlemen imalt.nrit, hopeless or desperate. What was our present situation i Wr. had a larger matins of the Consolidated Fund than in 1:91, when *e measures firat hewn to operate. It was then caleillated at one milion only; there was now an increase of 2,1010,0001.; and ilie real situation of the country was improsed by 10 millions. This was sufficient to destroy the assumption that we were in astute of decay. Lord MILTON had authority, in reference to the Comntis sioners under the tax, to say, that Solute or them would not, in time of peace, collect the tax ; of course the Gov crtauent mast have to pay the Commissioners. Mr. MAR n v.vrr had listened to the various discussions, and was satisfied that the property tax ought not to be continiii .t. Th e intermediate. space of time, as it was called, wan e fire in which it could not be borne, the public felt so much pressure in miler respects. He thought the tax ought to be kept as a line of demarcation between war and peace. The clamour of the country, as the Noble Lord 11411 stated it, with nut so, but. cries of distress—( Bow, hear.) Mr. CAI:TWItICIIT admitted the tax ought to be a war one; but it was necessary to have a limited one in time of peace, in order to wind tip the expellees. The country %cupid find relief from the plan of the modideations adopted by the Right lion. Gentleman. Mr. Tito:trews; was of opinion, and that opinion was sanctioned by persons of competent skill; that the mimeo re frlired a l i g ht b e raised wifhout affecting the fotitl , , ami the interest for two years might be easily repaid. The Hon. Gent. maintained that the distresses of the country were so.great, that he had applications (in consequence of having sent out, thitaigh the means of the Under Secretary of State, a poor woman and her two children to Botany Bay, to her husband. who was transported thither) to send many of the poor farmers of Holderness out; the poor woman had given, in u letter to g friend, such a flourishing description of the place. The far tners of Holderuess could get no work, no money , nor could poor-rates he collected to give them telicf—lf Ministers would take off the horse and property tax. much relief would he afforded to the agricultural interest, which was every where suffering alike. Mr. LONG WELLE9LEY entered his protest against the tax, after mature deliberation, conceiving it to be most injurious to the agrienitnmi and trading interests. In doing this, he was aware he was setting up his opinion against Ministers, for whom, and especially for one (Mr. Pole), be must entertain sentiments of respect and affection. But that Right Hon. Gentleman would despise him if he did not publicly state his sentiments. The House then went into a Committee of Supply, and re sumed the adjourned debate on the Army Estimates. Mr. S. Wonmov cousidered our force iu the Colonies as too large. With respect to the force proposed to lw kept up in England, he considered that the state of Ireland required a. larger force to be kept up in this cottony than we should otherwise require, as it was uncertain how suddenly an ad.' . (lit' I force might be called fur; and, therefore, it was highly necessary a force should be kept up in this country, ready in case of emergency.—Upon the whole, however, was of opinion, a reduction of 1000 in the wards, and lOW i■ the household troops, might safely be made: this would leave 211,000 for England, a number, in his opinion, by no means too large. He considered that a further number of SOW might be taken from the other parts of the proposed establislinwnt, making in the whole, a reduction of 10,000 men; as large a reduction as could, iu his opinion, with safety to the public service, be made. If Ministers should fail to convince him that his opinions were erroneous, he would move a rcductio• in the different points be had stated. Lord CASTLEREAGH said, the Government came to this question with every disposition to economy ; and he felt some satisfaction that the dinerences of opinion between Member. and the Government were not so great as at first sight appeared. He wished himself to be pledged to no greater reductiou of force for the neat year than 22,000 men. The House then divided on Mr. S. Wortley's Amendment, for a reductiou of 10,000 men: For the Moduli, 130—Agonise it 202—Majority in favour of Ministers 72. The consideration of the other Resolutions was then deferred. and the House adjourned at Three o'clock. THURSDAY, MARCH 7. The House was occupied a considerable length of time In re. ceiving Petitions from various places against the Property Tax. On the 'notion of Mr. M. A. Taylor, a Committee of twenty one Gentlemen was appointed to enquire into the present state of the Pavement of the Metropolis. THE STATE OF AGRICULTURE. Mr. WESTERN moved for the appointment of a Committee of the w:iole House to enquire into the present distressed state of Agriculture. Since lie had given notice of his motion, iie had received communications from all parts of the country Imola the subject, from persons well informed. The result ot all these communications had satisfied his mind, that the distress was un paralleled. The first uccouut related to the situation of the tigrictiltural interest iu Norfolk, which. to he sure, Kay not a fair average of the distress felt in other comities. The number of writs issued from the Sheriff's Office in ISIS, was 410. Is 1813 the number had increased to 607 ; the executions on goods had increased in the M1111:* period from 96 to 174. In IVorces tershire, in the former year, the writs were 640; iu 1815, 8112. The number of parishes under process front the Exchequer for arrears of taxes, was 146. In Suffolk, the writs had increased from -150 to .807. In Sussex, a Commissioner, from whom he kid received the informntion, stated, that in one of the bun-. dreds w hick coidaim d :12 parishes, .26 of those parishes were tinder process fur arrears ; and in another hundred, out of 20 parishes, 15 had experienced a similar fate. In the Isle of Ely, takine ie two years of 1812 and compared to those of r . Isll and 1815, the executions in the two former Years were seven, in the two latter they had increased to 60.—the arrears due in 1812 were 6751.; in 1815, 18,5521.; and the amount of . • • -4 , .• the debts of the farmers ut that period 72,:i0u1. of which " the creditors up to this moment had not received any divi there wet e 110 W 11l tarots to be disposed of. He shueld go 1: • farther as to the extent of the calamities. 'the question .4 00 how had they arisen? It was clear that, up to the year 1 . yt i tile agriculture of the country ass in a thriving state ; Sit quent to a hush, distress haul ensued; and ,sucti wits its exteisies,;(-'.." that the country could not bear the burthen of taxation, n • heavy and immense pressure alike poor's rates, which wu S✓: _ ,C t yoml belief, The pressure of tithes was Aso motiscr source of