The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-05-02 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

MONDAY—The House met for the first time since the
Easter recess. Several new members took the oaths
and their seats. Mr. Warren asked if Government
had any information to impart as to the Abyssinian
captives, upon which Mr. Layard said Government was
in communication with the authorities, and there were
hopes that the prisoners would soon be released..
A discussion took place on the report of the
War Office Committee, General Peel disapproving
of the recommendations made. Lord Hartington
defended the recommendations, on the ground that they
would conduce both to economy and efficiency. The
Home shorty afterward adjourned, several military
and naval votes having been agreed to.
TOZBDAT.—Mr. Childers obtained leave to bring in a
Bill to provide for the better management of Greenwich
Hospital. The abuses under which this institution has
so long suffered are well known, and it is gratifying to
see that the Government has taken the matter in hand.
The other business brought before the House was un-
important.
WiDNIBDAT.-1 Bill introduced by Sir George
Bowyer for the better arrangement of the Inns of
Court was read a 'emend time.
THURSDAY—The House was filled with an audience
anxious to hear the Budget. Sir George Grey made an
announcement 'similar to that made by Earl Russell in
the Upper House. Mr. Gladstone then proceeded to
make his financial Itstemeat. After glancing at the
state of the country when the present Parliament first
net, and comparing it with the existing state of things,
the right hon. gentleman congratulated the House on
the public tranquility and the generally prosperous
and 'satisfactory condition of the empire. Referring
then to the question of finance, he observed that the
estimated expenditure for the past year amounted to
£66 890,000, and the sum mentioned in the Appropria-
tion Bill was £67,000,000, while the actual expenditure
fell short of that by £611,000. The expenditure for
the year having been £66,462,000, and the revenue
£70,313,000, there was thus a surplus of revenue over
expenditure of £3,851,000; but deducting from that
the sum of £620,000 raised for fortifications, the real
amount of Burping was £3,231,000. He next compared
the actual with the estimated revenue, and said that
where's the latter was £67,128,000, the former was
£70,313,000, showing a surplus over the estimate of
£3,185,000; and that surplus extended to every head of
revenue. He estimated the expenditure for the finan-
cial year on which we have just entered at £66,139,000.
This was £1,110,000 less than the estimates for last
year. On the other hand, he estimated the revenue for
the current year at £70,170,000. From this would have
to be deducted the estimated charge of £66,139,000,
and there would then be s surplus of income beyond
the charge of £4,031,000. Wish regard to the disposal of
this surplus he proposed to effect a change in the steps
of the duty on the transfer of shares and conveyances,
*enable persons more precisely to adjust to the amount
of the transaction the sum they had to pay upon it,
instead of driving them to make two conveyanoes
instead of one for the purpose of effecting a small
saving. With this view he should propose to remove
the anomaly in the present stamp duty on scrip
certificates and receipts. He further proposed to
reduce from 6d. to - Id. the stamp upon the
letting of small tenements for periods less than a
year; to reduce the general scale on appraisements
where the property was under the value of £5O; to give
relief to special pleaders and conveyancers by placing
them on the same footing as attorneys and solicitors in
respect of license duties ; to reduce the stamp duties on
ecclesiastical licenses where the present licenses were so
high as to form a serious burden or prevent the use of
the instrument, to make a change in the law of charter
party, which was in an unsatisfactory state, and reduce
the duty to 6d., and to effect some other changes with
regard to policies on marine insurance, and • more
equitable arrangement of the stamp duties payable by
certain companies such as the Accidental Death

Inauranoe Company and the Plate Glass Insurance
Company. Considering the claim of the agricultural
interest to a reduction or repeal of the malt tax, the
right hon. gentleman contended that the total abolition
of that impost would be the death warrant of our
modern commercial policy, and of the whole system of
indirect taxation. If it were merely reduced all the ,1
existing excise restrictions would have to be retained,
and the only sensible advantage that would result to
the consumer from remitting evee half the duty would
be one farthing A quart. •On the other hand, that
reduction would involve a loss to the revenue of
£2,480,000 for the present year, and £3,360,000 in the
next year. As • question of justice he thought that
tea, been more heavily taxed than beer, had a prior
claim on the wrath !elation of the House. But he pro-
posed in the ease of inferior barleys, to give the moister
the option,shorild be think fit, of having the duty charged
by weight instead of by measure. Thus the position
of the growers of the middling and lower qualities of
barley would be greatly improved. With regard to the ,
duty on tee he proposed to reduce it to 6d. a lb. This
would entail a loss to the Exchequer for the remainder
of the year of £1,868,000. Considering it to be • part
of the duty of the present Parliament to effect a reduc-
tion in the inoome tax, and leave it for their successors
within manageable limits, he proposed to remove one-
third of the amount, thus reducing the tax. from 61. to
42. If that proposal were accepted the result would be
to diminish the annual yield from this source to
£5,200,000, and the final logs to the Exchequer would
be .22.600,000. He also proposed to reduce the duty
on fire insurance to a uniform rate of eighteenpenoe
from the 20th of June next, and to substitute for the
duty of one shilling on fire insurance policies a stamp
duty of one penny. By this arrangement there would
be a loss to the revenue of £260,000 for the present year,
and the same amount for the next. The result of these
several changes would be to relieve the taxpayer
ultimately to the extent of £5,420,000 a year; made up
of the following items :—Tee, £2,300,000; Income tax,
£2,600,000; fire insurance, £520,0o0; total, £5,423,000.
The loss which the Exchequer would sustain during
the year would be £3,778,000. In 1866-67 there would
be a farther loss of £1.417,000 so that the total loss ,
for the two years together would be £5,195,000. The '
loss on the present year of £3,778,000, being deducted
from the surplus of £4,031,000 would leave a balance of
£253,000, which he hoped the house would assist the
Government in shielding from invasion. In concluding
he observed that it was a satisfaction to himself and his
colleagues to believe that the proposals he now made
would not be unacceptable to gentlemen on either side.
They were few, simple, and intelligible, and he was
strongly persuaded that they were likely to win the
approval of the house and obtain the favourable verdict
of the nation. He then put the resolution on the tea
duty in the hands of the chairman, and moved to report
progress, which, after the usual criticism on the part of
several members, was agreed to.
FBIDAT.—Mr. Walpole asked Mr. Dillwyn if he pro-
posed to proceed with the adjourned debate on the
Church Establishment (Ireland) Bill, which now etood
as an order of the day for Tuesday next. Mr. Dillwyn
said he saw no chance of bringing the debate on on that
day, and be should postpone it until a future day. Mr.
Hennesay moved the appointment of a select committee
to inquire into the grievances referred to in the petition
of the mayor, merchants, shipowners, and commercial
traders of Liverpool, presented on the 20th Marsh, with
reference to the out-door officers of Customs ; and that
the petitions from the Lord Mayor, merchants, and
shipowners of London, from the Lord Mayor and
merchants of Dublin, from the Lord Provost and
merchants of Edinburgh and Leith, and from the Mayor,
merchants, and shipown,ra of Hull, be referred to the
committee. Mr. Alderman Rose seconded the motion.
' The motion was supported by Mr. Berkeley, Mr. Cave,
Mr. Clay, and Mr. Floridan. The Chancellor of the
Exchequer objeoted to the dangerous principle of the
, House usurping the function of the executive Govern-
ment, and argued that, if the motion for inquiry were
agreed to, it would not tend only to disorganise the
public service, but to lower the character of the House
itself. After some observations from Mr. Lyall and
Mr. Goschen, the House divided, when the numbers
were—for the motion 69, against 80, majority 11. Mr.
P. Urquhart rose to call attention to the operation of
the augmented spirit duties in Ireland, when the House
was counted out at 7.25 p.m.

SIMIILTAN7.OIIB RIFLE MATCH. —The first prize wan
won by the let North York Administrative, with a
wore of 1057 ; Bristol second, with a score of 1056.
Upwards of one hundred battalions engaged in the con-
test. The Dorsetsbire battalion scored 961.
A young girl, respectably connected, was found
drowned in the New River, near Stoke Newington, on
Saturday morning. Suspicion has fallen upon a young
man, a labourer on the railway, found by the police in
the immediate neighbourhood witn his clothes all wet,
and who stated that he bad had a struggle with some
one in the New River.

Dr. Pritchard, of Glasgow, already charged with the
murder of his wife, was on Friday committed for trial
on a second charge of poisoning his mother-in-law.
The prisoner denied the charge absolutely, and declined
to say more. The prisoner shows great coolness and
self -possession.
It was to prevent certain injurious customs that the
Parliamentary Committee on Food adulterations was
appointed; there is one custom, however, of an
especially injurious character still in force, for English
merchants continue to direst the Chinese to cover tea
with colour, purposely to enable the inferior brown
leaves to be passed off with the beet. Green tea, if kept
perfectly pure, is a dark olive, and pure black is not in-
tensely dark. Horniman & Co., London, have long re.
pudiated the injurious custom of colouring tea; their
imports, from the absence of the usual mineral coating,
command universal preference as being both wholesome
and economical. Obtainable only in packets; as imita-
tions abound, see that " Horniman & Co., Original Im-
porters of the pure tea" is on each. Agents—chemists,
confectioners and booksellers—are appointed in every
town; a list for this locality is to be found in the.*
columns.

The introduction of commodities thatooinmand a large
sale from their distinctive advantages being valued by
the public, frequently attracts a host of imitators. To
endeavour to pass off inferier articles some closely copy
the trade-mark, labels, packets, ttc., of Messrs. Herm-
man, the well-known original Importers of the Pure
Tea; therefore purchasers should not fail to notice that
the signature—" Florninian and Co, London"—is on
each genuine packet. Their tea, from its reliable good
quality, has for a quarter of a century been in great
favour throughout the kingdom, proving that all classes
require good tea, and prefer sterling quality to mere
appearance. Messrs. llornimans' agents number about
two thousand; those in this locality are advertised in
our columns,

ASSURANCE AND INSURANCE.