The Express.
London, England, 1864-04-22 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 22, 1864.

tion bad been made and eleven estates registered,
46 eases remaining 'indisposed of ; while the office
was so far from being self-supporting that the
amount of fees received amounted to only 1801. The
act bad been a complete failure.
The LORD CiisiicaLton contended that, consi-
dering the short period during which the act had
been in operation, and that
.property to the value
of two millions had been registered, and numerous
applications were pending, it had worked favour-
ably.
After some conversation the subject dropped.
In answer to the Earl of CARNAIVON,

Earl Russm.i. said that the cause of the adjourn-
ment of the conference to Monday next was that
the Austrian and Prussian plenipoteutialies had
received instructions not to take part in it until
the representative of the German Diet was pre-
sent.
The house then adjourned.

IN the Houss of COMNONS., Mr. CHII.DIRS took
the oatLs and his seat on his re-election for Ponte-
fract, after his appointment as a lord of the Ad-
miralty.
In answer to Mr. KINNSIRD,

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said, in re-
ference to the rumour that General Garibaldi had
been induced to curtail his visit to this country by
representations from a member of Ler Majesty's
government, that he had received a communication
from the Duke of Sutherland to the effect that
Garibaldi's health would he likely to suffer from
over-exertion, and he asked him to attend a con-
sultation of the general's friends on the subject,
who came to the conclusion to advise the general
to contract the programme of his visits to the
provinces. He (Mr. Gladstone) personally gave
an opinion to the general iu conformity with
the result of the consideration of his friends.
The general, however, declined to draw dis-
tions between one town and another ; said that his
purpose iu coming to England was accomplished,
namely, to return his thanks to the government and
people of this country for the sympathy they had
shown to Italy ; that by visiting the metropolis he
had addressed himself to the whole nation ; and that
hereafter he hoped to see his old friends in the pro-
vinces with less formality than had characterised
present visit.
Mr. ScULLY asked Mr. Gladstone whether in his
conversation with General Garibaldi lie stated that
the feeling of the metropolis of England represented
the feeling of the people of Ireland.
The CHANCELLOR of the ExcaECWER said that he
made no allusion to the feeling of the people of
Ireland ;as to that of the people of England, lie
left it to General Garibaldi himself to judge of it.
Mr. Burr, on the consideration of a petition on
the subject of the Lisburn election, moved for a
select committee to inquire into the circumstances
of the dissolution of the Lisburn Election
I Committee. . _

The motion was opposed by Mr. Ht..7.cr and the
Arroaxse-GLNERLL, and negatived.
On going into committee of ways and means, on
the proposal to alter the duty uu tire insurance,
contained in the Buds,et,
The CHANCELLOR of the ExcnEurEs pointed out
that a notice of motion given by Mr. Sheridan on
going into committee was tantamount to an effort
to pledge the house to an alteration of the plan
proposed by the government, by reducing the duty
generally to one ahilling. He urged that it Lad
been shown that everything Lad been done towards
the reduction of the duty ..0 tire insurance con-
sistently with the available 'surplus at their
disposal. Having only '230.000!. of the
surplus left, the government was not in a
pueition to go further in the matter of reducing
this particular duty. He contended that the pro-
position he made to reduce the duty on stock in
trade by Is. 6d., was the only safe course, in order
to teat the recuperative power of the tax after re-
duction. .

kir. H. B. SHERIDAN, who bad a notice of motion
to the effect that in order to carry out a resolution
of the house passed last year, a uniform reduction of
Is. per cent. on all descriptions of property liable to
the duty should be carried out, argued, and pro-
duced figures in proof of his argument, that the
Chancellor of the Exchequer had a sufficient sur-
plus to enable him to make this reduction, and if he
had not, it was Lis own fault, fur, having • large
surplus to deal will, it was his duty, in obedience
to two resolutions of the house, to provide for the
diminution of this particular duty. He urged that
there would be great difficulty iu defining what were
stock and utensils in trade fur the purposes of fire
insurance.

Mr. Manama stated that ba was of opinion that
Mr. Sheridan's amendment was founded on the
right principle, as compared with that on which the
proposition of the Chancellor of the Exchequer was
based ; but be did not think that any speciFc
change should be made in the financial plan of the
government, and therefore, though be should vote
for the amendment, if it was carried he should,
when it was put as an origin'd motion, more the
omission of the words "one shilling per cent." in
the resolution.

On a division, Mr. Sheridan's amendment was
rejected by 170 to 117.
The house then went into committeeof way► and
means.

On the resolution reducing the duty on fire in-
surance on goods, wares, merchandise (being stock
in trade), and machinery and utensils used in trade
and manufacture, to Is. 6d. per cent.,

- ,
Str H.WrimotrOMßY moved to substitute " houses
and buildings " for stock is trade, eke.
After a short debate the amendment was with-
drawn, and the original resolution agreed to.
On going into committee of supply,
Colonel Dicx.sos moved for a select committee
to inquire into the claim of Mr. John Clare, jun.,
on the government for compensation for inven-
tions and designs supplied to the Admiralty in
connexion with iron ship building and the con-
struction of gun-boats.
Lord C. Pacer stated that Mr. Clare bad
filed a petition of right in vindication of his use,
which Lad been tried in • court of law, and •
decision given against him, finding that no in-
fringement of his patent had taken place by the
Admiralty ; and this was a conclusive answer to the
case now revived.

The motion having been discussed,was negatived.
Sir J. Paarscrros stated that from information
he had obtained, he had reason to believe that the
Channel Fleet was not in such a condition of
efficiency as was necessary, owing to the difficulty
of getting repairs done and obtaining coals and
provisions at Portland ; and if an order was sent
for the iron ships to go on foreign service it would
be impossible for them to go, in consequence of
their being so foul and nut having been cleansed.
Re also urged that the reserves in the home ports
were in a very inefficient position, and inquired
what steps had been taken to remedy that state of
things.
Lord C. PAGIT said that the squadron was
ordered to be ready for sea by the 15th of this
month, and they (the ships) were eo ready ;
and he had reason to believe that there
bad been no particular delay in coaling or provi-
sioning them. As to the iron slaps, some of them
had been afloat so short a time as not to require
docking, and the others had been docked not very
long ago. With regard to the reserves, there were
more ships now in reserve than bad been the case
in former years.

The house went into committee of supply, but
objection being made to go on, the chairman re-
ported progress.
The Court of Justiciary (Scotland) Bill passed
through committee, as did the Fish Teiuds (Scot-
land) Bill, and the Summary Procedure (Scotland)
Bill.

The Charitable lumnranoes Enrolments Bill was
read a second time.

In committee on the Bridges Ireland Bill, it was
objected to aa applying to all Ireland a measure
which was intended to benefit the city of Kilkenny
only.
On a division a motion that the chairman do leave
the chair was carried by 128 to &i.
The Select Committee on the Government An-
nuities Bill having been appointed,
Sir M. FARQUHAR moved that the committee
have power to send for persons, papers, and
records.

This was opposed by the Czawcitmon of the Ex-
empt/is, and an animated debate ensued, at the
close of which, on a division, the motion was lost
by 127 to 104.
The other business was disposed of and the house
adjourned.

IN the House of Lords, last night, attention
was called to the second postpeoement of the
Conference. As the public is aware, the day
originally fixed for the meeting was the 11th inst., ;
but the time was extended to the 20th, to suit the '1
convenience of Austria and Prussia. Accordingly,
last Wednesday the English, French, and Danish I
Plenipotentiaries were in readiness to enter upon
the business for which they had been called
together. But no Ministers from Germany ,
presented thesseelves, and the Conference could ,
not be held. It appears from Earl RUSSELL'S ex-
planations, that the Ministers of the belligerent
German Powers had received strict in-
structions not to attend the Conference
until the arrival of Baron Bauer, the repre-
sentative of the Diet. The Austrian and Prus-
sian Governments seem rewired to attribute a
very high importance to the Germanic Confeders-
tion in the approaching negotiations. A little
while ago the Confederation was held of small
amount by the two Powers : its resolutions were
disregarded, its army of execution was rudely
thrust wide, and no pains were spared to show the
world that Austria and Prussia were the true and
effective representatives of Germany. Nothing
has since happened to change the relative im-
portance of the two Powers and the Confederation.
If, however, Austria and Prussia wish to favour the
extreme pretensions sometimes put forward in the
name of Germany, their conduct in aggrandising the
importance of the Plenipotentiary of the Diet is
intelligible enough. Of the parties invited to send ,
representatives to the Conference, the German
Confederation is the only one which is not bound
by the Treaty of London, and it may very well be
that Austria and Prussia are willing to stand in the
background as spectators while Baron Bsuirr pre-
fers demands in the name of the Diet which for very
shame they could not make themselves. The public
will judge for itself the conduct of the Austrian
and Prussian Governments in refusing to permit
their Ministers so much as to enter upon the
formal and preliminary business of the Conference
until the arrival of an agent whose principals have
not struck a blow in this war, and who have no
rights of any kind over the country which is its
seat. It will be difficult to persuade impartial
spectators that the brutal lust of carnage of which
we have seen so much of late is not the reason why
the German Powers avoid the Conference. As
Lord STRAITORD Di REDCLIFFE observed last
knight, hostilities are not now being prosecuted with
any reasonable and legitimate object, but in a
" murderous spirit." We hear from Berlin of an
intention to take forcible possession of Jutland
and besiege Fredericia ; SondeTborg is also to be
attacked sad Alsen occupied ; and to inspirit the
army for this fiendish work the King of PRI:FALL
suddenly appears on the scene. It is satisfactory
to see that both of the great parties in the State,
as represented last night in the House of Lords,
were agreed as to the character of these proceed-
ings, and rate at their just value the professions
of the German Courts. Monday is now named for
the meeting of the Conference, but, after what
his happened, no one can feel sure that it will
assemble on that day.

EDINBURGH was this week the scene of
One of those popular demonstrations against
the Annuity Tax which, according to the
local journals, have recently increased both in
number and seriousness. The occasion of the
excitement was the seizure and public sale of •
portion of the goods belonging to a member of
one of the many Free Churches of the
city, to meet a tax imposed for the pur-
pose of paying the salaries of the minis-
ters belonging to the Establishment. According
to a comparatively recent arrangement, this eccle-
siastical impost is now classed with the more
strictly municipal burdens, the Ministers' Money
being collected with the police, prison, and
registration rates. Mr. DUNCAN M`Lseinr,
a temperance hotel keeper, whose goods have
just been seized, declined on conscientious grounds
to pay this ecclesiastical portion of the police rates,
amounting, it appears, to about a fourth of the
whole. While offering repeatedly to pay the
whole of the claim for the police rate proper,
he refused to meet the demand made by
the collector for the Ministers' Money, on the
broad ground of the tax being essentially unjust
and oppressive ; and in this refusal he appears to
be supported by a large and resolute body of his
fellow-citizens. The municipal authorities are of
course anxious to collect as much of the tax as
possible, and Mr. hPLAKEN's refusal was followed
by a result which sometimes in extreme cases fol-
lows the refusal to pay church rates on this aide
of the Tweed. His furniture was seized, or
" poinded," by the official collector, and advertised
for public sale at eleven o'clock on Tuesday last.
Long before that hour, however, there were deci•
sive signs of the strong interest excited by the
threatened proceedings, the ratepayers and the po-
pulace gathering in crowds opposite Mr. DULA lora: 's
house. By eleven o'clock the street was almost
impassable, upwards of three thousand people
having assembled, the house and its approaches
in particular being sodensely thronged that it seemed
at first doubtful whether the officials who arrived at
the appointed hour to conduct the sale would
succeed in getting in. At length, however, the
sale was proceeded with amidst considerable noise
and confusion, the greater part of the goods being
bought in by Mr. lit'Lsass and his friends. A
few articles of furniture were, however, purchased
by the official creditor, and these being at once
singled out as objects of popular vengeance were
thrown into the street, broken up, piled into a
heap, converted into a bonfire, and reduced to
charcoal on the spot, the act of destruction having
been completed without any attempt at inter-
ference on the part of the police.
It is of course impossible to justify in any way
the act of violence that accompanied this popular
demonstration, but it sufficiently illustrates the
strong feeling that prevails in the city against
this ecclesiastical impost. The fact that such
scenes are of frequent occurrence in • city
like Edinburgh will probably suffice to con-
vince most impartial observers that there must be
something not only very exceptional, but peculiarly
odious in the tax that produces them. That •
large body of respectable citizens should determine
to suffer almost any amount of personal loss and
inconvenience rather than pay a comparatively
trifling sum, and should in this refusal'
be actively supported by the mass of the,
people, would, in the eyes of a re-
' fiective legislator, present the strongest prima
fucie argument against the justice and expediency
of the obnoxious impost. Of course only a small
proportion who object to the tax as unjust and
oppressive would, in any such case, go the length
of actually refusing to pay it, yet the number who
do this with regard to the Annuity Tax iu

Edinburgh is relatively large. There is, it is
true, some dispute among the local authori-
ties as to the precise figures, the oppo-
nents of the tax numbering the recusants
by thousands, while its apologists and defenders
maintain that they do not exceed five hundred.
But, taking the figures at the very lowest
amount, even three or four hundred respectable
citizens in a considerable town do not deli-
berately refuse to pay a local tax, end brave all
the inconveniences of this refusal—the lees of their
goods, in some cases of their personal liberty—
without 1100211 good and substantial reason. The
case of the recusants is not at all so simple as the
local apologists of the Annuity Tax would have the
world to believe, and cannot be satisfactorily dia-
-1 missed as merely another illustration of that desire
Ito evade legal obligations which undoubtedly
I affects certain classes of the community. Mr.
M‘Lsza:r, we are told by these apologists,
attempted "to transfer the payment of his
"municipal taxes to the shoulders of his neigh-
' " hours," and was thus " seeking to plunder
" those who are under just the same legal oblige-
" tions as himself." But we apprehend that,
apart from the question of motives, this is hardly a
correct description of the facts. Mr. M`Lanarr,
it appears, was quite willing to pay the great bulk
of the police rates, and had repeatedly offered to
do so, and had the police rate proper far exceeded
the amount for which he was summoned, in-
cluding the Ministers' Money, he would have
been equally ready to pay it. The theory of a
natural love of plunder, therefore, will hardly meet
the case ; and even supposing it true in one or two
instances, it would argue inexcusable levity or
something worse to bring such a charge against
three or four hundred citizens of character
and respectability. Such a body of men
would adopt the extreme course of resisting the
law only under the pressure of some powerful public,
and, in their own judgment, absolutely sufficient,
motive. Nor is the motive far to seek. It is, as
Mr. M`lanzs states, the sense of injustice and
oppression, the most intolerable of all to Scotch-
men as well as Englishmen. The injustice of the
existing ecclesiastical tax in the city of Edinburgh
lies on the surface. Once, no doubt, when the
majority of inhabitants belonged to the Esta-
blished Church, it might with some plausibility have
been considered a tolerably equitable arrangement to
pay the clergy of their church by a tax on the
whole town. Now, however, the Establishment
demands the support of a mere fraction of the
citizens. While the Free or Dissenting Churches
have multiplied with extraordinary rapidity, those
belonging to the Establishment have, we believe,
actually diminished in number. The members of
the Free Churches contribute largely to the sup-
port of their own clergy and their own religious
organizations ; it is not surprising, therefore,
that they should resist, as &peculiar injustice, the
claim made upon them to support the clergy of
their richer fellow-citizens of the Establishment.

GENERAL GARIBALDI'S MOVEMENTS.
(THIS DAY.)

General Garibaldi, having expressed a desire to
meet the Americans resident in London before his
departure, accepted an invitation to breakfast with
the Hon. Freeman H. Morse, Consul of the United
States, at his residence, 2, Kensington-gate, at 9
a.m., this morning. There were present : Hon. F.
H. Morse, Mrs. and Miss Morse, Mr. Adams, the
United States' minister, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Moran,
of the United States' Legation, Hon. W. M. Evart.%
Mr. J. S. Morgan, Mr. W. E. Forster, M.P., and
Mrs. Forster, Mr. C. W. Field, Mr. Rossini, kc. ke.
Subsequently, a large number of American ladies
and gentlemen were presented. General Garibaldi
expressed himself warmly in favour of the United
States in the struggle with the slave power, and
said he would go there at once and tender his ser-
rims if they were needed, but happily they were
not. He also said he was proud to acknowledge
himself a citizen of the United States, and that he
oould claim them as his adopted country. They
were the great bulwark of human liberty. England
and America united in sentiment, would keep the
peace of the world.

INTERVIEW OF GENERAL GARI-
BALDI WITH HIS ROYAL HIGH-
NESS THE PRINCE OF WALES.-
(THIS DAY.)

On leaving Kensington-gate this morning,
General Garibaldi and Mr. Seely, M.P.,
proceeded to the residence of the Earl of
Shaftesbury, Grosvenor-square, where they re-
mained until nearly 12 o'oock. At the latter
hour the general, accompanied by the noble earl
and Mr. Seely, left Grosvenor-square in an open
carriage and pair for Stafford House, arriving
there at 12.20. Very few people were about,
it being generally supposed the general had left
town. Great interest, however, will be felt in the
i announcement which we are enabled to make, that at
Stafford House a meeting took place between his
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales and General
Garibaldi. His Royal Highness reached town this
morning at an early hour and proceeded to Marl-
borough House. The Prince, with two gentle-
men, appears to have then driven in a brougham in
the direction of Buckingham Palace, and to have
there alighted and walked on foot to Stafford House,
entering at a private door without attracting any
observation. The Prince of Wales remained
at Stafford House for upwards of an hour.
It was intended, we believe, that after the de-
parture of the Prince, General Garibaldi and party
should proceed to Cliefden, the residence of the
Duchess Dowager of Sutherland, where he will
remain the night, proceeding to-morrow to Ply-
mouth.

tribe Cam

OSBORNE, Aran. 21.

The Queen and Royal Family, attended by the
Ladies and Gentlemen in Welting, arrived at Osborne at
half-put seven o'clock last night, from Windsor Castle.
Ilex Majesty's health, though still requiring cars, has not
suffered from the fatigue of the journey.

A deputation from the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce,
consisting of Mr. Gnarlier (president), Mr. C. Ball, and
Mr. Clark, bad an interview with Lord Palmerston, at
Cambridge-bonae, on Wednesday, on the subject of the
Consolidation of the Customs and Inland Revenue Depart-
ment. The deputation was introduce/ by Mr. Horefall,
M.P., Mr. J. C. Ewart, M.P., and Mr. C. Turner, M.P., and
was accompanied by Mr. Thomas Thaws.
Despatches were sent yesterday from the Colonial-office
to the Governor of Cicada.

The gold medal established by the Society of Arts,
in memory of its late president, the Prince Consort, to be
called the " Albert Medal," and to be bestowed, from tiros
to time, " for distinguished merit in promeMeg arts, mann-
factures, and 001111311101," has been adjudged to Sir Howland
Hill, !C.C.S., in recognition of his eminent services to all
classes of the community, in the creation of the penny post-
age system and other postal reforms.

-On Wednesday last the Rev. John Rush worth
Pilling was licensed to the perpetual curacy of Loogham-
with-Worldling, in the county of Norfolk, on the needs*.
tion of her most gracious Majesty the Queen.