The Express.
London, England, 1867-11-29 00:00:00

4
IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS. —Tit u 1010 A Y, Nor. 2S.

1r the Booms of Loans yesterday the Earl of
DsivoN, in moving for papers, intimated that next
session it might be necessary to apply to parliament
for increased powers to the Poor-law Board, with
the view of enabling the board more promptly to
discover abuses and apply a remedy.
The Archbishop of YORK thought that the failure
of the system was in some measure attributable to
the fact that our workhouses are hospitals without
being conducted upon the known principles of hos-
pital management. _ _

The Barr of CARNARVON believed the system was
full of defects, and that parliament would willingly
consent to enlarge the powers of the Poor-law
Board.

Lord Hor,:irros urged that in any new legisla-
tion the interests of the ratepayers should not Le
lost sight of.
The house adjourned at a quarter past six o'clock
until Monday next.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—THURSDAY, Nov. 28.

lv the Horst: of Cosmos:4 Loral STANLEY
stated, in reply to Mr. Headlam, that further cor-
respondence had taken place on the subject of the
ship Mermaid, and that the Spanish government;
acting on his suggestion, had referred the matter
to arbitration. His lordship further stated, in re-
ply to Colonel llarttelut, that no treaty of com-
merce has been lately concluded with Portugal
by which the wines of that country are to be ad-
mitted at a reduced duty. There had been nego-
tiations on the subject, but no agreement had as
yet been come to.
Mr. HUNT, in reply to a question by Mr. Gra-
ham as to the arrangements fur carrying the Ame-
rican mails after the termination of the present
contract on the 28th December, stated that the
government had entered into a contract with
Messrs. Cunard and Co. for conveying the mails
for one year longer for a fixed sum.
In reply to Mr. Goacnes, the ArroassY-Ga-
-3161•AL announced that it is the intention of the
government, after the recess, to introduce a mea-
sure for the amendment of the law of bankruptcy.
The house having resolved into committee of
ways and means,
kr. HUNT, in the absence of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer from indisposition stated the mode
in which the government proposed to raise the
2,000,000/. which had been voted towards the
Abyssinian war. The Chancellor of the Exchequer,
in his financial statement on the 4th of April, esti-
mated the surplus at 246,0001. Some alterations
were made by which the surplus was reduced to
206,0001. Deducting that sum from the 2,000,0001.
which had been voted, about 1,800,0001. would have
to be provided for. They proposed to impose
an additional income tax of a penny in
the pound for the present financial year.
This would yield something under 1,500,0001. It
was not expected,however, that more thanB4o,ooo/.
could be collected in the course of the financial
year, leaving 660,0001. to be collected afterwards.
The sum of 960,0001. would have to be advanced
from other sources, and they proposed to take this
aunt from the balance in the Exchequer, which
would leave that balance on the 31st March,
1868, at 5,6:14,0001. Some persons thought that
the whole of the expenditure of the war should
not be thrown on the payers of income tax.
Their objection would be met in some measure by
voting a portion of the expense front the balances
in the Exchequer, by which they were practically
applying, so far, the general taxes of the country
to the expense of the war.
Mr. GLaterroNs remarked that it would have
been objectionable to have raised a loan, and still
more objectionable to have postponed the matter ,
mu the next financial year. The proposal he
thought, on the whole, was a judicious one under
the circumstances. It was inconvenient to reduce
the balance in the exchequer when they had a fall-
ing revenue. Drawing from the balance was almost
equivalent to increasing the debt ; but they had
during the year reduced the debt to a nearly equal
amount, so that on the whole operations of the
year they would not increase the debt.
Sir G. Bowysa thought it most objectionable to
increase the income tax.

Mr. Luso aixepted the proposal, and should
not have objected to the income tax being increased
by twopence in the pound.
Mr. WHITE entered his earnest protest against
an increase of taxation. The country did not want
more taxation, but more economy. They were
expending eighteen millions more now than they
were expending in 1850.
Mr. HANKEY observed that the cost of the war
was estimated at four millions, whereas they were
only providing for two. He objected to reducing
the balances in the exchequer to a low figure.
Lord STANLEY, in reply, said they had as yet
only expended two millions. The four millions
would be wanted only in case the war lasted a cer-
tain time, but they did not know that it woull.
Mr. D. GRIFFITH did not think the country
would be afraid of facing the expenditure.
The resolution was then agreed to.
Sir S. NORTHCOTR then moved a resolution that
the ordinary pay of the troops taken from India
employed in the Abyssinian expedition, and the
ordinary charges of any vessels belonging to the
government of India employed in the expedition,
be paid out of the revenues of India, but that the
ewense of replacing the troops or vessels shall be
borne by the imperial government. He referred
to the act of 1858 for settling the government of
India, which provides that the military force of
India shall not, except in order to repel in-
vasion, or to meet some sudden emergency,
be employed out of India without the consent of
parliament. Government had been c with
violating that act, but he believed thltilly had
acted in conformity with it, and if they had vio-
lated it they had only followed the example of
their predecessors. It was the first principle of
international law that envoys should be safe, and
if it were of importance to England that her envoys
should be safe it was still more important to her
Majesty as Empress of India that her envoys should
be safe. He admitted that India had no material
interest in the Abyssinian expedition, nor, in fact,
bad England, but if it were not for considerations
connected with India, he doubted whether govern-
ment would have deemed it necessary to have sent
the expedition, or to send it so soon. The charge
which would be thrown on India by this resolution
would be about 300,0001., or 1.2 per cent.
of the entire coat of the expedition. The
arrangement, he contended, was just, because
India would lose nothing whatever, inasmuch as if
there had been no expedition the troops would
have remained at the charge of the revenues of
India. There were several precedents for this
course. There was the Persian expedition in 1850,
when India bore the expense of the whole of the
ordinary pay and half the extraordinary expense.
In the second Chins war, the imperial government
defrayed the ordinary pay and the extraordinary
expenses, but that was not a parallel case, as the
troops were sent to remain in the country a consi-
derable time. In the third China war, the imperial
government paid the ordinary pay from the time of
embarkation, but a charge of 189,0001. for vessels,
was not allowed and had not been paid. Another
consideration was that lip to the time of the third
China war, India maintained a wavy of herown, but
sumo that time the police of the seas had been kept
up at the expense of England.
Mr. Fawcarr could not see why India should be
asked to lend troops in order to release English
prisoners. Why should India suffer in consequence
of a wrong done to us in Abyssinia any more than
from a wrong done to us by a European monarch
He considered the policy proposed was most un-
just, and he should divide the house against it.
Sir H. RAWLINSON supported the resolution.
He had always spoken against the permanent occu-
pation of the country. We could not afford to
hold it, but if our troops had to follow the King
into the interior a provisional occupation might be
sea s az7.
Mr. GrArisroxe denied that the government of
Lord Palmerston, in reference to the China war in
1859, hail violated the act of 1858, for the act said
the troops might be employed in a sudden emer-
gency, and that was a sudden emergency. The