The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-24 00:00:00

-
quite agreed that the amounts should be BO made up as t•
show the gross amount-required. and the.grosa amount to
be expended.

SPIRITS."
Mr. WHITESIDE said that by the words of the resolu-
tion duty was fixed upon every gallon of spirits in the cus-
tody, stock, or possession of any dealer or distiller, and he
wished to know whether it was meant retrospectively 'to
fasten the new duty on stocks in the possession of dealers
who had paid the existing duty. Coffee and sugar in stock
were not treated in the same way, and he did not see why
spirits Should be singled out.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said it had
always been the practice folitclude stock in t4e possession
of dealers in all cases, either of imposition of Kew duties or
of reduction of old ones.
Mr. FAGAN protested against the injustice of imposing
duty on stock that had already paid it. It had not always
been the practice to include stock in the possession of
dealers, but he admitted that stock in the hands of the dis-
tiller—the producer—had been so included. If the hon.
member for Enniskillen would support him he would move
that the words " reclifier or dealer in spirits should be left
out."
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said there
was no doubt as to the practice with resptetttohedipsratilclteirces.
hAasdtobeitaenalieinrsi dealers, he wasone nwoatyporerptahreeotlier;
thosayb hut
ho.
understood
some gentlemen were cowing across from Ireland on the
,-.abject ; he should see them, and; if the hon. member
would raise the question again, he would communicate to
him the result he bad arrived at.
Mr. FAGAN said he WS3 quite satisfied.
LABOUR IN THE COLONIES...

On the reading of iiereeointion Waive to the duty of

' Captain LAFFAN said that recently very considerable
additions had been made to the duties on suga.rin the Bri-
tish possessions, and at the same time very considerable re-
enlly
mi-sions were made to slave-grown sugar. The present
addition to the sugar duties was regarded in the colonies
generally as an injustice. The Mauritius, the colony with
which he was best acquainted, was dependent for its pros-
P supplyer y
ofan fdr.e e 1a
difficult to persuade single men to
indeed,bnnn fur
lintsienxdPiisatignicte,wauspaotn having a fall
first extremely
the views of reali •
to their own country,slnlndia g a competence with which to return
come from India with
The agents of the Government in
acting, upon,
(saved from home, rnaore misinterpreting, instrectione re-
every leeien leaving
India
enforced a regulation that
woman, which •was should be accompanied by a
labour and destroying sugar equivalent
to stopping the supply of
presentations were made
egnar roducing in the colonies. Re-
Government, who proceedned thet subject to 'her Majesty's
they were taking so long a time o consider the question, but
tion that while the matter was being
te.arrive at a determine-
were being ruined. The,Gov . settled the colonies •
did, to create an approximation—l:Cm-1'486k es everyone •
but he had no idea that they wished between the two sexes,
prosperity of the colony. He ho ..put a stop to the
refers, that the •
next overland mail would communicate Ine
to the Government
agents in India that they had misinterpret d the •
e anstruc-
tions sent them.
Mr. j., BALL said that successive Secretaries of State
had given their attention to the question alluded to by the •
bon. member, and it had been clearly seen that effectual '''•
measures must be taken in order to procure -an app e.- -
mate proportion between the two sexes in the colonies. In
the month of June last, therefore, a letter was written to
the governors of several of the more important colonies,
expressing an opinion that the time was come when it was - e
necessary to take effectual measures for increasing the •
female proportion of the population of those colonies ; but
that letter contained not one word as to enforcing the re-
gulations which had been enforced, nor did any of the
further letters that were afterwards sent to India on the
same subject. It was now the intention of her Majesty's
Government to forward to India by the next mail precise
instructions as to what their intentions wee.), which would
remove all the misconceptions that had been made.
Mr. P. 'URQUHART, as a West India proprietor who
had suffered long in silence, trusted that he might be al-
lowed to protest in a few words against the injustice with
which the West India colonies had been treated. They
had been told that in 1854 they- would know the worst,
and they had made their arrangements in the hope ,
that no further prejudicial measures would be taken
against them. In the very first yew; afterwards extra
duties were imposed upon them duties which, in his
opinion would make the whole difference between
cultivating their -estates with profit or abandoning them
with loss. He had succeeded to a West India estate
of from 2,090/. to 5,0001. -a year; Since then he had been
1,5001. out of pocket. He thought that he had a right to
complain that the persons whom the advocates of free etude
admitted had been hardly dealt with in support of the
principle during the time of peace should be the first to
suffer in time of war.
Mr. E. BILL said the hon, gentleman who had just sat
down was ono of the advocates of free trade, and was so
enamoured of that beautiful theory that he was willing to
sacrifice his interest of from 2,0001. to 5,0001. a year, for
which he now paid 1,5001. Now, not only had the country
suffered such a loss, but it had also given the greatest sti-
mulus to the infamous traffic of the slave trade. He wished
to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the in-
crease of the duty would apply to the sugar grown in Cuba
or the Brazil', or to the whole produce? In the former
case he should consider the duty an excellent one. •
Mr. J. G. PHILLIMORE did not rise to criticise the
budget,' but only to express his deep regret -that there`
should be a-necessity for proposing a duty on sugar, which
he believed would have 0 pernicious effect on the happiness
and comfort of the lower classes. He did not mean to
deny the existence of the necessity, for he had the greatest
confidence in the talents of the right hob. gentleman the
Chancellor of the .Exchequer;.. but he must express his re-
gret at a necessity which, in a moral point of' view, would
have most unfnvouralile results.
Mr. WILSON said, with respect to the complaints of the ~
bon. nielober, who appeared as the advocate of Mauritius, '
he aompleined rather of the absence of labOurilami of the
' condition of the island. With respect to the sugar nelo-e, •
niei in general, perhaps there wag no British interest
which wellibitee,o mere marked example of rapid pro- ..
',gress than the island of Mauritius. The very complaint of
the'wvit of lateral- ites the 1e.4 evieeece of the'prosperitY ' '
whiehltbet. Walla erjoyed. -It would be slitisfactory, to ••
[the house to know that in 1841, 'when. Mauritius was in
tha•full isteinythent of a protection amounting- almost to ••'
fau exolu,sion of .for,ifzis sugar, it= producq was 27,0.10 tone -
per fitinnin. In 1813 it had risen to 44,00) tons, and in "
1334,.after the. profits had become equalised, it had risen-
from that amount to 82,000 tons. There was, therefore, a _
large' increase, under the influence of free trade and of is
compoc4ion which increased year hy year.: ILI, therefore,
~lit not n-Oniler that Hay complained of the want of la-
bour la I hat.dsland. ThoOolonial.office woubrenceitrage . '
etnigfation,from,lndia in _every way consistent with other .
inters--t 5 to tdpilr'lli:t deniand for labour. With regard
to the whole tel the,seeareelonies the same was true, but •
not to the same extent. Taking the British colonies as is
whole, lit; found that In- 1844, when they- enjoyed a pro-
tection amounting almost to au exclusion, the average
produce was 201,033 tons, which ha I increased, in the
face of increasing competition, to 290,000 tans daring the
last year. This could not be an evidence of a decaying in-
terest. If the house wished to see a proof of the prosperity
of free trade, it was the proposition of his right hon.
Mend, for the increased duty of the present year would
only add one shilling a hundredweight to the price to the
consumer, as compared w ith last year. .
Mr. ELA.CKBUR,.. had the misfortune to be a West
India propriator,nnd, he must complain of the alteration
of the duties, for although they had been promised they
..
should kn3wthe duty and must mike -their arrangements - -
accordingly, the, duty had not been the same any two years.
A great share of the costs must fall on the producer, and
the loss would be et least 1/. a ,ton. Now,-would any •
gentleman say that the West India colonies were in a pose- ..
tion to lose this 180,0001., which would be the loss thus -
inflicted on them ? The Chancellor of the Exchequer watt e
taking a surplus of 7,000,0001., which he did not know
how ha was to spend. He (Mr. Blackburn) therefore -
thought that it would be better to cut down the estimates -,
than levy these taxes on the poorer classes of this country. -.
. Mr: HEY WORTH complained of the policy of indirect 'e
taxation, because if the demand for manufactures was re! ~
stricted abroad the means of paying the tales in this`--
country would be diminished. He agreed that the addi-
tion of one per cent. to the income tax' which would pro-
duce the amount, would be preferableto this proposition,
and ho trusted that the house would not sanction the ab-
surdity of resorting to a principle which had over and over
again been condemned.
The report was then received.
THE NEWSPAPER STAMP BILL.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER moved that
the house do go into committee on this bill. .
Mr. COWAN said it would perhaps be most convenient
to the house if he should at this stage state the nature of
the proposition of which he had given notice.. He was un- ,
Willing to sacrifice any amount of revenue in times like .
the present, when all the resources of the country ought to -
he hushended. He.-owned the difficulty- of meking. the
change, but he had supported the second reading in hopes _-
that the revenue would not suffer, orat least not materially.. - '
The house would not be surprised that he had looked,,aorT
the various acts which from time to time had regulated
=
the newspaper stamps. There appeared an animas tu all.
.
eted the
these acts, that the_more newspapers were
restnshould be,
better, and that with regard to dimensions tvlsa
to
1825
restrictecleo the smallest poasib'es size..
ncifees by 32, a sire,
no newspaper could legally
exceed 22telveninf, papers. At -,
Considerably smaller than the presenel
exce&l 1 oz, whilst .
that time the weight appeared to brary _.
appearedlt to
the stamp duty was 4d., less 20 per seat.e
of that time hafleanuto
him that, in 1836, the
Governmentof the introduction of st
ant
idea what would be the_ result
d ailways in bringing on h P
te
the law
printing machines an
There was no reason whya endless
fix which they were in.
accompanied with s n n
id size. The
of 1836 should have been
to stamps, weight, at .
quantity of restrictions as
on the l'ost-office au enor
was to throw
not have sustained
effect of that law ,
f' ork which it could
this was
fitting
moue quantity 0- " He thought thi l s was a op-
without the railways.fder whether the postage aws should not
portunity
to COn*to make the carriage remunerative at '
be so altered as
, proposition of which he had given notice •.
lower rates.
Ihe-voyance through the Post-office not only '
provided for the cof
all printed matter. The rates proposed',
prov but 5
of newspapersif ()tiny for each transmission for every twe
were one ha
Ade for four ounces, and a .fat' to
0 on, a such
ounce', a P-- - ate the Post-office. H h 'rra— .
would rem e thought the pro.. ,-
" f Government would press ha dl I' yon many per-..
position o .
ally the proprietors of
wing, osPeci ' country newspapers•-whc.
' ht wish to sell their papers at one
might penny and when •
would then have to pay 100 per cent, for '.
transmission.
through the post. He did not wish to_
tion unduly, but he trusted that Governmentprest this proposi.
would give it ,
every favourable cOnsideration.
Mr: BARROW, hoped the Government •
would alsoiske
into their consideration the propriety.of reducing the damp
upon newspapers to a halfpenny -- ' ' - s'--
. ' --.
''.
.
The house then went intocommittee. - • •-- ...
Clause 1. was agreed to • -
on .o,Ectise 2., without diScussion. _ _ , , e•
. . ..._ .
Mr
.COLLIER said he should propose that-instead of a• -:
starep of a penny, which was imposed by this clause, the
stamp should_, be a halfpenny, and that a halfpenny 'stamp '
should be imposed for each transmission through the post-
,--
He did not put this proposition forwird entirely upon, _
financial grounds ; ho proposed it upon higher grounds
11 DJ!.
than those,. viz , educational grounds.
It
was
rthe heist
highest pastille iibportance that newspnrie
Taxes for '
class should-be cireu!ated as freely as possible.
w_e
taxes on kno I d 0.1.
the.trensmission of knowledge weree
t-b e .upport of those '
and,-thaefore, he expected to receiveagitating for the re•
hon. gentlemen who heel been so long
There was another reason
peal of blltaxes on knowledge.
the _London newspapers e
for this, proposal. At present
papers. They circulated,
Were on a'footing with provincial
on the same terms as the provin- '
throughout the countryt2e P
%en passed as it now stood, a low
cial papere ; but, if
papers would spring up, which, to some
class of provincial
,_ _ less „,
ail
La piratical publications
extent, would be Domes They all knew the great
London press.
against the Lo, n don' (WHY papers were conducted—the
at which the Lon .
t ll•
and early in e igence which they gave, and the
i wportant
high literary character their
of th • leading articles. Now it .
en* -tile
"ed- to him t 0 b 0 of Aitazosi autportisa NO WV