The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-04 00:00:00

LEOPOLD DE ROSE.

Lord DUDLEY STUART enquired of the Secre-
tary of State for the Home Department whether the
case of Mr. Leopold de Rose, a Polish officer, who had
been imprisoned last year at Gosport, at the instance of
Captain Cospatrick Baillie Hamilton, R.Ns, had, in pur-
suance of the undertaking given by the. Government
when he (Lord Dudley Stuart), towards the end of last
Parliament, brought forward the case, been investigated ?
and whether the Secretary of State would state to the
house the result of that investigation ?
Mr. WALPOLE, in reply, said that he had caused
a very careful enquiry to be made into all the circum-
stances of the case, and that he thought that, looking at
the evidence laid before the magistrate, that functionary
could not have acted in any other way than he did. At
the same time, in justice to Mr. de Rose, he must say
that since that time such evidence had been laid before

him (Mr. Walpole) as to the general character of that
gentleman, and as to the great care which he had always
taken to conduct himself with propriety ; that he (Mr.
Walpole) felt satisfied that had that been known to the
magistrate which had since beeome known to him, the ver-
dict, instead of being a condemnation, would have been
an acquittal.

PETITIONS.
Mr. FITZROY presented petitions from the civil
service of the Crown, praying the house to take into
consideration the Act relating to the Benevolent Fund,
with a view to its alteration.
Sir E. FILMER and other hon. members presented
petitions praying for the repeal of the taxes on know-
ledge.
Mr. F. MACKENZIE presented a petition from the
Jamaica Association of Liverpool, complaining of dis-
tress in that colony, and praying the house to adopt
measures of relief.

Mr. GLADSTONE presented a petition from the
colonists of New Zealand, complaining of the conduct
of the New Zealand Company, and praying the house to
withhold its consent to the bill for paying that company
a sum of money by way of compensation for surrender-
ing its rights to the Government.
LAMPS IN PALACE-YARD:
In reply to another question,
Lord SEYMOUR stated, that he had given directions
for additional lamps to be placed in Palace-yard.

CLERGY RESERVES.
Sir W. MOLESWORTH wished to ask the Secre-
tary of State for the Coldnies, whether it was the intention
of her Majesty's Ministers to bring in a bill to enable the
Canadian Legislature to dispose of the Clergy Reserves,
subject to the condition that the stipends and allowances
heretofore assigned and giden to the clergy of the
Church of England and Scotlind, or to any other reli-
gious bodies or denominations, of Christians in Canada,
shall be secured during the na*ral lives and incumben-
cies of the parties now receivilig the same.
Sir J. PAKINGTON said Government-64am such
intention.

METROPOLITAN BUILDING ACT.
Mr. OSBORNE wished to ask the First Commissioner
of Works, Buildings, &c., whether the bill for the regu-
lation of metropolitan buildings is to be introduced
before Christmas, with a view to its being pressed to a
conclusion this session.
Lord JOHN MANNERS said he should not be able
to bring in the bill till after Christmas.
ADJOURNMENT OF THE HOUSE.
On the motion of Mr. F. MACKENIE, it was
agreed that the house at its rising should adjourn until
Monday.

THE FINANCIAL
STATEMENT.

The house having resolved into Committee of Supply,
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER rose and
said :—Though the house has been pleased to honour the
remarks which I have to make to-night with the title of
" Financial Statement," and ithou'gh 'I am indisposed,
under any circumstances, to quarrel with the humour of
the house, still I trust that him. members will have the
kindness to recollect that it' is a financial, statement
made under very peculiar circumstances ; aid that we

have, with respect to our finances, to consider to-night
some very important topics—whether, for example,
it is possible to make such changes in the mode of
levying our revenue as may contribute more to the
satisfaction and welfare of the community, ; whether
such alterations can be effected in our system of
taxation as may remove from various classes not an
ill-founded sense of injury and injustice ; and, above all,
whether we may not take this opportunity of establishing
our financial system on principles more adapted to the re-
quirements of the time, and especially to the industry
of a country pre-eminent for its capacity for labour.
Besides these, there are other topics to which I must
advert, •and which are not strictly of a financial
nature. I hope the house will also remember that
even considering the remarks I have to offer merely in
a financial point of view, the present period is but the
completion of about two-thirds of the financial year—a
circumstance which naturally adds to the difficulty I
have to contend with. I hope, therefore, that under
these circumstances hon. members will not think it is
any evidence of conceit or affectation on my part if I do
not on this occasion rigidly
follow that routine form of
exposition which a Chancellor of the Exchequer properly
adopts at the termination or commencement of a finan-
cial year, when his duties are comparatively limited,
and, I may say, comparatively simple—(hear)—but, if I
deviate from that course, I trust that they will attribute
my proceeding to no other motive but a deiire on my
part, in dealing with these various important, and, in
some cases, complicated subjects, to explain , clearly to
the house the views of her Majesty's Governments and,
so far as I have to touch upon the point, their opinion
on the condition of the Country. ' (Hear.) The task I
have undertaken is, as the house is well aware, not a
light one under any circumstances, and even under ordi-
nary circumstances requires an appeal to the indulgence
of the house. I am sure to-night I shall receive its gene-
rous indulgence, and the onlyfavour I presume to ask of hon.
gentlemen on either side is, that they will not pre-
cipitately decide on any proposition which I may make,
but consider all that I offer as a whole, because as a
whole it ought to be considered. (Hear.) I trust, in
justice to myself, that they will not,
until the views of
the Government are fairly placed before them, be carried
away by any feeling of the moment, on whichever side
they may sit, too precipitately to decide on the motives
and principles of the policy which I may now have to set
before them. I wish, after understanding, as I did,
from the result of the last general election, that the
principle of unrestricted competition was entirely and
finally adopted as a principle of our commercial code—
I wish to consider our financial system in relation to our
commercial system—to see whether they cannot be
brought more in harmony together, and whether in
bringing them more in harmony together, we may not
remove many well-founded causes of discontent among
the people of this country, and lay the foundation of a
system which in future should not only be more bene-
ficial, but which should enlist in its favour the sympathies
of all classes. (Hear, hear.) However, before I
take that general view to which I have just ad-
verted, I think it would be convenient that I should
consider the claims of those who believe that by
what we now familiarly describe as " recent
legislation" they have received peculiar injury. It
will, I think, be for the convenience of the house that
we should dispassionately consider the position of those
classes, and come to an opinion whether their complaints
and claims are just or not, because, if we can arrive at
some conclusions on these points, those classes who now
assert that they have been injured by recent legialation,
if their claims are impartially heard, and, if established,
fairly met, will then merge in the mass of the com-
munity, and we shall hereafter have to consider no other
claims but those which represent the unanimous voice
and feeling of the entire country. (Hear, hear.) There-
fore, I repeat, it will not be an inconvenient course, if I
take the earliest opportunity of examining the claims
urged by those great interests which have been pecu-
liarly affected by recent changes in the law—the
the
ping interest, the sugar-producing interest,
agricultural interest—so far as the latter, irrespective of
all other pleas, urges on the consideration of the house
the fact that it is subject to peculiar burdens and taxa-
tion, When we have discussed these three important