The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-23 00:00:00

half sheets of paper were stamped and allowed to be cir- '
culated the poor would be able to buy a cheap article to
write on, but the paper makers objected to this, insisting
that the poor should be obliged to purchase a whole sheet
of paper. If however they could get eleven or twelve half
sheets for one penny, they would have to thank the Go-
vernment, not only for cheap postage but cheap paper.—
( Hear, hear.) The Treasury were to be allowed to carry
this plan into effect in the recess, and the consequence
would be that by the time the Act came into operation
Parliament would have reassembled.—(Hear, hear.)
There would thus be four or five months' trial of
the plan whilst Parliament was sitting, which would be
a great advantage, as it would afford an opportunity for
making any improvements which might be suggested. One
word with regard to the Revenue : The Act would not
come into operation so as to touch it before the sth of
January, in which case the Exchequer this year would re-
ceive nine months' revenue, and only three months would
be in jeopardy. He was convinced that this Bill, if passed,
would give to the poorer classes one of the greatest bene-
fits which could be conferred on them.--( Hear, hear.)
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER should
have been disposed to leave the case on the explanation
of the Secretary to the Treasury, had it not been
for the declaration of the Right Hon. Baronet,
that he would take the sense of the House on the second
reading, and if he had not also thrown out some sugges-
tions with respect to the conduct of the Government
which were not deserved. He was sure the explanation
of his Noble Friend would remove any unpleasant impres-
sion which might have arisen. He had said there was a
strong feeling on the part of the great mercantile interests
of this country in favour of the measure. So far from
that being an objection, it was a strong recommendation
of the measure as it now stood Was it to be
said that upon this alone of all financial questions,
it should be an objection to a measure that the
commercial and trading bodies were in favour of it?—
( Hear, hear.) He knew these parties would be greatly
benefited, but it was from then, he looked for a consider-
able portion of that remuneration which the public would
receive ; because it must be notorious, that the fraudulent
conveyance of letters was chiefly by those parties, not by
the poor.—( Hear, hear.) He assumed that on all sides
there was a disposition to support the principle of the Bill,
except upon financial grounds. The Hon. Baronet, indeed,
said, that he (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) would
not much have regretted if the plan had been lost.—
(Hear, hear.) He would candidly own that he wished
there had been more time for calm consideration, than
they possessed now, and confessed that be could not now
given that full and accurate information upon that subject
which the House might perhaps expect.—( Hear, hear.)
Upon the ground of finance, therefore, he felt great dis-
trust upon the question. But do not let any one suppose
that he could have been guilty of the bad faith
of bringing forward any proposition without a sincere in-
tention of using all the means in his power to carry it
into effect. He had been charged with stating the case
too strongly as to the deficiency of the revenue.—( Hear,
hear.) But be considered that he should have been un-
warranted in withholding from the House those statements,
and that he would have endangered the measure itself had
he attempted to palter with the real facts of the case, and
to deny the probability of a deficiency in the revenue.—
( Hear, hear.) As to the objection that the measure would
give extraordinary powers to the Government, he would
ask if the Legislature could provide for such a plan in all
its details, until the experiment bad been tried ?—( Hear,
hear.) Therefore it was that necessary, though arbi-
trary and unusual, powers were vested in the Treasury, to
carry the plan into effect—powers which could not survive
the next Session of Parliament.—( Hear, hear.) Believing
that the measure would involve at first a considerable
loss to the revenue, he did not think it would
have been wise, constitutional, or just, in the
present state of the finances of the country, to place them'
in jeopardy, without previously requiring from Parliament
the pledge which bad been so decisively given ; and he
relied upon the good sense of the House of Commons, to
make up any possible deficiency.—(Hear, hear.) With
respect to the keeping up of the Parliamentary privilege
of franking, he thought the Hon. Baronet, the Member
for Oxford, would stand alone in desiring it—( Hear,
hear)—and nothing, in his opinion, was more likely to make
the measure acceptable to the public, than thus showing,
by the relinquishment of the privilege, that Parliament
were anxious to supply as far as possible the deficiency.—
( Hear, hear.) Official franking, he was deeply con-
vinced, required correction ; and he considered, upon the
whole, it would be best that each department should pay its
own franks.—( Hear, hear.) The communication of papers
printed by Parliament must still be provided for; but care
should be taken to prevent the abuse of the privilege, by
the sending through the Post of those heavy and volumi-
nous blue books issued by the House, while there should be
means for the transmission of all Bills, and every thing re-
lating to the legislation before Parliament. He did
not think that after having on a former occasion expressed
his opinions on the subject at length, it was now necessary
for him to trouble the House further.—( Hear, hear. )
Sir R. PEEL said, assuming the Bill was to pass, he
did not think the privilege of franking should be retained
by Parliament.—( Hear, hear.) As to official franking,
his experience would lead him heartily to concur in some
new regulations, quite independently of this new plan, and
he thought there would be advantage in requiring each de-
partment to pay its own postage, for habits had taken such
deep root that it would be impossible to eradicate them
under the present system ; yet, persons who would give a
frank to serve a friend, would not probably take actually
so many shillings from the public Treasury.—( Hear,
hear.) He must just observe, by the bye, that there had
been a vast increase of persons entitled to frank lately.
—( Hear, hear.) It was monstrous too, he would observe,
that every Member of Parliament should have the power
of sending by post 200 or 300 of those heavy Re-
ports published by the two Houses ; though there should
certainly be the power of transmitting to their constituents
Bills, in which their local interests were concerned; still it
should be recollected that the papers published by that
House were now easily accessible to all.—( Hear, hear. )
The Chancellor of the Exchequer had in the course
of his speech given him the fullest justification for the
course which he had pursued upon this subject; the Right
Hon. Gentleman had said that be wished he had possessed
time for calmer consideration ; was it not his own fault
that did not ?—( Hear, bear.) Suppose that the Right
Hon. Gentleman had asked Parliament for time, and that
he had been overborne by Parliament,—the responsibility
he would not have incurred which now undoubtedly rested
on him—( Hear, hear)—for if the Treasury, in spite
of all
dangers, persisted in incurring a fresh risk, no opposition in
Parliament could resist it. He (Sir R. Peel) thought the
course which the House was pursuing not creditable to it,
and was persuaded that public opinion, if fairly taken,
would be upon his side,—not now, certainly,—nor in
two months,---but on that day when Parliament was
called upon either to abandon or to fulfil the pledge
which had been obtained.—( Hear, hear.) The whole
pledge relied upon by the Right Honourable Gen-
tleman opposite, was contained in the form of a paren-
thesis in the preamble. There was no enactment—no
recital—it merely stated " The Imperial Parliament
pledging itself to make good any deficiency that may
occurs in the Revenue from an alteration in the existing
rates of postage." His objection to the pledge was, that it
was so uncertain and so indefinite. It was liable to a
variety of constructions, and few could say when Parlia-
ment would be justly called upon to fulfil it, The Right
Honourable Gentleman opposite (the Chancellor of the
Exchequer), said he foresaw there would be a deficit—
that ,he expected to find in the next session the in-
come of the country much exceeded by the expen-
diture—and therefore that he now wanted to take a se-
curity to provide against that deficiency. So far it was
definite ; he ( Sir R. Peel) could well understand this.
The Right Hon. Gentleman further said that Parliament
had now given a pledge which he was quite certain it
would redeem. But he called upon him (the Chancellor
of the Exchequer) to bear in mind the reservations which
several Hon. Gentlemen had made for themselves in
agreeing to that pledge.—( Hear, hear.) The Hoe.
Member for Greenock, a Member of the Committee,
said that he would bear his part in redeeming the pledge,
but he ( Sir Robert Peel) believed the lion. Gentleman
did not take the pledge in the same sense as the Right
Hon. the President of the Board of Trade. He (Sir R.
Peel) understood the Hon. Members for Greenock and
Bridport to agree to the pledge on this construction—that
if it should appear to them that a great deficiency had
occurred in the revenue in consequence of the com-
mutation of the postage duties, them that they
this fact being made quite clear to their mind, should pro-
ceed to consider the best means of supplying the deficiency.
—(Cheers.) But the Hon. Member for Bridport did not
promise to impose new taxes. He laid down two distinct
contingencies. First, that there should be time enough
given to see how the experiment would work; "for," said
he, " it
would not be fair to reckon upon an ultimate defi-
ciency in the revenue because it fell short the first year ' •
therefore, I will not agree that the experiment shall have
failed, until I see beyond a question established that there
must be a permanent deficiency." The Honourable
Member would not, at the earliest, agree to an ex-
periment of less than three years. Then, if the plan
should be a proved failure, he would not think of
imposing new taxes to supply the deficiency. He
would only consider what new commercial arrange.
ments might be made that should give a stimulus to the
industry of the country, and be likely to supply the defi-
ciency at some future period.—(Mr. Warburton expressed
dissent.) Did not the Hon. Member refer to the profit-
able results that might be expected from an alteration of
the duties upon coffee and timber ?—( Cheers.) So that
if at the end of three years a deficiency of 700,0001.. or
800,000/. should arise in addition to the presentinade-
quacy, the Hon. Member would merely feel himself bound
by his construction of the pledge, by agreeing to consider
some commercial arrangements likely to afford a supply.
—( Cheers.) But then again some time should be
allowed for the working of that second experi-
ment. If the fruits of a change of the law of
the import duties on coffee should not be satisfactory,
the Hon. Gentleman would be justified, on his own prin-
ciple, in saying—" Wail a little longer. If the fruits of
the first quarter are not satisfactory, those of another may,
when the enlarged system is matured; but then if they
should not be productive, we can consider what new taxes
may be imposed." According to the liberal construction
which the Honourable Gentleman prescribed to himself,
he would expect them to observe the second change for
the first, second, and third years before it could be ad-
mitted that there was actually a deficiency to be supplied.
—.( Hear, hear.) He ( Sir Robert) had the other night
stated, that independent of the deficiency in the revenue
to be apprehended from a reduction of the postage duties,
it was to be feared
i that there would be a permanent ,
defi-
ciency from the inadequacy of the revenue to meet the
expenditure of the country. Those apprehensions were
confirmed by what he had heard tonight.—( Hear.) Her
Majesty's Government had that night stated that they were
bound by their duty to maintain the tranquillity of the coun-
try, to add 5,000 men to the regular force, thereby entail-
ing on the country an expense of about 150,0001. The
proposed system of rural police—a measure which he feared
would spread a cloud over the prospects of the country—
would much increase that expense. There was a like-
lihood of a very increased permanent deficiency.
He feared the deficiency of 1842 would exceed that of
1841. He would not deny the great advantage of a reduc.