The Sun.
London, England, 1854-05-02 00:00:00

HOUSE OF LORDS--(YESTERDAY.)
Their lordships assembled at 5 o'clock.
Lord BROUGHAM presented a petition from the
Mayor and Town Council of Oxford in favour of opening
the University of Oxford to all classes of the people.
Lord CAMPBELL presented a petition from the
Trade Protection Society, at Edinburgh, against the
bill for the Assimilation of the English and Scotch
bankruptcy law.
Lord BROUGHAM said he had received petitions
from all parts of Scotland in favour of the bill, and
Edinburgh was the only place from which any petition
against it had come.
The LORD CHANCELLOR believed from the
communications he had received that the proposed assi-
milation would be distasteful to a great portion of the
people of Scotland. The noble and learned lord inti-
mated that to-day for the first time he had seen the re-
port of the Bankruptcy Commissioners, and it, together
with a large mass of evidence, was now on the table
of the house.

TICKETS OF LEAVE TO CONVICTS.
Lord ST. LEONARDS inquired what course the Go-
vernment intended to pursue with regard to tickets of
leave to convicts in this country. He alluded to a
case in which a convict in Dartmoor jail, who was
sentenced to seven years' transportation, had, after a
few months' good conduct, been furnished with a ticket-
of leave, but this required his return to Edinburgh, where
his offence had been committed, and it appeared that
shortly after his return he was taken into custody for
some minor offence. He thought that before prisoners
were liberated the Government ought to see that they
had an opportunity of getting an honest livelihood, in
order that they might not be compelled to return to their
old practices.
The LORD CHANCELLOR said he would make in-
quiries of the Secretary of State for the Home Depart-
ment as to the case mentioned by the noble and learned
lord. He could scarcely, however, believe that the
facts were as had been stated.
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.
Lord LYNDHURST inquired whether the Govern-
ment intended to introduce into the University of Cam-
bridge a legislative body corresponding it that
contained in the bill for the University of Ox-
ford ; whether they intended to establish in the
University of Cambridge a class of members not
connected with any of the colleges ; and, lastly, when
it was intended to introduce any of those restriction
with respect to fellowships which were contained in the
s
Oxford Bill.
The Earl of ABERDEEN said, as he had already
stated, it was not the intention of the Government to
bring forward any measure for the University of Cam-
bridge this session. It was unnecessary now to enter
into the points mentioned by the noble and learned lord.
His (the noble earl s) declaration on a former occasion,
was not that a similar measure to that of Oxford would
be introduced with regard to Cambridge, bnt that it was
the intention of the Government to ask Parliament to
legislate on the subject, and not to allow the university
to legislate for itself.
CONDITION OF CALCUTTA.

The Earl of ALBEMARLE presented a petition from
the inhabitants of Calcutta, complaining of the inefficient
manner in which that city is lighted, drained, and cleansed,
under the local municipal act of 1852, and praying for
municipal institutions similar to those enjoyed by towns
in the United Kingdom. After entering at some length
into the subject, the noble earl concluded by asking the
Government whether they were prepared to take any
steps to remedy the evils complained of.
Earl GRANVILLE said that as these were all purely
local matters, with which the Governor-General in coun-
cil and the local authorities were perfectly competent to
deal, be would not recommend their lordships to inter-
fere with them.
THE INCOME TAX BILL.

Earl GRANVILLE, in moving the order of the day
for going into committee on this bill, said he had no in-
tention of entering into a history of the income tax; and
he should not now have alluded to what took place last
. year, but for the observations which had recently been
made in this house. A noble friend of his had observed
that there was great want of forethought on the part of
the Chancellor of the Exchequer in abandoning, at a time
when he anticipated war, so important a source of re-
venue as the soap duty; that when the Government came
into office there was an ample revenue for all purposes,
yet they wantonly threw away 1,000,0001. a year in soap
duties, and substituted for it a tax which produced five
times that amount. Now, if there were one feeling
stronger than another, whether in or out of Parliament,
it was that it had become absolutely necessary for the in-
come
tax either to be repealed or its inequalities to be mo-
dified. And this feeling had certainly been much encourag-
ed by what had taken place on the part of the late Govern-
ment. With a laudable desire to meet this feeling, they
announced in Parliament that it was a part of their
• plan to make certain modifications in these inequalities.
But when their plan was propounded, it was felt to be
incomplete and immature, and its only effect was to in-
crease the public expectation that her Majesty's present
Government would deal with the impost. His right
boo. friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer had accord-
ingly applied a degree of labour to the consideration of
the question, so as to master its principles and the
worleing of its details, which he believed had hardly
ever been bestowed by any public man upon a single
question whilst engaged in the discharge of the other
duties of his office. He had had associated with him
several other members of the Government, and after
the most anxious consideration, they had come to the
conclusion, which every ministry had of late come to,
except the Government of noble lords opposite, that it was
impossible to modify the income tax without increasing,
instead of diminishing its inequality and injustice, and
that if they meddled with it at all they would impair its
utility as a means of supplying the revenue. With the
expectations which had been raised on the part of the
country on the one hand, and with this opinion of the
Government on the other, it appeared to him absolutely'
necessary either to give the tax up altogether or retain
it in its present sleeps. By the admirable arguments of
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, accompanied by a pro-
position which met with the Aeolis- of the House of Com-
mons and the country, on account of its justice, its com-
prehensiveness, and the fact that it relieved to a consi-
derable extent—as in the case of the repeal of the soap
duty—both the manufacturers of the country and the
wants of the poorer classes of the people, the House of
Commons and the country were induced to accept the
income tax again. It was now proposed by the bill on
the table to double the first half-year's income tax. This
would give 3,300,0001., which with the surplus of last year
would go to make op the deficiencies upon the expendi-
ture of 56,000,0001., already sanctioned by the House of
Commons. The proposition was a simple one. The bill
merely enacted that during the first half-year double one
half-year's income tax should be paid ; the objects being
two —one, that as a direct tax, unlike an indirect, could
only be collected within 6 or 9 months subsequently to
its becoming due, the whole charge might be received in
the current year ; the other, that if circumstances should
require it, Government might be enabled to come before
parliament and make a second call.
Lord BROUGHAM stated that he retained all his
former objections to the income tax. He still thought
that a tax upon income derived from capital ought to be
different from a tax upon income derived from labour;
and that of all taxes a tax upon income was the worst,
with the exception of taxes upon food, taxes upon know-
ledge, and taxes upon the administration of justice. But
owing to the war in which we were engaged, the ex-
i.enses of which mast be paid, the income tax was not
. only necessary, but it was necessary to double it ; and on
this ground alone he assented to it.
• The Earl of MALMESBURY said the late Govern-
ment had been turned out upon their financial policy ;
and therefore it was the more incumbent upon the pre-
sent Government to show that their financial policy en-
titled them to the confidence of the country. Glancing
-at Mr. Gladstone's several propositions, he contended
• that all his expectations had proved illusory. He must
have known that war with Russia was impending when
he was proposing reductions of taxation and conversions
of stock. War, however, was now declared ; and then
Mr. Gladstone expressed an opinion that the present
generation might support the burden, and that the
doubling of the income tax for the present would be suf-
ficient. He took a different view on both these points.
'A new financial scheme had now been proposed. The
success of this plan appeared to be doubtful. In con-
clusion the noble earl said he should not oppose the mo-
tion, but he left the house to decide whether the results
of Mr. Gladstone's policy
' had arisen from ignorance or
incapacity.
Lord IsIONTEAGLE contended at great length that
our financial position a t the present moment was anoma-
lous if hot dangerous In spite of increased revenue and
prosperity we were in; difficulties from the measures pro-
posed by the Government, among which he chiefly in-
cluded the reduction of interest upon Exchequer bills.
The effect was that the Chancellor of the Exchequer was
called upon to raise 3,000,000/, in money at great incon-
venience, to pay off these bills,andto re-issue them at a
higher rate of interest More h
been done by this
transaction to destroy
the
charactera a
of these securities
than at any period during the wholehTsdee also
ofor dealingr
that they had been in existence.
abortivedschaehmaels f
with the funded debt
been
produc-
the Ex-
ti of great inconvenience. The balances in
chequer had been reduced 5,081,000/. between
1853, and 1854, in consequence of these operations Mean'
sum
of a war budget had been carried, inasmuch as a
of 4,315,000/. had been voted, in addition to the ordi-
nary estimates for the army, navy, and ordnance ser-
vices, The balances thus reduced by the financial opera-
tions of last year entailed danger not only to the work-
ing of the Bank Act of 1844, but great injury to the
commercial interest, by limiting the means at the com-
mand of
the Bank for its accommodation. And whilst
the balances had been exhausted the sinking fund had
been absorbed, not in the paying off of debt, but in cur-
rent expenditure. The keystone of the system of the
Government was, as explained by the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, that the supplies of the year should be raised
within the year. But on the 21st of April, when Parlia-
Lament was not sitting, an official notice appeared stating
that 6,000,0001. was required, and would be raised in
the very manner which all the previous declarations of
the Chancellor of the Exchequer had repudiated. He
expressed considerable doubts as to the expediency of
this propeeal ; and he cautioned the Government against
unnecessarily meddling with public credit, and against
fanciful systems of experiment with the finances of the
cotAtry.,,,
Die Dike oI)it.GYLL, replying to the observations
')t tbil Earl o' i ' 2'll Z sbury contended that when the iiningial .-niei the ,
Government were prepared
_LctiioN had liQti.frlnt, • ' 13
Z., of Russia, any led )1
.
Vitichng So- botd ldlott 41'
(
ythattthej;ergggia • (
sraonbcseesugaltvieon by the Emperor
anticipate a state of war. Al-
ns, he contended
r he actual state of things 2 • that
IrTerir-Ttc. ,I-4 alc

. '", '

iIPERIAL PARLIAMENT. h
of e hada st a
tcarefullyeof left
war
and
dout of
h e deficiencyconsiderationo i
the
h et he
ha existencervest
last
year, circumstances which were enough to disturb the
calculations of any minister ; but he submitted that with
an increasing revenue and with a considerable balance
of income over ordinary expenditure, both which the
noble lord had admitted, there was no reason for des-
pondency. Undero
noblethese
lord
sh
rcircumstancesater
uncalledhe co
for,nsid ear:
and
the speech of the
as calculated to increase the difficulties which he had
described.
Earl GREY said the house was greatly indebted to
Lord Monteagle for the able manner in which he had
examined the financial arrangements of the Government;
and the answer made by the noble duke he regarded as
eminently unsatisfactory. Though he could not agree
with Lord Malmesbury, he was certainly not prepared
to give that unmixed praise to the financial policy of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer which had been claimed by
the noble duke, inasmuch as the result of that policy
had been to cause a considerable loss to the public. Our
present financial position was extremely serious. He was
alarmed at the low state of the public balances, and still
more at the language held elsewhere in defending their
reduction, because it calculated upon the whole amount
of dividends not being called Mr when due, and upon
accruing revenue to di.icharge the balance. This was
the course pursued by "gentlemen in difficulties" when
they told their tradesmen to call again, and he cautioned
the house against a system which might lead to a
notion in the public that there was not money in
Ithe Bank to pay them. Their lordships should guard
against a policy which threatened to lead to such conse-
quences, and which, therefore, he characterized as rash
and dangerous. He had, indeed, no confidence in the
financial foresight of the Government.
After a few words from the Earl of DONOUGHMORE,
Earl GRANVILLE replied in considerable detail to
the objections urged against the financial policy of the
Government, whic he vindicated in all its main points.
The bill then passed through committee ; after which
,heir lordships adjourned.

HOUSE OF COlllll-lONS—(YESTERDAY.)
The SPEAKER took the chair at four o'clock.
LOUTH ELECTION.

The SPEAKER announced that he had received a letter
from the agents to the petition against the last return for
the county of Louth, stating it was not the intention of
the petitioners to proceed further in the matter.
THAMES EMBANKMENT BILL.

On the motion for the second reading of the Thames
Embankment and Railway (London and West London)
Bill,
Sir W. MOLESWORTH moved that the bill be read a
second time this day six, months.
Mr. MACARTNEY, after such a decided expression of
opinion against the bill, begged leave to withdraw it.
The bill was then by leave withdrawn.

PETITIONS.
Petitions were presented—by Mr. HADFIELD, from the
Corporation of Sheffield, in favour of secular education and
the admission of dissenters to the universities ; by Mr.
BRADY, from Leitrim against any interference with nun-
neries ; and three petitions in favour of the medical Regis-
tration Bill ; by Mr. T. DUNCOMBE, from Blackburn,
praying for inquiry into the condition of the working
classes.