The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-21 00:00:00

EXCISE DUTIES ON SPIRITS BILL.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER moved
that the house at its rising do adjourn until Monday
next.
Captain INNES observed that the Excise Duties on
Spirits Bill stood for Monday next, and expressed
a hope that the Chancellor of the Exchequer
would delay it for a further period, on the
ground that there had not yet been time enough
to enable Irish members to receive answers from their
constituents as to their opinions with regard to the bill.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said the
parties who were affected by the bill had had ample time
since it was printed to consider its provisions. To his
own knowledge persons in the very distant parts of
Ireland had already considered the bill, and in point of
fact some of them were in London at the present time,
and were communicating with the Government and the
revenue department on the subject. He, therefore, did not
think there was any fear of their being taken by surprise.
At the same time he would state how the Government now
stood in regard to this bill. ' The hon. member must
know that it was extremely important, in reference to
the passing of the measures for the remission of taxation,
that there should be no needless delay in taking the
sense of the house on the main question, i.g., the increase
of the duty on spirits. What he proposed to do,
was to take that question after the house should
have disposed of the Customs resolutions Assum-
ing that the house read the Income Tax Bill a second
time, the Government proposed that the house should
go into committee upon it on Monday ; after the house
had disposed of the committee they would take the
Customs duties resolutions, and after them they pro-
posed that the house should go into committee on the
Spirits Duties bill.
Mr. MAGUIRE thought the right hon. gentleman
was in error in supposing that the people in Ireland had
had ample time to consider the bill, and he trusted he
would not hurry it through the house.
Mr. F. SCULLY said it was only last night that he
received the opinions of his constituents on the bill.
The subject then dropped.
ANNEXATION OF PEGU.

Mr. COBDEN said as there was now so much diffi-
culty in a private member bringing anything under dis-
cussion in the house, he would take that opportunity of
calling attention to a subject of some importance. They
were informed by papers recently laid before the house,
that an extensive territory belonging to the Burmese
empire had been annexed to our East India territory.
In reading the papers he had some difficulty in arriving
at this piece of information, viz., by whose authority was
that territory annexed to the British possessions in India ?
He observed that the Governor-General, by his procla-
mationc
o imt t me e udu;
on
foti
bc aaautkii.ttdi
taken
eoni not fidwi
Cd courthd
annexing the province of Pegu, referred. to a
Control
cnnolrtifoertcodhelaiierpvhepehacdetadaod had
trrhbswee,
heranen
twdhaei
statedtrchotni thes seethatnGtolc concurrencenv g:taerhntnpedmca or
eatr
stepcom-
mittee
rer otvihlaael
o
The inhabitants of the district who were of a semi-bar-
barous description, had been inducted to all the rights
and privileges of Englishmen. They were now, in fact,
subjects of these realms, while the Government were re-
sponsible for the good management of the district, and
bound to protect the natives under every circumstance,
and in all parts of the world. Now, this was a most
serious responsibility, and the house ought to know by
whose authority this annexation had taken place. He con-
tended that the people of this country ought to have an
opportunity of pronouncing an opinion upon such subjects
as this. So far from regarding this annexation of ter-
ritory as any benefit to this country, he looked upon it
as a positive evil. Indeed, it has more than once been
pronounced to be an evil to extend our Indian territory,
and ' yet a district had recently been added to it
extending over an enormous area, and containing a
population of between 30,000,000 and 40,000,000.
He did not know who was to be held responsible
for all this, but the question he wished to ask was
this, was the province of Pegu annexed to our In-
dian possessions with the authority of the British
Government ; and secondly, if so, was there any
dispatch in existence which could be produced and
which would show the nature of the authority given ?
Sir C. WOOD was quite ready to answer the ques-
tion, but he must in the first place deprecate the prac-
tice of commenting upon important questions at a time
when there could be no time or opportunity for
a 'full and ample discussion. (Hear, hear.) He
did not at all wish to say that no discussion
ought to be had upon this important subject,
hut this was not the proper time for taking it.
Now, with regard to the first question. He was asked
whether the Governor-General of India ordered
the annexation of this territory without any pre-
vious instructions from home, and his reply must
be, certainly not ; for it would be found by
to entthfeo rs
etcl
oi en
dan nqeuxeas:
a reference to pages 46 and 53 of the papers
already on the table, relating to this subject, that autho-
rity
nn,wtwoahtshigeehi vteerireirqbi
tuyoiiretyhae HbliovnmsiteitioGreosgtvaaertmed
iilinieexdiesstcerniebeingeonthveeybirolgu
nsudcalriieasutolfiorrictgyu,
and
, he
b'atntegytghededisspatolantsectialte that he was not aware of the existence
of such a dispatch • but as to the latter part of the ques-
tion it should be remembered that Pegu was a
totally distinct territory from Burinali, inhabited by a
different race of people, who had uniformly received our
troops in a kind and cordial manner, and who were glad

to be rescued from the grasp and tyranny of their former
conquerors. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. T. M. GIBSON wished to know whether the
right hon. gentleman had sufficiently informed himself
upon this subject as to be able to hold out hopes that
this new province would be able to pay its own ex-
penses..
• Sir C. WOOD said that so far as he was informed, he
had every reason to believe that the province would
pay its own expenses.
Mr. BRIGHT said that there were unfortunately so
few opportunities for making statements of this nature
that he was not surprised that his honourable friend had
brought this subject forward to-night. (Hear,
hear.) They were now told that Pegu could
pay its own expenses, but that was precisely
the same statement that they had heard in other in-
stances since the days of Clive. The results, however,
always showed that the Government authorities were
mistaken. He wished to know whether any limits, had
.been fixed to the territory.to be annexed ?
Sir C. WOOD said no precise limits had been defined,
but he had intimated his own wish that it should be con-
fined in as narrow limits as possible.
DOCKYARD ELECTIONS.

In reply to Sir J. SHELLEY,
Lord J. RUSSELL said it was his intention to post-
pone his motion, for leave to bring in a bill to disfran-
chise persons employed in Dockyards, until Thursday
se'nnight.