The Sun.
London, England, 1836-07-13 00:00:00

used as any man to the Bi'-'l-11, but he thought it would be
better, in the present .Seesion, to discuss the principle under
the hope of convineittg the instigators 'of the Bill, that their
views were erreetkous, than put it off till the next. He did not
press for any 'particular day, but he thought the adoption
'f that course would be best.
,'".. 7. THOMSON observed that the very course
Pamted out by the Right Hon. Baronet was the one he had
proposed to the Hon. Member for his adoption.
Mr. FORBES objected to the adoption of that course.
After a few words from Mr. WA KLEY—
The SPEAKER put the question—" That I do now
leave the Chair"—which was agreed to.
After he had quitted the Chair—
Mr. JOHN MAXWELL rose to persevere in his Bill,
amidst load cries of " C..;rder, order."
LIGHTHOUSES.
Without f,,.. then discussion the House resolved itself
into a Com
:mittee on the Lighthouses Bill, Mr. Demo' in
the Chp!de
193 uses 1 to 40 were agreed to.
Jpon clause 41 being proposed,
Mr. WARBURTON objected to it. He thought that
'the Ballast Board of Dublin, the Commissioners of Northern
Lights, and the Trinity-house, ought all to be placed under
the control of a central board, that board being under the
superintendence of the Admiralty. His second objection
Was, that the Trinity-board was to have a control over the
other hoards as to the mode in which the lights were to Je
used. He remarked that the members of the Trinity-
hoard received 6,000/. a year in salaries, while *toe members
of the Ballast-board in Dublin and the C-,,mmissioners of
the Northern Lights acted gratuitously, He did not know
why the members of one board wee: 6) be pa 300/. a yea
each, white the others did not receive or seekid for any pay-
ment fol. their services. It was his opinion that the past
condoct of the Trinit,•:house Board was not such as to ,en-
title it to the exercise of the increased powers proposed to
cc.: conferred on it by this Bill. He objected also to the
tonstitution of the board, in which there were no scientific
mei', no naval captains—that it was a board self-elected,
and consisting exclusively of the captains of merchant
H
vessels
after the e propoieed as an amendment, that all the words
Purpose of in
word " that be struck out of the clause, for the
4.roducing an amendment of his own.
TrMinir. prJULETT THOMSON observed, that the
ty, :house Board enjoyed. by charter power over the
etleasts of England, and certain portions of Ireland, and his
4-ikn. Friend proposed to take advantage of this Bill to
iteprive them of those powers. In 1822, a Committee of
that House not only recommended that the Trinity-house
should be continued, but that its powers should be ex- ,
tended. The Committee came to a resolution, recom-
tuending that this Board should have the control of all the
Public lighthouses in the kingdom. This was more than
was proposed to be done by this Bill. The salaries re-
ceived by the Board were objected to ; but his Hon. Friend
ought to recollect that the Board had other duties,to dis-
charge beyond the superintendence of lighthouses—they
were also
Conservators of the River Thames. They had
ProPerty. by charter—they were a Corporation, and it
Rivin
tould not be proposed to take away their property without
g them compensation. It was to be observed that no
'saving could be effected if the change proposed by his Hon.
Friend were adopted. He certainly did not favour self-
elected bodies ; but of this he was bound to say, that
there was less danger in leaving the nomination in their hands
than if that nomination were placed in the hands of others.
It via;
the body in his opinion,that it was of advantage to have
composed of merchant captains ; it would enable
them to have a better class of such men, by holding out to
them the chance of filling such situations. He felt the ne-
essity of improving that class, for when he was engaged
in commercial matters, he felt that the captains of mer-
chant vessels here were an inferior grade to those of the
United States. The, an
Member complained that the
"Irinity-house had refused to put up a light-house in the
Isle of Man, but that the Scotch Commissioners had put
'IP two. The question in his opinion was, not how many
light-houses were erected, but whether the coast was duly
aki, sufficiently lighted.
.., Mr. C. FERGUSSON said that the Board of Northern
44ights was a self-elected body, consisting chiefly of lawyers
.9„f Edinburgh, who knew nothing of the matter ; though
he must admit that, as far as he could judge, .they acted in
at disinterested manner. The Honourable Member then
instanced the case of the coast of Kirkcudbright, upon
Which sixty-six ships had been 'lost within thirty years for
want of a light-house, which would only cost 1,2001. to
e2teht'e Ithilei. Hon. Member approved of the general principle
Iel,,I:t: G. P. YOUNG confirmed the statement made by
Tr 1 ight Honourable the President of the Board of
nit;',..theolith reference to the good management of the Tri-
on the h .4
He objected to any proposal for interference
r'ar.• of the Crown, recollecting under what circum-
stances four r , which he iig_iets had been renewed some years ago, to
thought %you", hot trust himself_ to refer further. He
eoanur, -
Sin," of this
i. :zee would derive great benefit from the pas-
°After ".
Is
IML
""
rely words from Sir E. CODRINGTON,
ur. .„
t" ' ROBINSONn spoke in support of the Bill, and de-
.eed
d the Trinity-board.
:0:4. R. PEEL said the Committee, consisting of forty-
c-; e a Members, only seven of whom were what were called
aservative, had reported unanimously in favour of the
!present constitution of the Trinity-board. He rested his
t
saPport of the Trinity-board upon this ground, that upon
he whole it was the best that could be adopted for the. Purr'se. The Right Hon. Baronet then referred to the
ienee of Lieutenant Drummond, who declared that in
‘'er)r- case of experiment the business was conducted in the
l'airest and most agreeable manner, and with every facility
to the
tested, for
parties engaged. This gentleman, however, sug-
onsist of the improvement of the Board, that it should
four persons, namely, an optician, the hydro-
the
grapher to the Admiralty, a chemist, and the President of
Board of Trade. Now he (Sir R. Peel) did not think
that a Board so constituted would either be as efficient 'or
Ait. e waagreeable—
t(A laugh)—as that which at present existed.
s certainly an honorary member of the Trinity-
s'O ,and and he
of
partmight, perhaps, on that account, be suspected
being ejudiced upon the subject, but he must say, that,
a fromad found every consideration of the kind, he thought he
h, in the evidence before the Committee on this
suliMr
iet, the strongest
grounds for confirming their Report.
. HAWES supported the amendment.
'Mr. A. CHAPMAN supported the Bill.
Mr. WALLACE supported the proposition of the Hon.
Member for Bridport.
Mr. EWART did not see any force whatever in the
argument of the Hon. Member for Whitby, that the Board
!If Admiralty could not attend to the business of the
Trinity-hoard without neglecting its own.
m eas
Sirore.. GRAHAM gave his cordial assent to the
J
Oa w
Mrhich. HUME said that whilst he agreed in the principles
his Hon. Friend's proposition was founded, and
expressedu his conviction of their being ultimately success-
f 1 he trusted he would not divide the Committee upon it,
particularly when he bore in mind that the present Bill went
some way in correcting the abuses which arose from the ex-
istence of private Lighthouses.
Sir C. ADAM was clearly of opinion that the principle
of centralisation which this Bill was framed to enforce was
inecessary ; but he could not see the propriety of placing
under the control of the Admiralty estahliahreents which
were supported by a tax on the maritime community.
Colonel J. PARRY bore his testltriony to the satisfac-
tion given at present in his cory (x,?keti ,s
L we suppose) the manner in which the lighti - ' at
nf,', at least was conducted
under the Trinity-board.
Mr. WARBURTON., in reply, felt bound to press his
proposal to a division,
The Committee then divided, when the numbers were—
For the clause ........................ 68 For Mr. Warburton's amendment 7
Major;:ty against the amendment —6l
Clause 64 we,s then agree I to, after a short discussion.
Ther r,...em.ai were then agreed to.
',ling clauses of the Bill
• n'.., ME moved the addition of a clause to put an
end I. ..
1, (I the granting of further pensions by the Trinit-
-oaro
COr„. This clause he proposed, in pursuance or the re-
omendation of the Select Committee.
Mr. P. THOMSON said that all the information
Which he had been able to obtain upon the subject induced
.?(I on him in opposite:, the clause proposed by the
4-,l'On. Member for Middlesex. There had been no com-
plaint whatever made by the shipping interest against the
com-
plaint of the
liglitest suspi,: ',:ensions in question, nor was there the
the
h. In, oney, . ~ion of any favouritism or misapplication of
The number of persons who benefitted by these
sifnsicals. was 8,557, and the aggregate amount of the pen.
°xis ells only 93,000/.
Mr. WALLACE objected, not to the charity, but to
the manner in which the money was raised. If the Hon.
Member for Middlesex divided, he (Mr. Wallace would,B a matter of principle, divide with him. )
by the Mr. CHAPMAN concurred in the opinions expressed
President of the Board of Trade.
Mr. YOUNG observed that this was not a question of
in amount
charity. The merchants of Shields (the second port
eamount of tonnage in the island) were unanimous for the
continuance of these pensions.
Mr. HUME would certainly take the sense of the
Committeen on the clause.
The Committee then divided—
Per the clause Against it ... lO
.......................................
, Majority . B5
—75
, The: House then resumed, and the Report was ordered
to be received to-morrow.
TIMBER DUTIES.
Mr. HAWES wished to repeat a question which he
had Put to the Right Hon. Gentleman early in the scission
specting the timber duties. What he wished to know

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