The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-02 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL DISTRESS.

Mr. DISRAELI laid upon the table of the House the
resolution, of which he had previously given notice for
the Bth of March, with respect to agricultural distress.
Upon the motion of an Hox. MEMBER, the Clerk read
the resolution, which was to the following effect:--
"That the whole of the local taxation of the country
for national purposes falls mainly, if not exclusively,
on real property; and bears with undue severity on the
occupiers of land, in a manner injurious to the agri-
cultural interests of the country, and otherwise highly
impolitic and unjust.
" That the hardship of this apportionment is greatly
aggravated by the fact, that more than one-third of the
whole revenue derived from the Excise is levied upon
agricultural produce, exposed, by the recent changes
in the law, to direct competition with the untaxed pro-
duce of foreign countries, the home producer being
thus subjected to a burden of taxation, which, by
greatly enhancing the price, limits the demand for Bri-
tish produce, and to restrictions which injuriously inter-
fered with the conduct of his trade and industry.
" Tbat this House will resolve itself into a Committee
of the whole House to take into its serious consideration
such measures as may remove the grievances of which the
owners and occupiers of real property thus justly com-
plain, and which may establish a more equitable appor-
tionment of the public burdens."

DIVISION OF ECCLESIASTICAL DISTRICTS.
Lord ASHLEY moved that an humble address be
presented to her Majesty, praying her Majesty to ap-
p Ant a commission to inquire into the practicability and
mode of subdividing, into distinct and independent pa-
rishes, for all ecclesiastical purposes, all the densely
peopled parishes in England and Wales, in such
manner that the population of each, except in particular
cases at the discretion of the Commissioners, shall not
exceed four thousand souls. The Noble Lord said, seeing
that it was the wish of the House that brevity should
be observed on all occasions, and as he believed no
opposition would be offered on the part of the Govern-
ment to his proposition, he should compress what he had
to say into the smallest possible compass. He knew he
should thereby expose himself to much disadvantage,
because he should be compelled to omit much in-
teresting matter, which he should have wished
to present to the House, and possibly to the
charge hereafter of not having probed the evil suf-
ficiently deep ; yet he should adhere to the determina-
tion he had formed, and occupy as small a portion of
the time of the House as was consistent with the im-
portance of the subject with which he had to deal. At
the outset he wished to state without reserve that his pro-
position would not, either directly or indirectly, involve
any grant of public money.—(Hear, hear.) Ho be-
lieved he expressed the sentiments of thousands when he
stated, that though they admitted the principle of
making demands upon the public purse when occa-,
sion required; that with respect to this matter
they wore not disposed to seek any pecuniary
aid—nay more, they should be disposed to resist any
such demands until such time as the Church should have
exhausted the whole of her resources.—(Hear, hear.)
Therefore assenting to the proposition would not involve
any increase of the present amount of local taxation in
the form of church-rates. Moreover he wished it to be
understoood that the Commission would be instructed to
respect all existing rights, all existing incumbencies,
which would only be dealt with as vacancies occurred by
death or otherwise. No one who had looked at the con-
dition of densely populated parts of the empire could
have failed to observe the great want of proper paro-
chial distribution, and the consequent difficulty of suc-
cessfully carrying out efficient parochial government.
This was not the case in other departments of the
State. In the common law and equity courts,
when the business increased, additional judges
were appointed; and in the army, when occasion re-
quired, additional persons were enlisted; but this whole-
some rule had not been observed in the Church. Hence
the machinery was as defective as it was fifty years ago.
The main object of his motion was to render the Church
more efficient in its labours than at present, and more
worthy the appellation of the Church of the
country. Many of the parishes of the me-
tropolis and in the large towns contained
100,000 souls. How could a rector efficiently exercise
his spiritual functions over so large a number; how with
so large a number co'ild any practical system be car-
ried out? He would 7.nerely mention half a dozen of
the most populous parishes in the country to show the
number of human beings confided to the care of the
rector of a single parish. The population of the pa-
rish of

Marylebone 138,000
Liverpool ... ••• 223,000
Stockport •••• ... ... 84,000
Sheffield 111,000
Bralf,-)A1„. . • c•-•.,
Mar.chester ••,,)
St. Pancras ... 140,000
And he could mention many more equally as densely
populated, Almost all these places coutained a popula•