The Sun.
London, England, 1836-08-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF .TUB PUBLIC JOURNALS.
Mr. Poulett Scropes excellent Bill for the attain-
ment of uniformity of rating and superseding the mys-
tical modes of rating on two-thirds and four-fifths of
the annual value (all of which modes are only means
of committing frauds), taken up the other night by
Mr. Poulett Thonison' after having been returned
from the House of Lords with, certain useful amend-
ments introduced by. the Duke of Richmond, and sup-
ported by Lord Langdale, was endangered on Satur-
day by the opposition of Mr. Aglionby and some
other Members, who are allies of Mr. Walter in his
hostility to the Poor Law Amendment Act. The
Rating Bill, it should be understood, is not a Bill
for any new valuation of all the parishes throughout
the country ; its chief operation will be in the change
of proportion ; though that change may, in some par-
ticular instances, lead to a re-valuation. In many
cases, where the valuation has been made by ignorant
overseers, or the dominant parties in those petty jobo-
cracies, the vestries, great discontent exists at the
consequent oppressive inequalities, and a new valuation
is obviously required. The Bill, as it went to the
House of Lords, contained no provision for any valua-
tion. The Duke of Richmond and the Master of the
Rolls considered that some provision should be made
for the appointment of a valuer, otherwise the
valuations must be made by the parties who have cre-
ated the inequalities complained of ; namely, the over-
seers in vestry, or the select vestrymen. These per-
sons, it is held, cannot legally appoint valuers any
more than they are entitled to appoint assistant over-
seers, except under the express sanction of some
statute. And if they did appoint the valuers, the ap-
pointments would be the same sort of jobs that
appointments by overseers and vestries have heretofore
been ; and we should see the old contests revived,
where the candidates contend for the places on the
ground of their having large families, of long residence
in the parish, and of having failed in trade. The
Poor-law Commissioners have found it necessary, as
checks to this propensity to make jobbing and unfit
appointments, to disallow the appointment of bank-
rupts and insolvents for the future. The Duke of
Richmond and Lord Langdale's amendments provide
that the valuers shall be appointed by the board of
guardians. Mr. Aglionby, and those who have de-
clared their opposition to the Poor-law Amendment
Act, have actually announced their intention of op-
posing the clauses, and of inserting others for
.giving the power to the vestries ; which will, in
fact, perpetuate the mischief, if earlier] ; but
have no doubt will be properly rejected. The esta-'
biishment or perpetuation of distinct and clashing
authorities for the transaction of the same class of
business is in itself a legislative absurdity, and mere
mischief to both authorities, who are thus maintained
in conflict. The appointment of valuers by the over-
seers, or by the vestries, is very nearly the same as
valuations by themselves. It sounds large to talk of
the inhabitants in vestry assembled ; but every person
who has any knowledge of these matters, must be well
aware that the inhabitants at large rarely can, or
seldom, if ever, do attend to such matters collec-
tively, and that they gradually fall into the hands of
low cliques of jobbers, who, in the towns, are begin-
ning to cloak their jobbery under the garb of patriotic
opposition to the Government authorities. In the
same manner as the old vestries and overseers—the
managers of the old watch—endeavoured to per-
suade the public that the liberties of Englishmen
were et an end, because they had no longer the
power of appointing their decayed porters and serving
men to protect our liberties as a nightly watch. The
valuations by vestries is commonly a means of re-
du Zing the rates of the particular vestrymen. In rural
parishes, it is frequently a contest of injustice be-
tween contending factions—an injustice and a griev-
ance of which the oppressed individual can only re-
lieve himself by means of a still greater grievance—a
law- suit. The board of guardians, composed of
the representatives of twenty or more parishes
within an union, will not collectively have the
same interests as the vestry, and will, more-
over, be responsible for their choice and for the fair-
ness of the results. As the Bill now stands, whilst
vexatious re-valuations will be prevented, such new
valuations as are made may be made on one uniform
plan throughout the kingdom, and the future improve-
ment of this department of administration may be much
facilitated. These useful results are in no way con-
sidered ; and the whole pretext for opposition appears
to be based on the fact that the guardians are elected
by a plurality of votes, and that in some of the unions
Tories have been returned. On this subject there has
been much fraudulent tnisrepresentation by the de-
feated bands of jobbers in the town parishes.
Without entering into the question of the propriety of
giving to the owners votes in the administration of a tax
which is mainly borne by them, it may suffice to say that
the occupiers preponderate individually as well as by
their votes. From the returns of the metropolitan
electors for boards of guardians, it appears that there
were fifteen thousand occupiers' votes to nine thousand
votes of owners and owners' proxies. Very recently
a meeting was held in the populous parish of St.
Clement Danes, to get up memorials against the Poor
Law Amendment Bill. At this meeting, which was
blazoned forth as a meeting of the whole of that po-
pulous parish, we believe that not more than about
thirty persons attended. These consisted chiefly of the
party of the Vestrymen who had been defeated as
candidates for the guardianship. These parties were
rejected by a majority so great, that they could not
have retained power if the election had been by the
single votes. The consequence of the election of the
guardians in that parish has already been a reduction
of the rate of expenditure to nearly two-thirds the
amount under the old regime. In another populous
parish, where the old officers, who were rejected by
the people at the election, and who got up a
meetiNg and a deputation to Lord John Russell
and to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, they com-
plained of the plurality of votes, but, nevertheless,
well knew that they- were rejected by a majority
of the single votes. The meeting consisted of twenty
persons, including the rejected candidates and the re-
quisitionists and attendants, who coolly assumed the re-
presentation of a parish of between 5 and 6,000 inhabi-
tants. Hitherto these new boards have been unmarked by
any party politics, and we are assured that in the whole
of the metropolis there is not one board of Tories, or
one where there is not an admixture of persons sup-
porting Liberal opinions. Even in the list opposed to
Messrs. Murphy, &c., at St. Pancras, the otherday, there
were several persons who had voted for Liberal candi-
dates. If these boards were rendered the scenes of
political contests, then would the profession of Liberal
politics be made the means of local jobbing. It is
true that the ex-qfficio guardians, 'beim, magistrates,
are mostly Tories, but they are not more than two or
three at the most to every twenty elected guardians.
A t all events, the enemies of the consolidation and the
efficient operation of the Poor Law Amendment Act,
are the enemies of the most important reform by which
the character and condition of the labouring classes
can be elevated. No unprejudiced person can view
the former and the present condition of the labouring
classes in the rural districts without seeing that all po-
litical reforms in their practical operation are of subor-
dinate importance to ft.—Morning Chronicle.
The Newspaper Stamp Duties Bill, which is now
secured from the machinations of false friends, and
the direct hostility of avowed foes, is, beyond compe-
tition, the most important act of the Session, and the
most severe blow which since the Reform Act has
been dealt to the enemies of just and popular govern-
ment. The reduction of the duty in itself is a matter
of comparative insignificance, but the force of opinion
which it wilt afford means of putting into action will
accelerate the progress of reform to a degree which
may be expected to effect most important and bene-
ficial changes throughout our whole political system.
It would be most absurd to suppose that the Lords
were friendly to the measure, or that their rejection of
the registration clause was intended for any other
object than the delay of the Bill for another Ses-
sion. Were any other result contemplated, the ori-
ginal Bill would not have been allowed by the Tories,
and not by the Tories only, but by many false Liberals
in the House of Commons, to escape without a more
decided attack upon its principle ; but their forbear-
ance arose from the expectation that when the Bill
would be mutilated by the Lords, it would, like
the other maimed measures which have been re-