The Sun.
London, England, 1824-02-21 00:00:00

FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

The CIIANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER having moved
that the House should on Monday resolve itself into a Com"
mittee on the act respecting the four per cent. duties, took the
opportunity of giving notice, that he should on the same even-
ing submit the statement he meant to make relative to the finan-
cial state of the country—(Hear, hear !)—as the occasion would
be more convenient than would be furnished in the Committee
of Ways and Means.

Mr. Serjeant ONSLOW, on the suggestion of Mr. Calcraft,
postponed the Committee on the Usury Laws until Friday next.
Mr. HOB/1011SE moved for the copy of any letter which
may have been issued during the last year by the Board of
..._ ecettioerlF236, f
Taxes to the several Surveyors in England, ordering a general
survey of houses and taxes.—Ordered.
~,...
Mr. HERMES moved for the
! 10
Minute of the 10th el "
oanTtrheeasury
subjectlet teorfatTle
survey directed by the Commissioners of Taxes, to be made of
the surcharges on the inhabited house take ; and also for the
copy of the letter of thz Commissioners of Taxes, dated the
30th of December, 1823, on the same subject.
Mr. IlUSKlSSON•presented a
.petition from the tobacco_
manufacturers of. Liverpool, Praying for a reduction of the
duties on tobacco.
The Petition of several individuals, praying for leave to bring
was referred
way under the bed of the Thames,
in a.ill for ma an arch
.. to a king
Committee.
The other Orders of the Day were disposed of; and at a
QUARTER PAST ELEVEN the House adjourned until Mon.
day next. .

LIST OF THE MINORITY
Who voeii f6r Reducing the proposed Regular Military Esta-
blishment from 73,000 to 60,000 men.
Ingilby, Sir \V. Williams, W.
Monck, J. B. Wilkins, W.
Palmer, C.F.
TELLER. •
wood, Al. Hutne, J.
.
' -1----
MAJORITY .
Who voted against the production of a List of the Number of
Catholics appointed to Office in Ireland, in 26 Departments
under Government, since t!.'e.passing of the Act in 1793,
which opened the Door to Offices of Emolument and Ho-
nour to all Classes of Catholics, except to the particular Of-
fices under that Act enumerated.
Astley, Sir J. D. .Harvey, Sir E. Phipps, Hon. E.
Brogden, J. Heber, R. Portman, E. B. -
Browniow, C. Ilia, Rt.lin.Sir G. Robinson,RtHn.F.
Burgh, Sir U. Iluskisson,Rt.Hon. Ross, C. •
Canning, Rt.Hn.G. W. Sandon, Lord
Cholmley, Sir M. Herrics, J. C. Somerville, Sir M.
Clerk, Sir G. . Horton, -14. W. Tremayne, J. H.
Cooper, R. B. Knatchbull, Sir E. Trench, F. W.
Copley, Sir J. S. Long, Rain. Sir C. Wallace, Rt. Hn. T.
Courtenay, T. P. Morl4nd, Sir S.B. Wetherell, C.
Denison, W. J. Omnianney, Sir F. Wynn, Sir W. W.
Forbes, Sir C. PalmFrston, Lord TELLERS.
Fremantle, W. Peel, Rt. Hon. R. Dawson, G. R.
Gilbert, D G. Phillimore, J. Goulburn,RtHnH.
MINORITY.
Browne, Dom. Hutchinson, Hon. Newport, Sir J.
Cavendish, Ld H. C. IL Wood, Ald.
Ellis, G. J. W. A. Hume, J.' TELLERS.
Hamilton, Lord A. Lamb, Hon. G. Althorp, Visct.
Hobhouse, J. C. blonck, JB. Grattan, J.
4x

Grat*an, J.
Guise, Sir W.
Hobhouse, J. C.
Johnson, Col.

OLD BAILEY._crIIIS T 1 AY.,

DA RING BURGLAftY.--john Easterbl, Peter
Ryan, Henry King, and Maria Bennet, were put
to the bar on an indictment charging the three
first with burglariously breaking and entering the
dwelling house of John James, and stealing
•

therein property to the amount of 1001. and
upwards, on the 25th of December last, in
the parish of St. James, Clerken well. Bennet
was charged as an accessary after the fact.—
Easterby, Ryan, and King, were also indicted
for burglariously breaking and entering the
dwelling-house of John Bond Graham, and steal-
ing therein property to a very considerable amount.
—An additional detainer was also lodged against
King, who, conjointly with a woman named Eliza
Blackwell, stood indicted for assaulting, on the
King's highway, John Francis Powell, and
taking from his person, with force and violence,
a quantity of silver spoons, Scc., the property of
Richard Britton. The prisoners are all well-
known characters, and the, charge being fully
brought home to them, the Jury found them

The verdict in the case of Johnson, tried yes.
terday, was Wilful Murder.

IMPROVEMENTS IN LONDON

AND WESTMINSTER.

Yesterday a Meeting of the Merchants Bankers,
Traders, and Inhabitants of the Cities of London and West-
Minster, and the adjacent counties, was held at the City of
'London Tavern, for the purpose of agreeing to such resolutions,
and adopting such meases, as shall he deemed most expedient,
with the vicar to the improvement oki4e streets and avenues of
the Cities of London and Westmins , the borough of South-
.
,eivark, and the adjecent counties.
At one o'clock, on the motion of Mr. Alderman WOOD,
the Chair was taken by CHARLES BARKLEY, Esq.
The Ctrainaraie, in opening the business of the day, re-
marked, that a string of resolutions had been prepared by some
gentlemen who had undertaken the preliminary arrangements,
and which, when read, would better explain than he could do
the object which they were assembled to consider.
Mr. RonERT SLADE hoped that the importance of the sub-
ject, which was nothing less than the improvement of the
metropolis of the British empire, would be a sufficient apo-
logy for his rising to call their attention to the resolutions
which were prepared for the consideration of the Meeting.
He trusted that so important a subject would be deemed a
sufficient justification for convening their fellow-citizees, and
he anticipated that the result would be equally gratifying
to them. They must all feel the importance of attempt-
ing, on a suitable scale, the improvement of the city of
London ;—the necessity or such a step must be equally
apparent to all.; and he therefore thought that he must
have their full approbation in laying down this broad pro-
position ;—that the present state of the metropolis, in many
of its avenues and streets, was totally inadequate to
the accommodation and convenience of the increased and
increasing population of the town, and its increased and
increasing business.—( Hear !)—This being an admitted propo-
sition, what was the remedy? The tax upon coals was about to
be submitted for the revision of Parliament, and it was one
which had already been recognized by the Ligislature as a fit
article upon which a fund might be raised for local improve-
ments. if they recurred to the time of the fire of London, they
would find that then a tax of Is. per chaldron was first laid on,
for the specific purpose of rebuilding the churches and other
edifices destroyed by the conflagration ; it was from thence clear
that the Legislature thought such a tax a fit mode of carrying
into effect local repairs. The Irish Legislature had, many
years ago, adopted, at the public expence, a plan for the im-
provement of the city of Dublin. In the year 1782 they passed an
Act, appointing " wide street commissioners," and appropriating
a tax of Is. per ton upon coals, for the improvement of the
metropolis ; and the consequence was, that through the opera-
tion of that Act, Dublin became ltimately unproved to a
greater extent than any other city in Europe. He had often
occasion within the last forty years to visit the Irish metro-
polis, which he remembered in its early state of disgrace, and
had since repeatedly seen and admired in its extent of local
embellishment—its fine quays running in a line of four miles,
where mud and marshes were previously situate. 'Why,
then, should the British metropolis be alone neglected ?
The Worthy Gentleman then recapitulated the history of the
English duty on coals, pointing out the time and mode of
its successive augmentation until it amounted, upon the
citizens of London, to a tax of 9s. 4cl. per chaldron. He
hoped the Legislature, if they did not repeal the whole of this
taxi would at least strike off 6s. of its amount, leaving 3s. 4d.,
and out of the latter, affording Is. or is. 6d., for carrying
into effect the local improvements which the citizens of London
called for. He said that there was the utmost harmony be-
tween the Gentlemen who had convened the meeting and the
petitioners for the repeal of the coal tax, there not being, when
duly considered, the least inconsistency between the object
of the one and the other. In following up the business of
the present meeting, and to obviate the possibility of any sur-
mise that private objects, and not great public improvements,
were in contemplation, and it was not intended to point out,
or to recommend to the Legislature, any particular plans
of local improvement—it was merely meant to leave the
whole of the arrangements to the Legislature, and the pub-
lic commissioners appointed, if any should be appointed, to
carry the act into execution•---(Heari hear, hear !)—Some might
think that the removal of the duty on coals would be attended
with bad consequences to the citizens of London, by its
affording, an encouragement. to the great manufacturers of
Birmingham and of Sheffield to remove to the Metropolis,
and add, by their works, to the mass of smoke which was at
present so much complained of. This was, he thought., a chi-
merical apprehension, for the local advantages of these great
manufacturers were too valuable to permit the slightest chance
of emigration. As no tune was to be lost in promoting the
business of the Meeting, he would conclude by reading a string
bieenenreparde.parTedhebcyonthtaeiCnecri
amnititieiset.
The Resolutions ori-
were then
oco
established,aff l
sßun eac sirlorlaputoit
teinaoonsnfdwotpfhhritecah h3eP,
these
ihed nadtdchui pat
ilt
eespuaaprs ol
was
amswerhne ittcawhi
notehudle,d ciaos
p.a
or
rrdoui
pat
ri.
a6s
taew.
poe
out
chaldron, for the 1041 improvement of the metropolis.
Petitions to Parliament, and to the Common Council of the
City of London, founded upon the Resolutions, were also read.
Mr. Alderman THOMPSON rose to second the resolution.—
He expressed his conviction that not a single person could be
found, who did not complain of the great danger and inconve-
nience felt by the present disgraceful and confined condition of
many parts of the city of London—retail traders, in particular,
suffered from that circumstance, as did likewise persolis from
the west end of the town and the environs, who had business at
the Bank, or the other public establishments within the city.
If the Legislature recognized the prayer of the petition, then he
had no doubt an adequate fund could be raised by a mort-
gage of the tax, which would enable the Commissioners to
proceed with all convenient dispatch to make the local appear-
ance of the City of London as remarkable for its embellish-
ments, as its citizens were for their wealth and public spirit.—
(Hear, hear!)—He entirely aroved of the mode in which it
was intended to meet the expencppe—a mode which, they would
recollect, would, from the smallness of the amount of their
ccoonnssuulmnperstir. thefallal
rlgigehmtlyanuunfaocntutrheerspooanrd,
bur-ehwileersth, ewpornldcipbael
found most ready to meet the charge.
Mr. Youerca asked whether the object of the Meeting did
not clash with the general desire of the citizens of London to
get rid of the whole of the coal-duty ?He merely asked for in-
formation, as he was friendly to any plan foe the promotion of
public improvements.
The CHAIRMAN replied, that the feeling of the Committee
was this--that die Government meant to retain -at all events a
portion of the coal-duties, and that under such circumstances
it would be expedient for them to endeavour to obtain a part
of the tax so retained, for the original purpose for which the
tax was first laid on—namely, Jocal improvements.--(Hear,
hear 1).
Mr. Aid. WOOD also recapitulated the statement of the origi-
nal purpose and gradual diversion of the coal-duties, to the great
oppression and injury of the citizens of London. He was, how-
ever, greatly afraid that the Minister did not mean to reduce any
part, much less the whole, of the coal-duties. The question then
was could they secure a part for local embellishments ? Ten
millions of the coal-duties had already been misapplied from the
original intention of the Act of Parliament; and it was time
for them to see if they could not prevail upon the Government
to grant them a little, for clearing away the nuisances Which
disgraced the great metropolis of the British empire. On a
late occasion, he was one of a deputation that applied to tha
Minister for a grant from this fund to repair Blackfriars-bridge,
but the answer was, " Would you have us give you money
granted for public purposes, to carry on private works ?" The
deputation said, " But the fund was originally intended for
local improvements in the metropolis." " Well," rejoined the
Minister, " when you come for general purposes, and not for
Blackfriars-bridge, we can consider what you may have to
offer." Now was the time, then, for pressing the general
question upon the attention of Government.
Mr. Alderman THOMPSON said that dispatch was necessary,
as the Chancellor of the Exchequer intended on Monday next
to submit his plan of finance to the House of Commons ; it wis
incumbent upon them to press this subject on the attention of
Government before the business of finance was finally deter-
mined.—(Hear !)
Mr. Wren rAar WILLIAMS concurred in the proposed plan.
of local improvement, and in the principle that local tax-
ation was properly applicable for such an object. The ne-
cessity of something being done in this way for the metropolis
was disgracefully apparent. Any body who looked at Exeter
'Change, and a hundred and thirty or forty similar interruptions
to the straight line of the most frequented streets, must at once
see that improvement ought to be no longer delayed. He ex-
pressed his full satisfaction that, from the nature of the applica-
tion, not the slightest idea of the accomplishment of any private
object could be insinuated, the whole plan being one both ne-
cessary and well calculated for the promotion of a great national
object.

After a short conversation between Mr. SAMUEL DIXON,
Mr. Alderman WOOD, and other gentlemen, respecting the ul.
timate object of those wiko were charged with the business of the
Meeting, the Resolutions and petitions were unanimously
agreed to, and thanks were voted to Mr. Slade and to the
Chairman for their services upon the occasion.--The Meeting
was respectably attended.

Accounts have been received from Mexico to
the 20th of December, by the way of New
York. They contain no intelligence, but state
the course of affairs to be proceeding smoothly,
and that harmony exists between the provinces
and the capital.