The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-02 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, September 1.
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the Wool
sack at Five o'clock.
MILBANK PRISON BILL.
_

This Bill was read a third time and passed.
BATTERSEA PARK BILL.
This Bill was read a third time and passed.
Lord CAMPBELL presented a petition from the
parish of Lambeth, complaining of the grand jury
system.
CITY OF LONDON SEWERS BILL.
The Earl of RADNOR presented a petition from an
individual, preying to he heard by counsel against the
City of London Sewers Bill, and that the Bill might be
referred to a Select Committee.
Lord CAMPBELL apprehended that the prayer of
the petition could not be complied with without violating
their Lordships' standing orders.
After a short conversation the petition was received.
Lord CAMPBELL then moved the suspension of the
standing orders in question.
Lord BEAUMONT said a motion was on the paper
for suspending the standing orders in favour of the Bill,
and he could not see why the same indulgence should
not be conceded to its opponents. The hurried manner
in which their Lordships disposed of Bills towards the end
of the session almost rendered the rights of property
unsafe, and he really did hope that the first business
their Lordships entered npon next session would be the
censidKation of some remedy for this evil.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE recommended the
suspension of the standing orders in this case.
LortFREDESDALE said that the Bill had been sent
up to their Lordships much too late.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE stated that it could
no‘,,under the circumstances, have been submitted to the
HOTtse earlier. It was very important that the Bill should
pass.
The motion for the suspension of the standing orders
was, however, understood to be withdrawn, and the Bill
was read a second time.
COPPER DUTIES BILL.
Lord REDESDALE presented a petition from the
county of Cornwall, signed by 21,545 persons inter-
ested in the mining trade of that part of the country,
against the Bill relating to the duties on copper and
copper ore.
The Earl of FALMOUTH presented a similar
petition.
On the motion that this Bill be read a first time,
Lord REDESDALE complained of the late period at
which the Bill had been introducerlo their Lordships.
In the other House it had been brought in upon the Bth
of May, and had been adjourned no less than thirty times
before it came to a second reading. Their Lordships
had not been treated with due courtesy; the measure
was one, involving a change in the financial system of
the country, and it was impossible to give it the due
consideration which its importance demanded. Ho pro-
tested.against the system of delaying the introduction of
measures into their Lordships' House to such incon-
venient periods as had been of late the practice.—(Hear,
hear.) Nothing now was left the House of Lords, they
had scarcely an opportunity to pass their opinion upon a
measure; and to debate it was almost an impossibility.
He considered that if they did not mark their strong dis-
approbation of this want of courtesy on the part of the
Home of Commons, the independence was at an end.
He also objected to the measure as being one for the re-
duction of the revenue. When they considered the pre-
sent crippled state of the finances of the country, they
would be of opinion that such a reduction could not be
very well afforded. In the county of Cornwall, where
the evil effects of the measure would be principally felt,
the potato crop had almost totally failed; the harvest'
was exceedingly deficient, more so than in any other
county. Under all these circumstances, he considered
it his duty to oppose even the first reading of the
Bill. He would, therefore, move that the Bill be'read
a first time that day six months, and that motion he
did not believe an isdepi nclent Member would refuse to
supp.cct.
'The Marquis of LANSDOWNE trusted that the
House would not dispose, in any such summary manner,
of a Bill which hact tor its objects the reduction of a high
duty and the Etonaotion of the trade of the country.
The Noble Lord st eined to consider that the present
measure was a great innovation upon the system of the
country. Was he aware that four or five years ago this
liberty of exportation did exist ? The present system
veks an experiment by which, from a false idea of af-
fordhig protection to British copper, the smelting trade
of this c eatery has been exposed to severe danger, and
was gfadually diminishing. Did lie know that the eftct
of the present system was to raise up a smelting trade
in Chili, in the United States of America, and that
ores which would have come to this country to he
srneltei were by its operation now smelted in foreign
countries ? lie would reer the Noble Lord to the evi-
dence of the British Consul at Philadelphia.
In the year 1847, that gentleman informed
them that since the passing of the late measures, a
company had been formed in Boston, who were erecting
snacking furnaces. The same was the fact in New
York, in New Jersey, and in several other places. The
evidenee taken before the Navigation Committee con-
firmed the statements which he had made. With the
knowledge that a great portion of the copper ore was
going out of the country, he could not conceive that
their Lordships would asent to the extremely unusual
course of rejecting the Bill upon its first reading. He
eonsidered that it would be setting a very dangerous
precedent if they rejected in this manner Bills sent to
them by the Houk' of Commons. It would be saying,
in fact, that the opinions of the House of Commons, de •
elated by a large majority, upon a subject of trade and
taxation, were not even worth a consideration.
Lord REDESDALE would not commit an act of dis-
cererteay towards the House of Commons without a suffi-
cient reason. But the House of Commons had committed
an ad of discourtesy towards them by keeping back
a BM of such importance until such a late period of the
session, which, had it been introduced in June, they should
have been allowed at least a week before they would
have been &sided to read it a second time. He thought
the prone:lt moment was a good opportunity for resent-
ing theVant of courtesy shown them.
Lord MONTEAGLE entirely concurred in the ob-
servations of the Noble Lord who had just sat down as
to the impropriety of sending up Bills at such a period
in the session as to make it impossible to consider them.
He trusted that some steps would be taken to prevent
the recurrence of the evil, and that some rule would be
agreed to which would preclude their Lordships from
entertaining any Mils after a certain date, except cause
were shown why they should do otherwise. He remem-
bered that the House of Commons had treated a Bill
sent down to them in the same manner as that in which
it was now proposed to treat the present; there was not
a Member of their Lordships' House at that time, who
did not feel that the House of Commons was in error,
and they would not do well to follow the precedent.
Could he mark his dissatisfaction at the system without
inconvenience to the public, he would not hesitate to do
so, but he could not consent to sacrifice innocent parties
for the sake of declaring a principle.
The Earl of PALMOUTII thought that they could
reject the Bill without geeing offence to the House of
Commons, as the measure wes one of finance, which
they could not alter in subsequent stages) moreover,
the lig had been adopted by a very small majority
in a cry thin House. Before the Bill of 1842, under
the old system of duties, he could employ all his
labourers, but now he was obliged to discharge a great
'many. If there was a prosperous body of merchants in
the country, it was the smelters. They were a small
body enjoying a monopoly, and were the very class of
all others that ought not to receive protection, as the
present Bill conferred. He would oppose the Bill.
The Marquis of LANSDO WNE replied in a few
words,
The-Earl of DESART considered that a great deal
had been said of the smelting trade, as if it were upon
its last legs, but he believed that the smelters were the
"nose flourishing. body of manufacturers in Great Bri-
tain, and that fact was evidenced by the present Bill, of
which they would have never heard a word were they
not as he described them. It had been stated that there
was a reduction in the importation of copper ore, but
within the last six months there had been imported 419/.
rorth of copper ore into this country. The Bill was of
that nature that they could not alter it, and he saw no
objection to rejecting it upon the first reading.
Lord WYNFORD objected to the Bill as having a
tendency, if it passed into a law, to encourage the slave
tradesbf Cuba.

Earl GRANVILLE replied, and the House divided,
when there altered— c•
For the t reading l7
Against

13

Majority —4
The Bill was then read a first time.
TAXING MASTERS, COURT OF CHANCERY
(IRELAND) BILL.
On the motion of the Marquis of CLANRICARDE,
this Bill was read a second time.
STANDING ORDERS.
Lord REDESDALE moved certain alterations of the
etaiding orders relative to the sittings of the Com-
qa.ttee Of Privileges, and with. regard to the classification
or Bills. z. , • _ C.ll. Z.. 1

The motion was agreed to.
On the motion of the Marquis of CLANRICARDE,
the l'Setege on Newspapers (Channel Islands) Bill went
through Committee.
Oa the motion of EarI4IRA/tifILLE, the Drainage
_e
rtirmates Mill went through Committee.
CONSOLIDATED FUND APPROPRIATION

BILL.
On the motion of the Marquis of LANSDOWNE,
this Bill Was read a second time. To be committed to-
morrow at twelve o'clock.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE presented a petition
for a general scheme of education of all classes in Ire-
land,
Their Lordships adjourned till this day, at twelve
o'clock.

I,OIISE Colld
September 1.
(Continued from our Afternoonntlsikto—i,irecroyesterday.)
Rein S ILO R RACES.—
VERTISEMENTS IN NEWSPAIIVP AD.
In answer to a question from Mr. ANSTEYIIB.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said, as no notice
had been given of the illegality of inserting advcrtise-
,
meats in newspapers respecting sweeps for races
no
steps had been taken by the Government, but be now
wished to give notice that such a c9urse was illegal, and
if parties hereafter continued to insert them, they would
be made aMenable to the law.

Lord G. BENTINCK trusted that, at all events, there
would not be one law for the rich and another for the
wor. If those sweeps were put down, ho trusted that a
Tun.ihir step would ho taken with respect to every de-
scriptkon of lottery among the higher classes.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said the question to
which he replied referred only to the insertion of ad-
felrtiseinents in the newspapers.
IRELAND.
Mr. HAMILTON gave notice of his intention, early