The Sun.
London, England, 1833-05-13 00:00:00

the Irish Catholic Bill ; also a petition from places in
the North Riding of York, against slavery.
Mr. CHILDERS presented petitions to the same effect
from Stonehouse, Cambridgeshire, Devonport, and Don-
caster.
Sir G. GREY supported those from Doncaster.
Mr. STRICKLAND presented 20 petitions from Tad.
caster, Sheffield, Bridlington, and other places, against
slavery. The }lon. Member also presented a petition
from Jewsbury, signed by 2,400 persons, against any
interference with the Beer Bill. A better system of
police, however, to regulate the beer-shops, neither he nor
the petitioners had any objection to.
Mr. HUDSON presented a petition from the borough
of Evesham against slavery.
Mr. WALLACE presented a petition from Sergeant
Mackie, complaining that be had not had justice done him,
inasmuch as certain contingent money had been withheld
from him, although il‘was regularly drawn by the corn•
tnanding officer. He al complained that he had been
discharged from the Y manry Cavalry of Lanark-
shire without trial, because he had demanded his rights.
Also another petition from certain inhabitants in Fife,
praying to be allowed, for their safety, and to protect
their liberties, to embody and arm themselves.—( Hear.)
Mr. W. WYNN said, if there was any complaint
in the petition first alluded to in respect of not having
received his money, it ought to have been addressed to the
Secretary of State.
The SPEAKER did not think that House was the pro-
per quarter, in the first place, to make such an application.

Mr. WALLACE accordingly withdrew the petition.
At time o'clock the SPEAKER left the Chair.

SOUTHWARK MEETING
(THIS DAY.)

REPEAL OF THE HOUSE AND WINDOW TAXES.

Two requisitions having been forwarded to the High
Bailiff of Southwark (John Holmes, Esq.), requesting
him to call a weeting, one of them signed by 218 names,
for the purpose of petitioning Parliament for the repeal of
the house and window taxes, and the other, signed by 58
names, for the repeal of those taxes, and to consider the
conduct of one of their representatives (Wm. Brougham,
Esq.) in voting against Sir John Key's motion, to-day

. .
was fixed upon for that purpose.
Mr. Sheriff HumettEitys was received with loud cheers.
At one o'clock the 'hull BAILIFF took the Chair, when

the requisitions were read. That having been done, he
said—ln compliance with the requisitions which you have
just heard read, I have appointed the present time for
holding a meeting:to take into consideration the respective
subjects which are mentioned in them. I have had so
much experience of the excellent conduct of the inhabi-
tants of this borough, upon all public occasions, that I feel
it is unnecessary to request a candid and impartial hearing
for every individual who may address you, or a careful
avoidance of any matters that are not fairly and reasonably

connected with the object of the meeting. I have no
doubt that whatever is done will be done forcibly, but at

the same time temperately, and that we shall find, when
the meeting has come to a close, that both you and I have
been enabled to discharge our duty. I have given notice
of this meeting to both your representatives; one of them
is present, and I have received a letter from the other,

which you will now hear read:—
" Mount-street, Saturday, May 11, 1833.
" Sir—l have received your letter stating that you have ap-
pointed a public meeting of the electors of the borough of South-
wark to be held on Monday, the 13th inst., to consider the pro-

priety of presenting a petition to the House of Commons, pray-
ing for a total repeal of the house and window tax, and for the
establishment of an equitable property tax: Upon this subject

I continue to hold the same opinion which I have always ex-
pressed, and, therefore, if the meeting you have called recom-
mend such a petition to be presented to Parliament, I beg you
to assure them it shall have my cordial support.—(Hisses.)
" If this alone had been the object of the meeting, it would,
undoubtedly, have been my bounden duty, as one of the Repre-
sentatives for the borough of Southwark, to attend, in order that
I might know the sentiments of my constituents upon a ques-

tion so important to their interests. But when I find that my
own conduct, relative to a single vote given by me in Parlia-
ment, is alto to be considered as mixed up with that question, I
feel myself justified in stating respectfully, yet at the same time
most firmly, that I cannot be present at such a discussion, with-
out surrendering my usefulness as a Member of Parliament,
and my independence as a public man, at once, and for ever.—

(Hisses and groans.)
" It is proposed to consider my vote upon Sir John Key'
motion with a view to make me resign ml seat in Parliament

if the opinion of the meeting should be against me.
" Were Ito make myself a party to any such discussion, I
should be admitting a principle which I for one will never re-
-

cognise—a principle which would at once destroy my free
agency as a Member of the Legislature, which would convert
me from a representative to a delegate—from a representative
sent to Parliament unpledged and unfettered, into a mere
passive agent, looking to the direction, and accountable to the
will of, any section of his constituency.
" In absenting myself from this meeting, I only wish to
mark my dissent from a principle, in my opinion, utterly
destructive of the usefulness of a deliberative assembly, and
altogether inconsistent with right notions of representative
Government.
" It has been most painful to me to learn that a vote of
mine, or any part of my conduct, has dissatisfied any of my
friends in Southwark. I gave that vote according to the best
of my judgment, and whatever blame for doing so may be fixed
upon me at a moment of excitement like the present, sure I
am the time will come when justice will be done to the purity
of my motives, and the integrity of my rotc.

" I have the honour to be, Sir,
" Your very obedient and obliged servant,
" W. BROUGHAM.'

The HIGH BAILIFF then suggested that it would be
better to take first into consideration the requisition for the
repeal of the house and window taxes.
Mr. B. WOOD was received with loud cheers. It was
with great regret he felt there was any necessity for the
present meeting, because he knew that it was the distress
which pervaded the middling classes which had called
them together. He entreated that they would listen to every
thing that might be addressed to them on both sides with
perfect;coolness, so that they might be enabled to give all the
arguments a fair and impartial consideration—(H ar,
hear)—so that they might consider themselves as fairly
deliberating on the present most serious subject.—(Hear,
hear.) He regretted also the necessity for calling this
meeting; but it would show to the Administration of the
country, which had been raised and supported by the
people, that there did exist great distress, which that
Administration, from their experience since they had been
in office, ought themselves to have found out. That great
distress did exist throughout the whole of the country,
but particularly in London and its neighbourhood, every
one present must admit. Those taxes respecting which
they had met, more oppressed the inhabitants of towns
than those of the country. The amount of property
assessed, and on which the Louse duty was charged
throughout the United Kingdom, exceeded by a small sum
eleven millions; out of that sum 5,900,0001. belonged
to London and its neighbourhood. (Shame, shame.)
He would first look into the state of the case,
so as to consider whether the distress was so great
as to make it necessary that those duties should be re-
pealed.--(Hear, hear.) That it was so be need scarcely
say, because the inhabitants of Southwark were daily
feeling these taxes, and they well knew that the
people, instead of advancing in the woad, were rather
retrograding. If that were so, and they well knew that
it was, those taxes ought to be taken off by the Govern-
ment. He had seen it stated in a very popular work (the
Edinburgh Review) that " it was of very little impor-
tance whether the house and window tax existed or not,
because if it were taken off,the landlords would immediately
add to their rents." 'I bat and every other argument
which had been gone into by the reviewer against the
repeal of the house and window tax, had been used on a
late occasion in the House of Commons. What had the
Government to do between landlord and tenant ? It was
very much like the argument of the Directors of the East
India Company, during the recent disturbances re-
specting their Charter. These Directors appeared,
for a time, entirely to have lost sight of their
own interests, and they only required to show to
the Government that the duty on tea could not be so
easily collected if the trade to China were thrown open.
Mr. Grant very pithily replied, that they had
better mind their own business, and that Government
would find a mode of collecting the duty. So he said to
the gentlemen who used the arguments respecting land-
lord and tenant. It :.as the duty of Government to
see that every class labouring under distress was relieved
to the utmost of their power, and that if the house and
window tax be found so oppressive they should be re-
moved. Another important objection was, the in-
equality of those taxes, and he was surprisA that any
man of common sense could argue that they bore with
any degree of equality upon the various classes of the
community. He would cite an instance of their ope-
ration.—( Hear.) The Marquis of Westminster bad
expended a million of money in building Eaton Hall, and
yet it was only rated at 350/.—(Cries of " Shame,
shame.") Those ‘s ho argued against the repeal
of those taxes, went so far as to say, not
only that it was fully rated, but that it ought
scarcely to be rated for any thing, because, if the Noble
Marquis should go abroad nobody would be found to take
it. He (Mr. Wood) contended that it ought to be rated
according to what it cost. Every tradesman who built a
house for himself was rated at an annual value, according
. to the orig nal cost. The Noble Marquis, however, paid
but 424 108. per annum, while many tradesmen paid the