The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-05 00:00:00

RAILWAY LEGISLATION.

- - - Earl FITZ WILLIAM gave notice that to .morrow
he should move a resolution to the effect that the third
reading of railway Bills should be postponed till all the
railway Bills before this and the other House of Parlia-
ment came before their Lordships in that stage. The
Noble Lord had (as we understood) said it was also his
intention to move, that when the Bills reached this
stage they should be referred to a Committee, to deter-
mine which Bills should pass and which should not.
SALE OF INTOXICATING LIQUORS ON
SUNDAY.

The Bishop of NORWICH presented sixty petitions,
signed by 50,000 persons, earnestly praying her Ma-
jesty's Government to take into consideration the pro-
priety of diminishing as far as possible the sale of in-
toxicating liquors on the Lord's day. He believed their
Lordships would recollect that in the year 1834 there
was a Committee of the House of Commons, and
from the evidence laid before them on the subject
it appeared that the greater part of crime in England was
owing to intoxication. In the year 1839 he believed the
Noble Lord who sat near him (Earl Stanhope) brought
in a Bill to limit the sale of intoxicating liquors from
Saturday evening till one o'clock on Sunday afternoon.
By that Act much good had been produced in the
metropolis, Manchester, and Liverpool, but the opera-
tions of that Act were limited to certain great towns,
and the object of the present petitions was that
the operations of that Act might be extended to the
other great towns of England. He might observe that
these petitions were of a very singular character. He
bad looked over all of them, and it was an ex-
traordinary fact that there were no marks instead
of names subscribed to them. This showed that all the
petitioners were persons of education. They were not
connected with any particular party whatever, for
Churchmen, Dissenters, magistrates, clergymen, corpo-
rations of cities, all came forward to join in the prayer
of the petitioners ; and he need not say how desirable
it would be that their prayers should be granted, when it
was known that in London alone upwards of 50 per
cent. of the crimes were owing .to drunkenness, and that
there had been 50 per cent. diminution in the crimes was
in consequence of the operations of the Bill of his Noble
Friend.
Lord DENMAN presented several petitions to the
same effect.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE presented a petition
from almost all the inhabitants of a town in the north
of England (the name of which did not reach us), in
favour of the Ministerial measures.
Etrl GREY presented a petition to the same effect.
Lord DENMAN presented a petition from a lady',
praying for relief from their Lordships under the fol-
lowing circumstances:—She had been confined in prison
for contempt of Court, inasmuch as she refused to give
evidence in a certain case, upon the ground that she
hal a religious scruple against taking an oath,
and the consequence of her contempt was that
it had cost her one year's income. While upon the
subject he begged to say that a short Bill was about to
be introduced affording a remedy in such cases.
Lord REDESDALE presented several petitions
against a breach of the gauge in the formation of rail-
ways.

CUSTOMS' DUTIES (TARIFF) BILL.
The Earl of DALHOUSIE, on rising to move the
second reading of the Customs' Duties Bill, presented
several petitions praying that this Bill, now before
their Lordships, be passed. In doing so, he begged to
say that, as this was a Bill composed almost en-
tirely of matters of detail, he would not enter
at any length upon the reasons which had in-
duced the Government to introduce this measure.
In 1842 the Government proposed to your Lordships
that there should be an entire revision of the tariff, with
a view, principally, to the removal of prohibitory duties,
and the removal of those which were simply
protective. The proposition then adopted was
not for the first time, as it was merely fol-
lowing the example of the commercial policy
of this country for twenty years before, and it was but
an advance in the same direction to which that legisla-
tion tended. He would not call their attention further
back than 1819, when many of their Lordships would
recollect that reductions were made in the custom duties.
Between 1819 and 1826 still more numerous and larger
changes were made. It must be in the recollection
of all their Lordships, that very great changes were made
even in the navigation laws; in our colonial commercial
policy; that large reductions were made upon nearly all
the principal articles imported into this country, and
with respect to some of them the duties were repealed
altogether. But when her Majesty's Ministers
approached the consideration of the tariff in 1842, a
mass of duties was imposed upon different articles regu-
lated apparently by no principle whatever—no one
principle pervaded the whole. Under the superinten-
dence of the then President of the Board of Trade and
the Secretary for the Colonies, an entire revision of the
tariff took place—the articles were classified and the
charges regulated upon a fixed scale. The principles
which were applied to that tariff were these:—That as
far as possible there should be a duty on raw materials of
20 per cent., and on manufactured materials 10 per cent.
That principle was applied to the law, and upon that
principle it was adopted. There had been laid upon
the table of the House a list of the principal articles on
which changes had been made—they amount
to nearly 600 on which reductions were made
amounting to nearly 1,300,0001. In the fol-
lowing year still further reductions were made in
the customs' duties. In 1843 reductions were made in
seven different articles. In 1844 reductions were made
in four articles producing a great amount of revenue; and
in 1845, alterations were made in 112 articles, 54 of which
were totally repealed ; and in that year a very large
number of articles producing a large amount of revenue
were expunged from the tariff, as far as the duties were
concerned, although their names were retained for the
purposes of registration and statistics. Now these
reductions were effected in the firm belief that
the removal of the duties upon various arti-
cles, and especially those protected, were beneficial
to the consumer and to the manufacturer also.
The object was to effect a reduction on the raw material,
and those articles of consumption which contributed
largely to the revenue, in the expectation that the in-
crease of the consumption would so operate as to prevent
the revenue from suffering at all from the change. He
would take a few articles by way of showing what had
been the effects of this measure. In 1842 and 1844
there had been large reductions in the duty on cotton ;
in the first instance from Is. 3d. to Bd., and then to 4d.
In 1843, the amount imported was upwards of
30,000,0001b5. ; in 1844, it was 31,300,0001 N. ; in 1845,
it was 33,200,0001b5.; and since the returns there had also
been a large increase. The next article he would take
be duty
vt uid eo be sugar. There had been a large reduction of
on sugar in 1844;
Lion was 4,000,000 ewte; ; In that year the importa-
subsequently and before the
end of the year, it had Increased to 4,100,000'3e cwtlsl
recollected
cwts. In
1845 it was 4,800,000 cwts. It should
that sugar was an article which induced rectie
gumption of other articles, and, accordingly the:e-
we& a great increase in the importation
of tea
between 1841 and 1844, and again between 1844 and
sjgnificant it might 1845.
of currants,
In the article
which, however in-
the revenue salt toappea; yet contributed largely to
there had also bee
1844 and 1846 the it
tulle comforts of the people,
eat reduction of duty.
Between
to 2,845,000 and to 3,209,0r0e04"
Pounds. There had
was from 2,300,000
also been a large reduction on the raw
particular aerticcle
It was not merely in the imports of one
reduction in 'se effect of the
terial for linen, with a correspondent
ffnlea-
hheer branches of
were
becausetoao
robikyo
uafsor
er
other ar-
tiele,
a stimulu
Lordships would fi d a , upon look-
manufacture. Their
rt ehda ut c t thi oe rin Lordships
washdjuPtsi
givenes, w
last four
imports of theyears, there had
ing to the
been a large increase in the amount of imports. From a
document which he held in his hand, it appeared that
the imports, in round numbers, were in
59,000,000
1841 ......................... • ... •
1842
59000,000
• 68,000,000
1843 ..... • ...............
1844
1845
having risen from the year 1841 to 1845 from the sum
of 59,000,000/. to 82,000,0001. The same effect shows
itself as regards the exports. The real and declared
value of the English and Irish exports was in-
-1840 £51,000,000
1841
1842
1843
1844
1845
having risen since the year 1840 from 51,000,000/. to
60,000,0001., showing an increase of 9,000,000/. within
this period. He would now direct their Lordship? atten-
tion to the effects which these reductions had had on tl,a
revenue. He would not trouble their Lordshi arith a
detached estimate of the whole revenue, but JPIy with
that part of it including the customs. In the year 1842
a reduction was made in the cuskans' duties of
1,338,000/. The net produce of the customs, ex-
clusive of corn, for the year 1643, was 19,600,000/.
Notwithstanding this reduction of 1,338,0001. in
the year 184, the reyetitie tom the cuetcse hit 4