The Sun.
London, England, 1833-04-27 00:00:00

THE PUNISHMENT OF DEATH.
Mr. LENNARD brought in a Bill to repeal so much of
two Acts of the ith, Bth, and 9th of Geo. IV., as related
to the punishment of death for breaking, entering, and
stealing in a dwelliug-bouse.—Read a first time, an.) or-
dered t, be read a second time on Friday, and to be printed.
Sir E. KNATCHBULL presented a petition Irons the
archdeacon and clergy of the diocese of Canterbury,
against the Irish Church Reform Bill ; and two petitions
from places in Kent, one for the repeal of the malt duty,
and the other for the better observance of the Sabbath.
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE LAW.
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL brought up the reports
of the several Committees on the following Bills :—Fines
and Recoveries, Limitation of Actions, the Law of Dower,
and the Courtesy of England; all of which were ordered
to be re-committed to a Committee of the whole House
on the Ist of May, and to be printed.
Sir G. HEATHCOTE presented a petition from the
Lord-Lieutenant and Magistrates, assembled at the quarter
sessions for the county of Lincoln, which stated that that
county was divided into three divisions, each of which
had a commission of the peace, and there were four boroughs
in the county, each having a municipal establishment of its
own ; that all the prisoners in those boroughs were sent to
_ _ .

:he castle of LineOki, which was the contnon gaol, and

the object of the petitioners was that those boroughs should
contribute to the county rate. That he thought was very
reasonable, as it not unfrequently happened that those

boroughs sent more cases to the ashizse than all the rest
of the county put together.

Lord ALI-1 ORP, in answer to a question put to him
by an Hon. Baronet, stated that the licensed victuallers

should not be placed, in regard to the messed taxes. on a

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different ground with general thopkeepers, baying houses
attached.

On the motion that the order of the day be read for
going into a Committee of Supply,
The Marquis of CHANDOS rose to bring forward his
motion, of which he had given notice, that in any reduc-
tion of taxation which may be consicered expedient, it is
necessary that the interests of the agricultural portion of
the community should be duly considered. He took that
_

opportunity of expressing his gratitude to the Noble Lord
(Althorp) for having given notice of his intt.ution
to move for the appointment of a select committee

on the state of agriculture.—(Hear, hear.) The farmers
of the country, he complained, had nut hitherto had
that attention given to their interests which they expected
and deserved from that House.—(Hear.) In the Budget
which the Noble Lord had introduced, it was obvious to
every Gentleman in connection with the landed interests
that no substantial relief was offered to them. The tax
on carts, indeed, which he was happy to say the Noble
Lord was ready to repeal, would render the farmers, as
far as it went, some little relief; but it would be very
partial indeed; and he bad a right to complain that that
relief had not been extended to them which they were
reasonably taught to expect.—(Cries of " Hear, bear.")
Every Gentleman connected with the landed interest
knew that the greatest distress prevailed in every agricul-
tural district; and he defied them to say that that distress
was not increasing. He did not wish to put the farmers
above the other classes of the community; he v 4 ished only
that an equal distribution of relief should be afforded.
He asked of his Majesty's Ministers to put the farmer of
England in a condition to pay the agricultural labourer.—
( Hear.) If the farmer were not so placed, the distress of
the agricultural labourers would go on increasing, and
in the same ratio would pauperism increase, and the evil
fall back tenfold upon the farmer, who must have to pay
the rates.—(Hear.) He hoped and trusted that the
Noble Lord would take into consideration the distress now

felt by the farmers of England, and enable the House to
hold forth some hopes of relief ; it was before him—be-

fore Lord Althorp—that he (Lord Chandos) laid the case
of the farmer of England, and entreated him to place them
on the same footing with the manufacturers of the'coun-
try, to whom, on many occasions in the last few years
relief had been afforded. He would ask the Noble Lord—he
would ask any Hon. Member who was coversant wish the
state of the agricultural districts—to say if he knew of a
single county in which distress did not exist ?—(llear,
hear.) He would assure the House that he did not ask
these questions for the purpose of embarrassing the Go-
vernment ; he did so only as performing a duty which was
pressed upon him by a necessary consideration for his con-
stituency for the county. If he had not taken that op-
portunity, such was the state of the order book of that
House, that he must have delayed the bringing the subject
before the House to an indefinite period.—(Hear.) He
hoped and trusted that this opportunity would be, there-
fore, embraced by the country gentlemen in that House,
and that they would support the resolutions which it was
his intention to propose on behalf of a large portion of the
community. The farmers of England had for many years
borne the excessive burdens that had been pressed upon them,
without murmuring ; and on his behalf, and on the
behalf of the distressed agricultural labourer, be would ap-
peal to the justice of the House.—(Hear.) Let Hon.
Members look at the state of the country, sod they could
see nothing but a failing tenantry. Under such circnm-
stances would they allow this opportunity to pass without
affording the relief asked for? The Noble Marquis thanked the
House for the hearing they had allowed him ; he had done
his duty to a large body of the King's subjects in having
made this appeal ; and he now left their ease in the hand
of the Ncble Lord, and of the House of Commons, moving
as an amendment to the motion now before the House,
"That in any reduction of taxation which may be consi-
dered expedient, it is necessary that the agricultural posi-
tion of the community should be duly considered."
Mr. 11. PALMER bad great pleasure in seconding the
motion. He felt confident the agricultural interests of the
country were in a far more distressed state than any other.
The House were not to suppose, that because the farmers
had not the opportunity of calling such a meeting as as-
sembled yesterday in London, on the subject of the house
and window taxes, therefore their distress was not so
great as that of the housekeepers in London. The Noble
Lord himself admitted gnat there was no part of
the community more severely pressed upon than that of
the agriculturists ; and he (Mr. Palmer) therefore
was very greatly surprised that upon the opening
of the budget more relief was not given to the farmers
The whole of relief afforded to the agriculturists did not
amount to more than 36,0001., and that was in the re-
moval of the tax-carts and bailiffs-.—a very small relief in-
deed. He had also received information from the country
which assured him the budget bad given great dissatisfac•
tiou to the farmers. He trusted the Noble Lord ;would
not consider th It he seconded this motion with any view
to embarrass his Majesty's Ministers.
Mr. COBBETT hoped the Hon. Members who hail
spoken did not n can to represent that the distress of the
farmers was greater than that of other persons who had
been so long and so loudly complaining.—(Cries of No,
no.") It was very laudable in them to make the efforts
they were making to get the agricultural part of society
relieved ; but be regretted that nobody ever attempted to
point out to the Noble Lord opposite the way whereby be
(night reduce taxation. Twenty years ago, at a meeting
in Kent, he (Mr. C.) stood forward and stated that the
way to enable the Chancellor to reduce taxation,
was for him in the first place to take off some of the ea.-.
penditure.—(Hear.) That was what ought to be done
now, and it became Hon. Members to tell the Noble Lord
that they would stand by him in doing so. He (Mr.
Cobbett) hoped the Noble Lord would do all fur all
classes he could, and his object in rising just now was to
say, that as he found he could not bring on the motion of
which he hail given notice for to-night, he would
withdraw the notice, and give a fresh notice,
that he will move it on Wednesday next, when he hoped
the Noble Lord would afford him every opportunity of
being heard, and that the Right Hon. Secretary of the
Treasury would make his boast good of being present to
meet him.
Lord ALTIIORP confessed that he considered the
agricultural interests of the country ought to be placed is
tee reduction of taxation, upon the same footing as any
other, but he could not agree with the mode of reasoning
adopted by the Noble Marquis and the Hon. Member for
Berkshire. Their reasoning appeared to him to be this—
that if taxes were not taken off directly pressing upon the
cultivators of the soil, no relief would be afforded to the
agriculturalist. Now he was not of that opinion,
ohe
thought if taxes that pressed upon the cultivators
taken the s,il,
and not upon the community generally
offal , little or no relief wou
be
a 'ded to the
would ask, slid
cultivators of tl e soil. Upon wba
the property of the cultiyators ofi the soil depend—upon
the consumption of the produce of he frrf
that soil. That
sone taxes would relieve soil cultivators more than others,
ie • . I • but, at the same time, it must be
admitted,
inl taking•ur aff taxes that interfered with
tee y of the country— (II ear ) —had
the effect of materially relieving the cultivators of the soli.
Toe object he had in YirVt in the reductions he had made
(he admitted they were Lot so great as he could
have wished) was to relieve thd 1,,t ople generally as far