The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-03 00:00:00

(LEFT SITTTN6.)

HOUSE OF COMMONS—Crhis Evening.)
The SPEAKEIL took the chair at four o'clock.
PRIVATE BUSINESS.
The following bills were read a third time and
passed :--Birmingham Canal Navigation, Brantford
Gas, and Garngad Road.
The following bills were further considered and
ordered to be read a third time :—Cornwall Railway,
Eastern Counties Railway, London and South Western
Railway, Plymouth Great Western Docks, Stokes Bay
Railway and Pier, and Trent Navigation.
HAINAULT FOREST (ALLOTMENT OF COM-
MONS) BILL.
Mr. HAMILTON nominated the following Select
Committee on Hainault Forest (Allotment of Commons)
Bill :—Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Whitmore. Mr. Crawford,
Mr. Deedes, Mr. Ww. Baresford, and Mr. Jas. Wilson ;
and five members to be added by the Committee of
Selection—five to be the quorum.
IRISH REVENUE POLICE.
Mr. F. RUSSELL moved for copies of a memorial
from the officers of the late Irish Revenue Police to the
Lords of the Treasury, presented on the 23d day of
March last to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with
the accompanying statement of the present and of the
proposed retiring allowances ; and of the Treasury
minute made thereon.—Agreed to.
WESTERN BANK OF SCOTLAND.
Mr. BRADY gave notice that he should to-morrow
put a question to the Lord-Advocate relative to the
Western Bank of Scotland.

THE INDIAN PRESS.
Mr. MAGUIRE gave notice that be should tomor-
row present a petition from the Madras Presidency rela-
tive to the Press Act.
APPOINTMENT OF MAGISTRATES FOR THE
BOROUGH OF CANTERBURY.
Mr. JOHN LOCKE (Southwark) gave notice that he
should on Friday call the attention of the house to the
resent appointment of justices of the peace for the bo
rough of Canterbury.
MERCANTILE LAW OF CANADA.
Mr. VANCE asked the Attorney-General if his at-
tention had been called to the present state of the mer-
cantile law of Canada, which sanctions preferential
assignments of debtors' effects, without affording any
means of redress to the general body of their creditor?
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said he was unable
to afford any information on the subject. It was one EX-
elusively within the cognisance of the Canadian Legis-
lature. The Attorney-General for Engl .nd had no
means of taking the final step towards redressing any
such grievance as that alluded to.
SANDHURST AND WOOLWICH.
Mr. LYGON asked Viscount Palmerston whether
the minutes relative to the recent alterations at Sand-
burst and Woolwich were submitted to, and sanctioned
by, the late Government or not. (Cheers.)
Lord PALMERSTON said his noble friend Lord
Panmure showed him the draft of a regulation to form
the new arrangements referred to, and, generally speak-
ing, it seemed to him (Lord Palmerston) to be very right
and proper. It ievolved two material points. One was
that young men who wished to become competitors for
examination in the scientific branches. instead of regis-
tering their names at the office of the Secretary of State
for War, were to register them at the Commander.
in-Chief's. The other was that competitors for com-
missions in scientific branches should be from Sandhurst
instead of those educated elsewhere, which was sug-
gested with a view of improving the education at
Sandhurst, with the understanding that if the change
was objected to competitors should be taken one half
from Sandhurst, and one half from elsewhere. With re-
gard to the part of the question omitted, whether the
minute bore any minute of his (Lord Palmerston)
in his own handwriting, be was unable then to give an
answer, but be had no doubt his right hon. friend the
Secretary ter War (General Peal) could best answer the
question. (Hear, bear )
EXCHEQUER BONDS (2.000,0007.) BILL.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER moved
the second reading sf th El b 11.
Sir G. C. LEWIS said it had been reported that her
Majesty's late Government left the finances of the coun-
try in a disordered and unsatisfactory state, and
bequeathed an inheritance of difficulties to their
successors. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, however,
in his financial statement cave no sanction to such re-
port, and he (Sir G. Lewis) called the attention of the
house to the state of the finances, when her Majesty's
late Government quitted office, which he said was on
the whole as satisfactory as the house ought to have anti-
cipated from the statement he submitted to the house at
the beginning cf last session. He then estimated the
expenditure at 65,474,0307., but the actual expenditure
was 70,378,0001, being an Excess of 4,904 0001. The
revenue returned 1,416,0001. more than the estimated
expenditure, and 3,741,000/. cf debt here paid off, reduc-
ing the excess over expenditure to about 2,000,0001.
(Hear, bear.) After entering into the figures
of the respective estimates of himself and the present
Chancellor of the Exchequer, the right hon. gentleman
said that what he objected to in the present scheme of
finance was that there was no attempt mane for paying
off the 2,000,060/. of Exchequer-bonds, in all or in part,
as a postponement for a sinking fund, as much as if
no obligations had existed for paying off that debt. It
appeared to him that the arrangement made by the right
hon. gentleman with reference to his allowing the alte-
ration in the income-tax taking effect this year, had
violated an important principle in not redeeming the
Exchequer-bonds without giving substantial or effec-
tive relief to the tax-payers. If the right hon.
gentleman intended to follow out that principle,
and get rid of the income-tax in 1860, the question was
how tbey were to raise an equivalent sum if there was
not an excess of revenue at that period, and the amount
that would be lost by the cessation of the in-
come-tax. He contended that the house ought
not to be called upon to come to any distinct
pledge that an income-tax, or any other tax
should male at any particular period, but that it ought
to be left for consideration, when the period for its
abolition arose, and he refuse d to allow his procedure cf
judgment to be intsrf-red with by any such declaration,
and be hoped the house would join with him in resist-
ing to to held to any test of the sort that
the right hon, gentleman the Cbanceller cf the Excbe
quer had endeavoured to impose on them. The con-
tinued increase o expenditure rendered necessary by
the votes of the house in roving and ex'ending our
national defences, rendered a remission of taxation im-
possible, and he thought the house sheen pause before
they pledged themselves
uneecototletry caused
the remission cf a tax. The
demands made on h
the indiae
b •
outbreak was a Arcing point in favour of
uynforeseen ex
taxation
a sanctionxio of
panditure, and an argument for h
ing any prospective engagements as to thine°
future years.
Mr. GLADSTONE could not blame the right hon.
geniteman for bringing the question before the house, but
he thought he should have first given notice of his in-
tention to do so. This was not a question relying on
rumour, but on figures, and he was bound to state
that he considered the finances of the country were not
in a satisfactory state.
jun ung-Drcf•J