The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-07 00:00:00

BANKRUPTCY AND INSOLVENCY BILL.

The LORD CHANCELLOR presented a petition in
favour of this bill.
CUSTOMS AND INLAND REVENUE BILL—
THE BUDGET.

Earl ORAL VILLE rose to move the second reading of
this bill. The noble lord having referred to the nature of
the bill, said that until this morning he had no notion that
any opposition was to be offered to this bill, and he could
hardly believe the noble duke who had given notice of op-
position was sincere in his intention of moving the rejec-
tion of the bill, the effect of which would be to cause the
greatest inconvenience to the mercantile interests in this
country. He thought that the noble duke's intention must
rather be to introduce a spirit into this discussion rather
than defeat it altogether, and he must confess he did not
for a moment anticipate that a decision adverse to the bill
would be come to. He did not think it was necessary
for him to go at any great length into the bill, which
had been founded by the Chancellor of the Exchequer not
upon any fanciful date, but in his estimation, the best
principles. The Chancellor haefound that he had a:surplus
to deal with, which he proposed to reduce the income tax,
and then came the consideration of the duties upon tea and
sugar. Her Majesty's Government would have had very
great pleasure in reducing the duties upon these articles,
and the reasons they did not so were because
the reductions would have been so slight as to have
made no sensible diminution in the price of tea to the con-
sumer; and, secondly, because the cost of collecting the
revenue thereon would have been as much as at present.
He now came to the abolition of the Excise duty on paper
which the house had under its consideration last year. He
thought the tax pressed most hardly upon the dissemina-
tion of knowledge in the shape of instructive publications,
and in many other ways, and it also impeded the action
of commerce. He did not think there was any need for
him to go inta detail to show the necessity of the abolition
of the duty; but after the greatest consideration, the Go-
vernment proposed its abolition to the House of Commons,
and after very great discussion of the question that house
had agreed t the proposition. Nothing but condemnation
had been expressed relative to the tax; but their
lordships last year had thought proper to retain
the duty on paper not on account of its merits,
because not one speaker defended it. With regard to the
form in which the bill had been introduced, he was
sure no one would say that the Government had adopted,
in embodying the whole of the budget resolutions in one
bill, an unconstitutionol course• The noble lord then re-
ferred to precedents for such a proceeding, and went
on to observe that last year their lordships objected
to a bill repealing the paper duty, and some excitement was
occasioned by such a step, and he could not help alluding
to the moderation which the House of Commons had dis-
played on that occasion. A committee was appointed to
search for precedents, and the chairman of the committee
reported that it was the opinion of the committee that on a
future occasion the whole of the proposals should be era
bodied in one bill, and it had been thought due to the
House of Commons to adept this course. He could only
hope that the noble duke would withdraw his amendment,
and with that hope he moved the second reading of the bill.
The Duke of RUTLAND then rose and moved that the
bill be read a second time that day six months. He must
say, in answer to the taunts of the noble lord about his un-
looked-for opposition, that the motion for the second read-
ing of the bill was announced in the paper
on Wednesday. He agreed that the subject was
most important, and he objected to it on three grounds
First, because he did not think that there was that surplus
in the revenue of the country ; 2dly, because there were
taxes on other articles that ought to have been taken into
consideration before the tax on paper; and 3dly, because the
bill had come up to the house in such a shape as, in some
measure, to preclude them from dealing with it. He was
quite at a loss to know how the repeal of the paper duty would
extend commerce more than the repeal of the duty on tea.
(Hear.) He thought that if the duties on tea were reduced
the result would be more drinkers of tea, and consequently
an increased consumption. Then he thought the
time chosen for the repeal of the duty, which
yielded so much revenue, was most unwise. They
had civil war raging in America, and it was only
yesterday that the announcement had been made that the
great mind that kept together the elements of a divided
kingdom had been called away, and no one could tell the
result of such a calamity.