The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-07 00:00:00

AMERICA.

Mr. GREGORY asked the Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs whether any attempt on the part of the Govern-
ment of the United States to levy Federal dues off
foreign vessels outside the ports of the Southern Confede-
racy, befo e such vessels break bu'k, would not be an in-
fringement of international law ; and, if so, whether in.
&ructions would be issued to our cruisers to that effect.
Lord J. RUSSELL, who was very indistinctly heard,
said he had consulted the Queen's advocate, who stated
that the matter must entirely depend on circumstances.
No such instructions as those alluded to had been issued.
With regard to any blockade that might be attempted it
would not be recognised unless it were effective. The
Southern States must be considered as belligerent,
and as related to the belligerent rights of certain portions
of the States, they had the precedent of 1825 in respect to
Greece, when the belligerent rights of the provisional Go-
vernment of that country were allowed, notwithstanding
the remonstrance of the Government of Turkey. When
the question with regard to the American States arose, the
attention of the Crown officers had been directed to the
subject. The questions involved were of a very intricate
character, and.until they had been decided no communica
tion could be made with other States on the subject. (Hear.)
MARRIAGE OF H.R.H. PRINCESS ALICE—
ROYAL MES-AGE.

Lord PALMERSTON moved that the two orders of the
day which had precedence of the third and fourth orders,
be postponed until the latter orders had been disposed of.
This was the course adopted the house when questions
relating to the Royal Family were to be brought before the
house, as in the case of the Princess Royal.
The motion was agreed to, and the orders for going into
committee of ways and means, and for considering the re-
port of supply were postponed.
The house then went into committee on the Queen's mes-
sage announcing the approaching marriage of H.R.H. the
Princess Alice; and the Speaker having read the Royal
.message,

Lord PALMERSTON said the people of this country
were proud, and justly proud, of the Royal family which
they had the happiness to possess. (Hear, hear.) They
considered that it would not be consistent with re-
spect to the Royal family or to the dignity of the
country, to allow members of that family to be
without an adequate provision, in order to maintain them
in a condition consistent with the position they held.
(Hear, hear.) At the commencement of the reign the So-
vereign resigned the Crown property to the house, which
undertook to make an adequate provision for her in return.
Having referred to the provision made for George 111., the
noble lord said that her Majesty, notwithstanding her large
family had not applied to the house for any of those addi-
tional large demands which had been the case in previous
reigns. With respect to the Princess Royal, the house had
granted to her Royal Highness a dower of £40,000, and an
annuity during her life of £B,OOO, but it was now proposed
to apply only for £30,000 for a dower, and an
annuity of £6,000 a year for Her Royal High-
ness the Princess Alice. It was eFsential to
the interests and dignity of this country that members of
the Royal Family should not go abroad as paupers. (Hear,
hear.) The noble lord concluded by moving a resolution
voting the dower, which, as well as the annuity of £6,000
a year to H.R.H. Princess Alice, was agreed to in Cora •
ruittee of Supply.
The house then resumed.
THE PAPER DUTY.

The house then went into committee of ways and means.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCH QUER moved a
resolution respecting the duties of excise on paper and mill-
board, and paper of every description, from and after the
Ist day of October neat.

Lord R. CECIL said he thought thp small discussion
which they had had this evening showed that the light
hon. gentleman had resolved to foresee nothing. (Hear.)
Last year,when hostilities with China had really commenced
—at any rate when violence had been committed—the right
non, gentleman could foresee nothing but a peaceful mission
to the mouth of the Peiho. That was so in 1853, when the
Turkish question assumed a warlike form. Then the right
hen, gentleman proposed a budget founded,, upon the as-
sumption that there would be a long durat4on of peace.
Even when the war was actually impending he was resolved
not to see any Russian war. Last year there was the China
wb r, and this year there was the American war, and he (Lord
R. Cecil) did not think the rouse would do its duty if they
limited their foresight to the narrow horizon of the right
hon. gentleman. (Hear.) By the resolution before them
they were not merely sacrificing a present but a future re-
venue, for they knew perfectly well when the excise duty
was swept away they could not impose it again. (Cheers.)
'Was that a wasteful proceeding or not ? He was anxious to
apply more carefully the grounds upon which the doctrine
as to remission of t axes rested, and he wanted the house to
examine into the facts and figures upon which this policy
was based. (Hear.) The excise duties upon glass and soap
were swept away, and he desired to know whether it had
been successful. He would first take soap. It was said that
this was an article upon which the excise had acted with
great severity, and that it prevented the productive power
of the manufacturer and crip led trade in such a manner as
to prevent the manufacturer competing with foreigners.
'Were the expectations of the right hon. gentleman correct,
and ought the house to have abolished that tax ? He found

that in 1849 the value of the exports was 1159,000, and in
1853, £290,000, while six years after the removal of the tax,
in 1859, the value of the exports had sunk to £225,000.
Then let them take the case of glass. When it was pro-
posed to abolish the duty, it was said that it interfered
with the manufacture, and that persons in this country
could not compete with those of Belgium, France, and other
countries, and it was assumed that the removal of the tax
would give enormous development to trade. In 1844 the
value of exported glade was £380,000 ; in 1850, £307,000 ;
and in 1859 it recovered to £606,000. (near.) But then the
general increase of exports from 1844 to 1859 was 123 per
cent., whilst on glass it was only 57 per cent. (Hear; hear.)
Again it was hoped that the trade in window glass would
have been very much stimulated, but what were the facts ?
In 1841 we exported 27,899 cwt., and in 1859 only 27,607
cwt. (Hear.) True, there was an increase in the manufac-
ture of bottles, but that only boeefited the consumers of
alcoholic liquors. Another of the promises iaa rA by the late
Sir R. Peel was that we should have a range of article.
varying from the balance spring of a chronometer to drain-
age pipes all made of glass, but 15 years had now elapsed,
and he appealed to all who heard him to say whether one or
the other promise had been fulfilled. (Hear, hear.) A great
deal had been said of thelncrease of national wealth under
an improved system of fiscal legislation, but the question
was whether the legislation and the wealth stood in the re-
lation of cause and effect. The general increase of wealth
was admitted, but the question was, what had created it ?
It might have been produced by their remission of taxation,
by the influx of gold, or the enormous development of the
railway system. If we wanted to see whether it was caused
by any one of those three causes, we must compare our ad-
vance with that of a country in which that cause did not
exist, and if in that country the increase was as great or
greater than our own, then the reasonable conclusion was
that the alleged cause had had nothing to do with the effect
produced. Now in France there had been no remission of in-
direct taxation, and he would see how the increase of trade in
that country stood as compared with our own. In 1847 the
imports of England amounted in value to £90,000,000, and
in 1856 to £172,000,000, being an increase of 90 per cent.
'nose of France were, in 1847, 955 millions of francs, and
in 1856, 1,872 millions of francs, being an increase of 96 per
cent. (Hear.) But the exports wero a still stronger case.
In 1847 the exports of En
gland were £58,000,000, and in
1856, £115,000,000, being an increase of 96 per cent. In
France they were, in 1847, 719 millions of francs ; in 1856,
1,856 millions, being an increase of 159 per cent. (Hear.)
He submitted that these facts swept away all the theories
respecting the connection between the removal of indirect
taxation and the increasing prosperity of the country. (Op-
position cheers.) The Chancellor of the Exchequer now ridi-
culed the idea of contemplating the affairs of a future year in
any present arrangement of finance, but in 1855 he cen-
sured the then Chancellor of the Exchequer for thinking
only of the present and leaving future years destitute. With
respect to the constitutional question, he looked upon the
scheme of the right hon. gentleman for fettering the action
of the House of Lords as an exceedingly vain expedient.
The right hon. gentleman and the hon. member for Birming-
ham did not seem to recollect that behind the House of
Lords last year was the whole of the educated public opinion
of the country, of which both that house ani the other house
were merely the vehicles and instruments. If an occasion
should happen again, if 'hat house (the Commons) should
act as madly as it did last year, the House of Lords would
not be deterred from its duty by any such expedient as that
of the right hen. gentleman. What would the House of
Lords do supposing that the House of Commons were to do
as it had done in the previous year, viz., leave the finances
with an enormous deficiency ? The House of Lords would
simply alter the bill, and strike out the clause removing the
duty in committee. What would th,e_Honse of Commons do