The Sun.
London, England, 1850-05-15 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, May 14.
Their Lordships asTHE HOLlDAYSsembled at Five o'clock.

In answer to Lord STANLEY,
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE said that he should
on Friday move the adjournment of the House to Mon-
day se'nnight.
PAROCHIAL ASSESSMENTS.
Lord TORTiteIAN moved fir the appointment of a
Committee to consider the law relating to parochial
assessments. This Committee was necessary to
assist their Lordships in coming to a decision
on the subject-matter of certain Bills which
might come up to them from the other House
of Parliament. It was manifest that if a deteriora-
tion of rateable property took place there must be some
alteration in the assessment of those rates—(Hear,
hear)—and therefore it was necessary that they should
go carefully into those matters. The heaviest burdens
upon land arose out of the law of settlement, and it was
impossible to legislate upon the subject without coming
to some understanding upon the subject of rating.
It was desirable that rating should take place equitably
upon all species of property, and that there should be
One uniform system of rating. At present, while some
parishes paid 23 per cent. on their rental to the poor-
rates, others only paid 2 per cent. These circum-
stances, he thought, justified him in calling their
attention to the subject of parochial assess-
ment. Among other subjects which would come
under the consideration of the Committee would be the
rating of railways and the rating of stock in trade.
Then they should endeavour to devise some method of
altering the present system of constant change of the
basis on which the rate is made; he thought no change
should be made without cause shown for such change
before some tribunal. He also thought they should
consider .how best they could get rid of mere forms
by which rates were quashed on legal technicalities.
Then there were the questions of the rating of small
tenements, and of who was to make, to collect, or to
alter the rate. He thought all the - property of the
country should contribute its fair proportion towards
the maintenance of the poverty of the country. With
regard to the county rate, that was in point of fact
a part of the poor-rate. The Noble Lord concluded by
moving for a select Committee.
The Bishop of LONDON supported the motion.
The Aarquis of LANSDOWNE was understood to
say that he had no objection to the motion.
Earl FITZ WILLIAM hoped the investigations before
the Committee would not be conducted in such a manner
as to lead either to union or national rating.—(Hear,
hear.) He wished to lead their Lordships to con-
sider whether it was desirable that there should be a
poor rate at all, or a highway rate, or any separate
rate, and whether it would not be better to re-organize
the whole system of rating for local purposes. Be be-
lieved it would be better to have one parochial rate
only, out of which certain sums should be awarded for the
maintenance of the poor, of the highways, and of the
Church. He thought it would be better to do away
with all special rates, and to have one local treasury to
defray all. these charges.
The Earl of MALMESBURY did not agree with the
Noble Lord as to the necessity of a Committee. They
were all too well informed on the subject to need an
investigation, and he thought the Government should
have brought in some measure on their own
responsibility to relieve those who suffered
from the present system of rating, which
pressed most hardly upon certain interests. He
thought the poor-rate should be levied by a poundage
upon every description of property and income. He
would recommend the Noble Lord, when he acted as
chairman of this committee, to avoid mixing up the
question of poor-rwe with that of any other rate.
Lord HATHERTON thought it would be desirable
to institute this inquiry, in order to enable the House
properly.tojk sit %jai any rate Bill that might come be-
fore it. There could be no doubt but that any parish
which, by mismanagement, had increased the amount of
its rates, would be exceedingly glad, by means of a national
or general rate, to throw the burden on the shoulders
of its neighbours. Let them look at Ireland; if they
had not localised the rate then they would by this time
have had a fearful battle between the property and the
population of the country. He hoped his Noble Friend
would endeavour to increase the description of property
at present liable to rating.
Tha motion was then agreed to.
PETITIONS.

The Earl of M LIIESBURY pre3ented a petition from
Mr. George Hutchinson, the author of " A Plea for the
Equal:sation of the Poor-rat^s," praying the House to
investigate the merits of his proposition.
The Eirl of WARWICK and BROOKE presented a
petition from the agriculturists of Warwickshire, com-
plaining of distress, and praying for a re-enactment of
protective duties on the importation of curn and other
articles of agricultural produce.
PARISH CONSTABLES BILL.

On the motion of the Earl of ROMNEY, this Bill
passed through Committee. Several verbal amendments
were introduced into the Bill.
SUNDAY TRADING BILL.

On the motion of the Earl of HARROWBY, the
House reaolvecl itself into Committee on this Bill.
Lord BE A.UMONT said that as several alterations had
been introduced iuto the Bill, as, for instance, a clause
had been introduced, inflicting a penalty of ss. per beard
on a barber fur every beard he might shave on a Sunday,
he thought the Bill ought to be recommitted in a Com-
mittee of the whole House, so as to give the House an
Opportunity of deciding whether it would consent to
such a tariff of beards.

The CLIAIRSIAN then reported progress, the House
resumed, and the Bill was ordered to be re-committed
on Thursday.

JUDGMENTS (IRELAND) BILL.

The Marquis of LAgSDOWNE,'in moving the
second reading of this Bill, stated that its object was to
facilitate the bales of lend which were at present going
on in Ireland with so much benefit, by attracting capital
to that country. After referring to the serious evils
which arose out of the existing law of judgments, the
Noble Marquis briefly explained the remedies which
the Bill proposed to apply to those grievances. The
effect of the Bill, he said, would be greatly to increase
the number and value of marketable titles in Ireland,
and, in proportion as the number and value of market-
able titles were increased, in the same proportion would
the" proprietors of land in that country be benefited.
All he asked of their Lordships in now proposing the
second reading of the Bill was that they would merely
express their wish to apply a remedy to a great and
crying evil which at this particular moment hung
heavily upon a class whom it had always been the wish
as well as the policy of their Lordships to conciliate.
The Earl of GLENGALL remarked, that it was no
reeommenda.tiou of the Bill in his eyes to be told that it
would facilitate the working of the Encumbered Estates
Act; for he believed that of all the Bills that had ever
disgraced Parliament that was the worst. It was
neither more nor less than an act of confiscation. By
the operation of that measure, estates worth 25 or 30
years' purchase had been sold at from 11 to 14 years'
purchase. He hoped to live to se?, the day when the
people of Ireland would meet on College-green to wit-
ness the burning of the Parliamentary titles by the
hands of the common hangman. The Noble Earl then
sugee.e€ ,c 1 several amendments in the Bill before the
House, and laid them on the table with the view of their
being proposed in Committee.
The Bill wes then read a seen.cl time; to be committed
On Monday after Whitsun week.
ESTATES LEASING (IRELAND) BILL.
The Marquis of LANSDO moved the second
reading of the Estates Lossing (Ireland) Bill, the
object of which, he explained, was to increase the
powers of persons having a limited interest in landed
property to greet leases.
Lnrd MONTEAGLE intimated his intention to pro-
pose amendmente in Committee.
Lord KEDESDALE objected to certain provisions of
the Bill, which
of his life, to would enable a person, at the last hour
thereby deprivinga his
lease
eout a farm for ninety-nine years,
To successor of the benefit of the
property.
promote farmwos
necessary improvements no term
exceeding twenty }ears
The Earl GLENGALL also, gave notice of
amendments. He thought the Bill might be construed
as allowing. a tenant who had the residue of a lease to
demise. that to. another, who old obtain a lease for
ninety-nine
years against the landlordcu
After a few words from the ar.
Mquis of LANs-
DO WNE,
The Bill was read a second time.
DISTRESSED UNIONS ADVANCES BILL.
On the motion for going into Committee on the is D
tressed Unions Advances and Repayment of Advance;
(Ireland) Bill,
Lord MONTEAGLE expressed his conviction that
without considerable amendments the Bill would be pro-
ductive of evil rather than good. He wished particu-
larly to remind their Lordships that the great bulk of
the debts to which the measure related had not been in-
curred by the proprietors of Ireland, but had under the
,Lahaur-rate Act been forced on the land of Ireland by
She vice-guardians selected by the Government. In illus-
tration he referred to the cases of Ballina, Kilrush, and
Listowell, where the debt bad been greatly increased
'under the administration of these officers. Then the con-
tracts had been entered into at rates rising 10, 20, 30,
and sometimes 40 per cent. above the market price.
But on converting a bad into a good security, it was pre-
posterous to pay at the rate of a bad security. The Bill
-gave the .Treaauty power to apportion the debt among
• the unions, baronies
, electoral divisions, and townlands
subject to no responsibility or restraint, and it would
require Mr. Babbage's calculating machine to solve the
complicated,questions which might be raised under the
Bill. Ilow such a Bill should have received the assent
a o d representativesho
h ope d
of
of the
the people he could not under-
stand;(Zoclause would bo introduced
allowing what might be
' by
Bill to be brought under thene the Treasury under the
after. review of Parliament here-

After a fow words from the Earls of GLENGALL and
WICKLOW,

The Marquis of LANSDOWNE remarked that it
• was, necessary. to make a distinction between the
distressed unions and those which were better
able to discharge their obligations, and no doubt
need be entertained that the discretionary pews
vested in the Treasury would be exercised
• with
due regard to the equity o each case. When the Noble
Lord referred to the manner in which money had been
expended in Ireland under certain Acts of Parliament,
he oughr. to have borne in mind the circumstances under
which those Acts were passed. They were intended to
rivet a great calamity, and the Noble Lord himself sug-
gested no other mode of coping with that calamity. It
was 'admitted at the time that the machinery by which
the Acts of the Lrgislature were to be put in motion
was clogged by many unevoid <elo difficulties, but, after
all, it did not appear that any serious -abuses had oc-
curred. If the proprietors and the tenantryof Ireland had,
in some razes, been called upon to contribute to an un.