The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-22 00:00:00

new writ was ordered to issue for the Borough of Christ-
church.
EDINBURGH, SLAMANNAY, &c., RAILWAYS.
Mr. GIBSON CRAIG, pursuant to notice, moved that
the order made on Friday, tLe Isth day of this instant
Mareh--That it be an instruction to the Conunittee of
:Selection to refer the Edinburgh and Glasgow, the Sla-
mannan, and the Edinburgh, Leith, anu Newhaven
Railway Bills, to the same Committee—be discharged,
in so far as relates-to thi) Edinburgh and Glasgow Rail-
way Bill ; and that. the Committee on the said Bill have
leave to sit and proceed on Wednesday next, without
furthernotice. The Hoh. Member's observations were
inaudible.

Mr. MACKENZIE opposed the motion, and defended
the order proposed to be discharged, on the ground that
the railways were in reality but one line.
Sir W. lIEATHCOTE opposed the motion.
Mr. LABOUCHERE said he would oppose any de-
parture from the rules of the House. He thought the
resolution of the Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Mackenzie) was
one which the House ought not to sanction. He would,
therefore, vote for rescinding the resolution, and would
support the motion of the Hon. Member for Edinburgh.
Mr. GLADSTONE said that the terms of the rule
were quite clear, and if parties were suffering incon-
venience it was through their own neglect. He must say
that he thought it was for the interest of all the parties
concerned to adhere strictly to the rules laid down by
the House on this subject.
Sir G. GREY hoped the House would not establish a
dangerous precedent. He thought the best course would
be to extend the resolutions which the House had
adopted, with regard to competing lines, to connecting
lines ; and, with this opinion, he should vote for the
motion of his Hon. Friend.

Mr. ESTCOURT said that the order having been
made, he was not disposed to vote for its discharge.
The House then divided, when there appeared—
For the motion 65
Against it

- Majority against the motion —l
THE LATE STATE TRIALS.
Mr. WYSE rose to present a petition from the mem-
bers of the Repeal Association of Ireland, praying for
inquiry into the late State prosecutions in that country.
The petition had received a larger number of signatures
than any petition that had ever been presented to that
House from Ireland. The petition was signed by 821,334
persons, and had been got up in the short space of three
weeks. It was signed by the coporations of the cities and
borcughs of Cork, Kilkenny, Armagh, and other places,
by several of the boards of guardians of the poor, and
other persons of influence and standing in the country.
There was also the greatest care taken to prevent any
kind of fraud in the signatures attached to the petition.
Means of every description were resorted to, during
those prosecutions by the Attorney-General to insure a
conviction of the traverser& The charge of the Judge
also was such as to impress upon the minds of the peo-
ple of Ireland and also of the world generally, that there
had not been a fair trial in this case.
The petition was then borne up to the table by Mr.
O'Connell, Mr. Wyse, Sir H. W. Barron, 4r. Blake,
Colonel Rawdon, and Mr. Hindley. Upon the Speaker
putting the motion that it be laid on the table, there
was much laughter, for it seemed to require the united
strength of all those Hon. Gentlemen to raise the pon-
derous mass of paper from the ground. When it was
"laid upon the table," it completely covered it, books,
ink, and papers.
The petition was then read at length by the Clerk at
the table, and

Mr. WYSE begged to move that the petition be
printed as it was.--(Cries of " Order," " Chair.") •
The SPEAKER. said the Hon. Member must give
notice of any motion on the subject.
Mr. WYSE then gave notice that he would call the
attention of the House to the subjeet of the petition on
Monday next.

WELSH GRIEVANCES.
Dr. BOWRING gave notice that he should, before
the recess, inquire of the Home Secretary whether it
was his intention, during the present session, to propose
any remedy for the removal of the Welsh grievances,
whose existence had been recognised in the Report pre-
sented to the House.
NEW POOR-LAW.
Sir CHARLES NAPIER gave notice that, in Com-
mittee on the Poor-law Bill, he would move that the
guardians should be authorised to give a higher rate of
relief to aged people above sixty who had paid their
poor-rates. Also that in the event of a man possessing
a cottage of the value of 1001. being no longer capable
of work, he should be eligible to relief.

JAMAICA.
Mr. VERNON SMITH said that in the papers which
had been presented to the House on the subject
of immigration the Noble Lord (Lord Stanley)
had inserted queries with respect to the possibi-
lity of relaxing the rule confirming the immigra-
tion of women into the colonies to one-third. He begged
to ask whether he entertained any intention of proposing
a relaxation of the rule which had hitherto existed ?
Lord STANLEY said that in consquence of a repre-
sentation which had been made to him, he had written
to the Governors of Trinidad and Guiana to ascertain
whether any practical inconvenience would result from
the relaxation of the rule. -He had only received the
answers five or six days ago; consequently he had not
had time to send out further instructions.
THE APPOINTMENT OF MR. O'BRIEN IN THE

COUNTY OF GALWAY.
Mr. BELLEW rose to ask the Noble Lord the Secre-
tary for Ireland a question respecting the appointment
of a Mr. Thomas O'Brien, as a magistrate in the county
of Galway, that gentleman having been until very lately
a violent and undoubted Repealer.
Lord ELIOT said the lion. Gentleman was quite out
of order in making such observations. If the Hon.
Gentleman had any motion to make he (Lord Eliot)
would be prepared to give him any information respect-
in; it.

-Mr. BELLEW merely wished to know on what
grounds the appointment had been made.
Lord ELIOT said he must decline answering the
question.

IMPORT DUTIES.
Mr. EWART rose to move the following resolution :
. —" That it is indispensable to the maintenance and ex-
tension of the trade of this country, that those duties
be repealed which press on the raw materials of manu-
facture, especially the raw materials of the woollen
and cotton trade. That it is expedient also that
those duties be greatly reduced which press upon
articles of interchange in return for our manufactures
especially such articles of interchange as, at the same
time, concern the subsistence of the people ; being (oe-
sides corn, which is-the subject of superior and separate
consideration) such articles as tea, sugar, coffee, bacon,
butter, and cheese. That it is expedient that
those duties also be greatly reduced which, by their
amount, encourage smuggling ; being at once injurious
to the revenue and dangerous to the morality of the
country ; such as the duties on tobacco, silk goods, and
foreign spirits.
_That whatever temporary deficiency of
revenue be caused by such reduction, ought, until the
revenue regain its former amount, to be sustained by the
property, and not by the trade and labour of the country."
He said that the repeal of these duties were particularly
called for in a time of peace, and still more so in a time
of distress, such as that which this country had lately
- witnessed. The same argument which applied to
cotton also applied to wool. They would not be able to
coMpete with fOreign countries if they kept up their
present .high duties. They were obliged to re-export
large quantities of the wool imported into this country.
By repealing those duties they would add to the
comforts of the people, and they would extend their
commerce in coffee, tea, sugar, bacon, butter, and cheese
—articles which were so necessary for the poor. He
thought that for their sake they ought to remove the
duties on those articles. America, with peculiar
sagacity, abstained from levying any duty on tea and
coffee. Those articles had become more important to
the people of this country than formerly, because they
had become more temperate. The tea duty pressed
with peculiar severity on the poor. Taking the amount
of tea imported into the country to be 40,000,000 lbs., it
was not too much to say that 22,000,000 lbs. of it
consisted of congou, the tea used by the poor. There
was a duty of 2s. Icl. on tea of all descriptions, which
pressed equally on the tea consumed by the poor and by
• the rich. On the trade with China being opened, a
proposition was made that there should be a distinction
. in the duty, but a Committee having sat to consider the
. subject, they found the difficulty of distinguishing the
different teas so great that they recomnunded the
. present rate of duty, which was adopted. He was of
opinion that to make up to the poor for this,_they ought
to remove the duty on cotton. They anticipated an ex-
tensive trade with China, but unless they removed the
duties on cotton they would not be able to compete with
Russia, who, next to themselves, were the greatest, ex-
. porters to China. The duty was reduced in 1784 by
Mr. Pitt, and the consumption was immediately doubled.
From 5,000,000 lbs. weight it was increased to 10,000,000,
and in two years the consumption of tea, in consequence
• of that reduction, rose from 5,000,000 to 17,000,000 lbs.
weight. Then, as to the duty on sugar, it also pressed
hesivily on the labouring poor, and it was known that
. ten per cent. of all the inferior sugar consumed by the
poor was adulterated. This was owing to the high
duties on that article. With respect to coffee, the con-
sumption increased in an inverse ratio to the amount of
duty. In 1811 there was but one coffee-house
_which
was frequented by the poor in London—there were now
2,000, and all in consequence of the reductions made
from time to time in the duties upon that article. In
the late adjustment of the tariff he regretted that the
Right. Hon. Baronet did not make an equal rednction of
duty on both foreign and colonial coffee, The_ article of
coffee had shown in a peculiar degree the wisdom of re-
ducing duty to increase consumption. The present high
duties were great encouragements to the smugglers.
Look at the enormous duties which were imposed on the
importation of tobacco. The duty on tobacco was about
800 per cent. on the Original cost of the article. Hardly
a day passed without some. poor unfortunate man being
ch
brought before the stipendiary magistrates in Liverpool
for having contraband tobacco in his possession. He
thought the duty-on tobacco ought to be reduced from
31. to ls. -" I hope," said. the Hon. Gentleman, in
allusion to a somewhat ominous gesture on the part of
an-Hon. Member on the Ministerial side, "I hope the
Hon. Member does not meditate anything of that sort
so spon!"(Laughter.)
The HON. MEMBER alluded to protested that he did
-not comprehend the meaning of the Hon, Gentleman
(Mr. Ewart). Considerable laughter was occasioned by
this little incident, and upon its subsiding
Mr. EWART proceeded. On former occasions, when
ides were reduced; the revenue had always been
• benefited. This had .been particularly the case with
respect to the article of brandy. He thought the duty on
brandy ought to be further reduced, considering that it
WAS now very much used for pharmaceutical purposes.
An Hem MEMBER here moved. that the House be
counted, and, there being only thirty-eight Members
present; the Spealteradjburned the House at Seven.