The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-09 00:00:00

BRAZIL.

Mr. EWART wished to put a question to the Right
Hon. Baronet at the head of the Government, with
respect to Brazil. The Government of Brazil proposed
to impose by their new tariff a duty of 60 per cent.
on the value of the manufactures of this coun-
try. Now, he wished to ask the Right Hon. Baronet,
whether the duty which the Government imposed upon
Brazilian sugar was not 150 per cent. on the value?
He only asked the Right Hon. Baronet to give them
what was the reciprocal duty on the value of the manu-
factures imported into Brazil, and the duty on the value
of Brazilian produce imported into this country.
Sir R. PEEL said, with respect to the calculation
whether a certain amount of duty would be 150 per cent.
on the value of the article, he thought the Hon. Member
was quite competent to make that calculation him-
self.—(A laugh.) The proposition made by the Bra-
zilian Government was, that its sugar should be
admitted into this country at the same rate of duty
as colonial sugar. There was subsequently a relaxa-
tion of that condition ; and the Brazilian Government
offered, that whatever might be the amount of duty on
colonial sugar, the duty on Brazilian sugar should not
exceed that by more than one-tenth—that was to say,
if 10s. was the duty on colonial produce, the duty on
Brazilian produce should not exceed 11s. With
respect to manufactured produce, the proposal of the
Brazilian Government was that the duty on cotton wool
should be 40 per cent. ad valorem ; that the duty on
woollen goods should be 30 per cent. ad valorem. On
other articles there was to be no restriction.

Mr. WARBURTON said the question was singly
an arithmetical one ; it was whether 275. 6d.—that was
25F., plus 2s. 6d—was not a duty at the rate of 158 per
cent. His lion. Friend wished to draw a contrast be-
teen the -rate of duty the Brazilians wis!.(,d to put
on our produce, and the rate of duty they were pre-
pared to submit to from us—that was 40 or 60 per cent.
on their side, on our goods, against 158 per cent. on our
side, on their sugar.
The conversation then dropped.
POOR-LAW.

Mr. TURNER asked the Right Hon. Secretary of
State for the Home Department whether he intended
introducing into the Poor-law Bill a clause to appoint
chaplains to the poor-law unions, to be paid out of the
rates, to the exclusion of the clergy of the Protestant
Dissenters ?

Sir J. GRAHAM said he adhered to the answer he
had given to a similar question, put to him by the Hon.
Member for Evesham. In any alteration of the Poor-
law Act, he did not intend to propose any alteration in
the law relating to religious instruction in union work-
houses.

EMPLOYMENT OF THE NAVY IN THE COL•
LECTION OF POOR-RATES, IRELAND.

Captain PECHELL rose to explain a statement
which he had made on Friday last on the subject
of the employment of the navy to enforce the payment
of poor-rates in Ireland. The Right Honourable
Baronet opposite, one of the Lords of the Admiralty, had
stated that he was not aware of the existence of such a
practice ; and he (Captain Pechell) had quoted from an
Irish county paper a statement that the Earl of Lucan
had, at a meeting of the Castlebar Union, de-
clared his determination rather to encourage resist-
ance to the poor-rate collectors, than to submit to the
imposition of a new rate, while so large a
portion of the first rate remained uncollected.
In reply to the Earl of Lucan, Captain
Blake was reported to have said that naval forces were
coming round to the coast, and the Earl of Lucan was
reported to have replied, that he had no doubt but that
the Government would send forces to enforce the collec-
tion of the rates. He had since received a communication
from the Earl of Lucan, denying that he had ever made
such a statement, and he thought it his duty to state that
fact to the House. At the same time he begged to state
that he had only quoted the statement as he had found
it in a newspaper published in the Noble Earl's own
county.

REDUCTION OF THE THREE -AND•A-HALF
PER CENTS.

On the Order of the Day for the House resolving
itself into Committee on the reduction of the Three-
and-a-Half per Cents. being read,
Mr. S. CRAWFORD rose amidst loud cries of " Oh,
oh," and said he had several petitions to present on the
subject of supply.
The SPEAKER begged to inform the Hon. Member
that he could not present the petitions.—(Cheers.) The
motion was, that the House should resolve itself into
Committee on the Three-and-a-Half per Cent. Annuities,
and not that it should resolve itself into a Committee of
Supply.—(Cheers.)

the- house then resolved itself into Committee.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said the
subject which it was his duty to submit to the House,
was one which would be acknowledged by every one to
be of considerable importance. It involved the
dealing with a large amount of the public
debt ; it was calculated to produce a great
annual saving in the charge which the public incurred
on account of that debt ; and if the House should
be pleased to agree to the measure which he should pro-
pose, it would tend, in his opinion, to raise the
character and the power of this country, by evincing
the extent of our great resources, and our determination
to discharge with honour the national debt.—(Cheers.) If
he were the first time calling upon the House to deal
with a subject of this nature, he might think it necessary
to enlarge upon the motives which justified him in making
such a proposition. But he was not the first Finance
Minister of this country who had had the pleasing task
of recommending similar arrangements to the House ;
and the principle upon which those arrangements
proceeded was one so universally acknowledged
by statesmen of the greatest financial ability, by
men of every shade of opinion—it had been so fre-
quently recommended by Committees of the House of
Commons, and so frequently acknowledged and con-
firmed by Parliament—that he felt himself relieved from
the necessity which on such a subject might otherwise
be imposed upon him, of showing to the House the cor-
rectness of the principle upon which his proposal was
founded. His task was of a different nature. The pro-
priety of affording relief to the public being acknowledged,
the duty that devolved upon him was to satisfy the
House that the time was arrived, and that circumstances
were favourable for accomplishing a reduction of the debt
which would produce a great annual saving. It was in
the discharge of that duty that he presented himself to
the House ; and he begged their attention, for a short
period, while he stated to them the grounds upon which
he conceived himself called upon to propose, and upon
which he trusted the House would adopt, the measures
which he had now to submit. The alteration which
he was about to recommend to the House was
one dealing with a large amount of debt—
an amount of debt absolutely larger than
that with which any House of Parliament was ever
before called upon to deal. It was no less—or only a
few hundred pounds less—than 250 millions of the na-
tional debt. If it were considered relatively, in the pro-
portion which it bore to the whole amount of the
debt, he could not say that in that respect it was
unprecedented ; because when they looked back to the
first occasion in which a reduction of the annual interest
was proposed to the. House by Mr. Pelham in 1749, they
would find that that Minister had to deal with a sum
inferior in amount to that which he had mentioned,
lit still a sum which, compared with the existing
eb, of the country at the time, exceeded by one-third
lb. nroportion which the present amount bore to the
1101, debt of the country. But then that really
a hi man relied upon the character and credit of
the country, and the willingness of all men
to curibute to its welfare, and he carried the reduction
into effect with success and with universal applause.
Ho (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) had alluded
to the magnitude of the amount ; for he thought that
on an occasion like this the House ought
to have the whole of the facts before them. It
was his duty to state to them that which, in the eye of
every considerate man, was a main element in the ope-
ration. Be would say that the time had arrived when
the operation could be effected, and when he thought it
ought to be effected. It had been long the opinion of
the public that the Government ought to undertake this
reduction ; it had long been declared by the organs of
public opinion that the time was not distant when the
interest of the debt should be reduced ; and this opinion
was confirmed by his own attentive consideration of the
money market of the country. He believed that
there never was a time when the amount of capital
seeking employment was greater than at present. That
resulted from various causes. There was a large amount
of capital accumulated by the industry of individuals,
which was greater in this country in recent years than
ever had been known in any other country in the world.
Another cause was the want of security in foreign
investments, from which not even the interest could
be obtained, and the firmness of the security in the
funds of this country, which induced not only her own
children to invest their capital, but drew also the capital
of other countries. The evidence of the abundance of
money was to be found in the price which securities
bore at present ; and it was notorious that
the holders of Consols at present derived little
more than 31. Is. per cent., and upon Exchequer
Bills little more than 21. 4s. per cent. It was true that
private securities gave a greater interest ; and that
was natural, for the security of the nation was
necessarily greater than that of a private individual.
But, notwithstanding the favourable state of the money
market, there might be circumstances arising to cause this
facility of acquiring loans to be one that might turn out
only of a temporary character. But when he looked
around him, and saw the good understanding which
existed between this country and all foreign
nations—when he saw the continued influx, day by day,
of the capital of other countries into this—when he saw
the revival of trade, industry, and commerce, in
all parts of the world—when he thus saw all
countries pacified, and reflected on the un-
tiring energy of his own—he would not anticipate
anything which should forbid the attempt, which
he called upon the House to assist him in making,
to reduce the burthens of the country. There was
another essential element in the consideration of this
matter, and that was the time at which the change was
proposed to be made—a time when the revenue promised
them so much assistance. He felt, what he was sure every
Member in that House felt, that that State which had
not the means of defraying its current expenditure by
its current means within the year, was not
in a state to deal advantageously with its
burthens and obligations. Its measures would
be greatly crippled, and a Government so situ-
ated must be compelled to forego advantages
which, under another and a better state of things, it
would be right and expedient to avail themselves of.
He was happy to say (happy was he to pay
so just a tribute to the House of Commons
he was then Addressing)--he Was happy to- say