The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-30 00:00:00

Hon. Friend to establish an income-tax. He had now
changed his opinion.
Mr. B WART—No, no ; that was an income-tax.—
(Hear, hear.)
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said, he
believed he acted in concurrence with the general opi
nion in not entering further into the discussion of this
subject. Believing the motion could not be attended
with a good effect, he should certainly offer it all the
opposition in his power.—(Hear, hear.)
Dr. BOWRING said it was only by bringing forward
these subjects, thus repeatedly that they could hope they
would be brought to a satisfactory settlement: Matters
could not long continue in their present position. The
experiments which the House seemed determined to try
would not at all diminish the public distress. The pro-
bability was that they would greatly aggravate and in-
crease it.—(Hear, hear.) The whole tone and character
of their proceedings must undergo a great change; and
the more this was impressed upon that House, and
through it upon the country, the greater chance was
there of the evils of the country being remedied.
Mr. F. BARING said that if the Legislature were to
make any compensation in the way of imposing new
taxes in lieu of others, they ought to do so on some com-
prehensive principle. If they were to take off taxer,
they ought to look at what the effect of the Excise was
upon industry and the comfort of the people. If they
were only to take the case of soap, he would say that no
tax upon raw material operated more severely upon the
poor than that tax did. He believed, with Mr. Cobbett,
that there was no tax which did not press severely upon
the labouring classes ; but he did not think that any
relief would be afforded to them by reducing the duties
on the import of the raw material. He hoped that the
House would not accede to the motion.

Mr. WILLIAMS thought that no man who paid at-
tention to the interests of the country could uphold the
duty upon the import of the raw material of wool and
cotton. If the late change in the duty had not taken
place, he asked, what would be the state of the Exche-
quer ? What would be the condition of the Government?
He could see no reason why the raw material should be
taxed. If he were to take the tax upon tobacco he should
ask why the Right Hon. Gentleman opposite should
pay no more than 125 per cent. upon his cigars when
the poor man was obliged to pay upon his tobacco up-
wards of 800 per cent., and the poor man paid upon the
coarse kind of tea four times as much as any Member of
that House paid for his own beverage. It was to him
quite evident that the House of Commons had no sym •
pathy for the people ; and, without meaning any disre-
spect, he would express his hope that the day was not
far distant when the House of Commons would feel the
pressure out of doors.
Mr. P. HOWARD,
.in supporting the motion, wished
to state his opinion, that.when the Legislature imposed
the tax upon incatne they should have followed
the example of the rest of Europe, and left
the import of the materials of labour untaxed.
The manufacturers of England were exposed to very
severe competition with the Low Countries, with the
tact and activity of France, and with the steady indus-
try, not of our fellow -subjects, certainly, but of the de-
scendants of our own race in the United States; and un-
der these circumstances, he thought it highly desirable
that her Majesty's Government should take the tax
upon cotton wool into their serious consideration, with a
view to its removal.
The House then divided, when there were—
For going into Committee BB
For Mr. Ewart's amendment ...... 24
Majority for Ministers
SUPPLY—BRITISH MUSEUM.

The House then went into Committee, Mr. GREENE
in the Chair.

Sir R. PEEL said the House was so familiar with the
subject for which he was going to ask a vote of money,
that he felt it was unnecessary to say anything in pro-
posing it, though he should be most happy to answer
any question, or give any information that might be de-
sired. He would, therefore, simply move, that a sum
not exceeding 37,987/. be granted to her Majesty for
the charges of the British Museum.
Mr. BERNAL said he wished to call the attention of
the Right Hon. Baronet (Sir R. Peel) to the case of one
of the most deserving officers of that establishment. It
was that of Mr. Jose, an able, experienced, and efficient
servant, whose salary was only 350/. per annum, who
had no apartments assigned to him, and whose duties
were of the most responsible character. He was en-
trusted with a vast amount of property, and was en-
gaged in classifying large assortments of prints, and had
lately re-arranged the whole of the Rembrandt collec-
tion. During the last year, from seven thousand to
eight thousand persons had visited the Library, and he
really thought, that where such responsibility rested,
and where services were so efficiently performed, they
ought to command a somewhat higher salary.
Sir ROBERT PEEL said no one was more willing
to bear testimony to the character and services of this
excellent public servant, than he was. He ((Mr. JoEi)
had been elected to his present situation by the una-
nimous vote of the trustees; but then it had been done
on the plain, distinct understanding, that its duties were
to be performed for the present salary. This had been
stipulated by the trustees, and agreed to by Mr. Jose.
He trusted the. Hon, Member (Mr. Bernal) would be
satisfied with the testimony he (Sir R. Peel) had borne
to the services of Mr. Jose; but he must be excused
from being made a party to any increase of a salary
which had been accepted as an adequate compensation
for the duties of the office accepted by the party. These
things, moreover, were much better left to the discretion
of the trustees.
Mr. BERNAL wished it to be understood that he had
had no communication with the individual in question,
either directly or indirectly, in reference to this matter.
Mr. HUME said the Right Hon. Baronet (Sir Robert
Peel) seemed to think that the question of salaries
should be left entirely to the trustees, who were re-
sponsible for the proper performance of their duties.
But to whom were these trustees responsible ? Not to
that House, nor to any one competent authority ; but,
simply to each other. The fact was, the constitu-
tion of the board was not what the public wished or had
a right to expect. As long as it remained a close body,
a monopoly—there would be dissatisfaction. In refer-
ence to the subject introduced by the Hon. Member
(Mr. Bernal), he should feel it his duty to move for a
detail Of certain salaries, and whether the recipients of
them held other situations or not. He thought if the
Museum was kept open on Sundays t would tend to
the greatest good, and prevent many persons from going
into public-houses and committing the greatest immo-
ralities on that day. Now, he could not conceive what
could be the objection on the part of the trustees, in not
making the improvements that had been pointed out for
several years. He did not see why children under eight
years of age should not be admitted. Another most
foolish thing was, that of compelling parties to write
their names, by which great inconvenience was occa-
sioned as crowds of persons were by that means col-
lected together.
Sir R. PEEL would not remonstrate against the Hon.
Gentleman's complaints, but the question was, were they
reasonable ? Now in the first place the trustees were
not responsible for these estimates, but the Treasury was.
There was not a return as to the duties of the officers of
the Museum, which the Hon. Gentleman chose to call
for, that he should not have ; and as to the complaints
of the trustees, he thought that the Hon. Member must
admit that such men as the Duke of Sutherland, Mr.
Hallam, and others, were not much calculated to adopt
any course that would be injurious to the institution.
So far from that, it was shown by the number of visit-
ors, that the rules laid down by them had been produc-
tive of great convenience, for in 1840 the number of
visitors was 247,000, while in 1843 they were 517,400.
The trustees, therefore, had so far succeeded in attracting
a greater number of 'visitors. Then, with respect to the
admission of children ; the age at which they should be
admitted ought to be limited, because it must be appa-
rent to every one, that children could receive no benefit
from attending them, although they could materially in-
terrupt the attention of others. The necessities they
relieved were anything but the necessities for acquiring
knowledge.—(Great laughter.) He could assure the
Hon. Gentleman, however, that the circumstance had
been brought under the attention of the trustees, and
there was every disposition to give all facilities to the
public.
Mr. PROTHEROE hoped that no excrescences
would be' attached to the new building.—(Laughter.)
He alluded to the department of the library. He thought
it would be very unadvisable to make any present addi-
tions, for the time was approaching when there must be
an emigration of some part of the collection, either of
the statues or of the collection of natural history. lie
wished that means could be taken to exhibit the draw-
ings and prints in the Museum, in the same manner as
the Duke of Devonshire exhibited his collection of
original drawings at Chatsworth. With regard to the
introduction of children into the Museum, it would be
painful to him to do anything that would lessen the
pleasures of this interesting portion of the species, but
from being often at Hampton Court, he was sorry to say
that the introduction of children there did not at all add
to the pleasure of grown gentlemen.—(Hear, hear.)
At the same time he could not but pay a tribute of
praise to the exertions of the Hon. Member for Mon-
trose on all occasions to increase the facilities of access
to this national institution.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. BERNAL said, there was a total want in this
country of one department that ought to form part of a
National Museum. There was not in this country any
collection of monuments illustrative of their national
history, nor of any specimens of the arts, implements,
or costumes of the middle ages. There was an abun-
dance of specimens of Egyptian art and manufacture, of
the arms and implements of the South Sea Islands, of
mineralogical and botanical productions, and of numis-
matic treasures. But of anything appertaining to the life
and history of the middle ages,eur artists, having no models
whatever to study from, were entirely ignorant. The
productions of their artists were thus disgraced by their
ignorance of this period ; thus it w,,,s that they might find
in modern paintings, Indian shield is Highland subjects,
and South Sea weapons in table ' European warfare.
In France, not only was great t ttentinn paid to this sub-
ject by the Government, but b) Municipality of Paris.
One of the best speciments of ill: style of building of the
middle ages, the Hotel de Cluni, had been purchased by
Louis Philippe, and the Municipality
,of. Paris had
voted a large sum for its restoration.
Dr. BOWRING suggested that an easy and econo-
mical mode of adding to their national collection of
works of art and nature might be adopted by sending a
circular containing some simple instructions, to the
British diplomatic officers abroad, who, by very slight
exertions, might frequently make very valuable additions
to the Museum.
Sir R. PEEL said that specimens in mineralogy and
botany had been obtained by some of the Consuls abroad.
Within the last week the Treasury had authorised the
expenditure of 2,0001. for completing the zoological and
botanical catalogue of the collection made by the
Antarctic Expedition. The catalogues were to be com-
pleted by Mr. Brown, whose unobtrusive merit was not
sufficiently known, and who had been an associate of
Sir Joseph Banks.
Mr. WARBURTON complained of the exclusion of