The Sun.
London, England, 1821-05-23 00:00:00

PARLIAMENT,

NOUSE OF LORDS, ,MAY 22.
Counsel were heard in a Committee of Privi-
-legbs on the Strathmore Peerage, mid the further
bearing was postponed till Tuesday.—The Irish
Law Courts Regulation Bill was read the third
time and passed.—The Steam Engine Bill went
through the Committee„and was reported.
GRAMPOLTND DISFRANCHISEMENT BILL.
'The Earl of CIERNIRVON moved that the
Bill be printed with its amendments, in order
that their .Lordships might' he in-possession of the
%% hole previous to the third readiqg en Thursday.
The Earl of LAUDEL:DALE wished the third
reading to be delayed beyond the time of which
-notice had been given. ThiS Bill propoSed to
impose a duty on the county of York, which
probably. would not. be very agreeable to most of
the inhabitants. If;time were given to collect
their opinions,,, it was very probable that the
quiet people of Yorkshire would protest against
being troubled with the riots of additional elec.
Their• Lordships ought, in common de-
cency, to allow time for the intelligence of the
!teration made in the Bill to go to the county of
york, and petitions to be received, before they
vassed the Bill.

tlOll.

The LORD CHANCELLO 11, objecting to the Bill
altogether, would be very well pleased if their
Lordships waited to see whether the people of
iorkshire liked the Bill or not.

The Earl of WESTMORLAND, though he oppos-
the Bill, protested against the pripciple which
supposed that the House should not judge for
itself on any measure, without caring whether
other persons liked it or not. He wished, how-
ever, that time should be allowed for the county
to petition, for he thought the Bill was rendered
much more objectionable by the alteration than
it was before.

Earl FITZ WILLIAM said a few words in a low
tone of voice, and, as we understood, wished to
give time for informing the county of York on the
subject of the, Bill.

The Earl of LIVERPOOL would not now dis-
cuss with his Noble Friend (Lord Westmorland)
-whether the Bill was better or worse for the al-
teration it 'had received ; but with respect to
waiting for petitions from the county of York, if
that were to be done, he should be glad to know
in what manner the sentiments of the inhabitants
'were to be collected. That many persons in the
county would object to the arrangement, he did
nbt doubt ; and he was equally certain that the
same thing would happen were the transfer made
to Leeds or any other great town. If it had been
proposed to give the representation to Manches-'
ter or Birmingham, petitions would easily have
been procured from great and respectable people
in those towns, praying against being troubled
-with riotous elections. It was, however, the duty
of Parliament to consider what was best for the
interests of the country.
• The Earl of DA RNLEY was glad that this Bill
should pass in any form ; and on that account,
-though he was not satisfied with it, had not offer-
ed any opposition yesterday, and should not now.
lie wished that the representation had been given
to a populous town, but upon a principle more
popular than that which it contained in the shape
in which it came from the Commons.

1.460 gi:LENDORMIGII thought that the House
-sVouid have acted more uisety if they had divid-
ed the franchise of the corrupt Borough, and
given one Member to Lancashire and one to
rirorkshire.-

Some further conversation followed but no de-
lay was agreed to ; and the third reading remains
fixed for Thursday.
The Earl of SHAFTESBURY presented the Re-
port of the Committee on the Grampound Dis-
franchisement Bill.—Laid on the table.

Petitions were presented by the Marquess o
LANSDOWN from the Protestant Dissenting Mi.
misters of the three denominations in the neigh.
bourhood of London, praying for a ievision of
the penal code and the mitigation of punish•
meats. •

TIMBER DUTIES.
The Earl of SHAFTESBURY presented a petition
'from Prince Edward's Island against the Timber
Duties Bill.

' The Order of the Day for going into Commit-
tee on the Timber Duties Regulation Bill having
teen read,

Earl 11.vrittrasT rose ,to state shortly to the
House, the general character and nature of the
Bill. ln 1809, we had been excluded from every
port of the Continent, on account of the state of
IJostility which existed between this country and
all the European powers. The Government of
France, desirous of embarrassing our operations
and crippling our means, had even contrived to
'deprive us of all communication with the rest of
Europe, through the medium of neutral vessels.
-Under these circumstances, we had been thrown
back -upon.our own resources, and it had become•
necessary to draw from our North American co-
Jonies those supplies of timber which Norway
and Russia had hitherto afforded us. For that
purpose, encouragement was to be given to the
one side, and withholden from the other. Heavy
duties were therefore laid on the importation of
timber from the Baltic, whilst that from our Co-
lonies was left free. The amount of those-duties
was W. is. per load of timber; whereas the
former duty was only 6s. This, however, had
never been intended as a permanent arrange-
ment, and in 1817, notice had been given of the
intentions of Government to take the whole sub-
ject into re-consideration, with the view either
of laying a duty on colonial timber, or of with-
drawing the protection which it still received
from the large duties on .timber from the
Baltic. The effect of this notice hail been to
create an .alarm among the persons concerned
in the colonial trade, and to induce them
to make large importations of .timber, without
any .additional demand for that article.; and
when, on the contrary, the pre-existing demand
was likely to diminish. In 1817, before the no-
tice had , been given, the importation from our
Colonies had been 136,044 loads of fir timber.
in 1818, after the notice had been issued, the
importation of the _same .article from the same
quarter had risen to 203?000 loads. In the