The Sun.
London, England, 1828-04-03 00:00:00

jectionable than other taxes, though he still did not wish dice only is. 6d., he could promise the Hon. Gentleman
to be understood as being an advocate for it. that the article of dice should receive his consideration.
Sir T. ACLAND presented a petition from the Licensed PENRYN WITNESSES INDEMNIFICATION BILL.
Victuallers of Tiverton and its neighbourhood, against the 1)r. PHILLIMORE moved for the first reading of the
Cider shops. . Bill (from the Lords) for indemnifying the witnesses exa-
Mr. FARQUHAR presented a petition from the Pro- i mined on the Penryn Disfranchisement Bill, and gav4±
vost and Council of Dunfermline, praying fur the repeal of notice that he should move the standing orders be suspen-
the Test and Corporation Acts. ded to morrow, for the purpose of passing the Bill through
Mr. FARQUHAR presented several similar petitions all the remaining stages to-morrow.
from the Corporation of Weavers, Shoemakers, Hammer-
J. NEWPORT recommended that the Pill be sent
Sir
amen, and other Corporate Trades its Dunfermline.
through all its stages this night (Wednesday.)
Sir J. GRAHAM presented a similar petition from the
inhabitants of South Shields. The SPEAKER reminded the House that it was quite
Mr. HUME presented a petition from the inhabitants 1 against its forms to carry a Bill through two stages on the
of Greenock, against the Greenock Harbour Bill. same night—a departure from the usage was only,justified
Mr. HUME presented a petition from the Perthshire and by some paramount necessity. It was, for the House to
d
other Scotch Fire Insurance. Companies, praying fOr an decide whether, in the present ease, the amount of the
alteration in the law relative to Fire Insurances. necessity was sufficient to warrant- the violation of the
Mr. HUME presented a petition from the Dean and forms of the House. As the introduction of this Bill Was
Guild of Montrose praying that the Receipt Stamp Duties rather a surprise on the House, be should feel inclined to
Bill might be repealed. The Hon. Gentleman then said recommend the postponement of the second reading until
something as to the Insurance Duties, which was inaudible to-morrow.—Ordered that the Bill be read a second time
in the gallery. to-morrow.
Mr, CALCRAFT said the rate of duty ou insurances The Cities and Boroughs' Poll Bill, on the motion of
was enormously high, for out of every five pounds paid for ColeTealndDa.pvasisEeds,.was.referred to a Select Committee.
insurance three were paid to the Government. He thought The Stamp Duties' Bill was committed, read a third
however that those persons who had evaded a tax carne to time,
the House for its repeal with a very bad grace. On the motion that the Orders of the. Day he now read,
Sir JOHN NEWPORT concurred quite with the last Mr. P. THOMPSON expressed a wish that 'a motion
speaker as to the fact, that those who had evaded a law' made for obtaining Returns relative to the quantity of
came with a very bad grace to ask for its repeal. • Wool imported in Foreiqn or British vessels should be
Mr. HUME said there was no such thing as evasion rescinded. He thought it would be better for the lion.
in the case. The law did not compel a man to insure, Gentleman to withdraw his motion for these returns ; and
and it could not therefore be said that he had evaded the if he might say so, without offence, he did wish that Hon.
law, because be chose not to insure when such a duty was Gentlemen, intending to move for such papers, would make
required beyond the sum for which the insurers were will- it a practice to apply to the officer within whose depart-
ing to incur the risk. meut the duty of making out the order for them lay; and
Mr. LITTLETON presented a petition from the who was always ready, as he (Mr. P. Thompson) could
Clergymen, Manufacturers, and ether inhabitants of the testify, to render every facility, and answer every inquiry.
town,of Burslem, in the Staffordshire Potteries, against I Sir CHARLES BURRELL expressed himself satisfied
the Retail Brewers. . . . . of the sufficiency of the reasons which had just! been tms.
_ _ .

Alr. G. W. DAWSON moved for leave to bring in a
Bill to enable Barristers to act as Solicitors or Attorney;
in any Court or Jurisdiction in the United Kingdom for
the collection of the Public Revenue.
Mr. ALEXANDER DAWSON suggested that Bar-
risters at Law should be allowed to practice in Civil Courts
as Doctors.

signed by the Hon. Gentleman for his recommendation ;
in which, accordingly, he would acquiesce by withdrawing
his motion.
Mr. SPRING RICE, in illustration of what had fallen
from his Hon. Friend the Member for Dover, adverted to
a case which had happened during his connection with the
late Government, in which, from a want of that previous

enquiry which was necessary for the due regularity of the
proceeding, some returns were moved for, which, had the
order been made, would actually have required 15,000
letters to be written to different parts of England. To
these there would have been 15,000 answers, and the
House might judge how enormous a sacrifice of time,
trouble, and expence would have been requisite to prepare
and digest this mass of matter for the purposes of the re-
turn to the order.
On the .motion of the CHANCELLOR of' tl:e EX-
CHEQUER, the Order of the Day for resolving itself into
a Committee of Ways and Means, and likewise the Order
for the Committee of Supply, were postponed till Monday,
the 14th April.
CONVENTION WITE.I PORTUGAL.
Mr. BANKES moved that an Address he presented to
his Majesty, praying that his Majesty would be pleased to
direct that there should be laid before the House a copy of
the convention entered into by the Government of Portugal
to defray part of the expence of the British troops while'
serving in that country.—Agreed to.
The Hon. Gentleman also moved for "An AccOunt of
any suns paid or now due to Great Britain, nndei the
said convention."—ordered.
ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN NEW SOUTH
WALES.
'Mr. G. DAWSON brought in a Rill for the better ad;.
ministration of justice in New South Walk and - Van
Diemen's Land.—Read a first time, and ordered to be read
a second titneort the 18th of April, and to be printed.
BILL TO AMEND THE LAW RELATIVE TO TES-
TATORS AND EXECUTORS.
Mr. S. RICE, in rising to move for leave to bring in a
Bill to amend the law relative to testators and executors,
said that he wished, in the first instance, to set himself
right with those individuals who had fallen into a mistake
with respect to a Bill on this subject which had been re-
printed. Those persons conceived that the Bill which
he was about to introduce was the same, in effect, as
that to which he had alluded. This, however, was
not the case. The new measure was undoubtedly founded
on the same principle as the old, but it was intended to
carry thr:t principle 'into effect by means directly
opposite. The House must be aware, that in cases of
personalities, undisposed of by testators, they at present
became vested in the executors. This nice construction of
the law gave rise to great litigation and much uncertainty,
and in many instances prevented the original intention of
the testator from being carried into effect. When they
considered the circumstances under which wills were made,
and the persons who made them L--individuals who, in num-
berless cases, were ignorant of the proper formes—it was
easy to perceiVe that the executors had often a very great
interest in those instruments. So' far back as the year
1736, the inconvenience which arose from the doubt and
uncertainty attendant on the law, attracted the notice of
the Legislature, and the Jodges were ordered to prepare a
Bill to remedy the evil. A Bill was accordingly brought
into the House of Lords, which was known as Lotsl Ray-
mond's Bill. That Bill vested personal prolierty,
uodis-
posed of by will, in the executors. It removed the doubt
and uncertainty of the-law, but it was most likely, in
many cases, to run counter to the will of the testator. He
wished to alter this enactment ; and for that purpose the
new Bill would declare that, in the absence of express
terms, giving the property distinctly to the executor, it
should be vested in the next of kin. • In' making the
slightest reform in the law, lie would not act solely
from his own views, sr from the dictates of his own
mind, without consulting others; but while he was in
his office, he had been informed by a learned civilian
with whom he had conversed on this subject, that
such an alteration in the law as he was now about to propose
would check doubts, remove uncertainties, and prevent liti-
gation, more than any other measure that could he devised.
He had stated, he hoped, sufficient to induce the House to
give him leave to bring in the Bill. He trusted that the'
Hon. and Learned Gentleman opposite (the Attorney-Ge;.
neral) would have, the 'goodness., to look into the measure,
and if he favoured the principle, and would give him' his
advice as to the best mode of carrying it into effect, lie
should receive it with much satisfaction. The Hon. Gen-
tleman concluded by moving "for leave to bring in a Bill
for settling the rights of executors in eases of undisposed
residues of personal estate."
• After a- few .words from the Arrom,stEv-Grattat.., Sir
JOHN NEWPORT, Mr. Eximussots, and Mr. A. DAWSON,
leave was given to bring in the Bill.
To be brought in by.,Mr. S. RICE and Dr. LINHINGTON.
The House then adjourned at Seven o'clock.

Mr. D. W. HARVEY thought the Bill was oppressive
to Solicitors who were better qualified than Barristers for
the performance of their duties. There ought to be high
prizei in the profession of an'Attorney or Solicitor, as well
as in that of a Barrister. If legal men were wanted in
the public offices, he did not undervalue barristers when
he said that men every way qualified fur those offices
could be 'found amongst solicitors. Their education, be
conceived, was qualified to render solicitors more conversant
with legal questions than barristers. When a young man
was appointed to an attorney, 3001. or 4001. was
paid as a premium with him ; but when a man wanted
to become a barrister, he had only to enter into one of
the Inns of Court, where he was obliged to dine for four
days every Session, eating' mum& and turnips one day,
and boiled beef and carrots the next ; and he then walked
off, learned in the spirit and practice of the law.—(A laugh.)
He would only refer to the late Mr. Bricknell, the Solici-
tor for the Admiralty, than whom no man could perform
the duties -of his office with more respectability. That
Gentleman was also succeeded by a solicitor of great re-
spectability, and there could be no doubt that solicitors
could always be found to fill any office which they were
competent to fill. He (Mr. Harvey) had for some years
withdrawn from the practice, but he considered himself
called upon to'make those observations.
The LORD ADVOCATE said, there were advocates in
Scotland as competent to discharge that duty as those in
England, and he was sorry to see that they were not com-
prehended in this Bill.
Mr: DAWSON begged to assure the Hon. Gentleman
opposite, that it was not the intention of the Government
to employ barristers in all those situations, and to deprive
the Members of the other.branch of the profession of the
good things of the law which they now enjoyed, but the
object of the measure was -to give to Government the
option of employing barristers, which the Government
was restrained from by the present state of the law. With
respect to what had fallen from the Lord Advocate, he
(Mr. D.) could only say it was not intended at present to
extend the measure to Scotland, nor to deprive the gentle-
men of any privileges which they now enjoyed.
Mr. 1-1. DRUMMOND said the Lord Advocate did not
complain that this measure would take any thing from the
Scotch advocates, but that it conferred upon English
barristers a privilege from which the Scotch advocates were
excluded.—Leave given to bring in the Bill.
CARDS AND DICE. •
The House having hone into Committee on the Acts
relating to Cards and Dice,
Mr. G. DAWSON, in submitting certain reselntions
to the Committee, for the repeal of the duty on cards and
dice, stated that he was induced to take that course by his
conviction that the duties on these articles were too severe,
and that they gave rise to much fraud in the manufacture
and sale of the articles in question. His object would ba
to repeal the existing Acts, with a view to a reduction of
the duties. His motives were a desire to take away the
existing temptations to fraud, to simplify the duties, and to
prevent, by the proposed reduction, the surreptitious im-
portation of foreign cards, and the sale of home-made se-
cond-hand cards in
,the shops. The present Acts on the
subject were found insufficient to protect the public revenue
or the public morals. The result of the present duties was
a fraudulent evasion of the law. In the reign of Queen
Anna the first duty (Gd. a park) was imposed on cards.
In the reign of Geo. I. it was increased to Is. on each pack
sold ; in Geo. 11. to I s. Gd. ; in 1792 it was raised to 25.; and
in 1822 to 2s. 6d. a pack, being Is. 6d. on the ace of spades, 6d.
on the wrapper, and 6d. on the label. These duties on the
wrapper and label were intended to prevent the sale :of
second-hand cards. But he (Mr. Dawson) could see no
reason why persons who paid so high a duty as 2e. 6d.
a-pack on an article whose manufactured value was only
Is. Gd. should be prevented from selling them again. And
his doubts of the justice of these duties were confirmed by
the fact, that though the duties were increased from time,
to time, the amount of revenue arising Irons them did not
increase in proportion. For instance, when the duty was first
increased,, the amount received was, in round numbers,
26,6711. Of the second increase, the receipts of duty were
about 24,332/, In 1792 the amount of duty paid was only
22,000/. and in 1826 it was reduced to 18,000/. FrOm this
it would appear that the increase of the duty did not increase
the amount of revenue. The revenue was defrauded of ae
duty by various means, Ist, by servants selling second-hand
cards, which were re-sold as new, without paying duty ;
then, by a practice among some manufacturers of getting
cards stamped as for exportation, and" afterwards selling them
in this country duty free, under the cover of that stamp, thus
fraudulently obtained. Another way of defrauding the re-
venue of the duty on cards, was the custom in foreign
countries of fabricating cards, and forging the English
stamp, amid then Smuggling them into this country, and
selling them at a lower price than the regularly stamped
eardt-coeld be sold at. This custom of fabricating cards
1u imitatioe of the English stamped cards, was carried on
in Brussels by houses establialted for that particularpur-
,
pose. These various frauds lessened the revenue, injured
the fair manufacturer of cards, and corrupted the morals of
the people. To prevent these injurious effects, he consi-
dered the best plan was to remove the temptations to
fraud, by reducing the duty on cards.
Sir JOHN NEWPORT had no objection to the mea-
sure proposed, though he could not help thinking that
while the enormous duties on fire insurance existed, the
article of cards was an odd one to snake the
subject of an
esperiment in the way of a modification of duties.
Air. HUME thanked the Right Hon. Gentleman (Mr.
George Dawson) for his measure, and hailed it as a sign of
the approaching prevalence of sound prinCiples. As to the
effect of this repeal of duties on the public morals, would it
not remove the temptations to smuggling and forging
:The measure was an excellent one, and he hoped to see the
Goyeiranient extending the principle of it to many other ar-
ticles that were subject to high duties.
Sir pHAIIf.ES pvitgELL qrsite agreed
sen-
timents of the last speaker ; and, further, r
wecitohir?t,lnsee:de,,
the repeal or modification of the House tax, as an
,arid oppressive impost? particularly in the way in
which it
was so capriciously 4114 upjustly leyied by the vestries.
Mr. DAWSON, in reply, regretted the first tax he had
to propose for repeal, since his succession to the Treasury,
was not a more important one, but that was not his fault:
The duty on fire insurances, in which allusion bad been
made, was under consideration by the Chancellor 'of the
Exchequer; and if determined to be repealed, should re-
ceive hys ready support ; as he should acknowledge it was
hard that persons insuring against fire should pay an
amount of duty twice as much as the sum of insurance.
The resolutions were then read. First, that
a license
duty of five shillings should Ise paid'hyeVery person making
cards; secondly, that there should be -a duty of one shil-
ling paid on every pack—sand a duty of twenty shillings on
every set of dice.
Mr. HUME asked whether the duty on dice was not to
he repealed by the present measure ?
Mr. G. DAWSON answered* that the, dinsinutien of
the present dety on dice ,vas not included in these resolu-
tions ; though when he remembered the duty on dice was
twenty shillings on each set, and the value of each set of

PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEPINGS.

HOUSE OF COMNIONS. .
NOTICLS OF 31011014 FOR THIS DA\.

1. Mi. W) on—Bill to consolidate -and amend the Laws

- for the Trial of Controverted Elections.
2. Mr. Secretary Peel—To move the adjournment of the

House for the Easter recess to Monday, 14th April.
3. Dr Phillimore—To move the passing Penryn Witnesses

Indemnity Bill through the remaining stages.
4. Mr. Hume—Series of Returns relating tp the extent of
arrest and imprisonment for debt in Scotland during
the last five years.

ORDERS OF TIM DAV' FOR THIS DAY.
I. Roman Catholic Land Tax B:ll—Report. •
g. Salmon Fisheries Regulation (Scotia:ld)
cond reading.
3. Stamps on Cards and Dice Acts—Report thereupnt;
1. Penryn Witnesses Indemnity Bill—Second reading.

• NOTICE GI FN YESTEEDAT.
Tuesday, April 15. '
Mr. Littleton—Resolutions for the abolition of fees and
charges on renewal of Turnpike Bills.

. •
SCOTCH AND IRISH •WHISKEY.—A late
Vallianaentary return makes a sti iking exhibition of the
effect of those excise icgtilations; which have so long formed
a subject of complaint amongst the Irish Distillers. From.
April, 18?7, to January, 1828, the following were the,
gallons of spirits distilled in the three parts of the United
Kingdom respectively :—'
England 4,284;684

SCOiland ' 7,243,819
Ireland 7,281,792

This sheave an enorinous increase in Scotch Distillation,
and comparative falling off in the Distillation of. Ireland.
The number of these ;aliens which were distilled in'Scot-
laild 2,434,704,•were eported to England, whprers only
422,764 gallons of Irish spirits found their way uncle} the
existing regulations to that country. Nay, more--679,021
gallons of the Scotch whiskey. were introduced ei•en into
the Irish market, though a single gallon could not advan-
tageously be sent from Ireland:into Scotland. All that
. was done to the prejudice of Ireland was against an article
of the Union, but as long.as the papists are kept down and
the business of legislation for Ireland can be managed at
Westminster, that does not seem to he regarded ,as a thing
of great importance !—Dublin Morning Register.