The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-09 00:00:00

BUSS AND CROMARTY COURT HOUSES.

This Bill wai read a second time. .
YARMOUTH AND NORWICH RAILWAY BILL.

Mr. G ItEENE presented a petition from Leeds against
this Bill.

LONDON AND CROYDON RAIr.WAY BILL.

. This Bill pas,;cd through the first and second readings.
BOLTON AND PRESTON RAILWAY BILL.
'This Bill also passed through the first and second
r:adings.

NATIONAL EDUCATION (IRELAND).
Mr. W. 0. GORE presented a petition from King's
County, Ireland, against the present system of national
education in that country.
BOROUGH IMPROVEMENTS BILL.
Mr., MUNDY presented a petition from the bor,,ugh
of Derby, complaining of certain clauses in this Bill, and
praying that that borough might be exempted from their
operation. _ _

SuN LONDON', SATURDAY ItIVENINO, APRIL 9, 1842.

was anxious that that practice should as speedily as
possible be discontinued, and because he thought
that object would be best promoted by an adjournment
till m0nday.......(1eae.) He believedthat no advantage had
been gained by Hon. Members opposite, nor could they
gain any without making the practice a Standing Order
of the House. He hoped that this question would be
tried time after time. It had not been smothered by
the majority of 31, and if Hon. Members persevered in
pressing the right of the people, there was little doubt
that they would eventually succeed.(Hear, hear.)
Mr. T. DUNCOMBE said he had stated, in asking
the House to receive this petition, that if there had
been any Standing Order of the House, any rule or re-
gulation, any lex scripta against presenting a petition
on the subject Of a tax under the consideration of the
House, he would have been the last man in the House to
oppose such a Standing Order. But there was, in fact,
no such Standing Order or regulation.—(Hear, hear.)
There was a Standing Order against the presenta-
tion of a petition asking for relief out of the public
purse, without the consent of the Government.
The debate of last night showed that there were prece-
dents on both sides—that there was not an uninterrupted
stream of precedents against the presentation of such
petitions as that now under' discussion. He (Mr. D.)
had shown that in 1811 petitions of this kind were not
only received but submitted to a Committee of the
whole House, when there was under consideration a
Bill for levying taxes to the amount of 1,500,000/.
The Right Honourable Baronet quoted two or three
precedents in 1795 against the presentation of such peti-
tions ; but if the Right Hon. Gentleman looked to the
year 1815, he would not find that those petitions were
rejected nemine contradicente. In that year, on a divi-
sion respecting the presentation of a petition of this na-
ture from the City of London, the numbers were, if ho
were not mistaken, 108 to 69 against the presentation.
The Speaker had laid down that there was no rule or
Standing Order against the presentation of such, but that
it was merely a usage, He (Mr. D.) maintained
that that usage was not continuous from the
time of , the Revolution. All their rules and
precedents, unless based on common sense and
Justice, and supported by public opinion, amounted
to nothing, and ought not to be attended to by
the House. The Hon. Member for Surrey (Mr. Kemble)
found fault with him (Mr. buncombe), because Hon.
Gentlemen came , down to the House and seemed pre-
pared to support the presentation of the petition. He
(Mr. Duncombe) certainly had stated to several of his
friends that the question should not stop there. Unless
they laid down a Standing Order against it, day
after day, when any of his constituents or
any other portion of the community placed a
petition, such as the one now objected to, in his hands,
he would place that petition before the House, and the
.odium of its rejection, by the House should rest upon
the responsible decision which a majority of the House
should come to. He agreed most willingly in the sug-
gestion of adjourning the subject to Monday next, when
at fire o'clock he would ask the House whether they
would receive the petition, which, till then, he should
keep in his possession.
Mr. M. GIBSON wished to know what distinction
was drawn between the duties on corn and duties on in-
come, that petitions could be presented against the one
and not against the other ? Ile wished to ask the ques-
tion, as the practice on the matter had not been uni-
formly agreed to. For his part, he looked upon the
duties on corn as much a tax upon bread, as the three
per cent..was a tax upon income.
Sir R. PEEL said that the duties on corn were not
proposed in Committee or Supply for the service of
the year, and therefore the general rule respect-
ing the presentation of petitions applied to them ;
whereas the income tax was proposed for the service of
the year, and the practice was not to petition against
propositions of that nature.
After a short conversation across the table between
Mr. T. DCNCOMBE, and Sir R. PEEL,
It was arranged that the Debate should be adjourned
until Monday at Five o'Clock.
THE TARIFF.
Mr. R. PALMER presented a petition from the land-
owners and farmers of Berkshire, expressive of their
fears of the proposed alterations in the Corn-laws, and of
the alterations .in the tariff with regard to the duties on
the importation of cattle and provisions, and praying the
House . not to consent to those alterations.
MARINE INSURANCE.
Captain PEC HELL presented a petition from the'
merchants and shipowners of Brighton, Worthing, and
Chichester, praying that the duties payable on the effect-
ing of marine insurances might be lowered.
INCOME TAX.
Mr. Q. W. WOOD had a petition to present on the
subject of the income tax, which, he thought, did not fall
within the rude laid d 'lvo last evening for the guidance
of the House in these matters. It was not a petition
against the income tax. Its prayer was, that the House
would adopt every other expedient for equalising the re-
venue and the expenditure before resorting to a measure
so demoralising, unjust, and inquisitorial as an income
tax.—(Cheers and laughter from the Ministerial benches.)
The SPEAKER said that the petition came within
the rule, and therefore could not be received.
THE SUFFRAGE

'Mr. S. CRAWFORD gave notice that, on Thursday,
the 21st April, he would call the attention of the Ilonse
to various petitions of the people praying for extension
of the suffrage, and for ether amendments of the repre-
sentative system, as stated in these petitions, and to move
the House to take the same into immediate consideration.
ROMAN CATHOLIC SOLDIERS IN INDIA.
Mr. O'CONNELL begged leave to ask the Right Hon.
Baronet, the Secretary at War, whether it was the in-
tention of the Government to provide for the spiritual
wants and religious instruction of the Roman Catholic
soldiers now on their passage to India ?
Sir H. HARDINGE gave an answer which was almost
inaudible, but he was understood to say that from papers
brought forward by Lord Ashley, in 1839, it would be
seen that there were already seventeen Roman Catholic
chaplains in Bengal.
DEFEAT OF THE BRITISH TROOPS. IN
AFFGHANISTAN.
Mr. ESCOTT begged to ask the Right Honiurable
Baronet at the head of the Government, whether he in-
tended to make any statement to the House as to the
causes
Rightof Hitleown. arßroianAnffe w gt
haonuilsri ; and further, whether
the bring forward any facts,
to enable the House to form a judgment on the justice
and policy of that war ?
Sir ROBERT PEEL said that several extracts from
official documents respecting the war in Affghaniatan
were laid before the House some time since. Those ex-
tracts conveyed all the information which it was at that
time expedient to furnish. As to the late events, the
Government had no better intinanation than the melan-
choly statement already laid before the public.
As to the causes of the late enormous losses,
and the peculiar motives and circumstances actuating
those in command, the Government had but very
knowledge,imper-
trehertougl va
te and as yet informed principally
PESTILENTIAL BURIAL HOUSES.
Col. FOX stated, that he and other Members of the
sources.
were
Committee for the improvement of Towns, had
lately received a statement affirtning that in a Build-
ing called Enon Chapel, in the midst of a
densely populated district of the metropolis, not less
than 12,000 bodies had been interred since 1823
or 1824, in a superfices not so large as that
House. It was suspected, indeed, that very many of
those bodies had been made away with in other ways.
The flooring of this vault consisted merely of planks laid
together without bricks or mortar, or any other kind of
protection to those walking on the floor from the
effluvium arising from the bodies below. He under-
stood that it was intended to open the upper
part, of which those planks were the floor for a school for
Roman Catholic children on Monday next. He begged
leave to ask whether the Right lion. Baronet, the Se-
cretary for the Home Department, was aware of those
facts, and whether he had taken any steps to prevent
those proceedings P
S:r J. GRAHAM said, the matter was under the con-
sideration of a Committee of the House, with a view of
framing a legislative measure on the subject. As to the
point to which the Hon. Member had directed his
attention the selection of the chapel the Hon. Mem-
bet' had referred to as a place of education for
children, he did not know how he could interpose his
authority. He was afraid that he had no direct power
to interfere.