The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-30 00:00:00

BAIL IN ERROR BILL.

On tne motion of the LORD CHANCELLOR, the Bail
in Error Bill was read a second time, and went through Com-
mittee pro forma.
AUCTION DUTIES BILL.
Earl DALHOUSIE moved the second reading of the Auc-
tion Duties Bill.
Upon the question that the Bill be now read a second
time being put,
Lord BROUGHAM said that this was the only part of the
budget that he did not exceedingly approve of. He thought
it a very unwise and ill-considered measure, and that it pro-
ceeled upon an erroneous view of the snbject. Nobody had
objected to the existence of this tax, and nobody felt gratified
for its repeal. The Bill required that the auetioneer should
always have his licence in his pocket, and any Excise officer
might call upon him to produce it, and if he did not immediately
do so or pvy 101., and it might sohappen that he had not the 10/.
either, he would be liable to be sent to prison for a month.
The Bill was still more objectionable in its provisions relating
to distress for rent. The Bill allowed any person to distrain
and sell the goods by auction, provided the rent was under
20/, This remission of the auction duty was one of the re-
liefs which was the consequence of the property-tax, and he
was bound to mention this instance, because it deeply im-
plicated a certain department which he should not mention.
It did not reflect on the Government, but he should hand.
them the paper which he held in his hand, in order that
the Government might take the uroper notice of it. He
should state the circumstance as a warning to e. property-
tax commissioners in every part of the country, that Parlia-
ment would visit such gross carelessness as was evinced in this
case with its highest displeasure. The circumstance was
this :—a person went into a chandler's shop to purchase some
trifling article, and when he got home, to his exceeding sur-
prise, he (mid that it was wrapped up in a piece of

paper on which was written the signed return and statement I
of gross amount and the net income of the trade and
profession of a gentleman residing in his own district—a
paper which ought. to have been sacred from every et except
those of the Commissioners for levying the tax. lie (Lord
Brougham) conceived this to be an act of such gross careless-
ness, as to amount to malversation of trust—a degree of care-
lessness, which, unless he had seen it, he could not have con-
ceived. With these observations he should hand this paper to
the members of the Government.—Here the Noble Lord
walked up towards the Lord Chancellor and returned to his
place with a paper in his hand, and then, addressing the Noble
Lord opposite, said he hoped his Noble Friend would never be
guilty of a greater irregularity than handing a paper to the
Lord Chancellor, who was the Chairman of the House of
Lords, and if he should, he would be visited accordingly.—
(Laughter.) But with regard to the question now before
their Lordships, he had known an instance of a person who was
about to purchase a villa ; but he was told that the owner had
returned as nothing to the Income-tax Commissioners, and was
about to become bankrupt, and therefore he had better have
nothing to do with it. He knew another instance of a friend
of his, who had lost many thousands a year of his property by
the effects of the war ; but he durst not disclose that, lest he
might be ruined by it. Those were facts which he thought it
would be well to bear in mind, in the event of the renewal of
the income-tax after the expiration of the present period.
Lord STANLEY concurred in much that had fallen from
his Noble Friend opposite; but the observations of his Noble
Friend applied only to one or two particulars of the Bill, and
not to its principle. His Noble and Learned Friend thought
that it would have a tendency to lower the character of the
auctioneer. But that could scarcely be the effect when it
raised the licences of the lower class of auctioneers to 101.
Certainly, if the amount of licencethad anything to do with
raising or lowering the character of the auctioneer, the Bill
would have the effect of raising the character. His Noble and
Learned Friend objected also to the clause requiring the auc-
tioneer to produce his licence at any auction, if required, or to
deposit 10/.
LortrBROUGHAM sad that he objected to the enforce-
ment.

Lord STANLEY said it could be no more hardship to an
auctioneer than to the sportsman to produce his licence. But
these were details that could be considered in Committee.
The Bill vras then read a second time.
On the motion of Lord STANLEY the Colonial Passengers
Bill was also read a second time.
The House then adjourned to Friday.

110 USE OF COMMONS, April 29.
There being but twenty nine Members present at
Four o'clock, the House adjourned, being the first time
this session that there has been " no House."