Star.
London, England, 1819-03-03 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

A Message was sent to the House of Peers to state that Mr.
A. Beam° and Mr. T. SUM had obtained leave of the Com-
mons to attend and give evidence before their Lordships.

COAL DUTY.

Mr..LITTLETON presented a Petition from the
nanufactiirers of the Town of Wolverhampton,
against the Equalization of the Duty upon Coals.—
Vihcn it•was considered to what a proportion Coals
entered into all our'manufactures, the importance of
the object of the Petitioners would be manifest.
Were a tax of one shillirig per ton to be laid upon
coals, it would create a difference of ISs. sa. a ton
on iron. The Honourable Member for Bristol had,
on a former occasion, thrown a doubt on the exist-
ence of extreme poverty and distress among the ma-
nufacturers. It was true that the smelters of iron
vice in a state of prosperity, but the manufacturing
labourers themselves suffered the greatest distress.
They worked twelve and fourteen hours a day for
the trifling wages of nine shillings a week, a sum to-
t-ally inadequate to the support of their families.
Mr. PROTHEROE contended that the distress
which the Honourable Member described, arose in a
great measure from the high price of coals, in con-
sequence of the exportation of that article.
Sir It. WILSON conceived, that as the duty now
levied was for the general behefit, it ought to be ex-
tended to every part cf the community.
Sir J. GRAHAM said, that he should not consent
to an equalization of the Coal Duties.
Mr. LITTLETON referred to what had taken
place in 1785, when Mr. Pitt had proposed a general
tax upon Coals. A few days after, he had 4tven up
his own plan, on the ground that if manufacturers
were made liable to the Tax, so many modifications
and regulations would be neciisary as to render the
whole impracticable. The distress in the coal dis-
tricts had risen much higher than seemed to be eene-
rally known. In 1816 almost all thi workers of coal
mines in the County which he had the honour to re-
present, though persons of the greatest respectability,
Lad been reduced to-the necessity of throwing their
leases upon the hands of their landlords, who had
been obliged to carry oa,the works at a considerable
bss. The number cf poor thus cast upon the pa-
rishes had been immense, and it was only by the mu-
nificence of a Noble Peer residing in that part of the
country (Lord Dudley) that employment had been
procured for those individuals, and that county had
exhibited an example of order and loyalty displayed
by no other.
Sir.ROBERT WILSON complained that the poor
of the Borough of Southwark had to pay a duty of
nine .billings and ten pence upon coals, whilst inland
districts paid no sitch rate.
Mr. Alderman WALTMAN' assured the House
that the feeling of the Gentlemen who had assembled
to petition against the Coal Duty, was not to solicit
its extension to any other class , of their fellow-sub-
jects, but to be relieved altogether from the Tax.
They had to pay a duty of 9s. 10d. besides all the
expenses of bringing the Coals to London, and mea-
suring them, and all those charges fell on the poor
consumer as well as the rich. the object of the Pe-
titioners had been to obtain the repeal of the Tat al-
together; but if his Majesty's Government were of
()onion that it could not be I.7,iven'irp, then,•indeed,
they would desire that it might be equalized. It was
strange that Gentlemen who had Coals for nothing
shOutd feel themselves so much oppressed, whilst in
c City of London, notwithstanding so many addi-
tional expenses, many manufactories flourished to a
• ;teat extent. Yet in that City and the neighbour-
ing villages, the price of-Coals teas so high that the
poor could not procure them, and were supplied by
charitable institutions. The City of London and its
environs took much from the proprietors and workers
of coal-mines, and indeed were compelled to take
• from therm But if it Were true, as it had been re-
ported; that-Coal was to be foUnd at 13Iackheath,
would those Gentlemen be very willing to give np
their London customers, and allow them to work out
their own supply ? With respect to manufactures,
many were established in the vicinity of London. On
the banks of the river Wandle, which flowed within
few miles of the Capital, they would be found to
"lost in any other part of the
ished that when Gentlemen
o Parliament, they should he-
mind as to what it was they
lot to have been the case with
the Coal Duties; for they did
• whether they wished for
- their equalization. He
the question should come
London would find no
its pretensions. All ale

advantages of the ms nufacturd'Orere o&stS side. -fle
then contended that the duties on la-borne Ccials
were equal all over the kinitilum.. fie asked, whs
tier i duty of 6s. was not'lincrupop in the port
of London, to be applied to the on of churches?
He should protest against any a teration in the exist-
ing duties. There was a gent *in* fixed in the
Thames, above Staines. If these. Gentlemen would
remove it as low as Blackfriars-bridge, they woad
aras cheap for Co*. 'is Inland COunties—(Hoer,
and Laughter.)
Mr. LITTLETON sittonglrobjected to the equa-
lization of the Coal buty. He begged to know whe-
ther it was the intention of hit Majesty's Ministers
to
make this a limiestion of their-own, and to lay a new
tax upon those parts of the kingdom which had been
hitherto exempted from its operation ? He wished to
know this, because if his side of the question had
only to contend with the City of London, he should
I then have no great apprehensions of the result.
Mr. LUSHINGTON replied, that as far as he was
acquainted with the subject, it was not the intention
of Government to propose any alteration in the
Coal Duty.
Mr. CANNING deprecated the endless revivals of
such discussions, whenever a Petition was presented.
They were not likely to bring the question' to any
satisfactory issue, and their only effect was to delay
the course of the regular business of the House. He
should have no objection to allow the Petition to he
on the table. _
_ _

Mr, BENNET represented the expectation of find-
ing foal at Blackheath as an idle rumour.
Mr. LITI'LETON would tell the Right Hoe.
Crendeman below him (Mr. Canning) a more efficient
mode of putting an end to those discussions of which
he so strongly deprecated the revival. Let him 'ask
his Right on. Colleague, the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, to come down to the House and declare at
once that it was not the inteation ' of Government to
interfere on the subject.--(Hear, !term)
The Petition was then: read, and laid on the table.

, a few miles or sne t;apitai,
be as numerous as almost i
kingdom—(llenr, I:ear !)
Colonel WOOD wished
• made any application to Par
by making up their mini
wanted. This seemed not tc
*Oft Petitioners against the CI
4"-frkit Tit piatively know wl
• 'P"I or merely,
' Sled, however, that when t
to be debated. the City of
round 09 which• to establia