Star.
London, England, 1829-06-05 00:00:00

FRIDAY EVENING, JUNE 5, 1829.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS. Jaws 4.
The Royal Await was given by commission to the Excise Acts
Amendments (Scotland and Ireland) BBL the Attempt to Murder
(Scotland) Bill, the Offence against the Person (Ireland) Bill, the
Coroners (Ireland) Hill, the Memo Pieces, (Ireland) Arrest Bill,
the Sheerness Pier Bill, and to several private Bills.
The Lords Commissioners were the Lord Chancellor, the Mar-
quis of Winchester, and the Earl of Shaftesbury.
The City Canal Bill, with the amendments of their Lordships
agreed to, was brought up from the House of Commons.
Lord BERESFORD moved the order of the day for the com-
mittal of the Thoradyke Divorce Bill.
The Earl of LAUDERDALE moved, as an amendment, that
several witnesses who had already given their evidence be called
back and reexamined. before the House proceeded any futdser
with the Bill.
After a short conversation the Earl of La 's amend-
ment was agreed to.
Lord TEYNHAM presented a Petition from Lieut.-General
Thornton. praying their Lordships to take into consideration the
danger arising to the Established Church from the forbearance of
enforcing the performance of both Morning and Evening Service oo
Sundays, in the several Parish Churches and Chapels thrombotic
the Kingdom.—Laid on the table.
The Noble Loan presented another Petition from a person
named Flanagan, on the subject of the Clerk of the Peace (Ire-
land) Bill.
The Marquis of LA NSDOWN postponed the presentation of
his Petitions on the East India Trade until to•morrow, in cone.
quence (as the Noble Marquis stated) of the Noble President of the
Board of Controul net being able to lay upon the table of the Home
the papers connected with that subject until then.
The House then adjourned.
HOUSE OF COMMONS.
The Smuts having been summoned to the House of Lads. aa
bear the Royal Assent given to certain Bills, on his retumewelneel
rated them to the House—(See Lords' report).
Colonel SIRTHORPE presented a Petition from Gen Chris.
topper Radnor, complaining of Ms right as inventor of the Congreve
rocket* having been interfered with, and claiming the protection of
the House.
Lord MILTON presented a Petition from the Merchants, Ma.
oufacterers, fitc. of the tows of York, praying for the Legislature
to open the trade to India.
Mr. COURTEN AY presented a Petition from the inhabitants
of Tomes and its vicinity, praying for a repeal of the Duty on
Coals.
Mr. PORTMAN hoped the Chancellor of the Exchequer
would take the earliest opportunity of repealing this very opptes.
rive tax.
Lord MILTON thought, if the Chancellor of the Exchequer
could give up a million and a half of taxes, be ought to repeal what
pressed most on the attire community, and not what was only felt
by a particular part.
Mr. J. WOOD moved for several Returns relative to the duty
on soap, tallow, candies, baring, ashes, sod oil.
Mr. STUART moved tot the production of several papers re-
lative to theCivitend Military Establishment of the island of Ceylon.
Sir J. MACINTOSH presented a Petition from John Clarke,
late surgeon in the Perthshire Militia, complaining of the inade-
quacy of his half pay. The Hoe. Member likewise presented a
Petition from the Congregation of Independents in the town of
Leicester, against the practice of burning Hindoo widows; and a
similar Petition front the males and females of Falmouth.
Mr. PENDARYIS presented a Petition from the teens and
pariah of Redrutb, praying for a repeal of the duty on coals which
were carried coastwise.
Colonel SISTHORPE gave notice, that next Session be should
move for leave to bring in a Bill for the regulation of posting.
Oo the mottos of Mr. GORDON,the Cotton Factories 818 was
read a third time and passed.
On the motifs of Mr. FAPALIIBIL the Ledge& of ColusieDl
BM was read a third time and passed.
Mr. P. THOMSON said, he had a Petition to present, bat, not
seeing any of his Majesty's Ministers in their places be thought it
would be better to move an adjournment.
Sir J. MACINTOSH hoped the Hon. Member would not per-
sist in that motion, and be would himself make a motion which was
quite Parliamentary, and which he thought there was a good
chance of carrying at resent, namely, that the House bad no con-
fidence in his Majesty's Ministers—(Laughter).
Mr. COURTh:NAY hoped the Honourable and Learned Mem-
ber would nut press such a motion in the absence of the persons
accused.
On the motion of Mr. Bosom the East India Offices Bill was
recommitted, the Report was received, and the Bill ordered to be
read a third time to-morrow.
On the motion of Mr. Woos the Silk Manufacturers' Bill was
read a second time and went through a Committee. The Report
was received, and the Bill ordered to be read a third time to-
mot row.
Mr. K. DOUGLAS presented a Petition from persons residing
in lielgtave-square, complaining of the inconveniences of the sr-
rangement in the general post delivery.
Atter a few words front Lord Alaimo, Sir G. Musser, and Sir
J. blacteman the Petition was ordered to be printed.
Mr. BAILIN G presented a Petition from Isaac Strongmark,
one of the old Dutch settlers of the Cape of Good Hope, com-
plaining of the losses be sustained by the depreciation of the cur-
rency in the Cape of Good Hope. The dollar was depreciated
front 4s. 6d. to the value of is. 6d. and the petitioner declared that
be bad been totally ruined by the depreciation.
Sir J. MACINTOSH bore testintooy to the respectability of
the petitioner's character.
Gtr G. DIU RRAY said that, if the petitioner could make out
any claim to relief, his Majesty's Ministers would be glad to rater.
tats the: claim. It would be impossible, of course, to indemnify
every individual who might happen to suffer in his pecuniary lute-
rest by a general measure of policy.
After a few words from Mr. H. GURNEY the petition was
ordered to be printed.

IMASIATIC aurneastitr.
Sir .1. MACINTOSH presented a Petition from Mr. Charles
Buck, complaining that Managers of Theatres were allowed to per-
form dramatic pieces without the knowledge or leave of the writer,
and without any profit to him. The Hon. Member said that Lord
liyrue and Mr. Allman bad made similar complaints, and that
every per,on who bad given that subject consideration admitted
that literary property was not sufficiently protected in this country,
and that the decline of dramatic writing was to be attributed to the
state of the law.
Mr. G. LAMB thought its very serious grievance that if a man
wrote a tragedy it might be taken by any manager, and performed
on the stage, and the writer brought to the miserable couditioa of a
damned author, miens rotens—(A laugh). The decline of dramatic
writing in this country was to be ascribed to the unprofitable nature
of that description of writing, as compared with other branches of
literature ; and it would be very desirable if a dramatic author had
power to sell his play like any other description of property, and
that no manager should perform it without paying the writer,
which was the system in France.
The petition was ordered to be printed.
Mr. S. RICE presented a petition from Colonel Tighe, a pri-
soner in the King's Bench prison, complaining of abuses in the
prison, and that the interest of the Marshal was opposed to his
ducks.—Ordered to be printed.
Mr. P. THOMSON presented a Petition from the landowners
and farmers of the county of Kent, praying for an alteration in the
present system of tithes.
Mr. BENETT said the evil of church tithes was not greater
(than the evil of lay tithes; but he thought nothing was better ads
misted to secure the property of the church than a commutation
of tithes. In his opinion it would be impossible to preserve the
property of the church In Ireland without sonwthing like a COW
mutation of tithes ; and he hoped toe question would be taken up
seriously next Session.
The petition was ordered to lie on the table.
DISTHEAS Or THE MANUFACTURING CLASSES.
Mr. BROUGHAM said he held in his hand a Ped.
tion from the Merchants, Manufacturers, and other Ilk
habitants of Birmingham, complaining of the esisting
distresses of the manufacturing classes. He felt peen-
liarly honoured by the confidence of those who had en•
trusted him with the petition, as he had distinctly in.
formed them that he did not concur in the prayer with
which it concluded. Notwithstanding this declaration,
however,and his recommendation that the petition should
be given to some one who concurred mote fully with
ds* views of the petitioners, they had done him the
to say, that, notwithstandiog the difference of

Palos &WIMP/INCE.

opinion, they would be satisfied if he presented rhtif
petition to the House, and stated the nature of its ere.
tents. The confidence which the petitioners placed in
him, he believed, was to be ascribed to feelings of kind.
ness, arising out of the share which he bad taken in
public transactions in which he heartily agreed with the
petitioners, rather than to a desire on their part to se•
lect the person best qualified to sustain their views and
promote their interests. With this preface he might
state that the petition was signed by eight thousand
persons, and that it had been signed without solicitation
or any other effort to procure signatures more than the
mere announcement that the petition lay for signatures.
He trusted that the petitioners would excuse him if he
could not express a concurrence in the prayer of the
petition. He was the furthest from denying, nay, he
was fully convinced, that not only the labouring classes,
but almost every description of capitalist, great and
small, was suffering from the present distress. The
cotton and other branches of manufacture he bad the
hest reason to know were in a condition of the utmost
difficulty. Much of this the petitioners were disposed
to attribote to the pewit end past state of the currency.
They contended that, from the period of 1819. it had,
though endergoing many changes, settled down into a
state that made a difference of four per cent. in the
profits. He believed that at one time the difference was
estimated as high as thirty per cent. Be that, however,
as it might, tiresomely's% of the petitioners at present
was, that they were suffering to an extent perfectly un-
paralleled. Th prayed that the House would tecoo.
sider the state tithe currency, with a view to its re-
establishment on a just aad equitable basis, and for the
purpose of facilitating that great object they prayed
that there might be a revision of all establishments,
civil and military, and such reductions effected as a
sense of economy and a 'regard to the necessities of the
people appeared to call for. They conceived themselves
entitled to this on many grounds, and on this amongst
others, that they were in effect paying an amount of
debt which neither they nor their predecessors had ever
incurred. They were called on to pay in one currency
a debt which had been contracted in a currency of
much less value. There was a fact st.ted by the petit.
tioners which he felt great pleasure in adverting to,
namely, that, out of seventy banks which had stopped
payment during the panic, as many as sixty paid twenty
shillings in the pound. He did not then stop to inquire
whether or not the system of the country banking was
what it ought to be, but he called the attention of the
House to the fact stated in the petition, not so much for
the purpose of proving that the system was sood, as
that it proved the respectability of the parties in ques-
tion. He then proceeded to another part of the petition,
in which the petitioners denied that existing distress was
to be attributed to overtrading ; without combatting
that position he proceeded into some particulars, for
the purpose of shoeing that considerable overtrading
bad recently taken place, and mentioned some remark.
able inoances of wild and absurd speculations, which
errata not have ended otherwise than in the ruin of
the parties. Though differing from some of the doc-
trines laid down in the document which he held in his
hand, yet he folly concurred in the prayer for a irdu..
tion of the salaries of public servants. The burdens of
the country wire confessedly greater than they tad
been, and the means of meeting them much diminished.
Thus was industry crippled, and the resources of the
country dried up. Thus, admitting the evil complained
of, he debited to see a remedy. He wished he could
perceive such a remedy. The salaries of public func-
tionaries might be reduced, and there was nothing he
so much desired to see as such reduction. All fixed
money payments might be placed upon a new footing,
but atter all there remained the dead weight of the
debt. There were still 800,000,0001. of debt, and
40 000 fIOOL of interest, which no economy could at.
fact. Fos his part, he had never heard of any i lan
which could obviate that difficulty. excepting such as
involved a breach of that good faith which in national
concerns, as in private affairs, should never be disre-
garded. He trusted that the Legislature would never
set such an example to the country as that of commit-
ting an act of bankruptcy. But there would be surely
no breach of faith in reducing salaries which had been
raised in former times, when the currency was depre.
ciated, on the very ground of that depreciation. He
could not bring himself to agree with the petitioners
that-any alteration in the currency was expedient. He
hoped there would be no attempt made to open that
question; but the more impracticable it was to affoid
relief by the means which the petitioners contemplated,
the more were they bound to do all in their power to
effect, by means of reductions in the public expenshture.
Mr. LAWLEY fully concurred in the views of the
last speaker. He bad been applied to to support the
petition; but he candidly told the petitioners chat i.e
could not conscientiously support the prayer of their
petition. The currency, he was quite WIC, was not the
cause of the distress; and as to the assertion made in
some quarters, that capital was wanted, he would affirm,
upon excellent authority, that the country hookas were
generally ready to advance money upon fair security—
(Hear, hear, from Mr. Peel).
Mi. WODEHOUSE contended that the present
gold standard operated most injuriously as well towards
foreign countries as at home—it was a standard not
adopted any where. The most conclusive proof of its
being an improper standard was, that the Legislature
dare not and ought not apply it to Scotland and Ire-
land. He did not mean to say that that standard was
solely, though he conceived it was mainly owing to
that cause.
Mr. LEYCESTER attributed an the evil to the Sinking Fund.
Mr. E. DAVENPORT °braved, it was not to be expected
that Members 01 that House holding places under Government
would vote for a general redaction of salaries.
Mr. BENETT said it could scarcely be a subject of
wonder that the country was in a state of very deep
distress; but the question should be, how that distress
was to be remedied? He felt assured that it could only
be done by some strong and decisive measure; and he
apprehended that it would be found necessary to resort
to a property tax. with a view to reduce the enormous
debt with which the country was burthened, and to
which be considered the distress of the country was
to be mainly attributed. The argument of Mr. Ricardo
was, that until this immense debt was paid off we
could not safely indulge in free trade. One of the prin-
cipal .evils now felt throughout the kingdom arose from
withdrawing the small notes from circulation. B. fore
this measure was resolved on country bankers had some
inducement to lend money to the farmers, because by
this means they circulated their notes, and obtained in-
terest for their !honey, which they could not obtain by