The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-06-09 00:00:00

DUTY ON RAILWAY PASSENGERS,

Colonel SIBTHORP gave notice, that in committee on the
railway regulations bill, when they came to the considera-
tion of that clause which imposed a duty of one halfpenny
upon every four passengers per mile, he should move that the
duty of twopence be substituted for that of one halfpenny.
HAND-LOOM WEAVERS' COMMISSIONERS'. REPORT.

Mr. G. BERKELY, seeing his hon. friend the Under-Se-
cretary for the Dome Department in his place, wished to ask
him it it was the intention of her majesty's government to
take into their consideration the report of the Hand-loom
Weavers' Commissioners, to found any measures thereupon,
and if the report would speedily be laid before the house ?
Mr. Fox MAuLE said the subject more properly belonged
to the department of the board of trade. to the president of
which board the question would have been more fitly ad-
dressed. The report, however, would not yet be laid before
the house (as was understood).

POLICE RATES ASSESSMENT BILL.
Mr. Fox MAULS moved the second reading of this bill.
Lord G. SOMERSET did not rise to oppose the second read-
ing of the bill ; but from the great number of communications
he had had on .the subject, he thought the bill ought to be
well considered before it had the sanction of that house.
With reference to the details of the bill, he thought a six-
penny rate would be sufficient.
Mr. Fox MAULE made-some observations in reply, but,
in consequence of the noise in the house, he was almost inau-
dible. He was understood to say he could not agree to the
lower rate, believing the higher to be necessary to maintain
an efficient police. The bill was then read a second tune,
and ordered to be committed on Friday.
Mr. BENJAMIN WOOD proposed the omission of the
seventh clause, regulating the mode in which the increase of
duty shall be borne under contracts of sale not completed.
Dr. LUSIIINGTON and others supported the proposal.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER resisted it.
After a short conversation, a division took place, in which
it was negatived by a large majority.
COLONIAL PASSENGERS' BILL. •

The order of the day having been read for going into com-
mittee on the colonial passengers' bill,
Lord JOHN RUSSELL, in answer to a question from Sir
Eardley Wilmot as to the intentions of government respecting
the introduction of Hill Coolies from India into the Mauri-
tius, expressed his opinion that the prohibition on that im-
migration might be usefully withdrawn under proper protective
regulations. Care must be taken, by the appointment of
proper agents, to guard the Indians against the delusions and
oppressions heretofore practised upon them ; they must be
free on their arrival to hire themselves to any master they
may choose ; their term of service should not exceed a year ;
and provision should be made against the disproportion of the
sexes. 'With such precautions as these, he thought the ge-
neral principle of opening the markets to labour might be
fairly applied to the Mauritius, whither, from local position,
many Indians already found their way. But he did not con-
sider it applicable to the West Indies, where the introduction
of a third race, with peculiar habits, might be productive of
very serious evil. The protection of the Hill Coolies immi-
grating into the Mauritius would be the object of some
clauses which he intended to propose in the committee on
this bill.
' Mr. BERNAL regretted that, under the present diiastrous
circumstances of the West Indies, the government should
have declared against the relief of those colonies by the
introduction of new labour.

Mr. liosxousE hoped that if the experiment, when tried
on a small scale in the Mauritius, should be successful, it
would be extended to the West Indies also. Be attached
little weight to the apprehension of mixing races. There
was no race more mixed than the members of the British
House of Commons, the " true-born Englishmen," descended
from Saxon, Dane, Norman, and Fleming.
Mr. EwAnT thought the danger lay only in the ignorance
of the people as to the district and the service to which they
were blindly consigned.
Mr. WARBURTON said that it might be all well if the emi-
gration were that of men with their wives and families pro-
Ceeding from an overstocked country to people a new land.
But here the expectation of the importers was not to raise
by, colonization from India, a permanent population of
labourers, but to get a fresh supply from India as fast as the
successive cargoes should be cut off by the mortality of severe
toil. As between the Mauritius and the West Indies, he
should rather prefer the' latter, because the inspection was
much stricter.

Mr. C. BULLER observed, that there was no country
where population was more redundant and labour worse
paid than Hindostan ; and its people, therefore, fell within
the very principle affirmed by Mr. Warburton. The friends
of the negro, instead of opposing every plan for the intro-
duction of free labour, ought to hail such measures as being
the probable means of extinguishing slavery i►► the only way
in which that extinction could ever be effected. But he
feared there was a disposition to import into these debates.
revenge against the planters, instead of plain justice.
Dr. LUSHINGTON complained of this last expression,
which he said was wholly unsupported by fact. He appealed
to the evils of past migrations from India, and demanded to
know what were to be the securities against the repetition
of those evils, especially with reference to parts of India not
belonging to England. The people of the Mauritius had
evaded all your laws—the law against slave importation,
the law of registration, the law forbidding public officers to
be proprietors of slaves. On the slave question, the ad►ni-
nistration of justice itself was poisoned from bead to foot.
The Coolies now at the Mauritius were treated most severely ;
worked under police inspection ; and not suffered, even after
the hours of labour, to quit their districts. It was a new
slavery, and the annual mortality was nine per cent. Where,
then, was the necessity for now preferring Mauritius, which
had been highly prosperous, to our other colonies, which had
suffered so heavily ? The whole subject should be consi-
dered together.

Mr. MACAULEY had always been of opinion that the re-
strictions on the removal of labour were properly applicable
only to a state of slavery. That state ceasing, the general
principle of the free removal came fitly into operation. It
was material to remember that there were always at the
Mauritius, for health or pleasure, civil servants of the East
India Company, who were invariably found to take a lively
interest in the welfare of the Indian emigrants there. Some-
thing had been said about vindictive feeling; but, in his own
mind, the heat occasioned by a long altercation had wholly
ceased with the cessation of that slavery which had been its
cause; and there was no part of the British dominions of
which he was more anxious to behold the prosperity than the
colonies in which that great experiment, the free slave labour,
was now going forward.
Mr. IRVING dwelt on the necessity of fresh labour in the
Mauritius, and made a favourable representation of the con-
dition of the colonists there.
Mr. O'CoNivtLL said, the planters of the Mauritius ap-
peared to be persons who desired not to hire free labour, but
notgai It'
gaol) uosue swllfhththeepserocploasuestel ,
till emigration.
the
toa .get labourers and work them out. He saw no security
.paaThe house ought
theti c tl y
Cooliesdeveloped,
front was more dis-
tinctly ridiculesd 1 e notion of protection to
the casual invalidsl of the company's civil
seri, ice, . and urged that there shouldconcluded be a
by
e r
min ao 1
vi ei
nn e
rt t andthat
salaried body of protectors. He
the bill should be committed that day sixe months.y °
l
Mr. VERNON Sat Ulli desired to r
become tolerably full, the explanations
pat
r, the
ei
house having
tLhe ohraddJnooli
Russell in the earlier part of the evening,
vewh eZ
attend-
ance had been very thin. Immigration hesaid,
become the question of the colonies. As to the Mauritius
Dr. Lushington ought long since to have brought its ,
mis-
deeds before parliament, if they amounted to one-half o
what he had represented them to be. A permanent salaried
protectorship had been demanded by Mr. O'Connell, and
t. t
that was one of the very institutions which the government
had it in contemplation to establish. It was best to choose
one colony for the experiment, and that one should obviously
the Indian peninsula.
he the colony nearest to .
about the forms of proceed'
After a short conversation . proceeding.
• trily withdrew his amendment, Mr. O'CONNELL temporarily . . to
give L • 1 John Russell an opportunity of moving that the
Lord
committee on this bill should have power to regulate the in-
tercourse between India and the Mauritius.
Mr. GLADSTONE desired he might not be understood as
lof
assenting to any particular plan emigration, though he was
favourable to the general principle.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL said, that if the house affirmed the
general principle, he should advise the crown to executea
and
on plan, which would be most carefully considered,
on which it would be open to parliament to express its opi-
nion. Without their general sanction to the principle, no
step at all would be taken by ministers to break through the
existing prohibition.
Mr. MACKINNON agreed to the principle, and
Mr. WAKLEY made a speech about the English poor and
the Corn-laws, at which the House expressed some dissatis-
faction. lie was followed by
Sir C. GREY, who was favourable to the measure.
,ELL'
Mr. O'CoN-• s amendment being renewed, was nega-
tived on a division.

Mr. IlAwEs, on the order for the second reading of the
Metropolitan Police Courts Bill, moved to refer it to a select
committee, with a view to the establishment of a cheap and
expeditious jurisdiction in certain civil cases. This jurisdic-
tion he proposed to vest in the police magistrates, who, when
had engaged to do this.further
their salaries had been raised,
duty without increase of stipend.
On an assurance from Mr. Fox MAULI that Government
would attend to the subject in another session,
Mr. HAWES waved his motion, and the bill was read a se-
cond time.
Lord MoRPEnt then volunteered to abandon his Irish
Mendicancy Bill, after which the House proceeded with the
orders of the day, but on the motion that Mr. F. Maule's
Prison (Scotland) Bill be read a first time, the House, at a
quarter to 1 o'clock, was counted out.

HOUSE OF LORDS.—FRIDAY.
Lord HATHERTON stated that on Friday next he should

present a petition nuMerously signed by proprietors of the
Stafford and Worcester canal, and by many other persona,
for the adoption of a measure to prohlb.it the conveyance of
goods on canals and railways on Sundays.
The Archbishop of CANTERBURY, having presented peti-
tions against Sunday trading, observed that he feared the ob-
jects on one side were too extravagant, and the indifference on
the other too extensive, to affbrd any prospect of the adoption
of any effectual remedy for this evil.
Lord DENMAN having presented petitions complaining of
the treatment of Feargus O'Connor,
The Marquis of NRMAN BY read letters received from
York Castle, denying some of the allegations of Mr. O'Con-
nor as to the treatment to which he was exposed. His lord-
ship added that he had been led to believe the alterations
which had taken phi& would afford to Mr. O'Connor as much
indulgence as was consistent with the sentence pronounced by
the Court of Queen's Bench.
Lord BROU GH AM observed, that Mr. O'Connor's state-
ments had been met only by counter-assertion. For his own
part his to dship professed himself so well aware of the value
of these contradictions that he should wait for more specific
information.

Earl FITZWH.LIAM (in answer to Lord Ashburton's in-
quiry) stated that it was his intention to bring forward, on
Thursday next, his resolution on the subject of the corn
laws.

Lord BROUGHAM having presented petitions from St. Ives,
&c, on the subject, said that he viewed, with indescribable
alarm, those measures sanctioning the emigration of the hill
coolies, which must inevitably lead to the revival of slavery
by this country. His lordship wished the government to lay
before the house all orders by the governor-general of India
regarding the shipment of hill coolies.

Their lordships soon afterwards adjourned till Saturday.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-FRIDAY

Mr. HORSMAN took the oaths and his seat on his re-elec-
ion for Cockermouth.

Mr. WAKLEY presented a petition complaining of there
having been bribery and treating at the last election at
Ludlow.

Mr. EWART stated, that on the 23d •instant, he should
move that the house resolve itself into committee on the
several acts imposing duties on sugar, coffee, &c.

Mr. B. Woo)) moved for a return of the names of all the
unions governed by boards of guardians under the provisions
of the Poor Law Amendment Act in England and Wales,
the month and year when each was first incorporated, the
names of counties wherein such unions are situated, the
names of all the assistant poor law commissioners for Eng-
land and Wales, and date and appointment of each ; the date
of every visit paid by each assistant commissioner to boards
of unions in England and Wales, from the first day of Jan-
uary, 1839, to the 31st day of December, 1539; the name of
such visiting commissioner, and or such board visited.
The Customs Duties Duties Bill was read a third time and
passed, and the House having resolved into a committee of
supply,
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, in moving a reso-
lution as the basis of the intended duties upon timber, en-
tered into some explanatory details, his general principle
being to collect the same amount which the originally in-
tended 5 per cent. might have been expected to produce, but
to collect it in equal proportionS on both kinds of timber.
He added, that he did not propose to make the duty take
effect instantly, but to fix a future day for its commencement.
Mr. Alderman THOMPSON desired a few days' delay in
order to give time for the consideration of this plan at the
outports. He wished the relative' position of the colonial
and the Baltic timber trades to remain the same.

Mr. LABOUCHERE expressed his conviction that any other
course than that which Government had selected, of impos-
ing the new duty in equal proportions, would have occa-
sioned an actual loss of revenue by a total exclusion of the
Baltic timber.

Mr. WARBURTON concurred in that view. The object
here was revenue, not protection. The relative position of
the two trades was left as before, for the differential duty
remained the same.

Mr. Hurr concurred in the views of the Chancellor of the
Exchequr ; so did Mr. VILLIERS, who expressed an intention
of bringing the whole question before.the house on a future
day, with a view to equalize the entire duty.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said that he was
willing to give time for the passing of the bill, but that lie
could not postpone the day on which the duties should come

into Operation:
Mr. HAwEs approved the proposed equalization of the
new duties.

After some repetitions by several of the speakers before-
mentioned, the resolution was passed.
. .

A series of estimates were then moved in committee of
supply by Mr. ROBERT Gonnorr, now one of the secretaries
of the treasury. Among these estimates were the whole of
those which are called the Irish miscellaneous. Just as these
were finished, Mr. Serjeant JACKSON entered, and said, that
having been absent but a few minutes, he was not a little
surprised to find that the business had been all hurried
through in that short interval. He gave notice that he
should take the opportunity of the report to discuss several
of these estimates. While he was speaking, Lord MORPETH
entered, amidst a general laugh that the Irish estimates
should have been voted in the absence of the Irish secretary.
Colonel SIIITHORP animadverted on this anomaly, and said
he had intended to propose a reduction in the Irish secretary's
salary ; to which Lord MORPETII answered, that he had at
first regretted his non-arrival in time for these estimates, but
that his absence now turned out to have been only what
delicacy would have dictated to him when a discussion was to
arise on his own stipend. And Lord JOHN RUSSELL added,
that when ministers had been so fortunate as to pass their
estimates without opposition, they could hardly be expected
to propose them over again for the purpose of letting in
objections.
The other orders of the day were then disposed of, and the
house adjourned till half-past one on Saturday.