The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-03-02 00:00:00

.. imperial paritaintnt. to alter and amend the laws relating to the disposition of
property for pious and charitable purposes. The principal
—•,..__—__ features of the bill were, that it proposed that all wills
HOUSE OF COMMONS.—MONDAY. containing bequests for pious or charitable purposes should
At ten minutes to 4x o'clock, the House of Commons •be signed for three months before the death of the testa-
resolved itself into a Committee of Ways and Means. tor; and also that, when such 'bequests mere made. the
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, then roso to property should not go as land to the charities, but should
make the financial statement for the year, and claimed be sold, and the proceeds handed over to them.
the indulgence_ of the house while he made the statement, __—•,—_____
____—

which he would make as short as was consistent with HOUSE OF COMMONS.—WEDNESDAY.
dearness. It was many years since a Chancellor of Mr. WATSON moved the second reading of the " Roman
the Exchequer had to report such heavy demands upon Catholic Relief Bill." He said that the first act which
the Exchequer, but those demands were occasioned by he sought to repeal was the 'lst of Elizabeth, chap. 1,
the dearth of food, which was a visitation of Providence. commonly called the Act of Supremacy, which provided
Thousands of starving persons in Ireland appealed to that if any person denied by word, writing, or otherwise,
this country for sympathy and assistance, and that the supremacy of the King in any part of the kingdom,
he could not refuse. Never, however, had the he should for the first offence be liable to imprisonment
finances of the country been so able to bear these or forfeiture ; for the second Offence, to the penalty of
demands. For the first time there had been no deficiency prcemunire; and for the third Offence, to death. Now all
bills, and the produce of the revenue had been sufficient these penalties had been repealed by the acts of 1844 and
to defray the expenses of the state

In the C

s, the 1846 ;but the crime as defined in the act of Elizabeth

the exception of articles on which duties had been re- indicted for'tt as 'a misdemeanour at common law, and to
duped, exceeded the estimate. In the Excise, with the be punished by imprisonment. He called upon the house
exception of soap the same had taken place. By to repeal that act, and along with it the act forbidding a
the return of the quarter ending the 13th of February bull to be sent over to a Roman Catholic bishop, the act
last, he found an increase of nearly half a million. respecting the form of prayer, the Recusant Act of Char-
The whole produce of Customs and Excise for the last les 11., the act of the Bth of William 111., and the 31st
year was £34,500,070. Of this £5,530,000 was cantri- of George 111., chap. 32. He then mentioned the
buted by articles of food, .£21,781,030 of drink, and by clauses in the Emancipation Act which he wished to
tobacco £4,336,000, making £31,653,000 out of the repeal. The first was the clause prohibiting certain re-
£34,500,070. This must have diminished in consequence ligious ceremonies in public. The last forbade some of
of the diminution of employment in the manufacturing the ministers of the church of Rome to act as parochial
districts. On the 9th of January, there were working clergy, or to administer to the spiritual wants of their
full time 25,845 persons ; short time, 11,851 ; and with- people, and rendered all persons who were bound by
out work, in consequence of the stoppage of mills, 1,090. monastic vows, especially Jesuits, subject to be transported
On the 9th February, there were working full time 22,949 for life, for the religious, opinions which they entertained.

persons ; short time, 15,862 ; and out,, of work, 2,613. I Having explained to the house the law on this subject, as
The drain of bullion on the Bank had not been so great i laid down in the 18th of George IV., he denounced it as
as might' have been expected, the amount being only a specimen of legislation worthy of Ytussia. He c0n-
£1,200,000 less than it was this time 12 months. The late eluded by calling on the house to repeal all these laws,
Chancellor of the Exchequer had calculated upon a snr- not as a concession to Roman Catholics, but as a conces-
plus of £776,000, the actual surplus was £2,846,000, in- 1 sion to Protestants, whom they disgraced.
eluding X.,30•1 MO paid as duty on'the import of foreign sugar. Sir R. I x GLI g denied the assertion of Mr. Watson,
He now would state what the probable income of the year, that the penal laws of this country rose at the Reforma-
from sth April, 1846, to sth April, 1847, would be. Last Lion and closed at the Revolution, and asserted that some
year the duties on corn produced £793,000. He could not of those which gave most offence to the Roman Catholics
calculate upon such an amount. There had been an in- , had been passed long after the latter event. He did not
crease in the importation of butter, cheese, and silk last call upon the house to stand by the act of 1829, but he
year, consequent upon the reduction of duty, and he cal.. did call upon it to confirm the decision which it had come
cnlated that this increase would continue, and he assumed to last year. There was no country in Christian Europe
that the probable revenue from customs during the next where the Jesuits were admitted without some restriction
year would be £20,000,000. During the present quarter on the part of the Executive Government ; and he there-
the increase of customs duties had• been £204.000. Up fore implored the house not to fritter away the securities
to January the amount of excise duties had been which it had taken to prevent the further admission of
£13,988,000, and he reckoned for the ensuing year Jesuits into these islands. He could not consent to the
an increase of £13,700,000. The increase on the excise repeal of that clause of the Emancipation Act. which pro=
from the beginning of the quarter had been £106,000,-and hibited the exercise of any of the rights or ceremonies of
in 'lreland, extending to January, there had been an in- the Roman Catholic religion, save within the usual places
crease. He contemplated from Stamps a revenue of of worship, as it would legalize religious processions, and
£7,500,000, from Taxes £1,270,000, from Property-tax would give rise to dangerous collisions if such prows-

£5,390,000, from the Post-offices £845,000, froin Crown sions were permitted. He concluded by moving, that the
Lands £120,000, from miscellaneous sources of revenue bill be read a second time that day six months.
£427,000 ; making a total of ordinary revenue of Mr. SPOONER thought that this bill was the small
£52,065,000. The expenses of the interest of the debt point of the wedge, which would be afterwards driven
and the Consolidated Fund would be £30,735,000 ' • for the home without any scruple. We were daily losing our
Army, £6,840,074. The Navy vote would be .Z 7,561,000 ; Protestant character—and he believed, in his conscience,
the Ordnance vote would be £2,679,127, being an increase that that was one of the causes which had brought down
of £135,568 over the vote of last year, a great portion of the judgment of Almighty God on this afflicted nation.
which was due, as in the case of the Navy, to a deferred Mr. J. O'CONNELL defended the Jesuits, and declared
vote of last year. The residue was owing to an increase that he had no wish to retain the clause about processions,
of 1,200 men and to putting the ports in a state of defence. for even in Catholic countries he thought processions ob-
The miscellaneous votes, exclusive of votes for Ireland, jectionable.
would be £3,750,000, being an increase of £397,000. Mr. NEWDEGATE concluded a violent speech against
The increase was owing to the expenses of the poor-law the bill with a furious invective against the Jesuits, whom
and the prosecute of P-2 - and anothe- -lion to he_ accused (by inference)- of having poisoned Clement

an, ot prisoners,— ,r
the increase of printing and stationery for the Houses of /11. and Clement V. ; the first because he contemplated
Parliament. The whole of the estimates would amount their suppression, and the last because he actually aceom_
to £20,851,077, making the whole ordinary expenditure plished it.
£51,576,000. He had purposely omitted in his statement Lord G. 131isyriNcic gave his support to the bill, on ac-
all allusion to the grants for the relief of distress in Ire- count of the practical grievances which the Roman Catho-
land ; and he would now state what he thought would be lies suffered under the present existing law, and which he
required for the distress to be advanced by the Treasury, enumerated at some length. He denied that there had
for whatever burden might ultimately be thrown upon the been any compromise in the year 1829 with any party on
landlords of Ireland, hitherto they had paid nothing, save the subject of Catholic emancipation ; on the contrary, it
indeed £393,000 of poor-rates. It was not easy to state was a strong and decisive mersure taken by the Govern-
precisely what the expenditure required would be. In ment, and had been described by Lord Sandon as an
f Nt - of "bsolute power equal to any act of the despo:

,our .weeks o, —ovember the expenditure had been ertion of a
£383,000, in December £742,000, in January £772,000. I Russia.

,
The persons relieved in Octoberwere 150,000,1nKov'em -
her 285,000, in January 440,000, and in February 571,000. double object : the repeal of many enactments of the sta-
Up to 20th February there had been issued by the Exche- tire of 1829 ; and the extension of the acts of 1844 and
quer to Ireland £2,400,000 in November, £2,000.000 of 1846, which abolished laws that had become obsolete, and
which had been issued by the Board of orks. The ex- imposed upon Roman Catholics penalties most severe and
penditure for the future he expected would not fall be- disproportionate. He was prepared to carry the latter
low a million a month. He expected to effect, however, object into effect, but not to repeal any of the enactments
a saving by administering relief through the medium of of 1829, as they were introduced to satisfy the Protestant
the soup kitchen. He expected that many labourers mind, and ought therefore to be continue!!. He would
would be taken from the public works by the work- not, however, refuse to consider the whole of the measure,
ing of the Bill for the Improvement of Lands, but merely because there were some portions of it from which
to work that bill it should be remembered that ad- he was obliged to dissent.
vances were to be made by the Treasury. It would be Mr. LAW and Mr. Got:larynx both briefly expressed
necessary that relief should continue at least until the their hostility to this bill. The first opposed it because
next harvest, arid for some short period after the lie had been a party to the introduction of the act of 1829,
harvest, advances would be necessary. Taking all and felt bound in honour to maintain it unimpaired.
these circumstances into consideration he could On a division, the second reading was carried by a ma-
not estimate the advances to be made to Ireland under jority of 104 to 101
£8,000,000, which,_ including the £2 I
,000,000, advanced

Sir R, PEEL observed that the bill contemplated a

HOUSE OF COMMONS

since August, would amount to X 1000,000: -INOW,-If
the 16,000,000 proposed by the Noble Lord had been

-THURSDAY

Mr. B. Escorr gave notice of his intention to move, on
a future day, that the existing duties on butter and cheese

ble to have secured one farthing of this £10,000,000, and
therefore he was rejoiced to see the majority by which that
measure had been rejected. Under these circumstances,
it was manifest he must go into the market to borrow.
The question was, whether he should borrow the whole or
only a part ; by following the latter course, he would con-
siderably reduce the balance in the Exchequer, frOm which
source the advances have hitherto been made. This was
a course he was for many reasons unwilling to adopt, and
he therefore thought it more advisable to borrow the
whole rather than put any further pressure on the Bank
of England, or incapacitate the Government from making
advances to the landed proprietors of England and Scot-
land. Besides, the prospects of the next harvest were

be abolished

Dr. BowEING postponed for a fortnight his motion re-
lative to the public revenue.
Mr. PLUMPTRE gave notice of his intention to move
that a day of national humiliation for the existing famine
I c appointed.
Mr. S. CRAWFORD moved for leave to bring in a bill
to secure the rights of occupying tenants in Ireland, and

thereby to proniote the improvement of the soil and the
employment of the labouring classes.
Mr. LABOUCTIERE agreed to the introduction of the
bill as one containing valuable suggestions. The govern-
ment have a similar measure under consideration, which
they will shortly introduce.

• •
uncertain. Hitherto we had been living mainly upon
the produce of other countries of the harvest of
the 1845. There had been entered for home con-
sumption of 5,388,000 quarters of foreign corn, and he was
confident that up to the harvest 0f1847 we should have an
abundance • but by that time the produce of 1845 and
1846 would be exhausted, and we should be dependent
upon the produce of the harvest of 1837. The debt would
not be permanent, because a considerable portion was to
be paid out of the property of Ireland.—(A laugh,) The
next question was, whether the loan ought to be accom-
panied by increased taxation. He was unwilling to add
this amount to the debt without taking means for its
extinction, but he thought that during the present year it
would be unfortunate to attempt any change in taxa-
tion. The present year was an exception to all others.
If we had a good harvest there would be no necessity for
further advances : if it should be bad, it would be neces-.
sary' to make a further demand on the country for the
assistance of Ireland ; and therefore he thought it better
to postpone the question of the imposition of additional
taxation.. Besides, next year it would be necessary to
deal with the income-tax ; and it would be unwise to
attempt to prejudge in what manner parliament—a new
parliament perhaps—might choose to deal with that tax.
He' therefore thought it best to leave the whole question
open till next session. He calculated on a surplus of
£489,000 of ordinary revenue over expenditure. He
calculated he could borrow the £8,000,000 at 31 per cent.,
the interest of which would be £280,000; but then he
calculated he should have to raise the interest of Exche-
quer-bills. The interest at present was Pid. a day, and
lie proposed to raise it' to 2d., which would amount to
£142,000, giving art increase of interest of £422,000, ma-
king-60 tolal:orditiary expenditure £51,988,000, leaving
a surplus of £67,000. From Chinese money the next'
year he should receive £450;000, but against this he must
place an extending expenditure of £185,000 to cover the
excess of naval expenditure of the year ending sth April
last. The total of income therefore would be £52,515,000 ;
the total of expenditure £52,183,000, leaving a surplus of
£332,000. It was evident from all he had stated, that it
was not in his power to spare any revenue this year, which
was the most effective answer that he could give to those
who had urged him to reduce the duties on tea, coffee,
paper, tobaccO, &c. The right honourable gentleman
then regretted the unfortunate circumstances which had
interrupted that commercial and financial policy which
they had for some time pursues, and which, for the last
four years, had been attended with such success, and con-
cluded with reading a statement showing the increase
which had taken place in the consumption of coffee, but-
ter, cheese, and currants, from 1843 and 1846 inclusive,-
as affording striking evidence of the beneficial tendency of
that policy. .

Leave was given to bring in the bill.
On the motion of Mr. Sharman Crawford, the Poor
Rates (Ireland) Bill was read a second time.
The Markets and Fairs Clauses Bill, the Commissioners
Clauses Bill, the Gas Works Clauses Bill, and the Water
Works Clauses Bill, severally passed through committee.

HOUSE OF LORDS.-

-FRIDAY

The royal assent was given by commission to the Act
for the Relief of Destitute Persons in Ireland.

Lord STANLEY suggested that as it would be some time
before they could have any business of importance from
the Commons, and the business of the upper house get-
ting on slowly, they should commence some measures
there instead of waiting for them to come from the Com-
mons.

The Marquis of LANSDOWNE. referred to the session of
1845, and in comparing the first six weeks with those of
the present session, he found that much less business had
been done then than now, yet at that time Lord Stanley
had-paired off during the whole of that time. More work
had been done during the first six weeks of the present
session than during the corresponding period of many

previous- sessions.
Lord BROUGHAM remarked thut the complaint was
made annually, and for that reason it should be redresed.

The Earl of WICKLOW complained that the bill for
making advances to the Irish landlords had been so
worked up with the Poor Relief (Ireland) Bill that they
had become one- and the same, and must pass or be
rejected together.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE explained the reason why
the government had so classed the two measures together.
In answer to a question from Lord Brougham, the noble
marquis said that they had every expectation of being
able to remove to the new House of Lords immediately
after Easter.
Lord STANLEY wished to know why the Duchy of
Lancaster had been placed under a commission of three
members of the upper and two of the lower house;as the
noble lord the Chancellor of the Duchy was neither an
infant, a lunatic, nor a femme converts ? He, therefore,
wished to know the motives which induced them to esta-
blish a commission, and also what were the duties of the
new commission ?

Lord CAMPBELL said that no new commission had been
appointed, but from the constitution of the duchy, which
remained as it was in the days of John of Gaunt, and had
lasted from time immemorial, it was thought atilvisable
that the chancellor should have a.council, from which he
should take advice. The gentlemen who composed the
council were introduced for the better management of the
property and finances, without in any degree taking the
powers and duties of the Chancellor of the Duchy, whose
dignities and prerogatives were in no way infringed.
Lord BROUGHAM thought that the council could not
increase the revenue wore than £lOO.

The vole for eight millions out of the Consolidated
Fund was agreed to.

HOUSE OF LORDS.-TUESDAY

HOUSE OF COMMONS-

-FRIDAY

The Destitute Persons (Ireland) Bill, after certain
amendments had been made to it, was read a third time

Sir R. INGLts wished to know in what form the grant
to purchase grain for ,seed would be put, and what the
opinion of the right hon. gentleman was as to the cultiva-
tion of the soil in Ireland ?

and paled

The royal assent was then given by commission to the
Distilling from Sugar Bill, the Brewing from Sugar Bill,
and other bills, which had within a few days past gone
through their variou.o stages hi the two houses of parlia
ment.

Mr. LABOUCHXRE said that he hoped the prosperity of
Ireland did not depend upon the very limited sum the
government had given the lord-lieutenant for the pur-
chase of grain for seed. AA to his opinion of the culti-
vation of the soil, it was very difficult for Wm to form
one, as it depended upon the assistance and good feeling
of the people of Ireland in co-operating with the govern-
ment. .

Mr. Rotsucx moved fora committee of inquiry into
the working of the poor law in England, and asked what
alteration they proposed making in it as regarded its ex-
-1 tension to Ireland ?

Sir G. Gum( said, that when the committee of inquiry
into the conduct of the poor law commissioners was
► formed, he wrote to inquire whether the conduct of the
commissioners bad been legal or not, ,and from the answer
he received, any vexatious proceedings that might be
taken against thoSe gentlemenvould terminate in nothing.
The poor law commissioners had done their duty both in
England and Ireland. The government were prepared to
submit to the house a plan for the working of the poor
law in Ireland.
Mr. HumE, who was on the committee of inquiry into
the working of the poor law, was of opinion, from the
evidence that came before bun, that every commission
that was held was illegal. But it was the opinion of the
.• • • • •

sioners should not be-gone into until it had come before
them, and then they would inquire into their conduct.
He wished an early determination as to what alteration
the government intended to make in .the poor law in its
extension to Ireland.

Mr. STAFFORD O'BRIEN objected to the.bill, as it now
stood, being applied to Ireland; the difference being
great between the two countries, that what will suit the
one will not suit the other.

Mr. .1. Q'CONNELL had heard it rumoured thata prin.
ciple of emigration was in agitation for therrelief of the-
digtrease.s in Ireland. Such a horrid principle he depre-
cated. lit bt-litTed the reihistry were fiti...in.atitunce,of