The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-07-15 00:00:00

WEDNESDAY.—The Speaker took the chair at 12
o'clock.

The Lords

mendments to the Bolton, Blackburn,
Clitheroe, and West Yorkshire Railway Bill were consi-
dered and agreed to the Caledonian Railway (Glas7ow.

Gunkir~

nd Coatbridge, Pollock and Govan, &c., Rail-
ays ; amendment and continuation, 84e.) Bill was read
a third time; the Shtffield and Glossop Turnpike Roads

was read a seconc

The' Attorneys' Certificate Duty Repeal Bill was
brought in by Lord R. GROSVENOR, read a first time,
and ordered to be read a second time on the 23d inst.
Mr..HoRsmAN gave notice that on Friday he would
move for a return of all the correspondence in connexion
with the lease of the Horfield estate by the Bishop of
Glocester, in order to give the hon. member for Bristol
(Mr. P. Miles) an opportunity of making any explanation
on behalf of the bishop which be might desire to offer.

COLONIAL PROPERTY QUALIFICATION BILL.—On. the
motion that the house go into committee on this bill,
Mr. TUFNELL said he thought this a fit opportunity to
bring before the house a larger question, and moved an
instruction to the committee to provide for the abolition
of any property qualification for the election of members
to serve in parliament. He examined the origin of this
qualification, pointed out the anomaly of subjecting re-
presentatives for England and Ireland to a rule from
which those for Scotland were exempt, the injustice of
which had been recently exemplified in the case of Mr.
Prinsep, and urged that electors should be allowed to
choose whom they pleased to represent them, or, if a
property qualification were insisted upon, that it should
be general and uniform, and more stringent than the
present, which was constantly evaded. Mr. EWART se-
conded the motion. As a Scotch representative he sat
without producing a property qualification, and the mem-
ber beside him (Mr. Napier), who represented an Irish
University, was in the same predicament. These were
Proofs of the non-necessity of property qualifications.
Lord J. RUSSELL said this proposition came before the
House in rather a_singular shape, as an amendment to a
bill for including colonial property in a member's qualifi-
cation, the amendment proposing that there should be no
qualification whatever. As to the necessity of keeping up
a property qualification, which was a totally distinct
question. Mr. Tufnel's arguments, he thought, had a
great deal of weight. Was there, in fact, any security in
a property qualification as it existed? Was it not notori-
ous that persons of credit or connexions found no difficulty
in obtaining qualifications which were held good in law.?
Scotch members sat without qualification, and be si
mak

an unfounded statement if he said they were inferior
in character and capacity to other members. This being
the case, he did not see why the whole question of qua-
lification should not be taken into consideration ; but
it should be done by motion for a bill, to which he
should be willing to give his assent. A real and proper
qualification would still exist in this—that some con-
siderable means would be required to enable a person to
retain a seat in that House. He should have no objec-
tion to see tenant-farmers there, but they would not be
likely to desert their agricultural occupations, and so with
small traders. There was, therefore, in the very nature
of things something of a real qualification for a member
of Parliament, unless that point of the People's Charter
were conceded by which members were to be paid.
Although, therefore, he could not vote for this proposi-
tion, when the whole subject was brought forward as a
separate question he would give it his support. Mr. V.
SMITH considered that property qualification should be
done away with, but recommended, after the declaration
of the noble lord, that both bill and amendment should
be withdrawn. Mr. TUFNELL consented to leave the
matter in the hands of Lord J. Russell, and withdrew
his amendment. Mr. Hurr, who had charge of the bill,
took the same course, and the order for committing the
bill was discharged.

HOME-MADE SPIRITS IN BOND BILL.—On the order
of the day for the second reading, the CHANCELLOR of
the EXCHEQUER stated that his objections to the bill
were insuperable. There was no claim of justice on the
part of its supporters ; the claim of justice was with its
opponents. In 1848, after a careful Parliamentary in-
quiry, a differential duty of 4d. per gallon was levied upon

colonial spirits, and that that settlement of the question
was not unfair to Scotch and Irish distillers appeared
from the fact that the consumption of colonial spirits had
fallen off, and that of home-made spirits had considerably
increased. The inequality of the rates of duty furnished
an argument in favour of equalizing them, which would
raise the duties upon Scotch and Irish spirits. The effect
of changing the law, as proposed by the bill, would be loss
to the revenue, a facility to fraud, and the giving to
Scotch and Irish spirits an unfair advantage over those of
England. Lord NAAS described the manner in which
the measurement of Irish spirits was conducted, and
observed that, although the Irish distillers had been no
parties to the arrangement of 1848, he did not propose to
interfere with it. They did not seek any unfair advantage
over the English distillers, who possessed advantages over
those of Scotland and Ireland which gave them a mono-
poly of the English trade. Mr. BRAMSTON considered
that the bill would violate the compromise of 1848, and
moved that it be read a second time that day three
months. Mr. GM/LIMAN could not consider this as a
question of minor importance; the revenue derived from
spirits was between £8.000,000 and £9,000,000, collected
easily and regularly; it was no light matter, therefore, to
affect by a change of the law a revenue of such magni-
tude. This question had beenfsettled in 1848; had the
Irish distillers suffered from that arrangement ? So far
as documents and facts could show, the reverse was the
case. There was another consideration of importance;
Irish and Scotch spirits were put in bond in a condition
palatable to the consumer without undergoing rectifica-
tion, which English spirits required. His conviction was
that the change proposed would be dangerous to the
revenue as well as injurious to private interests. The
house having divided, the second reading was negatived
by 194 against 166; so the bill is lost.
The Ecclesiastical Residences (Ireland) Bill, the
Churches and Chapels (Ireland) Bill, and the United
Church of England and Ireland Bill, went through com-
mittees.

The Turnpike Acts' Continuance Bill was read a
second time.

On the order for going into Committee upon the Valua-
hog (Ireland) Bill, a long discussion took place upon a
suggestion by Mr. SCULLY, that the bill should not lie
proceeded with, which consumed the remainder of the
tting ; the House, for the sake of form, resolved itself
into Committee, and almost immediately after adjourned.
THURSDAY.—At the morning sitting, the house
went into committee snececsively upon the Merchant
Seamen's Fund Bill, and the Lands Clauses Consolidation
(Ireland) Bill,