The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-02-15 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—THuRsDAY

After a discussion oi;ilie;4;;;tehnp;isonmeni of per-
sons before trial,

Lord MORPETH moved for leave to bring in a bill for
promoting the health of cities and towns, which had been
drawn up by the Attorney-General in a shape which
would render it little liable to objection. The Central
Board of Health, as last year sanctioned by parliament, is
to be retained ; to consist of five members—of whom two
will be paid—to be presided over by a responsible member
of the government. The working of the measure to be
committed to local bodies responsible to their local com-
munities, with a checking and controlling power vested in
the state. The local bodies to be connected with town
councils in boroughs—to be called the committee of
health—the number of members and the boundaries of the
application of the act to be fixed by the government. In
other places a certain number of sanatory commissioners
to be elected by the rate-payers. The act to operate
throughout England and Wales ; but for the metropolis
there will be a separate bill. In the local boards the
duties relating to the preservation of the public health will
be imperative. They must hold regular meetings, ap-
point inspectors and surveyors, provide a map of their dis-
trict, make public sewers, compel the owners and occu-
piers of houses to supply house drains, water for the
cleansing of the streets, and scavengers. They will have
also certain permissive duties, to require proper levels for
drainage in new buildings, to alter drains, privies, &c.,
to require certain furnaces to consume their own smoke,
to remove slaughter-houses, to inspect lodging-houses,
and to provide public grounds for recreation and amuse-
ment, and public baths and waterworks. The act will
not provide for the removal of cemeteries from towns, nor
for making cemeteries beyond their walls ; but the Board.
of Health will be empowered, when any burying place be-
comes destructive to life or health, to prohibit its further
use for interment. The statistics upon which the measure
is based arc the same as the public is already familiar with.

A discussion ensued, in the course of which,
Lord DUNCAN regretted that the window tax had not
been removed as one of the-sanatory measures ; and _

Mr. WAKLEY accused !Lord Morpeth of havug shrunk
from his duty in not including -London in the bill.
Leave was given to bring in the bill, which was read a
first time.
Mr. CARDWELL then moved for some consular returns
connected with China, not so «much with .a view to their
production as for the purpose of bringing under the notice
of the house the report of -the select committee appointed
in the year 1847 to take into considemtion.the present
state of our commercial -relations with that country.
Everybody knew what extravagant expectations were enter-
tained throughout the kingdom at the opening of our
commercial intercourse with China. «From the brilli-
ancy of our prospects at «that time it was expected that
by this time our exports to that country would have
much exceeded £2,400,000. Though we had not been
gratified in that respect, it-was still consolatory to reflect
that in the trade recently opened with China, by far the
greater portion of it had fallen to our share, and we
ought therefore to do our best to encourage and support
it. It had not, however, been carried on at a ;benefit to
England ; on the contraryait had been carried on at a loss
of 30 or 40 per cent. This had gone on' for the last three
or four years, but it could not go on much. longer, for the
trade would recede till it again rose up to a remunerating
rate. Why had we hitherto found the trade to China
unprofitable ? Let them consider what the returns were
which we received from China. They were of three
kinds, silver—of which £2,000,400 had been drained from
China for some gears past ; silk—of which the export was
gradually increasing ; and tea. Now, it was impossible
to conjecture how long China could sustain the drain of
the precious metals ; but as the export of tea could not
be increased on the present system of the tea duties, a
constant reduction of our trade must inevitably take
place. It was, however, beyond calculation how far they
would and could buy our cottons if we were to lower the
tea duties. The house was not unprepared for the dis-
covery of the committee. that the rate of the duty on
tea had been and was the cause of the retardation of the
exportation of tea to -Great Britain. It was in all cases
200 per cent. on the price of the. article, and in some cases
it was even 1000 per cent. Now, the Americans were our
chief rivals in the Chinese markets, and had no dutyupon
tea. How, then, could we continue to compete with
them in the Chinese market in that branch of manufac-
tures in which they were our rivals.? One serious ob-
stacle to the reduction of the duties on tea was that a
revenue of £5,100,000 was derived from them. Yet,
though this amount of revenue could not be relied on
with the existing duties, it was so important an element
in the income of the country, that in the present circum-
stances. it could not he entirely abolished. He entered
into several statistical details to show, that if the duty
were reduced from 2s. 3d. to Is. the probability was, that
in the next year the revenue, from the increased con-
samption of tea would amount to £3,500,000, if not to
£3,960,000. There was but one limit to the trade with
China, and that was the amount to which we took the
exports of China; and the limit to that amount depended
upon our duties. It was not for him to divine what was
in the breast of the government as to the budget; but he
should have been wanting in his duty to the committee of
which he had been a member if he had allowed its able
report to slumber on the table, and had left the house to
approach the financial statement of the year without a
discussion upon its merits.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER observed, that
on the opening of the trade with China the merchants
increased their exports to that country to an enormous
extent, and found it in consequence a losing concern.
The fact was, that the markets of China became glutted
with the quantity of goods imported from England, and
that circumstance produced a depression of trade which
in course of time would cure itself. He had no doubt
that if we could afford to reduce the duty on teas the
revenue derived from that source would be made up again
in the course of a few years. He had likewise no doubt
that the quantity of goods which we sent to China must
depend on the exports received from China ; that an in-
crease of those exports would be a great benefit to the
English producer; and that in the long run the revenue
would be benefitted by the trade thus created. But he
could not conceal from himself and the house, that if he
gave up the duty on tea at present he must look for ad-
ditional taxation in some other quarter. The committee
had rightly said that this was a matter not to be lightly
dealt with ; for the revenue derived from it was near
£5,000,000. Nevertheless, they recommended a reduc-
tion of the duty to Is., which would cause a diminution
of £2,000,000 in the revenue. Mr. Cardwell had said
that on a former occasion the distressed condition of the
people had been ameliorated by taking off the burdens
which pressed upon the springs of industry. Now, if he
were to take off at present either the tea duties, or, as
some gentlemen had that evening suggested, the window-
tax, the country must submit to an additional income
or property-tax, and he did not know how far that might
be relished.

Lord G. BENTINCK could not, when we were losing
£4,000,000 a-year under the free trade system, consent
to take off £1,500,000 of tea duties ; nor could he give
his consent to the doctrine, that the best mode of di-
minishing a deficiency was to take off the burdens which
pressed on the springs of industry.

- A very desultory discussion then took place, in which
Mr. Moffat, Mr. Browne, Mr. Masterman, Dr. Bowring,
and Mr. Wilson, supported. and Mr. Brotherton, Mr.
Alderman Sidney, and Mr. Hudson, objected to the re-
duction of tho tea duties now proposed. After a short
reply from Mr. Cardwell the motion was granted.

HOUSE OF LORDS

-FRIDAY

Lord HATHERTON presented a petition from tenant
farmers in Scotland, praying for the repeal of, or some
essential alteration in, the game laws, expressing his en-
tire concurrence in the views of the petitioners.
The Marquis of SALISBURY thought tenant farmers had
no right to complain of the game laws, inasmuch as they
knew of their existence, and of the effects which they
might have on the property they occupied, before they
became tenants.

Lord ASHBURTON was understood to express a similar
opinion._

Lord :NIONTEAGLE moved the second reading of the
Auditing of Accounts Railways Bill, the object of which
was that, upon the application of a certain proportion of
railway shareholders, who might be dissatisfied with the
accounts furnished by the directors, the railway board
might appoint an auditor to whom all the decuments of
the company should be accessible, and whose report, as
well as those documents, should become open to the in-
vestigation of the public.
A short discussion ensued ; but the bill was read a se-
cond time without a division.