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478 ffif) * %t&iltt. [Saturday,
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PARLIAMENT OF THE WEEK. The stagnant cal...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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478 Ffif) * %T&Iltt. [Saturday,
478 ffif ) * % t & iltt . [ Saturday ,
Parliament Of The Week. The Stagnant Cal...
PARLIAMENT OF THE WEEK . The stagnant calm which usually prevails in the House of Lords was slightly disturbed , on Monday evening , by a gentle discussion on the Property Tax Bill , in -which the Marquis of Lan § d , q \ me and Lord , Stanley were the chief interlocutory Lord L 4 . N 8-BOWNB , in moving the second reading of the bill , admitted that the property tax , like all direct taxes , is liable to the imputation of great inequality in particular cases , inequality which he was convinced no ingenuity of Parliament could remove ; still , however with all its defects , it had enabled them to repeal or rpdiif-fi taxation to the extent of more than £ 10 , 000 . 000
a year since 1842 , while such had been the developement of trade under those redactions , that the nett re-venue , independent of the income tax , was nearly as large in 1850 as it had been in 1842 , They had therefore established a great power of reproduction , and were now in the proud position of having to disr pute , not so much as to how they should raise an amount of revenue , as how they should dispose of the surplus at their command . After saying a few words in favour of Sir Charles Wood ' s Budget , he concluded by moving that the bill be read a second time . Lord Stanley had no intention to oppose the bill , nor even to discuss the present commercial
system of Ministers , for the development of which the continuance of the property tax was required ; but he could not agree with the course Government seemed inclined to pursue , namely , to continue this confessedly anomalous and . irregular measure , not as it was proposed by Sir llobert Peel , and pledged by Parliament to be—a temporary expedient to meet a temporary emergency—but as a permanent incorporation with the general taxation of the country for the development of what was called " our commercial prosperity . " He did not approve of applying any portion of the surplus to the abolition of the
window tax , or the reduction of the timber and coffee duties . A much wiser plan , in his opinion , would have been to apply what they could spare of it to the reduction of the income tax . He thought that , both financially and politically , they had carried the system of free trade and unchecked importation of foreign produce to a dangerous and mischievous extent . As regards the property tax , he ¦ w as sorry to see Ministers acting on so pernicious a principle , allowing no surplus to accumulate , but continually bringing down the revenue so nearly to balance the expenditure that it was hopeless in any one year to be able to do away with that tax : —
" He thought they ought to take steps for gradually , but certainly , getting rid of the tax at the earliest possible moment ; but , standing in the hampered position which their lordships' House did with regard to bills of this kind coming from the other House , he for one could not , under the circumstances , agree to assume the responsibility of advising their lordships to reject a measure which they could not amend , and which was absolutely necessary , in one shape or another , for the maintenance of the public credit of the country . "
Lord Monteagle said he should be sorry to see Parliament go on blindfold with a system of taxation which contained within itself the elements of decay . The system of relying on a property tax was a most dangerous one , because in older to induce Parliament to grant a renewal of the most odious of all taxes , Ministers were obliged to sacrifice some of those taxes which were unpopular in the next degree . The wiser plan would have been to employ the surplus in reducing the income tax . Karl Uuky , in reply to 11 remark of Lord Stanley regarding the adulteration of coffee , which seemed to imply that the practice was rather favoured than otherwise by Government ,
tsaid" If the noble lord had looked more closely , lie would hq . ve found the real fact to be that the Government ( h'd not favour the adulteration of coffee , but tliat both the present lulininistrulion and the two which l | ud preceded it felt thut pructieally it was totally impoKbiblc by legislative restriction or intcrfercurice by excisemen to prevent that adulteration . He was afraid that adulteration wan not confined to the article of coffee alone , but waa too common in many other things . He had been shown a
ceriain kind of cbalk or limcntone , the other day , at the $ fueeuin of Economic Geology , and upon asking what it wan liftecj tor , he wqs informed that it wuh principally employed to adulterate the beot Durham nnintaru . ( " lieu ?' , hear , and taughter . ) He thought the truth was , that with regard to adulteration , the only remedy lay in the handtt of tin ; consumer , who , if he took care to deal only witji respectable tradesmen , would not be given an adulterated article . "
Notwithstanding the general impression on 1 * riday evening that Mi » iintens were likely to ( -airy their amended PapalAgyreH ^ ion Hill , without much further ( 1 lHUtffifjftf )^ Qrc-sMieech of Mr . Huynoi . kh , when the Jty < JB & hft & fiji * W * " < oc < IU ) ruiu <' ' » ° " Monday eveninfA * -aho | u « a tjj } iit '~ ifweifclPfj party wen ; determined not '^ o . give' UDJ ^ tt f & U ^ w < W 1 * ° eaaily . The member fuvJUHuUn ,, fr ^ fr ^ fflftM cd thut Mi . JJcrnai do novy rejunt pmftr ^; i ^^ 4 wl «! u' to defend the «> ur *» o t « k < : n by th ^ JrUU jgaWiWjW / i ^ C ^ lieir opposition iq tlif ) bill . They hadTho < pM 0 » WWd-MUth waiting the time of the llqybH in factejidfe . jr ol <> £ TO <>"» lmt '"< y 1 )! l ( i <* cellint i VrC ^ Jent ^ . ^ iJJp ' vflfOlJ i ^ h / Hl done uiul pnipohcd to iq . ' ' In I'f'QO ^ gfffflEj y " "' u J > hw * "K < ' f '< 'm the finst volun ** M »* Ai « Mnm > iJu ; hu | n ' H speeches , clescribiiig
the course takes * |> y tl | e "W > i g Opposition obstructing the continuance of the income t ^ x in 1816 , when nearly six weekg were spent by the House of Commons in receiving the numberless petiiions poured in from every quarter . The course taken on that occasion was followed by success } it had received the Sanction of the highest Whig authorities , and he could not understand why a similar course of proceeding should now be condernned as factious . Six Oborge CJsey ho . ped the House would not go into that discussion . As for the question whether the course now taken was in accordance with the spirit of the understanding made with the House on Friday evening , he was quite willing to leave that to the deand
cision of the House . The Earl of Arundel Surre y , in seconding the motion of Mr . Reynolds , denied that they were infringing any arrangement , and repudiated the charge of their opposition being factious . Mr . Roebuck also disclaimed all factious motives in the opposition he had given ; an 4 contended that the motion was perfectly reasonable . The bill had been completely changed , and therefore the House ought to have time to consider it . Mr . Gladstone did not think the motion would be consistent with the arrangement made on Friday evening . Nevertheless he thoug ht that the opponents of the bill had a right to demand that a few days should be given to consider the changes made in the bill . An irregular discussion followed , after which the House divided , when the numbers
were—For reporting progress 46 Against 262 Majority in favour of Ministers 216 The Attorney-General totally denied that this was a new bill , the only alteration being the insertion of the clause now standing first , that which was formerly first being now second . The first clause was declaratory , and embodied the recitals of the preamble . It declared that the attempt by the Court of Rome to establish sees or dioceses , with territorial titles , was illegal and void . This clause added nothing to the penalties of the bill , but gave a more solemn form to the recitals of the preamble . The
second clause went on to enact that the assumption of titles not provided for in express terms by the Emancipation Act—that is , the assumption of titles not belonging to existing sees or dioceses of the Established Church—should be illegal . This clause had been so much discussed , that its real intention and effect could npt be mistaken . When it was said that the second clause would interfere with charitable bequests and trusts of the Roman Catholic Church , the simple and obvious answer was that the provision of the Emancipation Act had not had that effect , and the present bill would only be the application of the provisions of that act to sees and dioceses not included within it . Mr . Gladstone wished to know whether the bill , as it at present stood , would make all written documents connected with the rights or
usages of the Roman Catholic religion illegal , as had been stated on learned authority ? The Solicitor-General said they would stand on the same footing as such documents had stood since the passing of the act of 1829 to the present time . Doubts , indeed , might be entertained on the subject . The question thut the preamble be postponed underwent a long debate , or rather conversation , in the course of which Mr . Reynolds moved that the Chairman report progress , which was negatived upon a division . The other question was affirmed upon a division . Lord Ahundkl and SuitnEY then renewpd the motion that the Chairman report progress , which was supported by Mr . Reynolds : and ultimately Sir (> . Grby , on the part of the Government , aHsented to the Chairman leaving the chair , to sit again on Friday .
Sir William Molkswohth brought forward his motion on Tuesday , for an address , praying for the discontinuance of transportation to Van Diernen ' s Lund , in an able and unanswerable ( speech . He commenced by alluding to the strong feeling which prevailed on the subject throughout the colony . Numerous public meetings hud been held lust year , mid petitions udopted , claiming the fulfilment of the imperial promise- made in 1847 , that transportation wuh to be abolished , and praying her Majesty , ua the mother of many children , to nave their children from the horrid corruption and unutterable pollution to which they wen ; exposed from being ( surrounded with convicts . JIo gave 11 rapid ( sketch of the fluctuating policy of the Legislature for u number of
yearn past . In 1 H . ' } 8 a pailianicntnry committee reported that thensHt'inblnge of a large number of convicts in New South Wales and Van Dicincu ' s Lund , and the disproportion between the hcxcs in thone colonies , hud produced , and were certain to produce complicated and appalling cvilw , moral and social , which outweighed beyond calculation the lucrative advantages from convict labour to the piiml colonieH . They therefore recommended that transportation to New Houth Which and Van Die-men ' s Lund should be continued nts Hoori possible . In 1 K 40 an order in Council wuh iHHued , which put an end to trnnsportation to New South Walets , a boon for which they were indebted to the I'rinu" Minister . Unfortunately the noble lord wan succeeds d by Lord tiUnluy in JH 4 | , who , an regarded Van Diemen ' s Land ,
dittre' ~ ' SAP' ¦" -fJSfivV ' '" "" * "' *** ' " '" '" - .--- ¦ . garded every 041 © of the recommendations of the Transportation Committee : — " To that cqlony , previously overcrowded with convicts , the noble lor < J transported annually twice as many convicts as had been transported to it in any previous year ; and hp subjected those convicts to a system of punishment , namely , the gang system , which the Transportation Committee had especially condemned as the worst form qf transportation . { Hear . ) On the average of the three yell's , . before Lord Stanley came into office , the number of convicts transported t 6 Van Diemen ' s Land amounted to about 1680 a-year ; on the average of the five years that Lord Stanley was Secretary of State for the Colonies the number of convicts transported to that colony was 4200 ; therefore , in those five years
21 , 000 convicts were added to the criminal population of Van Diemen ' s Land . It was calculated that in consequence of this influx of convicts , and the consequent overstocking of the labour-market , 12 , 000 free persons were driven out of the colony in the interval between 1841 and 1848 . He found on comparing the census of the 31 st qf December , 1842 , with that of 1847 , that in that interval the criminal population , including the convicts who had become free , had increased more rapidly than the non-convict population had increased by births and immigration ; that , in 1847 , of the whole population of the colony above the age of fourteen , more than twothirds had been transported ; . that of the non-convicted portion of the population one-half were under the age of fourteen ; and that of the criminal population only onesixth were women . "
In 1846 , Mr . G-ladstone left office , having previously decided that transportation to Van Diemen ' s Land should be suspended for two years . He was succeeded by Earl Grey , who , in his first letter of instructions to Sir William Denison , governor of that colony , said he regarded the resumption of the plan of pouring into Van Diemen ' s Land such an annual flood of transported convicts , as had recently been sent to that island , as altogether impossible . In the following year , the governor , in his address to the Legislative Council , stated that Government had decided that transportation to that colony should not be resumed at the expiration of the two years . The
fact of this declaration having been made was announced to Earl Grey in a despatch received at the Colonial-office on the 5 th of February , 1848 , and as no contradiction was given to the statement , the natural conclusion was that Government accepted it as correct . Notwithstanding the Government pledge , however , transportation was soon after resumed . In 1845 Lord Stanley leftoffi . ee , and was succeeded by Mr . Gladstone , by whose orders an inquiry was instituted into the state of the colony , when the most appalling discoveries were made . It was found that the chain gangs and probation parties were , to use the words of Sir James Stephen , " nothing else than
schools of advanced depravity , by which every remaining trace of virtuous habit or sentiment was effaced from the mind of the convict . " It was discovered that very many of these convicts were suffering from hideous diseases , produced by unrnentjonable crimes , which , according to the statement transmitted by the Bishop of Tasmania from his clergy , " were committed to a dreadful extent throughout the diocess . " In short , Van Diemen ' s Land was a loathsome ulcer on the body of the Eritish empire , and a foul reproach to this country . Soon afterwards an address was presented to her Majesty from 1760 free colonists of Van Diemen ' s Land , praying for the abolition
of transportation , and a similar petition was presented to this House . The petitioners stated that they lived "in continual dread and anxiety for themselves and their families , owing to the number of convicts by whom they were surrounded ; " that , if transportation , to Van Diemen ' s Land continued , they must , at whatever sacrifice , abandon a colony which would become unfit for any one to inhabit whoregurded the highest interests of himself or his children : " that the unbounded supply of convict labour wns driving the free labourers out of the colony ; thut " no new emigrants would come , for that they theni . splven would nevqr have emigrated to Van Diemen ' s L and
had they foreseen itts present state ; " and that " ultimately Van Diemen ' s Land would exhibit a . spectacle of vice such us the world could not parallel ;" and the rewult was groat discontent throughout the colony . Firat of all , at tho close of 1847 , « n attempt wuh niude to send the worst class of convicts for New South Waloo to Van piemen ' s . Land , but thin attempt was not ( successful , and the order for it \ v » H revoked . A second attempt wu « made in April , 1848 , when Lord Grey wrote a despatch to Sir WDcniHon , in which lie announced his resolution to
resume the ticket of leave system . Since thin tn » " portution had continued , notwithstanding the numerous petitions , memorials , and i > rotests , unninbt *' nyntein from tho Legislative Council , tho mngintrut « s , by the inhabitant , and the women of the colony . Three inont important meetings had been hold in Vnn Diemcn '» Lund , for tho purpose of prottfiting ngaixiBt transportation in any Hliapp to th « it colony . l ' rom the statements made ut thaBe meetings ] t appeared that three-fourths of tho entire adult in » l <' population wore convicts . These convict . s novv > " pudeiitl y set up a claim to the whole of the cq ] ' »» y-They mud that . Van Diemen ' s Lund wuh the patrimony of the thieves and felons of England . T h » t colony , they tsuid , was created for them , und they
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 24, 1851, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24051851/page/2/
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