On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
The stagnant calm which usually prevails in the House ot Lords was slightly disturbed , on Monday evening , by a gentle discussion on the Property lax Bill , in which the Marquis of L ^ asdowne and Le / td Stanley were the chief interteetatoi * . Lord L&taMdowne , in moving the second readS&f&t of the bill , admitted that the property tax , like * ll direct taxes , is liable to the imputation of great inequality in particular cases , inequality which he was convinced no ingenuity of Parliament could retuove ; still , hovtever ¦ with all its defects , it had enabled them to repeal or reduce taxation to the extent of more than £ 10 , 000 , 000
a year since 1842 , while such had been the developement of trade under those reductions , that the nett revenue , 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 dispute , not so much as to how they should raise an amount of revenue , as how they should dispose of the surplus at their command . Alter saying a few words in favour of Sir Charles Wood ' Budget , lie concluded by moving that the bill be read a second time . Lord Stam-et had no intention to oppose the bill , nor even to discuss the present commercial
system of Ministers , tor 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 Robert 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 of the timber and
window tax , or the reduction 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 was sorry to see Ministers acting on so pernicious a principle " , allowing no surplus to accumulate , but continually bringing down the revenue 6 o 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 Monteagi / k 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 order 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 Burplus in reducing the income tax . Earl Ukey , in reply to n remark of Lord Stanley regarding the adulteration of coflee , which seemed to imply that the practice was rather favoured than otherwise by Government ,
said" If the noble lord had looked more closely , he would have found the real fact to be that the Government did not favour the adulteration of coffee , but that both the present administration and the two which had preceded it felt that practically it was totally impossible by legislative restriction or interfereance by excisemen to prevent that adulteration . He was afraid that adulteration was not confined to the article of coffee alone , but was too common in many other things . He had been hIiowii a
certain kind of chalk or limestone , the other day , at the Museum of Economic Cioology , and upon ankiug what it was used for , he was informed that it was principally employed to adulterate the befit . Durhaminustard . ( "Jiear , hear , and lauy liter . ) He thought tin- truth was , that ¦ with regard to adulUiration , the only remedy lay in the handM of' the eon . su iu < r , who , > ' he took v . ure to deal only with respectable ti . idesnu'i ) , would not be given an adulterated article . "
Notwithstanding tho general . impression onl'ridny evening that Ministers were likely to carry their amended Papal Aggression . Bill , without much further dibciiHMioii , the » pee . uh of Mr . Kkymolds , when The JlouBO had gone iiito £ t > inHiittee , ori Monday evening , showed that the Inch party were determined not to give up their ground ho easily . The member for Dublin , having nuwi'rt that Mr . Hernul do now report progrt-ss , proceeded to dut ' chd the course taken by the Iiihh members in their opposition to the bill . 'lhey hud been charged ! with waiting the time of the House in factious opposition , but they had excellent precedents for what they had done arid proposed to do . In proof of this he . read u prtH » ngo from the first Tolumeof Lord liroughnm's Bpeuches , describing
cision of the House . The Earl Surrey , 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 ; and 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 thought 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
wereof Arundel and the course lake * fcy Ute # lt % Opposition obstructing the continuance of t&elitetrme t ^ x in 1816 , when nearly six weekfc % ere sptent by the House of Commons in receivi *^ the numberless petitions poured in from every quarter . The course taken on that occasion was foVtow ^ d by success $ ifc had received the ttttaction « f the highest Whig " autkofities , % f * d lie could no * " understand why fc '• - . similar course of proceeding should now be condeinrred as factious . Sit OfeoRGE Ghey hoped the Hottse woiiid not go into that discussion . Aa for the question whether the course noW taken was in accordance with the spirit of the understanding made withtheHouse on Friday evening , he was quite willing to leave that to the
de-Por reporting progress 46 Against 262 Majority in favour of Ministers 216 The Attorney-General totally denied that-thiswas 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 not 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-Generatj 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 that 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 aflirmed upon a division . Lord Akundel and Surrey then renewed the motion that
the Chairman report progress , which was supported by Mr . Reynolds : and ultimately Sir G . Grry , on the part of the Government , assented to the Chairman leaving the chair , to sit again on Friday . Sir William Moi , ts 9 wohth brought forward his motion on Tuesday , for an address , praying ¦ for ' -the discontinuance of transportation to Van Diemen's Land , 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 had been held last year , and petitions adopted , claiming the fulfilment of the imperial promise made in 1847 , that transportation
was to be abolished , and praying her Majesty , as the mother of many children , to save their children from the horrid corruption and unutterable pollution to which they were exposed from being surrounded with convicts . He j » nve a rapid sketch of tlnvfluctuating policy of the Legislature for a number of yearn past . Ixi 1838 a parliamentary committee reported that theas > tt'inblage of a huge number of feonvictH in Now South Wales and Van Diemen ' s Lund , and the disproportion between the ncxcm in those
colonies , had produced , and were certain to produce complicated and appalling evilfi , moral and social , which outweighed bi !} ond calculation the lucrutive advantages from convict Lihour to the penal colonies . They therefore recommended thut transportation to JNfew South WaleH and Van Diemen ' H Lund tthoilld be continued ub hooh possible In 1840 an order in Council wiw iHHiied , which put an end to tramportation to New South Wules , a boon for which ihey vi ere indebted to the Prime Miuiuter . Unfortunately the noble lord wa « succeeded by Lord Stanley in 1811 , who , as regurded Van Dicmcn ' s . Land ,
disregarded ' evet ^ fcgifr recommendations the TransportatioA Cotftmfttee : — «• To&fct epjWhy * previously overcrowded with conviets , the noblg ^ ord transported annually twice as many convicts as , had be ^ fa , transported to it in any previous yeaV ; and he » u $ ected those convicts to a system of punishment , nanitefr , > trie gang system , which the Transportation Comfciittee ¦ ¦ 'had especially condemned as the worst form «* fifaniportation . ( Hear . ) On the average of the three vearsv before Lord Stanley came into office , the ntimber of convicts transported to Van Dieraen ' s Land mounted , to abqut 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 the criminal of
21 000 convicts were added to population 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 of December , 1842 , with that of 1847 , that in that interval the criminal population , including the convicta 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 tinder the age of fourteen ; and that of the criminal population only onesixth were women . "
In 1846 , Mr . Gladstone 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 $ 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 left office , and was . succeeded by Mr . Gladstone , by whose orders an inquiry was instituted into the state 6 f the colon y ^ when the most appalling discoveries were made . It was found that the chain . gang * 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 unmentionable 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 o f the British empire , and a foul reproach to this country . Soon afterwards an address was presented to her Majesty from 1750 free colonists of Van Diemen ' s Land , praying for the abolition _ J 7 * * . _ * . « h > - * *• '? «* . J * -. ^» * s ¦* % # 1 r . ¦ % . v ** t 4 l <* . * vinfiitnn turtle * rwno On t C *(\ * u ^« -
UI llllHaULfl inilUJJ , UJJU i * OJUJJ . 1 C 1 X | J £ < l'J . I . JirAl rttto ^* , «~« to this Iloiise . 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 contiTvued , they must , at whatever sacrifice , abandon a colony "which would become unfit for any one to inhabit who regarded the highest interests of himself or his children : " that the unbounded supply of convict labour was driving tho free labourers out of the colony ; that " no new emigrants would come , for that they themselves would never have emigrated to Van Dierhen ' s Land had they foreseen its present state ; " and that "
ultimately Van Diemeri'fl Land wduld exhibit a spectacle of vice such as the world could not parallel ;" and the result was great discontent throughout the colony ; Fir ^ t of nil , at the close of 1847 , an attempt was made to Bend the worftt class of convicts for New S , outh Wales to Van Diemon ' s Land , but tint ) attempt was not ' successful , ' tind the order for it was revoked . A second attempt wa » made in April , Ifi 48 , when Lord Grey wrote a despatch to Sir W . DeniHon , in which he announced nifl resolution to tomme ' thle ticket < tt leriVft riy « tem . SinOe this
transportation had contiWtie'd , notwithstanding the numerous petitions , iftembjrtialfS uhd protests , against the system from the t . egjujlat , iye Council , the mHg ifctratee , by tho inhabuants ,, andl . tfte women of tho colony . Threw moht , important uu ? eti ^ gs had been held m Van . Dietnwi ' w Lwvd , lor the purpose . of-protesting against transportation in any shape to that colony-I ' rom the BtatementB made at these meeting * it nvpoared that three-fourths of the entire adult n » al « population were convicts . These convicts now impudently set Up ft elaim to the whole of the colony-They Bald that Van Diemen ' s Land was the J >"; " mony of the thieves mid felons of England . 1 bftt colony , they said , was created for them , and they
Untitled Article
PARLIAMENT OF THE WEEK .
Untitled Article
[ of ' 478 efc * - ! L * J * fr * t . Saturday ,
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), May 24, 1851, page 478, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1884/page/2/
-