in reversion as otherwise, as the best means of consolidating the strength of the empire, and calling forth the united energies and exertions of the people at a time so necessary for the safety and security of his majesty's dominions."-Ordered to lie upon the table. [ASSESSED TAXES AND GAME DUTIES.] The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a committee of ways and means, rose, to submit the propositions, of which he had given notice, respecting the transfer of the duty for licences to shoot game, from the Stamp Duty to the Assessed Taxes, and for consolidating the additional 10 per cent. with the Assessed Taxes, to the consideration of the committee. As to the first point, he should only observe, that it was notorious that the duty was evaded in a variety of cases, a circumstance which could not take place when the duty was transferred to the Assessed Taxes, in consequence of the mode in which the Assessed Taxes were collected. Upon this head, therefore, he should propose a Resolution to the committee, that the present duties on Game licences do cease, in order that others should be granted in the Assessed Taxes in lieu of them. When the Bill that was to be founded upon this resolution, should be brought in, gentlemen would have an opportunity of considering how far the provisions it was to contain would be efficient to its object. Under the present system, much inconvenience was felt by those gentlemen who sufferings of the people, but created a pernicious and dangerous influence, corrupting and undermining the pure and free principles of the British constitution; and that after the enormous abuses brought to light by the various Commissions of Enquiry, it is a matter of deep concern to the petitioners that the offenders thereby discovered have not been brought to justice, and those who so grossly misapplied the public money have hitherto escaped with impunity, and the petitioners did therefore rely upon parliament that speedy and effectual measures would have been adopted to reform such abuses, and detect and punish the offenders in future; and that the petitioners viewed with much satisfaction the formation of a Committee of Finance, and hailed the introduction into the house of a Bill to prevent the granting of places in reversion as the first step towards these salutary reformations; they beheld with increased satisfaction, the measures taken by the house, both during the late and present sessions of parliament, to carry the same into effect; and that it was with grief and disappointment they observed the views and intentions of the house unhappily frustrated'; and they have too much reason to apprehend that the defeat of this measure has arisen from that baneful and predominating influence which such abuses must necessarily create, and which this Bill was intended to correct; and that it appears to the petitioners at all times essential that a rigid economy should be observed in the ex-happened to reside at a distance from the penditure of the public money, and that no places or pensions should be bestowed but for real public services, more particularly so at the present moment, when it is declared, that this country is at the very crisis of its fate,' and the people are called upon for such unexampled sacrifices and exertions; they beg further to suggest to the house, the serious consequences likely to result should a disposition be evinced by either branch of the legislature, at a period so awful and momentous, not to participate with the people in their dangers, sacrifices, and privations; and therefore praying the house not to relax in their endeavours in carrying so necessary and beneficial a measure into effect, and causing enquiries to be made into the receipt, management, and expenditure of the public money, adopting measures which may effectually guard against such abuses in future, and for abolishing all unnecessary places and pensions, as well 6 county town, in obtaining their certificates from the clerk of the peace. This inconvenience would be wholly removed by the arrangement which he proposed, for the certificates would be forwarded to the collector of the district, to be issued on the production, by the person requiring it, of the receipt for the payment of the duty. Since the subject had been under his consideration, several communications had been received, which represented that the evasions were chiefly practised by persons pretending that they were shooting woodcocks and snipes, whilst, in reality, they were engaged in pursuit of game. In order to remove this source of evasion, therefore, it was deemed desirable to include woodcocks and snipes in the enumeration of game. The other proposition that he had to submit to the committee, was a resolution for the consolidation of the 10 per cent. additional to the Assessed Taxes granted the year be Mr. T. Jones also complained of the wanton manner in which surcharges were often made, and wished that some mode of prevention might be found consistent with the bona fide collection of the reve nue. Mr. Biddulph said, there were other objects worth the right hon. gent.'s attention, before imposing new taxes; he meant measures of reform. He would go along with him certainly in preventing frauds and evasions. But he thought it would be better if the right hon. gent. had come down with a paper in his hand of the defaulters of former years. fore the last, with the Assessed Taxes. It | the Assessed Taxes bill which subjected would be remembered, that at the time assessors guilty of making surcharges this addition had been brought forward to wantonly, to the payment of costs, if the make up the deficiency in the ways and surcharges should not be confirmed. He means of the year, which had arisen from was convinced that power ought to be the abandonment of the iron tax. The given for subjecting persons of that destage of the session did not admit of that scription to the payment of costs. mature consideration which was desirable. The consequence was, therefore, that in almost every instance there were fractional payments, which the committee would feel it right to do away. For this purpose, he proposed to add 2 per cent. upon the whole, and in all the lower classes to reduce the payment, in case of a fraction, to the next integer; and in the higher classes to raise it to the integer immediately above, so that the whole addition being at the rate of one in fifty, would give an addition of 110,000l. upon 5,500,000l. the present amount of the Assessed Taxes. But, the effect of lowering the fractional payments to the next integer below them in the inferior classes, would be to reduce that sum to about 107,600l. in the year. For instance, the amount of Assessed Taxes for a house having more than six windows, and not worth more than 51. rent, was at present 6s. 7d. and would, according to the rate of addition proposed by him, be raised to 6s. 84d; but, according to the scale of reduction he had in contemplation, it would be lowered to 6s. 6d. the sixpence being the immediate integer below the fractional sum. In the higher classes, on the contrary, the payment would be carried to the integer above the fraction. There would be a consequent decrease upon the lower classes, but the slight addition on the higher classes would compensate for that, and make the augmentation upon the whole 107,600l. He therefore moved, "That it is the opinion of the Committee, that the present duties on Game Licences and the Assessed Taxes do cease and determine, in order that other duties be granted in lieu thereof." Mr. Huskisson could not conceive in what possible shape an account of this kind could be brought before the house, or of what use it would be to the revenue. If it could be made out, it would of course be granted like other accounts, relating to the public money, on a motion for that purpose. Mr. Biddulph was not then prepared to specify the heads, but would inquire into the subject with a view to a specific motion.-The Resolutions were then agreed to. Mr. [PETITIONS AGAINST THE ORDERS IN COUNCIL.] The house resolved itself into a committee of the whole house, for the further consideration of the Petitions against the Orders in Council. Brougham was then called to the bar, and addressed the house in a very able and eloquent speech of three hours length in support of the prayer of the Petitioners.— After the learned counsel had finished, he withdrew, and a conversation arose on the expediency of hearing further evidence.-The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Marriott, Mr. Stephens, and sir C. Price, contended, that if the house were then to take any step on the evidence that had already been adduced, it would be in complete ignorance of the subject. It was therefore proposed by them to examine witnesses, who might fill up the chasm left by those who had been examined. Mr. Tierney, Mr. Whitbread, Dr. Laurence, Mr. Ponsonby, and Mr. A. Baring, Mr. Spencer Stanhope expressed his re-expressed their satisfaction to find, that it gret that there was no clause in any of was at length intended by the hon. gent. Mr. N. Calvert thought the regulations proposed by the right hon. gent. for transferring the duties on Licences for shooting game, from the Stamps to the Assessed Taxes very good, but suggested, that there should be duplicates of the receipts given for the amount of the duty, in order that the person who paid the duty might have something to shew in proof of his having paid it. opposite to enter into a full investigation | alluded to, and remarked that several of this most important subject. Mr. Tierney declared his intention of moving for the attendance at the bar of the 34 gentlemen who had signed the Petition in favour of the Orders in Council presented by an hon. bart., that they might communicate to the house the information which they described themselves to possess. It was ultimately agreed that the chairman should report progress, and ask leave to sit again; and the house having been resumed, the committee was appointed to sit again on Monday, for which day, on the motion of the chancellor of the exchequer, several witnesses were ordered to be summoned. HOUSE OF COMMONS. Monday, April 4. [CONDUCT OF MARQUIS WELLESLEY.] Mr. H. Wellesley said he was under the necessity of trespassing for a few moments upon the time of the house, in consequence of a gross misrepresentation (inserted in a morning paper called the Times) of several passages in the speech delivered by an hon. director on Thursday last. Mr. Wellesley observed, that the statement contained in the paper which he held in his hand, was directly and absolutely contradictory to the whole tenor of the hon. gent.'s speech, at least as far as it related personally to lord Wellesley and himself; as whatever opinions that hon. gent. might have expressed with respect to the general arrangements in Oude, he entirely disclaimed any imputations of a personal kind. He was persuaded that the house would feel with him, that to suffer misrepresentations of such a tendency to go forth uncontradicted in a paper of a general and extensive circulation, could not fail to be highly injurious to the character of the individuals alluded to; and therefore that he need to make no apology for having brought the subject before the house. As, however, he was willing to believe that the misrepresentations of which he complained were not intentional on the part of the persons concerned in the paper to which he alluded, he should, with the leave of the house, rest satisfied with having brought the subject under its notice, in the hope that this would be a sufficient warning to those persons to be more cautious and more accurate in fu ture. Mr. R. Thornton said, he understood his speech on a former evening to be the one friends had stated to him how much it was misrepresented, which afterwards was confirmed by his own perusal of what was attributed to him. Though he had animadverted strongly on the general system of policy in India, and the particular transactions in Oude, he had pointedly signified, that he meant to impute nothing disrespectful to the personal character of the noble marquis, or of the honourable gentleman himself. Had he been only silent as to every thing of a personal tendency, the allusions in the newspaper would have been highly unjustifiable; but when he had, in two separate debates, adopted the language thrown out as a challenge by an hon. baronet (sir John Anstruther), and admitted, with him, that there was no where an attempt to wound the noble marquis by personal insinuations, Mr. Thornton thought it very unfortunate that the erroneous and clumsy reporter of a newspaper should mislead the public mind. He believed the misrepresentation arose from accident, not from design, and therefore hoped no further steps would be taken against the proprie, tors of the paper in question. The Speaker hoped the house would excuse him for remarking, that however the practice might have been tolerated, the house was always at liberty to limit, and if necessary, to punish, any abuse of its privileges, in the publication of what purported to be reports of its proceedings. At present, he did not understand that any complaint was about to be made with a view to the animadversion of the house. [SUSSEX ELECTION PETITION.] Mr. C. Wynne rose, pursuant to notice, to move that the minutes of the committee appointed to try the merits of the Petition against the election and return for the county of Sussex, should be laid before the house. As the motion was one rather unusual in its nature, he thought himself called on to state the grounds on which it was made. A motion was made, before the committee was appointed, for an exchange of the lists of objectionable votes on both sides, which motion was negatived. The consequence was, that when the committee met, and proceeded to investigate the merits of the petition of Mr. Sergison, they were obliged to decline entering at all into an examination of its merits, because they considered themselves as precluded, by the resolution of the house, from examining the validity of those votes which would have been questioned | ther from his intention than to find fault by the petitioner. Nothing was more dis- with the decision of that committee. He tant from his mind than to call in ques- might take upon himself, however, to tion, either the decision of the committee, state, that in consequence of the standing or any part of their proceedings; but he order of the house, the majority of that thought it extremely important, that the committee had found themselves placed standing order of the house, upon which in a very unpleasant situation. The prothe decision was founded, should be al-gress of the business was this; a resolution tered, not merely by a resolution of the house, but by act of parliament. And, as a specific ground on which he should afterwards move for leave to bring in a bill for this purpose, he now moved, That the minutes of the proceedings of that committee should be laid upon the table of the house. The Chancellor of the Exchequer was of opinion, that before the house acquiesced in the motion which had been now submitted to them, they should be put in possession of facts different from those with which the hon. gent. had prefaced his motion. It was not usual for the house to agree to such a motion, except upon some resolution of the election committee, or upon some report made by this committee to shew its propriety or necessity. With respect to the decision of that committee, he was certainly as averse from questioning its propriety as the hon. gent.; and if he were to deliver an opinion upon the subject, he would say that they had acted right in paying attention to the resolution of the house. Whether the standing order ought to be altered was another question, and one which might be discussed, whether the minutes of the committee were or were not before the house; because, if a doubt existed, either respecting its propriety or interpretation, the proposed alteration might take place, as well upon the existing doubt as upon the proceedings of a committee, in their application to the individual case. He was of opinion, that the proceedings now moved for were not only unnecessary, but that their production would be attended with considerable inconvenience: because the debate which might afterwards take place upon them, would then involve the propriety of the decision of the committee, which, agreeably to the spirit of the Grenville act, ought in no case to be called in question. Mr. Tierney said, that as he had been a member of the committee on the Sussex election, he should shortly state to the house the circumstances under which that committee decided upon the merits of the petition; and this statement he prefaced with a declaration, that nothing was fur him. was passed by the house at the commencement of every session, that when a petition was lodged against a sitting member, the petitioner should call upon the sitting member to exchange lists of the votes against which he meant to object, 21 days before the trial of the election; and, vice versa, that the same rule should be observed by the sitting member towards the petitioner. Mr. Fuller, in the present instance, gave a written notice of his intention not to defend his seat, so the petitioner had not thought it necessary to comply with this rule. Some of the electors, however, who had voted for Mr. Fuller, announced their intention of defending it for In consequence of this notice, a motion had been made in the house for an exchange of lists, which was negatived; and on the debate which took place on this motion, the right hon. the chancellor of the exchequer had opposed the motion, on the ground that the committee would not be bound by that decision of the house, but would be left at liberty to call whatever evidence they might think proper, though on this evening he had given it as his opinion, that they did right in attending to the resolution of the house. After the committee met to decide upon oath on the merits of the election, and when Mr. Sergison's counsel tendered a list of 500 votes to which he meant to object, the counsel for the other party objected that the committee, by the standing order of the house, could not admit any evidence upon the inadmissibility of these votes, because the lists had not been previously exchanged; and the committee, he believed from the most honourable motives, had sustained the objection. Under these circumstances, the committee had only to choose between one of three decisions to declare the election void, which they could not do because this was not a prayer of the petition; or that Mr. Sergison ought to have been returned, which they could not do because his opponent, Mr. Fuller, had a majority upon the poll; or to do what he believed they did most conscientiously and sincerely, to decide that they felt themselves obliged to declare Mr. Fuller duly elected because | who was the subject of the motion, would they did not consider themselves at liberty, acquit him of any personal disrespect toconsistently with the order of the house, towards him, and would believe the motion enter into an examination of the votes, to be directed, as it really was, and not against which Mr. Sergison meant to ob- against him, but against the office of chairject, and by overthrowing which he was man of the committee of ways and means. firmly convinced that he should be ableWhen he had originally the honour to sugto establish his own election. Such were the circumstances in which the committee was placed a situation which, he was convinced, a majority of that committee had felt to be a very unpleasant one: and in these circumstances his hon. friend had moved for the minutes of the proceedings of the committee, with a view to ground upon those proceedings an act of parlia-specific ground, that he held a sinecure in ment for the purpose of remedying a hardship which seemed to be felt on all sides, by enacting, that in future the lists of objectionable votes between the petitioner and the sitting member shall be peremptorily exchanged. The Chancellor of the Exchequer explained, that when he said that the committee had done right in attending to the resolution of the house, he did not mean the decision of the house with regard to an exchange of lists in the present case, but the standing order of the house regulating their exchange to 21 days before the trial of the election. Sir T. Turton allowed that there was a great hardship in the present case, which ought to be prevented from recurring in future, by an alteration in the law: but he objected to the present motion, as tending to call in question the decision of the committee, and thus to destroy the purity of the Grenville act. After some observations from earl Temple, Mr. Graham, and Mr. Ponsonby, the house divided upon Mr. Wynne's motion: Ayes, 29; Noes, 56; Majority, 27. [FINANCE COMMITTEE.] Mr. Biddulph rose, agreeably to notice, to move that Rd. Wharton, esq. having been elected chairman of the committees of ways and means and supply, be excused from giving his attendance on the Committee of Finance, of which, previous to his appointment to the chair of the public committees of this house, he had been a member, and that the name of John William Ward be inserted as a member of the Committee of Finance in his place. The hon. gent. in alluding to the appointment of Mr, Wharton to the chair of the public committees, expressed his confidence that there was no management in that nomination; and also expressed a hope that the hon. member gest such a committee to the house, he If these men |