PETITION FROM Dumbarton RESPECTING THE INCOME TAX.] A Petition of the freeholders, commissioners of supply, heritors, and justices of the peace of the county of Dumbarton, was presented and read; setting forth, known by the experience of the Act complained of to be more fair than what is now practised; and that the petitioners do most solemnly declare (many of them being commissioners under the Property Tax Act) that it is their firm belief the Scottish occupiers of land will pay to the full their proportion of the tax on income, by their profits being rated at one-third part of the amount of rent paid, and no re-valuation to take place at the expiry of every seven years of the existing leases, until the said leases shall exceed the term of 19 or 21 years; and praying the House to alter so much of the existing statute as charges the tenant or occupier of land in Scotland to the Property Tax with a profit equal to one-half of his annual rent, and which orders a re-valuation of all farms at the expiration of seven years, and to have it enacted that the Scotch farmer's profits shall not be computed at more than one-third of the rents actually paid, and that no re-valuation shall take place until a lease shall have endured for 19 or 21 years." Ordered to lie upon the table. PETITION FROM LIVERPOOL RESPECTING PEACE, &c.] Mr. Canning presented a Petition signed by 6,000 of the inhabitants of Liverpool, with the contents of which he could not, he said, agree. The Petition was read, setting forth, "That the experience the petitioners have had of the mode by which the tax on income is levied on tenants and occu. piers of land in Scotland, most completely convinces them of the unequal pressure of it on that description of his Majesty's subjects, insomuch that with the most ardent desire to render this tax as productive to the revenue as possible, they feel confident that the enactment, declaring in all cases one-half of the land rent to be profit, is as arbitrary in its principle as it is highly oppressive in its execution; and that the petitioners are impressed with the fullest conviction that the profits arising from tenanted lands in Scotland do not amount, upon the average, to more than one-third part of the rent paid; and that by the statute 46 Geo. 3, c. 65, it is also enacted, that at the end of every seven years of the duration of a lease, the lands eccupied shall be re-valued, and the benefits which a farm may have received by the outlay of a tenant's capital thereon, shall subject him to an increased rate of taxation; and this they humbly conceive to be most unjust in its principle and operation, and most highly injurious to the improvement of bad or waste lands, as it "That the Petitioners deem it expedient, is a fact well known to every agriculturist, at this momentous crisis, to exercise their that although the farmer's capital is ex- privileges as Britons, by humbly stating to pended in the amelioration of his lease- the House their sense of public grievances, hold, the returns have not, in seven years, and by respectfully but firmly calling upon in any measure indemnified him for his the House to apply to those grievances such expended capital, so that at this period of remedies as they conceive to be pointed his lease he may be said to have sunk his out by the principles of the constitution; capital without a return, and to have in- and that the petitioners, in the first place, curred a heavy penalty, under the autho- beg leave to remind the House that it is rity of an act of parliament, for having now 20 years since his Majesty's minispresumed to raise two blades of grass or ters engaged this nation in a war with corn where only one or none grew before; France, for the avowed purpose of reducand that the petitioners are aware of the ing that power within her ancient limits, reasoning which may be used with some and of restraining her influence in the appearance of justice for fixing an arbi- affairs of Europe: how miserably this protrary profit on agricultural industry, that ject has failed, how widely the limits of the great body of farmers are not, from France are extended, and how pernicious to their education and pursuits, qualified to this country her predominant influence in render such written statements or accounts the affairs of Europe has for some years of their annual gains to commissioners been, it is unnecessary for the petitioners under the Property Tax, as men of other to state, nor will they particularise the professions are by law required to do, but numerous military expeditions, from the while this is conceded, the great deside-expedition to Flanders in 1793 to that of ratum is to fix down the arbitrary assess- Walcheren in 1809, which, after a lavish ment on the farmer, upon a principle expenditure of blood and treasure, have, on our part, resulted in disappointment and discomfiture; and the petitioners farther beg leave to state, that there have occurred periods in the progress of this warfare, in which the enemy was so circumstanced that he might reasonably have been expected to accept of peace on terms honourable and advantageous to this country, but that these opportunities of pacification have been uniformly neglected, and we are now not only involved in hostilities with France and her dependencies, but also with the United States of America; and that the petitioners moreover beg leave to remind the House, that during the continuance of these hostilities a great portion of the manufacturing part of the community have repeatedly been reduced to the extremity of want; that the national debt amounts to eight hundred millions, and that taxation bears so heavily upon the middling classes of society, that his Majesty's Chancellor of the Exchequer is said to have declared, that the present system of finance can be carried no farther; and that the petitioners humbly conceive that the disappointments which the nation has hitherto experienced in the course of the war in which we have been so long engaged, must be imputed as matter of blame either to the individuals employed to execute the measures of government, or to ministers, who by the unskilfulness of their plans have lost attainable objects, or by their folly have wasted the efforts of the nation on objects which are unattainable; and yet the petitioners beg leave to represent to the House, it has so happened that not only the general policy and conduct of the war, but every ill-concerted expedition which has occurred in the course of its progress, and which has been from time to time called into question, stands vindicated upon the Journals of the House, by votes of the majorities of its members; and that the petitioners, after the most serious consideration, cannot but regard as the main and primary causes of these evils, the imperfect state of the representation of the people in the House, and especially the inroads which have been made upon the representative system by the lapse of time, in consequence of which the nomination of the members of decayed boroughs is fallen into the disposal of individuals who systematically make such nomination subservient to the purposes of corruption, and frequently a direct matter of bargain and sale; and that to the aforesaid causes the petitioners cannot but ascribe the fact, that in so many instances placemen and pensioners of the crown who have purchased seats, or who have otherwise corruptly procured from individuals nominations entitling them to sit as members of the House, have been empowered to decide upon their own misdeeds, or upon the misdeeds of those upon whose continuance in office they depended for their subsistence, a practice the obvious tendency of which is to render the responsibility of ministers, the grand security of our national liberty and prosperity, an empty name; and that the petitioners humbly conceive that the above-mentioned evils are greatly aggravated by what they must ever consider as the unconstitutional protracting of the duration of parliaments from three years to seven; and praying the House well to consider the premises, and, by taking immediate measures for the extending of the elective franchise, by the exclusion from the House of placemen and pensioners of the crown, and by the shortening of the duration of parliament, to apply a remedy to evils which are daily increasing in magnitude, and which threaten to undermine the foundation of our glorious constitution." Ordered to lie upon the table. ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL.] Mr. Grattan said, that in order to give the fullest opportunity for a consideration of the Catholic Bill, he wished to propose that the Bill should be now committed pro forma, that the clauses intended to be introduced by his right hon. friend (Mr. Canning) should be read a first time pro forma on Wednesday, and then printed with the Bill, and that the whole should be re-committed on Monday next. He made this suggestion because he thought he saw a fair prospect of a concurrence between those who wished both for emancipation and security, in a measure which he hoped would be productive of great public good, and ultimately tend to gene. ral satisfaction. Mr. Ryder agreed that the mode suggested by the right hon. gentleman was the best that could be adopted. He said he did not expect that his prediction that the original Bill with the supplementary clauses would not pass the House without farther alteration and amendment, would so soon have been fulfilled. Mr. Canning said, that it did not require a prospective, but a retrospective view, to discover that his own ideas and those of his right hon. friend on the subject were in some respects widely different, and would therefore require considerable adjustment. The friends of the measure had, indeed, not only to get over substantial differences, but slighter shades of opinion, nor had they merely to satisfy their own minds on the subject, but to meet, to consult, and treat with tenderness the prejudices of others. He believed, however, they should succeed in coming to a mutual understanding among themselves in the House, as they had done out of it, and then they would only have to perform the more easy task of combating the enemies of the Bill. Lord Castlereagh thought it would be better to debate the Bill when they had the whole of it under their consideration. He indulged the hope that it would be so modelled that he should not be compelled to bring forward any distinct proposition in amendment of it. Mr. Yorke gave notice, that if the clauses admitting Catholics to seats in parliament and to civil and military offices, remained in the Bill, he should propose other exceptions in addition to those already made. Sir J. C. Hippisley said a few words in justification of himself. Mr. Ponsonby hoped there would be no farther delay, and that the question would be effectually discussed on Monday. Mr. Ryder expressed his assent, provided Mr. Canning's additional clauses were brought forward on Wednesday. The House then resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill, when Mr. Grattan brought in certain additional clauses and amendments, which were agreed to. The chairman having quitted the chair, the House resumed, and it was ordered that the House do on Wednesday next again resolve into the said Committee. MOTION FOR PAPERS RESPECTING THE ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIGION.] Sir J. C. Hippisley then moved, "That an humble Address be presented to his royal highness the Prince Regent, that he will be graciously pleased to give directions, that there be laid before this House, 1. Copies of such papers and correspondence in the office of his Majesty's colonial secretary of state, which relate to the exercise of the Roman Catholic religion in the province of Lower Canada, from the 17th of May 1763, to the 9th of March 1813, inclusive.-2. Copies or extracts of corres pondence or minutes of proceedings of his Majesty's ministers, relating to the appointment of Roman Catholic bishops in Malta and Saint Domingo, subsequent to the conquest of those islands by his Majesty's arm3.-3. Copy of a letter from sir Charles Stuart, K. B. his Majesty's envoy at Lisbon, to lord viscount Castlereagh, dated the 17th of October 1812, relating to regulations established in Portugal against the encroachments of the See of Rome, together with the following enclosures, viz. copies or extracts of letters from Don Lonigi de Cunha, by command of the king of Portugal, to the Pope's Nuncio, dated 27th August 1770, from Don Josef de Aguso, of the university of Salamanca, to marshal Beresford, dated 20th July 1812, and from the king of Portugal to the cardinal patriarch of Lisbon, dated 23d of August 1770.-4. Extract from his Majesty's commission under the great seal to the governor of Jamaica, authorising the said governor to exercise the power of collation to ecclesiastical benefices, passed the great seal 13th November 1807; together with the instructions under the royal sign manual to the governor of Jamaica, clauses 61 to 68 inclusive, investing the said governor with the office of or dinary, and empowering him to enforce ecclesiastical regulations within his government.-5. Copy of proclamation of the government of Bombay, dated the 2d of August 1791, relating to the exercise of the Roman Catholic religion within the limits of that government.-6. Extract of the constitution of Corsica, ratified by his Majesty in the year 1794, Title X. Articles, 1, 2, 3-treating of religion."-Or dered. HOUSE OF LORDS. SINECURE OFFICES' BILL.] Earl Gros venor rose to move the second reading of the Sinecure Bill; and, after some preliminary observations, stated his apprehensions, that his arguments would not be very favourably received, and that he should be left in a minority. He was sorry that the Bill had not been taken in hand by one more capable of doing it justice than himself. He had applied to another noble lord to undertake the duty; but this had been refused, so that he himself was under the necessity of moving the second reading of the Bill. The object of the Bill was to abolish sinecure offices, four of the cursitors were to be continued, for this very good reason, that four only did the whole of the duty,-the other 20 did absolutely nothing. As the present system of sinecures, then, was not calcu lated for the reward of public services, and only an unnecessary expence to the public, he hoped their lordships would concur in the principle of the Bill. To any alterations in the details that might be found expedient, he should have no objection. Nothing could be more popular than the passing of this Bill would be. It would produce almost as much joy in the public mind, as the triumphant manner in which her royal highness the Princess of Wales had been cleared from the foul charges and machinations of her enemies. He wished the author of the Bill had been in the House, to ward off, with his broad shield, some of those hard blows which would be aimed at his Bill by the noble and learned lord on the woolsack. The Bill, however, he hoped, would, notwithstanding these hard blows, be passed by their lordships. He concluded by mov and to regulate those offices which were | not sinecures, but where the duties were executed by deputy, and where the emoluments were much too large. This would be a most useful measure in an economical view, and one which, therefore, deserved the support of their lordships. There was not in the whole practice of the constitution a greater monster than this system of sinecure offices, where the holders were paid for doing nothing. They were not themselves the constitution, but an abuse of the constitution. It might be argued, that they were necessary for rewarding merit and services; but they were very ill calculated for that purpose. When the claim of a man of distinguished merit arose, there was generally no vacancy of this kind; and when the vacancies occurred, the offices were in truth given away upon political or family considerations, without much regard to distinguished merit. The word sinecure' was a very unpopular word, and indeed so was the word pension,' of which several no very favourable definitions had been given. He was informed, that it had been sarcasti-ing, that it be read a second time. cally stated in another place, that it was The Lord Chancellor said, that no alteno matter should the Bill pass the other ration had taken place in the Bill since House of Parliament, for it was sure to be last year, and his reason for opposing it thrown out in the House of Lords. Now now as he had done then, was, that it was he hoped their lordships would disappoint utterly impracticable, if not unintelligible. that expectation. Under the present cir- It was expected by the noble lord that he cumstances of the country, every mea- should strike some hard blows, from his sure was valuable which had a tendency enmity to the Bill and its author; but he to promote economy, and unless their disclaimed any such enmity, unless it was lordships agreed to the principle of this a proof of enmity, that he felt no respect Bill, he was afraid that their House, how- for what he did not understand. The ob ever undeservedly, would sink consider-ject of the Bill was to abolish two or three ably in public opinion. The noble lord on the woolsack had declared, that unless he (lord Grosvenor) called the attention of the House to this Bill, he (the Chancellor) would. Now if the noble and learned lord had a partiality for the Bill, and would engage to support it, he would very willingly give up the task to him: but he rather thought the partiality of the noble and learned lord to the Bill, resembled that of the wolf to the lamb: it was a love -to strangle it. But he hoped their lordships would observe that this Bill meddled with no vested interests, with none of the places about the royal family, or any of fice in which a sinecure might be of any real utility. In adverting to some of the most useless offices, he mentioned the noble and learned lords cursitors, of which body there were 24. The emoluments of 20 of these were to be abolished, and only hundred offices which had subsisted for ages, and to reduce the salaries of others within reasonable limits. Now he must remark, that those noble lords who were born to great fortunes, were rather hard on the more laborious part of the community, who, like himself, had nothing but their salaries to subsist upon. They were for weighing the public services of professional men in the nicest balance, and for having them paid with the strictest economy. Such was the ignorance, however, with which the Bill was framed, that it proposed to abolish the office of deputy registrars of the court of Chancery as sinecures, by which means, if this Act passed, the doors of Chancery would be closed to-morrow, for there were no principal registrars of that court, and the whole business was done by the deputies, as they were called. The task of origi nating a reform in the state, difficult and hazardous at all times, certainly required greater consideration than had been given to the present measure, or than (he would add) those persons were capable of giving to the subject, who could twice send up so crude a project as this Sinecure Bill. In answer to what had fallen from the noble earl, he would say that the House of Lords were as attentive to real economy as any other branch of the legislature, but they were not willing to deprive the crown of the power of rewarding public merit. The Earl of Lauderdale expressed his decided disapprobation of the Bill both in its principle and in its detail. It would effect no saving at all, and in a constitutional point of view, he considered it as highly mischievous. It indeed required more ingenuity and attention than fell to his lot to understand even a single clause of it. The very title was absurd. It called upon the House to abolish and regulate certain sinecure offices, all and each, that is, they were called upon to regulate what they had just abolished. The salaries of public offices were too low at present; they had not risen with the depreciation of money, and increase of business; and as being born to a large fortune was not always the sure forerunner of great talents, he was unwilling to starve the public service by withholding a suitable reward from able men; by taking away or diminishing the salary of an office, and thus very probably losing the service of the individual who filled it, the country might be plunged into a war which would cost them fifty millions. He agreed that there were many offices which might well be abolished, and which ought to be so by the executive government; but it was not true, as the Bill seemed to imply, that there was more danger to the constitution from this source than in former times. Not to refer to the administration of sir Robert Walpole, even in the year 1705, and before the Union, the number of placemen in the House of Commons far exceeded what it was at present. No government could subsist without a system of rewards as well as punishment, these were not to be governed entirely by reason; at least, he had never read a single statute, though he had read a good many, which depended on good logic. By the present Bill, the crown would have been prevented from rewarding such talents as those of Mr. Burke and Mr. Fox. The noble lord concluded with making some strictures on the wording of the Bill, and with giving his decided opinion against it. Lord Ellenborough said, that omne ignotum pro magnifico seemed to be verified with respect to some of the offices in the present Bill, for he had never heard of them. Thus, for instance, the Clerk of Nisi Prius on the Oxford circuit was mentioned in the list of sinecures; he knew of no such office, though he should be glad to find that it existed, as he should lose no time in filling it up. Several of the offices, in the court of King's-bench, were classed as sinecures, though they were places of hard duty; this was the case with his own secretary. Additional assistants were employed, because those that they before had were found unable to get through the business. Yet the present Bill proposed to get rid of these additional offices, which was as absurd, as if, because you can hardly pull up Highgate-hill with two horses, you should take off one of them. The only intelligible part of the Bill was what might be called the jocular part of it; he alluded to the curious manner in which different officers were put together in the same trucklebed, as the Auditor of the Exchequer with the Surveyor of the Forests, and many others which had as little connection. For himself, he would only say, that the emoluments of his office barely enabled him not to trench upon his private fortune. His profits came in by driblets of 2s. 6d. and 6s. 8d. and not like the payments of gold which the noble lord received from his Cornish lead mines. Yet he thought that those who held high situations in the country ought not to be reduced to the situation of paupers. If the Bill had any principle (of which he spoke very differently) it was to substitute pensions for sinecures, and to appreciate public service by length of time, the worst measure of it that could be devised. Earl Grosvenor shortly replied, when the motion being put, it was negatived without a division. HOUSE OF COMMONS. Tuesday, May 18. LEATHER TAX.] Mr. Benson, in rising to bring forward his motion on the above subject, pursuant to notice, disclaimed all imputation of a wish to embarrass the right hon. gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the furtherance of his plans of finance. He rose for the purpose of protecting a trade which had been long |