tlement be made until such works should to solicit from the House that indulgence have been so examined, &c. On the 28th which they always extended to those who of March, he (Sir Benjamin Hall) gave had to answer such charges as had been notice for a return of that Report. He made on the present occasion. With the begged to say that he had no communica- exception of the last sentence but one of tion with Smith or with a single person the hon. Baronet-that in which he exconnected with that Court; but three days pressed a wish that the Commission should afterwards the Court met and desired the be placed on a better footing-there was attendance of the surveyor, whom they no other single statement which he should rated soundly for having, as they imagined, not be obliged to deny, or give a different given him (Sir Benjamin Hall) some in- colour to, in the course of his explanation. formation on the subject. On the 8th of Now, the first charge which had been made April the engineer presented his Report to was, that the Commissioners attended the Commission. It was read, but instead hardly at all to the business of the Comof receiving the Report, the Commission mission. Upon this point he had to refer sent it back and desired him to revise it. the hon. Baronet to the Act of Parliament, On the 10th of April the House ordered which stated that the Commissioners should Smith's Report and the engineer's Report hold one meeting in the month-twelve to be presented. They were presented on meetings in the year. This was the total the 2nd of May, Smith's Report as it number of meetings required by the Act stood, but the engineer's not as presented, of Parliament to be held. The Commisbut as revised, although it bore the date of sioners were only twelve in number, half its former and not amended state. Both of whom, by the clumsy legislation of that Reports were now in the office of the Com- House, were required to be present to conmission, but neither of them had been en- stitute a quorum. The hon. Baronet would tered in the books. He hoped that what see, on reference, that the number of he had said would induce the Government Courts held last year was thirty-two, and to take some steps with respect to the that the number of Committees was Commission, for the manner in which it seventy-seven. This gave an average of performed its duties was disgraceful to the rather more than two Courts for every metropolis. With respect to its financial month. It was to be remembered that affairs, too, it contrasted most unfavoura- these Courts were not primarily for the bly with the former Commission, the lia- consideration of the business of the bilities under which were only 58,195l.; Commission; they passed those orders whereas the liabilities of the present Com- and decisions which the Commissioners, mission were 135,3421. [Viscount EBRING- after mature discussion and consideraTON dissented.] His noble Friend, he ob- tion, had previously agreed upon; and, served, shook his head; but he assured therefore, every single hour spent in him he quoted from the document sent to these Courts represented a far greater that House by the Commissioners them-number of hours spent in the deliberation selves. [Viscount EBRINGTON: So be it.] and consideration of the business of the His noble Friend said So be it;" but the Commission. Now, in order to give the people had got to pay for it. He hoped House some idea of the mass of business that, after what he had said, the right frequently transacted at one single Court, hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State for it was necessary to state that the printed the Home Department would be induced minutes, ninety to one hundred pages in to bring in a Bill to suppress the present length, had frequently to be copied with useless and extravagant Commission, and the formal minutes of the proceedings to place the management of the metropoli- of a single Committee, and that the tan sewers on a better and more satisfac- same number of pages had to be cotory footing than that on which, as the pied with the original minutes. The House had seen, it now rested. He had only to add that he had shown his noble Friend (Viscount Ebrington) all the documents he had quoted; and that, if he should deny the statement he had just made, he hoped he would remember it was the statement of the Secretary of the Commission. 66 VISCOUNT EBRINGTON said, he had Commissioners, in addition to their other arduous duties, were a Court of justice also, entrusted with very large and complicated jurisdiction. In the Courts at Westminister, the few short words of the Judges, "For the defendant," had to be translated by the officer of the Court into a longer minute; and in like manner a long translation had also to be made at the office of the Commissioners of Sewers. | Committee were to be found almost invaWhat was the course adopted by a very riably all the recommendations on which analogous body to the Commissioners, the proceedings of the Court were founded; namely, the Court of Quarter Sessions, and, when these proceedings were agreed which consisted of a body of justices execut- upon, the minutes of them were again ing important works, and taxing the public, submitted to the Commissioners for their and at the same time passing judicial sen- sanction and verification before they were tences? The hon. Member for Oxford- finally entered in the records, and sealed shire (Mr. Henley) knew that in the case with the seal of the Commission. Though of an indictment preferred against the in- the entries in the formal Record were still habitants of a parish for non-repair, the somewhat in arrear, he could state that he few simple words of the Court required had seen, in print, the minutes of the a very large subsequent expansion on Courts up to the 6th of the present month. its records; and he (Viscount Ebrington) It was true that upon the same day when was acquainted with a case in which the Report of Mr. Smith upon the Victoriathat record had not been entered for street sewer was received by the Commonths afterwards, because it was found missioners, they directed their engineer to necessary to take legal advice as to the inspect the sewer and prepare a report manner in which the record should ulti- upon it. On the 8th the engineer came mately stand. The Commissioners of to the Committee of the Commissioners, Sewers had no other object in view but and said he wished to consult them on that of serving the public. They were not some points connected with Mr. Smith's sinecurists receiving large salaries; they Report, and he brought a rough draft were a body of gentlemen, almost all of with him on the subject. The Committee them having other public or private busi- told him to revise the draft, and said that ness to attend to; and he was only aston- they could not receive it in its rough ished at the large amount of time they be- state, but that they would receive his stowed on the enormous mass of business Report in its final shape on some future constantly coming before them. He had day. He revised it accordingly, and on a already said that the Commission of Sewers subsequent day presented it. The hon. was a newly-constituted body acting under Baronet was, therefore, not justified in a complicated Act-an Act of no fewer saying that the Report obtained by the than one hundred and forty-six clauses. House was not the Report it had ordered; They had to frame a new set of forms, for long before the 10th of April, when for they had no precedent under the the Order of the House was made, the old law of sewers to guide them. They found the clauses of the Act of Parliament gave them power to do many things; still, it became frequently necessary to take legal advice as to the form in which the final record was to be entered on the minutes. The record of the Court was kept in manuscript; and whenever any delay ensued from the difficulty of ascertaining the shape in which the formal record should be entered, it was found necessary to delay the entry of all subsequent matters also. The consequence was, that in cases where one hundred pages of manuseript had to be inserted from time to time, errors of the sort mentioned by the hon. Baronet were unavoidable, and would necessarily continue to be unavoidable. For instance, requisite notices had to be expanded in a complicated legal form, several pages long. Now, it was not true that minutes were not kept, and carefully kept, of the proceedings of the Commission. The proceedings of the Commission originated in Committee; in the minutes of the engineer had been ordered to report by the Commissioners; and quite early in the month, several days before the 8th, he (Visct. Ebrington) had consented that the Report so ordered should be moved for unopposed, and had agreed with the hon. Baronet on the very terms of the Motion. So much, then, for the impropriety, or fraud, cr evasion, charged upon the Commissioners with reference to the order of the House. Now, when he interrupted the hon. Baronet respecting the alleged financial position of the Commissioners, he did so on this ground-that the statement did not contain their financial position at present, though it did set forth accurately their financial position at the time of which it bore date. The liabilities were then what they appeared on the face of the papers laid on the table of the House; but at the present moment a very considerable reduction had been made in them, a great part of the rates having been now collected. The expenses of management for the seven former Commissions, during the eleven ner. months of 1847, averaged 6s. 7d. per cent on the rental of the district within their active jurisdiction; and the management expenses of the present Commission during twelve months of the past year had been only 3s. 11d. per cent on the rental of the district under their active jurisdiction. The economical management of the old Westminster Commission had been much praised, and the expenses of their management amounted, in the eleven months of 1847, to 4s. 7d. per cent on the rental of the district under their charge, while the whole expenses of the management over the same area was now, as he had before stated, only 3ɛ. 11d. per cent. They had executed works of drainage at one-fifth less than the expense proposed to be incurred by the old Commission, as ascertained from the estimates they left in the office. The reduction was accomplished by the present Commission executing the drainage in a superior manA good deal of the present pressure upon the ratepayers of the expenses of the Commission, had been occasioned by the clumsy legislation of Parliament, and the consequent difficulty of borrowing money for the purpose of diffusing over a series of years the cost of the works in the manner contemplated in the Act. It was truc a rate of 6d. in the pound had been levied; but how was it expended? Not in improving fashionable neighbourhoods-for the Commissioners thought that work might safely be postponed a while-but in draining and effecting other sanitary improvements in the wretched localities where the poor dwelt in large numbers. In addition to the comprehensive schemes for the arterial drainage of the metropolis, both north and south of the Thames, which the Commissioners had proposed, and presented to the public since their appointment, they had executed works to the extent of 200,000l. last year; and their drainage had been done at a much less cost per yard than their predecessors had paid. They had nothing to conceal. They invited investigation into their proceedings; and if the hon. Baronet would bring forward a Motion in a fair and tangible shape, and take a vote of that House upon it, they would willingly appeal from the vestry at Marylebone to the British House of Commons. MR. HUME said, that all that the noble Viscount had stated would not make up for the irregularities in the accounts of the Commission, and the illegality in their proceedings. Nothing that his hon. Friend Viscount Ebrington (Sir Benjamin Hall) had stated was intended to impute improper motives to the members of the board; but he showed, that somehow or other, everything was in confusion, and it was no wonder that the ratepayers of Marylebone were pestering him and others against what they considered a species of robbery. He hoped that the ratepayers would, in consequence of the suggestion which had been made, go and verify the accounts for themselves. He believed that the Victoria sewer had been executed by the Commissioners at more than 50 per cent above the estimate. So much for the economical management of the Board. He hoped the Government would feel it their duty to inquire into the subject. VISCOUNT EBRINGTON denied that the minutes were in a state of confusion or arrear; and explained that as to the minutes of the Board, there could be no mistake about them as they were made up to the 6th of the present month; and as to the accounts he could not only state that they were in the best possible order, but that the Government Auditor, an independent authority, had complimented in the highest terms the Commission on the state in which he found them. EXPENSES OF PROSECUTIONS BILL. LORD CRANWORTH, in moving the Second Reading of this Bill, explained that amongst its provisions were one enabling the Secretary of State for the Home Department, upon the requisition of the magistrates at quarter-sessions, or of the town council of a municipal borough, to order that in future the clerks to magistrates and clerks of the peace should be remunerated by a fixed salary—not by fees, as at present; and another, for abolishing the expensive process by which prisoners committed in a town which was a county of itself were removed for trial into the adjacent county. Bill read 2a. PROPERTY TAX BILL. The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNE moved the Second Reading of the Property Tax | right hon. Baronet, however, for peculiar Bill. He said, that in proposing this mea- purposes, and for objects stated by him, sure, which was unquestionably, financially and more than once acquiesced in by Parspeaking, the most important measure which liament, was induced to overlook those obhad been proposed this Session, he must, jections, and to propose it in time of peace although all their Lordships were familiar as a temporary tax suitable to be adopted with its details, offer a few observations to by Parliament. He (the Marquess of Lansthe House. In the first place, he would downe) had always felt an objection to that cursorily advert to a verbal objection to tax, not only because it did to a certain dethe Bill which had been pointed out. It gree (though this was balanced by other related to an oversight which had taken considerations) cripple the expenditure of place in the wording of the Bill, in relation those upon whom it fell-not only because to a very important Amendment that had it was liable, as all direct taxes were, to been admitted into the Bill in opposition the imputation of great inequality in partito the wishes of Her Majesty's Govern- cular cases (inequality which he was conment. It was satisfactory to know that vinced no ingenuity exercised by Parliathat oversight would not be productive of ment could effectually remove), but because any injurious consequences in carrying the that inequality was much the more appaBill into execution. He believed that the rent from not being concealed under the Bill, however imperfectly it might be various forms which indirect taxation asworded, would not contain any obstacle, sumed, and, because it was more glaring, either to its construction or to its perfect was therefore felt, or at least was imaginoperation; but, if it should be otherwise, ed, to be more oppressive. Now, he was it would only be necessary to pass an ex- one of those who thought that it was the planatory clause to remove the objection. duty of Parliament, when imposing burAs to the Bill itself, it was one to which dens to an immense amount upon the the attention of their Lordships had been country, to endeavour at least to make frequently called in the course of the last them as palatable as possible, so that they few years; and the only question for their should carry with them, as far as a great Lordships to decide on this occasion was, amount of taxation could carry with it, the how far they considered the present con- feelings, the concurrence, and the approdition of the finances to call for its renewal, bation of the country. These objections even for a limited period. If it were ne- to this species of taxation were, however, cessary, for the purpose of inducing their subject to two qualifications-the question Lordships to agree to the Bill, or for the being how far, by the continuance of this purpose of enabling him (the Marquess of burden, Parliament could facilitate the imLansdowne) to recommend it to their Lord-portation of that produce which was maships' attention, that he should be, as some in this country were, the enthusiastic advocate of direct taxation-if it was necessary that he should be convinced that it was entitled, to a greater extent than at present obtained, to a preference over other modes of taxation, and that it was the foundation of a system to be introduced to a far greater extent, for the purpose of altering the balance of direct and indirect taxation in the country-he should be the most unfit person to recommend the Bill to their, Lordships' attention, because, although he had on former occasions assented to the re-enactment of this measure, it had been with a deep sense of the imperfections that attended it, and of the objections to which it was liable-imperfections and objections which were never stated more strongly or more distinctly than by the right hon. Baronet (now no more) who first induced Parliament to have recourse to this measure in time of peace. That terial to the prosperity of the country and of its manufactures, and how far they could by this means take off those imposts, the effect of whose removal was to improve the revenue and to facilitate the means of getting rid of the income tax itself at a future period, consistently with the observance of faith to the public creditor, and with the general prosperity and interest of the country. He would ask their Lordships whether they thought that, in the present state of the country, this tax actually operated as an impost destructive to the development of the resources of the country, and whether, since its imposition in 1842, it had had the effect in any visible and tangible form of crippling and diminishing the commercial prosperity and revenue of the country. To this question an unanswerable reply was furnished by the state of the revenue, not in one particular portion, but in every portion since the imposition of this tax. Reminding their Lord ships that they had at this moment to pro- | margin for the security of this debt, which vide for the continuance of fifty millions of the nation was bound in honour and good revenue, and for a burden of 787 millions faith to discharge, the surplus would also of debt, he would ask them to observe afford them the means, if they maintained what had been the progress of the revenue the income tax unreduced in amount, of since 1842, when the tax was imposed. removing another important direct tax The net revenue was then 48,084,000l.; which sometimes exercised an indirect from that year to 1850 taxes to the amount pressure, and materially affected the saniof 10,250,000l. were repealed by the two tary comforts and condition of the people Administrations that held office during that he meant the window tax. By removing period; yet in 1850 the net revenue was that obnoxious impost, and substituting 52,810,000l., showing an increase of in- for it a house tax of less amount, and come of 4,726,000l. The actual increase thereby sacrificing upwards of a million of in the net revenue between 1842 and 1850 revenue, they would give a stimulus to the was less by only 777,000l. than the whole building of houses and the improvement amount of the income tax. So that the of dwellings in a manner which would at entire amount of the taxes surrendered once afford greater comforts to their inwas, in the course of ten years, nearly re- mates, and promote the health of the public stored and replaced by the development of at large. He, therefore, thought that the commercial prosperity of the country, their Lordships would make a wise choice which development took place under the in assenting to the repeal of the window imposition of the income tax. They had tax, which had been selected for repeal by therefore established a great power of re- the other House of Parliament. With reproduction, without which they would not gard to the reduction of the duties on have been in their present proud position coffee and timber, coffee gave a remarkable of having to dispute, not so much as to instance of the power in which taxation how they should raise an amount of re- remitted could be replaced by the increased venue, as how they should dispose of the consumption consequent on that remission. amount of the surplus they had obtained. When the duty on coffee was formerly reThe next question was, how should that sur-duced, the effect was that in five or six plus be applied? If they were to ab-years the revenue sacrificed by the reducsorb the whole of it, it would not enable them to get rid of the income tax altogether, but only of a portion of it; and in remitting that portion they would still be obliged to sacrifice the great and important objects of further liberating from fiscal burdens other articles of consumption, which, by being so relieved, would again reach the former amount of revenue, and at the same time promote the comfort and the commerce of the country. Feeling, then, that if they had the income tax at all, they must have it in its present form, he thought that we could not do better than employ it for the purposes which had been explained in the other House-on which the duties at present levied pressed heavily -he meant the reduction of the duties on coffee and timber. The adoption of this course also would attain an object which he was sure every one of their Lordships desired to see attained, namely, the leaving of a sufficient margin for the security of the public credit-a security which, the moment it ceased to be provided for, would threaten destruction of our financial system, and, by necessary consequence, the ultimate destruction of the power of this great empire. But besides providing this The Marquess of Lansdowne tion was not only replaced, but there was an actual increase of revenue from the increased consumption of the article. The further reduction of the duty on coffee would therefore be a judicious measure. The same thing, he thought, would hold good with regard to the proposed reduc tion of the duty on timber. It would be a boon to the shipping interest as well as to the community generally; and, as a proof of this, he might mention that, from the day on which the resolution was agreed to in the other House of Parliament, the price of timber had diminished, and the importation of it had increased. There could, therefore, be no doubt as to the propriety of that reduction. For these objects, then the repeal of the window tax, the relaxation of the duties on coffee and timber, and the reservation of some margin, at least, for the interest due to the public creditor - he recommended their Lordships to apply so much of our surplus revenue. At the same time, for the sake of continuing this great commercial and manufacturing prosperity, it was necessary that this Bill, for a period-he wished that it was not for so limited a period-should be continued. The present Bill was nearly |