The following Bills were severally pre-
sented, read a first time, and ordered to

STANDING ORDERS COM-
MITTEE.

Resolutions reported: -

1. That in the case of the Canterbury Pave-
ment petition, the Standing Orders ought not
to be dispensed with.

SIR ROBERT INGLIS. - I wish to ask my Right Honourable Friend the Member for East Kent, whether he means, to-day, to press the second reading of his Tithe Commutation Bill? My reason for this question is, that we have had the

sufficient opportunity has yet been afforded us to make ourselves masters of its details. I really think that, looking to the state of the House, this is not a favourable opportunity for taking the second reading, and, consequently, affirming the principle of so important a

measure.

- I

SIR EDWARD KNATCHBULL. hope, in answer to my Honourable Friend, to satisfy the House that I am not unreasonable in pressing the second reading of my Bill, as I shall presently do. The order for printing the Bill was made on the 29th of January. I do not think there can be any strong ground, therefore, for the complaint, that the Bill has not been a sufficiently long time before Members. I am aware that, owing to the new system adopted for the transmission of parliamentary papers, Gentlemen who live out of town may not have received their prints of the Bill until two or three days after they would have reached those Gentlemen under the old system. In tnat case I can easily conceive that they may have been put to much inconvenience.

Mr. R. STEUART.. The arrangements were explained by the Chancellor of the Exchequer the other night; but it was found that the Post Office would find some difficulty in carrying it into effect, and therefore some other plan, I believe, will shortly be adopted.

The SPEAKER. · So far as regards the arrangements which have been made for the convenience of Members, in this House, I may observe, that those which I directed were, of course, as conformable with the paper which the Chancellor of the Exchequer had put into my hands relating to the measures to be adopted in the Post Office department.

RETURNS, &c.

British Northern Colonies. On the motion of Mr. GEORGE PALMER, Return ordered, "of vessels which cleared out at the British Northern Colonies in the years 1836, 1837, and 1838, for the

Mr. R. PALMER. Having observed an advertisement, recently, in the public papers, announcing that Her Majesty's ships will be ready to take treasure out to China, I wish to ask the Right Honourable Gentleman opposite, whether private merchant ships may, with safety, clear out for China, and with any certainty of entering their port of destination when they arrive in the Chinese seas?

Mr. LABOUCHERE. - I will be much obliged if the Honourable Member will suffer his question to stand as a notice for to-morrow. I will be prepared to give

him a distinct answer to-morrow.

SIR EDWARD KNATCHBULL. I beg to move the second reading of this Bill. Gentlemen are aware that under the requisitions of the existing Act on this subject, the arrangements for commutation, in any case almost, cannot be completed until the new surveys of parishes which it has been deemed necessary to have executed shall have been made. When that Act was passed, it was calculated that six months would suffice for the preparation of such new surveys. It is quite clear that that expectation has been altogether defeated. Difficulties have arisen in the practical working of the Act, sometimes under the application

sometimes

of its compulsory principle, under that of its voluntary principle, which have, hitherto, prevented the survey from being completed. Since the recess commenced in 1839, a permanent principle has, indeed, been settled for founding these surveys; but the time required for bringing it into general application proves to be much longer than was originally contemplated. My desire is, that the House would sanction a measure like this, the effect of which will be, in cases where the principle of tithe or rent-charge cannot, at once, be agreed upon, to require the proprietor of such rent-charge to give security to the titheowner, within the intent and meaning Two or three of the clauses which relate always of the existing Act of Parliament. to this object, I have inserted (I can have no hesitation in saying) at the suggestion of the Tithe Act Commissioners. I am of opinion that such an arrangement may much facilitate the general operation of that Act. In a word, my principal view is, to prevent tithes being taken in kind calculated and settled; and I hold that where the rent-charge has not yet been this object may be accomplished to the satisfaction of both parties, by providing that security be, meanwhile, given to the party entitled to the tithe. I now move the second reading of this Bill.

Mr. DIVETT. I think I shall be able to show that this is a Bill ill calculated to produce the effect which the Right Honourable Gentleman anticipates from it. The Bill now in operation "for the commutation of tithes was passed through this House after much laborious discussion and consideration. Within these very few years, since that was passed, three or four emendatory Acts have been sanctioned by the Legislature; one of these was the Act 6 Will. IV.; another, the Vict. ; another, the 2 Vict.; and the last, the 2 & 3 Vict. Now, I believe it to be absolutely impossible to dovetail into these several measures of legislation the present Bill, consisting as it does of no less than seventy clauses. The Right Honourable Baronet has said that his object is to prevent the taking of tithes in kind; and, undoubtedly, that would be a most useful and valuable object to accomplish. But I must be permitted to say, that the ample machinery which would be put in motion by a Bill like this in my hand, would, so far from facilitating the views of the Right Honourable Gentleman, infinitely enhance the difficulty of bringing about such a result. I apprehend the matter had better