NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE House of Commons met again on Monday, and the House of Lords on Tuesday. Last night, Lord ALTHORP made his long-deferred financial statement for the current year. Anticipating a revenue of .46,4194,128/., which will exceed the expenditure by 1,571,909/., he proposes to apply 1,056,000/. of this surplus in the reduction of the ,following taxes. '
Tiles £37,000 Marine Insurances 100,000 Advertisements - 75,000 Assessed Taxes 244,000
Raw Cotton 300,000
Soap' 593,000 Total £1,349,000
From increased consumption, and a decrease in the amount now paid for drawbacks, he calculates that the loss to the revenue occasioned by the reduction of the Soap-duty will not exceed 300,000/. The -duty on Marine Insurances is reduced by about one half its present amount; as is the case with regard to the Soap and Cotton-duties. The duty on Advertisements, instead of
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being 3s. 6d. for every insertion, s to be 2s. for the first, ls. 6d. for the second, and Is. for every subsequent insertion. The reduc- tion in the Assessed Taxes consists principally in taking off the duty on shop-windows, and part of that upon houses which are attached to shops. The duty on Tiles is entirely abolished, and the titopetinv Stamp Receipt-duty is also thrown into the scale of reductions. "A surplus of about half a million will remain appli- cable to the reduction of the Debt, or any other more beneficial purpose, for which Parliament may think fit to use it. Lord ALTHORP seems to be aware that considerable disappoint-
ment will he occassioned in the towns by the trifling and partial
reduction in Assessed Taxes, and in the country by the con- tinuance of the duty on Malt. It might have been better, cer- tainly, as the Post suggests, to have taken off the whole of the Soap-duty, which amounts to about 1,200,000/., although the loss to the revenue would not probably have exceeded 700,000/., and thus at once have got rid of a heavy tax, and all the expense of collecting it.
As it is, the relief which will be afforded by his proposed re-
ductions, will not be felt by those who have been most urgent in their applications for the repeal of certain taxes. We question whether the London shopkeepers and householders will be very grateful for the reduction of 244,000/. which has been conceded to them out of the three millions they asked ; and as for the Ad- vertisement-duty, Lord ALTHORP has contrived to render his plan for its reduction so complex, as to take away much of the small benefit which the press and the public might derive from it— would it not have been more discreet to have reduced it by one half at once? The repeal of the additional duty laid upon raw Cotton, and the reduction of those upon Marine Insurances are proper measures. Indeed, as Mr. HUMS remarked, in every in- stance the plan is good "as far as it goes ;" and knowing how Lord Aranonta has been beset from various quarters and by no means putting any faith in his skill or vigour as a financier, we confess that we are little if at all disappointed by his Budget. There was a struggle between Lord ALTHORP and Mr. MA- THIAS Arrwoon last night, as to who should have the precedency in bringing forward their respective plans. Mr. AITWOOD at length very reluctantly gave way, upon the understanding that Mondaynight should be left open for the discussion of the Distress and the Currency question. The Government plan for the commutation 'of Tithes was brOuglit forward by Lord ALTHORP on Thursday. The principle of the bill
is the perpetual commutation of tithes, both clerical and lay, for a carn-rent. During the term of one year from' the passing of the bill, the tithe-payer and the tithe-receiver may agree upon the amount of the equivalent. Though the commutation is to be perpetual, the actual amount of it in money is to be regulated by the price of corn, the averages of which are to be taken regularly by the Ma-
gistrates at Quarter-Sessions. After the expiration of the first
year, the bill becomes compulsory,—that is, either party may select a valuator, from a certain number of persons appointed for
the purpose, in equal proportions by the Bishop of the diocese and the Magistrates at Quarter-Sessions, and give notice to the other party that he is about to take advantage of' the provisions of the bill. The valuators are directed to take the average of the annual payments for the precading seven years as the basis upon which to fix the amount to be paid in future : but if the payments hitherto made should seem to them to be upon too high or too low, a scale; they may vary the amount of commutation to the extent of ten per cent. The payments are to be made in grain or money at the option of the receiver; but if he chooses grain, then the payer may select the description of grain—wheat, barley, or oats—which suits him best. As respects the Clergy, the commutation is to be perpetual ; but lay impropriators and their tenants can only esta- blish one for seven years. This plan, in its main features, appears to be equitable and honest. The details are as yet but imperfectly known; they will probably be somewhat difficult to 'manage. But it should be borne in mind,- that the system .which the bill .will.get.rid of, is the most vexatious and impolitic which it is. possible to conceive. Some Minorlosses and inconveniences may well be endured for the Sake of its-extinction. It was well stated by Lord ALTH on?, that the measure was pregnant with this great advantage to the Landed interest, that it would give them the power of employing their capital upon the land without being checked by. a _tax in the shape of tithe. The Clergy will certainly lose the amount which they would derive under the existing system from thecapital laid out in augmenting the produce of the soil; but on the other hand, they will be relieved from all the quarrels and difficulties en- gendered by the present mode of collecting their income. The gain to the Establishment appears to be very decided indeed. The landed property of the country will be firmly saddled with the ex- pense of the perpetual maintenance of the Clergy. The hatred of the present mode of remunerating them is so great, that it has be- come questionable in the minds of many whether they should be remunerated by the public at all. The proposed plan resembles an advantageous lease for a thousand years conferred upon a ten- ant who was just expecting to be turned out of his farm. We are hot -sUrpriied.thatitavas well received by the High Church party, They have shrewdness enough to understand that it is the best -measure which, under existing circumstances, could be proposed for the future support of the Establishment. The Plan does not appear to embrace any provision for the coma mutation of the small tithes. It would indeed be a matter of no little difficulty to value them in the first instance ; and supposing that were d8ne, it would be impossible to commute the tithes of eggs poultry, milk, and pigs, for a fixed annual sum. Surely the absolute extinction of these vexatious and paltry exactions ought to form a part of any plan for the remodelling of the tithe system. In the debate on Lord ALTHORP'S motion, no notice whatever was taken of the feelings with which the Dissenters am likely to regard a measure for perpetuating a revenue for the Established Church. Yet it can hardly be expected that they will regard it with indifference, far less with pleasure. It must be recollected that the Dissenters probably number five or six millions intheir ranks. We shall not be surprised, if a rather formidable opposition springs up from their quarters.
The resolutions for the removal of the Jewish disabilities were carried triumphantly, almost unanimously, on Wednesday. Sir
ROBERT INGLIS, indeed, seems determined to fight the battle of religious intolerance and antiquated prejudice to the last. He was not seconded, as he perhaps expected would have been the ease, by Mr. Conintrr. The latter probably thought that it would have been carrying the joke too far. Mr. ROHRRT GRANT made a sound and historically learned speech in bringing forward the re- solutions; and Mr. MACAuEAT spoke evidently with more sin- cerity and vigour than his conscience allowed him to throw into his recent displays of official special-pleading. . Mr. HUME, on Thursday, moved for the abolition of Civil and Colonial Sinecures, upon, the decease, or removal from any other cause, of the present holders. This was carried wiClitUtl Ikitvisiall . He then moved' that .no person in future she an officethe duties of which are performed , was aarFied. A third motion, which ap the right of the Crown to appoint to certain offiees, was withdrawn. We need not remark upon the great Importanae of tile' principle which the House of Commons has at last been prevailed on to sanction.
It will be recollected', that in the new Game Bill of last session, a clause was inserted by the Lords, giving the landlord the right to the game on his property, which had always been held, under the common law, to belong to the tenant, when not specially re- served in the lease. This clause acted as a gross violation of ex- isting contracts. In some instances, land had been taken solely for the purpose of shooting over it : the tenant has, under this Act, been warned off, and the landlord has sent his servants to bag the game which he had virtually sold to his tenant. Mr. LENNARD, on Wednesday, moved the second reading of a bill which he had introduced for the purpose of empowering the tenants to kill game, as heretofore, on the land they held, unless prevented from doing so by the terms of the lease : but his motion was rejected, and the bill thrown out, by a majority of 43 against 29. Thus the palpable violation of the rules of common honesty, which was perpetrated by the Peers, has been sanctioned by the Reformed House of Commons. It is to be noted, however, that there were only 76 members in the House. Indeed, the attendance generally during the week has been very thin : on Monday the Speaker was absolutely left alone, and quitted the chair at two o'clock.
Sir EARDLEY WILMOT has obtained leave to brim,' in a bill to mitigate the punishment for offences committed by juvenile thieves. He would punish petty larceny summarily, and without the intervention of a jury, not as a felony, but simply as a mis- demeanour, when committed by a child of tender age. Many objections, and some weighty ones, were urged against this mea- sure. Sir T. FREMANTLE said that the old thieves would hire the young ones to commit robberies, if the latter were allowed to escape with trivial punishments; and there seemed to be a very general disinclination to intrust such extensive powers to the Magistrates as the bill was intended to confer. It was agreed on all hands, however, that an effort should be made to arrest the progress of juvenile delinquency, which is fearfully on the increase.
Lord WYNFORD has been showing off in the Lords as a reformer of the law. He had introduced a7bill for lessening the expenses of legal proceedings : on Tuesday it was ordered to be read a second time that day six months, on the motion of his friend Lord LYNDHURST; who said it was a most imperfect and injudicious measure, and would increase instead of diminishing the expense of a trial at least a hundredfold. This is precisely the kind of bill which we should have expected Lord WYNFORD to introduce on the subject.
