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    December 18, 1852.] THE LEADER. 1201

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    THE FRAIL-BERESFORD COMMITTEE. Although ...

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    ANTT-BUlXiF/r MKKTINGS..Soirj'UWAKtf, fo...

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    The Parliament Of The Week. Financial De...

    also conterminous with ardent spirits . If , cert ainly a ff " ** reform and change of system could hi achieved ) the ease -Would be different , but the result of the proposed alteration would be to increase all the objections to the present system . There was a smack and savour of compensation about the proposed repeal . Showing that this measure would not benefit the consumer , he considered it with reference to the revenue , and argued from the analogy in the case of beer ( which , with 20 per cent , taken off , increased only 25 per cent , in 22 years ) , that the Chancellor of the Exchequer ' s anticipation had been much too sanguine . Then , he remarked , the repealing of one tax in order to impose another might bo justifiable , "but

    would draw down a severity of scrutiny which this proceeding could not boar . The Chancellor of the Exchequer had said that the principles of the Budget were newthe Home Secretary , that they were old . He could not hold with both , if any gentleman could ; but he inclined to hold with the former . Disallowing the right of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to call himself a follower of Free-trade principles , or those of Sir Robert Peel , who invariably adhered to the principle of raising within the year ample sums for the services of that year , he proceeded to the subject of the Income-tax . A question had been opened , he said , of a most formidable character , but the course of the Government had been that of

    pandering to the coarsest passions , by casting upon the world seductive arrangements which it was known could never be carried into effect . If there were no real plan for rearranging the Income-tax , the Chancellor of the Exchequer had been guilty of a grave offence against the public , laying much stress upon this part of the argument , he denied that any plan for separating precarious from permanent income had ever yet been presented to Parliament . He lastly affirmed that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had presented a Budget without a surplus , and had in the earlier part of his speech gone a long way towards admitting it . Borrowed money alone was provided for the surplus of the year , and that was no surplus at all . These were not times to trifle with the revenue : He asked whether the committee was prepared

    to support a Government who so dealt with it ? The Chancellor of the Exchequer had laid out its good deeds for approbation that night , as a shopman paraded his wares . Hia predecessors had effected reformations like those of which he boasted , but had not found it necessary so to parade them . He voted against the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his Budget , because that Budget was the most subversive one he had ever seen , and he opposed it in support of the conservative principles common , he believed , to a majority of the House of Commons . He concluded with an earnest warning to the Ministerialists that they were all at the bar of public opinion , and that they would look back upon their support of this Budget with a late but an ineffectual regret . ' After some observations from Mr . CoKOl ^ Y , in

    reply to a few words addressed to him by Mr . Gladstone , tlie Committee then divided , and the numbers

    were—For the resolution 286 Against it 305 Majority against Government . 19 The Chancellor of the Exchequer then suggested the adjournment of the House until Monday . The House adjourned at twenty minutes to four .

    TENANT BIGHT . The debate on the second rending of the Tenants Compensation ( Ireland ) Bill , adjourned on the 7 th inst ., was resumed , on Wednesday , by Mr . , T . D . Fitzgerat / d , who reproached the Government , and especially the Attorney-General for Ireland , with dealing unfairly with the bill of Mr . Serjeant Sheo , which , although Mr . Napier had , he said , consented to its second reading , was now stigmatized as destructive of the rights of property and embodying a Communistic principle . He ( Mr . Fitzgerald ) assented to the principle of that bill , recognising property in improvements , though ho objected to many of its details ; whereas ho dissented from Mr . Napier ' s bill , because its details rendered the claims to such property liable to be defeated ; although lie did not oppose its being read a second time , because its preamble was largo enoug h to develop the true

    principle . Mr . Napier , vindicated his own consistency , and reiterated the explanations he bad given , when he introduced this and the other Irish land bills , of the theory and principles of his new agricultural code , especially of thin part of it , in which his object had been to reconcile the rights of property with the rights of industry . He gave a history of the tentative legislation with reference to this question , and , professing an honest to

    desire to bring it to a final settlement , lit ) proceeded exp lain andMefond the details and machinery of his hill , which , he observed , avoided all interference with tho Ulster tenant right , or any other custom or private agreement , between landlord and tenant , securing to the latter all the rights which even Mt . H . Crawford cluimod for him , consistent , with tho rights of property . Ho the entered upon a criticism of Mr . Hhee ' s lull , which , he contended , involved the principle of coinpul-H <> ry valuation , ami specified a variety of objections to

    'ts leading principles and provisions . Mr . L . k-a * seconded Mr . KitzgeraM ' s cull for explanation on the subject , of the reference of the two bills < o a wicct , committee , asking whether tho incm . ry wan *•<> bo un illuHory one , which could huvo »¦« «« " » * " ll MX , bond fide , and unbiased inquiry . The ground

    upon which he objected to Mr . [ Napier ' s bill was , that wishing , as he did , for a measure that should be conservative , he found that bill to be , not a measure of liberal conservative-reform , but one that in its nature ( bating one or two principles ) was essentially revolutionary . . He combated the doctrine that in only a few instances had the Irish landlords obtained rent upon improvements . He showed that since 1780 the rental of Ireland had increased 6 , 000 , OOOZ ., and everybody admitted that the landlords had not made improvements ; so that these were all tenants' improvements , which bad increased the rate of production beyond that of English husbandry . He pursued this line of argument in much detail , in order to show that there had been great improvements of late years in every

    department of agriculture in Ireland , proving the existence there of an active , industrious , and improving tenantry . If , he said , this class had secured to them the power of calling what was really their property their own , if the Irish tenantry were encouraged in their progress , they would become a magnificent machinery for the amelioration of Ireland . The custom in large districts , he asserted , with good as well as bad landlords , was to put , not merely hi gh , but impossible rents upon their tenants , the distinction between the two classes of landlords consisting in the manner in which these impossible rents were enforced j and he contended , that the provision in Mr . Napier ' s bill for compensating periods would afford no remedy in such cases , of which Mr Lucas mentioned several examples .

    Mr . Drtjmmond said Mr . Lucas had made a speech full of most interesting matter , but he was at a loss to understand his objection to the motion . Mr . Drummond admitted everything said by him both of landlords and tenants ; his difficulty was to know why the relations between the two classes in Ireland should differ from those in other parts of the world . If , however , this was an exceptional case , the remedy must be exceptional . Sir J . Shelley observed , that there were two sides to this question , and in giving a compensation to the tenant—a principle he had always advocated—wrong should not be inflicted upon the landlord .

    Lord Naas considered that , although the principle of the two bills were antagonistical and irreconcilable , their details -might , nevertheless , be discussed before the select committee with advantage . He replied to Mr . Lucas , whom he accused of dealing unjustly with the landlords of Ireland , contending that , as a body , they did not deserve such wholesale condemnation , and that the agricultural improvements he had dilated upon might be attributed to the encouragement given by landlords . He believed that the bill of Mr . Napier

    would satisfy the tenantry of Ireland , as it would insure to a good t enant a certain compensation for his improvements . Tho principle of that bill was , that the compensation to a tenant depended solely and entirely upon the improvement he should make ; whereas the other bill threw overboard that wholesome principle , legalizing the tenant-right of Ulster , which depended only upon the incoming tenant ' s disposition to buy , and introduced a compulsory settlement of rent , which was nothing less than Communism .

    Lord Monck admitted that the bill of Mr . Napier was a great advance on the part of the present Government . No measure upon this subject could , in hia opinion , be satisfactory to the tenantry of Ireland which was not based upon tho principle of giving the tenant a property in any additional value he conferred upon the land by the exertion of his industry , or by tlwj investment of hia capital . His main objection to thi « bill was founded upon the complexity of its details . Mr . Wuttjjsidk defended the bill , tho objects contemplated by which he briefly enumerated , and should rejoice , he said , if it could be improved in the committee . He objected to the other bill because it was impossible in Jthcory , wrong in principle , and impracticable in its details . Tho bill was then read a second time , and ordered

    to be referred to a nelect committee . MAJOK nKRESFOJttn ' s CASK . Mr . ( Joui / ihikn , amidst tho deepest silence in the House , brought up , on Thursday , the following report from the select committee appointed to inquire into tho connexion of Major Beresford with tho transactions at the late Derby election : — " Tho select committee appointed to take into

    consideration the petition of certain inhabitant houHohoIdorn of tlio borough of Derby , on the 2 nd of November last , have to report , to your honourable bourns : -That your committee have examined wiItiohhch , nnd huvo hoard counuol in HuppoHof tho petition , utt wellan on behalf of the Hight Hon . William ltonwford , tfeerettiry-iit-War , and a member of Ihia house . Your committee have to report , with reference to I he specific allegations contained in tho report before them , that tho nviuenro lias Hatisticd thorn that a plan for nn organized system of bribery existed in the borough of DnrUy tit tho hint election . That tho Ri g ht . Hon . William Hereford wrote « lottor to one John Frail , of Bbjrowsbury , in tho following tormu : —

    " * A good and safe man , with judgment And quickness , is wanted immediately at Derby . I suppose that you cannot leave your own place ; if not , send some one whom you can trust in your place , let him go to Derby on receiving this , and find the County Tavern , in the centre of the town . Send his card to Cox , Brothers , and Co ., Lead-works , as coming from Chester . That frill be enough . " ' Monday . Yours , W- B . ' That in consequence of such letter , one Thomas Morgan , jun ., was sent to Derb y by the said John Frail , and acting on the instructions therein contained , was subsequently detected and apprehended in Derby , while engaged in carrying out the plan of the organized system of bribery proved before your committee to have existed . Your committee do not think there is sufficient evidence to satisfy their minds that the arrangement , scheme , and object referred to in the petition were known to and concurred in by the Right Hon . W . Beresford ; but your committee are of opinion that the equivocal expressions of that letter ought at least to have suggested to him an idea of the improper use to which that letter might have been , and , in fact , was applied . And they think it exhibited a reckless indifference and disregard of consequences which they cannot too highly censure . " It was agreed that the evidence should be printed .

    December 18, 1852.] The Leader. 1201

    December 18 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 1201

    The Frail-Beresford Committee. Although ...

    THE FRAIL-BERESFORD COMMITTEE . Although the committee sitting to decide how far Major Beresford is implicated in the Derby bribery has keep its doors closed , yet the evidence has been dribbled out to the press ; and the committee are responsible for any errors which may have been set before the public . Substantially , the evidence does not alter the case , nor materially add to what was already known . In his examination , Major Beresford admitted that he wrote the " W . B . " letter ; that he gave it to Cox of Derby , who forwarded it to Frail of Shrewsbury . But he says that he only consented to find a man to watch the other side , prevent illegal practices , and the kidnapping of voters , on the assurance of Mr . Cox , that nothing 1 illegal was intended . The negotiation was carried on at the Carlton . He admits that Frail has been in his pay for three years , at a salary of 300 / . a-year . He does not clejirly explain what his duties were . He could not remember anything about anything—not even his own letters . He professed not to know what he meant by such terms as carrying the borough by " sudden assault , " with 1000 Z . He reiterated the charge of conspiracy against Flewker , Cox of Nottingham , and others . Morgan was afterwards examined . He admitted going to Derby with the " W . B . " letter ; when there , he saw Flewker and Radford , at the County Tavern . Radford merely said , " How are you ? " Morgan said , he thought he was to be a pollclerk ; then found he was to pay legitimate expenses to the holders of tickets for 21 . ; and wondered why they were not paid in an attorney ' s office . He paid such as brought them , having no idea what they were for . A " man in drab" gave him the money to pay with ; he believed the man in drab was Flewker , whom he had previously seen in black . But the landlord of the County Tavern proved that Flewker wore black each time when ho called ; and Lund admitted that he carried heavy parcels to the tavern , and that he wore a drab coat ; so that Morgan's attempt to fix the charge of bringing the money on Flewker failed . Morgan could not remember whether he agreed to tho signal before it wan used ; but he remembered the signal perfectly . It will be remembered that Mr . Beresford said Morgan was sent to prevent illegal practices ; but Morgan admitted that he never heard of any staff to detect bribery , or prevent kidnapping , or any such thing . Frail was examined , sitting on two chairs ; but he merely proved the receipt of the "W . li . " letter ; the sending of Morgan to Derby ; and generally his own intimate relations with tho Carlton .

    Antt-Bulxif/R Mkktings..Soirj'uwaktf, Fo...

    ANTT-BUlXiF / r MKKTINGS . . Soirj'UWAKtf , formally assembled under its high bailiff , led tho metropolitan opposition to the Budget thin week . Resolutions , condennnyg tlus cardinal points of the whole scheme—Ihe correlative doubling and extension of the House-tax , and the repeal of half the Malttax , were agreed to , on Monday , in tho Town Hull . An additional clause was afterwards added , advising t , ho adoption of a legacy and probate-duly on real property , in the event , of new taxes being necessary . Sir Willium Molesworth and Mr . Apsley IVllutt , the borough members , addressed the electors . Kir William opposes the whole Budget , as likely to erento a " deficiency , " and as bused on the rcpcul of tho Malt-tax , which in not called for , arid the extension and increase of the House-tax , which is unjust ,. Mr . Pellatt , like a iuiineleHH but , famous candidate for Bristol , who aaid , "I say ditto to Mr . llurke , " " adheres to tho seulu ments put forth" by Sir William Moluuworth . It in not easy to discern the aentiinenta conuected witll ft tax on liouaou and a tax on malt .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 18, 1852, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18121852/page/5/