On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    of morality , than sneak and snivel over the opinions of a canting ruethodiat rather than those of a bold infidel . "— The motion was carried by 87 to S 3 . EDUCATION OF PAUPER CHILUKEN IN IRELAND . Mr . J . Ball moved that it is expedient that more effectual means should be adopted to improve the education of pauper children in Ireland . According to public returns , the average population in the workfcouses of Ireland is the year 1853 amounted to 150 , 000 , more than one-half of which consisted of children under fifteen years of age . No fewer than 40 000 = of these paeper children were either orphans or had been deserted by their natural protectors during the horrors of the late famine in Ireland ; . Their number had , no doufet , somewhat diminished since 1853 ; but there certainly could not be less than 30 , 000 of that helpless class of children at present requiring support and instruction from the State . The education is very defective , owing mainly to the insufficiency of the teachers , -who are paid at the most miserable rate . Another evil is , that the religious

    instruction given to the children is at present imparted in too sectarian a spirit . In Ulster there are thirteen unions in which there is no . Roman Catholic teacher , though the great majority of the poor profess the Roman Catholic religion . In one case , there was not a single Protestant pauper in the workhouse , and yet the board of guardians thought themselves justified in refusing to appoint a Roman Catholic officer , and of placing a Protestant teacher exclusively over the inmates . On the other hand , there are instances where the power possessed by a Roman Catholic board of guardianslias . been similarly abused . The practice of sending children to the g 3 ol instead of the workhouse , because of the cost being , spread over a larger district , was another reprehensible custom . In England , Parliament gave an annual vote for tlie payment of teachers , and Mr . Ball asked

    the House to extend the same principle to Ireland . — Mr . Kennedy also appealed in behalf of the Irish teachers , the incomes of many of whom scarcely exceed the wages of the humblest labourers in England . —Mr . Hoksman admitted thai ; the existing system is very deficient , and that the law requires such an amendment as will enable it -to act compulsorily upon the local guardians ; but said that , as a great improvement is earning over _ . Ireland , it was unreasonable to ask the Government to contribute pecuniary aid towards the desired object . —Lord Pa LHEitSTON , alluding to the claim made upon the Consolidated Fund , said that Ireland already receives 730 , 0007 . from that source , while England only obtains 362 , 00 OJ . —an assertion against which Mr . French and Mr . Guogan protested , as not containing a complete statement of the case . —The motion was negatived by SO to 32 .

    THE FAST DAT . The Chancellor op the Exchequer , in answer to a question by Sir Joshua Walmsley , said he was informed it was not the practice in the departments of the Admiralty , Ordnance , Board of Works , Postoffice , or Custom-house , to stop a day ' s pay of the workmen on any Fast Day . DISQUALIFICATION OF aiESIBEBS BV TIIE ACCJEPTANCE OF OFFICE . Mr . Wuigiitson moved for leave to bring in a bill to alter and amend the Act G Anno , c . 7 , so far as it relates to the vacating seats in Parliament on the acceptance of office , and explained that its simple object was to provide for the case of persons exchanging from one office to another . —The motion was agreed to . . FttlEITOLT SOCIETIES BILL .

    In the House of Commons on Wednesday , on the order for going into committee on the Friendly Societies Bill , the object of which i 6 to consolidate and amend the law relating to these societies , Mr . Scropjs questioned the policy of appointing Government officers to associations which undertook contracts they were unable to fulfil , and which were not to be depended on for a long term of years . —Sir George Gre y thought the object of the bill most useful . Great care , he believed , had been besto-wod upon it ; the subject had not como before the House

    for the first time ; it had been considered by a select committee , and this was the same bill which , had come from the select committee . Some point * adverted to by Mr . Scrope deserved consideration ; but ho should rcsorvo his observations thereon until tho committee . —Mr . Bright and Mr . Pjbllatt having spoken in favour of the bill , the House went into committee . —In tho discussion , which ensued , clauses 6 , 7 , and 8 , constituting a central unpaid commission wero withdrawn , ami clauses 19 , il (> , 40 , and 44 woro struck out . The rest of tho clauses and the schedulo were agreed to .

    muttxy , L . In the House of Lords , on Thursday , on the motion for tho third , reading of the above bill , Lord Grey inquired on what . principle first commissions in the amiy were granted . He should be unwilling hastily to abolish the practice of granting commissions by purchase , but , on tho other hand , ho was certain that a syBtem of purchase could not be

    maintained unless there was confidence in the . public mind that the officers were perfectly competent for command . Lord Panmure answered that it had been the practice to giv-e first commissions without purchase to some of the cadets who had distinguished tliemselves at the Military Collage at Sandhurst ; next to the sons of officers who had distinguished themselves in her Majesty ' s service ; and ne-x * , as he was informed by the Cbmmarider-iB-Chie £ to the sons , of poor deserving clergy men . When , the names of all these classes were exhausted ,, commissions were given to those who stood first on the list of applicants . A great many commissions bad recently been distributed among the lastclass of persons . To meet the present demand for oSkeers , the age for qualification vras extended from eighteen , to twentytwo years .. ... ¦ ¦ ,.

    The Earl of Elx / enborocgh wished to ask whether the report was correct that not less than . 10 r 000 European troops were to be . withdrawn from India . He saw also that volunteering was allowed from among those who had enlisted for service in India into regiments about to proceed to the Crimea ; the effect of which was to reduce the Indian army materially below the ordinary number , and also to deprive the regiments at present in India of the recruits necessary for filling up the vacancies . Lord Panmure said that it was the intention of Government to withdraw only two regiments of cavalrj-, the L 2 th Light Dragoons and another ; and that with reference to the reduction generally of the number of European troops in . India ,, he could assure the noble earl that the greatest caution bad been , and would contiaue to be , observed , and that none would be withdrawn without the strongest necessity . The bill was then read a third time and passed .

    THE EMBODIMENT OF THE MILITTA . The Earl of Malmesbitry rose to put a question to her Majesty ' s Government respecting the militia , as to the furlough to be given to married men , and also as to the maintenance of their wives and families . He regretted to say that the impulse which had at first been given throughout the country , and which had been acted upon most nobly by the great mass of the people , seemed to have died away . He thought the first cause of the cessation jn recruiting was an apparent , if not a real , breach of faith on the part of the Government and Parliament . In 1852 the militia was raised upon the understanding that the men were only to serve twenty-eight days in the year , except in the case of an invasion . In 1854 war was declared , and a new bill was necessary for embodying the militia . The men who then

    enlisted received a larger bounty than those who joined in 1852 , and very naturally so , because a greater dcmairl was made upon their time , and greater liabilities were imposed upon them . But the matter was never sufficiently understood by the men of 1852 , if he might so call them , that they were liable to be embodied , and to be subject to permanent service for five years . The consequence was , that a great number of married men , who would not have enlisted in a force that was to be permanent , butwho had noobjectioni ; o devote a month during the year , found themselves drawn into liabilities of which they had no conception . This had the effect of throwing a great number of their wives and children upon the parishes . He had understood that tlic men were not to go abroad except with their own free will ; but this had proved not to be the

    case . Lord Panmttke said that , by a circular issued from the War Office last November , the commanding officers of militia regiments were directed to call out such men as they deemed fit by age , employment , &c ., and then to report as to the expetlionoy of granting furloughs . With reference to the disembodied and embodied militia , the case was totally different . And , as the circular pointed out , with regard to tho embodied militia , when it was found that families wore thrown upon tho parish by the absence of the head of the family engaged in the militia , it had boon decided to allow those men to go to their homos upon repaying the enlistment money , 18 s . fid ., which they had received , ; but , failing that , it was determined to lot them have a free discharge .

    REAL PROPERTY OF INTESTATES . In the House of Commons on Thursday , Mr . Locke Kino moved for leave to introduce ) a bill for bettor settling tho real estates of intestates . His proposition , he said , was simply thi ^ that whore a person died possessed of landed property , tho law should make for him a just will , and divido tho property among his relation *; precisely such a will as the law made now when an intestuto died leaving personalty only . He denied that this was an attempt to introduce the French syBtern . With regard to the argument that it was for tho advantage of a country that the laud should bo divided into largo ostatcs , ho could refer to the property which existed in Ireland when that was tho case . By , tho present system , a great amount of misery and distress had been cruised , Mr . King proceeded to cito various casos

    which had been brought to his notice , m wnich , notwithstanding the known wishes of the deceased petson that his property should be equally divided among his children , it had , upon his djpogiatestotte , gone to the eldest son , and the remaining '; children had been left destitute ; and also cases la which wives of persona possessed of real property had al « o been , left in poverty . . Among other cases * , there was one . of a plumber and glazier who ' married the daughter of a respectaWe farmer , who gave her several hundred pounds . No settlement was made , and . some time after the marriage the husband laid out the whole of this money in the purchase of a piece of land . He subsequently died intestate and

    without children . The land went to the heir-atlaw , a nephew-, and the widow was left entirely destitute . She is now a menial servant in a farmhouse . He did not ask that those who had already succeeded to property under the present law , should give up that property with a view to a more equitable distribution . All he asked was , that the House should prevent the repetition of the occurrences he had mentioned . At present the younger children of intestate landed proprietors were not acknowledged . by the law , but were treated as illegitimate ; and he hoped the Legislature would raise them from the degraded position in which they were placed . —The motion was seconded by Mr . Ma ssey .

    The Solicitor-General opposed the motion , on the ground that such an alteration of the law was fraught with danger to the institutions of the country ; that it struck at the root of primogeniture , and would effect the indefinite subdivision of landed property and the destruction of the aristocracy . In the course of his speech , he made the strange admission that * the question was not to be discussed upon the abstract principles of natural justice , but upon the principles by which the constitution of the country was established ; " a remark which was favourably received by the House _ with cries of ••* Hear , hear / " He denied that the * principles of justice were violated by the present state of the law ; but thought that it would not affect the argument if they were . Mr . Ewart and Mr . Warner supported the motion ; and Mr . Locke Kin © , in reply , denied that his object was to strike at primogeniture . —Upon a division , there appeared—for the bill , 84 ; against , 156 . { '" majority , 72 .

    PROBATE DUTY . Mr . Williasis movedrtheHEbllowiBg resolution : " That , in . the opinion of this Hbuee ^ real property and impropriate tithes should be made to pay the same probate duty as is now payable on personal property , and that property belonging to corporations , universities , colleges , bishoprics , and deans and chapters , should pay a duty equivalent to th « probate and legacy duties levied on personal property . " The injustice of which he complained arose in 1796 . Mr . Pitt in that year brought in a bill , subjecting all descriptions of property to the payment of probate and legacy duty ; but the landed aristocracy contrived to obtain an exemption in favour of real property . This injustice had been in some measure rem 6 Ved ^ By ~ tn ^ r ^ e ~ Chaneellor 'of ~ the ~ Excheqtior , -

    when he levied legacy duty upon real property to half the extent of that which was levied upon personal property . The motion which he now proposed related to probate duty alone ; and his object was to apply to real property the same tax as was paid upon personal property . The argument formerly used against him , that landed property was subjected to much heavier duties for stamps than other descriptions of property , could no longer be urged , because those duties had been reduced five years ago . Tho necessities of the war demanded extra revenue ; and tho bill which he proposed would realise at least 2 , 500 , 000 J . a year . He denied that the land was more taxed than other property—an assertion which had long ago been disposed of ; on the contrary , he could easily prove that tho poor were taxed more than the rich . Tho motion was

    seconded by Mr . Hadfteld . The Chancellor of tho ExcirEQtrER said that Mr . Williams appeared to have confounded the legacy and the probate duty , and had omitted to state the precise nature of the probate duty , and the distinction between real and personal property on which the probate duty ia founded . Tho present state of the law has grown out of the jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Courts , which jurisdiction was confined in such matters to personal property . A will devising real jn tho Ecclesiastical

    property need not bo proved Courts : and the probate duty , being a duty on tho proving of wills in those courts is ncceBBanly ^ confined to wills affixing personalty . The alteration demanded would necessitate a complete change in the powers of tho Ecclesiastical Courts ; and this was n nlatter of « roat difficulty . Mr . Williams should have submitted , in a Committee of Ways and Means , somo distinct p lan of overcoming the obstacle In the extensive measure relating to tho letrocv and succeHsion duties , introduced two years alto by Mr . Gladstone , a settlement was come to which it would . not be prudent now to disturb . -It

    Untitled Article

    Ma ^ gh 17 , 1855 . ] THE LEAJ ) EB . 24 &

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 17, 1855, page 243, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2082/page/3/