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Leader (1850-1860), 21st April 1855, Edition 1 of 2, Page 362

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      usual way . vRotiisciiild , however , has secured the cash , lit an annuity of 14 s . Grt . —and so that is safe . The Chancellor of the -Exchequer proposes to introduce a clause into the Loan Act , binding the Government to pay off 1 , 000 , 000 / . every year . . ' . , ,. ' The budget is , like the loan , a-compromise between irreconcilable opinions . The Chancel 3 w > b of the Exchequer reports a deficit of 23 , 000 , 0001 sterling , for 16 , 000 , 000 / . of which he provides by the loan , and 5 , 300 , 000 / . to be made up by aew taxes . These new taxes , besides some trifling additions to spirits and a penny stamp on bankers ' checks , rest chiefly on two grounds—2 d . in the pound more on the income-tax , 3 s . per cwt . on sugar , Id . per pound on coffee , and 3 d . per levelled at income

      pound on tea . The Budget is and the grocer ' s shop . The income-tax will be unpleasant for those who have incomes ; the sugar touches a weak point , the article being at a terribly depressed price , both in the colony and in the shop , and the trade everywhere struggling with many difficulties . Why , while he was about it , could not Sir Cornewall meet the whole deficit by a loan ? And why , while he was about it , should not the loan have been made sufficient to purchase all the materials for carrying on tlie war with overwhelming effect , and bringing it suddenly to a close—fifty millions if necessary ? Why ? Is it because Sir Cornewall and colleagues do not wish to carry on the . war effectually ?

      Parliament has but nibbled at its other duties this week—it has been paralysed by the Imperial visit . It reassembled on Monday , but only to go through matters of form , and the business each evening was trifling . Sir Benjamin Hall has carried the second reading of his London Municipality Bill , the discussion to stand over . Lord Uobert Grosvenob has introduced a bill to prevent Sunday trading in the metropolis , supported

      by Lord Ebrington—a curious combination of subjects and names . Colonel Boltjero proposed a select committee on the medical department of the Navy and Army , rejected by the House of Commons , on the showing of the Ministers that the Sebastopol Committee had better finish its work first . Irish Fisheries , Irish and Tenant Compensation , and some other subjects have been suffered to take a stage without discussion , or have been rejected almost equally without discussion .

      The Sebastopol Committee has resumed its place as a feuUleton in the daily papei-s , with as strange stories as any . Sir Charles Trevelyan has been a witness before the Committee ; Commissary- General Filder has been the subject of inquiry . Sir Charles seemed to show that FiL » ER-had almost no means of . doing that winch , he was required to do , and that he concentrated in himself an immense mass of failure . Filder failed , but every other department besides Fildeb ' s supplied the reasons why he should fail . He wanted 12 , 000 horses , he was allowed 6000 ; he wanted transports , and had none ; and so forth .

      It is " the system" again ; but the Committee has not yet had the System before it . The Committee keeps on , like a worn-out epicure , nibbling before a feast that turns his stomach , picking at morsels like Fixjder and Menzies , and leaving untouched the great " piece of resistance" that ought to bo devoured . A public meeting has appointed a committee to arrange a testimonial to Lord Dudley Stuart . He had already pointed out the nature of such a monument in the constantly-expressed wish that lie could either build an asylum for the blind , or add a wing to the present building . The memorialists , in their preliminary conferences , spoke long and loud of the " virtues" Lord Dudlky : wo nave never heard him held up as a model man ; but , as usual , the proceeding as a whole is wiser

      than the details into which oratorical eulogists ¦ will venture . Lord Dudjmcy Stcart was not remarkable in any way , except in the persovoiing effort to endow patriotism with tho liberal spirit of sympathy for other nations , and to give to wishes a substantial effect in action . He was the ?' fr iend of Poland , " nnd thereforo of Italy and of Hungary ; and the man whose generous and Bteadfust exertions render him tho friend of nations , has in him a largo amount of goodness , and does more for his kind than some who can turn a clever sentence and refuto themselves when thoy have done it by ono still cleverer , or by actions that bolio their words . For most of us can bo cleverer in studied phrnses than wo can in those notions on which wo pledge our own property and life .

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      Parliament resumed its work , after the Easter holidays , on Monday . The day being the same as that on which the Emperor of the French entered the metropolis , nnd the hour of assembling being about-the tijnje when the .- arrival of his Me-jcsty was expeeted , it will not be wondered at that the attendance was very bare , that the interest excited was very slight , a * id that little business was done , Sufficient mcraters arrived , however , to form " aBouse , " both in the lords and Commons .

      CHARITABLE TRUSTS ( 1855 ) BILLS . The Lokjd Chancellor moved the second reading of this bill . He said the first object of the bill would be to increase the powers of the Charitable Commissioners , so as to enable them to do more good than was possible hitherto . A charge had been brought against the commissioners that they had done very little good : the fact , however , was , that they had done a great deal ; but they required further powers , which it was the object of this bill to confer . Within the last year , about 1100 applications had been made

      to the board by parties connected with chanties , and the important functions of the board were to advise the trustees and others connected with charities . If such parties acted upon the advice given them , they would be indemnified . —Lord St . Leonards said the alterations in the bill had been considered with unusual care , and he had no doubt they were perfectly correct ; still they would require consideration ; and therefore he Would vote for the second reading , upon the understanding that the bill should be referred to a select committee . —This was agreed to , and the bill was read a second time .

      METROPOLITAN LOCAL MANAGEMENT BILL . On Sir Benjamin Hall moving the second reading of this bill , Mr . Mackinnon opposed it , on the ground that it would give too much power to vestries . —Mr . \ V . Williams thought that a great amount of confusion would arise amongst the thirtysix districts into which the metropolis is to be divided . With respect to the sewerage , he thought it better to confide its management to a central board , throwing the expense as far as possible on the landlords . He would not , however , offer any opposition to the second reading of a bill which contained so much that is valuable , and for which the House and the country should feel indebted to Sir Benjamin Hall . —Mr . Pellatt , conceiving that the bill had a

      centralising tendency , proposed that it should be referred to a select committee ; but this suggestion was declined by Sir Benjamin Hall— -Mr . Duncombe offered to support the bill if the provisions of Hobhouse ' s Act were extended to all the metropolitan parishes , without which , the act would be very despotic . —Mr . Butler , Mr . Brady , and Sir De Lacy Evans , spoke in favour of the measure ; and Sir George Grey , in answer to Mr . Labouchkre , said it was the intention of the Government this session to introduce a bill for the improvement of the City . The debate , which was of a very slight and desultory character ^ cbncluaed witlrtlie second reading of-the bill , which was ordered to be committed on the 30 th hist .

      SUPPLY . On the House going into Committee of Supply , Mr . Williams protested against the sum of 135 , 162 / . for public gardens and royal palaces . Hampton Court , he said , was kept up solely for the sake of the pauper members of the aristocracy ; and he denounced the payment of 1665 / . for the repair of the Duke of Cambridge ' s apartments in St . James ' s Palace , considering the immense income which his Royal Highness draws from the country . He thought it would not be right to attempt to pass these estimates on the present occasion , when the House was of course very thinly attended . As ho could not move that they should bo referred to a select committee , ho would , move that the chairman should report progress . Mr . Wilson said , that as late as 1848 a estimatesand

      select conimitteo had sat on these , made an elaborate report on them . Ho hoped , therefore , that Mr . Williams would not persevere in his motion , as the session would elapse before they could have a report from another select committee . —Mr . Spoon * : u and Mr . Macartney contended that the estimates should have been printed earlier , and that it would bo unfair to press thorn now . In reply to a question from Sir II . Willougiiby , Sir W . Moleswortii said that the total cost of tho Houses of Parliament , up to the present time , was about 1 , 690 , 000 / ., to which would bo added about 190 , 000 / . for tho completion of the works already sanctioned by -Parliament . To complete the whole of tho plans of Sir Charles Barry there -would bo required 650 , 000 / ., making in the whole , in round numbers , 2 , 500 , 000 / . Several votes wore then agreed to . CUU 1 ICU RATES . Karl Grey , on Tuesday , presented several petitions praying for tho abolition yf church rates . Ho rcmnrlced , howover , that ho did tiot look upon church rates aB a hardship now that it had been decided that a minority could not make a rate . A conversation

      then ensued between the Bishop of Exeter and the Lom » Chancellor , in the course of ' -which thp latter observed that there is no power to oblige ve tries to ipadntain the church , though it is their dutv to do so 5 to which the former replied , that excom . munication still remains in force . —In the House of Commons , on tHe same night , Sir Georgk' Grey said it was not the intention of the Government to introduce a bill on the subject of church rates , leave having been given to a private member to do so

      JNCOME TAX OF OFFICERS . Mr . Peel , in answer to Colonel North , said that no deduction * would be made , on account of income tax , from the amount awarded as gratuity for wounds received by oificers in the Crimea . RETURN OF LORD JOHN RUSSELL . Sir George Grey , in answer to Sir J . Pakixgtok , said he expected Lord John Eussell would he in England by the 27 th or 28 th inst . at latest .

      ARMT AND NAA'Y MEDICAL DEPARTMENTS . Colonel Boldero moved for a select committee to inquire into the state of the medical departments of each of the two services . The colonel dwelt at considerable length on the great deficiencies of the hospital accommodation , the shortcomings of the commissariat department , and the ineffective manner in which medicines and medical comforts had been supplied to those who needed them . He quoted largely from the evidence taken by the Sebastopol Committee to prove the necessity of an inquiry . He directed particular attention to the low qualifications of naval assistant-surgeons , and contended that the service sustained deep injury from that circumstance .

      —Sir John Trollope , in seconding the motion , objected to the immense power -which is placed in the medical department of the army , and said that Dr . Andrew Smith had rudely rejected the services of Dr . John Davy , though they had been offered gratuitously . —Mr . Brady observed that the Admiralty is now employing perfectly incompetent young men as surgeons ; and he charged Admiral Berkeley with causing this state of things , by removing all inducements for good medical officers to . remain in the service . —Admiral Berkeley indignantly denied these accusations , and asserted that the navy requires a higher qualification for surgeons than the army . There is now ,. He said , one-third

      more medical assistants in the navy than during the last war . — Colonel North , Mr . E . ¦ Ellice , Mr . Muntz , Mr . M . Chambers , and Admiral Pechell , spoke in favour of inquiry ; but Mr . E Peel , on the part of-the Government , said that , as the Sebastopol Committee was even now inquiring into the subject , it would be extremely inconvenienl to have another Committee appointed for the same purpose . The Government were taking steps to reorganise the medical department of the army . With regard to Dr . Andrew Smith possessing too despotic a power , he said it must be recollected that that gentleman was in many respects greatly trammelled . Upon a question of expense , the doctor was obliged

      to go to the War Office ; on that of promotion , lie was obliged to . gp to the Horse Guards ; if it were a question of supplies , lie vrai compelled to go " Die Ordnance department ; and if one relating to the transport of stores , he was forced to go to the Admiralty . Dr . A . Smith was thus greatly impeded in the discharge of his duties . The remedy for all this was the concentration of all the authorities which regulated the army . This had already been elected by the creation of the office-of another Secretary of State . That Minister had power over the various

      offices alluded to not hitherto possessed by anyone department . Mr . Peel , therefore , hoped that all the evils which had been so much complained of were in tho course of removal . It was the intention of the Government to employ a civilian in conjunction with the medical head of the army , which was the real cause of tho resignation of Dr . Smith , who did noj wish to share that power which he had so long held undivided . — Colonel Boldero still pressed his Motion , nnd upon a division there appeared—For , G 9 ; against , 73 . This bare majority of 4 elicited loud cheers .

      SUNDAY TRADING . Lord Robert Grosvenor brought in his bill upon this subject . It was read a first time , and the deba te was postponed till tho second reading . EDUCATION Oir PAUPER CI 1 TLDRKN . Mr . E . Denison roso to move for leave to introduce a bill to provide for tho education of the . children of poor persons in the receipt of in-door relief . m » bill was not so much a new measure as a supplementary measure to other bills which had already d « h proposed to tho House . Uv had been urged to pc-rsiverewith his bill by the introducers of tho otia bills . The object of his bill whs to enable educat on to bo given to poor children , but not as a conditions relief to tho parents , and not making it coii > i > ul «<>»" . >"' children to attend any particular kind ol school . should have been gind to introduce a clause -to n * a portion of tho expense fall upontho < - <>» <;{ £ Fund ; but on n communication with tho Clmi u « o of tho Exchequer ho was informed that tho state

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      1 IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT . * j ¦ ;

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      3 G 2 THE h E _ A _ P -E R . LSattehuay ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 21, 1855, page 362, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2087/page/2/