trustee did not appear within a certain period after he had been called upon by public advertisement. Such were the principal provisions of the third Bill. Their Lordships would observe that many of the provisions of the second and third Bills related to the same subject, and might, therefore, have been included in one Act; but it was thought, by many learned persons, that it would be more convenient to divide them, as the Solicitor General had, into two separate statutes. He would not detain their Lordships any longer at present. He thought that he had sufficiently explained the general outline, scope, and object of these measures: and if any noble Lord wished for information respecting the details of the Bills, that would be more conveniently obtained in the committee, when the details would come regularly under discussion. He had then only to move, that the Bills be read a second time. the conveyance to be made, and the estate, | because the heir at law of the last surtherefore, still remained in the lunatic. viving trustee represented the estate. Now, In such a case, the Court was empowered as trustees of charitable estates were merely by this Bill to enable the committee of the formal persons appointed by the Court, it lunatic to make the conveyance. So also had been thought advisable, that if the the Bill conferred on the Lord Chancellor heir at law of the last surviving trustee the power which he did not at present could not be discovered, the Court should possess, of compelling the transfer of stock appoint new trustees. Under this Bill the by the committee of a lunatic. As there appointment of new trustees would take were some statutes relating to these mat-place if the heir at law of the last surviving ters which did not apply to Ireland, though they did to England; and others, again, which were in force in Ireland, but not in this country; it was proposed by this Bill to assimilate the law in the two countries. The third and last Bill upon which he had to trouble their Lordships with any observations was entitled "A Bill for amending the laws respecting Conveyances and Transfers of Estates and Funds vested in Trustees and Mortgagees, and for enabling Courts of Equity to give effect to their Decrees and Orders in certain cases." Under the present law, if a person were to sell an estate, and die before he had made the conveyance of it to the purchaser, the heir of the deceased, if of full age, was bound to complete the conveyance; but if the heir happened to be an infant, the Court had no power to order the conveyance to be made until the heir came to be of age. It had been thought proper, therefore, by his predecessor in office, that the law should be amended in this respect, and that noble and learned Lord had suggested to the Solicitor Gene-jects comprehended in these Bills, which ral that a measure should be submitted to Parliament for that purpose. The Bill he held in his hand gave the Court the power of ordering a conveyance from an infant heir in the same way as it now compelled the heir of full age to convey. At present, too, if the trustees of estates were to die, or if it became necessary, for other reasons, to appoint new trustees, recourse must be had to a Bill in Chancery. Now every noble Lord who knew what a Bill in Chancery was, would agree that it was rather an alarming affair. At least, people generally thought it was. By the present practice of the Court, many measures might be performed by petition, instead of by bill, and it was proposed by the Bill The Lord Chancellor said, that the he held in his hand, that trustees might general terms of the clause would include be changed, and new ones appointed, such a case; but the noble Earl would reupon application to the Court by petition. collect, that no lease could be made by a With respect to the trustees of charitable guardian or trustee, without application to estates, there was frequently the greatest the Court of Chancery; and it would be possible difficulty in discovering them, I supposing the height of indiscretion in The Earl of Malmesbury thanked the noble and learned Lord for the very lucid illustration he had given them of the sub he must be allowed to observe came from a most respectable and satisfactory quarter. He thought that legal amendments could be in no safer hands. He now rose merely to ask a question of the noble and learned Lord. A clause in the second Bill enabled the trustees and guardians of an infant to grant leases: and he begged to know if this clause would extend so far as to enable them to grant a lease of the family mansion, and of the domain belonging to it, for twenty-one years. If it would, such a lease might be made when the infant was nineteen years old, and so a man might be forty years of age before he could inhabit his own mansion. that Court to imagine that it would ever sanction any lease of the family mansion for a term beyond the coming of age of the heir. The object of the clause was to allow the estate to be improved during the minority of the heir, and it had the benefit of the heir and of no one else in view. enabled to bring his invention into general use. Praying for the Abolition of the East-India Company's Charterby Mr. SYKES, from the inhabitants of Kingston-uponHull, and from the Brotherhood of the Trinity House of Kingston-upon-Hull:-By Mr. WOLRYCHE WHITMORE, from Heekinondwike:-By Sir A. CAMPBELL, from the weavers of Glasgow:-By Mr. BULLER, from Idle, in the county of York. DUTY ON MALT.-BEER TRADE.] Mr. Carter presented a Petition from Portsmouth and Portsea, against the opening of the Trade in Beer. The Marquis of Chandos presented a Petition from owners and occupiers of land of a hundred in the county of Buck The Earl of Malmesbury was fully sensible of the advantages of the clause; but as the noble and learned Lord seemed to think that the extreme case he had supposed might be included in it, he thought there would be no harm in specially excepting the family mansion and the domain belonging to it. He would move, there-ingham, praying for a reduction of the fore, in the Committee, that no lease, for a longer time than that at which the heir would be of age, should be granted of the family mansion and the domain belonging to it. Bills read a second time. HOUSE OF COMMONS. MINUTES.] Lord ELLENBOROUGH's Divorce 'Bill was, on Duty on Malt. The noble Lord expressed himself pleased with the reduction of the Duties on Beer; but still he must say, that unless the tax on Malt were also repealed, the farmer would not get that relief which his condition required. If the Malt duty had been taken off instead of the Beer tax, the advantage to the community would have been greater. He hoped that a motion which stood on the Orders on this subject would be pressed; the Motion of Sir G. CLERK, read a first time. The and that if Ministers were not prepared to Indemnity Bill was read a second time. Returns presented;-Of the parishes in Ireland which have entered into an agreement under the Tythe Composition Act:-The rate of pay and allowances to Officers and Men in the Navy; and in the Civil Service of the Navy since 1792: The number of Masters and Surgeons of the Navy in each year since 1826; and copies of the correspondence between the Irish Government and the Officers of certain Charitable Establishments in Ireland, with reference to the Irish Estimates for 1829. Returns Ordered; -- On the Motion of Mr. O'CONNELL, of the Fees received by the Commissioners of Bankrupts therewith:-On the Motion of Mr. WODEHOUSE, of all the Flour, Coal, Culm, with an account of all the vessels that have entered the Port of South Wold annually, during the last twenty years.-And on the Motion of Mr. SPRING during the last three years, with sundry Accounts connected RICE, of all Spirits in the possession of the Distillers of the United Kingdom, on March 15th, 1830. Petitions presented; -Complaining of Distress, by Mr. War. DUNCOMBE, from the inhabitants of the neighbourhood of Holderness. Praying for a Legislative Measure to check Horse Stealing, by Mr. BRANSEY COOPER, from Glouces ter. By Lord ALTHORP, from the parish of Welling borough, in Northamptonshire, against Capital Punish ments. [He concurred with the Petitioners in thinking that severe punishments were ineffectual, when they went against the feelings of society; in such a state of things severe punishments encouraged crime.] By Mr. O'CONNELL, from the Rev. Thomas Smith, of Clergyman of the Established Church for seventeen years, and yet was without any ccclesiastical preferment, and praying that greater facilities might be given for the erection of Churches. By Lord EUSTON, from Bury St. London, complaining that the Petitioner had been a Edmund's, praying for a Revision of the Criminal Law. that he had invented Machinery for transferring Coals dron might be effected, and praying that he might be repeal this tax this year, they would announce their intention of doing so next year. Mr. Heathcote contended, that the repeal of the Duties on Beer would give relief to the poor; and that, with the abolition of the present licensing system, would do away with the monopoly of the brewers, who had not reduced the price of Beer though the duty on and price of barley had been nearly double their present amount. The reduction of duty since the peace had been from 4s. 6d. to 2s. 6d., and barley had fallen from 65s. to 25s. the quarter; but the diminution in the price of Beer was next to nothing. The wholesale article, or rather the raw materials, were cheap, while the retail article was both dear and bad. As a remedy for this, he recommended the abolition of the Beer monopoly, which would probably allow some of the advantages of the reduction of taxation to be reaped by the poor, and not be wholly engrossed by the great brewers. If the Malt tax were repealed, he believed that they would benefit by that more than the people. Mr. C. Calvert said, he was satisfied that the reduction of the duty on Beer would do much good, but he could not concur in what had been said with respect to the Licensing System. He was sure that the consumption of Beer would not be increased 100 barrels from one end of the kingdom to the other, by throwing open the trade, but it would have the certain effect of ruining thousands of industrious persons who had vested their property in public-houses. A more industrious and deserving class did not exist, and it was too bad that they were all to be knocked on the head, and their prosperity ruined, by a measure of very doubtful benefit to the rest of the community. He wished to see the effect of the reduction of the duty on Beer tried for two or three years before the trade was thrown completely open. If at the end of that time the expected advantages of abolishing the Beer tax were not realized, the trade might be thrown open; at present that would have no other effect than to ruin thousands of industrious families. To be printed, as was a similar Petition, presented by the noble Lord, from another hundred of the county of Buckingham, pected from their measures. Petition referred to the Select Committee on the Beer trade. DUTIES ON WEST-INDIA PRODUCE.] The Marquis of Chandos, in presenting a Petition from the West-India Planters, praying for a reduction in the Duty on Coffee, observed, that he could not avoid expressing his regret, that nothing had been done for the Colonies in the late reductions of taxation; but since his Majesty's Government were disposed to afford relief where it was most wanted, he was not without hopes that they would yet, before the Session was at an end, do something for the Colonies, which were in a lamentable state. The loss of income in some of them was so great as to endanger their existence. When it was considered how much the former reductions of the duty on Coffee had increased the sale of that article, the petitioners were justified in anticipating, from a further reduction of duty, no loss to the revenue. Such a measure would be equally beneficial to the Colonies, and the mother country. Mr. K. Douglas concurred with the prayer of the petition, and gave notice of his intention to bring the subject of the trade of the West-India Colonies generally under the notice of the House shortly after the Easter recess, with the assistance of the noble Lord. He must also express the West-India Islands. As the trade with them was very advantageous, it was only right that they should receive their fair share of protection. Lord Eastnor, in presenting a Petition from the publicans of the city of Hereford, praying that the trade in Beer might not be thrown open, observed, that the petitioners stated to the House, that they would most certainly be ruined by a measure, from which they did not believe the community would derive any benefit. Their sufferings too would be greater than those of the licensed victuallers in the Metropolis, because their property depend-his regret that nothing had been done for ed more on the exclusive privileges they enjoyed. They had embarked their capital, they stated, in the trade, under the existing laws, supposing that as long as they conducted themselves with propriety, The Chancellor of the Exchequer hoped those laws would not be altered to their that the difficulties under which the Westinjury. Their conduct had been approved India interest laboured would speedily be of by the magistrates and clergy of Here- at an end. It would, no doubt, be exford, and he must say, it would be very tremely satisfactory to the Government to unjust for the House to impose a loss on afford the petitioners any relief which they them for the supposed advantage of other possibly could by the removal of any persons. They were subjected to having taxes which could safely be repealed. In soldiers billeted on them, and various other bringing before the House his financial burthens, for which their license was statement, he carefully considered those scarcely a compensation. They had in imposts which could with most advantage general paid considerable sums for their be repealed; and in looking at the choice premises, and they could but expect, if he had made, he thought it best calculated the measure they prayed against were on the whole to effect the legitimate obpassed into a law, that they should bejects of reduction. In his view the taxes utterly ruined. The noble Lord,in conclusion, expressed his approbation of the conduct of the Ministers in diminishing taxation, and his hopes that the country might derive all the advantages they ex on West-India produce could not with propriety be remitted, while the taxes on commodities made at home remained so high. Though not directly, yet indirectly, the West-India interest would derive bene Mr. R. Gordon thought a reduction of 7s. or 8s. duty on the chief produce of the West-Indies, he meant sugar, might be made without any loss to the revenue.Petition printed. fit from the reductions which had been | foreign miner was called, he did not see made. how that duty would give the petitioners the advantage they sought for. To the imposition of a heavy duty on a mineral that entered so largely into the manufacture of various articles, the superiority of which in the market it was our business to maintain, there were so many objections, that he believed it would be impossible for the Government to comply with the petitioners' wishes. He was not aware, however, what the Chancellor of the Exchequer would think ought to be done. Petition printed. LEAD.] Lord W. Powlett presented a Petition from Arkengarthdale, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, complaining of the low price of Lead, of the great importation of foreign Lead, and of various other things from abroad, while the foreigner would take none of our commodities, and praying that a duty might be levied on foreign Lead. The place from which he presented the Petition was, he said, from its vicinity to the Lead Mines, of great importance. There were upwards of 20,000 people in that neighbourhood whose subsistence altogether depended upon these mines. He was certain that the importation of foreign Lead, of which the petitioners complained, was a serious evil, and he was anxious to know whether the Government contemplated an augmentation of the import duty on foreign Lead, or meant to allow of this competition proceeding unchecked. At a time when distress pervaded all ranks, Ministers should, as far as possible, look to the welfare of the working classes. He expected every day to receive a petition from Sunderland, exhibiting in a striking manner the great distress which he knew to prevail there, and which he did not wonder at, since he knew the vast quantities of timber, and of almost all other foreign productions, that were continually brought into the country. He requested to be informed what were the views of Government respecting the importation of foreign Lead. Mr. Herries said, that this subject had never been lost sight of since he had the honour, at the Board of Trade, to receive a deputation from the north of England, but he would not say that the Government had decided according to the wishes of the petitioners. He did not see how it was possible for the Government, when he considered how much Lead was used in our manufactures, to interfere with the competition in the market, and dictate an artificial price for an article of such extensive consumption. Even if it were possible to protect the English miner, as the practice of imposing a duty on the COMMITTEE OF SUPPLY-NAVY ESTIMATES.] On the Motion of Sir George Clerk, the House went into the Committee of Supply, and the Navy Estimates were referred thereto. Sir Geo. Clerk then moved, that a sum of 603,2001. be granted for victualling 29,000 men for the service of the Navy during the ensuing year. Resolution agreed to; the Report to be received on Monday. DISTRESS OF THE COUNTRY-ADJOURNED DEBATE.] The Order of the Day for renewing the debate on this Question was then read. Colonel Sibthorp, who was in possession of the House, immediately rose and went on to say; when the important measure that was introduced last Session to the House was brought forward, the right hon. Gentleman who proposed it, defended it on the ground of expediency; he wished that the Government would attend to the same feeling in this instance, because he was convinced that it would lead them to meet the universal wish of the people. It was retorted upon those Members who most pressed this point, that it was their unwillingness to lower their rents. Now, for his own part, he had no unwillingness on that head, because he was convinced of the necessity for such a proceeding. One of the most striking instances of the present state of things was to be found in the Wool trade; and of the state of that trade what was taking place in Lincolnshire might be taken as the criterion. The price of that article was now reduced to about 5s., and 250,000l. was annually lost to the country by that falling-off. Cattle prices had also followed in the same train, and the farmer now was unable to procure for his fat beasts what he had formerly given for his lean ones. These positions had been contested, because a Mr. Bull had taken upon him to state the contrary, and, in consequence, Mr. Bull, and Mr. Jacob, and Mr. Giblett, went to Lincoln. They, however, got such a confounded rowing there, that he believed they would never shew their faces there again. It was said, that if they were to grant this inquiry it would be the means of deluding the people. He could not, however, agree in that observation; it was not in mortals to command success, but they might at least endeavour to deserve it, and though relief might be beyond their power, at all events they were bound to do their best to attain that object. It was true that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had done something by the taxes he had remitted, and he thanked him for it, though he feared that they would afford but little benefit to those who needed relief the most, as the farmers were unable to pay their labourers any wages. On the previous night of the debate the right hon. Gentleman, the Member for Liverpool, had made a very long speech, but he could not find that it embraced or proposed any one point of relief. At the commencement of that speech he had said that the agriculturists were not wholly ruined; which certainly was not a very satisfactory statement, coming, as it did, from that right hon. Gentleman. It was evident that the country required relief; and if it were not afforded by that House, the sooner, as an hon. Member had said, they were all thrown into the Thames the better. The Duke of Wellington had endeavoured to make out that timber was now at as high a price as it ever had been. He could state the contrary from his own knowledge; and if timber were imported to the extent of 550,000 loads annually, as had been mentioned, they would very soon be unable to get any price at all for it. The right hon. Gentleman had taken occasion to say, that some of those who thought as he (Colonel Sibthorp) did were Currencymad, but he believed he might retort the charge by alleging that the right hon. Gentleman was Free-Trade-mad. Another flourish that had been made was about the gold and silver plate ordered for use, and on which duty was paid, but that he thought had very little to do with the real prosperity of the country, and only reflected shame on those who might have employed their money so much better, when there were so many unfortunate persons who had not even an earthenware plate to use, and if they had, could find nothing to put on it. The only satisfactory point connected with the subject was, that there was to be a further reduction of taxation, though he did not think that the promised reductions went to a sufficient extent. The petitions of the people were decisive on the question of distress. Those petitions came from the persons whom that House ought to represent, and he therefore trusted that they would be attended to. To these things he desired to call the attention of the Government; but whether he were successful in that or not, at least he had the satisfaction of knowing that he had listened to the dictates of his own heart in endeavouring conscientiously to discharge his duty. Colonel Davies observed, that in his opinion a sufficient case had been made out to call for the appointment of a committee; but after having heard what had fallen from the hon. Member for Shaftesbury, and the hon. Member for Newark, with respect to the question of currency, he said that it would be impossible to vote for the Motion without broaching that subject, unless it were an understood thing that the currency question should not be entered upon in the committee. He was convinced that the people would not be satisfied if they found that inquiry was refused because they were at variance on one point; and yet many Members would be compelled by the obstinacy (if he might use the term) of those who brought forward the motion on the question of Currency to vote unwillingly against it. With reference to the distress, he knew that it existed to a great extent among all the manufacturers. In particular, he was surprised to hear the right hon. Gentleman say the other evening, that there was no distress in the iron trade, when, if there was one trade of the kingdom more distressed than another, it was the iron trade. He knew that several furnaces had been blown out. Mr. Herries explained, as we understood, that his information had been derived from an iron-master. Colonel Davies, in continuation, said, that the anonymous authority of one iron master ought to have no weight with the House, when it contradicted such a wellknown fact as the general distress of the iron manufacturers. The hon. Member then proceeded to read an extract from a news |