for litigation as to orders of repayment as now take place respecting orders of removal; that to give the poor a right to relief in the place where they have resided or paid taxes for a year, or other specified term, as proposed by others, would be highly unjust, and open to the same objection as that entertained by your Petitioners to the Bill now under consideration, namely, that it would gradually throw the burden of supporting the chargeable poor throughout England on the larger towns and villages, and leave the smaller parishes almost entirely free from a charge which ought in common justice to be distributed as equally as possible over the property of the country.

That the objections to the laws of settlement on the ground of expense, complication, impolicy, and injustice appear to your Petitioners so great, and the principle on which they are founded so inconsistent with common sense and enlightened legislation, as to render them incapable of any modification or improvement which can adapt them to the present circumstances and social arrangements of this country; and that, originating in a state of society very different from that which now exists, they are perfectly unsuited and inapplicable to a nation in which the greatest part of the labouring population are employed in trade and manufactures, and in which frequent and rapid alternations of activity and depression necessarily render such employment precarious and uncertain; that all attempts heretofore made to simplify and amend these laws have been abortive, and that new legislation on this subject has constantly given rise to unforeseen difficulties, and unanticipated evils. That all future attempts to reconcile these laws with the principles of humanity to the poor, and justice to those who maintain them, will likewise prove futile and ineffectual, and that your Petitioners despair of any other remedy than that of an entire abolition of the laws of settlement, with all their cumbrous and expensive machinery, and the support of the poor out of a general fund to be raised by means of a national tax, to which all property should be liable to contribute, or by charging the same on the Consolidated Fund, the relief in either case to be administered not by Government officers, but by officers and a board appointed by the district, subject to such general directions, regulations, and superintendence as the Legislature may deem right; that this plan recommends itself by so many considerations of policy, justice, and humanity, as to leave no doubt in the minds of your Petitioners that sooner or later it will be adopted by the Legislature and become the law of the land; that by the abrogation of these laws all the hardships occasioned by the compulsory removal of the poor from the ordinary field of their labour and the trade to which they have been accustomed, and the consequent perpetuation of a state of pauperism which in many cases might otherwise have been temporary only, would be prevented, a more uniform and satisfactory system of administering relief would be secured, the money now wasted in litigation and expended in salaries to collectors and assistant-overseers, and incurred in the investigation of settlements, in obtaining twelve thousand orders per annum, and in removals to distant parishes, would be saved, the unequal and unjust pressure of parochial taxation would cease, the anomaly of extraparochial districts, in which the poor can make

Settlement

no claim to relief, although perishing from Parochial poverty and destitution, would be removed, Bill (1844) the stimulus now held out to rural depopulation (against). and crowding into towns would be taken away; that this mode of supporting the poor could not fairly be complained of by any class or interest in the community, agricultural, manufacturing, or commercial, as it would be just and equitable towards all and fall oppressively on none; and that it is consistent with the principle of the law of Queen Elizabeth, under which every individual was liable, according to his ability, whether arising from real or personal

estate.

Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray your honourable House to take this Petition into your serious consideration, and to abolish the laws relating to parochial settlements, and to the removal of the poor, and, in the mean time, and until your honourable House has devised the best mode of accomplishing this most important object, that your honourable House will be pleased to simplify and amend the existing laws in regard to orders of removal and the trial of appeals, so as to prevent the defeat of justice by mere legal technicalities, and to enable parishes to obtain a speedy and satisfactory decision on the merits of the questions in dispute from our courts of law. And Petitioners will ever pray. JOHN MELLON, Mayor.

your

That your Petitioners, in common with the other royal burghs in Scotland, have serious difficulties to contend with under the existing law with respect to prisons and prison discipline in Scotland, particularly as regards the principle of assessment under the Scotch Prison Act, 2 and 3 Victoria, cap. 42, and 7 and 8 Victoria, cap. 34, and the unequal mode of levying the same in the burghs and landward part of the counties; and the Petitioners' grievances are of such a nature as, they believe, have only to be brought under the notice of your honourable House to entitle them to redress.

By the law as at present in operation the assessments for the support of prisons are apportioned according to a scale founded on a combined estimate of population and crime, a mode of taxation which your Petitioners conceive to be altogether unequal and unjust, being strongly of opinion that the only legitimate source and data of taxation is the intrinsic or real value of property, rural as well as urban.

That this unequal and, consequently, unjust principle of assessment, is severely felt by your Petitioners and the community at large, who are already subjected to the payment of local taxation to a great amount; and from the statements to be now advanced it will be apparent to your honourable House that the prisons' assessment paid by the burghs bears no proportion to the sum allocated on the landward part of the county of Forfar; and your Petitioners believe that the same arguments apply with equal force to the other burghs and counties of Scotland.

It appears from notices issued by the General Board of Prisons at Edinburgh, that the burgh of Montrose, with a population of about fourteen

Prisons (Scotland) (for

Alteration of the Law). Montrose.

Prisons (Scot- thousand, and an annual value of property of land) (for Alteration twenty-two thousand pounds, has been assessed of the Law). in the sum of three hundred and forty-five pounds, nine shillings, and three pence for the purposes of the Prisons Act for the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-four and forty-five (the other royal burghs in the county being assessed in the same proportion), while the landward part of Forfarshire, having a numerous population, and an annual value of real property amounting to four hundred and seventy-nine thousand two hundred and sixtyeight pounds, has been assessed in the sum of one thousand six hundred and sixty-five pounds, four shillings, and ten pence only, bearing no proportion to the assessment on the burghs. The inequality of the present principle of assessment is, therefore, sufficiently obvious, and calls for a speedy and satisfactory modification; and your Petitioners humbly venture to suggest to your honourable House, that it would be most fairly and constitutionally levied by allocating it on the real value of all property in Scotland, rural as well as urban, and not, as at present, according to a combined estimate of population and crime.

Your Petitioners farther beg leave to represent, that the present assessment greatly exceeds the expenses they were formerly put to regarding prisons. The cost of maintaining the prison at Montrose (embracing the burgh and landward district for several miles around) has not, on the average, exceeded two hundred pounds a-year, while the assessment imposed on the burgh solely since the Prison Act came into operation, in one thousand eight hundred and forty-one, has seldom been less than four hundred pounds a-year; and, in addition to which, the burgh has had to maintain an expensive police force for the purpose of preventing crime, and protecting the inhabitants from depredation and outrage.

That your Petitioners consider that the burgh of Montrose is thus subjected to a very heavy annual burden, in consequence of the unequal method of levying the assessment as between the burghs and landward part of the county of Forfar, and are convinced of the injustice thereby done to the burghs by the manner in which that principle is carried out; a burden which, it is feared, will be yearly increased instead of diminished, unless the principle of

assessment is altered.

May it therefore please your honourable House to take the subject matters of this Petition into your serious consideration, and to adopt measures for altering the law relative to prison assessments; and for enacting that all prison assessments shall be made on the real rent or annual value of property, whether rural or urban, or otherwise to afford to your Petitioners, and the other royal burghs in Scotland, such relief as your honourable House may deem just and expedient in the circumstances in which they are placed.

And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

Signed in name and by appointment of
the Petitioners, by William Jamieson,
Esquire, Provost and Chief Magistrate
of Montrose, and the seal of the burgh
is hereto appended, at Montrose, the
thirty-first day of January, one thousand
eight hundred and forty-five.
WM. JAMIESON, Provost and Chief Magis-
trate of Montrose.

Public Houses

App. 23. Mr. Bright. Sig. 758. 34. The humble Petition of the Inhabitants of for diminishing the NumFestiniog, in the county of Merioneth. ber).

We, your Petitioners, beg to call the attention of your honourable House to the great evils that result from the prevailing vice of intemperance, and to refer you to the vast amount of evidence adduced before a Committee of the House of Commons on this subject in the year 1834. From that evidence, and from facts since collected from various sources, it has been proved that there is no one vice to which our country is subject so demoralizing in its character, or so prolific of crime of every description, as the vice of intemperance. It also tends to a very serious extent to impoverish the resources of our country, and to prevent it from attaining that rank in the scale of nations which it otherwise would do; and we are convinced that, were it not for the drinking habits of this nation, much of the suffering which, from various causes, has of late been endured by the artisans and artists of our land, would have been greatly mitigated, and, to a considerable extent, prevented.

In proof of this, we would refer your honourable House to the remarkable results that have attended the operations of temperance societies in this and other lands, shewing, especially in our sister island, that in proportion as the principles of temperance have prevailed, in that proportion have peace and prosperity and order taken the place of wretchedness, degradation, and crime. The testimony of judges, of magistrates, and of officers in the army, is conclusive on this point.

Believing then that intemperance, and its inseparable attendant, crime, increase in proportion to the facilities afforded for the gratification of a vicious appetite, we earnestly beg your honourable House immediately to take such steps as you may deem best for preventing the increase of houses licensed for the sale of intoxicating drinks, and for diminishing to a very large extent the number already existing.

We would farther call your attention to the awful extent to which intemperance prevails on the Sabbath, arising from the immense number of houses which are open for the sale of strong drink, and to the delusive and wicked arts that are resorted to on that day by those engaged in the traffic for entrapping the unwary, but especially the youth of our country, into those places of infamy, of immorality, and of crime.

It is then on account of the increased inducements held out on that day, the greater leisure of our artisans and others, and the very common result, when drinking is commenced on the Sabbath, of its only being terminated by the expenditure of all the earnings of the previous week, and not on any principle of Sabbath legislation, that we would earnestly implore your honourable House, in addition to the measure already asked for, that you would immediately pass a law for entirely abolishing, as far as possible, the sale of intoxicating liquor on that day.

Your Petitioners would only add that, whilst they most fully subscribe to the sentiment that national prosperity can never be maintained at the expense of the morals of the people, they are persuaded that the loss which the revenue might sustain from the diminution or abandonment of the use of strong drink would be far more than compensated by the greatly increased consumption of other articles of produce.

Festiniog.

ber).

Public Houses We beg to remind you, that we do not ap(for diminishing the uproach you in a sectarian or party spirit, but on the broad ground of patriotism, of philanthropy, and of our common Christianity; and believing, as we do, that a subject more intimately connected with the welfare and the prosperity of this great nation, has never claimed the attention of your honourable House, your Petitioners earnestly implore that the prayer of this petition may meet with that calm, that deliberate, and that faithful investigation which its paramount importance demands. JOHN JONES, Clerk. THOMAS HUMPHREYS. EVAN EDWards.

the community being taxed, in order to enable Railways (for railway companies to carry goods at so dispro- regulating Charges). portionate a rate as to involve positive loss. Your Petitioners also complain, that a tax is thus imposed upon the travelling public, and upon your Petitioners themselves as part of that public, and that they are thereby made to contribute to the means of destroying their own property.

Your Petitioners also represent to your honourable House, that the amount of capital invested in the construction of canals cannot be estimated at less than one hundred million pounds sterling, and upon investigation property to a much larger amount would be found to be involved; they therefore humbly hope that your honourable House will make such provision as will prevent injustice being inflicted under the specious appearance of competition; and they humbly beg leave to point out to your honourable House, that if railroads are thus permitted to annihilate the trade on canals (the unavoidable consequence of persisting in this disproportion of tolls) real competition will be at an end; for, if canals be once destroyed or stopped, the railroad companies will be enabled to agree between themselves, and thus create a monopoly, successfully to oppose which would indeed be hopeless, if not altogether impossible.

Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray that your honourable House will be pleased to institute an inquiry into the allegations set forth in this Petition, and to make such legislative enactments as may be necessary for ensuring that passengers and goods shall be charged such rates respectively, as are necessary to make all descriptions of traffic bear their due proportions to the general outlay and current expenses of the line.

And your Petitioners shall ever pray.
Sealed with the common seal of the com-
pany, February the eighth, one thou-
sand eight hundred and forty-five.

App. 25. Mr. Hutt. Seal. Sig. 1. 39. The Petition of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Co uncillors of the borough of Gateshead, Humbly sheweth,

That disqualifications for civil offices on account of religious opinions are not only at variance with the spirit of the British constitution, but discreditable to the age in which we live.

That your Petitioners consider that the obstacles at present presented by law to the admission of persons professing the Jewish religion to municipal offices, whilst to the offices of high sheriff or justice of the peace no such obstacle exists, ought to be immediately repealed.

Your Petitioners therefore pray that your honourable House will be pleased immediately to abolish all declarations or oaths which interfere in any degree with the religious opinions of individuals, and thereby preclude the conscientious from taking upon themselves certain corporate offices to which they may be elected by the suffrages of their fellow-country

App. 26. Mr. Hawes. Sig. 1.

41. The Petition of the Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Sheweth,

That in the judgment of your Petitioners the encouragement of free labour is one of the most effectual means of promoting the abolition of slavery, and the extinction of the slave trade.

That, therefore, they would respectfully urge on your honourable House the propriety and importance of admitting the free produce of foreign countries into the markets of Great Britain on the same terms as produce of the same kind from the British possessions abroad.

That with a view to the still more effectual encouragement of free as compared with slave labour your Petitioners deem it important also that such restrictions as now exist on the agriculture and commerce of the British colonies should be altogether removed.

Your Petitioners therefore pray your honour

able House to take into its early consideration Free Labour Produce (for the measures aforesaid, and to adopt such Encouragecourse as to its wisdom may seem meet for car- ment). rying the same into effect.

Signed on behalf of the Committee,

THOMAS CLARKSON, President. 27, New Broad Street, February thirteenth, one thousand eight hundred and forty-five.

App. 27. Mr. Darby. Sig. 886. 53. We, the undersigned Owners and Occupiers of Land, Tradesmen, Labourers, and others, within the Battle Petty Sessions District, in the County of Sussex,

Desire humbly to approach and present to your honourable House,

That your Petitioners are many of them suffering considerable distress, and all of them loss of property, from the present low price of agricultural produce.

That the price of the last crop of wheat, although an average crop, is below that at which it can be grown, and that the deficiency in all other of the late harvest is so great that crops the price at which they are selling by no means makes up for the deficiency in produce.

That in the manufacturing districts distress is shewn immediately, because all the manufacturers have to do is to turn off their hands when it does not answer their purpose to employ them, but that in agricultural districts when the farmers are suffering they must maintain their labourers whether employed or not; and, therefore, such distress is not seen in its full force till it becomes impossible for the farmers to find funds to pay their labourers their weekly wages.

That your Petitioners, therefore, express their respectful but firm conviction, that in any relief from taxation which may be given the agriculturists have the first and strongest claim; and therefore pray that your honourable House will take the first opportunity of granting them such relief.

And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

FREDK. WEBSTER. JAMES COMFORT.

EDWD. WRENN. &c. &c. &c.

Agriculture (for Relief from Taxa

tion). Battle.

Paper (for Repeal of Duty). Edinburgh.

eight hundred and thirty-six has, in consequence, been greatly increased, there has been little or no extension of the trade to other countries, the export of paper having always been very limited, and chiefly confined to the supply of our own colonies.

Your Petitioners have no doubt that this is to be attributed, not so much to the amount of the duty which is paid back upon exportation, but to the great amount of unprofitable labour, risks, detention of goods, and other evils, that are unavoidable so long as the excise survey on paper exists.

Your Petitioners believe that the time occupied in charging the duty on paper, from the infinite number of details required by the Excise laws, and afterwards in exportation, is very greatly beyond what is known in any other exciseable article whatever, and forms the chief cause why the exportation of paper is so insignificant in proportion to that of the untaxed manufactures of the country.

Your Petitioners, while they anxiously desire to see the revenue and efficiency of the public service fully maintained, confidently invite the attention of your honourable House to the injurious effects of the duty on paper, and the serious interference with their liberty and comfort under the present system; and your Petitioners earnestly pray that your honourable House may abolish the Excise survey and duty upon paper as speedily as possible. And your Petitioners will ever pray.

CAMERON & Co.

ALEX. COWAN & SONS. GEO. LAING & Co.

Mr. Macaulay. Sig. 515.

The humble Petition of the several persons whose names are hereunto subscribed, being Authors, Publishers, Booksellers, Papermakers, Printers, and others connected with the manufacture of paper, and the sale and circulation of printed publications, residing in or near Edinburgh, in the county of Mid Lothian, Scotland,

Sheweth,

That your Petitioners have a large interest in the welfare and prosperity of that branch of internal industry known as the manufacture of paper.

That many thousands of persons in this country are employed and supported by that manufacture, and that not the Petitioners only, but the public at large, have a direct interest in this trade, from which all literary undertakings are supplied, and which furnishes, in innumerable instances, the material employed in other branches of art, both useful, scientific, and ornamental.

That your Petitioners view with no inconsiderable degree of alarm the great depression which has taken place upon the value of this manufacture, which they can attribute to no other cause than the continued maintenance of an Excise duty upon paper.

That your Petitioners apprehend that the Legislature of this country, actuated by a wise and enlightened policy, has always shewn itself averse to impose a tax, particularly one of so stringent and inconvenient a nature as an Excise duty upon any important branch of internal manufacture. That where such taxes have been from necessary exigency imposed, they have been gradually lessened and abolished, and that. the paper-makers are now

almost the only extensive body of productive Paper (for manufacturers in the kingdom who are exposed Duty). Repeal of

to the operation of so detrimental and ruinous an impost.

That your Petitioners are unable to discern any principle upon which a difference, in point of equity, ought to be made between this branch of manufacture and any other not subjected to Excise duties, such as cotton-spining, or the like. On the contrary, they are humbly of opinion, that any manufacture which can produce, in a converted shape, a saleable and useful article from the mere refuse of other productions intrinsically of no value, and which thereby gives employment to a large class of operatives throughout the country, has just claims to the protection and favourable consideration of the Government; and ought rather to be encouraged than depressed.

That the present duty, which is one penny halfpenny per pound weight on all kinds of paper, is practically unequal in its operation, being equivalent to a charge of twenty per cent. upon some kinds, and eighty per cent. upon others. That the whole amount of Excise duty levied upon the produce of paper in this country may be estimated at about the yearly sum of six hundred thousand pounds, from which falls to be deducted, the duty on paper used for printing bibles, the drawback on all paper exported, and the expense of collecting, which occasions a charge upon the Government of rather more than six per cent., whilst at least an equal sum is expended by the manufacturer for clerks' wages and other expenses solely connected with the Excise department.

That during the last seven years the price of paper has been gradually declining to such an extent that writing and printing papers, which are the staple produce of the trade, have fallen upwards of twenty per cent. in value, exclusive altogether of the duty. That, notwithstanding this great depreciation of prices, the cost of the materials, and the expense of the manufacture, has not been lessened in any perceptible degree; that, in consequence, many paper-makers, whose profits never were large, have been sustaining a positive loss, and have been forced, in some instances, to fall back upon their capital, and in others to shut up their mills, thereby not only deteriorating their property, but throwing out of employment many persons who were solely dependent upon this branch of trade for the support of themselves and their families.

That, independent of its oppressive amount, the maintenance of this Excise duty is a very great grievance to the manufacturers for the following among other reasons:

First. It is a notorious fact that the existing Excise regulations have been found insufficient to prevent fraud and smuggling, that such practices have existed and do still exist to a great degree, and that the unfair trader is thus enabled in the market to undersell the honest and conscientious manufacturer.

Second. That the paper trade to the colonies, which is of great importance to the manufacturer, and might be extended to a very large degree, is materially injured by the system of supervising practised at the Custom House, (where) from the necessity of opening and examining packages and bales of paper in order that the drawback may be obtained.

That from the careless mode of repackment