On the 2nd of June, Lord Archibald Hamilton proposed five resolutions on the state of the Scotch representation, the last of which went to pledge the house to take the subject into its serious consideration during the next session, with a view to effect some extension of the number of votes, and to establish some connexion between the elective franchise and the landed property of the country. His lordship invited the attention of Mr. Canning to this subject, as one with which he had not grappled, and as perfectly different from the question of English reform; but he failed in securing his approbation, and the motion was negatived by one hundred and fifty-two against one hundred and seventeen voices.
NEW LONDON BRIDGE BILL.
Mr. Brogden brought up the report of a bill on the 6th of June, by which the sum of £150,000 was to be advanced by government toward the construction of New London Bridge. Mr. Hume objected against this advance in the shape of a gift, and Mr. Ricardo agreed with him. Mr. Alderman Wood, however, argued that the work was one of great national utility, and not intended exclusively for the benefit of the city of London; that the money was to be paid by instalments, extending over a time of seven years; and that the corporation were ready to give up nearly £200,000 that was in their hands, and to raise £400,000 more on mortgage. The report was received, and the resolution for the proposed advance carried.
MOTION RESPECTING THE DUTY ON THE LEEWARD ISLANDS.
On the 9th of June Mr. Creevey called the attention of the house to a grievance under which the Leeward Islands were oppressed, by what was called the four and half per cent. duty. He held petitions in his hands from five of these islands, setting forth their distress, stating their utter inability to bear such a tax, and throwing themselves on the liberality of parliament. Mr. Creevey proposed the abolition of this impost; an impost on which were saddled so many pensions granted to the aristocracy. He thought it hard that these five islands should maintain so many ladies and gentlemen in England. He was, he said, the last man to interfere with the private arrangements of the royal family, but the king had given pensions to two of his sisters at the expense of the unfortunate Leeward Islands, and why these islands were singled out for such a purpose he could not conceive. Then there were pensions of £500 each to the Misses Fitzclarence; and there were also gentlemen high in office who condescended to allow the Leeward Islands to support their families. Right honourable gentlemen, he continued, could not say that they were ignorant of the colonies; their own acts proved their knowledge of the fact. They could support the colonies and urge their distress in a particular way; they could tax East India sugar, and the consumer of West India sugar in England; but they could not abate that tax out of which their own pensions were derived. Mr. Canning, who received one of these pensions, replied at great length, objecting to this motion as affecting the right of the crown to this branch of revenue, and its right of appropriating the same in any manner deemed suitable by his majesty’s government. With respect to his own case, to which Mr. Creevey had made allusion, he remarked:—“It was true that many years ago he had held an office; on retiring from which, by uniform practice, and that sanctioned by law, he became entitled to a pension of £1200 per annum. He had waived his claim to that annuity; and it was true that such right was afterwards commuted for a pension of half the amount for a person who had direct claims on him for protection. It was certainly open to parliament to deliberate on particular instances in the disposal of this fund, and he would not complain of the manner in which the right honourable gentleman had exerted his right in the present instance; yet he well knew that he could be taunted with the names of persons in the same situation, and connected with parties whom he highly respected. That mode, however, was too invidious to follow: the house had a right to examine into supposed abuses as to the application of this as well as any other branch of the revenue; but the honourable gentleman had not made out any case calling for censure.” The motion was lost by a majority of one hundred and three against fifty-seven.
EXPENSES OF THE CORONATION.
During this session the expenses of the coronation came under consideration. Mr. Hume inveighed not only against the length of time which had elapsed before they were laid on the table, but against their enormous extent. The chancellor of the exchequer, he said, had promised that they should not exceed £100,000; but they were £238,000, the surplus having been taken from French indemnities. Estimates at variance with the expenses were a farce. And of what service, he asked, was it to attempt the relief of public burdens by cutting down small clerks, and inflicting distress on other individuals, when such sums were expended for such purposes as the decoration of Westminster-hall, which cost £111,000, and the habiliments of his majesty, for which the master of the robes was paid £27,700? Mr. Hume also reproached the ministry with bad faith, in calling for a smaller, and expending a larger sum. He also accused the chancellor of the exchequer and his colleagues with violating the public faith, by taking money to which they had no right in order to pay the difference. He thought the house would fail in its duty to the public, if it did not call for an examination into the profligate extravagance of this affair: and he concluded with a proposal for a committee for such purpose, and more especially to inquire by what authority the sum of £138,000 had been applied to the coronation expenses without the previous sanction of the house. This motion was negatived; and the house next went into committee, in which the sum of £160,000 was proposed toward the civil contingencies of 1823. This gave Mr. Hume an opportunity of exhibiting the extravagant system of expenditure pursued, particularizing items as proofs. He moved for a reduction of £52,799 from the sum required; but Mr. Canning defended the expenditure, and satisfied the house, so that this motion also was negatived.