§ Viscount Ebrington, in rising to bring under the notice of the House the injury done to turnpike trusts by the large exemption from tolls given to conveyances carrying letters, referred to the petitions on this 335 subject presented last year, and especially to the petition from South Molton, in which it was stated, that the exemption of the mails added materially to the expenses of the trust; that few letters were conveyed by some of these mails, the greater part of which did not even carry a guard, although the Act of Parliament, giving the exemption, could not have contemplated any such case, inasmuch as it provided that no one should sit by the guard, and setting forth that the saving to the Post Office was slight by the arrangement, and, although the loss to the turnpikes was serious, there was little benefit to any one except the coach proprietors. A similar petition had been presented from Barnstaple; he had received letters from Kendal, from Devon, from Lincolnshire, and from Shropshire, with like complaints; and, although the condition of the turnpike trusts in general was so unsatisfactory, the right hon. Gentleman had introduced a Bill somewhat of a confiscatory character with respect to them; he had left these abuses untouched. In the Report of the Commission of Inquiry in South Wales, no small part of the abuses there existing arose from this cause, and the Commissioners particularly noticed the hardship. Mr. Stacey, of Carmarthenshire, stated the loss on one line of road to be 428l. a-year, or one-third of the whole cost of the repair charges; and when the road was out of order the Post Office was the first to complain. Other witnesses confirmed this complaint; and in Lord Lonsdale's evidence before the Post Office Committee he had said, there was no general rule as to subsidiary mails; when the tolls were heavy the exemption caused the contracts to be taken at a lower rate, sometimes gratis. In making the contracts their operation on the turnpike trusts was, indeed, taken into consideration, but only secondarily, and no communication was ever made to them previous to the establishment of these subsidiary mails. Whether it were the intention of Her Majesty's Government to introduce a general measure to regulate the turnpike trusts he did not know; but whether this were the case or not, he could not but think that some previous legislation was necessary to limit, the exemption from toll of coaches carrying letters, which were not unfrequently drawn by four or even six horses, when the letters were very few indeed, not more, sometimes, than might be carried in his hat. If he were permitted 336 to introduce his Bill, he would limit the exemptions from tolls in the case of subsidiary mails to the number of wheels and of horses which should be deemed reasonably necessary for the performance of the duty: thus, if a mail cart would be sufficient, he would limit the exemption to one horse and two wheels, instead of four or six horses and four wheels. Under the circumstances he had detailed he would have been quite prepared to leave the matter in the hands of the Government, but having for several Sessions in vain endeavoured to persuade them to interfere, he should move for leave to bring in a Bill to limit the exemption from turnpike tolls enjoyed by all conveyances carrying any part of Her Majesty's mails.
Mr. Heathcotehaving on a former occasion drawn the attention of Parliament to the subject of the noble Viscount's Bill, was glad to avail himself of the opportunity to second the Motion. It appeared to him to be extremely unjust to tax a poor locality for the sake of the community. A desire had been expressed to relieve the farming classes from some of the heavy burdens which pressed upon them. On the farmers the tax in question fell with peculiar force, for they supported the whole expense of maintaining the roads. He had observed the same evasions practised as had been pointed out by the noble Lord. Stage coaches were exempted from tolls amounting to several hundreds per annum by reason of their carrying a letter-bag, which often contained no more than two letters, and which the coachman's pocket was sufficient to hold, whilst on the other hand they were loaded. The noble Lord despaired of effecting the change he desired. He (Mr. Heathcote) was sorry for that; he was quite confident if the Government looked into the matter they would find it a subject worthy of attention, and the grievance one proper to be redressed. He begged to second the Motion.
§ The Chancellor of the Exchequerwas extremely sorry he could not give the noble Lord the satisfaction he desired of intimating his consent to the measure which he had proposed to bring in. Whatever might be the inconveniences to which the noble Lord had referred, the House could hardly consider them sufficient to induce Parliament to subject all Her Majesty's mails to a heavy burden such as that of tolls. The exemption enjoyed by the mails was already of a comparatively old date, going so far back as the year 1785. A 337 specific Act of Parliament of that year limited the exemption from turnpike tolls to mails, and since that period many turnpike roads had been laid out and constructed in the full knowledge that such an exemption in favour of this class of carriages existed. The hon. Member opposite had made a grievance of the circumstance that the whole burden of maintaining these roads fell upon the local ratepayers. The hon. Member ought to bear in mind that those who suffered in their pockets from having to support the cost of the wear and tear of the roads, enjoyed a far more than corresponding benefit in the increased traffic which these roads brought into their vicinity. Lord Lonsdale's evidence, which had been referred to, also contained a special reference to the point, whether the burden imposed by the exemption of mails from turnpike tolls was not far more than compensated to the ratepayers by the benefit which the localities traversed by those mails derived from them. To repeal the privileges enjoyed by the mails in respect to turnpike tolls would be in effect merely to transfer from the public purse into the pockets of individuals the sum of 50,000l. per annum; and he would put it to the noble Lord whether the advantages which would be derived from this change would in any way compensate for this sacrifice. For these reasons he must, with regret, refuse his assent to the Bill proposed by the noble Lord.
§ Motion negatived.
§ House adjourned at a quarter past twelve o'clock.