§ Mr. Edwardspresented a petition from Mr. Crawshay, of Merthyr, in Glamorganshire, against the imposition of any general tax on coal. He stated that the petitioner was the largest individual ironmaster in the empire, or perhaps in the world, and that from the quantity of capital he had invested on the faith of the existing laws, he was entitled to consideration from the House. The petition stated many of the reasons which showed the impolicy of the proposed measure, in which he (Mr. E.) concurred. From the variety in the quality, and consequently in the value of coal, in the facility of digging it, and the expense of carriage from the pits, no general tax on its production could by possibility be equal. He urged the House to oppose the proposition for a general inland tax on coal, as a measure unjust in principle, and as particularly ruinous in its effects in the present state of the manufacturing and agricultural interests of the kingdom.
§ Ordered to lie on the table, and to be printed.