§ On the Motion of Mr. Spring Rice, this Bill was read a third time; and a Clause added relative to compensation to the Coal Meters and Inspectors of Dublin.
§ On the Motion that the Bill do pass,
Mr. Lendersaid, he was requested to give every opposition to the measure for compensating those retired Custom-house officers who purchased their places from the Corporation, and were not without their remedy. If a tax was to be imposed, the citizens of Dublin required it should be laid on the tonnage of the vessel, and not on the ton of coal. The citizens were tired and worn out with the exactions and oppressions of meters; they trusted there was an end of their superintendence, and that coal, the pabulum of their manufactures, would be left entirely free of all duty and restraint. He had learned that the Chamber of Commerce of Dublin, and the citizens of Dublin, had an understanding with the Treasury on these points. The measure was forced on at the end of the Session, and he regretted that the attention of the House had not been sooner called to the measure, and that the proposition was postponed until almost at so late a period of the Session, that all opposition was useless and unavailing. However, he must say, the citizens of Dublin were greatly dissatisfied at any impost on coal; they were afraid of the precedent. A very attentive and intelligent gentleman, Mr. M'Mullen, had written him several letters, and communicated the sense of the public bodies; and he hoped the right hon. Gentleman would accede to the wishes of the people of Dublin, and not allow this important article to receive the smallest interruption to being laid down on the cheapest possible terms. On these grounds he could not help expressing his wish, though he knew how useless that was, that the measure imposing this tax should be postponed until next Session.
§ Bill passed.