§ The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in moving for leave to bring in a bill to regulate the postage duties, said the House would recollect, that last year, when the new system of penny postage received the sanction of 815 Parliament, it was apprehended that there would be considerable difficulty in carrying the measure into full effect, and, in order as much as possible to obviate this difficulty, great powers were intrusted to the Treasury, and therefore the whole responsibility of regulating the foreign, the inland, and the colonial postage, had devolved upon that board, and the authority under which these postages were now levied rested solely upon a Treasury order. The continuance of these powers in the Treasury he conceived to be open to great objection. No part of the taxation of the country should be carried on under a mere Treasury order, and he therefore proposed to ask for leave to bring in a bill for the purpose of doing that by Act of Parliament which at present was done by the warrant of a public board. It was still proposed to leave some power in the hands of the Treasury with reference to foreign postages, as there were negotiations on foot the object of which was to secure an equality in the rates. He need hardly add upon that point, that no concession would be made by her Majesty's Government without obtaining an equivalent.
§ Leave given.