HC Deb 17 July 1847 vol 94 cc502-5

On the question that the Bill do pass,

MR. HUME

wished to make a remark with respect to the sum required for the construction of tidal harbours and harbours of refuge. A Commission was appointed three years ago which did not examine into the condition of all the harbours in the kingdom, but into a large and sufficient proportion of them. Their report, and the Bill they recommended, was sub- jected to a more severe test than any Bill ever had been. Copies had been sent to six hundred individuals and parties connected with the shipping interests. Only four-and-twenty boards of dock trustees had offered any dissensions; and he should be able to give a give a good reason why their opposition ought not to be attended to before a Committee of the House. The question belonged not to this or to that port alone, but it was a national question; and there was no time at which the coasting trade ought to be supported against railway competition. The Admiralty had done nothing in the matter; and after three years he thought it was much to be regretted that something should not have been done to prevent the daily decadence of the ports and navigable rivers of the country. He would not now do more than express a hope, the Admiralty having in their possession an immense mass of information on the subject, that early in the next Session something would be done. The coasting trade in the next eighteen months would be greatly reduced on account of the taxes and port duties charged on the shipping. Between Hull and London any quantity of goods might be transported without any tax whatever, while the coasting vessels were subject to imposts amounting to a million and a half sterling per annum, which was paid to corporate and other bodies, which, in his opinion, ought never to have been in their hands. There was another question, with reference to which he regretted the Home Secretary had not brought in a measure—he meant the subject of charitable trusts. The grossest abuses, as was admitted by all, prevailed; and it would be recollected that last Session he had introduced a Bill on the subject, the effect of which would have been to bring before the public every year the accounts of all the public charities. At present there was no remedy for abuses but that of appeal to the courts of law; but if it was made imperative that an account of the receipts and expenditure should be annually laid before Parliament, a speedy and effectual reform of abuses would soon take place, just as had been exemplified in the case of turnpike trusts. He withdrew his Bill last Session, in the expectation that something would be done by Government; and he regretted very much that no measure had been brought forward. A very great proportion of the money held in trust in this country was for the purposes of education; and nothing could exceed the gross abuses which existed under this head. He hoped that whenever a Bill was introduced, it would embrace the whole country. When his Bill was brought forward, the city of London was at once in motion, and wished to be excepted; but he would make no exception. There was no desire on his part to blame any one for the delay that had taken place on this subject. He knew how the Government had been pressed this year; but he thought a small Bill, requiring a simple balance-sheet annually from each charity, might have been passed, and that alone would have effected a great good. He hoped these observations would not be taken as a complaint, but would be the means of pressing upon the Government the necessity of doing something.

SIR G. GREY

said, the attention of the Government, and particularly of the Lord Chancellor, had been directed to this subject, and a Bill was prepared; but, on considering the business of the Session, it was found that there was no prospect of passing it through Parliament. Another reason for not bringing forward the Bill was, that the Government wished to avail themselves of the services of the judges of the local courts as a part of the machinery for carrying out the measure, and it was accordingly delayed. A Bill would, however, be introduced in the next Session.

MR. STAFFORD O'BRIEN

had opposed the Bill of the hon. Gentleman opposite (Mr. Hume); but he was bound to say that he had received several remonstrances on the subject of the abuses prevalent in public charities. Many of the smaller charities might be rendered exceedingly useful; but there was no way of getting the evils under which they lay remedied, except by recourse to law, which was too expensive. He deprecated the idea of remedying abuses, however, by turning that House into a body of trustees for the whole nation.

MR. WAKLEY

hoped that the question of charitable trusts, which was one of great magnitude and importance, would have the best attention of the Government; and he regretted that a measure had not already been brought forward. In many schools intended for general instruction, the education was wholly confined to the dead languages, and the sooner these schools were opened up for the use of the community at large the better. It was disgraceful to Parliament that so much money bestowed for the purposes of education was allowed to remain unappropriated to the purposes for which it was intended. The subject was one of such pressing importance, that he hoped it would be noticed in the Speech from the Throne at the beginning of next Session.

Bill passed.