LORD J. RUSSELLsaid, his noble Friend the Member for Bath (Viscount Duncan) had given notice of a Motion for that evening relative to the window tax. He hoped that his noble Friend would consent to withdraw that Motion. He should not have objected to the discussion of the subject if it had been introduced at an earlier period; but at this stage of the Session such a Motion would involve great inconvenience, and he trusted it would not be persevered with.
VISCOUNT DUNCANbegged to state, in reply to his noble Friend, that no one was more anxious than he was to promote sanitary measures. His attention had chiefly been directed to this subject by the report of the Committee (on which many Members of the Government had sat) on Lord Lincoln's Bill. That report pointed out that one great defect in the Bill consisted 711 in its not embracing the window tax; and he considered that no sanitary measure would be complete if this subject were omitted. It had not now been his intention, however, to enter at any length into the question; he had wished only to take that opportunity, on going into Committee on the Health of Towns Bill, to call attention to the remarkable fact that within the last three or four years the number of houses having eight windows, which was the lowest class under the assessment, was getting fewer and fewer, and that no less than 7,000 houses of this description had fallen out of the assessment since the window tax had been increased under Baring's Act, in 1841. If, however, the course he had proposed to take would interfere with the arrangements of the noble Lord, or unnecessarily detain the House, he would withdraw the Motion; and he trusted that, if in any future Session he were enabled to call the attention of Parliament to the subject, the Government would accord it that consideration which its importance deserved.
§ Motion withdrawn.