LORD DENMAN(in pursuance of notice) presented a Petition from the Board of Guardians of the Bakewell Union against the renewal of the Rate in Aid Act. The Petitioners complained, firstly, that they derived no special advantage from the township of Glossop, and, therefore, ought not to contribute to it merely because it was in the same county. He (Lord Denman) would remark that they affirmed this in no selfish spirit, as they announced their willingness to contribute towards re- 493 lief for mills, together with the rest of the kingdom, if necessary. No doubt the prosperity of mills was beneficial to the counties in which they were as well as to the country at large; but he much feared that in the absence of almost all protection for trade, and with only a small relief for agriculture in the malt tax which was spoken of, and which was less likely to be useful than the reduction of half the malt tax by which scarcely any loss to the revenue would be sustained (and which he had advocated in 1850), neither towns nor the agricultural districts would be able to support their poor, who, judging from the increase of common fund cases seemed every day more likely to be thrown on a common national fund for their support. The petitioners said, secondly, that though for several years their own rates had been higher than, those at Glossop, the Glossop Union had never contributed to aid them, and they did not think it just that they should be called upon to aid Glossop now. They said, thirdly, that Glossop had not availed itself of its borrowing powers, and that it was contrary to all principle for them to relieve a union, whilst it was possessed of much property.
§ EARL GRANVILLEsaid, he was not surprised that his noble Friend should take an interest in the case of Derbyshire. It would be in the recollection of their Lordships, that when the Rate in Aid Act was introduced the county of Derby was not included in it, but that that county was afterwards scheduled, in consequence of an opinion strongly expressed in the other House. The rateable value of the county of Derby was £1,200,000. The most that the county had ever been called on to contribute under the Rate in Aid Act was £6,000, which might be raised by a rate of 1d. in the pound. Last quarter the sum required was only £500. The grievance of the petitioners was not therefore a very heavy one. As the Act expired in April, and the Public Works Act had given employment to many persons at Glossop, the Bakewell Union would probably not be called upon again.