The Press. — London, England, 1854-03-11 00:00:00

MARC!! 11, 1854, debt for 1844.5 I take only at 27,000,0001. The actual charge for the twelve months ending the 6th of January, 1814, was :L7,570,0.0. There is a difference, therefore, of 570,0(101. in favour of the country. (Hear, hear.) The charge upon the unfunded debt I take at 640,0 W. ; the charges on the Consolidated Fund at 2,400,0014 the army at 6,857,0001.; the navy at 7,488,0001. ; the ordnance at 3,840,0001. ; the commissariat at 045,0001.; the miscellaneous estimates at 4,775,0001. ; the militia the same as last year, at 530,11001. ; the packet service—the only estimate which shows a diminution on the amount voted last year—at 792,0001. Then it is necessary I should stay to the committee some amount of money which, without attempting at the present moment to determine what shall be its technical designation, or under what form it shall be voted, I may describe as a provision for the ex traordinary military expenditure connected with the expe dition to the East. (Hear, hear.) It is extremely difficult to form anything which can be called an estimate of that expenditure. ( Hear, hear.) War is a disturber, as of other things more serious, so likewise of financial compu tations and the regularity of financial proceedings. We have thought it right to make known at the earliest possible moment what we propose with reference to provi sion for the wants of the public service ; but it is quite im possible for us to undertake to say at this moment that the provision we now propose shall be adequate, and neither to great nor too small, for the exigencies and wants of the Whole year. (Hear, hear.) It is of necessity, therefore, an indefinite sum for which we ask, with reference to the expense of this expedition to the East. On what principle shall we attempt to calculate that sum? On this principle. That it is our duty not to remove the public expenditure of the country, and especially the war expenditure, from the control of the House of Commons. (Cheers.) If we were to ask you to place in our hands, as the proceeds of the taxes of the country, a very large sum of money to be applied to the purposes of the war, amounting to several millions, you might justly say, " Wait until the necessity has arisen ; Parliament is not about to separate in the month of March ; it is in your power to make a further proposal in the month ofJune or July, if the circumstances of the country and the state of Europe should then seem to warrant such a proposal." (Hear, hear.) We are about to act on that principle, and to ask only for such an amount which, though it may seem large to some gentleman, we feel convinced is the smallest by which, under the most favourable circumstances, we can hope to see those gallant forces now leaving our shores brought back after the com pletion of the object for which they are sent. (Cheers.) Taking those forces at 25,000 men, we propose to ask the committee to vote a sum of money for the purpose of ex traordinay military service at the rate of 501. per head, or a sum of 1,250,0001. (Murmurs of surprise.) Inserting, there fore, that amount in the estimate of expenditure which I have ventured to give, the total amount of estimated expen diture is 50,189,000/. THE DEFICIENCY. The estimated revenue, as I have already stated, is 53,349,0001. And therefore there is a deficiency upon the estimate of revenue for the year 1854-5, as compared with the estimate of expenditure, amounting to no less than 2,840,000/. That estimated excess of expenditure above income does not represent the whole cost of the war. Had it not been for the measures in which we are engaged, and which we deemed necessary, for the honour and welfare of the country, we should not only have been spared present ing to you that deficiency, but we should have been in a condition to promise you a surplus. As compared with the estimate of last year, the increase upon the army is 832,0001.; upon the navy, 1,253,0001.; upon the ordnance, 793,000/. ; upon the commissariat, 88,0001.; upon the miscellaneous, 299,000/. There is a small diminution upon the packet service of 8,0001., and an increase under the head of military extraordinary expenses of 1,050,000/. stated the cost of the expedition to the East—or, rather, not the cost, but the sum we are about to ask of the house on account of the cost—to be 1,250,0001. Last year there was an expenditure of 200,0001. on account of the Kaffir war. Therefore the balance under the head of military extraordinary expenses is an increase of 1,050,000/. This shows a total excess in the estimates of the present year over last year of 4,307,0001. The estimate of expenditure which I presented to you in April, 1853, was 52,183,0001. The estimated revenue which I now look for, for the year 1864-5, is 53,319,0001. yo that if our expenditure, accord ing to estimate, had continued the same as it was twelve months ago, instead of a deficiency of 2,840,0001., I should have been able to present to you a surplus of 1,106,00 ?I. The total difference on the account against the Exchequer amounts to no less than 4,500,0001. THE CONJUNCTURE. The total sum for which we have to provide, without taking the surplus into account at all, is 2,840,0001. Under these circumstances, it will be for the committee to consi der In what manner this deficiency shall be made up. (Hear, hear, hear.) WHAT THE GOVERNMENT DO NOT PROPOSE. I trust that the committee will not consent to make up any portion of this deficiency by interfering with those reductions of taxation which have acquired the force of law, although they have not yet taken actual effect. (" Hear, hear," and eheem) I am well persuaded, what ever other course you may think it proper to adopt, you will not retrace the steps you entered on last year, so far as the present measures and the demands of the present exi gency are concerned. But, if money must be had, is it to be had by increasing duties on other articles? If you are determined not to repeal the laws of last year, and likewise d e t e rmined not to part with any income now, would ibe t right at the present moment to increase the rates of duty on articles of consumption in the branches of customs and excise, or to replace those duties, or any of those duties, which during some years you have abolished? I cannot doubt the answer of the committee will be is the negative. THE PRESS. The answer of the Government is that we ought not to take that course. (Cheers.) But, at the same time, while I give that answer on my own behalf and on the part of my colleagues, with the clearest conviction of its justice. it is impossible to put out of view the contingencies which must necessarily attend upon the prolongation of the war on which we have now entered. I cannot hold out to this committee any reasonable expectation that if, which God forbid ! the struggle we are now entering upon should be prolonged for years, it would be in our power to secure to all those articles recently relieved from duty permanent continuance of that immunity. I fear all we can say with respect to those objects of indirect taxation, as compared with direct taxation, is that which the Cyclops said to Ulysses, when he gave the promise of this privilege, that he would" devour him the last. (Cheers and laughter.) This is a matter which the committee cannot put out of view. I speak strongly, and with the sincerest conviction — we cannot and do not advise you to add one farthing to the indirect taxation of the country. We have entered on a great struggle; but we have entered upon it under favour able circumstances. (Hear.) These circumstances — although 1 am not sanguine—although it would be the wildest presumption in any man to say, when the ravages of war have once begun, at what point they will be stayed— yet justify us in cherishing the hope that possibly this may not be a prolonged struggle. (Cheers.) As lung as that possibility remains, the committee will agree with me in thinking it not wise, in the endeavour to supply the wants of the country, to do it by a series of measures which shall worry different classes and different interests, different trades and different industries, disturbing everybody's calculations and operations, adding 100,0001. to income here, 200,0001. there, and 300,0001. somewhere else. (Hear, hear.) I am sure the committee will agree with the Governmentthatit is not the course which the present exi gency requires. And, whatever we do, I take !t further for granted that we are to endeavour to do it with a minimum disturbance to trade and industry. There is another great question which it is impossible for me to pass by without notice. Is it right that we should ourselves make a reso lute endeavour to meet the charges of this coming war, or would it be just, would it be manly, would it be worthy of the wealth and power of England, that we should charge those burdens upon our posterity ? (Hear, hear.) 1 ant convinced that at the present moment there is, both in this house and throughout the country, a strong opinion that to resort to the money market for a loan would be a course not required by our necessities, and therefore un worthy of our character. (Loud cheers.) It is impossible for the Government—it is impossible for the house—to give any absolute pledge or to record any immovable reso lution that the expenses of the war shall be borne by addi tions to taxes; hut yet it is possible for UR to do this—to lay down a set rule upon the matter, and to determine that so long as those burdens are compatible with the principle, and so long as the supply necessary for the service of the year can be raised within the year, for so long not to resort to any loan. (Loud cheers.) Irrespective of other considerations, it is perfectly true to say of the system of raising funds necessary for wars by loans, that it practises wholesale, systematic, continued deception upon the people—that they don't really know what they are doing. (Hear.) What is desirable is, that they should know the price they are called upon to pay for the benefits they expect, or the sacrifices they think fit to make in order that that which they do they may do on intelligent and reasonable grounds, not deluding themselves at the cost of a charge on posterity. (Cheers.) Ido not hesitate to say that it seems to me that, if the political reasons are strong for the adoption of that policy, not less strong are the moral reasons. (Hear, hear.) The expenses of a war are the moral check which it has pleased the Almighty to impose upon the ambition and the lust of conquest that are inherent in so many nations. (Hear.) There is pomp and circumstance, there is glory and excitement, about war which, notwithstanding the miseries it entails, invest it with charms in the eyes of the community, and tend to blind men to those evils to a fearful and dangerous degree. The necessity of meeting from year to year the expenditure which it entails is a salutary and wholesome check, making them feel what they are about, and making them measure the cost of the benefit upon which they msy calculate. It is by these means that they may be brought to address themselves to a war policy as rational and intel ligent beings, and may be induced to keep their eye well fixed both upon the necessity of the war into which they enter and their desire to realise the first and earliest pros pects of an honourable peace. (Cheers.) WHAT THE OOVERNMENT DO PROPOSE. Having stated what, under existing circumstances, the Government do not recommend, and what I am sure the committee will not do, there cannot be much doubt re maining in the mind of any one as to that which the Go vernment will propose and the committee will approve. (" Hear, hear," and laughter.) I have told the committee that the sum I anticipate from the income tax i5t1,276,0001. I propose to increase the tax by one-half, and to levy the whole of the addition for and in respect of the first moiety of the year. It may be thought, perhaps, that the more obvious course of proceeding would be to raise the rate of the income tax for the whole year ; but I have already stated that, in the circumstances in which we now stand, it is impossible to form any rational estimate as to the fu ture cost of warlike operations, on the scale at present cal culated, in the event of the contest being prolonged. Not being able to look forward to a long period, we thought it best to propose that the addition to the income tax should be levied in respect of the first portion of the year. Seve ral reasons justify this course. In the first place, it is the only means by which it is in our power to raise the whole of the additional sum required within the year. Direct taxation cannot usually be levied until six or nine months after it is imposed. When we enact an increase of the in come tax the increase does not become chargeable until a period which commences on the 6th of April, and it will not be leviable until the quarter between the 10th at Oeta• 221 bee and the Oth of January. It is only, therefore, by laying the increase of the income tax on the first moiety of the year that we shall be able to levy the increase within the year. That, however, is not the only reason which has impelled us to the course we have resolved on. I have al ready stated that we have determined on leaving open the question as to the augmentation of taxes in the event of the duration of the war rendering such a proceeding neces eery. Now, if I were to propose increasing the income tax for the whole year, we must necessarily expose our to one of two objections. On the one hand we might be asking for more niouey than we should want, or, on the other, it might turn out that we had not askew. fur more than would be necessary to cover the present •Artnamtnts, and we should be compelled to come again to the house and ask it to alter the rate of the income tax, which it had already altered once. The mum I propose, therefore, appesrs to he the simplest and heat calculated to give ef• feet to the principle of levying the taxes required within the year, while, at the same time, it reserves to the House of Commons its control over the expenditure of ti.e coun try. Under these circumstances, it will be my duty to propose that the rate of the income tax granted by the act of last session be raised from Id. to told., as respects the first half of the ensuing year. 44 • THE ACCOUNTP SQUAIIED. I will show what will be the fiscal results of this propo sition. I estimate the produce of the income tax from April, 1854, to April, 114515, at 6;275,000/. The half of this sum would be 3,137.5001. ; but, in reality, the increase of the tax will produce a larger amount than that. The ex pense of collecting the larger antohnt was little more than for the smaller, and the effect of adding to the income tax will be to give, instead of 3,137.6001., not less than 3,307,0011. This sum, added to the sum at which I have estimated the income tax for the ensuing year, namely, 3,275,0001., will yield a gross sum of 9,582,0001. The ex penditure, on the other hand, for the same period, stands at 58,189,0001., and therefore it is evident that by the ar rangement I propose not only shall we provide for the services of the year a sum equal to the whole estimated ex penditure, but we shall likewise have a surplus in hand amounting to 467,0001. CHANGE IN THE STAMP DUTY. As the only alteration which he proposed to make in other it'nis of taxation, Mr. Gladstone indicated his intention of bringing in a bill to modify the stamp duty on bills of exchange. The new tariff would be so adjusted that the charge would amount to 3d. on every 251. value of the bills at short dates, and 4d. per 251. for those of longer dates. Bills drawn abroad were to be subject to this duty, as well as those of home pro duction. The public would be further accommodated by the adoption of that convenient invention the " adhesive " stamp. A present loss of about 110,0001. might accrue from this change, but he expected that the receipt would ultimately almost recover its former amplitude. THE UNFUNDED DEBT. Mr. Gladstone then informed the committee that he intended to ask for their sanction to an issue of new Exchequer Bills to the amount of lg millions. Those bills he assured them were only intended to fill the vacuum caused by current outlay before the en hanced product from die income tax could be realised, and would be then punctually discharged. On this subject he afterwards embarked into somewhat vol t minous computations designed to show the process and result of his schemes for converting the South Sea and some other public stocks last year. The schemes he admitted had been altogether abortive. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER then moved a resolution empowering the Government to issue 1,750,0001. of Exchequer Bills, announcing that the income-tax resolution would be proposed on Monday. The close of this speech, which had lasted precisely two hours, was followed by &miscellaneous conversa tion, commenced by Mr. Home, who expressed a general satisfaction with the finance propo-itions of the Minister, and continued by Sir H. Willoughby, Mr. Williams. Mr. Henley, Mr. Glyn, and other members. Various queries and criticisms were- thrown out in the course of the discussion, to which Mr. Gladstone briefly replied. Mr. DISRAELI acknowledged the necessity of pro viding ample resources for the war, and promised to offer no opposition to any of the ways and means now proposed. He protested, however, against the doctrine that all the coming exigencies should . be met by enhancements in direct taxation. Inquiring into the position of the Treasury as regarded ready money, be remarked that the national balance had dwindl* d from nine millions to less than one-half the amount since the late Administration quitted office, and that in April next there would be nearly 10 millions required on account of dividends and other necessary payments, with probably not 4 millions in hand to meet. the demand. Thus the Exchequer would have to com mence the financial year with a heavy debt, which must be stopped by deficiency bills. This drain of cash from the Treasury be attributed to Mr. Gladstone's experiments in conversion, into the history of which he entered at some length, contending that the prin ciple whereon they were based was most unsound, and the results, financially speaking, most disastrous. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, in replying, followed the train of events alluded to by Mr. Disraeli, controverting some statements as to matters of fact, and contending that if any difficulty occurred i n 4 ■ '~ I