The Press.
London, England, 1853-05-28 00:00:00

litott6ings xn arliament.

INCOME TAX EXTENSION TO IRELAND.
Before the committee on the new Income-tax
Bill was allowed to sit on Monday in the Commons,
Colonel Doss,: interposed a motion setting forth
the expediency, before Ireland was subjected to new
taxation, of appointing a select committee to inquire
into " the financial and political relations and rela-
tive taxation of tireat Britain and Ireland, and to
report whether the latter kingdom does not bear her
fair share of imperial taxation." In support of his
proposition Colonel liunne contended that English
members knew at present very little about Ireland;
that Ireland did not share in English prosperity;
that, even when more prosperous, former Chancellors
of the Exchequer haul invariably exonerated her
from any share in the income tax ; that the present
budget would inflict greater injury on Ireland than
any former one within his remembrance; that fiscal
burdens should be apportioned to the capability of
sustaining them; and that the proposed extension of
the income tax to his country violated the terms and
belied the promises of the Act of Union. Since that
act was passed Ireland had contributed much more
extensively than before to imperial taxation, had be-
come entangled in the imperial debts, had suffered
from imperial legislation, and yet had shared but in
small proportion in the general advance of the rest
of the empire. The conceesion of the Consolidated
Annuity debt he scouted as being an utterly inade-
quate compensation for the new burdens which they
were going to impose upon Ireland.
Mr. FRENCH, being quite willing that. Ireland
should pay her fair share of taxes, demanded, as an
act of common justice, to have the amount of that
share ascertained and determined by a fair and com-
petent trammel.
Mr. Cosomx coincided in that demand, believing
that a fair verdict would relieve Ireland from a good
third even of the taxes she already paid.
Mr. MACARTNEV saw many practical difiletatiee in
the way of their collecting an income tax, even if it
were imposed in Ireland. He doubted whether the
produce of the tax would defray the inevitable
charges, and warned ministers not to plunge into an
abyss of crime and peril, not to infringe the articles
of the Union and fly in the feet) of a whole country,
for the sake of such a delusive prospect of gain.
Mr. WILKINSON having signified his general ap-
proval of the budget,
Lord CLAUD HAMILTON insisted upon the tight
and duty which appertained to the Irish members in
watching over the faithful observance of the Act of
Union. Every symptom of intended or possible
violation of that act required their vigilance, and
justified any opposition they might. raise in that
house. Such symptoms he believed to be manifested
on the present occasion
" The terms by which Lord Castlereagh induced the
Irish representatives to surrender their rights as a sepa-
rate Legislature were, that Ireland was not to incur any
share of liabilities contracted before that time, but that
future liabilities were to be borne by both countries in pro.
portion to their relative utilities. The Irish represents-
nye% had therefore a tight to endeavour to secure the
fulfilment, not only of the letter, but of the spirit of the
conditions of the Act of Union; and to insist, us one
element in the question, upon the ability of Ireland to
bear any new burden being considered previous to its im-
position. He had indeed long thought that Ireland ought
to pay the income tax if it was rendered permanent in
England. But he thought that the house should come to
a decision in favour of the finality of the income tax before
it was extended to Ireland. By the budget now before the
house it was proposed to remit taxes exclusively applying
to Great Britain, to the amount of 1,470.000/.; while the
only remission exclusively applying to Ireland was that of
the Consolidated Annuities, which he thought he could
show should not enter into the balance at all. The only
additional burden imposed exclusively on Great Britain
consisted in the extension of the income tax to incomes
between lOW. and 1501. a year, the total amount from
which would not exceed '250,000/. On the other hand, the
new impositions of taxation upon Ireland exclusively con-
sisted of the income tax, 400,00111.. and the spirit. duties,
Itts.ool., ur It-'04,001U. of HOW taxes imposed on Ireland.
lie could not think that this was legislating in the spirit of
the Act of Union."
The CitiNuEt.Lon of the ExenEtwEn found fault
both with the time and the terms of the motion. An
exclusively Irish plea was now set up to stop the
progress into committee of a bill whose general prin-
ciples had already received repeated affirmation in
the house, and which was intended to make good a
deficiency of five millions in the finances, and to
provide for the service of the country quite irrespec-
tively of Ireland. This course of proceeding he
contended was, in a parliamentary point of view. had
and inconsistent. Nevertheless he would not evade
the discussion, and he therefore proceeded to dissect
and combat the argument that Ireland had suffered
in purse either by time Union or subsequently from
the consolidation et' her debt with that of Great Bri-
tain. On the contrary, lie contended that England
had had large stuns to pay. to make up for the defi

SATURDAY,

ciencies of Ireland, whose revenue did not suffice to
defray her own expenditure
" The house had been told that it was a great hardship
that Ireland should now pay four or five millions ; but yet
in the year 1810, just before the debt was consolidated, the
annual change of that debt, irrespective of one farthing
for military purposes or civil government, was 0,900,00 W.
Ireland was now called upon to contribute to the debt and
the expenses of civil government altogether a great deal
less than she NAM then paying, or was bound to pay=i
laugh )—fur debt alone. There was a return upon the
of the house showing the revenue and expenditure of Ireland
in every year from 1817 to lent. The total expenditure lit
1817, including debt, and civil and military service, was
10,241,f5ee., while the total amounts of the paymeuta into
the Irish exchequer were only 4,384,000/., leaving 5,850,000/.
to be provided from the British exchequer in one single
year to make up the deficiency. The same return gave a
statement made year by year, from 1817 to 1848, from the
English exchequer to make good the difference between
the produce and the charge of the Irish revenue. The
lowest payment made in any one year was 1,977,0001. ; but,
generally speaking, the payments ran from five to six millions
in the early part of the tern, and from two to three millions
In the latter part of the period. If that was the case a
committee was not now required to inquire whether Ire.
laud was paying too much. (Hear.)"
Pointing to Belfast as a proof that Irish manufac-
turers laboured under no insuperable difficulties, and
arguing that the remission of the Consolidated An-
nuities would be a most valuable boon, because
its benefits would fall on the districts most im-
poverished, Mr. Gladstone maintained the justice
of the proposed income tax by the argument
that its incidence would light chiefly upon the
places and the persons best able to pay it. Both
must go together, the tax and the remission ; and
Ireland, he argued, got much the best of the bar-
gain :
" The fact of a country being poor was no argument
prima facie against the application of a tax when that.
tax did not attach to the class that were poor in
that country, but only attached to a class which,
being defined by a certain amount of income, were actually
richer as regarded the enjoyment of the necessaries and
comforts of life than the corresponding class who paid the
tax in England. ( Hear, hear.) But let them look at the
case as regarded the Consolidated Annuities in the poorer
parts of Ireland, and see if the change was a matter of
indiffirence. On looking to the figures they might on the
first view think it was a matter of indifference. If they
took the province of Munster, they would find that the
income tax on real and rateable property would amount to
about 85,001/. or 88,0001. a year, and that the relief from the
Consolidated Annuities would be 90,0001. a year, or about
equal. That might be their first conclusion, but that con-
clusion would be fallacious to the last degree. Who paid
the Consolidated Annuities ? The landlord and the tenant.
(Hear, hear.) Who would pay the income tax? The
landlord and the mortgagee. (Hear, hear.) They pro-
posed to take off the Consolidated Annuities and to put on
the income tax ; the gross amount of the income tax
would be about the same as the amount of the Consolidated
Annuities ; about half would be paid by the landlonl still,
but the mortgagee would pay the other half instead of the
tenant farmer. (Hear, hear.) As practical Olen they were
bound to make the welfare of Ireland their prominent con-
sideration ; and did they think it was possible to induce
the Parliament of the United Kingdom to give tip the Con-
solidated Annuities, and not impose the income tax upon
Ireland? If they did he could not admit their conclusion,
though he could admire their sanguine temperament.
(Laughter.) If they should succeed in getting rid of the
income tax, they would not succeed in getting the repeal
of the Consolidated Annuities."
Sir J. PAKINOTON, regardless of technical difficul-
ties or objections, felt justified in voting for any
proposition which enunciated the opinion that the
Ministerial budget bore hardly and unfairly upon Ire-
land. Want of impartiality was the crowning de •
fect of that budget, whose contriver had been
regardless of the different interests and conditions of
different classes. With respect to Ireland, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer had failed altogether
in disproving the assertion of her being unjustly
visited :
" Mr. Gladstone had met the charge by saving that he
relieved Ireland from the Consolidated Auntllties ; but 4_ e
(Sir .1. Pakington) could not accept thet answer. It
seemed to him to be a very great and serious mistake on
the part of the Government to put these annuities into
the same category with the regular taxation of the coun-
try. i Hear, hear.) Those Consolidated Annuities were for
the most part the result of that awful infliction with which
it pleased Providence to visit "'viand ; and in part they
arose from a debt connected with the Irish poor law for
the building of workhouses, and which was not in the
least degree connected with the regular tssation. (Hear,
hear.) The annuiues Feared upon the west and south, and
they were going to give them relief, against which he
would not say a word ; but it could not be fairly argued
that to enable them to do so they should oppress the east
and north, not only with the income tax, but with a great
additional burden of further taxation. (Hear, hear.) The
right honourable member for Halifax had said in December
last that Ireland eoudd not bear additional taxation ; but
now he said that the remission of the Consolidated Annuities
was an equivalent. If so, it was a most Irish equivalent
—(a laugh )—because, in return for abandoning 240,0001. a
year, or not so much, they imposed, first of all. an income
tax of 460,000/. ; secondly, a spirit duty of 198,0001. a year
and thirdly, a tax on successions, the amount of which it
appeared to 1w difficult to get at. The immediate balance

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