The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-12-06 00:00:00

REFORM SOIREE AT LIVERPOOL

A soirée, under the auspices of the Financial Reform
Association, was on Thursday evening given to Mews.
Cobden and Bright and General Perronet Thompson,
in the large room of the Philharmonic Hall. Mr. C.
Robertson (in the unavoidable absence, through indispo-
sition, of Mr. Robertson Gladstone, the president of the
association), presided. Mr. Cobden was not present,
but a letter from him was read deprecating the cry of
invasion, and declaring the interest he felt In the reali-
sation of the society's programme for substituting direst
for indirect taxation ; and he 'Wed that • strong illus-
tration of the importance of this principle was to be
found in the present relations of England and France.

The Chairman, in opening the business of the meeting,
gave • general sketch of the objects of the Financial
Reform Association, and announced that in addition to
the regretted absence of Mr. Cobden, General Thomp-
son had been compelled to forego his intention of being
present, owing to an important engagement.
Mr. Jeffrey read an address to Major-General T. Per-
ronet Thompson, Richard Cobden, Esq., M.P., and John
Bright, Esq., M.P.
Mr. Bright, on presenting himself to the meeting, was
greeted with long-continued cheers, the whole company
rising. He said he was quite unable to make • fitting
answer to the address which had just been read, but he
felt grateful to the council, and to all who had taken
part in its preparation and presentation, for the senti-
ments expressed towards himself and his friends, Messrs.
Cobden and Thompson. There were many in this country
who were unable to comprehend and appreciate the
noble mission which had been undertaken by the aseo-
ciation. They proposed, in the first place, to secure an
economical expenditure of the national finances, and in
the second to obtain a system of taxation whereby
all subjects of the state should be taxed according to
their means. He believed that this end could only be
attained by a system of direct taxation. Many news-
papers would doubtless attack these views within the
next few days, and large numbers of people—particu-
larly among landed proprietors and the agricultural
classes—would regard them as pernicious and perhaps
revolutionary. The landed gentry were generally the
last to learn anything. They were the last to learn the
justice and necessity of the repeal of the corn laws,
although no class had derived greater benefit from that
measure than themselves. He anticipated results al-
most as great and beneficial when the programme of the
Financial Association was carried into effect. He had
lately been much attacked by the press. He would
detain them for a short time by reviewing a few of
these newspaper articles, and he hoped to show them
what bad political economy these professed leaders of
public opinion sometimes indulged in. Mr. Bright then
read passages from the Mita, the Spectator, and the
Sconootist, and proceeded to refute the assertions made.
He next adverted to the consumption of the people in
order to show the relative proportions of taxation. The
revenue from the excise WKS about £42,0M,000,
and it had been that divided by • competent offi-
cial authority. The upoer claws paid 41,350,000 ;
the middle classes, £15,900,000 ; and the lower classes
eilipo,ooo. During the last 20 years the Domani!).
thin of sugar, tea, coffee, corn, cattle, and tobacco, had
very nearly doubled, and by whom, he would like to
know, had the vast increase of commodities been con-
sumed. Unquestionably by the middle and lower
classes. At this hour 24,000,000 of people in this
country live in houses of less rental than £lO per
annum' and only 6,000,000 live in houses of a higher
rental than £lO. Tl,e conclusion then to be drawn
from all thew facts was that the revenue produced by
taxation upon the ordinary articles of consumption falls
heaviest upon the industrious classes. He (Mr.
Bright) lived in the midst of a manufacturing district,
and lie knew something of the life of the labouring man.
Although this was a time of unusual prosperity, the
life of a labouring man was one of peculiar hardship and
difficulty. Labouring men have to maintain an hum-
sant struggle to keep themselves from what they dread
so much—the workholse. Their life is precarious, and
on the average not of long duration. He (Mr. Bright)
appealed to the middle *Lamm of the country to band
together to relieve the labouring classes from their

heavy burdens, and to abolish a system which weighs
so heavily upon the great mass of our fellow-country-
men. (Great applause.) Well, then, how best to meet
the difficulty? He would propose a tax of Bs. per £lOO
upon the whole property in the country belonging
to persons having £lOO per annum or more. This
would produce about L'27,01010,000 per annum. If this
tax were adopted, we could abolish the duties on sugar,
tea, coffee, insurance, carriage, and • groat variety of
articles. Such • measure would immediately increase
the trade of the nation, and spread happiness and con-
tentment amongst the great industrious population,
whilst at the same time the tax would not weigh heavily
upon those classes who would have to pay it. As re-
gards the duties on tobacco and spirits,- they produce
about E 18,000,006, and he would not propose their
abolition, at least not for the present. The largest pro-
portions of these, which come from tabacco and spirits,
are paid by the lower claws, and we may fairly leave
the proportion of the national revenue to be paid by
I them, whilst the upper and middle classes ought willingly
to burden themselves with the remaining taxation re-
quired by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr.
Bright then referred at considerable length to. the legacy
duty on personal property, the probate duty, and the
succession tax of 1866, which last he denouneed as a
shame and a disgrace. The poor, lie said, were taxed
excessively to spare the rich, and all classes are taxed
excessively to spare the proprietor of the soil. He
would give his explanation of this state of things in •
few words. The parliament which levies the taxation is
• parliament of the rich, arid the majority of the mem-
bers belong to the landed proprietors. What is the
remedy? We may either have an agitation extending
over some years, rousing the country to indignation, and
perhaps to the brink of insurrection, or we may have •
measure of parliamentary reform which will change the
character of the legislation. The monopolists of power
dread the extension of the franchise. The existence of
the present cabinet, however, depends upon the courage
and honesty with which it deals with this important
and unavoidable question: the very future of their
party depends upon it. "A word mom," said Mr
Bright, "and I have done. lam assailed with viru-
lence, even charged with falsehood, by those masked
conspirators against the commonwealth who write in the
leading columns of the Tiflet. Congenial slanders arc
vomited forth every week in the lines of the great
Saturday reviler, but the facts which I have stated this
night remain, and they reulain, I hesitate not to say, to
the dishonour of our country and the weakening of our
Government. Aristocracy entrenched within the citadel
of power, and resting upon generations of unchallenged
rule—monarchy itself, venerable with the willing hom-
age of a thousand years—authority of every kind must
be shaken, and will pass away, unless it be based upon
the true interests and commend itself to the conscience
of the people. (Cheers.) I ask that Parliament should
be made • real representation of the property, the in-
dustry, and the intelligence of the nation; that we
may be delivered, if possible, from chaotic legislation,
from reckless expenditure, and from • taxation oppres-
sive, unequal, and unjust. (Cheers.) The monopolists
of power reject that demand with scorn. The day may
come when it will be made in • louder voice than mine,
when this question will be grasped in a ruder hand than
mine, and, when it is so made, as was the case in l&V,
that will be surrendered with fear and humiliation for
which reason and justice now plead in vain." (Loud
cheers.)
Lord Teynham advocated a prompt diminution of ex-
penditure, and said that any Government anxious to
retain power must grant liberal measures of reform to
the people.
Mr. J. C. Evart, M.P., said that, though not agreeing
in toto with Mr. Bright, he was an advocate for &system
of more direct taxation, and as a member of parliament
be had often felt much indebted to the publications of
the Financial Reforiu Association. He then called at-
tention to the tianber duties and the tax on mai ii.e in-
surance, which he denounced as particularly unfair and
oppressive. When taxation could be reduced, be hoped
be the poor would relieved from many of the burdens
now pressing upon them.
Mr. Pollard-Urquhart, as a landowner, could
bear witness to the benefits of free-trade legislation, and
argued that as ready money was one of the best promo-
tives of economy, he was, therefore, an advocate for
direct taxation in its simplest sense. He considered that
the services, of Messrs. Cobden and Bright far surpassed
those of Howard and Wilberforce, and would be more
universal in their benefits to the nation at large. He
would say to them, "Go on in the good work you have
begun, and God give you strength to carry out your de-
signs."
Mr. Lawrence Heyworth then proposed a vote of thanks
to the members of parliament present, which was se-
conied by Mr. F. Houk.
The resolution was carried by acclamation, and replied
to by Mr. Standeld, M.P., for Halifax, who said that he
bad read the publications of the Financial Reform Asso-
ciation with interest and advantage. Should Mr. Bright
undertake to bring before the House of Commons the
scheme he had foreshadowed that night, they would as-
suredly find that many members of the Lower House
would better meet the thanks of the people of Liverpool
than they had done that night.
Mr. Bright, in moving • vote of thanks to the chair-
man, alluded to the volunteer movement as a spasmodic
excitement which would soon subside, and of which many
people now connected with it would, in • few years, be
heartily ashauied. This, with three chree cheers for
Mr. Cobden, terminated the proceedings.