The Press.
London, England, 1857-05-09 00:00:00

Corresponittnce.

THE NEW REFORM BILL.
Letter It.
TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS."

Sir,—ln my last I pointed out some of the con se•
quences which will necessarily ensue from a five-
pound qualification. The logical foundation of niy
reasoning was, the great cardinal fact that, since the
lower orders of society are more numerous than those
above them, the five pounders would constitute the
immensa majority of the electoral body.
This fact being admitted—and no one with any
perception can deny it—the rest followed as necessary
consequence. That mankind will follow their sup-
posed interests, is a principle of human nature as old
as the time of Cain and Abel ; and that it is as
potent now as then, needs only an appeal to the ten •
pound conscience itself. For, is it not the case that
the whole tenor of our policy since the Reform Bill
has been in favour of the consumers ?—a class to
which three•fourths of the present electoral body
belong. Allow that it was patriotic and wise to
abolish protection of native and colonial industry.
and that it was humane and consistent to take off
the differential duty on slave sugar, it is at lea't a
striking coincidence that this policy coincides with
the interests of the teu-pound householders; and
though the income tax does strike against a large
number of our voters, it was submit ted to only under
the exigencies of the war, and is to be got rid of
altogether in 1860. By that millennial era ten pound
householders will be able with impunity to indulge
in the natural feeling of complacency flowing from
the possession of average incomes of 1001. a year,

MAY 9, 1857.

with no income-tax commissioner to make them
afraid.
Now, the new voters whom a five-pound franchise
will call into existence belong not to the income-
ridden tenth, but t 3 the nine-tenths who have never
felt the incidence of direct taxation. Unknown to
them is the hardship of paying in the slump
live, ten, twenty pounds, or upwards, to the
collectors ; they have never been subjected to the
odious inquisition into their private businesses, so
essential an incident in direct t isation ; and they
have never felt the painful conscientious scruples
consequent upon filling up the schedules.
But not only are they quite exempt from the
oppression of the income tax, it is demonstrable that
they benefit from it in no inconsiderable degree.
The interest of the national debt must be paid, and
the expense of the national establishments defrayed ;
and if the income tax is abolished, the deficiency
in the revenue must be made good by indirect taxa-
tion, which, to some extant, would fall on the new
voters. Therefore, the new voters would be losers
.by the abolition of the income tax. And even
'suppose the unlikely case, that owing to peace and
prosperity the revenue of the country is sufficient
without additional taxation to meet the current ex•
penditure and to leave over and above a surplus
equal to the present income tax, it would still be the
interest of the five pounders that the income tax
should be retained and the surplus accounted for by
the reduction of other indirect taxes. The fact is,
the five-pounder has heard too many speeches
of ten-pounders against taxing the fool of the people
not to be fully alive to its injustice, and he has read
too many ten-pounder treatises on political economy
not to be gully satisfied of the superiority of direct
over indirect taxation. No, he will say or think, we
have got on the scientific track at last, by great
pains, a good deal of sophistry and no little injustice,
and is all this to go for nothing, and we the majority
of the electoral body ! No ; henceforth our states-
men will rather try as much as possible to carry out
this just and salutary principle, and by raising the
rate and assessing income's down, say to 501., pro-
vided that does not bring in the five pounders, ren-
der it possible to still further relieve from taxation
the food of the people. C. rn, no doubt, is the staff
of life, and to tax it is sacrilege and blasphemy, but
tea and coffee are hardly less sacred. Beer is no
longer a luxury, but the daily drink of the hard-
labouring poJr, and tobacco is consu ned more
largely by the five-pounders than by all the rest of
the nation.

It is hardly necessary to point out that the same
line of argument leads somewhat farther. It is the
interest of the nine-tenths of the population, and of
the legislating five-pound voters, to increase the
income tax by raising the rate and dr3oving within
its scope all those richer than themselves, until a
sufficient revenue be raised to allow of the abolition
of indirect taxatiol altogether. They will then enjoy
the benefit of Government and of untaxed tobacco,
tea, and malt liquors, at the expense of the richer
classes of society. _ _ _

I am aware it will he said that the present Parlia
ment, being elected by an anti income-tax interest,
will never agree to its perpetuation, but who are to
twee to their perpetuation under a lowered fran-
chise. As a constitutional consequence of such a
measure you must have a new election ; and the
five-pounders are wide awake, and will take care to
return delegates pledged to support their interests,
just as the ten pounders do at. present.
And the worst of the matter is, that the five-
pounders, in point of numbers, are entitled to say
they represent the country in a less farcical sense
than the 900,000 who now constitute the electoral
body. To take the " sense of the country" will have
some meaning when the appeal is made to three or
four millions of voters.

Let the ten pounders, therefore, consider, as they
value their incomes, as they hate income teL com-
missioners, and as they feel profound indignation at
the injustice of the schedules, whether it, would not
be as well t ► coalesce with the Conservatives, and if,
in order to ke,p hustings pledges, a five-pound Iran-
chise must be adopted, to tack a graduation clause
to the nex Reform Bill, and thus maintain in some
de tree the balance of property and education against
a population. If they don't, not only may they expect
a perpetual income tax, but the five points of the
people's charter.

J. A. G.

LORD PALMERSTON AND THE PEERAGE.

TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS."

Sir,—At a meeting at which I was present, where
there were assembled two commercial members of
Parliament, a county member, an Irish Catholic
representative, and a Scotch political economist, it
was admitted that a common ground of attack ag,ain,t
Conservati,m by the Liberal commercialists in this
and any future Parliament would be based upon the
abrogation of the law of primogeniture. It was the
demand and the consequence of progressive action.
The Scotch political economist quoted the authority