The Express.
London, England, 1862-03-13 00:00:00

MR. BRIGHT, M.P., ON THE LSCOME T4A,

Mr. Bright, M.P., ban written the following t,„
the chairman of a recent anti-income tar meeting Kt Bit.
miogham : _ _

" 4,_thoover-atreet, London, March 11, 1662.

" Dear Sir,-1 have received your letter and a copy of tip:
resolution on the subject of the income tax, and tLabk you
for them. I am not surprised at the hostility which you

describe as existing in the minds of many penes sia

minimax against this tax ; in truth, I em only surprised
at the patience, I think I may say the culpable patience,
with which it has been so long endured. At the same tin
I regret to say that I cannot see the wisdom of the count
you recommend with a view to procure the repeal or alters.
tion of the tax, and it does not appear to me to offer any
prospect of sitccose. I cannot, therefore, pledge iii)s•lf
act as you wish, that is, to undertake ' to divide the Loa,
against the present income tax laws on every possible
Mon.' . . . .

" The evil of which you complain is not to be got rid.:
through the direct action of parliament, and the come
you recommend to my colleague and to myself would, I
fear, only subject you to disappointment, and us to
cule. The House of Commons, and I may say poliamest
as a whole, including both houses, finds no special grim
anon in heavy expenditure and heavy taxation, and the
inequalities of which you justly complain, tell in fovea,
of the rich, and especially in favour of the owners of what
is called real property. It is not from parliament, their.
fore, in the first instance that you are to look for redress.
" The income tax was imposed in the year 1842 to enable
Sir Robert Peel to begin the reform of the tariff. The
tariff has been to • great extent reformed ; and, although
the Customs duties produce more now than they did ie
1842, the income tax remains with a heavier pressure aad
a wider field. The cause is on the surface. Psrlismea
immenitia now to an annual expenditure about twenty M-
ho= in excess of that of 1842, and the income tax rani
one-half of the increased taxation required by this 41-
c:timed expenditure. If I complain to government or to
parliament that this expenditure is unnecessary, nod as
taxation burdensome, government end parliament tell n
that the nation is not of my opinion, and that the people
do not blame the one, or suffer sensibly under the other.
" I believe a very heavy taxation can rarely,
perhaps never, be levied with much regard4o
justice. In this countm where the rich only govern,
equality and fairness in taxation are impossible. The rich
may spend the public revenues with • careless prodipay,
bat they will fight with • desperate unity of purpose to
place the burden on the whole people, with little regard to
the means of those who are to beer it. In the limited Eng.
dons there are seven millions of men who pay taxes, and of
these about six minions are never consulted as to the
amount which shall be spent, or the mode in which a
shall be raised. Of the one million who ace
apparently consulted, it may be said that political power it
so unequally apportioned among them, that less than one
fourth of them nominally elect a majority of the mambas
of the House of Commons, by which seventy millions of
taxes are annually collected from seven millions of men,
and which determines the mode in which this vast sum shill
be raised, and how it shall be expended.
" I have now had an experienoe of nearly twenty
years, in the House of Commons, and during that
time I have given such assistance as I could to
every attempt to keep down expenditure, and to make
taxation more equal and more just. The expenditure it
now twenty melons more than it was when 1 entail
parliament. Since 1853-4, when Lord Palmerstoe ml
Lord John Russell led the nation into war with Ramis,
the public exchequer has been open to the rapacity of
the military services, and they have revelled, withal
check, in the wealth which industry has created. Thu
old statesmen, steeped in the traditions of the last guns
tion, conceive the grandeur of • country to consist in the
vastness of its taxation, and the extent of its military ps.
pamtions, and they have succeeded in so exciting the fen
and imposing upon the understanding of the midill"
classes of the people, as to induce them to tolerate a cow
stantly-growing extravagance in the executive
must, and a burden of taxation, which in a time or pea
would have driven their forefathers into revolt.
"The English middle clam believes itself to be rem*
meted, while its representation is mainly a fraud. The
great mass of the people are purposely excluded from all
representation. Force is no longer used as the Mgr:meet
of tyranny amongst us ; but fraud, and delusion, and
alarm, and panic are found in our day more profitable
than force. I write to you, who, in respect to the subject
of our correspondence, are • representative of the middle
class; and I say that until that great class, in may
things so intelligent, so moral, and, when it Mil
to any great duty, so powerful—shall examine public
affairs for itself, sod shall shake itself free hem
the impositions which are so impudently practised
upon it, I see no hope of any sensible diminution d
the burden of Mutton, or of any more just apportion
meat of that taxation from which it as impossible to
escape. If the middle class prefer an alliance with the
aristocratic and ruling party, to the cordial 00-opeestion sal
help of the great nation now excluded from the franchin,
and from all political power, they must be content with
profligate government expenditure, and s taxation burden-
some from its amount, and insulting from its inequality sad
injustice.
" I hope I need not tell you how glad I shall be to witnes
an expression of public opinion in favour of economy. The
old watchwords of the liberal party were ' Peace, Retrench-
ment, and Reform.' Of late years, under the leadership of
statesmen who care for none of these things, the party has
become enfeebled, debauched, and humiliated, and has
trampled in the dust the only principles on which it had say
pretence to become a party.
" I cannot give you any hope of diminished or more equal
taxation from the House of Commons. I should only add
another to the many delusions practised on the people if I
were to tell them, after nearly twenty years' experience,
that anything can be done there, in your direction, except
under • pressure which cannot lie resisted, and which as
only coma from without. I shall rejoice if that ptsasme
be created, and it will give me infinite satisfaction to mat
it and to obey it.—l am, with great respect, yours sincerely,
" Joni" BMW.
" To John B. Manton, Esq., Regent Works,
Birmingham."