The Express.
London, England, 1848-12-22 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 22, 1848.

the thareholdere—it wes ultimately agreed to adopt the ask—and with gip. ,I reusno,—Wov should we net have cheap
on the promise that Ix fttare monthly statements governs* it as w ell se di 4p corn I
shnitu be (Mhos*. The meeting then separated.
RAI AT PalL100:-Yaltilliay enontin g fire
ositarNeactext is.
and artiall'th*rfurnhr"otisWarbitaattionalkslntimfal:runr auofrbsalthernV
brake eat In ma to the wetru„ta howa to waelthenNe is this tax yea' the 'tummy elemect of
Mr. Cabitt. the Milder, la Teekbrookatreet, Belgrave-road, assaults* 1 lit • Worn need be said upon it ; the duty.
Bokser. The peonies., which were several doors high, amounting to 860,0001., meat come off, if it only beta cies.**
as
woe mad asad at the time of the outbreak us from the stain of asthma hypocrisy. That which rep is
motataaa a "mak. 'mi.. ems, sag ether hewn to the skin, literature is to the healthy action el the mind,
ohatarkge. But hor-'iataataa -gap,/ era the whole or the and yet we raise 720,0001. a year from a heavy duty upon
entaimive building preessted one harasses skeet of Rams, ilsifer ; b 7 including this in your budget, you will remota
end the Ire raked through the various windows and oat of W. Miro, morel, sad istasstuat waysn'nment of the
the red with such fury se to threaten the surrounding pre- pew', • swam sooslttabla to all Partite whatever may
port". The luau were aot eattagukhoti until the hum ta ottheir AIM upon national education. The list two item/
which the entbreak sommeseed wee totally dutroyed, sad will draw towards you the trsitathiss a the Seeteh tackle
the while of the building sad peoperty oconsamed. reformer,.
These four rums amount to 8,248,0001.
INOVEIB, YESTERDAY. MANALAI/ORTER.— By - .y . ..0 called. Tim I. the
aleniament, beim Mr. Baker, at the London Hospital, re- Lasti , a come to taxes, propel
weft the death of Lewis Lewis, alias Lewis Censtatt window tax, which, although it dowl not, lie the excise dia.
' Vti, operate as a direct impediment to productive inaustryi
Irk" weeknocked down and run over by ' w'f°ll, is open, to the fearful objection that it " obstructs the light el
hens to bee* improperly driven by James Barley, a ~ . " sad in the.. WM words we may read its larvae-
arum in theawapiwy of Er. Ed war d Gress, cool merchant, “eaven ,
blip doom London Beth, and other large cities, are prey-ing
City-road. Barley wm 'barged at the Thames Police•court the abolition '.
masa el this tax annually upon the bowie, through
with having mewl the death of the deceased, sad remanded
Lord Dun
till eau the inquest. The fees have already appeared in , and you must not think of eineedkir it from
your " National Budget." It yields 1,8100001. ii yo, ways
oar Lamas. The jury returned a verdict of '• Man-
an
daughter •' 'Oast Jaime Barley. d means" are so nearly exhausted, that I can only add the
advertisement duty, amounting to 160.0001.
These two sums amount to 1,770,0001. The total lose of
revenue by the reduction of the above duties end taxes, Is
11,477,0001., or 23.0001. less than the 11,600,0001. of surplus
which I propose to create, by the diminution it expenditure
and the equaaaation of the probate and legacy duty. I cub.
join a summary of the foregoing in a Collttill tabular
term :

MR. COBDENS PLAN OF FINANCIAL RE-
FORM AND NATIONAL ECONOMY.
The following able and interesting communication
from Mr. Cobden, on the subject of national retre&ebia
and financial reform, was read on Wednesday night, at the
meeting of the Liverpool Financial Reform Association
London, 103, Westbountaternee, Dee. 18, 1848.
Dear Sir—l gathered from the convention f had with you
and the members of the Fioaneial Reform Association in
Liverpool, that you had two objects in view—First, the sub-
etitunea of dire= for indirect taxation ; and secondly, a di.
lunation of the present amount of government expenditure.
I ventured to offer an opinion, which I now beg to repeat, that
it would be far easier to effects reduction of expenditure to
the extent of 10,000,00 W., and apply the whole of that sum=
thelrentoval of excise and customs duties, than to transfer
the suns amount from indirect to direct taxation. Entitling
in Liverpool and a few of oar largest trading towns, there is
not, at present, a very greet force of public opinion in favour
of direct taxation. It has yet to be created and organised
But there is a very general sympathy felt in the proceedings
of your body, founded upon a strong desire to have the bur-
dens of taxation lightened; and there is some expectation
that you will pat forth • plan for effecting that object. My
noun for now troubling you is, to suggest whether it might
not be advisable to publish a national budget, exhibiting
on one side • considerable reduction in the expenditure, and
on the other the several excise and customs duties hich
you propose in the first place to abolish. Ido not mean by
this a perfect financial scheme, such as may be onntemplated
as the ulterior object of your Association, bat a plan which,
whilst it went in the direction of your principle of direct
taxation, and relieved the mass of consumers from a heavy
tax upon their necessaries and comfort', should commit those
politicians of all shades who now join in the vague cry for
"economy and retrenchment" to some practical meanie*
worth contending for.
I suggest that yen take for the basis of your budget the ex-
penditure of 1835. The whole most of the government in
that year, =chiding interest of debt, was 44,422,0001. For
the twelve months, ending the 6th April last, it amounted to
65,175,0001., being an increase of 10,753900 i. The interest
of the debt was leas by 87,0001 in the latter than the former
year, making the comparison so much the more unfavour-
able to 1848. The estimated expenditure for the current
year, ending the 6th April, 1849 (see Lord John Russell's
speeehlBth Feb. last), is 54,696,0001.; so that we may take the
increase to be, In round numbers, 10,000,0001. since 1835.
Do you see any good reasons why we should not return to the
expenditure of that year ? Englishmen love precedent'; and
they are net easi persuaded that anything is Utopian or im-
practicable which has been accomplished within the last
13 years ; and this is one reason, though I will find you a
better, why you should bass your budget upon that of 1835.
If we go beck a little further, to the time when this nation was
still under the rule of the boroupihmongere we shall and a
startling argument in favour of this plan. In 1830, the last
year of the Wellington-Peel administration, the expenditten
for all purposes, exclusive of the interest of the debt, was
18,024,0001. ; for the twelve months ending the 6th April of
the present year, it amounted to 26,747,0001. The tory go-
vernment was overturned the following year upon the motion
of Sir Henry Parnell, in favour of economy, and the House of
Commons was soon afterwards reformed, mainly on the plea
of its profligate waste of the people's money • and yet we
have now an increase to the expenditure of '8,723,0001., or
nearly 50 per cent., as the fruits of the Reform Act. We
are now actually expending more upon the army, navy, and
ordnance alone, than sufficient for the maintenance of the
whole civil and military establishments under the Duke of
Wellington's government I When thus Leta shall be gene-
rally known, the country will, I think, be in the humour
lee responding to your appeal, if you inscribe as your motto
upon your banner, " The expenditure of 1836," which will
, be • 'eduction of 10,600,000 L from this yeer's budget.
' I would net advise you to complicate your plan by pro-
posing any new imposts, to rouse the antagonism of intererod
punks, or any modifications or substitutions of miring
lases, to destroy that simplicity of object which, above all
things, is necessary to the swoon et • public 'Milian. But
there is one tax from which the dominant class in this coun-
try has exempted itself for hit a century which exe-mption
it would be disgraceful to the character of 'the Fithian people
any longer to toilette—l mean the probate and legacy duty.
In the Let year upwards of two millions were lid Into the
exahogser by the hales se personal property, eresieding
mainly of the hard-earned emiaandattens ef our merchant%
man probational mat, traders, end meeksaire ;
whilst the dues! domain, or the wane of the gnat landed
proprietor, passed sneezed from the deed to living. This
year will be memorable few having witnessed the destewetioa
of thelast remaining pewees of feudalism in all the amtatries
of the continent, excepting Russia. But I knew Mae privi-
lege which the nobles d Prussia, Oallicia, at Unger, have
been compelled to surivarlier, as a tribute to the enlighten-
ment of this age, mare unjust in =Li& than that
which is conferred upon our landed proprieties In the statute
paved by themselves, imposing duties exelesivify upon the
inheritance at perusal y. Let us net bort of Eng-
lith freedom, er of equilty before the law, lUD= this in- I
justice Tomei& In what term could erieneratic privilege
arrems a more effusive sod wetly aspect then In that of a
held and palpable exemption from taxation? I do not
think that great reliance will be offered to the ignitable
adjustment of this tax, provided the people speak sag as be-
tomes them. No living proprietor will be affected by the
change, and the landowners we se conscious as you or 1
that these ore not times for transmitting such a clam of
privilege to posterity. I assume that the probate and
legacy duty upon reel estate, entailed and unentailed, will
yield, at a moderate estimate, 1,500.0001. By the above
Men you would have • disposable surplus revenue of
11,600,0001.—vi5., 10 millions from the redaction of ex-
penditure, and • million and a half from the increased pro-
duos of the probate and legacy duty.
I will now trouble you with my views as to the disposal of
that amount ; premising that I have not felt quite free to
choose In every Instance Wee items of the customs and excise
duties, which I should myself have profaned to abolish or
reduce but have been pertly influenced by the desire to
enlist the sympathy and support of every Mass .aed interest
in the community, whom ca-operation will be abundantly
requisin to force the adoption of the plan upon government.
To begin with the customs duties. The present duty of
2e. aid. per lb upon tee, whether viewed as • tax upon the
most harmless stintrilant enjoyed by the people, or as an im-
pitman to the operations of oar merchants trading with
China, is one of the most indefensible In the tariff. I would
radios the duty to Is. per lb., or to an ad valorem duty
yielding the some amount of revenue, by whisk. according
to the estimate of the Chancellor of the Bachaquer,
is his speech on Kr. Cordwell's motion, there wield
be a loss for the ant year of 2,000,0001. The date
on limber and weed must be wholly abolished. This
is a neesseary eousequass, if not an accompaniment,
of the repeal of the navigation laws. The amount
is 966,0001. (I have take. this and all the following items
from the flume aceeuate for the year ending January sth,
1848 deducting the expense of collection.) I propose, also,
to take the duty off batter, cheese, and urAwards of one I
hundred items of the customs duties, yield alt
616,9301. ; and leaving only about twenty artielesr
to peeing dur umty.
These three s amount to 3 461,0081.
Next, with reference to the Excise. It nay be laid down
as a rule, that whenever you touch an Excise duty at all, it
should be totally abolished; bemuse the great objection to
suck taxes, the interference of the exeissonan with the pro-
cesses of production, applies equally whether the duty be
great or small. This should be berme In mind if you deal
with the malt tax, and you must deal with it, if
yen would enlist the sympathy of the countiannoctenr;
stitoseeles in your movement To • man, the
me in favour of the repeal of the malt tax ; and this, not
mutely bemuse it would add to the contentment of the pea-
santry, by cheapening • beverage which they universally
sonsume, and also relieve their employers from a heavy tax
open the beer they give to their labourers at certain swans,
but lie best agneultarists loudly protein against the duty, on
Zan that it demise them the freeapplicationof thole
Sloths fattening el cattle upon malt, and thus pre-
• VITO preatablepwwth of barley upon stiff clay Lads.
Urn this subject 114 'Lattimore, speaking for an Influential
deputation of lender* and fames, which had an icterview
whit Lord John Russell in Fehluary last, said—" The suit
tax disansuged the beat moles or cultivation, enhanced the
artifictel food far stock and cattle whereby the
of the soil wee deteriorated, the demand for labour
the supply of bread corn and animal food consider-
!Sadsmeassd, and the ant Its of the people and the
of the country were al= greatly impaired." Your
'National Budget" would, tterelore, be undeserving the
nom if it did not include the total repeal of the malt tax-
ainsmeting to 4,960,0001,
In Lent, Siosee. and two or tine other countiee;there is
ea satin agitation against the hop duty The expense of col-
lecting Ws tax is alone sufficient to condemn it. Nothing.
could no well exemplify the waste: it and wetly proems M
revalue by meant of excise digits as the opepeide
rxillitia, fur a mouth or six weeks every autumn, of a
little army of ervisentra dispersing Quartilese over half a
more of mantle*, t. levy a tax I. the fields end gardens of
the hop-plantets. I question it anything mere barbarous
could be met with in Terkey, or any uncivilised country,
where politisel et.monsy had never been heard of even by
name. I propos-, t fierrt,t,, stet thoktion of the hop duty.
4 ito3ooi hie uding the malt and hop
dotiee„- on will snore the co eptre'ion of the farmers, who,
-enlist free-trade as the seftlid of our legislation.
the toe-

NATIONAL BL'DOZT.
proposed redoedon of el. ,froes 110,000,000
Proposed leopsy sod pro duty up= real
estate, wbsthez mailed or oneektad 4500.040

Proggeed amount of sorplo, revenge £11,500,00

PROPOSED REDUCTIONS OF DUTIES AND TAXES.
MIMI'. DVTIBIS. Imes of R. muse.
Tea—Doty to be redosed t:62,:i..= Ilid. ... X 2,000,000
Timber arid wood—Duty
Butter, ebeese, and upward, of 100 maim
items of the tarlf—Doties abolished 516,000

Total lon upon Custom'