The Express.
London, England, 1847-02-18 00:00:00

REPAYMENT OF ADVANCES TO IRELAND

BY INCOME-TAX.
SIR,—By the Temporary Relief Bill, which will
probably have become law before this reaches you, • large
sum of money is to be advanced to bush boards of guar
diens on the security of rates to be hereafter levied. It
haft been candidly admitted by Irish members that, under
existing circumstances, the rates in question cannot be
collected. No person who knows anything of Ireland can
outmode that they will ; and it is to be apprehended that this
will tend, along with everything else, to make relief com-
mittees reckless as to the amount of their expenditure.
Perhaps they may think, as the magistrates and ewe-
payersat the Extraordinary Presentment Sessions
held some months ego appear to have thought,
that the most likely way of having the whole
debt, or a large portion of it, cancelled, was to
make it so great that repayment would be impossible. Some
Irish members have alleged that, whatever might be the
ease with the tenant's portion of the rate, the landlord's
portion would certainly be repaid. Unless, however, a
change in the made of paying the rate be made by law, this
statement is " a delusion, a mockery, and a snare." The
landlord's share is in the first instance paid by the tenant ;
the landlord is not lisble for it to the collector. The occu-
pier pays the whole rate in the first instance ; and it is only
on his producing the collector's receipt fur the payment, that
he is entitled to deduct the landlord's share from his rent.
It would appear, then, that the landlord's share of
the rate, which, according to the Irish members, can
alone be collected, does not mean the half-rate which he
pays on his gross rental, but only the rate which he
pays en the property in his own occupation ; a mere drop in
the bucket as compared with the entire rate. It is true
that the law may be altered. The landlord may be made
liable in the arse instance for his portion of the rate, and the
payment of it may be enforced by a compulsory sale of his
property, the only means by which many landlords can
meet the enormous burden that will be imposed on them in
a year, when all of them base had reduced incomes, from
the inability of their tenants to pay their full rents, and
when many of them have also sustained great losses
by the failure of their own crops. The advances
made by the English treasury may thus be repaid,
by • process which comes very near to what has been called
confiscation. But cannot they be repaid in an easier and •
fairer way ? Why has England been asked to contribute to
the relief of Ireland on the present occasion? Because the
calamity has been a national one. If this be a fair principle
as between England and Ireland, surely it is • fair
principle as between one part a Ireland and another,
and as between one portion of the Irish c mmunity
and another. The west of Ireland has suffered far more
than the east, and in both west and east some
electoral divisions have suffered incomparably more than
others. If it be a national calamity, as we say when we ap-
peal for help to England, and as everybody in England but
the Times seems disposed to admit, why should the land-
lord, whose property lies in an electoral division which, has
escaped distress, be called on to contribute nothing; while
he, whose property lies in a distressed division, though,
perhaps, it be not itself iistrem.d, is to be crashed with an
overwhelming rate ? And again, if this be a national cala-
mity, why are the mortgagees, the annuitants, the fund-
holders, the professional men of all sorts, the salaried ser-
vants of the crown, the merchants and the manufacturers,
to contribute nothing towards it, or at least nothing in pro-
portion to their means ? Why is the whole burden to be
laid on what is, perhaps, not above a tenth of the total in
come of Ireland ? England has acted nobly towards her
sister on this occasion, so far as contributing largely towards
r the relief of the distress which she suffers ; but there
remains one thing for her to do it will cost
her nothing • and if she neglects to do it, the omission
will cancel all the obligation which her pecuniary contribu-
tions may have created. She will be regarded as a tyrant ;
and the cry for • repeal of the union will be heard in quarters
where before it was never uttered. England must see that
the portion of what is required to meet the extraordinary
pressure occasioned by the failure of the potato crop, which
she leaves to be paid be Ireland, shall be distributed fairly
over all Ireland and among 01l classes of Irishmen.
The mode of effecting this is as simple as the
4,m:ice of It is obvious. Let any electoral division
in which a rate or rates have been levied since
September, 1846, amounting to the average of the rates levied
in the two preceding years be exempted from any further
liability till after the audit in September, 1847. If rates to
this amount have not been levied, let the deficiency be now
levied, or as soon as it may be required • the lawilords and
tithe-owners being made hable bylaw in the first instance for
their respective shares. A proviso may be easily framed to
meet the case where the poor-house has not been open during
the two years specified, or where, through default of the guar-
dian.. a proper rate has not been struck. In such cases the
maximum amount to be levied this year may be determined
by the average of neighbouring unions The great principle
for which I contend is, that the amount to be levied this
year on the very limited class on whom the burden of the
poor-rates rests by the present law, should not exceed tee
average of past years; and that whatever is levied beyond
this, whether under the Temporary Relief Act or under the
erg ;her poor-law. should be charged on the Irish people at
large. Now there seems an easy mode of effecting this. There
is as yet no income-tax in Ireland. The difficulties in the
way of collecting one have been exaggerated by interested
persons : but they are very trifling, and can easily be sur-
mounted. In future years let the Irish pay an income tax
equivalent to what is paid in England or Scotland, and ap-
plicable to the same purposes. In the present year, let a
special income tax be Imposed to defray the extraordinary
relief required for the poor. It may be made payable is
two portions. The first must be laid on by estimation ; the
amount of income taxable, and the amount to be levied.
being calculated as well as possible. The first payment of
the tax should make up, as nearly as possible,
the half of the extraordinary relief required. The other
payment could be accurately determined, so as to make up
the remainder of what was expended in this relief. By this
means, the speedy repayment of the advances made by the
2osernment would be scoured, without there being an over-
whelming pressure on any individuals; and, at the some
time, the machinery for collecting an income tax, which after
all is the fairest mode of taxation, would be brought into
working order.—l remain, &c., ULTONIENBIII.