The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-01-23 00:00:00

fl NORTHERN TIMES_---LIVERPOOL FRIDAY.

addition to the wages and profits of the trader using
timber. And what trade did not use it? We had
Waal off the glass duty in 1845, and the window duty
in 1851, and, besides extending a valuable branch
of trade, bad thus added to the blessings of light and
ventilation in every house in the kingdom. We had
taken nearly four millions off sugar, and put on again
about a million and a half ; and the consumption
bad risen from 240,000 tone, in 1842, to 470,000 in 1854 ;
and then fallen back again, partly through the additional
taxation, to 340,000 tons. In three years we had added
50 per cent. to the consumption of tea. And thus for the
exports. Ia 1842 we exported cotton manufactures to the
value of fourteen millions ; and in 1856 to the value of
thirty millions ; and our whole exports of British produce,
in 1842, less than fitly millions ; had in the last year been
little short of one hundred and tidily millions. Such are
a few of the more striking facts marking the tendency of
our real financial policy. Ha did not mean to say that all
this prosperity was due to those fiscal changes. (Met great
causes had, no doubt, contributed to it. to human affairs
it was not justifiable to draw oar lines with the precision,
or pretend to the exacoiess proper to the physical sciences.
Our inferences must be general, and must afford scope for
differences of opinion. His own conviction was, that the
policy referred to had proved itself a sound one, and on
this ground 'should be continued. The present income tax
was, no doubt, open to great objections. But every choice
of taxes was a choice of evils. Perfection was not looked
for in indirect taxation. Why insist upon indirect? The
course dictated by common sense was that indicated'by a
fair and dispassionate balance of advantages; and, in
this spirit, and without advocating any extreme or party
movement whatever, he had much pleasure in proposing
the adoption of the resolution he had read to the meeting.
Mr. Crosefield said: I haire been called upon to second
the resolution, which I do with great pleasure--(hear,
hear)—but I will riot detain the meeting with any obser-
vation further than by saying I most cordially secondtit. a
The resolution was put from the chair and was carried
by acclamation.
The Chairman said, I have now great pleasure in intro-
ducing to you my friend Mr. John Arthur Roebuck. (En-
thusiastic applause)
Mr. Roebuck aline forever I, and was received wide a
perfect storm of cheering, sustained for several minutes.
He said, Mr. Fleyworth--I have, sir, accepted the invita-
tion so kindly sent me by the Financial Reform Association
of Liverpool, because I thought by so doing I should
ferward the great end of financial reform. (Hear, hear).
Not, sir, by any vain notion that I myself had any power
upon the matter, but because I represent, as I do represent,
a great, and what I believe will be, an inflaent'al association
—the Administrative Reform Association of London.
(Hear, hear, and cheers). I thought, sir, that we had views
in common, that our principles were in the main identical,
although, when I say that I mean not to bind myself at all,
I bring all here to understand that I do not wean to bind
myself at all to the principles which may be enunciated by
the Financial Reform Association of Liverpool. I yin-
dicite to myself the means to be taken in the ends
which we have in view; but I believe the ends to .be
identical, and they are these ends. They may be put
shortly into one end—that every man in this community
should be taxed according to his means. : (Hear, hear, and
cheers.) That, sir, being, as I believe it to be, the end of
the Financial Reform Association of Liverpool, and knowing
it to be the end of the Administrative Reform Association
of London, I have come down here to signify our adhesion
to you, and to thank you in their name for all you have
donein the great business of financial reform. (Cheers )
And now, sir, I think my best course will be to solicit the
kind consideration of yourself and friends to what I shall
now utter. For it may be that the course we intend to
pursue is a different course from that which you have
adopted, and, as a mere matter of policy, you may differ
from us. But still I ask for your co-operation; because
our end is the same. (Cheers.) Sir, we, in London, did
not do as you did—foresee the coming danger, and
associate so early as 1848. We waited until the storm
had come upon us. We sent an army from our shores
never surpassed for its efficiency, for its power, and for its
will. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) That army the people of
England learned, to their horror, was dwindling away, was
being destroyed, not by the army of the enemy, but by the
accursed infirmity of purpose of our administration. (Loud
cheers) And, sir, when the people of England heard teat
their gallant army was thus being destroyed, they rose up
in all their magnanimous and magnificent array of anger
arid power, and they put down the Administration under
which that evil happened. (Cheers.) But, sir, there was
a great deal more to do. The evil came upon us not from
transitory causes : it was inherent in the very administration
of the country ; and for the purpose of putting down that
mal-administratioo, we banded together in London. But,
sir, the gentlemen who formed that association took pattern
by yourselves: they thought that by conveying instruction
to the people, pointing out to them the errors which bad
been committed, we should so instruct them that they
would bring to bear the public opiniot. upon the
administration of th 3 country. (Hear, hear.).-, • Thaverls-
weat they expected. They endeavoured to instruct the
people, as you have done, sir. They printed pamphlets.—
they distributed tracts—they did what they could to en-
lighten the people—they told the truth, and the matter
remained just as they found it; and we have discovered that
there is sitnetbing more to be done than merely to instruct
the people. After two }ears' labour, the Administratite
Reform Association of London came to theticenclusion that
they were not in the right course, and they did me the
honour—and a great honour I consider it, to ask me to
preside over their meetings. I accepted the invitation, and
I pointed out to them a course of proceedings—and herein,
sir, arose the point upon which I wish to obtain, as I have no
doubt I 01411 obtain, the kind forbearance of this meeting.
I told my friends that to point out the mischief, to
enlighten the people, to say " here are wrongs"—'• there
are wrongs," was only to do as the physician might do who
should deal with the symptoms of the diseases, and not the
cause of them. I bade my friends to consider what was the
cause of the mischief. The form of the evil they knew well.
It was exhibited on the plains of the Crimea. (Hear,
hear.) But what was the cause of the mischief ? It was
the aristocratic government of this country, (Cheers.)
For that purpose then, first, of pointing out as far as we
could all the administrative mischief which existed, we have
endeavoured, and we have succeeded, to crest: an organisa-
tion which should extend over every part of the United
Kingdom. We have now an organisatian which enables
us to communicate with somebody in every post town in
England. We have endeavoured, and we shall still further
endeavour, to learn all the mischiefs that have arisen ;
first, from the mode of taxation itself; next, from
its collection ; and, thirdly, from its distribution—(hear,
hear)—and these three things exhaust the whole catalogde
of evils connected with the subject of taxation: (Hear,
hear.) And now, sir, pointing to the very first of these,
namely, the mode of taxation—you, yourselves, have
pointed out and endeavoured to teach the people the great
advantages of direct taxation. Sir, I agree with you. But
there is something to be said even upon tho subject of
direct taxation, which, I think, is not said. There is now,
and has been fur some time past, a strong feelini growing
up against the Injustice of the Income Tax. (Hear, hear.)
I acknowledge that in justice; and, sir, in my place in
Parliament, I have endeavoured to alter and amoliarate the
mischief of that Income Tax. (Cheers.) In my humble
opinion, though I know there are some political economists,
but they are all very rich men—(laughter)—who believe
that I was wrong in the idea. It was this—the idea I had
—that a man who had £lOO or £l,OOO a year, from the
funds or landed property, was far more able to pay a tax of
5 per cent. or 10 per cent., than was the man who made
£lOO a year or £l,OOO a year, by his brains or his hands.
(Hear, hear, and cheers.) In the House of Commons, I
said, " That I recollect Mr, Gladstone, a name well
known in Liverpool, telling me that my argument was not
an answer, that they must have the money." (Laughter.)
My argument was this: That a man who had £lOO a year
from landed property could spend that £lOO a year, and if
sickness came upon him, or if he died, there was £lOO
a year still to his family. (Hear, hear.) But I said, and
little did I think how coon I should myself be an example
of the fact, suppose a man belonging to that class which
certainly is not popular, like my own, the lawyer—
(laughter)—suppose that man to make £lOO a year by the
arduous exercise of his intellectual faculties ; suppose that
man, from year to year, to go on making that sum until, by
the overtaxing of his brain, he isstricken down in a night—
(hear, hear)—where is the £l,OOO a year then to him ?
(Cheers.) It is gone. He leaves nothing to his family,
unless he has been a saving man. Therefore, so far as
the saving is concerned, he is unable to compete
in the payment of the tax with the man who derives his
income of £l,OOO from funded, or landed property. (Hear,
hear.) What I proposed to do was to capitalise that
‘l,OOO a year, and tax it then as you tax funded property.
Then you would act justly. Or you might take another
course—and I pointed out both courses to. the House of
Commons. You might say to a man, we will allow you to
insure your life; you may lay by so much every
year for the purpose of that insurance, and we
will tax you upon the remainder; thus placing on
something like an equality the man who derives
his income from funded property with the man who derives
it from his brains. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) But this was
a sort of process not agreeable to those who governed the
House of Commons. The majority there—the powerful
majority there—are men connected with land and with
funded property. They do not exercise their brains
much. (Cheers, and laughter.) But they have land
and they have money, end they taxed the people who
exercised their intellectual faculties, They were
wise in their • generation—they excluded from the
operations of the tax all incomes under 4•150 a year.
Thus they avoided giving offence to the working classes
of the country. The middle classes they found bound
hand and foot—and they treated them accordingly.
(Cheers.) Well, but from that ewe are about to do an

injustice on the other side, and because the income tax as
levied and imposed is unjust, we say that the income tax
is in itself an injustice. le it not so? (Hear, hear.) You
must recollect that by indirect taxation every poor man
who buys a pound of sugar or a pound of tea, is taxed as
the rich man is, in the same way ia the same case, and as
sugar and tea bear a much larger proportion to his whole
expenditure than they do to that of the rich man, he is more
taxed by indirect taxation than the rich man. (Hear,
hear.) The fair compensation for that is direct taxation—
an income tax—supposing that income tax were
justly levied—so that I do not join in the cry
against the income tax as an income tax. I join in
the cry against the injustice of the income tax,
but not against the income tax itself. Now, sir.
I shall pass from that first subject, because
do not want to occupy your time more than enough, to the
second, and that is the collection of the tax. Every man
must know, if he be at all mingled in the business of life,
that the mode of collecting the taxation, of the country is a
mode of tyranny. (Loud cheers.) It is uncertain ; and
there is a remarkable thing attending it—you always find
the tax gatherer getting rich. (Cheers and laughter.)
There is something peculiar about money —it sticks
to the fingers which handle it. ,(Laughter.) I have
found constantly, in my experience in life, that the
tax gatherer is the most flourishing in the small
community in which he lives. (Laughter, and hear, hear.)
I therefore say, sir, that the Financial Reform Association
of Liverpool, and the Administrative Reform Association
of London, would do well to direct their attention to the
mode of collecting the taxes of the country. (Hear, hear.)
Now, sir, the mode of distribution involves altogether all
the mischief of the country. For what are our taxes levied ?
They are ostensibly levied for the purpose of protecting
the people of the country, in their persons, their property,
and their reputation'. W hen that end is fully anemia plished,
all the purposes of Government have really been obtained,
and all that is levied upon the people more than is requi-
site for that end, is so much stolen from the people.
(Hear, hear, and cheers.) But, sir, anybody who shall
look at the institutions of the country, and see how much
of those institutions go to the great end or which I speak,
will know how fnuch the people are robbed in that way.
We have to pay for parade, we have to pay for service,
and the last bears a very small proportion to the first. I,
sir, have heard in the House of Commons, as I have no
doubt you have heard, the whole afternoon occupied about
giving some hard-working man £lOO, and in the next
breath, and before you could turn your head round, they
voted away a million of money. (Hear, hear, and cheers.)
I appeal to my friend in the chair if this has not occurred
in his experience, and I do not think his experience is
quite so long as mine, but still if it were only that of one
year, it would be quite enough to bear me out. (Hear,
hear.) Well, sir, that being the case, you cannot do
better than direct your attention to the three subjects
I which I have pointed out. Now, then, I come to the point
on which I suppose I shall differ from von, sir, and from
the gentlemen around me, It strikes me that associations
of this sort only arise put of the faulty institutions of the
country. We ought not to be met here for this purpose. We
have persons whom we choose every seven years, whose
actual business is to do this duty which we are now d,i -g.
I want to know what the Parliament at Westminster sits
for? (Hear, hear.) Do they sit not to do anything
but to look on, while we do their duty ? What is
it that we are doing now? We are actually
going into the very discussion into which parliament ought
to go night after night. (Rear, hear.)• We get our power
because the mischief has arisen to so great a height that the
people would not stand it any longer. (Cheers.) There-
fore they•take this extraordinary mode of expressing their
opinion. Now, what I want to do is this, I want to get
some constant, effective instrument to work out the purpose
which we are endeavouring to do in this extraordinary,
and, if I may use the term, spasmodic effort: How is this to
be done ? Why, sir, the House of Commons ought to be the
watch dogs of the people. (Rear, bear.) N what I
want to do is to make the House Of Commons fit and
willing to perform its duty. And, therefore, I say, sir,
that you cannot exnect to have any real financial reform
until you have had parliamentary reform (Cheers.)
I have persuaded the Adminis rative Reform Association of
that fact, and the consequence has been that we have de-
termined that all our organisation, spreading over England,
as it does, and all the various means we have of influencing
public opinion, shall be directed to this end, as well as to
the direct aim of the association—(hear, hear)—and what
we intend to do is this : first of all, to persuade the people
that the great mischief lies in the present constitution of the
House of Commons, and to bring their minds round to de-
mand a total reform of that house. (Cheers) ) We intend,
and here I shall make abold declaration—and you, sir, I
dare say, will be alarmed at the statement—we intend to do
our utmost to affect the of ming elections of this country.
(Cheers and laughter) And thirdly, sir, we intend to di-
rect our efforts to the formation of a real party in the House
of Commons, whose business end aim it will be to act as one
man, and make the M nisters feel that we are reformers of
• Fmancial Reform—(cheers)—that we are reformers in the
sense of the Financial Reform Association of this town,
.Now, sir, I hope that we shall have the co-^peration both
of you and your friends in this our great project. It
is a very difficult, aye, and it is dangerous task ; for
I will appeal to my friend in the chair,
if ho has not seen in the house of Commons this sight.
The northern towns of the country, or a great number of
them at least, had the power of returning members to par-
liament conferred on them by the reform bill. They choose
what they thought to be efficient representatives. These
men, as soon as they got to London and entered the
House of Commons, found that house divided in a very
curious manner. It was as if a line ran down it through the
very middle, from the Speaker's chair to the door, and on
one side sat the opposition, and on the other sat the minis-
try, and it was expected that every man who came into tkat
house should take either one side or the other. There are,
it is indeed a fact, there are certain wild, impracticable,
wonderful set of men, called " independent members."
(Laughter.) They wander in space like a planet which has
no sun round which to revolve. They go about they know
not where, and they find themselves in strange plac:s they
know not how. (Laughter.) The minister and his satel-
lites—(laughter)—make their situation a very uncomfort-
able one. Rejected from the ministerial side they go to the
opposition, and there they are met in the same way with,
" What do you belong to ?" and " What do you mean ?"
And if you do not swear in_ the words of one

party or the other, you are, in the slang phrase,
" nowhere." (Laughter.) The consequence of this was,
that wh°n these very simple gentlemen came from the
North, they found themselves, as I say, "nowhere."
(Laughter.) They did not know what to do. Mr. A.
brought up Mrs. A. ; Mr. A. was effected through the
means so very well known, how to be employed by the
great parties in London. Mr. A. wis effected through Mrs.
A. (Laughter.) Oh, I have seen it, sir ; I have known it
so often, that Mrs. A. wanted to go to the Queen's ball, and
and the way to get there, was to make Mr. A. vote with
ministers—(laughter)—and when he voted for the minister,
she received her invitation. lam not speaking without my
host in this matter —I know well what I am saying—(hear,
hear)—and I have known instances of cajoling of this kind,
of mean appliances of this description, of the sort of low and
disgraceful Means by which to reach a man's head and his
heart, quite as debuting as the one I have described.
(Hear, hear.) Well, then, had these men found when they
came up, untainted, untouched, unknowing—had they fourid
a party to which they could ally themselves, they would
have gone there--(cheers)—but no, finding none such, they
wandered to one side or the other. And, let me tell you,
that wandering to one side or the other, they got into
what I find has wonderful kfluenee in the north as well as
south, namely, what is called " good society." (Hear hear,
and laughter.) They found themselves all at once shaking
hands with the noble lords and noble ladies; and it was
wonderful, perfectly marvellous, when I found, sir, that
geneemen, whom I thought stunts, well to do, through
going, honest men, who had made their way in the world—
when I found these people bowing down, aye, and crawling
on their belies—(cheer's)—before noble scions—little petty
creatures who hardly knew their tight hand from their left,
but because they signed their name without their Christian
name, these gentlemen were_ their most obedient, humble

servants (Hear, hear.) Now, sir, Ido not exclude from
my reprehension this good town of Liverpool. (Hear, hear,
and laughter.) I find there is a wonderful desire in the
princely merchants of this princely town to be thought
fine gentlemen and ladies. (Laughter.) if they
could only hear the sort of criticism and sarcasm that
follows their own individual debasement, I :think they
would be prouder of their position of independent men
than subservient followers of any man. (Cheers.) Lady
A says to Lord A, who is the Minister—for instance Lord

A, B, or C. or P, who is the Prime Minister.l,l; Lady
A says, " Who is that vulgar fellow, A, that you intro-
duced to me ?" (Laughter.) He says, "My dear Lady
A, don't use that language ; I ackowledge that fellow to
be a vulgar fellow—l know it as well as you do—but he
has a vote In Parliament; and now do be civil to him."
(Laughter.) And so she is civil to him, and so ever after
Lord A. has his vote, and there are his thanks. Now,
sir, I want to point out, through the means of the
Administrative Reform Association, every time in
which a man thus actually departs from his duties
and betrays his trust to the people. (Hear and cheers.)
I believe, sir, we can do this by means of that organisation ;
and though believe that you may do much good by
instructing the people, yet if you get to bear in this way
the influence and the feelings of the people upon their

representatives, you will do-much more to carry financial
reform than all the pamphlets you can publish. (Cheers.)
Sir, I am very unwilling to occupy your attention—(cries
of "go on, go on")--but the subject enlarges before me,
and 1 could go on mnch longer. (Loud cries of "go on,
go on.") Sir, it appears to me that when we have got
together even a very small body of men who will say, "we
will act as on eman—we will make the Minister understand

that we will set our faces against all the mal administration
of which he is the Instrument"—when we have done this,
and if we only gather together six men who will say so,
before the next session comes we shall be adding to our

numbers by many resolving, independent gentlemen.

(Rear, hear, and laughter.) Sir, I hope to see you join
th it party—(cheers)—and I hope to see every
independent constituency telling their member that
he must do so too—(cbeers)— that he must not
only ally himself to either one aristocratic party or
the other, but that he must consider the people of
England. (Applause). Why, sir, I have seen a man
whose life has been passed in the exercise of his faculties,
mentally and bodily, who has built himself up a great
renown among his fellows—who has built himself up a
great fortune, and has been returned to that house in
consequence of his success in life, bringing to bear a mind
exercised in great considerations, trained to the manage.
ment of men, and thoroughly imbued with the great princi-
ples oflegislation, and yet, sir, when he comes to the house,
how is weighed? Why some empty jackanapes who has
just come from college or his mother's drawing-room,
struts up the house, and he is made at once a great man—
he is thrust into office, and this wise man. the manufacturer
of his own ,fortune, and thereby a great man—(hear,
hear)—is put aside; he is not listened to—his experience
is thought as naught, and the jackanapes is the governor
of the country. (Hear, hear.) And then, :sir, we wonder
at the failure of the army in the Crimea. (Cheers.)
The army, in so far as it was composed of Engeishrnen,
was brave—was fit ',,to do anything. The soldiers were
the army; but what were the governors of the army—the
generals? Why, they justified the phrase I quoted in the
House of Commons—it was an army of lions led by asses.
( Hear, hear, and cheers.) Now, there is a very curious
illustration of this. I suppose since the days of Marl-
borough until the rise of the Duke of Wellington, England
had never seen a real general. But England had seen
many Admirals. She had seen her Nelson, she had seen
her Howe, her St. Vincent, her Dunean. (Cheers.) And
where did these men come from ? Why, they sprang from
the people. (Loud cheers.) The navy was not then an
aristocratic service. The army always was—there was
the fine coat, there was Captain So-and-so, and, as Walter
Scott said, " Women, like turkies, are taken by the red
rag." (Laughter.) The army was always a sort of refuge
for the destiture aristocracy. (Laughter and cheers.)
The consequence of it was seen in the Crimea. It is a
standing ignominy to the people of England that they
bore such a thing, and not until they had seen the fatal
results of such fatal policy writ in such direful characters
on the plains of the Crimea, did they rise up to ask for
army reform. Well, sir, army reform is administrative
reform. (Hear, hear, and cheers) It does not only
extend to that, but I found, sir, although I was unable to
prove it, I found every step of my progress in the investi-
gation of the Sebastopol Committee marked by proofs of
corruption, and that corruption went to high places. I
want that corruption laid bare, and I think, sir, if the
party in the House of Commons existed of which I speak,
and of which party, sir, I hope to see you a member—
(hear, hear, and cheers)—we should be able to probe that
mischief, and let out the foul substance beneath. (Cheers.)
I do hope that what I know to be the fact will not long
exist. I know, sir, that really honest and distinguished
mercantile houses refuse to have anything to do with
government contracts, because they are obliged
to preface their proceedings by bribing the
departments. (Hear, hear.) lam not now speaking
in a whisper. What I am now saying, I see
gentlemen below who will tell to all the people of England
—and I am as sure of this as I am of my own existence,
that from the very top to the bottom of the standing
departments—of the permanent departments of the country
—there is corruption and foul dealing. (Cheers.) I want
this exposed, sir, and that can only be done by an united
effort on the part of the people of this country—(hear,
hear)—.acting through the House of Commons, and upon
the House of Commons. This Reform Association might
work its heart out, but the people who profit by this
mischief which they perpetrate would laugh it to scorn.
But let the House of Commons once lev its fingers upon
their loins, and they will feel that little finger a very heavy
one. (Hear, hear.) It is by this means alone, you can
effect your purpose; and I would ask and entreat of you
to bear this in mind, that we are acting now here in this
hall what I may call, in the cant phrase of the day, an
abnormal condition. (Hear.) It is not our proper busi-
ness to undertake the business of the House of Commons,
but we ought to have a House of Commons which would
supersed such meetings as this. (Hear, hear. In order,
then, sir, that we may, by our united efforts, contribute
to that great end, I have accepted your invitation to come
here, I determined to say what I have said the moment I
appeared before the people of this great town, because I
thought that by stating it to a meeting like the present,—
to be carried through all parts of the country as I see it
will be—l thought that by so doing I should conduce to
the great end, sir, which you have in view, which I have
in view, which I believe all right-minded men have in
view—which I am sure, if a man wishes the prosperity of
England, he must desire, and which, having attained, sir,
I shall certainly have attained the great object and end of
my life. (Loud applause, amid which the honourable
gentleman resumed his seat.)
IVIr. F. Boult then came forward to propose the second
resolution. He eaid he was afraid that he came before them
under rather unpleasant feelings, having to follow such an
eloquent and practical speaker as Mr. Roebuck, but the
subject they had met to discuss was one of the greatest
importance, and was one of a pnrely practical character. At
this late hour he would not detain them with any lengthy
remarks, although he had intended to do iso, but he hoped
that they would listen to him for a short time, as he would
be as brief as he possibly could, and be hoped that they
would then give their support to the resolution he was
about to move for their adoption. At the present time, as
they were all aware, a great agitation was going on—this
senseless agitation had been got np—it was to try to get
rid of the existing income tax. He did not think that the
agitators of that question would gain many laurels, or that
their deeds would ever be handed down to posterity—and
he though that the words of some of their neighbours on the
other side of the water would be exceedingly applicable, for
he thought that they would find themselves very considers.
bly erroneous in their "calculations." ([Tear, hear) Ile
hoped that they would just consider the sub-
ject for a short time, and hear what reasons
they had to urge against that movement; but in
doing so he wished it to be understood, and he wished to
impress it upon the minds of all, that they were not called
upon to justify the present Income Tax, but to give what
they considered the course that should be adopted in the
future. They had heard a very able and eloquent speech
from their friend Mr. Roebuck, who had done them the
honour of attending there on that occasion. He had told
them that they were there on that night to consider what
the people would do—what the Parliament would do—
daring the next session. What they had to deal with was
a great evil and, under such circumstances, he thought it
would be better that they should accept the smallest evil
and reject the greater. Now, what he said was that the
present Income Tax was not so objectionable as it was
supposed to be by some persons. It was a step is favour
of direct taxation. (Applause). They supported the Income
Tax because the money taken out of their pockets went
directly into the Exchequer, and because it cost less in' its
collection. Let them compare the cost of the collection bf
the Income Tax with the cost of the collection. of the
Excise duties. Let them look at the numerous hands the
one went through to what the other did. . The system
was more simple and less costly, for it would be found that
every shilling collected by the one system cost two shillings
alone in its, collection. As a commercial community he
thought that they should be aware of that fact. Again,
they contended that the income tax was the first tax that
reached the richer classes of the community and made them
pay, and they knew full well that it was that class that was
now making the objection against it, and were thus sup-.
porting the landlord interest. It was the late Sir Robert
Peel who had made them pay, but now there were certain
traders and shopkeeprs who had bound themselves together
to exclude that class from being again taxed. He next
pointed out the many benefits that would be derived from a
direct system of taxation in strengthening the alliance with
the French nation, which was thought PO desilAble by the
wisdom and good sense of the Emperor, but from the noise
oreated.by persons leaving the hall it was utterly impossible
to understand exactly what the gentleman did say. He next
proceeded to answer the objection that had been raised
against the present income tax. The first objection was
that it was an unequal tax. In that objection be fully
coincided. He believed every word of it, but did they
ever hear of an equal system of taxation ? (Hear, hear.)
Was such a thing even known ? And did they believe that
the opponents to that tax were simple enough to suppose
that they would get an equal system of taxation from the
present House of Commons, constitnted as it was ? (Hear,
hear.) No ;it would be at least seven or ten years of Mr.
Roebuck's agitation before they could expect to have any-
thing like a system of direct or equal taxation in this
country, but they must take what they could get. It was
time that it was unequal in its operations. The rich and
the poor were not made to pay the same ; and this
.he
illustrated by referring to the wine duty, showing that tne
poor man had to pay 600 per cent., while the rich did not
pay more than ten per cent., and the same applied to the
articles of tea, tobacco, and paper. (Hear, hear.) It
was next said that the tax was vexatious—did they ever
hear of a tax that was not considered vexatious ? No man
ever paid money readily. For his part, when the
person came for the poor's rate as -the highway
rate, he did not ask th”e to sit down and take a
glass, but he tried to be civil, and got rid of them as soon
as he could. Therefore, he did not see that the income tax
was much worse than any other tax or rate. Ail men
grumbled, sighed, hed, or swore, and, after all, bad to pay. But
those who said that theincome tax was vexatious knew
nothing about the customs. He had intended to go fully
into that point of the subject, but as it was so late he would
i
not further allude to t, than by repeating that those who
complained about the income tax beino, vexatious, knew n
thing about the customs. (Hear, hear.) It was also said th
the income tax was inquisitorial because the commissioners
once a year asked them what their income was. But be did
not think there could te much more said of that objection
than there could be of the others. Mr. Boult then explained
the system pursued in Massachusetts, in the United States,
which he conceived to be much more arbitrary than the
system pursued in England ; and went on to show the
advantages that might be derived by continuing the present