Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-12-02 00:00:00

so long

heartily with your association, and any association what-
nvnr_ that shall endeavour to carry out in the lecislation

oon if founded. (Applause) There what it has taught in a hundred other articles upon
ids--so small that they seem capable questions of political economy. (Hear, hear.) But
in
only of ridiculing that which is noble. There are minds its number of Nov. 11 there was this passage, "It is
—many in this country, who are unable to comprehend impossible to say who are not affected by a tax." That
the grandeur of the scheme which this association offers is not the question. The question is, who is affected by
to the public—they are unable to understand the sim- a tax. (Hear, hear.) "It is impossible to say who are
plicity and the nobility of the purpose which they have not affected by a tax, whether it be direct or indirect,
set before themselves, in the attempt to abolish custom- whether it be aimed at income or expenditure, whether
houses and to make the world, not a number of nations at one class or another. The employer pays the em-
jealous, dreading each other, often fighting each other, ployed, and he pays them according to their usual
but rather one vast nation governed by separate muni- rate of living. If they cannot, or will not work, without
eipalities, but living in perfect harmony and happiness beer, spirits, or tobacco, or if they will give their
with each other. (Applause.) Now, let us to-night— families tea, coffee, and sugar, he has no choice but to
for if we can just get rid of any prejudices, if we have give them sufficient to provide those luxuries." Now, I
them, or any jealousies if we have ever entertained I will read this as it might be read, with equal logic. " The

which your assoc

are minds—many mit

.00k at this question with the

employer pays the employed, and he pays them accord-
ing to the usual rate of living. If they cannot or will not
work without beer, spirits and tobacco, or if they will
give their families tea, coffee, and sugar, and a carriage
and pair, he has no choice but to give them wages suf-
ficient to provide these luxuries."_ _ (Laughter.) And

eye of men of busin

ss and common sense;with that kind of
IVOUr to bring to bear in our own busi-

fierdty that we en

ness, when consul

the ourse that we

:ht to take

Tour association proposes to influence the aovernm

to confine the

ler the

overnment

money ; secondly, to confine the Government to this act
of simplejustice that whatsoever may be the amount of
funds required to be levied, that amount shall be levied
upon the people of the couatry in proportion to the pro-
perty which every man possesses by reason of the security
which the Government gives him. (Applause.) Now,
~g,ree to this principle. I think you will scarcely
meet any man of ordinary intelligence who will not say

sixty-five millions is extracted immediately and nominally
out of the expenditure, or out of the employer's pocket,
or out of the pocket of the tradesman who supplies the
articles to the work people it makes but little difference."
The incidence—you may call it the pressure—is on two
sides. If this was true, there could be no objection.
whatever, it would be much the simplest mode to lay
all the taxation, if it were possible, upon the proprietors
of the Tines, or the proprietors of the land. They

most men

who will not say at once th;

Fould see that the lati;er -portion of the articles was a

simple mystification

that some how or other, the

.nment.

£G5,000,600 was obtained, and the incidence, as it is

r means

ow, I undertake to say that
a of political economy, would
Le duties on tea, coffee, sugar,

pon, one would suppose it was not

sappy en

rticles

You w

eh wer

'ed at 1

schem,

ogle of thc

towns,

£.6,351,000; and the poorer classes. £7,139,000. If we are
to take the same proportion of the whole customs and excise
Which amounted to £41,000,000 we must set down to
the upper classes £7,3,50,000, to the middle classes
£15,960,000, and to the poorer classes 418,690,000.
But you must bear in mind that whatever was the con-
sumption of the richer classes, and tar more than half of
it was consumed, not by the family, but by the servants
who minister to the wants of that family. (hear, hear.)
And I take it for granted that whatever is contributed
to their maintenance must be reckoned for wages, and
that Mr. Somebody, )vho is very rich,-is not to put down
to his family expenaiture all those taxed articles which are
consumed by those whole services he pays for partly by
food and lodA ng, and partly 'in money. (Hear; hear.)
And if it were possible to withdraw thiS large item from
what the rich are said to consume and to be tasted for, I`
haVe no doiiht that even noon this calculation my state-
ment with regard to the vast-proportion of those taxes
paid by fire great -body. of the working people ••of this -
country:it-ma he fully subStantiated to the very figure.
But now I will show you reasons why thoSe calculations
cannot be correct. Take the article of auger. The people-
in 1838 were told by the protectionists, some of them in
LiVerpool, that there was sugar enough came into this
country, and that anybody could have sugar who could pay
forlt, which of course is a very pleasant thing for those
who have money enough in their pockets. (Laughter.)
But what Was the 'coirsumntion of sugar in 1838 ? Four
millions of cwts. ;•and in 1811, nineteen years afterwards;
it was more than pine' millions of cwts., or donble the
onsairintifin of 1838. (Applause.) Who consumed the.
'eKtra quantity ? Was it the rich ? •- Were the upper
classes, who in 1338 consiinicd twenty-two and •a half
per cent. of the sugar consumed in the country, stinted of •
sugar ? (Laughter, and no; eno.) Was it not on- their
tables morning and evening ? Had they not coffee and tea?
Did not the sugar sweeten all the delicacies which came
on their tables ? • Did you ever dine at a man's' house
and find sugar a thing that the mistress of the house was
niggardly of ? (Laughter and apulause.) Then it brings
you, inevitably, to the conclusion that the enormous.
quantity of increase in the consumption of sugar must
have been -increasing with that class of people who,
under the
.syetein- of
.protection to our colonies, with
regard to sugar, were almost wholly debarred from the
consumption of-that most necessary and wholesome
article of food. (Cheers.). Take the article-of tea. In
1338, the consumption of tea in this country was 38 •
millions of pounds ; in 1857—the last year I have a
return for—nineteen years afterwards—the 38 millions
had grown to 69 millions of pounds—much more
than double what it was previously. The same argu-
ment applies. Where is it ? Into whose cupboares—.-
-open whose tables have all these vast increases-in the
articles of tea and sugar come ? Why surely not to
the tables and cupboards of lords and gentlemen, who are
supposed to form what are called the upper classes in
this country; and therefore, I think, seeing this enor-
monS increase—the doubling of the whole consumption
of. tea which has taken place, and must have taken
place mainly amongst the great body of the people whose
physical eendition has been so greatly improved—whose
material condition we know has been so much altered.
I sav;we must come to the conclusion that the state-
ment made up for the Chancellor of the Exchequer is
one not. to be relied upon, or the line drawn where you
and I discuss the matter is dramin where it should net be
drawn. (Hear.) Take tobacco. Go back only to 1843,
when the consumption in that year was 22 millions of
pounds 'of unmanufactured tobaCco. In 1857 it was
more than 32 millions of pounds. Who uses the
unmanufactured tobacco ? The upper classes don't
much smoke short pipes. (Laughter.) They take
to Havana cigars at from 30s. to 60s. a pound.
The unmanufactured tobacco is the tobacco mainly of
what we call--having no very apt definition—the com-
mon people of the country, and this vast increase of
consumption has been mainly amongst that class of the
population. Now I should like to know where the
middle class begins and where it ends. I stated that we
revived £20,000,000 worth of corn and cattle every year
into this country. Does any one suppose that the increase
of importation and consumption inthose articles has gone
into the larders of the rich? All the facts this enor-
mous increase of consumption by the lowering of duties,
by the removal of prohibitions—by the increase of
.trade—,by the doubling of our exports—all these things
prove manifestly to my mind that the calculation which
has been made for the Chancellor of the Exchequer is
not one that can be relied upon, and that that statement
which I made in my letter is _substantially accurate.
(Cheers.) But now let us look at that line which is
drawn between the middle and working classes. There
has been an attempt • made lately to set up the
middle. classes as a sort of esquire, I. suppose, to the
knight of the - upper classes.- He is to fight
for the upper classes, and against the lower classes. •
That was the tone taken by Sir E lward Bolwer Lytton
and by Mr. Disraeli during the late discussion on the'
Reform Bill in the House of Commons ' • and they were
willing to admit the middle classes of the. people to a
£lO franchise. Now, if they admit a £lO franchise,
those who are below £lO are not to be considered of the
middle class, and, as they are not of the Upper classes,
they.must be considered of the working classes. I venture
to say, too, that it would not be an unfair thing to say, if •
you want to draw a line between the. non-propertied
classes and the elasSeS who generally have property, that
a line drawn somewhere about that mark will not be far
from the right thing. Mr. Newmarch, the secretary of the
Statistical Society, a man eminent in figures and cal-
cidations; 'haying paid profound attention to the
question, says that in .England and Wales, sixty per,
cent. of the population e-sixty families out of . every
hendred, live in houses under the value of £6 a year ;
that fifteen out of every hundred lived in houses between
£6 and 410; and that twenty-five in every hundred
live in houses above the value of £lO. That -brings us_
to this conclusion, that seventy-five out of every hun-
dred families live .in houses under the value of £lO, and
only twenty-five out of every hundred live in houses
above the value 'of £lO. That is in England and Wales,
but if you added Ireland and Scotland to it, Mr.
Newmarch could, no . doubt, have come to the
conclusion that eighty out of every hundred families are
in houses below 410, and not more than 20 per cent. in
houses above £lO. I should presume that would be so.
If that. be so, I think, it would be difficult for any man
to come to the conclusion that the- eighty families
throughout the country do not consume more of all these
heavily-taxed articles, than the twenty families who live,
in houses above the value of £lO.. Twenty,four millions
of -people—a great nation—England Was a great nation.
before she had twenty-four millions of people—(hear,
hea.l).—but at this time twenty-four millions of people in
the United Kingdom -live in houses under the :value
of £lO, and six millions only live in houses above the
value of £lO. I ask any man, with the slightest know-
ledge of the country, and with the slightest power to.
reason, whether it is not fair to assume that the twenty-
four millions of people
,consume more of those
he'avily-taxed articles , to which I have . referred
than the six millions who . live in the better
class of housesneven griving the .six millions the con-
sumption
to which they have no title, of the servants
who live in their houses -and minister to . their wants.
(Cheers.) But now if any gentleman here has
made any inquiry as to the amount of
taxes
willing
these imposts levy upon. individual
familieso he will find it very considerable. I am t admit that any very accurate calculation is very diffi-
cult, because you find few families with the same income,
with the same number in family, nrattiTing the exact
quantity of the same things anaY under
tem-ices.. But I took the trouble eto
ksearne cireum-
ascrta,ineitihefinquiry,
-at least 'a friend of mine
what was the consumption of these articles amongst
eighteen.of his workmen, who were heads of fainilies.
I must state that they are of the very-1 wish
we had an English word—of, the very elite of the
working classes of Lancashire. Intelligent, living in
excellent houses, superior in many things to the average
of their class, for their income averaged 375. a week, in
-their houses. As another wed. of their superiority I
may state that the consumption of spirits, . beer, and
tobacco was very small indeed amongst them—(cheers)
—and therefore, the amount of taxation is lighter than
it 'might be in very many houses and families where
the income is very much less ; but no doubt,
makin,, a calculation with .those eighteen persons, ~it
would be found that the indirect tax which they
directly pay in those six articles tea, coffee, and
swear, ale, spirits, and tobacco, and of the three last the
qtaantityis very inconsiderable, will amount to fifteen or.
sixteen pence per pound of income-tax,; and if you take
the smaller half who received only 235. a week, you will
find the tax amounts to twenty pence in the pound,
whidti will be more than an income-tax of 8 per cent. •
on their whole earnings. In this calculation there is
much left out that Many persons would include—that is
included in the report made by the. Financial Reform
Association to the Social Science Association , at
Bredierd. There is the loss by reason of the
crippling of their trade—by the periodical fallings
off of the demand .for their labour,' and the various
yleist3itudes that arise, tiv which their wao%) are reduced. I

But leaving out those things, and a great number of
smaller things which are taxed, and of which we can
get no accurate account, their income-tax, paid thus
I indirectly, will be of the amount which I have just
stated. But then bear in mind that it is not 8 per cent.
upon 375. per week received from the rent of good houses.
lor nice little farms. This 375. per week is a sum
received by the labour of these men from their youth
up to their old age— from morning till night—day by
day—every day drawing upon their physical strength—
every day bringing them nearer to the time when they
will be unable to labour—every shilling that they earn
in their lives- the hand of the tax gatherer is upon them.
Look at the condition of labour as compared with the
condition of what is called the upper classes, and even
of the middle classes. I live close to, in fact within the
bounds of a large manufacturing town. At this moment
' • every body who can work is well employed, and wages,
I am happy to say, are such as, looking back to the
past year, are considered highly satisfactory. The condi-
tion of the people is much better, probably, than it has
almost ever been known to be before during my lifetime ;
and yet, under all these favourable circumstances, look
at the condition of the labouring man and: his family.
Look at the almost inevitable precariousness of his
employment—look at the ,fact that the moment his
health fails him, his work ceases (hear, hear),
or if he feels ill for a day or two, instead of going
to his doctor, or to his bed, 'or resting. quietly at
home until the little illness falls off, he struggles against
the complaint—his family depends_ upon his everyday's
earnings for their everyday's .subsistence—(hear, hear)
—and in hundreds of thousands of cases in which we who
are here to night would recover from any slight indispo-
sition, a man thus hampered and tied to labour for life
cannot lie by for a day ; his constitution has deeper and
deeper inroads made upon it, and- he becomes perma-
nently feeble and disabled—(hear, hear)—and multitudes
of them, as you know by the returns of mortality,. don't
live half the years that people not more strong or robust
in constitution da live 'who are in happier circumstances
with regard to their social and pecuniary condition.
Consider the accidents -to which the labouring classes in I
every country-are subjected, the danger which they meet
continually in almost all their employments, the inces-
sant struggle which - they have to maintain to keep
themselves from that which. most of them greatly dread
—the Workhouse. Consider all this, and then ask your-
self—We of the middle class—whether it is not fitting
that we should combine together to say to the rulers of
our country that we—all who have property—shall con-
tribute, are willing to contribute, to the necessary
expenses of the State. (Hear, hear.) But henceforth
we will never consent to any law which shall inter-
pose between the exchange of the industry of every
man in England with the industry of every man
out of England, and which shall permit the hand
of the tax-gatherer to lessen the little comforts which
a man's labour can barely realise for him. (Loud ap-
plause.) I stated in my letter that this system of taxa-
tion was mean and singularly cruel. I have no objection
to retract that expression, so far as it refers to that large
portion who support this system, who arc blindly igno-
rant of its consequences, and who fear to change what
we propose. I don't think so badly of my countrymen
of any class that I have conic in contact with, as- to sup-
pose that, if they knew all the facts of this case—if they
had so thoroughly examined it as the gentlemen
around me have examined it—l don't think so lightly
of thorn as to believe they would for a single minute ,
continue a system which, I think, can be demonstrated
to be most unwise and especially injurious to the great
body of the working people of this kingdom. Now,
what is the change we propose ? Because we may as
well look the matter in the face, and look it through.
I am not about now to propose that the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, in the next session, should advertise all
the custom-houses to be let—(laughter)—and make up
his mind that the last custom-house officer, and the last
member of the Coast Guard service, and the last
smuggler, should be preserved in the British Museum.
(Laughter.) But I am going to show what I think
would be a great, a practicable step, a long way in the
direction of the ultimate and complete object which your
association has in view. If . you take the- various Par-
liamentary returns which have been lately obtained, and
spend a little time in calculating as to the probable
property of the people in this country, I believe you will
find that, excluding the property of every man who does
not possess £lOO in one shape or other, you would find-
that the whole property of the country would approach
probably to £7,000,000,000 sterling. I have put it
down from the calculations I have made from those
returns, at £6,700,000,000. Now, if this property could
be fairly come at, and a.reasonable tax imposed upon it
all, it is,obvious that a large sum would be easily .ob-
tained. People say you could not get at it. You do
get at what you now get by the income tax. There.
is no. reason you should not get more. . There-
will always be some men in every country, perhaps,
who will, endeavour to evade taxation of that
kind ; but The more just a man feels the taxation
to be, the fewer will be the men who endeavour
to evade it (cheers) and the more. men are
convinced that the great change has been a great bless-
ing, the more they will be- disposed by their own
personal conduct to support and continue that new state
of things. Suppose, now, that you were to pass a law
that every £lOO of property, exclusive of the property
of those who do not possess £lOO, should pay annually
the sum of Bs. to' the State—make it more, or make it
less, but I take that amount to argue from. ..Eight
shillings would produce a. sum of about twenty-seven
millions sterling. It would be four times what the
income-tax was last year—rather more. It would be spread
over many times More persons. It would be colleoted at an
inconsiderable expense. It would collect no more than
it wanted. The tax, in reality, would be nothing but'
what it pretended to be. And if in different districts
there were appointed committees, chosen, selected in
some way, partly by the government and partly by the
tax payers of the district, to give confidence to- the
course.which they should take, I have no doubt, what-
ever, that that tax would -be as readily collected, and
with infinitely less of heart burning, inquisition, and
objection, than the income tax is collected at
this hour. (Hear, hear.) -Now, what would be
the pressure ? The possessor of £lOO would pay Bs.
a-year ; but then his tea, and his coffee, and his
sugar, and a heap of other .things, would be much
cheaper to him, and his trade, whatever he might
be engaged in, in all probability would receive a
stimulus such as it never had before. The owner of
£l,OOO would pay £4 ; the owner of £lO,OOO would
pay £4O a-year . the owner of £lOO,OOO would pay
£4OO a-year ; the owner of £1,000,000 would pay
£4,000 a-year. Is that anything unreasonable ? (Hear,
hear.) Who says that this is a revolutionary doctrine ?
(Applause.) What would be the result ? Trade would.
be extended to an enormous degree. See what you
might repeal. And I don't put down these things as
being the only things, and possibly there may be some
tax preferable to the one I have here. But of course the
present income tax would go, and we would get something
much better for it—heavier, but fairer, and therefore
less hateful.: (Hear, hear.) The 439 articles as tariff
which your association has sworn eternal hostility to,
—they would go. (Hear, hear.) The income was last
year, six millions and a half. The 439 articles produce
£750,000; tea, £5,270,000; sugar, £6,979,000; coffee, -
£425,000 : wine—supposing it to be reduced one shilling
per gallon, instead of the present monstrous and enor-
mous duty of 6s. . I suppose you might lose a million
upon that ; corn, £580,000 ; currants, £300,000 ;
raisins, £128,000; silks, £295,000 :- timber—what are
those shipowners doing—(laughter)—Xs74,ooo; pepper,
£107,000; paper and lfooks, X 1,159,000 ; assessed taxel,not
reckoning the horse and carriage tax, which are very injuri-
ous to the coach building trade—in fact, almost strangle
it— (hear, hear,).—and prevent thousands of people
having sonic kind of carriage, who would have .it
.if
if there was no tax, and thousands others keeping an
open carriacre for a fine day, and a close one for a wet
day I liave stayed occasionally with some friends of
mine in Ireland. I recollect staying with one a week
and he drove me out in a fresh carriage every day
once
in the week.
was told there were n'ter.) I asked him the reason. I
man wants another carGriat"C
old one, for in this county if
atfix
es upon
.carriages, and if a.
' ets it. He keeps the
are sold they hardly
, and have
Therefore
bring the price of the evfriocends
e a CAaVatiltso
lie can accommodate his
suit his family and the weather.
are great comforts-those who have carriages know
e
it; .and a great many would have carrian.es as well
if the Chancellor of the Exchequer would let them have I
them. The marine insurance produces £286,000. There
is -not misfortune enough at sea—hazard enough, cala-
mity enough, but the tax-gatherer puts his hand upon
all ingenious method by which int n.,endeavonr to, save
themselves from maritime risk. There is fire insurance;.
and theewliole = Ii
bunts to upwards of £26,000,000.
this tax of Bs. in every £lOO were established, the avhoble
of' these taxes, or others equal in, amount, would e
taken off; trade would be extended, intercourse with
other nations vastly increased--doubled in fact. Manu-
factures, shipping, commerce, agriculture, would all