The Sun.
London, England, 1852-05-01 00:00:00

MA. Y

wake the most powerful and the most violent of popular pre-
judices and passions. Mr. Disraeli proposes, therefore, to
leave things as they are for one year more, to give the mea-
sures and financial arrangements of the late Ministry another
year of grace, to see what elastic power there is in the
country in recovering from the effects of such reductions in
the taxation as have characterised the last ten years. In
this he is not entirely a free agent. In some measure he has
been necessitated to this course by the strain laid on our
sources of income. The reduction on the duties of foreign
articles, introduced into this country, has been continuous;
the repeal of the Excise has been carried to its utmost limit.
No alteration is therefore possible in either of these directions.
From touching the third great source of revenue, the tax on
property and income, he is precluded by the circumstance
that a Committee of the House is at this moment engaged
in investigating its operation, and in examining the
inequalities of its assessment. But to the multitudes espe-
cially of the middle and professional classes, who have sad
experience of its injustice, and who yet bear it without com-
bination and without agitation, he holds out more than a
glimpse of consolation. The words of the Chancellor of the

. _
Exchequer last night make it clearly impossible, if the pre:
sent Ministry continue in office, ever to revive this odious
tax in its present form and with its glaring anomalies. "It
is (said Mr. Disraeli) a tax having features not calculated
for permanency ; if those features are removed it will exer-

cise an influence very different from tbat which is anticf-
patad." Its doom, therefore, in the judgment of the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, is fixed; it has no more than a
probationary existence-a grievance tolerated for one year
more, in consideration of the expenses to which the country
is subjected by its additional military expenditure, but
thenceforth destined never to be revived, or only
with such alterations and amendments as will pre-
sent it in a very different guise to that which it
now wears. But even this toleration was accorded to it by
the Chancellor of the Exchequer only in consideration that
the Committee of the House of Commons, employed for the
last two years in scrutinising its provisions, have not been
able to present their report, and it is scarcely just or decent
to anticipate their decision. If the patience of the country is
therefore put to a longer trial, it must not only bear in mind
the present state of the finances, and the impossibility of
further reductions at the present moment, but it must also
remember the reiterated denunciations of our contemporaries
against all the efforts of the present Ministry, all higher flights
beyond what are absolutely expedient for the present Govern-
ment of the country. We have been told over and over
again of the unconstitutional violence offered to the
nation by any attempt on their part to introduce sub-
stantial reforms or remove crying evils until a final appeal
shall have been made to their constituents. We do not sup-
pose that Mr. Disraeli is withheld by such threats. There
are more urgent reasons why he should adopt the more modest
course. What would be thought of a Minister who, after
six weeks' experience only in office, should invade a system
countenanced by so imposing authority as the present?-
great, notwithstanding its motley character, and one
which has grown up to its present grandeur, not by the
consistent prosecution of any one distinct and definite
principle, but under the hands of different Ministers, each
of whom has held often different, often irreconcileable,
theories. Had the present Chancellor of the Exchequer
introduced any bold or striking reforms we should
have had the loudest outcries and the most violent
denunciations against rashnesss and arrogance.
Those who . will perhaps now be the foremost in
condemning him for no bolder innovations on the policy of
his predecessors, or who will endeavour to torture his fair
and candid concessions to their industry and exertions, into
a renunciation of his previous principles-these would have
been amongst his loudest and most virulent accusers. Not
only, however, is great credit due to him for the candour
with which he has admitted the full force of hostile state-
ments ; but he is deserving of much praise for resisting the
besetting temptation of some of his predecessors, and re-
fusing to bid for popularity. Had he imitated their con-
duct, he might have gone to the hustings with
a Budget framed for electioneering purposes; how-
ever imprudent or impracticable the details, he
would have thrust off the responsibility to different shoul-
ders, or at least to a distant period. His political opponents
must do him justice for the moderation which he has shown,
and, upon better consideration, we doubt not, that the coun-
try, with us, will see more hope of a fair adjustment of its
difficulties in this diffident tone of humble duty than in the
louder tongue of boastful profession. Confidence is to be re-
posed in a statesman who is ,resolved, before he commits
himself to any measures, to ascertain rigidly, not only what
his own shoulders, but also what theshoulders of the nation,
will bear. On these, and on other matters, indeed, the de-
cision must rest with the people. Hitherto, as Mr. Disraeli
has shown, two principles have been at work-the remission
sometimes of direct, sometimes of indirect, taxation.
Chancellors of the Exchequer, instead of clearly
taining the maxims by which they ought to be guided,
have been satisfied to yield to the pressure from without,
pursuing an erratic and wavering course as this or
that notion prevailed. No part of Mr. Disraeli's speech,
though marked throughout with the greatest ability and
clearness, made a deeper impression on the House than his
remarks, that we had now come to this point, when it was
necessary that a clear and definite principle of taxation
should be established. If that principle was direct taxation,
then was it imperative (unless that principle were to be
suicidal) that it should be general in its application, equally
as indirect taxation. The partial operation of the present
measure was not only taxing capital, but, professing to re-
lieve labour, was striking at labour through the sides of
capital. In the morning prints, his opponents have often
twitted Mr. Disraeli for enunciating principles in his writings
and failing to do so in his place as a Minister. No very
modest demand, considering the short tenure of his office.
Here, then, is one which we trust will prove as acceptable to
them, as it is a guarantee to the nation of a fairer and more
equal method of taxation. Mr. Disraeli has shown that as
candour to an adversary is not incompatible with keen wit
and unlimited powers of aggression, so neither are the mi-
nutest and clearest statistical details irreconcilable with
great principles and philosophical statesmanship.
DAILY NEWS.-The Tory Budget is now before the
country, introduced and illustrated by the Tory Chancellor
of the Exchequer. More than two hours, by the House of
Commons clock, did the literary individual spend upon his
explanatory oration. The House was very full-and the
audience very attentive even to the last sentence of the
speech, when a loud and ironical cheer arose as the labouring
mountain gave forth its fiscal mouse. All Mr. Disraeli in-
tends to do is-to take off nothing, and to keep on the
income-tax ! Starting with the assumption of a deficiency,
whilst there is, in fact, a surplus revenue, he closed with a
declaration that he must have still more. " Give, give,"
is the cry. His speech might be almost thus epitomised f-s.
"We are in office, and in office we intend to stop. We
have got the surplus of three millions left us by the Free-
traders and Whigs. We mean to keep it. Some people
expect a reduction of one sort or other-a lightening of
Excise duties, or a mitigation of the income-tax, or an
abolition of some import duty. But we mean nothing of
the sort. We can dispose of the surplus very quietly
without taking off any impost or making any change at all.
As to plans for the future, we offer none -plans are trouble-
some to think about, and sometimes difficult to carry. We
mean to propose -nothing ; except a renewal of the income-
tax. We will keep all we have got-we'll take all else we
can get. Carpe diem." Turn the speech which way we
will, to this complexion-and this alone-does its financial
portion come at last. After a sprinkling of dull truisms
about taxation being levied by three methods-on imports,
by Excise duties, and by direct imposts-the financier of the
Protectionist 'party went into an elaborate statement of the
advantages which had resulted from the policy of 1842. He
reviewed the list of duties taken oar, showing in detail and
by figures how well that policy had worked-exhibiting a
glowing picture of the benefits of the very policy his party
have prided themselves upon opposing. Indeed, this
part of his address was a purely free-trade speech,
cheered loudly by the occupants of the Opposition
benches, especially when he declared it would be
hopeless to expect to supply any deficiency by extra
Customs duties. Indulging his hearers with a relation of
the good deeds of others, he might have been expected to
tell next how their bright example had stimulated him to
emulate their deeds. But not a word of the sort did he
say. With some skill-and with a clearness of voice and
expression forming an agreeable contrast to the unintelli-
gible jumble of his predecessor-he dilated on the sins of an
unequally levied tax on income ; doing this with such an
air that his hearers thought his great point must be its re-
form, if not abolition ; and extorting from the House a loud
cheer of approbation when he said that " to a direct tax there
should be no exemptions." Glancing off, however, trom
this delieate ground-with a passing sneer at the sanitary
reformers who took off the window-tax, and a sneer at the
present house-tax-which only reaching 400,000 houses,
produces much less (he thinks) than it should do-he
finished his first hour's talk by depicting the unhappy fate of
a Chancellor of the Exchequer, whom he declared to be a
creature put in office for prey and plunder. His statements
of figures were of course listened to with great attention.
The expenditure for the coming year he estimated must be
increased by additional payments on account of convicts and
of the Kafir war. For the latter he should propose an extra
two hundred thousand pounds, making a total under that
heading of 660,000/. Another new source of expense would be
the militia. That would require three hundred and fifty
thousand pounds-the estimated total for the year being
51,163,9791. To meet this he had Customs duties that would
suffer from the forthcoming reduction of sugar duties, and
an Excise to which no Great Exhibition traffic would con-
tribute-for which hops would pay less than had been usual,
though malt might be unusually productive, He
ran over the catologue of other items, amongst which he
placed rather more than two millions and a half for six.
months' income-tax that must fall into the ensuing ac-
count, the whole giving a total:of 48,983,5001. In this way
he schemed out a deficiency between expected demands and
anticipated proceeds-of rather more than two millions. To
meet this he asks for property and income-tax to the tune of
five millions three hundred and thirty-seven thousand
pounds ! - the sum he estimates those taxes to produce for
1853. In estimating the revenue for the coming year, Mr.
Disraeli had, he said, been informed by some of the first au-
thorities in the country, that he must count on a loss of in-
come-tax to the amount of 150,0001. from the landed and
agricultural population. This estimate is valuable as a
gauge to indicate the precise extent of the " ruin" which
free trade has been accused of bringing down upon
the heads of the country party and their dependents.
Mr. Disraeli truly characterises the national prosperity as
" great and sound ;" but, on-the other hand, this prosperity
has been achieved by the depression, and out of the pockets,
of one particular class. What is the extent of this heart-
rending depression? To what amount has free trade damni-
fied the agricultural interests? As they also share in the
general prosperity, what balance will go to the account of
" ruin"-when their savings in consequence of the cheapn
of provisions and of other advantages that free trade has
loss
tended to them in common with others-is put ag
of income represented by 150,000/. in sevenpencetlis
lied to pay
that is but a small price to pay even if they haye?
national
it (which is not the case) for " great and sound" Surely
that
prosperity. If that is all the harm free trade has done, it
has been an unalloyed benefit. But if the fincaaasuceial s
tat
e
-
ments of Mr. Disraeli were calculated to
mionus.t elxn--
pointment, other portions of his baransteset
In-
cite unmitigated surprise and no little gra
In-
deed, altogether the speech addressed last night to the
House of Commons by the Chancellorof the Exchequer
with mingled feelings of
will be read throughout the country
wonder and dismay by the followers whom he has hitherto
led, and of triumph on the part of those to whose p.
There
and his adhesionere
and policy he has at length given
ipitiable than that of the
never was a sight more ludicr-ously.
Ministerial ranks yesterday evening during the elaborate
oration of their chosen chief. For twhoavminogrtatlhehioruproslitthiceayl
had to endure the protracted p
teeth extracted one by one, For the last six
amidaithoefcheers and laughter
those who sat opposite to them.years the
bemoaning
the Country Party, as Mr. Disraeli romantically dubbed them,
have been clamouring against the reduction
eiloonquoenutulystbo
deemwoasstcalculated to bring
on foreign articles of consumption,
the ruin which the system of tree trade
on our colonial possessions.
t. in every cabal
and loudest in every denuncia ion has been the
man who now occupies the post of Finance
Minister. Yet, ere two months of office have rolled
over his head, this very man rises in
his place and volunteers
the most startling and conclusive evidence of the entiro
fallacy of all he had hitherto averred, and avows his abso-
lute conviction of the success of the policy against which he
had mutinied under reel, and pertinaciously thwarted in op-