The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-17 00:00:00

portion was for the last year ; and this, together with cer-

iain minor augmentations due to the gradual growth of the
licence duties and other duties of Excise, places the esti-
mate for Excise at, £17,600,000, The stamps I take at
£9,000,000, taxes lit £3,160,000,the incoms-tal at £10,500,000,
the Yost-office at £3,800,000, the Crown lands at £300,000,
the miscellaneous at £2,500,00% and the China indemnity
at £150,000. There again it will be asked why so much
larger credit is taken for this item than in previous years.
The answer to this is two-fold. list of all in the year

which has just• elapsed we made a large payment to the

merchants of nearly £200,000—£192,000, I believe—on

account of their claims, and there is no corresponding item

of deduction from the receipts of the present year which
will come net to the public service. Again, though I have
only taken credit in the account of last year up to the 30th
of September, I believe in the presen.- year we shall bo

:able tc take credit up to the 31:4 of December,--in fact,
£450,000 from this source is an estimate which I feel per-
fectly justified in making. All these items together
bring up the estimated revenue for the year 1863-4 to
£71,490,000. The estimated expenditure for the year
is £67,749,000; consequently there is an excess of income
over expenditure of £3,741,000. (Cheers) The committee
will, perhaps, think that when the Government, has no im-
pediment in its way to prevent it from proceeding to the
agreeable duty of the remission of t,xation, it is idle for
them to trouble themselves with the consideration of any
questions tending to the augmentatioo st revenue. At the
suns time in the complicate,' and extensive financbtl system
of this country anomalies great or small are always being
brought to light, sometimes from the representations of hi-
tt rested persons, sometimes because they are found to have
been anomalies when originally embodied in the law, and
sometimes because, thonfh not originally such, they have
become anomalous, and even mischievous, in consequence of
the alteration of circumstances. It is the duty of the Go-
vernment steadily and continuously, in a great degree with-

out reference to popular pre„nre, though always paying a
due regard to popular opinion, to remove those anomalies
upon fitting occasions by judicious proposals to Parliament.
(Hear.) The first prop.)sal of the present year which has a

bearing upon financial matters, though mainly relating to
trade, is that which has to do with the tobacco duties, and
which has already become law. We have already taken
credit for that alteration of the law in the Estimate of
the Customs revenue which I have laid before the com-
mittee. The next claimant to our attention is familiar
to the committee—l mean the duty on chicory. (A. laugh.)
The state of the case is very simple, There appears to be
a very general agreement among persons of authority
bath in the revenue departments and in the commercial'
world that, as chicory and coffee are used strictly for the
same purposes in a combination together which is indis-
tinguishable to the ordinary consumer, they ought to pay
the same tax. (Hear, hear.) Then comes the divergence,
because one portion of the world says " raise the duties on
chicory," and the othersays "lower the duties on coffee." (A.
laugh) If that be the alternative, my own inclination is very
decidedlylo raise the duty on chicory,not only h.cause it tends
to greater gain, but for these two very plain reasons. At the
present moment coffee is lightly taxed in proportion to its
value, when we compare it with tea or any other article with
which it can be compared (hear, hear), and consequently if
we lower the duty we hazard a very considerable revenue—
some £loo,ooo—without having any hopes of so acting upon
prices or improving the circumstances of consumption as to
give any sensible relief to the people, or of producing any
corresponding or even fractional improvement to the re venue-
I propose, therefore, to equalise the duties on coffee and chi-
cory. I propose that the duty on foreign chicory, with a cer-
tain amount for waste, shall be 265. 6d., as compared with
275. on coffee, and in regard to chicory grown at home that
the tax, with a small allowance, shall be 245. 4d. I may
take this opportunity of stating that, while with regard to
the other resolutions which I am about to introduce to the
committee, we shall propose to take them on this day week,
with regard to the resolution on the chicory duties I shall
ask the house to take it at once, without prejudice to the ul-
timate judgment of the house on so grave a question, in
order to prevent the release of the article at the present
duty to-morrow morning. There are several other ques-
tions of no great magnitude which I shall endeavour to
pass over, if I can, in a single sentence. It is an evident
anomaly in the law, as it is now worded, that strong liquors
sold at clubs are sold without any licence. (Loud laughter.)
These clubs are for such purposes in direct competition
with coffeehouses and hotels, which pay license duties. We
propose that they shall pay the same rates of license duties
as the occupiers of hotels and coffeehouses--(oh, oh, and
hear, hear)—but, of course, effectual provision will be made
to prevent any annoying accompaniment—any interference
at the discretion of a magistrate which may be unnecessary
—any liability to the visitations of the police. It is merely
a question of the equality of taxation, and my whole object
is to establish that equality. The next proposal is one of a
similar character. At present this case is not unfrequens.
.A person applies to a justice of the peace for a license to sell
strong liquors. He obtains a licence to sell spirits, and he
then takes out a licence to sell beer, for which he only pays
£1 lie afterwards drops the licence to sell spirits, and con •
tinues the licence to sell beer ; but every other person want-
ing to sell beer, and not arriving at it through the medium of
a spirit licence pays £3 6s. I, therefore, propose thst a man
who arrives at a beer licence through the medium of a spirit
licence shall pay the same duty as he who takes it out at
once, without any such process. (A laugh.) I am sorry
to detain the committee with these details; bat all persons
interested in the financial proposals of the year expect as a
matter of course that at this season of the year a full state-
ment shall be made of those proposals, and it would not be
fair to those parties if I were not to deal with all that
affects them in detail. (Hear.) A year or two ago we re-
moved a great anomaly, by which no person except a publi-
can was permitted to sell less than a dozen bottles of wine ;
and there is a similar anomaly still existing, which forbids
every one except a publican from selling less than two dozen
of beer. I propose to remove that anomaly, and to give
an additional licence for selling a less quantity of beer—of
course taking care that there shall be no possibility of sell-
ing on the premises. There is another question, of competi-
tion, which also demands our consideration. The proprietors
of omnibuses have been before the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, seeking for a reduction of duty. Their case really
divides itself into two parts. One of their complaints is the
amount they have now to pay, and they have another com-
plaint of the undue competition they have to sustain. With
respect to the amount of duty they have to pay, it is only a
quarter of what they had to pay 25 or 30 years ago ; and
about eight years ago this house took the matter into its
own hands, and did grant considerable relief to stage coach
proprietors. I confess it appears to me that the only case
they have to make at present is that of undue competition,
owing to the mode in which other persons are dealt with.
The proprietors of stage coaches in the country complain
that carriers who profeta to travel under,four miles an hour
and carry passengers pay no duty whatever. It is impos-
sible to know whether they travel at four miles an hour or
not ; but their carriages are not of a character to pay at the
same rate as stage coaches; and what I propose is that they
should pay half the duty now paid by stage coaches. The
other part of the complaint of the omnibus owners is with
respect to the competition of the railways and of the un-
equal manner in which railways are taxed. The house is
aware that railways are supposed to pay 5 per cent on their
passenger receipts. But in 1842 a sort of compact was made
between the Government and the railway companies, and it
was ratified by the legislation of this house, under which
the railway companies undertook the obligation to run a
certain number of trains at fares net exceeding one penny
per u.ile, upon the condition of the exemption of those
trains from taxation. It may be said that it was a
covenant then made between them and the Government,
and that if the exemption be discontinued they are re-
leased from the obligation of running the trains. It is a
question not within my department, and upon which I am
not prepared to give an opinion. But since that time an
anomalous state of things has grown up. Exemptions are
usually bad, and, although a good deal may be said for this
Particular exemption, a system has prevailed by which ex-
cursion traffic is entirely exempted from duty, while the re-
gular traffic is liable to pay a duty of 5 per cent. on the re-
ceipts. The Government submit most confidently to the
house that that is an anomalous and injurious state of
things. In the first place, it is wrong to draw a distinction
between one kind of traffic and another, and to give a pre-
mium to railway companies to cultivate ono kind of traffic
in preference to another. In the second place, it is not only
wrong, but absurd, to give that particular premium in the
case of what we term excursion traffic, which, no doubt, is
very useful and valuable in its way, but, at the same time,
seems to be attended with considerable inconvenience and
considerable danger. (Cheers.) Far be it from me to say
that Parliament should presume to discourage or repress
excursion traffic, but we ought not to stimulate and force
it by direct pecuniary encouragement at the expense of the
general traffic of the country. (Hear.) The effect of this
singularly anomalous arrangement is, that while railways
are supposed to pay 5 per cent. on their receipts, they only
pay between 3 and 4 per cent., and in the case of some rail-
ways, which deal only in a particular kind of traffic, only 2
per cent.; and so far they give a fair subject for complaint
to competing interests. What we propose is this, to destroy
the exemption altogether and to commute the payment of 5
Per cent. with exemptions into a payment of 3i per cent.
without exemptions. The result will be nearly the same. It
will be slightly in favour of the Treasury ; hist we shall
establish a sound principle instead of an unsound principle,
and an equal state of things between rival interests. (Hear,
hoar.) We propose to assimilate the law in Ireland as to cha-
ritable legacies to the law of England. Charitable legacies
in Ireland at the present moment are insignificant, and do
not pay legacy duties. We shall repeal that exemption. This
connects itself with a more
i importanttotesubject,removal of
to which I
It s h
wish to invite attention. Acts
, granted to charitiesnaenxdemcoPr--
tien in the Income-tax
porations, with respect to such part of their income as they
shall prove to have been expended in charity. The grounds
upon which this proposal rests are as follows, and I ear-
nestly hope and confidently expect it will receive the sanc-
tion of the house. In 1853 it was proposed to lay the sue-
musics duty on corporations. No legislation could be carried
_
in that year for the
purpose, although I think the principle
Wa ainstoved by the house. 1 think it was felt that there
was no reason in the world why corporate property should
receive a 11144h:ft at the expense of individuals; because
it must be
-"'"" in. mind that all these exemptions mean
non-payment by one man at the cost of another. (Hear,
hear.)' The consideration of the question of succession duty