The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-16 00:00:00

L 70,040,000, but the actual revenue had been C 0,108,000,

The expenditure had been £69,301,000, leaving a surplus,
after the usual de lections, of £1,301,000. (Hear, hear.)
The right hon. gentleman then entered into an expla-
nation of the various chief heads of the revenue, and
the alterations thereon, as compared with the p:evi-
one year. The greater part of the spirit duty had been
realised, but the amount, owing to the distress in the
country, had not been realised. Illicit distillation had not
prevailed to a very great extent during the last two years.
Probably the consumption of the milder and less inflamma-
tory liquors had something t s do with the falling off in the
spirit duty. The estimated expenditure for the current
year was £67,749,000, and the income £71,490,000, show-
ing a differerce over the estimated charge of £3,741,000.
(Loud cheers.) Some of the items of expenditure were not
matured, such as the Galway subsidy. (Hear, and laugh-
ter) Notwithstanding the great remission of the customs
duties, these duties had increased in two years £2,500,000.
Is was the duty of the Government to seek to remove all
the anomalies of taxation. The law altering the duty on
tobacco had already become law. Chicory was familiar to
this committee—(laughter)—and an opinion prevailed
that it should be taxed as much as coffee. Such
was his opinion. He proposed to assimilate the
two duties—those on coffee and chicory—and he proposed
to ask the house to pass a resolution to that effect this even-
ing. Strong liquors sold in clubs were not now sold with a
license. (Laughter.) He proposed to compel clubs to pay
the same rates of license as was charged upon the keepers of
hotels and coffeehouses. (Laughter.) Beer licenses of £1
taken out with one to sell spirits would be assimilated
with those which paid £3. Beer-sellers would be allowed
to take out £1 licenses to sell not less than two dozen bottles
or 41 gallons of beer to be drunk on the premises. Carriers
would be charged one half the duty charged on omnibuses
and other stage carriages. Railways, now charged a duty
of 5 per cent. on their traffic, with exemptions,
he proposed a duty of 31 per cent. without
exemptions, which would destroy an anomalous state
of things, but which would most probably result in
the samo thing, so far as the Treasury was
concerned. (Hear, hear.) The law on charitable legacies
in Ireland, which were not taxed, would be assimilated to
that of England. Then he proposed to render endowed
charities amenable to the income• tax, which hitherto had
not been the case, except so far as church
building sites and charitable subscriptions
were concerned. At present the income-tax on £2,000,000
of this was returned. He estimated £75,0,0 of revenue
from this source. He would now proceed to state
the ends to which the Government proposed to devote the
surplus he had specified. (Hear, hear.) After the let
of July next he proposed to abolish the charge of ld.
inwards on goods adopted in 1861, and which he confessed
had not worked well, and had, indeed, broken down—this,
he confessed, he did not without a pang (laughter) ; the
Is. 6d. stamp on bills of lading outwards would like-
wise disappear at the same date. (Hear, hear.)
This would involve a less of £191,000, or in the nine
months, to £143 000. Mr. Pitt considered that the lowest
of incomes to be taxed should be £2OO, though £6O was the
original rate. The inceme•tax, in its imposition by Sir R.
Peel, who limited it to £l5O, only intended it to be
a temporary tax, but this had unhappily been
been found a fallacious view. (Hear, hear.) He
proposed to mitigate the tax on incomes between £lOO and
£2OO, by allowing £6O to be removed out of these
incomes from taxation. At present a man with an
income of £lOO paid £2 lOs ; under the proposed
plan he would pay £1 108 ; £125, £3 2s 6d—L2 8s 9d ; £l5O,
£5 12s 6d—X3 7s 6d ; £175, £6 lls 3d—£4 Os 3d. He be-
lieved this reduction would constitute a great boon to the
public.