The Sun.
London, England, 1830-03-16 00:00:00

/I

$ property in the Funds, his confidence in the..; good faith of
I the country, or the security of his debt, Ivould not be
diminished, he could not but repeat his. opinion, that all
financial operations in the moment of n aticetal difficulty
were henceforward at an end.—(The IZon. Member
dropped his voice so frequently, that we we re. unable to
collect the tendency of many of his senten lees. e—Perhaps
the Hou-e was not aware of the num! wr o I the public
creditors. There were 274,823 different. ace aunts in the
books of the Bank of England. In each acets unt it might l
be taken that at least five persons were int e I
resqed ; so that
there were above 1,374,000 persons i atere sted in the
public securities. These 1,374,000 pe I-sons might be I
considered to be the greatest mass of the, intelligent per- I
sons of the country. Out of the holders .of the 274,623
accounts, 250,000 did not receive a g neater half-yearly '
dividend than 100/. ; and the number of l 'half-yearly divi-
dends of 500/. did not exceed 2,000. Many of the ac-
counts also were the accounts of Saving Banks, in which
numerous individuals were interested. if, therefore, the 1
stockholders did not petition Parham( nt to protect their I
rigets, it was because they were too, intelligent not to I
know the entire security of their situati( in. Nevertheless, I
he could not help regretting a measure, which must leave !
Government in a hopeless condition with respect to any I
future contracts which the service aF the State mini 7
at
render necessary. He would recomnaterol the Right 'l/(;11.
Gentleman to read an able pamphikt recently •pr
the writer of which proposed Ilea tonversion ablished,
70.4atock in the latter,
of the Fom•
per Cents. into Five per Cente,„ e,
-Y gi'o,l3"g- to the holder
of every 1001. stock in the for mer,
per cent. By this
the interest of which woield be eiel
means there would be effected a sav:,,,g of 1,700, 000!. of
millions of capital,
andintere a reduction offorty or. fifty
. e.
making the Five per Cent eta*
for fifty or sixty years, It . thus created irredeemable
contract t was very true that to every
here must be two
that to such a conversion Parties ;and it might happen
commended the holder
i!!;:that which the pamphlet re-
e' as
r per Cents.. would be In-
disposed to accede. Fetill he 'thought that it was a sub-
ject which well dose
rued the, }eight Hon, Gentleman's at-
tention. He was `also of (r)iulon that it might be advisable
to follow in this respect
Go-
vernment, mad to eteAmin
. the mon* of the French Go-
hum Parliament the power of
taking any stepof
' cumstancea might Jest kind during the recess which eh--
feesed that he e-
e
• mem to render expedient. He con-
Gentleman sl-
eeeeedingly regretted that the Right Hon.
would hay
Aeolhl have adopted any financial system which
s. ,eo pernicious an effect on our future re-
sources.
It would have been much better to have resisted
the pr' Atm pressure, and to have waited until that return
. 1). eoeperity which might be fairly expected, before the
es elblishment of such a permanent system. The pressure '.
of every period had always been considered at that period
as ereater thatt it really was. Let them turn back to the
debates on t.'ne establishment of the Sinking Fund in 1796.
At that time the proposition of that great man was warmly
1 supported by Mr. Fox. It was singular to observe in the
1 debat"" Fn that occasion, how the taxation of only fifteen
1 •
1 "Moes was considered a pressure greater than the country
P
could bn ea
" To you," said Mr. Pitt, in addressing the
I .ouse of Commons—" to you do the public turn their
f eyes, justly expecting that from the trust you bold you
•, • -
vied dunk it your duty to make the most serious efforts,
. I in order to afford them the long-wished-for prospect of
!being relieved from an endless accumulation of taxes, un-
-1 der the burtlien of which they are ready to sink:" Thus
the House would see that at that period, as at the present,
apprehensions existed which were proved to be groundless;
for the country soon emerged from the condition of ruin
in which it was supposed to be sunk. Mr. Pitt went on
to say---" To behold this country emerging from a most
unfortunate war, which added such an accumulation to
sums before immense that it was the belief of surrounding
nations, and of many among ourselves, that our powers
must fail us, and we should not be able to bear up under it;
to behold this nation, instead of despairing at its alarming
condition, looking boldly its situation in the face, and es-
tablishine, upon a spirited and permanent plan the means of
relieving itself from all its incumbrances, must give such
an idea of our resources, and of our spirit of exertion, as
will astonish the nations around us, and enable us to regain
that pre-eminence to which we are on may accounts so
justly entitled." These sentiments of Mr. Pitt were loudly
echoed by Mr. Fox, and their value was acknowledged by
the whole House. But the present case was, in his opinion,
a great proof of the degeneracy of the country. For the
Government of this day, with no powerful party against
them, with all about them anxious and desirous to promote
what appeared to them to be the real interests of the
country, listening to temporary distress, which would dis-
appear with the year, did away with what was the only
firm security of public credit. It bad been stated in
another place, that in case of any emergency this country
was quite prepared fur hostility, and that her navy was
never in a more efficient condition. He himself firmly
believed that if any real attack were made on the
interests and honour of the country, eveiy other con-
sideration would be ehaken off, and the utmost alacrity
would be shown in resisting it. But still it was im-
possible to look at the pernicious influence, under such
circumstances, of our enormous debt without pain.—
While in France the debt was within the mastery of tl:e
Fiench Government, by which a Sinking Fund had been
established—while in America they had almost got rid of
their debt, and in a few years would extinguish it entirely,
while in Russia the discharge of the debt was in rapid pro-
gress—while in Prussia a similar process was going on—
while even in Austria, lagging as that country was in
financial matters, arrangements to that effect were making,
this ceurory, which originally gave to the nations of
Europe a lesson on the maintenance of public credit, had
shrunk from a temporary suffering, and had abandoned its
own principles of finance. With respect to the taxes
which the Right Hon. Gent. proposed to repeal, he thought
that the selection was a judicious one. The tax on cyder,
which it was intended to repeal, had long been much more
vexatious than productive. To the repeal of the beer duty
this objection might be made. The Right lion. Gent.
talked of it as affording a relief to the peasantry of the
country; now the persons who would principally he re-
lieved by it were the artisans of the towns. Stil he thought
the Right Hon. Gent. had made a judicious selection. He
reverted, however, to his original argument, that he the
event of war the course which had been pursued by Go-
vernment would render it a matter of difficulty, if not of
impossibility, to borrow money for the service of the State.
For what capitalist would lend, when it was not possible
to conceive in what manner he could ever be repaid ? With
respect to what were called war taxes, they appeared to
him to be absurdly named. The pressure ought to be
equally divided over periods of peace and war ; that the
burdens contracted in the latter might be removed, or at
least diminished, in the former. This was, in his opinion,
sound policy; and lie deeply lamented that it had been de-
parted from. He feared that the country would be as little
satisfied with the proceeding as himself.
Lord ALTHORP took a very different view of the sub-
ject indeed from that taken by his Hon. Friend the Mem-
ber for Callington. The greater part of his Hon. Friend's
observations had been directed against the reduction of the
Four per Cents. He was sure, however, that the stock-
holders generally would not be at all alarmed at what-had
fallen from his Hon. Friend ; and that they would not
think their property rendered in the slightest degree inse-
cure. It was impossible in this free country—it was im-
possible in any free country, that any breach of faith such
as that of which his Hon. Friend appeared to entertain
some apprehensions could be effected. He did not think,
therefore, that the circumstances to which his Hon. Friend
alluded would have the effect which he anticipated from
them. With respect to the rest of the propositions of the
Right Hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he (Lord
Althorp) entirely approved of them as far as they went.
He highly approved of the reduction of the taxes, and es-
pecially of the reduction of the tax on beer ; which was,
in his opinion, a very wise proceeding. And moreover,
he would say, that if the Right Hon. Gent. really calcula-
ted on the positive reduction of the revenue to be as great
a' the apparent amount of taxes reduced, the country
could not expect him to go moth further than be had
gone. He regretted, however, that the Right Hon. Gent.
had not taken a more enlarged view of the subject. He
regretted that it had not occurred to him that the reduc-
tion of taxes which bore on the productive industry of the
people was calculated to increase rather than to diminish
the revenue. That bad been shown in various cases.

There was the tax on tobacco, for instance, a tax of
400 per rent. on the article. The Pict that the last
increase of the duty upon tobacco bad not increased the
revenue arising from it, was a proof that tobacco was over-
taxed. He was convinced, that with due attention and con-
sideration, much greater relief might be afforded to the
people in the shape of a reduction of taxation, without
any diminution of the revenue. On that point an-Hon.
Friend of his had given notice of a motion for Friday next,
in which motion—which he had hoped might have b.-en
rendered unnecessary by the fin !ncial statement of that
evening--he now trusted that Ills Hon. Friend would per-
s vere, and that lie wmibl receive the support of the
House. He was not without hope that even the Right
Hon. Gentleman would not object to his Hon. Friend's
motion, considering its great importance. The Hon.
Member-fur Callington had said that, in 1786, Mr. Pitt
considered a taxation of fifteen millions as pregnant v lilt
ruiu to the country. At various periods of our financial
history similar opinions had been entertained. For him-
' self, he was of opinion that the present amount of taxation,
if properly levied, and not permitted to press on the pro-.
tinctive interest of the country, might be borne without