The Sun.
London, England, 1830-04-09 00:00:00

HUNTINGDON COUNTY MEETING.

A numerous and highly respectable meeting of
the owners and occupiers of land in the county of
Huntingdon, was held on Tuesday, at Huntingdon,
pursuant to requisition, to take into consideration
the propriety of petitioning the Legislature for the
repeal of the duties on malt. The Crown Court,
in the Hall, was appropriated to the occasion, and a
little before twelve o'clock the High Sheriff for the
county, J. G. Scott, Esq., took the chair. Among
the company present we observed Lord Milton,
M.P.; Sir James Duberley ; J. B. Rooper, Esq.;
John Hammond; Esq.; Captain Duberley, and a
large proportion of the most respectable farmers of
the county.
The HIGH SHERIFF commenced the businest of
the day by reading the requisition under which he
had convened the meeting, and requesting that
every gentleman who intended to speak would con-
fine himself to the business upon which they had
met, and be allowed a patient hearing. Letters
were read from Lord Mandeville and W. H. Fel-
lowes, Esq., the Members for the county, apolo-
gizing for their absence from the meeting.
J. B. Root'Cß, Esq., after a few observations,
moved that the following petition to both Houses
of Parliament be adopted :
That very general distress pervades the country, the
prevalence of which renders still more oppressive that
burden of taxation which is so inkrious to the industry of
your petitioners and the rest of 40. fellow-subjects.
Your petitioners have been gratified by the reductions
which have been already made in the public expenditure,
and they duly appreciate the desire which your Honourable
House has manifested for the alleviation of the national
distress by repealing taxes to a considerable amount.

Your petitioners, however, extremely regret that, in se-
lecting taxes to be repealed, your Honourable House has
not selected the duty upon malt in preference to that on beer.
Your petitioners, who are either owners or occupiers of
land, are satisfied that the agricultural 'interests of the
country would have been much more effectually promoted
by repealing a duty which may be said to be levied upon
the raw produce of the soil, than by the remission of one
imposed upon a consumable article, and they are satisfied
that it would have afforded equal, if not more extensive,
relief to the community at large.
Your petitioners, however, cannot admit the impracti-
cability of repealing both these duties, if your Honourable
House makes such reductions in the establishments of the
country as the necessities of the times imperiously demand.
These establishments, in the ppinion of your petitioners,
are greatly beyond what is necessary for the administration
of justice and the protection of the Empire and its depen-
dencies against foreign aggression, the only objects for which
Government is instituted.

Your petitioners seek not for relief in the enactment of
laws injurious to any class of the community, hut solely in
the diminution of taxes, which press alike on all classes.
Your petitioners, therefore, humbly pray that the duties
upon malt, by which they are particularly aggrieved, may
be forthwith and entirely repealed.
And your petitioners, &c.
The Hon. Gentleman concluded by moving that
the above petition be adopted.
TEBRUTT, Esq. seconded the motion.
Mr. M. WELLS moved that two resolutions be
taxed to the petition read—one declaring the ne-
cessity of a repeal of the beer, malt, and hop duties,
and the assessed taxes, and the second for the sub-
stitution of a modified property tax.
The Rev. F. H. MABERLY said he did not see
the necessity of any new tax, but, if one was neces-
sary, it should be an equitable assessment upon real
property. Reduction of taxation, as now contem-
plated, he thought was no relief to the agriculturist.
If the revenue was (as he understood it to be)
55,000,000/., and Government would only take off
5,000,0001.—if all the relief went to the agriculturist
—it would not amount to [J. each. He should
like to see 50,000/. taken off—(lmmense laughter
and cheering)—not that he thought it could be £O.
So, with reductions of rental, what was 15 or 20
per cent.?—they ought to have off SO or 90.
(Laughter.)—He was a great friend to the human
race, and always glad to hear of individual and
collective prosperity ; and therefore he thought the
repeal of the beer duties most unjust towards the
brewers and publicans, many of whom had staked
large sums of money on the faith of the laws re-
maining as they found them.—(Disapprobation.)—
The country must be irretrievably ruined unless
they entirely shut out foreign corn and encouraged
the home grower.—(Laughter.)—What was the
effect of the present system ? All the poor were
thieves and vagabonds.—(Roars of laughter, and
cries of " No, no.") The Rev. Gentleman con-
tinued in the same strain for some time, affording
much amusement to the meeting.
Lord MILTON next rose. He said, before he
would say a syllable on the subject of the meeting,
he would express his gratitude to the Rev. Gentle-
man for the benevolence he had displayed; and
having done so, he must be permitted to express a
doubt whether benevolence, unless guided by pru-
dence and wisdom, was a safe guide for them to
adopt.—(Cheers.)—He thought the declaration of
the Rev. Gentleman, that he disapproved of the
repeal of the Baer Duty, because it might inci-
dentally affect the interests of certain brewers, was a
sure proof of the justice of his proposition.
The:Rev. Mr. MABERLY—It is quite a mistake ;
I never said any such thing.
Well (continued Lord MILTON), we will not stop
to inquire into that ; our object to-day is not to
talk about the Beer Tax, but to consider of the pro-
priety of petitioning fur relief from the Malt Tax.—
(Cheers.)—At any rate, the great panacea of the
Rev. Gentleman, which was to relieve the landed
interest, which, be it remembered, included land-
lord as well as tenant, was to be found in the
shutting out of foreign corn, and the high prices
consequent upon such an enactment. These high
prices, he maintained, would he of no service to
the tenant farmer, however much they might benefit •
the landlord ; and if proof, beyond assertion, were
necessary of this truth, he aright point out some fa-
miliar instances which had occurred even in this
county. The rents must and %%ould be regulated by
the prices of coin, and the gross produce of a farm,
after deducting the expences of cultivation. If all
the expences ofcultivation, with taxation, and the fair
interest of capital employed, amounted to 4001. per
annum, and the gross produce of the farm amounted
to 600/., the difference between these two sums
must ultimately form the rate of rental. Low prices
threfore, were not injurious to the interests of the
him to proportionate his rent
ietdhetiolartigitthatel pLeotli.dtioin
,iNts:ttserclaarrirtiesdiut:triati(-1
tenants, while high prices were advantageous to the
amendment having been withdrawn.
the eirimiateYetition to the i.ords, and the Members
landlord, as enabling
accordingly.
Several other gentlemen addressed the meeting,
flaio:lriirneditne:::' countytat to the Commons.