The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-17 00:00:00

Fire In surance Duty.

In compliance with a very numerously-signed requisition
the Lord Mayor convened a meeting, which was held in
the Council Chamber of the Guildhall yesterday, at two
o'clock, for the purpose of urging upon the Legislature the
desirability of extending to all classes of insurable pro-
perty the reduction of the duty to is. 6d. per cent. as made
upon stock-in-trade in the last session of Parliament. The
Right Hon. the Lord Mayor took the chair, and there was
a very numerous attendance.

His LORDSHIP expressed his concurrence with the object
of the meeting, and thought that as the country was in
such a prosperous financial condition, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer could not do better than propose a reduction of
the duty from 3s. per cent. to ls. 6d., if it could not be reT
moved altogether. This was really a tax upon prudence
and, therefore, ought especially to be repealed or reduced
(Hear, hear.)

Mr. Aldeman Gluon thought that they could not over-
estimate the importance of getting a reduction of this tax,
because a very large proportion of the community held
back from insuring in consequence of the excessive charges
which were made by Government. He hoped that the
expression of opinion of that meeting would draw the
attention of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the
necessity of reducing the present high rate of three shil-

lings—(hear)—if it were not altogether abolished. The
resolution which he had to propose was : " That in the
opinion of the meeting the duty chargeable on fire insur-
ances amounts to a tax upon prudence. That it prevents
insurance,and ought to be forthwith materially reduced or
wholly repealed."

Mr. FAGAN, late Mayor of Rochdale, seconded the reso-
lution.

Mr. CRAWFORD, M.P., said that he had come there partly
because he considered it his duty to be present on such oc-
casions, and especially those which were of an economical
character. (Hear.). But he was not there to take part in the
discussion ; and -this perhaps was the more unnecessary
because the votes which he had given in Parliament were
sufficient to convince them that he was entirely favourable
to the principle which the resolution involved. flaying
said this much, he wished to guard himself against giving
an absolute assent to any proposal before the Chancellor
of the Exchequer brought in his budget, which he sup-
posed he would do on the 27th of next month. However
much he might agree with abstract principles, it
would be a matter of imprudence to bind himself to
vote contrary to any just propositions on the part of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer. His own feelings were en-
tirely in favour of a considerable reduction of the duty, and
he should be prepared in his proper place in the House of
Commons to give any proposition made by the Chancellor
of the Exchequer the best consideration. He should now
sufficiently discharge his duty if he expressed a sincere hope
that there would be a reduction of the duty, as he thought
the House of Commons ought to well weigh the claims the
public had upon it for relief from the present high duty.
Mr. Alderman DAMN moved " That this meeting, whilst
it thankfully acknowledges the value of the reduction made
last session in the duty payable on the insurance of stock-
in-trade, believes that if that reduction had been made to
apply to all descriptions of insurable property, it would not
only have given greater satisfaction to the public, but would
have yielded a larger return to the revenue." As a proof
that high Government duties had considerably interfered
with the revenue which was derived from insurance duties,
he would mention that in 1782 the duty was first charged,
and was fixed at ls. 6d. The stamp duty on policies was 6s
for sums under £l,OOO, and lls. for sums exceeding that
amount. The consequence was that in 1783 the amount
assured, £173,333,000, gradually decreased at the rate of
£13,520,000 per annum, until in 1786 the amount assured
was reduced to X 132,750,000. In 1789 the charge on policies
was lowered to 3s. and 6s. respectively. The amount in-
creased at the rate of £5,556,000, until in 1796 it was
£188,333,000. In 1797 the percentage was increased from ls.
6d. to 2s, and the amount assured fell to £181,500,000. In
1804 the sum had risen to £238,000,000, when the duty was
increased to 2s 6d ; but the stamp policy was reduced to is.
The sum assured increased year by year until 1815, whenit
was £387,250,000. This year the percentage was increased
as a war tax to 35., and for the next three years there was
a falling off of nearly £7,000,000 per year. In 1831 farm
stock was exempted, and there was an increase at the rate
of £17,185,000 per annum. In 1835 the sum assured was
£521,150,736, and in 1855 £846,859,976. He therefore
ccntended that it was evident that, as the rate was in-
creased, so the amount assured diminished; and as it was
reduced, so it increased.
Mr. ALCROFT seconded the proposition.
Mr. LOCKE, M.P., referred to his votes in the House of
Commons in support of the fact that he was in favour of
a reduction of the duty. This was a matter which very
nearly concerned his constituents, as a vast amount of the
property in Southwark consisted of small dwellings. It
was clear that this was a tax upon prudence. Mr. Glad-
stone had- often proved that by a reduction of a duty the
revenue did not lose the amount of the reduction, but very
frequently that the diminution of a tax was the cause of its
being recouped even to a larger extent. He (the hon.
member) did not see why that should not be the case with
the insurance duties. (Cheers.)
Mr. G. BROOKE proposed, as an amendment, " That in
future the duties on all fire insurances be a uniform rate
of ls. per £lOO, and that no duty should be charged upon
insurances for a less sum than £50."
Alderman DAKrN thought the object of this was con-
tained in the first resolution, but Mr. Brooke dissented.
However, as the amendment was not seconded, it fell
through, and the resolution was carried.
Mr. WALKER moved, and Alderman J. LAWRENCE
seconded, " That, in the opinion of this meeting, the reso-
lutions already passed in the House of Commons point to
and require a larger and more general reduction of this
duty than has yet been made ; and that a petition be signed
by the chairman, urging upon the legislature the desira-
bility of extending to all descriptions of insurable property
the reduction of the duty to ls. 6d. per cent., as made upon
stock-in-trade in the last session of Parliament ;" which
was likewise agreed to.
Mr. HARVEY LEWIS, M.P., in proposing a vote of
thanks to the Lord Diayor for kiudly grtuatiug the ,

use of the Guildhall, and for presiding, said he regarded
the tax as injurious to tradesmen, unjust to individuals,
and oppressive to the poor. Nothing would give him
greater pleasure than to see its total abolition ; at the
same time he hoped the Chancellor of the Exchequer would
take the past opinion of the House of Commonssinto his
consideration, and also that of this meeting.

The motion having been seconded was carried with ap-
plause ; and his lordship having briefly expressed his
thanks, the meeting separated.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—For the first time since the days of General
Jackson's immense popularity an American President
has been inaugurated for the second time. The dr:
cumstances under which Mr. Lincoln assumes office
for another term of four years are so strange and im-
pressive that they may justify an address full of a
kind of Cromwellian diction and breathing a spirit
very different from the usual unearnest utterances
of successful politicians. This short inaugural speech
reveals the disposition and the opinion of the Fede-
ral Magistrate more completely than many of the
verbose compositions which have proceeded from his
predecessors. We cannot but seethat the President,
placed in the most important position to which a
statesman can aspire, invested with a power greater
than that of most monarchs, fulfils the duties which
destiny has imposed on him with firmness and con-
scientiousness, but without any feeling of exhilara-
tion at success or sanguine anticipation of coming
prosperity. The brief allusion to the expectations of
the two parties during the early days of the war
shows what is passing through the mind of the Chief
Magistrate when he looks back to four years of slaugh-
ter, and turns round to gaze into the black darkness
which shrouds the future. All dreaded the war, all
sought to avoid it. When the last inaugural address
was delivered Secession was but half accomplished.
Virginian officers attended President Lincoln for two
months after his installation, and many of them left
the Federal capital with unwilling hearts to fight in
the cause to which they felt themselves bound. This
war was not a thing that came suddenly or without
deliberation. Everything that could be said for it
or against it was freely uttered before the first great
armies were in the field. President Buchanan thought
it impossible to restrain the action of a State. On the
other hand, there had never been wanting men who
told the North that they must keep no terms with
slaveowners and traitors. The mass of the people went
into war unwillingly, and yet with but little know-
ledge of what was before them. "Neither party," says
Mr. Lincoln, " expected the magnitude or duration
which it has already attained ; neither anticipated
that the cause of the conflict might cease even before
the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an
easier triumph and a result less fundamental and
astonishing." Mr. Lincoln anticipates that this re-
sult will be in favour of his section of the Union,
but, warned by experience, he does not venture to
predict an early term for the great settlement. In
his Message of a few months since he gave his opi-
nion that the war would last at least as long as Mr.
Jefferson Davis remained at the head of the South-
ern people. This opinion, so far from being changed
by the successes the Federals have since gained, is
expressed even in "stronger terms on the present
occasion. In a tone of mingled resolution and de-
spondency he prays that the scourge of war may
pass away, but professes himself resigned to the in-
fliction of the present evils " until the wealth piled
by bondsmen during 250 years of unrequited toil
shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn
with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with
the sword." Such language is not unbecoming a
man who has been continued in power avowedly,
that he may persist in a devastating war. Mr. Lin-
coln has no doubt made up his mind to carry through
to the letter the policy which has been indicated in
his Proclamations and Messages. For this he
laboured during his first term of office ; for this, m
the worst days of Federal ill success, he issued his
decree for the abolition of slavery. It was in con-
sequence of his steadfastness on those points that he
was re-elected by a great majority, and he could
not, if he would, shrink from doing all that he has
promised, and which his party expect. But even
after fortune has favoured the Northern arms so
abundantly and continuously the President abstains
from any of those predictions which were rife in the
early part of the war. He knows too well the diffi-
culties of the task which still lies before his Govern-
ment, he thinks of the armies which must be kept
up, the debts that must be incurred, the derange-
ment of political and social relations which must be
endured before the States of the old Union return
to their former condition. His address appears to
be intended to repress the more sanguine expecta-
tions of the Northern people, and to intimate to
them that fresh exertions and sacrifices will be
necessary for the attainment of their object. The
re-action caused by disappointed hope is often dan-
gerous, and if the Federals should imagine that the
present summer will bring the end of the war, and
should then be deceived in their expectations, a feel-
ing of discouragement akin to that of last autumn
might possibly supervene. Mr. Lincoln, therefore,
like a prudent statesman, conceals his own hopes,
if he cherishes any, and bids the people, in effect,
to make up their minds for another considerable
term of fighting. The events on which the Presi-
dent's address is a comment fully justify his cautious
tone. 'The general superiority of the Federals is
unquestionable, but it is also plain that the Con-
federate spirit, is not broken, and that Government
and people are preparing with energy for another
campaign. The chief interest centres, of course, in
General Sherman. This adventurous General is in
command of a large force, and his field of opera-
tions is at present in the north-eastern angle of South
Carolina and the adjacent country of North Caro-
lina. It would be useless with the mere fragmentary
information we possess to speculate in any way on
the movements of the campaign ; but there can be
little doubt that the object of General Sherman is
to penetrate into the latter State, and seize the city
of Raleigh, from which runs a railroad to Richmond.
By this means he would be able to interrupt very
effectually the communications of General Lee with
the country south of his position. It may be that
Sherman actually meditates a march on Richmond
itself, and expects to appear before the Confederate
capital to co-operate with General Grant for its
reduction. Whatever his plans, the Confederates
seem at least to have taken some steps to check him.
As the seat of war is brought nearer the centre of
the Confederacy, there is a greater vitality in the mi-
litary administration, and apparently a better spirit
among soldiers and people. It is, no doubt, an error
to estimate the army of General Johnson at between
60,000 and 80,000 men, for in all probability the
Confederacy has not the means of bringing together
such a force in districts that have been so de-
populated by the war. But the re-appointment of
Johnson, who, rightly or wrongly, is very popular
among the Southern armies, may well have given
new courage to the Carolinians, and enabled them,
with the aid of some reinforcements from Lee, to
put a respectable force in front of the Federal com-
mander. The battle which is reported to have been
fought seems to have ended in the taking up by
Johnson of a defensive position, which Sherman
must drive him from before he is able to continue
his victorious advance. Success may, indeed, again
attend Sherman ; the chances are in favour of him,
for his men are veterans and elated by former
victory, but his passage through the state of North
Carolina will probably not be so easy as the march
through Georgia. The appointment of General Lee
to the command-in-chief, though it may not add to
the strength of the Confederacy, or much alter
strategical plans, has had the effect of renewing the
spirit of the people to a great extent, and one of the
most wonderful things in this unexampled contest
is the buoyancy with which the Confederates seem
to contemplate their position. It may be that,
heated by the contest, they do not perceive how
much they have lost and are losing ; but, whether
they judge rightly or not, they have at any rate
come to the conclusion that the time for yielding
has not arrived. As a proof of the tenacity of pur-
pose which prevails in the Southern councils, it may
be mentioned that the arming of the negroes is once
more proposed, and has been apparently resolved
on. :It is said that a bill has passed the Confederate
House of Representatives, in secret Session, autho-
rising the arming of negroes tendered by owners,
and also authorising the President to call upon each
State, whenever expedient, for a quota of 300,000
troops, irrespective of colour. There is much dif-
ference, of course, between voting men and having
them actually under arms, but if • the Confederacy
really go so far as to recognise the principle of
negro service, with its necessary emancipation and
pecuniary reward, it will show a fixedness of pur-
pose which may result in the protraction of the war,
even if it do not influence its event. At all events
this new policy can only hasten that destruction of
negro slavery which will be the chief social result of
the war. The words of President Lincoln may soon
be realised, that " the cause of the conflict may cease
even before the conflict itself shall cease."
POST.—The general statement with which the
Marquis of Hartington last evening introduced the
army estimates for the forthcoming year must be
regarded on the whole as satisfactory. Like those
in the navy estimates the votes show in the aggre-
gate a substantial decrease on those of the past
year, without any corresponding diminution in the
efficiency of the service. The total amount voted
for the army in 1864-65 was £14,844,088, whereas
the estimated expenditure for 1865-66 is set down
at £14,348,447. This decrease of close on £500,000
becomes, however, more considerable by an esti-
mated excess in the receipts of the forthcoming year
of £379,000 over those of the past one. The total
diminution of the charge for the military establish-
ment consequently amounts to about £875,000 for
the year on which we are about to enter. An annual

expenditure of upwards of £14,000,000 for the
military service of a country which not only enjoy%
profound peace but entertains no aggressive designs,
is, however, an outlay which may well excite a hope
that retrenchment has not reached its ultimate
limits. It must not be forgotten that, notwith-
standing the interest of the national debt and charges
on the Consolidated Fund amount annually to about
£28,000,000, no less than £25,000,000 were paid
during the past year out of a total national expo'
diture of £67,000,000, for the support of the army
and navy. It is, however, unquestionably true that
proportionately to the population, and above
the national wealth of Great Britain and her depen-
dencies, her armaments cannot be regarded either,
as excessive or extravagant) costly when compared
with those of other countriM3. We claim, and sve
insist on maintaining the supremacy of the seas, net
as Mr. Bright suggests, from notions of vanity, but
because from our insular character, and the coniPa-
rative insignificance in territorial extent of our king-
dom, our national independence rests exclusively on
the superiority of our navy. The standing army
can scarcely be considered unnecessarily numerous
when we recollect that but one out of one hundred
and ninety-five inhabitants is a soldier, whereas in
some States the proportion is one in sixty. Tn
France it is one in ninety-three, and in Prussia one
in eighty-nine ; and with the exception of Portugal,
where the proportion of the army to the population
is as one to two hundred and twenty-four, there is
no European State in which the standing army ig,2
proportionately to the people which supplies nf
smaller than our own. Although therefore the an-
nual vote is considerable, it cannot be regarded as s°
preposterously large, as Mr. Bright and Mr. Cobden
would have the taxpayers of this country to belie
The first vote on the estimates, and that which the
Under-Secretary for War submitted to the Hell',
at the conclusion of his statement, is that provid-
ing for the numerical strength of the army for
the ensuing year. The entire strength last year
was 146,766 men, whereas for next year it will ,
142,477, showing a decrease of 4,289. Of the
native Indian troops employed by the British
Government, only 178 will be retained of the 1,532
for whom a vote was taken this time twelvemonths,
and consequently the total reduction of the effective
strength of the army at home and abroad
amount to upwards of 5,500 men. The general con'
dition of affairs now is so little different from that
of a year ago, that the reduction may be regarded;
as considerable, whilst the more peaceful aspect of
what is termed the political horizon will prevent the
more cautious from objecting to what they mightdeem an unwise reduction of our military strength'
The army estimates, unlike those for the navy, afford
to the Minister who explains them less opportunit„l
for exhibiting striking changes, or of interesting In"
hearers by pointing to work done or work in pro-
gress. The navy is in process of conversion, and th
most effective portion of Lord C. Paget's recent
statement referred to the progress which had been
made during the past 12 months. The armY Qf
Great Britain since its amalgamation with the forces
employed employed by the East India Company has practicalfi,
remained unchanged. But, although as regards tau'
regular forces there is but little in contemplatie,o
which merits particular notice, the votes for tu
auxiliary forces cannot fail to attract the attention
be
of the House of Commons and of the country. -L.
auxiliary forces are composed of the disemboched
militia, yeomanry, volunteers, and the enrolle
pensioners ; and it is observable that the three
former votes show an estimated increase, whereas
those for the regular forces, without any exception'
exhibit a reduction. In other words, the tendencyof past years has been to strengthen that port 1,%
of the military resources of the country which
only be called into operation in the event of w,31110
and by this means to provide for the security ol
ti-
State without depriving it of the services of its el
zees in their civilian capacity. The volunteers ha
become more than ever a national institution. );et
vote for the ensuing year for their support is an
down at £334,900, showing an excess of more th
£6,000 on that of the preceding one ; but this adds
tional item which the establishment of the 'Olen
teem has given to the army estimates is more t'!ch
compensated by the sense of security with more
their existence inspires the nation. The volunte,
are provided with arms and ammunition the cost
store;
which is included in the vote for military store;
One-half of the amount of the vote is expended,
the form of capitation grants. The sanitary co,
tion of her Majesty's forces at home and abroad %
0
shown a progressive improvement during the paste
few years, a fact which is attributable to the grey or
attention which has been of• late paid to the Ins
wants and comforts of the men, and to the increa,s,,A
efficiency of the medical department. The wretch •
policy pursued by the authorities at the War-off e,
towards the medical officers, and which we had
quent occasion to censure, had the effect not
of driving many excellent men from the service to
disgust, but of deterring the better class of stud
from seeking to fill the places which were thus
va-
cated. There is perhaps no army in the world wn'e
reckons amongst its medical staff better educated
or more efficient men than our own--none wle ahe
work more diligently, or who deserve better at
hands of the Government which employs them.
,des
is to be regretted, therefore, that the authors
should not take some little pains to conciliate In."
bihti
to whom they owe so much, and on whose a
eo,
and diligence in their special department Id of
ciency of the army mainly depends. It Nvol
be necessary for the Director-General of the -8-'lO
Medical Board to advertise for medical nl°,o
undertake the duty of acting assistant-surgeons let
and those in whose name he acts would sireKting
the medical profession understand that, in acee
~,Perat-
he commission of an army surgeon, one of its m'eat•
bers will not be the less entitled to claim the tr
ment of a gentleman.