The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-29 00:00:00

o say a few words—l mean the proposed mode of dealing
with the advertisement and
`sum stamp duties. Considering the
os
th e duties , I
produceraparatively small
hope the Chahcellor of thewEhixechequer will not make two
bites of a cherry—l want to see the connection between
the press and the Government discontinued. (Loud cries
of "hoar, hear," and lauthatteirt.)rers to—it is in allusion
Well,fe I know the meaning
of that laugh—
to a subject wllichkahoNays what
been much talked about. It has
been said that the right hon. gentleman the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, in proposing to remit the stamp upon sup-
plements containing advertisements only, would give a boon
to one paper, and variousright remarks have, of course, been
been made as to the motives of the honourable gen-
tleman in giving this boon to one particular paper. (Hear,
hear.) Now, Ido not believe that the right
parties, honourable
gentleman is capable of acting in the unworthye manner
)
which some would have us imagine. (C
the right hon. gentleman has with all ra (Cheers-) I believe
both in and
out of this house, too much credit for the character of sin-
cerity and truthfulness to be supposed capable of being a
party to any transaction of the kind.
(Renewed cheering.)
But the suspicion to which I allude, how does it arise ?
Because the Government is enabled to deal with taxes
which may be made to favour one particular newspaper.
So it is with the advertisement
duty. The duty is to be
reduced to sixpence, but that sixpence is still keeping up
the connection between the Government and the newspaper
press. A number of newspapers will want the sixpence oft;
others will want it cow mood, and the result will, or
and
at least may, be that the Government will weigh and balance
the rival influences, and shape their public course accor-
dingly. Now, I say the Government should have no con-
nection whatever with the newspaper press. Let us, there-
fore, adhere to the resolutions of this house, and if we deal
with the advertisement duty at all, let us abolish it alto-
gether. (Hear, hear.) In the same way, if the right hon.
gentleman is resolved to deal with the stamp duty, he
should not do so in the interest of one particular paper for
the present, and not more than three or four prospectively
—perhaps not more than one. If the right hon. gentle-
man should be advised by some of the larger provincial
papers to alter his plan so as to leave the present penny
stamp upon newspapers, allowing supplements to go free,
whether they contain news or advertisements, or both, he
will then be falling into an error similar in character,
though not so great in degree, as he has now fallen into
with regard to one particular journal. There is only one
newspaper at present in the practice of publishing supple-
ments containing advertisements. If You allow supple-
ments containing advertisements and news to be published
without a stamp, there will be at the outside—l speak of
the state of things at the present moment—about half a
score of newspapers in the kingdom which will be in a
position to profit by the remission. They alone will benefit
by it, and the result will be directly opposed to the principle
which the Chancellor of the Exchequer has laid down in
his mode of dealing with trade licences, where he has pro-
posed a graduated tax according to the extent of business
carried on. The right honourable gentleman proposes
to allow a newspaper twice the size of the Times to be
printed for k penny stamp, but he still intends to charge
a penny for every small struggling sheet which may
be published, though it may not be half the size of
none
of the sides of the Times. Mark the effect of this..
will be perfectly
small paper having to pay a penny stamp
unable to compete with the large one, because the condi-
tions will be unequal. I have seen in my own experience
in Lancashire that whenever a newspaper, no matter what
its politics might be, could publish a supplement regularly,
so great was the desire on the part of readers to have a
large mass of additional news—a large surface of paper—
that it became immediately necessary for all the other
newspapers in the district to publish supplements also, or
else consent to be trampled out of existence. That will be
the case of every newspaper of ordinary size and circula-
tion if the Chancellor of the Exchequer adheres to his de-
termination to charge a uniform rate of one penny upon
all newspapers, large or small, and at the same time abo-
lishes the stamps upon supplements of every description, a
proposal which will be the most destructive thing for the
interests of all second and third class newspapers that can
possibly be passed in this country. I beg to tell the right
hon. gentlemen opposite that the newspapers in their in-
terest are not the largest, the wealthiest, or the best circu-
lated in England. (A laugh.), But let us put the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer to the test of his own principles.
He says, if a man keeps a gig and two horses he shall pay
a tax of 155.; but if he keeps a carriage with four wheels
he shall pay double. Why does the right hon. gentleman
refuse to apply that principle in the case of newspapers ?
Why does he allow a person who keeps a four-in-hand to
get off with paling the same stamp duty as a man with a
gig ? If a shopkeeper has such a prosperous business that
his shop overflows with customers, and he finds it neces-
sary to open another establishment, will the Chancellor of
the Exchequer take no heed of this supplement shop, or
put no new tax upon it ? Why, the right hon. gentleman
will not bear the test of his own principles. Really, he
must deal with this question of stamps as with advertise-
ments—either have no stamp at all, or allow a charge to be
made for all papers going through the Post-office, gra-
duated according to their weight and size, permitting those
which do not go through the Post-office, but are circu-
lated only in their respective localities, to be published
free of all duty whatever. (Hear.) With respect to the
rest of the budget, I will not detain the house with many
- observations ; but I must be allowed to refer shortly to
the question of soap. lam glad that this question has
been dealt with at at last. It has been a standing re-
proach to us for years. ]t has marked as hypocrisy all
our pretences upon the subject of clean linen. I have sat
in meetings of sanitary committees for the establishment
of baths and washhouses, and have thought of the soap
duty until I was ashamed. So with the paper duties.
While we talk of education, and tax the very, material by
which knowledge is diffused, we shall be justlY accused of
47 hypocrisy. (Hear.) But that question apart, I do hope
that the budget in its main propositions may pass this
house. (Cheers.) I believe, so far as I have an opportun-
ity of judging, that it is generally accepted by the coun-
try. (Renewed cheering.) I believe the proposed legacy
tax removes the sore which has been festering in the minds
of the people of this country for a long time, and in the
interest of the parties concerned I should say the sooner
the tax is put on the better. Ido not think there will be
much resistance to it. lam told that in the other house
it is looked upon with the greatest severity. (Laughter
and cheers.) There is no opposition to it in the other
house. I was breakfasting the other day with a gentle-
man of the diplomatic corps, and, while conversing upon
this subject in French, he said it was very easy to explain
why the House of Lords was in favour of the tax, and
why the House of Commons was against it. The reason
is, said he, that the one in the house is the Chambre des
.Pairs (pares), and the other the Chambre des Fits.
(Laughter.) Some hen. gentlemen have asked if the in-
come tax will be put an end to in the year 1860. Now, if
I should live as long in the political arena, I would not
like anything to be brought against me in 1860 to prove
that I had sanctioned or encouraged any such idea. I
have a firm conviction that you Intuit go on every year re-
mitting part of your indirect taxation, and I should not be
dealing fairly with you if I told you that I saw any pros-
pect of getting rid of the income tax. There are certainly
two ways of doing it. It can only be done either by the
imposition of some other direct tax, or by a very large
retrenchment of the expenditure ; and in either case you
must render available to the Chancellor of the Exchequer
the means of meeting the constantly increasing necessity
for the remission of indirect taxation. But Ido not think
the right hon, gentleman wishes those who vote with him
to pledge themselves that the income tax will be put an end
to in 1860. I believe he is sincere himself, and that if he
should happen to be in power in 1860, and anything should
be done by his colleae'ueato prevent him carrying out his
own views, he would rather leave office than be any party
to what might possibly appear to be a breach of faith.
(Hear, hear.) I hope the right hon. gentleman will be here
in 1860. May we all live as long ! (A laugh.) But how
can we bind a future Parliament? No, that is not possible;
we cannot pledge a future Legislature to the adoption of any
measure. We shall have a Reformed Parliament before
1860. Probably the tax will be changed to a property tax
before then ; or it may be levied in another way—upon ca-
pitalised incomes for example ; or the house may be so
charmed with the probate and legacy duties, that it may
desire to increase them ; or something or other may occur
to render the abolition of the income tax possible ; but I
would guard myself most carefully from being supposed to
pledge myself in any way to the abrogation of this tax in
1860. (Cheers.)
Mr. Sergeant SHEE said that, in offering a few obser-
vations to the house, he would endeavour to get rid of the
feelings of irritation'which the speech to which they had just
listened had produced. For that purpose he would advert
to the remarks which fell on a former occasion from the lips
of the hon. member for Carlow (Mr. Ball), who entreated
the Irish representatives to consider themselves for once as
members, not for Ireland only, but for the United King-
dom. The hon. member, in giving them that advice, adopted
as the rule of his conduct a certain principle laid down by
Mr. Burke, and perhaps there was no man in that house
better entitled to act upon the maxim of the distinguished
statesman referred to, because of all the Irish members he
was the only one who demonstrated on all occasions his sin-
cere sympathy with and attachment to the cause and inte-
rests of the Government which was in power. (Hear.)
No matter what the Government did, the honourable mem-
ber for Carlow voted with it. (Cries of oh, oh, and laugh-
ter.) He seemed determined to be a thick-and-thin sup-
porter of the Government, and was not, therefore, in a
condition to lecture those who occupied an independent
position in that house. With respect to the question
before the house, ho thought that the proposed extension
of the income tax to Ireland could not be defended upon
any principle of justice, and he would give it his most de-
termined opposition. The tax could only be introduced
into Ireland upon the fallacious plea that the debts of the
two countries had approximated so closely in value that
the Government might, in terms of the articles of union,
call upon the Irish people to share their burdens. But he
maintained that the debt of Ireland had been increased to
its present amount by the bad legislation of the English
Government. For what was the enormous debt contract-
ed ? Not assuredly for the benefit of Ireland. It was, he
supposed, for the benefit of Ireland that we had lavished
enormous sums on the metropolis, for the benefit of Ireland
that we were at war, for the benefit of Ireland—in some
sense it was, and no doubt Ireland showed her interest in
the wars we carried on, for her sons shed their blood freely
for this country ; but it was to gratify ourselves, to main-
tain our own interests, to promote the glory of our own
country, to protect our shores from invasion, that this
enormous expenditure took place, and Ireland, had she not
bees united to Great Britain, might have gone through it
at least, without adding—he would not say a shilling- but any,
thoughconsiderable amount to her debt. Therefore,
taibitale Chancellor of the Exchequer might legally be
et,(linsfoprose this additional tax on Ireland, it would be
him to do scryFlT:e to show that it would be equitable for
stances; they had
I,l,audget came out under peculiar circurn-
tleman below (Mr. had from the right honourable gen-
ourable member for Cralli)—who he informed the hon-
ra ow had certainly made him no
magnificent promises,amtianl who, he hoped, had made
that gentleman none—
had another from the
right honourable gentle they
yinst the former he had
voted ; and he must semen'yhe didganot like to vote against
year. Arminst the former, hon.
two budgets in the same
gentlemen opposite had also voted' bputntheir main objee-
the leader
tion to it was, he believed, its being;
rvia' °av
e-.iiblbey, two won-
of the party opposed to them. Two--
short
derfully clever men, had proposed budgets
time, and the second, of course, felt hiinselfnbaotivn7
pose something new.- Accordingly ho threw over thetohpro-
tax to make friends of the voters in the boroughs
England ; he reduced taxation on many articles of. mere
luxury, luxury, such as the assessed taxes; and then, knowing it
would be quite popular in England, he did what all his
predecessors had been ashamed of doing—threw the income
tax on Ireland. Was the right honourable gentleman
quite sure that, according even to his own estimate of her
ability, Ireland did not now pay as much as she was able
to pay ? Supposing that was not the case, let them see
what place
the hon. member for the West hiding had to
stand upon in his attack on the Irish representatives.
as a member of the United Kingdom, h.e said
„Tea
itatingly that there was no one Al the
house Ywr Lictoeslittle claim to credit from Irellind as 'had
the hon. gentleman. There was no man in the house who,
not having been born in a station of influence, not having
taken his place near or close to the Treasury bench at the