The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-19 00:00:00

replacing the loss occasioned by remission. (Hear, hear.)
Wo assume that what has happened before will happen
again ' • that these remissions of indirect taxation, which
are-anala.gons witlialie_remissions which have been made
heretofore, as these former re`mission's"7ia done; re=
place themselves in about the same time— (hear, hear)—
and I therefore assume that, so far as these remissions are
concerned, you will, by the expiration of the income tax,
find these taxes very nearly in amount what they now are.
I will not enter into the question of what taxes you may
think proper to repeal or reduce in the interval. It is suffi-
cient for me to provide for the remissions which I now pro-
pose, and in the proposition of which I do not invite you
to undermine, but on the contrary, I ask you to increase
the stability of the financial system of the country. (Cheers.)
Well, then, how are we to attain a rational prospect of
being able to part with the income tax in 1860 ? The
country after so many announcements that have been made
to it from time to time that the income tax was to be
parted with, has become, doubtless, increduloukon the sub-
ject, and may, perhaps, conceive that we are aiming at a
fictitious and undeserved pOpularity when we seek to show
that by the effect of indirect taxation we can enable the
house to supersede the income tax ; but the statements be-
fore the committee, the committee and the country can
form their own judgment on them. (Hear, hear.) The
amount of the income tax, as we have it now, is 5,550,001.
—this amount will be increased, as I have proposed, by the
addition of 590,000/. The gross amount, therefore, of this
duty, so increased, will be 6,140,0001. I will not enter into
a detail of its composition, and of the descending rates,
but, taking the tax at 6,140,0001., let IL9 inquire in what
condition Parliament will stand with reference to the part-
ing with so large a sum of money. It will stand thus :—ln
the first place there will be, as additions to the permanent
sources of income—legacy duty, 2,000,000/. ; spirits,
436,0001.; licenses, 113,0001.; making a total of 2,549,0001.
towards the fund which we must provide in order to put
Parliament in a position, if it should so think fit, to part
with the income tax. (Hear, hear.) Well, then, we come
to the anticipated reductions of charge, which of course
will be as effectual to the purpose in view as positive addi-
tions to the revenue. (Hear, hear.) The first of these re-
ductions of charge is that on the Three-and-a-Quarter per
Cents., which we owe to the wise measures of the right hon.
member for Cambridge in 1842 ; that will bring to the
account 624,0001. Bad as is our case with regard to the
national debt, and loath as I am to encourage extravagant
expectations in that quarter, yet it must be recollected that
by the regular application of surpluses, and by the lapse
of annuities, we in a small way operate from year to year,
both on the capital debt and on the charge. (Hear, hear.)
Look back for the last 11 years, and you will find that
since 1842 we have reduced the charge of the national
debt, irrespective of greater operations, by 80,0001. per
annum. I will assume this to continue, assuming, at the
same time, that whatever the pressure upon our finances,
and whoever may hold the reins of Government, that we
shall always think it one of our main public duties--the
very first of or duties—to make ample provision for
the efficiency of the public serv:ce and the credit and
honour of the country. (Hear, hear.) I will assume, I
say, that we shall continue to have the same fund appli-
cable to the yearly reduction of the charge which we have
had heretofore, and taking this at 80,0001. per annum for
the eight years up to 1861, this will give you a sum of
C 40,063/. Adding this reduction of charge, which may be
reasonably expected, to the sums to be created by the new
means of taxation—which latter I have stated to be
2,549,0001.—we shall have an aggregate total of 3,813,0001.
Then, in 1859-60, there come falling in the hea%f burdens
of the Long Annuities and of another large portion of on*.
terminable annuities, which together will operate a relief
of 2,146,000/. Adding this amount to the sum of
3,813,6001., which I have already stated, you w:11 find
that, between the additional sources from taxation, and
thereduction of charge which will accrue in the interval,
and the falling in, of the Long and other Annuities at the
expiration of the period I have named, there will be an
available increase of means at the disposal of Parliament,
should the present plan of the Government be adopted, to
no less an amount than 5,959,0001., against the 6,140,000/.
of income tax, which will be the total amount of that tax
at that period. (Cheers.) Thus, if the committee has
followed me, they will understand that we stand on the
principle that the income tax ought to be marked as a
temporary measure (hear, hear) ; that the public feeling
that relief should be given to intelligence and skill as com-
pared with property, ought to be met and may be met ;
that the income tax in its operation ought to be mitigated
by every rational means compatible with its integrity, and
above all that it should be associated in the last term of
its existence, as it was in the first, with those remissions
of indirect taxation which have so greatly redounded to
the profit of this. country, and have set so admirable an
example—an example that has already in some quarters
proved contagious to the other nations of the earth. (Hear,
hear.) These are the principles:on which we stand, and the
figures. I have shown you that if you grant us the taxes
which we ask, the moderate amount of 2,500,0001. in the
whole, a much less than that sum for the present year, you
or the Parliament which may be in existence in 1860, will
be in the condition, if you so think fit, to part vc ith the
income tax. (Hear, hear.) lam almost afraid to look at the
clock— (cheers)—shamefully reminding me, as it must, how
long I have trespassed on the time of the house. (Cheers.)
All I can say in apology is, that I have endeavoured to
keep closely to the topics which I had before me
"—immensum spatiis confecimus mquor,
Et jam teinpus equum fumantia solvere colla."
These are the proposals of the Government. They may be
approved, or they may be condemned, but I have this full
confidence that it will be admitted that wo have notsought
to evade the difficulties of the position—(hear)--that we have
not concealed those difficulties eitherfrom ourselves or from
others—that we have not attempted to counteract them by
narrow orffimsy expedients—(hear)—that we have prepared
plans which, if you will adopt them, will go some way to
close up many vexed financial questions, which, if not now
settled, may be attended -w ith public inconvenience, and
even with public danger, in future years and under less fa-
vourable circumstances—(hear)—that wehave endeavoured,
in the plans we have now submitted to you, to make the
path of our successors in future years not more arduous,
but more easy—(hear)—and I may be permitted to add, that
while we have sought to do justice by the changes we pro-
pose in taxation, to intelligence, and skill, as compared with
property, while we have sought to do justice to the great
labour community of England by furthering their relief
from indirect taxation, we have not been guided by any de-
sire to put one class against another. We have felt we
should best maintain our own honour, that we should best,
meet the views of Parliament, and best promote the inter-
ests of the country, by declining to draw any invidious dis-
tinction between class and class, by adopting it to ourselvs
as a sacred aim to diffuse and distribute the burdens, if we
must—and the burdens, if we can—with equal and impar-
tial hand ; and we have the consolation of believing that
by proposals such as these we contribute, as far as in us
lies, not only to develope the material resources of the
country, but to knit the various parts of this great nation
yet more closely than over to that throne and to those in-
stitutions
under which it is our happiness to Jive. The
right hon. gentleman resumed his seat amid loud, long-
continued, and general cheering.
The CHAIRMAN having read the resolutions which had
been put into his hands by the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Mr. DISRAELI asked on what day the right hon. gentle-
man proposed to take the discussion on them ?
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said that he
should lay the whole of the resolutions on the table, and
proposed to have the discussion on them on Monday next,
taking the income tax first, the legacy duty next, and the
spirit duties third.
Mr. HUME said that the speech of the right hon.gentle-
man was so extensive that it was impossible, without some
consideration, to weigh its disadvantages and its advan-
tages. There was this great point about the statement,
that it manifested the determination to carry out the
principles of free trade, but he deeply regretted the manner
in which the question of the income tax had been taken up.
Ho was satisfied that the taxation of the country would
never bo placed on a proper footing until a property tax to
a large extent, and justly regulated, became a permanent
source of revenue. From such a tax eight or nine millions
a-year might be easily raised. lie regretted, too, that any
increased taxation should have been proposed, considering
as he did the expenditure which gave rise to that increased
taxation worse than useless. (Hear.) He thought con-
tinuing a tax for nine years was almost making it a per-
petuity without giving the house the advantages of de-
ciding whether or not it should be so. If they were
to add to the taxation, ho must express his regret that
they had not adopted a simple, easp, and possible mode of
raising the required amount of revenue without one-tenth
of the difficulties which the Chancellor of the Exchequer
had felt in his budget.
Mr. FREWEN hoped the right hon. gentleman would
give some explanation of what ho meant to do with the
land tax.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said that
under the present stem, they might redeem a given
amount of land tax, by transferring to the Commissioners
of the National Debt as much stock as would produce a di-
vidend the amount of the land tax and ten per cent, more.
What he proposed was, that instead of being bound to give
as much stock as would produce the amount of land tax and
10 per cent, more, they might redeem it by giving as much
stock as would produce the duty less 74 per cent. ; that
was, altogether, 17A per cent. less than at present.
Mr. BALL had been prepared to receive the budget of
the .right hon. gentleman with very great approbation, but
he received it with deep regret, and should do all ho could
to induce the house to vote against it when it came regu-
larly before them. When the corn laws were repealed, it,
was expected that some relief would be given to the agri-
culturists, and he was exceedingly surprised, therefore, that
the right hon. gentleman had neglected to afford them the
relief of tho repeal of the malt tax. As to the reduction
of the duty on tea, the poorer classes would derive no be-
nefit from it, for it had been ascertained that the greater
part of the tea that was consumed was purchased in quan-
tities from a quarter of an ounce to a quarter of a pound.
The late Government was wrecked on the budget of the
right hon. gentleman below him, and it was not unlikely
the present Government might be wrecked from the same
cause.

Mr. MAGUIRE understood that, as to the advertisement
duty in England, there was to be a remission of ls., so that
it would be 6d. only, instead of ls. 6d. But the advertise-
ment duty in Ireland was but is. He should wish, there-
fore, to know what the duty was to be in future. In Ire-
land there was no such thing as a supplement to a paper
known, and he believed that even in London, too, the Tines
alone published a supplement.
Tho CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER was under-
stood to say, that, with respect to the advertisement duty,
he was willing to compound for it in Ireland at the same
amount as in this country.
Mr. COBDEN wished to know whether the right hon.
gentleman proposed to remit the stamps on all supplements,
or whether he meant to put the stamp on supplements with
news. .
The CHANCELLGR of the EXCHEQUER said the re-
mission of the stamp would not extend to supplements that
were simply an extension of newspapers.
Mr. COBDEN—Did the right lion. gentleman mean that
supplements might go by post ?
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER—CertainIy.
Mr. COBDEN believed that there was but one nows:
paper in the kingdom that published a supplement full of
advertisements.
Mr. HUME wished the Government would take in to
their consideration this absurdity—that ships built
with
foreign timber might be brought into this country free of
duty, but timber to build ships hero cannot be brought in
without paying duty.
Tho CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQ, ER
to say his want of m -11 ---
was
ex-
tremely sorry
of will, prevented him from taking 3 eoaffnstheant(ilmnboetr hdiustNvaiitf
his hon. friend would give
he might be able to do so him
Q°.4231. or 400,000/. more
Mr. HUME said, that. if.-11)1.:up-r-o.pierty tax was fairly
levied it would give 10
Chancellor of the Ex h ' ' • and do much-
The
progress,
SOUTH
bill,
On the more.
house then resumed,
and asked lea OC3 000/ and would enable the
and equer th take off the timber dulhye,
and the Chairman reported
leave to sit again.
SEA AND OTHER ANN'UITIES COMMU-
TATION BILL.
order of the day for the second reading of this