The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-14 00:00:00

They had at last the schedules before them, and he mid
say that he did not wonder that the right hon. gentleian
should have kept them back as long as he could ; for they
plainly showed bow onerous and insupportable this tax
would be. (Hear, hear.) Take two men of 21 years of age
—one of them might be in the bloom of early manhood
with a long life before him ; and another might be con-
sumptive with not two years to live ; yet by the schedules
they were treated as precisely the same. (Loud cheers.)
Take again two men of thirty-five—one might be sinking
under heart disease and the other in the prime of life, yet
the same thing occurred. In short the same glaring ine-
quality pervaded the whole plan. One property might not
pay the tax once in halfa century, whilst another might
be constantly becoming liable to it. (Loud cheers.)' He
did not believe that the country was at all aware of the
injustice of the measure, and he would, therefore, offer one
or two illustrations of its operation. He would not take a
case of direct descent, where the duty was only one per
cent., or of property inherited by strangers, which paid
ten ; but he would take the middle case, where a person
succeeded to his uncle or brother, where the duty was
three per cent. Suppose a man in the prime of life suc-
ceeded to his brother at the age of 39, in property worth
would be 1,5061., or say 1,500/. 'The three per cent. on
1001. By the schedules the taxable value of that property
that would be 451., which he would have to pay in eight
I half-yearly instalments. Ho would thus have to pay up-
wards of )11., or 11 per cent. for the first four years, dur-
ing which time every one knew that the charges were
unusually onerous, and that, he felt sure, would be found a
most grievous impost. Take again the same case when the
property was 1,000/. The sum that the heir would have
to contribute to the tax would be 4501., payable in four
yearly instalments of 1121. 10s. each, in addition, more-
over, to the income tax. (Hear, hear.) He could not con-
ceive a more grievous burden. ,(Cheers.) He came now to
that portion of the plan which referred to corporations.
These the right hon. gentleman proposed to tax at the
rate of 6d. in the pound, so that they had thus an open
avowal that the proposed measure was equivalent to an
extra income tax of 6d. in the pound. (Cheers.) It was
in fact a property tax, and a property tax in the most ob-
jectionable form in which it was possible to be proposed.
(Cheers.) It would have been far better, far more candid,
and certainly far more just, if the right hon. gentleman,
instead of calling it a succession duty, had at once given it
its proper term of an income tax of 6d. in the pound.
(Loud cheers.) He was glad to find that the poorer clergy
were to be exempt, for the tax would have fallen very
hardly upon them ; but the right hon. gentleman's admis-
sion with respect to corporations sole was equally an ad-
mission against the whole tax. (Hear, hear.) If this were
a tax upon property, ho could not see why corporations
sole should be excused. At ail events, the bishops ought
to pay, for they had expressed their approbation of the
tax. (Loud cheers.) He' certainly did not see any reason
why at least the richer corporations sole should not be
made to contribute, for. though the right honourable
gentleman's argument in favour of . their exemption,
founded upon the heavy expenses to which they were
subject in succeeding to their incumbency, was perfectly
true, it was equally true with regard to all owners
of real property whatever. (Hear, hear, hear.) He (Sir
J. Pakington) came now to another objection, namely,
the inquisitorial character of the tax. (Hear, and cheers.)
The inquisition of the income tax was nothing to this.
(Hear.) Under the income tax a mau could not be called
on to expose what his property was beyond that which he
held in the place ; nobody could tell what might be his
property elsewhere. A tradesman returned his profits on,
his business ; and no one knew what property he might
have in railway shares, or in the funds, or any other de-
scription of property. The legacy duty now paid was
wholly free from this objection; but was the provision
under this bill ? The moment a death occurred, those who
were responsible as representatives of the deceased, and a
great many would be embraced in that responsibility,
must make a return of the whole of the property which
they inherited, everything they owed, and everything that
was owing to them—down to the fortunes of their chil-
dren ; every circumstance connected with their affairs was
laid open to the eyes of the commissioners. (Hear.) And
this was sought to be enforced by what he must call the
penal clauses of the bill. (Hear.) He did not blame the
Chancellor of the Exchequer for those penal clauses ; he
blamed him for proposing this bill ; and he knew that it
would be so odious and intolerable to the country that their
first impulse would be to seek revenge. He knew that if
this tax were passed it must be fortified by tyrannical and
arbitrary enactments to enforce its payment. (Hear.)
He was wise in his proposal ; but there were two questions
remaining behind of no little moment--would Parliament
pass the bill—and if Parliament were so subservient, would
the country submit to it ? He hoped and believed they
would not. He would be the last to counsel his country-
men to resist the law ; but without hesitation he would
exercise whatever influence he possessed in urg,ing the
country to resist, by every legitimate and lawful means,
an impost so vexatious, and machinery so tyrannical and
inquisitorial. (Hear.) He fully believed that such would
be the result. The 21st clause of this bill dealt with tim-
ber. The bill ought to be argued as mainly affecting small
proprietors, and it might be said that in alluding to tim-
ber he was not considering that case ; but he contended
that the rich and the poor were alike entitled to justice in
that house. This clause was so drawn that he was dis-
posed to think the Chancellor of the Exchequer was not a
landed proprietor himself, or he would better have under-
stood the way in which timber was dealt with. Two
modes of taxing it were proposed. The first gave the pos-
sessor the option of declaring what he believed to be the
average annual returns procurable from the sale of timber.
This clause would require very considerable explanation
before it could be enforced, as no period was laid down
over which the average was to be taken. The other alter-
native was that the whole value of the timber should be
estimated, and a per tentage paid upon its annual value as
a life interest. He hardly knew which of these modes
was the most objectionable and the least fair. But it
should be remembered that timber was never, or very
rarely, looked to as a source of income ; it' was usually
sold as a means of covering the expense of repairs. There-
fore the proprietor would not only have the pleasure of
paying the income tax on his repairs, which never came
into his pocket, but he would also have to pay a tax upon
-the money which he spent for repairs. The second alter-
native was that the timber which stood upon the land for
generations, and 'would still remain there for generations,
which was looked upon as an ornament, which had never
paid, and would not pay the proprietor a farthing, was to
be valued from generation to generation ; every death that
took r>laao a frog}, valuation was to he made_ nit' they
call that a tax? He called it plunder. (Cheers.) If they
carried out that clause, with all its detestable machiary,
it would be plunder, and not taxation. (Hear.) By
clauses 42 to 45 inclusive, what were trustees, guardians,
anti others called on to do ? They were required to give a
full and true account of all the property, and all such other
particulars as might be necessary or proper for enabling
the commissioners fully and accurately to ascertain the
amount due. If the commissioners were satisfied with the
amount sent in, they might cause an estimate to be made
by any person or persons appointed by themselves, and
upon that estimate might assess the duty. It was true
there was an appeal—to the Court of Exchequer. Fancy
the case of a poor householder in the north of England ;
first, he was called upon to do that which he (Sir J. Pak-
ington) defied any man to do ; then he was exposed to
this attack of the tax collector ; and then he might appeal
to the Court of Exchequer. Then came a list of
fines, possibly imprisonment for contempt of court,
if every one of these arbitrary and tyrannical powers
were not complied with. It was not the rich man who
transacted his business through his solicitor by whom these
regulations would be felt ; it was the humble owner of pro-
perty, the small landowner, or the small householder. Look
at the frightful alternative they put before that man ; and
he represented the great numerical majority of those who
would have to pay the tax. Rich men were a small frac-
tion of the great whole. (Hear, hear.) The small man
would have to comply with all these complicated forms,
which he could not or would not do, or, at the risk of all
these penal consequences, he must employ the neighbour-
ing lawyer to do it for him ; and thus he would be bur-
dened, not only with the succession duty, a most intoler-
able tax, at a most intolerable time, but with a lawyer's
bill in addition. (Hear, hear.) The most unjust part of
the bill was the accumulated tax which in a given event,
and a very common event, the right hon. gentleman sought
to impose. In the case of settled property, it seemed that
if one life succeeded another within five years, and before
all the instalments were paid, the instalments of the pre-
decessor would cease. But in the case of unsettled pro-
perty, to which the owners succeeded in fee, the unpaid
instalments were to be a debt to the Crown, charged upon
the estate, and the unfortunate successor would have to
pay, not only his own succession duty, but that of his pro
decessor. This, again, would not operate so much upon
the rich man as upon the man of small property ; and in
the case of brothers succeeding brothers, until these instal-
ments were paid off, the burden in many cases would roach
from 2to 25 per cent. upon the property. Such were the
grave objections to which this measure was open, and upon
what authorities did the Government rest in proposing it?
It was difficult to find authorities which would bear on all
the members of this amalgamated Government. Perhaps
the noble lord (Russell) looked with respect to the names
of Fox, and Grey, and Burke ; others might regard with
no less respect the name of Peel ; perhaps they might all
recognise the high authority of Adam Smith. He could
appeal to all these high authorities as having condemned a
bill of this kind ; Mr. Mill had also condemned it, and
Sir Robert Peel, quite recently, had met the motion for
this very tax by the emphatic statement that before they
attempted to pass it, they must correct the inequalities of
taxation upon rateable prope.:Ly, and must deal with those
stamp duties and that land tax to which rateable property
was subject. Neither did the authority of Mr. Pitt tell
much more in favour of the Government. In one respect
he hoped they would be like him, for he failed in his at-
tempt to impose this burden on the country. But this was
not the measure of Mr. Pitt ; it differed from it as widely
as possible ; the only resemblance was in the eight half-
yearly instalments. But Mr. Pitt did not propose to tax
the direct succession to property ; and he did not carry his
duty beyond the comparatively low rate of 6 per cent. It
was true, in 1805, he modified the personal part of his pro.
posal, extending it to 10 per cent. and to direct descendants.
But Mr. Pitt proposed this as a war tax. (Hear, hear.)
His arguments amounted to this—" We are involved in a
war, in which property is to be defended, and it is fair
and right that property should be taxed for its owa de-
fence." And no doubt the country would now respond in
eeweemergency. imposing Boit
the same way, if we were involved in a sanguinary struggle,
or if we were getting up an army of reserve to resist an in-
vading army, Parliament, or the country, would not be
emecrse no cyf tweeting the
were vwea
sr y
there
aab:y g
u ts
ut
chh m
e
tax to supply the defipiency which they themselves
—(hear hear)—or to correct anomalies which did notcr.M4
exist.
These grounds were not sufficient. The example Pitt failed them ; the circumstances were of
Mx.
did not justify them in calling on Parliament different, and
tionable a tax. He feared there was a motive for
st)
object
for the proposal of this tax, arising less cTeditable
from the extraordinary
manner in which this Government
had no party on which to depend, and must
was constituted. I
t
it could the support of some four' or five conciliate how
of its opponents. At one time this different sections
appology for a Protestant speech,
byas to be done by an
Catholic members of the Government
(Hear, hear.) Atanother
a case of the kind b
of the house. (Hear, hear.)
this which the Roman
were won back,
time—and he feared this was
y pandering to the radical section
ear, He had begun to hope that
war of clauses was at an end. He had never heard
words in which he more thoroughly concurred than those
employed by Mr. Disraeli in his speech on this financial
proposition, when he stated his strong opinion that this war
between diferent classes ought now to cease, and that
town and country ought to have a common interest.
(Hear.) The responsibility that rested on the Government
' was a deep and serious one in proposing a measure of this
aeseription, which must inevitably have the effect of rais-
ing in the minds of owners of rateable property a revived
sense of injury and injustice. (Hoar.) He traced this
ProPoB-1 1 to the necessity which the Government felt of eon-
dilating the radical members of the house—to the factthat
they had determined to propose an unmodified iDtOrae tax,
and that they bad no hope for support to that proposal
from any of that section on whom they depended for exist-
ence, unless they accompanied it by another blow at rate-
- Akio property. Such 1244 IMil LA imprmion from, the
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