The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-09 00:00:00

THE SUN,

lip a mariner which did infinite credit to his earldom. and

-. fi ;•:::
jars Jlr, as to the fact and the Causes ei ti.e lace Nor in toe
third place, is it my intention to-night to enter into any
controversy as to the character of there causes to which
this gentleman has referred. It is not my intention to-
night to introduce any controversy as to the policy or
the impolicy of those changes in your laws by which, ac-
cordine, to the Member for the West Riding, the agri-
culturalb classes have not been fairly treated.— (Hear,
hear.) I hold the same opinions upon those measures
such as I have frequently intimated--the same that I
have attempted to develop in the House on more than
one occasion. I still believe that your new commercial
system is founded upon erroneous principles.—(Hear,
hear.) I still believe that, in constructing tba'. sy stem,
you mistook the rules which regulate the beneficial and
advantageous interchange of commodities between
nations. I still believe that in attempting to ob-
viate the inconvenience and injury of hostile tariffs
by opening y our ports, you have taken a course
which diminishes the efficacy of British industry.
I still believe that under your system the native
labourer is more unable to give his produce for
foreign produce than he has been heretofore, and that in
that proportion he has become tributary to the foreigner
—(Hear, hear)—that he has less command of foreign
produce, and that inasmuch as the precious metals are
foreign produce, he has less command of the precious
metals. I still believe that you have embarked in a
career which must end in the degradation of national
industry, and may lead to the catastrophe of a financial
convulsion.—(Hear, hear.) I still believe that you have
but one way to extricate yourselves from the embarrass-
ments you are already experiencing, and the calamities
which I believe are impending, and that is by a frank
recognition of the principle of reciprocity as the funda-
mental principle of your commercial code, and that the
only legitimate means you have to fight against hostile
tariffs is by countervailing duties. Still I retain these

opinions, and 1 have expressed them not only on this
but on every legitimate occasion; and I shall take
every legitimate means I possess of making them known
to the country, and of obtaining for them from the
public that approbation to which I think they are entitled,
and which I believe they will ultimately achieve. Be-
cause, however, I may differ from the changes made of
late years in your commercial system, I am not one of
those who wish to recur suddenly to the past, by appeal-
ing to the passions of any suffering classes or taking ad-
vantage of any party combinations. I wish, on the con-
trary, that the change, when it is effected, shall be perms
nent—permanent because it is called for by the convictions
of the country. I look, therefore, to legitimate means to
obtain that result, which, for the sake of the country, I
5611 believe to be inevitable. I look to public discus-
sion, to private investigation, to the failure of economic
prophecies, and to the fruits of sharp experience.—
(Hear, hear.) But having frankly expressed my
opinion upon these points, showing, without offence I
hope, that whilst I wish to avoid controversy on those
subjects which have no connexion with the measure I
hope to introduce to your notice, I am still unwilling
that any one should suppose that I shrink from
the opinions I have always expressed to this House on
the matter; because the reflection of every day, the ob-
servation of every hour, tended only to confirm my con-
viction of their truth.—(Hear, hear.) I think I may be
permitted to say that, after the extraordinary changes
of 1846, which so greatly affected the agricultural inte-
rests of the country, they were at least entitled to this
result—that the system of taxation should not rest un-
justly and unfairly upon them.—(Hear, hear.) That is
the first proposition which I lay down. My second is,
that the unjust and unfair apportionment of the taxa-
tion of which they complain, must be removed and re-
distributed, and that in that re-distribution they may
find, if not a complete, a considerable relief for the suf-
ferings they at present endure. The question I have
to place before the House requires in fact very little
statistical detail to introduce it to your notice, though
the interests with which it deals are vast ; though
the results at which the measure I recommend aims,
are no doubt very considerable—the question in itself
is extremely simple, and like every thing which is based
upon first principles it is clear and easy of apprehension.
It seems by accounts now in all our possessions—by the
accounts of .the parochial or rating year which termi-
nated on Lady-day, 1848, that a stun of not less than ten
millions sterling has been levied by direct taxation upon
the real property of this country.—(Hear.) The poor-
rate, the county-rate, the highway-rate, the church-rate,
and that variety of rates wi h which your are all fami-
liar, and to which it is unnecessary, as I conceive, I need
further refer, and which are levied generally under the
head of poor's-rates—these altogether at the termina-
tion of the last rating year formed a sum of not less
than 10,000,0001. sterling levied—and levied only—
upon the real property of this country—(Hear, hear)
—and in addition to that sum of 10,000,0001. sterling
under direct taxation, which it strictly and legally
speaking is, we have also a local tax—the land-tax
—local because it is apportioned to localities, be-
cause it is assessed in localities and by local jurisdic-
tion, and because each locality is limited in the liability
for its quota. The real property of this country, then,
pays at this moment 12,000,0001. sterling of taxation, to
which no other species of property is subject. Now,
Sir, this question will be placed before us in a manner
which will convey the necessary result in a moment to
every Gentleman's mind, if we ascertain the annual
amount upon which these 12,000,0001. of taxation are
levied, and compare that annual amount with the whole
annual income of the country. We have all of us the
materials in our possession by which we can form this
calculation and arrive at the result. Every Gentleman
knows the 12,000,0001. I have referred to is raised
upon the rental which is contributed by real
property to the amount of 67,000,000 s sterling
per annum—that that 12,000,01101. is assessed, in
fact, upon a rental of 67,000,000/. sterling per
annum. Now we have no difficulty in ascertaining
what is the probable value of the income of England
at this moment. We have a Parliamentary paper
moved for by an Hon. Gentleman opposite—No. 747,
which gives us the amount of the income-tax paid by
England and Wales to the 25th of April, 1846. The
paper was laid on the table of the House in 1847. It is

mere mechanical operation to calculate the amount of
income from the amount of the property and income-tax
contributed under the five schedules by England in 1846,
because the total income of the country is represented
by that tax. The total income of England and Wales,
then, in the year ending 1846, was, according to the last
return under the five schedules, 166,888,9581. But, in-
asmuch as 67,000,0001. sterling is the assessed rental of
real property in England and Wales, in which every class
of property, without limit, is included—even cottages
being assessed to the poor-rate--in order to calculate the
relative position of the assessed rental of real property
with the whole income of England, it will be necessary
to ascertain how much income is afforded by those
properties which aro not assessed to the property and
income-tax. Upon that I shall take the rule laid down

by the Right Hon. Gentleman the member for Tam••

worth (Sir R. Peel)—a prudent and cautious authority
—when he was introducing the property-tax. On that
occasion Sir R. Peel, in making his estimate, said he
took the incomes under 150/. a year as a quarter of the
income of the whole country. Now, a quarter of the
income of the whole country—of the 186,000,0001. ster-
ling which appeared under the five schedules of 1846
would be 62,000,000/.—(l give the round numbers), and
that makes the income of the country amount to
249,000,0001. Now, the question I have to ask is this:
why should those 12,000,000/. sterling of direct taxation
be levied upon a portion of the whole income of the

country, which is in fact little more than one-fourth of

the whole?—(Hear, hear.) That is a simple question;
it is a question in which the country is deeply interested
and which a great portion of the country is now asking
themselves; it requires no mystification of statistics
to answer. The whole income of the country is
2.19,000,000 L, and yet for the purposes to which I
have referred you assess only one fourth of
that whole amount.—(Hear, hear.) On what principle
of justice can you defend that system? What are the
objects of this local taxation? The maintenance of the
poor of the country; the maintenance of the means of
internal communication; the administration of justice,
and the maintenance of the sacred fabrics of the country.
Are not these affairs in which all property is equally in-
terested?—(Hear, hear.) Upon what plea—upon what
principle can you vindicate a system that makes one-
fourth of the income of the country liable to theso great
charges?—(Hear, hear.) This question has been incl.
dentally introduced in the House before, and has been,
I must say without offence to any one, but superficially
treated. There have been attempts made to raise up
an idle and odious controversy between landlords and
manufacturers, as to who contributed most to the
poor-rate, and as to who ought to contribute most—
endless and vexatious controversies of that kind.
Now it is agricultural land that bears most of the
burden; then it is maintained it is household property
that maintains the most grievous portion of the burden.
I will not enter into those assertions—l am not one of

those who want to depreciate the importance of house
property—who wish for a moment to shut my eyes to
the fact that during the last half century there has been
a great change in the relative position of the different
sections of real property. Far from wishing to disbe-
lieve or conceal that from myself; I look upon the result
as one of a most satisfactory kind—as one proving the
prosperity of our country—proving, by the best of tests,
that there is a great amount of fixed capital in the land
of this country.—(Hear, hear.) I agree that dwellers
in towns are assessed fur the support of their poor, for
example, in a manner which I am not at all surprised
makes them clamour. I willingly admit that these con-
tributions are bad, nay more, that they are grievous;
and I quite sympathise with the possessors of real pro-
perty in towns, who are so unequally and dispropor-
tionately assessed. The measure which I shall introduce,
if this House will go into COmmittee of the whole House
to-night, is one which will relieve the suffering towns
that will meet those complaints I hear so much of from
Manchester, Bradford, and other great cities and marts
of manufacturing industry. I sympathise with their
sufferings—l acknowledge their grievances—and I say
it is intolerable to the possessors of real property in these
towns that they, being only one-fourth of the property
of the country, should have the whole of these grievous
burdens upon their shoulders. So with another very im-
portant species of property, which is very amply and
ably represented in this House, and which is in perpetual
hot water on the subject of rating to the poor—the rail-
way interest. Nothing can be more monstrous than the
amount to which the railway interest is assessed to the
support of the poor—l agree in all their complaints, but
not is their remedy. I do not see any justice in the
railway interest seeking compensation for their burdens
by throwing the burdens altogether upon the agricultural
interest. I acknowledge the grievance• of the railway
interest that they should have to pay for
the whole property of the country, while
they are only a section of the fourth
part of that property; but if they will support me in
this great measure, I mean to propose they shall obtain
relief. It is the same with other individuals; it is the
same with companies who supply us with water or with
light; they are perpetually wrangling about the poor-