The Sun.
London, England, 1831-02-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The financial plan which the Chancellor of the
Exchequer has submitted to the House of Com-
mons is not of such a nature, we regret to say, as
to induce us to anticipate from it any considerable
relief to the distresses of the people and the em-
barrassments of the country. It is, in truth, but
another link in the series of partial experiments, byd
means of which, for a long course of years, an
during successive Administrations, vain attempts
have been made to improve a system of finance ori-
ginally bad in itself, and at variance with thdse
principles on which alone a plan of taxation can be
founded, capable of sustaining a large public revenue
with the least possible pressure on the productive
industry of the nation. As long as nearly cwt-thirds
of the whole taxation raised upon the country is re-
quired to pay the interest of the public debt, it
is clear that there is little more than one-third of
that amount of taxation which is applied to those
purposes of Government that cart be de the
subject of economical reduction. It is ri made the
subject of economical redUCtio. It is right hat
faith should be observed with the public crediter,t
until that overruling necessity occurs which makes
a regard for the :cilia populi superior to every other
consideration. That necessity has not yet occurred,
but we are of opinion it can only be averted by cut-
ting off all wasteful and useless disbursements from
the public expenditure, and by altering the principle
on which the taxation is to be raised to defray the
just and legitimate expenses of the State, and pay
his stipulated interest to the public creditor. We ad-
vised the last Administration, and we advised the
present, to lay aside the shifts and contrivances of mere
patch-work expedients in finance, and boldly reform
the system upon sound and equitable principles. It
is clear to any body who reflects upon the matter
that et present the middle and poorer classes pay too
large a proportion of their means to the support of
the Sate, and the highest and wealthiest classes
pay too little. The indirect taxes have the effect of
making the labourer pay as much in consumable
articles towards the public revenue as the most opu-
lent Nob!eman or the first capitalist in the land.
Nay, in this point, the latter can evade the payment
of all contribetion whatever to the exchequer of his
country, by residing abroad, and consuming the
produce of another nation, while the labourer is, of
necessity, attached to the soil, and can in no way
escape the grasp of the hundred-handed giant of
fiscal exaction. The assessed taxes are also a
grievous incumbrance upon industry, and serve to fet-
ter those energies which formerly raised this country
to unexampled power and splendour, and which,
if free eeain, would, we are confident, soon re-
gain for the people of England much of that com-
fort and prosperity from which they have fallen.
Besides, these assessed taxes were laid on with the
eeptess understanding that they were to be con-
sidered only as war taxes. That stipulation has
been violated, and thus, in respect of those taxes,
we are still under a war system of finance in the
sixteenth year of peace. We recommended, as a
substitute for the mass of indirect and other taxes
which press so unequally on the poor, and so
ruinously on the national industry, a property tax,
and, as it is pretty certain we must come to this at
last, unless we are prepared to commit an act of bank-
ruptcy townie's the public creditor, the sooner it is
done the better; but by a property tax we do not meets
an income tax, which is a tax in its nature and opera•
tion too inquisitorial and vexatious not to increase
rather than alleviate the causes of public discontent. A
property tax,besi des relieving industry,would have the
advantage of being more equal than any other, inas-
much as every mat; possessing land and other capital
would then pay in proportion to his means to the
necessities; of the State ; while he who has no pro-
perty would be relieved until, by his industry or
good fortune, he acquired any, and then, like others,
his contribution would be in proportion to what he
had acquired, while the expences of the collection
roust be far less than under the present machinery
of taxation. The present Chancellor of the Exche-
quer has partially adopted our plan as to reduction
of taxes, by taking off a certain portion of indirect
taxation ; but he has not gone far:enough. Where
he undertook to repeal the duty on seaeborne coals,
and to reduce the Hexes on tallow candlee, printed
calicoes, glass, and some of minor consequence, be
should not have excepted soap, unless he thinks
cleanliness is not as necessary for a labourer as for a
Lord—nor do we see why he should have headed
his plan of reduction leith the tobacco duty. This
night be a good ad captanduni measure to begin
with in the House of Commons, if the Honourable
House were a great divan or smoking-club, but we
really do not understand how it can afford relief to
fee people who asant bread, that young gentlemen
of luxurious elegant e of taste should pay less for
the nuisance 01 fumigating the streets and public
places woh the cigar'', than its costs them at pre-
sent I There would have been some sense in taking
off the malt tax—that would have been a relief to
the agricultural interests, and would have been a
measure equally judicious and popular. In the im-
position of new taxes the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer has been gill more unfortunate. The tax
upon the transfer of land and property in the funds
is a poor expedient to avoid the imposition of a real
property tax. Setting aside all question about vio•
lating faith with the fundholders, we object to it on
another ground. We consider all taxes upon the cir-
culation of property as bad in principle, and a re-
stra'nt upon commercial transactions. Besides, the
transfers in the funds are mostly made from neces-
sity, and not from choiee, and such a tax would con-
sequently be levied upon the persons affected there-
by, under circumstances which rendered them
least capable of bearing the loss. The increased
tax upon raw cotton is also bad in principle, as
is every tax laid on the raw material of home manu-
factures. We would prefer to see, instead of this,a
higher duty laid upon spirits, and the tax upon to-
bacco raised instead of being lowered, as we do not
believe the sum of national happiness and morelity
could be diminished by a decrease of the habits of
smok:ng and drinking. If passengers by steam-
boats are to be taxed, why not by, rail-ways ?As
to the equalization of duties on wine, it appears to
us very unjust, as well as unwise, that the struggling
matiufactto es of our own colony of the Cape should
pay a duty equally heavy • with those of the finest
and most costly foreign wines. This must hove
the effect of a prohibition on Cape wine, and de-1
stroy the capital which, of late years, British sub-
jects bad invested in that manufacture, with a
view to its improvement. Besides, we should
think our treaties with Portugal, until abro-
gated by the mutual consent of both the contract-
ing nations, preclude us from establishing ouch an
equalization of duties upon all foreign wines, without
incurring the charge of breach of political faith. It
was under the obligation of those treaties that Mr.
Canning justified himself in sending troops to Por-
tugal, to protect her from the threatened Spanish
invasion. The treaties that secure us certain com-
mercial advantages with Portugal, especially as to
our trade in woollen goods, are as old as the days of
Oliver Cromwell and John IV. But it is the treaty
that Queen Anne made with Pedro 11., which has
ever since regulated the commercial transactions of
the two kingdoms. The second article of that treaty
says, " that at no time, whether there shall be peace
or war between the kingdoms of Britain and France,
any thing more shall be demanded upon these wines
by the mime of custom or duty, or by whatever
other title, directly or indirectly than what shall
be demanded for the like quantity of French wine,
deducting or abating a third part of the custom
duly. but if, at aay time, this deduction or abater-
ment of custom, which is to be made as l aft)!e sa •d,
shall, in arty wanner be attempted and prejudiced,.
it shall be just and lawful for his sacred Royal Ma-
jesty of Portugal again to prohibit the woollen
cloths, and the rest of the British woollen manufac-
tures." This, which is best known by the name of
the Methuen Treaty, has certainly not been re-
scinded, since Mr. Canning's time, by that which
we merely consider the Government dc facto, or
that which we recognised at one time us the Go-
vernment de jure, of Portugal; nor have we ob-
tained any reciprocal advantages from France, On