The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-16 00:00:00

stal euear. He wished to see free trade fairly carried
-
taxation of the country. It had occurred to him that
they might repeal all :bete taxes aild adopt a system of
inland revenue. The censumere in some cases ware
taxed 600 per cent, and in other cares 300 per eel.%
end these, therefore, could not object. Mr. Hugh, in no
able pemphlet, stated that the entire income of Lb,
country was above 485 millions a year, upon which, 0
there was imposed a per-tentage-tae of ten per cent. upon
all matters subject to taxation, no matter what, it
would yield an income to the revenue of forty millions,
and if the whole was paid, it would amount to forty
eight millions. The consequence of this tax of ten per
cent, might reduce labour perhaps 25 per cent., and re-
duce the burdens on agriculture 30 per cent., and those
on the foreign importer 20 per cent., but the labourer
would be compensated by the low price at which be
e ould procure all articles of consumption. There would
be also a great saving upon the collection. This plan
had been in force in Holland for the last one hundred
years, and in various other parts of the continent. He
wished to throw it out as a suggestion for consideration.
The Marquis of GRANBY said they had heard much
of the advantages conferred upon agriculture by the
manufacturers, but he would ask, had the manufac-
turers done this from affection towards the farmers,
and not for their own advantage? With regard to
the land-tax it was said that in France and Germany
the land paid more than half the taxes, but, com-
paring France with England, Mr. M'Culloch said they
knew little of the nature of the taxes raised in
France, they led persons to believe that the taxes
were there raised from land, but that was an error,
for -.be held that the burden in England was much
greater than in France. Ho denied the imputation of
the Hon. Member for Manchester, that the agricultural
party considered the tithes a burden. He considered
them a part of the rent due to another party. It was a
hardship that the tithe commutation took place when
the average price of corn was 569. a quarter, and now it
was not more than 475. a quarter. The consequence
was, that the farmer now paid more than he would have
to pay if the tithes had not been commuted. He would
say one word as to the malt-tax. He looked on beer as
the natural beverage of the country. He believed it pro-
moted in a great measure the comforts of the working
classes, and that if it could be repealed it was not de-
sirable to do so; bat at that moment they could not spare
five millions of the revenue. By putting, however, a tax
on corn and other articles of excise, that tax could be re
mined without any great danger to it. It was, then, on
such grounds as had been alluded to that they relinquished
protection, that they took off the duty on foreign corn
and other articles, which he believed was the cause of
the agricultural distress now existing; but the time was
come when something should be done to relieve it. He
confessed he thought the Right Honourable Gentleman
the Chancellor of the Exchequer would have consented
to go into Committee; but even that small boon was re-
fused. He thought such a course dangerous on many
grounds; he thonght it was unwise to yield everything
to clamour, and nothing to moderation and good sense.
The agricultural classes were loyal and peaceable; and
if the time came, as come it may, when their services
were required, they may not be able to come forward
with that alacrity they were always accustomed to show
in times of real danger.—(Hear, hear.) He was glad to
hear the Right Hon. Gentleman the Member for Wilt-
shire admit that agricultural distress existed—and existed
to a degree of great intensity—but he denied it arose
from the admission free of duty of foreign corn. The
Noble Lord next proceeded to read some extracts from a
speech of Mr. Huskisson, in which he condemned the
repeal of the corn-laws, and prophecied that low prices
would confer no benefit on the labouring classes in the
community. That was the opinion of agricultural la-
bourers, who thought, and who thought justly, that they
were better off when prices were high, for they got wages
more in proportion than when they were low. The price
of corn when low threw a great many out:of employment,
and therefore made their condition always worse. For
these reasons he should always support the motion of hi;
lion. Friend the Member for Buckinghamshire. He be-
lieved he would have the thanks of the agricultural and
labouring classes for the course he pursued ; and, in ac-
cordance with the opinion of Mr. MCCulloch, that justice
ought to be followed in taxation as well as anything else,
he cordially approved of the proposition.
Mr. GOULBURN thought it was impossible to have
listened to the debate without observing that, in the
course of it, great changes had taken place in the views
of those who supported the motion. He had listened to
the Honourable Member for Buckinghamshire with that
attention which his powers of eloquence and argument
always commanded, and which was due to the temperate
manner in which his proposition had been urged. He
(Mr. Goulburn) understood the Honourable Gentleman,
in suggesting the means of supplying the vacuum in
the revenue, which would be consequent on the
adoption of the proposition, to say that it
would not be supplied by the property-tax, but that
the property-tax suggested the means by which the
deficit might be supplied. Coupling what the Hon.
Member said about obtaining a quota from the privileged
classes with his denial of any attention to return to a
protective saystem, it was reasonable to suppose that
the vacuum he was about to create in the Consolidated
Fund was to be supplied by an impost analagous to the
property-tax, to be drawn from classes which he styled.
in contradistinction to the owners of real property, the
privileged classes. The disclaimer of the Hon. Member
for Somersetshire, and the able speech delivered yester-
day by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, relieved him
from the necessity of entering further into this branch
of the subject. The Hon. Member for Lincolnshire,
who seconded the motion, evidently pointed to a tax
upon the fundholder as one means of supplying the de-
ficiency which would be caused by the adoption of the
plan. He (Mr. Goulburn) had often before protested
against any attempt to tax funded property, and he
would never believe that the House of Commons would
so far lose sight of what was due to the public honour and
national credit as to agree to any proposition of that na-
ture. The Hon. Member for Somersetshire having de-
nied the property-tax, told the House that what was meant
was an adjustment of taxation. He (Mr. Goulburn) remem-
bered the time when the phrase " equitable adjustment"
meant the confiscation of landed and funded property,
and its distribution among the mass of the community.
(Hear.) The Hon. Member for Somersetshire, of
course, contemplated nothing of that sort ; but it was
unfortunate that he had used a phrase liable to miscon-
struction. The Hon. Member for Somersetshire wished
to recur to the state of the law as it existed in the 43d
year of Elizabeth; but the Hon. Member would find that
that would not enable him to supply a deficit of 6,000,000/.
or 7,000,0001. It had been stated that in the time of
Elizabeth the agricultural interest numbered 3,000 per-
sons, whilst the commercial and manufacturing in-
terest was limited to 1,000. Still those 1,000 persons
possessed property. If there were no fundholders and
bankers in London, there were merchants and goldsmiths
possessing great capital, which they lent out at interest;
but it never entered into the mind of any statesman
of that day to tax them for the relief of distant parishes.
Yet at that time the landed interest was predominant in
Parliament. The schemes already noticed for supplying
the vacuum in the Consolidated Fund not having been
received with any favour, the Hon. Member for the
North Riding (Mr. Cayley) came to the rescue. That
Hon. Member, with more enlarged views, and greater
knowledge of the subject, promulgated a new system of
taxation altogether. The Hon. Member proposed to get
rid of all existing internal taxation, with the exception
of the land and property taxes, and to raise 40,000,0001.
by a duty of 10 per cent. on every article consumed in
the country. This would give a revenue of 48,000,0001.,
leaving a deficit of 8,000,0001., to be supplied when the
Hon. Member was able to mature his plan.—(A laugh.)
The Hon. Member told the House that he held the ex-
cise system in utter abhorrence, and yet he suggested
a scheme of taxation which would render the presence
of an excise officer necessary not only in every village,
but in every dwelling-house.—(" Hear," and a laugh.)
He (Mr. Goulburn) objected to the House going into
Committee in order to arrange a change of taxation
without having a definite idea on the subject. No one
could have watched the finances of this country without
being aware that a mere change of taxation, without any
alteration of amount. caused great individual loss and
derangement of national interests. Interests which had
grown up under a system of taxation must necessarily
be disturbed by the abrogation of that system ; and, on
the other hand, interests which had before been untaxed
became depressed by being subjected to a new burden.
When there was a prospect of any important change
being made in the system of taxation hopes were ex-
cited in some quarters, whilst apprehensions were raised
in others, and thus transactions became deranged, and,
in many instances, business was paralyzed. The present
attempt should be regarded as the beginning of a system
which was pregnant with alarming consequences. The
efforts of one party to relieve real property, and to throw a
greater burden on personal property must be met by those
interested in personal property, and anxious to repel
what they conceive to be an unreasonable attack upon
their interests ; thus would be laid the foundation of a
dispute between two great classes of the community,
which would lead to continued agitation and conflict, re-
sulting in the ruin of both classes.—(Hear, hear.) It
was another ground of objection to the Hon. Member
for Buckinghamshire's plan, that it would necessarily
lead to the transfer of local business from local authori-
ties to the Government. The Hon. Member for Dor-
setshire had accurately described the business habits
and other excellent qualities of the yeomanry and far-
mers of his county ; but they were indebted for these
characteristics to their being habituated to the admini-
stration of their own affairs. Declare that a moiety of
local charges shall be borne by the state, and it will not
be long before the Government will engross the whole
of the local administration. Upon those grounds, if there
were no others, he should think it his duty to resist the
proposition now made to the House.
Lord J. RUSSELL and Mr. COBDEN rose together,
but the latter giving way, the Noble Lord spoke as
follows :—lf I could prevail upon myself to vote for a
Committee of the whole House, as the Hon. Gentleman
opposite recommended in his very able and very rheto-
rical speech, it would be from motives of curiosity, to
see what his plans are, which have been held out to us
so vaguely, but of which we have had no distinct outline
in the whole course of this debate. Every one seems to
believe, from the speech of the Hon. Gentleman, that he
was about to propose an increase of the income-tax.
That an interest most important in this country is in a
state of distress no one den!es. My Right Hon. Friend
the Chancellor of the Exchequer admitted it fully with
regard to a great portion of the country. Then the
Hon. Gentleman proposed to Wee off 6,000,0001. of
taxes from the land, and to put it on the Consolidated
Fund, and it was und• ratood that an increased income-
tax was to be the mode of meeting that; but my Right
Hoe. Friend showed, and most clearly, that if that were
the case he would either take off a considerable sum
fe-im the landed interest to put it on again, and to put
it upon the occupiers more particularly, or that you
would commit a breach of faith to which it is impossible