The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-11 00:00:00

Mani Smlth said that our colonies had always been an ex•
pense to this country. Now he thought that we should
act towtrds them as kind parents acted towards their off-
spring. When any of them were old enough, prepared
for it, and desirous of establishing in an independent
position in life, however anxious the parent might be to
retain them at home,. he aided them to start in the wotld,
and, on the other hand, they cherished and supported
the weakly ones. So it should be with onr colonies
%\ hich were capable of becoming independeat; no petty
joalousy should induce us to oppose their becoming so,
became they. would be much more advantageous to us
in that capacity than they ever had been. It they
would give the colonies a constant supply of young
persons educated in the unions, and give them
grants of land, a constant supply of labour
would be secured to them. Ile did not see the Hon•

Pilember for Berwickshire present, who took an interest
in emigration, on behalf of a particular society formed
for the purpose of encouraging But the fault be
bad to find with that and other societies was that

they asked too much from the emigrants. The onlY
qualifications for an emigrant, in his opinion, were on
empty mouth and an empty stomach.—(A laugh.) One
thing was certain, that oar colonies must give up Lb°
idea of maintaininkg themselves as sugar. rcanu,ac-
turer3. The cane could be grown in.'s greater number
of places than was once believed—and in them sugar
cultivation could only exist under protection. But if
the labourers went out there and applied themselves
to the cultivation of the land, they would bet'
ter their own condition, and supply us with an abua•
dance, of provisions. He believed it was impossible to
restore the bread tax again.—(Loud cheers.) He had no
patience with those impostors who run about the coun•
try and promised tho tenant-farmers that if they were
restored to power they would give them back
protection.—(Hear, bear.) He had never taken of

part in the movement for the repeal of the onrn-laos•
because he-saw, or at least thought he saw, the selfish-
um of the landlord as well as the selfishness of the
cottonocracy-(A laugh)—and, consequently never touk
. .

any part with either of them. There was, however,
this difference between them—that, whereas the gout in
the toe was painful, the gout in the stomach was de,truc'
tive—(Laughter)—and, therefore, he deprecated all tax-

ation on food.—(Hear) The evil of monopoly will,
that ie point of fact, it 'took something out of every
body's pocket, to put it into the pocket of the monopo"
list. Now, as be said before, it was the constant ten-
'dency of masters to combine against their workmen.--
(" Hear, hear," from Mr. O'Connor, and laughter.)
Labour was no match for capital; the capitalist could
command any market ho pleased, but the labourer
could find no market but one—(Hear, hear)—that was
the ground on which the Government should alms)?
stretch nut its hand to protect the labourer against car
talists of every kind; in other words, they must by means
of custom duties protect the borne market.—(Protec-
tionist cheers.) Ay, but he was ant taking their view
of the mutter.—(Laughter.) The benefit of the borne
market was, that it set in beneficial operation two capi'
tals.—(Renewed Protectionist cheers.) Another point
he would also submit to the Committee—namely, 0°
inexpediency of giving up productive taxes, which fell

upon the richer classes. Take the Post-office, for ie'
stance, where was the utility of giving up the revenue it
formerly yielded? The only parties who had benefited
by it were the 'merchants and bankers. He would not
say one word against such reductions, if they were
overflowing with wealth; but looking at the state of the,
country, he said that as it was improper in an individual
who was in difficulties to lavish his means, so it Wag
Equally improper in a Government to do so.—(Hear.)
He was almost afraid to mention the word Ireland, Jest
it' should give rise to innumerable speeches, but
he could not pass it without notice, because he believed
that if it was properly treated a great reduction of the
annual expenditure might be effected.—(Hear, hear.)
There were only two ways of governing Ireland—either
to treat Ireland as a savage nation, to be governed by
the military and by courts-martial, and thus save the
list of judges, juries, and learned counsel, who costa
not even find men guilty who honestly said they were
guilty, and whom everbody else believed to be so. Oe
the other hand, let the Lords-Lieutenants of counties
and the owners of the soil be left to perform the duties
which they did in England,' Wales, and licotland, and
withdraw a large portion of the' military force, and in
this way effect a saving.—(Hear.) When all this Wag
done, however, they would still have done but little to-
wards lightening the springs of industry, if they did not
come to the charges; upon the public debt.—(Hear, hear-)
It was all very well to speak of shifting the burdens
from one class of the community to others. Such redue.
tions might have a beneficial moral effect, but its peen'niary results would be temporary. But wore they afraid
to look at the eight hundred millions of public debt, Of
the twenty-eight millions of annual interest?—(gear'
hear.) That debt began at the same time as the miseries
of Ft aace—it went on accumulating through the wbel:
of the reigns of the three Georges—perhaps it was:,
punishment for throwing off our lawful King—(A
—till at last it bad come to be a burden greater than and
people ever endured before. He knew that it was sn
this burden could be lightened in two ways, by increase-
ing the capital and the productive power of the country;
but there was this fallacy in that position, that valuesnd
l
increase of wealth did not go together; the farmer WI
now to pay four sheep instead of one, ten fleeces instead
of one, and the three loads of wheat instead of one, to pal
the same amount of taxation that he did a few years ago.
The value of capital was diminished in order to pay thec
taxes. All the Ministers who imposed these taxes sin
contracted these debts said that unless something was
done to reduce the burden in future, it naust ulti-
mately lead to the ruin of the country. One of the most
common sayings of Mr. Pitt, when he was running uP
debts, was that we should obtain indemnity for the past
,
and security for the future. Now be admitted, with the
gentlemen of the Birmingham school, that the burden 01,
the debt had been immensely increased by the Act °L
1819; but at the same time he disagreed with them of
some Points, and especially as to their mode of mewl"
iug the depreciation of value. The great evil of the
public debt was that it locked up capital. There were
only two ways of really benefiting the country. o,_lies
,was to make new, capital, the other to let free Old
which already existed. By that means they wee'
enable the merchant and manufacturer to increase their
enterprises and give additional employment. The questi°,9,,
was, how this capital was to be liberated? Everybee/
said something should be done, but when any one cal:
forward with a plan a host of objectors started up. ,„""
might be asked where the money was to come from -
pay off the public debt? He knew of only two classes id
the country, rich and poor; the latter could not pay. as
he supposed the former must. He would ask, did they
ever mean to pay the debt?—(Hear.) They certaioll
went on as if they never did. What he should propose
was to give the Chancellor of the Exchequer power tt,'
buy up_ annuities as they were offered in the marker
It would not require at once a very great sum to do tlnot
and he would raise the requisite funds partly by n tet
on real property and partly by an equalization of 111
land- tax, the, proceeds from which should be exclusively
applied to this purpose. In this way they would Fret;
vent a glut of capital in the market, and all feverial
speculation consequent upon it—the Government vre,l_ll,„
have the operation under their own control, and the
would naturally take care never to throw more cePltli,_
into the market than could find profitable employMe
He called upon all who took an interest in these
questions to vote for going into Committee ; what.
ever differences might exist between those who ae°,7o
cated financial reform and those who supported °
views of the lion. Member for Buckinghamshire. 01
Were equally bound to support his motion. He asked a
who claimed the title of statesmen to unite with him is
o
an inquiry into this subject, and he conjured the
to take up a subject which was most deeply and intimatski
connected with the contentment of the people, and IP
tranquillity of the country.—(Cheers.) The Hon. ger
ber concluded by moving his motion.
Mr. URQUHART seconded the motion.
The CHANCELLOR of the 'EXCHEQUER or
posed the motion. If the Hon. Gentleman really eeP.'
posed that they should go into Committee on the maps
fold subjects which he stated his intention of movieb'
they would have marked out not the work of an ordl"
nary Committee, but of two or three sessions. Thera
was hardly any discussable subject that the Hon. Gen.
tlernan did not mean to make the subject-matter of rea°:
lations. In the first place he proposed to substitat:
a new system of taxation. It might be 0
graduated property-tax for aught the 1-0°
kneW to the contrary, for the Honourable Gfial;
tleman had left them in the dark with regard to eit''')
the principle or the details of that system.—(o. earLf
Then, the Hon. Gentleman, after ridiculing a motion
Lord Ashburton's respecting the mode of equitably teig.:,
ing the countryvcame to the conclusion that it would t:
impossible to impose any taxation which did not pre;
on the millions. The next proposition which the li°•
Gentleman announced his intention of moving, wee of
red,uction of all salaries of public officers to the scale ,
1794, previous to the war. The Hon. Member for cane
arose had given notice of a similar motion; but be (list
Chancellor of the Exchequer) should certainly reeto
it.—(Hear. hear.) He would tell them why,—Beeipic
such an alteration would be a most extravagant
to do.—(Laughter.) Honourable Gentleman laug •
Nevertheless his statement was quite true. If sue on,
resolution were carried, the salary of his Rip ss'exa
Friend the Secretary of state would be merirdeat
from 5,0001. to 6,000/. per annum, and of the Preal 00,
of the Council from 2,0001 to 4,000/. per atin old
so that instead of a decrease being effected, there Vol
be an increase in those particular departments. but
talked of the resolution as an economical measure,
ode
it was not an economical proposal to return to the s nut
fixed in 1794. The Hon. Gentleman proposed rde.jaros
an end to all civil services connected with the OP-Ddio.
department, but that subject was already fell:14 rol.
cussed when the various estimates were cast e he
The Hon. Gentleman held out the expectation thhwieo.
would spare us the trouble of retaining our colon
or
Now, on the subject of governing our colonial, Plod
sessions, no less than three other notices of snOtion
00a,
been placed on the books of the House of Comm the
one by the Hon. Member for Inverness, a second eTion.
Hon. Member for Berwick, and a third by the hg
on.
for Sheffield. Now, seeing that those
colonialtlee
were certain to lead to ample discussion of the
bow-
question, he did not think it desirable that thelynSiiture'
get into a fourth discussion, of a gperas.
on the desirabisity of retining their colonial
The Hon. Gentleman further expressed hirnseltylo7pas.
of a large system of emigration, the payment is, the
senger money, and the grant of land to emigrants
proper, but they certainly were not econour
nd
Intufee
Government. Those things might be all very riorbibe
sixth resolution which the Hon. Gentlemanb. 0 of she
an intention of proposing was
on
the
en
proposition Wald
bread-tax. What the nature of that propo
notion of keeping up a duty o
would open a,
resolution connected with the bread-tax be the Hon. Member did not sayn,
fbouretighne
considered it by no
wide field for dLcus.,icn, ar.d he consie
espebially
ith a me obe
when they found it connected w
entlelnan
ether complicated subjects. The 11012.
'means advisable that they should enter on - of
rrini.te,d.Atnhyl_