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

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mercy and favour !—(Hear, and a laugh.) Hetaette 40:7
to remind the House that the landed prokrie*.'i
rated to the property-tax without any a19V040
AV IPP
repairs, while the possessor of other descriplacies ff,S
property was fairly allowed to place to his account
every source of diminution ; and that, by the second
schedule of the property -tax, the farmer paid upon
profits which, after the introduction of the property-
tax, Parliament had by another law totally destroyed.
—(Loud cheers.) He was not surprised, however,
that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had acknow-
ledged the excessive burdens upon real property, for
the Noble Lord (Lord J. Russell) had on a solemn oc-
casion expressed to his Sovereign his determination,
should it be in his power, to rid the occupiers of land of
the burdens to which they were subject. The Noble Lord
had to night explained that it was his determination, had
he then been in power, to have fulfilled the intentions of
the Right Hon. Member for Tamworth (Sir R. Peel).
The Right Honourable Baronet had taken off a tax of
100,000/., which was now contributed to the county-
rate ; but did the Noble Lord mean to assert that that
100,0001. was an equivalent for the burdens of which he
(Mr. Disraeli) complained? Was that the Noble Lord's
redemption of the Bs. fixed duty, which rendered him so
celebrated, and which the farmers were now quite ready
to accept ?—(Laughter and cheers.) It could Rot be
supposed that the Right Honourable Member for Tam-
worth and his Friends had at all changed their opinions
with respect to these burdens on land ; and he (Mr.
Disraeli) thought, therefore, it would be admitted on all
hands—except by the Honourable Member for Montrose
—that these burdens were unjust.—(Hear, hear.) Bat
an objection had been made to the practicability of
what had been called the scheme which he (Mr. Dis-
raeli) had proposed. Within a few weeks some memor-
able resolutions had been placed upon the table, and he
had requested; the Noble Lord (Lord J. Russell), before
House went into Committee, to favour them with some
details of his views and of his plan.—(Loud cheers from
the Protectionists.) The Noble Lord was, however,
mute; nothing would tempt him to give any explanation
until the House was in Committee. The Noble Lord
could not be surprised that he (Mr. Disraeli) had fol-
lowed so eminent an example—(Laughter and cheers)—
and that he had been equally chary in offering those ex-
planatory details which the Noble Lord, with a gay au-
dacity, had expressed astonishment that he had not
afforded.—(Cheers and laughter.) The Chancellor of the
Exchequer had been complimented on the admirable
manner in which he had demolished his (Mr. Disraeli's)
scheme. He certainly must congratulate the Chancellor
of the Exchequer on his success and the victory he had
achieved without meeting an opponent.—(Cheers.)
The Chancellor of the Exchequer laid it down
that he (Mr. Disraeli) was prepared to raise the sum of
5,000,0001. or 6,000,0001. by an income or property-tax,
and then proved satisfactorily to the House that that
would only be taking out of one pocket exactly the sum
placed in the other. Nothing could be more admirable
than the argument, nothing more sustained than the
logic, and the enthusiasm of the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer was interesting.—(Laughter.) As the Chan.
cellor of the Exchequer performed the operation, he (Mr.
Disraeli) saw a man, as it were, squaring the circle, or
on the point of discovering the philosopher's stone; but
there was ono objection to the triumph which the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer and his friends claimed, and that
was that he (Mr. Disraeli) never in any way stated that
he intended to raise any sum whatever by an income or
property tax; and the Chancellor of the Exchequer hav-
ing completed his whole process of ratiocination was so
convinced that he (Mr. Disraeli) had not intimated such
a project, that he was at last obliged to confess the hypo-
thesis with which he had amused the House
had no foundation. He therefore left the Chancellor
of , the Exchequer to the full enjoyment of his
triumph. That Right Hon. Gentleman had demolished
a case which never existed, and he (Mr. Disraeli) left
him to crow on the dunghill of the Consolidated Fund.—
(Cheers and laughter.) It had been his object, in in-
troducing the present resolutions to the House, to show
that the real property of this country was unjustly
treated. Had he limited his endeavours to establish that
point he should have been perfectly justified, leaving it
to public opinion to influence the Minister to perform
that duty which would then have devolved on the Ad-
ministration. But, considering that he represented the
feelings of a considerable party in the House and coun-
try, he thought it respectful to the House to state that
in Committee he was prepared in detail to explain the
remedy which the grievance required; and he also
thought it fair to intimate that one moiety of this
great amount of local taxation for national purposes
should be taken off the shoulders of the real property
of the country. He showed that 10,000,000/. were levied
on little more than one-fourth of the income of the
country, and that the other three-fourths were privileged
property in this respect; and he said that he, supported
by the Hon. Gentlemen with whom he acted, consi-
dered that the moiety of this local taxation for national
purposes should be supplied to the localities by the Con-
solidated Fund; not for a moment intending that it
should bo a permanent charge on the Consolidated Fund,
but that it should be raised from the three-fourths of the
property of the country at present not contributing to-
wards those national purposes.—(Cheers.) And now
he would briefly show how this scheme, so completely
demolished, would have operated for the benefit of the
farmers of England. If 5,000,000/., being half of the
local taxation for national purposes, were raised upon
the property not now contributing towards them, that
would have been 6id. in the pound. He admitted that
the farmer, for his profits in trade, would have to pay
that Gil on half his rent, but how would that operate?
It appeared from a petition presented that night that
the farmers of Bradford, Wilts, complained of paying at
present Bs. in the pound for rates. Now, if his resolu-
tions were carried into effect those farmers might rise on
the following day and feel that they relieved from one-
half of their rates. They would then be paying only 4s.
together with 3f d. in the pound, and under his plan real
property would pay no more than that moiety which the
owner of it, through his medium, most generously of-
fered to accept.—(Hear, hear.) Would that, he asked,
be no relief to the farmer ?—(Cheers.) So much for
the scheme so remarkably misrepresented. Bat the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, assuming that he (Mr.
Disraeli) was about to propose to put a tax on the fends,
expressed surprise that he should have made himself re-
sponsible for a proposition drawn up by some rash spirit.
He begged to inform the Right Hon. Gentleman that he
(Mr. Disraeli) was responsible for the resolutions he had
placed on the table, but at the same time he was satis-
fied to think that he had done nothing in this matter
without the counsel and advice of men second to none in
that House in ability and experience—the Gentlemen
with whom he had the happiness to act.—(Hear, hear.)
If he were allowed to go into Committee ho woald meet
the Right Hon. Gentleman on the point he had alluded
to, and he begged to say that he called upon no one to
go into Committee to touch the public funds. He asked
the House to do an act of justice.—(Hear, hear.) The
Hon. Gentleman the Under Secretary for the Home De-
partment had delivered some opinions on the law
respecting the rating of personal property. That Hon.
Gentleman was mistaken in his view; we had the
evidence of Mr. Coode before the Lords' Committee;
personal property was liable to all these rates; stock in
trade was liable to every rate constructed on the basis of
the poor's rate, and was exempted only from the poor's
rate by a fleeting and transitory statute, which the Go-
vernment would shortly cull upon the House to renew—
reviving this great controversy, which would never
cease till justice was done.—(Cheers.) To come now to
the third point. Was it true or not that the tenant
would be benefitted by the proposed plan? Here he
(Mr. Disraeli) had to deal, not with the practise of life,
but with the dogmas of the schools; and applying the
abstract science of political economy to circumstances
having nothing of an abstract character, it was very pos-
sible to anounce a result susceptible, as the Chancellor
of the Exchequer said, of severe demonstration—and
susceptible of nothing else.—(A laugh.) There were
disturbing causes in human life which would baffle the
most abstruse calculations; and the most powerful in
its influence, and most general in its character,
was time. If rents rose immediately that the cost
t
of production was diminished, what had been said of
influence of this plan upon rent would be true ;
but the adjustment of rent depended upon there
being a new proprietor or a new tenant—occasions of
rare occurrence; and the present generation of farmers,
we might rely upon it, would enjoy this remission to
the full, and for many a long year after it was absorbed
in that rent, which for ought one could tell, when the
term had arrived, might not even exist.—(Hear, hear.)
pkunbolwienotrhdteenr.they
There seemed a morbid antipathy, on the part of Gen-
tlemenA opposite, to rent under any circumstances.—(A
hear.)
we increased the wealth of the country.— 1
of as a useless
laugh.) If by legitimate means we raised_rar,es;--urely
The proprietors of rent were spokenneloassea
might be
class ; but in a country like England
wetievenctass was a very useful
very useful, even if they r_
(Hear, hear.) A Conserva
If lion. Gentlemen were op-
class—(Hear, hear.)e
of
a productive classes.—
territorial aristocracy, let
posed to the existence
them say
it out—(Opposition cheers)—it would be well
what was :to be met—(Hear, hear)—but
landed pro-
prietorsthey who believed
and even for Imperial conservation, would
to bo the popular rights, for
an independent class of
struggle it was a stake worth
had to
know that
struggling for.—((.heers.) The Hon Member for the West
Riding (Mr. Cobden), who had made a most interesting
speech, but upon which it was impossible now to touch
except lightly, had said that since the repeal of the
corn-laws the country had really been flourishing,
especially in those classes whose interests were so dear
to him, and that wages never were higher. But if so,
how was it that the poor's-rates had risen seventeen per
cent.—(Hear, hear.) Perhaps that skilful rhetorician,
never at a loss, would revive the masquerade of Goat-
acre, and ask how, with a neglected and debased pea-
santry, we could wonder at the increase of poors'-rate.
But the Poor-law Commissioners reported that it was
" mainly caused by the general depression which existed
in the maufacturing districts—(Opposition cheers)—and
by the influx of poor persons from Ireland in a state of
destitution"—(Hear, hear)—the depression of the popu-
lation the Hon. Member stated to be so prosperous—the
destitution of Ireland, ruined by the repeal of the corn-
laws.—(Renewed cheers.) The lion. Member (Mr.
Hume) had produced an amendment to the resolutions
before the House, and it was said that some Gentle-
men from Surrey or Suffolk were going to vote for it,
desiring the repeal of the malt-tax as an immediate
remedy, and persuaded that the original motion went
to the increase of the income-tax. Would they, then,
go before their constituents and avow that thq, ivfottehde
for a sceptical amendment, which promised relief
Would they
moment
en
taxation upon real property was undue!
of distress told
single out the leader who in this
.eve they were the lauded interest ho did not b
sub-
jected to unjust burdens?—(hear, hear.) The Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer had informed the House that '
e taxation did
there was no country in Europe
not fall more upon the
land than in England. Flushed
with triumph, and fiery with victory, he felt that at that
moment of
his speech he might dare a good deal—
(A laugh)--- visited several countries and he.
agricultural, And said we little thought how much of

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