The Sun.
London, England, 1849-10-06 00:00:00

there is a surplus in the Exchequer or not, but if a great
man in public life tells us what be would do if he had
one, it equ illy shows his policy. That you will allow,
with me, to be true. Now, what have you heard your-
selves of late? You have heard one Minister get up
and tell you you must repeal the duties on raw material
and also the duties on articles that enter into general
consumption; another, that we must have recourse to
direct taxation ; and another, that we must further
reduce the duties on timber or tea. But you never find
any man get up and do that which I think is most
natural, certainly what is most honest, and, as I think I
shall show you, what is by far most politic, most advan-
tageous for the country, and particularly advantageous
for the agricultural body; and that is, to reduce the
national debt. Every man thinks, when he has got a
surplus, that he must take off the duties on timber, or
tea, or some other foreign produce, but he never thinks
of dealing with the national debt, which is the debt of
the netion, and the interest of which, if it is not reduced,
you must ceatinue to pay. In twenty-three years of
war you increased that; debt 630 millions; in thirty-
six years of peaoe you have reduced the debt only
one-eighth. I want to know how that is to end. It
must be obvious how it will end. It must be obvious,
that if on our present system we can scarcely make
the two ends meet—if, the moment we have e
surplus, foreign articles are admitted free of duty,
which is so much gain to the foreigner—when
the moment of difficulty arises, our resources can
only be raised by taxing property; and as all other pro-
perty is in its nature evanesc.-nt, that taxation must
ultimately be raised from real property—from the land
of England. My opinion is, that we ought to pay our
debts before we take off the taxes on foreign imports.—
(Immense cheering.) I am sure it would be more
honourable, and I think before I conclude I shall be able
to show—though I shall not venture to trespass much
longer on your attention—that it will be more advan-
tageous to the peculiar interests of the land—and I am
glad that what is of advantage to the nation is also in a
peculiar sense advantageous to the land, because it shows
that in sour case, as in all others, honesty is the best
policy.—(Cheers.) My opinion is that there ought to be
a sinking fund, and I support the establishment of a
sinking fund for three principal reasons. In the first
place, if you had such a sinking fund you would put an
end to all that tampering with the resources of the
nation whieh has really brought us into our present
position. Because, if this matter had been duly known
to the people of England, they never would
have allowed the corn-laws_to be repealed, and we
never should have found ourselves in the ter-
rible position which we have now to encounter.
I support a sinking fund, then, in the first
place, because I think it will terminate that system of
tampering with the resources of the country, and put an
end to that organized arrangement of what you may call
political economy quackery—(Cheers)—which has
brought this state of things about, that with an increasing
population and a diminishing taxation you find as much
difficulty as ever in meeting those engagements which
you have to encounter. I support, therefore—and I
hope I shall induce you before I finish to support the
same idea; and ultimately I hope I shall be able to in-
duce the whole of England to support the continued
action of a sinking fund, for I cannot doubt that if you
once establish it you will have resolution enough to
maintain it. I support it, in the second place, be-
cause it will be the bona fide action of a sink-
ing fund to reduce the interest on productive
capital, and to make capital abundant and cheap
for those who require it for the purposes of industry. In
the third place I support a sinking fund, because if you
adopt it you will force on a reconstruction of the finan-
ciol resources of the country on a rational and national
principle. I am anxious to obtain your adoption of
this principle, and of the means by which it is to be
carried. In soma casual observations which I made
elsewhere—which were much misrepresented—l ex-
pressed an opinion that we might obtain such a
sinking fund through the medium of the land,
without the imposition of any new tax, but on cer-
tain conditions to which I then imperfectly referred—
conditions which involved not only that the land
should have fiscal justice, but that it should have salu-
tary and legitimate protection. Bat I shall not quarrel
about the means, so that only I can obtain the end.
The principle is the thing, not the means by which we
aro to obtain it. If 3ou believe that it is of vital impor-
tance that this principle should be asserted, and practi-
cally secured—if you believe that it will put a stop to
that tampering with the resources of the country which
has proved co fatal—if you believe that by it capital will
be rendered abundant and cheap—if you believe that its
result will be a real diminution of the burdens of the
people, then let us see whether we cannot this evening
devise some popular, practicable, and just means by
which we can obtain it.—(Cheers.) We often hear the
argument used—Yes, the principle of a sinking fund is
a good one, but how can you get it ? Now, let me tell
you this in the first place. There is no man of mark in
the House of Commons who will get up and say that
this country cannot afford a sinking fund, and a sinking
fund composed of millions. Can the Manchester school?
Arc they not telling us that the expenditure of this
country is ten millions a year more than is necessary ?
Well, they are not the men who will say that we cannot
spare five millions for a sinking fund. Is it the late
Government, or the present Government, who supported
the late Government's policy, and who have since
adopted their measures ? Between the year 1842 and
1846 the Government took off seven millions and a half
Of taxes, none of which were petitioned against, few were
complained of, and many were never heard of.—
(Laughter.) Two-thirds of that revenue would give a
sinking fund of five millions. My opinion is this—the
cale is urgent—Parliament ought scarcely to be a week
assembled without all England praying for the institu-
tion of a sinking fund; and my opinion is, that the best
and most practical—meny as are the suggestions that
hive been made to me, many as are the means which
have occurred to myself—my opinion is, that the best
and most practical way of obtaining it is to do that di-
rectly which the process I fornaerly indicated would have
done indirectly, namely, to lay on ad valorem duty on all
articles of foreign import whatever.—(Loud cheers.)
That is the weapon, the charmed weapon, with which we
shall win the battle. Put that weapon into the hand of
any knight you may elect to win your battle, and I stake
my political reputation upon it he cannot fail. Look at the
ease which will redound to the country generally by this
arrangement. What will be the result? There must,
if there be a bona file sinking fund—there must result
a gradual but certain, and every year a diminishing,
amount of burdens on the country. It will not bo
the commercial section of the community, or even, per-
haps, some one commercial house, that will gain the ad-
vantage of this measure; but every class in the com-
munity will, by the action of the sinking fund, obtain
relief. The next effect it Rill have is on the price of
capital—the interest of money—a subject of great
importance to the industrial classes. Now these advan-
tages you will obtain : you will have capital abundant—
you will have every class feeling their) burdens dimi-
nished. How are you to do it ? Why, by making the
foreigner pay a toll on his commodities.— (Cheers.)
I have told you the first measure which I thought
necessary, though its eff:cts, however certain, will not
suffice as a complete remedy for all the evils hich you
have encountered. I said it was based on justice. No
doubt the equalisation of the burdens on real property is
founded on justice. But the principle of the second
measure which I have mentioned is not only just, it is
also honest. You see with what great measures and
great principles the great landed interest of the coun-
try, in all its ramifications, tends to associate itself. First
of all, you ask for equal taxation; and no one with a feel-
ing ofjuetice can deny your right to it. And the interests
of this great party—tor it is a great party, notwithstand-
ing all that has occurred, and while this country lasts it
will ever remain a great party—are thus associated with
justice. Su with regard to the maintenance of public
credit. You do not eel: for peculiar advantages, you do
not demand exceptional legislation. There is no class
legislation in a nation paying its debts. There is no
peculiar privilege in paying taxes for other people.—
(Great laughter and cheering) Now, am I right in
supposing that the yeomen of Essex will adopt these
principles?—(Loud cries of " Yes, yes.") Bat am I
right in supposing that the yeomen of Essex mean to act
upon them?—(Tremendous cries of " Yes, yes," and
laughter.) Because we live in times when cheers round
a convivial board will not save the country.—(Hear.)
In old days we assembled to commemorate the victories
we had won and the foes we had baffled. But we meet
now in the hour of difficulty and danger; and we meet
to no use, unless we can devise some plan which we
shall follow up with a confirmed resolution to con-
quer.— (Loud cheers.) If you resolve to act upon
these principles, permit me to tell you, not as a model,
for you (to not require such an incentive, but rather as
an instructive hint, what we have done in the county in
which I live. Impressed with the two great principles—
first, that taxation should be equalised, and, secondly,
that public credi should be maintained—(Loud cheers)
we have firmed a society for the relief of real property,
feeling cin vinced that real property never will be re-
lieved except on the policy of these two principles which
I have laid d ; wn. I ask you to do the same. From
your society petition the House of Commons for equal
taxation, to which you are entitled—a justice which no
one denies; call upon Parliament to cease tampering
with the fiscal fortunes of England which has been too
long indulged in—make up your mind to pay your debts
—establish the same rule of morality for a nation which
exiite for individuals—(Cheers)—and the certain and
inevitable consequence will be, that you will not only
introduce a principle of fiscal morality, which has
been too long absent from the counsels of the Legis-
lature, you will not only make capital abundant to
those classes who require it, and who have a right to ask
for it—and to no other classes do I refer—but you will
do more than this, you will place your ancient and noble
industry in a just and legitimate position. I have been
told that the agricultural interest don't know what they
want—that they have no motto upon their banners.
Write upon your banners " Justice and Honesty"—and
depend upon it the nation will sympathise with you. It
will rally round such professions, backed by such prac-
tice as you counsel and recommend. I feel persuaded
that if the county of Essex shall act with spirit, and
drive home these two points—if they demand from the
Legislature equal taxation, which now, so far as reason
and argument are concerned, is a settled question—if
they will counsel in an admonitory voice imperial morality,
that the first and greatest principle of finance is the di-
minution of the national burdens, and that the only legi-
timate mode of doing this is by diminishing the public debt,
and that the easiest, the most obvious, the justest course
to do that would be that the untaxed foreigner should
contribute his quota—(Cheers)—l am convinced that
that is a policy which must govern the country, if in-
deed the country be worth redemption.—(Loud cheers.)
I have known in the course of my life—all of us have—
doest not always prevail, because truth is not
chytivs_ pportect by power. I have known also, occa-
/Aids 'elm :011,i0bereuthority has been baffled, because
eailieHklit'lj
.14isitihlritiae ottrithlwaaynsd esotwabelrisihed
Who
truth. But a
i u 1u11:77..4s e
ts.kombinatipon?—(Cheeros.c)anTdhoeyubfitguthree
ta) sa4p‘a**koral- immtities, but AS mathematical demon.
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