The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-19 00:00:00

THE SUN;

them; and that if they ♦oted the estimates we propostA,
some increase of taxation would be necessary. We
therefore submit to the House at once, that question
which may be the most difficult, and the most unpopular,
but which we are bound to look in the face as affecting
not only the public purse, but the independence and
honour of the country as well. This House has been
enabled to take off nearly 40,000.000/. of taxes, of which
more than 10,000,0001. pressed upon the comforts and
enjoyments of the industrious portion of the community.
But while doing that, you were also enabled not only
to preserve the empire undiminished, but to extend
it. Consistently with that large reduction, you
have been enabled, under the guidance of the Right
Hon. Baronet the Member for Tamworth, to give scope
to those principles of commerce of which Adam Smith
was the great propounder, and of which William Pitt, in
the plenitude of his power, declared himself the disciple.
You have been enabled to suppress an insurrection in
Canada, to repel an aggression in India, to maintain
your colonial :establishment and give protection to
your fellow-subjects at the Cape of Good Hope.—
subjects of the same sovereign, and inheritors of the
same glorious constitution as members of the
British empire. I believe that, if you continue in
this course, upholding the credit of the country, you will
be enabled in future years to give still further relief to
the people by a reduction of taxation. I regret it is not
in my power honestly to propose such reduction at
present; but, consistently with my duty to the country,
I cannot do so. I hare taken, lam aware, that which
is the odious part of a duty, but which being a duty I
cannot shrink Irom. I will conclude by stating my
strong conviction to be that, by taking th.s course, you
will in time see the commercial credit of the country
restored, you will preserve unimpaired the public faith,
and run no danger of seeing this great empire insulted
or injured by any power whatsoever.—(Loud cheese.)
'The Noble Lord concluded by proposing resolutions,
with a view of carrying into effect the plan described in
hie speech.
The resolutions having been read by the Chairman,
Lord JOHN RUSSELL said that he had proposed
the resolutions with a view to laying them before the
House; and it was his intention to propose, on Monday
ee'linight, that the House go into Committee, in order
that the sense of the House might be taken upon them.
Mr. HUME had never listened to a Budget with more
pain than on the present occasion; and he could assure
the Noble Lord that he and his colleagues saw the
country in a very different point of view from that which
presented itself to him (Mr. Hume). The Noble Lord
seemed to think that we were on the eve of a war, and
that we should make preparations necessary for such
a state of things. If we were so, he believed that
but one feeling would exist in the country in reference
to the course that House ought to pursue ; but as we
were not, he believed that the course proposed by the
Noble Lord was calculated to interrupt the peace which
at present existed, and to create strife with that country
which of all others it was the interest of this to be o❑
terms of amity with—he meant France. On that ac-
count, if for no other, he deplored the statement of the
Noble Lord. He thought it most impolitic fora Minister
of tho Crown to call the attention of that House to the
forces of any one State, because it was placing it imme-
diately in view as a State against which ourlforces ought
to be directed. The Noble Lord had told them that the
great decrease in the revenue had arisen from general
poverty, and the depressed state of commerce, and 3et
without assigning one single reason he proposed an
addition to the taxation of the country. Now he (Mr.
Hume) would ask the House not to add one shilling
to that taxation, but to make the present amount meet
the expenditure. The Noble Lord was acting upon the
principle, that in order to maintain peace we should ap•
pear in arms. But at the present moment there was
nothing to warrant or to call for such a step. The army
and navy estimate had been increased since 1835, and
when he demanded a decrease, he was told that circum-
stances connected with South America and the continent
of Europe, and other matters, required to settle down
first, but that the Government looked with confidence to
an ulterior reduction. He did not know that it was the
poliey of England to become a military nation. The idea
that we were now in a time of peace keeping and
maintaining 300,000 men, including the militia,
the police force, and all paid adjuncts, was what
this country could not and ought not to bear.
If the Noble Lord bad said that he would reduce
the window-tax, or any other tax that pressed upon the
people, and that in lieu thereof he must have 5,000,000/.
or 10,000,000/. additional of income-tax, he should have
had his (Mr. Hume's) ready support; but this increased
load of taxation, without any corresponding reduction,
would, he was confident, have the effect of depressing
the entire commercial community, masters, manufac-
turers, and men. He objected to any increase of the
regular army, but still more to the enrolment of the
militia, by which people would be unfitted for business
and for domestic life—more particularly at a time of
Peace, and when he saw so much poverty in the country,
that even in the comparatively wealthy district of Mary.
lebone no less than 15,000 people were receiving assist-
ance; and when, as he was informed that day, several
mills in the manufacturing districts were about to be
closed.

Mr. BANKES believed that the country at large was
not prepared for any such proposition as that of the
Noble Lord. The Noble Lord had taken credit to him-
self for not having first proposed his estimates and after-
wards made his statement. But they were not so for-
getful of their duty in that House as to have admitted
the estimates until they had had the explanation ; and
having had that explanation, he must say that it was
not satisfactory. The estimates relating to our national
naval defences were those which were received with the
least degree of jealousy ; but then there was an employ-
ment of the naval service going on at present, which ap-
peared to him and many others as unnecessary. By a
different disposal of our naval forces some reduction, he
thought, might be made in the national expenditure. lle
alluded particularly to the squadron engaged on the
coast of Africa, in a climate destructive of human
life, and for a purpose which had totally failed. He
conceived that the withdrawal of that squadron, and the
cefsation of expenditure consequent thereon, would be
attended with no detriment to the public service or to the
interests of the country. He might allude also to the
unhappy expedition to the Tagus and the squadron sta-
tioned there, keeping up a feeling of irritation in the
mind of a foreign nation.—(An lion. Member : "They
are all come home.") Then there was the less reason
for increasing the expense by adding to our forces. They
ought to have been ordered home long ago, and the
Noble Lord and his colleagues owed to the service and
the country some explanation of the reasons why they
had so long remained there, utterly useless for any
political object or purpose, sufferin all the evil effects
of ships remaining long in harbour. One of these
ships had, he believed, remained upwards of twelve
months without having once weighed anchor. He
therefore conceived that so far from there being a
necessity for even the sToo.llest increase of the naval
defences, the country might have had the satisfaction
of believing it was in an effective state with regard to
the national defences in that point to which all naturally
directed their attention. With regard to the army,
without at the present moment suggesting that any di-
minution cf an aggressive force might be proper after
what had fallen from the Noble Lord, he (Mr. Bankes)
'night be permittei to state that a different disposition
of that force might be made, by which the saving of the
additional expenditure of which the Noble Lord bad
spoken in reference to an increase of the army might be
effected. It was no doubt to be admitted, that for the
ordnance service a longer term of training was necessary
than for the infantry and other branches of the service;
but as related to the infantry they might reasonably look
for a diminution, which might be turned to the ordnance
department without any increase of expense. The
Noble Lord's proposition with reference to the militia
wee one which would be highly unpopular throughout
the *country, though the Noble Lord had described it as
as old constitutional force. That might be so, but it
bad only been permitted when there was no standing
army in existence.
Lord J. RUSSELL—It existed in 1757.

BANES—It had originated in the time of
Charles 11.; and it was to avoid a standing army that
the militia force had been established. Ile believed
that the Earl of Chatham, to whom the Noble Lord had
alluded, had recommended the militia as a force which
prevented the necessity for maintaining a largo standing
army. He had not iu his days a force of 60,000 men in
this country, and therefore the times of Lord Chatham
Were very different from those in which they all now
lived. The present proposition, in his (Mr. Bankes)
judgment, W:55 peculiarly alarming and well deserving
the consideration of those who would come under the
Operation of the law, because the Noble Lord had
stated that the practice of finding substitutes
had in former times been found to be incon-
venient, and that consequently the persons
who would be ballotted would be obliged them-
selves to serve. If so, this would be a conscription in
NY sense of the word as odious at that which existed
,La France under Napoleon. He (Mr. Bankes) had
himself served in the militia in the years 1810, 1811, and
1812, and 800 men bad served with him with alacrity
and cheerfulness ; but than the danger of an invasion
Ivas threatening this country. But now such a state of
things did not exist, and therefore the proposition of the
eNoble Lord would not be received with even patience
by the nation. It was the cheerfulness and alacrity
with which the people of this country had carried their
Muskets which had produced an effect upon Napoleon in
espeet to his threatened invasion, and formed the prin.,
'l,aleuotivewhich prevented him from putting his threats
1010 execution at the time he had formed his camp at
Boulogne. lie (Mr. Bankes) assured the Noble Lord that
the same spirit would not be wanting in this country
if an occasion should require it to be exhibited ; and
therefore, there was no need for the course he proposed.
Such a force as he had spoken of, and in which he had
served, could be raised in a few days. His regiment 111
fourteen days after it had been raised was reviewed by
experienced officers, who declared them fit to serve with
the line, and that a finer body of men never was seen.—
(Hear, and laughter.) The Noble Lord need not mind
the French newspapers, but might depend upon it, if
the French nation should unhappily attempt to bully,
threaten, or insult this country, tho same spirit would
rise up now as hod in the time when the spirit of ag-
gression had prevailed under the dominion of a tyrant
and great conqueror. Such a spirit, however, did not
exist among their neighbours. the French. This half and
half proposition of the Noble Lord would not have the ef-
fect of deterring the foes of this country from insulting sad
rainnying. her; on the other hand, it would add to
Vito heroens tt'pe'o, le already suffering under evils
//Lilian all have long deplored. At a moment when, with
cheerfulness, a large portion of the working classes were
Tireri".e; great and unmerited distress, the Legislature
s''ould take every precaution not to give them real
ground for irritation, Tile Legislature had now other
,utlesto attend to—they had to devise how to apply
zl/4"crelles for the distresses which actually exist. The
T. 4
.rd fidetitted that the consequence of the pro-
o
p
o
s
it
i
o
n
uld be to fix upon the country a considerable
Lion of charge, and this he proposed to meet by an

addition to the income-tax. The Noble Lord stated that
when the income-tax was first proposed in 1842, he
voted against it, but the Noble Lord not only voted but
spoke against it, and that speech was very memorable
with regard to the particular point that now came
under the consideration of the Committee, namely,
with regard to the national defences. The Noble
Lord, speaking of foreigners, and especially the
French, then said that they were net aware of the large
amount of burdens from which the proposed tax would
relieve the population of this country, and be asked
what foreigners would think of the condition of England
if it would suffer, after many years of peace. the imposi-
tion of a tax which had always been considered essen-
tially a war tax. The imposition of such a tax, the
Noble Lord had observed, would produce the conviction
that this country bad no other security, but was obliged
to resort to it as if the nation was making a struggle for
its actual existence, and therefore that the country was
unprepared for war. Such had been the expressed
opinion of the Noble Lord, and yet now the Noble Lord
said the object was to assure all the world that England
was afraid of none of them, especially those powerful
States who might be supposed to look at this country
with the greatest jealousy, at this very mo-
ment the Noble Lord prepared to play the last card
in his hand, which being played, foreign nations would
say, " We know you have not another."lherefore, if
it were only with a view of getting foreign nations to
believe that this country had yet a large stake left, he
(Mr. Bankes) would reserve this tax for any contingency
that might arise; but at all events he urged on the
' Noble Lord how inexpedient it was to ineur this tax, and
thereby show the condition in which the country was
placed. But the Noble Lord had remarked that he had
not played all his cards, for he had another five per cent.
The announcement had given the House and the country
' fair warning as to what might be expected, and he (Mr.
Bankes) believed that the best defence the Government
' could provide for the nation would be, that they should
remain in their present places as short a time as possible.
—(Hear, and laughter.) Under all these impressions
he had heard with great regret the propositions of the
Noble Lord; he wished for a different application of the
existing forces of the country, upon whom the unhappy
lot of an addition to the income-tax ought to be spared.
Mr. B. OSBORNE said, that of all the financial state-
ments which it had been the duty of a Minister of the
Crown to submit to the House, he thought the House
would agree that few had been made with greater fair-
ness and candour than that they had just heard ; but at
the same time he thought the manner in which it would
be viewed by the country would be oats of great alarm
and consternation. He confessed he thought that if there
had been any regular organized opposition in the House
such a statement would never have been made by any
Government, fur it would have signed the death warrant
of any Ministry.—(Hear, hear.) The Noble Lord had
undertaken the impolitic task of adding to the burden of
the country. When this fact went forth to the public,
the Ministry would be stamped as having made the most
unpopular proposition ever known. Some time since,
ho (Mr. B. Osborne) had wished to call the attention of
the House to the state and condition of the national
defences, hut he rejoiced that the subject had been taken
out of his hands by the Noble Lord at the head of the
the Government ; but at the same time he thought that
the efficiency of the national defences might be increased
with no more than the present expenditure ; and further,
it was his firm conviction that it was possible to cut
down the expenditure in such a way as that the country
should be well served without the necessity of any in-
crease in the establishment. The Noble Lord had gone
through various items of the enormous load of taxation
which was now about to be placed upon the nation.
He had told the House that there were to be added
92,000 men from the dockyards and body of pensioners;
but he had kept out of view and from his estimate the
very important force in Ireland—viz , the police force,
which could not be regarded in any other light than as
a military force from 10,000 to 12,000 men. The
Noble Lord proposed to meet a deficiency of 3,346,5001.
by an increased income tax of five per cent. for two
years. Was there any man in the country who
doubted that if the Government once got on that
tax for two years it would last during the course
of their natural lives ?—(Hear, hear.) When the in-
come-tax was proposed by the Right Hon. Baronet the
Member for Tamworth, it was only to continue for three
years. Following in the train of the Noble Lord, he
(Mr. B. Osborne) had voted against that proposal, be-
cause he thought a property-tax would be a fairer im-
post. By the course now taken by the Noble Lord, who
ought now to be ashamed of the vote he gave on that
occasion, the Right Hon. Baronet was now nobly
avenged. He (Mr. B. Osborne) was much mistaken if
this country was not on the eve of very gloomy days, for
he could not believe that the vigour of the population,
or the elasticity of the revenue of which the Noble Lord
had spoken, could ever make up a deficiency of three
and a half millions. The Noble Lord had taken credit
for the Kafir war; but he (Mr. Osborne) must remark
that it had arisen out of gross mismanagement, and would
never have taken place if Lord Stanley had not inter-
fered with the treaty effected by Sir Benjamin D'Urban.
On the whole, the Noble Lord had shown that the pre-
sent was not the retrenching and economizing govern-
ment which the people of this country had expected. On
Monday week, when the question came on, he (Mr. B.
Osborne) should be prepared to enter fully into it. In
the meantime he called upon the Noble Lord to reflect,
and not be led away by the admiration of a militia force
expressed by Lord Chatham. The people of the present
day had not the same sentiments as those which pervaded
the population which existed in the times of that states-
man. If any proposition was made for any increase
either in the army or the navy, ho should vote with the
Hon. Member for Montrose (Mr. Hume), and he should
oppose any addition to the taxation which already op-
pressed the people of this realm.—(Hear, hear.)
The Marquis of GRANBY reminded those lion.
Members who had supported the free-trade measures of
1842 and 1846 of the results which the present budget
exhibited of their policy. The Noble Lord at the head
of the Government had attributed the deficiency of the
revenue to the panic which had pervaded this country,
and to the want of employment in the manufacturing
districts, and therefore he (the Marquis of Granby) was
sorry to think that the Noble Lord had not adopted, the
previous evening, the precautions calculated to prevent a
recurrence of such a panic disturbing the commerce and
industry of the country by the adoption of the resolu-
tion proposed by his (the Marquis of Granby's) Right
lion. Friend and colleague (Mr. Herries). The Noble
Lord had admitted that it would take some time before
tho country could recover from the panic which had
pervaded it, and the misery into which it had fallen,
but he destroyed the chance of recovery by proposing
an increased income-tax for two years, and the continu-
ance of the present tax for five years longer. He
therefore thought the Noble Lord showed that he had
no great confidence in the free-trade measures
which he had supported in 1842, and again in 1846.
Although it was too much to expect the Noble
Lord to return to a sounder course of policy,
still he might in his statement have alluded to
the measures which in his (the Marquis of Granby's)
opinion had conduced to the miseries which the country
had suffered. The Noble Lord ought not to have taken
credit for the increase in the enjoyment of articles of
consumption by the poorer classes of the community,
when the commencement of his speech, in which ho
talked of the number of mills stopped for want of em-
ployment, afforded a contradiction to his calculations.
Much as he regretted that part of the Noble Lord's
speech, he had received much gratification from that
part of it in which the Noble Lord declared his determi-
nation to maintain the independence of the country. He
rejoiced to have heard the Noble Lord state that while
he was an advocate for peace, he thought the best way
to secure it was to be prepared for war. He (the Mar-
quis of Granby) would not attempt now to enter upon
the question of the different items of expenditure for
the army and navy; he would only observe that he re-
joiced to hear the Noble Lord utter the patriotic senti-
ments which he had expressed in reference to that part
of the subject. At the same time he must join in the
condemnation of the increase of a tax, which only ought
to be resorted to in the worst times of war.—(Hear.)
Sir B. HALL said that, in common with the Hon.
Member for Montrose (Mr. Hume), he had heard with
sincere pain and deep regret the announcement which
had to-night been made by the Noble Lord at the head
of the Government. Though the Noble Lord who had
just down had approved of the proposition of the Go-
vernment in reference to the maintenance of the inde-
pendence of thiscountry—in which he (Sir B. Hall) con-
curred—still he thought that, lookiag to the present
position of foreign affairs, the Government and Legis-
lature could well afford to look at the state and con-
dition of the population at home. He did not think
there was anything to apprehend from foreign
invasion ; and, therefore, looking at the distress
which prevailed throughout the country, he was of
opinion that the present was not the time for increasing
the expenditure, and consequently the burdens on
the people. In taxation not a single reduction was
promised, except the miserable reduction in the tax
on copper, about which nobody cared anything. It
was a fallacy to suppose that the additional income-tax
would only continue for the time specified—tn o years;
because when it fell in another_ Government would be
enabled to make a further increase for a further period.
He (Sir B. Hall) was one of those who had voted with
the Noble Lord against an income-tax in any shape,and
therefore he was surprised that the Noble Lord should
come down now and not only propose a continuance, but
also an increase of that tax. It was an unpopular im-
post, and its unpopularity arose from the unfair way in
which persons in business were taxed, and the proposi-
tion to continue it in its present mode would create the
most general dissatisfaction.--(Hear, hear.) If it were
necessary to continue an income-tax, it ought to be
established on an equitable basis, and ought not to be
enforced on those who lived by their labour or the ex-
ercise of their wits and talents.—(Hear, bear.)
It was, however, to continue in the same state as now,
and the shopkeeper would have to pay as much as the
landed proprietor. He would not now enter into details,
but when the proposition came legitimately before the
House, he should give it the same opposition as when he
had jollied the Noble Lord in voting against the tax
when originally brought forward; and if it was carried,
he should propose that the impost should be extended in
its operation to the sister kingdom.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. G. R. ROBINSON observed that it was mani-
fest from the statement of the Noble Lord at the
head of the Government, that the people of this
country had no hope of obtaining any reduction in
the national expenditure, and must be prepared to
bear additional taxation to make up the existing defi-
ciency. Nothing could be more unsatisfactory than the
statement of to-night. True, there had been since the
Peace a considerable remission of taxation, but mean-
while the condition of the people had retrograded in a
greater and more rapid degree than the reduction of their
burdens. Hence he csutended that protection was essen
tial to the prosperity of the commerce and industry of
the land. The people had been deluded, and their best
interests betrayed, by the delusive prospects held out to
them of the results of free-trade principles. At present