The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-22 00:00:00

seven

hundred and thirty-eight dollars

making an increase
an,l a rP(liietion in

C: :ann.:, a., o t•LC.III
steamers in conveying the mails monthly between New York
and Bremen, and one since October last, performing semi-
monthly service between Charleston and Havannah; and a
contract has been made for the transportation of the Pacific
mails across the isthmus from Chagres to Panama. Under
the authority given to the Secretary of the Navy, three ocean
steamers have been constructed and sent to the Pacific, and
are expected to enter upon the mail service between Panama
and Oregon, and the intermediate ports, on the Ist of
January next, and a fourth has been engaged by him for the
service between Havannah and Chagres; so that a regular
monthly mail line will be kept up after that time between
the United States and our territories on the Pacific.

Notwithstanding this great increase in the mail service,
should the revenue continue to increase during the present
year as it did in the last, there will be received nearly fuur
hundred and fifty thousand dollars more than the expenditure.
These consideraticns have satisfied the Postmaster-General
that, with certain modifications of the Act of 1845, the re-
venue may be still further increased, and a reduction of
portages made to a uniform rate cf five cents without an
interference with the principle, which has been constantly
and properly enforced, of making that department sustain

CONCLUSION.
of
thepubl experience
icpelicy.svoef
Nothing can retard the onward pdrogrmeasisntoafinoiunrg country,
and and prevent us from assuming an
rthanekpaamong
anarteicounrsr,ebncuet
tan dainsreemawrdise
necessary and unavoidable vindication of the national
have just closed an honourable..pea9e—a war rendered
tu present
that
which conditionexi
existed
thed i
mm countryimmediately
te isy
eriingthiltasrainnd
some honour.respects e
after the close of the war with Great Britain in 1815,
and the occasion is deemed to be a proper one to take
a retrospect of the measures of public policy which followed
that war. There was at that period of our history a depar-
ture from our earlier policy. The enlargement of the powers
of the federal government by construction, which obtained,
was not warranted by any just interpretation of the Consti-
tution. A few years after the close o: that war a series of
measures was adopted, which, united and combined, consti-
tuted what was termed by their authors and advocates the
"American system."
[The Message then goes on at great length to set forth the
" democratic" views of this "American System." The Mes-
sage closes thus :—]
During the period I have administered the executive de-
partment of the Government, great and important questions
of public policy, foreign and domestic, have arisen upon which
it was my duty to act. It may indeed be truly said that
my administration has fallen upon eventful times. I
have felt most sensibly the weight of the high responsibilities
devolved upon me. With no other object than the public
good, the enduring fame, and permanent prosperity of my
country, I have pursued the convictions of my own best
judgment. The impartial arbitrament of enlightened public
opinion, present and future, will determine how far the
public policy I have maintained, and the measures I have
from time to time recommended, may have tended to
advance or retard the public prosperity at home, and to
elevate or depress the estimate of our national character
abroad.

Invoking the blessings of the Almighty upon your deli-
berations at your present important sessions, my ardent hope
is, that in a spirit of harmony and concord, you may be
guided to wise results, and such as may redound to the hap-
piness, the honour, and the glory of our beloved country.
Washington, December sth, 1848.

JAMES K. POI.K.

From Mexico we learn that almost immediately after the
adjournment of Congress a new meeting 'was convened, os-
tensibly to appoint commissioners to meet those from the
United Sates for reviewinl• and marking the boundary be-
tween the ceded territories and Mexico. The real objects,
however, are said to be a revision of the tariff, with a view to
the reduction of duties and the authorising terms that may
be successful, fora loan of 6 0 000 dollars.

The position of political affairs in Mexico seems unchanged,
and therefore unstable; still, if, as it is rum.ured, Paredes
left his country in the Great Western, recently, one element
of disturbance has bee,a removed.

MR. COBDEN'S PLAN OF FINAN-
f7T,',T, '-`77"-`;'.7 ANT-, N-7 "Prir",Y‘T-v*

Leation I

r

:;:. ..

relorm, was read on Wednesday night, at the meeting
of the Liverpool Financial Reform Association :
London, 103, Westbourne-terrace, Dec. 18.
Dear Sir,—l gathered, from the conversation I had
with you and the members of the Financial Reform As-
sociation in Liverpool, that you had two objects in view
—first, the substitution of direct for indirect taxation ;
and, secondly, a diminution of the present amount of
Government expenditure. I ventured to offer an opinion,
which I now beg to repeat, that it would be far easier
to effect a reduction of expenditure to the extent of
10,000,0004, end apply the whole of that sum to the re-
moval of Excise and Customs' duties, than to transfer the
same amount from indirect to direct taxation. Excepting
in Liverpool and a few of our largest trading towns, there
is not, at present, a very great force of public opinion in
favour of direct taxation. It has yet to be created and
organized. But there is a very general sympathy felt in
the proceedings of your body, founded upon a strong de-
sire to have the burdens of taxation lightened; and
there is some expectation that yeti will put forth a plan
for effecting that object. My reason fur now troubling
you is to suggest whether it might not be advisable to
publish a national budget, exhibiting on one side a con-
siderable reduction in the expenditure, and on the other
the several Excise and Customs duties which you pro-
pose in the first place to abolish. Ido not mean by this
a perfect financial scheme, such as may ho contemplated
as the ulterior object of your association, but a plan
which, whilst it went in the direction of your principle
of direct taxation, and relieved the mass of consumers
from a heavy tax upon their necessaries and comforts,
should commit these politicians of all shades who now
join in the vain cry for " economy and retrenchment" to
some practical measure worth contending for.
I suggest that you take for the basis of your budget
the expenditure of 1835. The whole cost of the Go-
vernment in tbat year, including interest of debt, was
44,422,0001. For the twelve months ending the sth of
April last it amounted to 55,175,000/., being an inercr.se
of 10,750,000/. The interest of the debt was less by
87,000/. in the latter than in the former year, makinz
the comparison so much the more favourable to 1848.
The estimated expenditure for the current year eudir g
the sth of April, 1849 (see Lord J. Russell's speech 18th
February last), is 54,596,000/.; so that we take the in-
crease to be, in round numbers, 10,000,0001. since 1835.
Do you see any good reasons why we should not return
to the expenditure of that year? Englishmen love pre-
cedents; and they are not easily persuaded that any-
thing is Utopian or impracticable which has been
accomplished within the last thirteen years; and this is
one reason, though I will find you a better, why you
should base your budget upon that of 1835. If we go
back a little further, to the time when this nation was
still under the rule of the boroughmongers, we shalt
find a startling argument in favour of this plan. In
1830, the last year of the Wellington-net Administra-
tion, the expenditure for all purposes, exclusive of the
interest of the debt, was 18,024,0001.; for the twelve
months ending the sth of April of the present year, it
amounted to 26,747,0001. The Tory Government was
overturned the following year upon the motion of Sir
Henry Parnell in favour of economy, and the House of
Commons was soon afterwards reformed, mainly on the
plea of its profligate waste of the people's money; and
yet we have now an increase to the expenditure of
8,723,0001., or nearly 50 per cent., as the fruits of the
Reform Act. We are now actually expending more
upon the army, navy, and Ordnance alone, than sufficient
for the maintenance of the whole civil and military esta-
blishments under the Duke of Wellington's Govern-
meat! When these facts shall be generally known, the
country wilt, I think, be in the humour for responding to
your appeal, if you inscribe as your motto upon your
banner—" The Expenditure of 1835;" which will be a
reduction of 10,000,0001. from this year's budget.
I would not advise you to cemplicate your plan by
proposing any new imposts, to rouse the antaeoeisee of
interested parties, or any modifications or astituti
of existing taxes, to destroy that simplicity of object
which, above all things, is necessary to the success of a
public agitation. But there is one tax from which the
dominant class in this country has exempted itself for
halt' a century, which exemption would be disgraceful
to the character of the British people any longer to tole-
rate—l mean the probate and legacy duty. In the last
year upwards of two millions of pounds were paid into
the Exchquer by the heirs to personal property, con-
sisting mainly of the hard-earned accumulations of our
merchants, manufacturers, professional men, traders,
and mechanics ; whilst the ducal domain, or the estate
of the great landed proprietor, passed untaxed from
the dead to the living. This year will be memorable
for having witnessed the destruction of the last remain-
ing powers of feudalism in all the countries; ol the
Continent, excepting Russia. But I know of no privi-
lege which the nobles of Prussia, Gallicia, or Hungary
have been compelled to surrender, as a tribute to the
enlightenment of this age, more unjust in principle than
that which is conferred upon our landed proprietors in
the statute passed by themselves, imposing duties exclu-
sively upon the inheritance of personal property. Let
us not boast of English freedom, or of equality before
the law, whilst this injustice remains. In what form
could aristocratic privilege asaume a more offensive and
costly aspect than in that of a bold and palpable exemp-
tion from taxation? Ido not think that great resistance
will be offered to the equitable adjustment of this tax,
provided the people speak out as becomes them. No
living proprietor will be affected by the change; and the
landholders are as conscious as you or I that these are
not times for transmitting such a class of privilege to
posterity. I assume that the probate and legacy duty
upon real estate, entailed sad unentailed, will yield, at a
moderate estimate, 1,500,000/. By the above plan you
would have a disposable surplus revenue of 11,500,0001.,
viz., ten millions from the reduction of expenditure, and
a million and a half from the increased produce of the
probate and legacy duty.
I will now trouble you with my views as to the dis-
posal of that amount, premising that I have nct felt
quite free to choose in every instance those items of the
Customs and Excise duties which I should myself have
preferred to abolish or reduce, but have been partly in-
fluenced by the desire to enlist the sympathy and sup-
port of every class and interest in the community, whose
co-operation will be abundantly reqaisite to force the
adoption of the plan upon Government.
To begin with the Customs duties. The present duty
of 2s. 2id. per lb. upon tea, whether viewed as a tax
upon the most harmless stimulant enjoyed by the people
or as an impediment to the operations of our merchants
trading with China, is one of the most indefensible in
the tariff. I would reduce the duty to Is. perlb., or to an
ad valorem duty yielding the same amount of revenue,
Ewhich, according to the estimate of the Chancellor of
chequer, in his speech on Mr. Cardwell's motion,
there would be a less for the first year of 2,000,000/.
The duty on timber and wood must be wholly abolished.
This is a necessary consequence, if not an accompani-
ment, of the repeal of the navigation-laws. The
amount is 945,0001. (I have taken this and all the follow-
ing items from the finance accounts for the year ending
January 5, 1648, deducting the expense of collection.) I
propose, also, to take the duty off butter, cheese, and up-
wards of one hundred items of the Customs duties, yield-
ing altogether 516,000/.; and leaving only about 20 arti-
cles in the tariff paying duty.
These three sums amount to 3,461,0004
Next, with reference to the Excise. It may be laid
down as a rule, that, whenever you touch an Excise duty
at all, it should be totally abolished; because the great
objection to such taxes, the interference of the excise•
men with the processes of production, applies equally
whether the duty be great or small. This should be
borne in mind if you deal with the malt tax, and you
must deal with it, if you would enlist the sympathy of
the county constituents in your movement. To a man
the farmers are in favour of the repeal of the malt tax, and
this, not merely because it would,add to the contentmeut a
of the peasantry by cheapening beverage which they
universally consume, and also relieve their employers
from a heavy tax upon the beer they give to their
labourers at certain seasons, but the best agriclturists
loudly protest against the duty on the plea that it denies
them the free application of their capital to the fatten-
ing of cattle upon malt, and thus prevents the profitable
growth of barley upon stiff clay lands. Upon this sub.
ject Mr. Lattimore, speaking for en influential deputa-
tion of landlords and farmers which had an interview
with Lord J. Russell in February last, said,—" The
malt tax disarranged the best modes of cultivation,' en-
hanced the price of artificial food fur stock and cattle,
whereby the fertility of the soil was deteriorated, the
demand for labour lessened, the supply of bread-corn
and animal food considerably decreased, and the com•
forts of the people and the wealth of the country were
also greatly impaired." Your " national budget" would
therefore be undeserving the name if it did not include
the total repeal of the malt tax, amounting to 4,260,000/.
In Kent, Sussex, and two or three other counties,
there is an active agitation against the hop duty. The
expense of collecting this tax is alone sufficient to con-
demn it. Nothing could so well exemplify the wasteful
and costly process of collecting revenue by means of
Excise duties as the spectacle exhibited, for a month or
six weeks every autumn, of a little army of excisemen
dispersing themselves over half a score of counties, to
levy a tax in the fields and gardens of the hop-planters.
I question! if; anything more barbarous could be met
with in Turkey or any uncivilized country where politi-
cal economy had never been heard of even by name. I
propose, therefore, the abolition of the hop duty,
amounting to 416,000/. By including the malt and hop
duties you will secure the co-operation of the farmers,
who, now that free trade is the settled principle of our
legislation, have a common interest with the inhabitants
of the towns. The landlords, too (at least such of them
as are not merely professional politicians), will hence-
forth be found in the front ranks of those who advocate
economy and retrenchment in the national expenditure.
Already they have begun to ask, and with good reason,
why should we not have cheap government as well as
cheap corn?
Next is the article of soap. What a satire upon our
sanitary acts, and all the pompous agitations in favour
of baths and washhouses is this tax upon the necessary
:t
2oyt,elementhe hohbeoeaeo ohuofahyt
cleanse)ayteawaaeramounting
cleanlinesshtifioocrunohunmast
io(fn,
raa?fgop
eNohi
asem :80
htytsoeoma:tisunnhott•
doyaeo
nsudlpoamni
upon
:de
sndt
paper
yet.
cepeo, saidliterature
uwi
or
:ebb
yu,
raise
aspi
nos; upon
cl.uditnnvgittetn,hi:siesruin your budget, you will promote the reli-
gious, moral, and intellectual of the people
tinh:ir paoccnep nationaltable parties,toodaullcation.
Twh he altaesvtetrwo may
itemsbe
will draw towards you the sympathies of the Scotch
amountEx-
se reformeza.
These four sums
lt i tso au
although
,OdCooe/3.
tchi
e window-tax, which,
I come to taxes properly so called. There is
to the fearful Pedoi
tEivxecisietidduustiterys,, opiseraotpeeans not, like the
tn,.eenttioto prtohclau.
it
obstructs the light pf heaven;" and, in these° brinf e words.

we may read its inevitable docm. London, Bath, and
~,!,,r p;f;;„-,me rrcz,:;.," tbn tr.w

. .

-
Butigt.T." It ) ivicS I,6lu,Uout. iiy '• Way a..(1
means" arc so nearly exhausted thLt I can only add the
advertisement duty, amounting to 160,0001.
These too sums amount to 1,770.000/. The total loss
of revenue by the reduction of the above duties and
taxes, is 11,477,0001., or 23,0001. less than the
11,500,0001. of surplus which I propose to create by the
diminution of expenditure, and the equalization of the
probate and legacy. duty. I subjoin a summary of the
foregoing, in a concise tabular form :
NATIONAL BUDGET.
Proposed reduction of expendi-
ture ... ..• £10,000,000
Propos:el legacy and probate duty
upon real estate, whether en-
tailed or unentailed

1,500,000

Proposed amount of surplus re-
venue ... ...

... £11,500,000

PROPOSED REDUCTIONS OF DUTIES AND TAXES,
Customs Duties.
.Loss of Revenue.
Tea—Duty to be reduced to ls.
per pound ... ••• .£2,000,000
Timber and Wood—Duty abo-
lished ...
Butter, cheese, and upwards of
100 smaller items of the tariff—
Duties abolished

945,000

... .L 3,431,000

... £6,246,000

£1,170,J