The Sun.
London, England, 1851-02-18 00:00:00

AN

THE SUN,

Mr. SAIMEIR regrette,l that tin rnca..:urc had r.c,t.
introduced More. He hoped facilities would be afforded for
appeals.
In reply to Mr. FAGAN,
Sir W. SOMERVILLE said the old townlands would be
retained.
Mr. SCULLY thoitght the operation of the Bill would
be inconsistent with the arrangements under the Poor-law.
Leave was given to bring in the Bill.
The other orders were disposed of, and the House adjourned
at a Quarter to Twelve o'clock.

PARLIAMEN TARY BUSINESS.

(From the Votes and Proceedings of the House of Commons.
MONDAY, FEB. 17.

NOTICES GIVEN AT THE PRIVATE BILL OFFICE.
The undernamed Bills are appointed to be read a second
time on Wednesday, Feb. 19:—
Birkenhead Dock Trustees (Alteration of Liverpool Dock
and Birkenhead Dock Rates, &c.)
Manchester and Salford Extension Railway.
Bolton, Blackburn, Clitheroe, and West Yorkshire Railway.
Liverpool Royal Institution.
Elland Improvement Waterworks and Lighting.
Royston and Hitchin Railway.
Great Northern Railway Amendment (No. 1).
Great Northern Railway (No, 2).
Great Northern Railway (No. 3).
Islington Cattle Market.
Scottish Central Railway.
Monkland Railways.
Caledonian Railway (Motherwell Branch Extension and
and Lesmabagow Branches Lease).
Waterford and Kilkenny Railway.

LONDON,

THE PRECIOUS BUDGET,

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

(From the Times.)
We may as well satisfy at once the curiosity of our readers
as to the contents of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's
Budget for the year ending April 5, 1852. Sir Charles, find-
ing that he may expect a surplus of about 1,892,0001. for
that year, proposes the following measures :—The repeal of
the window-tax, and the substitution of a moderate house-
tax on the better class of houses; a reduction of the duty o❑
foreign timber; a repeal of that on foreign agricultural seed;
a reduction and equalization of the duties on foreign and
colonial coffee, as well as chicory; a removal of the cost of
pauper lunatics, as well as of the approaching census, from
the local rates to the Consolidated Fund; another lease of
the income-tax for three years, without any modification ;
and the application of about 1,000,0001. of next year's surplus
towards the reduction of the National Debt.

As there still remain seven weeks of the financial year, it
is only possible as yet to give an approximate statement of
its income and expenditure. The former promises to be
considerably greater, the latter considerably less, than Sir
Charles ventured to anticipate in his financial speech of the
15th of March last. Hence the surplus, which he then esti-
mated at a million and a half, and which he partly disposed
of, will, nevertheless, probably be found next April 5 to be
about 2,521,0001. His estimate of the income for the year
ending April 5, 1852, is necessarily founded on the latest
returns of the revenue, taking into account the recent re-
ductions, and various other modifying circumstances. It is
as follows:
Customs
Excise
Stamps
Taxes

Property-tax - ..
Post-office ...
Crown Lands ...
Miscellaneous ...
Old stores, &c. ....

... 20,400,000
... 14,000,000
... 6,310,000
... 4,348,000

... 5,380,000
... 830,000
... 160,000
• • 262,000
450,000

£52,140,000
The estimated expenditure for the same yearis as follows :
Charge for the Funded Debt, including
annuities ... £27,685,000
Interest of Exchequer-bills ... 404,000
Civil List and other charges —. ... 2,600,000
Army, including Commissarit... ... 6,593,945
Navy 6,537,053
Ordnance ... 2,421,171
Miscellaneous, including census ... 4,000,000

£50,247,171
Estimated surplus ... ... 1,892,829
This surplus, in round numbers 1,890,0001., Sir Charles
Wood wishes to make the most of. He is also very excu-
sably desirous to dispose of it in his own way, and without
a too servile compliance with the demands of his numer-
ous persecutors. His ideas of good financial hus-
bandry have not permitted him to spend it in re-
mitting a third of the income-tax, which is almost as
far as it would have gone in that direction. After con-
sidering the income-tax in every possible light, and
turning over all sorts of propositions for its more
equitable adjustment, the only conclusion he has come to is
that it is so harmoniously unjust, and so symmetrically
wrong, that any attempt to make it fair would only render
it more flagrantly unjust. For our own part, it seems the
simplest thing in the world to levy a different rate on the dif-
ferent schedules. As it is necessary to divide income into
classes for the purposes of taxation, and as these classes re-
present the greatest actual differences—differences which
everybody feels—we do not see why the Chancellor of the
Exchequer should not recognize a classification made to his
hand. The pablic feels the difference, and Sir Charles
Wood may depend on it that the receipts of the tax are very
largely affected by that feeling, perhaps almost as much as
if the difference were recognized. Professional men and
tradesmen, and all who live by spinning the contents of their
brains, are satisfied that there is a deep injustice in taxing those
brains, which -to-morrow may be dust or desolation, as if
they were broad acres that have drunk in the sunshine
and the rain ever since the creation, and will to the " crack
o' doom." The result of this general feeling is that people
will capitalize their incomes, after rules of their own, to get
off the tax altogether. Now, if Sir Charles Wood, who is
open to discussion on the mode of assessment under Schedule
B, would'also take it into consideration whether 4d. or sd. in
the pound would not harmonize better with the actual value
of the incomes under Schedule D, we think he might, not
improbably allay a deep sense of injustice without much sa-
crifice of revenue. We really believe that many men would
readily pay a tax adjusted to their case who now feel no he-
sitation in avoiding a tax which they think wholly above it.
That the income-tax, however, is full of injustice, is confessed
bv the present ri liculous—not to say cowardly practice—of
voting it triennially, notwithstanding the increasing deter-
mination of our free-trade financiers to keep on the blister as
long as the patient will bear it. A discussion would neces-
sarily bring out the anomalies and hardships of the tax, so a
discussion is to be avoided by a continual adjournment to
this day three years; though if we are to wait till we have a
surplus large enough to dispense with the tax altogether,
that day, it is clear, will never come.
To a mind so keenly susceptible of arithmetical beauty, it
must have been a very sore trial not to set the surplus
against the window-tax, and save all further trouble about
the budget. We will venture to say, that had Sir Charles
done so, it would have been thought as grand an idea as the
Crystal Palace or any other wonder of the age. The esti-
mated surplus is about 1,890,0001., and the produce of the
window-tax is stated to be 1,856,000/. What an opportunity
of doing the thing neatly ! Sir Charles, however, is proof
against the temptation. He proposes, indeed, the entire re-
peal of the window-tax, so that no tax shall hereafter attach
to any house in relation to its windows. As it is his view,
however, that the objection lies rather against the mode of
assessment than against the principle of a tax upon resi-
dences, and as he wants to do a little execution in some other
departments of the revenue, he proposes to lay on a house-
tax, but of a very different amount to that which existed
prior to 1833. The house-tax then was after the rate of
Is. 6d. in the pound on a rental of 101. and under 201., 2s. 3d.
on 201. and under 401., and 2s. 10d. on 40/. per annum and
upwards; and produced in the last year of its existence
1,491,472/. From that impost house property was altoge-
ther relieved, and it has since been further exempted
from the glass-duty, brick-daty, and partially from
that on timber. It is now proposed that houses
shall be charged as follows: All now paying window-tax,
but not of the annual value of 201., to be entirely exempt.
All not now paying window-tax, but of the annual value of
201. or upwards, to pay two-thirds of the lowest window-tax,
viz., 12s. All of the annual value of -XL and upwards, now
paying window-tax, to ay two-thirds of the amount now
paid for window-tax. New houses to pay at the rate of ls.
in the pound on their annual value, but if they be occupied
as shops, public-houses, or farm-houses, 9d. in the pound
only. Notwithstanding the elaborate symmetry of this plan,
it is far from meeting all the difficulties of the case, and still
farther from satisfying the ardent gentlemen who have lately
devoted themselves to the emancipation of light. But as the
discussion threatens to be rather minute we gladly leave it
to its own proper time.
As it is calculated that 120,000 houses will on
the above scheme pay neither window nor house
tax, and as the remainder will on the average pay
only two-thirds of the present impost, Sir Charles expects to
lose only 700,0001. by the scheme, and to raise 1,155,000/. by
his future house-tax. This will, therefore, leave 1,189,0001.
of the next year's estimated surplus at liberty for other re-
ductions. It is sufficient in this place to state very briefly
the reductions which have found favour in Sir Charles's dis-
criminating eyes. With a splendid equality of justice, he
proposes to reduce the duty on foreign and colonial coffee, as
also on chicory—which Sir Charles does not grow—and on
every other root used or mixed with coffee, to a uniform level
of 3d. a pound. This reduction of duty will cost 176,0001.
It is then proposed to reduce the duty on foreign timber to
half its present amount viz., that upon sawn timber from
20s. to 10s., and that upon hewn timber from 15s. to 7s. 6d.
This will cost 286,000/. Next comes a duty on clover,
grass, and other agricultural seeds, which has been
already reduced, with very great benefit to farmers,
incompatible
with which' still remains to an amount very
with the principle of letting raw materials in free. It is to
be reduced to a nominal amount at the trifling cost of 30,000/.
A portion of the expenses of pauper lunatics throughout the
United Kingdom will be charged on the Consolidated Fund
to the amount of 150,0001. The reductions thus to come
into effect during the next year will be—

On sugar ...
On windows
On coffee ...
On timber ...
On seeds .••

... £330,000
700,0)0
... 176,000
... 256,000
30,000

Gain to the public £1,522,000
But as Sir Charles anticipates that the loss by the
first of these items will be compensated by the ge-
neral improvement of the revenue, and as the reduction
in coffee and timber will to some extent be
made up, it is hoped that the revenue will not really
lose more than 1,130,000/. by these reduc-
tions, which, after the charge for pauper lunatics has been
further added, will leave a surplus for future years of 612,0001.
As half-a-year's window-tax will come into next year's ac-
count, this surplus in April 5, 1852, will be 962,000 r.
Need we ask what is to be done with this? As honest
men, in the midst of all these reductions, we are bound to re-
member that we are in debt, and Sir Charles, we are glad to
say, does remember it. After having increased our debt
27,000,000/. sincethe year 1835, we cannot with decency eat
up the whole of our surplus ourselves, and give no thought
for posterity. We must be just before we are generous, and
still more before we are selfish. There are those, we know,
who think it lost labour to attempt any impression on the
mountain of our national debt ; but at least let us escape the
stigma of often adding, and never subtracting from it.
n
(From the Chroicle.)
. . _ _

The same reasons-which induced the -House of Commons

to postpone the debates on the Budget will serve as our *us-
tmi fiacyatt
however,i onfor
convenienta t present
to
o givet discuss
some
gtenineradl account
of of Sir Charles Wood's statement, and of the financial ar-
rangements which he proposes to Parliament. He calcu-
lates that the surplus, which, for the year ending in January
last, amounted to nearly 2,800,0001. will be reduced to
2,521,0001. at the close of the financial year in April next.
Deducting the portion of this sum which accrued in the first
quarter of the year from duties afterwards repealed, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer reckons the disposable surplus
for the ensuing year at I,B92,oool.—being the difference be-
tween an estimated receipt of fifty-two millions and an esti-
mated expenditure of somewhat more than fifty millions.
The sums granted by the House of Commons for the
service of the current year, amounting to 50,776,000/.,
will, he anticipates, be found to have exceeded the ac-
tual expenditure (which he calculates at 50,134,9001.)
by no less a sum than 640,000/. It is not proposed
that any further reduction shduld be made at present;
and although the purchases on account of the Sinking Fund
have amounted in the last twelve months to 2,330,0001., to
which an equal diminution of the debt will be added during
the ensuing year, an increase has taken place in the Ter-
minable Annuities, which leaves the annual charge as high
as before, although representing a smaller principal sum.
In opening his propositions for the disposal of the estimated
surplus, the Chancellor of the Exchequer declared his opinion
that the revenue ought habitually to exceed the expenditure
by a million sterling. The debt had, he complained, in-
creased by twenty-seven millions during twenty-seven years
of uninteirupted peace. It was-necessary, for. the credit of
the country, to make a commencement of the difficult task of
reducing the amount. To this purpose, therefore, he
proposes to apply about one-half of his surplus,
distributing the remainder for the relief of tax-
payers, and of certain special branches of trade.
The chief financial concession, as was previously
known, is the remission or commutation of the window-tax.
It is, however, to be effected by a somewhat complicated
and artificial arrangement, which appeared to puzzle the
House to a considerable extent as the Minister communi-
cated various fragments of his plan in slow succession. His
f(eneral statement of his intention was received in the first
instance with peals of laughter, provoked by the declaration
that the repeal of the window-tax would be a benefit more
peculiarly to the agricultural classes—a representation ex-
actly analogous to
,Lord John Russell's appeal to the Roman
1 Catholic laity as the persons to be principally protected by