The Sun.
London, England, 1856-05-20 00:00:00

and annually, to apply it to the extinction of the debt. 111
All other contrivances of financiers—all pretended sinking n 1
funds, however ingeniously formed or concealed under
specious phrases, will be found in practice delusive and sh
disappointing. (Heer, hear.) When we intrust to sub- of
ordinate bodies the power of raising money upon the secu-
rity of taxes we impose an obligation of creating an annual
sinking fund which is devoted to the extinction of a por- sh
tion of the principal of the debt. In every case where a 5,
county or a borough, a board 9f guardians, or any of the at
various municipal bodies with which England is covered, tb
receives from Parliament the power of effecting a loan, it In
is always accompanied with a condition which requires ce
that an annual sinking fund shall be set apart for the ex- 01
tinction of the loan. I believe there is not a single instance ti
in which the power of borrowing thus conferred by Parlia- 01
ment upon any public body is not accompanied by a condi- Si
tion of that sort. Parliament recognises the wisdom and policy
of that principle as applied to all public bodies except itself. ce
Uafortanately, it has hitherto been remiss in applying that E
mode of extinguishing debt to the largest of all debts—viz.,
the debt which the nation has itself incurred. The loan h
which will presently be submitted to the committee has h
been effected in Consols, without any resort to terminable s
annuities. Perpetual annuities have been found by expo- U
rience to be that form of borrowing which is at once most c
advantageous to the borrower and to the lender. It is con-
venient to the borrower because he never can be called upon
for the principal of the loan ; his creditor is a mortgagee 8
who never can foreclose ; while it is also convenient to the I
lender, because it is an advantage to him not to be com- a
pelleZto receive his money before he wants it. At the a
same time le can go into the market whenever ho chooses, t
and by selling his perpetual annuities realise his capital. f
The position of the public creditor reminds me of the de- t
scription applied to the keeper of a celebrated club at a i
time when. gambling in clubs was more common than hap- s
pily it is now—
" Who, nursed in clubs, disdains a vulgar trade, 1
Exults in trust, and blushes to be paid."
(A. laugh.). Such are the feelings of the public creditor. I
He wishes not to be compelled to receive the capital which
he has advanced to the Government ; and it is an advan-
tage to tfie Government, on the other hand, not to be c
forced, before it can effect the operation upon favourable I
terms to repay the sum so advanced... But it is an entire 1
mistake to suppose that because the annuity is perpetual,
therefore the debt must be permanent: The Government t
has the same facility of paying off the creditor who has ad-
vsnced his money in perpetual annuities as it has been the I
case of the creditor who has advanced in terminable an-
nuitier. .It is true that in effecting a 'loan in terminable I
annuitiee the Government compels itself to repay annually
a portion of the principal ; but in entejectime itself to that
necessity, it makes worse terms on behalf of the public than
it would do if the loan were effected in perpetual annuities.
Sir, there seems to lee an impression iu seine qUarters that
atethis period of transition from war to peace we ought
to enter upon a revision of our whole system of taxation.
(Hear, hear.) It is ssi.l that the present moment affords
a favourable opportunity for a complete review of our
whole fiscal system, and tba; we are imperatively called
upon to, undertake it. Before we adopt 04 view, let
us consider what great exortiona have of late years
been made in the revision of our taxation. In 1 t 2
Sir Robert Peel subjeCted the whole of our tariff to a
complete review. In 1816 a large part of it again came
under the consideration of Parliament, and in 1853
the whole of our Crptome' duties underwent revision. By
these successive revisions all prohibitive, protective, and
excessive duties have been swept away, and the only dreiea
as far as I know which can now be pointed out as being
of the nature of protective duties are those on foreign
spirits and on hops. The Customs duty ou foreign spirits
is, no doubt, somewhat higher than the duty upon British
and colonial spirits. The duty on foreign spirits is 15s. per
gallon ; while on colonial spirits the ditty is Bs. 2d., and
on British spirits Sc. However high apparently may be
the duty on foreign spirits, it has never been considered
liable to serious objection on the ground of being a protec-
tive duty. :With regard to hops, it is tree the Customs'
duty isomore than double the Excise duty, and in ordinary
years amounts nearly to a prohibition upon the introduc-
tion of foreign hops. The entire revenue derived from
starfit received very close attention when my right hon.
friend at Ur,* I,e.A.ci of the Admiralty (S r C. Wood) held the
office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, and that branch of
revenue is now in a satisfactory state. The whole subject
of bills and receipts was dealt with in 1853 by the right hen.
gentleman the member for the University of Oxford, and
the neveapaper stamp duty was repealed last session. The
window tax was repealed in 1851, at a lose to the revenue of
1,170,0001. The asseevet taxes were revised is 1853—rates
were reduced and exemptions abolished, which resulted in
remission of 290,000 h a-year. With regard to the land tax
the rates aro irrevocably fixed, and there is no opportunity
for revision. As to the income tax, we lately had a de-
bate in this house, in which a plan was proposed for com-
muting it into it property' tax—a plan which I trust will
never receive the sanction of this house. With regard to
the excise, the whole revenue from that source has been, of
latoyeai s, constantly under the consideration of Parliament.
The duty on bricks was repeated in 1850, being a remission
of 456,0001. The duty on soap was repealed in 1853, being
a remission of 1,129,0001. In the same year the hackney-
carriage
and post-horse duties were reduced, and in 1853
a reduction was male in the stage-carriage duties.
The Post-office loses the character of a branch of reve-
nue, inasmuch as the whole net revenue of the Post-office,
after the expenses of the inland Post-office are defrayed, is
only a little more than sufficient to cover the expense of
foreign mails. It seems to me, the great obstacle to the im-
provement of our system of taxation is owing not to any
want of care on the part of Parliament, nor to any want
of frequent revisions and suggestions elaborately carried
out by successive Governments, but to the'necessity under
which we are unfortunately placed of raising a large reve-
nue to meet the expenditn.re of the country. As long as
that necessity exists I fear it will be impossible for us to
avoid imposing some taxes and maintaining others at cer-
tain rates, which we should be willing, if wo had the op-
tion, to alter. At the present moment, after the large ex-
penses of the last fcw years, it may be interesting to the
committee to hear how the public expenditure of this coun-
try stands in relation to that of other countries. With re-
gard to the proportion which the debt bears to other
branches of expenditure, and the similar expenditure in
some foreign countries, I have prepared a table which, I
think, places the matter in the clearest light
'Sc; ;o Tzi
A 1.4 8 g
Year. A a
Total. t,' 7,
130 g o.
Ee;m
• Cr 71'
"
.f, S a.d .£ s. d.
1852-3 27,918,027 10,198,416 11,102.887 55,219.330 1 19 4 9 19 5
1853-4 27 790,262 16,437,769 11,566,500 55,844,531 1 19 6 0 19 10
1854-5 27,464,533 3-i,121,706 12,214,418 70.200 647 2 9 4 1 9 9
1855-6 28.112.824 61,661 287 13.270,73 ~ 93.044,746'3 5 0 2 5 4