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

like redemption as tho said consolidated 3/. per centum an-

nuities.

" That the said annuities, so to be payable as aforesaid,
shall be charged upon and paid out of the consolidated fund
of the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
" That every contributor shall, on the 22d day of May, ,
1656, make a deposit of 101. per cent. on such sum as he or
she shall choose to subscribe towards raising the said sum of
5,000,0001., with the chief cashier or cashiers of the Governor
and Company of the Bank of England as a security for making
the subsequent payments on or before the days or times
hereinafter mentioneddthat istto say :—Payment of 201. per
cent. on or before the 12. th of June, 1866; 201. per cent, on
or before the 28th of June, 1856 ; 201. per cent. on or before
the 24th of July, 1856 ; 101. per cent, on or before the 28th
of August, 1856 ; and 201. per cent. on or before the 18th of
September, 1856.
" That all the moneys so to be received by the said cashier
or cashiers of the said Governor and Company of the Bank of
England shall-be-paid into the account of the receipt of Her
Majesty's Exchequer at the Bank of England, to be applied
from time to time to such services for Great Britain and Ire-
land as have been or shall be voted by this house, or to such
services as are now charged on the consolidated fund of the
united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or shall be
charged thereon by any act that may be passed hereafter."
Mr. ALCOCK regretted that the right hon. gentleman
had not made up his mind to reduce the duty on fire in-
surances to Is. That duty was a tax upon prudence, and
in direct contravention to the principle of free trade, while
at the same time it pressed unequally on the rich companies
and poor companies. The right hon. gentleman had stated
that such a reduction would cause a loss to the revenue of
from 600,0001. to 700,0001., and no doubt it might do so in
the first year, but he did not believe that such would be
its ultimate effect. In France, where there was no duty,
seven-eighths of the population insured, while in England
only one-third did so, and if the duty in this country were
lowered a larger numberof persons would insure, and there
would be no loss to the revenue, while at the same time
prudence and precaution would be spread among the people.
As to thelincome tax he never wished to see it done away
with, because it afforded the opportutity of removing the
other taxes; bat, at the same time both that tax and the
property tax might be readjusted with advantage. If the
property tax were placed on a fair footing there would be
no necessity for a malt tax or for a duty on tobacco, and
thero would bs much less smuggling and adulteration.
He did not wish to take up the time of the house, but he
would repeat that he regretted that the Chancellor of the
Exchequer had not determined upon reducing the duty ou
fire inbu auce

Mr. HAD FIELD proposed to submit to the committee,
.at a proper time, a proposal for the reduction of the duty
on tire insurances; from 3s. to is per cent.; and he did still
hope that the right hon. gentleman would yield on this
point. He was confident that a great increase of insurances
would f 'flow such a reduction.

Mr. W. WILLIAMS said the financial statement just
submitted was a winding-up of the war, and he saw no
alternative but to place the same confidence in the Govern-
dent on this point as had been placed in them with
regard to the expenditure fur carrying on the war.
As respected the resolution, it was of no use to find fault
with it now. He had expressed a decided opinion re-
garding the two former loans, as well as the funding of
Exehequer-bills —namely, thAt it would have' been much
more prudent and economical if the amount of those loans
had been added, not to the Three par Cent. Consols, but
to the new stock introduced by the right hoe. gentleman
the member for the University of Oxford (Ir. Gladstone).
However, 5,000,000% was too small an amount of itself to
deal with in that way ; but if the whole amount of
_ _

36,000,0001. had been raised in these new stocks it would
have been infinitely better than its addition to the Three
per Cents. He wished to ask the right hot. gentleman
whether it was intended to lay on the table a now estimate
for the army and the various military departments, and
the navy, stating the items upon which reductions from
the proposed war expenditure were to be made ?
Mr. E. BALL asked whether he was to hope that it was
intended to remit the additional duty of 5 per cent. upon
malt? He was quite sure the public would recognise the
propriety of seteh a measure. (Hear.) The statement of
the right hon. gentleman on the subject confirmed his
impression that in proportion as you augmented the duty
on malt, in that proportion you diminished the consump-
tion. (Hear.) If the duty were reduced to 2s par bushel,
or 16s. per quarter, he believed the gross revenue would
eqUal that which would now be derived from this source.
Mr. VANCE, on the part of thelrish distillers, remon-
strated with the right hon. gentleman on his proposal to
retain the present increased of duty on Irish spirits.
Ho warned the right hon. gentleman that if he persisted
in that system the number of gallons brought to charge
nest year in Ireland would be much reduced, and that iu
consequence of the low price of agricultural produce—par-
ticularly of malt—great inducements would be given to
illicit distillation. The present amount of duty was 200
per cent. upon the raw material, and the Chancellor of
the Exchequer was acting very unwisely, even as a ques-
tion of revenue, is retaining so high 'a duty.
Mr. GIBSON did not like one part of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer's speech, in which he seemed to discredit,
as it were, the idea of revising our financial system. Look-
ing back to what had lately been done, the right hon. gen-
tleman left the committee to infer that we had arrived at
a perfect mode of raising the public reveano, that every-
thing worked remarkably well, and that the existing sys-
tem of taxation must be submitted to without any change.
To those opinions he (Hr. Gibson) demurred. He had
never asked for the repeal of a tax upon the ground that
the money could be spared, but on the ground that the le-
j ury produced by such tax to trade and industry was far
greater than the benefit which it yielded to the revenue.
That was a question of fiscal policy which it was the duty
of the Government to consider. The fire insurance duty
was undoubtedly one which ought not only to be reduced
but altoeether abolished, and he bed been glad to find that
the noble member for Lynn (Lord Stanley), in a very able
speech he had. delivered in the country, when shadowing
forth the policy ho would pursue, bad mentioned that tax
as one which ho would be prepared to repeal. He (Mr.
Gibso-o) had repeatedly brought before the house the qu.es-
tiou of the duty on paper, and his motion had been sup-
ported. not only by many hon. members, but he believed by
nearly every gentleman who had tilled the oilice of Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, and who was not in that office
when the motion was brought forward. The right hon.
member for Buckinghamshire (Mr. Disraeli) voted, he be-
lieved, on one occasion for the repeal of the paper duty.
The right hon. member for Oxford University (Mr. Glad-
stone), when he lately visited Manchester, took occasion
himself to attack the paper duties in a manner which made
his (Hr. Gibson's) constituents all the more earnest in urg-
ing him to press the question upon the attention of the
Government. He regarded the paper duty as a disgrace to
the financial system of this country, and, unless tat tax
was repealed, it was impossible to attain those results
which they had in view when they repealed the newspaper
stamp duty and the duty upon advertisements. He was
for taking the excieeman's hand from the press altogether.
He wished to see a free and untaxed press, and that they
could not have so long as the duty upon paper was main-
tained. It had been said the repeal of the newspaper
stamp had proved a failure, but he would take leave to say
that that was a great mistake. He knew of his own know-
ledge that there were at least a hundred penny and three-
half-penny papers in circulation in this kingdom, which
were not in a dying state. They were frequently told that
penny newspapers had departed this life, but the great
difficulty with which the conductors of such publications
had to contend was the duty on paper. He knew, for in-
stance, one small publication—a penny newspaper—which
paid the Government 3,0001. a year as a tax upon paper.
What a tremendous obstacle that was in the way of cheap
literature ! Thus, 3,0001. a-year deducted from the funds
of a penny publication must deprive the managers of the
opportunity of producing good as well as cheap literature.
He concluded that the maintenance of the duty on paper
was utterly inconsistent with the desire which had been
frequently expressed in Parliament for the diffusion of
knowledge emoteg all classes of the people. He therefore
gave notice to the Government that, whether there was a
deficiency or a surplus of revenue, he should feel it his duty
on a fitting occasion to ask that house to repeal the duty
on paper. Be would urge that proposition mainly upon
moral and educational grounds, although he could make a
very strong case upon commercial and industrial grounds.
A reduction of expenditure was an essential preliminary
to an extensive revision of our financial system, and he
hoped the expenditure for the defences of the country
would bo reduced to the amount at which it stood before
the war commenced, if, indeed, it could not be reduced
below that amount. Increased expenditure had been re-
quired on particular emergencies, but the practice had been
to reduce such expenditure as soon as the necessity for it
passed away, and he hoped that no longer expenditure would
be incurred for the defences of the country than wasrequired
to maintain a proper and effective peace establishment. He
could not lend any countenance to the doctrine that before
the commencement of the late war the country was help-
less and defenceless in consequence of the Government not
having been supplied with sufficient funds; for that house
had always supplied the Government with any funds they
required for the defences of the realm. If the state of our
armaments afforded any cause for just complaint, it must
have been owing to the mismanagementand misapplication
of the fonds which Parliament had placed at the disposal
of the Government. He hoped, at no distant period, to
have the opportunity of supporting large reductions in the
public expenditure, and he trusted that the trade and in-
dustry of the country would be relieved from some of those
oppressive Excise duties which had so pernicious au effect
upon the moral and material interests of the great body of
the labouring classes.
Mr. INGE,AM said he was quite prepared to go into the
question of the paper duty; but as the right hon. member
for Manchester had intimated that be would call the at-
tention of the house to that subject on a future occasion,
he (Mr. Ingram) would defer the observations he wished to
make until tie right hon. gentleman brought forward his
motion. He regarded the paper duty as a most obnoxious
tax, and he thought the statements he would be able to
adduce would • satisfy the house that it ought to be abo-
lished.
Mr. DISRAELI—The right hon. gentleman the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer has stated that he has been in com-
munication with an eminent capitalist in this country, and
I am sure it must be gratifying to the house and to the
country to receive from the highest authority upon finan-
cial topics an assurance that the resources of the empire
aro not diminished by the great struggle in which it has re-
cently been engaged, and that, whatever emergency or exi-
gency may arise, we may always appeal to them with full
confidence that they will suffice to vindicate the honour of
the country. I will not touch upon those points connected
with particular taxes to which the Canceller of the Bache-

.goer has referred. Opportunities will no doubt be afforded
for expressing our opinions upon such questions ; but it does
not seem to me that there is, at the present moment, any
very immediate Prospect of a Chancellor of the Exchequer
introducing into this house a proposition for the reduction
of any existing, tax, and I will leave the Chancellor of
the Exchequer to settle with his habitual supporters of
liberal opinions those doctrines of financial finality which
he has promulgated with 80 -much authority, and which
will no doubt be regarded with great attention by th 3
country. I will, however, take this opportunity of most
seriously expressing my hope that when the excitement
of the war which has just terminate,' has passed away, the
Government will give their best attention to measures of
wise, but ar, the same time most rigid economy. (Rear.)
That is expected by the country, and I am convinced that
that is the)3nly spirit of legislation in which we can con-
firm the wise principles of finance upon which our system
is now generally established, and that will enable us to
prepare those resources fur the future which, whenever an
emergency arises,
• lso take this o
will enable us to show the same power
we have recently displayed. I will a ppor
tunity of stating my belief that it would be most unwise
on the part of the country to allow itself to he misled by
what I cannot but regard as a most superficial r.nd ill-
founded opinion, and to suppose that it can gearti itself
against the repetition of many—l will admit mortifying—
incidents which occurred at the commencement of the war,
by habitually supporting a much larger military establish-
ment. (Hear.) I feel persuaded that if we suppose we
can, protect; owning from the repetition of eire4t4 which