The Sun.
London, England, 1860-03-21 00:00:00

A ROUS_EE EEPER ON TILE BUDGET:

" A Housekeeping Woman," in a letter to a con-
temporary, says :
" As we are supposed to receive compensation
for income tax from the reduction in duties, it
behoves us to insist that the benefit is not suffered
to become P. mockery. The house-keeping classes
are roughly concluded to be under obligation to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer in common with the
trading classes. It is not so. They are at the mercy
of the tradespeople, equally at the mercy of preju-
dice, and in the condition at all events of depending
upon competitive traders before the lowered taxa-
tion reaches: to them. In the course of the last fort-
night I have put the question to our tradespeople,
flow much lower will you be enabled to charge
after the treaty ?' and have invariably been an-
swered, ' There will be no difference.' Our sta-
tioner pleads the anticipatory advance on the
part of the paper manufacturers ; a friendly
brewer asserts that the abolition of the hop duty
cannot possibly affect
.beer beyond 6d. per firkin,
which will necessarily not reach the consumer, since
the great bulk of hops as a cargo checks the im-
porting of them, and the quantity of them received
from abroad will ba little increased upon that de-
rived by our present trade. The silk mercer is al-
ready chuckling over his extra 15 per cent., and
every one knows gloves are as dear in Paris as in
London, and not likely soon to cover the horny
hands which are to be so active in Mr. Gladstone 's
village paper-mills. Wine is to be delivered 6d. per
bottle lower, but that is for the advantage of those
who can afford to use it. We have neither school,
boarding-house, nor ' establishment' to bring us
any income tax equivalent for cheap nutmegs or
currants. So far to us housekeepers the budget
promises to be a costly delusion. Nevertheless
we are content to receive it on parliamentary sanc-
tion, for the sake of the impulse and enrichment
of trade. I would desire to obviate, or, if that
looks like romance, to diminish the hardship of
direct taxation' to struggling families like my
own, living on the salary earned by the head
of it of £3OO a year, and the extra help from
the house rents the wife of such a man might be
entitled to receive, from which rents the tax is de-

ducted in a manner sufficiently oppressive, what-
ever Mr. Bright's clique may choose to profess.
Families living on £l6O a year may be in a worse
case, though not even, or at least not often, to the

degree of convincing us thatpoor's-rate and income-

tax— have a tendency to waif hand-in-hand. Com-
pensation for reducing 20s. to 19s. 2d. is, however,

our object, and the precise amount of real hardship
inflicted upon us is beside the question. You can
help us, and I venture to require it of you. Give
your readers a double column of figures, setting
forth clearly the duty charged on each article pre-
vious to the budget, and opposite to it the duty as
fixes by Mr. Gladstone. Trust to us to demand

due reduction. Without this very useful knowledge
every shopkeeper can with undetected impunity
levy his own income tax on his helpless customers
in flounces or cinnamon, supported by the agonising
arguments dear to; the hearts of men [of business ;
furnished with it we shall be not quite defenceless,
except such of us as choose to be the victims of pre-
judice, admitting elsewhere the theory which so
obtains in the tea trade as held by our family
grocers,' who maintain glibly, to the discomfiture
of lady buyers, that no reduction of duty can pos-
sibly cheapen 'superior' tea, consequently neither
silks nor spices."

The following appeared in a contera porary—
Sir,—Whatever opinion we may foi 7m of the Em-
peror of the French as to what we are pleased to call
his despotic rule, there can be no e :oubt as to the
profound sagacity of the man, or as to his earnest
desire to promote the material int( a's'sts of the
people over whom he rules. In one resp rct I admire
the man. lie is thoroughly national, s nd amid all
his dreams of glory and dynastic gran dour, when
he is ea Iled upon to negotiate, whether ii be a treaty
of peace or a treaty of commerce, Lor.i s Napoleon
never forgets Franco.
Let me glance for a moment at t' respective
gains of France and England br the i rceet treaty.
France wants coals, and we theref ore allow her
free access to our coalfields.
France wants iron, and we admil ; her to a free
partnership with us in our iron mines .
France desires to sell us her wine, :and we there-
fore admit it at a nominal duty of 2s. :per gallon.
France wishes to sell us silks and w e admit them
free. Now to the other side of the act ount.
England wishes to sell her textilt fabrics, and
taxes them with a 30 per cent. import duty.
England wishes to buy rags in the :French mar-
ket, and France responds by levying to £lO per
ton as an export duty, being from 60 to 100 per
cent. upon the value of the article.
Referring back to the article coal, I in ay inform
,you that I have received intimation this nnorning of
an advance of 10d. per ton in theprice of coal, mak-
ing the second advance of the same au ount since
Christmas. This advance upon my co 'nsumption
will be upwards of £l,OOO per annum.. Talk of
the ld income tax It is, in comparison i with the
effect of this treaty in its indirect influx tnces upon
the price of coal and iron, a "fleabite."
The immediate object of my writing t D you is to
state that the concession of the French 'Emperor,
which Lord John Russell announced front his place
in the House of Commons, amid the chmrs of his
auditors, turns out to be nothing.
The absolute prohibition is to be withdirawn, and
an export duty upon all qualities of 8, or pos-
sibly £lO, is to be levied upon French raps leaving
the country.
The lowest of these amounts will be e quivalent
to 11d. per lb. upon paper ; in other words, the
French paper will cost the maker Id. less than
the English maker from the same materia L
I was rejoiced to find, after I had closeel my last
letter to you, that the Emperor had acceded to the
wishes of our Government by abolishing thei prohibi-
tory laws as to the export of this material ; and,
assuming that it was what it professed to be, a
bonafide free interchange of rags and paper, I said,
"all objections to the proposal of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, as far as France was cuncerned,
were removed, but that, in respect to all other
countries who maintained an export duty on rags,
the objection to a remission of the impost duty of
Id. per pound on paper remained the same!.
I was both gratified and surprised at the unex-
pected generosity of the French Emperor, seeing
the effect which a free export of rags must have
upon the French makers, and the unfair competi-
tion to which French paper would be subjected on
arrival in England if our Government persisted in
carrying out its abstract idea ofadmitting paper free
from all other countries. Its operation would have
been this :—French rags would have been shipped
to England, and an immediate enhancement of the
price in France would have been the consequence;
but on their arrival in England the American
agents would have pounced upon them, and carried
them to the land of liberty and protective tariffs;
and when the French paper made its appearance in
this country, it would have been met by German
paper, made from a lower priced rag, and thus ex-
cluded from the market for which the French
nation had incurred the sacrifice of their material.
All doubt upon the matter is now at an end. The
Emperor either never intended to grant a free ex-
port, or, having discovered his error, he has taken
the earliest opportunity of correeti-ag it ; and no
one who has considered the subject, who is not
carried away by abstract ideas to the exclusion
of everything special or exceptional, can ques-
tion the propriety of the course which the Emperor
has finally determined upon. I can conceive the
Emperor of the French saying to the English Go-
vernment, " I have no objection to extend our com-
mercial relations, and for this purpose I am willing
that W 3 should have a free interchange of rags and
paper; but under your present and proposed laws
the "thing is impossible. I have no objection to
your buying rags here for your own exclusive use,
but I will not find rags to supply America; and it
is equally absurd on your part to hold out the pro-
spect of a market in England for French paper so
long as you admit paper from other countries where,
by their prohibitory duties, they maintain an abun-
dant supply of material at an artifically low price."
It now remains to be seen whether the Government
and the House of Commons will persist in closing
their eyes to the inevitable consequences which
must result to the paper trade of this country, if
it is to be subjected to open competition on the
one hand with the whole continent of Europe—
the basis of their manufacture being from 30 to 50
per cent. cheaper than our own—and, on the
other, an equally open competition with the Ameri-
cans for our own material, they by their protec-
tive tariff on the importation of paper being
enabled to pay a higher price than we can afford.
this injury is to be inflicted in order to carry
out the free trade idea—a good and sound rule
when rightly applied, but, like every other rule,
it has its exceptions. If the free trade principle
be rightly applied to all articles which are repro-
ducible at the will of the producer—upon which
he gets a profit, and have therefore a Motive to
produce all that is required—it cannot be true or
rightly applied to articles limited or axed in their
quantity. In the one case, demand will always
produce supply ; in the other the only effect of de-
mand is to raise the price, without increasing the
supply.

In the one case there is a consistent sympathy,
from mutual profit, between the producer and the
consumer. In the case of the material for paper-
makers the reverse is the fact ; the producers of our
material hare no profit, but a loss, in producing it ;
therefore there is an entire absence of that sym-
pathetic action which is denominated the law of
demand and supply.
Since my letters appeared in your columns I
have been inundated with letters pointing to hosts
of fibres which are said to be suitable for paper-
making ; one gentleman has furnished me with a
list of 46, which are to be found in various parts of
the globe.

Let me say again 'that there has never been
a fibre tried that will make a paper at all equal to
linen, flax, and cotton. We do not dens the pos-
siblity of making paper from these fibres ; there are
few vegetables that may not be reduced and made
to assume the appearance of paper—it is possible,
as was suggested by one of your correspondents,
that we could dissolve a mahogany dining table,
and make it into paper—the first question is, can
we make a good and useful article from these fibres,
and the second and all-important one is, will it pay
to do so ?

People seem to think that there is some unac-
countable neglect, some perverse obstinacy on our
part in not seeking out these things ; they are set
forth as " genuine, sound, and strong fibres," in
comparison with rags, which are designated an
" cfrete material."
There are many considerations in connection
with these new fibres of which the public are en-
tirely ignorant.
As a rule, they will produce about half the quan-
tity of paper that a good sound rag will. If 10011).
of rags will produce 701 b. of paper, the same weight
of fibre will not produce more than 401 b. The
famous Spanish grass, of 'which there were said to

To such an one I have nothing to say; but if it
be desirable to maintain in this country a trade,
more than any other adapted to rural districts, and
to furnish a means of employment in remote parts,
where good and pure water can be obtained ; if as
a trade we are not utterly valueless and unworthy
of any consideration, it would be well to pause and
reflect upon the statements herein laid down.--
Yours, &c.,

THOS. WRIGLEY.
Bury, Lancashire, March 19.

C1111.R(11-RATPS.

The following report has been presented by the
Select Committee of the Houk of Lords appointed
to inquire into the present operation of the law
and practice respecting the assessment and the
levy of church-rates :

" 1. That it appears from the evidence that ' lov
the common law,that•is to say, by immemorial usage
in this country, the parishioners are bound to re-
pair the church, and to provide everything that is
necessary for the decent performance of divine ser-
vice,' and that for the attainment of these objects
recourse has, from very ancient times, been had to
a system of parochial assessment, which assessment
is still maintained in the great majority of parishes
throughout the country.
" 2. That by the judgment of the House of Lords
in the Braintree case the law has been declared to
be, that the church-rate is only assessable on the
ratepayers by the vote of the majority of the vestry,
and it appears in evidence that for the neglect to
vote a rate there is no penalty at common law.

"3. That, therefore, in some places no rate is
made, and lit some, though made, it is not enforced
against those who refuse to pay.
" 4. That where a church-rate has been refused,
or has not been assessed, it has generally been at-
tributable to one or other of the following causes,
viz. :

Ist. The abuse of the rate in its assessment for
and application to improper objects, or in excessive
charges.

" 2d. The assessment of new parishes and dis-
ricts having churches of their own to the rate of
:he mother church.

" 3d. The unwillingness of churchwardens to
propose a rate the collection of which might be
rendered difficult or impossible by the uncertainty
and inefficiency of the law.
" 4th. Local causes of irritation unconnected
with the rate.

" sth. The opinion entertained against church-
rates by certain classes of Dissenters on religious
or political grounds.
" 5. That a great obstacle to the enforcement of
a rate when made is, that a ratepayer summoned be-
fore the petty sessions for non-payment may then pro-
ceed to dispute the validity of the rate or his own
liability (53(1 George 111., c. 127, s. 7); that there-
upon the justices must forbear to give judgment,
and the churchwardens can only proceed in the
Ecclesiastical Court.

"6. That the entire abolition of the church-rate
is opposed to the general feeling of members of the
Church, is not universally called for by Dissenters
of various denominations, and especially not by that
large and influential body the Wesleyan Metho-
dists, and would, in the care of a great number
of parishes be attended with serious and pre-
judicial consequences, by restricting the existing
means for the repair and maintenance of the parish
church, by greatly increasing the labour and re-
sponsibility of the clergyman, and otherwise ma-
terially impeding the ministrations of the church
in those parishes.
" 7. That, viewing the grounds of objection to
the payment of church-rates, as well as the impe-
diments which exist to their collection, it is expe-
dient to alter the law in the following respects :
" 1. That, for the future, persons desirous of
being exempted from contributing to the church_
rate in any parish may give yearly notice to that
effect to the churchwardens prior to the meeting
of any vestry for the purpose of making a church_
rate; and that such persons shall not be entitled to
attend any.such vestry, or to vote upon the making
or application of such rate, or totittiect
cahsnerheuhrc' or
seat
appropriated
to them in the
ctwohairiii.ed•ctehali'cnslailnainnaygny the term of such exemption.
,‘ 2. That the rate, lvhen voted by the vestry,
havesltll nhoetlegviile-ednusrioienh notlee.all persons liable to it who
" 3. That the items for which a rate shall he made
shall be definitely declared by law.
" 4. That the ratepayers in any new parish or
district shall be rateable for the pull ores of their
own church and for no other.
" 5. That there shall be the same powers for the
recovery of church-rates as exist for the recovery of
poor-rates, and in case of objection to the validity
of the rate an appeal shall lie to the General Quar-
ter Sessions, and that the jurisdiction of the Eccle-
siastical Courts in such matters shall cease.

" 8. That the principle of assessing the owner
instead of the occupier to the church-rate is well
deserving the serious consideration of Parliament
in any future legislation on this subject.
" And the committee have directed the minutes
of evidence taken before them, together with an
appendix, to be laid before your lordships.
" Feb. 28, 1860."