The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-09 00:00:00

THE PROPERTY AND INCOME TAX.

Last night a preliminary meeting was held at the Lon-
don Coffeehouse, Ludgate-hill, with the view to form an
association for obtaining a speedy redaction of the pro-
perty and income tax .to 7d. in the pound, now that the
war has ceased, and a more equitable adjustment of the
charge upon income. The meeting was but thinly at-
tended, but that was probably owing to its being called
a preliminary one, and convened somewhat hastily, after
only one day's advertisement. Sir J. Duke, as the alder-
man of the ward in which it was held, had been invited
to be present, but he wrote to excuse himself, on the
ground of an imperative engagement in Manchester,
expressing, however, at the same time, his entire concur-
rence in the object of the meeting.
Mr. A. Smurr, who was called to the chair, stated, on
assuming it, that he had not given much attention to the
subject about to be brought before them. The summons
to attend the meeting adverted to the property and in-
come tax, but he submitted that it would be more consis-
tent with the popular notions of taxation if they addressed
themselves to the subject of the income tax only. The
tax on property was based on something that looked very
much like justice, fer the property of the country, of
whatever denomination, ought to bear the principal share
of the general taxation. (Hear.) It was different with
income, depending as that did generally on the labour
of the hands or the bead, which a man might be deprived
at any moment of exerting. He cited the statement of
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that he had a surplus
of 3,000,0001. in hand, as an argument for lessening the
pressure of the income tax, and complained that the
continuation of the double tax since the conclusion of
the peace tended to paralyse the trade and industry of
the country.
Mr. HYAM moved a resolution, that an association be
formed, to be called the " Property and Income-tax
Association," for obtaining a speedy reduction of the
tax to 7d. in the pound, and a more equitable adjust.
ment of the charge upon income. He called attention
to the fact that a great reduction was being made in the
army, and expressed his apprehension that, in spite of
that reduction, if a popular movement was not made
for the diminution of the tax there would be great ex-
travagance in the expenditure of the public money. He
contended that it was the spirit of the act of Parliament
imposing the double tax that such double tax should
cease on the expiration of the next financial year after
the conclusion of the war, which would be on the sth of
April next, but by the insertion of the words in the act
that it should "continue in force during the present
war, and until the 6th of April next after a ratification
of a definitive treaty of peace and no longer," the result
would be that the country would be liable to the tax for
two years after the conclusion of war. (Hear.) This was
a question seriously affecting the commerce of the coun-
try, for the tax in question raised some 14,000,0001. or
15,000,0001. a-year, and a large proportion of that sum
was drawn from persons who could very ill afford it.
He had no doubt that if the people would speak boldly
out and say the tax should be reduced to 7d. in the
pound the Chancellor of the Exchequer would concede
the reduction. kilear, hear.)
The motion was seconded by Mr. POTTER, who con-
tended that the property tax was the best we could have
if it could be properly adjusted, though at present an un-
necessarily large amount of it went for collection. He
also expressed a hope that the Government would act up
to the spirit of the act of Parliament, and assent to the
reduction of the property and income tax at the conclu-
sion of the financial year next after the termination of
the war, instead of insisting on a liberal construction of
the words employed in it to define when the reduction
should take place.

Mr. PEACHEY reminded the meeting that he gave evi-
dence before the committee of the House of pommons
which sat on the subject of the property and income tax,
and that the tendency of his evidence was to dispel the
general delusion throughout the country that real pro-
perty was well assessed under the Property and Income-
tax Acts. The fact was that, to his knowledge, the most
oppressive of the lords of the soil—those who were lords
of manors--maintained their feudal rights so rigidly that
many of them escaped taxation altogether. (Rear.) For
instance, in the parish of Islington there were five
manors, and some of them exceedingly productive, not
}e of the lords of which was assessed to the property tax
(Hear) The fact of "itself wodfd` pel ltitrldireenCral
delusion that at present land could not escape taxation.
He could also assert as a fact that the manors held in the
names of the peers and commoners who petitioned Par
liament against the passing of the Copyholds Enfran-
chisement Bill could not be found in the assessment to
the property tax. He drew a great distinction between
a property and an income tax. Property was a fair sub-
ject of taxation, for it might be reasonably said, espe-
cially in a time of war, that such taxation was imposed
with a view to its protection. The lords of the soil, at
such a time, called on men to enlist and fight in defence
of their property, and it would be well if they would al-
ways remember their obligations. It was wholly diffe-
rent with an income which depended on the sweat of the
brow or the exercise of the brain, and which might cease
to-morrow and leave a man's family in a state of penury.
That surely was not as fit a subject for taxation as the
land, which would descend to a man's heirs at his death
and relieve him from all anxiety as to his family.
When they taxed industry they taxed the very
sources of the wealth and prosperity of the country,
With those feelings, he was certainly not disposed to con-
cur in the proposition for reducing the tax on property.
By a return moved for by the present Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and going down to 1848, it appeared that, in
1814, the aggregate annual rental of the land under as-
sessment was 34,330,0001., and, in 1848, 42,000,0001.
Again, that of messuages and houses was, in 1814,
14,895,0001., and in 1848, 38,822,0001. He contended
that they could never bring the broad acres of the coun-
try under taxation in any other manner than by a pro-
perty tax. If they reduced the property tax they relieved
the great landed interest, the very last entitled to any
relief. The lords of the soil had for centuries held com-
plete dominion in one branch of the Legislature and a
majority in the other ; and the consequence had been
that they who were, under the original grants of their
lands, bound to the general defence of their country, to
the repair of roads, bridges, and the like, and to provide
means for the Government, had during a long period of
time thrown off the burdens incident to the tenure of
their estates and created new taxes which bore on the
people. If the meeting could be the means of procuring
a committee of the House of Commons to consider the
whole subject of the taxation of the country they would
confer a greater advantage on the people generally than
by the formation of a society for the limited purpose of
effecting a reduction of the property and an equalisation
of the income tax.
Mr. ELT supported the resolution, and in doing so
stated that Sir R. Peel, when he proposed his income

tax, introduced a new principle of levying it, and that

was to collect it from the tenant instead of the owner,
which in many instances caused a great amount of in-

justice and inconvenience. He trusted in any new legis-
lation on the subject steps would be taken to do away
with that stoppage of the tax in transitu.
Mr. FLEMING reminded the meeting that Mr. Glad-
stone, when Chancellor of the Exchequer, with all his
desire to deal with the anomalies incident to the property
and income tax, confessed that the subject was environed
with insuperable difficulty. Adverting to the discon-
tinuance of the double tax, he (Mr. Fleming) contended
that the distinct understanding in Parliament, when the
successive measures for increasing the tax were under
consideration, was that it should take place at the expi-
ration of one financial year after the conclusion of the
war, which would be in April, 1557, and that it would
be a breach of that understanding, by a strict literal in•
terpretation of an expression in those acts of Parliament,
to continue the double tax until the end of the financial
year in April, 1858,

The motion, which was also supported by Mr. PAYNE,
was then put and carried unanimously.
A subscription was entered into for defraying the ex-
penses connected with the for:nation of the association,
Mr. Buott was appointed honorary secretary, and a corn-
tnittde was appointed for making the necessary arrange-
ments.

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