The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-28 00:00:00

PORTUGUESE WINES.

Colonel BARTTELOT asked the Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs whether a treaty of commerce had lately
been concluded with the kingdom of Portugal, by which
the wines of that country were to be admitted into Great
Britain at a reducod duty ; if so, what was to be the rate
of duty, and at what, date the new duty was levied.
Lord STANLEY said no such ti eaty had been entered
into. Much correspondence had taken place, but no final
arrangement had been arrived at.

WAYS AND MEANS.
THE AtYSSINIAN EXPEDITION.

INCREASE OF INCOME-TAX.
The house having gone into a committee of
Ways and Means,

Mr. HUNT rose and said, in the absence of his
right hon. friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
it devolved upon him, in consequence of the in-
disposition of his right hon. friend, to make a state-
mont to the house which he had hoped would have
devolved upon other hand& He felt that he should
stand in need of indulgence, and he hoped that his
shortcomings in perforating the task would be fairly
viewed by the house. The house having agreed
that a sum of £2,000,000 should be voted to
defray the expenses of the expedition to Abys-
sinia, it became the duty of the Government to state
how they intended to provide for that additional
expenditure. He might as well say at the outset
that the Government did not propose to look beyond
the resources of the year to meet the expenditure.
(Hear, hear.) The Government might have met
the additional expenditure by way of loan,
or the temporary expedient of borrowing,
leaving it to the Committee of Ways and
and Means next year to meet the expendi-
ture. However, they had thought the most manly
course was to look the matter fully in the face, and
to endeavour to make the resources of the year
1867-8 meet the additional expenditure, which
was not contemplated when the Chancellor
of the Exchequer made his statement
on the 4th of April. The calculations of the right
hon. gentleman had led him to anticipate a surplus,
and that anticipation would be fulfilled. The
surplus at the end of the year would amount to
£200,000, and the whole of that, as far as it goes,
would be devoted to that purpose, but they
would require to provide for the remainder in other
ways. Without entering at great length into sta-
tistics he might say at once that the Government
proposed to levy an additional penny on
the income tax from the present financial
year. The effect of that addition, coupled with
surplus would give £840,000, leaving £960,000 still
to be provided for. In order to do this the Go-
vernment proposed to make the balances available,
and although those balances only amounted to
£5,000,000, yet it was thought it best and wisest to
take the required sum from that source. He had
stated the proposals of the Government in the
strongest and clearest manner, and he begged now
to place in the hands of the Chairman resolutions
.to carry out the proposals he had mentioned.
The CHAIRMAN having read the resolution,
Mr. GLADSTONE thought the choice of the
Government with respect to additional taxation
was a just one, and under the circumstances the
income tax was the best resource they could have
had recourse to. With respect to the balances they
had already been drawn upon, but that did not
not preclude a further sum being taken
from that source. It was proposed to take
£960,000 from those balances now. A draught
from the balances ought to be looked upon as equi-
valent to the creation of additional debts, but, as
they had reduced the debt, what the Govern-
ment proposed now to do was to set the
one against the other. (Hear, hear.) He
did not think the Government could have done
better; they incurred no practical risk, and he
thought that amongst the thinking part of the com-
munity the proposal to meet the difficulty in the
way proposed by the Government would be viewed
much more favourably than if they had decided to
raise the money in a less direct manner.
Sir G. BOWYER. thought the proposed increase
of the income tax highly objectionable, at the pre-
sent time more especially.

Mr. LAING said the only question was how to
meet the incurred demands, and it appeared to him
the Government had only to consider whether they
should raise only half the amount by an addi-
tional I.d. to the income tax, or whether they
should have drawn the whole of the sums
required from that tax by the addition
of 2d. in the pound. He thought that if the war
continued the addition of 2d. to the income tax was
inevitable, and he for one should • not object to
such a proposal. Taking things as he found them,
he did not find fault with the proposal of the
Government, as he felt it was the most sensible
way of stopping up the financial gap for the
present.
Mr. WHITE said he was sorry to disturb the
harmony that at present existed, but when the pro-
posal was put from the chair lie should give an
emphatic "no" to the proposition.