The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-04 00:00:00

yond sea which are easily reached for a few ponnde, and
to which your population as been draughted off year
after year. Every man who goes to tho,e colonies re-
pudiates your policy, repudiates your debt, and thanks
Heaven that et last he has found a country where in-
d retry can have its reward, and where men ceiling them-
selves statesmen are not wing every engine of Govern-
ment to deprive him of the produce of his industry and
to diminish the comforts and independence of his family.
And you, landed proprietors of England, remember that
however many of your countrymen may emigrate, your
acres remain, and you will have by-and-by a different
tone in this house after another reform in Parliament.
Your succession duties will be overhauled, and will not
be got rid of so easily as at present. (A laugh.) Your
property.tax which you are assisting the Chancellor of the Exchequer to throw over will come back to yon,fiand a
come back in an increased proportion. Rely upon it, ;. -71 r
the course which we have pursued for some years has
been foolish and wicked. - By casting unfair-burdens - • •
upon the people you will create a spirit of discontent and. •
disaffection, and when they have the power, as they
shortly will have, to lay taxes upon those who have spent
the money, you may depend upon it the poor will not
always go to the wall and the rich will not always escape.
(Oh, oh.) Those are unpalatable truths. (A laugh.) I
don't like the income-tax any more than you do, but I
know it is the duty of Parliament either to diminish
our expenditure or to maintain the income-tax or some
other tax of that kind, and that as we acted in a foolish
spirit in involving ourselves in this expenditure, so we
are now acting a cowardly mad immoral part in casting
off the burden of expense from our shoulders partly upon
the great body of consumers now living, but mostly
upon our posterity coming after us. (Hear.)
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER—The
right hon. gentleman the member for Radnor has ac-
cused me ofintroducing a cowardly budget. After listening
to the objections of the right hon. gentleman, I think I
may venture to answer him in the words of the same
poet whom he has quoted :
" Dum vitat humum nubes et inenia oaptet."
The right hon. gentleman first found fault with the state-
ment I made that there had been a reduction in the ex-
penditure to the amount of 800,0001., and, by comparing
the estimates of the present year with those of the last
year, he.proved, according to the manner in which be
placed the question before the house, that the statement
on my part was not authorized. But, sir, I never said.
that the saving was on the estimates of this year as com-
pared with those of last year ; all I said was that by the
arrangements we proposed there would be a reduction
in the expenditure to the extent of 800,0001., and I
think I can show to the house that that statement was
correct. In the estimates laid upon the table, the army
and navy, we made a reduction of 400,0007., and in the
other estimates, the miscellaneous and civil service esti-
mates which have been prepared show a like diminution
of 400.0001. as compared with last year, together making
the 800,0001 I mentioned. The right hon. gentleman
has stated the circumstances under which I proposed not
to interfere with the decline of the income-tax this year.
He has declared that our compact, as he .calls it, with
reference to the income-tax was not more strict than the
engagement we had entered into with regard to the war
sinking fund. Now, all these engagements are expressly
Acts of Parliament ; technically speaking, the engage-
ments are the same ; but what I wish to bring before
the house with regard to the income-tax is that there
were considerations of policy connected with that tax
which it was impossible to avoid taking into account.
I may remind the house that there had been objections,
of a serious character urged against the incometax in its
present form, and that it was impossible to avoida grave
consideration of the subject. (Hear, hear.) Those ob-
jections did not come from the " gentlemen of England"
—not from the circles of the wealthy and the opulent ;
they came, on the contrary, from professional men, from
traders, and from the humbler classes of society, who
complained, with reference to the incedence of the tax,
of its injustice, its inequality, and its inquisitorial cha-
racter. (Cheers.) These are not objections, I repeat,
that have been urged by persons of opulence and
wealth ; these are epithets that have not been used
except by persons of humble and difficult fortunes; and
the whole clamour raised against the income-tax has
never proceeded from the opulent and elevated classes of
the country. It was to meet those complaints that there
have been so many plans propounded with a view to
recognise some difference between the incomes brought
under the operation of the tax, and that a Committee of
this house sat to consider the subject for a considerable
period of time. I retain the opinion that it was impos-
sible to keep the income-tax in its present form as a
permanent feature of our financial system, and I think
I did not misunderstand the feeling of the house and the
country when I recommended that coarse which I hope
the house will ultimately sanction with respect to it.
(Cheers.) The right hon. gentleman the member for
Radnor (Sir G. C. Lewis) says, if the course which I
have indicated is pursued we shall find ourselves in 1860
with a loss of 5,000,C00/, of taxes, and with no substi-
tute for it ; but in that argument the right hon. gentle-
man took no account of the falling in of the annuities
which have been referred to in the course of.this debate.
I think it is of the utmost importance that the house
should have a clear opinion on this subject, and if they
have a clear one that they should act with firmness and
consistency. There is no greater fallacy than that of
supposing that because you do not approve of the income-
tax yen are therefore opposed. to all. direct- taxation.
(Rear, hear.) Approval of a fair amount.of direct tax-
ation is perfectly consistent with disapproval of the
manner in which direct taxation is at present raised. I
believe it is of the utmost importance on social and
political considerations of the highest character that the
incometax should not be retained as a permanent feature
of our financial system. (Cheers.) But if in any year
circumstances of great difficulty and emergency should
arise, no one for a moment would pretend that this tax
was not to be had recourse to as a source of supply.
(Hear.) I shall say nothing with regard to my proposi-
tion with reference to the war sinking fund. I resisted
that war sinking fund with the two right hon. gentlemen
who have addressed the house to-night, and, as every
one knows that under present circumstances the effort
to retain it would have been perfectly idle, it is un-
necessary for me to say a word on the subject.
Now, on the point of the Exchequer-bonds, I admit
there is great difference between our engagements to
redeem the Exchequer.bonds and our engagements
with regard to the war sinking fund, and I did with
the greatest regret propose to the house that some post-
ponement of the settlement with respect to the Exche-
quer bonds should take place. The house has come to
a distinct conclusion on that subject. They have placed
at my disposal the necessary's= of 2,000,0001. in order
to redeem those bonds ; and now, as the right lion, gen-
tleman says that the house has a right to know what we
have done on the subject of those Exchequer-bonds,
and has accused me of some want of courtesy in the
matter in not giving the holders of the bonds the alter-
native of rereming them, I will tell the house what
I have thought it prudent to do. The house permitted
nee to raise a sum of 2,000,0001. by Exchequer bonds,
payable at a period not later than six years from the date
of such bonds, and the interest not to exceed 31. 10i,
per cent. I shall obtain an advance immediately of
1,000,0001., payable in 1862, and at 34 per cent. That,
under the circumstances of the case, is a very moderate
and fair rate of interest, because, although it is possible
to get money for a short period at 3 per cent., when you
come to a period of six years the case is very different.
I have also made arraneements at the end of the year to
call for another 1,000,0001. at the same rate, but I have
a lively confidence that circumstances will not render it
necessary for me to call for that 1,000,0001. (Hear,
hear.) I say, under all the circumstances of the case,
and with due humility, when these imputations are
thrown out so freely of being disregardful of the public
faith, that that is a prudent, and, if carried into effect,
will be a very successful arrangement. (Cheers.) I have
confidence in the state of the revenue because, as I
showed the other day, there has been during the whole
of this year a considerable rally in its chief breeches.
During the last quarter a deficit in the principal articles
has been absolutely changed into a very considerable
surplus on the estimate of the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer; and ptrhaps it wilt be interesting to the house if
I tell them what is the state of the revenue for the first
month of the present quarter. I will state the revenue
in some of the p'rincipal articles in the month of April,
1857, as compared with the corresponding month of 1858.
Tnis statement is confined to the Excise, because, aFthohgh .
the account for the customs is extremely favourable, the
large amount paid for tea duty in April last yea, ,would
render it an unsatisfactory subject of comparianiti-; but
really there is an absolute increase in the month.? Ih
the month of April, 1857, when we were in the very
height and flush of our prosperity, and before the dom.
mercial crisis we have since experienced was dreamed oft
the amount received from the Excise was 1,366,00i01.
For the month of April this year, after having passed
through the ?ate commercial cela.mities, the amount watt
1,602,000/ (hear, hear.) For stamps, the receipts in
A eri1,1857, were 484,000/.; in April, this year, 578,000/.
(Hear, hear.) Then, there is en increase in the land and
assessed taxes, taking the same periods, of from 663,3001.
to 663,000/.; not a large increase, but important as show-
ing the tendency of our revenue to improve. (Hear,
bear.) The increase in the amount of the customs is also
of the most favourable kind, and we have therefore a
right to assume that the striking indications of a rising
revenue, of which I have spoken, are not of a fleeting
and evanescent character, but arise from the essential
resources of the country. (Hear, hear.) The right hon.
gentleman did not end his speech with any motion to
indicate that he meant to oppose the second reading,
and therefore I will n t anticipate anything so disagree-
,hie. (Hear, and a laugh.) The hon. member lox Bir-
mingham made some otoisrvations respecting taxation
watch Ido not think are just. (Hear, hear.) Ido not
think it is the main object of this house to remove texa•
tion from property to labour. (Hear, hear.) Ido not
think there is any desire in this house to evade the fair
burdens wl3ich it should bear, and if this were a fitting
opportunity to go into the subject in detail—and it is
impossible to form a just opinion regarding it withou*
going into detail—l could show that the position of ate
hon. gentleman, that the necessary consequence of oar
system is that t :xat ion must rest on the great bulk of the
population whose h.cornes are small, is a position which
le, csnn t den.onArate, and that, on the contrary, I will
rot say lh.' great bulk, hut the greater part of the taxa-
t,o'n raisedin this country is a burden on those who are
c'lied people of property and the mass of the population
who, whether as dotnes,ic servants, or in other capacities,
actually depend upon that property. (Hear.) Thisi* not
the (pportueity or the occasion to enter into the discuNe
but I could not listen to such an expression of
oeietoo on the pert of the hon. member for •Birming• -
ham without at least entering my protest against its
velidity, and rx,..res..ing toy readiness whenever the ocoa.
ESon offers to grapple with him on that subject, and caw
blish to the satisfaction of all unprejudiced men that ill