The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-07 00:00:00

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SErki

r3ER

MR. J. BRIGHT, MP., ON TAXATION
AND REFORM.

At a meeting of the Birmingham Landlords'
Association, on Friday, the following letter was
read from Mr. John Bright, M.P., in reply to one
which the secretary had addressed to him :
RocitnALE, Oct 10.
Sir,—l have to thank you for sending me the
pamphlet on the income-tax. You ask my opinion
of that tax : I have often expressed it in public,
both in the House of Commons and out of it, and it
seems scarcely necessary for me to state it again. I
may, however, say that I agree with almost every
word said against it in your pamphlet ; and the
longer I know the tax, and the more I examine it,
the more I think it hateful and intolerable. Up to
this point we are agreed, but here you leave me in
the dark. As one of your representatives you ex,
pect me to do something, and you wish me to pro-
mise that I will oppose at all risks any re-enact-
ment of the income-tax laws. Now, let me ask
you how it is that, with a population greatly in-
creased, and with wealth increased even beyond the
increase of population, there is so much, and, as we
all feel, such just dissatisfaction with the amount
and with the system of our taxation ? Is it not
because the national expenditure rises constantly
and rapidly, apparently without any regard to the
real necessities of Government ? There is no de-
partment in which the expenditure has not largely
increased during the last 10 years, and every year
exhibits greater contempt of economy on the part
of the Administration and the Parliament. The
Russian war through wide open the doors of the
national exchequer, and since 1854, the great fund
gathc:red from the industry of the people has been
an easy prey to those who, on hollow pretences of
every kind, manage to live at the expense of the
payers of taxes. The House of Commons does
nothing to check extravagance. It encourages it.
Its members are not so much of the tax-paying as
of the tax-consuming class. They come from, and
they chiefly represent, those as hose families have
for generations considered the taxation of the
people as their lawful patrimony. The eldest of the
family takes the estate in land, and the rest of the
family occupy their lives mainly in a scramble for
their undivided interest in that other estate con-

tributed yearly by the payers of taxes. The House
of Commons will not check the extravagance of the
administration of the departments, and it will not
levy the taxes with any reference to what is just in
the imposition of national burdens. For sixty
years it has levied a heavy probate duty on per-
sonal property from which land and freehold pro-
perty have been and are now exempt. For nearly
sixty years it levied a heavy legacy duty on per-
sonal property from which land and freehold pro-
perty were exempt. In the year 1853 it pretended
to correct this injustice as regards the legacy duty
by imposing a succession tax on land and freehold
property, but it did this in a way to charge land
and freehold property not more than one-fourth of
the amount which is charged on all other kinds of
propeity. This succession tax was to have raised.
two millions sterling a-year ; up to this time I be-
lieve it has not reached XBOO,OOO in any one year.
The whole taxation of the country last year ex-
ceeded sixty-five millions sterling. Of this vast
sum not ten millions were raised by taxes affecting
only the possessors of the visible property of the
country. The customs and excise alone raised more
than forty-two millions, collected on articles the
great bulk of which is consumed by that portion of-
the population which has no property but its
lt-
bour, and no income but its wages, and which, as
might be expected, from the facts just stated, has
no voice in Parliament, and is wholly without re-
presentation in the government of the country. The
Parliament (I speak of the two•houses) is a Parlia-
ment of the rich, it has no immediate interest in
economy, or in equal taxation. It is powerful
enough to secure to the class which it really repre-
sents the patronage and the emoluments which are
to be disposed of in the spending of the vast
sums which find their way into the national ex-
chequer. What eau I do ? What can any single
member of Parliament do? I can protest—l ran
describe your grievance! I can denounce the
wrong ! I can say that a Government thus
unjust will some day he overthrown. But all this,
apdmuch more, will not loosen the grasp of the insa-
tiable hand against whose extortion you co mplain.
So long as the middle clasS of our population will
tolerate a system of mock representation, based on
the coercion of county constituencies and the cor-
ruption of the boroughs ; so long as the power of
the great proprietors of the soil in the one case,
and the power of money in the other, return an
overwhelming majority of the House of Commons,
so long there can be no hope of any economical
administration, and of a just distribution of the
public burdens; and so longuas the millions of
workmen whose toil and skill produce all the won-
ders of which our national industry can boast, are
purposely and insultingly excluded from any direct
and legal influence in the election of members of
Parliament, so long they may and must bear a load
of taxation wholly beyond their means to support..
There is something essentially mean and singularly
cruel in the manner in which the taxation of this
country has been and is still levied. Our rich class
is the richest in Europe—the administration of the
country is in its hands, and a greater proportion of
the heaviest taxation in the world is thrown upon

the class possessing no property but its labour and
wages, than is the case in any other country with
whose system of taxation we are acquainted. What
is the remedy ? It is to be found only in a change
in the authority by which taxes are levied and the
public funds expended. A monarch solely, or a
monarch and an aristocracy, or both working
with a mock representation, never did, and never
can, give any security for economy in govern-
ments, or for a just imposition of public burdens.

They arc admirable institutions, uncontrolled, to
enrich the rich ; and an aristocracy working
with and through a mock representation, is the
most complete instrument ever devised to squeeze
wealth from the toil of a nation under the
pretence of governing it. The only real security
for economy in government, and for fairness in
the laying on of burdens, is to be found in a House
of Commons which shall honestly represent the
people of the United Kingdom. Let the house-
holders of England, Scotland, and Ireland, let the
heads of families, let those who form the nation,
speak through fairly-chosen representatives in Par-
liament, and justice in raising the taxes, and econo-
my in spendinc, them, may be hoped for. I shall
do all I can in favour of this justice and this econo-
my, but every effort will be in rain untill tha public
purse is taken from the custody of a class, and
placed under the safe keeping of the people. I will
thank you to convey this expression of my views to
the association you represent. lam very sorry to
see so little prospect of rendering them any service.
Yours very faithfully,
JOHN BRIGHT.
Mr. J. L. Briefly, Birmingham.

THE WRECK OF THE ROYAL Cli A RTER.

When the jury ha 4 delivered their verdict on
Friday afternoon, Mr. A. li. Smith, collector of
customs at Bcaumaris, read the Mowing commu-
nication, which he said had that moment reached
him :

" Custom-house, London, Nov. 3, 1859.

" To the Collectlr of Customs at Beaumaris.

" Sir,—The Board of Trade having directed an in-
quiry into the loss of the Royal Charter, I beg to
acquaint you that I propose leaving London for
Beaumaris by to-morrow evening's train, and have
to request you will in the meantime notify to the
witnesses now under examination before the coroner
that such inquiry is about to be held, and that their
attendance will be required. You will also be so
good as to inform Messrs. Gibbs, Bright, and Co.,
of Liverpool, that this inquiry has been directed.
" J. O'DowD, solicitor,
Merchant Shipping Department."

PLYMOUTH, Sunday Evening.—(By Electric and
International Telegraph.)—The Lancashire Witch, Capt.
Shallan, belonging to Messrs. Dunbar and Sons, nine days
out, with soldiers. families for IloilibaT, put into the Sourd
wind-bound this morning, all well. 'I he French ship Reins
Mathilde, six days from Antwerp, with general cargo for
Lisbon, put in with engines damaged. The wind continue*
very strong from S.W., with showers occasionally.
BITING A MAN'S NOSF. OFF.—Thomas Winter, 11
seaman belonging to New York, was taken into custody On
Wednesday by the North Shields police on a charge of bit-
ing off the nose of Thomas Brown, another seaman. They
had been drunk, and had quarrelled in a public-house, and,
while wrestling on the floor, Winter had taken Brown's
nose into his mouth aad bit the end of it off. Brown is
seriously disfigured.
A NATIONAL DIFFERENCE.—The French papers
will have it that there is a difference between France and
England. Yes, and so there is, and the difference is simply
this— France goes towar for an idea, and England has no
, idea of going to wanPon.

\c-!-N-7

...1
• • :..1.g...,
0.
myriads of living beings," are introdqeed -infelli4vos,
ons
'great argument of academical respibiliti. and'
privilege. The greatest patriot on the:in:bat paha S
occasions must be forgiven for a little side-thought
for himself; it is a human weakness, and Sir David
as a sensitive and contradicted author, is evidently
determined that the theory of the stars being inha-
bited shall have the full advantage of the authority
of the presiding Chair of the University of Edin-
burgh on the solemn occasion of inaugurating the
new academical edifice. But, whether the stars are
inhabited or whether they are not, all we can say
is, we hope they will be favourable to the new sys-
tem, and that the University of Edinburgh will
henceforth hold its members together better than
it has been yet enabled to do, will make a body of
them, and a body proud of their University.-
2 imes.