The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-31 00:00:00

LON Doi\ SAT U tip A N (i. JANUARY 31 1857.

~x

MR, F. 'PEEL, M.P4 ON 7HE INCOME TAXei

~:i.' -.

BURY, LANCASHIRE, aTim, 30. '
Last night an influential,meeting was held in the. As
sembly Rooms for the purpose of considering the piopriety
of petitioning Parliament for a reduction of the in-come
and property tax, and a more equitable and economical
plan Of assessing and collecting the same. Mr. R. NValk,r
presided, and amongst those present was Mr. F. Peel, the
member for the borough. After a code of resolutions con-
demnatory "Of the tax as at present constituted had been
passed unanimously, the chairman called upon their mem-
ber to address Oro meeting.
Mr. F. PEEL, M.P., on rising, was received with loud
cheers. He said—Gentlemen, having been inforthed that
t meeting wa's,-te be held fiere for the
ing the propriety of reconinien certainding refluctions and
alterations in regard to the income tax,. and that Mize 'teas
pu der-
rptspof,coesi
a strong and general feeling perviidingthis-coristiiueneY in
regard' to.that subjeet, I certainly was desirous, if I,could
arrange it,.of being present on this occasion,, not with any
_intention of taking any part in the discupsion which should
take place, not with any hope that I could instruct, those ,
who are- much bettetinfOrmed upon this stibject than my-
self,hut solely with the desire of bearing what your views
were, and of making myself acquainted with your senti-
ments. (bear,' hear.) c:Aiter',' hoWeveri :the allusions
and aiipeals that brute, been-Jr:trade ,to and. the ex-
pectation that has been , exprelsed that I should say
something in conclusion with regard to the,general heads
which ha've been touched upon hy'previons speakers; Efeel
that I van not-Maintain longer silende:this evenings but I will
promiie, you. : thaif Jew remerlce,/..Nvktronlile
with I will confine myself strictlYandOxCluaively to the
subject bel'Ore' Yon; and' I will. not ktteniPt toi draw*lnur
attention froth it by theintroduOtionsOf other andextrane-
ons topics. Under other circumstances I might have been
disposed to address you on general questions, because the in-
terval which has elapsed Since Host mitt you has been
coriSiderable, so considerable, indeed, that I should almost
hare felt ashamed to refer to it, were I conscious that the "
time that I had not given to you had been devoted to
seeking my own amusement, or, that lhad neglected those.
public duties charged to -me, in consequence of the seat
which I enjoy through your. favour in. the House of Com-
mons. There is one consideration which at the outset pre-
, sents itself to. my mind in this matter highly honourable
to yourselves, which has been but slightly'adverted. to by
previous speakers. We are dealing with an income tax of
sixteenpence in the pound, and so great -is the wealth of
this conntry,'so general is the diffusion of that wealth, se
large is, our population, and so many and so various ,the
classes that contribute, so easy the collection, I must say,
and so" prompt the payment, tkat an income tax of' that
rate brings into the exchequer of this countria sum of no
less than 16 millions of revenue, and at this moment we
are under the imposition of a tax which is adding to our
revenue at the rate to which I have referred. Now, gen-
tlemen, it is obvious, from the remarks which I have
heard, that you entertain grave and serious 'objections to
many arrangements connected with the amount, the im-
position, the constitution, and the Mode of assessment and
collection of this tax. It is clear that these views have
not been hastily adopted by you, and I think that it re-
dounds to your honour that I, at least till this evening,
was not aware that you had ever before given expression
to these objections. And why'? Because, you knew the
Government of this country and the people of this country
had been engaged in an arduous and severe struggle with
a'great empire. And you knew that if the Government
was to conduct that war in accordance with your •Own
desires, with energy and enterprise, that it was necessary"
yon'should furnish it with the means of doing so, and that
there were no means so ready for the purpose as the belie--
sition of the income tax. I believer; thirefOre,' that yen'
have abstained till now from 'raising:these Objeictione,' be-
cause you did not desire to iniPsir the fruitfillneanditlie
productiveness of that: tax. by starting objeetidnl
would go to impair its efficieney,, AO to undermine, land
possibly to render impossible, its maintenance.. I say heat
this abstinence dose you great eredit„And•entitles youj now
that t ie warisbyer;.When.,thri pressure is.takee. off, when
we fiaire oiir breath' and survey our poirr-;
it entitles:Yon now, when you sate iri 'calm and riao
derate expression the objectiont th4:Yon entertain to this
tare--entitles you not only to a patint, but ti? an indulgent
end most. attentive hearing. .I. enter fully into yOur feel-
ings
with regard to the firm resqlOion that has been pub'.
witted this evening. The question, maybe; presented
you in this.wayi-2:-Yon consented ,v(lien oar :broke out to
blecielerno-4",0 444bgt."4* to
that -
provided without resorting to that expedient of borrowing
money, the facile exorcise of which in titnes,past and in
previous wars had aCcumulatid a load of debt Whioh has
cost us, and which will cost our descendants after us, so
dearly. (Cheers.) You knoW, further, that whet: the war
is over, and although you may remove your armies and
fleets from the scene of operation—although you may bring
your forces home and disband them and send them to their
respective homes—although you may stop the flow of fresh
expenditure, you know perfectly well that after a war is
over it is then that the expenses and charges are presented
for final settlement and adjustment ; and that, therefore,
for a certain period after the termination of a great strug-
gle, the expenditure of the country must be proceeding at
an almost undiminished rate for a certain time in order
that those expenses and outstanding charges may be ad-
justed. Therefore it was that you consented to this dupli-
cation of a rate at which the income tax had been previ-
ously assessed should be continued for a certain period
after the war, and you concluded that a period of 12 months
would suffice for that purpose ; you know that 12 months
has expired since the treaty of peace was concluded, and
therefore it is that you now urge that, irrespective of the
language of any Act of Parliament, irrespective of the
position which in virtue of that Act of Parliament the Go-
vernment may stand in, that they shall forego the continu-
ance of the tax at that rate, and shall be content to return
to the rate which existed prior to the commencement of
the war. Now, gentlemen, when the financial statement
of 1353 was presented, the Chancellor of the Exchequer at

that time anticipated the early termination of the income
tax. He fixed as the limit to it the year 1860, and he pros
posed that the rates at which the income tax should be
levied in the interval between the year 1853 and the year
1860 should be reduced by a graduated scale according to
certain periods of years within that intervaL Under that
arrangement, if that arrangement had subsisted, the in-
come tax from the Ist of April this year to the Ist April
1860, would only have been sd. in the pound, and in April
1860, it would have terminated altogether. No one at
that time foresaw the storm which was gathering in the
north—no one saw or knew how near was the approach of
the calamity that was then impending ; but war followed,
and when the war breke out a new arrangement was made
with regard to the income tax, and in the year 1851 the
income tax was doubled, and it was then enacted and pro-
vided by the law that the double rate of tax should con-
tinue for a year after the treaty of peace And if that
had been all the enactment of the law upon the subject your
views would have prevailed without any question whatever
and in the month of April of this year the income tax
would have returned to the rate at which it was before. You
knew, however, that after our army had been landed in the
Crimea, and after we had lost some ground in the course of
the first winter, and there had been miscarriages and mis-
adventures, it was necessary to make increased exertions,
and therefore it was in the month of April, 1855, that a
further addition was made to the income tax. It was raised
from 14d. to 16d. in the pound, and then it was provided
that there should not only be an addition of 2d. in the
pound, but that the previous addition of 7d. should con-
tinue, not as had been in the first instance provided, not
for a year after the conclusion of the treaty of peace, but
for the period of a year which should commence to b,
reckoned from that month of April which should first fol-
low after the conclusion of the treaty of peace. The Ist of
April will be the present year, and the year for which the
income tax was intended to continue was to be the year
which:commences to run from the April in this year. That
is the legal state of the question. You have urged, and
properly so, that no advantage should be taken of this po-
sition. You think that a year is sufficient for the continn
ante of this war rate or income tax to wind up all outstand.
ing accounts and charges, and your wish in this respect has
been fortunately anticipated by the Government. (Cheers.)
And never wasthere an occasion on which a charge against
a Government was so unfounded as that which has been
made by one of the speakers upon the present occasion.
in regard to the question that it was necessary that
you should urge the Government in the course that it
is proposed to take, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has
stated that it never entered his mind to take advantage of
the act of Parliament, and that he never contemplated
continuing the rate at which the income tax should be
assessed at 16d. in the pound, beyond the Ist of April this
year, and that if it were necessary that it should be con-
tinued, he should give ample opportunity to the public and
t subject, to Parliament to exercise their own discretion upon the
either to grant or withhold it as they might then
thattrei
yin portion ro fththe e
think best fc;
accordance.firsßt
urtestobluattion,
public service. Therefore, as regards
resolution w e
ere
tax should ber
further proposition—it re
h
the income
in this year shall be reduced to what it was before the
war. (Hear.) The question shall there
t bithis
particular taxation, a d
tsehxa,l
el
etnhna
et t reduction
have
eeen v e ry reduction
pro-
perly of
made by reducing
surmised by one speaker, until we
the answer to be given to another question, whileerined
Will the expenditure be reduced, and to, what extent 4 this—
That is really the question upon which the whole ?
turns,
and in regard to that matter our minds hal, 7000
n set at
antic
stei
wienodednrs fetbrdhoeaan as
httbhhaheasee rate
I los te se
aofrotfencwAtht:ei
April

rest.liy the official statement which has been made by a
'Ming reisitabet of die' Governments' The noble lord at the
hbad of the war Departmeethas stated that the army esti-
mates_ for the, coming yetr will be leas than they were iu the
first instance last year by' no legs a' sum- than twenty
tnillionis of money. (Aliplanae.):Laista y.ear, when the army
estiMites were first . submitted,: to Parliament, they
amounted to thirty-four millions olinoney. ' If you reduce
that sum by twenty millions, it fO owe that the army esti-
mates of the coming year will not exceed fourteen millions
of money. (Hear.) I know not whether there will be a
corresponding reduction in the naval estimates, but that
there will be a reducde may be' ieekoned upon with cer-
tainty ; and• atethe Oharicellor of ti*Exchequer has stated
that the expenditure of the countr4js mainly measured by
the expenditure for the army and navy services, we have
an answer to that 'preliminary cidistirin, it satisfactory an-
sewer, that the expenditUrn of the'lasiantry will be greatly
reducassand as that *the cape; litiree with you that as
expend4ufe is reductd, as taxation, can be remitted, the
remission of that tatcat:ionPliotild iffiti upon that tax which
'Was'sPelriially is-Meted Torthe puripos healing the extraor-
silnary saxpenses ot the.4ast,tw,o* ree years. (Cheers.)
_Gentlemen, the second of your red , tions deals with the
,subject in a more:general' Way: Yoh sireto reconstruct the
thk. You sly, I thick, that a astikption ought tube made
.betiifeenneia
rate epermanent .aud: precitiossikincomes. You think
that iesugYhit tiedi;;,
-(Hear.) Now this is a Very ''cliffieul.,` ttitatiOn, and if notice
:lu6po levied'
per tai ii,n.
n e
precariousut income, ano th
and a lower'incomes.another
is to he paid to the citations of an who have studied this
question very deeply,pif attentim•ilue to those who have
spoken and written upon this saa';' with authority, there
'aiitt diftleultieSsin the'ssdy ;of, 1* s ` i ect to your desires
',wksiehliy no ineisns are ettesVto stusmOusatst ,I don't myself
__.
pretenti,4rbiveranypcsaitiee and decided opinion upon
thiseubject ; ,mobject in coming hero was to ascertain
whit'yohi'viewsr, welt) '; but' I will state to you what are
seine ottlie objections thatthavei been made from time to
time/ withregard.te establishing a difference of rating in
respect to these twe Glasses of, perriaanent and preCarietus.
' siteperty; 'lt 11a4 beeia asked in *hat consists the difference
between-pOrtisanent and precarious incomes. Is it not in
respect of their durebility.? • The income from permanent
property
,will be the.saine ten pars hence as it is now, with
very little trouible.on die Part 'Of its possessor; whilst' the •
income derivedironi 'property that is invested' in commer-
cial or mercantile specolatiens is due only in part to the
possession of capitals, bot mainly to the skill and personal
intelligence and ability of its possessor. Bilt,•then, it has
been said that the income that is raised in the course of a
year is spent: ha the CQUPI2I of year in the service upon*
which the money is raised, is spent in services which ate
ef a.permanent character, and the interest which persons
have in the pro Per bentluCtaafithis service may fairly be
Measured by the income Which-they receive for that year:
That is one of the arguments that has been used against the
establishment of any distinction between these kinds of pro-
perty.' 'no you recelledt the sPeech made in 1853 by the
Chandelier ottlinExthequerit that time? At that time
there, had been a great agitation upon this very question,
which had proceeded to grea,ter lengths than now. He
made a speech 'upon this subject, unparalleled or unser-
'Pitied, for' eloquence, range, and lucidity. A.nd from
the . time that he delivetecl, that speech, the, agitation
ceased and V opposition was abandoned, and why ? Be-
cause he ehaiied that under the income tax, as at present
levied, illtliOngli'nrit' nemiiialli, yet virteally, that very
!distinction, exists Which:lon seek to. establish,'
,and he
asserted,and , proved that now, in the way in whitish the
tax ,is at present levied, if precarious incomes contribute
to the sirinetne tax at the rate 'Of 7d. in7the ipound, in-
sisiMese ofutteirmanent charades contribute at the rate of
pii.!.p,op:ppuiad, and he had Asserted that those who had
argued for the establishment of a difference between these
'two kinds'ef proteirty laid' stover contended fora greeter
)diffetenearthanis repro:tented latthe figures 7 and 9: iHe
showedsthatstshia distinction existed, inasmuch as ‘,441# in
the case of precarious incomes allowances of every-1111nd
Were permitted to be made, in the case of permanent Pros
poiSityi- silthongh you Me, liable •to chargeslor agency, I for
repairs, expepses, and, outgoings of various descriptions,
whieh reduce the net income, none of those deductions
o , .
were perniitted to be made in regard to the assessment for
iiieskte tat ;- therefore virtually at this moment precarious
incoasysCpay at the rate. of .7d., in the pound, and perma-
nent incomes at the rate of 93. in the pound. That was
another reason why'ne difference di rate shouldbe estabs •
dished between these two descriptionß of property. One
'Other; ereatidiffietilty; kiiltmention. . It is quite clear that
sill preeetioms inoonweaue derived si. part from capital and
siflivjo4scfot,..tkulafanstnteltigekesof the o wners: Coi-
ls of every in iliontet iii tge islerite, luit
Miquelitionably a geonudexiste why nloirer rate should be
charged upon that portion of u man'a income which is de-
rived from his own personal skill and intelligence ; but
then it would be necessary in the case of every contributor
to the -tax that the tax collector should know minutely the
state'of his circumstances—should know what part of his
income was really due to his possession of capital, and what
portion of it was due to his own ability and devotion to •
his business, and it was because it was foreseen that the
endeavour to carry inquiry to this extent, to push investi-
gation in the case of private affairs up to the very hilt,
would be so obnoxious and distasteful to the community
that the attempt to effect Such an object Was abandoned;
it was seen that under such an organisation. of the tax it
could not be long maintained, and therefore a different
course was pursued. (Hear.) You must recollect that the
income tax has never been considered a permanent
part of
the fivancial system of this country. It has always been
considered as an expedient to be had recourse to in timed
of great emergency. I believe that is a proper policy to
pursue. With regard to this tax, doubtless direct taxation
has advantages over indirect, bUt the knowledge that we
possess in our armoury of finance .a weapon so formidable
as the income tax, which, if patio force, can bring into
our exchequer in the course of the year 10,000,000 i. or
20,000,000 E., or 30,600,000'., sufficient to swell our army
and our forces to almost any extent we please—l do believe
that the knowledge on the part of foreign countries that we
possess so great a power as this does tend to stifle many
ambitious projects, many rebellious instincts that they may
.from time to time be possessed within regard to this coun-
try, and to that- extent serves to maintain oar external
tranquillity and peace with the world. (Cheers.) Gentles
men, the other objections which have been made to this
tax are of minor importance. I must confess myself to a
predilection in favour of that point of starting for the in-
come tax which was established when it was imposed in
1842. That was an occasion on which theincome tax was had
recourse to for the purposeof meeting a great emergency.
In the first instance it had been used 50 years before to
put a stop to the accumulation of the load of debt which
had been going on for a considerable period prior to that
time. In 1842 it was had recourse to for the purpose of en •
abling certain great commercial reforms to be carried out,
to liberate theindustry of the country, to allow the produce
of foreign countries to come into our markets on the same
footing of advantage with productions of our own country,
and I think that no one will say who rightly appreciates
the advantages which have been derived from the policy
established in 1812—and it waste enable such policy to be
carried out that the income tax was imposed—no one will
say that the advantages which have been derived to the
country have not been cheaply purchased—very cheaply,
I may say, with reference to the inconveniences that have
been submitted to in consequence of the imposition of this
income tax. (Hear.) Now, I say, as far as my predilec-
tion is concerned, I should be gladto see the income liable
to this tax starting from 1501. a , year and upwards.
I do not recollect precisely the ' circumstances under
which incomes between 100/. and 1501. were made charge-
.able to this tax.. I believe that it was in consideration
that some equivalent and counterbalancing advantages
were given to those who possessed incomes fluctuating be-
tween' the two points. The other matter which has been
referred. to has reference to the mode in which the income
tax is collected.. I am indebted to the chairman for the
allusion he has made to some information which I fur-
nished to a gentleman who wrote to me to inquire whether
some mode could be devised by which a persca locally cons
nected with this town could be placed among the local
commissioners for collecting the tax. I pointed out to
him, upon investigating the subject, that the matter was
One' over which Government hod no control, that these
local commissioners were selected from the landooramis-
sioners, that that was a body that had been nominated
some time ago, and they had the election and appointment'
of these income tax commissioners solely, at their own con-
trol. ' (A Voice--" Who .appointed them ?") They were
appointed many years ago, and I have no knowledge to
whom they were indebted for their office. I can truly say
that these and other ma' tors , before referred to shall re-
ceive my earnest consideration. We know that the season
is about to open, and I think that you may look with con-
fidence ,to a solution of this question .being made by the
Government which will meet the, public sentiments upon
the subject. As regards myself I can truly and confidently
assure you that I shall endeavour to discharge my duty in
regard to this as to all other matters with diligence and
fidelity. lam always mindful of the responsibility I am
under by being the trustee of your public interest. There
is no object to which I attach more value 'than the reten-
tion of your good opinion, and I have every reason to be
thankful to you for the confidence reposed in me up to the
present time, and I trust that, for the future, I shall do
nothing which shall forfeit your good opinions, which
shall make you ever repent the selection you have made
on a former occasion, or which shall make you hesitate to
renew the relationship which subsists between us upon
any future occasion which may arise. ,(Loud cheers.)
It was agreed that a petition embodying the resolutions
should be drawn up for presentation to Parliament, and a
vote. of thanks to the chairman terminated the proceedinp.