The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-21 00:00:00

ho was going, in 1859, to abandon a sum of £5,300,000. He
would still have 61,600,000/.; and, according to the last ar-
rangement, his expenditure would be 66,724,0001. It was quite
true they might have adverse or prosperous harvests—they
might have favourable or unfavourable turns in their wars
with Persia and China ; but they had no right to expect
to be able to fill up that deficiency. The proposal of his
right hon. friend would leave them in the year 1860 with a
deficiency of about 5,090,000/. sterling. He (Mr. Gladstone)
must go on further; because his right hon. friend did not
abandon the income tax. He claimed credit with those who
wished to see the termination of the income tax, which he
(Mr. Gladstone) wished to see—(cheers)—and did not corn-
mit themselves as he (fir. Gladstone) did to their desire to
realise such a state of expenditure and income as should bring
about such a-result. But he had added to the income tax—
he had lessened greatly the probability of its termination.
For a long period after the institution of the tax it was in-
creased at the uniform rate of 7d., and the country was at
last convinced that 7d. was a rate of perpetuity, when, in
1848, the right hon. bwonet the present First Lord of the
Admiralty said that the 7d. must be perpetuated. (Sir C
Wood expressed his diesent.) He (Mr. Gladstone) begged
his pardon ; he thought it was so. (Hear, hear.) Well,
then, in 1853 what did they do? They wanted to show to
the country that Parliament had resolved that the income
tax should lose its permanent character, and they invited
Parliament to fix its legislative decline. By the act then
passed, the tax was to be reduced from 6d. to 5d., and in
1860 it was to cease altogether. (Cheers) Without fettering
the judgment of the house, the Government of that day were
labouring to bring the relation of income and expenditure
into such a condition tint Parliament might at that period
put an end to the income tax. His right hon. friend had ex-
actly cancelled the vote of the temporary character of the in-
come tax, doing all that lay in his power to make the tax
permanent. Whilst his light hon. friend thus marked it as a
permanent tax, he did not offer to reconstruct it. Unlike the
Government of 1853, he had done what he could do to saddle
the tax upon the people of this country for ever. (Cheers )
His right hon. friend had shown them what he thought
with regard to the prcspect of the termination of the
income tax, but he (Mr. Gladstone) would 'state what his
opinion was upon this point. The Government of 1853
laid their financial scheme before Parliament, not with a
view to its being an arbitrary imposition of taxes, but as
proceeding from an actual income and expenditure, and
they relied upon certain changes being made by the law, and
then upon exhibiting to the house such a state of things it.
1861 as would enable the income tax to cease. The result
was a balance of income over expenditure. His right hon.
friend said there was nothing to prejudice the termination of
the tax—that in 1859-60 the changes proposed were not very
important, nor were they in 1860-61; but he had a deficiency
to start with of five millions and a half. He would lose then
1,000,0001. upon Exchequer Bonds and 2,460,0001. upon in-
come tax. There would be a further loss of between 500,0001.
and 600,000/. oa tea and sugar. In fact, his whole loss at
that time would amount to 4,600,000/. The gain at same
period would be 3.460,0001., and his right hon. friend would
thus be adding only 1,000,000/. to his former deficiency—a
trifling sum, with which he (Mr. Gladstone) owned he need
not concern himself—making his whole deficiency a sum of
-6,400,0001. In the following year the right hon. gentleman
would lose one-half of his income tax, amounting to three
millions and a half, and he had no gain to state against it.
Therefore in the year 1861 the account would stand thus :
the deficiency of 5,500,000/, in the year 1857-8 would be in-
creased in 1860 to 6,400,0001, and in 1861 he would lose
3,500,0001. more, making his whole deficiency a sum of
about 8,600,000/., or very nearly that which was known as
the war niuepence. After this it was for the house to con-
sider whether he was right in his belief that the real question
raised to-night was whether all the pledges given and held
out in 1853 were to be cast to the winds—(hear, hear)—and,
secondly, whether, by a course of improvident expenditure
and reckless finance, they were to charge the country in the
meantime with a growing deficiency ; and whether it would
not be absolutely necessary permanently to embody an income
tax, uniformly raised, into our system of finance, in order to
pay the public creditor, and preserve the solvency of the
national treasury. (Cheers.) There was one other subject
to which he (Mr. Gladstone) was compelled to allude to-night,
and he was sorry to say it was one of the most painful parts
of the whole subject to him. (Hear, hear, and a laugh.)
It appeared to be not so important to some gentlemen who
sat behind the Ministerial benches. (Cheers.) The subject to
which he alluded was that of indirect taxation. He had
spoken of the speech of his right hon. friend as having been
most unhappily calculated to convey untrue impressions to
the country with respect to the removal of the income-tax—
(hear)—and not only with regard to that, but to the fatal
deficiency that was likely to take place in the public revenue,
and he had to express his regret that that speech conveyed
untrue expressions as regarded the important subject of in-
direct taxation. It was the first time in his recollection that
he had heard proposals made from the Treasury bench of the
nature he had listened to. He wouldlo back to three Chan-
cellors of the Exchequer. Ho would go back to Sir R. Peel
and to the right hon, member for Portsmouth (Sir F. Baring.)
9 _

Every one of them, however diatrent their polities might be,
had given one and the same account of the beneficial effects

which had been produced by the remission of indirect taxes,
and though the right hon. member for Portsmouth had been
Compelled, by the pressure of circumstances, to make au in.
crea:.• in the indirect taxes, he had done so no doubt with
reluctance, and remembered it no doubt with regret. Sir
R. Peel came into power, and, backed by an overwhelming
majority and the popular feeling, ho destroyed prohibition;
he liberated trade, and reduceiduties, and. was not versed
in the philosophy of Arthur Young. (Hear, bear.) The
r7glit hon. gentleman the member for Portsmouth, although
he had, as he (Mr. Gladstone) had before stated, in some case
increased the indirect tax.:s, in no case increased them on
articles of consumption. The right hon. gentleman the
member for Buckinghamshire, when leader of the House
of Commons, and representative of Lord Derby's Govern-
ment, and possessing the full confidence of those behind
him, bore testimony to the immense advantage of the re
mission of indirect taxation. Without going further, then,
and passing over the next link, they found the present
Chancellor of the Exchequer adopting a different strain,
and already in his place in the house questioning the effi-
ciency and the propriety of the work. Well, then, what had
been the effect of the operation of that house with respect to
the remission of these taxes 7 He held in his h Ind a paper
so remarkable that every man wjio loved truth or humanity,
and was desirous that his fellow creatures should enjoy all

those benefits which it
_was in the power of a good dol;ern

ment to bestow, would not hesitate to yield their judgment
and their heart to rests' ts so extraordinary. It appeared,
then, that from 1842 to 1846 the British Parliement had,
When a Conservative Government was in office, remitted taxes
to the amount of 8,050,000/. From ,the year 1847 to the year
1851, when his noble friend the member for the City of Lon-
lm was in office, the taxes remitted amounted to 5,310,000/. ;
and from 1851 to 1854 they amounted
,to A,655,0001. ; mak-
ing the total of taxes thus remitted 21,985,000/. Tue next
taxation imposed within the same period amounted to
7,503,0001., leaving 14,485,0001. not remission of taxes.
And the great bulk of the gain, what was it ? It was so much
addition to the comforts, and so much deduction from the
privations, of humanity. (Cheers.) During the same period,
whilst the taxes bad decreased by seven millions, the revenue
bad increased by the same sum, for in 1842, the first year of
tkat period, the revenue wes 46,965,0001., whilst in 1853 it
was 54,430,0001. It th, refine was not too much to say that
the remission of 22,000,000/. of taxation had not cost the
country a single farthing. If, then, that was the effect of
that blessed work, what was he to say of him who began the
undoing of it. (Hear, hear.) What WAS the right hon.
gentleman going to do ? So far as they could judge from his
statement on Friday last, it would appear that his innocent
and harmless budget was going to remit, rather than increase,
the taxes upon tea and sugar. The case stood thus--the war
tax upon tea upon the sth of next April, would, as the law
now stood, fall from ls. 9d. to is. 3d. His right honourable,
friend proposed to raise it again to ls. 7d., and then ho took
credit to himself for a reduction in that duty of 2d. Now,
it appeared to him (Mr. Gladstone) that so far from
there being a reduction of 2d., there was an aetu
increase of 4d., and the effect would be au adv ince in the year
1857-8, upon tee of 1,054,0301. The ls. per cwt. upon sugar
gentleman being calculated as
proposed by the right hod.
upou 7,250,000 cwt., gave 362,0001., which, being aided to
the tea duties, gave a result of 1,416,0001., which hisright hon.
friend proposed to extract from the consumers of tea and sugar
in this kingdom during the ensuing year ; and that sum was i o
be increased iu the year 1858-9 to 2,000,000/. He (klr. Glad-
stone) believed it to be the pride of the Liberal party of this
country to assist in the remission of indirect taxes. (Hear.) He
trusted that they would, in the present instance, adhere to that
their pride; and, with regard to the house generally, ho would
beg them to consider well the position iu which they were
placed. He rente.ebered well when Sir R. Peel, after having
stated the deficiency in the revenue, turned round to his party,
and having announced his intention to take off 140,000/. of in-
, direct taxes, he appealed to them to saddle themselves with an
income tax to meet the deficieuey, and that appeal was nobly
answered. There were objections to the income-tax upon other
grounds, and the Parliament of 1841, to a man, stood firm, and
took upon themselves and the wealthier classes between
5,000,000/. and 6,000,000/. of taxation, in order to lighten the
burdens of the less wealthy classes, besides 1,400,0001. of indi-
rect taxes. The house was then called upon toadmit 1,400,000/.
of indirect taxes ; they were called upon now to impose them,
They were then called upon to take new burdens upon them-
selves, in order to relieve the great masses of the country they
were now called upon to take the burdens off the shoulders of
the wealthier classes in order that they might put in erect taxes
upon the tea and sugar ccnsumed by every labouring family in
the kingdom. He (Mr. Gladstone) could only say, for his part,
that he entertained the most decided opinion on this question,
and nothing should prevent him from giving every constitu-
tional opposition to tho carrying out of the financial scheme
now proposed ; and, before the Speaker loft the chair, ho
should call upon the house not to impose more duties
upon tea and sugar. With regard to the bearing of his opi-
nion upon the motion then before the house, he geld, if they
were to have additional taxes upon tea and sugar, that was a
prima facie case that they were to have a deficiency. He
frankly said that this motion of the right hon. gentleman
(Mr. Disraeli) appeared to him to be in conformity with the
declaration he made on the first night of the session, and that
Motion afforded to him (Mr. Gladstone) a practical mode of
doing good to the public. He maintained that the proposals
of the Government showed clearly a course of increasing de-
ficiency—a deficiency unparalleled iu anything he could re.
meniber in public life for 25 yeaes. It was the first duty,of
the House of Commons to say that they will have no de-
ficiency, and when they had once said that their way would
be clear. Upon a former night he (IVlre Gladstene) ventured
to lament the extreme deadness of the public mind on the
subject of expenditure, and to express his opinion of the
largeness our expenditure was assuming ; and ho said now,
if this median should be lost, ho should be driven to make a
motion upon expenditure. That was one of his motives for
supporting the motion of the right hon gentleman. The other
motive Was that he thought it was entirely in support of
those pledges by which ho thought himself bound, and by
which he also thought those gentlemen who sat on the Go-
vernment *benches were bound. He felt it to be perfectly
practicable by a wise economy, and by an appeal to tee good
sense of the Commons of England, to reduce taxation, and to I
enable them to maintain a surplus income, and give that
largo relief in 1860, which, as far as was in their power, they
promised to give in 1853. He might be right or might be
wrong---=lllO judgment might err, like that of other men—but
this was the first time_enot the first time he dad heard a de-
ficiency recommended by the (L—.
heard Mich a proposition as the
-hequer--et plan whieli of
oie (;;;eLneellor of the Es-
that ho had
,etedetone) to
.
teemed to hint eeee t
threaten to laud them In financial donfuslon.— At "
was their duty to Ade tlie frerti a statement which
tainly conveyed false impressions to the eetintry. It was their
duty to beat' testimony in open day to the principles of truth
afid tidtett,, ; It Was a //tabard obligation to strip the veil from
every scheme that tended to do away with these
principles.
That duty be had now endeavoured to discharge, and iu con-
clusion lie Would say that no considerati n could induce him
to put forward a financial scheme whichwas not based upon
those principles—principles which were intimately associated
not only with the credit and honour, but oven with the
safety, of this empire. (Loud cheers.)
Mr. J. WILSON was sure he should not appeal to the
house in vain for its indulgence. While he cculd not follow
his right hon. friend through the whole of the subject upon
which he had touched, he would endeavour to place before
the house in a clear and succinct form what be deemed to be
the errors of they right hon. gentleman. There were some
topics upon whimh his right hon. friend and the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, in common with all the members of the