The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-11 00:00:00

HONG-KONG.

Dr. BOWRING wished to ask the Right Honour-
able Gentleman the Under Secretary for the Colonies,
whether there would be any objection to lay before
the House copies of the correspondence relating to
the late registration ordinances at Hong-Kong ?
Mr. HOPE was understood to say that he did not
know of any difficulty in the way of bringing the
papers before the House.
BANGOR AND ST. ASAPH.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER pre-
sented a petition from the University of Cambridge
for a repeal of the Act uniting the bishoprics of
St. Asaph and Bangor.
The RIGHT HON. GrriTLEmsri also presented a
petition from a body of clergymen on the subject of
tithe commutation.

Captain BERNAL presented a petition against the
re-enactment of the income-tax.

Mr. COWPER presented a petition from a place
in Northamptonshire in favour of the Field Gardens
Bill.

THE INCOME-TAX.

Mr. GREENE brought up the report on the income.
tax resolutions.
On the motion that it be read a second time,
Mr. CHARLES BULLER rose to move—
That the circumstances under which the renewal of
the income•tax is at present proposed, are such as to
render it exceedingly impropable that Parliament
will have the power of dispensing with its conti-
nuance at the end of three years ; and that it is,
therefore, the duty of this House to take care that
the tax be imposed in a form in which its operation
shall be less unequal and inquisitorial than it now is.
He thought that no one would be disposed to believe
that in bringing the general circumstances under
which the income. tax was to be renewed again before
the House he was at all induced to undertake

the task by the very great anxiety which the
House had evinced upon the subject.—(Hear.)
He was anxious to give the House an opportunity, on
the present occasion, of explaining to the country and
to itself, if it could, the grounds, the principles, the
circumstances, and the period, for which this tax was
now to be renewed, because he took the question as
to the period for which the tax was to
be renewed as the cardinal point upon which
the tax now hinged, and on this must depend the
propriety of imposing the tax at all.--(Hear, hear.)
It was owing to the shortness of the period for which
the tax was to be imposed, that they assented
to the tax without that grave deliberation
which so important a question required. But
there was, both in the House and outside
its doors, a want of determination and doubt upon the
subject which was very surprising. The Right Hon.
Baronet opposite was the only person who observed
any great decision and firmness of purpose. He
wanted to have the tax renewed without any discus-
sion, and he must say that l.e went forward to his
object with an undeviating consistency, but as
for the rest of them they seemed to be
perfectly mastered by his energy. The general sup-
porters of the Right Hon. Baronet opposite seemed
more adverse to the tax than any others, and seemed
less inclined to vote for it on account of the fiscal
alterations proposed by the Right Honourable
Baronet; and then with that noble independence
—that self-reliance and vigour of intellect--
which marked all their conduct—(A laugh)—they
stated that on no account would they consent to make
the income-tax permanent; but then they all said they
believed it would be permanent, were it not for the
assurances of the Right Hon. Baronet. He never saw
so large a hope hung on so little an assurance—
(Laughter)—for the other night, when they pushed
the Right Hon. Gentleman, all he said was, that he did
not despair that at the end of three years it might be taken
off; and as they believed they had a firm confidence
in the Right Hon. Baronet, and bad every reason to
rely upon his professions—(Laughter)—they were
prepared to come forward in the face of glaring facts
to vote an income-tax, not one of them having the
slightest hope that it would be got rid of in three
years. On his (Mr. Buller's) side of the
House they were a sharper set of men.—(Laughter.)
I lion. Gentlemen opposite thought proper to laugh
at the observation ; but he could assure them that the
Hon. Members by whom he was supported would
joinin the assent to that assertion. He could also
say, with great truth, that they were shrewder men,
too—(Laughter)—and, in their name, he would
say to the Right Honourable Baronet at
the head of her Majesty's Government, that
there was not the slightest chance of having
the income-tax removed at the end of the next
three years.—(Hear, hear.) He had beard it said
that this tax would not be submitted to by the country,
or would not be insisted on by the Minister for so long
a period unless it should be greatly modified ; but it
now appeared that it was to be continued without
any modification.—(Hear, hear.) What, then, was
he to think of those who upon ene occasion
voted for the tax, and at another time voted against it ?
Those Hon. Members to whom he alluded had al-
ways been in favour of this tax being imposed, in what
they called a less and less oppressive form each year.

Now, he (Mr. B.) had always expressed himself in
favour of a system of indirect taxation ; and he would
ask, would it not be worth the while of the Ministry to
establish such a system ?—(Hear, hear.) He might,
perhaps, be told that the taxes amounted to "so and
so," but he would ads, had they not the poor-
rates, and the borough-rates, and city-rates
to meet, in addition to the assessed taxes ?
Fourteen or fifteen millions, out of fifty millions,
must necessarily be raised by indirect taxation.
Therefore, the main reliance of the Government of
this country must be an indirect taxation, and their
first object ought to be to ameliorate that indirect
system of taxation, and make it as perfect as pos-
sible.—(Hear, hear.) When he came to the
conclusion that the' main reliance of the Go-
vernment must be upon indirect taxation, he thought
there was much wisdom in the old idea, that in
ordinary times it ought to be the sole reliance
of the Government. This fund, raised by direct
taxation, ought to be kept for extraordinary emer-
gencies, and not to be drawn on except in the
greatest of those exigencies, because, after all, a
property and income-tax must be unjust and
vexatious ; they ought not, therefore, to impose it
except in those great emergencies, when the excited
feelings of the country would induce every man to
put up with any amount of inconvenience for the sake
of aiding in the national struggle. It was wise, too,
that the world should be made to understand that the
country had such a fund to resort to in the period of
such a struggle, for the knowledge that they had
such a treasure to fall back on would add far more
to prevent aggresion and unreasonable pretensions by
foreign countries than anything they could do for the
fortification of their coasts, or the increase of their
force in any way whatever. He would not trouble
the House with any further discussion on the com-
parative advantages of indirect over direct taxation,
because he was aware there were other exigencies
in which he should be willing to submit to
an income-tax. For the sake of trying a
great fiscal experiment, he should be willing to
consent to an income-tax for three years, if
measures could be devised that would assure them of
getting rid of the tax at the end of that time. But if
those measures tended to diminish taxation, no
Minister was justified in trying the experiment,
unless he had a considerable surplus at his command.
If the Right Hon. Baronet would come forward and ask
them to submit to the income-tax for three years, for
the sake of establishing a better system of taxation, he
would cheerfully accede to it. The admirers of the
' budget, particularly on this side of the House—for
this was the adulatory side of the House this
session—(Great laughter)—praised it as a measure
especially calculated to benefit the poor, and
as an advance towards free trade. He be-
lieved it was calculated to do a great deal
of good; but the Right Honourable Baronet had
also thrown away a great opportunity of re-
forming our system of taxation, because he had
an unprecedented surplus at his command. The
Right Hon. Baronet had the largest surplus that ever
a Minister of this country had to deal with. He did
not complain of the Right Hon. Baronet's having
misapplied or misused the surplus, but he had not
made that practical use of it which the circumstances
warranted. It was only when there was a large surplus
that the great articles of taxation could be touched.
with half a million, they could only touch the minor
articles. It was only, as at present, when they had three
or four millions to spare that they could meddle with
the great articles of revenue, and favourably affect
the great mass of the people. He contended that
Ministers with such a surplus were bouni to make
the best use of such ample means; and he
was culpable, if he only made such changes as were
ineffective as regarded the great body of consumers—.
in fact, if he made only such changes as could be
made at any time, he (Mr. Buller) again said that he
had a surplus which enabled him to make a reorma-
tion, if not a great reformation, of the whole fiscal
system, which enabled him to lighten the burdens
of the people, without lessening the revenue,
The Right Hon. Baronet had thrown away a golden
opportunity. It seemed to him that the great scandal
of taxation was the large amount of revenue raised
by undue taxation on the articles of consumption of
the great masses of the people—the tsxstion of
articles which, if they were not necessary to the poor
man, were at least the luxuries of the very poor
man. In this legislation he thought they were guilty
of the fault of great injustice, because of indiscrimi-
nate taxation. They taxed low-priced articles, which
the poor man consumed, as high as high-priced arti-
cles, which the rich man consumed, and therefore they
taxed the consumption of the poor man out of all
proportion with the articles used by the rich.
They diminished the scanty comforts of the poor, and
taxed articles too high, for the purposes of revenue;
thus checking consumption, and opening a door for
all kinds of fraud. With regard to the tax on sugar,
for instance, of which they had heard so much, and
the reduction of which was put forward as the
most popular thing in the budget, he must say a
few words. With respect to that question, he meant
the'question which had never got an answer— (Laugh-
ter)—it appeared that the average price of British
i nited pricei
in
othuold
course raise the
of
manufactured sugar in bond was 345. the cwt. The
Right Hon. Baronet would reduce the duty to 145.,
ouo
saortitchleat
ttoheotasx. andlt w
original
elicited
upon
thisdiseu article w
discussion that m
theore
than
Brazilian
the
am sugar
was 215., and that by our restrictive duties
doubled
t
of the cost of the poor man's sugar. Take the
article of tea, for instance. The low-priced
article cost 9d. the lb., whilst the poor- man
was obliged to pay four times that amount.—(Hear.)
By these taxes they more than doubled the price of
the poor man's coffee, and they nearly doubled
to him the price of soap and malt. They
raised the price of tobacco nearly sixteen times,
and the same results ensued with respect
to brandy and geneva. Surely it was to be
desired that sugar, coffee, malt, and soap, should be
more easily obtained by the poor man. The duty on
spirits and tobacco, he admitted might be attended with
some good, but it led to smuggling and fraud,
and to many of the crimes and much of the
bloodshed, that took place in order
to keep
up the customs' duties. kle believed that the picture
drawn by his Hon. Friend the Member for Montrose
with respect to the tobacco duties was one of the most
dreadful pictures that could be drawn. He thought the
great articles of taxation to which he had referred ought
to be the great object of every financier to remove,
partly to put an end to smuggling and fraud, and
partly to put in the poor man's reach those enjoy-
ments of which he was at present deprived.—(Hear,
hear.) There was no person who bad written on the
subject who had not adverted to those articles
as matters on which the duties ought to
be removed. He would venture to say that if the
duty was removed from tobacco and spirits, not only
would better articles be obtained in this country, but
half a million would be saved in the expenses of the
coast guard ; but then it was said the articles he had
referred to were great articles of revenue, and that,
therefore, it was not safe for the public service to make
experiments in those large articles of taxation.
He freely admitted, with regard to the tobacco and
spirit duties, that in order to try the experiment fairly,
they must take away three millions of duties, and
that a Minister would not be justified in making
such an experiment with large items of taxation,
unless he had a very large surplus to fall back
upon. But the Right Honourable Baronet
had that surplus. He was the first Alinister who ever
had such a surplus to deal with, and therefore the
first who ever had it in his power to give this boon
to the poor man ; to clod effectively with
smuggling, and to put taxation on a right foot-
ing. With not one of these great articles had
he dealt, except sugar, with respect to which he had
sacrificed revenue, with very little benefit to the con-
sumer, and simply for the interest of the West India
planter.—(Laughter from the Opposition.) Now, if
the Right Hon. Baronet had dealt with the articles
to which he had referred, fairly and fully, his budget
would, indeed, have been beneficial to the poor, it
would have come home to the case of the poor man
by greatly diminishing the cost of necessary
articles of consumption. It would also have
been in accordance with the soundest
principles of economical science. If the Right Hon.
Baronet had dealt in a proper manner with these
several items of taxation, he might have rested satis-
fied that, through increased consumption and the
prevention of fraud, the revenue would have
so recovered from the effect of reduced
taxation, that at the end of three years he would
have been able to dispense with the income-tax, the
country getting the full advantage of the change
which had taken place.—(Hear, hear.) For such
an object as that, he (Mr. C. Buller) would have
been ready to submit to the income-tax for three
years, and 'to run the risk—which he was persuaded
would have been a very small one—of incurring the
necessity of its further continuance.— (Hear,
hear.) But the Right Honourable Baronet
came forward and proposed a reduction of taxes,
which, though they might have been properly re-
duced one by one at any convenient time, ought not
to have been allowed to interfere with the wiser ap-
plication of the whole surplus en masse.—(Cries of
" Hear, hear.") The proposed reduction of taxes did
not hold out the slightest hope of the revenue being
restored.—(Hear, hear.) It was true that the Right
Hon. Baronet, with that goodness which distinguished
him, turned round to his supporters and told them
that he left them the most unfettered liberty of deal-
ing with the income-tax as they pleased at the end
of three years, and the mode in which he prepared
the way for doing this, was by sweeping away from
his budget every farthing of the surplus which he
possessed above the expenditure, even while the
income-tax was continued.—(Hear, hear.) They
were told that as a matter _of course

if they reduced taxes the revenue would recover and
produce the same amount. But he did not find any