The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-30 00:00:00

deficiency which might be caused by the reduction of
the duty on sugar and other necessary articles of general
consumption. The amount of the expenditure for the
army, navy, and ordnance, this year, was estimated at
17,700,0001. In 1835, when the Right Hon. Baronet
was at the head of the Government also, the expenditure
for these three departments was only 14,125,0004 and it
was still less in 1836, when the Whig Government was
in office. lie saw no reason why 3,000,0001. more should
be expended this year, and he thought the Right Hon.
Baronet should tell the House and the country why it
was so.—(Hear, hear.) The taxes taken out of the
pockets of the people this year, and the expenses of
collecting them, amounted to more than 56,000,000/.
sterling. The Right Hon. Baronet had, some time ago,
stated that they had arrived at the limit of taxation on
articles of general consumption. Such was certainly the
case, and in time of war they would have no resource
but an increased property-tax. In 1814, when wp were
at war, the estimates for the army, navy, and ordnance,
were only 4,380,0001. Look at the vast difference between
the expenditure in that year and in this. The Hon.
Gentleman concluded, as he had begun, by expressing
his entire dissatisfaction at the contents of the Budget.
Mr. MATTHEW BELL regretted the Right Hon.
Gentleman had not thought it right to reduce the duty
on coals. The Hon. Gentleman then read several docu-
ments, from which it appeared that the consumption of
coal, since the imposition of the tax by the present Go-
vernment, in 1842, had greatly diminished. The con-
sumption of coal had decreased in one year to the value
of 70,000/. ; and he appealed to the Government, whe-
ther it was politic to maintain the present high duty on
the export of coal. He maintained that the Government,
instead of imposing a duty on the export of coal, ought
to give every possible facility to the exportation of that
article. It was generally supposed that the manufac-
tories on the Continent were supplied with English coal;
but this was a fallacy, for he had been informed that out
of all the coal exported, not one-eighth part found its way
to the manufactories of the Continent. He concluded by
expressing a hope that the Government would next year
abolish the duty which was at present imposed on the
exportation of coal.
Mr. BARING said, there was one point which was
worthy of their consideration, and that was, what would
the commercial prospects of the Government now have
been if the income-tax had not been imposed ? He
thought this was not an unfair subject for consideration.
Now he found that in the year 1840, the Right Hon.
Baronet stated that the revenue was 48,350,0001., and
that the Chinese money which was to come in was
803,0004 making together the sum of 49,153,0001. Now,
from the balance sheet of that year, it appeared that
*the expenditure was 48,669,0001., leaving a surplus of
revenue over expenditure of 488,000/. Me thought it
was worth while to look into this. He would not fol-
low the figures for the succeeding years, but his own
impression was, that the revenue would have gone on
increasing, even if the income-tax had not been imposed.
Of course in saying this, he did not mean that it would
have increased in such manner as to have admitted of
these reductions in the taxation of the country, which
the income-tax had enabled the Right Hon. Gentleman
to make. Now, with respect to one of those reductions,
he would just make one or two observations. He al-
luded to the article of timber, and he confessed that the
anticipations which were entertained by the Government
when the reduction in the duty on this article was made
did not appear to him to have been realised. He recol-
lected at the time that reduction was proposed, saying
that it would ultimately give considerable relief, but that
a great length of time must intervene before it could do
so. The Right Hon. Gentleman estimated the loss from
the reduction of the timber duties at about 600,000/,
even if no additional consumption should result from the
reduction in the duty. Now, instead of the loss being
600,0001., it had turned out to be 898,0001., being nearly
50 per cent. more than the estimated loss. But it
was not so much with the past they bad to
deal as with the present. One great omission
in the Right Honourable Gentleman's speech was
with regard to the continuance of the income-tax.—
(Hear, hear.) No mention had been made by the Right
Hon. Gentleman, whether it was the intention of the
Government to continue the income-tax beyond the three
years or not. It was upon this consideration that all
their financial calculations must hang ; and he thought
the more manly course of policy would have been to
have declared whether it was the intention to continue
the income-tax for three years longer, or whether it was
intended to cease, as originally intended, next year. The
only mention which was made of this subject by the
Right Hon. Gentleman was, that he intended to leave
it to be settled by the House next year. 'With respect
to the reductions proposed by the Right Honour-
able Gentleman, he was bound to say that he
could see nothing to complain of respecting them.
He was very glad to find that a reduction was to take
place in the duty on ,glass, not so much on account of
the reduction, as the stimulus it would give to trade.
He would venture to hope that the Government would
reduce the Customs' duty on this article as well as the
Excise duty.—(Hear, hear.) He was glad to find that
a reduction was contemplated in the stamp duties on
marine insurance, and upon the article of currants, both
of which reductions must prove beneficial to the country.
With the reduction of the duty on coffee he was parti-
cularly satisfied, as it was a step in that course which
was directed towards the abolition of differential defies,
which had been too long disregarded. There was
however one thing disagreeable in this part of the
Right Hon. Gentleman's propositions, and that was
the proposal to increase the duty upon the article
of chicory. He could not understand the policy of im-
posing a heavy duty on the importation of such an
article as chicory ; for he remembered some years ago,
that the importation of this article was prohibited
by the Board of Trade, and the result was, that chi-
cory was afterwards largely cultivated in this country.
He had considerable doubt on bis mind whether the
reduction of the duty upon this article, which had been
proposed by the Right Hon. Gentleman, would effect
the good which he promised, but in saying this he did
not affirm that the admixture of chicory with coffee
tended to injure it, for on the Continent it was gene-
rally used for that purpose, where it was found to be a
great improvement. But those were small matters as
compared with others, one of the most important of
which was the reduction of the duty upon sugar. He
(Mr. Baring) was most anxious to see how the
Right Hon. Gentleman would get 'out of the difficulty
which his resolution upon this subject entailed upon him,
for it certainly surprised him that the Right
Honourable Gentleman should come with such a
resolution as this. He thought that the manner
in which the Right Honourable Gentleman acted
with respect to sugar in comparison with the admission
of coffee from the Brazils was rather curious. It was
something like saying, " Yes, but the course we propose
taking can be called only a very small fault."
Why this answer put him in mind of the young girl
who was brought before a magistrate on the charge of
being the mother of an illegitimate child, when she
acknowledged the fact, but by way of palliation, ad-
ded that it was only a very little bastard.—(Laughter.)
He thought if they were actuated by this conscientious
conviction against giving a stimulus to the slave trade, he
thought they must acknowledge that the large quantity
of sugar which would be taken out of the European
market would tend in an indirect manner to increase
slavery. The quantity of sugar consumed in Europe
was 673,000 tons, of which 240,000 tons came from the
British colonies to this country, thus leaving for the
consumption of the European market the number on the
average of :about 409 tons. Now if they took 95,000
tons, the amount of free-labour sugar from the colonies,
from the market of Europe, about one-fifth the whole
consumption, what he would ask would be the likely
result ? Why the demand would be greater than the
supply, and the prices would consequently rise, and h
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pointed out slavery would be increased through the
medium of the continental States. Yet the Government
satisfied themselves of their consistent advocacy now of
principles upon which they came into office. He con-
tended that by the course proposed by this resolution
they would give quite as strong a stimulus to the slave
trade by taking those 95,000 tons of sugar from a free
State as they would if they took them from the Brazils.
Sir ROBERT PEEL thought the charge which the
Right Honourable Gentleman opposite brought for-
ward against her Majesty's Government of in-
consistency was without foundation. It had been
said, why do not you, who urged all those objections on
the subject of slavery, admit sugar, the produce of free
labour, into competition with your own merchants. He
recollected the lion. Member for Dublin, when he sat
on the then Ministerial side of the House, during the
late Administration, giving notice of a motion that all
sugar, the produce of free labour, should be admitted
into equal competition with that of their own colonies.
Now, suppose they chose to admit, on the grounds
urged by the Hon. Gentleman, namely, that diminishing
the duty, would be offering a premium to the ad-
mission of slave-grown sugar--it was clear that if they
did so, they would be charged with a desire to maintain
the monopoly of the West Indian colonies, that they
were not actuated by any objection to the admission of
slave-grown sugar, but solely by a desire to preserve the
monopoly; and he felt sure that this would have been
most strongly urged against them if they had
not availed themselves of the earliest consistent
opportunity to allow sugar, the produce of free la-
bour, to enter into competition with the British colonies.
With respect to the arguments and objections of the
Hon. Jlember far Montrose, and the Hon. Member for
Coventry, he thought they could be easily refuted. The
chief gist of their arguments was, that they ought to re-
duce the estimates, in order that they might do away
with import duties. No Member of that House was
more deeply impressed with the fact than he was, that
the estimates ought to be reduced to the lowest point
which was consistent with the permanent safety of the
empire. But the House must be aware that there were
circumstances connected with the last few years, which
must have materially increased the expenses. The esti-
mates for the army, navy, and ordnance, had been already,
submitted to the House; and looking to their immense co-
lonial empire, and to the other facts in connection with
foreign nations, upon which the Government must
have the best means of being informed, it was the
unanimous opinion of the House that the estimates could
not safely be reduced. The Hon. Gentleman, the
Member for Montrose, had stated that in the year 1835,
when he (Sir R. Peel) was First Lord of the Treasury,
he had proposed the sum of only 14,000,0001. for the
estimates, and yet that this year they exceeded the sum
of 17,000,0001. There had been a great increase in the
those
o s expense
expense of the army and navy. Let the Hon. Member
renstu r:
for Montrose consider what had occurred since the year
1835—the vast and important events which had occurred
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ceased, yet the Hon. Member must know that it was
not so easy to make those reductions immediately. It
was not what was necessary for the year 1835
the House had to consider, but what the
exigencies of gig present time
required.
What