The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-19 00:00:00

cases of error, but he believed he had honestly put it fort
without indulging in shuffling expedients—(Hear, hear—ard o
far he was more worthy of the confidence of the people than the e •
who were now opposed to them.—(Cheer.)
Mr. 'WALLACE had heard the speech of the Hon. Nerrib T
Bath without surprise; though the Hon. Gentleman was izaci% a
to possess great logical powers, yet it was the most illog:cal sp
he had ever heard. He denied that it was at all applicahle et'
case they were handling. He contended that the Hon. Mew lat
knew nothing about it.—(Laughter.) The Hon, Member
Finsbury had described how the affairs of individuals avould.
exposed, and the country would never submit to it ;
if they did, they were not Englishmen, and neither Irish-. t.lr
Scotch—(Hear, hear)—or, if he were Irish, he would be the .0L
noodle the country ever produced. Some Irish Members on I'
other side of the House had approved of the tax, and the Right E
Gentleman ought to put it on Ireland. If he did not, he (Mr_ eV.)
should propose that Scotland be exempted.--(" Oh, nil,'"
laughter.) He was convinced that no plan would secure were
and he should give his vote against it with the greatest ,deasvre.
Mr. SHARMAN CRAWFORD rose amid loud crie
" Divide." He should not have trespassed on the attenti,D o e
House, but for a matter which called for explanation. 3t li
been stated that a memorial had been agreed to at ft 'C',"
dale in favour of the plan of the Right Honour.
Baronet. He disputed that memorial as representing
general opinion of the borough. A public meeting I ,••
been called in the borough, at whist) it had been 0gre...,i1 withou %
disscntirlit voice, that the Income-tax ought to be oppcsed. F -C
whatever might be the opinion of the people of Rochdale, he •1
not so far depart from his own opinion as to vote fur the pt
position. 11, could not cvnsent to impose a tax so oppressil c
the community, and should feel it his duty to vote against it.
Mr. COBDEN did not oppose the Inc nue.tax as the Inc )1•.10,...
tax, but as he would oppose any tax in the preset'''. en cornstt trciA
of the country. He contended that rigid economy should b
traduced into eve' y department of the Government, and
bin
would not, because lie was in a minority upon that i o'n',.
follow the example of the Honourable 11e.mber fir I It
and swell th,t majority which was already too Is.-Se. In the I " "
place, lie approved of it, because the country was' already in ri
taxes to individuals, which, if repeated, would yieki an atouni..la
revenue to the state, and he could not consent to the
impositicre
new taxes until all monopolies wereabolished. In brin, •ting forays it
,uP
the question of the Corn-laws, the Right Hon. Baronet denied th
the distresses of the country were caused by any restric tious n 1,4 a
trade; but, in bringing forward his budget, and Lis grand k•Tctcra "
and commerce were the causes of the distress of
tariff ref dm, he certainly discovered that the restrictions • us%tat .0,
the counti ;
the Noble Lord, the Member for South Lancashire, who far tlia C't
giving them a hearing
years had opposed even when th
'
'
complained of restrictions, now, all at once turned' Jour d , a 'I
said that it would be criminal to delay passing the- C rrlea sot ea
even for an hour. For the last three years the man "%et'
world had been expressing their opinion as to the remeo
evils under which they had been suffering, and they all t
one remedy—the abolition of the Corn and Provision law "
yet the Right lion. Baronet omitted, from his tariff, the r ,os t
portaut of all articles of commerce—corm—(Lond cheers, . ixad crier
of " Question, question.") was the question. The t Ari ff and,
the Income.tax were so mixed up together, that they con la •. not b.,
considered separately. lie had likewise excludes', the ext most
important article of consumption—sugar. Some false ide.'s o'l
this subject might naturally be expected to exis, ; °tit of
doors, when they found even the Honourable Mc ,tuber for
Bath expressing a doubt whether any alteration in the so gar dutic%
would conduce to the comfort of the people.
Mr. ROEBUCK rose amidst loud cries of " Ord:
He rose to order, he begged to disclaim the expressions
him by the Hon. Gentleman.

order."
xnputod to

Mr. COBDEN would only make one further remarl t. upon the
subject, which was, that they could at this moment get t co casks of
Cuba or Brazilian sugar, in bond, for the same quantity of mantra
factures which they were obliged to give to Jamaica 1 nonopolista
for one cask, and Mr. M'Grcgor had said, that if t hey would.
equalise the sugar duties they would add three millions sterlingr to
the revenue. He admitted that the alteration, as to the is nportatimr
of live cattle, was important as conceding a principle, .but there
could never he any great traffic in live cattle, and cc nsequentir
never any great exportation of goods in exchange for t Item, amt
this could not be accepted as any compensation for an hi come-taxa
because any duty paid upon live cattle would be an addit ion to the
revenue. With regard to the alteration of the timber duties, hen
thought that was a useless sacrifice of revenue. There-
were thirty thousand empty houses in the neighbourho, id of Man-
chester alone; there were more ships lying in mile ary that"
ever had been known, and that was the time chosen to make this
alteration. There was no reduction in the duties on sheese •cas
butter, and with regard to the duties on salt meat ii doubtel
much whether the people of this country would even consume
much salt meat with advantage to their health. TI e present
duty on salt meat was 12s. per cwt., and there was no consump.
tion, and it was not likely consumption would be increas ad by re-
during the duty to Ss. The duty on cotton remained ui ireducece
A great deal had hems done in trifles; but all the grey t articles
had been passed over, and this was the compensation the t were to
receive fur an Ineeme.tax. The Right Hon. Bate net gave
them cheap timber when it was not wanted. He gave them a
free trade in cattle when the people were reduced to a pa tato diet,
and wanted bread—(Cheers)—and he admitted French I roots and
shoes, and gloves, to compete v ith the produce of the half-t mployed
artisans of this country, while at the same time they ref. ,ed to let
them touch one grain of Normandy wheat.—(Loud the srs.) It
was a crying injustice in the guise of free trade. It was
beginning at the wrong end. It was calculated to Oast an
odium on the character of free trade, and as a free trailer he pro.
tested against it. He hoped, however, it would rouse the s uffering
interest to demand, as they might to do, a free trade in • :he first
necessary of iile.—(Loud cheering.) He disclaimed on ;he part
of the free trade's any responsibility for the Income-iax. It was
not necessary to carry out the principles of free trade, all I he re-
pudiated as fraudulent all such pretences.—(Loud cheers. ) Th 3
articles In which they wanted a free trade were those articl. s
paid no revenue to the State, but which, instead, paid a t evenuo
to individuals, who put their hands in the pocket of the people,
without rendering the State any service whatever. A fro r trade
in corn and sugar would be more important than all th, r Right
Hon. Baronet proposed to de.—(Cheers.) lie knew he shc uld lee
told of the petition which had been presented from Man: !rester,
in favour of the Government measure. He was glad to la rar the
lion. Gentlemen opposite were inclined to pay so much att notion
to petitions from Manchester. For the last three years pct '.tiers,
signed by 60,000 persons had been presented from Manct ester,
for a repeal of the Corn.laws, but no attention had been r aid to
them. The petition in favour of the Government measure w is the
offspring of a blind spirit of partisanship. ( Sear,
hear) and he was sot ry and ashamed to say that
the first parties in promoting that petition were the clergy r tee
Establishment.—(Hear, hear. ) Those Gentlemen who so I rudly
proclaimed that they never interfered its party politics, now they
saw the Corn Bill safe, carte forward as a party body to supp, Sri a
party Government, and so rash arid indiscreet hail they bet it in
their spirit cf partisanship, that they hod actually petitioned fo : the
tariff as it had originally been laid oil the table of the House wit heat
waiting to see what alterations were to be proposed—they had
actually petitioned for the unametaled tariff; errors of the press and
all, aid would have to petition afresh in favour of the amended me.
Hen. Gentlemen need not be impatient ;he was going to sit dc •wn,
but he knew what he was saying was very unpalatable; still I her
thought that as the representative of a community like the desol steel
population of Stockport, he had not been wrong in pressing t•emir
sufferings upon the House. When these measures were brot. ght
forward as a panacea to the distress of the people, ho consideres ha
had a right to express his opinion. He was bound to tell them t has
they were entirely deluded ;he was bound to tell them that CI le:,
would not find a revival of trade which would give them an opp ass..
tunity of removing the Income-tax. 1 hey had delayed it too foe ;.
Ile questioned whether any remedy of any kind would be in tie es
During the first six months of last year there had been a mduetair in
its the wages of Lancashire alone, which might be equalled to fi 7e
millions sterling. Let them think of this out cf the trade a, id
the Exchequer of the country.—(Hear, hear.) This was t, ae
case through all the counties, and especially the midland couuta !s.
—(Hear.) How then could the country be prosperous, as stat gel
by the Right Honourable Baronet, when the revenue depended m
the prosperity of the working classes ? He could only look at
the proposal of taxation as the symptom of the State disease t, so
years ago. The Right Honourable Baronet, with figures and st a-
tistics, attempted to prove that we were not in a state of sufi'eriis
But now lie came and proposed an Income-tax. He (Mr. Cobden
told them that if they did not go further they would he disap
pointed. They had now the remedy in their own hands to relies e
the commerce of the country. Give the people of Englan• I
fair scope for their industry, and they might have prosperity yet ;
and if they did not, then he warned them of the consequences.
They had worked out the bees, and now they were beginning on ,
the honeycomb, and how tang would that last? He said that the
remedy they applied was not sufficient. They knew that when
Arkwright was inventing his machinery and extending his im-
provements, when complaints were made to hint of the state .
of the country and the expenses, he said, Never mind, I will pay
the expenses of the country. And so it had baen the cotton trade
that enabled them to pay the accumulated debt of that war—that
trade that was au much despised in that House. if they destroyed
that trade, they would have a terrible re-action, that would come
heavily upon them, and upon this they had the testimony of David
Hume, who said it would be sooner titan they believed.
Mr. MU NTZ said that he entirely agreed with the Hon. Mem- •
tier who had just sat down, that the proposed measures would not
relieve the distressed state of the country. But he did not sec
that was any reason why they should not have a property-tax. He-
had as much objection to an Income-tax as any man In the world;
but as the Right Hon. Baronet would not propose a property-tax
without an income-tax he (Mr. Mentz) would rattier have them to-
gether than no property-tax at all.—(Hear, hear.) His object
was to lay the burdens upon the law-makers, which was the best
means of making the laws good. An lion. Gentleman had said
that the votes were given to party, His (Mr. Muntz's) vote was
cot a party vote. He never was a man to vote for party. He in-
tended to vote for the motion of the Right Honourable Baronet,
because he considered it to be to the interest of the people at large ;
not to the interest of his supporters, perhaps, but that was no con-
sideration with him.—( Laughter.) If his vote did not pletoe his
constituents they knew what to do.—(Renewed laughter.) His
object was to lay the burden of the taxation on those who were
competent to bear it, and who were the framers and directors of the
law. Now his objection to an Income.tax—(Loud laughter)—he
did not know that what he was going to say would call forth a
laugh—he had said before that ha objected to an Income-tax, and.
he was going to state his reasons why. He thought it
was exceedingly inquisitorial, and would fall exceedingly
heavy on tradesman who, in times like these, dared not make
their affairs known to the public, and who were obliged to make a
return of profits they never realised. lie well remembered the last
severs years of the last Income-tax. It was at a time when he was
in active life, and largely concerned in business, but he did not think
this was a sufficient reason for his objection to a property-tax.
If he had believed that the proposal of the farmer Government
would have rendered the Income-tax unnecessary, he should have
felt bound to have voted against the measure. He did not believe
that the measures of the late Government would have realised
their expectations. As he said before, he wished to see the bur-
dens of the country put upon the law-maker. He did not be.
liove the measure now proposed would relieve the distresses of the
people.—(Loud laughter.) His only object in rising was to jus_
tify the vote he intended to give.—(Laughter.) lie had not the
slightest objection to Hon. Gentlemen laughing, lie had nothing
further to say.—(Laughter and cheers.)
After a few words from Mr. RUNDALL,
Strangers were ordered to withdraw, and the House divided,
when the numbers were-
-188
For the Amendment ...........
Against the Amendment . 285
Majority against the Amendment —97
eeisl.l S.
6
The Bill was then read a first time, and was ordered to be read
a second time on Friday next.
The House then resolved itself into a Committee of Supply,
Mr. Gaveve in the chair.
14,02,0 503,0).
.I.a .
swsaystedvotfedor civil contingencies.
Exchequerontin Bills.
60,0001.
c
The resolutions were reported, the House resumed, and the
(100
Chairman reported progress, and obtained leave to sit again.
The House then went into Committee on the Municipal Cor.
porations Bill.
Mr. LEADER objected to the Bill, and said that unless it were
materially altered in the second reading he should feel it his duty to
appose it.

I t %fide
bAe
eTnTt Oh
the
olCp
.Em
.;inGoEflithEeltleAgaLl
osffitacteders,thbeotohb
the late Government, as well as of several lawyers in Westminster
Joe; ttsheopfresthoeaßci!idl.
Hall, that parties holding leases of Corporation lands, were eligible
to serve as Town.councillors. On this opinion the public had acted
in full confidence till the Bridgenorth case, in which a contrary de.
vision was given. The object of his Bill was merely toprevent actions
going on, which under the circumstances he had stated might be
brought to the extent of many hundreds, and to assure the public
that the evils incurred from acting on what turned out not to be
law, should be cured by Act of Parliament. It would
secure those who had been already elected in the enjoy-
ment of their offices. The Bill was short and confined.
If it should be considered the Bill would be defective without the
introduction of clauses to prevent the entering into contracts by
Town-councillors for the disposal of these leases, which might
open a door to jobbing, he would be glad to concur in them, and