The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-12 00:00:00

a British House of Commons, he said, was the only light in which i
they had to view it.---(Oh, oh, from the Opposition.) Even
on the low ground he would meet the Bight lion. Gentleman, ,
and tell him that he takes a false view of our financial diffi-
calties, occasioned by their miserable policy, with regard to
Affghanistan. Would the Right Hon. Gentleman, the late
President of the Board of Control, coincide with him? He
knew the Bight Hon. Gentleman's knowledge of India, and
his official connexion with that department had taught
him to estimate more gloomily, and he believed more truly,
the financial embarrassment consequent on the disasters our
army had sustained in Affghanistan—the disaster which, they
were told by the Right Hon. Gentleman, was not, in a finan-
cial point of views worth the 609,0001, they were going to give
up en the timber duties. But they were going to send
out ten thousand men more, and that would not cost
more than 25,000/. ; and that, in a financial point of
view, the misfortune was a mere matter of sophistry.
and in a financial point of view contemptible. Contemptible,
was it? How did he view the declaration of the Right Hon.
Gentleman as to the Freemasonry of Islamism? What did he
tell you of the religious feeling that had been excited ? What
did he tell you of a great Maliometan success? That it would
fall•like a spark upon, tow. That when he forms an estimate
of pounds, shillings, and pence, of the loss of these brace men
—(Cries of " Oh." and " Hear)—when he made his calcula-
tion—(" Oh, oh ")--when he has made his calculation of the
sum of money—(" Oh, oh ")--he was quoting the Right Hon.
Gentleman's own words; and he told those Gentlemen who
cried "Oh, oh," on this occasion, thouet he admitted that the
disaster—a disastei not less than Wilifilheren—yet he affirms
that the loss is less than the amount given up on the timber
duty; that on the present occasion they had only to deal with
it as a financial question, and one which was to be prop 'sod
merely as a measure of pounds, sinning., and pence,
would the Right Hon. Gentleman say, when he had calculated
the amount of pounds, shillings, and pence, by which we are
financially to measure this great disaster to the British arms. I
say he has omitted in those calculations, or rather those
fearful anticipations, which would necessarily arise in
any man who gave a moment's considerrio is to
the subject, all these consequences that might arise from this
great Mahometan's success, which was falling like sparks
on tow all the consequences that might Spring from that
Freemasonry of Islamism which extended from Morocco to
Coromandel.—(Cheers.) If our Empire in India resin upon
that prestige of opinion, who shall calculate is a financial
point of view the ruinous and extravagant expenditure to
which we must he led, it we intend to support our character
its India, and maintain, against the spread of the feeling to
which he had alluded, as well as against the memory of
recent disasters, the opinion of the invincibility of British arms.
Was not the Right Hon. Gentleman aware that besides the
deficiency of 2,500,0001., there was also the war of
Affghanistan to be provided for, and the recent disaster
to be repaired.—(Cries of " Hear, hear.") However
gloomy were the apprehensions of her Majesty's Go-
vernment at the beginning of the session, they were not
fully aware of the extent of the disasters in Affghanistan.—
(Cheers.) Still they had foresight enough to think of making
provision for the evil that might come.—(Cheers.) They
did not ant upon the aphorism of the Hon. Member for Ips-
wich, that sufficient for the day was the evil thereof.—(Tory
cheers.) But, in January last, they did know that it would be
necessary to call for an increase of taxation, not without consi-
dering all the objections which would be raised against any
measure of taxation which they might bring forward.--
( Cheers.) They knew how skilfully and ably, and how un-
fairly—(Cheers)—those objections would be brought forward—
hut yet they came to the conclusion that by indirect taxa-
tion alone they would not be able to meet the difficulties
which were not of their creation. —(Cheers. ) But that by
the financial arrangements proposed by his Right Hen. Friend,
they would be able not only to meet the deficiency, but at the
same time greatly to relieve the commerce and industry of the
country. The Noble Lord opposite said that all difficulties
would have been avoided if the House had conceded the budget
which he had brought in last year. In proposing that budget
the Noble Lord had spoken of the howl of the old slave-holding
party.—( Cheers.) But the Noble Lord had this year an oppor-
innity of again proposing that part A his budget, and the House
had condemned it as far as regarded that item,
and he sent up to the other branch of the Legislature a bill
framed upon an opposite principle.—(Cheers.) The Noble
Lord disclaimed being the enemy of the landed interest, and yet
he said that what he should propose would be an increased
impost upon the assessed taxes, and a new duty upon the
transfer and succession of real property. The noble Lord
argued as if real property had escaped from ally
taxation, and overlooked all the argument of his Right
Honourable Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
who showed that the land now paid taxes equal
to those paid by personal property in various forms.—(Cheers
and counter cheers.) lion. Gentlemen who cried, " Oh, oh !"
were not conversant with real preperty.—( Great cheering, and
tries of " Oh, oh !") They did not know what were the bur •
dens actually borne by the land, nor what were the duties im-
posed upon the transfer of real property by settlement and
conveyance.—(Cheers, and cries of "Oh, oh!") He would
not weary the House by going through the whole of a subject
which had already beets nearly exhausted. He would not deny
that an income tax must partake of an inquisitorial character.
Neither would he go the length of the Hon. and Learned Mos-
her for Bath, who said that no honest man could object
to make public his real circumstances ; for he (Lord
Stanley) could understand the ease of an limiest man
to whom it would be most inconvenient and painful to be
compelled to say exactly what his income was.—( Hear.) Still
he thought it was possible to avoid such inconvenience, and
to divest. the impost of much of its inquisitorial character, and
to guard against any greater breaches of morality than would
be involved in such. an increase of the assessed taxes as the
Noble Lord himself did not hesitate to propose. To the '
inequality of the tax, he confessed he did not see so high an
objection. He had heard an Hon. Gentleman, he did not re-
member whom, say if such a tax wore to take off the national
debt—if it was to set the country free for the future from a
la-ge proportion of the debt, and if for that purpose they were
going to raise ten or fifteen per cent. or even twenty
per cent., he would not object to an income tax. Now, in his
(Lord Stanley's) view, such would he a case of gross injustice
and the present was not. They were not calling upon the
country to pay its past incumbraeces, nor to provide for future
exigencies. They were calling upon every man of this country,
according to his moans, be those means what they might, ex-
empting those of very moderate incomes, but upon every man
who had a competency they were calling to coutributo from
his resources to the payment of the expenses of the year.
Whether incomes Were derived from fixed capital, and were
'such as remained after expenditure had ceased, or whether
they were of uncertain tenure, or were mese annuities,
they were calling upon every mats in his situation (it
might be unfortunate for him to be in . the plssession
of a larger income at a particular time) they were calling upon
every individual in the country at large to provide fur the
annual expenditure of the country. So fa; from its being an
unequal, ut just, and oppressive mode of proceeding, he be-
lieved it to be a wise, sound, and politic mode ; very difierent
from the system pursued by the late Government, but not, in
his mind, less deserving the attention of the country, becaust
not altogether following the precedent set by that Govern-
ment. The Right Hon. Gentleman, the Member for Tippe-
rary, in a very eloquent speech—[The Noble Lord was here
reminded that the Right Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Sheil) to
whom he alluded • was Member for Dungarvon.l The Noble
Lord then want on to say, that he had been so accustomed to
consider the Right Hon. Gentleman as his (Lord Stanley's) re-
presentative—(Langhter)—that he had totally forgotten that
the Right Hon. Gentleman had ceased to sit for Tipperary.
'The Right Hon. Gentleman the other night in taunting his
( Lord Stanley's) friends and thole on that side of the House that
supported them, hai quoted two lines from the poet Waller—
" Still as you rise, the State exalted too ;
Knows no disturbance while 'tis changed by you."
The quotation would have applied still better had the Right
Gentleman gone cn and quoted two lines further—
" Changed is the world's great scene, when without noise,

The rising sun n'ght's vulgar light destroys."
(Laughter.) From an opponent he (Lord Stanley) must say,
that that was a most flattering testimony to the change which
had taken place, and ho knew it would be more emphatic if
they looked that the change took place without noise. There
was not so much fuss and bustle ; more business was done;
where things were dark and obscure and uncertain, and men
got perchance into the right path, they knew not how;
for the present they would keep it, and would diverge from it
—they saw nothing but what was under their nose—(Laugh-
ter)—but the moment the change took place, which had been
alluded to by the Right Hon. Gentleman, all that had been
dark became light—all that had been confwion became order
—men saw obstacles in their path, but found thernselv,s able
to surmount those obstacles, and did not go stumbling into
every puddle which might lie in the way of those who walked
by night. He (Lord Stanley) did not think that the Right
Hon. Baronet required any vindication for preferring his own
Flan to the course of the late Government as indicated last
year, and as partly shadowed forth in the course of the discus-
sion by Hon. Gentlemen opposite. Whatever alarm might be
said to be felt as to the present measure, be re-
peated he did not think that they required roy
vindication, nor that. they were fairly to be charged with hesi-
tating to confront great interests, or with seeking for them-
selves popularity. They proposed a measure, which he trusted
the House would adopt, and which, he believed, would meet
with the general approbation of the country at large—a mea-
stire against which he was, at least, justified in saying that the
interval of Easter,which was so earnestly prayed for, had not pro-
•duced that universal burst of execration which seemed to have
been expected—a measure, moreover, which proposed to raise
the credit, and redeem the embarrassments of this country, at
a time when its commercial interests required it—a measure
which had extorted, even from strong political opponents, this
honourable testimony, that it was an honest, a direct, and a
straightforward measure.—(Cheers.)
_ .

Mr. LA BOUCHERE said, thal the Noble Lord who had
just sat down had addressed the House with his accustomed ,
vehemence and ability; but he was sorry to be obliged to add,
with much less than his accustomed fairness. He (Mr. L.)
should nut attempt to follow the Noble Lord through all the
glaring misstatements and misrepresentations which he had
made. But there was one which he had heard with peculiar
regret, and to which he would not say, in justice to
his Right Houotirable Friend, the Member for Edin-
bargh (Mr. Macaulay), but in justice to the House
and his (Mr. L's. ),own feeljngs, he thcught it necessary to
call the immediate attention of the House. He thought the
mis-statement so was and obvious, that it must have struck
every Member equally that had heard it, as beyond almost any-
thing which had been a precedent in that House in the way of
mis-statement. The Noble Lord said, and he (Mr. L.) took
down the words at the time, that his Right Hon. Friend had
treated the disaster which had occurred to the British army
in Affghanistan as a mere financial question, and he added
that the Right Hon. Gentleman had estimated the loss of
brave men by pounds, shillings, and pence. He (Mr. L. )
therefore ventured to say, that as nothing could be more irn.
proper and odious then such a sentiment, as the Noble Lord
attempted to fasten upon his Right Hon. Friend, and nothing
could be more different from the general' character and dispo-
sition of the Right Hen. Gentleman; and also from the words
and arguments used by him on the occasion referred to, he
(Mr. L.) really felt it almost unnecessary, for he was sure there
was not a man in the House, who had listened to the Noble Lord,
on whatever side that Member might be sitting, that was not
aware of the answer which he (Mr. L.) was now going to
give. His Right Hon. Friend in very eloquent and forci-
ble language, has cleared himself of even the possibility
of an impuation. He had expressed that which all
must feel, namely, deep regret at the disaster, he
trusted temporary disaster, which had befallen the British
army ; but he had added that they were called on to con-
sider not of the policy that led to that conduct, nor of its mili-
tary consequences, but solely of it as a question of finance; .and
in that sense, and in that sense only, had spoken of it. He
(Mr. L.) thought that his Right Hon. Friend was justified in
using that*, argument when they were called on to vote a
tax founded on those circumstances which might be
alleged as one of the reasons for the tax.—( Hear. )
He ( Mr. L.), therefore, thought the Right Hon. Gentleman
perfectly justified in using such an argument, and it was not
worthy of the Noble Lord to ref* to it as he had done. The
injustice of such an allusion I* thought the Noble Lord must,
upon reflection see, and would, no doubt, regret it. In truth
he (Mr. L.) attributed that departure fom the usual fairness
of the Noble Lord to those symptoms of irritation
which they had seen persons connected with the Government
in the course of these debates evince. Notwithstanding the
confidential tone with which they had spoken to the House, and
the country, of the ,financial scheme they proposed, he could
not help attributing very great doubts being entertained
by them, as to whether the country would receive that mea-
sure with such entire satisfaction, as they affected to believe.
The Right Hon. Member for Tamworth, in the speech which