The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDO

Mr. BLEWITT said the Right Hon. Baronet had propo-ed
a tax which had been received with universal execration by the

eountry.—( Great laughter from the Ministerial benches.) The
Right Hon. Baronet had attempted to make it pa!atable by

hording out to the public the hope of certain amendments in
the tariff. A general feeling, however, prevailed, that the
Right Hon. Baronet would not be able to carry those amend-
ments, and remembering what had been said by a Noble Duke
in another place, that if any proposition was made in which he
did not coincide, he and his party would be the brat to turn him
out, he (Mr. Blewitt) thought there was some ground for that
opinion. He had seer, in a newspaper a statement of the Hon.
Member for Lincolnshire, to the effect that that Noble Duke

had told him that if he were to oppose the proposed tariff, it
would be modified and amended. He thought, therefore, that
they ought to know what alterations were likely to be carried
out before they entered into the question of the income
tax.—( Hear, hear.) The Right Honourable Baronet esti-
mated his deficiency at two mi lions and a half, and to meet
that he proposed a tax which would realize 3,700,000/. He
(Mr. Blewitt) could not consent to place such a large surplus

at the disposal of the Government without any certain equiva-
lent. He would, therefore, move, " That part of the
produce of the income tax which has been proposed by
her Majesty's Government is intended to form a fund greater
than is required for the public service ; that the adoption of the
said income tax, under such circumstances, would impose on
the people, already suffering under severe privation, a greater
burden than the necessities of the public service required; and
that this House, therefore, will not resolve itself into Committee
on Ways and Means until it has been determined what amount

of taxes shall be reduced or repealed."
The SPEAKER having put the question,
Mr. S. CRAWFORD said he had availed himself of the
Easter recess, to ascertain the opinion of his constituents with
respect to the proposed tax, and their unanimous voice was
that it ought, in every possible way, to be resisted. There were
some things, however, in the proposal of the Right Hon.
Baronet which he could not but approve. Amongst these was
the proposal to tax real property, which he thought wouldre-
lieve the poor, by means of taxing the rich. He also approved
of the proposal to tax non-residents who spent their income in
foreign countries. He also thought it right that property in
the funds should be taxed for the benefit of the State. But he

thought there were disadvantages arising from this tax Nvhich
fully counterbalanced its advantages. The tax upon revenue
arising tram trades and professions he thought were unjust and
oppressive, and taxing the capital vested in trade would be pe-
culiarly unjust. And, again, the amount of duty taken off
articles of consumption was not sufficient. In the year 1833 a
proposition was made by Mr. Robinson to put on an
income tax, which was supported by the different parties, but,
at the same time, that Gentleman proposed to relieve
taxes on consumption, to the amount of 8,000,000/. Another
objection to this tax was, that it was proposed for the purpose
of upholding monopolies ; and another strong objection was,
that it was proposed in order to support a war, which in his
(Mr. Crawford's)opinion, and in the opinion of his constituents,
was unjust; and he thought the honour of that House would
best manifest itself by having a resolution declaratory of the
unjustness of that war. Those opinions had been expressed in
resolutions which had been agreed upon at two meetings, held in
Rochdale, the one a meeting of the Anti-Corn. law Association,
and the other a public meeting of the electors and inhabitants
of Rochdale. Although he disapproved of the proposition of
the Right Hon. Baronet, he did not wish to be understood to
approve of the counter proposition of the Noble Lord, for the
Noble Lord's plan upheld a duty upon corn, and he (Mr.
Crawford) never could support a budget which did that. He

did not wish to be considered as being opposed to the Right
Hon. Baronet as a party man, but he took that course which
he thought the interests of the country required,
without any reference to party. The people were
inclined to doubt the character of the relief which the

Right Hon. Baronet proposed to afford them, because the Right
Hon. Baronet had given no notice of any increase of revenue ;
neither had they any intimation from the Right Honourable
Baronet as to how long this tax was to continue. It
was proposed, in the first instance, for three years, but
there were no means pointed out for the getting up of
the revenue after the income tax should be abolished. Was

it to be by economy, by alterations in our colonial policy, by a
reduction of the army and navy, or by what means ? They were
not told. It certainly was necessary that the people should
know, before they granted this measure, what means were to be
adopted hereafter for their relief. He had thought it necessary
thus to express the opinions of himself and his constituents on
this question, to account for the manner in which he should
vote. _

The House was then about to divide, strangers having been
ordered to withdraw, when
Mr. THOMAS DUNCOMBE rose and said, that he
thought the motion of his Honourable Friend was one
of far too great consequence to be Allowed to pass over
in that way ; he should beg, therefore, very shortly to state
what his feelings on the subject were, and why he should vote
for the measure. They had heard that evening, in answer to a
question with regard to the tariff, which was always supposed to
be part and parcel with the income tax measure,that the Right
Hon. Baronet was not prepared to stand by the tariff as laid
before the House on the first night of the debate. Now the
motion of his Hon. Friend was simply to the effect that the
House ought to be acquainted with the duties of which the
people were to be relieved. It was prevalent thi oughout the
country that this tariff might be postponed, or at any rate would
be modified, but in the meantime it was said, " vote for the in-
come tax, swallow the pill; you must do that, or else Sir R. Peel
will be.turned out ; vote for the income tax in the meantime."

Now, was it meant to fritter away the tariff, so that it would
not be worth a farthing? He hoped that was not the intention
of Government, and he was sure the Right Hon. Baronet would
be obliged to him for giving him an opportunity of saying whe-
ther or not it ever crossed his mind to postpone the income
tax. The proposition of his Honourable Friend was that
the people should understand whether it was meant
that the duties, which had been before mentioned, were
to the full extent to be carried out, or whether the tariff was
to be postponed. He (Mr. Duncombe) had understood that
the tariff and the income tax were to go pari passe together ;
and, indeed, he did not consider that the resolution of his Hon.
Friend was one which should he treated with the contempt
with which it was about to be met, by the House going to a
division, without a remark from one of her Majesty's Ministers.
He thought, if the Right Hon. Gentleman would condescend
to read it, he would find that there was a good deal of reason,
justice, and common sense in, it.
Sir R. PEEL said, the Hon. Gentleman had asked him
whether it had ever crossed his mind to postpone the tariff?
Now, taking the question in the sense in which he presumed it
bad been put, he answered, without hesitation, that it never
had crossed his mind.—( Hear, hear.) There had been some
little delay in considering this tariff, in consequence of the in-
terests of many parties who were effected having to be consulted,
and whose opinions, he had already said, he wished to hear; but
he had stated that he had great hopes that, on Monday next, he
should be able to produce the tariff. And he could state he
thought, with confidence, that the tariff which he should produce
on Monday would be considered to be the same in principle as
that which he had before brought fore ard. That delay had
arisen solely from a desire to hear those parties whose interests
were concerned ; but, as he had said before, he did not con-
template such alterations as would be considered any departure
from the general principle. Now, in consequence cf this de-
lay of a few hours, he trusted the House would not conceive
that he was departing from the principles of the measure, but
that they would permit him to bring in the Bill, founded on
the resolution betore the House. It was quite clear that the
tariff must be in possession of the House before the House
could be called on to allow the second reading ; and if there
should be anything which should appear to be in opposition to
what he had before proposed, it would be quite competent to
, the House to oppose the second reading, and reject the mea-
sure altogether. That, however, he believed was not the
question of the Hon. Gentleman—it was whetin r, having got
the income tale, he should postpone the tariff ? He repeated
that such an intention Lever entered his m ind. ( Near.) It
was quite clear that the proposed alteration in the (Mies
which would tend to lessen the revenue 1,200,000/, must have
an important bearing on the consideration of the income tax,
and he did hope that the Hon. Gentleman wouN not impute
to him the motives of getting, first the income tax, and then
being a voluntary party to the postponement of the tariff—
( Hear, hear.) He hoped the House would not refuse to pass
this preliminary resolution : they would bear in mind that. the
opponents of the measure, if therpassed the resolution, would
have a full opportunity, on the second reading and in
its future stages, of opposing it.— ( Hear, hear.) Instead
of this measure being met as had been said by
Universal execration, he thought on the contrary, from corn.
munications which he had received on the matter from all
parties, that it would be met with general and universal ap-
prob lion. He believed that the sooner the commereial and
manufacturing interests of the country knew what was to be
the commercial policy sanctioned by the Legislature, the greater
the advantage would be to them ; and he must say, though he
said it in perfect good humour, that having had this delay till
after the holydays for that tremendous burst of indignation, if
they were satisfied with that explosion, he was satisfied ; and
being equally satisfied, he hoped they would approach the
measure, and go on to a division, each having gained the end
•

that he had in view.
Mr. E. ELLICE said he agreed in the course which the
Right Eon. Baronet had taken, and in the principles on which
he had acted, because he did not see what Ober course
he could hi,ve adopted; but having said this, he must
say that he could not concur with him in his in.
come tax. He• thought what the Right Hon. Gentleman
should have attempted to do, under the present pre sure, would
have been to have found some less objectionable principle by
which he could have brought the tax upon property to the re-
venue, without having recourse to the old income tax, with all
its irregularities, and its unfair pressure on parts of the com-
munity.—(Hear, hear.) Believing that some means must be
taken to maintain the credit of the country, he quite concurred
with the Right Hon. Baronet, that one of there modes of sup
plying the deficiency must be adopted—they must either fur-
ther tax consumption ; they must make that which was paid to
monopolists enter the Exchequer; or they must do as the Right
Hon. Baronet had done, propose ail income, or rather it should
have been a property tax, and make those who could pay hear
the burdens. He thought, also, that there were some errors in
the budget of the Right Hon. Gentleman, which would in-
crease the deficiency of the revenue, and which were unneces-
sary. He could not see why they should abandon the tax upon
timber.—( Hear, hear.) He infinitely preferred the budget,
which had been brought forward by his Right Hon. Friend last
year, to that of the Right Hon. Gentleman opposite. No one
could certainly doubt the difficulties under which his Right
Hon. Friend undertook the duties of Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer then; and last year his Right Hon. Friend was
much in the same situation that the Right Hon. Gentleman is
now. He was obliged to propose measures to supply some
deficiency in the Exchequer. His Right Honourable friend's
proposition, he thought, ought not to have been opposed
by the Right Honourable Gentleman opposite. Though he
thought the calculations of his friends relative to what
was expected from those sources were somewhat exag-
gerated, he was convinced that in principle they were the
hest that had been proposed, and he must say that the pro-
pesotiona were very creditable to the Right Hon. Gentleman
who had proposed them, and to the Government who upheld
him in them, and on behalf of the commercial part of the com-
munity he gave them his sincere thanks.—(Hear, hear.) But,
then, with respect to the timber duties, he thought last year
that it was best, and he stated it, to impose an additional
duty on American timber at once by way of revenue.
When the circumstances of the country permitted they could
reduce the duties on foreign and Canada timber together, but •
he could not understand why the revenue derived from that
source should be given up under present circumstances. He
did not understand how the persons to bo relieved by the re-
duction on timber were entitled to that relief more than those
who were suffering under the pressure of other taxes.—(Hear,
hear.) With respect to the benefit that would accrue to
Canada, he thought that if the pitiful duty of two or three
shillings on colonial wheat was removed it would fully compen-
sate the Canadians for any loss they might sustain from the
alteration in the timber duties.—(Hear, hear.) With respect
to a property tax, he was not one of those who thought that
there was anything so sacred about property as that it
should only be taxed in time of war,--(Hear, hear.)
He did not see why it should not be taxed at all times.
It was the source from which assistance to the revenue could
be most easily drawn, under all circumstances, and with least
• danger to the trade of the country. But, at least, if pro-
perty was to be taxed, why should not they be just in taxing it.
He (Mr. E.) represented a large commercial city and he
wished they were asked as to the justice of taxing a declining
trade, or whether it was fair to put them in such a position
that they must either say that they had nothing to return, or for
the sake of maintaining their credit, make a return which they
ought It was desirable they should come to some fixed
mit •
pririeiple with respect to a property-tax, and ascertain whether
it could not be permanently maintained. It was so in other