The Sun.
London, England, 1829-05-09 00:00:00

stole trona con ise'n their laittra s to fill the mouths
with food? Li t!e- t: c I t-t twelve years there
had been a loss of Iso .:m . lit ne in the export trade ; nor
did the matter stop 10-re, fur in the ce:etiiel prduce, also,
there had been a to off during the last eight years:
the cause of all o:is teas, that :he Mini.-ers of Parliament
had been holding out all Corte of tl,lueive hopes to the
people, while the real fact was, that not one single point
of commerce had proved favorable to the manufacturer.
It was very clear to him that the country could not go on
in the way it was now going on in. (Hear, hear.) Taxes
kept their station, while all property, and capital and pro-
duce deteriorated, so that the effect was, that we had
double taxes to pay, while the prices of commodities re-
mained the same. As to the Revenue of the country, he
would frankly confess that it would have been no satisfac-
tion to him even had the Chancellor of the Exchequer
been able to state that he had got five millions more than
he wanted. (During the course of the Worthy Alder-
man's observations the Committee was very inattentive,
and the Chairman had frequent occasion to call it to
order, and to request Hon. Members to take their seats.)
Colonel DAVIES—Though he agreed, in a great men.
sure, with what had fallen from the Worthy Alderman,
he would never recommend to that House, as he had done,
the adoption of further prohibitory duties. It was, how-
ever, impossible not to entertain the most gloomy antici-
pations for the future from the actual state of the country,
:111(1 from the extraordinary indifference which the House
had manifested toe-arils a question of this important na-
ture.—(Hear, hear.)—ln his opinion, the Right Hon.
Gentleman, in his statement to the Comieittee, had omitted
to mention the primary cause of the excessive taxation
under which tha country was labouring-. If the Right
Hon. Gent. was right in his statement, how was it that
the foreigner, after having to contend against the duties
levied upon his goods, or the risk he runs by smuggling,
was able to come into England and undersell the manufac-
tures of the country in our own market Instead of gain-
ing ground, this country had been gradually losing it ever
since the peace. At that period, there was a prejudice all
over the Continent in favour of this country ; but now,
the:foreigner, by strenuously working up hill, had at least
put himself on an equal footing with us, and would, no
doubt, soon be able to outstrip us in all competition. It
was true that we once had a constitutional superiority, but
were there not other nations now as free as we? France,
the Netherlands, and Bavaria bad representative Govern-
ments, and in other countries were afforded ample oppor-
tunities for the encouragement of industry, and fur the
development of the faculties of man.—(Hear, hear.)—He
wished to call the attention of the Committee more
particularly to France and the United States. The popu-
lation of France was thirty millions, and the taxes of that
country amounted to forty millions sterling; this sum, in-
cluding not only the Government expenses of the country,
but also the provision made for the Clergy, for the schools
of primary instruction, for the roads, he. ; this assessment
was et the rate of IL 6s. per head. In the United States,
the population was between ten and eleven millions, and
the taxes were rather more than five millions sterling, so
that there the assessment (lid not amount to more than 1 Os
p -r head ; and General Jackson, in his late inaugural speech
had declared this to be too large, et the same time express-
ing his intention of embracing the earliest opportunity of
reducing it. The taxes in this country amounted to sixty
millions, to which were to be added twelve millions for the
poor rates and parish rates, besides the receipts of the Esta-
blished Church, and what was paid by Cathoilies and Dissen-
ters ; so that he believed he was not overstating the amount
when he a lid that the taxes of this country amounted to 80
millions, or in other words, 41. per head, being eight times
more than the amount in the United States, and three times
more titan the amount in France. But this was not all :
the amount was going on increasing at a rate sufficient to
appal the stoutest heart. In 1764, the amount of taxes
was 7,759,0001. in Great Britain and in Ireland, about
1,000,000/. of which, after deducting what was required '
for the debt, there remained 1,000,0001. for the current
expenditure of the country. In the year 1790, the taxes
amounted to 17,000,0001., of which 6,123,000/. went to
the current expenditure. But what was our present situa-
tion ? The total amount of taxes was 63,604,0001., of
which nineteen millions and a half went to the Military,
Naval, and Miscellaneous Contingencies, the Civil I.ist,
&c. It was no answer to this statement to say that the
value of money was changed; for though it was true that
the money-price of articles was enhanced, yet that was it-
self owing to the enormous amount of taxation; and lie
would venture to say, that if they went to the continent
they would find that the money-price of the nece,sities of
life wae not materially altered. In 1922, when there had
been a great pressure upon the country, Parliament had
exerted itself, and had effected a reduction in the expendi-
ture of the country, but all this was now again done away
with, and we were in as bad a state as ever; for the ex-
penditure, which, in that year was reduced to 16,647,7631.
last year, amounted to 19,548,500/.—(Hear, hear.)—The
principle of all the demands of those who are suffering un-
der the present depression, was nothing less than this :
ax our neighbours, because we ourselves are taxed. As
long as the distressed trades maintained this principle, they
could have no hope of relief; but he would recommend
them not to petition the House, either for the reduction of
their own taxes or for the imposition of taxes on their
neighbours, but at once openly and manfully to call public
meetings, and to pass resolutions instructing their consti-
tuents upon the course they desired them to adopt.
Sir JOHN WROTTESLEY approved, to a certain ex-
tent, of the system of life annuities which the Right Hon.
Gentleman (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) proposed,
although he feared very much that the funding of the Ex.
chequer Bills would absorb the whole amount applicable
to the Sinking Fund. He could not avoid saying he
heard with some surprise the statements of the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, with rtsret to the additional revenue
he expects from the duties on malt and spirits; and he was
derstood from authority, that the Bill which passed to re-
the more surprised to hear that statement, because he un-
gulate the malt trade, had been found by the maltsters to
be so oppressive and inconvenient, that it put a Stop alto-
gether for a time to the trade of molting. If the Chancel-
lor of the Exchequer felt himself compelled to levy new.
taxes, let him come down to the House of Commons (the
and say so at once, but do not let
irnznlitslteevrys
sexo(o-laoinrie),
4(I60
,000/. more than he was entitled to
by consent of Parliament. At this moment the malt trade
carried on, not under the Act of Parliament, but
Lads erthe orders of time Treasury. The Hon. Member
expressing a wish to know what was the
caomnocultntdteodf
b)th.e sum offered to the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer that morning, upon the offer to fund the Exche-
quer Bills, as be did not recollect to have heard him men-
tion it in his speech ?
Time CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, in an-
swer to the Hon. Baronet's question with respect to the
Life Annuities, begged to state what he thought he had
stated, that it was not the intention of the Government to
carry the plan of Life Annuities to any great extent, al-
though he believed, in concurrence with the opinion of the
Hon. Baronet, the Member for the Queen's county (Par-
nell), that it was a very popular mode of investing money,
Referring to the Hon. Baronet's objections upon the sub-
ject of the Sinking Fund, he did not think that its opera-
tion would be materially affected by any of the present
financial arrangements. With respect to the malt duty,
he begged the Hon. Baronet to observe that he was aware
of the great indisposition on the part of the tvaltsters to
carry on their trade in 1826 and 1627; and he had there-
fore thought it better, in taking his average, to include
1827 with 1828, which two years yielded, wlun taken
in this manner, an excess of 700,0001. He was aware,
however, that from peculiar circumstances, this sum was
very high, and that the average of the preceding years
reached only about 600,000/. Although, there-fire, he
fairly anticipated an increase, lie had thought it fairer to
take it, as the Hon. Baronet would find, at 500,000!.,
which was the sum set down in the present estimate.
Mr. ALEXANDER BARING did not think, in con-
sidering the Budget, that the House could fairly enter
into the discussion of that greater and still more important
question to which the document of the Worthy Alderman
(Waithman) referred, namely, the cause of that distress
and gloom which pervaded all branches of our trades and
manufactures. He would just say, with reference to that
part of the subject, that the alterations connected with
the transition from a state of war to that of peace—the
circumstances connected with the change in the currency
—the difference in the value of the raw material of our
manufactures at the two different periods, cotton being in
the time of war one-half dearer, and wool two-thirds ;
these things, when fairly considered, might go far to ac-
count for much of the embarrassment which they nosy ex-
perienced, although he did not think the question could be
fa it ly mixed up with the Budjct. To the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, who had laid before the House the finan-
cial condition,:he was disposed to give every praise. His
statement had been clear and satisfactory, when com-
pared with some of those the House had frequently been
compelled to listen to, and which resembled more the
effusion, of the l'oet Laureate than the explanat'ons of a
Financier. The Right Honourable Gentleman, in that
statement, seemed to wish it to be believed that the
surplus of the year was upwards of three millions ; Ino
he apprehended that the 500,000/. for the Dead Weight
must be deducted from that sum, and that the available
surplus was, therefore, little better than two millions
and a half. hie confessed, when he heard the Right
Hon. Gentlemen express a disposition to remit taxes, be