The Sun.
London, England, 1829-02-05 00:00:00

PETITION.

To the Honourable the Commons of the United King(lem
of Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled.
The humble Petition of the Clergy, Gentry, Merchants,
Tradesmen, and other persons assessed to the Inhabited
House Duty, in Louth; in the county of Lincoln,—
Showed],
That your petitioners have for many years borne with-
oat complaining their portion of the peceniary hurtliens
imposed upon the people of thin kingdom, in the confident
expectation that they should be relieved from a part at least
of those burthens whenever a continuance of them at their
former amount could no longer he deemed unavoidably
necessary for the services of the state.
That your petitioners, having so long cherished this
hope, would naturally have rejoiced at a prospect of its
speedy realization, when they perceived, from the official
account of the receipts of the revenue for • the y..ar just ex-
pired, a considerable augmentation in those receipts beyond
what the current expenses of that year demanded : hut
'what must the surprise of your petitioners be, when, in-
stead of receiving from his Majesty's Government some
earnest of an intention to relieve them from their existing
burthens, they find themselves threatemA with additional
and unprecedented taxation, in the very quarter terminating
the year which has presented to the country so favorable an
aspect as to its financial affairs ! For your petitioners beg
leave to state that, within this last quarter, the Surveyor
under the Act relating to the Duties of Assessed Taxes for
the district to which your petitioners belong, has made a
new and increased valuation, followed by a new and in-
creased assessment, of the houses within that district ; and
as your petitioners presume that this novel demand has
been authorised by the Government itself, they cannot re-
frain from saying that so oppressive a measure is calculated
to convert their former anxious hopes of alleviation into the
severest disappointment.

Your petitioners assure themselves that, when your
Honourable House is informed that the above-mentioned
new valuation has generally doubled, and in many in-
stances trebled, the equalizing valuation made by local
officers for the purpose of the poor-rates; that the new
assessment partially omits to aKet those who have already
compounded for their assessed taxes ; and that such valua-
tion and assessment were made by a Surveyor resident at
a distance of thirteen miles from their own dwelling-places,
and consequently deficient in an accurate knowledge of
the particular situation of the different individuals in the
different professions, trades, and other interests the
town of Louth; you will acknowledge that this increased
tax must necessarily be arbitrary in principle, unequal in
its proportions, and unjust in operation. In cases where
the occupiers of houses are also the owners of them, the
Surveyor has adopted the highest possible valuation, re-
ferring to certain imaginary advantages of situation,
whether for professions, trades, or mere residences, and
thus, in fact, taxing the trade, profession, or even the
rank of the owner; and although in other cases where
the relation of landlord and tenant exists, the Sur-
veyor Amy .be authorised by the strict letter of the
Act to assess the improved rent actually paid by the
tenant, yet your petitioners are convinced that your
Honourable House will recognise, in the mere novelty
alone of this grievous mode of executing the powers of
the statute, a sufficient proof of the injustice of the in--
crease, as well as a violation, not only of the spirit of the
Act itself, but also-of every contract now in being relative
to houses rented by tenants, who, in adjusting the amount
of their rent, always keep in view the then existing amount
of the House Duty, and who, by this unexpected departure,
from former practice, must inevitably he doomed, for one
year at least, to bear singly a burthen which, if they could
have anticipated it, would, at all events, have been divided.
Alarmed by this indication of a disposition to stretch to
the utmost a fiscal power which, though it may be in legal
existence, has, nevertheless, hitherto been suffered to lie
dormant, the minds of your petitioners have been forcibly
drawn to contemplate the vexatious and oppressive na-
ture of the whole of the duty upon inhabited houses; and
when they consider that this tax comes directly into (den-
sive contact with the comforts of almost every class of the
people, beginning with those classes who differ little more
than in name from the labouring classes; that, in its pro-
gress upwards, it makes its pressure felt in a manner and
in proportions not consistent with the strictest rules of
sound policy and justice, neither adjusting the burthen
to the ability of every individual, nor even approxi-
mating to such an adjustment, but, on the contrary,
touching but lightly the large resources of the mer-
chant, the manufacturer, and the wholesale dealer, whilst
it deducts with an unsparing hand from the small earnings
of the industrious tradesman, shop-keeper, and retail
dealer ; and, that the grievances resulting from the prin-
ciple of the tax are .even exceeded by those attending its
arbitrary mode of execution ; your petitioners feel them-
selves urged by a sense of individual oppression and of
public duty to seek for an adequate protection against those
various grievances in futufe, by praying for an abolition of
the source which gives them birth. And, therefore, your
petitioners earnestly beseech your Honourable House to
repeal the Inhabited House Duty altogether.
And your petitioners will ever pray.
The Mover and seconder having supported the petition
by some forcible observations, it was, after some discussion,
Resolved, That the petition now produced be adopted by
the meeting.
Resolved, That the petition be, on Monday, the 26th
inst., placed at Messrs. Jackson's, in the Market-place,
and remain there until that day week, for the signature of
persons assessed to the Inhabited House Duty only; and
that the Members for the County be requested to present
the same to the House of Commons, and give it their
support. • •
Resolved, That the thanks of the meeting be given to
Henry Pye, Esq., for his attentive and impartial conduct -
in the chair.