Star.
London, England, 1824-03-03 00:00:00

was not shewn, .he could not • etpect that the Hosisi
would give their appiobafion to. the "grant. He was
prepared to prove that the triopley granted,for ,a simi-
lar purpose before had been properly, and jadieioursly
applied,, and that the. &ether "am- proposed was. ne•
cessary. He 'should:6'oooler night have gone fully
into the subject, *as regarded the expead,iture of the
1,000,0001. before voted, but he did not tht.n. think

it would have been agreeable to the Il.tu,e to go
minutely into all the details of what had been done.—
It would he no very difficult tok to skew, that great
advantage must arise to the gene:al interests of the com-
munity by the ex,lenditure. of the Kul ther sum proposed
for the erection of Churches. That, however, was not
the subject at present. It did not at all affect the question
between him and the Honourable Gentleman ( Ir.l lob-
house). 'Die Honourable G.:a:lei/kali was involved in
this radical error —(Loud laughlrr). Ile begged pardon,
he meant no Alltiston. The liotiourairle Ge.itlanm.was

involved in this error, namely, th tt he assumed that
they conk! Aur..l to re•nit one mil.;i4ln mere of taxes in

addition to th•-se it was proposed to, take away ; and
the Honoitrals'e Gentleman seemed, to thick that this
.'tight be done by a differrot applicati:m of the sum
received from Austria,. by appiyinB, fir instance,
.50(),0041. to the remission of taxes, in place of build-
ing Churches. Tie- Hollow able Gentleman did not
consider that the 5J0.000/. ptooosed you the et.ection
of Churches was lint annual 111COMe to that amount.
It was merely a Slim to that amount paid by Austtia.
The Honourable Gentleman's plan might do very well
for this yeas, but what were they to do next year ? How
were they to meet the deficiency that would arise front ,
the repeal nl taxes to that amount.? He did not mean
to deny the val..e of. be objections made by the Hon.
Gentleman as to the pressure of She Assessed Taxes on
the people. They pressed heavily on the people—,they
pressed with peculiar severity on sonic. classes. But'
it shout' be recollected, that since the year 1821, a re,
diiction of those taxes, to the 'amount of 2,500,0"00/. fob
England and Ireland, had been effected. It was no-i,
thetefore, because he denied the pressure of those tares
that he could not agree to the proposition of. the Hontl
Gentleman, but because he wished to begin at the light
Lend, by adopting measures that would ultimately lead
to the Honourable Gentleman's own view, or to some
other that would move equally beneficial to the people,
He had blamed the Government-for a step which had
been taken last year with respect to the collection of
the house and. Window Tax ; and he referred to a cir-
cular letter which had been sent by the Treasury to
'the 'different tlx-colleaors, directing them tore, survey-1
certain houses, and, whereat appeared necessary, to make
a surcharge; ,as h was clear, if those surcharges were
brought to bear, something considerable would be gaioed;
He was glad of:this
_or-port:o4y .to give the House
some explanation of what the Government intended by
that letter--..what tea on guided hi in sanctioning the
survey, a;:id. %hy. he afterwards directed that none of
the surcharges which had been made should be' eni;?
force.!. It appeared, as the subject had been brought!
under his vier, that in the count' y a great. inequality,
prevailed in the mode in which houses were assess.ed:.
• some, indeed, were not assessed at all ; whilst many
houses, in the same relative situation as to site, conve-
nience,. and ealue, with others in the same neighbour-
hood, were assessed a: different rates. It was not un-,
usual to find houses assessed at a much higher rate than.,
other dwellings in the neighbourhood v hich paid the
same,rent, Now; the essence of a tax of this kind wasi
equality and justice ;,and if an evasion was effected by
one set of` persons, those'Who paid the whole tax were
actually robbed of that portion of msiney which they paid
over and above the sum paid by their neighbours. He
therefore thought that Government ought, at all events,
to examine whether this alleged inequality did exist; and
if it slid, it then became their duty to see that it was'
levied fairly and equally on all. He was led to
.bei:eve
that the inequality retailed to such an extent, that if'
it were removed, and all were obliged to pay alike, the
pro-duce of the Tax woad be raised considerably above
the average of the last year; but he never tlontemplatesi
screwing this money, at the existing rate, out of those.
who were subject to the Tax,, He thought if the-full.,
Tax were gathei ed :from alt those who ss,eie b.outid to •
pay it, and if, in consequence, the amount was greater
than in the preCe4lng year, that he would he then-boand
justice, consistency, and fair dealing, to come down
to the House, and reduce the rate. in proportion to the
increased productiveness of the Tax sist,er, the,..g.receding
year—( Hear, hear).,—But his ob.iect was.misunderstood,
and when he found that clamour and misi-epresentiition.
had gone
.abroad, he directed that those surcharges
should not be enforced. He, however, felt it necessary
to say, that this system of equality would still ba pur-
sued, and that the surcharges should. be cootirined, be
.cause it was. most unfair that one nun should escape-
the operation of a tax. at the expense of another (Hear,
hear).—But if the result were a collection 1.,f ditty to a
greater amount than formerly, that woad furnish a vet y
good reason for lessening the rate of .the Tax—(Hear).
He had now touched upon the principal topics alluded
to by the Honourable Gentleman. It was not necessary
;o,go back to the question of the Sinking Fund..lt was,
no part of his duty to weary the House now with argu-
ments which he had employed before upon this subject,
and, as be had a right to conclude, with satisfaction to
the House... Unless_ they were prepared to alter the law
passed last Session, they mast adt-ipt rropos:tion• in
preference to that of the Member for 'Vs'estminster. H.
would now leave the question to the He had
'never shewn any indifference to the wi•iies or the feel-
ings of the people; he not, and he hoped never.
should, court popularity by an:acquiescence in what he
knew to be inconsistent with their real interests, but:
always acted from an honest and sincere desire to dis-
charge v...hat appeared to him to be his duty—( hear.)
Mr. JOHN ail said lie took credit tohimself tor-
having called the. attention oi* the. Cilancellor of ,the
Exchequer to the typortutrity.of conferring a suisstati-
tial benefit.epoo the country by the repeal of the duties
on law proceedings—(dear). He hoped that Right
Hon. Gentleman would persevere in the patriotic and
honourable course which he WAS pursuing, and lie might
calculate upon reaping a rich re and re the gratitude.
of the country. Upon tie 'abject, however,
.he, (Mr,
Smith) differed- pith, hies ; namely, as to the applica-.
'Lion of .5j0.,W01, to biril3ing Churches. Flourishing as
the country was, it sill had many burdens pressing
upon'it, and this sum could be more beneficially:g(n-
. ployed in remitting taxes Lisa& in-budding Churches,—;
lillear). A mares first duty was .to pay his ecbto
hiss
.seetii,l, to see that those under him were happy.. SoiC
w;is'with a State.. When we had'paid-,our debts,:arpd
made cur people comfinkable, then Ate, might 'bekip- to
ithink.of. hoild.ingsChLircltc!it, .:A 41IficoltY existed
the.pre:.entation of elczgymen to Churches, 4y.1411,01f
lit was•rertioved§ would .afford. entouragopeut
epqugh
for building both Churches and Chapels, even if money