The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-12-07 00:00:00

THURSDAY, DEC. 2

A petition was presented from Mr. Grantley Berkeley
complaining of rioting and bribery at the late election for
West Gloucester.

Mr. S. V. FITZGERALD presented a petition from the
merchants, traders, shipowners, and others of the town
of Carnarvon, from the merchants and shipowners of
Bangor and Pwlhelli, and from the shipowners and others
of the town of Portmadoc, praying for a reduction of the
charges for pilotage, light-dues, port-dues, &c.

NEW REFORM BILL

In answer to Mr. Hume, the CHANCELLOR of the Ex-
CHEQUER said, that whenever it was the intention of the
government " to introduce any measure for the extension
of the franchise, the protection of the voters, and the
equalization of the number of electors to the number of
representatives," they would think it more consistent
with their duty to the country to give a formal notice to
the house of that intention.

VACANT SEATS

In answer to Mr. Gibson, whether it was the intention
of the government to submit to Parliament this session
the same measure as they submitted at the close of the
last Parliament, for allotting the four seats now vacant to
new constituencies, the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
considered that the question was part of the great subject
of progressive reform, and he would prefer giving a for-
mal notice of any intention respecting it on the part of
the government.

the shipping of this country, under present circumstances,
ought not to be subjected. We think it, too, highly
in-
expedient that, under the name of light dues, the ship-
ping of this country should be taxed to maintain the
charities of a corporation. We would confine the tax on
shipping merely to a payment for that benefit which the
shipping receives from the lighthouses ; we would relieve
the shipping interest from what is paid for the interest
upon those loans incurred to purchase private lights ;
from the contribution to the charities of a corporation
which, however laudable they may be, ought not to be
maintained, under present circumstances, by taxing a
British ship ; and, further, we would relieve the shipping
interest from all passing tolls. I estimate that this set-
tlement of a long agitated question will probably cost the
country about £lOO,OOO a-year ; but it appears to me that
the claims are just; that it is impossible to resist them, and
that they ought to have been considered when the repeal of
the navigation laws occurred. The next question to which
I would refer is the question of pilotage. The system by
which that is regulated in this country is extremely aroma-
lous. It is the intention of the Government to recommend
to the house that there should be a committee appointed to
inquire into the whole subject of pilotage and ballasting,
and I have myself no doubt that the report of that com-
mittee will be satisfactory. With respect to the privilege
of the Admiralty of taking seamen out of merchant ships,
he thought it operated very badly for the discipline of the
mercantile navy, and he therefore proposed that in all
cases where seamen enlisted from a merchant ship into
the royal navy, they should not be paid their wages until
the ship's company should be paid off; and he further
proposed that if any injury should accrue to a merchant
ship in consequence of such enlistment of the seamen,
they should be entitled to compensation for such injury at
the hands of the nation. He would not enter into the
question of th alvage system, but he would say that it
could he easilWown, in many instances, to operate most
oppressively ; and it was the intention of the Government
that it should entirely cease. With respect to anchorage,
the Admiralty was prepared to waive its claims for the
future. With respect to the restrictions on the manning
of the mercantile marine, it was considered that those
restrictions should be done away with, which again ren-
dered it necessary to consider the question of manning
the royal navy ; but for this they were awaiting the report
of a committee on this important subject. He next ad-
verted to the claims of the sugar-producing colonies, and
said they should be considered, not as related to the past,
but as regarded what was just to be done for them now.
He thought the West India colonies had been unjustly
and unwisely treated. He could not recommend Parlia-
ment to agree to put a stop to the gradual reduction of
the duties on foreign sugars in the face of the country,
after its decision in favour of unrestricted competition.
(Hear, hear.) He here referred to statistics to
show that in 1852 the increased importation of
sugar from our colonies over that of 1851 was no less than
1,250,000 cwt. ; while during the same period the im-
portation of foreign sugars had decreased by the amount
of 600,000 cwt. Under such circumstances it was im-
possible to seek to put a stop to the downward duties on
foreign sugars ; but steps had been taken in a different
direction—that of giving encouragement to the im-
migration of Chinese labourers into the West India
colonies, and three ships had been already dispatched for
that purpose. With respect to bonding our own refined
sugars for home consumption, he stated that the govern-
ment had given the subject the greatest consideration. The
sugar manufacturers asked to be allowed to refine in bond,
and to have the duty taken upon the refined produce, and
not upon the raw material ; and this the Government
thought it only just to concede, even though it might lead
to some loss of revenue. He now came to the local taxa-
tion of the country, and some of this taxation fell only
upon a portion of the property of the country, instead of
upon the whole. The local taxation resolved itself chiefly
into three rates—the highway rate, the county rate, and
the poor rate. With respect to the first of these rates, he
would have to bring in a bill which he hoped would prove
satisfactory to the house and to the country. With re-
spect to the county rate, he had no objection to introduce
the representative system into the management of that
rate, although the rate was comparatively small. A por-
tion of it was expended in the maintenance of gaols and
lunatic asylums, but he was not prepared to make any
proposition respecting it, as it might ere long be necessary
to take into consideration the whole question of the
punishment of crime. With respect to the poor rate. it
had fallen from £6,180,000 in 1849 to only £4,962,000 in
1851, and in 1852 the rate was only £4,894,000. He
believed the pauperism of the country would still further
diminish, for causes were in operation having such a ten-
dency. Looking, then, to every means to assist every
suffering class without injuring any portion of the com-
munity, he was still unprepared to make any change in
the mode of collecting the local taxation of the country.
He next called the attention of the house to the general
taxation of the country in the new circumstances in which
it was placed. Unrestricted competition was inconsistent
with restricted industry ; and it became necessary, when
introducing the question of taxation, to bring it more in
accordance with that policy which had been sanctioned by
the solemn verdict of the country. If articles of prime
necessity were heavily taxed, those taxes should be altered
to meet the altered state of things. Her Majesty's Go-
vernment were, therefore, prepared to recommend the
house to deal with the malt duties. Beer was a prime
necessity, and subjected to a very high tax, which fell
heavily on the consumer. Independent, however, of the
benefit which its removal would confer upon the consu-
mer, there was scarcely any tax the repeal of which would
more largely benefit the agricultural interest. The exist-
ing duty was 2s. 7id. and 5 per cent. per bushel, and
although the aggregate amount of revenue from this
source had increased of late years, it had not at all
increased in the proportion it ought to have done as
compared with other duties. They proposed, therefore,
to diminish the duty one-half, which would be a sacrifice
of nearly £2,500,000. He also proposed to do away with
the malt drawback on spirits in Scotland. The day fixed
upon to reduce the duty was the 10th October, 1853 ; and
on that day it was proposed to take the stock in hand
throughout the country, and to allow the drawback upon
it. He now came to another article, as much a necessary
of life as malt, and much more heavily taxed—the article
of tea, and he had to recommend to the house to deal with
the tea duties. It had been argued, in objection to such
a proposition, that the article was one of limited produc-
tion ; but its importation, which was constantly in-
creasing, had reached the amount of 71,000,0001 b., our
consumption, which was checked by the duty, being only
54,000,0001 b. in dealing with this subject, the Govern-
ment, after a laborious investigation, had arrived at the
conclusion that there could be no prospect of any want of
supply of tea, while it was impossible to shut their eyes
to the fact of the impulse given to consumption in the
case of sugar by a reduction of duty. They were of opinion
that it would be vain to make any difference between
black and green teas, or in respect to the quality of either,
in levying the duty, which at present was 2s. 2d per lb.
This duty he proposed to reduce to Is. per lb., and that
that reduction should be spread over a period of six years.
That the reduction should be in the first year 41(1. per lb.,
and that every subsequent year it should be reduced an
additional 2d. until it should be reduced to ls. It was
also his intention to deal with the hop duties, and to pro-
pose that the war duty should be remitted, which would
be about one-half of the whole. These reductions would
occasion a loss to the revenue of between three and four
millions sterling. In a few months, however, one of the
principal sources of the revenue of the country must ex-
pire—he alluded to the property and income tax, which
the house must take some steps to deal with. Hewes clearly
of opinion, if they were to have recourse to direct taxation,
it should be as general as indirect taxation, and should not
be based upon a large system of exemptions. Laying that

tion those exemptions, and in the first instance, the largest
—that of Ireland. Sir R. Peel, when proposing the income
tax for Great Britain, proposed also for Ireland, as an
equivalent for not extending the tax to that country,
an additional duty on spirits and an equalisation of the
stamp duties with those of England, from whieh he anti-
cipated an additional revenue of £410,000. The duty on
spirits was subsequently reduced, because it led to illicit
distillation, and the increase in the stamp duties amounted
only to £16,000, which was the sum total contributed by
Ireland as an equivalent for escaping the income tax.
He did not think it would be wise to treat with any
harshness the landed interest of Ireland after all it had
suffered, but he should recommend the extension of the
tax to funded property and salaries in Ireland. He then
drew attention to the Consolidated Annuities, amounting
to about £240,000 per annum, and said it was the in-
tention of the Government to consider the question ; but,
in doing so, it would not feel itself bound by the recom-
mendation of the committee of the House of Lords. Re-
turning to the question of the property tax, he said there
was another principle which Government was prepared to
acknowledge, and that was the difference between per-
manent and precarious incomes. He proposed that there
should be no increase in any schedule of the property and
income tax, notwithstanding the reduction of taxation
which he had intimated. He proposed that on all in-
dustrial incomes the point of exemption should be li-
mited to £lOO a-year, and on incomes arising from pro-
perty to £5O a-year ; that the rate on schedules A and C
should be, as before, Id. in the pound ; in B, D, and E,
54-d. The amount he calculated to receive under the
schedules was £4,961,000; the reduction of the exemp-
tions he took at £400,000, and, adding the modest
sum of £60,000 for Ireland, the total amount of
this tax would be £5,421,000. It would be his
duty to lay before the House a supplementary estimate
of expenditure for our national defences, which had
nothing whatever to do with peace or war, and which
was irrespective of any external circumstances. This
object would lead to an expenditure in the next year of
£600,000. He now approached the Ways and Means by
which the diminution of revenue might be met. The
state of the revenue was extremely favourable. He had
calculated that there would be a diminution in the
Customs of about £lOO,OOO ; and he thought it
would be nearly that sum. He had expected
a slight advance in the Excise; and though the in-
crease was at present much greater, he would not
estimate it at more than he had said. The Stamps
had greatly increased. He thought the surplus on the sth
April, instead of being, as he had estimated, £460,000,
would exceed that estimate by nearly £1,000,000, amount-
ing to between £1,300,000 and £1,400,000. The loss by
the remission of the malt duty, which would not come
into operation until October, 1853, when a drawback must
be paid upon the stock in hand, he took at £1,000,000 ;
the reduction of the duty on tea to Is. 10d., at £400,000 ;
the duty on hops would not affect the year 1853-54;
the extra estimates would be £600,000, and the light
dues £lOO,OOO. The total amount to be supplied was,
therefore, £2,100,000. It was his duty, therefore, to pro-
pose some addition to the revenue of the country. He
would not lay it on the Customs, or on any source of indi-
rect taxation. He was not going to propose a new tax, but
to ask the house to consider an existing tax, and
apply to it the principles they bad supported—Hamel
athe
reperte steanxt,
baurtr a
intge
wasm e nrte
moaf
,kthaeb i
eh o
fuosre a lel x.
the Tlf

by which direct taxation ought not to be distinguished
Its operation was limited to. 20 a-year. He proposed tr