Star.
London, England, 1818-04-22 00:00:00

House had been told a :change was unnecessary, be-
cause the rate orinterest warlow, though till now
• bad always understood the proper time for taking
,ito consideration the proposed change was when the
rate of interest was reduced, as it was at present.—
lie should most _cordially vote for the proposition of
leis Honourable and Learned Friend.
Mr. CALCRAFT retained on this subject the opi•
nions which he had expressed last year. He should
vote for the Committee, but doing this, he wished it•
to be understood that he gave no pledge that he
would support the Bill which the Honourable and
Learned Gentleman wished to bring in, unless his
opinion should be altered by the Report of the
Committee.
General THORNTON thought the extension of
;the measure proposed to be introdaced to Ireland
'would be highly beneficial. A law of aussiniuse was
as injurious, applied to money, as it was confessed to
be, applied to any thing else.
Orneral MITCHELL did not wish to oppose the
appointment of the Committee, as the sense of the
abuse seemed to be in its favour. He therefore, for
the_ present, withdrew his opposition. •
Mr. Serjeant ONSLOW replied. He wished the 1
laneasure to extend to Ireland. He knew of no part
of the United Kingdom that was more likely to be-
nefit by it. Ireland wanted capital, which was kept
Ina of it by the existing laws.
The Motion was speed to, and a Cemmittee4
4'OrthWith appointed.
WINDOW rat IN itIELANIN
gr. R, SHAW rose, pursuant to the notice he had
given, to move that the Petition presented ky hirn:
from Dublin, and all the other .Petitions received
frontibeland on the' subject of the Window' Tax,l
should be referred to a Committee. .Ireland, for the-
ism twenry-tive years, had most cheerfully coutri-
Suted her share to carry on the contest in which this
country had been engaged. Alien peace returned,
a general expectation was entertained that they would
be relieved from the taxes that pressed most heavily
upon them. In particular they were led to hope
that the Window Tax would be repealed. He thought
they had peculiar and strong, grounds for entertain-,
ing such a hope. The tax, when first imposed, was
to last during the war, and no longer. To prove
this, he referred uq what had passed in the Irish Par-
liament when the Window Tax was first brought
forward' in that country ; from which it appeared
that Mr. Corry, then Chancellor of the Exchequer
for Ireland, had stated it to be merely a War Tax,
and its continuance was limited to three years and-
no longer, if the war should continue so long. Ire-
land had borne it to the end of the war, and con-,
ceived herself now to be entitled to- relief. The
hardships to which the people of Ireland were ex-
posed while this duty was continued he,shewed to
be very great, and•though all the provisions of the
law might not be acted upon, that they existed and.
'could be acted upon was an evil which ought to be
done away. The effect of this tax causing windows
to be stopped up which were necessary for ventila-
tion, had made that part of Dublin which was chiefly
inhabited. by the lower orders, miserably unwhole-
some. The alarm which this occasioned had reached
the Government, and the Right Honourable Gentle-
man opposite, who had so long governed Ireland in
a manner satisfactory to every body, had, on this
occasion, acted a part worthy of himself. Superior
to considerations of finance, he had directed all the
windows necessary for ventilation to be opened, and
provided that the inhabitants of houses where this
had become necessary, should not be liable to any
additional charge for such windows. This measure
had been found necessary to preserve Dublin from
an impending plague. He proceeded to compare
the financial exertions made by Ireland with those of
England, and contended, that in proportion to her
means, she had done even more than this country.
He shewed the pressure upon her to have beer. greater
titan she could bear, by comparing the produce of
the window and hearth taxes, in which he shewed,
from the year ending Gth February, 1816, to that
ending February 6, 1818, there had been a falling
off of 112,000/. • 80,000/. and upwards on the win-
dows, and 32,0001. on the hearth duties. Within
the same period, the insolvencies for window taxes
had increased in a proportionate degree. Under all
the circumstances of the case, he appealed to the
Right Honourable Gentleman, it could be policy
to persevere in duties which wire thus rapidly falling
off, and if, while the sum of 14,000,0001. was to be
raised to spare the people of this country burdens
which might be avoided, the paltry sum of 300,000/.
(the amount of the window tax) ought not to be
raised for the relief of the people of Ireland. He
concluded by moving for the appointment bf a select
Committee, to consider of the expediency of repeal.
ing an Act of the 55th of the King, respecting duties
on hearths and windows in Ireland.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said,
the Hon. Gentleman had rested his case on two
grounds ; first, on a supposed pledge given that the
window-tax should not be continued in a time of
peace; and secondly, on the hardships to which it
subjected the people, and on the impracticability of
collecting it. He could never admit that the Govern-
ment were bound in good faith to repeal the tax
when the war was at an end. In fact, to have done
this, seeing it had been pledged for certain loans
which had been raised for the service of the country,
would have been an act of injustice to the put:Alters--
ditor. No pledge to repeal it had been given that
he was aware of, and a proof would be found in the
circumstance of its not having been repealed during
the Peace of Amiens. Ireland, he contended, had
been treated with great liberality in her financial
connections with England. lie shewed that she had
not in every instance borne her full share of the bur-
, diens which had fallen 'on the nation; and though
more than 200,000,000/. had been raised in Eng-
.
hind, which formed no part of the sums pledged to
the public creditor, yet even this immense sum was
not sufficient, and the peOple of this country had still
to bear three or tour millions of continued war taxes,
under the head of Excise. He was as anxious to re-
lieve Ireland from taxation as he could be to relieve
this country ; but he could not admit her claim was
so strong as the Honourable Gentleman conceived it
to be. He admitted the assessed taxes of Ireland
(and especially the window-tax), had been increased
with a rapidity but ill calculated to produce a per-
manent revenue. He was, however, far from con-
sidering this a matter of reproach to his predecessor.
The duty he had to perform was one of extreme dif-;

ficolty. He had to provide for the leans of the year,
and to raise the,surns necessarih called for, he found
hinisetf obliged to impose the forglish tales on all the
articles of taxation. That the continuance of these
duties caused much distress, which had been aggra-
vated by a scarcity of provisions, could not be denied,
and he was of opinion it-might not- be improper to
afford a degree of relief from this particular tax to
;he people of Ireland—(flenr, henr.)—This might be
practicable, and he certainly had it in contemplation.
A schedule was preparing which, when furnished,
would shew the House what were the modifications
'intended. The general principle of his plan went to
relieve the people of Ireland from the additional 9.5
per cent. laid on some years ago, where, from the
pressure of distress, this should be found necessary.
In other places where the pressure was not so t,
'a smaller scale of relief might be adopted. her'
circumstances connected With this subject would e-
cessarily be brought under the consideration of the
House, but on these he did not wish to enter till the
schedule could be produced. From the Returns on I
the tahh of the House, he was led to hope that the
situation of Irelan4 hadrof late improved, and that
the clouds which had hung over her would soon be
dispersed. He could not approve of the present mo-
tion. The relief which he had announced, would,
he thought, be better than going into a Committee,
for the chance of still greater relief. He was willing
to try what could be done, but when it was remem-
here-3 how numerous were the claims for relief which
had been forwarded from both countries in the pre-
sent Session, he could not but feel, that it became
Parliament to make a fair stand, and only give way
in cases where ohe distress was most obvious and
severe. Such he considered the present case to be,
and-therefore it was that he was anxious if possible
to afford the sufferers relief.
Mr. PLUNKETT was sorry a motion so moderate
as that submitted to the House by his Hoar Friend
had not 'been acceded to by the Chancellor of the
Exchequer. His conduct in this instance afforded
no exemplification of that disposition for which he
gave himself credit. The Right Honourable•Gentle-
man had contended, that Government were not.
bound in good faith to reveal the Window Tax at
the close of the war, by what had fallen from the
Irish Chancellor, of the Eachequer; hut he (Mr.
Plunkett) begged to refer them to the language of
the Acts of Parliament themselves. From these, he
contended that the Window Tax was imposed merely
as a war tax in 1799 ; and in the Act which passed
a year afterwards, it would be found that this Tax
was imposed for keeping up an efficient force of
43,075 men. It was therefore expressly enacted to
maintain a war establishment; ancrif this were not,
_under such circumstances, a war tax, he did nut
know what a war tax was. In an Act of the same I
Session for preventing .frauds, and for the better col-,
lecting of this duty, it was enacted, that it should.
continue in force three years, provided the war
should continue so long. He:was surprised, after
this, that the Right Honourable Gentleman should
have any doubts on the subject of its having been
merely a war duty ; • and if any yet remained in his.
mind, he trusted they did not extend to any body
else. If it had not been repealed at the time the
peace of Amiens was concluded, as it ought to hovel
been, that was no reason for refusing to repeal it
now. But for the Right Honourable Gentleman tw
do so would be an act of injustice to the public :In-'
ditor ! This objection had been answered by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer himself, when he of-
fered to take off twenty-five per cent. If he consi-
dered that to repeal the Tax would be to break faith
with the public creditor, he would ask the Right
Honourable Gentleman if be.meant to break faith
with the public creditor, or if he considered the re-
duction of a fourth part of the Tax to be but the
fourth part of a breach of faith ?---(A laugh.) The
more he thought on the subject, the more he was sur-
prised that the motion for a Committee should be re-
sisted. He proceeded to shew, by a series of finan-
cial statements, that the increase of duties had failed
to produce a corresponding increase of revenue. Ire-
land, he admitted, had not c enributed her tyo se-
venteenths to the exigencies of the State, which she
was bound to provide by the Act of Union; but he
maintained that she had, nevertheless, furnished her
fair proportion according to her means, and must
not be taxed beyfond her strength. In England, since.
the war, the people had been relieved of taxes to the
amount of seventeen millions; in Ireland, the bUr-
thens from which they had been relieved exceeded
not two or three hundred thousand pounds. The
Chancellor of the Exchequer had wished to retain
the Income Tax in time of peace, and had said with!
out it the business of the country could not be car-
tied on ; yet when the House decided that it should
he abolished, lie voluntarily surrendered the War
Malt Duty. Having yielded thus to the sense of the
people of England, he would ask the Ricolit Honour-
able Gentleman, if on the present occasion he ought,
not to bow in the same way to the people of Ireland?
The relief announced had been said to be preferable
to the Committee. He wished to take the relief of-
fered, and *o into the Committee.
. Mr. PELL assured the House that no man would
experience more happiness than himself if any relief
could be given to a country which had already coa-
-1 tributes' and suffered so tnuch. In arguing the subs
jest, he was disposed to take into consideration the
argument of the Right Moor:arable Gentleman, viz.
the faith of the Irish Parliament being pledged when
Mr. Corry first proposed the Tax, in 1799. In this
country, many taxes were imposed as war taxes-
only, but which are now continued, because the ne-
cessities of the State required their continuance.. Mr.
Corry himself had stated, that it might be withdrawn
in case of peace, but no pledge was to be found in the
Act at that time passed. In the year 1800, an Act
was brought in, which, to the mind of the Right
Honoarable Gentleman, appeared to convey a pledge ;•11
but oo referring to the Act, it was evident the Tax I
was to continue, even though peace should arrive. ,
The Act to which the Right Honourable Gentleman'
alluded had only reference to the regulations made
respecting windows. In 1809, Mr. (orry still being
Chancellor of the Exchequer, (the Act of Union hav-
ing taken place in the interino) peace arrived.. Mr.
Dawson, a Member of that Parliament, reminded
him of the pledge, which. Mr. Cony it his place de-
isiej In 1807, an Act was passed making the taxes,
permanent. There was one objection to the Till,
which, if founded on solid grounds, would bean
more weight than any other for repealing it—that is,