The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-02-01 00:00:00

REDUCTION OF TAXATION.

As the time is approaching when some financial
statement must be submitted to the House of Com-
mons, as a matter of course, the public feeling out
of doors will be anxiously directed to agitation for
the repeal or reduction of such portions of the pub-
lic burdens as press more immediately upon the
immediate interests of the individual agitators. If
the State followed the example of the prudent man
in private life, the surplus income would be devoted
to a partial reduction of the heavy debt, the interest
of which forms such an important portion of the
annual expenditure; but the system of modern
policy is to absorb all the surplus in reduction of
taxation, leaving the debt unreduced, and to be
further augmented when the necessities of war,
which now hovers over the political horizon, shall
demand a greatly increased expenditure. So long,
however, as this system is pursued, and popular
demands for devoting the surplus income to reduc-
tion of taxation must be met, it becomes a question
for grave consideration in what way it can be most
beneficially applied. Among the many schemes
now afloat, a petition for the abolition of the duty
on Soap has been extensively signed in Liverpool
during the last few days. This has strong recom-
mendations on sanitary grounds, but it may be
doubtful whether habits of cleanliness will be ma-
terially promoted by a reduction in the price of
Soap, though there is no doubt it ought to have that
effect. The demand for an abolition of the duty
on Paper is not without its supporters, who have
many strong reasons in its favour; and this ques-
tion has also been mixed up with that of the Ad-
vertisement Duty and Stamps on Newspapers. The
two former are entitled to attention as a positive
benefit, while the latter may be of questionable ad-
vantage, especially if coupled with the loss of free-
dom from postage. There is also the question of
the heavy duty on Tea, a reduction of which has
been postponed through the defeat only of a Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, and is confidently expected
to form an item in the next Budget. There are also
the claims of the Shipping and Agricultural interests
to special relief in any further reduction of the
public burdens, and they are claims which cannot
escape the attention of the House of Commons,
however they may be evaded by the present mon-
grel Administration. But, perhaps, the most im-
portant of all is the Income-tax, which has still to
be renewed. It is felt by most as a grievous impost,
and the unfairness and inequality of its pressure
has been acknowledged by all parties. It is a mode
of taxation which nothing but stern necessity can
justify, and any margin in the National Balance-sheet
should be devoted to its ultimate extinction, lest,
when war comes upon us in its stern reality, the
sources of additional taxation will be pre-occupied.
With these claims, and the many more which the
ingenuity of Financial Reformers and popular agi-
tators will discover, the concoctor of the next Bud-
get will find it a much more difficult task than he
did to help to demolish Mr. DISRAELI'S financial
scheme,