The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-05-19 00:00:00

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The Duke of WELLINGTON opposed proceeding with the
bill further until there should be a fuller attendance of peers.

Further proceedings were fixed for Friday next, after which
heir lordships adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—FRIDAv.
In the Commons very little business was done, beyond the
forwarding some private bills a stage, and receiving some pe-
titions, previously to the introduction of

TILE BUDGET.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER brought on the
financial statement for the year. He stated the ordinary
income of the year, ending April 5, 1840, at £47,685,223,
and the total income at £47,843,202. The total expenditure
was £49,300,424, being a deficiency of £1,457,222. The
deficiency, however, had been anticipated, to the extent of a
million, by a vote of Exchequer bills, reducing the balance
unprovided for to £457,222. But this was not all deficiency
on the ordinary expenditure of the year. In the course of
last year £260,000, granted in 1838 to the clergy in Ireland,
was issued in Exchequer bills, leaving the balance of the
deficiency of the year unprovided for £197,000. The defi-
ciency was estimated by Lord Monteagle at £935,000, but
he had made no calculation as to the deficiency in the amount
received from postage, and the actual deficiency on that head
had been considerable—£2ss,ooo. Taking the postage into
account, the difference between his noble friend's :estimate
and the actual result was only £12,000. He came then to
the immediate subject of consideration, the- expectation of '
expenditure and income of the current year. The total
charge on the consolidated fund was £31,877,000 ; the
army, navy, ordnance. and miscellaneous estimates, amounted
to £16,880,000. The whole was £48,757,000. With respect
to the China expedition, the expenditure will be charged on
her Majesty's goverpment, but will be advanced, in the first
instance, by the govtfrnment of India. He proposed, how-
ever, to make au estimate on that account. The amount
estimated as the expense of the preparation of the expedition,
up to Ist May, 1840, was £54,000 ; and taking this as the
rate, if the expedition should last six months from May 1,
its expenditure would amount to £162,000, making the total
cost of the expedition £216,000. He would take a vote of
£150,000 on •account. Including a vote for the navy com-
mission of £75,000 a vote for the expenses in Canada of
£350,000, and this vote of £150,000 on account of China,
the total estimated expenditnre of the year ending sth April,
1841, was £49,432,000. He came now to the expected
revenue. The right honourable gentleman entered into a
statement of the inconvenience caused by the deviation from
the usual practice this year, of framing the estimates not
from the beginning of the financial year, sth April, but from
the beginning of the year, sth January, 1841. It was usual
for the heads of departments, he observed, to understate the
expected revenue t for he had never known a case in which
the actual amounOlid not exceed the estimates of the heads
of departments. They bad now, he said, got the actual in-
come for one quarter, which had been estimated up to the
sth April, 1840. From this return, it appeared that for the
quarter ended sth April, 1839, there was received in the four
principal departments of customs, excise, stamps, and taxes,
£8,069,000
£8,339,000

And for the year ending sth April, 1840,

Being an increase from these four sources
on the first quarter alone of £270,000
Including every part of the revenue, even the Post-office,
upon which the right honourable gentleman opposite had es-
timated the loss for the year at £1,470,000, taking in the loss
from the Post-office, the enormous amount which would be
lost reached only £273. This announcement was received
with great cheering. Looking at the condition of the country,
he did not see sufficient grounds to justify him in supposing
that in the course of next year the sources of revenue were
likely to produce less than in the past pear. With regard to
the Post-office, he proposed to take the estimate given in by
the Post-office authorities. He could not but think that the
estimate of £530,000 was a fair estimate to lay before the
house. The whole amount of our estimated income was taken
by him at £47,034,000: The right hon. gent. alluded to the
negotiations now going forward for a commercial treaty with
France, and he thought it would not be fair if he did not state
that the commercial treaty, if carried into effect, might cause
a deficiency in the revenue of £300,000. He adverted next
to the relief proposed to be given to the post-masters. He
proposed to reduce the different rates to an average of £3,
a small reduction, but one which would prove extremely use-
ful. Allowing for this deduction, the income of the country,
on which they could rely for the ensuing year, was £46,700,000.
Deducting the income frbin the expenditure, the deficiency
on the year would be £2,732,000. Having made these state-
ments, the right hon. gent. came to a subject respecting
which much anxiety has been felt in the city, namely, his
mode of meeting the deficiency. He announced that her
Majesty's government were not prepared to recommend to
Parliament to meet the deficiency by any new system of loans.
When, after all reduction, there was still a deficiency of in-
come as compared with expenditure of £2,732,000, he was
not prepared to make a provision for that deficiency by any
temporary expedients, which would be only staving off the
difficulty ; he would not place the hand of the tax-gatherer
on any new object of taxation. Upon consideration, he felt
that it was best to propose an increase on the duties already
existing. Stamps should not be included in the new regula-
tion ; but he was prepared to take a per centage upon the Ex-
cise duties, the Customs duties (except in some few instances)
and upon the assessed taxes. He proposed five per cent. °al
the Excise and Customs duties, and ten per cent. upon the
assessed taxes ; and he begged to acquaint the house that the
per centage should be taken, not upon the value of the com-
modity or article taxed, but upon the amount of duty now
collected. The right bon. gent. then went over the different
items of revenue. There were so many different rates of
duties on spirits that the application of the per centage to
them would throw the whole trade into confusion. He pro-
posed, therefore, that one uniform rate of duty, an additional
tax of 4d. per gallon should be imposed on all English, Scotch,
Irish, colonial, and foreign spirits. He should leave corn out
of the new arrangement. The duties on railways, stage-car-
riages, and post-horses, were originally stamp duties, but for
the sake of convenience, they had been transferred to the
Excise; but he thought an exception should be made of ar-
ticles of this class, and he therefore proposed to exempt post-
horses, stage-carriages, and railways, from the general prin-
ciple. He calculated the additional duty on spirits would
yield him £276,000. There has lately been great laxity and
inattention in houses and window taxes. It was not pro-
posed to call for arrears, but to be more strict for the future.
The amount of 5 per cent. on the Customs and Excise would
yield £1,426,000. The duty of 4d. on spirits would yield
£484,000, the assessed taxes would yield X 276,000. He ex-
pected from the new survey of houses and windows £150,000.
There was still a deficiency of £400,000.; and, as 'in regard
to the vote for China and Canada, he was not prepared to
make any permanent additions to the burdens of the country
on that account, he proposed to meet the deficiency by a vote
of credit. The actual sum which lie estimated would be paid
in would make a total of £48,501,000. The right hon. gent.
concluded with moving a series of resolutions in accordance
with his statement.

Mr. HUME complained, that when the estimates were
voted, which created the deficiency now in discussion, there
was not an attendance of one-fifth of the members. There
had been no falling off in the revenue, nor did the deficiency
arise from the permanent charges on the consolidated fund,
but from the annual votes of the house, which had now in-
creased the expense of the naval, military, and other esta-
blishments by £2,180,000. This was in order to oppress our
colonists in Canada and elsewhere ; and now the day of
reckoning was come. The new regulations of the postoffice
ought to have produced a saving; but. instead of that, the
government had aggravated expense, by adding a vast num-
ber of new attendants. But what he chiefly deprecated was
the continuance of the system of taxation, by which he
alleged that the pockets of the rich were spared at the ex-
pense of the poor. Above all, he condemned the preference
which he said that the possessors of landed property enjoyed
over the possessors of personalty. The government were
fast following the example of France, where the exemptions
of the rich drove the poor at last into actual insurrection,
and overthrew the monarchy. He would divide against this
resolution. Why had the tones been forced from office ?
Because people expected economy from the whigs. At first
the whigs did something to gratify that expectation, but they
had now abandoned the principle on which they had obtained
their places. He concluded by moving, as an amendment,
that there should be an equal evalization of the duties on
real and personal property.
The chairman, Mr. BERNAL, suggested that this amend-
ment could not regularly be made in this committee, upon
which this technical discussion arose.

Lord JOHN RUSSELL observed, that the business of this
committee was to provide new means of meeting a certain
expenditure ; but it did not appear that Mr. Hume's reso-
lution must necessarily provide any new means whatever.
Mr. GOULBURN concurred in this view, and thought the
resolution irregular also on account of its vagueness.
Mr. HUME then altered his amendment by proposing " a
tax on the descent of real property, on a scale varying from
1 to 10 per cent., according to the tax on the transmission of
personal property."
Mr. LANGDALE said, that as the land pays stamp duty on
transfers, which funded property does not, he would propose,
in addition to Mr. Hume's mdtion, that stamp duties should
be paid on the transfer of funded property.
To this Mr. HUME replied by appealing to the national
faith, pledged to the public creditor by the acts under which
the debt was created.

But at least, rejoined Mr LANDALE, in point of justice,
the argument against the land is answered.
Mr. EWART was for taxing the landowners, mainly for
this logical reason, that they possess a considerable influence
in the House of Commons, and a preponderance in the House
of Lords. He was also desirous to try the experiment of re-
ducing duties for the purpose of increasing trade and con-
sumption, and thus eventually deriving a larger revenue from
lower impost.
Mr. TURNER said, he could not support the resolution of
government.

Colonel SIBTHORP also disapproved of it. He would rather
have seen a tax on champagne than on spirits, and would
have thought it better still to tax the salaries of ministers.
Mr. GOULBURN glanced at the various absurdities of the
preceding speakers, and particularly at the blunders of the
members for Kilkenny on the subject of landed descents. He
then addressed himself to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's
statement, and expressed his regret that the government had
not begun to grapple with the deficiency in the revenue until
the mischief had attained its fourth year. If Canada had
been, as Mr. Hume had been contending, a source of extra-
ordinary expense, Mr. Hume himself, by his inflammatory
communications with that country, had been mainly the
cause of the evil. After exposing the infirmity of the grounds
on which the Chancellor of the Exchequer had founded his
estimates of probable income, Mr. Goulburn reminded the
house, that even on the assumption of all those estimates as
accurate, there would still be a vote of credit, or in plain
terms, a borrowing of money, to the amount of about a mil-
lion sterling—according to the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
£850,000. With respect to the additional taxation proposed,
he would vote—because the exigencies of the country's pre_
sent situation required him to vote—in favour of the resolu-
tion of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but he much appre-
hended that under a great number of the heads of revenue
the increase of impost would produce a decrease of consump_
tion. He pointed out several objections to the details of the
government plan, particularly with
_retferencehe proposaltothoe
four-
penny duty on spirits ; and regretted_
a new
_f
x i
esoas btheeipnogorlikely
ts ou rvr
eenyd ef rt
thee p
windowurp
But so far as respected the
os e
tsaoxf
at the
eat
oc-
cupiers of inferior tenements. oppressionassessed
principle of providing permanent
of the country, he
maintenance of the strength and character
financial means for the
fully agreed with the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Mr. LABOUCHERE vindicated the plan of Government,
and touched briefly on the mistakes of Mr. Hume, and others He
of the accustomed supporters of Government.
congra-
tulated himself and his friends on the temperate tone of Mr.
Goulburn's speech ; and stated some details as to the re-
ceipts in late years from the Customs and Excise, showing
that their present produce was little less than it had been
when the rate of duties was much higher.
Mr. Wsnatiwrorst thought the budget had been framed
not so much with a view to benefit the country as for the
purpose of getting easily through the committee. He found
fault with the indiscriminate character of the universal im-
post of 5 per cent.
Sir R. FEEL thOUght 9 that on the whole, the addition of a
general per centage to a small amount was less injurious than
the taxation of a new article. The derangement was less,
and there was no necessity for new establishments. It was
very mortifying, however, that after so many years of peace
been a regularly growing increase in the expendi-
e ; b
the finance should be in its present state. For several years
h
had
the income in the last three sessions had exhibited
tatuprerroe bgressive deficiency. He feared, too, that such causes of
expenditure as Canada and China might recur in future
years. But, at all events, he was persuaded that the time
had come when permanent taxation must be substituted for
the discreditable system of temporary expedients. He knew
the difficulty of making exceptions, and, though he wished
some relief upon raw materials, he would not press that ea-

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emption if it were found to impede the main object. A great
part of the present deficiency arose from the change in the
Post-office—nearly one-half. He believed that a general
rate of 3d. on every letter would have been better for the
country than a tax of 5 per cent. upon raw cotton. He could
uot, however, pledge himself to propose that increase of
postage. It might be very inexpedient to restore a tax,
although it had been quite proper to oppose its abolition. He
would find no fault with the proposal to increase the assessed
taxes, though Ireland would be wholly exempt from that
chapter of the new levy, inasmuch as' she pays no assessed
taxes at all; and indeed it would have been strange if the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, considering from what sources
he derived his support, had made any proposal to equalize
this burden as between the two countries. Sir Robert Peel
concluded by enforcing that true economy which consists in
the maintenance of the public credit, and affords the means of
fairly and honestly reducing the interest of the public debt.

Air. WARBURTON travelled into the Post-office question,
eagerly vindicating the recent change.
Mr. GiLtoN, as far as his meaning could be collected,
appeared in favour of Mr. Ilume's amendment.
Sir. GEORGE CLERK thought the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer had not followed out his own principle far enough. It
would have been better to make a larger provision against
deficiency, especially as the calculations of government ap-
peared to be excessively sanguine.
Mr. BRISCOE concurred in the opinion that a larger
taxation should have been raised, so as not only to guard
against deficiency, but to secure a respectable surplus, without
which this country could not preserve the respect and in-
fluence due to her.

Air. DARBY believed it the cheapest mode of defence to
keep up a surplus of revenue beyond expenditure. He
wished exemptions for hops and malt.

Lord. J. RUSSELL recommended it to the Chancellor of
the Exchequer to resist all solicitations for exemptions.
He thought the country as well able to meet an expensive
war, as if she had struggled to keep up the old system of a
sinking fund. As to the postage remission, he did not look
upon it as a question of revenue ; and if the Post-office were
never to yield a larger amount than £500,000, he should not
at all regret that the change had been made. He hoped as
the statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer had met
the general approbation of the house, that Mr. Hurpe would
not think it necesaary to divide upon his amendment.
Mr. GROTE pleaded for the exemption of marine insu-
rances.

Mr. 'VILLIERS complained that our whole taxation was
contrary to philosophical principles.
Mr. MUNTZ thought this was peculiarly a time when the
government and aristocracy ought to relieve the working
classes. In his opinion, a property-tax would have been the
right measure.
Mr. HUME said Sir R. Peel seemed to think there were
only two ways of meeting the difficulties of our position—
taxes or loans. He wondered the right hon. baronet should
not perceive that there was a third way--by the diminution
of expenditure. As to his own amendment, it would be found
that if the land were taxed on its descent from father to son
to the amount of only 2 per cent., it would produce about
£2,300,000. (He seems to be wholly ignorant that hardly
any considerable estate is ever suffered to descend at all, the
land being put in settlement by every fresh generation, and
paying on that settlement large ad valorem duties. The land
suffered to descend, which alone would pay Mr. Hume's
duty, is almost wholly that of the little yeomanry •, so that his
tax would be peculiarly a tax on the poor and middling classes.
Of the legacy duty, too, which Mr. Hume seems to fancy is
a tax upon personal property alone, a very large proportion
is paid for legacies charged on land.)
Lord IN GESTATE bade Mr. Hume recollect that the poor
andcounty rates are exclusively borne by the land. (Add
the land tax and the malt tax, and then let Mr. Hume, ac-
cording to his own classic expression, " take his change out
of that.")
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said he objected to
Mr. Hume's tax precisely for the reason for which Mr. Hume
urged it—namely, that it would press on the agricultural in-
terest exclusively. The chief defalcation here arose from the
postage reduction. Who had been the gainers by that? Surely
not the agriculturists. The other classes had reaped almost
the whole of that advantage ; and yet the hon. member wished
that the entire cost of it should be defrayed by the agricul-
turists.

Mr. HumE, with that firmness which in lowlier men is
called obstinacy, persisted to divide, and his amendment was
negatived by a large majority.
Another division took place, at the instance of General
JOHNSON, on the resolution respecting spirits, which how-
ever was carried, as were afterwards the remaining resolu-
tions, without division.