The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-02-22 00:00:00

PROSPECTUS

OF THE
NATIONAL CONFEDERATION,
FOR A
MORE DIRECT AND EQUITABLE ADJUSTMENT OF

NATIONAL AND LOCAL TAXATION.
1848.

" The subjects of every State ought to contribute towards the
support of the Government as nearly as pose-b!e in propor-
tion to their respective abilities."—Ad kmith's Wealth
of Nations, vol. 4,p. 215.

PROVIMONAL
Chairman—Mr.
Vice-Chairman—,
Mr. George Atkins
Dr. Bradley
Mr. Edward Burden/
Mr. Walter BostoclC
Mr. Richard Crossley
Mr. C. H. Chadburn
Mr. John Daniel
Mr. Henry Danson
Mr. Richard Edwards
Mr. George Groom
Mr. Thomas Godfrey
Mr. Samuel Griffiths
Mr. E. C. Hindley

MITTEE.
Sohn Ferguson.
James R. Jeffery.
Mr. John Holme
Mr. James Hobbs
Mr. B. L. Joseph
Mr. William Minton
Mr. P. L. Mactaggart
Mr. Adam Pringle
Mr. Henry Perris
Mr. Thomas Poole
Mr John Rogers
Mr. Thomas Ralnh
Mr. James Thompson
Mr. William Watson
Mr. Benjamin Williams.

RULE Xll.—That an annual subscription, of not less than
five shillings, constitute membership; subscribers and donors
of one guinea and upwards will be eligible for the Council.
RULE Xlll.—That no question of party politics shall be en-
tertained at any meeting, or any subject not having immediate
relation to the oNects of this Confederation.

Recognising to its fullest extent, as the promoters of this In-
stitution do, the justice of the principle so emphatically
enunciated in the motto which they have selected to convey to
the public an idea of their object, they express what they know
to be the universal opinion, that the period has now arrived
when the establishment of a society, having for its purpose the
more equitable adjustment of national and local taxation, has
become absolutely necessary.
That the trading community forms a large majority of the
electoral body, is a fact beyond question ; it is equally true,
that, through the want of a proper organization, calculated to
represent and enforce their views, their interests are neglected
and sacrificed.

It is the object of this Institution to concentrate the power
of carrying out the declared principles of this Confederation.
whereby its members will be relieved from the great dispro-
portion of taxation imposed upon them by the present system.
As regards the question of local taxation, unfortunately there
is not a tradesman who is not familar with its oppressive
character, the local taxes having now become an evil of such
magnitude, that a passive acquiescence in their exaction be-
comes culpable. On the present principle of rating, the trader
phrsuing his business under severe losses, even verging on in-
solvency, is called upon to pay the same amount as if in the
most prosperous circumstances ; added to this, there is the
certainty of increased and additional rates for sanatory and
other purposes.
Regarding the question of national taxation, it need scarcely
be said that the principle on which the revenue is at present
levied is most iniquitous in itself, and bears with severe
pressure on the trading community. The labour and industry
of the country are taxed, while real property and accumulated
wealth pass comparatively free. The customs; excise, stamp
duties, and assessed taxes make the revenue for the year
within a trifling amount ; these taxes fall chiefly upon the
middle and operative classes, and are a burden on the skill and
industry of the country.
It is time that the trading community of this country should
take up a question of so serious importance; and in no town
in the kingdom could an agitation originate with promise of
more happy results than in Liverpool, where there is a power
which must command the attention of every town in the
kingdom, and lead to their co-operation in a struggle for the
more equitable adjustment of taxation.
The Confederation claims the active aid and sympathy of all
honest and philanthropic men. Setting aside the abstract in-
justice involved in the present principle of taxation, the evils
consequent on it are so great that it must be considered no-
thing short of a legalized spo'iation, producing poverty and
crime. By the annual drain of between sixty and seventy mil-
lions of capital frqm the re-productive classes,—that being the
united amount °tithe national revenue and the local rates levied
throughout the kingdom,—the main-spring of employment for
the poor is paralyzed, and the home trade materially injured ;
as a consequence, our workhouses will not contain the desti-
tute, or our gaols those whom ignorance and want have forced
into felony.
Looking at the subject in a commercial point of view, it is
clear that the large proportion of taxation which is thrown on
labour in this country acts as a bounty to foreigners for im-
proving their knowledge in arts and manufactures, and com-
peting with us in foreign markets, and thereby seriously inter-
feres with, and must ultimately annihilate our export trade;
also, in a social point of view, the violation of all justice, in-
volved in the fact of taxing the poor and exempting the rich, of
bearing down those who are struggling for existence, and ex-
empting inconve-
nience, . those who could bear the burden without
is calculated to produce in the minds of the people an
indifference to the precepts of morality and religion, and con-
tempt for the laws which they are expected to maintain and
obey. _ _

The duty of this Confederation will be to watch all measures,
parliamentary and local, which may be brought forward in any
way bearing on the interests of the reproductive classes, to op-
pose such as may appear injurious, to promote such as may
appear b.riPfirt.l, And to nriainnte cucti as may be deewea de-
sirable, without regard to political parties or distinctions.
To effect the important objects of this Confederation, the
promoters earnestly call upon all classes to unite with them in
this noble and humane undertaking, believing that, on the suc-
cessful carrying out of these principles, the religious, civil, and
commercial well-being of the nation depend, and, with cordial
co-operation, the result must be the prosperity and happiness
of the people.

REPORT TO THE COMMITTEE
Formed to establish a National Confederation for obtaining a
more direct and Equitable Adjustment of Taxation, from
their Sub-Committee, appointed December 27, 1847.
Your Sub-Committee, in presenting you with a prospectus,
which they were appointed to prepare, feel it desirable that they
should explain the considerations which have influenced them
in drawing it up upon the comprehensive plan now submitted
for your approval.
Your Sub-Committee, at their first meeting, found it essen-
tial, before proceeding with the prospectus, to examine into,
as carefully as time would permit, the local grievances of which
the confederated body has to complain, and which so seriously
affect them at the present time.
In pursuing this object, your Sub-Committee soon became
impressed with the fact, that the principal cause of our present
grievances has its foundation in a partial and unequal system
of national and local taxation; they, therefore, immediately
applied themselves to collect statistical information bearing
upon our local taxation, which they respectfully submit for your
inspection, from which it appears the tradesman and artizan
are made to pay more than five times their just proportion of
the local taxation. They were thus led to perceive that,
although this injustice of which they have to complain was
strictly local, yet the same system of injustice existed to an
equal extent in every town in the kingdom, under the autho-
rity and sanction of acts of parliament, and could only be
removed by a national remedy effected by the co-operation of
the constituency of the country.
Your Sub-Committee, further pursuing their investigation,
found that this disproportionate system of raising the amount,
required for local expenditure was not an exception, but is the
general principle adopted by Government, as will be evident by
reference to the subjoined returns, and by which, in conjunction
with our local statistics, your Sub-Committee have been guided.
In concluding their labours, your Sub-Committee found some
difficulty in suppressing every expression of feeling excited by
the contemplation of a principle so much at variance with even-
handed justice, and cannot but feel certain that it only requires
these facts to be duly examined, to produce a disposition that
would soon change so oppressive a system.

LOCAL STATISTICS.
From an extract of the parish books of Liver-
pool, according to the rating of 1847, it appears
that twenty-five of the most respectable bankers,
merchants, and brokers, whose average income
cannot be estimated at less than e 1 moo per
annum each, are rated for local rates
which, at a rate of ss. in the pound, would give
£685, or, per individual

27 8 0

It also-appears that twenty-five hotel-keepers
and retail traders, of the first respectability,
whose incomes may be estimated at £lOOO per
annum, are rated for local rates
which, at a rate of ss. in the pound, gives £2340,
or, per individual
Had the retail trader been assessed in proportion
to his means at the same ratio as the merchant,
he should only have paid annually 14 7
he has, therefore, been assessed in
excess
annually deprived, by the present iniquitous
system, to the extent of
or had these bankers and merchants paid in the
same proportion to their means as the retail
traders, they should each have contributed

9,360 0 0

93 12 0

.'9O 17 5

2,271 15 5

. .
.036 0 0
thus showing that each of these parishioners has
been annually exempt from their fair proportion
of the local burdens to the extent of 2908 12 0
or, in the aggregate 427,715 0 0