The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-10-03 00:00:00

FINANCIAL REFORM ASSOCIATION.

On Wednesday evening, a meeting of the Liverpool
Financial Reform Association was held in the Portico,
Newington ; Robertson Gladstone, Esq., in the chair.
Amongst the gentlemen present we noticed Sir Joshua
Walmsley, Lawrence Heyworth, Esq., M.P., Colonel
Williams, J. Ashton Yates, R. V. Yates, has. Holland,
Edward Brodribb, Francis Boult, mith, Archibald
Sheil, Richard Farrar, and James Thompson, Esqrs.
The CHAIRMAN, in opening the business of the meet-
ing, said that the first duty he had to discharge, was to
express the gratification which he felt in meeting such a
number of his fellow-townsmen for the purpose of discus-
sing subjects of far more vital importance to them than
any other that could be proposed. The second duty (and
it ought to have been the first) was to express his sense
of gratitude at being permitted to preside over that meet-
ing as chairman; inasmuch as he could not disguise from

himself that the office belonged to some more consistent
friend of reform than himself. After some general re-
marks, which pressure of time will not permit us to re-
port, the chairman alluded to the fearful depression which
had pervaded every branch of trade, and the necessity for
a general revision of the taxation and expenditure of the
country. For the attainment of this end the Financial
Reform Association had been established, and its objects
were--

I st.—To use all lawful and constitutional means of inducing
the most rigid economy in the expenditure of the Government,
consistent with due efficiency in the several departments of
the public service.

2nd.—To advocate the adoption of a simple and equitable
system of direct taxation, fairly levied upon property and in-
come, in lieu of the present unequal, complicated, and expen-
sively collected duties upon commodities.

Parliamentary documents showed that the people of this
country were robbed, and that it was the nature of the
Government to encroach on the rights of the people. He
utterly denied that her Majesty the Queen exercised any
power or control in the matter, and threw the whole
blame on the aristocracy and the Times newspaper.
Now, with regard to the aristocracy, he thought it far
better that the people of this country should make a bar-
gain with them upon the birth of each of their children,
than that the children should be quartered upon the pub-
lic by holding situations in the army or navy. He next
alluded to the state of affairs in Ireland, and contended
that inasmuch as a few police were able to put down all
the disturbances that had taken place in that country,
there had been no occasion to send such an armament
into that country merely because Lord Lansdowne was a
large landed proprietor there. How could economy be
expected from a Government composed of men who had
never known what want was ? Lord John Russell and
the Government, in the Queen's Speech—for it was not
the speech of the Queen, but that of .her Ministers—to
the House of Commons, said, " I shall avail myself of
every opportunity which the exigencies of the state may
allow for enforcing economy." And how had Lord John
Russell carried out this ? By appointing his own brother
to the office of sergeant-at-arms—a sinecure that any
police-officer could perform much better for £BO or £lOO
a-year. The sergeant-at-arms used to receive £2,300
salary, but, at the recommendation of a parliamentary
committee held in 1836, it was reduced to £1,500, which
is the present salary. There was also a deputy-sergeant,
salary £l,OOO a-year ; assistant-sergeant, £525 a-year ;
housekeeper. £5OO a-year ; three door-keepers, one at
£874, one at £4OO, and another at £2OO ; four messengers
at £3OO a-year each, and four extra messengers at £lO5
each. All these officers are appointed by the sergeant.
These messengers have no duties which require education ;
they merely stand in the galleries and lobbies, ready to
obey the sergeant-at-arms, and, if necessary, take per-
sons into custody. It was also stated in evidence, before
the Committee on Miscellaneous Expenditure, that " they
are obliged to appear in a clean shirt and white neckcloth
every day, and in a black dress. The messengers at the
bar must wear knee-breeches and black silk stockings."
(Laughter.) The chief increase of expenditure has been in
the navy, the expense of which has been nearly doubled.
Navy. Army. Ordinance.
1834 .. £4,578,009 .. £6,497,902 .. £1,166,914
1847 .. 7,747,156 .. 6,913,816 .. 2,679,124
Mr. Gladstone next adverted to the fact of Sir Robert
Peel's son, a young man 23 years old, having been ap-
pointed to the command of the finest frigate in her Ma-
jesty's service, over the heads of numbers of veterans who
had grown grey in the service ; and proceeded to show the
meeting the propriety of enforcing upon the attention of
parliament the great necessity for reducing the national
expenditure, observing that nothing could ever be gained,
either from government or by parliament, but by exac-
tion. On resuming his seat, the chairman was loudly
cheered.

LAWRENCE HEYWORTH, Esq., M.P., proposed the
first resolution, as follows :
" That considering the privations of the industrious classes.
no measure of financial reform can meet the requirements of
•ur national position, or satisfy the reasonable expectations of
the country, which aims merely at equalizing the public income
and expenditure, without at the same time providing for a ma-
terial diminution in the present overwhelming load of taxation,
by the most unsparing retrenchment in all the departments of
the public service."
He thought no one would deny the great privations which
the labouring classes had been enduring for the last few
years. True, these privations might not have been wholly
caused by heavy taxation ; but certain it was that heavy
taxation had been the main cause. Insufficient employ-
ment, too, had been felt in England and Ireland—parti-
cularly in the latter country, where wages had fallen to
4d. and sd. a day. In Manchester alone 7000 and 8000
people had been wholly unemployed ; and yet the labour-
ing classes were obliged to pay duties and excise to the
amount of £32,000,000 per annum—about one-third of
the wages they earned. Had the people of Ireland been
fully employed, and had they obtained " a fair day's
wages for a fair day's work," would there have been re-
volt and revolutions in that country ? Nothing of the
kind. What caused Chartism to run riot in Lancashire
and Yorkshire lately ? Why, it was a want of employ-
ment; and the same want had produced insurrection in
the various countries on the continent, where much of
that want had been caused by the fearful expenses into
which our continental neighbours had plunged, in order
to increase their naval and military armaments. That
increase abroad had frightened statesmen at home, and
then we proceeded to build additional ships, and to en-
large our military forces. Now, was it to be supposed
that we should have dearness and scarcity if we availed
ourselves of the products of the whole earth ? Let, then,
there be general economy, and particularly in our arma-
ments. Let the excise c:nties be taken off the commodi-
ties which the labouring classes consumed, and let those
duties be placed upon the broad shoulders of the aristo-
cracy ; and then, when a noble scion was compelled to
pay £3,000 a-year instead of £3OO, he would soon begin
to discover the necessity of reducing the naval and mili-
tary armaments. _

Mr. RICHARD SHELL, in seconding the resolution, said
that the Financial Reform Association had been organised
because of the increase of taxation to meet enormous ex-
penditure. He objected to the levying of an income-tax
alike upon the industrious citizen and the landed and
funded proprietor. The taxes were levied upon every
article that it was possible for a man to consume, and
they were expended in various unnecessary ways.
The resolution was carried unanimously.
Mr. FRANCIS BOULT proposed the second resolution as
follows : •
" That in the opinion of this meeting no government can or
ought to retain the confidence of the people, which does not
avow, and to the utmost possible extent act upon, the determi-
nation to deal justly with all classes, by
.an equitable adjust.
ment of the burden of taxation; so that, ins' ead of pressing.
as now, on the springs of industry, limiting the consumption
of commodities, restricting the operations of commerce, and
causing social privation and distress, the necessary revenue
shall hereafter be levied by a direct impost on the members of
the community, in pnportion to their respective ability to con-
tribute."

It was true we had a Parliament called " the collective
wisdom of the nation," which had always supported the
prejudices and class interests of the nation ; and no real
reform was obtainable from them without vigorous and
continuous agitation. He lamented this as much as any
man; but the fact was, that agitation must be kept up if
we would keep an effectual check on national expenditure.
Now, industry in this country was legally prohibited to
an enormous extent, for we were now paying £3,000,000
per annum for liberty to carry on our trade. This might
be denied upon the ground that a man could turn himself
to whatever he liked ; but the fact was true nevertheless ;
and he proceeded to illustrate its truth by reference to
the business of a soap-boiler, and the duty upon that and
other articles of manufacture. This association did not
hold any Utopian plans, neither did it indulge in any ex-
travagant hopes. But it hoped to make financial reform
a hustings question, and it further hoped to make mem-
bers of Parliament vote a little mere of their own money,
and a little less of the money of the people. Then we
should hear very little indeed of the so called "glory"
of naval and military forces. At present we are main-
taining 60 vessels for the purpose of preventing peo-
ple trading with their neighbours in the North Sea. He
wanted import duties to be taken off, and for new markets
to be opened free to the sons of industry. He called for
the abolition of the window tax, the soap duties and the
window duties. He complained that while the Navigation
Laws were about to be repealed, the duties upon the raw
material were kept up, as if to prevent the home ship-
owner from entering successfully into competition with
the foreign shipowner. He was prepared to show that
the income tax, unequal as it was, was, nevertheless, less
unequal than any other tax now imposed, for almost all
the taxes pressed with the greatest severity upon the poor-
est classes of the community, for they had to pay not
only the excise duties but the profits of the shopkeeper.
Mr. EDWARD BRODRIBB seconded the resolution.
Voluminous and ill-arranged as the documents were on
the subject of taxation, yet they could be arrived at with
accuracy. The gross amount of taxation, for the year
ending the sth of January, 1847, was £58,438.000. This
was raised by direct and indirect taxation ; and these
terms of " direct" and " indirect" taxation, he proceeded
to explain in a manner which excited much laughter.
Now, there were lls. duty paid out of every 20s. upon
tea, in the shape of direct taxation, and 2s. 9d, more,
making 13s. 9d. in all, in the shape of indirect taxation.
Now, the annual taxation of the country was laid as fol-
lows ,—Customs and Excise, £37,000,000; cost of col-
lection, £1,924,000; Stamps, £7,676,000; cost of col-
lection, £154,000 ; Land Tax, £1,166,000: Assessed
Taxes, £3,309,000; cost of collection, £317,000; Income
Tax, £5,544,000 ; Post-office, £1,964,000 ; cost of col-
lection, £1,128,000; Crown Lands, £394,000; cost of
collection, £259,000 ; other items, £427,000 ; cost of col-
lection, £59.000; China money, £668,000; superannua-
tions, £365,000. Mr. Brodribb proceeded at some length
to comment upon the enormity and inequality of these
several taxes, and said he had often wondered how
£37,000,000, in the shape of customs and excise duties,
should have been submitted to by the people. The fact,
however, was, the people did not understand the nature
of the items,but they were as follow—Spirits, £8,376,000 ;
Beer, £5,371,000; Wine, £1,892,000; Tea, £5,112,000;
Sugar, £4,050,000 ; Coffee, £756,000; Tobacco, £4,319,000
Soap, £966,000 ; Excise licenses, £1,000,000. Now, with
reference to the duty on soap, if cleanliness was next to
Godliness, where was the piety of our legislators ? If
financial reform could not be brought about in its
entirety, ruin would stare the country in the face; and,
in order to prevent this ruin, he called for the suffrage to
be commensurate with taxation, and for the electors to do
their duty manfully in returning proper representatives to
Parliament. He contrasted the tranquility of England
with the anarchy of the continent, and he said that, in
order to preserve this tranquility, justice must be done to
the people.
Mr. FARRAR supported the resolution.
Sir JOSHUA WALMSLEY also supported the resolution.
He was happy to find those who once differed with Re-
formers in opinion now giving to Reformers their cordial
support. The Chairman had spoken in a manner deserv-
ing of himself. He had called things by their right
names, and he had enunciated great principles. He was
happy to find that the reduction of local and general taxa-
tion was engaging the attention of the people of Liver-
pool ; and with reference to national taxation, he firmly

Oct. 3, 1145.

believed that it was unjustly proportioned, so far as 41e
oligarchy were concerned. He knew something of the
local taxation of Liverpool; there were 63,000 assess;
ments in Liverpool on £1,500,000 worth of property, en"
yet thousands of houses never paid a shilling of taxes'
About one-third of the population paid the whole of the,
local taxes ; and would it not be fairer and honester
every house should be taxed, and that every owner sheltie
pay ? There were, moreover, three sets of tax collector,"
in Liverpool, and the consequence was, that the tax ce'
lector was never from the door, and the confusion was F.'°a
great that the people never knew whether they had
their taxes or not. He contrasted the enormous taxste3
of England with the diminished taxation of thelhol,
States, Russia, and Austria, and he said that the present
melancholy position of affairs in this country would 00'
tinue until an intelligent people returned honest Repro'
sentatives to the House of Commons—a House that was
now little better than a Registration Committee of the
House of Lords. England was now maintaining all
armed force of 300,000,000 men. For what Put:
pose ? Should he tell them for what purpose ? No I
they knew it themselves. There were 151 Admirals neW
on pay; and we had 500 Majors, and 70 Lieutenant,"
Generals in three regiments of dragoons alone. And Ole
state of things would continue, so long as there were OA
70 members of the House of Commons who voted vat':
the people. He referred at great length to the uneque`
franchise and mode of representation in this countril
and said that half the House of Commons represented
,
£600,000 of property, and that the other half represented
£92,000,000 of property.
Col. WILLIAMS proposed the third resolution : t
"That copies of the foregoing resolutions be sent to the 11.11 d
Lard of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, as
the members of the borough and the county."
Mr. CLAYPOLE seconded the third resolution.
A vote of thanks was passed to:the Chairman, and the
meeting separated.