The Hampshire Meeting on ...
The Times, 1824-04-26T00:00:00

The Hampshire Meeting oii Fiiday last was called for a purpose, of which we were among the foremost to recom- mend the utility and importance. Very shortly after MIr. RosIIsoN developed his financial plan for the year, we ex- pressed our disappointment at his having postponed a ic- duction of taxes to an experiment in commnerce, which, however fair and broad its principle, was nothing when compared with the former measure, in magnitude of spera- tion, or in fraitfulness of relief. When the silk-trade was, as a bonus to mercautile philosophy, decreed to be placedl upon a new foundation, we diemanded of the Finance Mlinister why he trifleLl with the public anxiety-why he preferred improving (for it was unquestionably an impprovement) that pa-ticular branch of trade, to the repeal of the assessed taxes, which would have gone at once to encourage and ameliorate every species of industry in the empire. It is not, we must adl,- from any doubt as to the correctness of 1Mr. RouINsoN'S theory, that we condemned the applicatioln. of it to the silk mtanufacture at that moment, but because a sound principle would very well keep for a year; nay, would make fresh prcselytes every hour; whereas, the con- tinuance of an odicus impost could only aggravate more and more the discontentts and inconveniences produced by it; diffusing extensively throughout society the positive hardships inflicted upon those wvho felt in the first instance its immediate pressure. The purpose of the Hampshire Meeting was " to petition Parliament for an immediate repeal of the assessed taxes, particularly those on win- dows and on inhabited houses." The first resolution proposed by Mr. CARTER, iMayor of Portsmouth, beinig ani echo of iNMr. RoBIXsoN's resolution, declaratory that the surplus revenue would permit a <' reduction of the taxes," was afterwards withdrawvni by the Mayor, at the request of Lord CARaNA RVON. WVe regret that his Lordship suggested such a change of plan, and that the proposer of the resolu- tion complied with the suggestion, because that declaratory resolution, as it stood, was the most powerful argument for a " reduction of the taxes," and the most hldlicrous expo- sition of Mr. RoiiarsoN's inconsistency; the Right Ho- nourable Gentleman starting with one avowal, viz. that " taxes ought to be repealed"-and finishing by another, which informed us that taxes " should not be repealed," but in lieu thereof that the silk trade slhuldk be revolutionized. 'I'he second resolution expressed an opinioni in favour of unrestricted commerce, and on grounds which, hadl thoy beeni understood loo years ago as well as now, would have saved us from the rapacious gxasp of many gvnerations of tax-gatherers: the mcaning of the resolution -xas, that " the increase of reveniue," arising from a trade not in- eumbered witlh duties, vwould cnable Government to reduce the assesseO taxes, &c. Now it has been often said, and was at Friday's meeting, that thc assessed taxes afiect the rich, not the poor, and thiat those taxes whiclh fall more immediately upon the poor man oughlt to be the first abolished-salt, leather, soap, and candles. We, on the other hand, are reatly to m3aintain that a repeal of the assesse(d taxes would more sensibly re- lieve and support the poor than any one or more of the taxes put in competition witlh them. One consequence of the reduction of an indirect tax is, that a considerable time elapses before the full amount of the tax is subtracted from the price of the article on which it has becn levied. The dlealer reduces his charge reluctantly and slowily ; and even at last the relief is l.ss cer- tain than that wbich followvs the repeal of a tax paid directly out of the subject's p,-ckct into that of the col- lector. Suppose a country gentleman's assessed taxes are 501. per annum : on a repeal of these duties, there is no shuffling of merchants, wholesale or retail : he need not Lcculate the prices c';arged to him for one or more descrip- tions of gools : he siinply finds at the end( of the year his 501. for the first timne in his pocket. Does he hoard this ? No; he lays out the money in manufaetured articles-in additional stores of somrie kind for the use of his family; or, whlat perhaps is more likely than either, in an incrmased employtnent of lab urers, for cultivating or adorning his property. The fathers of two poor families, at constant labour, wvould draw thieir support from this inerease of their landlord's disposeable revenue. Seven or eight poor fami- lies, at occasional wvork, wouldNe enabl,d to pay their rent f'rom such an increased fund laid out in wages. The as- sertioin is a faCtous and a foolislh one, that the poor are not relievedl by a diminution o.' the rich man's burdens. Dd the repeal of the property-tax pro- duce no benefit to the labouring classes of this country ? WVoul(d a return of many thousan(d Englisli families from abroad, encouraged to do so by a fall in the impost paidl on houses aind on domestics, not bring vitlh it a direct ex- tension of the demand for labour throaghout England-an ex tension, not, perhaps, commensurate wi!h the amount o' the r duced tax and the emigr-nt expenditure, but bearing a ccrtatn proportion to both ? The petition, then, was just- ly and wisely resolved upon; and we trust that otlier coun- ty members, besides those for Hampshire, will be calle(d upon by their constituents to support tnany similar petitions.