The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1853-04-05 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

TUESDAY MORNING, APRIL 5, 1853.  DIRECT TAXATION.  THERE is an unmitigated selfishness and positive dishoneety in the advocacy, by the organs of Liberalism, of a system of direct taxation, as the means of raising the National Revenue. If it were really designed to impose on everyman an amount of taxation proportionate to his means, such a system-would still be -open to grave objections, and none would be more violently opposed to. it than those who are now the most clamorous for its adoption. This is, however,--not the intention of-the present agitators. By direct taxation they mean a system which shall press upon all the upper classes, and leave untaxed the great bulk of those who constitute the majority of the Borough electors. This favoured class is-to receive all the benefit from the remission of Customs and Excise duties, and yet pay none of the equivalent which is so eagerly advocated to-be substituted for it. By the system of exemptions, altnost inseparable from any system of direct taxation, the possessors of incomes below £l5O claim freedom from that portion of the public burdens ; and though it is a favourite axiom of the Liberalisers that taxation and representation should go together, we had a proof of their honesty when the late CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER'S proposition to levy the house tax down to £lO a-year was rejected. This was a proposition to which we strongly objected, from very different motives ; but it was positive dishonesty in those who advocated the application of the system to other classes. The men belonging to the latter class obtained a large share -of political power by the Reform Act, and the use they make of it is to free themselves .at the expense of those above them. We cannot believe that any system of direct taxation would be so equitable as that of indirect, which levies upon each consumer an amount proportionate to his extent of consumption ; but, supposing that it should be adopted, whether by way of Income-tax or Houseduty, it would be the height of injustice to exempt any man who claims to enjoy the privilege of the franchise. In that case, however, it would be a species of political suicide, for the effect would be to throw the whole of the burden on a portion of our own countrymen; whereas, by a judicious system of Customs duties upon imported goods, a part of the burden is borne by the foreign producer. It has been found, in numerous instances, that a reduction or abolition of duty on importation has enhanced the price of the commodity to the profit of the foreigner, and consequently the injury of our own pe0p1e.7.,.1f French brandy, with a duty of 15s. a gallon, can now enter into competition with British made spirits paying about half that amount, what would be the prospect for the latter, if both were upon an equality ? Even in some of the Excise duties the public are benefited, as in the instance of the Malt duty, which is now paid without complaint by beer drinkers, while its abolition would render necessary a doubling of the present Incometax. So long as indirect taxation can be made available for national requirements, without crippling the springs of industry, or:unnecessarily depriving the public of the means of enjoying those luxuries of foreign growth which custom has made necessaries, it is impossible to devise a system which will press with more equality and prove less burdensome. Direct taxation should only be resorted to under an emergency such as we trust we may long be spared from;  but deliberately to substitute it for the former, is in fact to perpetrate the crime of the socialists in France, and virtually to confiscate property for the benefit of industry. There is no mistaking the object of the Radicals, both in and out of Parliament, in their speeches and writings; but it is to be hoped, notwithstanding the doubtful aspect of the present Administration, that there is sufficient good sense, public spirit, and, above all, common honesty, in the majority of the House of Commons, to prevent such an iniquitous scheme being carried into effect. It behoves, however, the Conservative electors throughout the country, who have anything to lose, to be on their guard, to attend as they ought to do to the registration, to struggle manfully at every election for the return of Conservative candidates, and not to believe that the battle is won so long as they have such an unscrupulous foe to deal with. It is a favourite plan of the Radicals to foster the belief that there is no longer any distinction of parties, and the treachery of the PEELITE faction has done somewhat to encourage the supposition. But it is pregnant with danger, and the first fruits will be found in the gradual adoption of that fatal system by which the ten-pound voters seek to relieve themselves at the expense of the class above them.