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Leader (1850-1860), 22nd February 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 166, Untitled Article

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      Sir Chables Wood made his financial statement for the year ending April 5 , 1852 , on Monday evening . His reason for bringing it before the House at so earl y a period was that the financial scheme of the yewr depended on the renewal of the income tax . If that were refused , then it was necessary that the gentleman who succeeded him as Chancellor of the Exchequer should have as much time as possible to prepare his financial scheme . This attempt at a joke was received with laughter . In his statement last year he has estimated the income of the year ending April 5 , 1851 , at £ 52 , 585 , 000 , whereas its actual amount would exceed £ 52 , 656 , 000 . The estimated expenditure for 1850-1 ( the present financial year ) had been £ 50 , 785 , 000 , but they had managed to effect several reductions . That the probable expenditure up to April 5 , 1851 , would be only £ 50 , 134 , 000 , showing a reduction of expenditure to the extent of £ 641 , 676 , and giving a probable net surplus on the 5 th of April of £ 2 , 521 , 000 . The income for the year 1851-2 will be rather less in amount . The various items he estimated at the following rate : — Customs £ 20 , 400 , 000 Excise 14 , 000 , 000 Stamps 6 , 310 , 000 Taxes 4 , 348 , 000 Property tax 5 , 380 , 000 Post-office 830 , 000 Crown Lands 160 , 000 Miscellaneous 262 , 000 Old stores , &c 450 , 000 £ 52 , 140 , 000 The total expenditure for next financial year he estimates rather higher than the actual expenditure of the year ending April 5 , 18 ol . In the army , navy , and ordnance estimates there will be a reduction of about a quarter of a million , but no reduction of torce , Government being of opinion that "in the present um « ettle < i state of the Continent it would not be consistent with the best interests of the country to rt-duce our naval or military force . " The various items of expenditure for the year are as follow : — Crnirge for the Funded Debt , including annuities £ 27 , 688 000 Interest of Exchequer bills 404 , 000 Civil List and othei charges 2 , 600 , 000 Army , including Commissariat ............ 6 , 593 , 945 Navy 6 , 537 , 055 Ordn . nce 2 , 424 , 171 Miscellaneous , including census 4 , 000 , 000 £ 50 , 247 , 171 Estimated surplus 1 , 892 , 829 This will be the surplus if the House vote the renewal of the income tax and the continuance of the stamp duties in Ireland , Should they refuse to renew these two imposts , which , produce £ 5 , 500 , 000 a-year , the surplus of £ 1 , 892 , 000 will be converted into a deficiency of £ 3 , 610 , GOO . In the year ending April 5 , 1852 , the deficiency would not be so great . Half of the income tax , amounting to £ 2 , 700 , 000 , is receivable this year , and , taking that into account , the deficit would only be £ 910 , 000 , but in all future years the deficiency would be what he had stated , unless the revenue improved , or the expenditure were diminished , or some other new taxes were impoaed in lieu of those now before them . He would not enter into any discussion of the income tax farther than to say that , alter having read all the debates that had taken place since the income- tax was first proposed by Mr . Pitt , and many of the publications on the same subject , lie had come to the conclusion that the best plan which could be devised was to levy a uniform rate on all kinds of income alike . Supposing , then , that , the House ehould agree to continue the tax for the next three yeurs , the next question was what to do with the surplus . Some gentlemen thought that was not enough . They wunted what they called " a general revision of taxation . " But was the House agreed as to what ehould be done in that case . The Protectionists wanted to transfer taxation from property to article » of consumption , while the financial reformers would take precisely the opposite course . They were told by Mr . Cobden that it would be much wiser to muko u greut reduction of taxation , und run the risk of letting the revenue improve ufterwurda . Ho did not approve of that scheme . It might have been proper to muke a great change in our commercial system ia 1842 , but the country could not do " with a revolution every yeur . ' la reference to a remark of Mr . Cobden ' s , that the surplus wutj not so much owing to reduction «> f expenditure as to improvement in the income , owing to general prosperity , he ( Sir Churlcs Wood )' said , if they would compare the expenditure of 1847 for the army , navy , and ordnance with that of 1860 for those three departments , tlu * y would find that a reduction of £ 3 , 000 , 000 had taken pluce . Uo then went on to consider how the surp lus should bo S < t */» JW > N 4 ^ M ''BK » Hrn t thing to be attended to was ~ 4 tfre Nttt ** WW » y ^« bt . LaBt your we paid off £ 2 , 300 , 000 , / 3 ^ ? H * $%$ &'' * ' ? « hould buable to pay off nearly as / wZi ^ rS ' o-a ^ W ?™ $ * P ensuing year . Next ho proposes L&M ^ --- ^ X ^ S £ F \ ¦ r \ # T

      to repeal the -window tax altogether , but in place of it he wishes to impose a new tax of the following nature : —All new houses to pay at the rate of Is . in the pound on their annual value ; if occupied as shops , public-houses , or farmhouses , only f ) d , in the pound . All houses of the annual value of £ 20 and upwards , now paying window tax , to pay two-thirds of the amount now paid as window tax . AH not paying window tax , but of the annual value of £ 20 or upwards , to pay two-thirds of the lowest window tax—¦ vijB ., 12 s . All now paying window tax , but not of the annual value of £ 20 , to be entirely exempt . By this new tax he expects to raise £ 1 , 155 , 000 , which would

      leave him a balance of £ 1 , 189 , 000 , available for other reductions . That sum he means to dispose of in reducing the duty on foreign and colonial coffee—as well as on chicory , and every other root used or mixed with coffee—to a uniform duty of 3 d . per pound . This reduction will cost £ 176 , 000 . The duty on foreign timber he proposes to reduce to onehalf its present amount . That will cost £ 286 , 000 . The duty on clover , grass , and other agricultural seeds he would reduce to Is . per cwt ., by which he would surrender £ 30 , 000 . He also proposes to charge a portion of the expenses of pauper lunatics throughout the

      United Kingdom upon the consolidated fund , to the amount of £ 150 , 000 . Under the Sugar Act there will be a reduction of the duty on sugar in July of about £ 330 , 000 ; but this will be made up , and the total loss of revenue through reductions he did not calculate at more than £ 1 , 280 , 000 . Deducting this from the surplus , there would remain £ 612 , 000 ; but half of the present window duty would be receivable next year , which would make the surplus for that year £ 962 , 000 , the permanent surplus in future years being £ 612 , 000 . Sir Charles concluded by moving that the income tax and the stamp duties in Ireland be further continued for a time to be limited .

      At the suggestion of Mr . Herrjes , it was agreed that the motion should be discussed on Friday evening . Some twenty or thirty members then followed with their several criticisms on the budget , which did not seem to find favour with any class . Mr . Hume was very much disappointed with the Chancellor of the Exchequer's statement : — " The question for the consideration of the House was , whether the country was satisfied with the expenditure of £ 54 , 000 , 000 . £ 50 , 000 , 000 , it was stated , but then no notice was tak < n of the expense of collection , which was more than £ 3 , 000 , 000 . Was that question to be included in the forthcoming discussion ? Wore they

      to take into consideration what might be the effect of a reduction in our military and civil establishments ? He should have expected that the judicial establishments and the members of the Government would have come forward and have made a sacrifice , with a view to see whether they could not have dispensed with a renewal of the income tax ; or , if not , whether they could not have repealed some other tax . For his own part , he would rather remove the soap tax , the paper tax , and all those taxes which impeded the industry of the people , or interfered with trade , than the income tax He could not believe that the country gentlemen would long allow the continuance of such large and expensive establishments ,

      and he had expected greater reductions by the Government in our army , navy , and ordnance estimates . He , therefore , truRted that the House would agree to the repeal of the window tax , without substituting a house tax in its place . He approved of reducing the differential duty upon coffee , and this feature of the budget had his cordial concurrence . He could not concur with the right honourable gentleman in applying any portion of the surplus to the payment of the national debt . ( ' Oh , oh / ' ) It would be much better to take the duty off paper , the increased manufacture of which , not only for home but foreign consumption , would give employment to thousands . The right honourable gentleman boasted of having purchased £ 2 , 300 , 000 of the debt .

      " The Chanokli . ok of the Exchequer : I said that would be the amount paid off up to October , 1851 . " Mr . Hum * :: This debt had been funded at 86 , and the Chancellor of the Exchequer would redeem it at 96 , which would be a loss to the country of nearly £ 250 , 000 . This was not a time to throw away that sum in operations upon the Stock Exchange . How much better it would have been to take off the duty upon soap than to buy up £ 1 , 200 , 000 Three per CentB . " The only way in which they could pay off the national debt was by converting it into terminable annuiticH . Mr . Njswr > i £ UATii Sir John Tykhkij ,, and other county members expressed strong dissatisfaction with the scheme . The proposed house duty Hceined to meet with universal disapprobation . A debate , or , rather , a conversation on agricultural distress , umuHod the House of Lords on Tuesday . It was generally expected that Lord Stanley intended to muke a speech on the subject , but , us he ' probably did not know very well what to say , he merely presented a petition from South Devon , complaining of agricultural distress , and praying for a revision of the tariff , tho navigation laws , and the currency , and then walked out of the Houhc , leaving the Ea . hi . of Haudwiokh to make out ae good a grievance as pos-Hible . The noble earl did bin best to muke out a cam ; . lie told his audience that there wuh ho assembly in tho world which know » o will the condition of the people , uti they did . In proof of this , he gave them the result of his investigations . In Cambridgeshire , tho county with which lie wuh most immediately

      connected , the small owners and occupiers , and m many instances the Iarg 9 occupiers , were in extreme alarm and in a state approaching to destitution , while the labourers were out of employment . To show how the distress was operating , he referred to the difftcul ty in disposing of l&nd — "He could state , that having constantly entered the market for the purchase of small allotments of land as against the humbler glasses of society , he had never been able to effect a purchase , being outbid by them ; indeed , in their anxiety to secure allotments , they -we ' re ready to pay most exorbitant prices . He had a letter from Ely the other day which showed a very different state of

      things . His correspondent said : — ' There is one strong fact , which I can adduce in reference to this place , to show the depression in the condition of land ; and that is , that we cannot effect sales of it at all , whether for the investment of capital or in small parcels . I have had several properties to try and dispose of for the last four or five months , and could not meet with a single bidding-I have had recently two purchases made , which ought to have been completed at Michaelmas last ; the property being out on mortgage and the parties unable to procure a loan , the purchase now necessarily remains over . Not less than thirteen small lots were tried last week , and not one of them sold ; but two years since not one of them would have remained unsold' ( Hear , hear ) . "

      They had heard a good deal about a decrease in the pauperism of the country . He had written to the clerks of the various unions in Cambridgeshire , and from the returns received he found that pauperism was rapidly increasing . They were told by the Times to grow fruit and vegetables . Was there ever such rubbish ? When any of their lordships were from home and let the produce of their gardens be sold , what had they ever got for it ? Then they were told to grow flax , but it would take a long time to learn the process , and in the meantime the farmer would be ruined . But it

      was absurd to tell them to grow something else , when they could not get growing what they pleased . They were not allowed to grow tobacco , and great obstacles were thrown in the way of the cultivation of barley . Ministers pretended to carry out the principles of Free Trade , but , if they continued to do so , it would be impossible for them to get a revenue . For example , there was a tax on foreign butter and cheese . Now , why should they not give some relief to the suffering agriculturist by allowing him to eat butter and cheese free of duty . Earl Okanville admitted that the Free Traders had been wrong in some of their prophecies , and especially in their

      prediction that rents would not fall . But they had been quite correct in the main . They had said that the repeal of the Corn-laws would , without any ultimate disadvantage to the landowners aud occupiers , increase the commerce of the country and the welfare and prosperity of the mass of the people , and with one exception , that prophecy had proved true . They had been told of an increase in pauperism in Cambridgeshire , but it was only one of the few exceptions to the general rule . There were six counties—Cambridge , Hereford , Lincoln , Monmouth , Salop , and llutland , in which an aggregate increase of 1723 paupers had taken place last year . But let them remember that the decrease upon the whole of

      England and Wales was G 9 , 000 . As regards the general condition of the labourers , there were two facts worth mentioning . At Chelsea Hospital the number of applications to be admitted inpensioners has wonderfully decreased of late , from which he inferred that persons receiving a fixed income are enabled to live more comfortably out of the hospital than hitherto , owing to the cheapness of provisions . The chief commissioner of police had also stated to him that morning that he had never , within his recollection , seen the working classes so happy or so well-disposed . Before sitting down he asked in u very pointed manner what course the Protectionists mean to take ?

      " In another place , one gentleman , high in the confidence of the party opposite , had postponed sine die the announcement of his policy , while others had stated that it was necessary immediately to return to Protection . Now , lie thought that the noble lord opposite ( Lord Stanley ) , who , From his greut ability and experience , was undoubtedly to be regarded as tho leader of that great party , was bound to state what his views were upon this question , and whether the agricultural interest were to li > ok for a speedy recurrence to protection , or to the removal of the local burdens on land ; und , if to the hitter , he thought the noble lord should give them some sort of a sketch of the mode in which they wore to be removed . "

      lhe Duke of Kioiimonj > did not think it was tho duty of the opposition to tell what meanures they wanted , " their busincbs being to object to what wuh wrong . ' ' It wuh absurd to quote the Poor-law returns to prove that there was no agricultural distress . " The fiirmers were employing double , and treble , and quadruple tho number of men they required , in their endeavours to keep them out of the workhouse . " He warned them not to turn musses of men out of work . There never hud been more deaporut" burglurk'H committed than of late , und " political ugifution out of doors wu » looked upon by many us a mire means of obtuining justice from un unwilling Government . " Lord Wodhhouhi . wan rather sceptical uh to the existence of great ugriculturul distress , at leust among the lnbourera . In Norfolk , with which he was

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      PARLIAMENT OF THE WEEK .

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      166 ® t ) t lit abCT . [ Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 22, 1851, page 166, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1871/page/2/