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all he could to return Government candidates , by walking with them through dockyards—and he remains an "honourable gentleman . " And he voted against uncliristianising the legislature ; and . he'll dine with the JSishop of Oxford before the month is out . The great Budget , and the immense personal success of the Chancellor of the Exchequer , have no doubt raised the Government out of the slough into which their negations were dragging them . The Free-trade Budget gives them the forward and positive position which they wanted . They looked liberal and full of life facing Lord Derby and his Carlton friends last night in the Lords with their Canada Bill , based on a
principle originating with , them—absolute colonial selfgovernment . They look well when Mr . Fitzroy brought in a Cab-Reform Bill—the real sort of Reform Bill wanted by a cynical and material nation . Administrative Reform is the forte of a coalition , who , afraid of one another , fear to face principles ; and such a set of resolutions as Mr . James Wilson has put out on Customs Reform , and such bills as those of Mr . Cardwell on Pilotage and Mercantile Marine gratify inordinately that vast commercial community who are so much in the lobby , and have consequently so much to do with the tendencies of an enlightened house , which cheerfully cheers protests against class legislation . Last Saturday , after a week which had known Lord John Russell ' s drivel
about Taxes on Knowledge ( on Milner Gibson ' s motion ) , and which had become acquainted with Lord Palmerston ' s anxiety to introduce a Viennese police system to the emulation of Sir Richard Mayne and Mr . Whittle Harvey , the Government stood very queerly ; and people were believing in the exactness of Mr . Disraeli's boast . This present Saturday the Government is a really strong and successful and positive Government , so that Lord John is pronounced unwise to open
No . 32 , Chesham-place , at all . But though Mr . Gladstone has pronounced , Lord Palmerston is silent about Kossuth , and a police-court revelation , such as to-day is to give at Bow-street , of the Homeoffice new spy system , may undo a great deal that has been well done . We have this surety , —Sir William Molesworth and Ralph Osborne , two fine-natured men , are in the Ministry , and we niay so far take for granted that Lord Palmerston and Lord Clarendon are not so
suspiciously reactionary as appearances suggest ; for , of course , the Radical members of the Coalition would not be in Downing-street if it were acting as an agency for Schonbrunn . In the same way , we are bound to assume that Mr . Keogh , when he comes back from Athlone , will tender his resignation , unless he is satisfied that at least all the Peelites of the Coalition will vote with Mr . Serjeant Sliee in May ( May meetings going on the same day !) for the repeal of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill . " A Strajjqeb . " Saturday Morning .
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A REFORMED NEWS TAX . The Society for Promoting the Repeal of the Taxes on Knowledge have made their first public impression on the Government . Mr . Milner Gibson ' s very able speech , no less than his strong case , induced the House to mark by its reprobation one of tlie three imposts on intelligence which disgrace our statute books . Mr . Gladstone has since told us that tlie Government had previously resolved upon some concession on
this head ; but , sis Mr . Bright well observed in the Thursday ' s debate , ho never knew any tax repealed unless Homebody iirst asked for it . And the public owe the present proposal of the Ministers to the aforesaid society ' s agitation . Now is tho time when the friends of the repeal of tliesc taxes should adopt the advice of the Society in Great Cornm Street , nnd petition Parliament without delay to proceed in the course in which it ban begun , until the newspaper stamp nnd the excise on paper are swept away .
The Chancellor of tho Exchequer has made a singular omission in proposing to abolish the stamp on supplements , and not at tho Hamo time repealing tho law which limits the size of newspapers . The abolition of tho tax on Supplements abolishes the motive for restricting tho ( size of newspapers ; nnd unless tho size of n paper can Iks augmented at pleasure , tho licensing of Supplements will , in some conch , lio of little value . Kreo supplements may bo a bonus to tho Times—n nullity to th . e J ) ail g News . While acknowledgments are due to tho Government , which bus been tho first since 183 ( 5 to meddle ; with Uicho infamous imposts , wo trust tho House of Commons will insist on its moderate voto in favour of the entire repeal of tho advertisement duty not being treated with disrespect by Mr . Gladstone . To retain tho slxpnirtt duty in still to retain nil impediment to tho existence of a nmny cheap working man ' s papers . 'I ho advertinoinent being < juite untaxed would enable nmny humble papers to exist , which otherwise will usoloHsh / continue to bo kept down . It is an unpleasant nripect of thottoreriuftait ' i intention this of Continuing
to force the journalist into . contact with the Stainpoffice , and of keeping up such a degree of taxation as shall limit popular advertising and working-class journals . If but a partial concession is to Be made—if two out of the imposts are to remain—let tho one condemned by the House of Common ' s be conceded frankly ,. and to some really popular service . Taxes may be wanted for the purpose of revenue ; this no one disputes , but they ought never to be levelled in an immoral or arbitrary way . Now , a tax which
the poor cannot pay and the capitalist can , becomes a privilege to wealth , and an oppression to poverty , financiers have a right to devise means for raising revenue , but not to commit gross popular injustice in obtaining it . Let the Souse agree to repeal the advertisement duty entirely . In i 836 they reduced the newspaper stamp to one penny , retaining the " worst penny" of all . Let them not now imitate that pernicious step , and of the three sixpences on advertisements retain the last—the worst sixpence of all .
If the Chancellor of the Exchequer merely wants revenue , and is friendly to the working-class newspaper , let him change the newspaper stamp into an ad valorem one . Then th * e sixpenny paper will , as now , pay one penny , and the penny newspaper pay one-sixth of a penny . The threepenny newspaper will bear a halfpenny stamp . Let there be a clear definition of " news , " so that the present papers not now stamped , and defined , by the Stamp-office not to be newspapers , may
still be free . But " news" once well defined , and the stamp an ad valorem one , penny and twopenny newspapers would be possible , providing . that the postal privilege were proportionally accorded to all copies bearing the ad valorem stamp , and the proprietors not compelled to stamp any but the post edition . The new stamp , involving the postal privilege as how , would be , as it is required to be , and ought to he , auxiliary to the transmission of the news it licensed , and would in its operation he equitable to existing newspapers , tolerable to the public , and profitable to the revenue .
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OTJE GREA . T MOBAIj IXSTRXJCTOK . In two successive articles—one on Thursday and one yesterday—the Tines disputes the justice of the verdict of acquittal pronounced by the House of Commons in regard to the accusations touching the personal honour of Mr . Stafford , and reiterates its original startling statement , that that gentleman had been guilty in his official communications with , the House of a direct falsehood . And the Times is elaborately eloquent on the sin of lying in . English gentlemen . In an article of Friday , April 15 th , the Times , it will be remembered , announced that a house " in the occupation of M . Kossuth" had been entered by the police on a Secretary of State's warrant . That evening , Sir Joshua "Walmsley , in his capacity as a friend of Kossuth's , obtained
from Lord Palmerston an assurance that though a suspected house had come under the surveillance of the police , that houso was not Kossuth's house . On the Saturday , several journals indignantly protested against the baseless and foolishly-malicious accusation of the Times , and wo ourselves gave a detailed statement , which completely oxploded tho pretence of " the leading journal . " On tho following Monday , having been silent ; on Saturday , tho Times returned to its charge , reiterated the malice , and thus endeavoured to defend its inaccuracy : — "In using { be expression , f a bouse in the occupation of M . Kossuth , ' wo never intended to describe his dwellinghouse , because we were aware that this seizure had been made at a manufactory in or near Rotherhithe , while M . Kossuth lives at Bayswater . "
Turning back to the former article , on tho Friday , we find this expression— "The result of this investigation ( namely , by tho police , of a houso in tho occupation of M . Kossuth ) , was fno discovery of a largo store of arms , ammunition , and materials of war , which may bo tho stock-in-trade of a political incendiary , but certainly form no part of tho household gooda of a private gentleman living in pacific retirement . " Connect tho roforonco to " household goods" with tho mention of " a houso in tho occupation or M . Kossuth , " and tho moaning is obvious . Tl » o gentleman , wo tako for granted , the official Editor of the Times , who wrote tho articlo -which appeared in tho Monday ' s paper , must havo had tho articlo which appeared in Friday s pupor by his * oido whon he wrote ; and obviously he wroto what ho knew to bo a falsehood .
1 m not tho . Editor of tho Times , then , forbidden by decency to protrude hitriHolf As tho crttie of Mr . Stafford P Yet it is to that voracious journal that ; tho Government is presenting a clear 25 , ( XX )/ . a-year , b y removing the etamp upon advertisement nupplormmtfi . . JJoes tho country consider the morality worth tho micrifico of ho much rovonuo P
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THE IMMNCIlMiKS OF TlIK llUDGET . ( IVom a Correspondent . ) Tun budget of Mr . Gladstone , and tho speech of Monday which introduced it , will bo discussed in this paper with reference , not no much to tho bearing of tho details on particular interests , as to illustrations of principles , and tho indications of progress which are afforded . Tho principal points in the ( bhaTKtoifojf of tlitj $ xcheqtfer ' B i&aitdrly rtpeech 6 ? nearly ffte h&tfA * dtifntloii
nifty be tlms epitomised . The refetrae of the year jittt closed has proved larger , and the e * xpeitditure smaller , than Mr . Disraeli estimated them at tlie beginning of ihe financial year , and even in lait Beeeniber : the apparent surplus is 2 , 400 , 000 / . ; ' but of this , 1 , 400 , 0007 . is already disposed of . The expenditure of the coming year is estimated at 52 , 188 , 000 ^ ., and the income at 52 , Sf 90 $ 007 . ; the apparent siarphra is 807 , 000 * ., or more safely , 700 , 000 ? ., of which 215 , 000 ? . is from temporary sources . Shipping and Wine are to remain as they now are . The sugar interest is to be ? relieved father by improving the colonial governments than by fiscal changes at home . The Exchequer loan fund is to remain .
The income-tax has been of tbe greatest itriportance in emergencies ^ and it may be so again if it be not previously spoiled ; but it has essential faults , which unfit it for a permanent part of our system , and it cannot be amended . It is therefore to be extended to incomes of 100 / . per annum , and to Ireland , to be continued for seven years on a reducing scale , and eventually to bfe replaced by means which Mr . Gladstone indicated . Tlie legacy duty is to be enlarged , so as to include
all successions by death , whatever the nature of the property ; but a distinction as to the amount of the tax is to be made in favotir of rateable property , on account of its local burdens ; the duty on such property to be calculated oh only the life interest of the successor , clear of rnennirbranee , and to be payable in eight half-yearly instalments Tfce spirit duties are to be increased in Ireland and Scotland , with allowance , however , for waste of spirits in Bond . The duties on sotne licences are to be incf eased .
Altogether the new ttixes , together with the existing surplus , will give a fund of 2 , 149 , 000 / ., available for remission of taxation . Ireland is to Be forgiven a debt io the Imperial Exchequer of 4 , 500 , 000 / . ; while , on the other hand , she is to be subjected to the income-fax , as a great step towards nniformity of taxation with England . The soap duty is td be entirely repealed . The duty on life insurances is to be greatly reduced . Receipt stamps , and the inconvenience of them , are to be
replaced by a single penny Post-office stamp in most cases Indentures of apprenticeship , where there is no consideration , are to bear in future but a very small tax . The taxes on attorneys are to be diminished . Advertisements are to pay Gd . each , instead of 1 * . 6 d . ; but supplements to newspapers are to "be relieved of the stamp . Hackney carriages in London are to pay seven shillings , instead often shillings , per week each . The assessed taxes are to be remodelled and diminished , the post-horse duties to be simplified , and the redemption of the land-tax is to be facilitated .
The duty on tea is to be reduced from 2 * . 2 % d . per pound to 1 * . per pound in the course of three years . The Customs are to be simplified , duties on a variety of articles of consumption reduced , and 183 articles relieved of customs' duty altogether . The total remission of taxation is apparently , for the present year , 2 , 566 , 000 / ., but after making allowance for increase of consumption under diminished duties , will probably not exceed 1 , 656 , 000 / . ; or , as to immediate results , the new taxes and the old surplus will amount to 2 , 149 , 000 / ., the remissions to 1 , 656 , 000 / ., the surplus to 493 , 000 / ., including , however , 200 , 000 / . of temporary receipts .
In tho following year , the remission of taxes will reach the figure of 5 , 384 , 000 / . Mr . Gladstone calculates , from former instances , that in seven or eight years tho taxes now reduced will recover themselves , so that the diminished duties will produce the old amount through an increased consumption . Prom this point ho starts , in showing how the income-tax is to bo got rid of in 1860 . The new taxes now imposed will by that
time yield about 2 , 549 , 000 / . ; the 3 ; f per cents , will also have fallen in , to tho amount of 624 , 000 / . ; and the Long Annuities to that of 2 , 146 , 000 / . ; tho ordinary annual reduction in the interest and charges of tho debt , which is nt an . average rate of about 80 , 000 / . per annum , will meanwhile have afforded an annual relief of 640 , 000 / . These items reach together to 5 , 959 , 000 / ., or within a trifle of the 0 , 140 , 000 / . raised by incometax , which It is proposed then to abolish .
Tho points arising out of this atateriieiit for discussion are of vast importance , not to much in their present application , as in their fundamental principles and eventual issues . Mr . Gladstone flays , that tho income-tax can neither be amended nor continued ; ho remits largo amounts * of indirect taxation ; ftnd tho principal now tax is a tax on all property in tho shape of a legacy duty . , That is—ho sayfl a permanent tax on income is simply impossible ; ft tax oti consumption is highly injurious ; and rt tax oh proporty is tho ju $ t expedient for replacing both . Tho general character of tho change Is from a tax on yearly results to a tax oil porniaiiqnt jftosqessionfl . It will po necessary , for BOVcral jroadoYirfg to look into tho dotaild , jr tlora jmrti ctilKtlftiii ddiiig vMic - fl V ? 6 ( tfifcfl drtWirt thd word " cdti *
(Pitr ( Jtempitkme Mi I\Vt $5tf!Fogei
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Leader (1850-1860), April 23, 1853, page 400, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1983/page/16/
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