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Leader (1850-1860), 12th April 1851, Edition Town of 1, Page 334, Untitled Article

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      to be designated as the buffalo in the European Menagerie—formidable to its keeper if it knew its own strength , but docile enough when you have succeeded in driving an iron ring through its nose , To undo revolutions is now the great work throughout Europe . . Denmark is busy resettling its household on its hybrid old plan . Wurtemberg sweeps off its Constitutional Chambers , and calls together the States of 1819 ; and Hesse Cassel seems bent on driving the whole population , out of the country . Since none but the ** loyal" are left at peace , and we know of no one entitled to that appellation , save only the Elector himself and his Sancho Panza Hassenpflug .

      Still , what country can keep up with France , whether the movement be backward or forward ? There " Order" is a monomania . Louis Napoleon has built no Cabinet as yet ; but he has shaken hands with Changarnier : President , General-in-Chief , old and new Ministers , all are laying their heads together to find out the means by which se anarchy" may be efficiently put down . To hear of the disinterestedness and selfdenial of all parties , in the furtherance of this noble end , is quite edifying and consoling .

      There is order in Italy also , with the exception of a few highway robberies , plundering of diligences , and stoppage of mails in the Papal States ; order at Naples , especially , with 40 , 000 men drawn up in the streets of the capital , and long strings of patriots promenading from one end of the kingdom to another , startling the very gendarmes who have them in their charge by the atrocity of their sufferings and the fortitude with which they bear them .

      A large sprinkling o . f murders and violences , especially towards women , spices the journalism of the week ; but among the most revolting acts is one not usually reckoned on the criminal side : we allude to the sort of evidence advanced to prove adultery against the wife in the case of Gaisford versus Karr . Circumstances were dragged to the public notice which ought to be sacred . It betrays a very low moral sense when any expectation of advantage , any hope of revenge , or any other motive whatsoever , can induce a man to raise the veil of modesty , especially from a woman who has once admitted him to her affection ; most especially when that woman has incurred the censure of the world .

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      After all that was said about Mr . Herries ' s motion the debate on Monday evening was rather a dull affair . The question that the report of the Committee of Ways and Means on the following resolution be received having been moved : — " That , towards raising the supply granted to her Majesty , the respective duties in Great Britain on profits arising from property , professions , trades , and offices , and the stamp duties in Ireland , granted by two acts passed in the sixth year of her present Majesty , and which have heen continued and amended by several subsequent acts , shall be further continued for a time to be iroited ;" Mr . Hermes moved by way of amendment : —

      " That it is the opinion of this House that the respective duties in Great Britain on profits arising from property , professions , trades , and offices , and the stamp duties in Ireland , granted by two acts passed in the sixth year of her present Majesty , and which have been continued and amended by several subsequent acts , ' were granted for limited periods and to meet temporary exigencies ; that it is highly expedient to adhere to the declared intentions of Parliament when these duties were granted and continued ; and , in order to secure their speediest practicable cessation , to limit the renewal of any portion of them to such an amount as may be sufficient , in the existing state of the public revenue , to provide for the expenditure sanctioned by Parliament , and for the due maintenance of public credit . " He began by expressing his satisfaction , at the improvement in the last quarter ' s revenue returns . " Ho , rejoiced in the prosperity of the country , as to which , he hud never entertained any doubt or imxiety ; he rejoiced in that prosperity for the sake of his country ; and he rejoiced at it , in that it added force and weight to the proposal he had to make . " His proposal was not one involving the question of free trade und protection , it was a question of good faiijh ., honesty , and hoiuhI policy . " Ho would not entfr into diflcuKsion with the Chancellor of the of expenditure or income ? , , that , instead of putting the ° current year at £ 1 , 890 , 000 , , ftnft . £ 2 ,. ' 500 , 000 . The best with such a surplus was to . That tax had been imposed (! » an < * nearly all the members tra . tion had recorded thoir obermanent impost . In 1842 they " moriBtrouBly unequal , " " vexatious , fraudulent , and in- I m »»« *»» ¦

      quisitorial , " and therefore he called upon them now to assist him in taking the first step toward its abolition . The only justification for the tax was that it was a temporary measure , intended to meet a great emergency . Tfiat emergency no longer existed . Ministers had a large surplus at their disposal , and © ould easily reduce the tax with a view to its total mnd speedy abolition . If the House assented to the resolution of the Chancellor of the Exchequer the country wftt doomed to bear the income tax for an indefinite period ; but if they determined to adopt the more just , the more honest , as well as the more politic course , which he recommended , the income

      tax was doomed to a speedy extinction . Sir Charles Wood admitted that he had opposed the imposition of the income tax in 1842 , on the grounds upon which it was brought forward , but he distinctly stated at that time that if the tax had been proposed to enable the Government to get rid of the great monopolies of sugar , timber , and corn , he would have supported it . When Sir Robert Peel proposed its renewal in 1845 , " for the purpose of carrying through a great experiment in taxation , " he ( Sir Charles Wood ) supported him on that occasion . Mr . Herries seemed to suppose that the proposal which he ( Sir Charles ) had made

      was for a permanent income tax , whereas he had never said a syllable to that effect . He did not think it safe that a tax of this kind should be placed upon the footing of an annual vote ; but Mr . Herries was not precluded from proposing its reduction next year . He showed the difficulties attending a modification of the tax , and the injustice of applying it , as Mr . Herries suggested , to Ireland ; and then entered into details as to the policy he had pursued in reducing duties upon articles of consumption . and upon industry , observing that the more popular a tax was the more productive it would prove . Under the income tax the revenue

      had , by a wise legislation , greatly improved , and by a perseverance in this legislation , the removal of taxes more objectionable than the income tax , the improvement of the revenue would be accelerated . It was in furtherance of this theory of legislation that he had proposed the reduction of the duties upon coffee and timber , and substituted a house-tax for the window duty . He had been charged with having withdrawn a boon he had offered to the agricultural interest ; but the repeal of the duty on seeds had been denounced , and the relief in the matter of pauper lunatics was less than the gain by the commutation of the window

      duty . In conclusion , he insisted that the proposal of Mr . Herries was really the first step in the policy of Lord Stanley , who had therein shadowed forth a duty upon corn ; and he called upon the House to vote , not a permanent income tax , but a tax for three years , for objects conducive to the best interests of the country . Mr . Prinsep observed that the Government were always in difficulty whether there was a surplus or a deficiency , because they had to deal with taxation , and as they had not any fixed principles they were like a ship at sea without compass . He denied that the Budget was founded upon the principle professed by the Government , the

      benefit of the mass of the population—it was class relief . He condemned upon principle a tax upon property , and , objecting altogether to the propositions of the Government , he should vote for the motion of Mr . Herries . Mr . Frederick Peel was favourable to the principle of an income tax , " because it combined a system of direct with indirect taxation , which he thought was the best means of making the wealthier classes contribute in a manner proportioned to their means to the revenue to the state . '' He was aware of the immense advantages which the labouring classes had derived from our late commercial and financial system , and of the stimulus given to

      industry by the removal of duties which weighed upon the sources of employment . In nine years , taxes upon home manufactures , raw materials , and food , to the amount . of £ 10 , 500 , 000 , had been remitted , nnd yet the gross produce of the Customs and Excise , instead of showing any decrease , showed an increase of £ 1 , 200 , 000 in 1842 over I 860 . The effect oi those commercial reforms hud been equally manifest in the improvement of trade . The declared value of llritish exports , which had been nearly stationary from 1835 to 1842 , had rapidly increased from £ 52 , 2 / 50 , 000 in 1841 $ to moTe than £ 71 , 000 , 000 in 1850 . There still remained , however , a large amount of indirect taxntion which pressed upon the productive classes , and

      the inference was that , if £ 5 , 000 , 000 was not raised by direct taxation , the Legislature muHt in effect revert to the nystom of protection which had so long obstructed the development of our resources . Mr . Herries had alleged that the faith of Parliament was pledged to discontinue thin tax after a limited period ; but he ( Mr . Peel ) took a preliminary objection to Parliurnent entering into a compact of tluH kind . The policy of 1841 , under which the income tax had been imposed , was to remove duties more vexatious than that tax ; this policy had not been brought to u conclusion , and ho could not , therefore , vote for the removal of the tax . He did not approvo altogether of the financial scheme : — " At the Hume time , believing that there was open

      before them a long cmreer of progress in that path of social improvement upon whiob they had entered , he should be most loth mud most leittctant to abandon that instrument by which so much good had been effectuated . { Hear , hear . ) His belief was that , if further good were really to be accomplished * it must be by the retention of the income tax . ( Hear , hear . ) He allowed that there had been a great pre » sure upon the Government , but he could not say mat they had made the best use of the opportunity for the reimposition of the income tax . Their task would not b » ve been a difficult one . They would have had but to follow out upon a larger , a broader , and a

      more comprehensive scale , the principles of the system , commercial and financial , which was inaugurated in the year 1842 . Had they done so , * they would have found now , as then , that they would have opened up new channels for the industry of the country , have brought within the reach of the poor an increased amount of the comforts of life , and have diffused peace and contentment over the country , such as would have ranged the working classes on the side of order and good government , and have given increased strength and stability to its institutions , which he ( Mr . Peel ) valued , not for themselves , but for the advantages and blessings which they enjoyed under them . ( Cheers )"

      Mr . T . Baring , in supporting the amendment , expressed his belief that the reduction of the income tax would be better even , for the masses than the removal of the window duty . The evidence of the returns under schedule D showed that it was the honest men who paid the tax while the dishonest escaped . , " It was his fortune to belong to the commercial class and he could not look at the return 3 made under schedule

      D without being convinced that the grossest frauds were committed . ( Hear , hear . ) It appeared from the returns that since 1846 there had been a diminution under schedule D of £ 6 , 000 , 000 , and since the year when the tax was first proposed there had been a diminution of £ 8 , 000 , 000 . This result placed the Chancellor of the Exchequer in this dilemma—either the recent commercial policy had failed to increase the profits of trade and the incomes derived from professions , or the greatest frauds were practised . ( Hear , hear . )"

      Mr . James Wilson quoted an immense number of statistical tables to shew that the trade and commerce of the country have been improving much more rapidly since 1842 than they did during any similar period previously . He went on to argue that the population depending upon land was' diminishing , that the surplus population depended upon manufactures , and that it was , therefore , the interest of the country to remove impediments from that part of the national industry ; while a duty of five shillings upon corn , either for protection or for revenue , was open to serious objection . Mr . Booker urged upon the House the deep responsibility it would incur by giving

      to the Government the means of pursuing a suicidal policy , in the reimposition of an iniquitous tax , which bore « ith peculiar severity upon the middle classes . He protested against the doctrine that the greatness of England depended solely upon her commerce . While emigration was going on to a vast extent , production was increasing , which must not be put down to human labour , but to the enormous increase of mechanical power . Mr . Slaney , though connected by birth and attachments with agriculture , could not support the amendment . The best security for the

      national revenue was the diminution of the weight of taxation upon the body of the people . Since the war there had been reduced forty millions of taxes , chiefly upon manufacturing materials , and upon articles of necessary consumption ; and the result had been such an advance of national prosperity that the national property , real and personal , had since 1815 absolutely doubled itself . Mr . SSrooNKit and Mr . Reynolds both supported the amendment . Lord Hamilton said the real question at issue was whether the tax should be permanent .

      < lie wiiihed to ask the well drilled benches opposite whether they meant by th « ir vote to-night to sanction the permanence of the tax , and whether they did not believe that if they voted it to-night the Chancellor of the Exchequer would three years hence call upon them to vote it a ^ ain . ( Hear , hear . ) That was the real question they had to determine m considering whether they would ¦ reiinpose atax which had been more eloquently denounced by those who now proposed it than by any other people

      in the House . ( Hear . ) If they wero going to do a thing at all , let them do it openly , fairly , and professedly , but don ' t let the Government impose , under the guise of a temporary tax , what they in their hearts felt must be permanent , ile rejciioed that tho window tax was condemned . If the majority should determine the division in favour of the Government , then let the Government come forwurd and say that whut was to be permanent should be equitable . "

      Mr . Siiauman Ouawfoiui having declared his intention to vote with Mr . HerrieH , and Sir Rohkrt Inolih spoken on the other eido , the House divided , when the numbers were : — 1 ' or the amendment > 2 ' M ) Against it [[ 278 Majority „ . „ 4 y The resolution of the committee for the renewal of the income tax wiih then agreed to , und it wus urranued that the debate upon Mr . Disraeli ' s motion , for relief to the owners and occupiers of land , should be rained on Friday , on the motion for the commutation of tho window duty for tho house tux .

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      334 Sf ) * Header * [ Saturday , — - nrmrn

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      PARLIAMENT OF THE WEEK .

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      any Exchequer as to estimates wi ^ n'this single alteration l \ n | £ r | iV ^ 4 PA $ tf £ 1 J' ° f th ••^* o MrryriA ff »» ffiYV P / " ^^ Ofl ^^ wVllav do if-K -. ; f je 4 trce j $ e ^ 6 j $ f £ r ) tax il / 'i C ^ lfi ^^ £ ffi 0 . T ji&Hi P Y \ ' . ( i' ^< m ^ tSS ^ v ^ SSnni % \ O _ , ^^ 4 > n « ' ^ rit ^ W / fciy ' jf ) \ tsjf ^ ft ^^ tt ^ ip ^ yt as oWwiliugl yioHiouiv' " uauvai ^* s m A , vv ' ' ! ¦ ^ * »*^ ' T "' ^^ ~~ " " * -- '' Exchequer as to eatiim . widnthis single alterati \ O ^^^ i ^ nS' ^ tJt ijW / fciypern uauvai

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 12, 1851, page 334, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1878/page/2/