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    settlements and purchases made Without calculation of the tax , would be unfairly subjected to it . He had endeavoured to ascertain the probable amount of the tax . The annual value of fcritish and Irish property deducting leaseholds and copyholds , was 80 , 000 , 000 / , Then taking , the duration of life at twenty-one years , four months , this tax would produce 3 , i 75 , OOO ^ exdusive of 1 , 300 , 000 ? . now produced by means of the legacy tax . As to the machinery of the bill , he objected to it , because it was inquisitorial ; and he particularly objected to the 47 th clause . This clause provided that the commissioners , for the purpose of ascertaining the duty upon succession , might require any confidential

    party to afford them such information as they might deem necessary , to produce before them or their officers all such books or documents , extending even to titledeeds in their custody or under their control , as might be capable of affording every necessary information ; and they might make extracts therefrom , and copies thereof for the purpose of the act . The inquisitions of old were nothing to this—parties were to produce their title deeds if required—it might be that they were defective , and by the aid of skilful lawyers parties might be deprived of their estates . What was the remedy for this ? He protested against these inquisitorial powers , and feared they would produce the worst results * Tf

    we were to have a tax for the purpose of getting rid of indirect taxation , let us have it in the mode that had been proposed for the taxation of corporations , namely , Gd . in the pound upon all real and personal estate . This would produce more than the succession duty , for it would realize 6 , 000 , 000 £ . annually . Such a tax he would support , but as to the present bill , it was so unjust , and so inquisitorial , that he believed , in twenty years hence , the right honourable gentleman who proposed it would be held to be one of the most dangerous and mischievous Chancellors of the Exchequer that this country had ever seen .

    Mr . Wixxiams defended the tax . A person succeeding at the age of thirty-nine to a property worth 100 / . a-year , would pay but 151 . in four years and a half , while the same amount ofpersonal property would have to pay 307 ., and pay it in twenty-one days . He hoped the landed interest , for the sake of its credit , its morality , its position , would not go against a paltry tax like this , which only levied three-eighths per cent . upon their own estates , while a legacy left to one of their own domestic servants was taxed 12 ^ per cent . Sir John Trot / tope condemned the tax for the

    inequality of its incidence . In one noble family he knew , there had been only one succession since 1756 ; but in the case of another noble family there had been seven successions within sixty-six years . Sir John then followed Sir John J ? akington in attacking the bishops . We have had an example of right reverend prelates voting , Without a single exception , m favour of a measure from the operation of which their own order is to escape scot free . ( " Hear , hear , " from the Opposition ^) I

    Cannot understand why this should bo allowed , especially as there are many of those same prelates who receive three or four times as much as it was ever contemplated by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners that they should receive . ( Vehement cheering from the Opposition . ) I confess that my feelings as to the propriety of allowing the right reverend prelates to vote away the property of others while ) their own property is exempted , have been considerably shaken by what has occurred .

    Mr . Ai'SlBY PjEiii . ATT pointed out that the probate and legacy duty on personal property , on mills and machinery , for instance , pressed twice as hard as the tax on successions . He supported the tax . Sir John \ Vaxsir said , the measuro was ft boon to the Radical party , who wished by this tax to grind down the landed interest altogether * The legacy-tax was formerly proposed in tuno of war ; but now , when the revenue was increasing , wages high , and trade active , why should the landed interest be called upon to wake this cruel sacrifice ? Uuring tho lust thirty years , forty millions of taxation had been remitted , while only 10 , 500 , 000 ^ of new taxes had been imposed . Tho remissions were of taxes pressing- on manufacturing industrv , while tho ten-and-a-half millions were imposed

    on property . „ Loud John llirasKTiii roso to defend tho Government measure . Ifo praised tho sober Htylo of Sir John Walsh ' s Hputioh , and blamed tho causeless " warmth " evinced by Sir John Pukington . The sehoine was part of a revision of taxation : whoii Mr . Disraeii laudably endeavoured toward * the same end , lie intimated bis intention of proposing a tax on auccossionH ; and when

    Mr . Gladstone considered our taxation , ho had also Ixsou struck with tho irregularities of tho present tax . For initanco , it fulls upon property undor a lease of 999 years , which » n considered personal property ; and not upon ' anostnto for life , which in considered real property . Mr Pitt bud wished to tux real as well uh personal property and Mr . Vox objected to Iwfch , becuuso he objected to g iving Mr . Pitt money to carry on tho war Had Parliament beoh thon " roibrmed" tho two taxes

    would have been carried together . Sir John Pakington had objected to the unjust incidence of the tax , but he had never until now objected to those inequalities : — - " So long as they applied only to personal property——so long as persona inheriting personal property , or having it left them by legacy , were alone subject to this tax—all this injustice , all this violation of principle , passed unnoticed by the ri ght honourable gentleman . It was but the other day that , in speaking to a person with respect to this tax , he told me tnat he himself , having 1 acted as an executor , had had to pay this tax three times in two year 8 for a person in a humble situation of life—a market gardener—who had left to a relation what , being chattel

    propertv , was liable to this impost . No doubt this , like many of our taxes , imposed very great hardships , and the right hon . gentleman said at once that we had better get rid of it altogether . That is very easy to say , but there are at present more than two millions derived from it ; and the right honourable gentleman has not proposed to get rid of it otherwise than in his speech . Even with respect to that clause which so much excited the anger of the right honourable gentleman that , in a tempest of declamation , he called it' plunder '—the clause as to timber—he would have found , if he had looked at the act of 1795 , that -when plate is left

    to a person who has no power to dispose of it , it should not be liable to legacy duty , but if left to a person with power to dispose of it , such a person should pay the tax on it as property . Ndw , exactly the same principle which is thus applied to plate is adopted by my right hon . friend in the case of timber , and in fact nearly the same words are used in both cases . But the right honourable gentleman , who could feel nothing when the tax was onl y applied to plate , is suddenly indignant when it is to be applied also to timber . That affects the land , and if you affect the land you will have a democratic revolution . " ( Hear , hear , and laughter . )

    Lord John Russell then referred to the remarks oh the bishops , made by Sir John Pakington and Sir John Trollope : —* " In complaining , hot in ambiguous terms , of the other House , they had divided that House into two different parts , and while tolerably satisfied with the temporal peeirs , they made great complaints of the spiritual peers ; and I confess that I feel somewhat alarmed lest that motion wlich I remember was brought forward a great many years ago , to relieve the bishops , as it was then called ( a laugh ) of their functions in that House , should be brought forward , having the eloquent support of the right honourable baronet the member for Droitwich ( laughter ) , and should be carried in this House , to my great regret . ( Renewed laughter . )"

    After some remarks against the tax from Mr . E . Duncombe and Sir E . Dbbing , the House divided , when there appeared , Ayes , 268 , Noes , 185 ; Majority for the Government , 83 . The House went into Committee on Thursday . The clauses opposed were carried by large majorities . Additional amendments were debated last night , with some opposition , and progress was again reported .

    INDIA . The Earl of Eilenbokough spoke , on Monday , a complete criticism of the Government scheine for India . He said , firstly , that while he formerly thought delay necessary , yet now looking to the war in Ava , events in Eastern Europe , and the opinion of the Governor-General , he approved of immediate legislation . But the Government plan wnS temporary and experimental , and more likely to continue agitation than to allay it . Tho experiment upon the Court of Directors was one of Oriental character—namely , mutilation , performed , not by tho public executioner , but by tho victims themselves ; a provision of such jocular cruelty as has not been witnessed

    since the days of Louis XI . . Loch member ot tho Court of Directors must now regard everj other member of tho Court either as destined to bo his political assassin or a political victim . Consider what a director loses when you take from him his seat at tho Board . Not liko one of Her Majesty ' s Ministers , who loses no social position by rosignation , and to whom ifc is more natural to " go out" than to go in—tho director loses great social influenco and a valuable authority which he now holds for life . Tho delay of tho completion of the nominated portion of the Court until three of tho present directors die off , will induce tho

    election of young and ignorant directors , instead of por-Hons of knowledge and experience . The limitation to ten years' service of the qualifications for Indian servants selected as directors , ought to bo extended to twenty years , as ton years' experience is not sufficient for hucIi a knowledge of India at ) would enable u man to wit at the Hoard . Ho would propose that twenty yearn bo requisite . Judges of tho Supremo Court , the Commanders-iii-Chief of the army and of either of tho presidencies , or any person who has served aa governor of tho subordinate presidencies , should be exce l led from this rule . Hut the proponed ineaHuro altogether is totally inefliciont in the way of

    reform . Lord Kllcnborough ' s own plan for tho Government of India wan then stated . A Court or Council representative of tho different presidencies of India shoulu be constituted . It would supply the Indian Minister with information on all subjects . " We cannot givo India a constitution in 1 itdia , but let uh give her a constitution here . " Tho Council should b »» an Indian Council , containing persons who have remded ufc tho native courtH , persons who are acquainted with the revenuo service , an < i persons representing tho judicial oorvifio . Thus , givo tho Indian Minister a good council , ami give him the power of over-ruling them , subject to tho revision of J ' arlianiont . It in rtiuch bettor that the Indian Minister should advise with responsible governors thaw with irroHPonuiblo clorku . Souio auk for English luindo in

    the administration of India , but the English mind will be the Indian Minister , and . he will advise with , his Indian council . No man wanting advice on India would go to his banker . Bankers are as unfit for Indian cabinets as they are for Eng lish cabinets , for they become cognisant of State matters touching their own personal interests . This system would remove tho affairs of India from Parliament , which has a natural distaste for interference with India . In addition , the present constituency for the election of directors should be enlarged , b y adding to the 1750 proprietors all retired officers in the civil or military services , all colonels at home on furlough—in all about 1250 . These would not swamp the present constituency , but would materially affect the elections . As to patronage , of the twenty-eight parts into which it is divided at present , five parts should be given to sons of military servants , and one to sons of civil servants .

    His objections in detail to the present system , and to the Government plan , were then stated . The double government of India is one of complication , where you require simplicity : of delay , where you need despatch ; of expense , where you desire economy . The Indian Minister has power over measures , but the directors have power over men . It is the same as if , in this country , the Government were to have authority , and the Opposition to have all the patronage . One change proposed will effect a social revolution . At present the civil servants are closely dependent on the directors for patronage for their sons , but under the system of admission by examination , the service will be dissevered from the directors .

    That may be beneficial , but it is a very great change . It is proposed to admit persons to the artillery , on examination . Now , at present the artillery in India is superior , not on account of the education or knowledge of the officers , but on account of the high tone of the service , in consequence of the officers being gentlemen . But it seems that persons are to obtain these appointments through , merit . What is the merit of being crammed ? In public life the most useless of men , and in society the most intolerable of men , is the over-educated man . The people of India look to character , and it is not education at school

    that makes the man . It is the constant competition of life that makes him . fit to govern men . But what 4 o you propose ? When he arrives in India , there is to be no competition ; he is to rise by seniority , irrespective of ability . Ifc is in India , and not here , you ought to apply the test . This new rule will press hardly on Indian officers . They cannot afford to give their sons an education on the chance of admission to Haileybury ; they will not receive appointments from the nominee directors , who will be mostly chosen from the civil service ; and from the other members of tho court , " mere nominees of London bouses , "—they cannot expect patronage .

    The Macaulay code was unsuitable for India : it proposed an universal system for persons of the most various habits , manners , and religions . The Legislative Council composed of officials was an improvement . The amalgamation of the Sudder and Supreme Court was judicious . Lord Ellenborough then made some minor propositions , tending to take the higher patronage from the Directors , and concluded by pointing out the position of the Governor-general . He was responsible

    for everything , and was consequently overworked , and has to meet peculiar difficulties . The public of India is not the people ; the public arc English officials . The press of India is European not Indian ; and the opposition of the Indian public and press may be tho surest sign that the Governor-general is doing his duty to the people . Therefore lie should always receive the ostensible and cordial support of the authorities of England .

    Lord Granviim : excused tho present state of things in India , mainly on tho ground that tho government of the country was very difficult , and that there were things in England nearly ns bud . Their law is incomplete and its administration is defective ; but our owii condition on both points h : is been and still is very defective . Mistakes have been made in Indian railways , but look at tho quarrels between English railway com * putties , and the numerous acculuntB on our own railways . The old public works of India bad been contrasted with ours ; but great public works were not a sign of

    prosperity . When Westminster Abbey was built tho people were not happier than now . India cannot be expected to have the trade of Anglo-Saxon colonies , which have agriculture and milieu , whilo India is a poor manufacturing and exporting 1 country . But Indian trade bad increased : the whole imports had been increased by no Icsh than 140 per cent ., whilo the exports hud increased no Ie .- * s than 1 . 12 per cent . ; and a great doal had been recently done for public workrt . Lord Ellenborough had objected to tho introduction of examinations tin lusts for the Civil Service ; but it

    could be shown that hoiuo of the most eminent , juugta and Htutemnon of this country had distinguished themselves in University examinations . Lord Month Ad Mi objected to tho Government plan , on the grounds that it left , open tho question of tho employment of the natives , the haul revenue * , ami nearly every other question . The present Hill wnH inconsiderate , Hl-udvisud , and promaturo legislation . It proposed to continue u body which hud violuted tho Charter , and nil tho laws devised for tho happiness of India—aa to thu employment of the natives , as to the selection of civil servants , uh to improvement aud irriga-

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    _ Jwg 18 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 581

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 18, 1853, page 581, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1991/page/5/