may be taken at 52,000l. The effect of this will be generally, to effect a great simplification of the present system of Customs' duties. With respect, however, to ad valorem duties, the Committee will recollect that the abolition of them, however desirable in other respects, will by no means simplify the mere form of the Tariff. In several cases, as for example, in the case of musical instruments, we must introduce a number of rather complex descriptions to get rid of one apparently very simple one. The Resolutions which I shall lay on the table will enable the House, when they come to the consideration of them, to assist the Government in determining whether, in any of the cases I have stated, it will or will not be better to adhere to the ad valorem duty. All I now say is, that if the proposal does not wear the appearance of simplicity that may be desired, it is because this change, while in reality it will give great ease to business, yet of necessity tends to multiply specifications.

The effect of these various changes in the Customs' duties, as applicable to the year 1853-54, will be to produce a gross loss of 1,338,000l., but a loss which, we trust, will again be reduced by increase of consumption to 658,000l.

And now, Sir, I will sum up the entire effect of these operations for the financial year 1853-54. The remissions of taxes we propose as applicable to 1853-54 will cause a gross loss in the Excise of 786,0007., and a net loss of 771,0007.; in stamps, a gross loss of 417,0007. and a net loss of 200,000l.; in post-horses, 27,0007.; in Customs, taken altogether, a gross amount of loss equal to 1,338,000l., and a net loss of 658,000l.; thus showing in the aggregate a remission of taxation for the present year of 2,568,000l., and a loss incurred by the revenue, after allowing for the degree in which the

remission will be replaced by increased consumption, of 1,656,000Z.

Therefore, Sir, the state of the account for 1853-54 stands thus. We have a surplus of 807,000l. We invite you to grant us the means of raising by new taxes the sum of 1,344,000l.; making together an available fund of 2,151,000l. We propose to enact a remission of taxes, to take effect at once, that will entail a loss to the revenue of 1,656,000l. There will remain a surplus of 493,000l.; of which a portion, exceeding 200,000. will be, not drawn from permanent sources, but in the nature of occasional or incidental payment. The Committee will, I think, be of opinion that it would not be prudent, especially at a time when we have in contemplation a scheme affecting the public Debt, to proceed with a surplus less than this. Indeed, it may appear too small : but the Committee will presently see that the following year, 1854-55, may make some addition to it.

I have still the important duty to discharge of redeeming the pledge which a short time ago I gave to the Committee, to the effect that the Government were not paltering with the Parliament or with the people of England about the income-tax, but that when we say we propose to place you in a condition to remove it at a future day, which day we are of course prepared to name, we make that proposal on the basis of calculations which, though they are of necessity less definite, and less susceptible of accurate verification than if they referred to the present moment only, yet, I think, are founded on a safe and reasonable basis.

First, let me present to yoù the probable balancesheet for 1854-5. We left the year 1853-54 with a surplus of about half a million, a considerable portion of which does not consist of permanent income. In 1854-55, you are likely to have additional sources

of income that will more than countervail the additional loss. The additional loss will be on the tea duties, 510,000l.; on post horses, 27,0007.; the remainder of the soap duties, 340,000l.; assessed taxes, 170,000l.; colonial postage, 40,0007. All the additional losses, which we now invite you to take into your calculation for 1854-55, will together be 1,087,000%. On the other hand the Succession Duty will, as we are led to expect, then be available, in its second year, to the further extent of 700,000l.; the reduction of interest on the 3 per Cents., of which, according to the usual principle of computation, one-half is taken credit for, will in the same year give a sum of 312,000l. The second moiety of the extension of the income-tax will add to this income 295,000l.

Putting these sums together, you will find that the whole additional charge to be made for 1854-55 will be 1,087,000l.; but the additional income which I propose is 1,307,000l., there will be, so far as that year is concerned, a profit, which will justify the Committee, I think, in giving its assent, notwithstanding the narrowness of the surplus with reference to the extent of the scheme, to the remissions which the Government have proposed. At the same time, it is right that the Committee should have fully and clearly in view the complete extent of these remissions of indirect taxation. They will be as follows:- Soap duties, 1,126,0007.(I am now taking the extent of the relief or immediate loss to revenue, without any allowance for the recovery in cases of reduced duty); stamps, 418,000l.; assessed taxes, 290,000l.; post-horses, 54,0007.; total-so far as the Board of Inland Revenue is concerned-1,888,000% Then, in the Customs' duties generally the gross loss will be no less than, on tea, 3,084,000l.; on articles of food properly so called-butter, cheese, and the rest

262,000l.; on minor duties, 120,000l.; or a total relief under the head of Customs' duties of 3,466,000l. Adding to these various amounts the small sum I have described under the head of colonial postage-40,000l. -the entire amount of remissions of indirect taxation to which the Government now invite the Committee to assent will be not less than 5,384,000.

With this remission of indirect taxation we propose to combine the bringing about a state of things, or the rational prospect of a state of things, in which you can, if you so think fit, really part with the income-tax. Let me now, therefore, represent to you the state of accounts, which sums up, and winds up, the whole of this protracted statement. The remissions of indirect taxation now proposed amount, as I have just explained, to a gross loss of 5,384,000l. Looking back to the remissions which have been made in late years, which began in 1842, and which were renewed on a very large scale in 1845 and 1846, we find that these remissions-within terms, as to some of them of eleven years, some of them of five or six years, but in the mean term of seven or eight years have completely, or almost completely, recovered themselves.

The effect of such remissions in the way of recovery we have found to be twofold; first, they act upon the consumer of the particular article, enabling him to increase his particular consumption of the various articles; secondly, they act upon the general consunier; they operate powerfully for the extension and invigoration of the trade of the country; in that way they enlarge the means of consumption on the part of the great body of the people, and thus by a still more prolific process replace the first loss occasioned by the reduction or remission. We assume that what has happened before will happen again; that these remissions of indirect

taxation, which are analogous to the remissions that have been made heretofore, will, as those former remissions have done, replace themselves in about the same time; and I therefore assume that, so far as these remissions are concerned, you will, when the time arrives for the expiration of the income-tax, find these taxes very nearly in amount what they now are. I will not enter into the question of what taxes you may think proper to repeal or reduce in the interval. It is sufficient for me to provide for the remissions which I now propose; and in the proposal of which I do not invite you to undermine, but on the contrary, I ask you to increase and confirm, the stability of the financial system of the country.

But the question remains; how are we to attain a rational prospect of being able to part with the incometax in 1860? The country, after so many announcements that have been made to it from time to time that the income-tax was to be parted with, has become, doubtless, incredulous on the subject; and may, perhaps, conceive that we are aiming at a fictitious and undeserved popularity, when we seek to show that, together with our remissions of indirect taxation, we can enable the House to surrender the income-tax; but at any rate our computations shall be put plainly before the Committee: the Committee and the country can form their own judgment on them.

The amount of the income-tax, as we have it now, is 5,550,000.; this amount will be increased, as I have proposed, by the addition of 590,000l. The gross amount, therefore, of this duty, so increased, will be 6,140,000l. I will not enter into a detail of its composition, and of the descending rates, but, taking the tax at 6,140,000l., let us inquire in what condition Parliament will stand with reference to the parting