the course proposed. The Chancellor of country is most visionary and most rash. the Exchequer, while he deals with classes No one in his senses would attempt in one that have hitherto been nearly exempted and the same year to deal with six millions from taxation, gives them no boon that is of the tea duties and five millions of the equivalent to the taxation he imposes. He malt tax. No one would attempt in one and does not propose to increase the amount of the same year to increase two direct taxes the income tax by his readjustment. He the income tax and the house-duty—and relieves the large capitalist, the large mer- to bring under their operation so many chant, and the large manufacturer, by as- persons who have hitherto been altogether sessing them at a lower rate than hereto- exempted. I, therefore, advise the right fore; and he imdemnifies himself for the hon. Gentleman to take back his Budget, loss by taxing the less wealthy, in many and re-examine it. Give us your reduccases the poor man, who is now exempted tion of the tea duties: you can do that from taxation. All tradesmen with in- without increasing our burdens. Give up comes between 100l. and 150l.-all pro- altogether your house tax and the malt prietors between 50l. and 100l., are now tax. Then you will have a Budget which, to be taxed, while the large merchant and as far as taxes go, may be supported. You manufacturer are to have their taxes low- need not be ashamed to take back your ered. That is the boon you offer to the Budget. Mr. Pitt was compelled to do so. poorer and industrious classes, whom you You need not be ashamed of doing what profess so much to benefit by your Budget; he did. Lord Liverpool's Government was and most of whom you also bring under reduced to do that, and the right hon. your new and extended house tax. Well Gentleman cannot pretend that his Governmight the hon. Member for Pontefract ment is as strong as Lord Liverpool's was. warn you against the consequences of the Take till after Christmas to consider what call of the tax-gatherer four times a year you will do, for I want you to reconstruct upon large classes and numbers of persons your own Budget. Take the advice of the who have never hitherto paid direct taxes. right hon. Gentleman the Member for the Indeed, your increase of the house tax University of Oxford, for it is obvious you seems to me to be utterly needless and in- have not considered the details of your defensible. I am not at all averse to di- Budget. Either you know nothing about rect taxation within reasonable limits; but it, or you have recklessly abused the knowwith regard to the house tax and all other ledge which you possess. My hon. Friend direct taxes, if you wish to retain them at the Member for the North Riding talks of all, keep them light and popular in times the consequences of rejecting this Resoluof prosperity and peace, because they are tion. For my part I know of no conseyour great resources in times of difficulty. quences but an amended Budget, and not Suppose a war were to arise, you cannot in-a Budget which, as it at present stands, crease your indirect taxation, for that would imperils direct taxation, tampers with the be to add to the price of imported articles, credit and tarnishes the good faith of the necessarily raised by the increased freight country. of war, the further burthen of heavier duties; but you must have recourse to direct taxation, and it is quite fair you should: it is fair and proper, for instance, that the housekeepers of this metropolis should be taxed for the defence of their homes; but if you double the tax now, when there is no pressure, I tell that you will make you the house-tax so unpopular that it cannot be maintained. You are sacrificing one of the great resources of revenue which you ought to reserve for times of pressureyou are imperilling, by a needless and uncalled-for increase, that direct taxation which you are so anxious to maintain. Sir, I shall not trespass longer on the time of the House. I think that your proposed mode of dealing with the taxation of the VOL. CXXIII. [THIRD SERIES.]

very

House resumed; Committee report progress; to sit again on Monday next. House adjourned at a quarter before One o'clock, till Monday next.

HOUSE OF LORDS,
Monday, December 13, 1852.

MINUTES.]

Took the Oaths.· The Earl of
Caledon.
PUBLIC BILLS.-3 West India Colonies, &c.,
Loans Act Amendment; Commons Inclosure.

The House met; and having gone through the business on the paper, House adjourned till To-morrow.

2 U

HOUSE OF COMMONS,

Monday, December 13, 1852.

mainly on two grounds: first, because he and his Colleague asserted their determination to give their unqualified support to

MINUTES.] PUBLIC BILLS.-1o Designs Act Ex- the Earl of Derby's Government; and,

tension.

2° Land Tax Commissioners Names.

WAYS AND MEANS THE FINANCIAL
STATEMENT—ADJOURNED DEBATE
(SECOND NIGHT).

The House resolved itself into a Committee of Ways and Means; Mr. Wilson Patten in the chair.

Question again proposed

secondly, because they also expressed their determination to give their support to the principle of unrestricted competition. With respect to the last principle, he conceived that the discussion was at an end-he conceived that the Budget affirmed that principle in all its details, and therefore he had no hesitation in giving that Budget his firm and decided support. With respect to the first principle he gave his support to a Conservative Government, because he should regard any sudden

"That, towards raising the Supply granted to Her Majesty, from and after the 5th day of April, 1853, the Duties granted and made payable by the Act 14 & 15 Vict. c. 36, upon Inhabited Dwell-change in the Government of Ireland as ing Houses in Great Britain, according to the annual value thereof, shall cease and determine, and one of the greatest misfortunes that could in lieu thereof there shall be granted and made befall that country. He conceived that payable upon all such Dwelling Houses the follow-change would lead to perpetual agitation, ing Duties (that is to say);"—

Debate resumed.

and divert the minds of the Irish from those legitimate pursuits, the improvement of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, and the extension of the industrial occupations of the north of Ireland, to the south and west, where they did not so much prevail. He thought there never was a period when the Irish mind seemed so quieted as at present, and he attributed that mainly to having a firm and decided Government. They had perhaps one of the most popular Lord Lieutenants that ever presided over the destinies of that country. In addition, they had a nobleman of great experience, most approachable to all who had occasion to see him on

MR. DAVISON said, he must claim the kind indulgence of the Committee, as this was the first time of his addressing them, and he would promise not to trespass at any length. He had endeavoured to view the Budget as a whole. He had endeavoured to come to a conclusion upon its own merits. He had not pinned his faith to any one section of its details, but viewing it as a whole, he asked himself Is it founded upon principles of justice? Is its tendency to promote the general welfare? Is it in harmony with the principle of unrestricted competition which had been affirmed by this House? Does it un-matters of business, as Chief Secretary— loosen any of those fetters which bind that great arm of our national prosperity-the shipping interest; and is its tendency to remove any restriction which fettered the legitimate enterprise of the merchant? He was rejoiced to be able to answer all those questions in the affirmative; and on behalf of the large constituency of Belfast, as well as his own, he begged leave to tender to the right hon. Gentleman who introduced the measure the expression of their warmest acknowledgments. He listened to the development of its details with that undeviating attention which became so important a subject, and he came to the conclusion, at its termination, as he had heard elsewhere, that a man of genius could also be a man of figures. Although the representative of a large commercial constituency, he and his learned Colleague were returned in opposition to able and talented men, by a majority of several hundreds,

one well acquainted with the details of his office, and an honour and credit to his country. In the next place, they had one of the most able, if not the most able, men at the Irish Bar, as Attorney General—a man who combined with the greatest decision and firmness of purpose the greatest gentleness and amiability of conduct. They had in addition an able and talented Solicitor General. [Laughter.] Gentlemen on the opposite side might laugh possibly because the hon. and learned Gentleman had crossed their path, but he saw no imputation on his honour or reputation. He did not mean to trespass more than a few minutes on the Committee. The duty he had taken was mainly at hand, namely, to express not only his own opinion, but the opinion of his constituents, on the subject of the Budget, which, in all its details, seemed to meet their views, to have a tendency to put matters in a right direction,

and to give an impetus to the mercantile | capital is quite as cheap, and there is little transactions of the country, which could difference in the price of coal. Now, my not fail to be highly beneficial. He was constituents in Yorkshire pay to the Gono speech-maker, but he would add that vernment 3 per cent on the profits of their the measure of the right hon. Gentleman manufactures, while the constituents of the the Chancellor of the Exchequer should hon. Gentleman, who are engaged in the receive his warm support. same trade, are exempt from that tax. Is it not evident that my constituents labour under a great disadvantage in competing with the constituents of the hon. Gentleman ?-and, since he has entered into this discussion, I put it to him whether he will be ready, by-and-by, to agree to a proposition which is threatened to be made by my hon. Friend the Member for Marylebone (Sir B. Hall), to extend the same income tax to Ireland as it is to be levied in England? I leave the question to the consideration of the hon. Gentleman.

seven quarters, and other grains in proportion; while root crops are also much heavier, and their value per ton is as great or greater than ever— thanks to the numerous consumers of butchers' meat."

I mention this in the outset, because I have observed in the papers this morning a letter written by a Member of the Cabinet-["No, no!"]-but if he is not a Member of the Cabinet he is an exponent of the policy of the Ministry-and he states to his constituents, that although the Government do not intend to propose a return to protection, yet that they do intend to propose compensation, and that the Budget is the first step towards it, and that the repeal of the malt tax is peculiarly a

other side of the House, is, that we do not | quarters of wheat per acre, we have now six or recognise, on the part of Members representing the agricultural districts, any grievance or losses incurred by them which entitles them to ask anybody else to submit to taxes which they do not pay themselves. Hon. Gentlemen opposite seem to doubt this very point themselves. The hon. Baronet the Member for Hertfordshire (Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton) says, that a great deal depends on the way in which relief is granted. "Do it graciously," he said; 66 even if you don't grant that the farmers are distressed, still they think they are, and therefore give them something, in the way of the abolition of the malt tax, which may console them." This is a very sentimental way of dealing with a great ques-measure of relief to the landed interest. If tion which involves a sum to be counted by millions, and one which I do not understand. I deny that there is any distress which entitles them to ask for compensation. I had a note the other day from one of the most enter rising and intelligent farmers in the East Lothians, which I will read to the House, as I believe it will afford not a bad explanation of the condition of the farming world in general. He says—

"The farmers of the Lothians of Scotland, es

I say

such is the case, I say that we are entering on the old controversy between town and country-and you compel us to go into this controversy in a spirit that I thought was never to have been revived. An hon. Gentlemen opposite says, "Carry out your principles of direct taxation with regard to the duty on soap and on paper.' that I am ready to carry out direct taxation if you propose a tax which shall be equitable, and levied on all kinds of property alike; but my objection to the Budget sentially a wheat district, never were, as a body, is, that it does not carry out direct taxain a more flourishing condition; and the demand tion fairly and equitably. The proposal for land, in consequence, is beyond all parallel for now made with regard to the house tax is the last 30 years. Every farm that is to let most unjust. What do you propose? You brings an advanced rent of from 10 to 30 per have already imposed a property tax of 3 cent. I have four years of my lease to run, but have made a new arrangement at an increased per cent on all land and on all houses. rent of 15 per cent, which I begin to pay imme- You next go to Schedule A, and you lay diately, and I have always one-fourth of my land an additional house tax of ninepence in the in wheat. Two farms have been let in this parish pound, or 3 per cent, making the tax on within the last six months at a similar advance to houses to be at the rate of 6 per cent as my own, and an adjoining farm, belonging to the Then you Marquess of Dalhousie, is at present to let, the against 3 per cent on land. factor being in London with the offers in his say, "We want more money by direct pocket to show to his Lordship's commissioners; taxation," and you come with your scheme and I know for a fact that first-rate tenants, men of compensation, or rather, I should call it of capital and skill, have offered 30 per cent increase on the rent which the farm was let 19 spoliation, and you go to Schedule A years ago, when it was advertised for six months again, and select houses, and lay on anand then let to the highest bidder. My brother other ninepence in the pound, or another took a farm last week adjoining the one on which 33 per cent, thus making the tax 103 per he resides of 225 acres imperial, and for which he pays 20 per cent increase of rent. Sheep farms cent on houses as against 3 per cent on have brought higher additional rents; but I have land. But that is not all; for we all know said enough to show you that any talk of agricul- that in making an assessment on real protural distress is sheer nonsense, and for myself I perty and on houses, you assess houses at have done, and am doing, as well as I could possi-a much fewer number of years' purchase bly desire. One of the principal reasons for this is, that where land is properly drained, by a liberal use of guano and other artificial manures, the crops have been increased one-half at least, and every acre is made to carry as much corn as can stand. It costs me upwards of 700l. per annum for artificial manures, on a farm of 650 imperial acres. I know several farmers whose outlay in roportion is greater; but then, in place of four

than you do land; for land is usually assessed at 30 years' purchase, while houses are only assessed at the utmost at fifteen years' purchase; and therefore, if you levy the same rate of taxation on both of them, you cause a double pressure of taxation upon houses as compared with land. If

you invest 1,000l. in land, and 1,000l. | cumulated as much savings as enables them in houses, while the one is assessed at 30 to become possessors of small houses, with years' purchase and the other at 15, if this inordinate taxation? Your notion of you lay the same tax on both of them, it justice is to say that they shall pay at the is in fact double on the sum invested in rate of 21 per cent on their investment, in houses, making in the whole 10 per proportion to the 3 per cent which is all cent, and that brings the whole amount that is paid by the owners of the large you levy on houses up to 21 per cent, and landed estates. Take another example. that is what you propose to levy on houses Look at the vast landed property in the as against 3 per cent on land. That is a metropolis owned by noblemen who let it great injustice on the part of the Govern- out on building leases. Take Belgravement, and the House will do wrong even square, for instance. You would find houses to attempt it; for even if it is carried by a built there on land held on a 99 years' lease, majority, do you think you will ever be and at a ground-rent of about 50%. a year able to maintain it? Do you think that for each house. Well, the person who had the intelligent people of the towns will put the bricks and mortar on the ground, ever submit to it? Do you think that or who has bought it, is subjected to this those centres from which radiate the light direct taxation, but it does not reach the and intelligence of the country- ["Oh, ground landlord. He carries off his 20,000l. oh!"] Why, whence do you get your or 30,000l. a year, and is left untouched. literature and your science? Is it not Is there any justice in that? Let me refrom the towns? I never heard that we mind you, further, that the householders went into country hamlets to seek for such in towns are subjected to very heavy charges things. I say if you pass such a law you of another kind: to a vast number of local cannot expect it will be submitted to, and charges, not only for the support of the it will be the worst thing that could hap- poor, but for police rates, for highway rates, pen for you, for you will revive the old for lighting, and for every description of controversy between town and country-impost; and bear in mind that inequality but not in the old form, when hon. Gentle men opposite could say it was a contest between cotton lords and landlords-but they will have every little market town taking sides against them, for they will all see the injustice that is practised on the owner of house property. Your argument is that this house tax would be a tax, not on house property, but on rents. I think, myself, that this, as well as every other tax, would ultimately be felt more or less by everybody. But at all events, as regards the great proportion of house property, it can be clearly shown that you tax the owners as well as the occupiers, inasmuch as there are a large number of houses in the towns which are owned by those who live in them. Let the House see how the tax will work. You have benefit building societies whereby frugal mechanics and humble tradesmen manage in the shape of weekly payments to get together sums of money sufficiently large to build or purchase houses for themselves, and many of these houses would be generally 101. houses; -and in future they will be still more numerous than they have been, for I am glad to say the saving character of this class of society is increasing, and they are now happily bent on improving their dwellings. Well, what kind of justice is it to meet these men immediately that they have ac

of the pressure of the rating which I alluded to before-that the smaller number of years' purchase that this house property is rated at, presses with equal severity on the owners of that property in assessing it for the local rates, as in the case of the property and the house tax. Not only therefore has this property higher general taxes to pay-proportionally-but it has higher taxes to pay for local purposes. You cannot expect a system of direct taxation which would work like this, can ever be carried out. And what is this direct tax to be laid on for which we are now discussing for it is the house tax which is now before you? It is to be laid on for the purpose of enabling us to remove one half of the malt tax? The right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Mr. Christopher) has stated, with his usual frankness, what the object of it was. He tells us that the Government are about to take off one half of the malt tax for the benefit of the land. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, however, tells us that he makes the proposition in the interest of the consumer. Well, which are we to believe? I certainly think the Government would do well to come to some understanding with respect to their principles, or, at least, if they cannot agree, that one or the other section of them should engage to be silent. My idea of the malt