Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

lower rate than 51. per oz. (the maximum having been 57. 11s. per oz.), the average annual taxation, if valued in gold, was equal only to 13,802,045 ozs. of gold, or to 53,741,714/. of money exchangeable into gold at 77s. 10 d. per oz. ; whilst the annual average amount of taxation in the last three years, 1823-5, was 52,430,765, convertible into gold at 77s. 104d. per oz., showing a diminution of only 1,310,9491. per annum of money of standard value, instead of 27,000,000l. Another, and a still surer method of proving that taxation was higher in the years 1823, 1824, and 1825, than in 1817, 1818, and 1819, was, to take it at what it would have been, if the amount had been paid in wheat. Now, the annual money-amount of taxes, on an average of the three years 1813-15, was only equal to 15,853,926 quarters of wheat, at 80s. 9d. per quarter, the average price of that period; whilst the money-amount of taxes, on an average of the three years 1823-5, was equal to 17,434,546 quarters of wheat, at 60s. 2d. per quarter, the average price of that period. Thus taxation, instead of having been reduced, had actually increased at the rate of one fifth, an increase to which much of the recent privation and distress was attributable.

The increased productiveness of the taxes (to the amount of a million annually) had been as cribed by government to the increased consumption which was said to be the natural consequence of lowering prices by reducing duties: but Mr. Hume maintained that no such increase had taken place during the last forty years, notwithstanding the great increase of the consuming population. Thus the annual consumption of malt,

in England and Wales, had actually decreased, in the last forty years, although, within the same period, there had been an increase of about 40 per cent in the population. On an average of the ten years from 1785 to 1794, the number of bushels of malt annually consumed was 25,751,775; and on the average of the ten years 1815-1824, the annual consumption was only 25,246,940 bushels, showing an actual decrease exceeding 500,000 bushels per annum; whilst, if the consumption of malt had increased in proportion to the increase of population, the consumption would have exceeded 35,000,000 of bushels per annum. A fair comparison could be made only by taking an average of several years; yet, even if the consumption of malt in 1825 (a year of great excitement) were compared with some other single years, a greater consumption appeared in the years 1792-7 and 9, 1803 and 21, than in 1825. Wine, too, had shared the fate of malt. The quantity of foreign wines annually charged with Excise duty in Great Britain, on the average of the three years 1801-3 was 7,661,270 gallons, and the average quantity charged in the four years 1819-1822 was 5,223,326 gallons, being an actual diminution of 2,437,944 gallons yearly, or about 30 per cent, notwithstanding the increased number of consumers during that period; although at least 10 per cent of Cape wines, of very inferior quality, had been charged with duty in the aggregate quantity in the latter period.

The progress of the consumption of sugar, tea, and tobacco, all of them taxable articles of primary use, led to the same results. The quantity of sugar consumed in Great Britain, on an average of

the nine years 1808-16, was (after deducting 1,600,000 cwts. used in distillation in the six years 1809-14) 2,406,809 cwts., and in the last nine years 1817-25, on an average, 2,593,540 cwts.; being an annual increase of only about 7 per cent, whilst the population had been increasing, during that period, at the rate of 17 per cent.

[ocr errors]

1

The consumption of tea, on an average of the four years, 1800-3, was 21,023,155lbs., and, on an average of the four years, 1821-4, was 23,443,479lbs. ; an increase of scarcely 12 per cent, whilst the number of consumers had increased about 35 per cent.

The annual average consumption of tobacco in the five years 1800-4, was 11,855,351 lbs. and in the five years 1820-4, was 13,022,851 lbs. showing an annual increase of consumption at the rate of 10 per cent in the latter period; but, if the annual average consumption of 14,155,166 lbs. in the five years 1810-14 were taken, it would appear that since that period there had been an actual decrease of consumption at the rate of 8 per cent per annum, notwithstanding an increase of population of 17 per

cent.

On these statements Mr. Hume founded his resolution, "that the continued pressure of taxation has greatly increased the privations and distress of the productive, industrious, and labouring, classes of the community." And, on the whole mass of the resolutions-coupled with the improvidence of the deadweight arrangement, and the extent of the naval and military establishments kept up, he averred, for no other purposes than those of patronage The founded his motion for an address to the Crown, praying that his majesty "would

-

be graciously pleased to take into his consideration the present alarming state of the country, and sto direct an immediate inquiry to be made into the causes of the existing distress, and the adoption of measures calculated to bring it to as speedy a termination as possible, and to prevent its further spreading." i

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

:
The chancellor of the Exche
quer said, that on by far the greater
number of the topics which had
been discussed by the hon. mover
of the resolution, he should remain
silent, for it was impossible for the
House to give even an intelligible,
far less a satisfactory, consideration
to a series of forty-five resolutions,
embracing every imaginable ques
tion connected with the finance of
the country in its minutest details,
any one of which would furnish
matter for weighty deliberation,
and terminating, as they did, what
ever words might be used, inai
motion for reduction of taxation. ↑
But the whole series was founded
on a mis-statement of a simple
matter of fact. The first resolu-
tion charged him with having
misled the country by making false
statements regarding the reduction
of the public debt, and the effectual
operation of the Sinking-fund in
producing that reduction. Thereso+ |
lution clearly implied, that, either
from gross ignorance, or deliberate
intention, he had so framed his
statements, and the conclusions
drawn from them, as to lead the
House into error; in short, that his
statements were not founded in
truth. Now this he denied; and, in\'
the very resolution which conveyed ⠀⠀
the charge, there was a statement.
which would bear out a similar.
charge against the hon. mover
himself. The resolution was→→→
"No. 1. That the assertions

"

[ocr errors]

made to this House by the chan cellor of the Exchequer, on 3rd of March, 1823, that a reduction of 24,766,520% in the capital of the public debt had been effected by the operation of the Sinking-fund, from the termination of the war up to the 5th January, 1823; and again, on the 13th March, 1826, that a further reduction of the public debt, of 18,401,000l., had been effected between 5th January, 1823, and the 5th January, 1826, making together a reduction of 48,167,520. in the capital of the public debt since the termination of the war, are not consistent with the accounts before the House, as appears by the facts contained in the following resolution."

Now the fact was, that, upon the occasion alluded to in the resolution, he had never once said that the reduction in the amount of the public debt was owing to the operation of the Sinking-fund. On the contrary, he had taken care, plainly and directly, to state, that the reduction of the debt was not to be attributed to the operation of the Sinking-fund. At the period mentioned, he had proposed certain resolutions to the House, the object of which was, to simplify the operations of the Sinking-fund. He had then gone into a detailed account of the actual state of the public debt, and he could not find that the words "Sinking-fund" were at all made use of in that part of the speech referred to by the hon. gentleman. It was utterly impossible that he could have said, that the reduction of debt was attributable to the Sinking-fund. What he had stated was, in substance, that, during seven years, from January, 1816, an actual diminution of debt had taken place to such an extent as could not have been

"

brought about otherwise than by the application of surplus revenue, On the 5th of January, 1816, the amount of the funded debt was 816,311,4461., and of the unfunded debt 48,511,000l.; on the 5th of January, 1823, the funded debt, was 796,530,000l., and the unfunded, 43,526,000l., amounting, in the funded and unfunded debt, to a diminution of 24,685,7961. But it was quite impossible that he could have so far forgotten himself, orattended so little to facts, as to have attributed this to the operation of the Sinking-fund. The honourable mover, therefore, was not entitled, by any thing which he had said, to charge him, in this solemn and formal manner, with having as serted what was not true. But," in another point of view, the pro-' ceeding of the hon. gentleman was of a most extraordinary nature. In the first place, the honourable gentleman charged him with hav ing made assertions not consistent with the accounts before the House,' and concluded his resolution with the following words,- as appears by the facts contained in the following resolutions." So that he first called upon them to condemn, without considering what the following resolutions contained. Was there ever so clumsy a proceeding as this? He first pro nounces a sentence of condemnation, then asks the House to consider the grounds on which that' sentence was founded? A similar mode of proceeding was repeated in the 31st resolution

[ocr errors]

"No. 31.-That the repeated assertions made in this House, that there has been a diminution of taxation to the extent of 27 millions, since the termination of the war, are delusive and fallacious, whether as applied to the amount

of money actually collected from the people, or the value of the currency in which the taxes were collected, as will appear by the fact stated in the following resolutions." So that, here again the hon. gentleman called upon the House to condemn him for false statements, and false inferences drawn from them, on the ground of resolutions not yet considered. He could not see how it was possible for the House to come to any conclusion, founded upon such a series of propositions as that submitted to them by the hon. gentleman.

The statement, which had been quarrelled with as inaccurate, was, that the funded debt which, on the 5th January, 1826, amounted to 816,311,4461., had been reduced, by the 5th January, 1823, to 796,538,000l.; and to prove that this statement of a reduction from January, 1816, was inaccurate, the hon. mover had taken a period which excluded 1816, and began with January 1817. But, in point of fact, if the statement was taken in connection with the period to which it professedly had reference, not only was it in perfect agreement with the papers laid before the House, with which it was pretended to be inconsistent, but these very papers furnished a refutation of the resolution. To say that taxation had not diminished, because the same sum continued to be raised by taxes, was a mere sophism; and to say that taxation had precluded the people from the enjoyment of many comforts, was inconsistent with fact. For, how did it happen, that, with taxes reduced by 8,500,000l., the revenue had maintained its ground? clearly by the increased consumption. If, by a reduction of duty on wine,

a bottle of wine was placed within the reach of a person who could not have afforded to pay for it at the former rate, was he not benefitted by the reduction? were not the trade, and the community at large, gainers by it? Whenever the same amount of revenue was raised on a lower scale of taxation, the tax was necessarily less burdensome.

Mr. Brougham, Mr. Maberly, and Mr. Robertson briefly supported the resolutions. A motion for adjourning the debate having been negatived without a division, the House divided on the original motion, which was lost by a majority of 153 to 52.

The state of the finances was again repeatedly referred to, and the usual motions for reducing public expenditure were all reiterated at different stages of voting the estimates for the year. When it was moved on the 17th of February that the House should go into a committee of supply on the navy estimates, Mr. Hume, although without pressing hisamendment to a division, resisted the motion, on the ground that no estimates ought to be voted, till the proposed expenditure of the year had been laid before the House. That, answered Mr. Canning, is the very object of going into a committee. When, on the report of the committee being brought up, the question was put to grant pay and allowances for 30,000 seamen, and 9,000 marines, Mr. Hume objected to the number as being extravagant and unnecessary in time of peace. Formerly, he said, in time of peace, the navy had only cost about 2,000,000l., while the present estimate was above 6,000,000l.; and, within the last three years, there had been a regular increase, instead of a gradual dis

minution: Being convinced that such a rate of expenditure, and the taxation necessary to meet it, could not be supported, unless an intention were entertained to rob the public creditor, he moved an amendment to the effect, "That this House cannot take into consideration the navy estimates for this, the 11th year of peace, amounting to 6,135,000l. without expressing its disapprobation of so large an expenditure, and without adopting the language of the finance committee of 1818, that the strength and glory of a country do not consist in its ships-its naval and military force-but in the encouragement of the arts of peace, and the judicious and economical management of its finances."

The proposed number of men was justified by the necessity of maintaining, in existing circumstances, a strong naval force in the Mediterranean, and on the East-India station; a station which extended over one quarter of the globe, from the coast of Arabia round to the Pacifie Ocean. Our trade in the Mediterranean was equally endangered by the Turks and by the insurgent Greeks, and the complaints of piracy wereinnumerable. On the coast, too, of South America, free-booters were swarming; and, although, in India, the Burmese monarch, was not possessed of a navy, yet a naval armament on the river of Rangoon was essential to the operations of the army which had marched against his kingdom. It might be true that the estimates were higher than those of 1817; but no committee of 1817 could prophesy the exigencies of 1826, and no prudent government would meet the greater necessities of 1826 by the lower scale of 1817. The amendment was lost by a majority of 43 to 15.

The army estimates, which proposed that the military force for the year should be 87,240 men encountered similar opposition; Mr. Hume having made an unsuccessful attempt to reduce the number to the establishment of 1792, as if the words "a period of peace" denoted one uniform and invariable set of circumstances, and the possessions and relations of the country were at all times the same, and put forth at all times the same demands, provided only that war was absent. The exigencies of peace vary as well as the necessities of war; and the purposes, to which national force ought prudently to be applied, alone furnish any standard by which the amount of national force required can be ascertained. Mr. Hobhouse did not go so far as Mr. Hume; but he wished the military force to be reduced by the number of men which had been added in 1825; and moved as a resolution on the 7th of March "That it appears to the House that the regular military force of this country, exclusive of the troops in the East Indies, consisted, in the year 1822, of 69,088 men; and that now, according to the estimates laid before the House, the number was 86,240, being an increase since 1822 of 17,152 men. That it appears to the House that no change has taken place since 1822, either in our foreign relations or domestic circumstances, to justify so large an augmentation; and that it is therefore expedient to reduce the regular military force to 77,000 men,"

Lord Palmerston said, that neither the safety of the colonies, nor the comfort of the men serving in the army, could allow of the proposed reduction. When ministers proposed the additional

« EdellinenJatka »