nomination produced, and also in consid-America in 1830, and to accommodate the eration of the advantages which their in- merchants she went from port to port to habitants had derived from the diminution collect specie. On the 4th of December of taxation in other ways. With respect she sailed from Rio, and on the 5th ran to the shipping interest, he felt persuaded foul of a reef of rocks off Cape Frio, and that it would be found in every way bene- was lost. Her preceding captain had been ficial. It had been stated by hon. Gentle- unfortunately drowned, and the Admiral men opposite, that to have reduced the on the station had appointed an officer to timber duties would have been a greater command her. A court-martial was sumboon to the shipping interest than what moned, and it found that the officer in the Chancellor of the Exchequer now pro- command had not shown sufficient care posed to do. He was startled at the as- and skill in the navigation of his vessel. sertion; and, to test it, had only yesterday Meanwhile Admiral Baker sent three sloops asked a man-not biassed, for he was a of war to see what they could get from the very good Whig-a man who was one of wreck, and to recover as much as possible the largest shipowners and shipbuilders of the specie. Originally the Thetis had on in England, and, consequently, in the board about 800,000 dollars belonging to world, what he thought on the subject. various English merchants, and worth, in The reply was, that nothing in the world our money, some 200,000l.; of this about could be better than the Chancellor of the 150,000l. was recovered. They should Exchequer's proposal; that the repeal of mark what followed. The Navy, the Adthe timber duties would be a mere drop in miral, and the captain who was appointed the ocean compared to it. He (Mr. Alder- for this particular duty, first claimed salman Thompson) then asked this gentleman vage-claimed it under the circumstances what he should save by the repeal of the already stated that the ship, according to timber duties, in the building of one of his the finding of the court-martial, had been magnificent ships of 600 to 2,000 tons, and lost for want of sufficient skill in its comwhich cost about 201. a ton? The answer manding officer. After much litigation, was, "2s. 6d. a ton;" in other words, the matter ended in this way-the officers 2s. 6d. on the 201. He would admit, how- of the Navy obtained 29,000l.; 13,8001. ever, that ships employed in the coasting was claimed by the Admiral for the use of trade would benefit to a greater extent; the three sloops, for interest, and for the saving in their case might be 7s. 6d. a seamen's wages; and there was a bill of He thought, therefore, that this 7,000l. for stores. The conclusion therestatement was a sufficient contradiction of fore was, that within a trifle of 50,0007. the erroneous notions which existed in rewas claimed and paid in this case on acgard to the advantages the shipping inte- count of salvage. He said these were rest would derive from a repeal of the charges on the commerce and shipping of timber duties. While giving his humble this country which were unendurable, and thanks to the Chancellor of the Exchequer which did not exist in any other country. for what he had done, and promised to do, Take another case. A British merchant with regard to pilotage and the manning vessel, the Rosalie, sailed out of the port of the mercantile marine, there was an- of Monte Video. About eight hours afterother point, not touched upon, but more wards the captain discovered that she was important than any alluded to, as regarded on fire. He put about ship and sailed back; the commerce of this country-that was, but the wind was adverse, and he was the question of salvage by the Royal Navy. obliged to take to his boats. He went to That had been a grievance ever since he the British consul at Monte Video and had been in business, and he had no hesi- communicated the disaster to him, and the tation in saying that the present system consul thereupon immediately gave him a operated most severely and unjustly against letter of introduction to the captain_of the shipowner. He would give one or two the Locust, a Government steamer. The instances of its unfair pressure, for the Locust proceeded to the ship which was on purpose of proving his statement. He had fire; but in bringing her into port both held the office of chairman at Lloyd's, and ships got on shore, and would have been recollected a case which, at the time, at- wrecked but for the interference of the tracted the attention of the whole commer- Brazilian Admiral. The captain of the cial community, and which he would state British ship went to the Brazilian Admiral, now to the Committee. Her Majesty's and asked him what claim he had to make frigate Thetis was on the coast of South for saving his ship. His reply was, “None

ton.

whilst China was admitting our manufactures at 5 per cent, and America, which was the most importing country in point of quantity, admitting tea from China free of duty, the time would come when the Chinese Government would say, "We charge you 5 per cent only on your cotton, an article of very great consumption in China, and in which the Americans now carry on an almost successful competition with you, yet you will not admit our tea, which is almost the only article we send you, except at this exorbitant duty. We certainly shall not any longer allow your goods to come into our country at 5 per

whatever; it gives me great satisfaction to have been able to serve the vessel of a friendly Power in distress." But, notwithstanding that generous declaration, the course adopted by the captain of the Locust was very different. He immediately placed a distringas on the ship and cargo for salvage, for which he claimed 3,000l. Yet such abuses went on year by year without being prevented or reformed. He was confident that the noble Duke at the head of the Admiralty would readily be instrumental in carrying out measures for the advantage of the mercantile marine. Wherever there was hazard of life-wherever efforts must be made to save life-cent, while we are paying upwards of the officers of the British Navy ought to be 100." That this would be the language rewarded. The system that existed was of the Chinese had long been his appreone which had been allowed to endure too hension, an apprehension which this mealong. With regard to that part of the sure, he was glad to say, removed; and Budget which had reference to the sugar therefore he gave his entire approval to colonies, though they would probably re- this proposition. He would next refer to ceive relief to the extent probably of 1s. 6d. the Income Tax; and here he must say he per cwt. by the facility proposed to be admired the courage of the Chancellor of given for refining sugar in bond, yet he the Exchequer, who had ventured upon a must own that when he heard from the much-needed modification, which he hoped Chancellor of the Exchequer that the the right hon. Gentleman would successcourse of legislation which had been ob- fully carry out. Coming, then, to the served towards the Colonies was unjust, he very severe censures of the right hon. Gendid hope the right hon. Gentleman would tlemen the Members for Halifax (Sir C. have proposed some measure for their re- Wood) and for the University of Oxford He did hope this, because, though (Mr. Gladstone), as to the extension of the he admitted that for the last three years income tax to funded property in Ireland, there had been an increase of British plan- he would refer them to the Act of Parliatation sugar, he believed that had been ment, which might perhaps throw some owing to the quantity of cane planted in light upon the subject; he would remind 1851, when there was a differential duty them that the debt was a debt of the of 7s. per cwt. He was afraid that in the United Kingdom, not of England only, nor next two years, when the duties on British of Ireland only. By an Act passed in the and foreign-grown sugar would become 5th Geo. IV. cap. 35, sec. 6., for the purequalised, it would be found that the pose of facilitating the transfer of stock West Indian colonies would fall off greatly from England to Ireland, or vice versa, it in respect of production. He deprecated was enacted that, "each of the several the mode in which allusion had been made stocks should be deemed, reputed, and to the circumstances that Parliament had taken to be one capital or joint-stock." granted half a million of money to be lent And how did this operate? The right to proprietors in the West Indies, and that hon. Gentleman said they must look what they had not taken half of it. He felt a cruelty it was to the poor shopkeeper in that the course those proprietors had taken Dublin who had perhaps a sum of 50%. a had been suggested by the most honour-year in the Irish funds to pay the income able motives; and that, but for their being tax on that amount. But the right hon. conscious of their inability to fulfil the Gentleman made this mistake-it was not engagements which a loan implied, they would have availed themselves of the grant to a greater extent than they had. As regarded the proposed reduction of the duty on tea, independently of other considerations, he had always been apprehensive that if we continued a duty upon that article of something like 240 per cent,

the poor shopkeeper, nor the poor farmer or landowner in Ireland who were the stockholders; it was the banking interest who were the stockowners, the joint-stock banks, carried on not by Irish but by English capital, and making large profits. Was it right they should escape the tax on property? He had been investigating the

at the best indicator. How much had the premium upon Exchequer Bills fallen since this Budget had been introduced? How much per cent had Consols fallen? That was the very best answer to the right hon. Gentleman's objections. With regard to the application of the 400,000l. to be received from the repayment of loans, he contended that the Chancellor of the Exchequer was perfectly right. What was that fund? It was the difference in the rate of interest between borrowing and lending. Upon that transaction the country had made a profit of 360,000l. He should treat it the same in any private transaction of his own. If he borrowed a fixed sum of money at 2 per cent, and employed it at 4, he gained 2 per cent, and he should consider the difference available capital.

SIR C. WOOD said, the hon. Gentleman was in error in supposing that he disapproved of the proposal of the Government as regarded the relief of the shipping interests. He must refer the hon. Gentleman to the speech of the Secretary of State for the Home Department, who, the previous night, said he was glad to find he entirely approved of it.

nature of the transactions between England and Ireland in stocks since the imposition of the income tax in 1842, and he found that from England to Ireland there had been transferred 16,590,9271.; from Ireland to England during the same period, the amount of stock transferred had been 10,849,8367.; Ireland had therefore a balance in her favour of 6,000,000l., which did not pay duty at all. But if he went to the terminable annuities, where the tax was about fifteen or sixteen per cent, the Irish had no competition; in 1842 they amounted to between 7001. and 800l., and now to 120,8391. Was this their justice to Ireland? It was not all. He found that about a fortnight before the stocks were closed, there was an enormous transfer of funded property to Ireland, and that as soon as the dividend was paid in Ireland, it was all sent back again. There was no expense attending the transfer, because the Act said this stock should be transferred without any charge. If he held 10,000l. Consols in the English funds, and wished to transfer it to the Irish, all he had to do was to get a certificate from the Accountant General, on presentation of which at the Bank of England they gave an order on the Bank of Ireland to raise 10,000l. Consols, and cancelled those which he held in the English funds. That was a very simple and convenient operation; he admired it very much; but this facility was liable to abuse. The right hon. Gentleman the Member for Halifax bade the Irish Members, the other night, take care of this income tax, warning them that the Chancellor of the Ex-mittee now, was the first proposition of the chequer wanted to get the point of the wedge in as a preliminary to driving it home. The hon. Member for Marylebone not only put it in, but wished to drive it home. But although he entirely appproved of the extension of the income tax to Ireland, he did not go along with those who wished to extend it to Ireland generally. He could not forget the hardships which that country had endured, and the great sacrifices of property which the Irish had been obliged to make under the Encumbered Estates Act. And though he hoped the time was not distant when Ireland might bear a fair proportion of the national burdens, he contended that that time had not yet come. He regretted to hear the right hon. Gentleman the Member for the University of Cambridge (Mr. Goulburn) characterise the Budget as one that tampered with the national credit. Look

MR. ALDERMAN THOMPSON said, he had understood the right hon. Gentleman to have stated that he thought a removal of the timber duties would have been more beneficial to the shipping interest.

SIR BENJAMIN HALL said, it was not his intention to follow his hon. Friend who had just sat down, through all the topics upon which he had touched. The real question for the consideration of the Com

right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer to double the house tax; and until that evening, he had certainly expected that that was the point which was to be decided in the first instance. It seemed, however, that the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer did not feel inclined to take issue on that question, and that he now wished the House to limit that issue to a very narrow compass, namely, that the area of taxation shall be extended. That was not the question. The question was, should the house tax be doubled, for the purpose of repealing the malt duty? The right hon. Gentleman, with his usual versatility of purpose, tried to evade his first propositions as to the house 'tax, and was desirous of confining the issue, and taking the question as to whether the area should be extended. But that was too limited a ques

tion to discuss; and he (Sir B. Hall) would others, collected large masses of the peohold the right hon. Gentleman to the ple to discuss their views. The only dispositive issue upon which, only two days tinction between the course of that agitasince, the Minister stated he would stake tion and the present was, that their (Sir the existence of his Cabinet. The Sec- B. Hall's) agitation was for a good object, retary of State for the Home Depart- while their opponents was the reverse. The ment had given it as his opinion, that al- fact was, the cause of their opponents was though the Opposition took some excep- a bad one, and it broke down. But their tions to the Budget, yet as they made case was a good one, and it would succeed. some admissions, they should vote for the And whether the Ministers succeeded in Budget as a whole, and move amend- carrying their proposition on that subject ments at subsequent periods. This would or not that night, they might rely upon it, be a very fair course if the exceptions were as the right hon. Gentleman the Member not paramount to the admissions, and the for the University of Cambridge (Mr. Goullatter were only of minor importance; but burn) had told them, the tax would be so such was not the case, and the whole unpopular that they would have the same scheme of the Chancellor of the Exche- number of petitions against it on the table quer was based upon a proposition (that of the House as in 1833 and 1834, and of doubling the house tax), so objection- they would be ultimately obliged to abanable that he (Sir B. Hall) could not for don it altogether. His noble Friend the one moment assent to it. Connected as noble Lord the Member for Lynn (Viscount he was with a large house constituency, Jocelyn), said that this was not a question he would beg leave to detain the House of the house tax. He agreed with his for a short time. He would endeavour to noble Friend that this was not so much show that the doubling of the house tax the question of a new house tax as it was a was unjust; that the distinction made question of whether they should double between the tenant-farmer and the trades- the tax that existed. He (Sir B. Hall) man was most unfair, and ought not to be did not deny that houses ought to be taxed carried out; and that the whole scheme as property. There could be no doubt of was directed against the inhabitants of that. But if they went beyound that then towns. He was prepared to show that as taxation became unequal, and it must regarded the farmers, they would, as com- break down. They had agreed with the pared with the inhabitants of towns, be late Chancellor of the Exchequer to comgreatly benefited by the alteration of the promise the imposition of a house tax of a present Budget. But before he entered smaller amount to get rid of the window upon these several points, he must notice duties, and they did not intend to have an observation which had fallen from the that arrangement broken through. noble Lord the Member for the City of that arrangement the householders had Durham (Lord A. Vane), who had said, yielded a great deal, and he wished to that if any unpopularity attached to this know why the inhabitants of towns were house tax, it would be owing to himself to be taxed more than the people in the (Sir B. Hall), who had organised his bat- country. This was now to be effected by talions against this tax. That statement a partial system of taxation. According was without foundation. The right hon. to the present system if a person took a Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exche- property from a landowner that was subject quer, in his speech on Friday night, spoke to a property tax, he then built a house of the intelligence of the inhabitants of upon it, and that was taxed; not merely to the metropolis. He concurred in that property tax on the rent paid to the landlord, view of the right hon. Gentleman as and which might be deducted by the tento their intelligence, and that intelli- ant, but to income tax, and also to 6d. in gence, he submitted, would learn them to the pound on shops, and 9d. on dwellingdiscern whether a proposed tax was just houses; and if he died, the personalty was or unjust; and if the latter, they would also taxed. It was now proposed, without naturally meet together to oppose its im- auy good cause, to increase that taxation. position, and if they did so it was the duty Now, with respect to direct taxation, he of their representatives to give them all was in favour of that so far as it could be the assistance in their power. Their course carried out fairly, and he believed that a was like that taken in the pro-corn-law great deal of the revenue of the country agitation. Noble Lords and hon. Gentle- ought to be collected that way; but at the men who now denounced agitation by same time they should remember this, that

By

Not

if they rendered it partial and unjust, they | tory reform had not been considered with would render it odious and unpopular, and reference to the window tax till within the it would be put a stop to. Why should last few years. Above twenty years ago, there be any difference between tenant- when he (Sir B. Hall) had first the honour farmers and the tradesmen in towns? The of a seat in that House, the question of former lived in the country, and at a the window tax was considered by the incheaper rate; but otherwise their position habitants of the metropolis as a vexatious was precisely similar, and the one should impost, which they ought not to be called be exempted from no tax which the other on to pay. But the right hon. Gentleman, was obliged to pay. Another exemption in order to reconcile them to the imposiin favour of the tenant-farmer, which the tion of a double house tax, had ordered a right hon. Gentleman proposed to effect paper to be printed [No. 54 of this Seswas, that he was liable to be taxed for sion, printed on the 6th instant], in which only one-third his rent, and if he found a return is given of the number of houses that he had not made an amount of profit assessed in house duty in 1852, showing equal to one-third his rent, he was allowed the amount recived thereon, the amount to appeal. But the tradesman must un- of the window tax levied in 1851, and dergo all the annoyance of the inquisitorial the difference caused by the substitusystem, of the income-tax commissioner, tion of a house tax for the window tax. and whether he made out one-third his If anything would make the inhabitants rent or not, he had no appeal. The right dissatisfied with the proposed house tax, hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State for it was an analysis of this return. the Home Department had alluded to what had taken place at a meeting of his (Sir B. Hall's) constituents, and to what he had said at that meeting. He did not say that he objected to a house tax in the shape of a property tax, but he said, "Why should they stop at 107.? This is simply the reason, because if they go below 10l., they must go into the agricultural districts, and thus eventually come to tax the landlords themselves. This, I think, is the reason why the Government proposed to stop at 101." But the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he had made that proposition, had said, in speaking of the inhabitants of the metropolis, that he "was surprised that they objected to this tax." IIe said, that "the repeal of the window tax was not made on account of the pressure of taxation, or because it was an oppressive or vicious tax; but that it should be repealed on sanatory grounds." That plea was admitted, and the tax repealed." Ile (Sir B. Hall) was surprised to hear this statement from the right hon. Gentleman, not only because it was wholly unfounded, but because the right hon. Gentleman ought to have known that it was

How

an atom of benefit would be derived by the larger or even by the smaller towns, by the proposed change; and this, he (Sir B. Hall) would make much more manifest if he obtained the returns he would move for on Thursday next. The only town given in the return of the right hon. Gentleman, was the City of London. would the alteration of the duties fall upon that portion of the metropolis? The house duty, according to the proposition of the right hon. Gentleman would yield 73,1107. The window tax yielded 61,300l. There would thus be an increase of 11,810. But if they went farther, and compared the tax which was paid in 1851 with the tax which was proposed for 1853, and compared that to be paid by towns with that to be paid by counties, he would be able to show that the right hon. Gentleman's proposition was most unjust towards the inhabitants of towns, and was a completely partial mode of taxation. It had been impossible for him to get the returns for all towns; but he had been able to inform himself of the amount of taxes paid for windows, and to be paid for houses in the parishes of St. Pancras, Westminster, and If anybody knew it, the right hon. Marylebone, and the following was a comGentleman should have known that the parison of what they would have to pay window tax was an unpopular tax in the for the house tax in 1853, with what they metropolis, for he himself was one of the paid for the window tax in 1851. He loudest declaimers against it, and he issued (Sir B. Hall) would state these sums to addresses in which he had said that it the House, and thus he would show how ought to be immediately repealed. That the towns would be overtaxed, and how had been one of the right hon. Gentle- agricultural counties, which in 1851 paid man's earliest opinions with regard to poli- almost precisely the same amount of wintical subjects; and the question of sana-dow tax would be relieved:

so.