now become peculiarly unpleasant to him, of proposing the continuance of the obnoxious tax. In a committee of ways and means, the right hon. gentleman rose to submit this proposition to the House. He said, that as the House had already sanctioned the estimates for a considerable military and naval establishment, it was an obvious consequence, that the necessary means must be afforded for their support. Adverting to the number of petitions presented against the tax in question, he represented it as the result of hasty and partial judgment, and said that the petitioners had only attended to the pressure on themselves, which they were naturally anxious to remove. He then went into an historical view of the origin and purpose of the tax; in which he dwelt with complacency on an assertion he had before made, and which had been a topic of party debatethat the plan brought forward by Lord Henry Petty, when in the ministry, was so constructed as to render it necessary, in certain events, that the tax should not cease with the war; and quoted that noble lord's assertion, "that he made no pledge of his own opinion, respecting the permanency of the property-tax in time of peace." He next considered the four alternatives for this tax, proposed by an hon. baronet (Sir James Shaw), all founded upon the principle of borrowing instead of raising money, and stated his objections to that principle. Proceeding to the supposition that the House would entertain the bill in the first instance, he touched upon the means which might be devised to remove the greater part of the objections against it. Of those it would be superfluous to mention the particulars, as the scheme never took place; but they proved the anxiety of the right hon. gentleman to render the measure palatable by concession and conciliation. He concluded by moving a resolution for the continuance of the tax on landed property, at the rate of 5 per cent., being the first of a string of resolutions intended to be proposed for carrying into effect the different modifications which he had explained to the committee. In the debate which followed, and which was very impatiently listened to by the House, quite wearied by the long discussion on the subject, some facts adduced by Mr. William Smith in opposition to the tax appear worthy of recording. He said, that the disquiet experienced by commercial men, at having their concerns laid open to the world, would be very little alleviated by any of the expedients or modifications now suggested by the right hon. gentleman. It was probable that a large proportion of the commercial interest must now be liable to heavy losses; and it followed, that many traders must either pay 5 per cent. on a supposed profit, or go to the commissioner and confess his loss: rather than do this, numbers would pay the tax, which would be a tax not en income, but on loss. It appeared, that 11,000 surcharges had been made in the city of London alone, during the last year: of these, • 3,000 had been set aside an appeal, after a critical examination into the appellants' circumstances. Seven thousand out of the whole number did not appeal; probably thinking it a less evil to submit to the imposition, than to expose the situation of their affairs: but supposing them to have been charged justly, what a pestilential influence must the tax have produced on the morals of the country, when such a body had recourse to the most guilty evasions to avoid the assessment! Several other speakers followed on each side, of whom Lord Castlereagh was the most diffuse in recapitulating all which had been argued in favour of the measure. At length every other voice was drowned in the cry of Question, and the House divided, when the numbers were, For the continuance of the Property-Tax 201, Against it 238: Majority 37. When the result was announced, a long and loud checring arose in the House, which was re-echoed by the crowd that filled the lobby and avenues; and the event was felt in general throughout the nation as a relief from an oppres sive burden, not perhaps so galling from its mere weight (for heavy burdens must be borne), as from its manner of imposition. After this great deduction from the expected resources of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the House was probably surprised by his notice, on March 20th, that on the next Monday, in the committee of ways and means, he intended to propose the continuance of certain of the assessed taxes, but not of the war duties upon malt. The House, he said, would be aware that after he had been deprived of one of the great est resources on which he had calculated, he could not be expected to dispense with any of the means which remained: but as, in consequence of that deci sion, it would be necessary for him to have recourse to the money market, it was of little consequence that to the amount of the loan should be added the calculated produce of the malt duty. From the information derived from persons who were best acquainted with the state of the agricultural interest, he was convinced that the most effectual relief would be afforded to this part of the community by the reliaquishment of this tax; and he was therefore willing to rely upon the wisdom of parliament to supply the means which would be required in consequence of such an arrangement. This announcement by the minister of finance was received with much satisfaction by the House in general, especially by the members particularly attached to the landed interest. Observations were however made upon the supposed motives which had induced the minister to abandon a tax raising two millions, immediately after he had been deprived of five or six millions; and it was suggested that the purpose had been that of regaining a pcpularity which had been lost by persisting in the attempt to enforce a tax generally odious. No domestic subject during the present year has more forcibly acted upon the public feelings than that of the state of agriculture, a matter highly important to the general welfare, and in which every part of the united kingdom 1. That the portion of the community whose capitals are engaged in agriculture, as well as those numerous classes whose employment depends thereon, are at present suffering under unexampled distress. 2. That the continuance of such distress is fraught with extreme danger to the most important interests of the country. 3. That the demand for the extended produce of our agriculture is, at this time, insufficient to produce that price which is necessary to cover the heavy charges and burthens upon it. 4. That the demand for harley has been very materially reduced by the excessive duties to which it is subjected in the course of the various operations which adapt it to the use of the consumer. kingdom has a private concern. It had long been a topic incidentally touched upon in parliamentary discussions, when, on March 7th, Mr. Western, member for Essex, ro-e, pursuant to notice, to move that the House resolve itself into a committee of the whole House to take into consideration the distressed state of the Agriculture of the United Kingdom. In his introductory speech the hon. member said, "Between two and three years ago agriculture was in a flouri-hing and prosperous state, and yet, within the short period which has since elapsed, thousands have been already ruined, and destruction seeins to impend over the property of all those whose capital is engaged in the cultivation of the soil. From what causes have such events arisen ? Are they effects of excessive taxation, of the enormous amount of the national debt? Are they the consequences of our extensive paper circulation, which now appears to have been in a great measure withdrawn? Are they occasioned by the pressure of the title, or the severe burthen of the poor rate? I have no hesitation in saying that it is not to one or two, but to a combination of all these causes, that we are to attribute our distresses." The hon. gentleman then entered into a detailed consideration of circumstances connected with the heads above enumerated, which is not capable of abridgment, but which led the way to the follow-reign corn to be warehoused, preing set of resolutions read by him to the House, and which it will be useful to transcribe, as affording a distinct view of the leading ideas entertained by the landed interest in this critical emergenty. 5. That the continuance of those duties during peace, when the facility of smuggling is so much increased, cannot fail to injure the home manufacture of spirits, which must still farther diminish the demand for bar-、 ley. 6. That it is therefore necessary to reduce the duties on malt, beer, and spirits. 7. That in order to equalize the supply of grain, and promote its cultivation, it is desirable that an appropriation should be made from the extra produce of abundant harvests to supply the deficiency of seasons less favourable. 8. That the admission of fo vents such application of our own 9. That it is therefore expedient to repeal so much of an act of last session for the regulation of the corn trade, as permits the warehousing of foreign corn at all times, duty free. 10. That in order further to promote the appropriation of part of our present abundance, and reserve it for future consumption, it is expedient to aid the means of those individuals who may be disposed so to employ their capitals, by an advance of exchequer bills to a limited amount. 11. That excessive taxation renders it necessary to give protection to all articles, the produce of our own soil, against similar articles, the growth of foreign countries, not subject to the same burthens, and in conformity with that policy which has been uniformly observed, of protecting by duties, and encouraging by bounties or drawbacks, all our other manufactures. 12. That it is therefore expedient to impose additional duties and restrictions on the importation of all articles, the produce of foreign agriculture. 13. That it is expedient, under due limitation, to encourage, by bounty or drawback, the exportation of the redundant produce of the agriculture of the united kingdom. 14. That the tithe and the poor rates, to the payment of which those whose capitals are engaged in agriculture are almost exclusively subjected, have recently been felt to press with increasing and unexampled severity, and that it is therefore necessary to relieve them, as far as possible, from the operation of other burthens. After the reading of these resolutions, the hon. member made the motion for the committee of which he had given notice. Mr. Frankland Lewis seconded the motion in a speech which began with a refutation of the suminary opinion respecting the cause of the present distress-that it was entirely owing to the peace. If (said he) the present discussion did nothing more than dispel this dangerous illusion, he should be content, as a conviction of the benefits resulting from peace was a better guarantee for its continuance than treaties. It was to the continuance of peace alone that we could look for relief under our present afflictions. The war, glorious and successful as it had been beyond all former example, had left us forty millions a year to pay as interest of debt, and also, what we were told was necessary, an establishment of at least twenty millions more. hon. member then proceeded to state his reasons for thinking that we had arrived nearly to the point beyond which the borrowing system could not be extended; and he adduced a number of facts relative to the present situation of the country, which would afford matter for future discussion. The Other members spoke on the occasion; but the conclusion was an unanimous agreement to the object of the motion, and the committee was fixed for the 19th. The resolutions were ordered to be printed. Various petitions for relief from the agricultural distresses were presented to the House of Commons previously to the 28th of March, when the order of the day was moved by Mr. Western for going into a committee of the whole House on that subject. The discussion which succeeded took so wide a range of enquiry into the nature of the distress, and its causes and remedies, that after a variety of discordant opinions had been started by the different speakers, the House at a late hour adjourned the debate. The resumption of this important topic did not take place till April 9th, when Mr. Western moved the order of the day for the farther consideration of the agricultural distresses of the country; at the same time, on account of the thin attendance, he said he did not feel himself disposed to urge that the House should go into the committee on that evening. He had hoped that the most persevering attention would have been given to this subject, but whether from the pressure of business, or from whatever other cause, the House had not attended to it as he could have wished. A debate then ensued concerning the postponement of the subject till after the holidays; which was terminated by a motion of Sir Egerton Brydges for the present resumption of the adjourned debate, which being carried, the House resolved itself into a committee. Mr. Brougham then rose, and delivered a speech, in which at considerable length he entered into an historical view of the origin and progress of the difficulties into which the nation had unhappily fallen. In this luminous exposure, which was heard with much attention, the circumstance which he stated as lying at the root of the matter was the progress of agriculture during the period of the last war, or from the year 1792 downwards. This he traced through the operation of its several causes; and concluded, that by their united action, a start had been made in the productive powers of this island, quite unexampled in any equal period of its former history. "On the other hand (said he) when I reflect on the nature of the causes which I have enumerated, and find that most of them are of sudden occurrence, and that their combination in the space of ten years was accidental; when, moreover, I perceive that the most material of them were of a temporary duration, and could not remain long to support the great cultivation which they had occasioned, I am disposed to think that I have got hold of a principle upon which something like an overtrading in agriculture, and a consequent redundance of produce, may be inferred to have happened." He then took into consideration the circumstances which began and continued to operate to the disadvantage of agriculture; and finally discussed the probable effects of the proposed remedies. But as the matter of this speech has been given in a separate publication, it would be useless to attempt to bring a summary of its argumentation within our compass. Lord Castlereagh, after complimenting the hon. and learned gentleman en the ability and temperance with which he had treated the subject, entered into a discussion of several topics on which he differed from him in opinion. |