1831.] FIRST WHIG BUDGET. 49 vast sum as a means employed to purchase the goodwill of the queen. So soon as this idea and opinion were commonly entertained, language of high-flown compliment was everywhere employed by reformers when speaking of their Majesties; although in the case of the queen a lurking suspicion as to her real intentions and feelings would ever and anon break out. The king, however, was on every occasion rapturously hailed as a patriot king, and every virtue which a king should or could possess was freely attributed to him. On February 11th, the Chancellor of the Exchequer brought forward his budget. Great promises had been made, and great expectations raised respecting economy; but as the ministry did not materially curtail the expense of the government-as the sum to be provided remained nearly the same, the only possible saving must result from the mode in which the revenue was to be raised; and the Chancellor of the Exchequer now endeavoured to satisfy public expectation by taking off and replacing taxes. So long as he was occupied in the former operation he pleased everybody —but the moment he began to supply the loss thus occasioned to the revenue, a shout of opposition was raised on all sides; and certainly a more crude and less successful attempt at financial legerdemain was never practised before an expectant people. His whole statement was confused, and evinced a want of practice in the business and routine of office;-and the substance of his measure was even worse than the 50 FINANCIAL STATEMENT. [1831. manner of its exposition. The first part of his statement consisted of an enumeration of the taxes which he proposed to take off entirely, or to lessen, together with an estimate of the consequent probable loss to the revenue; the second division of his exposition respected the manner in which he intended to supply the deficiency thus created; in other words, the taxes which he intended to impose. He drew a distinction, and an accurate one, between the relief given by the remission of taxes, and the loss therefrom to the revenue—for in taxation it has been found, that you seldom double your income by doubling your tax; and so when you take off half a tax you do not of necessity lose one-half of your income—although, as regards the people, one-half of the burden may be considered remitted. Calculating after this fashion, he estimated the amount of his proposed relief at 4,080,000l.-the loss to the revenue, he supposed would be somewhat less-viz. 3,170,000l. This relief to the people and loss to the revenue arose in the following manner :-He proposed in the first place to abolish certain unnecessary places, but respecting them he made this remark-'I do not state these reductions as any great economy in point of money, but I state them as a great diminution of patronage." When we are only talking of money saving, we may throw this item of supposed advantage out of our account. The year 1830, the last of the Duke of Wellington's 1 Mirror of Parliament, 1831, p. 168. 1831.] FINANCIAL STATEMENT. 51 administration, had been remarkably distinguished. The income greatly exceeded the expenditure-and on this happy state of things the present Chancellor of the Exchequer based his calculations and expectations. Taking the supplies needed to be 46,850,000%. and the income of the past year in round numbers to be 50,000,000l., he proposed to take off certain taxes, and put on certain others, prefacing his statement with this remark: The necessities of the country call for a considerable reduction, if possible, of the taxes pressing on productive industry; and I do not know any period in which measures for the reduction of taxes on productive industry could be made with greater and better effect than at present. It is not when the revenue is falling, when manufactures and commerce are checked, and the country distressed, that a reduction of taxes tells with the most beneficial effect; it is in such a period as the present, when the industry of the country is going on in a steady progressive state of improvement, that such a reduction will afford the greatest relief to it." He then pro 'The totals, as stated in the public accounts, are as follows:Income £55,934,963 Expenditure 54,223,414 This account includes the charge for collection, which then and now amounts to an enormous sum, which everybody seems afraid to look at or speak about. In 1830 the charge for collecting was £5,148,280. 2 Mirror of Parliament, 1831, p. 169. This statement destroys the whole fabric of assertions which went to prove a state of great distress in the country at this time. 52 FINANCIAL STATEMENT. [1831. ceeded to range the taxes he proposed to take off or diminish in the three following classes: 1. Those which being too heavy were less productive than they ought to be. 2. Those which pressed unequally on different classes of the people. 3. Those which press needlessly on the manufacturer, and take more out of the pockets of the people than they put into the Exchequer. Under which head most taxes may be classed. 1. The duty on tobacco he put into the first class, 2. Of the second class, he mentioned that on sea . £1,400,000 190,000 borne coal, and proposed to take it off entirely, 830,000 3. Under the third head he placed the tax on tallow candles, in order to abolish it; the loss being 420,000 The sum taken from the people by this tax, Lord Althorp estimated at two millions, though half a million alone came to the Exchequer. 1831.] FINANCIAL STATEMENT. 53 The loss that would actually take place, Lord Althorp supposed would be less than this; and from the data which he possessed, this real loss, that for which he considered himself bound to provide, he estimated at £3,170,000. This was the pleasing side of the picture. These reductions, however, brought the income under the expenditure, and he had to exercise his ingenuity in the far more difficult task of imposing wise taxes in lieu of those which he thus proposed to abolish or reduce, and in this first effort as a financier Lord Althorp was not successful. He certainly did not satisfy the world; and instructed financiers wondered when they heard his proposals. First, he proposed to equalize the duty on wine, from which operation he expected a gain of £257,000, but took it at £240,000 Next was a proposal to regulate the timber duty, from which was expected a gain of Then a tax on raw cotton was proposed, which was expected to give. 600,000 500,000 A tax on the transfer of landed property, and on the transfer of funded property, of a half per The reasons which induced the Chancellor of the Exchequer to consider this sum sufficient to meet the exigencies of the year he stated in the following manner. No words but his own will suffice for the occasion. |
