FINANCIAL STATEMENTS.
At this time, in consequence of the great abundance of capital in tire market, there was a general impression that the time had arrived when a considerable saving might be effected to the country, by a reduction in those stocks which bore the highest rate of interest. Early in the present session, indeed, it was discovered that government contemplated a plan for reducing the three and a half per cent, consols, which, at the commencement of the year, had reached the price of 102 1/2. This plan was developed by Mr. Goulburn, in a lucid and able speech, on the 8th of March. He was about to ask the house, he said, to deal with the largest sum for which any government had been called on to propose a regulation, being no less than £250,000,000 of money. Never, he continued, was there a period when capital, seeking an investment, was so plentiful, and the rate of interest so low as at present; and there was nothing in the circumstances of the times which gave any reason to suppose that this state of things would prove transient. The condition of the public finances also was favourable to the proposed object; for, thanks to the firmness of the house of commons, the revenue once more exceeded the expenditure. In explaining this measure, he said that he was not disposed to purchase an immediate relief by increasing the burdens of succeeding times. He had, therefore, rejected the idea of lowering the present interest by augmenting the capital of the debt. His intention was to propose the conversion of the three and a half into a three and a quarter per cent, stock, which should continue until October, 1854, after which period the interest should be reduced to three per cent., with a guarantee that for twenty years there should be no further reduction. By this measure the public, from October, 1844, to 1854, would save £625,000 per annum, which saving, from and after 1854, would become £1,250,000 per annum. Mr. Goulburn also proposed to make such arrangement that, from next October, the payments of interests would be nearly equalized in each quarter. His speech was received with loud demonstrations of approbation from both sides of the house; and the resolution being put, was carried unanimously. The bill brought in, to give it effect, passed rapidly through its stages in the house of commons; and it was carried through the upper house with equal unanimity and facility, all being convinced that it was a sound and practical measure, and honest withal to the public creditor.
The annual financial statement for this year was made on the 24th of April, when Mr. Goulburn had the satisfaction of showing that the receipts exceeded the expenditure. There had been an increase of amount in all the estimates: in the customs, the excise, the stamps, the taxes, the post-office, and the property-tax. The estimate of the total revenue was £50,150,000; the sum received £52,835,134, showing an increase of about £2,700,000. The expenditure also was less than the estimate by £650,000; and the total result was that, instead of the estimated surplus of £700,000, the gross surplus amounted to £4,165,000. From this, however, there was the deficiency of last year to be taken, namely, £2,749,000; and when this was discharged there was a net surplus of £1,400,000 over the expenditure of the year ending April, 1844. The total estimate of the revenue for the year following was £51,790,000, and the expenditure £49,643,170, whereby an apparent surplus of £3,146,000, or, making a deduction for a portion of the debt to be discharged next year, £2,376,000. Mr. Goulburn proceeded to say that this balance having been anticipated, he had been pressed from all quarters to reduce various taxes. He would gladly have done so, but the source of the surplus was not permanent: it was mainly the income-tax which was to be considered next year, in order to determine whether it should be prolonged, as had originally been proposed, for two years beyond the first. If other taxes were now hastily reduced before the operation of the tariff could be known, the house might have no alternative next year but to continue this tax. It was under these circumstances that he resisted large reductions; but he thought there were some articles upon which remission might be afforded, with a fair prospect of making up revenue by an increased consumption, and with a probability of increasing the consumption of other articles. The items which he proposed to select for such remission were glass, vinegar, currants, coffee, marine insurance, and wool, upon the aggregate of which the amount of duty to be remitted would be £387,000 per annum. Later in the session he intended to take the sugar duties into consideration; when he should recommend that England should admit, at a differential duty of ten shillings per cwt., the sugar of those states which do not cultivate that commodity by slave-labour. After considerable discussion, in which several members recommended the reduction or abolition of other taxes, the motion of Mr. Goulburn was agreed to; and the customs duties bill, and other bills founded on his proposition, subsequently passed through both houses with unanimity.
SUGAR-DUTIES BILL, ETC.
The great conflict of parties was reserved for the sugar duties. The chancellor of the exchequer’s views on this subject were propounded on the 3rd of June, when, after delivering a lucid and able speech on the sugar duties at present existing, and explaining his intended alterations in those duties, he moved:—“That towards raising the supply granted to her majesty, the several duties now payable on sugar be further continued for a time to be limited, save and except that from and after the 10th day of November next, there shall be charged on brown Muscovado, or clayed sugar, certified to be the growth of China, Java, or Manilla, or of any other foreign country, the sugar of which her majesty in council shall have declared to be admissible as not being the produce of slave-labour, £114s. the cwt., together with the additional duty of £5 per cent, on the afore-mentioned rate. That from and after the 10th day of November next her majesty be authorized by order in council to give effect to the provisions of any treaty now in force, which binds her majesty to admit sugar, the produce of a foreign country, at the same duties as are imposed on sugar the produce of the most favoured nation.” Lord John Russell had announced that he would propose an amendment for including slave-grown sugar in that foreign produce which was to be admitted at diminished duties; but Mr. Goulburn said he could not believe that the house would consent to throw away the whole of that large amount which the country had recently paid for the abolition of slavery, by creating, through a new rise of prices, an additional stimulus to the importation of slaves into the foreign colonics. Lord John Russell, however, combated the views of government at great length; after which he moved, as an amendment, “That towards raising the supply granted to her majesty, instead of the duties of customs now payable on sugar, there shall be charged on brown, or Muscovado sugar, the produce of any foreign country, the sum of £1 14s. per cwt.” In support of his motion the noble lord argued, that the time was come when the sugar duties ought to undergo a full consideration. It was proposed, he said, to admit the sugar of Java and Manilla as free-grown, though the policy of these countries was questionable in point of personal freedom; but the sugar of Porto Rico was excluded, because our conscience was shocked at the notion that some part of it might have been produced by slaves. But what was thus forbidden directly, was allowed circuitously; we were willing to refine and export this slave-grown sugar, and to take the hemp and tallow of Russia in its stead, which seemed to be an easy way of letting down our consciences. This savoured of hypocrisy. If the United States were permitted to send us their sugars, which they would do to the extent of 50,000 tons per annum, they would take slave-grown sugar into their own consumption to the same extent; and to that whole extent, therefore, would give encouragement to slave-grown sugar. No implicit faith, moreover, was to be placed in the certificates of the Americans. Messrs. Gladstone and Baring defended the government measure; and Messrs. Hume, Labouchere, and M. P. Stewart opposed it. On a division Lord John Russell’s amendment was negatived by one hundred and ninety-seven against one hundred and twenty-eight. A few days afterwards, a bill founded on the chancellor of the exchequer’s resolutions was brought in, and was read a second time without discussion. But the most critical crisis for ministers had yet to be encountered. On the 14th of June, the house having resolved itself into committee on the sugar-duties bill, Mr. P. Miles objected to the change proposed by ministers in the old amount of protection as a measure which was not expedient, and not final in its settlement; wherefore he moved as an amendment, “That, from the 10th of November next, the duty on British colonial sugar should be. 20s.; on the sugars of China, Java, and Manilla, 30s.; with a duty of 34s. upon the foreign sugars, when imported at a certain degree of refinement, and with an addition, as usual, of five per cent, upon the whole.” This amendment was seconded by Mr. H. Baillie, who described the measure of government as causing general dissatisfaction; and asserted that, while it violated the principle of refusing encouragement to the foreign slave-trade, it gave but partial advantages to the British people. A long discussion took place, in which many members took part; and on a division government was defeated by a majority of two hundred and forty-one against two hundred and twenty-one. The committee then adjourned to the 17th; on which day Sir Robert Peel rose to put the house in possession of the course which government intended now to pursue. After explaining the nature of the sugar duties, and their views in the proposed alterations, and asserting that he believed a concurrence between the friends and the opponents of ministers had been concerted in the late division, he said the course which government would now take, and on which all members would be free, who had not engaged to vote for Mr. Miles’s proposal of 20s., would be to propose, as an amendment, that 24s. should be the duty. They wished it to be known in the countries east of the Cape what the intentions of government were. Sir Robert Peel went on to explain the reasons why he did not content himself with merely proposing a renewal of the present sugar duties; after which, he said, that he was not insensible to the impediments which had been opposed to the progress of ministerial legislation. In certain of their measures, government had failed to obtain the approbation of some whose support they valued: but they were not prepared to purchase that approbation at the price of refraining from the policy which they deemed essential to the welfare of the country. They had felt it their duty to make a relaxation of duties; in that course they held it their duty to persevere: and he was anxious that on so important an occasion there should be no deception and no reserve. Lord John Russell considered that the proposal of Sir Robert Peel was neither more nor less than that the house should retract its former vote, and thus disgrace itself with the country. For his own part he was not much moved by their threats of quitting office, as he had not been one of the general supporters of the government. He justified the degree of concert which had taken place between Mr. Miles and the opposition; and asked if there had not also been a combination on his side. In conclusion, he warned the house that if they gave Sir Robert Peel the victory on this occasion, they would henceforth be wholly in his power. Mr. P. Miles denied that the conspiracy existed of which the right honourable baronet had spoken, and expressed his regret that he intended to persevere with his bill: he should have thought he would have been justified in paying due deference to the decision of a majority of that house, and postponing his measure till another session. Messrs. Cochrane and Labouchere opposed; and Sir Howard Douglas, and Messrs. Kemble and Warburton expressed their intention to vote with ministers. Mr. D’Israeli was not a little lost in wonder when he heard the threatened resignation of ministers; and facetiously congratulated the administration and the country, that instead of resigning, the right honourable baronet had simply moved an amendment. Several other members took part in the debate; and on a division Mr. Miles’s motion was negatived this time by a majority of two hundred and fifty-five against two hundred and thirty-three; after which Sir Robert Peel’s amendment, that 24s. and 84s. should be inserted, was agreed to. In committee further discussion occurred, and several amendments ‘were moved; but they were all negatived and the bill finally passed the commons.
The principal debate in the house of lords took place on the 2nd of July, when Lord Dalhousie moved the third reading. In his speech, the noble lord showed the prejudicial effects of the emancipation of the slaves in the West Indies on the supply of labour, and the consequent diminished production of sugar. This diminution had increased the price; and it became requisite to provide a supply from other quarters to answer the increase of demands. It was for this purpose that the present measure was introduced. By the act, which it was intended to supersede, all foreign sugar was subjected to a duty of 63s. per cwt. and five per cent.; and British sugar to a duty of only 24s., and five per cent. This bill proposed to leave the duty on sugar, the produce of the British possessions, as it then stood, namely, 24s. and five per cent.; but it proposed to effect an important alteration with respect to foreign sugar, by allowing the sugar of China, Java, and Manilla to be admitted at a duty of 34s. and five per cent., such sugar being the produce of free labour; and it also proposed to give to her majesty in council a power to admit, under peculiar circumstances, sugar, the produce of other countries with which we had reciprocal treaties, such being-certified to be bona fide the sugar of those countries, and the produce of free labour. The bill was opposed by the Marquis of Lansdowne, Earl St. Vincent, and Lord Monteagle; and supported by the Earl of Radnor, and Lords Ashburton and Brougham. After a few words from Earl Dalhousie, in reply, it was read a third time, and passed without a division.