Matters, however, are not yet irremediable. Appearances are threatening, the danger is imminent, but the means of salvation are still within our grasp. All that is requisite is, to return with caution and moderation to the Protective policy which raised the British empire to such an unparalleled pitch of grandeur, and to abandon, cautiously and slowly, the selfish and suicidal policy which is now, by the confession of all, breaking it up. The great party—the National Party—which placed in Sir Robert Peel's hands the means of arresting this downward course, of restoring this glorious progress, still exists in undiminished numbers and increased spirit. It has gained one inestimable advantage—it has learned to know who are to be relied on as faithful to their principles, and who are to be for ever distrusted, as actuated only by the motives of ambition or selfishness. It has gained an equally important advantage in having had sophistry laid bare by experience. We have now learned, by actual results, at what to estimate the flattering predictions of the Free-Traders. The frightful spectacle of 300,000 emigrants annually driven for years together, since Free Trade began, into exile from the British islands; the proved decline of the taxable income of the industrious classes (Schedule D) by £8,000,000 since 1842, and £6,000,000 since 1846; the rise of our importation of foreign grain, in four years, from less than 2,000,000 of quarters annually to above 10,000,000; the increase of our imports in the last eight years by sixty-eight per cent, while our exports have only increased by fifty-one per cent during the same period; the increase of crime in a year of boasted prosperity to 74,000 commitments, a greater amount than it had ever reached in one of the severest adversity; the diminution of Irish agricultural produce by £8,000,000 in four years, and of British by at least £60,000,000 in value during the same period; the total ruin of the West Indies, the approaching severance of the other colonies from our empire, or their voluntary abandonment by our Government; the admitted increase of the national debt by £20,000,000 during twenty years of general peace;—these, and a hundred other facts of a similar description, have opened the eyes of so large a proportion of the nation to the real tendency of the new system, that it has already become evident, even to their own adherents, that, at latest, at the next election, if not before, the Protectionists will be in power.
Lord Stanley has announced, with the candour and straightforwardness which become a lofty character, what are the principles on which he is prepared to accept office. He was instantly to have taken off the Income Tax, which presses so severely on the industrious classes, and supplied the deficiency, which would amount to about £3,000,000, by a moderate import duty on all foreign commodities. The effect of these measures would have been incalculable: it is hard to say whether they would have benefitted the nation most by the burdens which were taken off, or those which were laid on. The first would relieve the most hard-working and important part of the middle class, and let loose above £5,000,000 a-year, now absorbed by the Income Tax, in the encouragement of domestic industry; the second would produce the still more important effect of enabling the nation to bear the burden of the necessary taxation, and compel the foreigners, who now so liberally furnish us with everything we desire tax-free, to bear the same proportion of our burdens which we do of theirs. A large part of the taxes of Prussia, and all the Continental States—the whole of the American—is derived from import duties; and in this way our artisans and manufacturers are compelled to pay a considerable proportion, probably not less than a half, of the national burdens of these states. Meanwhile their rude produce is admitted duty free to our harbours, so that we get no part of our revenue from them. They levy thirty per cent on our goods, and the whole of that goes to swell their revenue, to the relief of their subjects; we levy two or three per cent on their grain, and the miserable pittance is scarcely perceptible amidst the immense load of our taxation.
The benefit of the fiscal changes which Lord Stanley proposed would have been great, immediate, and felt by the most meritorious and heavily burdened class of the community—the middle class; the burden for which it would have been commuted would have afforded a certain amount of protection to native industry, so as to relieve the most suffering classes engaged in production, and that at the cost of a burden on consumers so trifling as to have been altogether imperceptible.
To illustrate the extreme injustice of the Income Tax, and the way in which it presses on the most industrious and hard-worked, as well as important class of the community, we subjoin a Table of Schedule D (Trades and Professions) for the year ending 5th April 1848; and we take that year in preference to the subsequent ones, to avoid the objection of the commercial crisis of 1848 having rendered the view partial and deceptive.[61] From this important Table it appears that the sums received from persons under £500 a-year were—
| Classes. | Tax Received. | No. of Persons. | Income Assessed. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under £150, | £73,539 | 34,270 | £2,521,334 |
| £150 and under £200, | 178,986 | 38,825 | 6,136,676 |
| £200 and under £300, | 195,036 | 29,909 | 6,686,939 |
| £300 and under £400, | 139,904 | 15,043 | 4,796,729 |
| £400 and under £500, | 89,856 | 7,324 | 3,080,766 |
| £677,321 | 125,371 | £23,222,444 |
And the incomes above £4000 stood thus:—
| Classes. | Tax Received. | No. of Persons. | Income Assessed. |
|---|---|---|---|
| £4,000 to £5,000, | £50,500 | 400 | £1,731,412 |
| £5,000 to £10,000, | 149,740 | 788 | 5,133,931 |
| £10,000 to £50,000, | 191,687 | 371 | 6,572,146 |
| £50,000 and upwards, | 50,184 | 22 | 1,720,593 |
| £442,111 | 1581 | £15,158,082 |
| Classes. | Income on which the duty is charged. | Number of Persons in each Class. | Amount of Tax received from each Class. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | ||||
| Under £150 a-year | 2,521,334 | 34,270 | 73,539 | ||
| £150 | and under | £200 | 6,136,676 | 38,825 | 178,986 |
| 200 | " | 300 | 6,686,939 | 29,909 | 195,036 |
| 300 | " | 400 | 4,796,729 | 15,043 | 139,904 |
| 400 | " | 500 | 3,080,766 | 7,324 | 89,856 |
| 500 | " | 600 | 2,858,869 | 5,532 | 83,384 |
| 600 | " | 700 | 1,884,934 | 3,043 | 54,976 |
| 700 | " | 800 | 1,542,040 | 2,124 | 44,976 |
| 800 | " | 900 | 1,417,502 | 1,713 | 41,343 |
| 900 | " | 1,000 | 821,923 | 875 | 23,973 |
| 1,000 | " | 2,000 | 6,832,015 | 5,234 | 199,268 |
| 2,000 | " | 3,000 | 3,431,064 | 1,483 | 100,073 |
| 3,000 | " | 4,000 | 2,342,674 | 703 | 68,328 |
| 4,000 | " | 5,000 | 1,731,412 | 400 | 50,500 |
| 5,000 | " | 10,000 | 5,133,931 | 788 | 149,740 |
| 10,000 | " | 50,000 | 6,572,146 | 371 | 191,687 |
| 50,000 and upwards | 1,720,593 | 22 | 50,184 | ||
| 59,511,547 | 147,659 | 1,735,753 | |||
Note.—From a Return ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 31st May 1849.