hood by the application of his capital in a particular pursuit-the tillage of land for instance; his interest, therefore, depended upon the rate of return rendered by his capital, which again depended upon the price of the produce of the land with reference to the rent. If the price fell, or, in other words, if it were reduced by the repeal of the corn-laws, the interest of the farmer must be put to rights, and his losses prevented, by a reduction in the rate of rent. When it was clearly proved that the interest of the farmer depended upon the price of the produce of the land with reference to rent, the farmer must be satisfied that he had no interest in the monopoly of the corn-laws, though the landlord had. The whole community, in fact, was taxed by the corn-laws, for the purpose only of increasing the rent of the landlords. Other members expressed surprise at this doctrine. The farmer, they said, found the capital; it was admitted to be there; and was it not to be protected as much as if it had been invested in a manufactory of hats or glass? Was not the capital of the landlord and corn-grower an important point to be considered? Was that nothing which required protection? Was he to suffer the foreign grower to come into the market and beat him out of the field? According to this, the country would go on well, while the landlords would be utterly ruined.

The shipping interest, too, complained loudly of distress, which they considered to be either caused or aggravated by the admission into our ports of ships of foreign nations on the same terms on which our vessels were admitted into theirs; an admission which the Crown had the power of con

ceding, under the 4th Geo. IV., c. 77, commonly called "the Reciprocity of Duties Act." On the 5th of June petitions for the repeal of that Act were presented from shipowners and others interested in shipping in Glasgow, North Shields, South Shields, Hull, and Dundee; from 1,800 seamen of the port of Newcastle; from shipowners and others in the same place; from seamen, shipowners, and others interested in shipping in the port of London; and from Teignmouth, Tynemouth and Exeter. On the same day, Mr. G. F. Young moved for leave to bring in a bill to repeal the 4th George IV. c. 77, with the view, as he said, of restoring to Parliament its constitutional control over all treaties with foreign powers, involving the commercial interests of the British community. The motion was opposed by the ministers; and was rejected by 117 noes to 52 ayes.

In the course of the session several petitions were presented against the graduated scale of duties on tea, which had been adopted in the preceding session; and these petitions gave rise, particularly on the 17th and 18th of March, to incidental discussions on the merits of the new system, which, for reasons not very apparent, had become very unpopular among teadealers and tea brokers. While the importation of tea was confined to the East India Company, the duty was paid upon the public sales, being ninety-six per cent. upon the lowest class of tea, which was bohea, and 100 per cent. upon all others, according to their respective values, as ascertained by the prices they brought. That duty was assessed by an officer selected by the East India Company, and the money was paid

forthwith into the exchequer, free from all deductions. When that system, upon the opening of the trade ceased to be practicable, two alternatives had presented themselves a graduated, or an uniform duty; and the government, said the objectors, had, very unwisely, adopted the former. To render a system of graduated duties beneficial, there were, said the objectors, two important requisites. The first was a cer tainty and facility in distinguishing the different grades of quality, and the second, such an adjustment of duty to the relative value of the various kinds and qualities of tea in the market, as would not destroy the prevailing and free operation of the taste of consumers; for any violent action on prices, occasioned by the imposition of unsuitable relative duties, might alter the course of consumption, even when it did not extensively affect the aggregate quantity consumed, and might thereby greatly reduce the amount of revenue. The graduated scale of duties was faulty in both respects. There was no certainty in distinguishing the various qualities of teas, because the sorts described in the several classes of the graduated scale were not distinguishable by any defined or acknowledged tests. It was not possible for a revenue officer to determine on any wellestablished ground of confidence the precise difference between bohea and congou, or congou and sou chong, on occasions when there occurred anything like a close approximation of quality. The scale, too, would interfere with the course of consumption. Bohea, which hitherto paid 96 per cent. was now charged with a duty of 1s. 6d. per lb.; congou, which formerly paid 100 per cent., with 2s. 2d. The difference of the duty, there

and

39

Wholesalecost was 2 11 The relative value of these teas for consumption, as ascertained by public sales, was shown in the first statement to be as 50 for congou to 45 for bohea. Then, when congou was worth 3s. 9d., bohea would be worth 3s. 44d.; and, therefore, bohea, in the hands of the importer, would be worth 1s. 93d.; when congou was worth only 1s. 7d. The operation of the altered duty would be to make bohea, which was 2 to 6 per cent. cheaper than congou, 13 per cent. dearer in the importer's, or short prices.

On the part of the ministers, it was stated, that the opinions of practical men had been consulted; deputations from the outports, from the tea-brokers of the city, and gentlemen extensively engaged in the tea trade, had been received again and again; plans for ad valorem, fixed, and rated duties had been carefully considered, and the result had been that government thought it most advisable to decide upon the graduated scale of duties. A great change appeared, however, to have taken place in the sentiments of some of the gentle

men who had given their advice to the government, though it was not possible for them to have obtained more information on the subject than they possessed at that time. The great object of the ministers had been to supply tea to the consumer of the lowest quality at the cheapest possible rate, consistent with maintaining the revenue. It had been said, that the lower orders did not drink bohea; but what had been the state of the importations? From the returns of the East-India sales, it appeared that, in the course of 15, 16, or 17, years the quantity of bohea sold had risen from 500,000lb. to 6,500,000lb. while the quantity of congou consumed had increased in a much lower ratio. It had been stated that, by making so great a difference as 8d. in the duty,

it would be found more advantageous to import bohea at even a higher price than congou-the difficulty of distinguishing them being so great. But the difficulty arose only where the qualities of the two articles approached very near to each other. Forty-four different samples had been submitted to tasters in this country when the inquiry was in progress, and, with the exception of two bad hits, the different qualities were most correctly distinguished. The most experienced officers of the revenue had been consulted, and they had declared their conviction that there would be no difficulty in collecting the duties under the new system. It was an experiment well worth trial. It had succeeded in America. These discussions did not lead to any result.

S

O early in the session as the 14th of February, the Chancellor of the Exchequer presented to a committee of Ways and Means an outline of the financial state of the country, and of his financial plans; premising, however, that it was impossible, two months before the financial year commenced, to enter into minute details, or to fix accurately, the expenditure of the ensuing twelve months. The amount of taxes repealed in 1831 and 1832, was 1,790,000l., and in 1833, 1,545,000l. The total amount of taxes reduced in 1831, 1832, and 1833, was 3,335,000l. Yet the balance of income and expenditure on the 5th of January last, presented a surplus of revenue larger than on the 5th of April last, and amounting to upwards of 1,513,000l.; so that, notwithstanding the continued and extensive repeal of taxes, the surplus had increased through the combined operation of improvement in other branches of the revenue and reduction of expenditure. In addition to this surplus, the estimates of the present year had been reduced by 500,000l., which would raise the surplus, in in round numbers, from 1,500,000l. to 2,000,000l. Besides, he expected a considerable augmentation of revenue, without imposing an additional burden on the country,

from the graduated scale of duty which had been substituted for an ad valorem duty on tea. A reduction in the price of tea, must be expected; and then a fixed rate of duty would bear a larger proportion to the price of the article than an ad valorem duty, although the amount of tax paid on a pound of tea would not be greater than it was under the old system. When by bringing a larger quantity of tea into the market, the price of the article was diminished, the amount produced by an ad valorem duty diminished also; but under a fixed rated duty, any increase in the amount of tea consumed necessarily produced a corresponding augmentation of the revenue. During the next year, instead of 8,000,000lbs. of tea, which the East India Company had of late brought to each quarterly sale, it was the intention of government to bring 9,000,000lbs. into the market every quarter. The average amount of the tea duty was 3,300,000l., which, by the increased quantity brought into the market, would be raised to 3,900,000l.; thus yielding an increase of 600,000l. to the revenue, and raising the surplus to 2,600,000l. The only additional obligation, which the country had to meet, was the interest of the twenty millions granted to the West-India proprietors; and, after

deducting 800,000l. on this account, there still remained a surplus of 1,800,000l. Under these circumstances, it was his intention to recommend to the house to reduce taxes to the amount of 1,200,000l.; and though, looking at the subject as a simple financial question, there were other taxes which, in his opinion, it was more desirable to repeal; yet as one of the ingredients in the impropriety of a tax was its unpopularity, he thought that the best suggestion he could offer was to repeal the tax on houses. The reduction of this tax would absorb nearly the whole of the surplus; for, after the reduction made in it last year, the remaining portion amounted to about 1,170,000l. He did not mean to say that he would not propose a reduction with respect to one or two other items of taxation, though he would not state what he contemplated, in this respect, until he was prepared to bring in a bill. He hoped, however, that if the house should think proper to reduce the house-tax, they would support him in resisting the reduction of any other considerable items of taxation. It was not his intention, at present, to introduce a bill for the repeal of the house-duty: he wished first to see how the questions, of which notice had been given, were met. He would probably be told, that he was giving relief to the trading interest, while he was giving none to the landed interest, the distress of which had been admitted and recognized by the government. He could not deny the force of that statement, and it would be for the house to decide whether it would relieve the country to the amount of 1,200,000l. by the repeal of the house-tax, or apply the reduction of taxation to that amount in some

other way. At the same time, he held out to the farmers and landowners, the prospect of great and substantial relief, by promising them a commutation of tithes, and a new poor-law bill.

Mr. Cobbett expressed his surprise that the chancellor of the exchequer should have made any statement at all; for, to him, it did not appear that there was any good reason why the noble lord should have made one then, excepting it were to stop the house from asking for the repeal of taxation. The noble lord had spoken, to see how many would cheer his statement. He spoke to sound them

to see if they would consent to bear their present burthens, and to ascertain with what feelings they would continue to bear them, for the future. The house-tax was unobjectionable in itself, and was just in principle: and he would not have taken the house-tax off, had he been in the noble lord's situation. Such a proceeding, in a minister, was an encouragement to the people to demand the repeal of taxes; and the noble lord might have remarked that he (Mr. Cobbett) never recommended the nonpayment of taxes, either in speaking or writing. The taxes, which the people wanted to have repealed, were the malt-tax and hop-duties.

Sir Robert Peel considered, looking to what had been already done, that the reduction of half a million in the estimates was as much as could be expected, and did credit to the government: and the proposed diminution of taxation was greater than he himself would have ventured on, considering the precarious nature of some of the sources from which the surplus was to be derived. That surplus consisted-first, of an actual ba