BRADY'S STAMP-DUTIES.
OF late years, the Finance Minister of the United Kingdom has never been a person to set the Thames on fire, or even to damage.
the Stock Exchange. As affairs go, this is perhaps inevitable.
The very faculties which would render a man competent to the task, may indispose him to accept the office. For who but an in-
sensible would be Chancellor of the Exchequer ? In time of war, he must supply the sinews ; whilst Generals and Secretaries run away with the glory. When peace comes, he must still continue to pay the piper, though he has never reaped either credit or ad- vantage from the music—most probably had nothing to do with engaging the band. When the people, like children of a smaller growth, set their hearts upon a folly or a toy, no heed is taken of the expense—the Chancellor will find the ways and means ; but long are the faces and loud the grumbling when the day as in- evitable as death comes round. The heads of other departments may gain credit from such portions of the community as their ope- rations touch !lot; but the operation of imposts is held to b s universal —every man fancies taxation pinches him. " Eloquence, that charms the soul," may in less matter-of-fact affairs disarm or miti- gate the rage even of faction ; but the breeches-pocket heeds not the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely. People seem
to think the Chancellor of the Exchequer a monstrous adept in crimes against property, who escapes punishment by the amount of his delinquencies—a sort of compound of the thief and swindles, or the highwayman and pickpocket. Even his favours affect not like the favours of any other Minister. A fair-spoken phrase, a disposition to give way on a part only of some acknowledged usurpation, will win golden opinions from all sorts of people. But when a tax is given up, the aggrieved deem it a due to justice : the thing is forgotten when the payment ceases, or is remembered only -to measure the fraction resigned against the Softie retained. W hen the Finance Minister parts with a tax, he makes a hundred discontented and one ungrateful : those who are relieved slink away, or join his adversaries : his very remissions are urged against him by " interests" who deem their necessities greater than those of the favoured ones, and who throw his benefits in , his teeth, by arguing " thus didst thou." • If these difficulties beset a Chancellor as he is, what perils Would surround a Chancellor as he ought to be! After rhetoric is exhausted, there are worse taxes than the House and Window Taxes, or than the Malt-duty : but these touch powerful bodies :. the first draw a sum directly from a large mass of men who create Members of Parliament, and who are capable of ready organiza- tion ; 'the second is supposed to affect barley land. But these taxes are established. If, however, their levy causes such oppo- sition, what sort of opposition would be made to a proposal to im- pose a heavier anti direct tax on bodies still more powerful—not- mere creators of legislators, but legislators themselves, and who are already organized ?
But suppose a financier, after a careful survey of our real diffi- culties, and of the difficulties which are created by the prejudices and ignorances of the people, were to get up on the Treasury bench and deliver himself somewhat in this fashion—" After the experience I have gained of the heartburnings and the strong op- position which are caused by one direct tax affecting powerful classes, I feel doubtful if I could carry a Property-tax to affect classes still more powerful. Were it carried, I doubt whether it- could be maintained. And after a full consideration of the amount of our burdens, I feel confident that mere retrenchment cannot for many years perceptibly lessen them to the bulk of the people—to the great masses of society. Nothing, therefore, is left me, but to in- crease
the power of endurance; and, since I cannot render the tax- ation very much less, to endeavourto make the real wealth of the nation greater. But to do this, it will be necessary to go at once to the rout of the evil—to effect a radical and a simultaneous change in those matters which have created and will continue our social de- rangement. These I believe to be our protective taxes on food, and our 'duties on raw materials, more especially on timber. By raising the price of labour, and of the matter on which labour is to operate, they artificially add to the value-of every production, and to the cost of its transport. I propose to apply all that I have been able to save by retrenshment, and even to risk some slight defalcation in the revenue, in order to repeal these imposts. By throwing open the trade in the necessaries of life, I shall not, perhaps, miraculously reduce their price; but I put an end to any demand which the home manufacturers may fairly make to protection. If the public can buy manufactares cheaper and better elsewhere, they will in future be at liberty to buy them. By abolishing the duties on timber, and on other materials which enter into the constructicn of vehicles and implements, I reduce their cost considerably, but more especially do I lower the price of shipbuilding by nearly one half, and put an end to any privileges the shipowners may claim: every production both British and foreign may hereafter be trans- . ported at the cheapest rate. Nor is this all. The Colonists have over and over again declared, that if they are allowed to purchase their provisions and luniber—the implements of sugar-making- -where they can buy them cheapest, and to send away their produc- tions by those who will carry them at the lowest cost, they are ready to resign the monopoly of the home market. I suspect 'this is an impudent bravado ; but I take them at their word, and, having placed the shipowners on an equality with those of other countries, I call upon them to resign the monopoly of colonial con- veyance; and then, reducing and equalizing the duties on tropical commodities, I lower the price of all those productions which form the staple of the comfortable sustenance of the English people, without injuring the revenue; whilst I open the markets—now almost hermetically sealed against them—of America, China, Hin- dostan, and the East and North of Europe, to the manufacturers and carriers of Great Britain ; stimulating at once their industry and our own. If capital has been invested in Canadian saw-mills and in British vessels, which may fairly. call for compensation, I am ready, after the best consideration, to bestow it, not grudgingly, but not lavishly." If, we repeat it, such a proposal as this were made by a Finance Minister, what would follow? The householders would denounce him as a traitor. The classes, neither inconsiderable nor powerless, whose monopolies—perhaps profitless monopolies —he proposed to touch, after ringing the changes on knave and "cold-blooded theorist," would wind up by suggesting an impeach- Ment. The people would think a scriptural thought—that much learning had made him mad. The few who appreciated the measure would shrink from aidine. it. "It is a vast scheme, but visionary —can he work it ?" . aiding the result would be, that a Cabinet which permitted such a proposal would be dissolved in a week. But Cabinets are too wise in their generation to risk such evils. They pitch upon a person for Chancellor of the Exchequer with a skull of reasonable proof, a "good sort of man, but stupid,,' yet still with a dash of the trickster in him, although it may be con- cealed from himself. Such a man breeds no hate with planning comprehensive measures : if he ever stumbles upon a scheme which may give rise to fierce opposition, he has none of the pride of knowledge about him, to prevent his retraction or induce his re- turn to the charge; and when his declarations deceive the too im- plicit confiders in his word, a large majority acquit him of the wilful intention,—for they argue, charitably, that he knew.'hot what he meant. Yet let us be just to the most insidious foe of the Taxes on Knowledge. In other matters, he has not played the conjuror, but in remissions he has done his best, and that honestly. His repeals have not been the most judicious that might have been made; his application of the means at his disposal might have produced 'far greater good ; but less than the sum he has remitted, in indirect duties pressing upon industry, would have repealed the Assessed Taxes, and placed him upon the highest pinnacle of popularity. If Omniscience were Chancellor of the Exchequer to-morrow, it would be matter of regret, but scarcely of wonder, if he were to demean himself like a prudent man, and con- sult his own ease—apply such surplus as he possessed to the re- mission of the House-duty, and promise the Window-duty for the next session—play off the different protected classes one against the other, setting rival cupidities together by the ears—trust to the chapter of accidents—pocket his salary, and let the world slide. This train of thought has been induced by the examination of Mr. BRADY'S handy, portable, and complete work on the Stam p- duties, and the laws relative to their Collection : a cheap, and moreover a sightly little book, which will give all the necessary information upon this branch of duties, astonishing many by their ramifications, and affording a good text on which to preach in the abstract against taxation. It may, however, be questioned whether there are not many worse kinds of taxes than Stamps (always excepting the Taxes on Knowledge). They scarcely affect the poar; and they are for the most part an occasional, not a frequently recurring payment. To the payer, indeed, they may be often in- convenient, and always of course unpleasant : they frequently fall unequally ; but their operation ceases with the payment of the tax, and does not, like some other duties, carry a variety of evils in its train. It is provoking, no doubt, to have to pay a stamp before we can receive a debt ; but the tax is payable at a convenient time, and the payment of our due may salve the sore. It would be more agreeable to bind a son apprentice, or to take a lease, without the stamp being affixed to the document : in the first case, how- ever, it is payable but once, in the other at long intervals. In both cases, the real incidence is perhaps upon the landlord's rent and the master's premium ; though, in the practical higgling of the market, it may sometimes fall pretty equally. The duties on admissions of various kinds—as a student at law, a bachelor of arts, a physician—are vexing enough. But they are paid at a time when a man is making a step onwards ; they bear no kind of proportion t) the other expenses incurred about the same period (perhaps are not a third of the inauguration dinner) ; and if their amount can seriously inconvenience the payer, he will bitterly curse his stars, many hundred times during the course of his future career, that they had not been made far heavier. A duty on legacies is an unfair tax, because it is levied upon personal property only ; but the graduated scale is tolerably equal, and the payment is made at a convenient time enough, for all the property is changing hands. We might ring the changes on almost every item in Mr. BRADY'S useful little publication, but this specimen will suffice ; and even if the taxes were more injurious, it would be easy enough to find duties very much worse. The taxes on tea and-sugar, which double the price of those absolute necessaries to the most necessitous of man- kind—the destitute and unprotected female, struggling day and night to keep herself from the streets or the workhouse, or existing on a scanty pittance raised by relations almost as necessitous as herself—the taxes on the various articles daily consumed by the poor —still more, the various protective duties, which raise prices and diminish the revenue—and lastly, the imposts on raw materials and home manufactures, which oppress and fetter our industry, shut us out from foreign markets, whilst they force the production of foreign commodities to supersede ours, and not only raise prices far beyond the mere amount of the tax, but prevent the creation of more wealth than they abstract : these taxes, we say, are all worse than the Stamps, and far more worthy of censure. Let us not be misunderstood. We are no advocates of the " tax and spend " principle : we are not preachers from the text of " Render unto Caesar the things which are Cmsar's." Taxation of any kind is an evil. But situated as we are, it is a necessary evil. Yet even in necessary evils there are degrees ; and it is wise and prudent to take things in order. The Stamp- duties may be bad—point out the defects clearly, and aim at a practical remedy. They are unequal—state the inequalities, and inquire whether they admit of equalization. But, with a Debt charge of twenty-eight millions a year,—to say nothing of other demands,— any clamorous or Quixotic attack upon (all things considered) some of the least objectionable of our taxes, can lead to no useful object. It infuses false notions into the minds of the people ; it diverts attention from the greater grievances, to fix themupon the less ; it creates contradictory and impossible de- mands; and may render the best and most influential advocates of fiscal reform indifferent to the cause, when they see (we use the phrase as an expressive one) "an ignorant impatience of taxation." These things are bad at all times; they are especially bad now, for we think we snuff a financial crisis not very far off. The people have no confidence in the fiscal skill of our rulers ; and what is worse, they have arrived—perhaps have been driven—to that pitch when they would be satisfied with no one who did not implicitly obey their demands. They have been deceived so grossly, that they seem inclined to manage matters their own way ; and having observed, in the case of the Tory Lords, the West In- dians, and the Country Bankers. the effects of bullying and troubling, they may feel inclined to ,bully and trouble with a strong hand. In this case, the :Assessed Taxes must be remitted; the Landed interest will struggle for the Malt-tax; and there will be what Mr. BARING emphatically called a general scramble. The Finance Minister,'rash, wavering, incapable, and altogether un- fitted for the crisis, will propose measures only to abandon them; and, after a variety of crude and addle-headed schemes, a property or perhaps even an income-tax may be huddled up in most indecent speed, and imposed in the place of taxes much less galling : so that the latter end of our fiscal state shall be worse than the first.
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