NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE statement made by Mr. Gladstone on the financial position of the country, and the manner in which he proposed to deal with the revenue for the year, at once fulfilled and surpassed expectations. It will be recollected that Mr. Disraeli anticipated a surplus of 1,600,0001. for the current year : but it was felt that something had been kept out of view • and the inevitable increase of the public expenditure, then already looming in the future, has swallowed up more than that surplus, principally for additional expenses in the Army, Ordnance, and Militia. The revenue, however, esti- mated for last year at 52,325,0001., actually produced. 53,089,0001. ; and by help of that increase, Mr. Gladstone calculates upon a sur- plus of 800,000L, though a portion of even this amount is not based on ordinary and permanent revenue. • Under such circumstances, of course it was not possible to dis- pense with the Income-tax at present, and it became necessary for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to grapple with that great im poet at the very threshold of his enterprise. He cannot dispense. ilfith it ; neither is it possible to adjust it so as to attempt the re- moval of the unpopularpcirtions, without exciting such a war of classes es we have not seen in this country. The landed interest would not have tolerated any extensive tampering with the ache- &Iles-against itself; -Xanchester *Odd xelbst*,
readjustment with a Protectionist aim ; and labour hitherto ex- Ompted would have kicked under a burden newly imposed upon itself for the gain of a favoured class. Nor can ingenuity de- vise any means of meeting the scientific objections. It is a tax which cannot be reconciled to perfect justice and popular feeling in the levying: that was the conviction which made us anticipate that Mr. Gladstone would probably take steps to wards getting rid of it altogether; and in fact, while retainingit for the nonce, he once for all marks it as a temporary tax, and arranges, first for its gradual diminution, and then for its final extinction at the end of seven years, simultaneously with the expiration of the Long Annuities, in 1860.
Although the Chancellor of the Exchequer could not spare the Income-tax, the Government of which he is one was pledged to carry out the reforms of taxation in the direction of Free-trade ; the rising commerce of the country both justified and demanded the continuation of a process which has had. each happy results ; and the interests of his own department asked every help that he could throw in to free and promote the growth of revenue. These considerations, far more than the necessity of eclipsing his imme- diate predecessor, obliged Mr. Gladstone to proceed with the reforms of the tariff. But a surplus not exceeding 800,000/. was leverage- wound too slight for such a purpose, and he had therefore to create a standing-place. This he has done. He begins by extending the In- come-tax to incomes below 1504 but not below 1001., and to Ireland —to classes and to a kingdom-province that have benefited by the previous fiscal reforms ; accompanying his extension with compen- sations. To Ireland he relinquishes 4,000,000/. of the Poor-law and famine debt; to the individual insuring his life he pretermits income-tax on that species of saving. By the new Income-tax he nets .590,0001. In another important section of the revenue he descries the remains of class-imposts, and in redressing it, more "honour- ably and safely " than he could have done by twisting the Income- tax into an anti-property impost, he is enabled to derive a thump- ing addition to his revenue : by an extension of the Legacy-duty to real property he acquires 2,000,000/. and clears our finance of an opprobrium. The increased duties on Scotch and Irish spirits, on licences, and some other minor articles are constructed in the same spirit; effecting a total net gain of 3,139,0001. in addition to the surplus of 800,000/. - Here then, having ascended the Alps of taxation, the Hannibal of the Exchequer sees before him the fair field of surplus, 4,000,000/. broad, for the pleasant work of remission and reform.
In selecting the objects for relief, however, he has not been guided by "interests," save the broad interests of commerce and of the coun- try. All his remissions tend either to relieve the most extensive class of consumers, or to free trade still further from fiscal impedimenta, or to remove paltry inequalities and anomalies that disfigure the tariff and complicate the work of levying : and most of his changes effect all those results. The progressive reduction of the tea-duty, to stand at ls. within three years—the total remission of the soap- duty, amounting to a million and a quarter, the reduction of many stamp-duties, including that on receipts to a uniform penny—the uniform colonial postage of sixpence—have all those effects, of sim- plifying the tariff, relieving the consumer, and so distributing the burden as to free that commerce which is the great source of revenue. The lesser redactions upon certain small assessed taxes and 141 minor articles of food are in the same spirit ; and the abolition of paltry imposts which yield an aggregate of 53,0001. on 123 articles, is a relief to the Customhouse more even than to the consumer or to trade.
Although this scheme comprises many parts, although it is a work rather of art than of abstract science, and therefore not absolute in any one of its lines, yet it evidently must be taken as a whole, and could not be seriously altered in any important section with- Out fatal injury. The Income-tax extension, for example, is essen- tial to the general superstructure; so is the Legacy-duty extension. It is not more final than it is absolute : it is another instalment of taxation and tariff reform, widening the way for _farther reform. In expounding it to the House of Commons, Mr. ladstone did not set it forth with poeitive dogmatism, nor ad with rhetorical'
jewellery to make At, look liaudsome ; bu en ply unfolded. it, leaving it to its own merits. he tone of peech was of the conversational yet distinct kind into whi n falls when he is taking friends and business-aelinaintannaidnikeouneil. This plain- ness of manner only made his.amstery of the subject the niore appa- rent; and itwas felt that as a Finance Minister Mr. Gladstone has not been rivalled in the .present generation except by one man, whom -we have lost.
As faction is not ileed, it of course feels that it is now, challenged to the coinbakif it would not for ("lifetime confess it-
self beaten. Accor faction has been ocillanting iteelf-for the f n coniiionwealth; and. Lora erb her of the c -
fitting chief who gives voice to the battle-cry, " Awake ! arise !" The discontented Irish are the wicked sons of earth upon Wham the fallen Minister -counts for treacherous aid ; and the extension of the Income-tax to Ireland is to be the pretext for the opening of the war; which is to be opened on Monday next. "Sub Judie@ lis est" : the cause is before the public, and the merits are unmis- takeable. The success of faction in this case would. be the con- demnation of Parliament—the greatest blow that our Parliament- pay system has yet received.
