ANOTHER GLANCE AT THE BUDGET.
Taz Budget is not what the Ministerial clacqueurs have attempted to represent it, a measure of Tariff Reform : it is merely the makeshift arrangement proposed by a Government driven to attempt the readjustment of the balance between means and outlay, disturbed by a deficient revenue and an increasing expenditure. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced that he finds he has a permanent deficiency of 1,700,000/. to provide for. To raise additional funds for this purpose, he proposes, in the first place, to modify the duties upon Sugar and Timber. The present duty on Colonial sugar is 24s. per hundredweight, the present duty on Foreign sugar 63s. per hundredweight : Mr. BARING proposes to leave the duty on Colonial sugar at its present rate, and reduce the duty on Foreign sugar to a rate of 36s. per hundredweight. The present duty on Colonial timber is 10s. per load, the present duty on Baltic timber is 55s. per load : Mr. BARING proposes to raise the rate of duty on Colonial timber to 203. per load, and reduce the rate of duty on Baltic timber to 50s. per load. He estimates the addition to the revenue from the change in the Sugarduties at 700,000/. per annum ; the addition from the change in the Timber-duties at 600,000/. per annum. These sums leave 400,000/. of the permanent deficiency still unprovided for. How this is to be raised, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has not yet made up his mind. Ile will wait till the fate of Lord Jona RussELL's motion for a Committee of the whole House on the Corn-laws be decided. He thinks that the modification of the Corn-laws to be proposed by the Colonial Secretary would yield an annual revenue of 400,000/. from imported corn ; but if that and his other schemes be disapproved of by the House, he will betake himself to direct taxation.
The accuracy of the data upon which the Chancellor builds his estimate of the permanent annual expenditure of the nation, and the soundness of his reasoning upon these data, admit of criticism. The aspect of affairs in the East would lead one to think it an under-estimate: but we waive that question for the present, and confine ourselves to the merits of the portion of his plan for counterbalancing the annual deficiency which he has developed. On that portion which he retains in petto, it will be time enough to pronounce a judgment when we know what Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S plan for raising a revenue from corn is, and whether that device, as a direct impost, is to be adopted for the purpose of raising the 400,0001., regarding the means of raising which the Chancellor seems still undecided.
One remark applies to both the items of Mr. BARING'S Budget which he has promulgated : they are not part of a great comprehensive measure calculated at once to relieve trade and restore our finances to a healthier condition ; nor do they rest upon the principle that duties on articles of import and export ought to be imposed solely as a source of revenue, not as the means of giving a bias by protection or restriction to the course of trade. The great grievance of our tariff consists in the enormous number of articles subjected to duties, many of them producing no revenue, many mere driblets; and the utter want of arrangement and classification in the official catalogue of articles subjected to duty. By this means, the percentage upon the collection of the revenue is much increased, while merchants are subjected to loss of time and other annoyances : more money is exacted from the tax-payer than is necessary, and it is exacted in such a manner as to increase the burden. The Chancellor's nibble at the tariff leaves this evil unreformed. Again, of the articles which yield large contributions to the revenue, his measure affects only two: admitting, for the sake of argument that the -changes he proposes to effect in the duties imposed upon these two articles are likely to be beneficial, -their operation is partial, will be unequally experienced by different classes of consumers, and will leave the majority of the trading class (in their commercial capacity) unaffected. There are two standards by which every act of administrative statesmen must be tested,—its probable effect, as showing the amount of wisdom and benevolence in the projector; the probability of its receiving popular support, as showing the soundness of his practical judgment. Tried by these tests, it is clear, even before descending to the particulars of the two items of the financial operation contemplated by Mr. BARING, that this measure is not entitled to any very high character. It leaves the pressure of our tariff, so loudly com
plained of, in the main unalleviated; what relief it does afford is only partial, and calculated rather to increase than diminish the evil of the unequal incidence of taxation. Then as to the chance of popularity: being partial in its operation, it is only calculated to excite class-interests to support it, while on the other hand it also stimulates class-interests to oppose it. It is defective when tried by that surest test of a genius for practical statesmanship, the adoption of measures calculated to combine with the greatest possible amount of general support the least possible amount of classopposition.
When we descend to details, matters are not found to be much
mended. With regard to the change proposed to be made upon the Sugar-duties, in so far as the consumers of Great Britain alone are concerned, it is unquestionably calculated to prove advantageous • and as all the inhabitants of Great Britain almost may now be Classed among the consumers of sugar, this is in favour of the measure. With regard to the temporary individual suffering likely to be occasioned by the change in the Sugar-duties, that will be tonfined to the old West Indians, and to the new sugar-planters in the East Indies; and possibly the apprehensions of these colonists may exaggerate its amount. Even in taking this unexaggerated view of the question, it implies a serious charge against the Ministry which has tabled the Budget under review. They carried a measure by which the West Indians have been placed in a worse condition for meeting the change, than, but for the legislation of the Imperial Parliament, they would have been ; and, instead of making provisions for rendering the effects of that measure as little lasting as possible, they have thrown impediments in the way of the efforts made by the West Indians—few and desultory enough, it must be admitted—to help themselves. With regard to the Timber-duties, on the other hand, the change proposed to be effected in them seems calculated to be mischievous, and altogether indefensible. The increase occasioned in the price of Canadian timber by doubling the rate of duty upon it, will not be compensated to the public by the reduction in the price of Baltic timber occasioned by lowering the rate of duty on it one-eleventh part. Besides, for many purposes in which cheapness is an object, Canadian timber is preferred to Baltic timber : an alteration in the rates of duty will cause the tax to fall with disproportionate weight on the consumers of cheap timber. It may also be asked, what have our Canadian merchants done, that they are to have the impediment, which the exaction of a duty throws in the way of any trade, doubled to them at this moment ? Are they to be punished because the Canadian rebels paralyzed their trade for a time some years back. Then comes the extraordinary logic by which Mr. BARING arrives at the conclusion that the change he proposes in the Timber-duties will yield an increased revenue of 600,000/. per annum. Lord SPENCER recommended some time ago, that the duty on Baltic timber should be reduced to 45s. per load, and the duty on Canadian timber left as it was. "This," says Mr. BARING, "would give a difference of 30s. per load in favour of Canadian timber. Well, by raising the duty on Canadian timber from 10s. to 20s., and reducing that on Baltic timber from 55s. to 50s., I have just 30s. of difference, and shall of course derive the means of revenue anticipated by Lord Spencer from my operation." Mr. BARING holds, that the amount of revenue from a duty does not depend on its positively high or low rate, but upon the judicious adjustment of the proportional rates levied upon different classes of the same article. It is quite indifferent to the consumers of Canadian timber—they will consume the same quantity— whether the duty be 10s. or 20s., so long as the consumers of Baltic timber pay 308. more ! Although we intend to abstain from the discussion of the plausibility of Mr. BARING'S estimated expenditure, we may just hint, that in the present feverish state of the West Indian and North American Colonies, anger at finding themselves the scapegoats of the Ministerial Budget is calculated to lead to consequences likely to increase the expenses of Government. The object of these remarks is to place the Budget in its true light,—a device for procuring an additional income with as little opposition as possible ; not a first step towards the emancipation of trade from restrictive duties, or even to a readjustment of the tariff, taken deliberately and with an intention of following it up.
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