XXXI. 1833. ing by these means gained a respectable surplus, though at CHAP. the expense of the armaments essential for the national defence, Government gave the most convincing proof of the pressure of the new interest which, by the operation of the Reform Bill, had got the command of the country, and of the disregard of the future which was hereafter to characterise British legislation. Having thus got a surplus estimated at £1,572,000, the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed a reduction of taxation to the amount of £1,349,000, chiefly on soap and cotton, leaving only a surplus of £516,000 on the estimated income for the succeeding year, to go to the paying off of national debt! Even this great sacrifice of the future to the present did not satisfy the Radicals; and Mr Hume loudly complained that the whole estimated surplus was not applied to the reduction of taxation. He did not Parl. Deb. 1 April 19, press his motion, however, to a division, and the budget, 1833; Ann. as proposed by Ministers, passed without farther opposi- 143, 147. tion.1 Reg. 1833, one-half of against This result, which was unexpected in the first budget 59. with the reformed Parliament, arose from the determina- Repeal of tion of the different parties, by separate motions, to secure the maltfor themselves the desired reduction of taxation, without tax carried the slightest regard to the effect they would have, if Ministers. carried, on the general state of the revenue, or the maintenance of the armaments indispensable for the national independence. This soon appeared. The taxes which Lord Althorpe proposed to take off amounted to £1,349,000, and they were at once agreed to. But in addition to this, Sir W. Ingilby, one of the members for CHAP. Lincolnshire, moved in committee, that the malt-tax XXXI. should be reduced from 20s. 8d. to 10s. per quarter, being 1833. more than a half. He calculated that the loss to the revenue would be £1,500,000 at the utmost; the present produce of the tax being £4,825,000, and a greatly increased consumption being with certainty to be relied on. This reduction was justified by the mover, on the ground that the agricultural interest was the one in the whole community which was suffering most from the vast reduction of prices; it was the only one to which no sensible relief had been given, by a reduction of taxation, during the last five years. It was strongly opposed by Lord Althorpe, who alleged, and probably with truth, that the loss to the revenue, from the remission of this tax, would be at least £2,500,000, and would entirely defeat the object of Government in proposing more moderate reductions for the benefit of all parties. So strong, however, 1 Parl. Deb. was the sense of the extreme depression of the agricultural 1833; Ann. interest owing to the fall of prices, that the reduction Reg. 1833, 151, 153. proposed was carried against Ministers by a majority of 10 the numbers being 162 to 152.1 April 26, 60. by a sidewind get scinded. April 29. This unexpected result threw Ministers into great emMinisters barrassment, the more so that their defeat had come from the landed interest, in which the strength of the the vote re- Conservatives lay, and was against the towns, in which their own principal supporters were to be found. After deliberation, however, they resolved not to resign, but to endeavour to get the vote rescinded; and they did this in a very skilful way, by playing off the urban against the rural interests. The boroughs were all extremely anxious to get quit of the house and window duties, which pressed hard upon their inhabitants, and most of their representatives were pledged without delay to effect their abolition. Sir John Key, one of the London members, had given notice of a motion for their repeal, which stood for April 30. Lord Althorpe on the 29th moved as an amendment to that motion, "That a great deficiency of XXXI. 1833. revenue would be occasioned by the reduction of the CHAP. malt duty to ten shillings per quarter, and by the repeal of the duties on houses and windows, which could only be supplied by the substitution of a general tax upon property; and that, as the effect of that would be to change the whole financial system of the country, it was inexpedient to adopt it." This skilful device plainly and truly brought the effects of the proposed reductions insisted for by the country and city parties respectively before the House, and it had the desired effect. The House accepted the lesser evil to eschew the greater, and, with the terrors of a property-tax before their eyes, 1 Parl. Deb. rescinded their former vote, and by a majority of 285 to 291, April 131, supported Lord Althorpe's motion. A motion of Ann. Reg. Sir John Key for the repeal of the house and window tax 158. was next day negatived by a majority of 273 to 124.1 * 30, 1833; 1833, 152, 61. these votes Ministers and their immediate adherents in the country congratulated themselves on this narrow escape, and Results of the large majorities by which both of the obnoxious on public taxes were ultimately supported in the House of Com- opinion. mons. More experienced observers, however, argued ill for the stability of a Government which had thus early come into direct collision, on a question deeply interesting to them, with their urban supporters, who held the majority of the House of Commons in their hands. And the few thoughtful men in the country who looked beyond passing events, and were anxious to see how the new constitution was practically to work on the conduct of affairs, presaged much future embarrassment and evil from a state of things where large parties in the legislature were tied, by the imperious commands of their constituents, to vote for the repeal of any taxes immediately affecting themselves, without the least regard to the effect * It appeared from a return quoted by Lord Althorpe in this debate, that the total inhabited houses at this time was 2,846,079, of which only 430,607 paid the tax. It affected therefore only a fraction of the community; but as that fraction was the one in which the return of a majority of the House of Commons was vested, its displeasure was most formidable to Ministers. XXXI. 1833. CHAP. it would have on the general finances or safety of the country; and Government had no other resource to elude this fierce demand but by playing off the one party against the other, and terrifying both with the threat of laying on another tax in the highest degree obnoxious to both. 62. cline in the of Minis ters. It soon appeared how much Ministers had lost in the Rapid de eyes of the most numerous and noisy of their supporters, popularity by their resistance to the loudly-expressed demand of the urban constituencies for a reduction of the burdens affecting themselves. Sir John Cam Hobhouse, the Secretary for Ireland, having pledged himself to vote for the repeal of the assessed taxes to his constituents in Westminster, resigned office and his seat for Westminster, as he could not vote for their repeal against the Government; and he was thrown out on a new election, and Col. Evans, a more Radical member, returned. Sir Francis Burdett, Mr W. H. Brougham, and Dr Lushington, who had also voted against the repeal, were called on to resign their seats for Westminster and the Tower Hamlets. In almost every parish in London public meetings were held, at which it was recommended in resolutions to adopt the Irish mode of agitation, by refusing to pay assessed taxes, and associations were formed for the purpose of mutual cooperation. A large public meeting was held in the open air near Coldbathfields prison, at which it was resolved "to adopt preparatory measures for holding a national convention, as the only means of obtaining and securing the rights of the people ;" and this was done in defiance of a proclamation from the Home Office prohibiting the meeting as illegal, and dangerous to the public peace. One of the police was killed with a dagger, and another severely wounded in attempting to disperse the assemblage : the coroner's jury brought in a verdict of justifiable homicide; and the verdict having been quashed by the Court of King's Bench as contrary to evidence, the murderer was brought to trial on an indictment and acquitted. XXXI. 1833. The same agitation prevailed in all the great towns in the CHAP. provinces. The Birmingham Political Union, so lately the multitudinous supporter of Ministers, and to whose office-bearers Lord John Russell had written, pending the Reform Bill, that "the whisper of a faction cannot prevail against the voice of the people of England," now met and passed a resolution, "That his Majesty's ministers, by violating the constitution of Ireland, refusing all inquiry into public distress, by continuing the taxes on houses and windows, and especially by absolutely forcing on the country the whole of the malt-tax, after the House of Commons has deliberately resolved only three days before to abolish it partially, have betrayed the confidence of the people; and, therefore, that his Majesty should be implored to dismiss from his councils men who had proved themselves so utterly unable or unwilling to 1 Ann. Reg. extricate the country from the difficulties and dangers 159. with which it is surrounded." 1 1833, 158, conduct of ernment and position. It was now evident that the Reform Ministry had 63. undergone the usual fate of all who attempt to coerce a Patriotic movement which they themselves have put in motion. both GovLike the Girondists of France, when they began to do so the Conserthey immediately became more unpopular even than their vative OpConservative opponents. The Government hung only by a thread; a coalition of the Conservatives with the Radicals. on any question on which they could vote in common might any day throw them into a minority. In these circumstances the conduct of Ministers was as magnanimous as that of the Conservative leaders was wise and patriotic. The former pursued a steadfast course, ameliorating our institutions in many respects, and removing many real abuses; while the latter supported them in all such projects, and lent them their aid in repressing the violent inroads of a dangerous or revolutionary character which were attempted to be forced upon them by the pressure from without. England then reaped the fruits of her free institutions, and the long |