THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER AT BRISTOL.
SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH, in his speech to the Salisbury Club at Bristol on Wednesday, told us two remarkable things as to the condition of English finance: The first was that this year the revenue would in all proba- bility reach the great sum of one hundred and one millions sterling; and the second was that, in spite of its reaching that unexampled sum, it would be obtained with less severe pressure on the resources of the people than the revenue, so far as he knew, of any other great State in Europe. When we consider these two facts in connection with the recent condition of trade and agriculture, the depression in trade which is only just passing away, and the severe depression in agriculture, which so far from passing away is probably at its greatest height, we have indeed reason to be thankful. With a commerce that., for a good many years back, has been more or less dwindling, not indeed in bulk but in profitableness, and a condition of the landed interest which, both to landowners and farmers, has been simply disastrous, that we should be able to raise upwards of a hundred millions sterling, not only without any great strain, but almost without any sense of effort at all, is indeed marvellous. With one great interest paralysed, and in something like a condition of dissolution, and with another, though full of vitality, that has yielded for many years past the lowest net profits that our merchants and distributors can recollect, to be able to raise this monster revenue with hardly a single interest crying out for the taking off of taxation, is a marvel which seems at first sight quite paradoxical. The Chancellor of the Exchequer tells us that he may well find himself with a surplus of five or six millions sterling, and yet that, amidst all the suggestions that he receives for the application of that surplus, hardly any one cries out, Take off taxation,' but rather Spend the surplus in this way or in that, which offers some chance of stimu- lating one or other of the branches of a trade already profitable, though not so profitable as it might be made.' The explanation we take to be that the Free-trade system has so stimulated industry that both our distributing classes and our manufacturing classes have enormously increased in numbers, even while the net gains of the latter, at least, have not increased at all, and have often diminished. A great many more people have been making smaller profits in the productive industries, and have turned over their profits a great deal more rapidly in the distributive industries, and though the taxation of each individual worker has been very light, yet it has fallen on a number so rapidly increasing that the total yield has been both larger, and gained at a less sacri- fice, than in any previous year. Sir Michael Hicks- Beach tells us that he hcpes so to modify Sir William Harcourt's new Death-duties as to remove the grievances which make it unduly burdensome in a few hard cases ; but that, with that exception, he hears no cry for remis- sion of taxation at all. What a contrast this presents to the condition of countries which resist and denounce Free- trade ! It is Free-trade which has enabled us so to adjust and divide the burden of the State amongst our rapidly increasing population, that while our revenue grows every year, the pressure of it on our individual resources grows less and less heavy. While the suggestions which the Chancellor of the Exchequer receives for the application of the surplus are numerous enough, hardly any of them point to the remission of a burdensome tax, but only to new modes of so applying the surplus as to open new sources of profitable industry. Doubtless among these suggestions there will be many for so diminishing the cost of distributing the heavier constituents of fertile soils so as to improve the yield of worn-out land, and some for distributing more easily and cheaply the products of the land after it has yielded its crop ; but that only means that the country can see a great number of ways in which help may be given to the most distressed of our great interests,—ways far more hopeful than the mere remis- sion of existing imposts. The cry is,—'Keep what you do not need to spend on the work of the State and invest it for us, rather than give back to us what you have taken from us.' That such a cry should be raised, certainly shows that the State exacts nothing which is really oppres- sive, since people can see,—or believe they see,—how it might be far better spent than by returning it to their own pockets. Some of our industrial classes cry out that it could not be better spent than by so increasing the Navy as to render our enormous commerce quite safe in time of war. Others cry out that it may be best spent in awakening and sharpening the intelligence of our labouring classes, in other words, in great technical schools ; others, again, think that it would be most use- fully spent in encouraging farmers and agricultural labourers to combine for the purpose of getting better dairies and market gardens, and bringing them to the consumer at less cost ; but all agree that surplus revenues might be much better used than by returning the light taxes from which it springs, to "fructify," as the old phrase used to run, "in the pockets of the people." Nothing could show more plainly how little burdensome our present revenue system is.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer seems hardly even to contemplate using his surplus for the remission of taxa- tion. Perhaps he may exchange some little impost on the railways for a reduction on the rates charged for the carriage of heavy goods ; but that is only saying that he will impose in one form what he takes off in another. Very possibly he might attempt some readjustment of the rates on personal property intended to relieve the burden of the rates on land, which are at present considerably heavier than they should be ; but that is so difficult and delicate a task that we rather expect he will not be able to attack it in his first year. Almost certainly he will find the means of stimulating the energies of our poorer schools and helping the voluntary schools to secure better teachers. And he will assuredly contrive to place larger resources at the disposal of the First Lord of the Admiralty, and again of our Colonial Secretary, for the initiation of his great scheme for treating some of our Crown Colonies as estates on which it would be desirable to invest money in the hope of large ultimate returns. But in spite of the large surplus, we do not expect to hear anything of a "free breakfast table," or even of a lowering of the Income-tax. The truth is that with Europe and Asia in their present unsettled condition, the resources at our disposal are not at all too large for the purpose of ensuring us further in our necessarily precarious trade, of developing the energies of our working class so as to qualify them to do for themselves what no one else can do for them, and of removing all the obstacles in the way of our rather stolid and unresourceful agricultural classes. We only wish that there were any means at Sir Michael Hicks-Beach's disposal for preventing the rather senseless quarrels between labour and capital. That is really one of the greatest dangers of the times, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer himself warns us. But we fear that that is a lesson which cannot be quickly taught by any application of our surplus millions. Quicken the intelligence of the labourer, and unfortunately at first you quicken his suspiciousness also, and diminish rather than increase his trust in his employer. Yet all that Sir Michael Hicks- Beach can do in the way of stimulating and protecting our commerce, will scarcely tell as much in its favour as the quarrels between labour and capital will tell against it. It is far easier to hurt ourselves by our follies than to help ourselves by our wisdom.
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