to expedite the decision of the matter. On March 5 Vansittart explained in detail the various modifications which he proposed to introduce in order to render the bill more palatable.1 The opposition, however, saw their opportunity in delay; for the longer the decision could be postponed, the greater the chances of their fanning the flames of discontent. Accordingly, the speeches in parliament became interminable, Brougham calling it the "most tormenting of all taxes." Lord John Russell said that "there could be no more dreadful calamity for this country than its continuance." Tierney maintained that, "if the people of England would submit to bear half of it, they were fully entitled to be saddled with the whole." One speaker characterized it as "that detestable and shameful tax"; another as an "abominable measure." Meetings of protest throughout the country were multiplied. Petitions to parliament poured in by the thousands, and it is said that it took six weeks simply to receive and classify them. So fierce was the clamor of opposition that the newspapers discussed what might be done to prevent the further execution of the law in case the government should succeed in continuing the tax. Some even proposed an outright refusal to pay, on the ground that if this refusal became universal, the government would be rendered impotent. The Ministry, on the other hand, contended that all this agitation was being artificially engendered by the opposition; that in reality the country was not opposed to the tax; that they were not guilty of betrayal of promise, since every parliament had a perfect right to continue any tax it saw fit. Above all, they maintained that the excitement was due to the machinations of a few wealthy individuals who desired to escape their fair share of taxation. Up to the last moment the fate of the bill remained in doubt. The government had counted upon a majority, and the opposition had hoped at best for only a bare victory. When the bill finally came to a vote in parliament on March 18, 1816, after a most exciting debate, Lord Brougham, the 1 Hansard, xxxii, p. 809. leader of the opposition, contented himself with reading in impressive tones the wording of the law: "Be it enacted that this act shall continue in force during the present war and until April 6th next and after the definite signing of a treaty of peace, and no longer." "The shouts which these three words raised," says Lord Brougham, in his autobiography, "I shall never forget. We divided immediately and threw out the bill." The motion to retain the tax was defeated by the comparatively narrow majority of thirty-seven, and the result, we are told, "was declared amidst the greatest cheering and the loudest exultation ever witnessed within the halls of the English Senate." 1 Brougham thereupon moved that all the records of the tax be destroyed, and the motion was adopted by an overwhelming majority. Thus came to an end England's first attempt to introduce the income tax, and thus by a slight majority and by dint of a most skilfully conducted political campaign did parliament set its seal of disapproval on the project of making the tax a permanent part of the fiscal system. When we reflect that the agitation both in parliament and throughout the country had been carried on with the utmost adroitness, and even unscrupulousness; when we remember that every effort had been made to fan the flames of prejudice and of discontent; when, finally, we note the disadvantages under which every government necessarily labors when it proposes to continue, in time of peace, a tax that is expressly granted only for a period of war, when we bear in mind all these considerations, it is only a fair inference to conclude that so slight a majority, attained in such a way, in favor of the repeal of the tax, did not really represent the well-considered opinion of the great mass of the public. It 1 The History of the Taxation of England. By William Tayler. London, 1853, p. 71. Even the staid Hansard says: "As soon as the numbers were announced in the House, a loud cheering took place which lasted for several minutes. Similar exultation was manifested by the crowd of strangers in the lobby and the avenues of the House." was in reality only a victory of parliamentary strategy. But after all it was a victory. Those, however, who hoped that a final quietus had been put on what they affected to consider a hateful impost were doomed to disappointment. The sentiment in favor of an income tax, in fact, never completely died out, and scarcely more than a quarter of a century was to elapse before the tax was to be reimposed, and that, too, as history was to show, in a permanent form. CHAPTER II THE INCOME TAX ON TRIAL, 1842-1862 § 1. The Interval, 1816-1832 NOTWITHSTANDING the reduction of expenditure to a peace footing, the repeal of the income tax left a gap in the revenues which it became necessary to make good by imposing new taxes. As Rose had predicted, the great mass of these new revenues consisted in burdensome indirect taxes, and before long England was groaning under a heavy load. The situation as it existed in the year 1820 is well portrayed in the familiar description by Sydney Smith, in an article in the Edinburgh Review of that year. "We can inform Brother Jonathan what is the inevitable consequence of being too fond of glory. Taxes upon every article which enters into the mouth or covers the back or is placed under the foot. Taxes upon everything which it is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell or taste. Taxes upon warmth, light and locomotion. Taxes on everything on earth or under the earth, on everything that comes from abroad or is grown at home. Taxes on the raw material, taxes on every fresh value that is added to it by the industry of man. Taxes on the sauces which pamper man's appetite and the drug which restores him to health; on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope which hangs the criminal; on the poor man's salt and the rich man's spice; on the brass nails of the coffin and the ribbons of the bride; at bed or board, couchant or levant, we must pay. The schoolboy whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse with a taxed bridle, on a taxed road, and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid seven per cent, into a spoon which has paid fifteen per cent, flings himself back |