§ MR. EWARTasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether it would be in the power of the Government to take any general view of the whole system of taxation of this country, for the object of simplifying and reforming it, in the present Session of Parliament?
§ The CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERsaid, it was a very dangerous thing to say what was the intention of the Government with respect to taxation. When on a former occasion a number of reductions in taxation had been proposed, he thought that no change could then be made. This year, most unquestionably, it would be necessary to renew the income-tax. But he must say it was exceedingly inconvenient at the present moment to state what were the views or intentions of the Government with respect to the taxation of the country.