§ SIR MASSEY LOPESasked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether, before asking the House to assent to the proposed remission of Imperial taxation, he will state in what way the Government propose to give effect to the decision of the House of Commons last Session with reference to the relief of ratepayers from charges imposed for the administration of justice, police, and lunatics, since no provision for this purpose has been made ill the Estimates or in the Financial Statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer?
MR. GLADSTONEI hope, Sir, the hon. Baronet will receive with indulgence the answer I am about to make—because I must necessarily limit myself to an isolated point, as I could not enter into the various considerations which the Question suggests without anticipating, and perhaps even in some respects going beyond the statements which it will be the duty of my right hon. Friend the President of the Local Government Board to make to the House next week on the part of the Government. Looking strictly at the Question, it amounts to this—whether the Government will state their views upon the subject of the Resolution of last year, and of any measures it will be their duty to propose or suggest to the House in consequence of or in connection with it, before Thursday next, when the Budget will have to be considered. In reply to that, I have to say that it will not be in our power to do so. I may remind the hon. Baronet that, not so much from our own feelings as from deference to the views and opinions of Parliament, we had in 1871 introduced a Bill which involved in principle the relief of local burdens, in some form, which had been 799 the object of so much desire. I do not speak of the particular shape in which it was proposed. I speak only of the principle to which the Government gave their adhesion. I have only to say that the Government have not receded from the opinion upon which they then acted, and upon a suitable occasion we shall desire to make some proposal with that view. But the question which we have now to deal with is whether we should include a proposal of that kind in the financial arrangements of the year. The Government had arrived at the conclusion that it would not be in their power to deal with the whole subject during the present Session. As regards the Budget, their business upon that occasion, as upon any occasion, was simply to determine what were the most urgent and pressing calls, and what was the mode of disposing of the available surplus which would, upon the whole, be most for the advantage of the country. We came to the conclusion that to make a partial provision for the payment of the sum due under the Award of Geneva, to reduce the sugar duties, and to reduce the income tax, were the measures which would be most satisfactory to the country. To that Resolution, of course, we adhere; and on Thursday next the House and the hon. Baronet will have the opportunity of giving their judgment upon that conclusion. I need not point out to the hon. Baronet that if he should differ from us, and if he should think it would be better to pass immediately a measure in the sense of his Resolution than to make partial provision for the Alabama payment, or to reduce the sugar duties, or to reduce the income tax, he will have a fair opportunity of making any such proposal, and of putting it in competition with the proposal of the Government. In stating that the Government have no further explanation to make before they submit their financial proposals to the House, I wish so far to guard myself against misunderstanding as specially not to allow the hon. Baronet to suppose we had receded from the important admission which in principle we made two years ago, with reference to our disposition to consider the best means of giving effect to views which had been expressed widely, and which had received the sanction of the House of Commons.