§ Earl Fitzwilliamhaving presented petitions from Kettering and several other places, many of them from agricultural districts, against the pro posed new Corn-laws, said, he heard with great satisfaction the course which his noble and learned Friend (Lord Brougham) had proposed to take. There was much that was beneficial in the financial plan that had been proposed by her Majesty's Government, and much which was entitled to their Lordships applause. But he certainly was never more astonished in his life than when he heard it was proposed to revive, not the property tax, but the in come tax. They might call it a Property-tax if they pleased—they might seek a little temporary popularity under that pretence—but it was an Income-tax, which if a Property-tax was at least the worst form of that tax. The tax ought to have been the property tax—a tax on real and realized property, which would be a fair and just tax. As to taxing occupying tenants for the miserable amount which it would produce, it was a mere delusion. It must ultimately fall on the land, and it 511 would have been much better openly to have put on a land tax. After the notice in her Majesty's speech of the distressed state of manufactures and trade he was surprised that the Government sought to raise so large a revenue as upwards of a million from the small profits of this distressed class. The fairest and the best way, in his opinion, was to tax realised property, and not income.
§ Petitions laid on the Table.
§ Adjourned.