REVIVAL OF THE SALT-TAX.

No motion during this session produced such a warm contest, as did that of sir Robert Walpole, when, after a long preamble, he proposed that the duties on salt, which about two years before had been abolished, should now be revived and given to his majesty, his heirs and successors, for the term of three years. In order to sweeten this proposal, he declared that the land-tax for the ensuing year should be reduced to one shilling in the pound. All the members of the country party were immediately in commotion. They expressed their surprise at the grossness of the imposition. They observed, that two years had scarcely elapsed since the king, in a speech from the throne, had exhorted them to abolish some of the taxes that were the most burdensome to the poor: the house was then of opinion, that the tax upon salt was the most burdensome and the most pernicious to the trade of the kingdom, of all the impositions to which the poor was subjected, and therefore it was taken off; but that no good reason could be produced for altering their opinion so suddenly, and resolving to grind the faces of the poor, in order to ease a few rich men of the landed interest. They affirmed, that the most general taxes are not always the least burdensome: that after a nation is obliged to extend their taxes farther than the luxuries of their country, those taxes that can be raised with the least charge to the public are the most convenient and easiest to the people: but they ought carefully to avoid taxing those things which are necessary for the subsistence of the poor. The price of all necessaries being thus enhanced, the wages of the tradesman and manufacturer must be increased; and where these are high the manufacturers will be undersold by those of cheaper countries. The trade must of consequence be ruined; and it is not to be supposed that the landed gentlemen would choose to save a shilling in the pound from the land-tax, by means of an expedient that would ruin the manufactures of his country, and decrease the value of his own fortune. They alleged that the salt-tax particularly affected the poor, who could not afford to eat fresh provisions; and that, as it formerly occasioned murmurs and discontents among the lower class of people, the revival of it would, in all probability, exasperate them into open sedition. They observed, that while it was exacted in England, a great number of merchants sent their ships to Ireland, to be victualled for their respective voyages; that since it had been abolished, many experiments had been successfully tried with salt for the improvement of agriculture, which would be entirely defeated by the revival of this imposition. They suggested that the land-tax was raised at a very small expense, and subject to no fraud, whereas that upon salt would employ a great number of additional officers in the revenue, wholly depending upon the ministry, whose influence in elections they would proportionably increase. They even hinted, that this consideration was one powerful motive for proposing the revival of an odious tax, which was in effect an excise, and would be deemed a step towards a general excise upon all sorts of provisions. Finally, they demonstrated that the salt-tax introduced numberless frauds and perjuries in different articles of traffic. Sir Robert Walpole endeavoured to obviate all these objections in a long speech, which was minutely answered and refuted in every article by Mr. Pulteney. Nevertheless, the question being put, the minister’s motion was carried in the affirmative, and the duty revived; yet, before the bill passed, divers motions were made, and additional clauses proposed by the members in the opposition. New debates were raised on every new objection, and the courtiers were obliged to dispute their ground by inches.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760