CHAPTER XXII.
THE NEW TARIFF.
On the 29th of April, the new bill became law. In the following month, the twin measure, the sevenpence-in-the-pound Income Tax, passed the Commons—not without strong protests against its bearing as heavily upon precarious income as upon receipts from realized property—as a temporary tax to relieve a present emergency, but still remaining (1852), without reduction or modification. Of the £3,775,000, the estimated produce of the new tax, only £154,000 was calculated upon as the probable receipt from tenant farmers. While the object was to defend the Corn Law, the farming interest was represented as so immense, that all other interests must be taxed for its protection; but when a new tax was to be laid, the legislating landlords discovered that their tenants could contribute no more than a twenty-fifth part of the whole.
Another accompanying measure was received with better favour—a new tariff, by which there was to be a reduction of import duties on no fewer than 750 articles. This certainly was a movement in the right direction; but, while many admired the boldness of ministers in making so sweeping a change, many also wondered that a change so consonant with the principles of common sense should not have been made sooner—why the gross absurdity of
