ABSTRACT
The cry for the reduction of taxation was not on behalf of the agriculturists alone. Every year it was demanded; and every year the Chancellor of the Exchequer replied that government was reducing taxation as fast as it could without needing the intervention of parliamentary committees, or other stimulus or assistance. In 1835, there was no surplus, though considerable evidence of prosperity. In 1835, an effort was made by Mr. Bulwer to obtain a repeal of the stamp-duty on newspapers. The Chancellor of the Exchequer did not defend the tax, which he admitted to be bad in principle and policy; but he must satisfy himself with pledging his testimony against the tax, and wait for a further surplus before he could undertake to repeal it. On the 6th of February, the Chancellor of the Exchequer moved for the renewal of the late committee; to which the majority of the House eagerly assented.
