The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-04-03 00:00:00

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f.
in some ',other important z.- during the
present session, remiss in their duty,—their duty,
not to their party only, but to-the 'country,—or
they would have mustered in. stronger force to at
least protest against if, than they'did when the
Bill enacting it was, in its last itages, before the
House. We suppoie they considered it would

be of: no practical avail,—neither do we imagine

hat: it would. Yet that consideration does not
ustify their indifference, and their neglect, on

such an occasion. It was one which exhibited

about as glaring an instance of political incon-
stancy and inconsistency on the part of d states-
man of any principle and character, as is pro-

bably to be found in the annals of English legis-
lation. No one was more strongly committed

against the perpetuation of the Income-tax than

Mr. GLADSTONE himself; and yet, now when an

opportunity was presented to him of at least
reducing, if not repealing it altogether, as Mr.
DISRAELI so ably pointed out, " instead of
denouncing the Income-tax as an immoral tax, as
an inquisitorial tax, as a tax which saps all the
springs of domestic happiness and of individual
prosperity, he tells us that there is a good deal to
be said against the Income-tax, and that the
same may be said of every other tax." Such
terms of reproach, let it be remembered, were

those which Mr. GLADSTONE himself had for-

merly applied to the Income-tax. The right hon.
gentleman, as our readers know, was Chancellor
of the Exchequer in 1853 ; and at that time he
entered, virtually, into a compact with the
country that in this very year 1860, this
obnoxious impost should be repealed—impress-
ing upon the House and the country, that it was
one which was not only most oppressive, but
which must sap the morality of the nation if

continued. He showed, on the occasion we refer
to, that in 1860 there must necessarily be a consi-

derable remission of taxation, in consequence of the
falling in of Terminable Annuities to the amount
of £2,000,000, and that these £2,000,000 and
£150,000 might be deemed a nucleus round which
would collect that increased revenue which was to
result from his own proper and prescient policy.
In 1857 he repeated the expression of his policy
of 1353—a policy which, during the interval, he
had always strenuously maintained. And no
doubt, as Mr. DISRAELI truly said, he, Mr.
GLADSTONE, " was eminently successful in con-
veying to the House that if by any combination
of circumstances, which at that time did .not
appear very likely, lie should be called upon to
preside over the finances of the country in 1860,
he was prepared to consummate the policy which
in 1853 he had laid down." Contrast, then, all
this reiteration, all this assurance, of a financial
policy that would aim at putting an end to,
rather than perpetuating and increasing that
tax, with the course which Mr. GLADSTONE is
now pursuing, arid say if there were not circum-
stances attending his proposal for its re-imposi-
tion and augmentation which ought not only to
have warranted the most determined opposition
o his present policy, but its most scornful rejec-
The excuse for such unprincipled political
:ergiversation and treachery is the pretended
necessity for framing a Budget so as to carry out
the French Treaty. But that Treaty, we believe
Ministers themselves must now feel, if they do
not confess, had far better have been let alone,
involving the country as it has already done in
political difficulties, and so likely as it is to
occasion financial troubles.
Now the Conservatives, when in office, never
went the lengths of Mr. GLADSTONE in con-
demning and opposing the Income-tax. They
accepted it as a necessary evil of the times—the
penalty for a certain course of Liberal legislation
—and sought to amend it in its operation, and to
prepare, if possible, for its gradual extinction.
But Mr. GLADSTONE had no patience with any
such prudent Conservative feeling. He would
not listen to any such proposition as that of
' tolerating it beyond a very limited period. He
maintained that it was a moral enormity which
lould only be justified in a time of great exigency,
and that he could not consent to adopt it upon
any such principle, add insisted that they
.should
put an end to it, and should grapple with the
question in a statesmanlike and efficient manner,
—not as he is now doing, by continuing and
increasing it, but by at once proceeding to reduce
and extinguish it. And Lord DERBY'S Govern-
ment of 1852, it will be remembered, was actually
overthrown by the artful means thus employed
and enforced against it.
Such are some of the unprincipled appliances for
which, in Mr. GLADSTONE'S hands, the Income-tax
has been made available. It certainly seems a
strange and inexplicable complication to which
it has now been applied to produce—not financial
merely, but, and much more impoitantly, political
also. "Perhaps, however," as the Saturday
Review sarcastically observes, " the partisans of
change and spoliation understand their own
business. The jockey knows that it is unwise to
urge a willing horse, and the advocate relaxes in
the impetuosity of his eloquence when he per-
ceives that the court is on his side. The under-
standing between Mr. GLADSTONE and the sup-
porters of Mr. BRIGHT has been renewed and
strengthened by the French Treaty, by the
repeal of the Paper duty, and by the comparisons
which have been drawn between direct and
indirect taxation. The same adroit intellect
which devised reasons for preferring the claims
of wine to those of tea and sugar may hereafter
succeed in unravelling the web of demonstration
which it wove in 1853. The adjustment which
once was iniquitous has now become only com-
plicated, and it is easy to foresee that it will not
long remain impracticable."
be

LATEST NEWS.

BY BRITISH AND IRISH MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH.'

APPOINTMENT OF A NATIVE WEST
INDIAN BISHOP.
The Queen has appointed the Rev. W. A.
Jackson, chaplain to the Bishop of Barbadoes, to
the bishopric of Antigua. The new bishop is a
native of the West Indies.

FRANCE GIVING WAY TO SWITZERLAND:
A French despatch to the. Swiss Confederation
is published, dated March 26th, in which M.
Thouvenel asserts that the Imperial Govern-
ment has no intention of altering any of the
legitimate conditions upon which the neutrality
of Switzerland. rests. He cites the second article
of the treaty with Sardinia for the cession of
Savoy as a guarantee which ought to relieve
Switzerland from all uneasiness. This despatch
affords some countenance to the reports that, after
all, France will give way with regard to Chablais
and Faucigny.

NEW FRENCH TARIFF OF WOOLS,
COTTONS, &c.

A bill has been introduced into the Corps
Legislatif for taking off certain duties on raw
materials. It is entitled " A bill concerning the
tariff of wools, cottons, and other raw materials."
The preamble states that it was at first thought
the Ist July next would be a date which would
suit all interests ; but that, yielding to the urgent
request of influential manufacturers, the govern-
ment had resolved to shorten the term, and. that
the new tariff as to the admission of wools, cot-
tons, and other raw materials, should come into
operation on the 15th of April. It is propoed
that the present drawbacks on the exportation of
cotton and woollen threads shall continue to be
levied for two months from the passing of the
new law, and that those on cotton tissues shall
be levied for three months, and on woollen tissues
for four.

FRIENDLY NOTE FROM FRANCE TO
BELGIUM.
The Independence Beige confirms the report of
a friendly note having been received from Paris
by the Belgian Cabinet. The purport is correctly
described by the Paris correspondent of the Times.

MOVEMENTS OF THE FRENCH FLEET
MARSEILLES, April 2.

The Mediterranean squadron left Toulon on the
31st of March, en route for Italy. A fanatical
chief named Setif, with 350 Arabs, had revolted