The Press.
London, England, 1854-10-14 00:00:00

FROM THE LONDON GAZETTE.

Tuesday, October 10.
BANKRUPTCTES ANNULLED.—FR►NCIs BURROW, Red-
ruth, Cornwall, draper—WILLIAM BECKETT, Gillingbam,Norfolk,
cattle dealer—HENßY KEarooT, Bedford, near Leigh, Lanca-
shire, silk manufacturer.
BANKRUPTS.—HENRY CRAY" ERIS, Lothbnry, City, mer-
chant JOSEPH TREVETHAN, Cambrian Brickfields, Lower
Norwood, brlckmaker—THOlLAS WAOHORN, Rochester, Kent,
draper ()ERROR Fox, Crombie's-row, Commercial-road East,
clothier—Lavas Bsesarr, Merthyr Tydvil, Glamorganshlre,
grocer—JOHN HUGHES. Bangor, Carnarvonahire, innkeeper—
DANIEL LONODIN, Manchester, ironfouuder—Joaseit BURGE
GODFREY, Taunton, Somersetehire, coacianaker.
SCOTCH SEQUESTRATIONS.—JAPES CALVERT, Glasgow,
proprietor of the Queen's Theatre—Jsmes WiLsox,Haylee, near
Largs—JoHN Simpson, Broornhill, Boss-shire—Joan GOLDIN
and JAMES GRAY INGLIS, Glasgow, -ironfounders—JoßN Soo'rr
and WALTER SCOTT, Glasgow, shiphrokers ROBERT GALLL-
CHER, Greenock, fishmonger.

Friday, October 18.
BANKRUPTS.—James WARD, Jermyn•street, St. James's,
licensed victualler and tavern keeper—WILLIAM HENRY
BARTLEMAN Hawes. Strand, chemist—THOMAS HOUGHTON,
Collyhurst, Lancashire, ironmonger—RlCHAßD BURGH, Bury,
Lancashire, grocer—JOHN liEverrr, Leamington Priors, War-
wickshire. brickmakor—JAmes Dirsott, Huddersfield, draper—
JAMES CORBETT, Stourhridge, saddler and victualler—Hangar
SHEPPARD, Glossop, Derbyshire, grocer.

THE NEW ASSESSED TAXES.
TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS."
Sir,—l ask for the aid of the PRESS as a suitable
medium of conveying to the public the practical
working of the recently-imposed assessed taxes as
affecting the lower class of farmers in this locality.
Having been summoned as a commissioner to attend
a district meeting for the hearing of appeals against
the said taxes, I am in a condition to puss an opinion
(so far) as to their probable working and their ex-
tension to a new class of taxpayers, as well as to
the moral consequences resulting from the system of
enforcing the payment, or rather of ascertaining
what persons are subject thereto.
The appeals in this district were so numerous as
to require a prorogation to a second day, and during
the two days nearly six hundred appeals were heard
by my fellow-commissioners and myself, the hearing
of which produced on us the strongest conviction of
the hardship of extending the tax on saddle-horses,
vehicles, and servants, to a class so ill able to pay it,
and, in point of fact, not possessing or using these
luxuries in the sense usually attached to the term.
In order to mike my meaning plainer I should state
that, under the new extension, every cottier tenant
or (so-called) farmer holding front six to ten or
fifteen acres of land is subject to the tax fir a
saddle-horse unless he can swear that he has not
ridden the one horse (or mule) he possesses, even
in a single instance, for the last year. The poor
creating shandry, too, is liable to be taxed as a gig,
and brings with it the further charge for a servant,
unless the party be ready to swear that he himself
has, in every instance, put to the horse, or a son of
his under twenty-one. In case, also, of the farmer
swearing that he is always aided by a servant boy
under eighteen, his tax for a servant is diminished
to the half, viz., 10s. 6d. This swearing in every
instance, and on a wholesale scale, forms a revolting
part of the new extension, which all practical men
know is (to say the least) very undesirable. The
glaring inequality, too, exhibited in the new system
must strke every one who observes the working of it,
for under it the large opulent class of farmers pos-
sessing twenty to thirty horses, and making use of
their choice of these for riding or driving, are subject
to no more charge than the small cottier farmers
before alluded to, who are frequently in more ne-
cessitous circumstances than common labouring men.
Such an imposition as this of the tax on horses
for riding, &c., could never be intended ; for does it
not assimilate in principle to a capitation tax, the

981

worst and most inequitable that can be devised? If
horses for agricultural purposes are to be taxed at
all, the fairest mode of doing it would be by taxing
all the farmers' horses, laying on so emelt per horse,
and then a fair proportion could be maintained be-
tween the possessors of many and of one horse.
The tax alluded to cannot (in its present inequi-
table mode of operation) be long maintained; and it
is a very pitiable thing that new Chancellors of the
Exchequer have it in their power to experimentalise
in this rash and crude manlier, often (it may be)
from a determination to do something new, and dis-
turb the arrangements of their predecessors, however
beneficial in themselves, as well as familiarised to
the community by habit and use. It may be that
in opulent districts in England, and where the farms
are extensive, and their holders nearly in the class
of gentry, the effects of this tax do not manifest
themselves in the same way as in remote parts of
Wales, to which my remarks are most applicable ;
but I think what I have said will prove that in
such localities as the one coming under my observa-
tion the hardship of ifs working is extreme.
Now, can any humane person feel otherwise than
saddened at seeing the slight indulgences of late
years conceded to the lower class of farmers so far
abridged that one can no longer drive his wife with
her basket of butter or poultry in his uncouth
shandry to market, or take his family in it on Sun-
days to public worship, without being subject to what
(to him) is a heavy charge Your attention to this
subject in any manner which may seem to you most
likely to attract public notice to the crying abuses
resulting from the new changes in our system of
assessed taxes will oblige your constant reader and
admirer,
A NORTH WALES TAX COMMISSIONER.

A letter from Balaklava, in the Courrier de Mar-
seille, states that on the morning of the 2tith ult. the
seamen on board the fleet saw a dense mass of smoke
rising over the town of Sebastopol, and soon after an
immense mass of flames rose to a great height. To-
wards noon there was a terrible explosion, and frag-
ments were seen flying in all directions. The ge-
neral opinion was that the Russians had endeavoured
to destroy some buildings, or perhaps a whole quarter
of the town, which might, if left staudiug, afford fa-
cilities to the besiegers.
The Emperor and Empress left Paris on Thurs-
day morning for Amiens, for the purpose of being
present in the cathedral of that place at a Te Leung
in honour of the victory of the Alma. They returned
to the capital in the evening of the same day.
The slight wound on the breast of General Can-
robed, during the battle of the Alma, would pro-
bably have been a very serious one had not a medal
that be wore on the occasion, and which was
presented to him on the eve of his departure from
Paris, happily prevented it.
M. Barbes has rejected the Emperor's pardon.
and has challenged a frest arrest, as he still avows
his former Socialist opinions. If not accepted he in:
tends to retire into voluntary exile.
The Central Association in Aid of Soldiers' Wives
and Families, Widows and Orphans, is making pro-
gress. 3,500 mothers, and 1,000 children, are at this
moment under the vigilant care of the amcciation.
More than 200 women have been provided with situa-
tions or set up in business. More than BM children,
most of them orphans, have been provided fox
entirely.
A COURT MARTIAL is to be held at Sheerness on
Captain Sir Edward Belcher, of the Assistance and
Phenix discovery-ships, and the officers, for the loss
of the vessels left in the ice. Commander Sherard
Osborn, who was superseded and placed under arrest
by Sir Edward Belcher in July last, has come home
in the North Star, and on the arrival of that ship at
Woolwich an Admiralty order was sent on board to
relieve Commander Osborn from the arrest imme-
diately, and he has now applied for a court-martial,
that all the circumstances of his case may be made
known. When the courts ma. tial are over a court
of inquiry is to take place at the Admiralty, to ascer-
tain what has been done by the recent Arctic expedi-
tions in carrying out the orders they received when
appointed to the service on which they were em-
ployed in the Arctic regions. The court of inquiry
will include amongst it members hear-Admiral Sir
William Edward Parry, Rear Admiral Beechey, and
other admirals who have Lad experience in Arctic
service.

Eight more regiments of the English militia are
to he embodied for permanent duty.

ginntg glarket ad it nttiligratt.

FRIDAY EVININO.
THE dulness which for some time past has pre-
vailed upon the Stock Exchange has, during the
current week, amounted to an absolute stagnation.
The uncertainties of the times, political s.ndcommbr-

982

cial, which at other periods would have excited spe-
culation, appear at present to have stifled it. The
announcement of the victory on the Alma, and the
expectation, almost equivalent to a certainty, of the
capture of Sebastopol, have produced a barely appre-
ciable effect upon the quotations. In all probability
the actual occurrence of the latter event would occa-
sion little, if any, influence on prices, so utterly in-
sensible is the pulse of the Stock Market at the pre-
sent moment. Great insensibility is shown also to
the symptoms of commercial embarrassment which
have been rife in many quarters lately. Notwith-
standing, therefore, the triumphant despatches from
Lord Raglan, or the accounts of failure or difficulty
among some of the largest trading firms in Liver-
pool, the price of Consols has undergone a barely
perceptible change in either direction. The daily
fluctuations seldom exceeded *, or * at the utmost.
The mean quotation continues to be, as for so long
past, at 951, and the widest range of prices during
the week has been from 95 to 951, the extremes in
both cases being merely nominal. On Wednesday
the quarterly balance-sheet of the public revenue
expenditure was published in due course. Govern-
ment organs diligently praised the extended and im-
proved form in which the national accounts were
rendered, and extracted from it a proof of the satis-
factory state of the imperial finances. In commer-
cial circles these eulogies passed for what they were
worth, and upon 'Change the publication of the
revenue tables produced not even as much effect as
could be measured by a variation of * per cent. in
the price of Consols.
Money has continued much in demand, although
the transit of gold to the Continent has altogether
ceased, and the dealers have sent some considerable
consignments of bullion to the Bank in default of find-
ing profitable vent in the foreign markets. Some
large cash payments have, however, fallen due during
the week, and others are approaching their turn
within the next few days requiring anticipatory pre-
parations. The last instalment (23 per cent.) on the
B series of Exchequer Bonds became payable on
Tuesday, and absorbed 460,0001., together with a
heavy call on the shares of the Grand Trunk
Railway of Canada. Upon the 17th the last instal-
ment of 18 per cent. on the A series of 2,000,000/.
Exchequer Bonds also fell due, amounting to
360,000/. ; and on the 20th 320,0001. will be requ red
for the second instalment of the new Turkish loan.
This la ter amount, however, will have to be provided
partly from the Paris Money Market. On the side of
receipts there have been some extensive remittances
reported, which must before long find their way into
the market. 100,0001. on London account arrived on
Monday from Boston, and 280,000/. more on Wed-
nesday from New York, Brazil, and Sydney. The
arrival of the Queen of the South, Australian steamer,
with nearly 350,0001. on board, was also telegraphed
this afternoon from Southampton.
To-day the dividends on the October stock be-
came payable at the Bank, and rendered money
somewhat easier. The opening of the books for
transfer in several descriptions of securities tended
to stimulate transactions, and the market has ac-
cordingly presented somewhat more activity. Prices
are, nevertheless, barely a shade better. Consols
were quoted early in the day at 95 for transfer, but
have been done since at 954 fi, and for account at
951 Speculative dealings are much in abeyance,
and the quotations for time remain within a small
fraction of the money prices. The next account day
in Consols is the 14th of November.
The amount applicable this quarter to the reduc-
tion of the national debt is 264,6991., being the fourth
part of the surplus for the year ending the sth of
July last. In the present state of the revenue, this
sum will be wholly absorbed in the redemption of
Deficiency Bills, and will go but a small way towards
accomplishing that object.
FOREIGN.
Dealings in foreign securities are extremely li-
mited, and present few features of interest. The
announcement made on Wednesday that the
Egyptian tribute is now duly hypothecated ;'or the
payment of interest on the Turkish loan has brought
that stock forward at improved prices. The quota-
tions this afternoon were as high as 31 premium ex
New. The stock yields a high interest (6 per cent.),
and is getting into favour with investors.
RAILWAYS.
Shares have been firm, generally speaking, during
the week, but the transactions continued to be ex-
tremely limited. To-day the market showed signs
of heaviness, and the quotations gave way in many
instances. Great Northern, however, are an excep-
• - rathr firmer. The foreign lines are
Iteration, but dull. The miscel-
tgs, comprising mining, banking,
is' shares, are at previous values.
shares have slightly advanced, and

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