The Express.
London, England, 1851-04-22 00:00:00

MR. HAYES. Sys.. the Dentist, r) mane years
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Om WILT be ceseekted 12, fi'JUO 54.1 CARY.

the fervefso.

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HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDOR
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LONDON, TUBBD4I, APRIL 22.

An evening contemporary is at much pains to,
prove that household suffrage would satisfy "
nobody ;"
and that universal suffrage would speedily follow,
which would effect the ruin of every body. As we
do not expect to see the latter expenment trier]
England in our day, we shall not waste time in dis-
cussing its alleged consequences. To say that it is
an impossible contingency would no doubt be ab-
surd. We have always thought that the " manhood
Marty" had one chance, and that it lay in the ad-
herence too long to the theories which the (ii.Ji
en indefatigably, labours torecommend. 'llw oligarchy
are depicted in its columns as "a garrison" who in
time of social agitation would have nothing to do but
" defend themselves against their natural enemies,"
—the people. Truly it is talk of this kind that may
one day render the potation of the few perilous in the
extreme. It may he safe, however selfish and silly,
to hold this sort of language in West End clubs mil
at snug family parties of the political monopolist.
But it is worm, than silly to tell the working world
at large that it is regarded by its taxing-musters u
a " natural enemy." It is suicidal.
To do them justice, however, the masses am slow I
enough to take fire at the insolence of class ce'
clique. Generally speaking they are only too happy"
to hear of some practical alleviation of their lot,
some small further remission cif the fiscal hurthens on
their food or industry, some tardy mitigation of
thew many hardships and sufferings. But it has
ever been the characteristic of violent democratic
changes, that they have come about not through the
psesesien of widely extended privileges, but in spite
of their denial, and in consequence thereof. It was
the narrow circumscription of electoral rights in
France, and the notorious facility of corruption
thereby atforded to the government, that led to the
general overturn of February, late. Ilud there
been a suffrage half as extensive as now exist
in that country, the bureaucratic r;yime of bald
Flutters would doubtless have been impracticable
during eighteen years, hut there could have been ne
attempt at revolution.
Measuring the matter by the meanest standard,
that of mere numerical ioniser, is it not in fact clear
that just in proportion as "the garrison" is
strengthened the hazard from without is diminished,
and the probability of serious conflict removed? The
inner circle cannot be extended without encrouching
just so much upon the region of the outer; and the
more the I" •ts of enfranchisement comprehend, the
more powerful is of myessity, the resistanee which
may at ally inument he called intoactivity to any un-
just inroad from without. A large and elastic adap-
tation of the principle of parliamentary referm to the
expanding mstaaltles and claims of an onward time
is the only just course, and therefswe the only
sure The Lill" of 1s T 2 was a east im-
provise, nt on the rotten-borough system; but it
Las practically failed to enfranchise the industrious,
educated, and loyal millions who occupy houses rated
to the payment of taxes. Every such occupant might
confessedly be admitted, with per Wet safety to the
stability of our institutions, to a participation in the
representative freedom of his country ; We no states-
man, who appresiates the genius of that country, or
understands the veiminnie structure of society widen
its borders, would stare, in these days, to assert that
the interest and policy of the state was any other
than that which these Louse-holding millions, if
fairly pilled, would recognise as such. To insinuate
the contrary were indeed to question the exist-
ing order of things, to divest legislation of
its main, if not its only binding, sanction,
to sound the tocsin of war and organise revolution.
On the other hand, if it he true that the welfare and
the will of dose great centred classes of society,
which occupy the great terra firma of industry,
worth, intelligence, and cicilusulionl, lying between
the" luxurious refinement of tic aristoenwy and the
still unnylainud wilds of untaught labour and hope-
less pauperisin—if, we say, it be true, that the assent
and eonsent of these, the house-holding classes. has
COW to be the esssential quantite iu all our national
call there be 'modems. or wisdom in
trying any Looser to evade the formal seknowledg.'
Unlit of the fats. and the constitutional recognition
el the vital truth?
Our contemporary reproduces the objection so
ellen urged by laird Jinx Ressias„ that what is
thews demanded would not cure the main defect in
the Reform Bill, inasmuch us it would not directly
enfmnehise the working classes. And thereupon
we are led away into a somewhat Lucy regien of
theoretical speculation, M. DE Tewousviiis being
invoked as guide, fur the prefaced purpose of com-
paring the relative merits of the systems of direct
mid double election, but without apparently the
least intention of doing anything more than pro- "
pounding the riddle, and Waving its solution to con-
jeCtlifT. With respell to tlw al legatii in ado: Pun tEa
we are more than displaced to dispute its accuracy alto-
gether. We have repeatedly shown by a reference to
electoral statistics that a household suffrage would
mint inoffensively but most completely draw a line
of political distinction between the thrifty and the
thriftless, the steady and the restless, the worthy
and the worthless of the operative clause The beet
men of every trade and culling would be clothed
with the privileges of eititeuship, while the roving,
the idle, the improvident. would, by the silent opera-
tion of the self-adjusting nwelemism of the rateable
domicile test, be quietly omitted from the annual
register of electors. 'lO have a separate dwelling of
his awn—whither a separate roof ur only a separate
set of chambers, or a separate rent-paying flat or por-
tion of it tomprehensive building—is already the
pride of our skilled artisans and journeymen of all
specks of handicraft. But disenitiesl as it would be
with the possessiou of political status and power, it
would inevitably become still more so. The state
would exact the double pledge--first, of permanent
ability and willingness to contribute to its fiscal ne-
m-whirs ; and secondly, the existence of domestic
ties and obligatiouce. We should be very glad to I
know what other elements of conservatism can be
&Mind in the ranks who live by daily bread, of which
it is possible fur law to take hold ? Sound educa-
'
tion, a cheap and truthful popular literature, and the
teachings of religion are. indeed, the highest of all
guarantees for public safety. But we speak now of
comparative degrees and eludes of eoncession of leech-
tieal rights to the humbler ranks of the community
as they are and us they are likely tube. Large con-
cessions cannot further he withheld. The pressing
question is to whom and how skill they be tuade ?
But what, let us ask. would be the seenrity of a
system of indirect election by the working classes.
which the simpler method woidd not more effectually
secure? Would nut intrigue, ambition, and cabal
instinctively set about defeating the grudging and
invidious scheme? Or what chance of permanence
would there be, when at every election the operative
wait reminded that his rights were not those. • of the
householder beside him, and to whom he must often-
times feel himself in every way superior—but the
half rights of an inferior unit legally branded class ?
We can imagine no severance of ranks more dan-

Tile Examiner goes further this even Mr. GLAD-
nosy. in its admiration of a house tax. That gen-
tleman declared his belief that the property and in•
come tax would never endure unless It was adjusted,
and in despair of its adjustment he proposed a broad
bowie tax, as a direct source of revenue, upon which
government could rely fur reducing those portions of
indirect taxation which were elastic, and in which
the increase of consumption would compensate for
lowness of duty. The Examiner would, however,
make no attempt to adjust the income tax, woul
alsosrate men that portion levied on land, and trans..'
fer the whole burden of direct taxation to houses.
The squires will be very much obliged to the
Exam i Examiner. The proposal s one which they. would
celebrate with a prodigious bonfire, in whi•ch their

half of Schedule A might be seen-bpsldas to skirl
great satisfaction. The objections to-tite oldhat hShop
epir
tax and to the window tax werapeacia4 t
burden fell almost altogether upattowns, and .an,
infinitely greater proporttoss. albsFrit townuAtteu
upon small ones. Thies was ".„sust as
as to say that it was a tax frOm
the owners and occupiers of landed
seer. ' competitively exempt, -and to =all
coarse, the classes of professions, of industry and
of every kind of business, were
_peculiarly subject.
The pro.posed house tax has precisely the same effect
and incidence. It falls lightly, se the CHANCELLOR
of the ENCHF.QUER tells us, on old-fashioned country
houses. The effect will be to compel all farm-houses
to be reduced under the standard of 201. annual
value, and the towns will, as before, bear the brunt.
The old house-tax was to be sure estimated at the
letting. value of a residence, which, being often
small in the case of large country houses, al-
lowed them to go, as it were, free. If
one side thus be remedied, on the other the old gra-
duated scale, which, in window and house tax, was
greatest on expensive houses, is now done away
with. The great mass of landowners of course live
in the country ; the few that keep town and country
houses are comparatively small, and even these are
politicians the greater part, who contrive to extract
from the revenue of the country more than they con-
tribute to it.
But not only is the house tax a peculiar burden
upon the non-agricultural chasm but it is unfairly
portioned amongst this class. The man of 1,3001. a
year and the man of 13,0001. a year may live alike in
a 2001. a year house. After a certain point of room,
comfort, and luxury in a house is reached, there is
no motive fur exceeding it. And where a greater
amount of room, and consequently of rent, is re-
quired and submitted to, these proceed as much gram
the number of a gentleman's family, as from his hr.
tune or his pride. The house-tax is thus no cri-
terion of a man's income, or of a man's ex-
penditure, or of a man's property. It may cer-
tainly want the inquisition of the income-tax,
hut it merely does without the inquisition, by taking
for granted that which it cannot know, and which is
often the reverse of the fact. It is no consolation to
be told, that the tax-man will not inquire into your
property, hut that he will be perfectly content to
levy on you a per centage for three times more than
you arc worth, and this without inquiry.
The house tax is essentially, and almost exclu-
sively, a tax on the middle and industrious classes.
Anil upon them, as a set off to a real and universal
land tax, its fairness might be admitted. But as a
solitary and exclusive basis for direct taxation, and
that of so large an amount as to produce six or seven
millions, this, as proposed by the Examiner, would
be one of the most iniquitous and unjust schemes of
taxation that could be devised. It would be a per-
fect extinguisher on the middle classes, and is a pro-
ject only fit to be entertained by Jolts CHARLES
MERMEN, or to be consented to by Mr. GLAIISTONII,
as the most desirable means of reconciling and rally-
' ing the protectionists once more under the lead of
the l'EurrEs.
However entertaining. these opinions, we by no
means seek 14 the rejection of Sir CHA ELLS Woof
s s
house tax. it is a great thing to be rid of the win-
dow tax, and not to remove one source of direct
taxation alto;mther, whilst the other is so decried
and so insecure. We look, however, upon the
house tax as a provisional arrangement, to he re-
considered along with the whole subject of direct
taxation. That it might be rendered a fair impost,
we have no doubt. As a set-off, for example,
except a fair and universal land tax, the
house tax would not have to be complained of.
But to vote it as a second schedule 1), and to levy
the niessuagem division of Schedule A with Schedule
D, and the house tax and the poor rate, all upon
expenditure, as signifying income, nothing can be
1111)11. unjust. Abolish the income tax altogether,
and let the whole weight of direct taxation weigh
on houscs—this would be worse still, as taking tor
the first years of the tax one of the worst and
falsest criterions of people's means. In a few years
indeed, the taxpayers would work out a remedy,
by all selecting an inferior class of abodes.
In time, towns and streets would soon he erected
with a view to evade such a law; and English edi-
fices would soon come to resemble Turkish, in which
the chief rule of architecture is to simulate poverty.
We need not say that this would base all the bad
effects of the window tax, or perhaps more.
There is, however, some reason in the argument
that no tax is either just or perfect. We had, there-
fore. last accept Sir ()RIME,: Woolf's house tax for
the !,resent; extending it, indeed, if possible, but
bearing in mind all the while that the basis of taxa-
tion on which it rests is unequal; that it weighs on
the middle and industrious classes; that it exempts
the landed interest; that it is essentially a citizen or
municipal tax ; and that, however, as such, a fair
vounterpoise to a hind tax, it is, if alone, unfair, and
if of larger per (outage quite intolerable.
French direct taxation has four categories. It
comprises a land tax, a house tax, payable, from the
result of the peculiar distribution of French houses
into apartments, by the owner, not the occupier;
thirdly a furniture or tenant tax, and a
patent or shop-keeping tax. They thus at-
tain all kinds of income and property; and
they make these direct sources of taxation fruitul
by extending them to the lowest grades. There are
nearly half it million of persons paying land tax in
France, of whom four-fifths pay less than sixteen
shillings in the year; but the great and fundamental
principle prevails, that the surplus produce of the
soil is the first and most rightful source of taxation.

THERE is no subject more important to a branch
of onr manufactures, not the must prosperous, as
well as to the security and defence of the empire, as
the controversy raised respecting the merits of iron
vessels and of wooden ones.
For sonic years past iron has begun to assume a
position in commerce which our fathers never dreamt
of, and not only has the immense demand for it in
railways tended to this, but the extraordinary perfec-
tion to which it has been brought in every day use.
Assisted by chemistry, it has been made to resist the
effects of atmosphere and water. The case with
- winch it can he cast to any shape has been the means
of sending ready-made buildings to the colonies,
whilst the old summer house of former days has ex-
panded to the gigantic palace of Hyde Park. Like
every other branch of the commercial world which
has risen to such colossal mag,nitude, it cannot afford
to retrograde, but daily requires fresh outlets fur its
industry. and one of the largest of these is the ex-
tent to which it has been used in ship-building.
In the beginning of the present century the sub-
ject of building vessels of metal was started by
scientific men, owing to the enormous duties upon
European timber, which in the year 1809 rose as
high as 275. N. a load. although the price of Memel
I timber was of itself 325. a load. The subject was
therefore of vast importance to mercantile men, and
the reasons given in favour of such an experiment
were—the absence of " wear and tear" in the hull;
no necessity for caulking or coppering; no possibility
of injury from dry rot ; greater lightness and in-
creased capacity; lastly. that in case of grounding
there was absence of straining, and if built in water-
tight compartments. of course absence of danger in
such eases. The first employment of this metal, be-
yond a few canoe and river vessels, was the Aaron
Maltby, a steam-vessel constructed at the Horsley Iron
works. and it is said she never required her hull re-
pairing for twenty-six years. In 1832, the El-
burkah, another iron steamer. traded from Liver-
pool to the coast of Africa, and answered so well
that since then one builder. Mr. LURD, of Birken-
head, had up to 1847 built 43 iron vessels,
which amounted to upwards of 12,600 tons.
But the greatest trothy of this branch of trade was
the " Great Britain. of 3,300 tons, and she has
certainly satisfactorily undergone the exueriment of
the capabilities of iron vessels when run ashore.
Perceiving the success which these ships obtained in
the mercantile navy, the Board of Admiralty wished
to try the experiment, upon which in the course
of a few years they managed to spend a million.
No sooner was the money spent, than the very
natural quire arose, as to the effect of cannon shot
upon the iron walls thus substituted for the wooden
ones. And yet the objection was really made long
before the building of the iron fleet, even as far back
as 1810. Sir SSMI.F.t. BENTHAM called the attention
of the then Comptroller of the Navy to the necessity
of trying the effect of shut, not merely upon iron
targets, but upon a floating body of iron. Small
attention was paid to him. although there was no
need of so costly an experiment to test the power