The Express.
London, England, 1851-01-22 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 22, 1851.

that the rent of a mei house is a fair measure of his
income, and still lee. of his means and property. A
Itai on windows at least is levied on residecces in the
country, and in provincial towns, at the name propor-
tion sa in Loudon itself. But a house tax, as a tax
proportioned to rent, fells with a fee greater weight
'upon town than upon country.
The high rents of towns proceed from a variety of
causes. Narrowness of spacepcemsioas a bigh ground-
rent. Fashion and conveour.es for business swell
the sum demanded by the landlord. There enter
thus into the rent many other elements than the
amount cf capital spent in building or purchase.
Them are already disadvantageous enough to the
inhabitants of the great town. But the house tax
comes at once to aggravate it, and to aggravate it
in a much greeter proportion than the window tax.
The clamour which was raised in 1833 against the
I house and window taxes, which rose to all the gravity
of an insurrection, and frightened the CHANCELLOR
of the Exatecient into flinging to the people that tax
which was beet calculated to appease them, was in
reality occasioned not so much ty the taxes them-
selves es by the great unfairness of their apportion-
ment. When it was universally known that the City
at London Tavern paid a greater amount of duty than
all the palaces of the rustic g ntry of Bedfordshire,
the scandal was so great as to produce national revolt.
Ail there was reason for it. Lord ALTHOLP gave
sip the house tax to pacify it, aware perhaps that
he could not modify it, so as to make it weigh with
equal burden upon town end country. In tact he
could not. Even in the event of ratingcountry mansions
pertly at an appreciation of their cost, portly at the
rent they might be supposed to let for, there can be
no proportion between house property in town end
country. It is infinitely greater in towns, infinitely
larger in proportion to the iccomee of the tenant..
Now, from what we can gather or conjecture of
the government scheme at present, the intention
seems to be not in all ways to reform the unfairness of
the old tome tax. That tax was raised at the rate
of Is. 6d. on houses between 101. and 201. rent, of
2s. 31. on those between 201. and 401., and 2s. 10d.
on all above 401. This produced nearly a million
and a half on 413,000 houses. There are
at least half a million of inhabited houses
at present above 101. rent. These at the old
rate of charge would produce much more than
the window tax, and would weigh far more
heavily upon towns. If the old rule was pre-
nerved and a fairer mode of valuation with respect to
the country adopted, the revenue would be much
greater. The intentions of the government are, how-
ever, merely to raise 600,0001. upon 500,000 houses.
This is a merely nominal tax; and when we consider
that the awned taxes cost 240,000/. to levy, the
house or window tax being the all-importiel
one of the:e taxes, we leave the reader to
imagine west is the we of re-establishing the house
tax, and keeping up the costly machinery for raising
eoinsignificant a revenue. It can only be, we repeat,
to afford facilities for raising the house tax on the first
failure of the indirect resources of revenue, to a rate
that will at once not only sweep away all the relief
obtained by a repeal of the window tax, but eatabli,h
in its place a tax far more onerous upon towns, and
far more oppressive to industry and trade.
It would be simpler, fairer, and more econo-
mical
to abolish the assessed taxes altogether,
except the land tax, which ought to be dealt with
separately, and change them and the income tax
into an equitable property and income tax, with the
one machinery of assessment and eiXection. It would
be more advantageous to the men of landed property
to be told, the state requires eo much from you,
and then you may inhabit the house, and keep
any number of dogs, servants, and carriages
yes please. Undoubtedly there should be
a graduated scale of taxation, to compensate
for those taxes on luxuries, without any necessity of
that geometrical proportion which the political eco-
nomists wl,o think and argue for the rich so prag-
matically and ferociously denounce. One might net
so much object to a mere expenditure tax, like the
house tax, if another fair proportion of the public
revenue was levied upon property. But to rates all
upon income, as is done in this country, to levy thirty
millions of indirect taxation on the wages of the poor,
to raise some ten or fifteen more on the earnings of
the intelligent and commercial slam, whilst burdening
actual property with merely the remaining portion—
this is a dangerous system, and one that may yet give
rise Loan agitation tar more serious than that which
alarmed Lord ALTHORP, and swamped the house
tax in 1834. _

As long, however, as each interest clamours for the
removal of the tax that immediately galls it, without
taking a general and comprehensive view of all, so
long will Chace:Hors of the Exchequer humour
and cheat each class, and deem themselves wonder-
fully successful to shuffle on from session to session
on the princ;ple that " enough for the day is the evil
thereof."

Nothing can be more evident than that the people,
the citizens, and their leaders in 1838 did not know
what they were aiming at. And that the Chancellor
of the Exchequer of that day, talented man as he
wee, knew n. 4 what he was giving cr what with-
holding. A more cimplete scramble of selfishness
and ignorance history could not represent. And
really when we read the speeches of the several anti-
window tax and pro•houso tax meetings, we are by
no means aseared that the sagacity of 1841 anywise
exceeds that of 1831.

A r stiscrt tett is going the round of the papers
which every friend of the forthc3ming Exhibition of
All Nations must wish may be wholly unfounded.
Vet the announcement it contains is made unhesitatingly
and positively; and there are not wanting passing
occurrences tending to confirm its itemracy. The
paragraph states that, during the Exhibition, this
metropolis has to be surrounded by an army of no less
than 34),000 men! Such is the statement • and what
goes in corroboration of it is, that already many
of the suburban public-houses have had soldiers
billeted upon them ; and their
.proprietors are
under the apprehension that that infliction has to
continue and to be greatly increased in extent and
amount. . _

It is, we repeat, very much to bo desired that this
announcement may turn out to be a mere figment of
some ingenious penny-a-liner in want of more sub-
stantial materials for a paragraph ; for anything more
calculated to injure the Exhibition itself and to bring
down indignation and contempt on all connected with
that well-intended triumph of peace, orAer, and in-
dustry, than surrounding London with 30,000 armed
men, it is scarcely possible to imagine.
in the opinion of the QuEts's government, the
' dangers to public tranquillity, circled yconduct, and to
the usual enji ment of public security from the Exhi-
bition be soimminent and serious as to require such a
military concentration in the environs of London, the
conclusion is inevitable, that the Exhibition cught
never to have been started, encouraged, and patro-
nised.

But what evidence is there of the least danger to
be apprehended ? Confusion and pressure and an-
noyance we may in various degrees ress3nably anti-
cipate. These are only the natural results of bringing
together large masses of people; which it is the duty
of the civil power to mitigate so far as possible.
Bat they will arise from numbers, from impatience, ;
from selfishnees, from eagerness, from curiosity, from ;
defective arrangements—from any and every motive
except a desire to violate laws, to overthrow a govern- ;
ment, or to bring about a revolution. The remedies
for them will be chiefly in ourselves and in our;
visitors—in the maintenance of undeviating good
humour, in the interchange of courtesy and good
offices amongst all classes ; in self-restraint, and in
never forgetting the necessity of always—continually ,
—being on our best behaviour. To assist us all, a
;considerable augmentation of the police force was to
be expected, as indeed it was last session promised.
But to call in 30,000 soldiers, as if to threaten Lmidon
with that state of siege which every other great
European capital has been disgraced by, is either to
libel this metropolis, or to insult its visitors,—if not
to do both.
Thirty thousand troops around London! The very
thought is an outrage. The Exhibition is intended
to invite and to attract the elite of the intelligence, the
skill, the wealth, and the society of all Europe to oar
metropolis; and when we get them here, we are, it
seems, to surround them with a great army, such as has
not been in England since the threatened invasion of
our shores by NAPOLEON, lest our visitors should turn
out tobe in reality of the raw head and bloody bones
picture, drawn by Sir FRANCIS Hr en.
But it may not be our foreign visitors that
require this hostile investment of London; it may
be the crowds of provincial artisans that arrange-

ments are being made to receiva and entertain.
Worse and worse! If they be dangerous, what
right has any one to invite them to como where
a match may ignite their mischievous tendencies, and
endanger the safety of London ? And if they be, as
we are sure they are, peaceable, well disposed, orderly
p'ople, to treat them as CP:UNGAR:IIEn has for
menthe been treating the Fauboures of Paris,
and point fields of artillery against them, is of all
projects the moat monstrous ; so monstrous as to be
incredible.

We want no army
.in or about London. We are
unaecustomed to the sight of masses of soldiers, to the
thoughts of railitary prot etion or interference, to the
display of military force ; and we don't want to bo-
wels accustomed to anything of the sort. We have
hitherto kept the (areas's peace under all the emer-
gencies of HER M %JESTS'S ha?py reign without any
suea aid ; and, by GOD'S help, we will keep it by the
civil power, on this memorable occasion, as our fathers
hive always done before We regard the troops
ordinarily stationed in London as appendages to
illustrate and adorn royalty, not as a garrison to en-
force or to protect the public safety; they belong to
the Court, those 5,000 or 6,000 men; the people
have no interest or concern in them. We are quite
content with Scotland-yard and Mr. NI tTNE ; we pre-
fer it to the florae Guards and Lord FITZROY
SOMERSET. Proper things in their proper places,
if Sir GEORGE GREY pleases. Regiments of the line

may be needed in Ireland ; they are wanted or re-
quired in London ; though if on *sudden Ireland can
spare 20,000 for L"ndon, they can't be very much
needed even there. We have all a profound admira-
tion foe the great victories of our Great Captain ; but
we have not the least wish to see his Grace in h•s
senectude playing at soldiers on Hampstead Heath
ar Camberwell Green.

The libel this investment of London would be on
its inhabitants, the insult it would offer to our visi-
tors; the inconsistency of celebrating the triumphs
of trade, commerce, invention, and skill, and the
meeting of all nations in this our Temple of Peace,
by a great military encampment to deetroy them all
if neensary; the dit c mifort such a concer,tration
would inflict on the troops; the expense it would be
to the state; and the inconvenience it would impose on
the smaller homes of public entertainment, ad eager
to reap the harvest of 1851—will, it is to be hoped,
save London from being so surrounded during the
Exhibition.

If, however, these considerations do not teach the
Horne Guards the absurdity of this, ito stated project,
the House of Commons well, it is clear, have to inter-
fere and restrain its ardour against imaginary domestic
rebels and foreign revolutionists.

States the ministers do not sit in the assemblies be-
cause they hive no right to do so. The government
dots not lay bills before Congress, although tho P re-
sidett recommends ouch and such a measure in a

special menage. If the measure recommended be
rejected no one sees in the rejection a necessity for
the ministry to retire, because the ministers are so
many secretaries who are occupied with the business
of their departments, st 4 whom the president con-
sults separately or collectively when he chooses.
Here, on the other hand, the ministers sit in the
C :amber by right, without being elected representa-
tives. 'lnstead of being so many administrative
ewrits of the President and covered by his respoesi-
bility, the ministers here are essentially political, have
a conteitutional responsibility, and an authority'
without which the President can do nothing since all
his acts have to be countersigned. Hence, there is
little probability of each a theory ever being reduced
to practice ; and there is small chance of a ministry
surviving a vote of censure pronounced by the
Assembly.
A fact has been alleged publicly with regard to a
paesage in the career of General Baraguay d'Hilliere,
which is generally recognised as authentic, and is
calculated to damage hie Mama over the troops,
which he has been recently appointed to command.
In June, 1848, he was called upon to take the com-
mand of a corps deprived successively of its leaders by
the mortal wound of General Duvivier, the death of
General Regnault, and the wound of General Bedeau.
He refused this dang roue poet, which was then
accepted by General Negrier, his superior in rank,
who tell three hours after at the entrance of the Fau-
bour4 St. Antoine.
. . . . .

Notwithstanding the turmoil in the upper political
regions, commercial of are so steady as to move
eurprike. The Fives rose to-day 15c. on the closing
price of Saturday, and eloped at 941 r. 950. The
Threes closed at 561r..90c , with a rice of 100.

The President has been, making some steps in an
economical direction. This morning he catvoi several
of his sizty-three horses to be sold, and dismissed
many of his servants.
G..neral Narvaez arrived in Paris this morning.
It has been rumoured that he is to succeed, as
ambes.ador, the Duke of Sotomayer, who is said to
have been recalled to Madrid.

TUESDAY EVANDSO.

Up to the present hour no progress has been made
in the formation of the new cabinet. The same
rumours circulate with regard to Milan Barret and
Leon Faucher forming the base of ti.e new ministry.
Dora is also added.

The latest event of importance seems the organisa-
tion of a now club, formed one of the minority of 28G
members who voted on Saturday, and constitute the
club of the Rue dee Pyramider' with the exception of
a small fraction adhering to 31. 'flier. This new
party met on Soeday night, in the rooms of the
Conseil d'Etat, and appointed Leon Faucher presi-
dent. M. Darn trac?d the policy which they
proposed to follow of supporting the government
under condition of adherence tsi the message of the
12th Nov., and interposieg. their good offices to con-
ciliate the rest of the major:ty to the same cause.
The meeting appointed three commissioners, Lron
Faucher, Darn, and Lacrosse, to manage their affairs
and sittings.
To-day the Assembly continued to discuss ilia pro-
positions relative to the arrest of representatives for
debt. The debate prevented no feature of interest.
The clause of the ball of the committee, makiag the
previous authorisation of the Assembly nectuary, was
adopted.
Yesterday, at the reception at the Elysiie, which
usually takes place on Monday, the greater part of
the minority of 286 met in the salons of the Pretid, nt.
M. Baroche experienced the warmest and most cordial
reception.

Ono very remarkable flit ure of the present situa:
tion is the total absence of all influence of the mi-
nisterial crisis on the state of the Bourse. The fund',
in fact, have slightly risen since the vote of Saturday.
Although this circumstarce is mainly attributable to
the confidence of the public in the maintenance of
order, and to indifference to the factious intrigues of
the Assembly, no doubt M. Fould is entitled to claim
coma& rable credit for the dexterity with which ho
lilts the means at his disposal for keeping the biro-
meter of credit from telling. The fact is that M.
'Wad Fould has had a great advantage over re-
ceding ministers of finance, in regard to the resources
at his command for influencing the public funds. The
deposits of the savings-bank are confided to his care
far investment. The ltente being below par, and the
Treasury Bonds bringing a reduced rite of interest,
tt.e minister of finance can adopt no more judicious
investment than in govern' meat stock. The low
dividends of the monarchy prevented the finance
ministers of that time from having recourse to the
same application of the foods at their disposal.
Since the revolution of February, the fall of the
funds was, until lately, accompanied by a commensu-
rate sinking in the dep.sits of the savings banks, so
that these deposits termed but a lean resource for the
minister. At present, however, that is no longer the
case. Workmen once mare flock with their earnings
to those reservoirs of economy, and M. Fould has at
his disposal 20 millions of francs, which he koows
how to apply in timely investments in the Fiver., to
, reanimate the market.

When the last cabinet was appointed the finida
rose, and when it was dissolve 3 the funds still rose.
They were remarkably firm to-day. The Fives gained
30 c ntimee, and closed at 05 30.

The s cretsocietit 8 seem to have taken advantage
of the crisis to begin stirring; but M. Culler is a
weasel, not to be caught steeping. Last night,
at nine, as the " Union of Commutes" was assembled
aiththe Association of Cooks, at the Barri,;re I'igale,
vcral brigades, headed by a commissary of police,
I invested the house of meeting, and netted 36 indivi-
duals. This morning 20 more were added to the
arrested. Several papers of a socialist character were
seized.

We find the following( in the Muniteur A decree
of the President of the Republic, dated the 18th, puts
an end to the interim of thedepartment of Marine and
and Colonies, confided to M. Drouyn de Lliuys, Mi-
nister of Foreign Affaii a. By order of the President
of the Repuhl.e, M. Dueos will transact the affairs of
the department of Marine and Colonies until the
nomination of his successors."

BOURSE.

Prat Account.
PARIS, lAN. 11. For 11--
Opaline
.111,hat, Lowest. custog.
- -
per Cents. 37 3 i 37 0 37 10 57 0 57 10
5 per Ow& 193 15 03 0 95 30 95 0 93 25
3 do. New Lou
do. do.-- 91'
33 . 93'10 93'i3 j 95 10 95"12
1 per Cents. O. I. SO O.

Enlarge on Laotian: at

BelMaa, 3, 184;
Do. 3, 1842
Ito. 44
Do. Ili
Piedmont 3 p.Ct. 1949 .2 33 ..

•t. 24. 95; -99 8.99,-24 7;

- -
Naples Routes.— Mon
Roam Law 1130
IN. Ibsn
Treuvry Mods— 40 "
Bank Mans 22 0

BOt'lllll.—Versailles (right bank), 170; ditto (left bank),
163 75; Paris and Orleans, 84.5 ; Patio end Rouen, 670 ;
Rouen and Havre, 268 7.5; Mu, nes and Avignon, 116
Strasbourg and Dale, 14124; Centre, 585; Orleans end
Bordeaux. 397 60; North, 470; Par:. and Stra.blure,
352 60; lours and Nantes, 247 50; Monism's; and Troyes,
95; Dieppe and Facarep, 195.