The Express.
London, England, 1848-03-04 00:00:00

NOTICE.

-- -
The number of S CAMPS issued to the DAILY NEWS
by the authorities of the atamp-office, during the year 1847,
From Jew. 1, to Dec. 31, 3,447,009
Ibis, we believe, is within eight per cent. of tt.e number
aimed to the Morning Herald, Morning Chronic*, and
Morning Post, ALL PVT TOGETUEkL
In addition to the above, issued to the DAILY NEWS,
Mornino Paper, there were issued for the Evening Editwn,
TILE EXPRESS,
From JAN. 1, to Dac. 31 778,714
Which was more, we believe, than were issued either ti
the Globe or Standard, Evening Papers,

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LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 4
WHENEVER a proposal is made—as by Mr. HORS-
IAN, last Light, in the House of Commons—to re-
medy the inequality of the income tax, ministers in
are and ministers in posse contend who shall be first
to appose it. "It is impossible," they say, with a
unanimity only surpassed by the unanimity with
which:he sutt-one Irish patriots struggle to relieve
the landowners of Ireland from the burden of Irish
eriam, and to have their beggars fed, as hitherto,
t 7,
ose who are ally not beggara themse. lees. For " im-
possible," read " ditheult." Doubtless some brains, and
DO slight exertion of them, are required to devise a
machinery at once simple and efficacious, by which
the per centage of the income tax may be more
equitably apportioned to the real value of the incomes
segeseed. But are the people of this country to be
permanently mthiected to injustice because it would
give men in office some trouble to redress their
grievances ?
It is impossible, say the supporters of one uniform
rate for all classes of income, to do strict justice in
every case, therefore do not attempt it in any. It
would be an endless work to endeavour to estimate the
exact value of every professional income, therefore
make no distinction between professional incomes
and incomes derived from landed or funded property.
No person maintains that in every special case the tax
can be with mathematical accuracy proportioned to
the value of the property taxed; but marked and
easily recognised distinctions can be established with
regard to classes of income, affording safe guidance iL
apportioning their respective rates on each. It is
political coxcombry to refuse to do justice in the
rough—approximatively—because you cannot do it
with hair-splitting accuracy.
The very men who stubbornly refuse to make any
distinction between professional incomes and incomes
from realised property, have, in tact, themselves
adopted different modes of assessment for different
kinds of income. All other classes are taxed seven-
pence in the pound on their estimated income ; farmers
are taxed three-pence halfpenny in the pound in
England, and two-pence halfpenny in Scotland on
the rental. If a different mode of assessing farmers
to the income tax from what is adopted in the case of
all other classes be possible, why should a different
mode of assessing professional men from what is fol-
lowed in the case of proprietors be impossible ? It
is curious, too, that the mode adopted for farmers is
palpably unjust. A correspondent shows that the
estimated income of a farmer in the north
of Scotland is about double his rent, whereas he is
taxed as if it were lees than half his rent. Again,
almost all Scotch farmers are capitalists with leases,
and a large proportion of English farmers are tenants
at will, yet tae per centage on the English is heavier
than on the Scotch farmer. The framers of the act
nader which the income tax is raised have found it
quite possible to do as a job what they declare to be
Impossible as an act of justice.
Mr. HORSMAN pointed out one way in which a
roiigh approximation to an equitable assessment
aught be made. Tax professional incomes derived
from personal exertions alone at four pence in the
pound ; trading incomes derived partly from personal
exertions and partly from invested capital, at six-
pence in the pound ; and incomes derived solely, from
property at :eight-pence in the pound. This is one
way. Perhaps the same end might be attained by
taxing incomes de rived from property alone, at seven-
peace or eight-pence in the pound ; incomes from
personal exertions at fourpence or threepence in the
pound; and allowing men in trade to state the in-
terest on their capital, and the additional income
derived from their enterprise or industry separately,
and to be luieessed at the higher rate on the former, at
the lower on the latter. The farmers would fall
under this third class. We do not maintain that
either plan is a nicely exact approach to equitable
taxation, but tt is obviously more fair than the present
method. We do not stand out for the rates men-
tioned; we merely state them to elucidate the
principle.
This surely is a better way of minimizing the ine-
quality of taxation than that recommended by the in-
genious Mr. GOVLBURN. All taxes, says the beloved
of Cambridge, are, of necessity, unequal. The only
way to equalise the pressure is, when you have laid
emone unequal tax, immediately to clap on another'
quite as unequal. This, when addressed to the country
at large, is as if a man complaining of having too
great a weight upon one shoulder were told
to relieve himself by laying an equal weight
on the oth r. In point of fact, Mr. Got:L-
-ela:1 is pretty near the mark when he says
that all English taxes are unequal. The income tax
iianequal—the window tax is unequal—the legacy
and probate duties are unequal—but, unluckily, in-
And of counterbalancing each other, all these taxes
are found to press with their heaviest weight upon
use and the same class of society.
The country cannot, it is clear, yet afford to rest
AIR its labours. The same resolute and unequiuocal
Bras ion of opinion which persuaded ministers
fo withdraw their proposed augmentation of the
!worse tax wilt be required to convince them that it
15 possible to make a distinction in levying the
!come tax between permanent and precarious
=oases,

CONTINP.NTAL INTERCOURSE.—The weekly returns
of buttoning betweon the channel ports shows the num-
ber tipwasenaen during the week ending Feb. 27 to have
Nee as follows Through Boulogne, 770; throu.th Calais,
148. The Jorrespenoing lime last rar showed the numbers
as follow*: Through Boulogne, .21; tht..tigh Calais, 309.
7.116 770 g, ,hrough Boum .no may be thus sub-
divided. From ,Ikestona.* 247; •roca Dover, 102; from
41844 80 ; tad, 417. For Folkestone, 243; for Dover,
Hi ix Luria: ; wtsl, 361