The Express.
London, England, 1846-11-28 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We cannot notice, in my way, any communication tharis rent to ne
anonymously; but tame who choose to adders us in confidence will
find their confidence respected. NEMI ER CAN WE UNDERTAKE
TO RETURN ANY MANURCRIPTS WHATEVER.
Advertisements intended for The Express, London evening payer,
must be at the Mee by Two o'cloci on the day al publication.

111011 WATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE.
Tests nAT. Morning, 20 min. past 9 ; Afternoon, 55 min. past 9.
To.atoasor.—Morning, 33 min. past 10 ; Afternoon, 5 min. past 11.

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOV. 28.

Tuoton the movements now in progress in favour
of reductions of various taxes may not rise to the
dignity or importance of agitations ; and though they
may, as at present, remain chiefly confined to the
mercantile and agricultural classes, or to those con-
cerned in our export trade and in the cultivation of
the soil, still the disturbance of such questions is sure
to prove embarrassing to ministers, and that at a
period when they require every support. Finance
has never, in popular opinion, been a strong point in
Whig policy ; and the discredit which former finan-
cial difficulties brought on Whig governments, very
naturally makes the present Chancellor of the Exche-
quer unusually sensitive on this subject. " What
will the country say if another Whig Chancellor of
the Exchequer gets into debt ?" is a question
constantly present to Mr. Woolf's mind ; he
repeats it to deputations ; and with it closes
the mouths of volunteer financial advisers. And
very justly ; for nothing would more quickly bring
disaster on the present cabinet than a deficiency
brought about by tampering with taxation. The
last deficiency has been severely paid for by the
Income-tax. Another deficiency would assuredly
augment the burthen of that most disagreeable of
imposts ; and this would prove no flattering recom-
mendation to go to the country with.
All, therefore, who regard the best interests of
the country as likely to be promoted by the con-
tinuance of the present Government, ought to refrain
from urging Mr. WOOD to try experiments on the
revenue. Ile cannot afford, and he will not attempt,
to do anything of the sort. The great changes that
have been made in the commercial legislation of the
country must be fairly tested as to their effects on
revenue before a prudent Chancellor of the Exche-
quer will risk any considerable alteration in taxa-
tion. If, by education and sanatory improvement, Lord
JOHN RUSSELL and his colleagues succeed in raising
the moral and physical condition of the people, their
elevation must necessarily have so important an effect
on revenue as to render a complete supervision of our
present fiscal system an improbable occurrence, until
the policy of ministers on these great social questions
be fully developed. And in truth, what with the de-
mands on the Treasury which the Irish famine must
beget, and which the expenditure now going on and
contemplated on the national defences must require,
there is small expectation of Mr. Woolf having, in
April, a surplus to deal with ; and without a very
large surplus it will be impossible for him to reduce
any tax.
There is no tax that we know of which is not very
disagreeable, very oppressive, and very impolitic.
The malt tax limits the growth of barley and restricts
the use of beer ; the tobacco tax inflicts on the poor
man's luxury a weight of cost, such as would drive
rich men's luxuries out of consumption ; and the tea
tax prevents an extension of our trade with China
and retards the improvement of the labouring classes.
Yet are these three taxes three of the most important
items in the national revenue. Reduce any one of
them materially, and the consequence will be
a deficit therein. Reduce them all materially, and the
Treasury will be shipwrecked. The enormity of the
receipts of these taxes shows that they have been
pitched at revenue points ; and though it may be
possible
so to alter and re-arrange them as to yield
the present amount of revenue, it is scarcely possible
that any considerable benefit would be thereby con-
ferred on the consumer.
Though to say so may savour somewhat of a bull,
in the present circumstances of the country, the
true mode, nay, the only possible mode of reducing
taxation in this country, is to make the people better
able to bear its burthen ; to make them feel its weight
less. He must, indeed, be a sanguine politician, who
can anticipate any great reduction in the national
expenditure ; perhaps he is the more rational who
expects an increase. The maintenance of our pre-
sent establishments, and the payment of the inte-
rest of our debt, form the price we pay for our
national greatness; they constitute its cost; there is
no escaping from them with integrity or in honour;
and there is no wish that we ever heard expressed to
escape from them. In one way or other, the present
amount of taxation, or an approximation thereto,
must be raised ; and the only honest question any
man can ask himself is, can it be raised in any other
than the present mode with less injury to the con-
sumer? Mr. JONES LOYD has contended that all
taxation is in itself so unjust and unequal, that the
more various its sources, the less injurious it is likely
to be. Mr. MACGREGOR, on the other hand, advocates
a much smaller number of subjects of taxation than
we now have. And with authorities so eminent as
these on either side of the question, any government
may well hesitate before it decides to enter on a field
of alteration so important to individual welfare and
national character—until, at least, it has a surplus
of a million to speculate with.

A STATEMENT has been going the round of the
papers, that government intend to discontinue sending
male convicts to Van Diemen's Land, and to found a
penal establishment in the Isle of Portland. We doubt
whether the views of government, in reference to the
question of secondary punishments, are so far
matured as to be embodied in a specific plan ; but the
rumour is probably based upon a foundation of truth.
Government, we have reason to believe have arrived
at the conclusion that, in order to a fair trial of any
experiments they may institute for the improvement
of prison discipline, and a good system of secondary
punishments, as also on the score of economy, it
is necessary that these experiments be made at
home, immediately under their own superintendence
and control, not with the diameter of the globe
between them. Nay, we believe we are not going
too far when we state that there is a strong incline-