The Express.
London, England, 1850-03-22 00:00:00

Wit Orrttio.

OUTGOING MAIL&
The mile ter Zeitkb Nora Menthe sad
Biases wM be male up ebb eroalag.
Tea seals WI Memailles, to I. Illeiiterreaess, lope,
Coyle., ha% ariemEeog, Ls., will be made up oa
ovule, Mae WM bat
The
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t a.
Tbe West UM' Kane. faebelikag berowla, Havaaaal,
II um% Mer.deree, New Wens, sad bilaise, sad minding
time Qr Maidaa. et. Jestode-Niseregus, New Oremada,
sat Pen. irOl be made up ea April 2.
The melle Ae Malreia, tho Break, sad Bosom Ayres, will
H made op ea the 'Testes .1 April I.
Tb mile Mr Gibraltar, Malts, Orme, the lonise leleade,
at=Oglea, India, sad China, via ikostbametee, will
sp ea April 20.

WON DAT= AT LONDON fIIDOL
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.italor—Nanag. NAa....- Aharia. Us.
—UasOa. N. M ANanstaa. TN

LONDON, FRIDAY, MARCH 22.

SLR CHARLES WOOD'S budget has never pleased
us. We have regarded it from the first se the budget
of a small mind. The state of our natural remota oes
presented a great opportunity, and the government
threw that opportuaity away. Sir ROBERT PEEL,
with his two millions of cash in hand, and prosperity
in prospective, would have set about a great reform.
He would have revised the excise laws, or arranged
the stamp. acts upon more equitable principles, and
an approving country would have reaped a tenfold
benefit, whilst the revenue would probably have been
augmented.
Sir Cariame WOOD appears to have an idea of
what is wanted, without having the will or the
power of performance. He his nibbled at every-
thing, but grasped nothing. He abandons an excise
duty—it proves one of the least oppressive. He pro-
poses to pay off the national debt—and his proposal
results in buying up an annuity of the value of
10,0004 He suggests a revision of the Stamp Acts--
and, as we are about to show, he has got himself
into such inextricable confusion that it is ten to one
that his plan must be abandoned.
Like most of his colleagues, Sir CnaaLes WOOD is
a minister of conciliation. He is very anxious to
oblige everybody. Most especially is be desirous to
oblige the tortes. The whip always were anxious
to make their opponents comfortable. Like Short,
in " Humphrey's Clock," they are always endeavour-
ing to conciliate their Collins, and we need not say
always failing in the effort.
Sir CHARLES WOOD on the most recent occasion saw
an admirable opportunity of " gaining over," as they
term it, the landed propriet AS of England. By letting
them have a little money upon loan, and by reducing
the stamps upon leases, he thought he should smooth
them down after the pleasantest fashion possible.
The landlords gulpid at the bait greedily. We don't
know whether Sir CHARLES WOOD intended it or
not, but it seems to us that they are caught upon the
hook.

The proposition of Sir CHARLES Woon assumed
the shape of an ad valorem scale. He asked the
house to abandon the present heavy scale of stamp duties
on bonds, conveyances, leases, molt sign, and settle-
ments, and to adopt instead thereof I very small rate of '
payment, proportioned to the amount of the money to
be invested. He informed the landlords that he was
making a great concession ; that they were to save
not lees than 300,0001. a year by this arrangement; and
he put it to them, whether some small sacrifice was
required with respect to payments on the higher part
of the scale, it was not equitable that they should
make it. There wee, of course, a general cry of
"hear, hear," at once, for wbat can be more reasona-
ble than a scale of stamps equitably proportioned to
the amount of money represented?
Yesterday there reached us with the votes a copy
of the resolutions by which, after Easter, Sir CHARLEs
Woon proposes to elerry out his plan. We have gone
through it carefully ; we have contrasted carefully the
existing with the proposed scale of duties; and we
,arrive at the conclusion that instead of a remission
of taxation to the extent of 300,0001., the CHAN-
CELLOR of the Excnequele's plan involves a very
considerable increase of the charge now payable by
those who are necessitated to use stamps.
But this is not all. The plan not only increast s
old stamp duties; it absolutely imposts new ones.
Henceforward a duty will be chargeable on convey-
ances whenever the consideration consists of money
in the funds. Deeds of covenant, which were pre-
viously free from an ad valorem deity, are also in
future to be subject to a heavy one.
But let us just contrast the actual and proposal
duties. Nothing is like a tabular exposition in such a
case as shin. We will take, first, the case of the
stamps on bonds.
Every one is familiar with the fable of the horse-shoe
nails. Every one knows how a farthing paid upon
the first shoe-nail amounts up, under a pleasant pro-
cess of compound addition, to we don't how many
hundred thousand pounds upon the four-and-twentieth.
Just as it was with the horse-shoe nails, so, it seem.,
the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER intends it to be
with the adralorem duty ; 101. per cent. seems a very
little sum, but we shall see how it moanta up presently
to something rather above joking. Like the man
who goes to the milliner's with his wife, the land-
owner will presently find that it is the multiplication
of those "charming little things" that makes up the
great " Cottle of the whole."
Now here is the scale of stamp duties on bonds,
put and prospective.
SAW.. Present Duty. Proposed Duty.
s. d. s. d
£5O ..., 1 0 0 .... 0 6
.00 .... 1 10 0 .... 0 10
/00 .... 2 0 0 .... 1 0
500 .... 4 0 0 .... 2 10
£l,OOO .... 6 0 0 .... 6 0
1:5.e00 .... 9 0 0 .... 25 0
£lO,OOO .... 12 0 0 .... 60 0
£20,000 ... 20 0 0 .... 100 0
£25,000 .... 25 0 0 .... 150 0