The Sun.
London, England, 1852-11-05 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1852,

In a very short time Ministers will have to make
a statement containing a distinct avowal of what they
mean to do, and how they mean to do it. The
ghost of Protection cannot be revived —of that we
are comfortably convinced. They have "a fair field
and no favour," and it is to be hoped that they will
make the most of their position. We look upon it
that no Ministry, within the last sixty years, has bad
a better chance than the present. Lord DERBY, him-
self the representative of one of the oldest aristocratic
families, his beaten down, by one blow, the idea of
bl 4 country's being doomed to submit to a succession
of Governments, consisting, es neceAsitale, of Members
of particular Houses. His Cabinet,:at all events, is
not a mere family party. We look back on the
late Ministry, end wonder how the country could so
long have tolerated it, comprising, as it did, the
" finality " of Lord JOHN, the incompetency of Earl
GaRT, the palpable inefficiency of Sir CHARLBi
WOOD, the mar-all diplomacy of Lord MINTo, and
the take-it easy do-nothing-policy of Lord BROUGH•
Torr. Family connexion until now appears to have
been the great (indeed, in some instances, the wily)
qualification for office, and Whig and Tory alike ap-
peared chiefly influenced by this during more years
than the memory of " the oldest inhabitant " can re-
collect.

Prominent among the present Ministry is one who
has fairly won his position by high and undeniable
merit. Mr. DISRABLI, the son of a private gentle-
man, is nn w the Government leader in the House of
Commons—not by virtue of any aristocratic con-
nexion (though his ancestry, we doubt not, is far
more ancient than that of many Members or Peers),
but simply by reason of his full possession of the
higher aristocracy of genius. On him, in the Session
just commenced, will mainly rest the burden of the
contest. From him more particularly must come the
official declaration of the fiscal and financial measures
intended to be offered for the acceptance of the coun-
try.

Chief among these must be a recasting of the In-
enfdarPraTirty Tax. In 1351 it :Was only re-
newed ngle year, in order that the subject
might be
adopted to thoroughlyd investigated, and • means
sion it
Was,
.o
liker it more equitable. Last Ses-
te
rmanner, continued for twelve
months more,l
renewal in its existing form
being solely granted
the position of the Ilinistr a due
consideration for
bring forward any importantY who were pledged not to
Parliament. But it wasso question before the then
unlerstanding that it shoals be °n the express
make it press more evenly ~,3
thoremodelled, so as to
to be br,rne. One of Sir CHAIM:: Abky Whonl it was
. Too- ,
ideas on the subject wsi, that the LI 5 floating
only wav ,,
with the impost, so as to render it more tolerable to ueal
the payers, was Simply to increase it in its to
form, without change or modification of the obnoxious
principle so justly complained of, by unaristocratTe
sufferers.
The Whigs have never been very distinguished as
financiers, but they have been peculiarly unfortunate
in their dealings with the taxation of income. In
1806, when the Ministry, self-styled " All the
Talents," succeeded Mr. PITT, all that the then
Chancellor of the Exchequer could do to increase
the revenue, was to double the Income•tax ! The
ateaman who brought forward the preposition, Me

the present Marquis of LANSDOWNE, then Lord
HENRY PETTY. His measure was oppressive, but it
succeeded in its object, it raised the wind for the
time being. In 1805, the Income-tax yielded
6,300,0001. ; in the following year, it brought in
nearly 12,000,000/. The screw must have been pretty

well applied, for, in 1810, it produced 13,492,2151•
It had fallen to 12,291,1551. in 1811 ; but in 1812 it
rallied, and 13,368,6061. was paid into the Exchequer
under that head. The question then arises—lf in
these years an Income-tax of ten per cent. raised a

. .
revenue of thirteen millions (!) what would the yield
now be, that property has so greatly increased in
value, if that property were fairly charged ? The
manner in which the assessment is made, and the
principle of such assessment, must greatly influence
the result. _

Apply a correct principle of taxation, on Income
and Property, and even the present rate of seven-
pence in the pound, will yield a revenue nearer ten
than five millions sterling. But the tax has been
made what it is, by that abominable nuisance—
" Class Legislation." One set of people impose taxes
—another have to pay them. Old WILLIAM COB-
-SETT truly said—" the partiality of taxation is ex-
treme. While the rich pay a tax of twenty per cent.
on their houses, the poor have to pay a tax of two
hundred per cent. on their beer. While the land-
owners pay no duty on legacies, and on probates of
wills, an enormous duty is paid on personal property ;
that is to say, the property which consists of move-
ables, effects, or of money; so that while the heir or
legatee of a Lord receives a landed estate from his
predecessor without paying a farthing, the heir or
►egatee, if a farmer or tradesman, has to give to the
Government a considerable portion of the amount of
the legacy, or of the effects. You have only to open the
tax-book to see who it is that has made the laws, and
to see that while it was the great who contracted the
Debt, it is the little who have to pay for it."

Thus the defunct Corn Laws were for the direc'
support of the landowners ; while, excepting the
Land-tax (a comparatively trifling impost as now
levied), the Assessed Taxes, Excise, Customs, Stamps,
&c., fall heavily and unequally on the middle and
working classes, and scarcely' touch the rich aristo-
cr'.cy. Thus, also, the lucome-tax of 1806 (which
by the way the Tories took off, after the Whigs had
doubled it), as well as the present Income and Pro-
perty-tax, are alike unfair. We have lands and tene-
ments, in short " Property of all kinds, assessed at
the self same rate as the Incomes arising from profes-
sions, trades, and other avocations ; so an income not
worth, at the highest calculation, five years' purchase
—income made by the personal exertions and depen-
dent on the mental and bodily health of the toiler, is
subject to the same tax, and at the same rate as re-
venue arising from accumulated and realized property
with full thirty years' purchase. Thus, industry is
taxed six, or probably eight, times heavier than:wealth.
Luxurious ease and productive labour are regarded in
the same light. The landowners, who laid on the tax
pay scarcely one-sixth of what the industrious
classes pay. Landed estates and whole squares or
streets of houses may go down from father to son, or
even to collateral relatives, to the end of time ; but they
pay no more to the tax-gatherers than the precarious
and fluctuating income of the shopkeeper, the mer-
chant, the lawyer, the author, the tradesman, the
schoolmaster, the clergyman—each of whom lives by
his personal exertions, and whose income ceases when
his health fails. To have the tax fairly laid on, there
should be a high rate for Property, and a low rate
for Income.
In 1848, Lord JOHN RUSSELL, finding that there
was a deficiency in the revenue of two millions and
a-half, actually proposed in Parliament to increase
the Income and Property Tax from sevenpence to a
shilling, from 3to 5 per cent. He did not think of
reducing the expenditure, for that might meddle with
the sinecurists—the Gzatrroiss, the SCHOMBERGS,
the COWPERS, or the BOONES. He failed, but it was,
as we then stated, owing to the disgust excited by
the flagrant injustice, the scandalous inequality, of
the impost ; and not, as Sir CHARLES WOOD pre-
tended to believe, to any real objection entertained
by the principle of direct taxation.
We want a graduation of the tax. In 1798.9,
when Mr. PITT passed the first Income-tax, he
adopted the principle of graduation. Incomes under
601. were wholly exempt ; under 1051., the impost
was one-fortieth part of the income ; above 2001.,
one-tenth ; so the tax fell fairly on those who had
the largest incomes. We can yet remedy the evil,
and apportion the burden equitably. Let Property
pay six times, or at least four times, what Income
has to pay, and graduate the asseements on Mr.
PITT'S principles. The payments to be just, should
be lightest on incomes—the result of personal exer•
tion—and heaviest on these which are derived from
fixed and permanent sources. The fate of the Minis-
try will depend an their fiscal and financial policy.
If they will only do simple jastice in this matter of
taxation, they will establish a well-founded and
eternal e.aim on the gratitude of their countrymen.
They may, perhaps, have to encounter a one-aided
o'oposition in Parliament; but if the country be with
them, they can well afford to be abused, because they
take the part of justice and of the people.
We are at all events convinced, that Mr. DISRAELI
will not commit such an act of folly as to think of
increasing, without modifying, the tax. That bril-
liant attempt at legislation was worthy of Lord Joule
RUSSELL and Sir CHARLES WooD. The amount
realized may, however, be much augmented, if its
principle he improved. Let Property pay far more
(as in justice it ought) than mere Income. Graduate
the tax on both, so as to make it fall proportionately
lighter on the poorer, than the wealthier classes ; and
whatever may be the point at which the impost is to
commence, have it paid on all above, and not on a
sum inclusive of that minimum. That a man with
an
,income a fraction under 1501. should be wholly
exempt, while the possession of 1511. per annum
makes his neighbour liable to pay one hundred and
fifty-one sevenpences, instead of a single sevenpence,
or the excess over the 1501., is what never should
hare been sanctioned, and should not be suffered to
continue.
With respect to the final settlement of this im-
portant question, we trust a great deal to one quality,
which, in Mr. DISRAILI'S mind, surpasses even his
genius. We trust much to his common sense, which
will enable him to perceive the anomalies of past
legislation on this subject, and will supply him with
the means of rectifying them. We do trust that, at
last, we have working men to govern us; and we
feel there is much to be grateful for, in having an ac-
tive, intelligent Ministry, with the spur of a strong
Opposition. It is but a simple act of justice to the
Whigs to declare that out of office they have invaria-
bly been energetic and useful, adopting popular views,
and strenuously endeavouring to have them carried
into practical operation. Out of office, they have
merited the approbation and gratitude of the people—
in it, they have exhibited a vacillating and feeble
policy, truckling to all parties, and forfeiting the re-
spect which a very different course had obtained for
them.

People talk about war. It is pretended that we
are to have a repetition of battles and sieges, and that
the soldiers are to indulge their appetites anew with
the long-neglected luxuries of rapine and massacre,
unbridled licence and indiscriminate devastation.
Meanwhile the system of railroads, not only in the
United Kingdom, but more or less throughout the
European Continent, is rapidly maturing in its orga-
nization. Facilities are everywhere afforded to the
traveller. The means of communication between
remote countries are being in all directions multi-
plied. The old lumbering mail is forgotten in Eng-
land. The older and still more lumbering diligence
is being abandoned by Frenchmen. Amongst our-
selves, indeed, we have arrived at that point fro*
which we can even venture to look down with dis-
dain upon the dapper stagecoach celebrated by the
panegyrics of APPEBLEY. We have so far forsaken
the Road for the Rail, that DICK TURPIN could
scarcely find it remunerative, even if be could find
it safe, ware he restored to life, to renew his old course
as an equestrian highwayman. He would have to
discard " Black Bess " for one of the metalsome
Ikags of NAPIER : and instead of administering a re-
fresher in extremis by means of a bucket of brandy
and water, and a raw steak twisted round the bit,
would have to satisfy the thirst of his courser from
the mouth of the
ten' leatherntender,
r hose, and its hunger from
the coke in the Ever
tommere is simulating by aley waihde roef,
railways esankd,