The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-15 00:00:00

We want an inquiry into all these points, and
we should regret any course that would pre-
vent or retard that inquiry. At present,
we are only at the very commencement
of fiscal reforms. A revision of the entire system
of taxation is essential, and before we reject the
Minister—who, however mistaken in some portion
of his project, has yet shown the ingenuity to
plan, and the boldness to propose, extensive al-
terations—we should desire to know to what
extent his opponents would be prepared to go ;
we should not be desirous of supplanting the bril-
liant and efficient DISRAELI by the dull and im-
practicable Sir CHARLES WOOD.

A grievance of considerable magnitude, as
affecting the civil servants of the Crown, was re-
cently pointed out in these columns ; and on-its
more careful consideration we feel ourselves called
upon, as among the independent organs of public
opinion, to force the matter with increased ear-
nestness upon the attention of Her MAJESTY'S
Government. We feel that an enormous injury
is being hourly inflicted upon a large and deserv-
ing class of the population, and that the removal
of that injury is very readily -within reach of the
Administration. The nature of the evil com-
plained of, we have in these columns already clearly
enough indicated. We have shown that a need-
less reduction of the restricted salaries of the
clerks and other officials in our Government esta-
blishments, has—ever since the 27th section of
the enactment 4 And 5, WILL. IV., cap. 24, came
into operation—painfully crippled the means of
those civilians, and this merely to swell the
amount of a fund nominally applied to purposes
of relief in the way of systematic superannuNdon.
It must be remembered that the. number of the
servants of the Crown claiming release from the
pressure of this intolerable and bootless burthen,
reaches an aggregate of no less than 16,353 indi-
viduals. Upon their exertions are dependent up-
wards of 70,000 altogether—those 70,00(kinclud-
ing, of course, aged parents, womeot and.ebildren.
According to a comprehensive estimate formed as
to the average of the salaries and emoluments
upon which the above-mentioned 16,353 civi-
lians have to provide for the support of
their 70,000 dependent relatives—while with
two-thirds it does not exceed 861. per annum,
with regard to the whole body of officials collec-
tively it does not exceed 1411. per annum__
surely no such very exorbitant expenditure as to
require the interposition of the economic pruning-
knife by way of retrenchment. Recollect what
was said only the other evening by the CHANCELLOR
of the EXCHEQUER. Recollect the eulogistic men-
tion made by the Right Hon. Gentleman in re-
ference to the unflagging energy and indefatigable
application of those Civil Servants of the Crown,
without whose aid the toils of the Statesman would
be ineffectual in carrying on the labours of Go-
vernment. The tribute was one eminently well
deserved. It came gracefully, too, from the lips
of one who must have experienced some solace in
his severe and laborious researches, from the as-
sistance cheerfully accorded, under every emer-
gency, to the rulers of the British Empire by these
obscure but important, and sometimes, and that
not unfrequently, highly-gifted movers of the
grand and complicated machinery Qf administra-
tion. We listened to no portion of the Financial
Statement of Mr. DISRAELI -with more interest
than to the sentences in which he pronounced this
merited panegyric on the Civil Servants in the
offices of the Government. And our interest in
the eulogium was not the less earnest from our re-
collection of the very bitter injustice of which
those same hard-working and inestimable, but
abused and neglected, officials have been recently,
with so much reason, complaining to the Members
of the Imperial Legislature.
It ought particularly to be borne in mind that
the Civil Servants of the Crown are asking for no
boon or bounty—they are merely demanding their
own—they are merely beseeching the Parliament
and the Government that the money they earn by
their laborious and valuable services may not be
diminished yet further, with a view to swell this
useless, and worse than useless, fund of superannua-
tion. In brief, they are seeking justice and not
benevolence. Let it be considered, in proof of
this, that their salaries are decreased by a deduc-
tion, made under section 27 of Act 4 and 5
WILL. IV., cap. 24, of 21. 10s. per cent. from

dries not exceeding 1001. per annum, and of

51. per cent. from salaries exceeding 1001. per
annum, and that these deductions are made for

she purpose of " reducing, prospectively,
he charge incurred in providing super-

annuation allowances." Supposing, for an instant,
that the amount thus annually collected by means
of these provident deductions from the salaries of

civilians in the offices of the Government--proved
effectually in securing the benefit kept in view by
the enactment already particularised, there could
scarcely, we admit, be any cause for complaint against
either the fact or manner of these regulations. Provi-
sion would only be thereby assured in anticipation of '
any casualties to the Civil Servants of the Crown,
by the interposition of the Crown itself in their
behalf. But such as we have explained with all
necessary minuteness upon a previous occasion, is
very far indeed from being the case. The result
f that unfortunate Act, 4 and 5 WILL. IV., cap.
4, has been directly the reverse of what, we pre-:

K.-.

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pancy. They inquire the aggregate amount of sume, was intended. A fund, known generally
the various liabilities they will be called upon to as the Superannuation Fund, has been accumu-
liquidate before they enter into arrangements ; dated since that Act came into operation ; hut, as
and the necessary result of any increase of taxa- , far as any advantage derived from it is concerned,
tion, is .a corresponding diminution of rent. The ! only to the positive detriment of the contributors.
tax, therefore, falls on the proprietor who has the The maimed or bed-ridden have been enabled to
house to let, and with increased severity, inas- obtain a paltry pittance from it, upon certain
much as he is not suffered to make any conditions, but the orphans and widows of men
deduction from the chief rents on account who have spent the best years of their life in the
thereof ; and without even that grievance being service of their country have looked in vain for
taken as an element into the calculation, he is, as relief from a source of nominal assistance, to
we proved in our impression of Saturday, taxed which their parents or husbands have directly,
seven times as much in proportion to the actual year after year, paid in their contributions.
value of his property, as the more fortunate pro- There is a cruelty in all this that cries out to the
prietor of green fields. Now, a judicious and Legislature for mitigation. There is not only a
well-devised tax on every description of accumu- cruelty, but a positive folly, in the existing ar-
lated property, real or personal, which would rangements, such as, we believe, in our conscience,
compel every man to contribute to the mainten- must extort sympathy from the most phlegmatic,
ance of the national establishments and the liqui- and necessitate its complete revision and re-or-
dation of the national liabilities, secundton, status ganisation by order of Parliament. We regard
et facultates, according to his position and means, this as inevitable. As inevitable as that a rotten
would be free from these grave and weighty apple must fall from the bough, in obedience to
objections, and such we would gladly sup- the law of gravitation. Being so—it were assur-
port ; and so we have no doubt would edly well and wise to hasten the reform of this
the great body of the people, and that to an intolerable system, the amelioration of so much
' extent sufficient to enable the Right Honour- consequent suffering,—in fact, the total removal of
able Gentleman to bring forward these various the grievance insisted upon—so that a source of
measures of financial reform referred to in his ex- great blame may be removed from the Legislature,
planation. and of great shame from the Governmen'
But for the very same reason that we oppose
the impost—viz., that it is practically a tax not
on the occupier, but on the owner of houses, an
unequal and oppressive Property-tax--we would,
if it must indeed be retained, not only extend its
area, but even remove every exemption. What
possible reason can be assigned why the owner of
one house worth 1001. per annum should be
charged 71.105., while his neighbour, who possesses
10 cottages worth 101. per annum each, or 20 worth
5/. each should be exempted? The effect is to hold
out a premium to persons erecting an inferior class
of buildings. It is thus directly opposed to pub-
lic policy. We have repeatedly seen, since the
passing of 14 and 15 Vic., c. 36, houses built
for the very purpose of evading the duty, the rent
of which was fixed at 191. 195., when an addi-
tional shilling of rent would have rendered them
liable to 15s. duty. This is neither just nor rea-
sonable. Every exemption on " property" is ob-
jectionable. If, therefore, the House Duty is to
be retained, in any form, we do not object to an
" extension of the area of taxation," by
rendering it applicable to all houses of every
value and every description. " Exemptions"
are very different things when we come
to deal with industrial incomes. Then, in-
deed, they become not only proper, but necessary.
It is, we believe, conceded that there cannot be
levied a charge on weekly wages, and perhaps the
burden may fall with equal, if not greater, severity
on those struggling to maintain a respectable ap-
pearance, which is essential to their very existence
—among the class in which, as SIR JAMES GRAHAM
happily remarked, "the fustian jacket ceases to be
worn, and broad cloth becomes the clothing of the
people."