The Sun.
London, England, 1852-08-12 00:00:00

„oftg,,r
-1 'A/a

exempt from Income-tax, it is certainly not the occu-
pier of the land who has a right to complain of ine-
quality. Farmers, however, were never silent suffer-
ers, and their complaints are rendered more audible
by the circumstance that they possess Wes. For sea
venal years their professed advocates in Parliament
remonstrated against the hardship of paying a tax on
an assumed income, when perhaps in an exceptional
year no profits whatever might have been realised.
In vain it was urged that the complainants would
unhesitatingly reject a proposal for placing them on
the same footing with ordinary traders- An average,
it was suggested, implied the possibility of defect as
well as of excess, since a centre of oscillation must
lie between two extremes. Nevertheless, it was re-
peated again and again that the advantage which a
fortunate farmer might gain from the mode of as-
sessment was no compensation for the losses sus-
tained by
a less prosperous neighbour • and a year or
two of low prices naturally obliterated the recollec-
tion of a time vt hen the tax was probably paid on a
mere moiety of the profits. The coincidence of agri-
cultural distress with Ministerial difficulties at last
overcame the reasonable objections of financiers ; and
iu 1851 Sir Charles Wood consented to give tho
farmer an appeal against the assessment founded
11 on the rental. At presenP,
therefore, capital
is invested in agriculture under the most advan-
tageous conditions, so far as fiscal burdens are con-
cerned. However great may be the profits of a suc-
cessful year, the occupier is only required to pay
Income-tax on half his rental. If, on the other hand,
his gains fall below the a=sumed value, he is alloyed
a deduction for the deficiency. The exemption of
farmhouses from taxation, and of agricultural produce
from the duly on fire-insurances, is not a more dis-
tinct benefit to farmers, as compared with other classes
than is the present system of levying the Property-
tax. It is true that rents are still rated equally with
every other species of income ; but even landowners
cannot 'pretend that the most secure of all kinds of
property ought to be exempted from ordinary bur-
dens. As usual, however, they complained in the
name of their tenants as long as it
was possible to dis-
cover the shadow of a grievance. The Stamp duties
have been reduced and simplified since the inquiry
which was instituted by the House of Lords; but the
heaviest burdens on landed property are still to be
found in the taxes imposed by the State and by the
law on all transfers of real property. Lord
Monteagle, in his draft report, justly points to this
class of grievances as the most intelerable--and, at
the same time, the most easily removable—to which
landowners are subject. The common remark that the
price of land on the Continent bears a higher pro-
portion to its annual value than in England, is in
itself by no means conclusive. In France and on the
Rhine, there is much competion for small freehold
and little for farms. Moreover, capital has in Eng-
land a hundred channels of investment, while in
poorer countries it is habitually laid out in the pur-
chase of land. There are many other reasons which
show that a sound economical condition by no means
implies a maximum in the number of years' purchase
given for land ; but it is nevertheless true that the
cost of conveyances, both direct and incidental, forms
a large deduction from the value of every estate in
the country. A commencement has been made in
Equity Reform, but it may be doubted whether the
benefit will reach the land. Until a ..comprehensive
and simple system of registration is established, titles
will be uncertain, and their investigation will be
costly.
areT gheewell-founded
bti in no small degree
popular belief that land-
ownersfounded on the difficulty of elling small portions of
land. The Government , s
whichsr
seriously with this difficulty will t
shall first grapple
establish claims to
the gratitude of the landed interest, of
b asaedveorny
iddilfe-
ferent kind from those which can
declamation against non-existent burdens.

liT HE HARPY
We have a few words to say about the performances
of another Admiralty steamer—the Harpy
just accomplished the passage home from Rio inlch
lo
days. Our old friend the Megmra—we have um
pleasure in observing—is being prepared for fresh
triumphs by the hand of the dockyard people at Sheer-
ness. They are caulking and paying her decks with
Jeffrey's marine glue. They are making alterations in
her internal fitments, and placing a coat of prepared
mineral pitch upon her bottom. Despite of all these im-
portant changes England, we are told, is justified in ex-
pecting that within the three weeks the Megaera will be
afloat again. Meanwhile, the reputation of the Admi-
ralty has been ably sustained. Uno avulso nett deficit
alter. While the Megrera has been in dock, the Harpy has
been staggering about the Atlantic for the last three
months at the most imminent danger to the lives of
all on board. In the case of this ship it may be said--
and with reason—that we have no right to expect any
such rapid passage as is habitually made by the Brazil
line of mercantile steamers. She was sent home, in
pint of fact, on account of the dangerous state of her
boilers, and so it was necessary to navigate her at a re-
duced pressure. Allows Lee, however, has its limits—
and whether those limits have in this instance been ex-
cP,ded must be judwd from the following facts.
Tne time bill of toe AteL.mra since her departure from
Rio stands as follows:—Ri. on the 18th of April, Bahia
on the sth of May, Pernambuco on the 15th, and:.F.tyal
on the 231 of July, off Pl) mouth on Friday last, and ar-
rived at Portsmouth on Saturday nieht. The Harpy left
Pernambuco with 150 teas of coal on board—as much or
more than she could stow. Her decks were choked up
with the coal in order to supply the shortcomings of the
,-“OW3ge below. With this supply she steamed
httadily away for the depiit at St. Vincent's,
and was within a comparatively short distance when
it was found that the supply of coal was exhausted. A
desperate cfrort must be made to keep the boilers going.
Everything was thrown into the firs—coal sacks, moss
tables, old junk, the cabin doors, everything, in short,
that was not absolutely necessary to keep the vessel
above water. All efforts, however, were in vain, the in-
terior of the Harpy presented a mere tabula rasa; there
was nothing more to throw on the fires, which very
naturally went out. Under these disagreeable circum-
stances the officer in command of the ship, Commander
Williams, who appears to have discharged his duty
with great energy and discretion, came to the resolution
of bearing up for the Western Islands. In order to give
them a chance of reaching this haven alive it was neces-
sary to put the crew on a reduced scale of provisions and
water. They apperr to have suffered very considerably
from actual hardships, and still more from the terrible
apprehensiona of the fate that in all probability
awaited them. At last they made Fay al, the very day
they were reduced to only one day's further provision
of water. The commander had directed his men
to catch the condensed steam and add it to their slender
supplies in the tanks, or they would not have reached
Fayel without enduring the sufferings inseparable from
actual privaaion.
Fayal had occupiedT6h9edapylssa'grehefreonmlvPweernridamerbiur ho to
w
even in the British navy en officer conic: be found to com-
mand and a crew to work such a craft across the wide
Atlantic. Tho conduct of the commander, and, we
haajel
no doubt, that of the men, appears to have been above
Praisn. The ship in which they her home
steam nor sail, and yet they connived to
-ape br
lenugcl eavoured,
in safety to Portsmouth harbour. We e some idea of
from the account we have received,
t'ig:vvere redaced in
the Shits to which the harpy's Fib %vie wsaild neither
n they came to try
Order to keep the steam going? The Harpy wasn't built
sailing' it was just as bad. - 1
w on earth can she do?"
serves—" if a ship can't saii'n-upon the wild assumption
very rationally ob-
for sailing." As our correspouhdart
Well—could she steam, e.°!' Tne reply we get is, that
that she had fuel on boaraarr.g.ris _y
1J made to bear a 121 b.
the Harpy's boilers wcherefori 1
safety's sake had been re-
steam Pre'surc' whi 13 at this modified degree of pres-
:laced to 4:b., but evesiwaye ~ giving way," and required
a patch there, in order to keep
t h here now
now a Pa-c-- het she ever reached the shores of
them together.
a ins to be little short of a miracle.
Great &LEA curse,"e e
sure the boilers were
N".' shioon leaving Rio in such a condition as to
was the '''.-`dispatch across the Atlantic at all? The
justify
~ resulting from the state of facts before us is in-
an9wei - bat it was unsafe in the highest degree to
°vital"' t• of the brave commander and crew of the
a steam-ship the boilers in which had been
harpy tosailingship whichwould
Thetuned, or to a
o°°---vr pears to have combined the
lives
absence, we
crave pardon for the Hibernicism, of both qualifications.
But as it appears to our uninformed minds
Tabu: t
Bare
py
ap
, although it
might have been an unsafe thing that the Harpy should
be sent to her machinery, it would not have involved
any very great amount of danger to have sent the
necessary machinery to the Harpy. To be sure, we
are not the Lords of the Admiralty, or great people at
the dockyards, or anything of that sort; but we have in
the course of our little experience heard of simple-
minded merchants sending the requisite machinery for
steam-ships across the waters of the Atlantic. Of course
it was a question of expense in the second place—for the
first question was one of humanity and prudence. Was
it worth while to incur such an expense at all? If this
question was decided in the affirmative, it was certainly
best to get the necessary work executed at as cheap a
rate as possible. What would have been the coat of
freight ou one side; and what the cost, on the other
hand, of maintaining the Harpy's people forinththe
months and a half staggering about the e
difficult.cof t a
most imminent peril of their lives? A compeacrisain_ogfatiline,
two charges cannot surely be very
suppose it had been decided on mature
that it 'Pros the most economical
boileri refitted in England;
been condemned, it woullshcacv t 0 alder ation
to send the
jv as her boilers had
suereb-ee'n but consistent with
give the gallant officer
Harpy home, that she might be ocvoeurrbsauled and her
the rues of common Prudence
Ms ship homo in safety
in nnamand weals o: soiling give way.
whenever the boilers
asdhd
tio
tae _
a_
_a
If anything h it caused indignation
two the proceedings of
'iwnould be the account of the
among the mercantile steam
I:l,‘iiiost rhAi 071 a. mh:ricrihilYrn-f:Elliiigridicilisi'tsbiDti,lntg many ts. long day ore such a
companies. is
Plata is sent to sc=at tram any dockyard in
ship ei Lai co That the same number of this journal
.....ther,.rmeteusr.a of the Harpy and the
these,fihrso
trip
:phi' agov-feli: cro
iradtead 1 1 i

Several men employed in the goods yard of the
Ru
attheßatignolles, hired a boat on Friday
evening at Asnieres for a row. When in the centre of the
river, five of them determined to bathe, and immediately
after two of the number disappeared. One was got up by
o en
his companions, and recovered, but the other was drowned.
,paris toper.