The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-29 00:00:00

Pin FT of the PEIBLIC Je)tlliN_N LS.

Ai 1
s s: 1
;4.:-....
..„.
-5:73
_A.
rn •.

~i

A 'S'

6.0 :
ca. •
;""N °. 2 :

722 Q ° ':' Q C.
.23
7.2
gg
o d0.::d0.::::
nl."ea
;1 .1
I 2' •li
. 0 0-0..P1 4 I ci,
fl!ce.F.lclii.9.siitt
a.," g 8 G 7)

"Thus taking 50,355,0371. 5s 6d. out ef the 1
the people to put a sum of 21,284,7611. Bs. 9id.
public treasury of the State. But the total ne
less cost of collection, from Customs and Exci'
year ending 5,h January, 1851, was 35,133,953/.
representing, at the same rate of charge, an
taxation of 83,119,163 L 7s. Oil

_
The difference • £47,985,209 '
Less the charges of collection 2,146,469 1

:kets o

into the
t revenue,
ie, for the
195.10 id..
.mount of

7 2
10 7i

Leaves •
or 1301. 94. 4icl. per cent. upon the net revenue raised
from these sources for State purposes, neither paid into
the Exchequer nor to any Government officer, but
simply wasted in the process of collection.
" To state the case another way:—Supposing the same
amount of revenue were to be raised by a system of
direct taxation, which might undoubtedly be collected at
an expense not exceeding 2 per cent., and probably
less, the gross amount to be levied on the puhlie wool,
be ...
Cost of collection, say 2 per cent.

Net amount to be paid into the Treasury £35,+33,953 19 10i

" The Finance Accounts show that—
of Customs duties
.£22,019,783 19 7 {Wire collected at}£1,233,804 12 1
a charge of
15,260,639 10 114 of Excise duties at do. 862,664 18 6i

E 37,280,423 10 Total ...... £2,146,469 10
But the cost, if levied directly, would be
as above

Showing a saving, in the collection
alone, of

As shown before, the actual amount
paid by the public under the present
system of Customs and Excise Duties,
is
But if levied directly it would only be 35,850,973 9 3}

The annual saving to the public under a
system of direct taxation, would,
therefore, amount to £47,2g8,189 17 9i
"We thus raise a revenue of 35,133,953/ 19s. 1041 d.
from Customs and Excise duties, at a loss of 134/. 103.9 d.
per cent., while, at the same time, we impose a charge
upon industry and production (for taxes on consump-
tion are necessarily taxes upon production—a fact often
forgotten) of upwards of eighty-three millions yearly,
besides stamps amounting to some some five millions
more. Such a load would sink a navy. Were there
no other reasons—which the Council would by no means
affirm—it is in itself amply sufficient to explain wby im-
ports should be unprofitable, important manufactures
struggling, and comp.thion everywhere intense and ex-
cessive; and though this estimate may afford an ap-
proximation to the amount of money paid directly out
of pocket in consequence of the customs and excise sys-
tem, there is an item for money not earned, which, conk
it be ascertained, would probably prove at least as much
more."

To pay a direct tax costs nothing beyond the amount
of the tax itself and the simple collection of it. In the
State of New York there is levied what is called the
mille tax, because the inhabitants are taxed one mille,
or the thousandth part of a dollar on every dollar of
capital they possess. This tax is levied at a cost of two
per cent. But if it were to be raised to ten mille or
twenty mine per dollar it would cost no more to collect
it. In fact the psr-centage cost, though something must
be allowed for increased responsibility, would be less,lacd
as th,- rate of the tax increased. What is done in New
York may be done in England; a single rate on all kinds
of property, real and personal, or capitalised income,
collected by one :tuff of collectors, would serve all pur
poses, a certain proportion for the State, ao much for
the poor, so much fur police,', so much for sanitary pur-
poses, &c., Sze. Every other tax could be dispensed
with. Away then with all custom-houses, all excise and
Customs., officers, and all the odious end detestable
re-
strictions which belong to customs
Away with every kind of tax or rate-colletor. W
aind excise duties.
a mass of temptation to evasion, to cJrruption, to fratudw,
we should annihilate at once! Truth would talie t
place of fallity, Government would cease to be a cheat,hanw
and cease to make chests of the people. This one
e
would du more to reform morals than the Churchube
rep.
has done, and England would in consequene
dared a comparative paradise.
c ever

EXTENSIVE GAROTTE ROBBERY AT LIVERPOOL
About nine o'clock on Friday night a gentleman was ac-
costed by a female in Elliot-street. lie remained in conver-
sation with her a minute or two when he was suddenly at-
tacked by two men, who kuocked hint down. The woinAn
immediately grasped his purse, containing about 300/. in
gold and notes. She was c iptured ou the spot, but the two
men unfortunately escaped. On the way to the Elat
house she threw away; 250/.7 and the Bridowell 601, was
found upon her.

ffS,—The peeer and indepereicace of s rel,re-
see. e asstenel eir iii it'. •11 i's ifrPinai 4.'01.1.•
etitcoon, on its Parliamentary privileges. end its stend-
jog orders, than on the electoral basis which may sup-
port it. The unreformed British house of Commons,
with all its rotten boroughs and its pocket seats, was
nevertheless a great and powerful legislative body, be-
cause every Member of it was armed with the power of
proposing and originating laws and amendments, be-
cause its freedom of debate was inviolable, and, above
all, because it was the absolute mistress and sole judge of
its own roes of proceeding. Without those privileges
the most democratic assembly in the world may be con-
verted into a mere machine for enregistering the edicts
of a despot, and the most extended term of the popular
suffrage becomes a delusion and a snare. The decree
by which Louis Napoleon has determined beforehand
the rights and forms of proceeding of the Senate and the
legislative body in France, which are convoked for the
29th inst. under the new Constitution, is the most effec-
tual mode of repression which was ever applied to mach
assemblies. The mere fact that the Presidents ot the
Senate and the legislative body were appointed by the
Executive Government before these assemblies them-
selves were fully constituted, wassufficiently indicative of
their subordinate position in the State. Accordingly, for
one of these posts the choice of Louis Napoleon fell on
his uncle Jerome, and for the other on M. Billault, a
man who has alternately lent his tongue to the most
factious acts of opposition and the most culpable acts of
power. But, in addition to this, the proceedings of
these assemblies are to be entirely regulated by autho-
rity; they have no will in the conduct of their own busi-
ness, and, instead of the head of the State repairing to
the palace of the Legislature to open the session by an
act of deference to the representatives of the nation, the
Senate and the legislative body are summoned to the
Tuileries, humbly to wait upon the executive chief, and
to assume the badge of their servility by an oath of al-
legiance to his person. Such is to be the termination of
four months' dictatorship, and the return to what is
henceforth to be styled in France " constitutional go-
vernment." The decree of the 23d of March provides in
the minutest details against every attempt on the part of
the Senate or the legislative body to manifest a
spirit of independence or of opposition. The pecu-
liar functions which were conferred by the former
Consular and Imperial constitutions on the Tri-
bunate will now be exercised by the members of
the Couucil of State, whose duty it will be to sup-
port the discussion of legislative measures as com-
missioners before the other assemblies. The Senate has
simply the power of opposing or allowing the promulga-
tion of a law; it cannot vote amendments. The peculiar
power of deciding on acts denounced to the Senate as
unconstitutional is to be exercised on the report of a
Committee when the act is so denounced by the Govern-
ment; but when the act complained of is denounced by
petition, or, in other words, when the proceeding is ad-
verse to the Government, the previous question may be
moved, which, if carried, quashes the whole complaint.
Propositions to modify the Constitution may be proposed
by ten senators, and it is probable that one of the very
first acts of this body will be to propose the transforma-
tion of what remains of the Republic into the more con-
genial shape of the French Empire. The legislative body
will applaud, the Prince accept, and another plebiscite
confirm the election. The legislative body is still more
closely circumscribed than the Senate by these singular
and arbitrary regulations. No member can speak
without having asked and obtained leave from
the President, and then only from his place; so that,
by a happy innovation in French assemblies, the
pompous formality of the tribune for orators is
suppress, d. A member called to order for interruption
cannot be allowed to speak. If the speaker wanders
from the question, the President may call him back to
it. Nu oLe can speak on the call to the question. If a
'peaker twice recalled to the question still persists in
wandering from it, he may be deprived of the right of
speaking in that discussion by a summary vote of the
Aseembly. All personalities and all signs of approba-
tion or disepprobeiion are interdicted. If a member
disturbs the order of the Howe, he may, on the third
offence, be excluded from his seat for any period not ex
,seeding five days. When the previous cie.-stion has been
moved, it is to be put to the vote belle the general
question; but the previous question cannot be moved on
the propositions of the Government. This last clause
is probably quite sufficient to defeat the possibility of
offensive measures on the part of any opposing section
in the Assembly, and oven to disarm all effectual resist-
ance. For, in an assembly constituted as this legislative
body is likely to be, the previous question may always
be moved and carried to defeat propositions which
might embarrass the Government, though the same
weapon can never be used against the execuive
power. But, as if even this power did not suffice
to enchain the furious emissaries of universal suffrage,
all other details for the administration of the legislative
body are to be settled by regulations of its President,
who is himself a nominee of the Government ; and, in
the event of still more decided symptoms of revolt, the
Senate and legislative body are placed under a military
guard, depending on the orders of the Minister of War.
We must do Louis Napoleon and his coadjutor, M. Bil-
lault, the justice to admit that no precaution which
despotic ingenuity could suggest has been neglected to
reduce these representative bodies into the veriest slaves
and mutes—we might add the eunuchs—of a seraglio ;
and that they have reconciled the furthest extremes of
a democratic constituency and of absolute Govern-
ment. In constructing this whimsical edifice, which
would seem to be at least as well adapted to the longi-
tude of Pekin as to that of Paris, its authors have
omitted but one consideration. They have forgotten
that the vitality and duration of political bodies is in
proportion to the respect they inspire, and that the
respect they inspire depends on their efficiency
and independence. Questions of privilege have by the
usage of Parliament priority over all other business,
necause they involve the character and existence of the
body to which they appertain. Without privilege a po-•
litical assembly forfeits all independence and originality
of action; and if it has been forced in the first instance
to submit its own internal regulations to the will of a
master, it will seek in vain to assert its authority in the
affairs of the country. Its existence is only tolerated as
long as it masks the oppression of the Government, or
serves as an implement in the hands of the ruler; but
the rights it derives from popular election are held in
entire subordination to the regulating authority of the
supreme power. The result is inevitable. Its honest
and independent members—if any such have the misfor-
tune to belong to it—are insulted and disheartened;
its servile majority is corrupt and omnipotent. In the
end, the Government itself is the chief sufferer by
this mockery of free institutions, for, instead of
finding strength and support in such assemblies in an
weir of danger, it has to bear, in addition to its own
faults, the contempt which they inspire. That experi-
ment has already been tried in France by Napoleon; and
even before the period of his disasters began he had
learnt that the political bodies of the Empire were a
4ource ot internal weakness. In a conversation with
Prince Metteruich, which took place in 1812, the Em-
peror expressed himself in the bitterest terms in speak-
oig of these institutions. "My Senate," said he, "is
rotten. My legislative body is the derision of the world.
Such assemblies are a burden, not a support, to my Go-
vernment." Yet these are precisely the bodies which
his nephew has attempted to recall to lite, under circum
stances far more adverse to their character and success;
and, after France has had 35 years' experience of the
lights and liberei_s of constitutional monarchy, and !De-
nise these assemblies have even taken possession of the
palaces assigned to them, or worn their new liveries,
they are condemned to submit to regulations which
would cause a riot in an English boarding-school. Such
is the condition to which the loss of freedom may reduce
the representatives of a great nation.
DAILY NEWS.—The analysis of the division on
Hume's motion in favour of electoral reform is the best
answer to the elaborate mystification and misrepresen-
tation with which the plain case on behalf of manliest
right was met by Mr. Disraeli and his friends who now
occupy the Treasury bench. Oa former occasions the
representatives of the greater number of the large con-
stituencies of the empire recorded their votes in support
of the national claim to an adequate suffrage and pro-
tection to the individual voter. But there were added to
the list on last Thursday night, in addition to
these, sixteen other names of gentlemen representing not
less than a NILLIUN AND A HALF of people. In former
years we saw the active and energetic Members of most
of the large towns arrayed on the side of popular jus-
tice. But there still were many omissions. To day we
have the pleasure to fill up several of the
most notable of these. Coventry, Bath, and
Chester have pronounced by the lips of their
representatives that they concur with Manches-
ter, Birmingham, Sheffield, and Glasgow in repu-
diating the present oligarchical system, while a number
of lesser towns, like Rochester, Lincoln, and Hastings,
have now for the first time joined in swelling the de-
mand. Nor are there wanting symptoms of an awaken-
ing sense among the counties. North Lancashire gives,
in its adhesion through Mr. Heywood, and the duFae
e
county of Kildare has registered its assent to the justle
leeted
of the democratic claim by the vote of its lately
which in the
member, Mr. Cogan. These are facts
fustian elaborately heaped together by tn
American -
the hour. Anonymous letters abusrionmg
the frank rmind of the country will outweigh all thee timeitnioisntearnodf
in-
stitutions, and garbled extractsshla f
citizens, are little cal-
American statesman to his f
feearnest or thoughtful men
re-
proofs administered in an
ammebchitaionnismwilci
culated to shake the faithh o
people's claim.
anerdi.
Nobody ever
:I
form. The continue
in the rightfulness of
the breasts of men' conceivable e
contended thatf any
ra onee 0
Avarice
tSt rtt °
andn a i
real
to infest eocietyatu
: are the best means of curbi
cafe the love o
question 04, w
dof securing to the humble ng
their
• l effects, PO and hard-
pohtica
mane"o
©very
e rt
yh ei dwe sti
et.
the leastamount of interference and injury
from them? The ballot and a widely-extended suffrage
may not whelly beffie such evils; but does that prove
that they do not directly and necessarily teed to
restrict their sphere of mischief? As Mr. Hume
cogently put it in his reply to Mr. Disraeli's
quo ations from a speech of the scrap
Governor of New
i‘ Dees he recommend the abrogation of the
ballot its a remedy, or a limitation " e f the suffrage as
a cure?" The unscrupulous
Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, however, did not hesitate to purchase a laugh and
a cheer on Thursday night
yemt
arguments)
use of sophiAticel
lus,rations (we cannot call them
but he actually condescended to resort
oota. tatst kind,
ly
compiled series of mock statistics, by which he attemptediu‘
to fix the imputation of wholesale inaccuracy
leaders of the reform t par y. With a degree of effron-
tery rarely exhibited by even a Plotectioeist declaimer,
Mr. Disraeli undertook to show that the proportion
which the electors of the kingdom her to the male oalul,
pop elation was eon es setted by Sir Jo•hus WalmAky, ,
that of one in six, but reeily about one in four. With
all the pomp and circumstance of an official statement,
the Right Hon. Gentleman affected to enter into a serious
and atilt:sere 0314minEttio ef the elements et the gelctiht-