The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.--Another step towards the total abolition
of the duty on fire insurance was taken last night
by the House of Commons, which, in spite of the
opposition of the Government, emphatically affirmed
Mr. Sheridan's resolution by a large majority.
There are few taxes of which it might not safely be
said that their reduction is expedient " at the ear-
liest opportunity," and there are certainly none of
which it can be said with greater truth than of that
on fire insurance. The general impolicy of this
impost is not even an open question. Though it
may be the most convenient, it is the least defen-
sible way of taxing—not insurable property, but
property the owners of which have hold the fore-
thought to insure it. If a house proprietor chooses
to be his own insurer, as many shipowners are, he
gets off with a house-tax, while his more prudent
neighbour, after paying his, is heavily mulcted in
an additional tax for his greater prudence. No
other virtue, so far as we are aware, is so hardly
treated, and even this virtue is exempt from taxa-
tion except when it manifests itself in this particu-
lar form. People may lay by money for their
children, or become subscribers to friendly societies,
without incurring any penalty ; it is only when they
secure themselves against risk in the most sensible
way that they fall into the hands of the taxgatherer.
The injustice of this was so strongly felt by the
country gentlemen in the year 1833 that they mag-
nanimously resolved to rid themselves and their
tenants of it, leaving it to be borne by the rest of
the community. Thenceforth farming stock was re-
lieved of the duty, and though no good reason for
this exclusive privilege has *ever been given, the
success of the farmers materially strengthened
the case of all other insurers. It was always
much easier to show that producers of all classes
ought to stand on the same footing, that farmers
are manufacturers to all financial intents and pur-
poses, and that no special favour is due to land, than
to meet the unfailing argument of fiscal necessity.
In the course of last session, however, a second
anomaly found its way into a Customs and Inland
Revenue Act. " Goods, wares, or merchandise,
being stock in trade, machinery, fixtures, im-
plements, and utensils used for the purposes of
any manufacture or trade," were subjected to a re-
duced duty of one shilling and sixpence for every
hundred pounds insured, instead of the old per ten-
tage of three shillings. This partial exemption was
expressly extended to goods in the hands of pawn-
brokers, but we presume would not cover such pro-
perty as the rolling stock of a railway company,
which can hardly come within the designation of
" trader" or " manufactures." It is obvious that
such a remission, though fair enough in itself, can-
not be defended on any principle consistent with
the maintenance of the full duty on other classes of
prOperty. If it be said, for instance, that a shop-
keeper is compelled to keep on his premises a quan-
tity of commodities which he does not want for his
own use, and of which the loss by fire may be ruin
to him, it is equally true that a lodginghouse keeper,
though neither a manufacturer nor a trader, is prac-
tically in the same position. He must fill his rooms
with expensive furniture to suit the taste of his
guests, whose carelessness may be the means of
burning his house down. There is no end to such
analogies, and no tenable ground for lightening the
burden on stock-in-trade which does not more or
less apply, in the words of Mr Sheridan's resolution,
to " houses, household goods, and all descriptions of
insurable property." All are exposed to the risk of
fire, and if goods stored in a warehouse are liable to
more wholesale destruction, this is a question to be
settled between their owners and the insurance
offices. The difference in hazard may be a very
good reason for raising the rate of insurance on such
property • but it is .no reason at all, so far as we
can see, for lowering the rate of duty. If this policy
were carried to an extreme it would amount to a
mischievous kind of protection, and the more it is
examined the more cogent will the arguments appear
for an uniform duty, so long as we have any duty
at all. The objection of Mr. Gladstone to the terms
of the motion did not even purport to be founded
on the merits of the case, but on the general inex-
pediency of legislating piecemeal on finance. He
naturally deprecated an expression of opinion by
the House which should prejudge the policy of his
coming Midget and " stand as an instruction to the
Government." Apart from this motive, however,
the reluctance of a Chancellor of the Exchequer to
part with a tax which produces a million annually
deserves to be treated with some respect. It has
been said that old chains are worn more easily than
new ones, and the same is eminently true of finan-
cial burdens. The loss incurred by every remission
has to be replaced from some quarter or another,
and this is equally true although the increasing pro-
ductiveness of existing taxes may disguise the fact.
A million sterling is a million sterling, and unless
there is an actual reduction of expenditure, if it is
not paid by the insurer it must be by the consumer
of imports, or by some one else who is entitled to
consideration. Not unfrequently it is paid by the
same personS in a different capacity, and, as it were,
out of a different pocket, with as much grumbling
as if it were an entirely new demand. From this
point of view there is something to be said for the
maintenance of the Fire Insurance Duty among
indirect taxes, but nothing to be said against its re-
duction. Every fresh insurer would be a gainer in
security, those who are now insured would gain in
reduced premiums, and there is good reason to be-
lieve that the State would not be a loser to any
great extent. Though it is very difficult to obtain
trustworthy statistics on such a point, it is certain
that a vast amount of property remains uninsured
because the duty trebles the normal rate of insur-
ance. Great progress, indeed, has been made since
the days of Adam Smith, when nothing like one
house in twenty was insured against fire. Still the
practice is far less general than it ought to be, and
where property is insured it is constantly insured
far below its true value. Mr. Sheridan was fully
justified in stating that the increase of the duty has
borne no fair proportion to the increase of national
wealth. The proper inference from this is that it is
too high for the just purposes of taxation, and as it
is also most vexatious the House of Commons
turned a deaf ear to Mr. Gladstone's remonstrances,
and pledged itself beforehand to a reduction " at
the earliest opportunity."
POST.—How long is Europe to be tormented with
the nightmare from which she has suffered ever
since she vainly endeavoured to digest the Schleswig-
Holstein question ? We fondly hoped last year that,
although everything resulted in a sense exactly the
opposite of that desired by the British public, still
that we should at least hear no more about it.
Now it has come back upon us, if not in aggravated
form, at least as prick and unpleasant to the touch
as ever. It is probable that the very unsuccessful
manner in which we handled it last year, will induce
us to leave it as much alone as possible ; still we
cannot remain altogether uninterested spectators of
the dinortment of the play in which we figured so
conspicuously in the first act. The scenes change
so constantly that it is a matter of some difficulty
to follow the complicated and still undeveloped
intrigues upon which the plot of the piece turns. A
letter which we published on Monday will have
enabled our readers to form some idea of the diffe-
rent parts which at this moment the various cha-
racters are performing. There can be no question
that the jeune premier is the versatile and unscru-
pulous Prussian Minister, who assured us solemnly
in January of last year that his whole object in
invading the Duchies was to rescue them from the
clutches of democratic Germany, and restore them
to their rightful owner. That his policy from that
date to this should have been signalised by an un-
interrupted series of acts of bad faith is probably
known to none better than to the ally whom he
then dragged into the struggle, on the understand-
ing that she was to exercise some influence in the
final settlement of the question, and derive some
advantage from the unjustifiable war in which she
engaged at his bidding. Unfortunately, it is no
consolation either to the King of Denmark or to
ourselves to know that M. de Bismark has be-
haved worse to Austria than he has to us. It may
be a satisfaction to see Austria in the dilemma
in which he has placed her, because there was a
bold and decided course open to her, which, true
to her political traditions, she declined to follow.
We won't pity her, therefore, but we do regret that
the instrument of her humiliation should be lie who
most deserves to be trampled upon. To obtain a
guarantee'of her own German possessions by Prussia,
Austria sacrificed the popularity she had half earned
in Germany in the previous year, incurred an expen-
sive war, alienated herself from this country, and
achieved the most ridiculous position in the eyes of
Europe which it has yet fallen to the lot of any.
European Power to occupy—that of having ex-
pended blood and treasure in pulling chesnuts out
of the- fire for her most hated rival. To neu-
tralise or foil your enemy in diplomacy is generally

considered triumph enough ; but actually to make
him fight for you, and deposit his spoils at your feet,
is a " tour de force," upon the accomplishment of
which we are magnanimous enough to congratulate
M. de Bismark. With a little more training
Austria will become a most invaluable retriever to
the Prussian Government. The contempt manifested
by M. de Bismark for Austria is only equalled by
the arrogance of his attitude towards the rest of
Germany. If the small States enjoy putting their
necks under his heel, it is no affairs of ours ; but
we should recommend a more docile behaviour,
unless they are really going to displace a greater
amount of cohesion and independence than has dis-
tinguished their policy hitherto. The wish leudlY
and openly expressed not by Austria alone, who has
earned a right to have a voice in the matter, but in
upwards of thirty small German States, is that the
Duchies should be independent and governed by
the Duke of Augustenburg ; and yet so paralysed
are they by the mysterious elements of their cony'
position, that this one mi',n in Berlin can afford t.o
.
ignore the whole of what they poetically call thew
" Fatherland," but which, from the want of vigour
by which it is characterised, might more appro"
priately be named " Motherland.' Thus it would
appear that the Prussian Government now has
the audacity to declare its intention of an-
nexing the Duchies, though by way of gilding
the pill to the Western Powers M. de Bismark
talks about giving up the northern part of Schleswig.
In the first place, perhaps, he will forgive us for
saying so ; but the fact that he announces such to
be his intention does not at all assure us that he wilt!
ever carry it out ; and, in the second, we are 01
opinion that Denmark itself would lose more than it
would gain by such an arrangement. The inevit-
able result of a first-class European Power being
actually conterminous with it, would be to force on
the absorption of Denmark into a Scandinavia. Thi°
consummation will probably come about sooner or
later, but we do not see that there is any immediate
hurry, and in the meantime the independent Duchies
would be a source of danger to no one. However
much, therefore, we were opposed to the spoliation
of Denmark a year ago, and however strongly Nve,
resisted at that time the claims of the Duke 0.1
Augustenburg, we entertain no doubt that they are
better than those of M. de Bismark ; and if the only
alternative presented to us is one of other of these
two, we unhesitatingly proclaim in favour of the
Duke. The fact is, in spite of the timidity of Aus-
tria, and the impotence of Germany in the matter,
the Prussian Prime Minister will not find the Duchies
a very easy nut to crack. The population is stub-
born, brave, and intensely patriotic. A vigorou!
Prussian propaganda which has now been prosecutecl
for more than a year has had the precisely opposite
effect to the one desired ; and the Schleswig-Hol-
steiners hate the Prussians with an intensity only
comparable to that which in former times they re-
served for the Danes. It is not impossible that they
would resist an actual annexation by an appeal to arras'
and by invoking the countenance and aid of the chain;
pion of the nationalityprinciple. In short, we shoal'
not be surprised to see the Duchies a second Polanat
upon which the three Northern Powers willunite in a
fresh Holy Alliance, to combat the liberal prineiPle
which for the time will be represented in this struggled
It is the prospect of this which binds Austria 110.0
and foot to the Prussian chariot wheels ; „1,
the prospect of this which has induced M. de Pre
marck to offer Russia exceptional privileges in ,
Baltic and North Sea Canal, and which has ill;
duced Russia to become a shareholder, to a val.'
large extent, in that undertaking ; and it is maul-
festly the policy of Prussia to make the question
one affecting all Europe in the reactionary senses
until at last he can induce those upon who
Eh-
relies to believe that the peace and security a 1cli;
rope as against revolutionary tendencies depen
upon his adding the Duchies to the Kingdom (3.8
Prussia. No man knows better how to evoke thille
phantom of revolution, which strikes terror into t
rulers of Russia and Austria, and would induce them
to assent to anything which he may persuade the;
could avert the danger. There may, indeed, ,
other reasons why Russia should regard with a '.,31;
vourable eye the project of M. de Bismark--w%
which we certainly do not sympathise—but wh,luet
we do not now feel called upon to enter,
we fail to see what possible advantage can accrue "
Austria by concessions at, once humiliating and t:
jurious to her political status. As under any e'et
i
cumstances she is to get nothing by giving waY, ,a
her at least retain the merit of holding her own, 3`.0
endeavour, if it is not too late, to come to so,tle
understanding with Germany which may enable I,lle
large majority of the population to force upon 1r
Prussian Government the accomplishment of the
desires.