The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-25 00:00:00

vidual schemes of general improvement, the
outline of that Transfer of Lands Bill
sketched with such admirable and alluring lucidity,
two or three years back, by the master-hand of Sir
HUGH CAIRNS, perhaps the most brilliant intellect
now at the English Bar. One thinks again of Lord
BROUGHAM'S magnificent day-dream of the Consoli-
dation and Codification of the whole complex system,
or rather systems, row constituting that worse
than Cretan labyrinth, the tortuous and gigantic
structure of our English jurisprudence. One re-
members with a sense of encouragement to our
hopes, in the direction of legal reforms of all kinds,
and of every, even the greatest magnitude, the
fact that we have now sitting upon the wool-
sack, in the person of Lord WESTBURY,
the most skilled jurisconsult now living. For
sanitary improvements, we look instinctively to the
interwoven themes of the main drainage of the
metropolis, and the northern (and shall we not also
say the southern ?) Embankment of the river
Thames. Upon the merest whisper of "Administra-
tive Reform" again—do we not instinctively turn
our regard towards the Admiralty. And so on—
we might extend this suggestive catalogue of
problems urgently demanding solution, yea, almost
indefinitely. Here, however, we shall single out
one especial subject for legislation in the Session
25th and 26th VlcT.—a reform that if but adven-
tured upon at last in a wise and generous
spirit by the responsible Minister of the
Crown, within the province of whose administration
it lies, would of itself justify the publication in full
at the close of the year of the whole public statutes
of the session for 1862 within the compass of an
ordinary octavo pamphlet, instead of another BIGG
vOlnino of l 00.5 pages; extending from another imp.
to another cap. 134 inclusively !
And this one all-sufficient reform ? Can there be
any doubt as to what it really is that we have here
implied ? Hardly we should suppose—coming
home as it does more directly, more intimately, more
impressively than even the irritating question of
Church Rates to the " men's businesse and bosomes
in every household in this same land of heavy and
most unequal taxation." Allusion is, of course, made
to nothing more nor less than the Income Tax—that
Income-tax which, as at present assessed, is, without
any doubt, the most cruel and grinding impost
levied in the name of the Crown upon the honest
industry of Englishmen. Mr. GLADSTONE, in
one of his great Budget speeches, spoke
almost despairingly in the words of the
Poet-Laureate, TENNYSON, (referring, of course,
while doing so, to the obnoxious Tax upon In-
comes), in allusion to some remote Minister in
futuro (he felt it could not be Mr. GLADSTONE!),
of whom it ulight be said—

" lie took away the tax,
And built himself an everlasting fame."
As a writer in the current number of the West-
minster Review admirably well remarks upon this
allusion—" It is not by taking away the tax' that
a Chancellor of the Exchequer can build himself
an everlasting name,' but by adapting it for per-
petuity, and connecting his name with those
reforms which would make it a lasting monu-
ment of his political skill and fearless
justice." Will Mr. GLADSTONE, coming afresh
to the consideration of this weighty problem,
adventure upon that same task of adapting the tax
for perpetuity P Will he yet—he can if he cares
to do so—build himself an everlasting fame by
its equitable adjustment? There is before him an
immense and magnificent opportunity. It matters
nothing that he is committed to another course
altogether by his arguments recorded upon
those inexorable pages of Hansard. The age in
which our brilliant Chancellor of the Exchequer
lives, and which he adorns, is the age of recalci-
tration. Those who care before the session be-
gins in earnest to review for themselves, for their
own satisfaction, for the better adjustment of their
hitherto, it may be, confused ideas upon the subject,
the whole comprehensive question of the Income
Tax, as well as that of its present iniquitous and that
likewise of its possible equitable assessment—will
find the theme discussed in all its bearings in the
course of a very masterly treatise by the above-
mentioned Reviewer in the current number of the
Westminster. Our remarks have been already
extended to a length so unconscionable, so far be-
yond our original intention, that we are precluded
from making one or two suggestive extracts from
the paper referred to in our distinguished quarterly
contemporary—passages that we had pencilled for
quotation to the end that our readers by a
perusal of these merely casual fragments
might be incited to a careful perusal of the
whole elaborated and thoroughly well digested ar-
gument. As it is, we content ourselves with
urging the attention of all (as the lawyers have it)
to whom these presents may come, to follow the ad-
vice (applying it to the present instance) of the sea-
surgeon in Mr. DICKENS'S last Christmas tale, to
turn to the direction indicated and " judge for
themselves." We have in these columns of The
Sun ourselves so often considered the whole of this
vital question of the Income-tax, now in detail,
now in its entirety, that we may here for once rest
satisfied with this passing reference to the reconsi-
deration of that question elsewhere, as in the in-

stance of the brilliant and really masterly paper in
the new number of the Westminster Review.

TILE APPROACHING SESSION.—The Earl Gran.
ville, as Lord President of the Council, gives an entertain-
ment to the principal officers of State on the 3d of next
month, when the nomination of the Sheriffs takes place.
As Ministerial leader in the House of Lords, Lord Granville
will give a full dress banquet on the sth to the leading sup-
porters of the Government. Viscount Palmerston willgive
a fall-dress dinner, at his residence in Piccadilly on the sth
of next month, to the Speaker of the House of Commons,
the Zion. W. Portman, Mr. Western Wood, and the leading
members of his Government. The Earl of Derby has issued
cards of invitation for a Parliamentary dinner on the sth
pros. to a large circle of his political supporters ini the
House of Lords.

THE MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.—The follovring
circular has been transmitted by Lord Palmerston to those
members who usually give support to his Government :
" 94, Piccadilly, Jan. 20, IS62.—Sir,—As matters of con-
siderable importance will come under discussion at the
meeting of Parliament on Thursday, the 6th February, I
shall be greatly obliged by your attendance in the Rouse
of Commons on that day.—l have the honour to be, yours
faithfully, PALMERSTON."

ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY.—The additional
wings to this establishment are now completed, and will
be occupied by the cadets at the termination of the present
vacation. In accordance with the recommendation of the
commission recently appointed to investigate the manage-
ment of the institution, certain arrangements of a benefi-
cial nature will be carried out on the re-assembling of the
classes. The corps of cadets, now under the command of
Major Williams, will be divided into two companies and
placed under the command of Major Thring and Major
Fitzhugh. The Academy for Military Instruction, as this
institution was originally designated, was first established
in Vie Royal Arsenal (then called the Warren), in the year
1719, but in the early part of the present century the build-
ing was erected from a design by Wyatt, and opened one the
12th August, 1806.

DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. The Berlin
Aatiunal Zeitung contains the following respecting the ope-
ration of the recent order issued by Count Bernstorff, Minis-
ter of Foreign Affairs, requiring the use of the German lan-
guage in diplomatic correspondence by Prussian officials :
—" The Ministers of Russia, Holland, and Sweden have
declared that they will receive despatches written in_ the
German language, and on their parts, in a reciprocal spirit,
will write their communications to the Prussian Foreign-
office in the language of their countries. Should this :pro-
ject be realised, in the worst case a translator only would be
necessary. It is said also. that foreign Governments are
about to follow the example of Prussia. For examp*
Prince Gortschakoff will write to M. von Bismark, the
FrUSgall Minister at St. Petersburg, in Russian."