The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-14 00:00:00

de—

G e- e

al) to sec,
sure If they had irenthed upou the royal rtresH
rogative in this matter,
`Tho.amendment was then withdrawn, and the bill read a
third time and passed.
LLEACIIFIELDS (WOMEN AID CHILDREN
EMPLOYMENT), BILL,
This bill was read a second time.
The house adjourned at five minutes past one o'clock.

THE MARRIAGE BILL.

I'AIl~~.

For.
Mr. H. A, Bruce.
Mr. T. Baring.
Mr. A. Layard.
Mr. Dillwyn.
Baron Lionel de Rothschild
arr. Coll,er.
Baron M..de Rothschild.
Sir P. 'Kelly-
Mr. A. Smith.
Mr. Molfat t.
Mr. Freeland.
Sir R. Filnter.
•
Mr. Grenfell.
Mr. Jackson. -
Lord Ilartimzton.
Colonel Berkeley.
Mr. Fenwick.
Sir J. Trelawny.
Mr. LiddelL
Sir J. Johnstone.
Mr. Stansfeld.
Mr. Whalley.
Mr. Holland.
Mr. Childers.
Mr. 11. Lewis.
Colonel Powell.
Mr. Hankey.
Mr. Coningham.

Against.
Hon. Captain Wyndham.
Mr. B. Stanhope.
Mr. R. Hodgson.
Sir A. Hood.
Mr. Cross.
Mr.. M. smith.
Lord A. Hervey.
Ilan J: Cole.
Mr. Bolt.
Non. 11. Cole.
Earl of Bective.
Sir F. lieygate.
Sir M. Stewart.
Lord Ingestre.
Lord Stanhope.
Mr. W. Wynne.
Mr. Leiroy.
Mr. Bond.
Colonel Dickson.
Sir E. Kerrison.,
Mr. Cave.
Mr. M'Cormick.
Hon. W. Cavendish.
Mr. Beresford.
The Lord Advocate.
Mr. Bova'.
Mr. B. Moore.
Mr. Whiteside.

ANALYSIS OF THE DIVISION.
Present (including tellers), 265.
English. Irish. Scotch. Total.
For the ...... 107 6 118
Against ........ 110 12 20 150
In the majority were 28 Radicals, including Mr. Glad-
stone. In the minority, which included Lord Palmerston,
were 14 members who usually act with the Conservative
party.

MR. BRIGHT M.P., ON TILE INCOM.R
TAX.

Mr. M.P., has written the following to
theßright,
chairmanof a recent anti-income tax meeting
at Birmingham :
" 4, Hanover-street, London, March 11, 1862.
"Dear have received your letter and a
copy of the resolution on the Eubject of the income
tag; and thank you for them. I am riot surprised
at the hostility which you describe as existing in.
the minds of many persons in Birmingham against
this tax ; in truth, I am only surprised at the
patience, I think I may say the culpable patienCe,
with which it has been so long endured. At the
same time I regret to say that I cannot see the wis-
dom of the course you recommend with a view to
procure the repeal or alteration of the tax, and it
does not appear to me to offer any prospect of suc-
cess. I cannot, therefore, pledge myself to ant as
you'wish, that is, to undertake to divide the house
against the present income tax laws on every pos-
sible occasion.'
" The evil of which you complain is not to be got
rid of through the direct action of Parliament, and
the course you recommend to my colleague and to
myself would, I fear, only subject you to disappoint-
ment, and us to ridicule. The House of Commons,
and I may say Parliament as a whole, including
both houses, finds no special grievance in heavy
expenditure and heavy taxation, and the inequali-
ties of which you justly complain, tell in favour
of the rich, and especially in favour of the owners
of vs hat is called real property. It is not from Par-
liment, therefore, in the first instance, you are to
look for redress.
" The income tax was imposed in the year 1842
to enable Sir Robert Peel to begin the reform of the
tariff. The tariff has been to a great extent re-
formed ; and/Although the Customs duties produce
more now than they did in 1842, the income tax
remains with a heavier pressure and a wider
field. The cause is on the surface. Parliament
consents now to an annual expenditure about
twenty millions in excess of that of 1842,
and the income tax raises one-half of the in-
creased taxation required by this increased
expenditure. If I complain to Government or to
Parliament that this expenditure is unnecessary,
and this taxation burdensome, Government and
Parliament tell me that the nation is not of my
opinion, and that the people do not blame the one
or suffer sensibly under the other.

" I believe a very heavy taxation can rarely, per-
haps never, be levied with much regard to 3ustice.
In this country, where the rich only govern.
equality and fairness in taxation are impossible.
The rich may spend the public revenues with a
careless prodigality, but they will fight with a des-
perate unity of purpose to place the burden on the
whole people, with little regard to the means of
those who are to bear it. In the United Kingdom
there are seven millions of men who pay taxes, and
of these about six millions are never consulted as
to the amount which shall be spent, or the mode in.
which it shall be raised. Of the one million who
are apparently consulted, it may be said that poli-
tical power is so unequally apportioned among
them, that less than one-fourth of them nominally
elect a majority of the members of the House of
Commons, by which seventy millions of taxes are
annually collected from seven millions of men, and,
which determines the mode in which this vast sun
shall be raised, and how it shall be expended.
" I have now had an experience of nearly twenty
years in the House of Commons, and during that
time I have given such assistance as I could to
every attempt to keep down expenditure, and to
make taxation more equal and more just. The
expenditure is now twenty millions more than it
was when I entered Parliament. Since 1853-4,
when Lord Palmerston and Lord Sohn Russell led.
the nation into war with Russia, the public exche-
quer has been open to the rapacity of the military
services, and they have revelled, without check, in
the wealth which industry has created. These old
statesmen, steeped in the tradition of the last gene-
ration, conceive the grandeur of a country to con-
sist in the vastness of its taxation, and the extent
of its military preparations, and they have suc-
ceeded in so exciting the fears and imposing upon
the understanding of the middle classes of the
people, as to induce them to tolerate a con..
stantly-growing extravagance in the executive Go-
vernment, and a burden of taxation, which in a
time of peace would have driven their forefathers
into revolt.
" The English middle class believes itself to be
represented, while its representation is mainly a
fraud. The great mass of tie people are purposely
excluded from all representation. Force is no longer
used as the instrument of tyranny amongst us; but
fraud, and delusion, and alarm, and panic are found
in our day more profitable than force. I write to'
you, who, in respect to the subject of our corre-
spondence, are a representative of the middle class ;
pdtmooi burdenawe lnetroft escape.ohtfe they
co-operation
must
and
b e content help
f
al, and, when it rises to any
so intelligent, so moral.
11
ful—sha examine public
great duty, so power
and I say that until that great class, in many. things
apportion-
affairs for itself, and shall shake itself free from the
impositions which are so impudently
. practised upon
it, I see no hope of any sensible diminution of the
attaxtaxatiaotnio,norforfomanywmhiocih.e
just
it is impossible
ethgraeaptronflaitgioante nGowo.
If the middle class prefer an alliance
with the aristocratic and ruling party, to the cor-
dial
from all political
excluded from the franchise
vernment expenditure, and a taxation burdensome
from its amount, and insulting from its inequality,
a nd
need not tell you how glad I shall 'ne
hopel
I
to witness an expression of opinion in frAvour of
economy. The old watchwords of the Liberal
party were Peace, Retrenchment, and. Reform.'
Of late years,
under the leadership of
who care for none of these things, the party has
become enfeebled, debauched, and humiliated, and
has trampled in the dust the only principles on
which it has any pretence to become a party.
" I cannot give you any hope of diminished
more equal taxation from the House of Comm
should only add another to the many de, ,usions
anythingu
'which under
can
can
:la
nearly twenty years' experience,
shlthaea:t
ne.
practised on the people if I were to tlfloitcherim if, alter
ha
and it will Foxe me infinite ;
pbreesdsountee
which cannot
cinanynooturbedirreescitsitoend,4
to obey it.-4 am, Wit' 11
only come from without.
pressure
sincerely,
great respect, yours
satisfactionbetocassrettedi,t
and

" Solllki BRIGHT,
"To John S. ILigitg,abEt3/4sinq.:„Regen,
Works,