The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-17 00:00:00

The propositions of the " Ministerial Marplot "
stood forth in all their naked enormity, without
covering or concealment, exciting the indignation
of independent Members within, and of the coin-
munity in general outside, the walls of Parlia-
ment ; but the present Chancellor of the Exche-
quer is unfortunately but too competent to con-
ceal or gloss over his projects with a grace of
diction and persuasive eloquence sufficient, if not
to convince, at least to appease the scruples of
those willing to be deceived, and to vote according
to their interests rather than their convictions, if
any plausible pretexts could be assigned for such
a course. Besides, the Right Hon. Baronet, like
his Whig associates, "is made of squeezable ma-
terials." No man could possibly exhibit a greater
indifference to arguments founded on such com-
mon-place considerations as those of equity and
justice ; but when the assault became really for-
midable—when the hour of trial approached—
concessions might be wrung from his fears which
could not be obtained from his sense of jus-
tice. But although not exceeding, perhaps
not equalling, him in perversity—the qua-
lity of the inferior and longer-eared animal—
Mr. GLADSTONE possesses equal or even greater
" obstinacy " ar "firmness of purpose," which in-
duces him to persevere—aye, and successfully—
la here his predecessor would shrink dismayed
from the arduous contest. He is, therefore, a
more dangerous Financial Minister than the Rus-
sellito Chancellor of the Exchequer, and that not
to his opponents only, but eventually to his friends.
It is unnecessary to multiply instances in sup-
port of these views. Two remarkable instances
may, however, be briefly alluded to. First is the
ainyielding determination on the Income Tax—
the obstinate resolution to resist any amelioration
or modification of its monstrous and iniquitous
provisions, and that under circumstances when
further resistance was apparently useless,—when
an almost unparalleled concurrence of opinion had
proclaimed the necessity of discriminating between
precarious and permanent income,—when even
the Ministerial/ Leaders in both Houses
of Parliament had,, if not directly, at
least impliedly, promised that there should be a
recognition of the distinction, and, at least, an
.effort made to obtain, if not perfect equality of
taxation, a greater approximation thereto than
under the system previously in operation, and
which promises greatly to diminish, if they did not
altogether suppress, the litigation on the subject.
And, secondly, on the minor point of theAdvertise-
merit Duties, of which the total abolition had been
demanded by the all-but unanimous opinion of
the community, and sanctioned by a decisive ma-
jority of the House of Commons. There was
surely no principle, however erroneous, to be as-
serted in the retention of a portion of this ob-
noxious impost. Nothing could be gained by con-
tinuing the complicated and expensive machinery
and the vexatious regulations essential for the col-
lection of even an infinitesimal fraction of the tax.
Re might have yielded gracefully, more especially
as the vote had been given—the opinion of the
Rouse had been expressed—before the delivery
of hie Finn Statement, Statement, and he would have
had nothing
to to retract or explain, no amendment
yield to.
There might have been circumstances
under which i
tl"uld
impo
rtiuvfer, a large have been necessary to do-
fend the ievenu
or a very el h amount of money,
result. But there principle, was involved in the
Advertiseinent Duties. nothing of the kind in the
more than 60,000/ •
.. e sum at stake--not
an to,
lision for ; and every point oring to risk a col-
favour of total abolition ratheri)rtihnciple was in
The insult to the majority who an reduction.
MILNER GIBSON'S motion was the voted for Mr.
more conspicu-
ous, inasmuch as he succeeded without eolieitation
and without legitimate object. Another item
oi
revenue, of almost equal amount, drawn from a
journal, if not from journals, and which the donor
of the gift had not even gg su ested as differing, in
any respect, from the general question of the
Stamp Duties. If, as the Right Hon. Gentleman
himself argued, the postal facilities, the gratuitous
conveyance throughout the entire kingdom could
be regarded as an equivalent for the News-
paper Stamp, surely that stamp should be
increased when the bulk was inordinately
increased, something more should be demanded

renewing the charter. In 1830 three years were
taken to settle it, although at that time the Pun-
jaub and Russia were both subjects of anxiety.
Yet now, though all is peace in our own Indian terri-
tories, we are told of the dangers of delay. Doubt-
less there is grave danger, but it is to the Court
of Directors, and to the practical irresponsibility
of the Board of Control and its President, cer-
tainly not to India. At present it appears to us
that the real friends of India must stand to the
demand for further inquiry. We really need it.
Some points are pretty well settled in the minds
of most of us, but it wero folly for any man
to pretend that he is yet master of so vast

a subject. Sir CHARLES WooD, with his six
months' cramming, cannot be; Mr. BRIGHT, though
a student of several years standing, would gladly
learn more. The evidence of a set of one-sided-
witnesses before a one-sided-committee is of little
worth indeed. Dr. PHILLIMORE, Mr. BRIGHT,
Mr. DANDY SEYMOUR, and BLACKETT, at least
should be added to it, and witnesses of 'every
class, Native and British, be called before it.
The chief set in of the current is plainly against
the Board of Directors. Sir JAMES HOGG has
done his best to dash it aside, and Mr. Huron
quietly to erect a dam against it. The Board of
Control, however, feels itself also in danger, for
the friends of the Directors seem unable to defend
the latter without throwing all the blame on the
former. If, say the Directors, the Board of Con,
trol has made all the wars, and absorbed all our
surplus revenue, and compelled us to borrow as
much as was requisite to pay our dividends and
the cost of our public works, why, then,
get rid of the Board, and not of us.
The Directors, however, get little mercy ;
they are incontinently told of their origin
from a set of annuitants having no possible inte-
rest in the prosperity of India ; of their election
by a canvass so degrading as to exclude but the
other day an intelligent and competent gentleman,
long conversant with India, for a young banker's
son utterly ignorant of it, with no qualification
whatever but his paternity. They hear of their
vast patronage and its unquestionable nepotism ;
and even the very doings they boast of are turned
against them. They abolished, they say, the
odious transit duties, and permit English goods to
traverse India freely. It turns out that they re-
sisted the abolition to the uttermost—that after it
had been imperatively enjoined by the Board of
Control, they still resisted by mere vis inertice for
four or five years, and that at last they were
abolished only by the refractoriness of one of their
own intelligent servants. They take credit to
themselves for the increase of Indian exports and
imports ; but unhappily they are reminded that
all this increase is due to the abolition of their
commercial powers ; that they resisted an open
trade to the uttermost, that they predicted
all manner of dreadful results from it, and
that, therefore, the increased trade of India
has all arisen in spite of the Company, and not
beneath its fostering care. In like manner, Sir
JAMES Hoao (who, it appears, enjoyed in India
an income of only 22,0001. a-year) asserted that
during the seventeen years preceding 1851, the
Indian revenue had increased upwards of
7,000,0001. per annum, and that without the im-
position of new taxes ; a proof, he contended, of
increased prosperity there, similar to one fre-
quently made use of here. It appears, however,
that more than 4,000,000/. of this is due to the
increase of the opium revenue—a revenue derived
entirely from Chinese and some others, certainly
not from Indian consumption ; the prospect, too,
being close at hand of this revenue vanishing en-
tirely through the Chinese growing their own
opium. Moreover, with the deductions for tri-
bute, confiscations, or "rescriptions," Mr.
BLACKETT showed that SirJAs. HoGG's 7,000,000/.
shrunk down to the miserable increase of not more

than 200,0001. on so large an increase of popula-
tion. The same authority endeavoured to prove, in
opposition to Mr. BRIGHT, that the salt duties
had increased. Mr. BLA CKETT, however, success-
fully showed that they had decreased. Indeed,
taking into account the increase of population, that
they had very largely decreased ; and as salt to
persons living on vegetable diet is a necessary of
the first importance, nothing could more conclu-
sively show the poverty of the great mass of the
PoPulation.
If, indeed, one fact were better evidenced than
another in the course of the debate, we fear it was
the deep andprzeidye-a-xspere.ad po of the soil. Poverty of the cultivators
turists." The Goveneed, " distressed agricul-
rrlnade'is their landlord, and
so exorbitant is the rent :t laded that in fourteen
years, according to the ConapanY's owII r
and the figures, though frequently adverted
ans to,
were never corrected—.not Ulu. 603000,0004 .