The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-20 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 20, 1853.

Improvements in the Naval Service are required
elsewhere than in the Dockyards. Indeed the old
system has proved not less injurious to the sailors
themselves than detrimental to the interests of
613 maritime profession. That it is eminently
advisable that innovations, both numerous and
comprehensive, should be adventured upon, in re-
ference to the arrangements for Manning her
MAJESTY'S Fleets, has recently been proclaimed'
through the Report of the Committee of Inquiry.
That other innovations scarcely less numerous, and
certainly by no means less comprehensive, should
be attempted in regard to the increase of the per-
sonal comforts of our seamen has, we believe, for
some time past been pretty generally recognised.
A humorous and intelligent contributorto "House-.
hold Words," not long ago furnished the public
with a melancholy account of the really deplor-
able want of accommodation aboard-ship for poor
JACK and his messmates. It would appear from the
description given by this writer—a description
evidently as faithful as a daguerreotype—that in
too many instances the maritime defenders of
England are less cared for than our paupers or
our criminals. Their common mess-room seems
frequently to be about as delightfully proportioned
to the number of its inmates as the famous black
hole of Calcutta. Its height, or rather its want
of height, renders either a stoop t)r a broken head
the ordinary alternative. Its defituencies in length
and breadth are sometimes still amore lamentably
inconvenient. ' In speaking thus, we do not, of
course, refer to our men-of-war--but, generally
speaking, to the majority of the mercantile craft,
from which so many of our sailors, would have in
time of war to be summarily drafted. Yet even
in our men-of-war there is in these matters
ample scope for beneficial changes• —for changes by
which the health of the men would . be marvellously
improved, and by which their do; nestle comforts
would be wonderfully enhanced.
Happily there has been made of late a generous
effort for the improvement of the position of our
sailors when ashore, by the establiAhment of what
are called Sailors' Homes in severa 1 of our larger
seaports. For the purpose of E lore effectually
carrying out the intentions of the, benevolent in
this particular, it is well known there has been
some time organised what is known( as the Sailors'
Home Institution. Periodical mee, tings of those
who aro more particularly interested in the objects
of the society, are held with a view to forward as
energetically as possible the wisliez of Captain

HALL, its humans originator. At one of the
latest of these meetings, one held only last week
at the offices of the Institution in Craven-street,
Strand, upon which occasion Rear-Admiral the
Right Hon. Lord BYRON acted as Chairman, a
variety of important particulars were submitted
to the consideration of those assembled, through
the able Report made by Mr. O'BYRNE, the Secre-
tary. It was intimated at the very outset or pre-
amble of that Report, that—" the importance to
the nation of Sailors' Homes, as shown in the
working results of the establishment in Well-
street, Portsmouth, Dublin, and Greenock, neces-
sitated the adoption of some organised system
whereby similar advantages might be rapidly se-
cured to each of the principal seaports in the
United Kingdom, India, and her MAJESTY'S co-
lonial possessions ; " and that it was, in fact, the
simple recognition of this necessity which had
originally suggested to Captain HALL the forma-
tion of the Sailors' Home Institution. That In-
stitution, having once been actually organised,
proposes forthwith to carry out the intentions
of its originator—" 1. By agitating the subject at
each port ; 2. By promoting and encouraging the
formation of local committees ; 3. By affording'
every information to such committees for their
guidance, as to expenses, regulations to be adopt-
ed, &c. ; 4. By heading the subscription lists,
opened at each port, by such donations as the
funds may admit of"—and through these four
practical endeavours to diffuse the advantages
arising from the new system as widely as possible
through the great mass of our maritime popu-
lation.

The existence of the Sailors' Home Institution—
founded upon these bases—dates back only as re-
cently as to the September of 1852, since which
time its promoters have been so far active that
they have caused visits of inquiry to be made to
Deal, Dover, Plymouth, Poplar, Waterford, Wool-
wich, and Portsmouth. Everywhere in these places
it is gratifying to know that they have found
their endeavours hailed with satisfaction. So far,
therefore, the Institution has met with decided en-
couragement. At the suggestion of the Managing
Director, a full Report, in regard to Woolwich in
particular, was drawn up by the Travelling Secre-
tary—a document especially called for, consider-
ing the importance of Woolwich being made the
scene of one of these new establishments. It has
consequently appeared that during the year 1852
" there, were commissioned and paid off; at Wool-
wich, the following number of ships—viz., 12
ships commissioned, whose complements num-
bered 1,764 men, 11 ships paid off, whose com-
plements numbered 1,403, making a total of
3,167 men who passed through the port of Wool-
wich in that year"—a number so considerable as to
render matter of peculiar interest the establish-
ment, in that particular locality, of one of the
Sailors' Homes projected by the Institution. The
advisability of some such effort will nowadays
be recognised the more readily, because "it
appears that, upon the occasion of a ship being
commissioned at Woolwich, a want of men is
experienced, which it seems," says the Report,
" is in a great measure occasioned by a prejudice
that the general run of seamen have against
locating at this port, in consequenee of the allure-
ments to vice with which they are tempted, and
therefore they take themselves to ports where
Sailors' Homes are established." Bearing in
mind the singular advantages resulting from these
Sailors' Homes, it is satisfactory to know that
new ones have been opened at Belfast, at Bristol,
at Cork, at Devonport, and at Southampton,
since the establishment, in the September of
1852, of this humane and admirable institution.

It is not merely the gross and palpable injustice
of taxing every kind of income at the same rate
—of levying equal amounts from the precarious
profits of industry, and the dividends, interests,
or annual produce of well-secured property, that
has so strongly excited the indignation of the
contributors under Schedule D. The inquisitorial
character of the returns demanded, and the search-
ing investigation into the most private affairs of
the merchant or trader, conducted, perhaps, under
the direction of a rival in business, is in many
quarters regarded as even more objectionable.
The inequality so justly complained of compels the
victim to contribute far more than his fair pro-
portion ; but there the evil ceases. But in the
other, there is a most invidious exposure of cir-
cumstances—an exposure that may be productive
of ruinous results, which brings the party into
immediate collision with the assessor, and to a
certain extent subjects him to the temptation
of himself fixing the amount which he is subse-
quently to pay to the collector. This temptation
naturally exercises a very demoralising influence.
The man who feels himself to be unfairly treated
by the undue favouritism exhibited towards
the fundholder or landowner, sees that an
opportunity is afforded of rectifying the evil
by making a false return of his profits —a
return of which it is almost impossible to prove
the inaccuracy, as the real bona fide amount of
his profits can be known to himself alone. He
yields, and thenceforward becomes an habitual
violater of the law, which he never would have
transgressed but for its manifest injustice. It is
no trivial matter to inducesuch proceedings, or to
lead men of good character and conduct in other
matters into deceit and fraud.

Let it not be supposed that we are in any degree
justifying such erroneous returns, or the obtaining
of even a just exemption by such improper means.
Far from it. So long as the system, iniquitous
and atrocious as it unquestionably is, is sanc-
tioned by law, it should be respected, or at least
not directly transgressed—nor should it be ima-
gined, that we are publishing so great a libel on
the mercantile and trading classes as to assert
that fraudulent returns constitute the rule and not
the exception. That there are such cases is un-
fortunately a matter of but too painful notoriety,
but, we believe that the general body act with
strict honour and integrity, and that their returns
are more frequently in excess of, rather than be-
neath, their actual profits. It is sufficient for the
purposes of our argument to show that the oppor-
tunity for concealment is afforded, and that
it is occasionally taken advantage of, while that
there is no such liability under a Property Tax,
properly so called, or that if the attempt be made,
there are facilities for detection, which even the
most audacious would not willingly encounter.
These assertions are corroborated by the evidence
of the most experienced officers of the Inland
Revenue. Thus, for instance, Mr. PRIMLY de-
clares :—" At present everything being charged
at its first source, we are quite `sure of the tax on
every penny ; we get every penny upon the divi-
dend, and every penny upon a man's salary. All
that we do not know is the profits of a man's trade,
but in•all the other schedules it is collected to a
penny without any disclosure whatever." This is
an important statement, proving that on property
the tax may be recovered to the uttermost farthing
—that there is no opening for a fraudulent re-
turn—and consequently that so far as contributors
under Schedules A, B, C, and E are concerned,
there is none of that demoralising influence in
operation that has been so loudly and so justly
complained of with respect to trading incomes.
And this fact may bo easily conceived when it is
borne in mind that the returns under all the other
schedules are made by disinterested parties, but
under schedule D by interested persons, who are
strongly incited to reduce the nominal amount
of their profits, and with it the actual
payment to the collector. On this point
the evidence of the experienced gentleman above
referred to (Mr. PRESSLY) may be considered con-
clusive. He says—" I think there has been great
evasion on the subject ; and I think the longer
the tax exists flu; evasions will go on under
Schedule D."

We thus find that the exemption of industrial
incomes and the levying the tax exclusively on
property would not only remove the great injustice
perpetrated on the mercantile and trading and
manufacturing classes, but would also remove the
fertile source of fraud—the demoralising influence
that has operated so injuriously on the middle
classes.

But it may be said—Would you then exempt all
trades and professions—the entire of Schedule D
—from the tax By no moans, We would

charge parties fairly on the amount of capital en-
gaged in their business, whatever might be its
nature. Even the good-will, if transferable.
would become an available item in the calculation,
The amount could be ascertained with comparative
ease. The machinery by which it is proposed to
levy the contemplated tax on successions would
fully answer the purpose. There never has been
even a suggestion of fraud in fixing the true
amount payable under the Legacy Duties in which
the same elements, even to the good-will of a
trade or calling, must enter into the calculation.
And there would be even less in levying the
amount annually than when the matter arose only
once in a generation.

It would be attended with another and ex-
ceedingly beneficial result. It would compel
every merchant and trader to know the true
state of his affairs—to have timely notice of
approaching insolvency—and afford to the Court
of Bankruptcy unquestionable evidence of any
violation of the commercial code by those who
are brought under its operation. In such cases
exclusively the returns of the bankrupt should
be made public, and considerable fraud would be
thereby prevented ; inasmuch, as there would be
the certainty of future exposure in the event of
any foul play. The advantages resulting from
every man within the operation of the Bankruptcy
laws being compelled to keep at all times an
accurate balance-sheet, showing the real state of
his affairs, would be incalculable. We really
believe that it would be productive of far greater
benefits to the trade and commerce in other
respects than the amount of relief afforded in the
assessment of the impost, great as it would be.
There is yet time to effect this great amelioration,
to obtain this invaluable boon from the Legis-
lature. But there must no longer be any degree
of carelessness or apathy—no longer a culpable
indifference—on this vitally important subject.
Fiscal Reformers must be up and doing. They
must remind their representatives that no party
feelings, or party interests, can justify a disgrace-
ful violation of all their former professions ; and
that, if they should obstinately persist—in every
respect so unjustifiable—a day, and that perhaps
not so very distant, will come, when they will
deeply and bitterly expiate their present aban-
donment of principle, their bold and unblushing
tergiversation.

The Noble Author of the Durham Letter must
have listened with no ordinary pleasure the other
night to the praises of Mr. LUCAS. The marvel
is that Mr. DUFFY did not " rise in his place "
and accuse the Noble Lord of openly bribing the
Irish Members. Lord JOHN has,
,at any rate,
made his peace with the POPE'S band. He at-
tacked Ecclesiastical Titles, but defends the Holy
Gates of Nunneries. His Act was intended for
waste paper, his intervention for Nunneries as a
reality. Good Catholics now understand his
animus. They have condoned the sham offence,
and accepted the real service. Henceforth Irish
votes are secure. Happily, in this case, Lord
JOHN is not the House of Commons. The House
helped him through with his sham, and it now
gives rather inconvenient evidence of deter-
mination to carry through its own reality.
We think the majority quite right, and
Lord JOHN'S speech one of his feeblest. The
facts narrated by Archbishop WHATELY and the
Bishop of NORWICH, with others which were ad-
duced, although of necessity chiefly anonymous,
were cases strong enough to demand either a com-
mission of inquiry, or a positive Act. It may
please Mr. LUCAS to designate them "cock and
bull stories," but neither Protestants nor Catholics
believe them to be so. The history of nunneries
is patent, so far as possible, to the world. The
laws of Roman Catholic States in regard to them
are before us also, and both* testify loudly enough
to the danger of substantial, sometimes even of
most cruel, despotism on the part of Lady Abbesses
and Lady Superiors. But we go further, and
maintain that any institutions which, like nun-
neries, are capable of becoming the instruments of
severe parents, or of hard-hearted relatives, or of
priestly tamperers with the young and enthusiastic
ought to be subjected to regular supervision, oven
though no single case of forcible detention had as
yet been made out against them. The inmates of
such dwellings ought to be asked periodically whe-
ther they continued there of their own free will
or not. The defect of Mr. CHAMBERS' bill is that
it does not go fai•enough. No young person, no
one, indeed, under thirty at least, ought to be
allowed to take a vow at all without the consent
of competent civil authorities. There ought to be
some cue to apprise an unsuspecting and enthu-
siastic young persons of what is involved in parting
with all their property, secluding themselves from
the world, and throwing themselves practically on
charity for support. There is no need in the world
for the visitation or examination to be offensive.
A Roman Catholic layman might always form
part of any commission for such purposes, and
none but gentlemen could be selected for it. The
reasons for some measure are becoming all the
stronger from the enormous increase of Anglo-
Catholic nunneries. They amount, according to
Mr. CHAMBERS, to not less than 100, and the
Catholic nunneries to 75, containing together
up wards of 3,000 inmates. They may in many
cases do much charity in the neighbourhoods
around them, but it is alarming to think how the
opportunities are thus multiplied, not merely of
employing single ladies advanced in life in useful oc-
cupations, but also of seducing the inexperienced to
sacrifice all their property and prospects, and thereby
to make themselves irrevocably dependent on the
nunnery itself. Notwithstanding Lord HOWARD'S
disclaimer, the. British public is perfectly sure
that priestcraft was on the very verge of grasp-
ing his present lady for her fortune's sake, and
that nothing but the public upstir defeated the
nefarious purpose. If Roman Catholics and An-
glicans see fit to create institutions capable of
abuse, they ought to thank the State for preserv-
ing them by law from the danger ; they ought to
deem it an advantage that the religious and volun-
tary character of their institutions is guaranteed
by the securities taken by the State that no one
should be detained in them but by their own free
will. It is true we cannot break the fetters of a
premature and superstitiously-regarded vow, al-
beit such vows are infinitely better broken than
.kept, as old LUTHER and his KATE could well
bear witness ; but if we cannot deliver these un-
happy and trembling victims of priestcraft, we
may insure that no one shall be held by any other
bondage than that of a priest-ridden conscience.
We accept Mr. CHAMBERS' bill, therefore, as an
instalment, and an instalment only, of the
supervision necessary for nunneries, and hope
it will read' the House of • Lords, where, we
hope, it will be safe enough. The absurdity of
an outcry about religious liberty, and that, too,
from the co-religionists and defenders of the
Duke of Tuscany, is absurd enough. It is reli-
gious tyranny, not religious liberty, which Mr.
CHAMBERS attacks. To as little purpose is it to
talk about the "privacy of domestic establish-
ments," and to tell us that every man's house is
his castle. It is his castle no longer than it is
free from suspicion-.-no longer than it is not ap-
plied to purposes which may be of injury to the
public. As Mr. CHAMBERS observed, it can be
entered at any time if a fraud upon the public
revenue is but suspected ; and it is hard if it
cannot be entered when a fraud upon the liberty
of the subject is suspected. Let every English-
man's house, however, be his own castle ; bnt the
question is—Shall it be a Bastile for others ?

OFFICE OF CITY CHAMBERLAIN.-11l consequence of a
death-vacancy, it will be perceived that a contest is
now set on foot for the office of City Chamberlain.
Among the candidates who have already appeared, there
is not one, we conceive, possessing stronger claims upon
the support of his fellow-citizens, or one who is more
likely to command their suffrages, than Alderman Fare-
brother. His, well-known business habits, together with
his professional and commercial engagements to
say nothing about the "integrity, energy, and im-
partiality," which were pronounced to be as con-
spicuous as they are unimpeachable, only yesterday
at a numerous meeting convened, in Vintners' hall—the
ability with which he is remembered to have discharged
the duties of chief magistrate, combined with the worth
of his long civic reputation, all seem to point him out
as peculiarly fitted for the, office of City Chamberlin,