The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, APRIL 18, 1853.

would refer. The first was with regard to the claims of the
shipping interest. It was the intention of the Government
to propose a plan which they considered would be of
considerable benefit to that interest without inflicting any
charge upon the Government, With regard to the West
India interest, he regretted to say that there appeared to
be little chance, in the view of the Government, of there
being anything to be done by the Government in their be-
half, consistent with their more extended duties to the pub-
lic at large. With regard to the reduction of the duties upon
sugar, in proportion to the fall in the duties upon foreign
sugar, so as to maintain the differential rates, it was
entirely impossible for the Government to hold out the
smallest hope of their being able to recommend any mea-
sure on that point. With regard to the question of
refining sugar in bond, the Secretary of the Treasury
would take a future occasion of entering more at length
upon that question ; but the Government had not as yet
discovered any method of granting that privilege which
would be satisfactory to the West Indian interest, the refining
trade not involving any heavy loss to the revenue. Neither
could anything be done with respect to the duties upon
spirits. The only way in which there seemed any likeli-
hood of doing anything to benefit these colonies was by en-
abling them to economise the expenses of their government.
It must be remembered that, in the case of Jamaica, there
was a public debt of 500,0001., paying a minimum rate of
intorest of 6 per cent , and a maximum rate of 10 per cent.
He had no wish to pledge too hastily the credit of the
country, but considering all that had happened in the
West Indies, and the effects of British legislation, which
had precipitated the present state of things, he believed if
they were able to point out that, the effect would bet to relieve
Jamaica by a reform in her local government. The
house would look with a generous and considerate
eye at the proposal of using the credit of that
country for this purpose. That referred to Jamaica,
which presented by far the most urgent case of distress,
and he was not sure that any other among the colonies re-
quired similar interposition. (Cheers.) He passed on now
from the West Indies to a collateral subject—the Exchequt r
Loan Fund. After what had passed in the debate on
Wednesday last it was evidently the duty of the Go-
vernment to make a full investigation into its transactions.
They had done so, and had presented the result to Parlia-
ment—they were in print before the house, and any hon.
gentleman by glancing at the report might see the results.
It appeared by the figures that after debiting the Exche-
quer Loan Fund, not alone with every folly of Parliament,
but with every questionable and ambiguous grant—after
charging to the last farthing every expense, such had been
the sound discretion of the officerse ntrusted with its manage-
ment, that, while it had afforded an immense amount of local
accommodation, it had likewise realised, after paying
every expense, a net balance of not less than 227,000/. ;
and if a value was put upon certain investments,
the sum might be raised to nearly one million
sterling to the credit of the fund. (Loud cheers.)
They coincided, therefore, in opinion with the right hon.
gentlemen opposite, and, they were thus considered justi-
fied by the facts in not proposing its abolition, and that he
thought was as highly honourable to those who had admi-
nistered it as well as highly beneficial to the country.
He now approached a difficult portion of the task which
he had to perform, viz., the discussion of the Income Tax.
The first question for the committee to consider was
whether or not it would make an effort to part with the
Income Tax at once. (Hear.) He did not say that this
alternative was impossible ; on the contrary, he believed by
the conjunction of three measures—one of which might be
a tax upon land and houses and other property, of
perhaps sixpence in the pound ; another, a system
of licences upon trade, made so universal as to
average something like 71. ; snd a third, a change in our
system of legacy duties. (Cheers.) But it would be im-
possible for them at once to part with the Income Tax,
and the Government did'not recommend it to the committee.
They did not recommend it, because they believed
in the first place that, to adopt the system he had sug-
gested, would be more satisfactory than the income tax,
while they likewise believed that it would arrest other
beneficial reforms of taxation, and the Government,
therefore, did not recommend the abandonment of the
income tax. (Hear, hear.) Now, with regard to the in •
come tax, he wished he could possess the committee with
the impression which constant study had made upon his
own mind of the deep and vital importance of this
subject. They were too apt to measure the importance
of the subject by the simple fact, that they drew from
ax no less than five millions and a half of revenue. That
seemed a large sum, but the mention of it conveyed no idea
to the committee of the immense moment and magnitude of
the question. If they wanted to appreciate the value of
the income tax, they must go back to the time of its
birth. They must consider what it had done for tho
country in a time of unusual trouble and emergency.
(Hear hear.) They must consider, too, if they did not
destroy it, what it might do for the country again should
it please God that these times of trouble should return.
It was in the course of the revolutionary war when Mr.
Pitt found the resources of taxation were failing under
him that his mind fell upon the conception of the income
tax. When he proposed it to Parliament that great
man possessed with this great idea raised his eloquence
to an unusual height. There was a description.
of Mr. Pitt on that occasion, written by a foreign but well-
known writer of the day, Mallet Dupiu, which he would ven-
ture to read to the conamitee, as after the lapse of 55 years
it would no doubt bo still heard with deep interest. (Hear,
hear.) This writer said, that from the time deliberative
assemblies existed, he doubted whether any one ever heard
a display of this nature equally astonishing for its pre-
cision, its extent, and the talents of its author,
adding that it was a complete tour o of politial
economy, and the finest exposition of the practice and
theory of finance that ever fell from the most distinguished
philosophers who had written on the subject. He
know 'not whether the house knew how much
the country owed to an income, tax. (Hear, hear.)
In order, however, that they might fully appreciate the
power of this colossal engine of finance, he would show the
results' which it had achieved. The right honourable
gentleman then drew a comparison between the periods
when an income existed and did not exist, and showed
that, while in the former case the expenditure exceeded
the receipts by an enormous amount, in the latter the defi-
ciency which previously existed was greatly diminished.
The income tax was an engine,by which, in case of war,
which he prayed God to avert, the army of this country
might be raised to 300,000 men, and the fleet to 100,00 CI
ships, and the other necessary establishments in propor-
tion. (Hear, hear.) Much as might be said of the
importance of an army reserve, a fiscal one was not
less essentially necessary. It was an engine' which if
used judiciously would enable the country, if need should
arise, to defy the world. (Cheers.) The income tax had,
even at a time when the country was engaged in a vital
struggle, raised considerably the national revenue. That
was at a time however, when men did not so much
consider the adjustment of taxation. (Hear. hear.) It
was desirable, however, to have the power, if ne-
cessiy should occur, of employing that mighty organ.
Sir Robert Peel imposed this tax in time of peace
in 1812, anti, if it had been beneficial in time of war, he
was bound to say that it had not been less so in time of
peace, it had enabled the country to improve the fiscal
system. It was not the intention of the Government at
the present moment, having a due regard for the public
interest, to dispense with the income tax. He was, how;
ever, aware that in its present arrangement it was not
adapted to remain as a permanent part of our fiscal system.
There still remained, however, objections of the gravest
nature. The reconstruction of the income tax would be
found to open up social questions of most serious character,
and the machinery of the tax involving the principle of self-
assessment could never be properlyor satisfactorilyorganized.
In fact, the income tax was not a simple tax, but a code of
taxation. It then took the total receipts of the tax at
5,600,0001. one-twenty-eighth of that sum would be
200,0001., and if they investigated the composition
of schedule A, they would find that land and
houses in that schedule, including incomes charged upon
them in respect of mortgages, paid about 2,400,0001., or
12-28ths of the tax. If they looked at the payments
which proceeded from trade, including the occupation of
lands in schedule B, which, strictly speaking, must
come under the head of trade, they would find
that they in schedule B had paid 330,0001., and in
schedule D, 1,200,C00/. ; schedule C, in which were in-
s uded the fund, paid 1 27th of the whole, salaries 1-17th
ald salaries about 1-12th of the tax. (Hear, hear.)
I Now it was thought that inequality, gross inequality, was
the general characteristic of this tax, and it was stated
that they ought not to levy the tax at so high a rate upon
precarious as upon realised incomes. What incomes were
precarious and what incomes were real ? Incomes from
trade, he presumed, would be classed as precarious. He
did not wish to anticipate the judgment of the committee,
but probably that was their opinion. (Hear, hear.)
Well, now observe the question between land and
trade was, after, all, the main question to be de-
side Land and houses paid 2,400,0001., while trade paid
1,800,000/.—something like three-fourths of the tax be-
tween them. The difference between land and trade must
therefore go, in a great part, to the solution of the difficult
question of whether the tax was, in the main, a just tax.
Now, look at the tax in its relations between land and
trade. When it was stated that a difference ought
to be made between the two, it was too often
forgotten that land was placed in an exceptional
position to all other property as regarded this tax. Land
paid, for instunce, a umrorm rate of 7d. in the pound
upon its income, not assessed by the possessor, but by an in-
dependent and fixed standard. There was, in joint of fact,
not the smallest reduction in respect to the difference be-
tween gross incomes and net incomes. (Hear, hear.) About
80 millions altogether was received from the owners of
land and houses, and in proceeding to break up the income
tax and make a new arrangement, they were called on
to consider the deductions which ought to be
made under this head. He, therefore, proposed
to give an allowasve of 15 per cent. for repairs ,insurance)
law charges, management, ' arrears of rent, and, in Scot-
land, for public works. He must deduct from the
80,600,0901. the sum of 12,800,0001., which was expended
before it reached the pockets of the owners. Another
question was a fair estimate of the charge upon lands and
houses in the way of mortgages or settlements. That
charge he had estimated at one-fourth of the gross income.
If that charge be a correct one, one-fourth part of the
tax must deducted which would reduce its not amount to
175,003. He wanted to know, under these circumstances,
what was the prima facie case for complaining of the in-
come, in his opinion there was no sufficient ground for
making any great differench between traders and hol. ers
of land. He would not now raise the question es to
whether any difference ought to be made. According to
a rational estimate flag) holders of land at the present
time paid nine per eent , and the trader seven, and in his
opinion that difference ought not to be made greater.
He maintained that land now paid 51d„ while other pro-
perty paid 7d. If they were to break up this tax it must
be for some object, anti he would put it to the committee
what a war of classes he would be opening up by any at -
tempt to reconstruct this tax on any other principle of
difference between incomes than that which he had sl • vn
already existed. A. common doctrine was that they must
do justice between classes, and endeavour to strike an
average among them. That was a docrine held by many
persons, but it was not a doctrine advocated by the hon.
gentleman the men. bar for Montrose, who, to do
in justice, whenew r he saw a difficulty before him, he

seldoth took the 6:ruble to get out of it. (A laugh.) Nair,
in the name of noninnon sens 3; ho would tisk what wail
meant by averaging, classes among themselve2. 1f thiii
looked at the.tAble they would find that a female life of
15 was worth 25 year's purchase, but at 10 Lit was worth
only five. Now by striking an average, was it meant that
they should reduce the value of the twenty-five years'
purchase, and increase the value of the five years'
purchase until they met at some indefinite point. Did
they suppose that a man with a trade worth 25 years' pm.
chase, would find it any consolation for being made to pay
five times more than he ought, that man with at. ado of
only 5 years' purchase money paying half of his proper quota.
But there were many trades which were worth more than
25 years' purchase, while others were not worth five, four,
or even three years. Besides, there was another point
which he touched upon with great pain, and that was,
the dishonest returns which were sometimes made
by tradesmen. He did not mean to say that such prac-
ticas were at all general or common, but he would cite a
case to show to the house what had been done, and what
might be done. In a certain large town a new street was
built, and 28 persons were displaced by the improvement.
&sled by a jury. The amount they &Aimed was 48,159/.
as compensation for their profits ; the amount
awarded was 26,9731., but the amount which they had
returned as their profits to the income tax was only 9,000/.
He would take leave of that part of the subject, with this
proposition, that so far as regarded the state of the case be-
tween land and trade, reserving the other case for separate
consideration, there was no sufficient ground to demand a
reconstruction of the Income Tax. He had now three
other clauses to deal with. He would take first the case
Of course they claimed compensation, which had to be de-
of schedule E, which embraced the incomes received by
public servants, with the exception of those employed in
Cie Bank of England. It was difficult to make a distinction
between this class of income and a lifeincome, because in the
first place the public servant always received his salary or
pension for life, while he enjoyed the additional advantage
of being- in possession of a progressive income, which
the possessor of a life interest did not. But it was
not possible to draw a distinction between salaried
incomes of this nature and life interests, and there-
fore to distribute the tax as it now existed on that account
would be exceedingly unwise. (Hear, hoar.) He
came now to what was supposed to be the sure
place of the income tax. He meant schedule C. He
hoped he should be able to appeal to the justice
of the committee after they had heard -what he had to say
on this head to support him in the opinion that the present
position of schedule C. was a strong reason why they should
„ (LEFT SPEAKING.)

CONCENTRATED AND DILUTED POISONS
FROM DEAD .BODIES.

---
Death is rife, disease always prevalent, in the vicinity
of intramural burial places. Men accustomed to the
work of grave-digging have been suddenly struck down
by concentrated emanations from the dead. By a just
retribution, the agents in the iniquity furnish, if not the
greatest number of examples, yet, according to my ex-
perience, the most remarkable victims. We have nu-
merous instances of grave-diggers,. sextons, &c., be-
ing destroyed as it were by lightning. The poison
which produces, when concentrated, such terrible
consequences, must necessarily give rise to various
degrees of disorder or actual disease , when admini-
stered in a more diluted form. This I have abundantly
demonstrated. The effects vary according to the degree
of dilution on the one hand, and on the condition of
health, or in other words,- the resistance offered by the
individual to its reception. It is in this simple, yet all-
pervading truth, that we must seek the solution of a
difficulty that has long puzzled the reflecting. We know
as little what constitutes that mysterious power—the re-
sistance to proved sources of disease in individual or-
ganisations, as we do of the animating or vital principle.
If, however, we are yet profoundly ignorant of what
causes the heart to beat, the stomach to digest, the
brain to think, the nerves to feel, and our active limbs
to move, facts have taught .us that any cause which
weakens the power of resistance, facilitates the action
of miasmatic agencies, and fhat these agencies are most
rife and most_ destructive in the neighbourhood of the
receptacles of the dead. It is true the effects are often
insidious, or mixed up with those arising from other,
but infinitely less easily preventible cause of disease
and hence a few interested parties were enabled to assert
the wholesomeness of graveyards, until the body of evi-
dence which I accumulated became overwhelming, and
reduced them to silence.

Amongst the slighter effects which have been proved
to arise from residence in the vicinity of over-crowded
burial places, I would- enumerate eruptive diseases,
headache, giddiness, disorders of the stomach, and
bowel complaints of various kinds. The digestive or-
gans are very soon deranged under the influence of the
impure air respired, and a long catalogue of secondary
mischiefs is the result. These maladies are too often at-
tributed to other causes, but long experience and close
observation force me emphatically to re-assert that
the chief, the primary, the most easily removable
cause of mischief is the proximity to human habi-
tations of public and private burial places. This
is shown to be the case, by the fact that removal
from the poisonous localities is soon followed by restora-
tion to health, and that no amount of medical skill can
breatheshofta pe pne
buriedne
happened,
t, h e
underproducts
beneath
his
back
fa benefitth.ki
s deceasedparlour
the
windows,naneighbour,
g s
ho
h longuo rr,
is
own kitchen floor.
waasshohe is
has

Can we doubt, then, that instances of sudden death,
malignant fevers of various kinds, assuming forma not
to be found elsewhere—typhus fever, that scourge of
crowded cities, cholera, consumption, and many other
fatal ditiorders, likewise prevail more frequently and with
increased intensity wherever crowded graveyards aboundl
—Ca the Past and Present State of Intramural Burial-
places, by G. A. Walker, Surgeon.

RACING FIXTURES FOR 1853.
The figures within parenthesis denote the number of
days' racing. ,
APRIL.
Malton (2) 21 1 Newmarket F. S. (5)....25
MAY.

Cheater (4)
Newmarket Sec Sp (3) 1(!)
Liverpool Hunt (2) 11
Shrewsbury (2) 11. I
Edinburgh (2) l2

Redditch (2)
Bath (2) 17
Manchester (3) 18
Epsom (4) 24

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

CUSTOM-HOUSE-APRIL 16:

ENTERED INWARDS.—The City of Rotterdam, from
Dunkirk • Panther, Ostend ; Don Callino, Guernsey ;
Baldur, dtathelle ; Friesland, Woreum ; Seine, Boulogne;
Commissary, Callao; Adonis, Bremen ; Soho, Havre ;
Eleanor, Hamburgh.

ENTERED OUTWARDS FOR LOADING.—The City of Rot-
terdam, for Dunkirk'; Panther, Ostend ; Neptune, Port
Adelaide ; Rhine, Rotterdam • Arban, Stettin ; Victoria,
Alton& ; British Merchant, dalcutta ; City of Boulogne,
Boulogne Symmetry, Swinemunde ; Helena, Bremen ;
Orestes, itrieste ; Wundringmanden, Christiania, &c. ;
Water Lily, Valparaiso ; Elizabeth, Rouen ; Adonis,
Bordeaux ; Jonge Pieter, Rostock.

CLEARED OUTWARDS WIT!! CARGO.—The Active, for
Leer ; Penelope, Schien ; Economy, Antwerp ; Eliza, De-
merara ; Sarah, Antwerp ; Chowringhee, Melbourne, &c.;
Diana, Trinidad • Batavier, Rotterdam • Earl of Auckland,
ditto ; City of gotterdam, Dunkirk ; Albion, Boulogne ;
Antwerpen, Antwerp; Diana, Amsterdam; Jane, Dantzic;
Eugene, Rouen ; Elizabeth, ditto ; London, New York.

VESSELS SPOKEN WITH.
The Maginn, of Plymouth, from Boston, March 22, lat.
31, long. 66. -
The Alice, Jamaica to London, March 18, off Cape
Hatteras.
The General Washington, Liverpool to Boston, Mach
22, lat. 49, long. 40.
The Carib, Liverpool to Shanghai, Jan. 29, in Bombay
Straits. _

----.,.
The.. Don Ricardo, Liverpool to Amoy, Feb. 5, off the
Fellow Islands.

EXPERIMENTAL SUICIDE. —A most extraordinary act
of accidental suicide—if the verdict of a jury empan-
nelled by Mr. Bedford, the coroner for Westminster, on
Saturday last, can be relied on—was perpetrated on Fri-
day, at Messrs. Coutts s banking-house, in the Strand.
It appears that a father and son, named Jones, in the
employ of Mr. Rigby, a builder, of Belvedere-road, were
engaged in plastering and whitewashing one of the
rooms at the bank on Friday last. The father left the
room for a short period in the middle of the day,
and, on his return, was horror-struck at discovering
his son a corpse, suspended by the neck from a
line attached to a pane of glass used for ventilating
purposes in the window. The line merely passed
under the chin and at the back of the ears, without
encircling the neck, and as the feet were upon the
ground and the knees within two inches of it, it appears
very remarkable that the deceased, if inclined only to
try the effect of experiniental hanging, failed in saving
himself. The fact, however, is certain that animation
was suspended, and, althoUgh the body was warm when
removed to Charmg-cross Hospital, all attempts at re-
suscitation preyed fruitless. The jury returned a ver-
dict of " Accidental death." An improper attempt to
stifle the inquiry, by the offer of bribes to the reporters
present, was made by certain persons, with what view it
is not very easy to divine.
EXTRAORDINARY ARRIVALS ON GAME FROM NORWAY.

—Owing to the long and severe winter, there has just
been received at Leadenhall Market an immense con-
signment of ptarmigan (or white grouse), capercalzies (or
cocks of the wood), and black game— about 25,000 head ;
being a novel and unusual supply at this season of the
year.

[ADVERTISEMENT.)—The Royal Exhibition Small
Glass for the waistcoat pocket, at S. and B. Solomons',
opticians, 39, Albemaie-street, Piccadilly—observe, oppci..
site the York Hotel.—A valuable, newly-invented, very
small powerful waistcoat pocket glass, the size of.a walnut,
by which a person can be seen and known one mile and a
half distant; they answer every purpose on the racecourse, at
the opera-houses, country scenery, and ships are clearly seen
at 12 to 14 miles. They are invaluable for shooting, deer-
stalking, yachting, to sportsmen, gentlemen, gamekeepers,
and tourists. Telescopes possessing such extraordinary
powers that some, 33 inches, with an extra eye-piece, will
show distinctly Jupiter's moons, Saturn's ring, and the
double stars ; with the sapae telescope can be seen a per-
son's countenance three miles and a half distant, and an
object from 16 to 20 miles. They supersede every other
kind for the waistcoat pocket, and are of larger and all
sizes, with increasing powers accordingly. Opera and race-
course glasses with wonderful power; a minute object can
be clearly seen, from 10 to 12 miles distant. Invaluable
newly-invented spectacle. Deafness—New Discovery—
The Organic Vibrator, an extraordinary, powerful, small,
newly-invented instrument, for deafness, entirely different
from all others, to surpass anything of kind that has
been, or probably ever ma be produced. Being of the
same colour as the skin, 'it is not perceptible it enables
deaf persons to hear distinctly at church and at public as-
semblies ; the unpleasant sensation of singing noises in
the ears is entirely removed; and it affords all the assist-
ance that possibly could be desired.—S. and B. Solomons,
&mists and Opticians, 39, Albemarle-street, Piccadilly:
01)09u°, oppokite the 'gal; Udell