The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-18 00:00:00

tory. Why should the double machinery be pre-
served, and double costs incurred (for the duty to
Government will only constitute a portion of the
disbursements of a successor to either real or per-
sonal property) on two distinct sets of duties,
arising on, or rendered payable by, the same event,
viz., the transference of property on, or in conse-
quence of, the death of any party ? Why should
not the Probate Duties, and Legacy Duties, or
duties on successions, be completely amalgamated ?
and any questions arising in respect thereto
adjudicated on by a single tribunal, and in
a single suit in place of having one cause in
the Prerogative Court, or, if there be bona
notabilia in different dioceses, causes in several
distinct Prerogative Courts, another in one of the
Superior Courts of Common Law, and another in
Chancery ? Surely, if charges so onerous are to
be maintained and extended, the machinery
should be rendered as simple, the charge of col-
lection as moderate, the interference with the
parties as limited, and the inquiries as little inqui-
sitorial, as could be consistent with the preven-
tion of fraud, and the evasion of the duties sanc-
tioned by the guardians of the public purse.
At present the machinery is of the most com-
plicated character; and it is admitted, on all hands,
that many difficulties must arise, many yearn
elapse, and an enormous quantity of litigation be
encountered before the state of the law can be
considered as settled, or judicial interpretations
of the different provisions obtained on the multi-
plicity of cases that must be of almost daily oc-
currence under the contemplated enactments.
What an extensive field for litigation must arise
under the 7th clause as to what should be con-
sidered as " fraudulent evasions" of the duty ?
How many questions will occur on the clause pro-
viding that " duties shall be paid on the suc-
cessor becoming entitled in possession but in the
case of outstanding interest, on the determina-
tion thereof ?" 'How will it affect the adminis-
tration of trusts ? and who will, under such cir-
cumstances, be induced to undertake such onerous,
responsible, thankless, and ill-requited • duties ?
But all these difficulties are occasioned by the de-
sire of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to
exhibit undue favouritism towards the landocracy,
and to avoid carrying out that full and perfect
equality of taxation which he averred to be the
principle of his Bill, and which afforded so
favourable an opportunity for self-gratulation.

There is a well-known and famous theory of the
origin of us lords of the creation, according to
which, from an almost invisible monad, we be-
came successively jelly-fish, dog-fish, reptiles,
apes without tails, and, lastly, men. The tenant
farmers, it would seem, have got beyond the rep-
tile stage, and soon, therefore, we may expect to
see them begin to walk erect and gaze upon the
sky. Mr. BERKELEY declares that, in respect to
ready transference from Toryism to Whiggism, or
vice versa, according as landlords change, and in
perfect docility under the process of being put
now on the Tory, now on the Whig side of the
hustings, the farmers are veritable Buck-rabbits ;
yes, tame Buck-rabbits. He gave the House some
specimens of the taming process, but in truth
they were not needed. Nothing is better known,
to any one really acquainted with the agricultural
districts, than the perfect subservience of the
farmers to their landlords. The Reform Bill has
entirely changed the character of the county re-
presentation. Previously to that the independent
freeholders were a very large proportion ; since
then the tenants, a large part of them being even
tenants-at-will, have completely swamped the free-
holders. •It was trivial of Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT
to tell us of a few wealthy tenants-at-will in
Wiltshire not voting for a corn-law repealer in
South Wilts ; that was a venial offence in the eyes
of landlords. The political surface of the English
and Welsh counties is, beyond dispute, one
nearly unbroken level of Toryism, or at
least, of Landlordism a vast Conservative
prairie, with a casual tree of Liberty per-
haps in a metropolitan county or manufactur-
ing half county. Indeed, Mr. Burr, and other
Reformers in his line, might attain their ends
most easily by a•bill to put the franchise directly
into the hands of the landlords. The half million
of voters in England and Wales would be quite
as well polled through their 30,000 or 40,000
vote-owners. It would save the stewards much
rather unpleasant work, and materially dimi-
nish the cost of county elections. The land-
lords could easily poll in a single day, and they
would certainly not need the Ballot. So entire is
the prostration, that even in the better cultivated
counties, as in Norfolk and Suffolk, where leases
are general, it makes little difference. The ten-
ant who dares to have an opinion and a will of his
own, much more the tenant who ventures to speak at
public meetings for anything but "the repeal of the
Malt Tax," and "taxing the foreigner," becomes a
marked man. Heis publishedamongstthelandlords
like a criminal amongst the police ; even his brother
farmers think him a fool for his pains, so com-
pletely do they look upon tenant slavery as one of
the " domestic institutions" of agricultural dis-
tricts, well knowing that to seek escape from it is
not only a hopeless attempt, but even embitters
the bondage of the submissive. When his lease
is out, his alternative not unfrequently is to quit
the county, if not the country. One of the
strongest evidences of their bondage is that they
dare not even ask for liberty. There is not a
class who long for the Ballot more than the tenant
farmers, especially where, as in the more highly
cultivated counties, they are men of some intelli-
gence ; but they dare as soon cut off their right
hands as sign a petition for the Ballot. Mr.
BERKELEY'S picture of " putting on the election
screw" is true to the letter. Why, Lord JOHN
RUSSELL himself has felt it in his own case. He
surely has not forgotten how, on his becoming
Mime Secretary in 1835, all the Buck-rabbits of
South Devon, or some 600 of them at
least, were handed over from him to Mr.
MONTAGU PARKER, the Conservative. The rab-
bits kicked not, that we heard of, but his Lord-
ship did kick a little, and threatened in his wrath
that he would visit those who took them by the
ears with the Ballot ! Nor is it only the tenant
farmers who are " screwed"—it is notorious that
intimidation is practised in every conceivable mode;
mobs, priests, creditors, lawyers, employers, cus-
tomers, every one who has hold on another's fears,
may and, as the rule, does make use of it in elec-
tion contests ; by no means always openly. The
trembling voter too generally knows that he may
not displease his evil genius. We have always
insisted most strenuously on the deep and real
grievance of the intimidated voter, and we are
glad to see that Mr. BERKELEY made it the
strongest part of his admirable and really
interesting speech on this almost threadbare
topic on Tuesday evening ; indeed such stress did
he lay upon it, that Mr. S. HERBERT taunted
him with almost giving up the Ballot as a preven-
tive of bribery, and claiming it on behalf of the
intimidated only. Mr. HERBERT, if capable of
receiving instruction on this subject, had it in
abundance before the close of the debate ; but we
maintain that it is precisely against this species of
political violence that we are most of all bound to
protect the voter. It may be impossible to legis-
late against a female selling her honour for money,
but the severest penalties protect her from vio-
lence. And so, even were it impossible to lessen
bribery by the Ballot (which we totally deny), we
are bound to prevent the upright voter from being
coerced to the shame which others incur for hire.

We really think it cruel and heartless banter,
and nothing better, for Lord JOHN RUSSELL
coolly to. lecture the coerced tenants on suf-
fering for liberty, as the glorious training for
freemen, and to refer them to the ELLIOTS and
the SYDNEYS of past times. Why, with such pre-
cious logic as this, he would, as Leader of the
House of Commons in their days, have rather
exhorted them to pine in captivity or to bleed on
the scaffold, than have moved the House to take
instant steps for unlocking the dungeon or arrest-
ing
screw"H
the the axe.
"electoral whole case. is Lordship's argument gives up
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NEY'S scaffold and EtraoVspp dungeon ; but let his
Lordship take care
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vious parallel with their
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