The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-28 00:00:00

We have repeatedly directed the public atten-
tion to the gross and palpable injustice of the sys-
tem under which the present Income Tax is levied ;
to the manifest absurdity of charging all receipts
--we certainly cannot consider them as net in;
comes—at the same rate, no matter from what
sources they may be derived, whether fixed and
permanent, or precarious and temporary. On the
one side are incomes which can be confidently re-,
lied on—dependent not merely on the health and
energy of the party, or even on the fashion of the
day. It matters not whether the owner be well
or ill, at home or abroad, toiling at the desk or
in the counting-house, disporting himself at some
fashionable watering-place, or drinking untaxed.
wine and smoking untaxed cigars at some
German spa, or French or Belgian town,
where the grim visages of Sheriffs' officers are un-'
known, at least so far as liabilities incurred in
England are concerned. Under any circum-
stances he still receives his dividends or ground-
rents. As DIIMBIEDYKES said, " they are graw-
ing while he is sleeping." A bearded Huissier
may occasionally demand rather too urgently the
settlement of some petty account ; but the
" aliens"—the English creditors—are taught to
respect the sanctuaries where their unhallowed
demands cannot be intruded. On the other,
hand, the less favoured individual who earns his
daily bread by his daily labour must remain
where he cannot shirk hie liabilities to his credi-
tors, " public" or " private." As a consumer he
pays heavily at every meal—whether drink-
ing tea or coffee, sweetened with foreign,
colonial, or Irish beetroot sugar, imbibing
wine on which duty at ss. 6d. per gallon has been
levied, together with a further duty on the
" glass" in which it is bottled—spirits, foreign or
domestic—or ale or stout, where there is not only
a heavy duty on the malt and hops, that ought,
to constitute the chief ingredients in the beve-
rages, but also heavy payments for licences to
make the malt, and afterwards to vend the pro-
duce. He is also (as we have repeatedly shown)
bound to incur other expenditure incidental to his
profession, trade, or calling, for which no allow-
ance is made in the estimation of the expenses,
and to lay by some provision for a rainy day,
when he can no longer provide for his help-
less family, or even for his own exigencies.
But still he is charged. sevenpenco in the pound,
or 71. ss. per 3001., as well as theowner of 10,0001.
in the Three per Cent. Consols, with whom he is
thus for fiscal purposes—unfortunately on no
other—placed on a footing of perfect equality.
' But this flagrant grievance--this scandalous
and indefensible inequality, put forward, too,
under the name of equality, by no means consti-

tutes the worst part of the case. There is a still
deeper injury inflicted on the commercial classes,
who are not only charged on what they actually
earn, but too frequently on what they do not
earn, and who are compelled to submit to the
inquisitorial cross-examination into their most
private affairs, perhaps by some rival in busi-
ness, who may 'desire to get rid of a for-
midable rival, or to damage the credit of a too
successful competitor. We have always felt that
!the wages of industry should be free from every
'fiscal charge—that until they became " savings,"
and were converted into accumulated-and realised
property, they could not properly be subjected
to the demands of the tax-gatherer. We put
forward this principle long since, and we have
never abandoned it. Although frequently advo-
cating the propriety of discrimination—of recog-
nising the distinction between industrial income
and property—it was only as a step in the right
direction—tending towards the ultimate exemp-
tion of the savings of industry—the total abolition
of Schedule D. That is the consummation at
which every fiscal reformer should aim, which
equity and expediency alike demand.

On this very interesting and important point,
we would earnestly invite the public attention to
the powerful letter of " Alga Lieus," which will be
found in another part of this day's impression.
Our esteemed correspondent clearly and distinctly
points out some of the many evils that attend the
present system. The inequality, bad and inde-
fensible as it is acknowledged to be, is as nothing
in comparison to the " exposure of circumstances"
involved in the investigation into the accuracy of
the return. The vast importance to a mer-
chant or trader of maintaining his credit
beyond even a breath of suspicion must
be thoroughly appreciated. It has originated
the proverb that " a good name is better than
house and land." There are few men who in
their trading career have not been, more or less,
dependent on the supplies obtainable on the faith
of their untarnished reputations, and the belief
that they were doing a "good safe business." What
injuries might not the exposure of the most private
transactions of these parties occasion. How could
a person paying a heavy rent, and maintaining a
large staff of clerks and assistants, bear up against
the suspicion that there was but a very slender
margin of profit after liquidating the bond fide
trade expenses ? Great publicity would not be

necessary to occasion the mischief. We know

"A hint in tender cases is enough."

The slightest intimation to his bankers, or the
wholesale houses with which he is dealing, will be
quite sufficient to destroy his prospects, and when
it is known that even the secrets of the " Bank
parlour" occasionally leak out—that the transac-
tions even of " Cabinet Councils" are unaccount-
ably brought to light—how can we suppose that
the returns of income to the provincial assessors
will be kept sacred ? more especially when we
know that unsealed and badly, folded appli-
cations have been openly left at counting-
houses, subject to the inspection of any curious
or prying clerks, and that even the returns
themselves have occasionally been sold as " waste
paper," so that the purchaser of a quarter of a
pound of butter or bacon may learn the actual
profits of his nominally well-doing neighbour 1 •
As we have already repeatedly stated, the mer-
chant or trader would not escape free. All his
tangible property embarked in his business would
be charged according to its actual value, and that
is all to which it should fairly be liable.

APOTHECARIEW-HALL—The following are the names
of gentlemen who passed their examination in the science
and practice of medicine, and received certificates to
practise, on Thursday, the 24th of March :—George
Alder Watson, Scarborough ' • Alexander Johnston, Bir-
mingham • William Edward Naters, Sandyford, New-
castle on-Tyne • Thomas Fernandez Clarke, Leighton
Buzzard, Beds.

house, has, within the last few days, been sum-
marily removed by order of the Police Commis-
sioners. Further on, towards the heart of the
city of Westminster, the dilapidated equestrian
Aatue of the First Charles at Charing-cross has
during some time past (not, however, before it
was imperatively required) been in course of reno-
vation. NELSON'S monument in Trafalgar-square
still continues, unhappily, incomplete, and the
empty pedestal hard by yet remains a practical
satire on GEORGE IV., implying that his effigy
cannot easily be " matched" by any appropriate
companion. If we remember these shortcomings
with chagrin, however, we bear in mind with
some degree of satisfaction the circumstances of
that horrible, yellow caricature of the Second
CHARLES having been removed long since from
Leicester-square, in order to make room for Mr.
WYLD'S " Great Globe"—a removal only less sub-
ject of rejoicing to the lovers of Art than the
previous removal of that stone monstrosity at
King's-cross, purporting to represent the Fourth
GEORGE in the attitude of the Eighth HARRY, or
than the scarcely less commendable removal of
that other stone monstrosity, which libelled the
personal appearance of her present MAJESTY in
that little apology for a Square, in Pimlico, called
no less libellously by the name of our gracious SO-
VEREIGN. We should rejoice, of course, to witness
the obliteration of numerous other blots upon the
metropolitan escutcheon. Nevertheless, we are
fain to solace ourselves in this respect with the
phrase "all in good time"—the pet phrase, by the
way, of your systematic proscrastinators. How-
ever, changes are, as we have shown, being now
actually effected ; and, therefore, let us still con-
tinue to hope for more and more city improve:-
men ts.