The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-19 00:00:00

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E. R. FOSTER, Resident Director.
ANDREW FRANCIS, Secretary.

THE BUDGET.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.
(From the Times.)

A Chancellor of the Exchequer may reasonably sustain the
interest of a speech occupying five hours of time and twelve
columns of space, by spreading over it the agreeable announce-
ments of surplus, reduction, and remission. But our readers
will expect in this place a less artificial and dramatic arrange-
ment. We hasten therefore to put before them in rude sim-
plicity, and in little or no order, the principal parts of the
Budget which now lies before the British Parliament to accept
or refuse as it pleases.
Mr. Gladstone, then, proposes to reduce the duty on tea by
a shilling a pound—viz., from 2s, 21d. a pound to ls., spread-
ing the reduction over three years. The duty on soap, pro-
ducing a net sum of 1,111,000/., he proposes to. abolish at
once and altogether.

We have put these two remissions first and foremost, as
they will be felt by every householder in this kingdom. Mr.
Gladstone confesses himself unequal .to Ake equitable adjust-
ment of the Income Tax, and instead` thereof proposes to
abolish it altogether after a gradual diminution for seven
years. In 1855 he proposes that it shall drop to 6d. in the
pound, and in 1857 to 5d., where it is to stand till 1860,
when it is finally to expire. Meanwhile he proposes that it
shall be levied to the extent of sd. on all incomes down to
1001., and shall be extended to Ireland, also at the same rate.
These propositions alone would give importance to the finan-
cial statement of last night, and would make the year memor-
able in the history of finance; but the Budget includes, also,
a reform of the tariff, worthy of being ranked with those of
Sir Robert Peel. It is proposed to reduce the duties on
butter, cheese, eggs, fruit, and on many articles of more or
less importance ; while no less than 133 articles are to be
struck out of the tariff, in addition to the hundreds struck
out by Peel. The Assessed Taxes—that stronghold of iniquity
which has so long stood the attacks of the genteel sufferers
who pay them—have at length found their match. It is pro-
posed to abolish all progressive duties, so that each article
shall pay the same, whether there be only one or a dozen ;
to reduce the duty on hackney, and also on private, car-
riages, and on horses and dogs, so that there need be no
longer a question as to the pedigree of every pet. It is
proposed to make the license the only duty on post horses.
Servants, also, are to come in for reduction. While ,the
larger remissions with which we begin affect all, and prin-
cipally what are called the industrious classes, those we have
just mentioned will afford a great and timely relief to many
of the middle and professional classes. Nor is the abolition
of the duty on soap all that is to be done in the Excise.
letter.a abolished Lord Naas's oft-repeated and oft-carried demand for the draw-
back for waste on spirits in bond is to be conceded, the same
rule being extended to England and Scotland as he had asked
for Ireland. In the Stamps, also, there is to be considerable
frrealinekng fireaceirpeteeisptamt asps it does
do toes
a be
life assurance is to be reduced ; and those on attorneys' cer-
tificates respectively from 12/. and 91. to Si. and 61.; and the
The
a stamp duty
h on
stamp on admission from 120/. to 801. As to Taxes on Know-
ledge, Mr. Gladstone, neither induced nor hindered by the
division of Thursday night, proposes to reduce the duty on
advertisements to 6d., and to fix the duty on each newspaper
at one penny a copy, without regard to its size, and without
imposing an additional duty on supplements.
Such is an imperfect summary of the long list of remissions,
without a parallel, we believe, in any revious Budget. We
do not attempt at present to follow Mr. Gladstone in the
grounds of the surplus out of which all this is to be done—a
surplus, by the way, sadly diminished by the recent extrava-
gance of The Legislature. We will content ourselves with
stating how Mr. Gladstone proposes to recruit this falling
surplus, and make it equal to the heavy demands upon it.
He proposes to raise 2,000,0001. a-year by extending the
legacy duty to all successions, and abolishing the exemption
which real property has hitherto enjoyed ' to increase the
duty on Scotch spirits by ls., and on Irish by Bd. a gallon—
the latter, with the extension of the income tax to that
country for the next seven years, being counterbalanced by
the remission of the " Consolidated Annuities," long the sub-
ject of Irish complaint.
The great pratical test of a budget is the amount of relief
it will afford without endangering the national credit. On
this point we think there can be hardly any difference of opi-
nion. Difficult as it is to satisfy all parties, and impossible as
it is to satisfy those who object to every measure of relief
which does not immediately affect themselves, it would not be
easy to point out a class that is not greatly interested in the
success of Mr. Gladstone's propositions. As the income tax
altogether is to be soon put in the way of reduction, it is
scarcely worth while to consider the case of those whip are
newly brought under the yoke ; but with the reduction on
soap, tea, foreign butter, cheese, eggs, fruit, and more than
250 other articles, carriages, horses, and stamps, we have no
hesitation in saying that the man with 1201. a-year will be at
once much better off under the proposed changes, even on a
bare computation of losses and gains, without taking into ac-
count the stimulus that such remissions must give to trade.
To small people with " limited incomes," living in country
towns and rural districts, away from railways, coaches, and
other public conveyances, and compelled to keep their pony
carriages, their horses and gigs, or be as tied to the soil as the
cabbages in their gardens, the budget will be a very great re-
lief. The case of the artisan we will leave to himself, or
rather to his wife, for if he will only tell her fairly the contents
of the budget, she can tell him that he will save several
pounds a-year by it. In behalf of the press, of all advertisers,
and of the public generally, we are bound to express our
thanks for a great act of justice. Considering the thousand
and one ways of advertising that untaxed, even though
go a
taxed in other countries, it certainly was very great hard-
ship that no housemaid could advertise for a place without
paying t 6 Government at least two o.?_ytn
i. wages for the w
pri-
vilege of making her wants known. Bard to the
it
is
about
the last thing
abo-
lition of the duty on supplements,
we should have thought ourselves of asking. It is a boon
which for aught n
which our contemporaries will soon s we know,
in a larger degree than ourselves, as the tax on circulation
which has often made our own n
supplements un remunerative
'es from publishing them at all.
has prevented our contempora
congratulate the British
peo-
pleOn the whole, we cannot but
the rare opportunities, and the
on the great enterprise,
they owe the possibility of
high favour of Heaven, to which
these great, we had almost said unexpected, reductions from
happily doing
their now hereditary burdens. We are at last
ture to do—we are transmitting
what it is the first law of nature
1 a less enc • -
umbered
to our children a richer, nobler, an(
While we sustain the glory of our forefathers mho-
, we
ritance.
toils, the records of their folly
are wiping away, by our own
at least some hope that the day
and extravagance ; and haveEn
England will be as free from the
may actually come when g
the conqueror abroad.
creditor at home as from

(Prom the Morning Herald.)
Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues have elected to stand or
fall by the unmitigated income tax. There can be little
doubt which of the two it will be.
We very much doubt if an equal number of contradictions
ever were crowded into a single speech before last night.
First, we had the warmest praises of the income tax ; it was
all that was splendid and glorious ; it had saved the country
in the last war, and it had given us free trade in 1845. Yet,
in a few sentences more, the eulogist
incurable began to discover mani-
fold defects—faults so great and so en to render it