The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-22 00:00:00

14. OUTPOBTS.

My lords aro deeply impressed with the great change which
has taken place of late years in the relative importance of
London and some of the other ports in the kingdom, especially
Liverpool, where the magnitude of the business is now such
as to entitle it to the greatest consideration, and more espe-
cially as, from its situation, it is obvious that its importance
must more and more increase from year to year ; and my
lords therefore entirely concur in the scope of the recom-
mendations of the committee in this respect. They aro, more-
over, gratified to find that the Commissioners of Customs, par-
ticipating in these views, have already taken some important
steps in order to carry into effect the recommendations of the
committee so far. But my lords view this matter as so
closely connected with the consideration which they propose
to enter upon separately in relation to the general constitu-
tion of the Board of Customs, that they must defer their de-
cision thereon till then. In the meantime, my lords must
express their approval of the steps taken, in pursuance f:
this recommendation of the committee, by the Commissioners
, of Customs.
My lords are, however, of opinion that, at least so far as
regards the port of Liverpool, an immtehdeiacteircaulantgaenmeeenstam:oyi
be made, by which, as recommended by the committee, cases
not involving more than 100/. of revenue shall be decided on
the spot, but subject to the qualification that in all Cases,
whatever the amount may be, whore
an unusual or difficult character, reference shall be made to
sLtorandetoinon,
sa,nadnsd dubierecetttioonse.
suchs qualifications,soisuherfregraenetirmaletetinle beissld
n-
owshhiaelhl , from
by my lords or the Commissioners of Customs'', and my lords are
pleased to direct that the authorities at Liverpool
e
week to week, make a full report of all casesol
shall have so decided, with a view to maintain in every place
as great a uniformity of practice as is possible.
enable them to judgeMy as
elordtes
einpkrotphiaite
ttyh itc,exxpteelindiennattaiTy
ple to other ports.
tthhßut so far as under this headPiqucsisuggested the credit
tltapnocunnpsosetmeenetiri.cs shcitld be extendediaisete the
ttdiscretionhieis e system o f the
my lords are of
beop
as plvoistshibldiscountenanced as much
regard to the subject of classifying ports, my
lords are of opinion
irneggulsettaiteceeofie that the altered and constantly commercealter-
ectt
the
and that in some) respects
My lords are pleased,
mode of classifying ports
each shall in future be treated,
of officers and their of the country renders the
o this subject no longer applicable,
am•efore, to direct that the present
,i they operate very prejudicially.
shall be entirely abolished, and that
in respect to its establishment
salaries, in a way having reference only

S 11

FtL.i

i

0 -7
r_,L
special circumst, as regards extent of :......7- '4_,
.:, 44' ta:g
Vo
its
the na .e of the trade, and the amount of revenue co ~17): 5.1 A • , :.1 0
here t. . ',:%,4*" -*;:---_-4:
I :ro„,,* • ~
My lords, having now considered all the heads in d ' ; zi JL;
have only now to remark thereon, that they entirely apprvie i 11 VT; " ...
C t (A rl LI
of all the modifications of the existing laws which have begn'i I, W." ...li " .11- VIP
introduced by the Commissioners of Customs, as well those -7
which have been especially referred to in this minute, as those •
which have not been_ named, and which have been made
either in pursuance of the recommendations of the committee,
or in anticipation thereof.

But before closing this minute my lords have to express a
wish as to the prepartion of bills to give effect to the modi-
fications about to be introduced into the administration of
the Customs department. _ _

It is very desirable that, even if the general work of codi-
fication cannot be hastened, yet the enactments which are to
introduce specific changes with a view to public advan-
tage should at once be prepared and submitted to Parliament,
after which ample time will have to be allowed, not only for
their discussion, but for their circulation through the country
for the information of the important classes directly affected
by the operation of revenue laws, and with a view to afford-
ing the fullest oppertunity for the expression of their views.
But my lords cannot conclude this minute without express-
ing their great satisfaction in observing the zeal and alacrity
with which the Commissioners have applied themselves to
giving effect to the recommendations of the committee and to
the great discrimination they have shown both in the modifi-
cations they have adopted, and in regard to the recommenda-
tions they have made. My lords have perceived with lively
satisfaction abundant indications of a sincere desire on the
part of the Commissioners of Customs to reconcile their pri-
mary duty, as servants of the Crown and guardians of the
public revenue, with the interests and wishes of the mer -
cantile community; and my lords will readily lend all the
aid in their power towards giving increased effect to that
desire, by promoting every well-ascertained improvement in
the law and administration of this extensive and most impor-
tant department.

Transmit a copy of this minute to the Commissioners of
Customs, and request that the alterations and modifications
herein referred to shall be embodied, with all convenient
speed, in the Consolidated Act, the framework of which has
been already prepared, with a view to its introduction into
Parliament as early as possible.
Treasury, April 14, 1353

JAMES WILSON.

THE INCOME AND PROPERTY TAX.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SlR,—And so this is the reply to all your arguments
en the income tax. Mr. Gladstone has determined to
continue it, not for the year only, but for seven years.
This is bold legislation, certainly. No one can accuse it
of timidity; but are we tamely to submit to such daring
dictation ? Having submitted to it for ten long years- -
alias seventy years—for who, after having been deceived
from year to year as to its repeal, can rely upon its
being now repealed at the expiration of another seven
years ? No one, certainly. But suppose we could rely
upon its abolition at that period (which we cannot pos-
sibly do), are we to submit in the intermediate time to a
seven years' purgatory ? I trow not. Is there no
remedy ? Yes. Let your London representatives com-
bine, and act as they did -before on the subject of
the house tax ; this will alter the resolution of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer if nothing else will,
for further argument is useless. If you, by good argu-
ment and good reasoning, could convince them of the
justice of the repeal of Schedule D of the income tax,
Mr. Gladstone would contrive to find some substitute.
Mark if it is not the amount of the tax wh.ich.
makes it
so hateful. Be that tax 7d. or id. the principle is the
same, which principle is the inquisitorial nature of the
tax—its prying into the private circumstances of men and
their families, compelling them to reveal those secrets
which no other man, except a Government officer would
dare to investigate. One of the original causes for theim-
position of this tax was its apparent justice. I say
apparent, for in reality it is most unfair and unequal.
The officers levy it by guess—at haphazard—according
to a man's appearance, his mode of living, &c. ;
and the name of Justice is thus desecrated
by calling this a just tax. It is impossible that
it can be a just tax, for no tax-gatherer can arrive at
a commercial man's precise state of circumstances.
But the real cause of the imposition of the income tax
is, that the parties who invent and who continue to levy
this tax have no knowledge or intimate acquaintance
with that class of men who are to pay this tax. The
niembers of Parliament, as well as the Loi•ds, know
nothing of the private circumstances of mercantile men.
They know a few of our great n_ercha.nts, who have
incomes as large as most noblemen—Lenc3 they form an
opinion of the great wealth of the commercial body—
never dreaming of the thousands, tens of thousands, and
perhaps millions, whose expenses have exceeded their
income ; who, therefore, have no income, and yet will
sooner pay the income tax than reveal their losses to
any commissioner of income tax. This is cruel as well
as unjust, and yet it is true—and, perhaps, there
are still some members of the House of Com-
mons who may ratify the truth of this assertion by
reference to former days. And could legislators now ,
know and believe this statement, they would not vote
in favour of the continuance of the tax ; but they are
all men of property, who, at ease, know nothing of com-
mercial vicissitude, and who, sitting comfortably by their
firesides, hear the howling of the tempest on the outside
of the house, but neither know nor care who may suffer
from the storm. Something of this kind must have
happened when the commercial men connected with
America lost above five millions sterling in one year, not
many years since, by the fall in produce. These are evils
of which the law meters know nothing, and, of course,
feel nothing ; hence their ready consent to such an im-
post on the commercial community. Schedule D,
however, comprehends professions as well as trades, and
the relief would be as great as to mercantile men. The
repeal of this Schedule would involve a serious dimi-
nution in the amount of the tax, no doubt ; but
wave the repeal of the soap duty and the difference
would be trifling. And if we must submit to the ex-
penditure of a penny per week to our washerwoman,
we perhaps shall not be ruined by it. Really the con-
tinuance of the income tax for the purpose of saving
one penny per week, more or less, in washing, does seem
so ludicrous that one can scarcely believe Mr. Gladstone
to be serious. The property tax is of course to be con-
tinued. No one objects to that ; and perhaps the mer-
cantile and manufacturing bodies contribute as much
towards the payment of that tax as the landed aristo-
cracy, and you do not hear them make the least objec-
tion to the continuance of that portion of the income
tax, so that it is not the evasion of all taxation which
they seek. Much, however, will depend upon the view
which your omnipotent fellow-editor of the Times may
take of this appeal to the London members. Should he
coincide in your views, and give his irresistible aid, Mr.
Gladstone will probably be compelled to remodel his
Budget, and instead of there inserting all the details of
schedule D, leave as a substitute a mighty chasm.

ANGLICUS.

It may not be amiss to suggest that, should schedule
D be repealed, the families who receive some relief by
the non-payment of the tax would probably spend that
saving in some taxable commodities, so that Government
might lose very little by the repeal.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUIT.

SlFT,—Allow me to offer you a few remarks upon Mr.
Gladstone's Budget.

No doubt he-has displayed, in many parts, great
knowledge and ability. I shall confine my remarks
chiefly to the income and property tax—a tax that,
viewed superficially, may appear based on justice, but
when tested by its application has always appeared to
me the very reverse, nor do I believe it possible by any
ingenuity to make it otherwise than unequal (therefore
unjust) and inquisitorial. lam old enough to remember
the income tax when it was 10 per cent., and I fearlessly
assert, that no tax was considered by the public, includ-
ing the most zsalous Tories, so onerous and irritating.
What surprises me is, that a man who can point out its
inequalities, and the insuperable difficulties to its being
otherwise, can, in the same speech, have spoken of it in
such laudatory terms. I refer you to the part where lie
eulogises Mr. Pitt, gives a quotation from a French
author, and then proceeds to make the astounding and,
I hesitate not to say, incorrect assertion, that if the in-
come tax had been submitted to sooner, there would have
been no occasion for the existence of the National Debt, or
he might mean its increase after 1793. He says that for
six years previous to its imposition our expenses ex-
ceeded our income by 15,400,000/. Now, Sir, I have
no statistics by me, but I think my memory will not
prove treacherous, when I aver that at the end of the
war, when the income tax was 10 per cent., and that
was taken on a National Debt of more than 800,000,000/.
(instead of 300,000,0001. in 1793), besides the land and
trade, its total annual amount never exceeded 12,000000/,
But, Sir, I argue from the very facts Mr. Gladstone has
stated, that it may have been owing to the imposition of
amount, inasmuch as it encouraged us to
, spend ; for
Oct tax that our debt did increasesn
ottoiteirttiesvlrle2::
oefun
from
imie
on
wo
the. to
muchiu
ns .
Mr. Gladstone says that afterwards, although our
revenue increased 13,000,000/. per annum, our expenses
seirre,fodree:
latveaPapveoairsdedtohur debt
Clin crileaesedoweas
thatpect Isn,eot
mhiaglhf.t h
sooner
wa: the
still
xiould have spent
more. tax. :o,
g 0 0 Have ave
revenuenot our
w e
sincere-imposition ?
income
peace. its
I know it does
expensesibCol' )iyeofi
monstrousc thatlrdisubmitting
aosnteald 3t l
I Vt1:IeI0r0?se0a0sae0y10 (101' greatly
not And
for
followwh ythat because wel have a
tsihfyoumldyshpeelnidefittilabtutitldaoppea to past experience to jus-
tify
would be es
encourage extravagance. If
subject real, as well firm,as personal, abandon the income tax, and
and legacy duty, the counPterly. mightal, p
dr property pwe re tl yl
enough,
to
son
Ministers be obliged to reduce expenditure.
After all, no doubt the war was the cause of our
debt. The income tax assisted us in carrying it on. I
think both were evils that might have been avoided,
but the country was to blame for permitting, aye, en-
couraging it, and if what we call glory tickles our na-
tional vanity, we ought to pay for it, and not leave the
burtheu ou our posterity.
No doubt, as a nation, wo are rather pugnacious than
pusillanimous, but it is well to remember that

" They who in quarrels interpose,
Must often wipe a bloody nose."

Not that I admire courage less, but that I love justice
more, than some may do.
I remain, Sir, yours obediently,

J. H. G. H

Tunbridge, 21st April, 1853.

A deputation from the Rotherbithe Commissioners of
Pavements, consisting of the Rev. Edward Buick, Mr.
Rockwood, Mr. Ravenhill, and Mr. It. S. Hawks
(clerk), had an interview with Sir William Moles-
worth yesterday, at the office of Works and Public
Buildings in Whitehall-place.

THEATRE ROYAL, lIAYMARKET.
Under the Marla •nt of Mr. I:uckstone.
THIS EVi.NING, APRIL 22,
Will be performed ELOPEMENTS IN mum LIFE. By Messrs.
R. Sullivan, Chippendale, Howe, W. Farrell, Buekstone, and Comp-
ton ; Mesdames Fitzwilliam, Reynolds, L. S. Buckingham, &c.
After which MR. BUCKSTONE'S ASCENT OF BLOUNT PAR-
NASSUS.
To conclude with OUR MARY ANNE.

ROYAL PRINCESS'S TIIEATRE, OXFORD-STREET.
Under the Management of Mr. Charles Kean.
Tars EvENINn, AF.III. 21,
Will be petfonne 1 the 'ftagedy of MACBETH. Princip charac-
ters by Mr. and Mrs. C. Kean.
After which will be pert,rated the new Drama, adapted from
die French of Mons. Scribe, by Mr. Palgrave Simpson, called
'MARCO SPADA.

ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE.
Under the Management of Madame Yestris.
THIS EVENING, Aram 22,
Will be performed USED UP. Pr.ncipal character Mr. C
Mathews.
After which, THE GOOD WOBINN IN THE WOOD. CLarac-
t ers by Me•ers. F. Matthews, Suter, Ilorneastle, and Templeton
Madame Vestris, M sseq-. Robertson, Egliaton, &c.
To conclu!,e with A PRACTICAL MAN.

TEIEATRE ROYAL ADELPIII.
Pro-;riotor, Mr. B. Webster. —Directress, Madame Celeste.

TI IS EVENING, APRIL 22,

Will be performed A DESPERATE GAME.
After wbich, MASKS AND FACES; or, Before and Behind the
Curtain—by Menrs. B Webster, L.liturray, Honey, P. Bedford, and
0. Sm!th ; Mesdames Celeste, Woolgar, &c.
To be followed by BETSY B tKER—by Mr. and Mrs. Keeley.
To conclude with PEPINO THE DUMB BOY, AND PUG, Ills
MONKEY.

ROYAL OLYMPIC! THEATRE.
Lessee and Manager, Mr. Farren.
THIS EVENING, Aran. 22,

Will be performed THE COUNTRY SQUIRE. Character 3 by
Messrs. Farren, H. Farren, Morgan, and Clifton ; Mesdames A.
Phillips, H. Gordon, Adams, an'l E. Turner.

After which, UNCLE CROTCHET. Uncle Crotchet, Mr. Farren.
To c nclude with THE FLYING DUTCHMAN. Supported by
Ma rs. H. Marston, and F. Robson; Mesdames A. Philllo and 11.
Gordon.

ASTLEY'S ROYAL AIIIPHITHEATRE.
. _

Sole Lessee and Manager, Mr. W. Cooke:
Brilliant career of the New Spectacle. The extraordinary and
novel n ata of the Horses, the Passage of the Luraing Wood, the
Leap through Fire, and he terrific spring of ..irnakosa's Steed from
the fearful Heights of the Umtata, continue to bn nightly received
'with increased astonishment and enthusiastic approbation. The
training of the 110-ses for these astounding Feats has occupied
Mr. W. Cooke 's unremitting attention for months past.
THIS EVENING, Apart. 22,
And daring the week, the Performances will commence with the
highly successful and magnificent spectacle of AMAKO? ;or
Scenes of Kafir Warfare ; with all its new, beautiful, scent • inte-
resting, dramatic, and astonishing Equest tan effects
To be followed by a most novel and by:Mont Routine of tlymnas-
and Egnestrian Achievement= in the • canes of the ARENA, sup-
Ported by the most eminent British and Continental Artistes of tee
day.- _ .

To conclude with a Popular FARCE.
Box-oflim open daily from Elmen to Four. Stage Manager, Mr.
W. West.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
rffil DAT --Morning 44 min. after 12 Evening 7 min.aft. 1
To-Moanow—Morning 28 min. after 1, Evening 47 min.aft. 1

THE WEATHER.—SUN OFFICE, APRIL 22.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
55—highest since noon yesterday.
45—lowest this morning and during the night.
52 this day at noon.

•
BiBOMETER, 29'46.
WIND, S.S.E.—Fresh breeze, and dirty, rainy weather.

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