The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-26 00:00:00

HOUSE RENT IN PARIS.

The Siecle says :—" In these latter times, rents gene-
rally, and especialiy for small apartments, appear to have
risen too high. What is the cause of this ? We readily
believe that if the rise had been simply the natural and
normal result of the resumption of labour and the ac-
tivity of business, it would have taken place, as on other
occasions, gradually, and not with the sort of suddenness
which has caused so many complaints. Evidently,
another cause has conspired with that one to aggravate
the effects of the increase. We do not in any respect
intend to dispute the great interest attached to the
immense works of demolition and rebuilding which we
see multiplied in all parts. Besides affording regular
labour to the working class, they luckily free the
capital of a host of old streets, which for the most
part contained only poor residences ; they contribute
greatly to the health of the town and the welfare of
the inhabitants ; they prepare and facilitate new embel-
lishments ; and there is not a Parisian who does not
receive with joy, almost with enthusiasm, all the projects
for new streets, prolongations, enlargements, and
levelling voted every week, with admirable zeal, by the
municipal commission of Paris. For our part, we
cannot help feeling a veritable satisfaction whenever we
have to register the incessant testimonies of the inde-
fatigable zeal of our wdiles. However, in our moments
of calm reflection, we cannot dissimulate that all these
simultaneous demolitions, all these quarters which
disappear as by enchantment, occasion the forced
removal of a part of the population, and cause serious
inconvenience to the working class. It is notorious, in
fact, that the prompt disappearance of an infinity of
houses, let for the most part at a low rate, and their suc-
cessive replacing by edifices more or less splendid, render
it impossible for families not in good circumstances to
find henceforth lodgings on the same conditions as for-
merly ; that the competition which ensues reacts natu-
rally on the value of lettings ; that the proprietors, on
their part, do not perhaps regret very bitterly this situa-
tion ; and that the workmen are constantly constrained
to go to a distance from their workshops, and to seek
refuge at the extremities of the town, and even in the
suburbs, where they do not even always find it so eco-
nomical to live."

The .31 oniteur as if anticipating the remarks of the
Siecle, says :—"After the 10th of December 1848, when
order was re-established, the Government endeavoured
to revive labour by means most in conformity with the
public interest and with a good municipal administration.
The population of Paris had considerably diminished ;
money was hid ; goods remained unsought in the shops
and stores ; materials and wages fell in price ; the num-
ber of apartments and shops to let amounted to 75,000,
and the floating population of the hotels and fur-
nished lodging-houses had fallen from 70,000 to
45,000 ; rent had fallen considerably, and yet suffer-
ing was to be seen everywhere, but principally among
the working classes, who were either without occu-
pation or who were employed on work of a sterile cha-
racter. To give employment and bread to the work-
man, it was necessary to reanimate the most fruitful
industry of all—namely, building. But how was that
to be done ? Were buildings to be raised on unoccupied
ground, or old quarters to be demolished in order to
open new streets through them ? It was not possible to
invite speculators seriously to erect new buildings when
the third of the existing lodgings were empty and when
rent had everywhere fallen. On the contrary, the
Administration, by pulling down buildings in order
to reconstruct, found the double advantage of restoring
value to building property by placing resources in the
hands of those persons who could give employment
and of replacing those narrow, winding, dark, and un-
wholesome streets by wide new ones, which by giving
more space around the public buildings would allow air
and light to circulate freely. The most prudent and
most useful combinations have, however, their incon-
veniences. Undertaken on a grand scale, the demolitions
led to a very considerable displacement of the population;
at the same time, thanks to the re-establishment of con-
fidence, strangers and workmen, again found their
way to Paris, and the floating population rose
even above the number of the best preceding
years. At present, there are in the furnished
hotels upwards of 70,000 persons, exclusive of
nearly 15,000 lodged in the hotels of the banlieue. The
natural consequence of this prosperous situation has
been a rise in rents, but at the same time, also, the
rate of wages has risen and become regular. However,
this amelioration has not been effected without pro-
ducing a momentary difficulty for persons with small
incomes or with moderate salaries, and, above all, for
non-resident workmen, the number of whom has in-
creased from an unexpected cause —the mildness of the
winter, which allowed the works to be continued almost
without interruption, and kept in Paris the workmen
who usually at that part of the year return to their
departments. But this state of things cannot last.
Private speculation is beginning to turn its attention to-
wards new constructions, which will soon re-establish au
equilibrium, and give to the labouring classes more
wholesome and more convenient habitations. On its
side, the Government is paying attention to the momen-
tary embarrassments of the working population. Already
a sum of three millions has been placed, by a decree of the
Emperor, at the disposal of the Minister of the Interior,
to be distributed in subventions to such landlords as will
enter into an engagement to provide wholesome and cheap
lodgings, and the administrative authorities are seeking
out all other means of remedying the inconveniences of
this situation."

NEWSPAPER SUPPLEMENTS.
- (From the Daily News.)
After the recent debate and decision of tho House
of Commons we hoped and expecte& the Chancellor
of the Exchequer would have provided for the total
repeal of the Advertisement Duty as a tax not only
oppressive and unequal in its character, but also as
one which tends to cripple and restrict business ope-
rations. But he has announced only a reduction,
not repeal. Even this is a boon to the public, since
it helps to untrammel the channels of publicity.
The interest of the public and of the Press are in this
instance quite identical, and the course pursued by the
Chancellor has this recommendation, that it confers a
public benefit with very little, if any, loss to the revenue
of the country. If the reduction of the Advertisement
Duty to 6d. be the only alteration made in the laws re-
TRADE OP NEW YORK.—The commercial advices lating to the Press that Mr. Gladstone dare venture
from New York are wholly devoid of interest. The upon, he makes his experiment cheaply, for the nominal
stock and money markets were steadily improving, and loss of revenue will be made up to the Exchequer in the
the rate of discount was 7 to 9 per cent. Regarding course of a very few months.
the alleged discovery of new gold deposits in Oregon, The alteration proposed in reference to the Stamp
scarcely any further particulars are given, the only re- Duty on Supplements is of a different character. It
mark being that they are situated in diStricts called the must have originated in mistake. It would have been,
Yakina country and Grande Ponde, and that their ex- as we said on its first announcement, "a huge gift to
istence has been confirmed by the arrival of several the Times." Not that we meant to convey the impres-
persons. From Panama it is mentioned that her Ma- skin that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had any cor-
jsty's ship Daedalus was understood to have left Acapulco rupt intention. We simply described the real tendency
(Mexico) on the 18th March, with $2,000,000 specie, of his proposition about Advertisement Supplements.
the whole of which she would take to England except The origin of the proposal can be easily traced. It i
3700,000 that would be transmitted vid the Isthmus, matter of, notoriety that the Chairman of the Board of
The steamer Unicorn was to leave Panama for Australia Inland Revenue, Mr. John Wood, has long held the
on the 6th of April, and the prospects of trade with that opinion that the Times ought to be relieved from the
country were of a nature to excite increased interest at tax on the supplements issued by that paper, and
all the ports on the Pacific, from the demonstritions it is only to be regretted that the Chancellor of
constantly occurring that the Panama route is the true the Exchequer did not more carefully consider an
one between England and Sydney. opinion which be would have found to be un-
MYSTERIOUS DEATH IN THE RIVER THAMES.—Yes- sound in principle and unjust in practice. It
terday Mr. Baker, summoning officer of St. Clement proceeded entirely on a misapprehension of the
Danes, forwarded to Mr. Higgs information of the dis- character of a supplement under the present law.
trouseorfs ax.nesdP
c9very of the body of a young man that morning, in the The special feature of the newspaper law is that the size
r\vivaesr Thames, off the Temple-stairs. The deceased, who of a sheet is limited, and any extension of such size in-
was appearance, had on black cloth volves an increased duty. A. supplement simply offers
t waistcoat, with Wellington boots. There the convenience of allowing a newspaper proprietor to
rowing alone in from
were gilt s uds in his shirt, but he had no coat, and it enlarge any particular number of the journal by the issue
There is some Blispicoi otn
is conjectured f a that circumstance he had been lof a separate sheet of paper instead of printing it upon
been robbed as his and may have fallen overboard. an enlarged sheet. By this means provision is made
pocicethowever, that he may have more easily for occasional pressure, and the principle of
as there was no money in were turned inside out, and the law that a sheet of a certain size shall involve a
lead to his identification, his pockets, nor anything to penny stamp is maintained. What may be the need for
se
THE COINAGE.—From a return
is u such enlargement is unimportant. Whether it arise
appears that in the quarter ended the msd
yesterday, it , from the more legitimate cause, a pressure of interesting
mint of March last, news, or from a less 'legitimate reason, namely, the ne-
the gold coinage made at the
4,335,3571; 10s. 7d., and the silver coinagaenatoou9lBl6 to cessity of accommodating a larger number of advertise-
-21.
ante:no
rt sd,inthl
g the law
osni me
paper,ply deatliie
deals withmo
Morning ci
the fact
roannideat th
providese
No copper coinage was made in the
same quarter,

time of the Great Exhibition frequently 'availed itself
of this facility for enlargement, not in consequence of
any pressure of advertisements, but because a single
paper did not afford space to allow it to describe the
wonders of the Exhibition to French and German visi-
tors, each in its own language, as well as to its English
public. The Times constantly avails itself of this facility
under the pressure of advertisements. If the opinion of
Mr. John Wood had been in operation at that time, the
expanding courtesy of the Chronicle in its polyglot pub-
lications would have been subjected to increased taxation
from which the profitable Supplements of the Times would
have been free. These examples will illustrate the unfair,
and to the public the injurious, operation of such an ar-
rangement as was proposed by the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer. The size of the newspaper—that is, of the space in
which public news, intelligence, and occurrences might
be narrated—would have been restricted, but the space
in which the proprietors of newspapers find commercial
advantage was to have been unlimited ; but it might be
said that this was, at all events, a partial relaxation of
the press law, and that it was, in fact, exempting adver-
tisements from charges and burdens which were intended
to apply simply to that which was properly news. Even
this explanation was impossible, for the law would still
have remained which declares all papers published
weekly or oftener, or at intervals not exceeding twenty-
six days, and which contain wholly or principally adver-
tisements, to be newspapers, and liable to be stamped
as such. The consequence would have been that a
paper which is wholly an advertising sheet, such as the
North British Advertiser, would have remained liable to
the same penny stamp as now, while the Times, or, in-
deed, any other newspaper, might have published its
advertising sheet free from duty. The argument which
was put forward with much adroitness by the manager
of the Times, before the Newspaper Stamp Committe,
and which has since been swallowed by many un-
reflecting people—namely, that the operation of the
supplement stamp compels the proprietors to check
a circulation which would otherwise be illimitable,
is simply absurd as a reason for special relief, for,
assuming the charge for the advertisement to remain
the same, a certain increase of circulation would produce
an equal cost of production. Or, in other words, it is
urged that the cost of paper and stamp on a certain
number of supplements (say 30,000) is equal to the cash
produce derived from the advertisements contained in
the supplement, and therefore the circulation is kept
down to this number. The Government, therefore, are
expected to relieve the paper from the stamp, that there
may be not this hindrance on circulation. But as the
halfpenny stamp is not half the cost of the supplement,
an increased circulation of some two-thirds would pro-
duce again the same glut and loss. Would it be the
duty of some future Chancellor of the Exchequer, under
such circumstance; to propose that the paper used by
the Times, •r any other paper similarly circumstanced,
should be exempted from the payment of duty ? If not,
then a similar exceptional reason must fail to justify a
special exemption from a tax which would remain pay-
able on a supplement, if used for the more legitimate
purpose of news.

It
is from no strong feeling of personal dislike to the
contemplated alteration that we make these remarks.
Any reduction of press taxation must be at least an in-
instalment of justice. And we repeat, we do not charge
Mr. Gladstone with any unworthy motive, but give en-
tire credence to the reasons assigned by him in his
speech. The alteration, as proposed by him, would
have been beneficial to our own private interest, but it
does not proceed upon a sound principle—it would
work unjustly. It is our duty and our wish to advo-
cate only such measures as are sound and just, and
hence our readiness to point out the error in Mr. Glad-
stone's Resolution on this subject, and to show the im-
possibility of its becoming law.
If the Chancellor of the Exchequer had proposed to
take off the duty from all supplements, or to remove the
present restrictions on the size of newspapers—other
questions connected with matters of detail would have
arisen for consideration, but into these it is not neces:
sary at present to enter. With reference to the resolu-
tion now upon the table of the house, it is fortunate that
it is so framed as to necessitate its withdrawal. If re-
produced in another shape, it will be then time enough
to discuss it in the form which it may assume. If suf-
fered to drop sub siledtio, the financial resources of the
Government will be greatly enlarged, for the gain will
not only be the 40,0001. intended to have been aban-
boned, but also the additional supplement duty which
will inevitably became payable. To withdraw a resolu-
tion may be mortifying, but in this case it will inevi-
tably save the Government from defeat, and it will

serve an useful purpose, if it induce in proper quarters a
doubt of the wisdom of the " intelligent officials" at the
Stamp-office who misled Sir C. Wood so discreditably,
and who have exposed the present Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer to danger and annoyance.

THE BUDGET-LICENSED VICTUALLERS.

(From the Morning Advertiser.)

Seven years are a long time. Yet for that long period
the country is to be saddled with the income tax. Mr.
Gladstone has made the proposal, and the House of
Commons will not say " Nay." It was at one time
thought it would, because the majority in that assembly
had always, publicly and privately, expressed their de-
cided disapprobation of the unequal pressure of that most
unpopular of all imposts. They had also, in private
society, and publicly in the House, condemned the pro-
posal to renew the income tax for so long a period as
seven years. But they will not, when the question
comes to the vote, have the courage to act up to their
expressed convictions. No doubt their motives for
shrinking from the assertion of their professed principles
will be varied. Some will vote with Ministers from party
considerations. Others will abstain from giving hostile
votes, because they have felt indignant at the unnatural
combination into which their party had notoriously
entered with the ultra portion of the Irish Brigade.
Aud no inconsiderable number will abstain from voting,
or 'cote with Ministers, because they have the fear of a
dissblution before their eyes—an event which would
prove exceedingly inconvenient to many, and ruinous,
in a legislative sense, to not a few. Hon. gentlemen do
not relish appeals to the country at any time ; but they
have a special dislike to them when Parliaments, as in
the present case, are but in their infancy.
However, since it so happens, no matter from what
combination of causes, that the part of the budget which
refers to the income tax is to receive the sanction of the
Legislature, it only now remains that we endeavour to
prevail on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to make
those amendments in other parts of his financial scheme
which are so greatly and glaringly defective.
We unhesitatingly say, that there is no part of the
budget which, if carried out, will prove more unjust and
oppressive in its operation than that which relates to
licences. The pressure of the new principle on which
licenses are to be granted will fall with fearful effect on a
class of tradesmen who are already more heavily taxed
than any other class in the community. Even with
their present licences, the licensed victuallers can scarcely
be said to realise any profit from the tobacco or cigars
which they sell. With so vast an addition to the price
of their licences, they will be losers by all they vend ;
and yet, to make their case all the harder, they will be
obliged to keep tobacco and cigars for the accommoda-
tion of their customers.
We have hitherto abstained from all reference in our
leading columns to the injustice which the budget con-
templates committing on this respectable class of trades-
men, in the hope, day after day, that we should see some
intimation from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that
that part of his scheme was the result of inadvertence,
and would be amended. But as yet we have waited in
vain. The right hon. gentleman has hitherto made no
sign ; neither has either of his two morning organs
broken silence. It is high time, therefore, that we
should ourselves—A.9 some of our correspondents already
have done—point out the contemplated injustice. It is
as flagrant a case as could be imagined. It needs but to
be named to insure, we should suppose, the immediate
attention and prompt redress of the right hon. gentle-
man. At present the body of tradesmen to whom we
refer have to pay 161. for their general licence, and now
it is proposed to subject them to an impost of 21 per
cent., where the rent paid exceeds 101., for permission
to sell tobacco. The result of such a law, if passed,
will be to press with a crushing effect on a large pro-
portion of the licensed victuallers. One correspondent
illustrates the operation of the tax in his own particular
case. He says that its effect would be to raise the
amount of his liceneefor tho sale of tobacco, from ss. 3d.
to 81. is. 3d-, while in the case of a friend, whom he
has in his eye, who pays a yearly rental of 1,0001., it
would raise the price of his tobacco licence to 501. a
year.

- From various other correspondents we have received
communications pointing out the injustice and oppres-
siveness of the proposed increase in the price of tobacc•
licences ; but it is not necessary that we should quote
the particular illustrations which they adduce of the way
in which this part of Mr. Gladstone's Budget must ope-
rate. The two instances we have given are as good ai.a
thousand. The thing is, indeed, so glaring that we can-
not for a moment doubt that as soon as it is pointed out
to the right hon. gentleman, he will not lose a moment
in amending the part of his Budget in which it occurs.
It is right, however, that the parties more immediately
affected should themselves act with promptitude and
vigour, in a matter which is of such vital importance to
them. Time presses ; and unless they adopt the neces-
sary steps to bring this part of the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer s financial plans before him without delay, they
may be too late. The licensed victuallers of Bristol
have already met, spoken, and acted. Those of the me-
troßolis must not longer remain silent and inactive. They
also must be up and doing. They should not wait until
the trade in the provinces have set them the example.
The example on the contrary, should be set by them
to the country trade. If the trade, both in the metro-
polis and the provinces, could only act with promptitude,
unanimity, and energy, their success is certain. Even
if the Chancellor of the Exchequer should hesitate to
abandon the contemplated increase in their tobacco
licences, the members of the House of Commons will
bring to bear upon the right hon. gentleman a pressure
which he cannot resist. They have a good case. There
never was a better. It will, when brought before the
house, should Mr. Gladstone not do justice before mat-
ters go that length, be irresistible. But we cannot doubt
that, on the circumstances being properly represented to
the right hon. gentleman, he will at once see that the
part of his budget which relates to the raising of the
price of tobacco licences, would be an act of great op-
pression and injustice to a large and respectable class of
her Majesty's subjects, and that he will in consequence
abandon it.

We must refer to our Parliamentary report for what
transpired in the debate last night. We do not remem-
ber a case in which the argument, the truth, and the
justice of the case were more manifestly with the oppo-
nents of Ministers ; but it is quite au understood thing
that if Ministers lack the arguments they will have the
votes. They are-sure of a• majority : so at least they
tell us ; and a majority is with them the great thing
after all.