The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-27 00:00:00

Fund more than incomes from professions, yet
rateable property must have a Legacy Duty laid
upon it to make all equal and fair. The ingenious
chancellor, however, had scarcely rubbed his
bruises from this fall than he perpetrates another.
ii.:nnfea gyrnannr of professional
why no difference could be made
professional and trade incomes was,
that they could not possibly be fairly valued ; yet
a days roll on, and down he comes to the
idouse with the information that, on behalf of in-
comes inherited from real property, he is quite
competent to value them fairly, and that
suitable tables shall be duly provided if they
will but grant him his new Legacy Duty.
e showed the actuaries the door most contemp-
tuously in his great Budget speech, but he opens
it again, and invites them back without apology
when pleading for Legacy Duties on entailed
Property.
Mr• GLADSTONE has fairly bewildered the
Rouse, and almost every one else, on this subject.
The only thing discernible is, that, in regard to
Legacy Duties, he has dealt so gently with landed
property in comparison with personal property,
t,hat 'very soon the old clamour will be renewed if
egacy Duties are to be retained at all ; for as-
suredly it will never be endured that beside an
e
_Val Income Tax, a tradesman's or a medical
Dutiesee's children should pay Probate and Legacy
amounting to 3 per cent., and a landlord's
wealthy heir should pay a Legacy Duty of only
13er cent., and that, too, on a value estimated by
the extent of his life interest only There will
e many a fight yet of town and country on this
question.
Against Succession Duties on land there
lies but one serious objection—the difficulty,
eaters on namely, an heir's raising money when he first
an estate ; a difficulty which Mr. GLAD-
STONEn_ Partly meets by spreading the small pay-
:nett for this class over eight years ; and which
erY Prudent parent might easily provide against
by a life assurance equal to the amount of duty
required. Against Succession Duties on strictly
Personal property there is, on the other hand, the
grand objection we have already so frequently
adverted to, that they are taxes on capital itself.
They
absorb into unproductive taxes the very
e4Pital which should produce income, sustain
expenditure, and thus generate revenue. Succes-
sion taxes on personal property do, in fact, kill
the goose which lays the golden eggs. With sue-
"ion taxes on land it is different. The land,
Whether sold or mortgaged to pay the duties, still
Produces in the hands of the working tenant the
aline income as before. Mr. GLADSTONE must,
another session, if the progress of events tide
him over this, reconsider and modify these duties
entirely ; or he must be prepared to abolish them.
.It is, however, worth while to cast a glance at
h
is first grand pretext for playing fast and loose
with these serious questions. He triumphantly
told Mr. DISRAELI that the twopence difference
'early, which he ignorantly proposed to make be-
tween precarious and certain incomes, was already
acle by the nature of the case. Landholders
41
-ready paid ninepence in the pound, while trades-
men and professions only paid sevenpence, and the
difference was due to the Burdens on Land! We
thought that old figment had been utterly dis-
tlrded. Even the Times seems afraid to endorse
'lr. GLADSTONE'S statements on this subject, and
11..10 Wonder. Poor rates, highway rates, and tithes
;741.• DISRAELI had consigned to the winds ; his
breath wafted away these burdens as feathers, and
th•
ey have never since been heard of. They went
into the Atlantic or the North Sea—we forget
which way the wind was blowing at the time. It
Was at least most clear that all these charges go
with the occupation, the landlord's rent is net so
far as they are concerned. Mr. GLADSTONE has,
however, enumerated, as a part of the deductions to
be made from the gross rental, several charges which
generally are not proper deductions, or which, at
eas•
t, need not be. One was abatement inrents I Why
it serves a landlord right if he has to pay Income
Tax for such a thing. What a system is this to
literal rack-rent, that the tenant lives as the
Political and game-preserving serf of his landlord !
Who, except in cases of clear calamity, ever hears
of manufacturers or shopkeepers begging for abate-
ments 011 rent ? Mr. GLADSTONE ought to have
told the Sir Roberts and the Squires that all such
deductions from gross rental might be not evaded,
but meritoriously avoided, by long leases at rea-
aenable rents. When have we ever heard of
Petitions for " abatement" from the Lothian far-
Men ? Then, again, he spoke of repairs, fencing,
and draining. Why all these are, as the rule,
done by the occupier. If the landlord does them,
like Earl FITZWILLIJOI, he does it by borrowing
Money at 3 per cent., and charging the tenant 5
Per cent., an operation, which, in Lombard-street,
Would be deemed perfectly satisfactory, and cer-
tainly no deduction from a man's tax-paying
Power. Insurance, too, which the proprietor of
-"Ts, and cargoes, and trading stock must equally
13,,4373 is, so far as land is concerned, simply nil.
'-nd it depends wholly on the landlord whether
or not he agrees with the tenant to insure the
11enses and buildings, in which case he would
receive his rent net so far as relates to
that. We all know instances of this being
done. His deduction for clerks, bailiffs, sub-
c agents, &c., we must think a somewhat fan-
one. Partly, the tenants would reply, the
fewer of these gentlemen you tax yourself with
the
better, we must prefer to deal directly
with the landlord himself ; partly, that, if gentle-
Itieo choose to retire from the personal manage-
zaent of their own estates, they should not corn-
,.lilLain of the price of a life of ease ; and partly,
c,'at even the funds, or any property, cannot alto-
tether escape parallel charges ; they are, however,
it trivial. The most serious item, no doubt, is
atle charges. Here, however, two considerations
freence occur. One that no property is entirely
e from them ; the man engaged in business at
all
ei extensively can as little dispense with his tersoli-
oil as with his banker. The receipt stamps also,
nloney transactions, from the comparative fre-
hateneY with which money and stock, too, change
ut
ads, may approach pretty nearly to the amount
realtalllPS for law proceedings in connection with
tant Property. But a second and more
.impor-
LIN consideration is that landlords and their
ofv:_ers have hitherto been the great opponents
title 7 effective step towards the simplification of
settle They have chosen a system of mortgages,
meats, arid incumbrances of all sorts ; they
the chosen to hide all these incumbrances from
4,8
t totlight of day, not wishing to appear
the half bankrupt and nominal owners of
domains which give them social consideration.
e4t tins
will, therefore, refuse to make land "as
the of transfer as a railway share" (which, by
by
landed, Pays the same transfer stamp duties as a
penal ty ete) why, they must go on to pay the
f
Lisu of their not unnatural pride. Many and
y a
pound of Income Tax is and will be paid,
4ke• the
of same reason, or even from the necessity
_
g appearances.
most unaccountable charge Mr. GLADSTONE
•
148.411 'i is arrears of rent ! Alas ! a poor trades-
all as 110 allowance for arrears of book debts at
' until
recoverhe has taken legal measures for their
,gre J----the cost of recovery being often
ater th
'Ate% an the amount of debt and Income Tax
allowed The landlord, on the contrary, has
creditor a claim for one year's rent against all other
co,„ a ! Let not Mr. GLADSTONE venture again
-"ariao •
`re muss
n) in regard to arrears, between the
Are iuuset and the unfortunates of Schedule D.
seut. the subject, however, for the pre-
sTe with
makes th
the full conviction that, if Mr. GLAD-
he look fairly again at the items of which
tress 11P his 16
per cent. deduction from the
t° 1 per eine of landlords, he will find it reduced
ghat cent., or rather to nothing. But, if so,
oseuria
egacYes °I. his boasted Income Tax and
Duty Mutual Adjustment Budget ?

TRitlip,
%ora• -- of TiIINEW AUSTRALIAN CONTRACT.—mAaC.
,;:111g to the conditions of the new Australian
three li
ports, the contractors must state at which of thee
a(1 Melbourne, Sydney, or Adelaide they propose to
be and they will be bound accordingly, but they will
poraitc liberty to touch at either, or both of the other twos
ear;;',as inay suit their convenience. If the contractl:Te
for 41'4 touch at all the three ports they must provid
tot to 4elivery of mails at the ports at which they do
ded„,,ll, eh. If they land all the mails at Adelaide ae
allow-",'°n of fourteen days will be made for the tismer.
vie, e`i the for the performance of the whole`ma4l
of
, and •
yell a If they land them at Melbourne a deduction
•-laY3 will be made,