The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-29 00:00:00

%fr,
3431„

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE' 29, 1853.

The Income Tax Bill has passed through its 1
last stage in the House of Lords, and now only
awaits the Royal assent to become a portion of
the law of the land, although prevented by the
etiquette and privileges of Parliament from alter-
ing a money bill sanctioned by the House of Com-
mons. Several of their Lordships recorded their
dissent from several details of the measure in the
most earnest and emphatic terms. A division
was even taken on one of the clauses, the rejec-
tion of which had been proposed by the Earl of
Wiexnow, and supported, among others, by the Lord
Chief-Justice, whose personal experience taught
him the grievous injury that must necessarily be
sustained by many Irish landlords in being com-
pelled to-pay the tax—not on the amount which
they actually receive, but on that which they
ought to receive ; so that in the case of a defaulting
tenant they will have not only to submit to the
loss of their rent, but will have to liquidate
claims that could only be justified on the suppo-
sition that they were in actual receipt of their
rents for which they were rendered liable. This
is a grievous hardship—and, what renders it the
more intolerable, it is one which applies almost
exclusively to Ireland and to Irish land-
lords, and from which their English brethren
aro at least comparatively free. It cer-
tainly appears quite sufficient to impose
the burden on Ireland, for the first time, without
rendering its operation even more inequitable and
oppressive than in this country, where, in truth,
it is quite bad enough as it is ; but it is a serious
grievance to make au exceptional law far more
stringent than that in force on this side of St.
George's Channel, which, through the unjustifiable
demands of the tax-gatherer, will complete the
ruin of landlords already subjected to deep dis-
tress, and brought to the verge of poverty
through the insolvency or dishonesty of de-
faulting tenants. There is no reason why
the Income Tax should not be extended
to Ireland why those who receive money
from any source, applicable to their own
purposes, should not contribute to the liquidation
of the national liabilities and the maintenance of
the national establishments, as well as their Eng-
lish brethren. But it should really be an income
tax—not, as we have already stated, a charge on
that which a man ought to receive, but had not
received.

But it may be said that there is a clause in the
Bill which affords an adequate remedy for the
grievance—that there is a provision to the effect
that when a landlord can prove to the Commis-
sioners that he has paid income tax on rent
which he had failed to receive, in conse-
quence of the bankruptcy, insolvency, or
absconding of, or the removal of goods by,
any tenant he should receive back so much of the
duty as he paid in respect of such rent
lost to him, and this is relied on by those who
framed the enactment as a satisfactory answer to
the objection ! Stronger evidence could not be
afforded of their gross and unpardonable ignorance
on Irish affairs. The provision is little better
than a mockery and a delusion, one that could
rarely, if ever, be made available by the aggrieved
and plundered landlord ; but which is even more
impolitic than it is deceptive, inasmuch as its
tendency, if it could be made available, would be
to
act as a direct incentive to the greatest cruelty
and oppression, and .as the natural result to
agrarian outrages and bloodshed, producing
eventually a state of affairs more deplorable than
anything that has yet been witnessed in that un-
happy land.
The accuracy of these assertions can be easily
tested. Indeed, any person at all acquainted
with Ireland, or the Irish, will be enabled to
substantiate them. It is notorious that in Ire-
land the Bankrupt or Insolvent Courts are seldom
if ever resorted to, on account of arrears of rent.
The arrest of the person of the defaulting tenant
is the last remedy sought by the landlord, for
should he do so, he loses the chance of distrain-
-ing ; and he is also but too well aware of the inu-
tility of the process, even if it could be executed
without setting the country in a flame, and occa-
sioning the most serious evils. Were it other-
wise the staff of these tribunals would
be materially enlarged, as ample occupation
would be provided in adjudicating on the cases of

distressed agriculturists who had been unable or
unwilling to satisfy the demands of their land-
lords. A comparison of the sums known to be in
arrear for rent and annually lost in the Sister
Kingdom, with the amounts wiped out by the
operation of the Bankrupt or Insolvent Courts,
will show that the latter does not amount to one
pound for every one thousand pounds of the for-
mer. How ridiculous, then, is it to rely upon
such a provision as an adequate remedy for the
evil.

The relief allowed in case of an absconding
tenant is equally illuiory. In Ireland one of the
greatest landlord grievances is, as Lord CAMPBELL
justly remarked, that bad tenants "will not abscond."
When they set the proprietor of the soil and all
his myrmidons at defiance, and bold possession,
despite of every effort to dislodge them until they
are bought out, getting not only a receipt in full
(a document on which it is but an act of simple
justice to say they place but little value, being
perfectly indifferent as to the measures which the
defrauded landlord may take to enforce payment),
but also a sum in hand, to start them on their
new career. If that payment and an amicable
arrangement (in which case they cannot be con-
sidered as " absconding " tenants) be refused, they
retain possession until ejected by legal process, for
which case no provision is made by the Bill—
the repayment cannot be made where tenants are
evicted for non-payment of rent?
But supposing that the exceptional case should
arise, that the landlord should, under the statute,
be entitled to claim a return of the money which
he had paid for duty in respect of the rent due by
a party who had become a bankrupt or insolvent,
or who had absconded from the premises, let us
for a moment consider what steps should be taken
by the claimant before he could hope to obtain
restitution.

We need scarcely refer to the proverbial dif-
ficulty of getting back money which has once
found its way into the Exchequer. Any person
who has endeavoured to establish his claim
will not require to be reminded of the vexatious
delays, the petty evasions, and paltry quibbles
resorted to ; proceedings that would reflect the
utmost discredit on any private person who re-
sorted thereto. The moat stringent proof is re-
quired on every point, until at last the disgusted
applicant finds that it would have been a saving
of time, of trouble, and of expense to have
abandoned the demand (unless of considerable
amount) than to have subjected himself to such
annoyance in its recovery. He must, in the
present instance, prove to the satisfaction of the
Commissioners, that the tax has been paid—that
the rent, in respect of which it was unpaid, and
that he had failed to receive it owing to the
bankruptcy, the insolvency, or the absconding
of the tenant, and legal evidence must be brought
forward to establish the points relied on (we
say nothing of the difficulty of deciding what will
amount to an absconding within the meaning of
the statute). For all these matters a professional
man must be employed at the expense of the
applicant. Each separate case will require dis-
tinct proof, and consequently a separate bill of
costs. In how many instances will it be worth
the landlord's while to comply with these pre-
liminary demands in order to obtain relief ?
There cannot be much doubt as to the answer.
Are we not justified, then, in denouncing the pre-
tended relief as being neither more nor less than
" a mockery and a delusion ?"

But were it otherwise, and that the money
could be obtained without difficulty, delay, or ex-
pense, can we conceive a more unwise or impolitic
provision than that which would give the landlord
a direct pecuniary interest in driving the default-
ing tenant to extremities, in compelling him either
to abandon the country, or to cast himself upon
the tender mercies of the Insolvent Court, or the
Bankrupt Court, after submitting in the first in-
stance to incarceration for several weeks. If the
provision should not be altogether inoperative, it
will create the most serious disturbances, and
kindle a flame which it will be difficult indeed to
allay. Those who prepared and who sanctioned
the iniquitous measure are placed in this dilemma
—either the provision is a gross deception, or it is
one of the most mischievous and impolitic enact-
ments that can be conceived. We leave the Irish
members who supported the Budget, and thus
carried the bill, to determine on which of these
horns they will be impaled.

Not fewer than seven Members have fallen before
the Election Committees since our last advertence
to their proceedings. Sligo has lost Mr. TowNELEv ;
Clare County, Messrs. FITZGERALD and O'BRIEN ;
Peterborough, Mr. WHALLEY ; Durham, Lord ADOL-
PHUS VANE ; and Liverpool, Mr. FORBES MACKEN-
ZIE and Mr. TURNER. On this side the water the de-
linquencies were quite of a normal character; Mr.
WHA.LLEY was found guilty of treating, though
we certainly think that law was strained to the
uttermost against him ; his offence was paying for
the wine at a dinner after the election, and he
deems it so venial, that he solicits the electors to
vindicate their liberty by re-electing him. Lord
A. VANE had, no doubt, been guilty, by his agents,
of bribing one if not two voters. J. N. ATKINSON,
a wag or a rogue, he did not tell the Committee
which, first bagged 5/. from one agent, whom he
saw in a bed-room ; the agent threw the money on
the bed, telling him " he neither lent nor gave him
it." Going out he meets another agent, from
whom he tries to get 151. He is content, however,
with a second Si. ; two agents then escort him to
the poll, whom, however, he gives the slip, votes
for FENWICK, and tells the whole tale to FEN-
WICK'S Committee. Our readers will remember a
similar trick at Clitheroe. Such are the risks of
bribery. The Liverpool bribery was of a peculiar
character, consisting in very numerous payments
to workmen of 4s. or ss. each, ostensibly as com-
pensation for losing their day's work, which, how-
ever, they had no occasion to lose. There was
treating also. The bane of this large constituency,
amounting in 1852 to 1'7,433, is, that 2,225 of
the voters are old freemen. We are inclined,
however, to think that the unseated candidates
found the "no Popery" feeling, which is very
strong in Liverpool, a more effectual aid than
bribery and treating. At Taunton, Sir JoHN
RA MSDEN was lucky, since bribery, though .proved,
was " not proved to have been committed with his
knowledge or that of his agents." We cordially
wish the young Member success in his political
course, the more so as he has declined to use his
immense influence in Huddersfield, which is nearly
all his own property, and throws himself on a
borough where his political principles are his only
recommendation.

On the other side the Irish Channel the Com-
mittees have at last got fairly into the midst of
priests, shillelaghs, and stones--of spiritual curses
and material violence. Both in the Clare and
Sligo elections they have reported the corrupt and
unbecoming influences exorcised by the priests ;
in the latter case, in general terms, against " the
Roman Catholic priests ;" but in the former, speci-
fying by name Fathers CLUNE and BURKE, and
exempting the rest ; pronouncing against these
two, however, the heavy charge—a charge pain-
fully sustained by the evidence—that "they excited
the people to take part in the Six-mile-bridge
riot ;" and that Father BURKE " himself took
part in the riot." There has been, of course,
violence enough alleged, and proved too, both at
these and other Irish elections. It was thoroughly
established that Colonel VANDELEUR'S supporters
voted at the peril of their lives—a peril sufficient
in several cases to deter them from voting at all ;
that they were seized, locked up, liberated
and escorted by the military, and even then
were not safe ; and that all this was due
to priestly zeal and fury. The mob were
merely the ignorant tools of the priests. One of
these tools, named MACNAMARA, who every night
reported his proceedings to " the Father," de-
scribes his canvassing practice literally thus—" You.
should first get hold of your man (it really re-
unnds us of Mrs. GLASSE'S celebrated recipe), and
ask him for his vote. In case of refusal, you must
ply him with drink, and then ask him again. Should
he still remain contumacious, it only remained for
you, with the assistance of your mob, to lock him.
up, and so prevent him voting at all. He conducted_
his canvass on these approved principles, and was•
sorry to have been obliged more than once to have-