The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-26 00:00:00

chivalric and magnanimous reputation. The
CZAR has found in him no effeminate and
vacillating BOABDIL—he has found in him no
hesitating Leader of the Abencerrage. Rather
should we say he has discovered at last in ABD-
UL-MEDJID " a foemau worthy, of his steel," a
chieftain capable of retarding, at least yet awhile,
the downfall of the Turkish Empire, and ready,
we doubt not, to defend, if need be, at the point
of the scymitar, the ancient battlements of Con-
stantinople. A bearing like this might reasonably
have been predicated from that young Sultan whose
generosity prompted him when famine was desola-
ting the provinces of Ireland, to transmit relief from
his private purse to its remote, and, to him, alien
population—the Prince who nobly covered with
his shield Lours KOSSUTH and the rest of the
fugitive leaders of Hungary, when flying across
his borders pursued by the Imperial armies thirst-
ing for their assassination—the Potentate who
offered a spontaneous tribute to the heroism of a
great poet-statesman, presenting an estate to
ALPHONSE DE LAINIARTINE at the very time
when that illustrious patriot was abandoned
to pecuniary difficulties by his own ungrateful
countrymen ! _ _

Remembering these his antecedents, we might
have felt confident throughout that the
young Sultan ABD-UL-MEDJID was not precisely
the man to succumb in terror to the insolent ag-
gressions of the AUTOCRAT. And we did cherish
all along this feeling of implicit confidence, and,
our reliance in so doing, has been indeed to the full
and resplendently justified! Startled to a knowledge
of the daring designs of the Russian Emperor, the
Sultan at once dissolved his hesitating Cabinet—
summoning the illustrious REDSCHID PACHA once
more to the command of the Foreign Department
—and thereby imparting the strengthening in-.
fluence of his patriotic statesmanship to the
-whole frame of the new Turkish Government.
As the earliest indication of the wisdom of this
course, we have seen already that the Divan has
boldly rejected the ultimatum submitted to it by
Prince MENSCHIKOFF. Russia is, consequently,
foiled : and conscious that he has signally failed
in his undertaking, the Ambassador from St.
Petersburgh has hurriedly taken his departure
from Constantinople. Simultaneously with the
news of this departure of the Russian Envoy
from the capital of Turkey, we receive in-
telligence lof the French Ambassador having
hastily summoned the fleet under Admiral
LASUSSZ to the mouth of the Dardanelles. So that
for once the armaments of the Cross may be allied
in the name of Honour, of Justice, and of Hu-
manity, with the valiant soldiers of the Crescent.
Let the AUTOCRAT advance but one step further in
the path of his audacious ambition, and he will
find himself confronted, not alone by the rude
followers of the Commander of the Faithful, but
by the skilled generalship and the organised bat-
talions of the chivalry of Christendom.

The Income Tax Bill will again be brought
forward this evening, and will probably pass
through Committee without change or alteration,
with all its imperfections thick upon it. The
incubus, too, is virtually fixed on the country not
for two or three years, but for seven years.
This deplorable circumstance should excite a
greater degree of energy and determination
amongst professing Fiscal Reformers, to remove the
flagrant inequalities that excite the indignation
and disgust of the plundered victims. But, alas
for human credulity ! alas for the characters of
public men, it is not even deemed advisable to
maintain a decent appearance of opposition, to
enter even an earnest protest against the gross
and palpable injustice to which the nation
is to be subjected for seven long years.
What now is the result of the Select
Committee, which, under the presidency of
Mr. Hums, so closely investigated the important
subject ? What has become of the elaborate Re-
port which the veteran reformer prepared with so
much care and attention, and in which the true
principles of direct taxation were so clearly, so
ably, and so unequivocally set forth ? Where is
the amendment whieh the Hon. Gentleman had
given notice of, even subsequently to his tergiversa-
tion on the point of the equal rating of all kinds
of income, without reference to the sources from
whence they might be derived ? That notice was
on the paper, and should have been brought for-
ilard on Monday evening. It would, if carried
ifito practical operation, afford some degree of relief
to the chief sufferers under the iniquitous system,
many of whom are about, for the first time, to be
brought within its baneful influence. It would have
relieved the first 501. of industrial incomesfrom the
tax, so that the clerk who toiled from eight in
the morning until seven at night for 1001. per
annum, and who was scarcely enabled to provide
the rudiments of education for his children, or
decent garments for his wife, would escape one-
half the impost. In fact, without being liable to
any of the objections that could be made to a gra-
duated charge, it possessed the chief advantages
that would result therefrom. But, unfortunately,
when the time for action had arrived the Hon.
Member for Montrose was nowhere. In turf par-
lance, he bad been scratched a few minutes be-
fore the start, and it looked as if the aged horse
" OLD JOE," had been made safe by the friends
of the promising five-year-old horse " GLAD-
STONE," who is likely to have a virtual walk over
for the " Budget" stakes.
Soberly and seriously, it does look very like a
.throw over. We cannot forget that the bill was
read a second time, on the understanding that the
opposition was to be made in committee, and see-
ing that the objections were to the details rather
than to the principle of the measure, and that it
was not by any means desirable to get rid of the
Income Tax, and thereby occasion a lamentable
deficiency to the Exchequer—we fully acquiesced,
in the propriety and expediency of that course.
But there has been a degree of carelessness and
apathy exhibited, very prejudicial to the reputa-
tions of those who exhibit little anxiety
to improve the system, or to render it
more tolerable to the industrious middle
classes, unless in so doing they could
achieve a party triumph that might possibly lead to
a Ministerial crisis. A modification of the details
—even a recognition of the distinction between
permanent and precarious income would scarcely
lead to a change of Government, and hence the
cruel indifference on the subject—an indifference
that may lead the sufferers to exclaim, " A plague
on both your Houses."
We care not for the interests of party, or
whether GLADSTONE or DISRAELI preside over the
financial department. Our only anxiety is for the
well-being and comfort of the people, and that we
shall endeavour to promote, to the best and ut-
most of our abilities, looking only to the intrinsic
merits of the propositions submitted for con-
sideration, without reference to the quarters
from whence they may emanate. In the present
instance our duty and our desire is to protect
" the rights of industry " against the aggressions
of property. But more especially the physical
and intellectual labourers, who, by almost inces-
sant
toil, earn precarious and fluctuating incomes
of from 1001. to 3001. per annum, out of which
they have not to live even in expensive districts,
maintaining respectable appearances, but to lay by
provision for the time when, through the loss of
health or a change of fashion, they may be thrown
out of employment, or when their helpless families
may be deprived of the protection of a father and
provider.
It, is absurd to assimilate the position of
one of these persons with that of a man
deriving an equal 'income from money in
the funds or real estate. The one must set
aside a considerable proportion of his income.
The other may, without fear or apprehension,
expend the last shilling of his receipts—certain
that while he is lounging away his existence,
there is an accumulating fund that will be always
plovsietinone:o available for himself or family. The one may
have necessarily incurred debts in achieving his
curity which from having no tangible se-
interestt,:lro,
offerl
will have to pay exorbitant
for tleles
20,
(we llav© kno 381?9h0r perhaps 40 per cent.—
cases)--but no allowance
may crush him to thee payments, although they
will be made
vourod individual _ earth,. If the more fa-
11Q11' habilitios, he may 11,