The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-31 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, MAY 31, 18.53.

Discretion last evening—in reference
.to the
Turkish difficulty—closed the lips of tie Leaders
of her MAJESTY'S Government. We are satisfied
that reection must already have assured the Noble
Earl the ex-Postmaster-General, and the Right
Hon. Gentleman the ex-Chancellor of the Exche-
quer; of the reasonableness of this exemplary
silent on the part of o'urAdministrators. Although
Mr. DISRAELI' subsequendly, in the course of the
discussion which took place in regard to the Tea
Duties, taunted Lord JOHN RUSSELL with finding
some difficulty in stating what has taken place in
Constantinople, we are convinced that no one in
the House of Commons is more alive to.the neces-
sity of refraining from anything like premature
disclosures in reference to a still pending
diplomatic negotiation than the gifted and expe-
rienced representative of Buckinghamshire. It
would, we fear, have loeen little less than an
European calamity, had•the Noble Lord the mem-
ber for the City of London in the Lower House,
or the Noble Earl her MAJESTY'S Chief Foreign
Secretary in the Upper Ilouse, consented yester-
day .to announce to the. world the nature of the
orders transmitted to A dmiral DUNDAS, in conse-
quence 9f Prince MEN 3CHIKOFF'S departure from
Constantinople. An explanation of that kind might
no doubt have been exceodingly satisfactory to the
more curious lookers-on ; but, in sober reality, we
do believe, as already :remarked, that it would
have amounted to lath j less in result than an
European calamity. Wit h the four honours on our
side, and every rations 1 probability of the odd
trick, it would have been t like displaying our hand,
in the very crisis of the game, to our antagonist.
We rejoice, therefore, th at neither in the Lords
nor in the Commons the nature of the orders re-
ferred to, was even hinted at by the Leaders of the
Administration. Possibly the reasonable inquisi-
tiveness of many may thereby have been doomed
to a somewhat irksome disappointment—but, at
any rate, the success of *our policy has been effec-
tually secured from beet r: compromised.
Nevertheless, while iv e admit that it was only
rational in Ministers top refuse entering at this
moment into further ex planations as to the course
now being pursued by t hem in regard to the po-
litical differences between • the SULTAN and the
AUTOCRAT, we are none- the less sensible that
upon'tke Coalition rests„ ai this critical period, a
heavy and even awful resi,K ,risibility. Caution is all
very well, no doubt—but, carried beyond a certain
point, it degenerates into p usillanimity. Caution the
present Cabinet has alreaely shown in its conduct of
late towards the two great Eastern disputants.
There cannot, we believe, be said to exist nowa-
days any need for further such prudential con-
siderations. The CZAR has flagrantly broken faith
with us and with our AM ies in the character of his
proceedings towards thei Divan at Constantinople.
While assuring England .and the rest of the prin-
cipal Powers of Western. Europe that his negotia-
tions with the Sublime :9 orte had regard only to
(Petitions of subordivato interest to the majority
of the nations of 'C •hristeridom, NICHOLAS,
as we have seen, 1!: is been surreptitiously
ernPlevinef
vievevery means of intimidation with
of the Turtio_iii the I thimate dismemberment
foundations domb ons, and to sap the
of the Turk is h Government. That is
the notorious. It is
Div
2.X leaning of the ultimatum
thrust ttPc:n the
week ijalftern
within a or acceptance or refusal
Rentenii :is;,e production by Prince
MENSCHIKOFF.
mgthat consequently
—remembering how e
Allies. in
acted towards ourselveti Russian„(l Emperor has
duplictihtyis,
matter, treating Wester! al Europe with
most
and the Sublime Porte 'with the unjustbl
turpitnde-we repeattliat further necessity for I e
(Ailed caution in diplomacy—that further, Iluoleatl
for what are termed merely prudential considera-
tions, has by this time:altogether disappeared. The
dvisability of so ac Li ng.vamslied at themoment when
the /10t017.011S at/Handl rgt was laid before the Divan by
at Cons tantinoe. I
the RusNian Plenipotelitiary-
becam e requisite, therefore, for some more ener-
t
getic proceeding on our part immediately Prince
MENSCHIKOFF was known to have taken his de-
parture for St. Peter4urglr., As it appears to us,

but one course lay open to our rulers instantly on
their becoming acquainted with- this emergency.,
That course, we conceive, is sufficiently obvious
even to the least intelligent capacity—namely,
the concentration forthwith of our maritime forces
in the Mediterranean, at the entrance of the
Dardanelles. Unless orders to this effect have
been dispatched to Admiral DuNDAs, directing
him to conduct his fleet immediately to the
vicinity of the Golden Horn, to be ready, in case
of need, to afford every assistance in his power to
ABD-UL-MEDJID, we cannot conceive that due
efforts will be allowed to have been made—" to
maintain inviolate the faith of Treaties and the
independence and integrity of the Turkish
Empire "—by the chiefs of her Britannic
MAJESTY'S Government. A little while longer,
however, and it will be seen whether the Cabinet
has acquitted itself of its responsibilities in this
matter, by acting with becoming vigour, decision,
and promptitude. A little while longer and the
country will learn whether the Coalition Ministry
has fulfilled its promises in reference to what we
have designated before now the only rational
policy in regard to this Turkish difficulty. A
little while longer and we shall see whether Eng-
land has been spared the shame of that exagge-
rated caution which we have declared may so
soon, beyond a certain limit, degenerate into the
most abject pusillanimity. Two guarantees that
such may prove the case, we conceive to be
just now, happily visible—one, the fact that
Viscount PA LMERSTON still continues to be a mem-
ber of her MAJESTY'S Government--the other,
that our policy in regatta to Turkey has been
already declared to be identical with that resolved
upon by the Imperial Councils of the third NA-
POLEON. The present Home Secretary is not the
man to deal over-leniently with the despotic
Cabinet of St. Petersburgh : neither is the reigning
EMPEROR of the French a potentate likely to con-
cede over much to the arrogant ambition of the
Au TOCRAT.

The Income Tax Bill has at length gone through
committee. Some few trivial changes may pos-
sibly be introduced when the Bill is once more re
committed, but the measure is now before the
covartry in the form in which, most probably, it
will eventually be carried into practical operation;
and we would once more, while there is yet time for
amendments, claim at the hands of Hon. Gentle-
men the close and attentive consideration to its
provisions which its vast importance and the pro-
longed term for which it is about to be granted
so imperatively demands. The Bill itself, accord-
ing to the admission of its author, is made up of
a multitude of inconsistencies and inequalities,
all pulling in different directions, so as eventually,
in a great degree, to nearly balance each other.
This is a convenient mode of reasoning, in which
Sir CHARLES Woon, when he mis-managed the
national finances, used to greatly delight. It
finished a stereotyped answer to every com-
plaint that could be brought 'forward. When
the grievance was clearly and unequivocally
exposed—.when the gross and palpable injustice to
which a particular class was subjected was exhi-
bited in all its enormity, there Was no attempt at
justification, no denial of that which could admit
of no doubt or difficulty—all that was considered
necessary being that the Financial Minister should
acknowledge with a bland smile the magnitude of
the evil, declaring, however, at the same time,
that the sufferer could not justly complain, as
others were nearly as badly off. The landed pro-
prietor, who objected to being compelled to pay
the duty on the amount which he was compelled
to allow for repairs, rates, taxes, insurance, ab-
sconding tenants, &c.,. &c., was assured that the
contributor under schedule D was still more severely
treated, and that there could be no doubt that
the impost pressed more hardly on industry than
on property. While to the murmurs of the phy-
sical or intellectual labourer, at having the pre-
carious profits of his exertions charged as highly
as the dividends on the Three per Cents., or the
ground rents of well-circumstanced real estate—
the answer was, that some landowners were
charged on what they did not receive, or, at all
events, on What was not applicable to their own
use. During all this time, the favoured classes,
the fundholders and capitalists, stood aloof,
chuckling in their sleeves at the dexterity with
which their advocate shifted the pea from thimble
to thimble, playing off one grievance against an-
other, and all the time covering his protegees under
the folds of his ample cloak. What would be said
of the City Police if they suffered the swell-mobs-
men to ply their vocation on Ludgate-hill with-
out let or hinderance, so long as they abstained
from touching the sacred persons or appropria,t-•
in g the property of the Freemen of the City,
comforting the country gentleman who had lost
his gloves and, handkerchief with the assurance
that a gentleman from Manchester had been plun-
dered of his watch and spectacles, and both the
narrative of the mode in which a passing Barris-
ter had been eased of his purse, or a country Sur-
geon relieved of his pocket-book. The uninitiated
would probably think that it was the duty of the
so-called guardians of the public peace to stop
these nefarious operations altogether, rather than
to justify themselves on account of the number of
the victims. So those unversed in State-craft
might imagine that it would be more becoming
in a Financial Minister to endeavour to remove
every well-grounded source of complaint, and to
obtain as near an approximation to justice as
possible, rather than to play off the agricul-
tural against the trading classes, and both against
professional men.
What, for instance, can be more unfair than
making the landlord liable for the tax, or rent to
which he was entitled, but had never received,
and rendering the tax a charge on the land, to
be received from a future occupier ? Surely the
loss of the rent should be considered quite sufficient
without requiring the unfortunate proprietor to
satisfy the claims of the collector at the very
moment when he would require peculiar indul-
gence. Mr. GLADSTONE seemed to think it
would be a very great hardship " if the Govern-
ment should lose the tax when a tenant disap-
peared, having succeeded in spiriting away his
stock from his farm without the landlord knowing
anything of the matter," and this because " the
landlord might succeed in recovering the amount
of the rent from the tenant at a subsequent
period without the Government being enabled to
recover the amount of the tax from him." Now
this argument will perhaps exhibit more clearly
than any other the distorted and one-sided view
of( the subject taken by the Right Honourable
Gentleman. How often, we ask, is the landlord
so fortunate as to recover his arrears from ab-
sconding tenants, particularly after " the stock
has been spirited away from the farm ? " Let
Lord CAMPBELL return an answer on behalf of the
Irish proprietors. He is surely an unimpeachable
witness, in whom the Government may repose im-
plicit confidence. It appears as if the Noble and
Learned Lord has reckoned without his host in
assuming that the tax will only fall on the sums
actually received. It may, after all; turn out to be
rather an expensive luxury to become an Irish
landowner, where the party will be charged on
his nominal rent-roll rather than on his actual
receipts. It will, of course, operate as a heavy
blow and a great discouragement to the invest-
ment of English capital in Ireland, for which so
many inducements have been held forth, and
which is at length beginning to find its way to
that much-neglected country. We must confess 11
that we cannot help doubting the prudence of
such a course, which appears to be as impolitic as
it is manifestly inequitable. Nor is it either
more just or expedient to charge the amount of
the tax on the sums actually paid into the public
exchequer, either as interest on the amounts ori-
ginally ailvancc,d, or as instalments of the principal.
Every allowance, too, should be made for public
burdens, which appear to our judgment to possess
even stronger claims to exemption than ~a-spairs,"
inasrauch as the rates, dTc., are imperative, while
thinks otherwiseit
repairs are, to
The CHANCELLOR
extent i at least, optional.
of the EXCHEQUER, however,
whatever they
majority,' are ; and as " his well-disciplined
decrees, quite really to register his
black white at his niuY he, or to vote
coirn,and, it is almost
needless to say that he succesaful on every

point--indeed, discussion in such a case ap-
pears to be perfectly useless. It is well, how-
ever, that the community should be made ac-
quainted with the atrocities of the infamous tax
—whichis renewed without modification or amend-
ment, nominally for seven years, but more pro-
bably for seventeen or seventy years—and which
indeed, cannot be relinquished so long as it is
necessary to provide for the interest of a heavy
national debt.