The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-25 00:00:00

One point of the forthcoming Budget has been
suffered to leak out. There is, if Mr. GLADSTONE

is allowed to have his own way, to be no further
reduction in the Tea Duties until after that in-

definite period, the conclusion of the War. In
place of being gradually reduced to ls. per lb. the

duty is to remain stationary at the present rate of
Is. Gd. We regret this determination for many
reasons. We regret it on account of the class to
whom "the cup that cheers without inebriating,"

being their only comfort, has become an article
of primary use. The over-toiled sempstress,
" singing the song of a shirt," made for 11d., in
some instances id., or chaunting the refrain of a
military great coat made for id., out of which the
miserable victim provides needles and thread,

may abandon the hope of a cup of tea. Teetotallers
may despair, although we confess we do not
greatly sympathise with their annoyance—at
the encouragement thus afforded, to " in-

-Tiring bold JOHN BARLEYCORN." Mr. J.

- _
LLOYD PHELPS, of Birmingham, may per-

ceive the equivalents given for tho extended and
subsequently doubled Income Tax, one by one
vanishing from his bewildered vision, until ho
finds that he has to meet a positive charge of
41. 3s. 4d. on his salary of 1001. per annum,
while his weekly bills are enhanced rattier than
diminished. But what signifies the vexation, dis-
appointment, or inconvenience of any or all of
these parties, so long as Mr. GLADSTONE is al-

lowed to indulge his financial crotchet of provid-

ing for the whole of the extra expenditure of the
country out of the annual revenue, and that his
name may be handed down to " posterity" as the
clever financier, who, by grinding his own gene-
ration, exhibited the extraordinary financial de-
monstration of paying off eight millions of debt,
just at the period when the nation was entering
into a life-and-death struggle with a Power like
Russia, and afterwards, without replacing the money
thus abstracted from the Exchequer, applied the
fiscal screw to suoh an extent that the unfortu-
nate sufferers groaned under the intolerable pres-

sure?
But the complaints and sufferings of the people
might be of comparatively trivial importance if
the object for which the change of law is to be
demanded could be attained. We believe, how-
ever, that the revenue will be injured rather than
benefitted thereby—that the Tea Duties would be
even more productive if the gradual reduction
sanctioned in 1853 were suffered to take effect
than by its further progress being arrested.
The reduction from .2s. 21d. to Is. per lb. on
tea was advocated, not merely for the sake of its
beneficial consequences on our commercial rela-
tions with China, but because it was supposed
that the lower duty would be nearly, if not alto-
gether, as productive as the higher one, and that
thus the consumer might be materially relieved
without any serious loss to the revenue.
The Chinese - insurrection, perhaps we might
more appropriately term it " revolution," has
hitherto impeded, if it has not altogether pre-
vented, the anticipated results. The increase in
the first cost price of tea neutralised the advan-
tages that would otherwise have arisen from the
reduction of duty. Besides, that reduction was
6_ not sufficient to produce decided consequences.