The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-19 00:00:00

LONDON BOARD.
CHARLES GRAIIAM, Esq., F.S.A., Chairman.
CHARLES DOWNES, Esq., Deputy Chairman.
H. Blair Avarne, Esq. J. G. Henriques, Esq:
K. Lennox Boyd, Esq., Resident F. C. Maitland, Esq.
Charles Berwick Curtis, Esq. William Railton, Esq.
William Fairlie, Esq. F. 11. Thomson. Esq.
D. Q. Henriques, Esq. Thomas Thorby, E3(l.
MEDICAL OFFICERS,
PHYSICIAN.—Arthur
Esq., M. 8., 8, Bennett-street,
St. James's.
Si:lmam—F. H. Thomson, Esq., 48, Berners•stroet.
The bonus added to policies from March, 1834, to the 81st
December, 1847, is as follows :

Bum Sum addedto Sum addedto Sum payable
Time assured.kssured.l
PolicylnlB4l PolieyinlB4B at Death.
£5OOO 13 years 10 mths £638 6 8 £787 10 0 £6470 16 8
*lOOO 7 years •• 157 10 0 1157 10 0
500 1 year 11 5 0 5ll 5 0

• EZAMPLE.—At the commencement of the year 1841 a person aged
thirty took out a Policy for 1,0001., the Annual Payment for which
Is 241. 10. Bd.; in 1847 he had paid in Premiums 1681. 11s. Bd. ; but
the profits being 2IA per cent. per annum on the sum insured ( which
Is 221. IN. per annum for each 1,0001.), he had 1571. 10s. added to the
Policy, almost as much as the Premiums paid.
The Premiums, nevertheless, are on the most moderate scale, and
only one-half need be paid for the first five years when the In-
surance is for Life.
Every information will be afforded, on application to the Resident
oirector.

B RITANNIA LIFE ASSURANCE
COM FAN V. •
I, Princes-street, Bank, London.
•
Established August 1, 1837.
Empowered by Special Act of Parliament, 4 Viet.. cap. 9.
Czwarxxx— Colonel ROBERT ALEXANDER, Blackheath Park.
ADVANTAGES OF THIS INSTITUTION.
A table of increasing rates of pro tun, especially adapted to
the securing of Loans or Debts.
Half-credit rates whereby half the premium only is payable
during the first seven years.
Sum Assured payable at sixty, or at death if occuring pre-
viously.
Orphans Endowment Branch affording the means of having
children educated and started in life, by securing annuities, to com-
mence at the parents' death, and to be paid until a son shall attain
his 21st year, or, if a daughter, her 25th year of age.

BRITANNIA MUTVAL LIFE ASSOCIATION.

Empowered by her Majesty's Royal Letters Patent.

Annual division of profits.
Policy holders participate in profits after five or seven annual
payments, according to the table selected.
Premiums calculated for every three months' difference of age.
Half credit policies granted on terms unusually favourable ; the
unpaid half premiums being liquidated out of the profits..
At the Annual General Meeting on the 27th April, 1852, a reduction
of 30 per cent. was made in the current year's premium on all paitici-
paling policies.
A Doard of Directors in at'endance daily at Two o'clock.
Age of the assured in every else admitted in the policy.
Medici,' attendants remunerated in all cases for their reports.

( PROFA I ETA RY.)
Extract from the Half,
Credit uatEs of
Premium.

Half Whole
premium premium,
ta I First for Re-
Feven ma'nder,
Years. of Life.

0 s d.l£ s. d.l
30 1 1 9, 2 3 61
40 1 9 218 4,
50 1 2 2 6 4 5 01
00 j 3 6 8 6 13 4

(MUTUAL.)
Extract from Table with Participation
in Profits, after Seven Yearly
Pal ments.

Annual
premium,

Half Quar•
Yearly( terly
l're- Pre-
mium. mium.

Years. is s. s. d.O
0 2 7 3 1 4 2I
3 2 7 GI 1 4 4
6 2 7 10' 1 4 G
9 2 8 2; 1 4 8,

£ 8. d.
O 12 3
O 12 4
0 12 5
0 12 6

E. R. FOSTER, Resident Director.
ANDREW FRANCIS, Secretary.

THE BUDGET.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.
(From the Times.)

A Chancellor of the Exchequer may reasonably sustain the
interest of a speech occupying five hours of time and twelve
columns of space, by spreading over it the agreeable announce-
ments of surplus, reduction, and remission. But our readers
will expect in this place a less artificial and dramatic arrange-
ment. We hasten therefore to put before them in rude sim-
plicity, and in little or no order, the principal parts of the
Budget which now lies before the British Parliament to accept
or refuse as it pleases.

Again, after spending two hours in-proving that no altera-
tion could be made in the tax, but that it must be sevenpence
alike to all—to the millionaire or the little hairdresser, Mr.
Gladstone ended by practically repudiating his own doctrine,
for he proposed to confer this great blessing on two new
classes—the Irish and the owners of incomes of 1001. a year,
and both these two classes are to be charged less than seven-
pence in the pound. Now, if the man of 1001. a year is to be
charged 5d., and the man of 1501. a year 7d., it is clear that
the man who had 3001. a year in the funds might ho charged
7d., and the man who earned 3001. as a village surgeon might
be charged only sd. Yet this last variation Mr. G. charac-
terised as destructive of the very principle of the tax, while
he adopted the former !
Ireland is to be subjected to the tax, after having been
exempt from it for ten years. But the chances are small in-
deed that such a scheme will be adopted.
Another obvious and very criminal inconsistency in Mr.
Gladstone's speech was this :—The first part of his speech
was devoted to raise up a class jealousy ; by making it appear,
that the opposition to an invariable income tax came from
trade, and was levelled against landed incomes. Mr. Glad-
stone spent a full hour in vindicating the landed interests
against the traders, who, according to him, were ready to
do the landed proprietors any injustice. But when he quitted
this part of the -subject, ho went over absolutely to the
Radical party, espousing their favourite scheme, of making
landed estates pay legacy duty. Thus, first he endeavoured
to defend an unjust income tax, by enlisting the fears and
jealousies of the landed gentry ; and having tried this expe-
dient, he next curried favour with the Radicals, by joining
with them in a positive and serious attack on the land.
The rest of the Ministerial plan is too full of small parts to
be described in a single article. Almost everything is
touched, and nothing settled. Lord Robert Grosvenor having
carried a motion for the repeal of the duty on attorneys' cer-
tificates, the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposes to give up
one-third of the tax, if he may keep the remaining two-thirds.
Mr. Milner Gibson having carried a vote for the repeal of the
advertisement duty, the Chancellor meets it by reducing the
duty to sixpence. And so in several other matters.
The tea duties are to be lowered, very nearly in the same
manner as was proposed by Mr. Disraeli in his budget of last
December.

Some hundreds of articles in the tariff arc again altered.
Duties are lowered on eggs, cheese, butter, oranges, and
raisins.

The chief new feature is the entire remission of the soap
duty. But the accomplishment of this, the chief benefit con-
tained in the budget, must depend on the acceptance of
the Ministerial plan as a whole ; and that, we confess, seems
to us as about as unlikely a thing as can be well conceived.
In fact, there are some points in the case which make us
suspect a scheme for a dissolution. And yet, as one of our
first statesmen lately remarked, it will be an odd thing to
go to the country with an unmitigated income tax as a
rallying cry. Will " the tax, the whole tax, and nothing
but the tax," excite much enthusiasm in Bradford or in Man-
chester ! We shall see.

(From the Morning Chronicle.)
It would be unsatisfactory, if not impossible, to express an
opinion at present on the great measure which was so fully
developed last night by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in

his financial statement. It will bo more convenient to state
generally the proposals of the Government than to anticipate
the judgment which must hereafter be formed on the merits
of the most comprehensive Budget which, with one exception,
has been laid before the House of Commons during the last
twenty years. The great practical difficulty of carrying a
just income tax through Parliament, has probably been dis-
posed of by the resolution which the Government has taken
to provide means for the entire abolition of the tax at the end
of a definite period. By this arrangement, both the con-
ditions of the problem and the importance of a just solution

have been modified to a considerable extent. Mr. Gladstone
slightly touched on the extravagances to which the theories
of fanciful income tax projectors would lead, if they were
consistently carried out ; but it was beside his purpose to
supply the confutation which sound financial principles pro-
vide for the theory advocated in part by Mr. Hume, and to
its full extent by the actuaries.
It was fortunate, perhaps, that the arguments adapted to
the new arrangement of the income tax were of a nature to
influence the House more forcibly than any abstract econo-
mical theories, The extra percentage already paid by land
as compared with other sources of income—the injustice of
imposing any exceptional burden on the funds—and, above
all, the close reciprocal approximation of similar eases in
various classes—were never before so forcibly represented.
If the landowners vote for any amendment tending to increase
the disadvantage under which they are already placed by the
income tax, they will deserve to bear the burden which
will be placed on their shoulders. But even in that case, the
fundholder—that bloated monster, as Mr. Gladstone humor-
ously described him—will have a right to be protected against
the greedy activity of those classes who are so eager in re-
quiring a special exemption. 'Under the head of the fund-
holders, as Mr. Gladstone touchingly showed, are included a
large portion of the most helpless and needy class of
the community. Their property was not capitalised for
taxation when it was worth . only sixteen years' purchase ;
and assuredly Parliament will nbt force upon them. a dis-
advantageous bargain, now that the national good faith has
raised the value of the reversionto double the amount. We
must refer to Mr. Gladstone's statement itself for innumerable
illustrations of the practical difficulties and anomalies which
would be involved in any concession to the clamour which has
been raised on this subject. The whole • question, as we have
said, stands on a different basis, now that the probable dura-
tion of the impost is limited. Mr. Gladstone compared the
income tax to a weapon which might be hung on the wall or
taken down in case of need. In either case he is determined
to maintain it in a serviceable condition, and not to break up
a valuable implement in the hope of a reconstruction which
might perhaps be found impracticable. Seven years hence,
Parliament may possibly doubt the expediency of abandoning
the main branch of direct taxation ; but the minister pro-
vides ample means for accomplishing an object which, on the
whole, lie thinks desirable. It may be hoped that this great
concession will obviate any serious contest on the question of
assessment. The Government will assuredly never give way
to the theorists ; and the only effect of a vote against the re-
newal of the existing tax would be that the country would
lose the various benefits of which it forms an indispensable
condition. To conciliate popular opinion, certain advantages
aro to be allowed to those tax-payers who may invest certain
portions of their income. Should such an arrangement silence
opposition, it may be worth the trifling sacrifice of revenue
which it involves.
•

Mr. Gladstone, then, proposes to reduce the duty on tea by
a shilling a pound—viz., from 2s, 2id. a pound to ls., spread-
ing the reduction over three years. The duty on soap, pro-
ducing a net sum of 1,111,0001., he proposes to abolish at
once and altogether.
Wo have put these two remissions first and foremost, as
they will be felt by every householder in this kingdom. Mr.
Gladstone confesses himself unequal to the equitable adjust-
ment of the Income Tax, and instead thereof proposes to
abolish it altogether after a gradual diminution for seven
years. In 1855 he proposes that it shall drop to 6d. in the
pound, and in 1857 to 5d., where it is to stand till 1800,
when it is finally to expire. Meanwhile he proposes that it
shall be levied to the extent of sd. on all incomes down to
1001., and shall be extended to Ireland, also at the same rate.
These propositions alone would give importance to the finan-
cial statement of last night, and would make the year memor-
able in the history of finance; but the Budget includes, also,
a reform of the tariff, worthy of being ranked with those of
Sir Robert Peel. It is proposed to reduce the duties on
butter, cheese, eggs, fruit, and on many articles of more or
less importance ; while no less than 133 articles are to be
struck out of the tariff, in addition to the hundreds struck
out by Peel. The Assessed Taxes—that stronghold of iniquity
which has so long stood the attacks of the genteel sufferers
who pay them—have at length found their match. It is pro-
posed to abolish all progressive duties, so that each article
shall pay the same, whether there be only one or a dozen ;
to reduce the duty on hackney, and also on private, car-
riages, and on horses and dogs, so that there need be no
longer a question as to the pedigree of every pet. It is
proposed to make the license the only duty on post horses.
Servants, also, are to come in for reduction. While the
larger remissions with which we begin affect all, and prin
cipally what are called the industrious classes, those we have
just mentioned will afford a great and timely relief to many
of the middle and professional classes. Nor is the abolition
of the duty on soap all that is to be done in the Excise.
Lord Naas's oft-repeated and oft-carried demand for the draw-
back for waste on spirits in bond is to be conceded, the same
for
Ireland:
llebeingextlen thended to England and Scotland as he had asked
relief ; receipt stamps are
franking a receipt as it does a letter. The stamp duty on
to also
be there
abolished, iis to b
a e
Queen's considerable
head
life assurance is to be reduced ; and those ou attorneys' cer-
tificates respectively from 121. and 91. to 81. and 6/. ; and the
stamp on admission from 120/. to 801. As to Taxes on Know-
ledge, Mr. Gladstone, neither induced nor hindered by the
division of Thursday night, proposes to reduce the duty on
advertisements to 6d., and to fix the duty ou each newspaper
at one penny a copy, without regard to its size, and without
imposing an additional duty on supplements.
Such is an imperfect summary of the long list of remissions,
without a parallel, we believe, in any revious Budget. We
do not attempt at present to follow Mr. Gladstone in the
grounds of the surplus out of which all this is to be done—a
surplus, by the way, sadly diminished by the recent extrava-
gance of the Legislature. We will content ourselves with
He proposes to raise 2,000,0001. a-year
ssmta.tpilungs,haon‘dy Mmar.kGe litidesgtonaule
tporotphoesehseatvoyrecruit this falling
by extending the
which real property has hitherto enjoyed ;
legacy duty to all successions, and abolishing the exemption
demands upon it.
to increase the
duty on Scotch spirits by ls., and on Irish by Bd. a gallon—
the latter, with the extension of the income tax to that
country for the next seven yearS, being counterbalanced by
the remission of the " Consolidated Annuities," long the sub-
ject of Irish complaint.
The great pratical test of a budget is the amount of relief
it will afford without endangering, the national credit. On
this point we think there can be hardly any difference of opi-
nion. Difficult as it is to satisfy all parties, and impossible as
it is to satisfy those who object to every measure of relief
which does not immediately affect themselves, it would not be
easy to-point out a class that is not greatly interested in the
saltogether
seareely worth while to consider the case of those who arc
Mi
srt.
oGbbeldssotoonno'israptroipno propositions.
ways Asof
it.ehdeneinticoozei
ttaixs
newly brought under the yoke ; but with the reduction on
I,3l,o9,nprwioptohsola2oe/h.
aan-gyecas,r
ewviellnboenaat
soap, tea, foreign butter, cheese, eggs, fruit, and more than
250 other articles, carriages, horses, and stamps, we have no
ioNnVsithmonuatttagkivinegtiouttoraaace-.
lolne sc:etamtiuocnhin b
better off
rthuantdtehrets
bcoaurentcothmopsuttiltiuolnusofthalostsessu
To small people with " limited incomes," living in country
other public conveyances, and compelled
tied
oloep their pony
or e to the soil as the
towns and rural districts, away fromiliilways, coaches, and
carriages, their horses and gigs, b
• In we will leave to
re-
lief. The case of the artis, himself, or
achndregamiinass
only tell her
rather to his wife, for if lie will fairly the contents
cabbages in their gardens, the budget will be a very great f
he •
by it•
In behalf opew, of all advertisers,
pounds a-year •
.any we too bound to express our
of the budget, she can tell him that he will save several
and of the public gene' ~
advertising that go untaxed, even though
and one ways of • •
t certainly was a ye • -great
taxed in other countries, • very hard-
ship
thanks for a great act of justice. Considering the thousand
a place without
t two days'
wages for the pri-
vilege' to Government at leas
paying
wants known. With regard to the abo-
lition of snaking her .
supplements, it is about the last thing
lition of the duty on
of askiir, It is
we should have thought ourselvesa boon
ll soon share, for aught that no housemaid could advertise for
which our contemporaries w
the we know,
in a Larger
our own supplements unremunerativo
which has often madento=
series from publishing them at all.
degree than ourselves, tax ou circulation
are
wiping
away, by
ilaenharvnesalat
has prevented our contemporaries
-t but congratulate the British peo-
ple the whole,
which they owe the possibility of
high favour of Heaven, to
these great, we
d almost said unexpected, reductions from
• - burdens. We are at last happily doing
pie on the great wenterpiise, the rare opportunities, and the
their now hereditai3
of nature to do—we are transmittin-
and a less encumbered inheg-
ustam the g for of our forefathers, we
nledaswtiisionheie haospefrteheatfrtohnie dtahye
our own toils, the records of their folly
and extravagance ;
may actually come w
the conqueror abroad.
creditor at home as from
trwoi
thqoanut i•et. childrenistheirnfii cloahasevr, , nobler,

The estimated surplus for the year amounts to somewhat
more than 800,0001., and the half-year's addition on account
of the abolition of existing exemptions from Income Tax will
be 350,0001. The plans of the Government, however, require
larger resources. It is not for the purpose of maintaining a
mere balance of the revenue that it is proposed to continue
the Income Tax for seven years. Once, as the house was
reminded, the tax saved the country in war—recently, in
peace, it has achieved almost as great a triumph. It is for
the purpose of continuing the wise and beneficial process of
dealing with indirect duties that additional means aro de-
manded. The principal novelty which is proposed consists
in the extension of the legacy duty to all successions on
death, and to that portion of real property which at present
escapes taxation. Rateable property, consisting of tenements
of all kinds, is to be included in the assessment ; but in con-
sideration of the exclusive burdens which it bears, it is to be
taxed at a somewhat lower rate. This new tax on property
would be lost, should any party in the House of Commons
succeed in carrying a proposal for the graduation of the In-
come Tax.

When the changes in both directions shall have come into

full operation, the increase of taxation will amount to be-
tween three and four millions, and the burdens remitted to
five millions. A well-grounded confidence in the elasticity
of consumption and production induces the Government to
make this neat additional step in the path of economical re-
form. Bybthe end of seven years, it is not impossible that
the revenue may ouco more have recovered from the reduc-
tions now proposed. But even should the increase be much
more moderate, the circumstances of the country are favour-
able to the bold experiment about to be tried.

It would be unfitting to present even this hasty sketch of
the Budget for 1853 without commenting ou the speech in
which it was brought forward, which was one of the greatest
Parliamentary efforts that the present generation has wit-
nessed. In an address lasting for five hours, neither the
energy of the speaker nor the attention of tho audience
flagged for a moment. Iu the statement of all that wilder-
ness of details, there was neither confusion, nor omission, nor
excess. Nothing obscure, and nothing irrelevant, disfigured
the unity and lucid clearness of the exposition. No sentence
could have been spared, and scarcely any addition could have
been desired. Nor was luminous exposition the only merit
of the Minister's speech. Whenever a trifling interruption
occurred, his answer was as ready and playful as if the
evening had been devoted to some casual conversation.
Earnest when justice was to be vindicated, and feli-
citous iu exposing subtle fallacies, Mr. Gladstone rose
into a high strain of eloquence in his peroration, which
was felt by its hearers to be something more than a masterly
burst of rhetoric. The applause of the House, and the col.;
dialenoo congratulationsmduonu ibtwhichb econfirmed
aouf s
tcolleagues
y by
t
tulalel yad'eldiliebcfeildi:lentded friends, will,
le approval
fiwnoeaf ne cat ihnael
policy of the future.

( .14.0 m the Morning Post.)

It has seldom been our fortune to hear a more powerful or
a more complete speech than that in which Mr. Gladstone last
night introduced the financial policy of the Government to
the notice of Parliament. It was impossible not to be struck
with the comprehensiveness of the view which he took of our
fiscal system, or to do otherwise than recognise with admira-
tion the laborious industry with which the Chancellor of the
Exchequer has mastered its bearings and its smallest details.
We listened with great pleasure to the masterly and lucid ex-
planation of the position and prospects of our revenue, and
with cordial assent to the sound and well-considered opinions
which Mr. Gladstone so decidedly and so frankly expressed
upon the character of the income tax, and upon the use that
it is politic and legitimate to make of it in financial systems.
Mr. Gladstone, after a most careful and laborious examina-
tion of the tax, and of its bearings upon the various classes to
whom it is extended, has come no less conclusively to the
opinion, and has now given expression t 3 it nb less strongly
than did Mr. Harries three years ago, when ho proposed the
application of the then surplus to its reduction, that it is in-
capable of novel or more equitable adjustment, and is there-
fore unfit for adoption as a permanent element of our fiscal
system. We received with satisfaction this avowal of the
whether
Finance Minister of the Peelito party, and we will do Mr.
when w,roasrseibinicariskof bein,
Gladstone the justice to say, that he has not faltered with his
convictions, but has honestly and broadly placed them before
the public. We wish only that he had had the force to have
shaken himself free of traditional policy, and boldly to have
pulttinisatchtoiotnnNivehvaitehwooefxtphholininscsoomaebLyxi.u. thletolisTa.
fruitful
re
great emergency, -
--- source to fall back upon in times of sudden and pressing
(From the Morning Herald.)
dearth—it is a great engine to be taken from the store-house
groat straits,
as ttraaxi t sf
0, r a
emergency be theresult of - •or that
doubt Mr. Gladstone angdatheids.
income tax.
xh.aveTheleeertee elected
be
ce of events which lral sor
Mr. Gladstone appears to feel this, if concur-
IsTe very much doubt if an equal number of contradictions t en
p. yes exhausts the orr ~.,
.were crowded into a single speech before last night. sources of revenue. Nothing is more hazard() R I' 1112--
''
stand littleo l' I%f .Pt °. tyh without only
it. in
ever
we had the warmest praises of the income tax ;it was opinion, than tobe habitually dependent lei- 11. , ill our
First,al that was splendid and glorious; it had saved the country ends meet, in times of ordinary expen iiita, Illaking both
fall
bt. by
whichtlieuonfm theiti two it will be.
dinar and grinding a scrcw as a direct 're on- so extraor-
, few sentences more, the eulogist began to discover mani- prop'
2rty. tax upon income and
iu a
fold defects—faults so great and so incurable as to render it
in the last war, and it had given us free trade in 1845. Yet,
more strongly