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

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LONDON, THURSDAY, MAY 26, 1853.

A rupture has at length taken place between
the Russian and Turkish Governments. Events
have transpired precisely as we have all along antici-
pated. The insolent ultimatum sent in by Prince
MENSCHIKOFF has been rejected by the Divan :
and, in consequence of this, the Plenipotentiary
from the Court of St. Petersburgh has hurriedly
taken his departure from Constantinople.
During a considerable time past we have in-
sisted upon the certainty of exactly such a politi-

cal movement as that which has, within the
last few days, transpired. We have long main-
tained that the Czar NICIIOLAS has looked
with a lawless appetite for spoliation upon
the European dominions of the Sultan ABD-
UL-MEDJID. We have asserted again and again,
that the policy of the present EMPEROR of all the
Russias has been sedulously directed, and more
particularly of late, towards the seizure of St.
Sophia, and the advance of his conquering banners
towards the brink of the Dardanelles. M. DE
LAMARTINE has observed that the slope of Russia
is towards the East, but we had recognised the
resolve of the reigning AUTOCRAT to struggle
against all the obstructive influences of
the national acclivity, and so to prepare
the way by his diplomacy that his Cossacks might
hope, before a much longer interval had elapsed,
to water their horses not as formerly in the cur-
rent of the Seine, but in the waters of the coveted
Bosphorus. Occurrences have, within the past
month more especially, justified to the full all
these startling anticipations. The information
received from the Sublime Porte has proved that
scarcely one among them was distinguished in any
way by its extravagance. Instead of this, we have
witnessed, on the contrary, an arrogance and a
duplicity on the part of the Czan. beyond
thQ limits of exaggeration. His Ambassador at
Constantinople has flagrantly set at defiance all
the dictates of honour and all the principles of
justice—he has laughed to scorn the law of na-
tions and the force of treaties, and, while endea-
vouring to bully the SULTAN into an unconditional
submission to the AUTOCRAT, has striven to cajole
the rest of the great Powers of Europe into indif-
ference by the most ingenious blending of political
sophistries and diplomatic misrepresentations.
Everybody knows, for instance, by this time,
we should conjecture, that the account furnished
by the Court of St. Petersburgh to the rest of the
Courts of Christendom, purporting to explain the
nature_ of the mission entrusted by the Russian
-"-',2t"Rou. to his extraordinary envoy, Prince
illEwsenixors., asserted as plainly as language
could possibly assert that no such purpose was
kept in view as that which has actually been bfol-
lowed upAmbassador in his recent but
happily unsuccessful that
uccessful
Ministry at nego.tiations with the Turkish
negotiations,
Ignominiously
worsted worsted in these
MEN-
SCHIKOFF--S0 we learn from the latest received
intelligence—has abruptly taken his departure for
St. Petersburgh. He has encountered
difficulties in the active and energetic
paiunexnecotited
cot the Turkish Government. His Imperialtrsm
master the AUTOCRAT has counted alto
gether without his host in his arrogant but
blundering designs upon ABD-UL-MEDJID. Find-
ing himself threatened more boldly even than
he had ever before been threatened by the Re-
presentative of. the Emperor NICHOLAS, the
young Sultan, ilt this late emergency, has ac-
quitted himself of his sublime responsibilitiesf in
his a
Manner eminently becoming the pride o
heroic forefathers, And the pplenclour of his own

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 foeman worthy of his steel," a
chieftain capable of retarding, at least yet awhile,
the downfall of the Turkish Empire, and r,ady,
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 Louis 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 LAMARTINE 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 of the French Ambassador having
hastily summoned the fleet under Admiral
LASUSSE 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 brough
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. HUME, 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 which the lion. 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-
ward on Monday evening. It would, if carried
into 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 had 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 ever. 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 cf 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
available for himself or family. The one may
have
necessarily incurred debts in achieving his
position, for which—from having no tangible se-
curity to ffer—he will have to pay exorbitant
interest, 10, 20, 30,
( w
will
ha or perhaps 40 per cent.—
mknadoewnforsutlese eihes)--but no allowance
be v e
payments,ri although they
may crush him to the ea
yoreci individual has guy, y the more fa-
Luvullitess he ;nay §ell

a portion of his stock, and will not only satisfy
the demand on the cheapest terms, but he will have
nothing to pay on that which is not applicable.
Should he encumber his property to the amount
he will be allowed to deduct the proportion of the
tax from the interest due to his creditor. A
mortgage of real or personal property is recog-
nised, but not so a mortgage of skill and indus-
try. A charge on physical or intellectual labour
is not favoured. No deduction will be made on
that account, though the over-toiled sufferer
applies three-fourths of his earnings in satisfying
the demands of the insatiable claimants, from
whom he vainly hopes for relief, until he eventu-
ally abandons the contest in despair. It is im-
possible to deny that these parties are injured,
deeply injured. Mr. GLADSTONE himself confesses
it, but refuses relief, although he has himself
shown the feasibility of the adoption of a more
equitable system ; and his servile admirers record
without resistance the ukases of the financial auto-
crat, forgetting the earnest protests which in other
times they had themselves put forward against
the gross and palpable injustice.
As it is, we can never receive the Income Tax
in its present form. Believing that, if fairly and
equitably assessed, it would be the best and most
eligible tax for the community, we must offer our
unceasing and earnest hostility to that which is
based on fraud and injustice, and through every
part whereof there is exhibited a flagrant disre-
gard of the commonest principles of equity, and
which is almost as demoralising and impolitic as
it is unjust and inexpedient.