The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-27 00:00:00

Pound. more than incomes from professions, yet
rateable property must have a Legacy Duty laid
upon it to make all equal and fair. The ingenious
iChancellor, however, had scarcely rubbed his
bruises from this fall than he perpetrates another.
.The grand reason why no difference could be made
in favour of professional and trade incomes was,
that they could not possibly be fairly valued ; yet
a few days roll on, and down he comes to the
Rouse with the information that, on behalf of in-
comes inherited from real property, he is quite
competent to value them fairly, and that
suitable tables shall be duly provided if they
will but grant him his new Legacy Duty.
$e showed the actuaries the door most contemp-
tuously in his great Budget speech, but he opens
it again, and invites them back without apology
when pleading for Legacy Duties on entailed
property.
I‘l-r• GLADSTONE has fairly bewildered the
ise, and almost every one else, on this subject.
T The only thing discernible is, that, in regard to
ta:rle:paecryty in comparison
he has dealt so gently with landed
comparison with personal property,
at very soon the old clamour will be renewed if
Legacy Duties are to be retained at all ; for as-
suredly it will never be endured that beside an
equal Income Tax, a tradesman's or a medical
man's children should pay Probate and Legacy
Duties amounting to 3 per cent., and a landlord's
wealthy heir should pay a Legacy Duty of only
per cent., and that, too, on a value estimated by
the extent of his life interest only ! There will
be many a fight yet of town and country on this
question.
Against Succession Duties on land there
lies but one serious objection—the difficulty,
of an heir's raising money when he first
enters on an estate ; a difficulty which Mr. GLAD-
STONE partly meets by spreading the small pay-
'lent
for this class over eight years ; and which
every prudent parent might easily provide against
y a life assurance equal to the amount of duty
Against Succession Duties on strictly
Personal property there is, on the other hand, the
grand objection we have already so frequently
adverted to, that they are taxes on capital itself.
They absorb into unproductive taxes the very 1,
capital which should produce income, sustain
expenditure, and thus generate revenue. Succes-
sion, taxes on personal property do, in fact, kill
the goose which lays the golden eggs. With suc-
cession taxes on land it is different. The land,
Whether sold or mortgaged to pay the duties, still
Produces in the hands of the working tenant the
eanie income as before. Mr. GLADSTONE must,
another session, if the progress of events tide
hirn over this, reconsider and modify these duties
entirely; or lie must be prepared to abolish them.
It is, however, worth while to cast a glance at
his first grand pretext for playing fast and loose
With these serious questions. He triumphantly
told Mr. DISRAELI that the twopence difference
nearly, which he ignorantly proposed to make be-
tween precarious and certain incomes, was already
already paid ninepence in the pound, while trades-
men and professions only paid sevenpence, and the
difference was due to the Burdens on Land ! We
thought that old figment had been utterly dis-
carded. Even the Times seems afraid to endorse
Mr. GLADSTONE'S statements on this subject, and
no wonder. Poor rates, highway rates, and tithes
...
.L'inr• DISRAELI had consigned to the winds ; his
,ureath wafted away these burdens as feathers, and
they have never since been heard of. They went
into the Atlantic or the North Sea—we forget
which way the wind was blowing at the time. It
Was at least most clear that all these charges go
With the occupation, the landlord's rent is net so
fat as they are concerned. Mr. GLADSTONE has,
however, enumerated, as a part of the deductions to
• tuade from the gross rental, several charges which
generally are not proper deductions, or which, at
least, need not be. One was abatement inrents! Why
it serves a landlord right if he has to pay Income
Tax for such a thing. What a system is this to
Justify, even by implication,—a system of such
literal rack-rent, that the tenant lives as the
Political and game-preserving serf of his landlord !
Who, except in cases of clear calamity, ever hears
of manufacturers or shopkeepers begging for abate-
ments on rent ? Mr. GLADSTONE ought to have
-told the Sir Roberts and the Squires that all such
deductions from gross rental might be not evaded,
but meritoriously avoided, by long leases at rea-
sonable rents. When have we ever heard of
petitions for " abatement" from the Lothian far-
Iners ? Then, again, he spoke of repairs, fencing,
and draining. Why all these are, as the rule,
done by the occupier. If the landlord does them,
like Earl FITZWILLIAM, he does it by borrowing
looney at 3 per cent., and charging the tenant 5
Per cent., an operation which, in Lombard-street,
would be deemed perfectly satisfactory, and cer-
tainly no deduction from a man's tax-paying
Power. Insurance, too, which the proprietor of
ships, and cargoes, and trading stock must equally
Pay, is, so far as land is concerned, simply nil.
And it depends wholly on the landlord whether
ter not he agrees with the tenant to insure the
houses and buildings, in which case he would
receive his rent net so far as relates to
that.
We all know instances of this being,
(lone. His deduction for clerks, bailiffs, sub-
agents, ac., we must think a somewhat fan-
;4.lll one. Partly, the tenants would reply, the
theof these gentlemen you tax yourself with
40 better, we must prefer to deal directly
With the landlord himself ; partly, that, if gentle-
men choose to retire from the personal manage-
-1)174 of their own estates, they should not com-
plain of the price of a life of ease ; and partly,
that even the funds, or any property, cannot alto-
tether escape parallel charges ; they are, however,
at trivial. The most serious item, no doubt, is
ally charges. Here, however, two considerations
al
°nee occur. One that no property is entirely
free from them ; the man engaged in business at
totensiVely can as little dispense with his solici-
reZ as with his banker. The receipt stamps also,
cleileY transactions, from the comparative fre-
iicY with which money and stock, too, change
eolfall,.:8, may approach pretty nearly to the amount
aruPs for law proceedings in connection with
real h
tau, 1-roPerty. But a second, and more impor-
consideration is that landlords and their
ofWaYers have hitherto been the great opponents
titlen,l.Y effective step towards the simplification of
set'
„ They have chosen a system of mortgages,
hav,een., ts, and incumbrances of all sorts ; they
tho light
to hide all these incumbrances from
of day, not wishing to appear
the
the d half bankrupt and nominal owners of
If %chilling which give them social consideration.
eaa„ Y will, therefore, refuse to make land " as
the% of transfer as a railway share " (which, by
lap by, Pays the same transfer stamp duties as a
Pe sea
estate), why, they must go on to pay the
len - of their not unnatural pride. Many and
-by.
for Pound of Income Tax is and will be paid,
sari, c same reason, or even from the necessity of
The appearances.n
inetitie ost unaccountable charge Mr. GLADSTONE
414,11 h 'lB is arrears of rent! Alas! a poor trades-
as all, allowance for arrears of book debts at
tee 11 he has taken legal measures for their
Rreate-5 -- the cost of recovery being often
togetherhan the amount of debt and Income Tax
Iv, • The landlord, on the contrary, has
creaito_4 claim for one year's rent against all other
e,014437! Let not Mr. GLADSTONE venture again
'anal risen) in regard to arrears, between the
Nlre °rds and
to.
quit th
ll_w mikes ill the full
unfortunates of Schedule D.
Scot With e subject, however, for the pre-
STONE • full conviction that, if Mr. GLAD-
fairly again at the items of which
look
gross uP his 16 per cent. deduction from the
to 1, ue°,lhe of landlords, he will find it reduced
,ee el
ceht•
at be or rather to nothing. But, if so,
f h•
gacy Duty is boasted Income Tax and
Alutual Adjustment Budget ?
TR

,IE Al,
Ta
Lt(I4EST INDIA PACKETS AND THE ELECTRIC
..
tilQ The Government have granted permission to
'nits `vest India Mail Packet Company to l'
al
ofth`Lte hoisted at Mail
Castle to announce the arrival
Zi4 weBt India Packets off the Solent to the Electric
iairl:•rtael'ieh Station at e
Lyminton from whence L graphed to London and Southamptonthe twoarn-
or
thia 'Lours
Balls eff before the ships come to an anchor. By-
litatill:ectual ht arrangements can be made for fafair
h,r,g the quaranti service of the,
packets and o
--,, the Paspengersne and mails. ..