The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-07 00:00:00

their interests by joining in an unmeaning chorus,
which they had been taught for political purposes.'
This is unquestionably the truth. Let the people
consider their real position ; let them inquire for
themselves, whether the so-called protection, the
corn monopoly, be really a landlord's or a tenant's
question, and es hether the great body of the people
would be benefited by the re-imposition of an oppres-
sive and grinding tax upon the first necessary of
life. We promise, on the part of the Free-traders,
that they will not shrink from the discussion.
Let the point in dispute be approached in a
calm, a reasoning, an unprejudiced spirit, and let a
cool and well considered judgment be formed. If
the conclusion should be arrived at that the evils and
the sufferings by which the industrious classes—as
well the manufacturing as the agricultural popula-
tion—are afflicted are not occasioned by the abolition
of the sliding scale, let the existing causes of the
general distress and misery be fully and closely
investigated. Can they be accounted for in any
degree by our fiscal, financial, or monetary sys-
tems? Is the unjust, unequal, and oppressive
taxation of ,the country, the profligate and lavish
expenditure in our national establishments, or the
want of a sufficient representative of value, of a
circulating medium adequate to the wants and
exigencies of the country—or any, and which of
them, in any, and what degree accountable for the
acknowledged grievances under which the nation
groans. Would not the establishment of a sound
and judicious system of currency, not subject to
ruinous alternations of value that involve the destruc-
tion of property, and the stoppage of industry,
at once afford the safest and the most equitable
description of protection to British industry of every
kind ? The prosperity which the nation enjoyed
during the early part of the present century, its un-
paralleled power of raising enormous funds and
carrying on a sanguinary and expensive war, was not
owing to that war, but simply because the intensity
of the crisis required that the rules of the cunning
quacks should be set aside. Then, indeed, "farming"
was a remunerative and profitable occupation.
Agriculturists flourished and accumulated, although
the monetary transactions of the country were
carried on with " inconvertible paper," with the much-
despised " rags and lampblack," against which the
bullionists so loudly rail. Let Mr. DISRAELI direct
his mind to these points, and see whether he cannot
bring forward propositions that will enlist the sym-
pathies of the industrious classes without exception,
and make him the leader of a great popular move-
ment. The subject is well worthy of mature and
attentive consideration.
There is much to be said for the suggestions
in favour of a more equal distribution of the local
rates and taxes that press so heavily on
the owners of real property. We have long asserted
that poor-rates, charges for public prosecutions, &c.,
should be thrown upon the National Exchequer, in
place of being raised by local charges. But such a
course will require a revision of the whole fiscal sys-
tem. We must not get rid of one species of injustice
by inflicting an infinitively greater wrong ; we must
not dispense with local taxation, if a vast addition to
the indirect taxation should be thereby rendered
necessary. The burden should not be ex-
clusively borne by real property—personal
should bear its full share, as in justice
and equity it ought to do. Let the land-tax" be
equitably adjusted according to the original intention
of the Legislature, and it will be nearly, if not alto-
gether, sufficient to defray the entire expenditure of
the country, including poor-rates and every local
charge. Let, then, the agriculturists consider
whether it would not be better to pay a single rate
of 4s. in the pound, and to be exempted from every
other claim of any nature or description whatsoever ?
We cannot doubt what will be their answer.