The Sun.
London, England, 1831-02-16 00:00:00

nhuman instrument of oppression upon the back
of a poor boy under his authority and protection,
it furnishes an additional argument for the abo-
lition of such a mode of punishment. Discipline
can certainly neither be promoted nor preserved by
the abuse of authority; and if the punishment of
the cat-olnine-tails can be so easily abused to the
purpose of the grossest oppression, without coming
to the knowledge or exciting the attention of any
legitimate authority, as appears to have been the
case in the instance to which we allude, its suppres-
sion is surely called for as much by principles
of po-
licy as well as of humanity. Nature, justice,
civilization, appeal against a mode of enforcing dis-
cipline of which the application is too often a cruel
caprice—the effect desperation, and the relief sui-
cide ! We do expect, therefore, that Sir Francis
Burdett will not be content with moving the intro-
duction of a clause into the Mutiny Act to prevent
flogging, but that he will move for leave to bring in
a Bill to abolish this detestable practice generally,
both in the army and navy, and also in the slave
colonies, that, like all other torture, if may be ut-
terly extirpated from every portion of the soil that
acknowledges the power and is under the protection
of the British Constitution.—Morning Herald.
The Government deserve credit for having so
promptly yielded to public opinion in withdrawing
the proposed duty upon transfers of funded pro-
perty. They have admitted their error, and by that
ready admission, atoned for it. We do not expect
infallibility even in Ministers of State. To retract
a mistake is no discredit. The disgrace attaches
wily to an obstinate perseverance in error. It was
a determination not to go right whenever they were
convicted of being wrong, and a wilful resistance to
public opinion, which wrought the downfall of the
late Administration. We cannot forget how Mr.
Goulburn clung to his absurd sugar duties—his Irish
stamp duties, and other odious and impracticable
taxes until that moment when concession was with-
out grace, and retreat was pursued with ridicule.
The repeal of the duty on sea-borne coals is a great
boon to the poorer classes, and a relief of industry.
But we should like to see the principle upon
which this tax has been repealed carried into
more extensive operation. We have often told
the Government that the country cannot right
itself until the sources of industry are effectually
relieved from the restraints of taxation, by the
repeal of the indirect and the assessed taxes, and
we have proposed what is becoming every day more
popular in the better sense of the word—a fair and
equable tax upon property. We guard ourselves at
the same time from being supposed to recommend
an income tax, because when there is income with-
out property, it is a tax upon mere industry, and
requires the exercise of an inquisitorial power to
collect it. It was an income tax, properly so called,
which Lord Ellenborough confounded with a pro-
perty tax on Monday night in the House of Peers,
.when le lluded to the part which the present Lord
Chancellor took on a memorable occasion in the
House of Commons, in combatting such a tax. The
Lord Chancellor took the distinction, and observed
" that the tax which he contended against on that
occasion was not a property tax, but an income
tax, which sinned against all principles of good
finance." We agree with the Earl of Farnham
that a property tax should affect mortgages, the
Funds, and other capital, as well as land, for that
we have always contended, when treating of this
subject; but, at the same time, we consider
it the bounder) duty of Ministers to make
every possible reduction that a wise economy
can suggest in the expenditure of the State
before they are entitled to call upon Parliament to
impose a new tax whatever on the country. They
must give up the idea of maintaining an enormous
pension-list throueh motives of " charity" to State
paupers and ennobled mendicants. They must not
talk of the " equitable claims" of the idle favourites
of venal patronage to the bread of the children of
industry. No one will quarrel with them for settling
what pensions they please upon such persons from
their own private incomes, but they have no right
to indulge their charitable sensibilities towards pa-
trician paupers at the expense of the country. Sup-
posing all possible reductions made in the public
expenditure, we conceive that neither fundholders,
nor any other person having property, can have
any reason to complain if they are called upon,
in common with all other capitalists, to pay a
rateable proportion of their property for the pre-
servation of the remainder; for it is vain to deny
that the dificulties of the country are fast ap-
proaching to that crisis when, unless averted by
a timely sacrifice of a portion of each man's capital,
the security of the whole will be placed in the most
serious peril. We know of no property in England
which so exactly resembles the " sacred fund" of
the Athenians as to be perpetually inviolable from
taxation. The fundholders have had the benefit of
the change in the currency, by which the landed
proprietors have grievously suffered; but it is neces-
sary that both classes should now contribute in
equable proportions to the necessities of the State,
as a measure, not of political expediency but of na-
tional salvation. This alone can enable Government
to repeal all the taxes which press upon the produc-
tive industry of the country, and so give fair play
to those energies which formerly filled the country
with wealth and clothed it with power, and which
alone can save it from the fearful consequences of its
financial embarrassments.—Morning Herald.

--
REV. DR. THONISON.---The sudden death
of this distinguished divine has produced so profound
a sensation in the city, as to supersede for the moment
every other topic. We were not personally acquainted
with him, and could not, amidst the many calls at present
upon our thoughts and time, attempt any estimate of his
character ; but we hope the task will be executed soon by
some competent hand. Ia intellect and force of character
Dr. TUOMSON was a giant ; and we shall not soon look
upon his like again.—Scotsman, Saturday.
About one o'clock on Wednesday morning,
the inhabitants in the East Fen were thrown into a state
of great anxiety by the discovery of a fire in the stack-
yard of Mr. JoHN SALISBURY. The watchman upon
the neighbouring premises of Mr. SAMUEL TustiNG first
gave the alarm, when the labourers promptly assembled
and used every possible endeavour to extinguish the flames,
which, however, were not entirely got under until noon.
The property consumed consists of three stacks of wheat,
three stacks of oats, and part of a rick of Timothy grass,
•slued at about 700/.—Lincoln Herald.
So intense was the frost of Monday se'nnight
that a gentleman's servant in the neighbourhood had the
toes of his feet so severely injured by it, while riding a
few hours, that it was feared amputation might be neces-
sary. This -fact is the more striking, when it is added
that he had on a pair of substantial boots at the time. At
the place where the circumstance occurred the thermometer
stood on the evening in question at 8 ; the lowest by several
degrees ever known in this part of the country.—Elgin

Courier.
GRAMMAR VERSUS ORTIIODOXY.—A
worthy young clergyman, who has a respectable kirk in his
eye, was in company, a few days ago, with a venerable
matron of the old school, who congratulated the Rev. Gen-
tleman as follows :—" Hech, sir ! I hear ye're coming
out to be a minister noo ! Eh, man, see that ye preach
gude common sense and orthodoxy. Dinna fash your head
Wl' grammar, callan, for a hantle o' grammar sermons
4iuna edify ; and the pu'pit and the warld were baith better
when nae grammar was heard tell o'. Preach ye gude
common sense, 'addle, but aboon things preach ortho-
doxy.“—Scotsinart.
LITERARY NOVELTIES.—The following in-
teresting works are just ready for publication, by Messrs.
CoLaugx and BENTLEY, New Burlington-street :-1. The
Correspondence of the Right Hon. Sir JOHN SINCLAIR,
13 at., with Reminiscences of the most distinguished cha-
racters who have appeared in Great Britain avid in fo-
reign countries during the last fifty years, illustrated with
facsimiles of 100 autographs, two vols. Svo.-2. The Tui-
leries, an Historical Romance, by the Authoress of " Hun-
garian Tales."--3. The Lite of HENRY FUSELI, Esq.,
M. A. R. A., to which are added, his Lectures on Art, and
his History of the Schools of Painting in Italy,a &c.
By JOHN KNO\%'LES, Esq., F. R.Sa., three v 4,.
The Historical Traveller, by Mrs. CHARLES GORE. A
work designed for the use of young persons, and consisting
of a series of narratives connected with the most curious
epochs of European history, and with the phenomena of
European countries.