The Sun.
London, England, 1849-02-26 00:00:00

4-2411(

LONDON, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1849.

The injustice and inequality of our fiscal system is
palpable to every one who directs his attention to the
subject. The heaviest burdens are imposed upon
those least able to sustain them. The hardworking
operative, whose only capital is his labour, is com-
pelled to devote a considerable portion of his scanty
earnings towards the support of the national estab-
lishments and the liquidation of the national debt.
If we consider the Customs tariff, we find that cheap
and inferior articles imported for the use of the poorer
classes are taxed to the same extent as the best quali-
ties of, perhaps, ten times their intrinsic value. The
just and equitable principle of ad valorem duties is
excluded. It is said, indeed, that it would occasion
some inconvenience and trouble to the Custom-house
officers, and hold out temptations to fraud, and that,
therefore, it is more expedient to have fixed and equal
import duties. But is there no fraud upon the
miserable sempstress, whose bohea, originally
worth 4d. per pound, is taxed 2s. 24d.,
or about 800 per cent. en its value,
while the finest gunpowder or the highest flavoured
pekoe that smokes on the breakfast-table of the no-
bility pays only the same 2s. 2id, per pound, or
about 60 per cent. on its value.
The same inequality is perceptible throughout the
entire system. It is no less conspicuous in the direct
than in the indirect imposts. Every description of
income is taxed alike, without reference to the source
from whence it is derived or the manner in which it
may be obtained :—The professional man, who toils
to earn a decent maintenance for himself and
family, whose income is of a very precarious
character, dependent on his continued health, ability,
and a variety of other contingencies, who must set
aside a considerable portion thereof to provide for a
period when he may be unable to obtain employment,
and also for premiums of insurance, that some provi-
sion may be made for his family when the father and
provider is removed by death, must pay as large a
er tentage on that income as the fundholder
on
his dividends from Consols—the enter-
prising merchant, who views the danger of
losing his entire capital, and who, besides providing
for future days, should apply a portion of his
profits to guard against bad debts and losses on other
transactions, must contribute as large a proportion of
those profits, without any deduction or drawback
being allowed, as the wealthy landowner out of the
rents of his broad acres—the prudent tradesman
who attends closely to his shop, as much as the
mortgagee, who receives his interest without trouble
or risk. In other words, incomes not worth two
years' purchase, which would not be considered
a marketable security if a temporary loan
should be required, must contribute as largely as an
income arising from accumulated and realised pro-
perty, worth twenty-eight or thirty years' purchase.
The disproportion is almost as conspicuous as that of
the same duty being levied on the hohea of the
washerwoman and the hyson of the peeress.
The feeling in favour of great and comprehensive
measures of fiscal and financial reform has spread
throughout the entire nation. The eyes of the middle
and humbler classes—of those who constituted the spe-
cial constables of the 10th of April last—of those who
atipresent bear the pressure of taxation, are at length
opened to the iniquities of the present system. They
have determined that the national revenue shall
henceforward be collected fairly and equitably, and
that it shall be distributed economically. They will
no longer sanction or tolerate the profligate and
wasteful expenditure or the gross jobbing which have
been so ab 3-exposed in all their naked enormity by
the valuable labours of the Liverpool Financial
Reform Association, and the other influential so-
cieties that have sprung up in so many
districts. They have been taught by the proceedings
of the Anti-Corn-law League how such reforms are
to be attained, such victories achieved. It is by
peaceful and constitutional agitation—by sound
reason and unanswerable arguments. Truth is on
their side, and they must be successful if they use
their power wisely and discreetly.
The Honourable amber for the WO3; Align of