The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-14 00:00:00

THE BREAD-TAX UNVEILED.

There is plenty yf good foreign corn at this
moment locked .ut 'tin those famine-shops, the
bonding warehou which the merchants would
be glad to sell at,;iirty--eight shillings a quarter.
Before the key 'infl be turned to let loose this
wheat, a tax of Sd. a quarter must be paid.
Twenty-four shillings and eight pence a quarter
is the tax wWch this very day is paid by the
people uponheir bread corn ! they now pay
625. Sd. a quter for wheat, which they might
buy for 38s. in, bond, at Liverpool ; the difference
of 245. Sd. is the amount of the tax paid for mo-
nopoly,:_ This is a tax of 40 per cent. upon the
daily bread of the people. Let us now see how
this tax affects the different classes of bread con-
sinners, and first, the labouring class.
Workmen throughout the whole kingdom
earn one with another, about ten shillings a week.
In some places, as fin* instance the workmen of
Lthidoni and the large cities, they earn much
more ; in other parts, as, for example, the pea-
santry of -Ireland and Devonshire, they earn
much less: butt taking the average of the whole,
it has been calculated by high authorities, that
the working men of the British empire earn ten
shillings a week each. It is estimated by the
Hand-lobm Inquiry Commissioners, in their able
Report, that a working man's fatnily consumes,
on an average, five shillings' worth of bread
every week. The tax of 40 per cent. which is
now paid on bread, is just two shillings out of
the five spent by all the working men being
headsof families throughout the kingdom. Two
shillings out of the ten a week earned by all the
working people of these realms are paid for the
tax on their bread; two shillings in every ten, or
twenty pounds in every hundred, are taken from
the wages of labour by the monopoly of corn!
In other words, the present Corn-law imposes
upon the whole of the labouring class, an in-
come tax or poll tax of twenty per cent. This
is a truth so clear that nobody can deny it, un-
less he will deny that two and two make four.

Let us next see how this tax affects the other
classes of society. The middle class man's fatriily-
consumes no more bread than the family of the
working man; the nobleman's family eats actu-
ally less bread than the ploughman's. We will
suppose, however, that all consume equal quan-
tities of bread. Let us then see what amount of
income tax is levied upon the different classes by
the present Corn-law.
The working man earning ten shillings a week,
or twenty-six pounds a year, pays, as we have
seen, two shillings a week, or five pounds four
shillings a year, being 20 per cent. of his income,
for the tax on bread. The family with an in-
come of twenty shillings a week, or fifty-two
pounds a year, pays also two shillings a week,
or five pounds four shillings a year for the bread
tax, being 10 per cent. upon its income. The
family with an income of 1041. pays the same
amount of bread tax, being an income tax of five
per cent., and so on, as by the following tabular
view :--
Family's Income. Bread Tax. Income Tax.

£26 £s• 4 0
52 's 4 0
104 5 4 0
208 5 4 0
416 5 4 0
830 5 4 0
1,664 5 4 0
3,328 5 4 0
6,656 5 4 0
13,312 5 4 0
26,624 5 4 0
52,248 5 4 0
106,496 5 4 0
208,992.

£2O per cent.
10 /I
5 /I
2 If
11 /I
123. Gd. "
Gs. 3d. "
35. Id. "
Is. Gd. "
9d. "
"
2d. "

It will be seen by the above table, that whilst
the labouring classes pay twenty pounds out of
every hundred of their earnings for the tax upon
bread, the nobleman with 208,092/. a year, pays
only one halfpenny out of every hundred pounds
of his income for the bread-tax. If the tax
pressed equally upon the incomes of the Peer
and the Peasant, then the Nobleman would pay
40,0001. a year for the tax on bread.
Now what should we say if a Bill was brought
into Parliament for increasing the revenue by
imposing an income-tax upon all classes, with
this proviso, viz., that the labouring class should
pay a tax of 201. per cent., the middle class 1/.
per cent., the rich man a shilling per cent., and
the. richest peer one halfpenny per cent., would
there not arise one unanimous burst of execra-
tion against the author of such a notorious Bill
Yet, stript of its mystery, the present Corn-law
is infinitely worse than such an income-tax; for
it taxes the incomes of the poor in the very way
we have described, not for the revenue of the
State, but for the benefit of the rich landowners,
who themselves escape the burden.—Anti-Bread-
Tax Circular.,

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
SHERIFFS' COURT, July 13.
RICE V. PARSONS.

This was an action brought to recover the sum of 9/.
los., alleged to be due on a bill of exchange, made pay-
able in March, 1836.
The defendant pleaded that he was not indebted ; as
a second bill had been executed on condition of the one
forming the grounds of the present action being de-
stroyed.
Mr. Thomas appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. Chad-
wick for the defendant.
The leading facts of the case for the plaintiff, as they
appeared in evidence were as follows ;—ln' the month
of March, 1835, the defendant accepted a bill, payable
in twelve months. for 9/. 10s., which was endorsed by a
person named Robert Gellet, who subsequently paid it
away in the course of business to the plaintiff in the
present action.' Shortly after it became due, some fur-
ther transactions having taken place between Gellet and
the defendant, another bill for 10/. Bs. was passed under
similar circumstances, for Gellet's use, which the de-
fendant's son paid upon its becoming due. The plaintiff
Price was repreSented as a man of considerable pro-
perty, and consequently able to give time to the de-
fendant for payment of the present demand, although
his (Price's) attorney refused to give his address, or tell
where he could be found, as there was a suit in which
he was concerned pending in Chancery, and he kept out
of the way to avoid being served with certain law pro-
' cesses from the Court.
R. Gellet being called to the witness' box, was sub-
jected to a long examination. He was handed the two
bills of exchange, and requested to look at one; upon
which the word " received" had been written itnmedi-
ately over his indorsement, and asked if it had been
written by him, to which he replied in the negative.
Mr. C. JONES, on the part of the defendant, contended
that this was a trumped up case, and aulmadverted with
some warmth on the evidence in support of the plain-
tifrs case. He then called
Henry Wm. Parsons, who said he was the defend-
ant's son. At the time the bill became due, Gellet
called for payment, and witness's father being unwell,
and unable immediately to meet the demand, Gellet con-
sented to renew the bill, charging interest, and including
a small account for goods delivered, which made the se-
cond bill amount to 10/. Bs. Upon Gellet receiving the
latter bill, he promised to destroy the other one ; and
after witness paying 10/. Bs., witness heard no more of
the demand until the present action was brought.
Several other witnesses having ben examined,
The Learned UNDER SHERIFF summed up, and, in
concluding, observed that he could not admire a plain-
tiff who came into a Court of Justice to establish his own
claims in law whilst he tried to screen himself by keeping
out of the way, in order to avoid the jurisdiction of
another and a superior Court.
The Jury, after a lengthened consultation, returned a
verdict for the plaintiff.

SUICIDE AT BLACKERIARS BRIDGE.—Mon-
day night. between eleven and twelve, as police-constable
Bailey, 349, was on duty on the :western ride of Blackfriars
Bridge, his attention was 'directed to a well-dressed female,
"about 2.S years of age, who was proceeding on the opposite
sided the bridge, but whose appearance indicated great dis-
tress of mind. He kept her in sight, until arriving at about
the middle of the bridge, when she turned round as if to sec
whether she was observed, and perceiving the policeman,
almost in the twinkling of an eye she had mounted the seat of
the centre arch, thence to the parapet, and notwithstanding
the exertions of the policeman to prevent it, she succeeded in
precipitating herself into the water. No time was lost in put-
ting off a boat with the drags, but she was carried away by
the tide.

OUTRAGE AT WATERFORD. ELEVEN
PERSONS SHOT. —On Thursday evening, about Mille
a crowd of children assembled in the Manor, and were shout-
ing, " Down with the Tories," " Wyse and Barron for ever,"
with several exclamations of a like nature, when a monster,
named Morgan, who resides in Henry-street, opened his door,
and deliberately fired a pistol, loaded with balls or slugs, on the
young and innocent creatures; he then reloaded and tired
again, and then shut his door, and fired a third shot from
kis window. He succeeded in his deadly purpose. Will
it be credited, he wounded eleven defenceless children,
three of whom are not expected to recover? Some
boys, indignant at this horrid and brutal outrage, as-
sailed the residence of this wretched and blood-stained
man, and broke the windows in front of his house, tut
"they were stopped by a few discreet neighbours. The
police conducted the prisoner in perfect safety to the Mayor's
oilier. The following named wounded persons (all being under
the age of eighteen) sat at the side bar t —Johanna Hertne-
berry, Alice Foley, Mary Doyle, Alice Keating, Michael Kelly,
and Martin Magrath. Some of the other pet sons wounded
were sent to the Leper Hospital, and others are in so dan-
gerous a.situation that they cannot be removed. Among the
latter are a son of Mr. Thomas Torpey, a little girl named
Mountain, and a boy named Quilty. About half-past ten the
prisoner Morgan was brought forward, when the Mayor real
the informations of some of the wounded people, charging
the prisoner with having fired two pistol shots. The Mayor
said he should commit the prisoner, and would not take baii.
Since writing the above, we have heard that the child named
Mountain has died of her wounds. Morgan is fully committed.
--Abriaged front the Waterford Chronicle.
1•wo POACHERS SHOT.—On Saturday night
last Gaunt, gamekeeper to W..Horsfall, Esq., of Calverley,
ca,„ up with two young men in the woods poaching. One
of them has been but a short time released from Wakefield.
They had a dog with them ; anti Gaunt says t hat, in raising
his gun to shoot it, the gun went off before he got it to his
shoulder, and lodged the contents in the bodies of the two
poachers. One of them is dangerously wounded. Gaunt sur-
rendered to justice on Monday.— Wakefield Journal.