The Sun.
London, England, 1841-06-26 00:00:00

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.

CHRONICLE.—The financial statement of the City
Tories, whose blundering misrepresentations ay.! have recently
had occasion to expose, was put forth as a cover to the equally
false assertion that a Tory Government, if it came into power,
would not impose new taxes. It is perfectly clear that a
Tory, or any other Government, must do one of two things—
either let the deficiency accumulate, till it ends in a national
bankruptcy ; or, make it good by restoring the balance be: ween
income and expenditure. The first alternative is out of the
question. Sir R. Peel himself has denounced the expedient
of resorting to loans in times of peace as discreditable .and
dangerous. He stands pledged, if he come into office, to
make good the deficiency at whatever cost. Now, as the Tories
have not the good fortune to possess Aladdin's wonderful lamp,
or the secret of the philosopher's stone, there are but two
possible plans by which they can make pod the deficiency.
One is by reducing expenditure, the other by adding to reve-
nue; but it is certain they cannot, and they will not reduce
expenditure. This is evident, it we consider the following
facts:—The interest of the national debt amounts, in round
numbers, to '29,000,0001. ; and the dead weight, as it is called,
or charge on the Consolidated Fund fur pensions, annuities,
half-pay, and other permanent charges, secured by Act of Par-
liament, to 3,000,000/., making a total of 32,000,000/., upon
which reduction is out of the question. The other items of ex-
penditure consist—first, of the grants for the army, navy, and
ordnance, the great branches of national defence ; secondly, of
the grant for miscellaneous services, including salaries in public
offices, and the expense of conducting the whole civil adminis-
tration of the country. Under the latter heal it i 3 notorious
that no further reductions can be looked for, the Li-
berals having already carried retrenchment very con-
siderably beyond the point pronounced by the Duke of
Wellington's Administration to be the ne plus ultra of economy.
The charge for salaries in the various public departments of
the kingdom, which, in Mr. Goulburn's last budget, in 1830,
was 3,055,5121., is now under 2,800,0001. The diff,trence be-
tween the gross and net amount of the revenue, after deducting
drawbacks, or in ether words, the cost of the Customs, Excise,
and other establishments, for collecting the revenue, was
4,875,000/. in the last year of the Duke of Wellington's Ad-
ministration; it is now only 4,280,0(101. Upwards of 1,200
offices have been abolished by the Whigs since 1830, and re-
ductions to the extent of 20 per cent. and upwards
effected in the salaries of the higher political offices
of State, in diplomatic allowances, and in the expenses
of colonial establishments. Here, then, there is clearly
no hope of reduction from the accession of a swarm of Tory
officials, with their appetites sharpened by ten years' exclu-
sion from place. There remain only the grants for national
defence. Whether a Tory Government is likely to economise
two millions out of these may be judged of from the following
facts :—The great topic of charge against the Government by
the Tories for the last three years has been, that the naval and
military establishments of the country were reduced too low.
Until the events of last year gave the lie to these charge 4,
by proving the sufficiency of our means, we heard of nothing
but complaints of the inadequacy of our fleet to cope with
those of France and Russia, and of the pusillanimity of Mi-
nisters, in not proposing a very large and immediate addi-
tion to the usual votes. In 1840, Sir George Clerk
moved an addition to the navy estimates proposed by
the Government. In the debate on the army estimates
of the present year, in March last, Sir It. Peel said,
He for one was ready to give a cordial sanction to
the proposition now made as to the military force
of this country, in the firm conviction that the de-
mand now made by the executive Government did not
exceed the exigencies of the case." And in the deb: to on the
Navy Estimates he observed that since other great Powers
were adding to their naval force it was absolutely necessary
that we should do the same. If the Tories were to come into

power to-morrow, the necessity for keeping up the naval and
military establishments of the country, instead of bring dimi-
nished, would be considerably increased. It is notorious that
in that case the chances of rupture with the United States
would be increased, the tranquil settlement of affairs in Canada
endangered, and an addition of at least 10,000 men to the
force of Ireland rendered indispensable. It is clear, then, that
it is not by reducing expenditure that a Tory C;overnmmt
can hope to make both ends meet. It remains, therefore, to add
to revenue. Now, this can be done only by one of two ways,
First, by admitting foreign corn, provisions, sugar, coffee,
and timber into consumption at duties productive to the re-
venue. Secondly, by imposing new taxes. To say that they
will not do the one, is to all intents and purposes equivalent to
saying that they will do the other. The Excise, the Assessed
Taxes, the Stamps, and the Postage, are all as productive as it
is possible to make them, without adding to the present, or
imposing new, taxes. The Customs are the only branch of
the revenue which admit of being rendered more productive
without inflicting any additional burden on the country. gut
in order to do so it is indispensable to attack the monopoly of
the landed and colonial interest. If sugar is to be screwed up
up from sd. or 6d. a lb., to Bd. or MI., in order to
put more money into the pockets of West India
merchants and Proprietors, it is impossible to ren-
der the revenue derived from the sugar duties more
productive. If the people are to be compelled to use rotten
American timber, in order to create emiilqment for a few old
unseaworthy tubs belonging to half-a-dozen opulent ship-
owners, it is impossible to increase the revenue derived from
timber. If the labouring classes are to be condemned to cat
dear bread, beef, and bacon, to enable my Lord A. to roll in
his carriage in London, and Squire B. to preserve pheasants
and transport poaches s at his scat in the country, it is impos-
sible to restore the revenue by restoring general prosperity,
and raising trade and manufactures from the decline into
'which they have fallen. None know these facts better than,
the City Tories—none know better than they that the imposi-
tion of a house-tax, and an addition to the rates of postage,
must be and will be among the very first measure 3 of a Tory
Administration—arid yet they have the effrontery to ask why
any one should suspect the Tories of an intention to put on
new taxes. _ _ _ _ _ _

-POST.—The great cause now to be tried arid decided upon
by the electors of the United Kingdom, is emphatically the
cause of the people—of the great mass of the working people.
It is to be decided whether they are to be sacrificed for the
sake of cheapness, and for the sake of recovering a revenue
which has been lost through the extravagance, the blundering,
and the weakness of the Whig-Radical Government. Eleven
. years ago, when the Tories lost the Government through dis-
union and disputes among themselves, there was a public in-
come of about fifty millions, with a public expenditure of about
forty-seven millions and a half. The Whig-Radicals have
exactly reversed the matter, and the fruit of their great talents
for Government is this, that they have a revenue of about
forty-seven millions and a half with an expenditure of about
fifty millions. This being the result of their misgovern-
ment—a result which is of itself quite sufficient, and more
than sufficient, to justify their ignominious dismissal from
office, they now try to recover themselves by a selfish
and heartless attack on the profits of the labouring classes.
The simple matter of fact is, that labour and land
are cheaper in foreign countries than they are here, and all
who have incomes are obliged to give a larger portion of them
in return for labour and the produce of the land then they
would if they were allowed to employ foreign labourers and
foreign land. We grant the fact, but then we say, it is bet-
ter it should he so,for these people with fixed incomes are most
of them very well off, and it is better that they should pay more
than that they should take away the employment from our own
people, and give it to foreigners. It is better they should pay
more than that they should leave our own land to
be overgrown with docks and thistles, while foreign land
would be covered with golden harvests by reason of
the custom and encouragement of Britiali annuitants
and capitalists. But the Whig-Radical philosophers don't care
a straw what becomes of the labourers, so that they can effect
their purpose of staying in office. Lord John Russell knows
well enough, and has in former times warned the people under
his own hand, that the consequence of importing cheap corn
from abroad would be turn over two or three millions of
working people to utter beggary. But at that time he was
not in office, and had no personal or party advantage in that
pOlicy from which the starving of two or three millior s of
people was in his opinion likely to result. At the present
time he is in office, and he and his party hope to retain office
by consenting to this experiment, which includes the frightful
atrocity of reducing millions to " utter beggary." This being
the case, he and his party have no hesitation at all about the
matter. The people may starve—starve by millions ; but he
and his party would thrive, and that is the thing for which, pa-
triots as they are, they most care.
HERALD.—As usual, the excitement consequent on the
approach of a general election is increasing, in intensity, from
hour to hour. North and south, east and west—throughout
broad Britain, resounds the note of preparation. Prone as
we all are to exaggerate the importance of the present crisis,
and to attribute to coming events proportions of a more gigan-
tic scale than have appertained to similar births in former
periods; there is, yet, abundant reason for all the hopes and
fears with which the British public may anticipate the probable
results of the next two months upon their future destinies.
There is that, in short, in the aspect of public affairs at this mo-
ment which has all the elements necessary to the (treat ien of a
,solicitude,--decided yet inexplicable, profound but undefined—.
about the probabilities of the immediate future. We know,
certainly, that, for some years past, there has been an active
conflict going on between principles mighty for good, and
mighty for evil; but of their precise inherent tendencies or
character.
certainly—know w
these
direction, with regard to the present conditions of
a-e
a
' our political and social system,
positive
conditions
we—as eerl
thing, cf an authentic or
nd all their associations we surmise rather than
the secrecy of its operations we cannot
whichdetect,from
measure the dimensions. Like natives of a region
disturbed by some volcanic action, we rather feel and
. conjecture, thansee_or understand, the (as it were) sub :er-
I ranean movement w l
3'
1 rich may soon develope its energy in more
• palpable, destructive, and fatal forces. Under some feeling of
. this sort—under a conviction of the approach of a certain, but
. unascertained danger—of the shock which all the prineiples
that form the bases of the Throne, of the institutions, such of
the establishments of the country, are menaced with liv the
; proe'ress and approximation of the evil genius es the o more-
. inent"—the friends of order. of loyalty, of the Constitution,
. of the Chsreli, of the healthful system on which our conven-
tional codes of moral and social government are framed—re-