The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-02 00:00:00

PROPOSAL FOR AN INCOME-TAX.

A committee of landlords of the county of COrk has
been sitting in deliberation for the last week ; and, on
11Ionday last, the following resolution was; after some
discussion; unanimously agreed to. The opponents of
the proposition here put forward will, no doubt, urge the
absence of all machinery, such as exists in England, as a
leading ohjc;ction to the feasibility of an income-tax for
Ireland ; nevertheless, among the countless projects
which the present crisis has suggested, there have been
some less rational than the remedy proposed by the Cork
proprietors:—

.
"That the experience we have bad of the effects of
the Labour-rate Act on all classes of the community
induces us to express our conviction that it is totally in-
adequate to provide for the necessities of the labouring
population of Ireland ; that, while giving a limited em-
ployment in one direction, it withdraws labour from
another ; and that while the process of public works
under it leads to the most useless ends and objects, it
r.moves from the natural market of the country—the
cultivation of its soil—that labour upon which our future
supply of food depends.
" That we hpprove of a compulsory taxation for the
support of the labouring poor ; but we deny the justice
of charging it exclusively on the land, and we implore
the county deputies, who shall meet in Dublin or London,
to takecinto, their calm and deliberate consideration the
-
measut4a Iv)ii4may best conduce to combine the largest
amount 6f.relief with a necessary but moderate taxation.
That this taxation shall apply as well to income—indus-
trial,.professional, and arising from invested capital, as
from land alone—that its distribution shall be released
from .hll the expensive machinery now employed in its
disbut-cement, and that a system of relief, under divi-
sional or district management and control, be substituted
for the wasteful practice now prevailing under the boards
of work and boards of guardians. In short, that the
deputies so assembled shall devise the legislative means
whereby the largest possible proportion of the taxes to
be raised upon the occupancy, property, and income of
Ireland may be applied to the useful employment of
healthful labour, and the support of the aged and infirm
destitute of the country.
" That, if a principal of taxation such as we herein
have sketched be adopted, we seek no speciAl application
of its expenditure; but if it shall be continued as a
charge on the land of the country, we consider the
special character of the levy to entitle the landowners
and occupiers to the benefit of its expenditure in labour;
and we respectfully submit to the intended meeting that
this principle be borne in mind, and contended for in the
preparation of any legislative enactment for the relief
of Ireland in the ensuing session of Parliament."
The Corh Constitution thus comments upon the reso-
lutions

" It seems to us so fair in all its parts that we know
not what objection can reasonably be urged against it.
e are aware that in many quarters the taxing of in-
come is disapproved ot; but we have never been able to
recognise the soundness of the plea on which the disap-
proval rests, and so we repeatedly stated during the
discussions on Sir Robert Peel's proposition. The ar-
gument derived from its fluctuating nature applies
equally to any species of property whose returns are not
definite and fixed. There is no more hardship in re-
quiring the fundholder or the physician, the shopkeeper
or the lawyer, to contribute to the support of the poor
of the community by which he lives, or to bear a pro-
portion of the expenses of ‘. extraordinary' measures for
employing them either in non-productive labour, or in
labour directed to the benefit of the general public, than
lin requiring the landlord or the farmer. If the income
of the one is uncertain,'so is the income of the other."
Some idea of the state of. the county of Cork may be
learned from the fact that, in one barony (East Mus-
kerry), there are 8,900 persons returned as destitute by
the relief committees, and of another (the barony of
Bere) the Constitution thus reports :
" For every one man employed there are five left rov-
ing is destitution about the country, and those who are
on the lists of the overseers have, in many instances, to
walk five miles to the road, and, if not there at the ap-
pointed hour, a quarter or half-day's wages is stopped.
So that persons leaving their huts at four o'clock in the
morning cannot regain them before seven or eight o'clock
at night, then to lie down on damp ground, their only
covering being the wet garments in which they shivered
while they toiled all day. But those who suffered on
the works were content and were grateful, while those
who were not employed crowded round the houses of the
few resident gentlemen in the neighbourhood, crying
from hunger, and imploring to have their lives saved by
getting a little food or employment to enable them to
purchase it. Thus matters proceeded until Monday,
when a large body of the Dursey Islanders and the
labourers of the three parishes surrounding Castletown,
walked into the town and declared their determi-
nation to move into Macroom and make a
prisoner of Captain Gordon, whom they declared
they would take back into the mountains, and
there subject him to the same privations which
they were enduring until he alleviated their dis-
tress. So determined did they appear in their purpose
that the Rev. Thomas O'Grady, the rector, and Mr.
O'Sullivan, two gentlemen of great influence in the
county, could only prevail on them to postpone their
march for a few days, by stating that they themselves
would that night set off and endeavour to procure em-
ployment for them, as remonstrance by letter was disre-
garded. These gentlemen accordingly did so, but the
result of their mission is not yet disclosed."

DEATHS BY STARVATION IN MAYO,
The Mayo Constitution publishes another fearful ca-
talogue of deaths by famine within the last ten days.
Here is the supplementary " black list":—
" On Monday, the 21st instant, Mr. Atkinson, coroner,
held an inquest on the body of Pat M'llonnell, at
Springhill. The deceased was found dead in a field.
Some witnesses, and Dr. Neilson, were examined, and
the following verdict was returned—' Died from starva-
tion.'

"On the same day the same coroner held an in-
quest on the body of Owen Cane, who died at Glane-
dagh. Verdict—' Death from starvation.'
" On the same day the same coroner held an inquest
on the body of Bridget Joyce, a widow with four chil-
dren, who died in a small sheep-house, in a field at
Glanedagh. It appeared in evidence that the deceased
and her family were in the utmost state of destitution,
and one of the children had nothing to wet the lips of
its dying parent but a drop of water or a little snow.
The body lay for eight days before a few boards could
be procured to make a coffin, in such a state of
destitution was the locality. Verdict—' Death from
starvation.'

" On the 22d, the same coroner held an inquest on the
body of James M'Andrew, at Cloonman, whose death
was very sudden. Verdict—' Died from the vititation of
God.'

" On the 23d, the same coroner held an inquest on the
body of Edmond M'Hale, a boy, at Caracirable, in At-
st
to their
nm u
destitutionerous fam s Tthreuly
o evidenceelao
eohfotlie
y) .
lasttmTYhomtehasegr'one
words of the dying child to his famishing
parent were, Mother, give me three grains of corn.' A
woman, who was present at the melancholy scene,
searched the pocket of his jacket, and found three grains
of corn. Verdict—. Died from starvation.'

" On the 24th, the same coroner held an inquest on
the body of William Barrett, at Acres, 'Ciliala. Verdict
Died from starvation.'
" On the same day, the same coroner held an inquest
on the body of Bridget Walsh, at Rathtrom. Verdict—
Died from starvation.' "

AFFRAY WITH POACHERS.—On the night of Thurs-
day last, the gamekeepers and watchers at Ockeridge
Wood, in the parish of Holt, the property of Lord Ward,
hearing the report of a gun in the wood, went towards
the bottom of it, with a view of meeting the poachers
coming out. The gamekeeper's son (Mr. D. Rawlings)
moved off in another direction, but, not finding the
poachers, he went to the other side of the wood, and
heard another shot in a cover about a quarter of a mile
from Ockeridge Wood; after some considerable search,
he traced the parties in a direction towards the road ;
two men soon afterwards got over a stile, and as they
came up opposite to where he was hid, he observed that
one of them had a gun and a bludgeon ; this man he
immediately collared, and a struggle took place for the pos-
session of the gun. Rawlings was forced down on the
ground, but he would not loose the gun, and, succeeding
in regaining his feet, he renewed the fight, in which he
defended himself with his stick. The poachers at
length got him down again, and jumped on his stomach,
but once more gaining his feet, and making liberal use
of his stick, both the poachers ran away. Rawlings
gave chase to the ore whom he supposed carried some
, naontdl
ewape, en
hteh
lheyat
tcearmderot
po
pae brookd
three bpi chhe
at
shaenpt
so cahnedr
and got away. Rawlings knew this man to be James
cpgouaumlliid?ng off his jacket, managed to outrun the keeper,
Roberts, a labourer, of Grimley, and the other, whom
he knew by sight, but not by name, proved to be Thomas
Milton, son of a schoolmaster, also residing at Grimley;
and on the following day (Christmas-day) Rawlings, in
company with a policeman, went to the house in which
Roberts lived, who, in the course of conversation, con-
fessed all the transactions in which he and Milton had
been engaged on the previous night. Information was
yesterday laid by Mr. Rawlings, before F. D. Hastings,
F. E. Williams, and J. G. Watkins, Deis., at the county
petty sessions, who granted a warrant to apprehend the
parties on the charge of night poaching.— Worcester
Journal of yesterday.