The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-17 00:00:00

TIIE SUN;

The late Parliament will be remembered in history
by a significant and honourable title—the Free Trade
Parliament. May the new Parliament be as pro-
longed, and may it be distinguished from its prede-
cessors by a still more significant and honourable
soubriquet—the Parliament of Five Constitutional Im-
provements—its existence being partitioned into at
least five sessions, such as the following :
I. The session of Currency Reform.
11. The session of Sanitary Reform.
111. The session of Educational Reform.
IV. The session of Taxation Reform.
V. The session of the Ballot.
All these improvements must, in obedience to the
necessities of the time and the impulse of public opi-
nion, be taken into immediate consideration, and tem-

porary arrangements must be immediately made, until
the entire systems of Currency, Sanitary measure:,
Education, Taxation, and the Ballot, can be tho-
roughly entered into and recognised. Essential as
such changes are, their simultaneous realisation in a
single session is scarcely practicable ; and, supposing
they were by possibility realised at once and alto-

gether, the session might with truth be regarded as
a session of political miracles.

Secondary only in importance to the reform in our
monetary laws, and to the regulations that may be
adopted for the purpose of affording a safe and ado-
quive circulation for the country, are the means by
which the revenue of the country is to be raised, the
particular modes of taxation by which the national
Exchequer is to be replenished. There are, we fear,
too many indications of a serious deficiency of the
public income to render it doubtful, that some new
tax must be resorted to, or some old one considerably
increased in order to enable us to meet our expen-
diture, and to pay the enormous interest of our debt.
The returns for the quarter, ending on the 10th Oc-
tober, showed a decrease as compared with the corre•
sponding quarter of the preceding year of no less
than 1,507,2301. sterling, indeed there was a sad
falling off of our ordinary income under every head
with the exception of the Post-office and Taxes—the
former of which,thanks to the exertions of Mr.ROWLAND
HILL, showed an increase on the quarter of 5,0001.,
and the latter also a trifling improvement not quite
amounting to 4,0001. Every branch, however, which
had any relation to the prosperity of the country, or
Ito the comforts and enjoyments of the great majority
of the people, afforded a melancholy evidence of the
pressure under which all classes have been labouring
1 for some time past. It is scarcely necessary to
I say that matters have not improved since the publi-
' cation of these returns ; that there has not been a
greater degree of employment for the labouring
classes, or greater importations of the products of
other lands, so as to yield a reasonable expectation
that the Excise and Customs will present a more
favourable appearance, and that we may not have to
encounter still more serious deficiencies in these im-
portant branches than have hitherto been apparent.
Incomes derived from trade and commerce, too, have
been practically annihilated within the last quarter,
and the persons embarked therein will have
good reason to congratulate themselves if
they are only deprived of their usual and accus-
tomed profits, and have not to deplore still more
serious and almost ruinous losses. On the income
and property-tax, therefore, there must also be a sad
falling off. We are aware that many to whom cred

is of the most vital consequence, whose chances of
ultimately weathering the storm may be dependent
on their still maintaining a fair appearance to the
world, will make great sacrifices for that purpose,
and Hitl consent to pay on ideal profits, which have
no real existence, sooner than encounter the inquisi-
torial investigations into the state of their affairs that
must attend any attempt on their part to escape the
iniquitous impost; but although they might willingly
submit to pay what could not in justice or in
equity, be demanded (if such considerations could
have any weight with tax collectors), many
will not have the ability to do so. The firms, which
have already been compelled to suspend their deal-

ings— the vast numbers that have already appeared in
the Gazette, and of which so formidable a list appears
even in its last publication, and all those whose situa-
tions are so precarious as to make a similar result but

too probable, and who would dread the comments a

the Bankrupt Commissioner, if a large sum appeared
on their balance-sheets as their contribution to an
income-tax when they were on the verge of insol-

vency—will all be wanting. The chief items, there-
fore, it is to be feared, must still show a deficiency
which must be made up from other sources, and to
which the serious attention of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer must be immediately directed.
Some time since we published a series of articles in
The: Sun showing the grievous injustice and the in-
expediency of the present system of taxation. There

are many taxes which press most unduly on the in-
dustry of the country, and on the laborious classes.
Nothing can be more iniquitous than that those who
are compelled to support their families by their daily
toil, who gain their bread by the sweat of their brow,
should be called upon to satisfy any portion of
the interest of the public debt, of that debt which
was incurred for the preservation of the accumulated

property of the country, and which in common
- -

....
honesty should be exclusively charged thereon. But
there is a consideration still more imperative even

;han that of justice or injustice. The significant

question
of h
tmuste
revenue be
e effected
t ead
by
n ny in
material
nimprove-
menteaseo
f
our indirect taxation ? Former experience has shown
tts that COCKER is not always to be depended on in
the means by which a public revenue is to be rea-
lised. In taxation two and two do not invariably
make four, or, in plainer words, an increase in the
amount of the impost or duty on any ar-
ticle does not produce a corresponding increase to the
revenue derivable therefrom. We have witnessed the
failure of the experiment of an increase of ten per
cent. on certain duties, which scarcely realised the
tenth part of the amount at which it was estimated,
while we have also witnessed the free-trade
experiments, showing that reductions may be
made, affording the greatest relief to the vast ma-
jority of the people, without any loss whatsoever to

ment, how many important representatives have dis-
appeared, either carried away by death, or rejected
through the fickleness of their constituents! After a
long career of consistent liberality as a politician, the
Father of the Howe of Commons, the late represen-
tative of Middleaei,4as departed, One of the most
extraordhary men of age has passed away in the
person of DANIEL O'CoNNELL; and the embarrass-
ments of Ireland seem to have become more tre-
mendous and bewildering since the demise of THE
LIBERATOR. Other Members of inferior considera-
tion, but of great personal worth, such as the late
DENIS O'CONOR, commonly called the O'CoNoa
DoN, hare been carried off by disease, and their
places have been supplied by men hitherto strangers
to the walls of the Legislative Chamber at West-
minster. Upon the entrance of several of these
untried representatives into Parliament the public
deserves congratulation, especially upon the entrance
of men such as GEORGE THOMPSON, of the Tower
Hamlets ; JOHN MACGREGOR, of Glasgow ; or WIL-
LIAM JOHNSON Fox, of Oldham—men who are not
less remarkable for their thirst for constitutional
reform than for their general intelligence or their
superb powers of oratory and argument. Another
class of Members worthy of particular mention are
those who have been recently restored to a seat in the
Lower House after a temporary absence from Parlia-
mentary duties—such representatives, for example,
as PERRONET THOMPSON, of Bradford, and THOMAS
Noox TALPOURD, of Reading. Among this class
we had hoped to have enumerated one of the
most accomplished politicians and one of the
most consistent reformers of the day ; but
the petty jealousies of Lincoln have prevented this
by the reiterated rejection of Sir EDWARD BULWER
LYTTON. Besides, in this individual case, the new
Parliament will lack many of those old and well-tried
representatives, whose services in the cause of liberality
cannot be well dispensed with even now, when their
principles are proving more than ever triumphant
and irresistible. The new House of Commons would
be remarkable if only for the absence of ROEBUCK, of
MACAULAY, of HAWES, and of HOBHOUSE. For
several reasons it is to be hoped that it will prove
otherwise remarkable—first, by the restoration of
those four distinguished men to their proper position
in the Legislature, and secondly, by the memorable
deeds of reform in the passing of which they may be
called on to participate.