The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-14 00:00:00

QUESTIONS FOR CANDIDATES.
(From the Dispatch )
Mr. Editor,—We have an election in prospect more
completely devoid of purpose than any which has
occurred for many years. The " sense of the people"
is about to be taken, and nobody knows upon what sub-
ject. There is no appeal to the constituencies by any
party. In recent debates, or pending measures, no
great antagonist
sion.
i Even the lower excitement of party preponder
principles have been brought into cons-
ancy s wanting. Nobody expects that the result can
so strengthen Lord G. Bentinck's faction as to carry him
in ; and nobody, except that faction, cares about keeping
out Sir Robert Peel, Electors will go to the poll,
simply because it is the time. Parliament approaches,
'
as nearly as is customary, to its natural period
of dissolution. No great harm would happen,
nor any particular good that I know of, from the
re-election of its Members in a lump. There will,
probably, be some changes ; but it is the toss of a half-
penny whether they be for the better or the worse.
Clouds and sunshine affect us far more, just now, than
Whigs and Tories. The aspect of a corn field is much
more important than that of a canvassing-book. Foreign
grainis the question ; not foreign policy. Thisindif-
ference of the public mind does not stop the custom of
cross-examining our candidates. It often multiplies
questions in proportion as theirimportance is diminished.
Every conundrum of a clique, or crotchet of an indivi-
dual, has its chance. Instead of having to stand the dis-
charge of a cannon, whose ball strikes him dead if it hits
at all, the aspirant is peppered with perpetual small shot,
the largest of which is only
cen-
tralisation or Sunday schools. As to what will come of
it all, safer were it to pretend to prophecy the winner of
next year's Derby. some silly stuff about
And yet, under these unexciting and unpropitious
circumstances, the country's representatives and legis-
lators must be chosen ; and the power so csnferred,
whether on the wise or the foolish, the knavish or the
honest, may continue for seven long years to come.
Surely, then, it is a fitting season for the mind of every
elector who feels the sacredness of his trust, to advert
to the general principles of Government and the perma-
nent wants of the. rsople. If candidates do not know
what to say to us, we should know what to say to them.
The compromises of parties, and the pettiness of per-
sonal pretension, should not sink into littleness the
powers of a great nation over the policy of its rulers.
If blue and yellow are only symbols of party or paltry
interests, electors should start questions indicative of
those which are great and national.
Amongst these may come foremost, " What do you
intend to do with the taxation of the country?" "To
put as much of it as we can into our own pockets,"
would in many cases be the most honest answer that
could be given. But the language of such a reply would
not be Parliamentary. It is least likely to be made
when it is most likely to be meant. The subject will be
evaded, for the sake of future Chancellors of the Ex.
chequer. Perhaps the candidate will pledge himself to
vote for the repeal of some local or class burden, by way
of a sop to his influential constituents. The interest of
the people requires a complete revision of our whole
system of taxation. The corn-laws were only a single
item of abuse. They took from the consumers and the
industrious, to the advantage of the possessors of pro-
perty. In this, there was nothing peculiar. The Customs
and Excise do the same thing through the whole round
of their operations. Every article that we purchase
from another country is obviously the dearer for an
import duty. Every article of home production is the
dearer for the Excise. When we see returns of the
millions raised by duties on tea, sugar, tobacco, or soap,
there is often a misty aotion in people's minds that the
sugar, &c. pay so mach to the Government. It is
reckoned a tax on articles, and not on persons. Non-
sense I It is the mar. who drinks tea, and sweetens it,
and smokes, and washes, that pays the money. He is
the paymaster, just the same us if the duty were levied
on the act. Suppose a policeman keeping the key of
the caddy, and demanding pence for the spoonfuls be-
fore they go into the teapot. Or standing. at the shaver's
elbow, and stopping the brush when it begins to twirl in
the soap-dish, until the proportionate cash has legalized
the lather. If the plan were practicable, we would pay
less this way ; and the trade arising from importa-
tion would not be checked. In fact, we tax trade,
we tax cheap drinking, we tax cleanliness ;
and we leave comparatively untaxed the inheritance
of large revenues for which no service is ren-
dered to the State. Out of fifty millions of annual tax-
ation property pays rather more than two ; consumption
and industry pay the remaining forty-eight. That is to
say, they are paid by the masses. They are taken from
those who have only what they earn. The proprietary
of Great Britain contributes the merest trifle towards
the cost of protecting and governing Great Britain. All
taxation is essentially an insurance of the safety of pro-
perty, and that insurance is mainly paid by industry.
Folks are gulled because the tax is paid indirectly. Their
hands are not actually put into their pockets for it at the
bidding of a collector. The trick is done out of sight.
We do not see the machinery of Custom house leger-
demain. The cotton fees traders have carried their
point, but the tea and sugar free traders, the snuff,
cigar, and French wine free traders, the soap-suds
free traders are left in the lurch. There will they le-
nv:l.in till they bestir themselves. The election is an op-
portunity. No man deserves a vote who is not for re-
moving the burden of taxation from industry, and laying
it upon property.
Education is also a topic of permanent concern, and
which' requires to be put on the broadest principle. The
sects are all making their market of it; and the esta-
blished sect in particular. The Bishop of Exeter wants
to quarter the unemployed clergy on the school-house.
He would make it a refuge for the clerical destitute. If
there be not a spare parish for the priest, make him a
pedagogue. Education grants may thus become a sort
of poor-law for the parsons. Those who have not
talent enough for the pulpit, or not interest enough for
a living—" stickit Ministers," as such forlorn abortions
are called in Scotland—will come upon the school for
relief. Let the Lord Harry of Exeter alone for turning
a penny of public money. He thinks of the pence,
while Dissenting bigots think of the Papists. The Me-
thodists who insist on a Protestant version of the Bible, are
not less perverters of National Education. There is practi-
cally an end of instruction for the masses, beyond drilling
into the catechisms of different creeds, unless we revert to
the ground originally taken by the Government, and of
late so pusillanimously abandoned—that of providing the
means of what is called secular education for all, and
leaving churches to supply the theology. The difficulties
of this plan have passed away. Its adoption would not
cost the Whigs their places. Their faint hearts need not
palpitate. Dr. Hook cleared the way for thorn. All
sects and parties would have acquiesced ; they will still
acquiesce, if the plan is revived with a determined pur-
pose. Those electors who really care for national edu-
cation may exert themselves with decisive effect. Let
them disregard the petty exclusions or appropriations at
which sects are aiming. Let them go direct to the sup-
ply of the great popular want. Let them ask, " Are
you, or are you not, for securing to all the means of in-
struction, leaving theology to the voluntary supply of
those concerned ?"
The poor-law should not be forgotten ; especially that
very much neglected part of the subject, the burden of
the rates upon the poor. An objection is often made to
dealing kindly and liberally with paupers, that the ex-
pense pauperises the rate-payers, who are struggling
hard for their own subsistence. The fact is certain ; but
the inference that the paupers should, therefore, be
squeezed and stinted, is most fallacious. There is
another way of ceasing to pauperise the struggling poor
by the pressure of poor-rates. That other way
is, not to exact poor-rates at all from the
poor. The theory of the income•tax is, that every
man should be exonerated from paying, in that
form, to the State who has less than 50/.
Yet, how many are assessed for public charity who earn
, 1 a year.
less than the half of that amount. The goods of the
starving are seized for the expenses of a starvation law.
The faces of thepoor are ground to pay for the grind-
stone. The State is niggardly charitable to the entirely
p
paupers, out of the pittances
of semi and three-quarter
paupers. And this system is intended to last. The
Poor-law Reformers expend their fury on the Com-
missioners. The Ministry will cast Jonas overboard to
still the storm. And the paying poor, and the destitute
e
pooir,i,maereanldefts,p ifac ethaellyowliinkge:
there
ergoe to
h t ther e e dogs,other or
topicsth
devil together.
are
which I would enlarge upon. as well deserving legis-
lative attention, during the next septennial period of
Parliamentary existence. The Healths of Towns Bill is
a failure unless the cliques and jobbers of vestries and
corporations are checked, as they would at once be
checked, by popular demonstration. At present, the
production of fever is amongst the privileges of house
property. There is a trade in typhus. Masses of human
beings are so lodged that they might envy the boasts in
the Zoological Gardens. The interested juntas exert
their influence. Are there no voters that have a voice
for the people ? Again, the assertion of religious
liberty and equality is an enduring principle. Instead
of picking out Maynooth grants, and such small
fry,
for protesting, why not exact a declaration against any
partiality whateveropby the State, for any creed what-
ever ? And last, though certainly not least, every
voter who is generous or Just: will bear in mind that he
is one of the possessors of an involuntary monopoly ; he
belongs to a politically privileged class ; and the great
majority, six to one, of his fellow-countrymen, belong
to a slave-class.
If electors ask no questions, candidates will make no
promises. It is true, indeed, that hustings' promises
are commonly classed with lovers' vows. But if we
cannot secure integrity, the next best thing is, to expose
inconsistency. The ready tools of a Ministry or party
may be despoiled of the plea that the people are indif-
ferent. We may be true to ourselves, in this, our rarely
recurring opportunity. And questions of principle,
calmly and firmly put, may prove the more impressive
from the absence of party excitement. It would do
legislators a world of good to make them feel that they
are under some degree of responsibility to an intelligent
and determined people. FUBLICOLA.

BEDFORDSHIRE.—The Hampden estate in Buck-
inghamshire, celebrated as having been the residence of
John Hampden, and where his remains are deposited, is
once more in the market. The property, it will be
recollected, was purchased some tune since from the
Earl of Buckinghamshire by Lord Harry yule.—se4
ilervwv.