The Sun.
London, England, 1848-04-26 00:00:00

NE W CASTLE.

This sport, which is amongst the first—if not the
first, of the kingdom—commenced on Monday. The
place of meeting was a large green, at the Forth Banks,
below the Infirmary. It was spacious, and competent
to accommodate the immense crowd that had. assembled
to witness the amusement. There could be no fewer
than a thousand people present, a goodly proportion of
whom had come by rail from Carlisle, Penrith, and other
places in the west. The sporting world Was there in
tull force, and seemed to back their respective favourites
with much spirit. Halliwell, the winner of the 11 stone
weights, is a thickset hearty-looking Englishman.
Messrs. J. Thompson, of Allonby, and J. Jameson, of
Newcastle, were the umpires, and Mr. J. Walker, of
Keswick, referee, who conducted the proceedings with
the utmost fairness and impartiality ; their conduct
giving the fullest satisfaction.
The first prize, of 251., for men of llst., produced 22
competitors, for whose names we have not space; suffice
it to say, the 46 who stood were reduced in the secoad
round to 23; the third round exhibited the following
names
1 turd Round—C. Harrington and J. Nelson, T. Roper
end J. Palmer, J. Iverstone and E. Little, A. Nicholson
and T. Bowes, J. Whitehead and H. Bragg, J. James
and I. Gibson, J. Byers and W. Bramwell, J. Halliwell
and J. Elliott, W. Tyson and J. Renwick, W. Park and
G. Marrough, J. Langhorn, odd man.
Fourth Round—A. Nicholson and J. Langhorn, J.
Halliwell and W. Tyson, T. Roper and C. Harrington,
J. James and A. Park, J. Whitehead, and J. Iverstone,
W. Palmer and J. Byers.
Fifth round—T. Roper and A. Nicholson, W. Palmer
and J. Whitehead, J. Halliwell and J. James.
Sixth Round—J. Halliwell threw Roper, Palmer odd
man.

Seventh Round—The final struggle lay between He-
liwell and Palmer, the odd man. Halliwell threw his
man twice with great ease, and won the prize, amid th•
cheers of the multitude.
Second Prize—A Standing Leap—The competitors
were William Burnett, Alnwick; Robert Angus Maule,
ditto; Thomas Roper, Lammerby; William Smith,
Swindle; Alexander Jemison, soldier in the Dragoon
Guards; William Stanley, Keswick; A. Macdonald,
Keswick; and Tindle, Penrith. The prize was well
contested, Roper beating the field, and jumping four
feet eight inches. Burnett was second.
The first round of the light-weights finished the sports
of the day.

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE
BRADFORD REFORM ASSOCIATION.
Sir,—As the subject of the adjustment of taxation
is exciting attention .here as well as at the gates of
Paris, it is right to be making progress in the exami-
nation of the practical measures within reach, with
an understanding that advantage shall be taken of
such discoveries as in those other schools of learning
may at any time arise.
The objection made to taxing articles of consump-
tion by value and not by quantity, is that it is impoe-
sible to distinguish the different qualities, or to make
the owners declare them. All excuses are good to
the lazy, and still more to the unwilling. The temp-
, tation to raise a revenue by the summary method of
extorting from the numerous and the weak, is too
great to allow of the representations on this head
being received without sifting. There is no
doubt of its being vastly easier for a Govern-
ment to raise a given sum by such an organic
zat ion. But inasmuch its the many have an
interest in the other direction, and are
moreover in a bever way of having their interest at-
tended to than they were three months ago, it is a
season for asking whether all has been done that
might he. For example, is there not a principle ap-
plied in other branches f the Customs, which 'night
be usefully tried here ; —the giving a power to take
the goods for the Government at the valuation set on
them ? I remember this being applied to me, in the
case of curiosities brought from Egypt; and
why should it not be applied to tea ? It would
imply inspection of the cargo by an officer ; for it
clearly could not be done by sample. A lesson or two
on this head would effectually teach the dealers to divide
their teas into, at all events, three unmistakeable
classes,—the ordinary, middling, and superior, on
which duties of one, two, and three shillings might
be laid, or otherwise as determined. There is no
man who could not go into a tea-shop, and in a
quarter of an hour make himself master of the mys-
tery. What is wanted is a will, and the want will
continue till the people's will is taken into council.
The difficulties in the way of allowing every man
to deduct a given sum from his chargeable income,
would be found of the same kind. Prodigious will
be the outcries of impossibility, till the greater im-
possibility of leaving things as they are, acts as
stimulus behind. At the same time the matter is not
so easy as may look on paper ; and cannot finally be
effected without some trouble to all parties. In the
case of incomes under 1501. a year at present, there
is necessity for a cumbrous process of declaration,
which though it might perhaps be arranged so as to be
more convenient than it is, must evidently be made at
some time, and can be made at no time without
trouble. 11 the Government finds a man in posses-
sion of 1401. a year from a particular source, as for
instance the funds, it has no means of knowing ex-
cept by some subsequent process, that this is all he
has; for a man may have income from a dozen diffe-
rent sources. The Government therefore would
have to extend to all cases, something like the pre-
sent practice in these. It must in the first instance
claim its three per cent. er as the case may be, from
all incomes that come under its cognizance ;
stopping it, as is at present done, in the cases
of incomes from the funds and rents. And then
it must leave the payer to make out his demand for
the return of 41. 10s. from some or other of the offi-
ces that have received it, in a form akin to what is
now used in the case of declarants to less than 150 i.
a year in all ; accompanied with a statement of his
various sources of income, for the purpose of facili-
tating discovery in the event of his claiming in more
than
nc
mightase o
be
e tattemptedbou
ght
iprl
sa
uc
de s. thanre
business one,
For it has nothing to do with the absolute amount
and
i as
fine
simpler ne
o f
sthi
of the income; it is a mere demand for the recovery
of 41. 10s. Some complications might be necessary
where the income was made up from a number of
sources, no one of them producing 150/. ; but these
forthese
are nothing but what must have been providedsources
not amounting to 150/.lp
already, in the case of income fhrooml .
various
thecsiderable one, must be
An allowance, perhaps
processmaking a charge on each
way to meet it would by
but as this would virtually
of the recovering parties;
made for the expense'obte•thais of recovery. One
tai,
whichi t
aby y an
augmentation of the rate. Wio
in-
crease
be a tax on the poor in propo.rtion to his poverty, a
fairer way would be to submit to it as a deduction
from the p r
:
th this allowance, and
x derg r eel
es e i
n m
perhaps a h
of the rate might sharpen men's wits or cou-
rage to attempt evasions, it would appear as if, so
further
r o
of n e the
for the
long as both the rate and the alterations were compa-
ratively small, the proceeds of an income-tax ought
to be nearly in proportion to the rate.
In another letter 1 will endeavour to enter on the
much contested question of the effect of an income-
tax on temporary incomes.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. PERRONET THOMPSON.
Blackheath, London, April 26, 1848.

MEXICAN iRIVATEERS.—A letter from St. Do-
mingo, March 19th, says:—" The brig Harp, loading
here for Liverpool, was chased off Mona Island, by two
suspicious vessels, one a hertn, and the other a fall-
rigged brig. On the announcement of the fact to the
Dominican Government, they fitted out two armed
schooners, of 6 guns each, to go in quest of the two
above-named vessels, and after having hued them out,
declined sending them, affirming as an excuse, that they
had received information that the two vessels were
Mexican privateers."
for INTELLIGENCE.—MAIDSTONE.—The last week
of cold and wet weather has rendered the prospects of
our hop plantations much more gloomy in every respect.
A cold ungenial spring is more to be dreaded in grow-
ing hops than most other crops, and should this continue
a few days longer, we expect to see it -show its effects on
the Borough market prices of this artieleovhich are pow
below the average of what they can be grown for. The
shoots the plants have made are stunted, and in gnobC
GUM. will be pulled away se uaeless...3l44,,stote4 J'avite.