The Sun.
London, England, 1848-03-03 00:00:00

THE THIRD EDITIONS

"THE SUN"
CONTAIN, AS USUAL,
THE LATEST PARLIAMENTARY
INTELLIGENCE,

AND

AI ,L OTHER NEWS UP TO THE HOUR

OF POST.

On Jars received by all Newsmen, and at the Sun.office,

112, Strand.

rir LI

w-P,Arri-fr,i',...-SUN OFFICE, MARCH 3
Tin .Rmomßrint, Lowest, 36 ; Highest, 43 ; Noon, 42.
BAROMETER, 30.—WIND N.N.W.; fine.

t wi,TERAT r,S)NI)OS-IlltlllGE THIS DAY.
3 'nrnfu I mfnutaa after 12. 1 Evenlnz .. 31 eninates ,ftA, 12

Tfl

tribute thereto in proportion to the real value of
their respective incomes.
At present the tax is imposed on every description
of income without any regard to the sources trom
whence that income is derived, the manner in
which it is obtained, or its probable continuance or
permanency. This nominal equality is really most
unequal in its operations and unjust in its principle.
While in one case it might not amount to one-tenth
per cent. on the value of the actual capital of the tax-
payer, it may in another sweep away every shilling
of which he is possessed in the world, and leave him
still trusting to exertions which at any moment may
he paralysed, either by an attack of illness, want of
employment, or any of the other casualties to which
a person engaged in any trade or profession is liable
every day.
..n extremely sensible and well written pamphlet
has recently appeared, under the title of "A
Few Words to the Middle Classes of England
on the subject of the Income-tax," which puts
the question on its true foundation, and which will
be found well worthy of the attention of
those who are anxious to come to a sound
decision on the question. The writer points out
five different classes of property on which the
taxation is now equally enforced, but which really
vary ♦ery considerably in degree. Thus there are,
Ist, Incomes arising from real property; 2d, From
money invested in public or private securities—the
principal of which remains at the disposal of the
owner; 3d, Limited estates, such as annuities for
terms of lives or years, issuing or payable out of
either of the former classes ; 4th, The profits of
persons embarked in trade or manufactures,
who have a certain amount of capital
invested in their business, and who make a profit
thereon, and also on the skill and attention which
they devote thereto; and, sthly, where the profits
wholly arise from the skill and labour of the parties,
whether in the shape of fixed salaries or fluctuating
monies. There may be a vast number of sub-divi-
sions, but it would not be possible to take them into
account, or to legislate thereon. One principle,
however, may be fairly applied, viz.,—let the tax be
levied in proportion to the real value of the capital or
Price at which that income would sell, if brought into
the market in order to be disposed of.
But there is another objection to the income-tax,
as it falls on the fourth and fifth classes, which
should not be lost sight of, and which appears to us an
unanswerable argument against its continuance—its
inquisitorial and vexatious character. Nothing can
be more easily ascertained than the amount arising
from fixed and realised property. The statement of
its amount cannot in any degree injure the party who
derives his maintenance therefrom. The case of a
professional man or of one embarked in trade is,
however, very different ; his credit may be materially
injured by the returns he is obliged to make, and
very frequently he is assessed on an amount far be-
yond what he really receives. These are points
which should be attentively considered by the repre-
sentatives of the people before they consent to the
demand that has been made for the renewal of the
tax for a further period.

Wales is clamouring for education. In the midst
of all the exciting occurrences of Europe, amidst the
din of fallen dynasties, and the uproar of insurgent
multitudes abroad, the cry of the humble population
of the Welsh counties continues to be audible—im-
ploring the Legislature to interpose between their
physical degradation and their intellectual redemp-
tion. Talk of the Ashantees and the savages of
Polynesia, talk of the Hottentots and the Hill-
coolies, of the Bushmen and the Caribbeans ! there
is immeasurably more reason for anxiety in
regard to the debased and ignorant condition of
our own fellow-countrymen in the principality
of Wales. Of the wants and miseries of
foreign barbarians there may be much rational
scepticism ; the accounts given to us of their be-
nighted condition may be merely the tales of travel-
lers ; Captain BASIL HALL may have drawn very
largely upon his imagination in delineating the social
exigencies of the people of Loo Choo in the Indian
archippelago, and there are very general doubts of the
authenticity of the wanderings among the beautiful
inhabitants of the Marquesas, by Citizen HERMAN
MELVILLE, a mariner of the United States. But of
the accuracy of the accounts made by respectable
Commissioners appointed by the House of Comnsons
inquire into the truth or falsehood of the reports
prevalent respecting an important section of
the population of these dominions, there can
be no reasonable doubt whatever. Materials of
this substantial character have been latterly accumu-
lated in reference to the deplorable want of useful
knowledge amongst the Welsh multitude. In the
beginning of the Parliamentary session of 1846, it
will be remembered that the necessity of making
some such investigation was enforced upon the late
Administration by the Hon. Gentleman, the late re-
presentative of Coventry (Mr. WILLIAM WILLIAMS),
and that the then Chief Secretary for the Home Depart-
ment (Sir JAMES GRAHAM) acknowledged the readi-
ness of the Government to forward the views of the
Hon. Member by instituting a comprehensive inquiry
into the mental destitution of the principality of
Wales. Shortly afterwards there came the rupture
of the Peel Cabinet, in consequence of the extraor-
dinary fiscal innovations forced through the Cham-
bers of the Legislature, and almost immediately upon
the installation of the Russell Ministry the determi-
nation announced by Sir JAMES GRAHAM in refe-
rence to Wales was carried into effect under the
active and patriotic superintendence of his successor,
Sir GEORGE GREY. Three Commissioners (Messrs.
LINGEN, STMONS, and JonNsofs) were autho-
rised to proceed to the western shore of
this island, for the purpose of guaging the
ignorance and surveying the debasement of
the Welsh with a sort of intellectual theodolite. The
secretary of this Commission was a man eminently
qualified to fulfil its duties, namely, Mr. KAY SHUT..
TLEWORTII, and the reports already sent in have
fully corroborated the accounts originally given by
the lion. Gentleman the late Member for Coventry,
while they have demonstrated in a remarkable
mariner the activity of the three Commissioners and
their secretary.

Some tolerable conception may be formed of the
miserable ignorance of the people in this portion of
the United Kingdom by an enumeration of a very
few of the more general calculations of the Commis
sioners. First of all, it must be borne in recollection
that in 1841 the population of Wales amounted, in
round numbers, to more than 900,000 souls (if we
are not mistaken, the exact number was 911,321),
and that with merely 1,530 day-schools, there were
only two-thirds out of 72,194 children in anything
like regular attendance. In the eight parishes in the
county of Carnarvon, wit:t a population of 9,447,
there were found to be only two poor schools ! In
the thirty-one parishes in the county of Anglesea,
with a population of 11,956, there were only five
schools, of the very meanest description I Out of the
126 parishes in the counties of Radnor, Brecknock,
and Cardigan, there are seventy-two parishes (writes
Mr. SYMONS in his report), without any day-school
at all, and two-thirds of the children of those counties
without any schooling whatever ! The propor-
tions per cent. of the children who do obtain school-
ing (in the other shires not yet mentioned)
Compared with the latest census of the population of
the same age, are thus estimated:—Carmarthen, 171 ;
Glamorgan, 25.4; Pembroke, 27.7 ; Montgomery,
18.4 ; Merioneth, 21.7 ; Denbigh, 22.8 ; Flint,
30.2 ; and the total of North Wales, 20.0.
Such is the necessitous condition of the
humbler classes in Wales, a condition which not
only debars them from most of the very ordinary
comforts and conveniences of private life, but has
tended to plunge them into a state of deplorable and
degrading sensuality. Upon the former point Mr.
WILLIAMS has very judiciously remarked in his letter
to the Premier :'°—" The common people, from their
imperfect knowledge of their own language, are in-
capable of so intelligibly comprehending a, to aid
them in improving their knowledge and skill in their
ordinary occupations." And upon, the latter point
an intelligent writer in Fraser 's Magazine for
this March remarks—" Petty thefts, lying, cozening,
every species of chicanery, drunkenness, and idleness,

7e ja
• -
~ . , „oc, air, ,y 4 , °9
.
4' AP :
. :: .
-
• . fp. , , ' 60)
•-ugi...* t • -
---....L . i.