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

INSURANCE ASSOCIATION.

-----
This was an action on a policy of insurance effected
on the cargo of a ship named the Joseph Alexander,
trading between Yarmouth and Goole, which wale
wrecked and lost in one of its voyages to the litter
place. The plaintiff, the owner of the vessel, had a lien
on the goods which belonged to other parties to the ex-
tent of 7004 cid to recover it he brought the action,
which WAS decided in his favour, as a verdict was re•
turned for 717/. 10i.
Mr. PRENDERCAST now moved for a rule to show
cause why the verdict should not be set aside on the
ground of misdirection. He (Mr. Prendergast) con-
tended that the plaintiff's claim was against the owner.
of the goods and not upo❑ the goods themselves, but the
Learned Judge told the jury that the plaintiff had a lies,
and that he possessed an insurable interest. He (Mr.
Prendergast) admitted that the point was a new one,
but as it was an important one, he trusted their Lord-
ships would give the parties an opportunity of arguing
it.—Rule granted.

SHAKSPERE SOCIETY.
(THIS DAY.)
Th. seventh annual meeting of the members of this
society was this day held at the rooms of the Royal
Society of Literature, in St. Martin's-place, Trafalgar.
,quare. The chair was taken at threw o'clock by J.
Payne Collier, Esq., the editor of Shakspere, and director
of the society. Among the gentlemen present we ob-
served the Rev. W. Harness, James Prior, Esq., Peter
Cunningham, Esq., G. L. Craik, E:q., T. Hudson
Turner, Esq., R. Bentley, Esq., and Boyle Bernard,
Esq., &c.
The CHAIRMAN congratulated the meeting upon the
confidence which was continued to be reposed in the
Council. lie regretted the absence of Lord Ellesmere,
the President, and several other noblemen, who were
unavoidably absent. The members of the Council had
been latterly fully employed, several of whom had be-
come members of the committees for superintending the
management of the Shakspere property at Avon. The
Council had contributed 251. towards the funds required
for the purchase of the property, and he trusted that the
meeting would confirm that appropriation of the funds
of the society. _

The SECRETARY read the report of the society, which
stated that the next issue to the society would be Inigo
Jones's Designs for Masques at Court, now first en-
graved from the original drawings in the possession of
his Grace the Duke of Devonshire ; edited by J. R.
Planch4 and J. Payne Collier, with a new life of Inigo
Jones, by Peter Cunningham. From the statement of
accounts laid before the meeting, it appeared that the ex-
penditure had amounted in the first year to 4164 165.5 d.;
the receipts, including the balance in hand on the 18th
of April, 1847, to 4941. 15s. 2d., leaving a balance its
hand of the sum of 771. His. 9d. The report recom.
mended the formation of a supplemental fund, to be
.!alled the " Heywood and Dekker Fund," the subscrip-
tion to which should be ten shillings annually, for the
Purpose of enabling the committee to bring forward from
tune to time accut ate and annotated reports of the plays
and poems of Thomas Heywood and Teomas DeLker.
Resolutions, approving the formation of this supple-
,ra-ntal tund, the contribution towards the purchase of
shakspere's house, were unanimously agreed to.
The thanks of the society were awarded to the council,
auditors, and officers of the society, ,for their exertions
luring the past year.
The five members who retired according to the rules
thei society were James Heywood, Esq., M.P., Sir E.
13uland,
1/44.‘,,55q.."1.;r1-'ll
vi
.11A1.7
ak
Thomasnd E'cl"
Wright,F.i4.S"
e
vacancies
Knight, Esq., Ifev. If wlere supplied by the election of
the Rev. Alexander Dyne, Henry Hallam, Esq., Charles
Lion. Sir S. H. Rose,.B'air.t. Alliman'
F.ILS"
and
the
Right
The meeting then broke up.

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 impose
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 organi-
zation. But inasmuch as the many have an
interest in the other direction, and are
moreover in a better 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 be. For example, is there not a principle ap-
plied in other branches f the Customs, which might
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 migtt
be laid, or otherwise as determined. There is no
wan who could not go into a tea-shop, and in
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 a
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. If 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 suosequent process, that this is all be
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. or 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 4/. 103. from some or other of the offi-
ces that have received it, in a form skin to what is
now used in the case of declarants to less than 1501.
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
places than one, and a fine of 50/. in case of attempted
fraud. The business is simpler than might be thought.
For it has nothing to do with the absolute amount
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 1501. ; but these
are nothing but what must have been provided for
already, in the case of income from various sources
not amounting to 1501. in the whole.
An allowance, perhaps a considerable one, must be
made for the expense of this process of recovery. One
way to meet it would be by making a charge on each
of the recovering parties; but as this would virtually
be a tax on the poor in p
uldbe to
surbompoirttito t
on
it as
his •
alapodevdeurettiy,o:
or else meet it by an
fafrauoigrmemrteh:e.taapytriooeneedofstohfe thraete.taxiVith this allowance, and
perhaps a further one for the degree in which an in•
crease of the rate might sharpen men's wits or cou-
rage to attempt evasions, it would appear as if, so
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 I 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 ritIVITEEIB.—A letter from St. Do-
Icing°, March 19th, says:—" The brig harp, loading
here fur Liverpool, was chased off Mona Island, by two
suspicious vessels, one a herm, and the other a fell-
rigged brig. On the announcement of the fact to the
Dominican Government, they flitted out two armed
schooners, of 6 guns each, to go in quest of the two
above-named vessels, and after having fitted them ont,
declined sending them, affirming as an excuse, that they
had received information that the two vessels were
Mexican privateers."
Ii 01" INTELLIGENCE.-1‘ lAIDSTONE.—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 mat ket prices of this article, which are now
below the average of what they can be grown for. The
shouts the plants have made are stunted, and in most
cases will be pulled away as useless.—Maidstone Jeurnal