The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-03 00:00:00

our own generation. Subsequently he proceeds from
the data accumulated by the past, to the necessities
experienced by the present, and to the hopes indulged
in as to the future. Solicitous as we are to enter at
once and systematically into the examination of the
reasoning of Mr. MACGREGOR upon these themes
so vital to our national existence, we must
nevertheless restrict ouselves to one other quotation.
It is the last chapter of the fourth section of the
pamphlet, being remarks on the financial condition
of Great Britain. Those who bear in recollection
the larger work of the same author, " The Progress
of America from the Discovery by Columbus to the
year 1847," will peruse with the most profound
attention the following observations from the pen of
a political economist so peculiarly reflective as Mr.

MACGREGOR. He says—
" The question of the most immediate and of the
most pressing consideration, that which of all others in-
volves, under our artificial system of public and private
wealth, the most imminent dangers to the state, is that
of the heavy and unequal burdens, and the increased
expenditure during a period of peace with all the world.
" The history of the British revenue, expenditure,
and debt, though dry in its materials, and tedious and
repulsive in its details, has only been consecutively
written down to the beginning of the present century.
We cannot now enter into minute details; we are neces-
sarily compelled to be brief. We hold it as the first
great principle of moral, political, and publio integrity,
to maintain the national credit; we consider that the
minister who would consent to any measure which
would endanger that credit, as guilty of the greatest ad-
ministrative and public immorality. We consider it at
the same time an immoral and public dereliction of
duty to shrink from a searching and thorough investi-
gation of the expenditure, in order to ascertain how far
that expenditure can be reduced, and therefore enable
him to reduce the amount, and render equitable the im-
position of, the public taxation.
"It is useless for us now to advert to the great
public debt which constitutes our financial nightmare.
It was chiefly borrowed to maintain unnecessary wars—
we have consented as a nation to its expenditure; and,
under such circumstances does our accountability now
stand, that we must, or be eternally dishonoured, pay
the interest of the debt; which in fact, by changing
hands, and becoming a mere fund for trusts, and other
safety investments, has assumed, in every practical
sense, the character of a great national savings' bank.
" The interest, therefore, of this debt constitutes a
yearly public burden of nearly 29,000,0001. sterling,
which England and Scotland (for Ireland pays none of
it) must submit to pay. It can only be diminished by
reducing the interest, when the interest of mouey is
lower than the interest of the funds, or by paying off a
part of the capital. We see little prospect of the latter,
nor would it be just for the present generation to tax
itself highly for the benefit of posterity. The reverse
has been the conduct of our progenitors. The expen
diture may, however, be greatly reduced.
" Ist. By strict economy in the estimates and miscel-
laneous expenditure—not by miserable reductions of the
salaries of clerks, &c.
2cl. By an equal adjustment of all moneys corruptly
granted as perpetual pensions, (Sze.
" Bd. By the abolition of all useless offices.
" 4th. By the abolition of all sinecures whatever.
" sth. By relieving the revenues of England and
Scotland of the payment of the great deficiency between
the Irish revenue and the expenditure of Ireland.
" The next great financial reform, and one that will
be forced upon Parliament, is a thoroughly equitable sys-
tem of taxation.
" The neglect of financial reform, we consider as the
most formidable of all dangers to all classes—all credit,
the value of all property, real or otherwise, depends for
safety on the maintenance of the public credit. Failing
to provide the revenue to pay the quarterly dividends,
would constitute a national bankruptcy.
" It requires but little inquiry to be convinced that
the calamity of a stoppage of the payment of the divi-
dends, or interest of the national debt would break tip
every monetary and commercial engagement in the
United Kingdom. The rights of property, whether in
lands or moveables would be no longer sacred. Bank
stock, Indian stock, and all other stock, together with
private banks and private credit would all be involved in
the general calamity of a national failure. The social
calamity would be terrific.
" Take a contingent example.
" In the city of London and other large towns, few
families keep more ready money in their houses than
may be sufficient for the week's expense ; few have
more than the day's provision in their larders. As pri-
vate credit would fall with public credit, the grazier
could not trust the butcher, nor the latter the families
he supplied. The farmer would not trust the corn-
dealer, nor the latter the miller, nor the miller tke baker,
consequently, the latter must cease to supply his usual
customers. So on with all other trades and credits.
Therefore at whatever amount of taxation, the national
credit of England must and will be maintained.
Therefore the general weal of the empire, in regard
to employment, to agriculture, to trade, manufactures,
navigation, and revenue, demands a most searching in-
quiry into the expenditure, a most equitable revision of
taxation, and ought to be taken up by Parliament, with-
out reference to party or politics, but with the earnest
honest purpose of legislating for the solid and perma-
nent good and safety of our common country.
" The foregoing chapters have been written delibe-
rately, on mature consideration ; free from party, or
personal feelings, and with the earnest desire to draw
the attention of our rulers, whoever they be, of our
Parliament, and of all our fellow-men, in these king.
doms, to the lessons afforded us by the wisdom or folly
of foreign countries—to the groat blessings and-advan-
tages which we enjoy—to the dangers which menace
our happiness and security—and to those plain, tempe-
rate, yet efficient remedial measures, which we believe
to be practical, and which in reforming will not destroy,
or weaken—but which will uphold and strengthen the
palladiums of our civil, religious, and political liberties.
On another occasion we shall comment upon the
direct tendency of the philosophy by which the
whole of this remarkable pamphlet is inspired ; and
we shall then be afforded an opportunity of developing
still further our opinion as to the correctness of its
deductions.
.st

An extraordinary press of matter this day alone
prevents us from publishing a full and most accurate
report of the very able, and highly important judg-
ment of Mr. Commissioner Law, in re JAMEs
HENRY HANCE, delivered on Friday last, a short
report of which has already appeared in our columns.
The question involved in this case was whether the
debts of a former insolvency should be inserted in a
schedule filed under the 7 and 8 Vic., c'. 116 ; and
as a trader owing debts amounting to more than
3001., cannot present a petition for protection from
process under this Act, it was of great importance
that the point should be satisfactorily decided. In
many cases where a trader was compelled to insert
in his schedule his former debts, it had the effect of
increasing the entire amount beyond 3001.,
and consequently of preventl4:,him 'lra& ob.-
taining the benefit of thati salutary Actae The
Commissioners of the Court of Bankruptcy
(with the exception of the • CHARLES
WILLIAMS), held that , the debts under a former
insolvency should be inserted in a subsequent sche-
dule. Sir CHARLES WILLIAMS, hOVVRV9r, said "That
he did not believe it could be intended,' that bedause
a tradesman struggling with difficulties was twice
unfortunate, that he was therefore necessarily to' go
to prison a second time, which he mused() if con-
sidered disentitled to relief under the new Act, on
account of former liabilities, from • which he
had been declared discharged:l.: 'On ' the' transfer
of the jurisdiction under the 4 and 6 Vic., c. 116,
and 7 and 8 Vic., c. 96, from the Commissioners of
Bankruptcy to the Commissioners of the Insolvent
Debtors' Court, many petitions were disitissed by the.
Chief Commissioner and Commissioners H.ARRIS and
PHILLIPS, in consequence of not having the debts of
former insolvencies inserted. In re "Bonn," heard
before the Chief Commissioner, debts which had
been incurred twenty-five years previously, were
held to deprive the insolvent of the right of
petitioning. In other cases of equal_ hardship
petitions have been dismissed on the same grounds
Mr. JAGOE, in his able and practical werk on.
insolvency, questions the soundness of those decisions,
and upholds that of Sir CHARLES WILLIAMS. And
on looking through the eases we cannot see how any
other conclusion could be come to, for if debts long
since discharged by the statute were to be inserted
in a schedule, giving a right to the owners of such
debts to claim dividends, it would upset the decision
in " Barton v. Tattersall," (the soundness of which
has never been questioned), which decided that the
creditors of a former insolvency cannot claim property
vested in the assignee of a subsequent insolvency
unless there was a surplus property after satisfying
the last contracted debts. It is rather strange that
the Chief Commissioner of the Insolvent Debtors'
Court grounded his decision on the case of " Jellis v.
Mountford," by which a schedule :creditor was per-
mitted to issue a commission of bankruptcy, and to
use the amount inserted in the schedule as his peti-
tioning debt; he also stated that he did not wish
to disturb the decision of the Commissioners of Bank-
ruptcy, and would follow the precedents established
by them. This is one of the many cases in which
precedent misleads, for if the first case should be im-
properly decided, those which follow must be equally

* By Sir John Sinclair, whose history of the revenue
down to 1805, is a most valuable work, though it
abounds with fallacious opinions. Don Paul Prebrer, a
Spanish gentleman, wrote, in his own language, an his-
torical but incomplete sketch of the British revenue
down to a latter period. It was translated into French,
find I believe into English, but it attracted little atten-
tion.