The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-24 00:00:00

THE SUN,

COURT CIRCULAR.

The Queen walked yesterday in the royal gardens
of Buckingham Palace.
The christening of the infant daughter of the Mar-
quis and Marchioness of Abercorn took place yester-
day, in the private chapel in Buckingham Palace.
The sponsors were—his Royal Highness Prince
Albert, the Countess Cowper, and the Viscountess
Jocelyn. The infant was named " Albertha Frances
Anne." The Hon. and Rev. C. Leslie Courtenay
officiated at the ceremony.
Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of
Saxe-Coburg visited her Royal Highness the Duchess
of Kent yesterday, at her residence, Clarence House,
St. James's.
His Royal Highness Prince Albert rode out en
horseback yesterday, accompanied by his Royal High-
ness the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Count Arthur
Mensdorff.
The Royal Children took walking and pony exer-
cise yesterday, in the royal gardens.
The royal dinner party at the Palace yesterday
evening, included her Royal Highness the Duchess
of Kent, their Royal Highnesses the Duke and
Duchess of Saxe• Coburg, Count Arthur Mensdorti,
his Excellency Baron de Beust, the Marquis and
Marchioness of Clanricarde, Lady Fanny Howard,
Madame la Baronne de Wangenheim, Baroness de
Speth, the Earl of Aberdeen, the Right Hon. Wil-
liam Lascelles, and Baron Fritsch.
Lord Elphinstone has succeeded the Earl of Morley
as the Lord in Waiting to the Queen, and Major the
Hon. Robert Boyle has succeeds d Colonel Berkeley
Drummond as the Groom in Waiting to her Majesty.

The Hon. F. Scott, M.P., had an interview with
Sir George Grey yesterday, at the Home• office.
A deputation from the Steam Shipowners' Associa-
tion, consisting of Mr. Anderson, M.P., Mr. Williams,
Mr. Wilson, Mr. Hall, and Mr. Morgan (secretary),
and accompanied by Mr. Brown, M.P., Mr. Forster,
M.P., and Mr. Bryden (Parliamentary agent), had an
interview yesterday with the Right Hon. Henry
Labouchere, at the Board of Trade.
Mr. John Duncuft, M.P., had an interview with
the Right Hon. Edward Strutt yesterday, at the
office of the Commissioners of Railways in the Board
of Trade. _ _ .

Mr. Sotheron and Colonel Buckley had an inter.
view yesterday, with Sir George Grey.
Sir Charles and Lady Mary Wood had a dinner
party yesterday, at their residence in Downing-street.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS.
From the Votes and Proceedings of the House of Commons.)

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 23.
STANDING ORDERS COMMITTEE.
The following Resolutions were reported from the above
Committee :-
1. That in the case of the Edinburgh and Glasgow
Railway (No. 2—Amendment of Acts, New Branches,
Abandonment of Branch, and Increase of Capital)
petition, the standing orders ought to be dispensed with:
—That the parties be permitted to proceed with their
Bill, on the insertion of a Clause restraining them from
raising the road occurring at or near the distance of one
furlong three chains, as measured on the section of the
Branch marked A. B. on the plan, from the commence-
ment thereof, to a greater height than 11 feet 5 inches.
2. That in the case of the Edinburgh and Northern
Railway (Roscobie, Keltyhead, and Glencraig Branches)
petition, the standing orders ought to be dispensed with:
—That the parties be permitted to proceed with their
Bill, with the exception of that part which authorises
the proposed Deviation of the Dunfermline Branch.
3. That in the case of the Midland Great Western
Railway of Ireland (Deviation Line from Mullingar to
Athlone) petition, the standing orders ought to be dis-
pensed with:—That the parties be permitted to proceed
with their Bill, with the exception of the Clause ex-
tending the time for taking land to three years.
4. That in the case of the Great Yarmouth Coal
Duties petition, the standing orders ought to be dis-
pensed with :—That the parties be permitted to proceed
with their Bill, with the exception of such parts as alter
or amend the Act of sth Anne and the 6th William 4th,
provided that the same be presented not later than three
clear days from the presentation of this report.
That the Committees on this and the three preceding
Bills do examine, in the first place, how far such orders
have been complied with, and do report the same to the
House on the report of the Bill.
5. That in the case of the Great Northern Railway
(Deviations in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and
Yorkshire, and Enlargement of Boston and Lincoln
Stations) petition, the standing orders ought to be dis-
pensed with :—That the parties be permitted to proceed
with their Bill.

•
6. That in the case of the Edinburgh and Northern
Railway and Stirling and Dunfermline Railway (Queens-
ferry and Inverkeithing Branch:_!s) petition, the standing
orders ought to be dispensed with:—That the parties be
permitted to proceed with their Bill.
7. That in the case of the Royston and ifitchin Rail-
way (Extension to Cambridge and Branches) petition,
the standing orders ought to be dispensed with:—That
the parties be permitted to proceed with their Bill.
8. That in the case of the Glasgow, Barrhead, and
Neils ton Direct Railway (Amendment and Branches)
petition, the standing orders ought to be dispensed with :
—That the parties be permitted to proceed with their

Bill.
9. That in the case of the Dublin Consolidation Im-
provement petition, the standing orders ought not to be
dispensed with.
First eight Resolutions agreed to.—Report to lie on
the table.

The following Railway Bills were ordered to be
brought in:—
Great Northern (Deviations in Lincolnshire, Notting-
hamshire, and Yorkshire, and Enlargement of Boston
and Lincoln Stations).
Glasgow, Barhead, and Ncilston Direct (Amendment

and Branches, &c.)
Edinburgh and Glasgow (No. 2—Amendment of Acts,
New Branches, Abandonment of Branch, and Increase
of Capital).
Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland (Deviation
Line from Mullingar to Athlone).
Royston and Hitchin (Extension to Cambridge and
Branches).

THE NAVIGATION Laws.—Last night, at seven
o'clock, a public meeting was held at the Eastern Insti-
tution, Commercial-road, for the purpose of adopting
the most prompt and effectual measures for opposing the
repeal of the navigation•laws, or any important relaxa-
tion of the principles on which they are founded. Mr.
M. Wigram presided on the occasion, and the large
room in which the meeting took place was crowded to
excess. There could not have been less than two
thousand persons connected with the shipping interest
present, and throughout the proceedings the utmost
unanimity prevailed. The assembly was addressed by
Mr. George F. Young, Mr. John Robertson, Mr. Thomas
Teighe, Mr. Spencer, and other gentlemen, and resolu-
tions were adopted in conformity with the objects for
which the meeting had been convened. Tho business of
the evening was disposed of in about an hour and a-half,
for at nine o'clock the proceedings had terminated.
SERIOUS ACCIDENT ON THE TTNE.—A serious
accident, resulting in the loss of four lives, occurred on
Tuesday last at the works of the High Level bridge in
course of being erected over the Tyne at Newcastle. A
party of joiners and smiths were proceeding, after the
dinner hour, from the shore on the Newcastle side to the
nearest coffer-dam, in order to bolt the piles, an opera-
tion which could only be done at low water. Fourteen
of them had got into the boat, and all of them were
standing up, the boatmen sculling with one oar behind,
when the boat struck against a pile, and the shock caused
the men, many of whom were unaccustomed to the water,
to stagger, whereby their weight was thrown, to one side
and the boat upset, and the whole party precipitated
into the water. The boat was not more than a dozen
yards from the shore, and three or four of the men con-
trived to clear the ruck, and reached the shore in
safety. One who was an excellent swimmer nearly
lost his life by his foot being seized by one of the
others. Both were carried some distance down the
stream, but the swimmer contrived to keep his head
above water till death compelled his comrade to relin-
quish his grasp; and then he swam ashore, and was taken
up greatly exhausted. The others, though unable to
swim, succeeded in keeping themselves from sinking till
the police boat and some others which were immediately
put off, reached them, with the exception of four, who
were afterwards discovered to be missing. The grap-
pling irons were immediately set to work, but when
their bodies were found they were beyond the means of
resuscitation. One of the sufferers, when taken out of
the water, had his tin can in his hand. They were all
healthy young men in the prime of life. One of them
was married only a few weeks ago. Another had only
commenced work on the noon of that day, and had not
in fact got started. The whole party had been in a
public-house kept by one of the foremen, where they
had been detained some minutes by the rain; and while
the man about to commence work, and another men who
had only been set on the day before, paid what is termed
their "footing"—an allowance of beer to be drunk by
the gang of workmen with whom they are associated in
the works. None of the men were, however, under the
influence of liquor at the time; and the occurrence was
wholly accidental.
MEETING 01 ATTORNEYS IN OPPOSITION TO THE
CERTICIDATE MlTY.—Yesterday afternoon a meeting of
London and provincial attorneys was held at Lyon's-inn
Hall, for the purpose of taking measures for obtaining
the repeal of the certificate duty, or the deduction of the
duty from the amount of income-tax paid by attorneys.
Mr. Brcmridge, M.P. for Andover, in the chair. Mr.
Harrison moved the following resolution :—" Thot the
certificate duty was originally imposed to aid the sup-
plies in the nature of an income-tax, and that attorneys
have been compelled to pay, in addition, the property
tax, and all the taxes which they pay in common with
the rest of the community." Mr. Clark having seconded
the resolution, it was carried unanimously. After some
discussion Mr. Carew moved—" That the certificate
duty is unjust, unfair, and oppressive in its principle,
and therefore that steps should be taken for its imme-
diate repeal." The resolution was seconded and carried
unanimously. On the motion of Mr. Ilooper, seconded
by Mr. Stephenson, a committee was then appointed to
carry out the objects of the meeting. A vote of thanks
was then passed, and the proceedings terminated.
DISAPPEARANCE OF THE CHOLERA IN RUSSIA.—
A letter from St. Petersburgh, of the 7th, states that
the cholera had disappeared from the provinces of Pensa,
Woronesch, Toula, and Taurida, and from Cherson and
the neighbourhood. In the provinces Nenij•Novogorod,
Koursk, and Kiew, the malady had not made any fresh
progress; whilst in those of Podolia, Volhynia, and
Minsk, it had become more intense.

THE INCOME-TAX.

The proposed increase of the income-tax is likely to
work its own cure in one respect. Upon the whole it
may be judged right that this country should be brought
under direct taxation. This may, or may not, be sound
policy. It is, however, unfair in the highest degree, where
a billet should be evenly distributed, to quarter a Field-
Marshal and staff upon or.e proprietor, and let another
off with a corporal. The unequal imposition may be borne
as long as it is inflicted with moderation, and while there
was a hope of relief, simply because the victims of its
operation are not goaded up to resistance point. Keep
on, however, adding "last ounces" to the camel's back
and the patient animal has but one of two courses
open for its adoption. It must either submit to a
permanent derangement of the spine, or take a
good roll in the sand, and dispose of keepers,
drivers, burdens, and last ounces once for all,
and hare done with them for ever. We do not re-
member in the whole history of taxation anything more
unjust than the rating of professional men to that which
is, as far as they are concerned, called by the misnomer
of the income-tax. In the year 1841 it was calculated
that the three professions of divinity, law, and physic,
contained upwards of :60,000 persons. Add to these
60,000 all persons in the civil employment of Govern-
ment, or of private firms, or of individuals, where the
incomes of the employed exceed 1501. per annum; take
officers in the army and navy, from the ensign
or cornet, who is still under the necessity of ex-
tracting honey from the paternal hive, to the half-
pay admiral or general with his sixty years' service,
his wounds, and his 8001. per annum; take, in fact,
all persons in the kingdom who maintain them-
selves and their families by the wages of their labour,
skilled or unskilled, and whose incomes exceed the
amount mentioned above, and it will be seen that by the
operation of the income-tax, and on a very low calcula-

tion as compared with the landowner or the fundholder,
they pay in the proportion of seven to one. There can be
no valid reason assigned for any further submission to this
flagrant injustice. Now or never is the time to make a
stand. We should esteem a man unworthy of serious argu-
ment who could for a moment understand the intention
of public men of all parties to make the tax perpetual.
We are saddled with it as securely as with the hospitable
" Customs," or the domestic felicity of the " Excise."
This income-tax is like Bishop Heber's noiseless fabric,
which, we are informed on the same authority, grew
up silently, like a tall palm-tree. Mr. Geulburn or Sir
Charles Wood, as Chancellors of the Exchequer, must
manipulate on their neighbours' pockets; we cannot
quarrel with them for that, only let them take from all
alike. Public bills must be paid as well as private ones.
When the fundholder comes with a receipt and a smile
to remind us of that little balance of " thirty millions,"
we are compelled to disburse just as freely as though
it were Madame Larose, the milliner's playful
addition to the private agony of Christmas times.
The reason usually assigned for keeping the
hard-worked part of the community in the interior
of Phalaris's bull for a longer period than their neigh-
bours is, that it is so hard to distinguish between cases.
This was Sir Robert Peel's guillotine pretext on the first
imposition of the tax—the Whig Government have, we
presume, in adopting his policy, adopted his arguments.
Shadowy annuitants and visionary rent-charges are con-
jured up before the imagination of the Minister. Because
official ingenuity cannot meet all cases, it refuses to
grapple with any. The argument just amounts to that.
Now, we will undertake to say that any one of the official
assignees in Basinghall-street, if he be fit for his place,
would in three weeks' time solve any or all of the Minis-
terial hesitations as to the equitable apportionment of the
tax. It is just as easy to calculate property from income as
income from property. The mystery thrown over the
subject is merely a delusion. It is the income arising
from the interest upon property
.that should be taxed
to put all on a footing of equality. Professional skill
vests as it realises, and then it falls rightly within
the scope of the tax. It is trifling with patience
and common sense to require of us the ad-
mission that the clerk in Somerset-house who will
now have 121. 10s. stopped out of his income of
2501. per annum is on the same footing with the
owner of acres of fee-simple to the same amount. No
There is another reason why the professional
classes have been chosen as the victims of successive
Ministers, and of this we will speak presently. A further
anomaly remains behind. We find in Lord John's finan-
cial statement a pompous enumeration of how much has
been done for the humbler classes of the community.
The object of all the recent policy of the Exchequer
has been to relieve them. Good. They have been re-
lieved, other classes have not. This would appear a
reason the more for subjecting those who have been
relieved in common with those who have not been re-
lieved to the operation of the tax. Why should income
under 150/. be excepted from the fiscal shears when
every burden has been removed that could affect the
fortunate possessors of 1491. 19s. Hid. per annum ;
The answer is—it would be impossible to reach them,
just as it was in the former case impossible to apportion
the tax on an equitable principle. One almost begins to
suspect that where the disturbing forces are so great and
so numerous, the theory of a property-tax is more fit
for a Utopia of conscientious mathematicians titan for
this rough, hardworking, struggling—we grieve to add—
deceitful, every-day world. No, the real reason why
the industrious section of the community, which have
hitherto paid the tax, have been again singled out, and
will, unless they strenuously exert themselves, be un-

equally subjected to this tax in perpetuity, is that they
are comparatively unrepresented in either house. Make
the owners of fixed property, of the land which pays nn
legacy duty, contribute their equit.bie share, and the
Lords would start up in arms. Touch the humbler
classes, and the polling-books will have strange tales to
tell, such A% Edinburgh and Lambeth hare already
shown to he possible. Professional men are in this un-
fortunate dilemma—that they are either unrepresented
in the llouse, or if any of their class struggle in there,
it is in the shape of an expectant lawyer. The learned
gentleman is more occupied with attorney•generalships
and puisne judgeships than with the interests of his class.
Professional men are, however, powerful out of doors,
and if they are not disposed to submit to this barefaced
extortion, it is time they should make ther power felt.
Let the man who by labouring day and night earns 5004
per annum for the support of his family remember that
when he is called upon to pay 251. out of that 5001. to
this impost, ho is just paying in a proportion seven times
greater than the idle possessor of land. It cannot be
that such an injustice should be longer endured.—Times.