The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-24 00:00:00

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SPAPE I
THE INCOMI? TAX GRIBP:A.ZYCZ.
griiioy.ttc*.
(Peorn the Horning Post.)
. Tre fee_-lirg against the ittcoine ties ex.lijhits
self in larger eattusion and speaks in loader Vow
..• A
fa 11:1,
every day, the traders and the manucturers,iike: tale
the towns being foremost iu numbers, and in ikki S
energy, in complaint, and organised opposition. ,
This, at first sight, seems singular, for the traders
and manufacturers are the class which, above all
others, is enabled to escape, and does escape, that
full pressure of the tax which is borne by the land, s
and by the possessors of professional and fixed in-
comes, It was distinctly shown. in the progress of
the inquiry conducted by the Income Tax Com-
mittee, that none• of our trading towns, neither
Manchester, nor Birmingham, nor Leeds, nor any
of that class, either paid upon, or were assessed
to, an amount approaching anywhere near—we
may say, not within one-half—of their real in-
comes, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer it was
well known did not deny the fact that the Govern-
ment was aware of the fact, and did not dare en-
force a true assessment, lest the attempt should
break down the tax. Knowing this, one is somewhat
surprised that this should be the class to cry
cwt au rmi yl
explaintanc world,e
at
to,andb ne
emw.
ah
talt wt
rhasis
atnthEdhe b ene
zahetl
ahrgc
anohddgu
iaobi
out the first and the loudest against the burden
of the impost. A little examination of the mone-
h:itignadfgsaournroandnitushea:iedtnuctriihra
rpaotientoftoinwtehriecsht ttliileatlanakkeosf
manu-
facturing class feel at this moment in a peculiar
degree, and in au exceptional manner, the pressure
of taxation.
In this country there is a far larger proportion
than in any other of men who, accumulators of
capital, prefer obtaining profit from it by loaning
it tq the operative conductors of trade and menu-
factureatoengaging personally in the details them-
selves, and to such a pitch has the organisation of -
credit been carried that .the greater part of the
commercial transactions are conducted by two
separate parties in conjunction—the dealer in
money and the dealer in produce. Nor is the
practice confined to the larger and more important s
classes of bu:siness—it 'extends arid is applied
equally to the retail trading al our towns, and even
villages. The manufactures, the exports, the im-
ports, and the daily sales by retail overthe counter,
all rest upon the basis of a huge ramified system
tf• credit; and it is evident therefore that the terms
of all mercantile contracts under such an organiea-
thin will depend upon, and be regulated by, the
rate of interest at which money is loaned by capi-
talists to the conductors of enterprise. Every
raising or lowering of the rate must produce a cor-
responding influence upon the conditions of com-
mercial enterprise ; and if any circumstances should
occur that are productive of large or violent oscil-
lations during the currency of an enterprise, in
which the dealer in money and the dealer in pro-
duce are jointly concerned, it is equally clear that
the one or the other will eufler a loss as the oscil-
lation is in a downward or an upward direction.
Of the two, however, the dealer in produce is always
liable to the most injurious loss because the degree -
in which he loses—especially if the margin of calcu-
lated profit was in the first instance narrow—may
bring his net returns below the first outlay, while
the money-dealer only loses by not getting the ad-
vantage of the rise—a negative loss as compared
with the loss of the other. For some months past
the course of events in the money market has been
adverse to the dealer in produce to a most extraor-
dinary and unusual degree. Violent, sudden, and
extensive fluctuations in the rate of interest have de-
teriorated the value of that property and securities,
contracted their credit, and converted fairly-calcu-
lated profit into absolute loss ; and this in a period
exhibiting, characteristics which might fairly have
been expected to exclude all such irregularity,
commerce being, though flourishing, in a steady
routine condition, neither distended by speculation,
nor in danger of collapse from exhaustion. Indeed,
such has been the nature of the fluctuations, and
such their origin, that no caution would have suf-
ficed to secure the trader against their injurious
action. Place it once in the power of au oligarchy,
holding council and making edicts iu secret, to de-
ermine the rate of interest, and all security, all
certainty; all steadiness of commerce, in a country
where commerce is conducted upon credit, is at au
end. This is the case here in England now. The
commercial world have just felt, nearly to the full,
the evil the power is capable of creating, and they
tre still staggering under the blow. Is it sur-
prising that people thus suffering should begin
to cry out, and should apply themselves to
shake from their shoulders what they conceive
to be the least firmly fixed portion of the burden
they bear ? A tax professedly temporary,
and in part actually expiring, has the appearance
of being less of a fixture, and of being more
immediately removable by a sudden exertion,
than an institution like the Bank Charter, and
hence it is that the traders of our towns are more
disposed to attempt to relieve themselves by an
attack upon the income tax than by laying siege in
form to the Bank and its machinery. -
Whether it is, however, the ono or the other that
is destined to bear the brunt of the attack which
justifiable discontent will urge onward, we warn _
the Chancellor of the Exchequer that he will find
it henceforth impossible to maintain both. If he
be bent upon maintaining intact the bungling ma-
chine which Sir R. Peel permitted Lord Over-
stone and other large money dealers to foist upon
him, he must make up his mind to surrender for
ever the privilege of retaining those elements of
high and productive taxation which have so of ten
_ ea_
served the country in her hour of noenedvineed
The coun-
trybr cannot, and will not, we are c
the two species of pressure—that which is caused
of the
sbytatthe,eatbadxattbioant taxation of
profits imposed by the Bank
n order to get gold
owfh iperhofirtsesufol results from the
Ptuh rePt°' e
wn
bt into itsq uce os
tffi eo rbs
—ofinthics°-existent operation. The
le
Bank Charter must come
on, we apprehend, in the ensuing session of Parlia-
ment, and must be thoroughly discussed and abso-
lutely disposed of one way or the other. It is not
safe for such a commercial nation as this, with our
transactions largely—cnormonsly, we may say—
increasing at decreasing profits, •to sit from one
year's end to the other upon such a barrel of gun-
powder as the Bank Charter, with no other secu-
rity against an autumnal explosion than the hope
that no Government would again be so foolish as
in future to lot a fire burn up to the point of 1817.

STATE OF TRADE.

MANCHESTER, DEC. 23.

oosnnaptgleimemaaontef.
In cotton cloth a eoasiderableol
somewhat
ht
the
"businessefmo ra
rh
market
by
tnhiedn ware-
,
est for th
upon all kinds of fabrics, anda'•ki
an advance over last week's rates. ellers are
advance of Id. u
houses some large clearances have been made
alarmed at the
gb
rapidoeoi
This
being,
gs
bespeaks,
rtbihs
but
that
t haveof
ft h sa
manufacturers
hnr ea
atwl tsh ep
material.
na t
stateeai the
i;aei. A t
many a day t
there are no
present
symptoms of a reaction, and there i
should go up so as to make the trade a a fear lost cotton
not. so as to stop the operations of th one of great risk, if
home trade houses have at length c e manufacturer. The
goods, and are consequently buyingemmenced looking after
the continued activity of at some disadvantage,
having apparently taken shippersthem for the last fortnight
spiunerg have been askincr an by surprise. For yarns
over the rates of Friday ?est. advance of id. to id. pa lb.
them by the upward This advance, fog upon
emir
been freely given, but it se of the cotton-market, has not
while something between has been obtained here and there,
readily paid. At the en last and preeent rateenhda:abLern
day last an immense terms current Fridayon a
The
demand has proceed business could have been done.
and foreign, proceeded from buyers for all markets, home
. and the trade is in healthy
state.
Such
a bugling,
" close on the eve of Christmas, has not been
known for many years
The circular of * Messrs. John 'Sing and Co. says
:
tFrom Tuesday last to the close of the week we continued
o have a steady demand for nearly all kinds of goods, and
a fair amount of business Was done at gradually hardening
prie-s. Yesterday and to-day, however, owin to the
es ex-
ettement in Liveipool and the consequent highger pric of
yarns, a further advance of 3d. per piece on shirtinga and
-..adapollama and 10: per piece on Jaconets is asked, but
so far without success, and the business of the day is con-
sequently much restricted.

LEEDS, DEC. 23.
There has been a good demand for !sloth in the publio
markets this morning, and, in proportion to t
he been sold.
e quaatity
offered for sale, more than average quantity h
The stocks in the halls are much lower than usual at this
season of the year, and are not at all in excess of the de-
last Tuesday, buyers acting with
mand. Prices continue very firm.
The woollen market at Huddersfield was scarcely so
as
sf
ictauvitron. The demand for spring goods
and theprospect of the trade generally°
After Christmas
. much more demand fir
abrgisook
dtaddeaayi
tured in this district may be expected
thi ,
sho
eswa
get
ivoseofrds,
cs
is active,
uf,,
Prices of both cloths and wools remain steady.
r_—__

LAMENTABLE ACCIDENT.—A. fatal accident occurred
at the railway station, Louth, Lincolnshire, a few days
ago, under distressing circumstances. The Rev. Wm.
Mason, vicar of Bdsby, near Alford, was standing on
the platform with one of his daughters, waiting
for a
passenger train, by which he intended to return home,
wben'an engine, rushing through the station, caught the
rev. gentleman by his coat, which was a long one, and,
the cloth becoming entangled in the crank connecting
the driving wheels, he was dragged down, whirled iever
times round, and then dashed upon the platforM. He
was taken up quite dead. The rev. gentleman was in
his 58th year, and has left a numerous fatal'.
THE ROYAL BRITISH BANK.—At the Court 'of Bank-
was declared under the estate of the
ruptcy yesterday a first dividend of ss. 6.).
British Bank
in the pound
on debts amounting to 380,0001., and the assignees have
Royal
not retained anything to meet legal or other expenses.
It is expected that a further dividend will be declared in
about six weeks. Credit is given to the assignees and
their solicitors for the promptitude exhibited in dividing
the funds in hand, and, bad not Chancery proceedings
interfered, 103, would have been before this distributed.