The Sun.
London, England, 1851-02-22 00:00:00

dwellings they inhabit, are affected in various wheys be
the levies of the Customs and Excise, just 23 though
their incomes were but the interest on realized capita
They pay for their light, they pay for their servants
and their carriages, if they have them, and duly
meet ell their assessed taxes—just as though they
were capitalists. They live in towns and pay heavy
contributions for the maintenance of the poor, nut
according to their reel, but their apparent means. In
what retpect, then. do they enjoy any pechlier exemp-
tiois which should justify the imposition upon thorn of
any peculiar burden? It it be said that the iecornt-tax
was an expedient for the reformation of the fiscal sys-
tem et the country, and that the trading and professioual
classes have received great benefits from , the system of
free imports, the answer is obvious indeed: The physi-
cian or haberdasher who eats a cheaper loaf and washes
it down with cheaper coffee, sweetened with cheaper
sugar taken frtm a cheaper basin, is in no respect more
benefited than the peer, the squire, the thindholder, the
life annuitant. What, then, is the reason or the
justice of tying him to the horns of the altar as a
fiscal sacrifice for the sake of his fellow-country-
men? Not only considered morally is this a pro•
found injustice, but politically speaking it is a grievous
blunder, as the event has shown. Wd will not here
speak of the extrusion from office of a Ministry which
a week since might have looked forward reasonably to a
long and pro: erous existence, or of the public confusion
inseparable from such an event. But of all the causes
that ever led to the dissolution of a powerful Ministry,
this refusal of Lord John Russell and his colleagues to
reconsider the assessment of the income-tax is the most
irrational upon record. Whatever maybe the political
turmoil incident upon a change in the Cabinet, at least
one of its consequences will be that the direct taxation
of the country will henceforth be placed upon a more
equitable basis.
CHRONICLE.—The House of Commons has seldom
met in a more curious and excited condition of mind
than that which urged its Members yesterday to crowd
every portion of the House. On ordinary occasions,
when the Budget has once been opened, the popular in-
terest in financial questions is blunted and satisfied.
The representatives of special interests continue, per-
haps, to press their claims, in the hope that the exemp-
tions which they severally seek may find some nook or
corner in the system which, in its general outline, is
completed and final; financiers by profession express
their opinions in detail, and endeavour to mould the
more pliable portions of the scheme into accordance
with their own fiscal theories; but the House in general
is content to leave the responsibility of balancing the
revenue and the expenditure to any' Ministry which
possesses its confidence. Sir Charles Wood, however,
is a financier of peculiar qualification. His budgets
have more than once been brought forward in apparent
confidence of success, to be withdrawn in defe-
rence to univereal disapprobation, and remo-
delled in their general outline, even when some of the
details have been retained. Thus it was with the pro-
posal to increase the income-tax in 1848, and with two
or three editions of the new Stamp Bill of 1850. Even
if his skill in the theory of finance were greater than
the dissatisfied critics of the City are willing to allow,
the Chancellor of the Exohequer has undoubtedly shown
a singular incapacity to anticipate the verdict of public
opinion on his project. The general' impression which
was left by his statement on Monday night was com-
prised in two well-founded conclusions—that the Budget
comprised as many blunders as proposals, and that, good
or bad, it would never be adopted by Parliament. His
financial explanation only stimulated curiosity—as the
propounding, and not the explanation, of a mystery.
The unapplied surplus of a million, .aucl the reduced
window-tax, were rather eliminated from the finan-
cial problem than seriously offered as a solution.
Whatever the system finally adopted may prove to
be, the first Budget is as unlikely to correspond with
the last, as the first tentative vote of the Conclave of
cardinals with the final election of a Pope. The univer-
sal disapprobation Of the press, expressing, for the mat
part in milder language, the criticisms which were uni-
versally uttered in all popular and commercial circles,
had, in four days, converted the original scepticism with
which Sir Charles Wood's communications were re-
ceived into a confirmed and unhesitaring disbelief. Nor
was the position of the Government without its effect in
increasing the general mystification.' The Aggression
measure had become stale and ridiculous, without ceas-
ing to be dangerous to its promoters. Although post-
poned, it still loomed in the distance, and must tie dealt
with in a Parliament whose temper might not be sweet-
ened by a previous exhibition of the financial incapacity
of the Ministers. Rumours of a dissolution began to
creep abroad, probably not without 'the sanction of the
Government; and, as if for an election placard, Lord
Joins Ruseell's motion respecting the Jews suddenly
appeared in the paper of notices. A fortnight
aeo the claims of the Jews were to be postponed
entil the Papal Aggression wasi dealt with. The
determination to bring forward the question on
Monday next, while the Aggression Bill stood f
he subsequent Friday, might seenesignificant of an in-
tention to dissolve, or might enlorceehe threat of disso-
tution. Mr. Locke King's success en Thursday showed
still more clearly the anarchy into which the Ministerial
party had been brought by the errors of their leaders.
Phe Premier's extorted promise to ntroduce a change
in the suffrage next year made it embarrassing for his
adherents to vote against his principles for the sake of
supporting his actual policy. It was clear that the alle-
giance of the majority was shaken; and the certainty
that the Budget would bo found to be untenable shook
the confidence even of the most favoured organs of
Governinent. Yesterday morning it was evident that
the journal which had most constantly enjoyed the con-
fidence of Downing-street was preparing, in the pro-
bable crash of the party, to leave a falling house. The
more faithful evening supporter
ef the Ministers en-
deavours to bluster out a desperate 'Case by making the
most of the threat of dissolution. In answer to the re-
mark that no question is at presant at stake which
renders an appeal to the constituencies proper or
necessary, we are informed that Lord John Russell is
prepared to go to the country
On a threefold s' cry,"
which would exceed in audacity any device of the
Tadpoles and Tapers whom the author of " Sybil" has
celebrated. The ill-used Minister, it seems, is to appeal
to the electors as a Protestant, as tie intended author of
a new Reform Bill, and above all es the patron of free
trade, The Protestant claim may,,perhaps, not be suffi-
cient with Church of England men, who see penalties
provided against the unoffending representatives of their
communion in Scotland; nor, perhaps, will the Irish con-
stituencies require any pledge of their members, except
that they shall do their best to driie from power the au-
thor of the Durham letter and of the Aggression Bill.
With these exceptions, we ad-nit the claim of the Mi-
nister on prejudiced constituencies who may uot be able
to find a more sincere or consistent advocate of No-
Popery views. But it is a happy device to appal to the
country on the franchise after the answer which was
given to Sir Joshua Walmsley, and the vote against Mr.
Locke King's motion; nor will Free-traders fail to
recognize the claims of a
Government which dis-
solves in the middle of a session, and in prefer-
ence to proposing any serious relief to trade and
industry. When we are told that the dissolu
tion is, after all, only a throat to secure the votes of-
nlembers who bold liberal opinions, we reply that the
Government might have united them, without menace
of compulsion, by a liberal and comprehensive policy. If
the loyalty," as it is cable I, of the friends of progress is
confined to the persons of the hereditary Whigs, they
ought at least to abstain from tempting it by measures
of religious persecution, and by ill-digested and imprac-
ticable protects of finance. The excitement which we
have described was raised to its height by the Protec-
tionist meeting summoned by Lord Stanley to hear the
decision of the leaders of the party immediately before
the meeting of the. House. We are of course not in the
secret of the consultations which took place in St. James's-
square ; but it is said that Lord Stanley's language was
studiously moderate, and that the less cautious Protec-
tionists were entreated for the present to forget or suspend
their pursuit of Protection. Me:Harries, as the financier
of the party, wasentrusted with an amendment, to be m seed
ou the Budget. The resolution was, we believe. to the
effect that the results of the incom ntax had, in nine
years, been accomplished. The House was at the same
time to be invited to pledge itself to maintain public
credit, and to commence the diminution of the income-
iax with a view to its eventual
and proxitnate abolition.
'Phi great part, dexterity displayed by the Protectionist
lead: rs will be genet ally aduaLted, although variously
judged. Their only chance of
a triumph depended on
the eappeessieg of the
peculiar opinions of their party
—in which, indeed, it is well
known that neither Lord
Stanley nor Mr. Disraeli
participate. The country
would not tett- . the open triumph of Protection, but
many would rejoice in the Abolition of the income-tax;
and, once in office, there would be time to consider the
policy which might tend to
secure it. It was
well known that Mr. Humo and other advanced
Liberals, not unaccompanied by a
sprinkling
of
moderate Whigs,, would suPPert the Protectionist
motion, either on its own merits, or for the purpose
of giving a warning to Government. A mirjarity
was within reach, and the spit of
the victory seemed
likely to remain with the pasty nillieh hni brought the
largest mass of forces into the fiele.
The result of Lord
Stanley's meeting was scarcely known in the House
when the time for commencing the financial debate
arrived. The impatience of all parties to be relieved
gave vigour to the
from suspense applause with which
successive protests against religious discussions in Per-
liament were received during
the conversation which
Sir Benjamin hall co:nmencod. Mn Hope's contradic-
tion of a charge brought
„against a
clergyman by' some
anonymous s'gentlemen—wocse statements were as
correct as those of anonymous gentlemen usually are--
WAS listened to with a patience Which was exchanged
for amused in lignation on the production of a letter from
the Bishop of London, which illustrated the idioayncracy
of that active prelate in a manner almost incredible, and
yet highly characteristic. Lord Dudley Stuart's com-
plaints of Lord Palmerston, though they produced re-
peated laughter, were trouts(' as an untimely interrup-
tion. At last the clerk read the order of the day, and
Lord John Russell rise, instead of his colleague, to an-
nounce that the further progress of the Budget was ad-
journed to Monday. In a few minutes the astonished
crowd had dispersed, and the whole of London was full
of conjectures. No portion of the cemmunity.,
was more
surprised and puzzled than the five hundred gentlemen
who heard the Minister's announcement. We believe
that its meaning was utterly unknown, except to those
possessing official information- Tile Caine of this sudden
resolution of the Government, and its result, will shortly
he known. At present the general opinion inclines to
the belief' that a dissolution will result from the Minis-
terial embarrassment—although, Perhaps, the fact that
the Premier, during the brief interval between
the termination of the Chhinet council and the
meeting of the House, proceeded to Bucking'
ham Palace and bad an andience of her Ma-
jesty, renders it at least c it
euthiY probable that
either the resignation or re-adjustment of the Cabinet
may be the immediate course adopted. A new
.13.udget,
to be brought forward by the present holders of office,