The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-09 00:00:00

House and country, and obtained a renewal for a
longer term than had been granted to any of his

prelecessors.

We pointed out the palpable

fraud at the time, but the nation was in-

toxicated with the flattering but delusive

expectation of getting rid of it altogether. We
showed that, although it might by a possibility be
done without in 1860, on the dropping of the

Long Annuities, no Minister would make the
attempt. He would always regard it as an
available fund, to provide for any possible
deficiencies, or to make further progress in the
removal of indirect taxes. Nothing, however,
would remove the scales from the popular sight ;
and Mr. GLADSTONE triumphed over his colleagues,
the Parliament, and the People.
We need not explain how speedily the delusion
was dispelled. In a single year the tax was
doubled ; the following it was further increased
to 16d. in the pound, at which it now stands,

and at which it will remain until April, 1858,
unless the pressure from without should compel
the Chancellor of the Exchequer to ab-

stain from availing himself of a paltry
and dishonourable quibble, and to take

the opinion of the Legislature upon the
entire question daring the ensuing session.
There is, perhaps, no better mode of enforcing
speedy discussion than pressing the proposition
advocated by the Metropolitan Association, for
reducing the charge to its original amount from
and after the termination of the financial year, in
April, 1857. The spirit of the Act, the inten-
tion of the Legislature, was clearly to grant the
additional duty for one year, and no longer, after
the termination of the War. The Precious
Treaty was signed at the latter end of March,
but as the ratification was delayed until towards
the close of April, Sir G. C. LEWTS attempts to
avail himself of a very discreditable dodge to
continue it for an additional year. Such an act
in private life would reflect indelible disgrace on
the perpetrator—would for ever disqualify him
from the friendship and association of honourable
and straightforward men ; and we cannot think
so badly of the chosen representatives of the
People as to suppose that they would sanction,
by approval, such a course.

By pressing that claim, by exhibiting an un
bending resolution to get rid at all events of the
excess of the charge from April next, the Finan-
cial Minister will becompelled to take the opinion
of the Hottse, and submit it to the will of the
majority. It will then be necessary to point out
the impropriety of the so-called equal taxation of
all incomes without reference to the source from
whence they may be derived, so that there may
be no excuse for pretending that the people had
acquiesced in the unfair assessment. Had it not
received the legislative sanction it would seem
an act of supererogation, a sort of fighting against
shadows, to adduce arguments to prove the absur-
dity of the case. A man with 3001. per annum
arising from welloircumstanced ground rents, or
the dividends orrlo,oool. Consols, has no trouble.
The tax is paid by his tenant, or deducted at the
Bank. There is no inquisitorial prying into his
most secret affairs—no smuggling by grasping
officials. All his receipts are available for his own
use and benefit. He has not to make provision
for the time when sickness or change of fashion
may reduce or destroy his resources ; or for his
wife and children, when the protector, the pro
vider has been removed to another world. But
Se professional man or tradesman has to make
large deductions, not only for insurance and
savings, but also for changes essential to the con-
duct of his business, and for which no allowance
is made, for bad debts, and a variety
lof other drawbacks. Every available
shil-
ling may be swept away by the collector,
and possibly vexatious costs added. If in debt,
he cannot sell out a few hundreds, which are no
longer subject to the tax, but must borrow money
at an exorbitant rate of interest ; while he is not
permitted to make any reduction of payment,
though a considerable portion of the fruits of his
exertions goes to satisfy the claims of creditors.
This is so palpably unfair that it requires only a
decided effort to insure success. Let the people,
then, exert themselves in due time. Let there
be a long pull, a strong pull, and, above all
things, a pull altogether, and the Chancellor of
the Exchequer must succumb to the clearly ex-
pressed wishes of the nation.

Is there anything in it ? We mean the appa-
rent interchange of courtesies between the rulers
of France and Prussia f The Empress EUGENIE,
who appears not only to be a good horsewoman,
but also to know it, is greatly taken with a horse
of a breed in the exclusive possession of the King
of PRUSSIA, and sees no reason why she should
not say so. The King of PRUSSIA, long-eared,
as Ambassadors are said, now and then offensively,
to make the Monarchs they represent, is quite
delighted at the opportunity to play the gallant
to so fair a lady, and the way being smoothed
presents her with a stud of the horses in questfbn.
The lady is grateful, the EMPEROR is gratified,
and the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour is
on the way to King Craccenor ere the horses have
reached Paris. All very natural and very proper.
Unfortunately, however, the very natural and
the very proper are now and then made a cloak
for sinister designs by despotic rulers of the pre-
sent day, so without affecting to be wiser than
our neighbours we are at least entitled to put the
question with which we commenced. Was there
any coincidence between the Empress's admira-
tion of " the coal black steed," and the probabi-
lity of Austria requiring a spur to quit the Prin-
cipalities after the coming Conference is ended,
or between the horses being put in the way of
the Empress's admiration, and the proposed
settlement of the affair at Neuchatel by Franco in
conjunction with this country, Austria, and possibly
Sardinia t Court flunkies will doubtless be very
much disgusted at any other interpretation being
sought for than that which lies on the surface.
No matter, if that interpretation be the right one,
we are not to blame for the little hesitation we
have shown in accepting it. It would. not be diffi-
cult for us to prove that an unusual interchange of
Court courtesies has generally turned out to have
had a significance unfavourable to some Power,
and mostly to the interests of a Free State. It
may be the case on the present occasion, just as
readily as not ; and, at all events, no harm is done
by a little speculation as to motives in an affair
so interesting. Have the poor Swiss nothing to
offer for ETELENIE'S admiration but their inde-
pendent spirit, and their resolution to vindicate,
even at the sword's point, their outraged rights ?
If they have not, alas for them I Neither
EMTEP.OR nor EMPRESS have any admiration
to spare for what Englishmen deem ono of the
noblest sights in Christendom. So far as Liberty
is concerned, the French EMPEROR and the Prus-
sian Time row in the same boat, and that carries
the black flag and a brace of eagles, birds of prey,
at present. There is another interpretation
which it is but fair to give. The absolute rules•
of France—the elect, it has been said, of the
sovereign People—though the traditions in vogue
at his Court, so far as ceremonial at least is
concerned, are associated with a period when, by