The Sun.
London, England, 1851-06-02 00:00:00

DINGLE UNION.

Mr. REYNOLDS rose to usk the Chief Secretary
for Ireland, if the R.-v..rend Mr. 14:.wis and the 1-10,vet end
Mr. Go.drnan, the Protestant chaplains of the Dingle
Union Workhou,e. have been dismissed by the Board of
Guardians, an.l if so, whether th•'ir removal has been
s ,netioned h} the Poor-law Gimmissioners.
Sir W. SOMERVILLE said he bad no reason to be-
lieve that the Board of Guardians had removed either of
the gentlemen.

INCOME TAX.

Mr. HUME nominated the Select Committee to in-
quire into the subject of the income-tax, consisting of
he following eeetlemen :—Mr. Flume, the Charcellor
of the Exchequer, Mr, Horsrean, Mr. Herries, Mr.
!Abele:here. Lord Harry Vane, Mr. Di-raeli, Mr.
Thomas Baring, Mr. Henley, Mr. Cehden, Mr.
Frederick Peel, Mr. Roebuck, Mr. Ricardo, Mr.
Vesey, and Mr. Beckett Denison. The cow sa
he thought which would have to be puma d
by this Committee in their labours would be, to as-
certain the workings of the tax in all its ways, and
to see whether any mode could be adopted to
render it more fair Bed • trial, and as little as
postoble oppressive to the ittuustry f the people. He
lot ked forward to the present enquiry, to render
the tax a means of maiwaining one uniform s3stum
of chlrges in the country without the necessity
of more extraerdieery charges which they had
witnessed of late years, and which he contendel even if
they were for the better yet at first produced 1-ss evils.
His earnest wish was to retain a permanent system.
Mr. BERRIES said when he had voted for the
motion of the Hun. Member opposite to limit the tax for
one year, he certainly did not mean his vote to involve
au (absent to the present inquiry, and more especially
when be now perceived that the intention with
which the Honourable Member went into it was
not to abolish the tax but to mold it, cer-
taiely, if he could , at all events, to make
it permanent. That principle he differed from
altogether. There was also another point on which he
differed from the Hon. Member, and that was that the
chief grievance of the tax was in schedule E. In his
opinion it was schedule D which wasmost faulty and unjust.
The Hon. Gentleman had adverted to Mr. Pitt, but he
had forgotten that there was a wide difference between
the circumstances of 1798 and those of the present
time. The tax might bare been expedient then, but
it was totally uncalled for now. To show the
injustice of the tax be might menden an instance of ine-
quality which had come under his own observation. A
certain inaneacturer had re turned his profits at 70,000/.
a year; but the local commissioners were dissatisfit d
with that retire, and in order to avoid a full investiga-
tion into the whole of his private drifts he was obliged
to pay the tax upon 130,0001 But that was only one
instance of its itijustoce.—(bear, hear.) Now, with
regard to the Committee. be did not think it bad
been fairly selected, and he was very much afraid that it
would accomplish no useful end. The tax was full of
in( qualities, ui just in its operation, and liable to encou-
rage fraud, and he therefore (nought the beat thing that
cuuid be done was to abandon the tax altogether.
Colonel SIB ramp thought the tax in any shape
would be objectionable, and be agreed with the Right
Hon. Gentleman that the prop aed enquiry could lead to
no good result. He complained that no Member had
been aelteted to serve on the Committee who
would be likely to represent the interest of the army and
navy. He, for one, thought officers in the army and
navy, who lived upon weir pay, ought to be exempted)
from the pay went of the tax, and he was, on that ace
count, the more annoyed at the omission referred to.
Mr. V. SMI ra bad come down to the House under
the impression that there was nothing else to do but to
nominate the Committee, but it appeared to him now that
the appointment of any Committee at all was an
open questtot . If it was he was quite ready to vote
that there should be no Committee, for he was averse
to shitting any part of the responsibility
which duly belonged to Government on to
the shoulders of a doe .n Members of the H use. What
would this Committee have to do supposing was ap-
pointed? At one time it was supposed that ite
object of its appointment was the t quallsation of the
tax, but now it swat', d the questions to be decided
gas bow tar !yid could be relieved from its operation, arid
if that really were so, bow could the Committee arrive
at any satisfectory conclu,ion on that point, when nine
,qetnuers proposed to be nominated would represent
towns, and only six countiesr— heat.) He hoped
the House would make some alteration in tee coostou
teal ef the Curnmitt, e it they were to have any at all.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER had un-
derstood that the tax way to be continued tor a year,
anti, in the meanwhile, a Comautt:ee was to be
appointed with a view of rendering it more
Neal in its operation before it was rendered
permanent. The discussion which had. just taken place
showed the inconveuieece which arose from two para. a
professing opposite principles uniting to carte
a particular minion, because now it seemed that while
one side wished to improve the tax with a view of
rendering it permanent, the other wanted to get rid
of the tax altogether.—(Bear, hear.) Tne Government
could not accede to the la4er proposal, and they
bad consequently no eke; mauve but to consent to the
appointment of the Committee, sold now that such a
motion had beets agreed to, their object ought
to be, so to constitute the Committee that
it should represent every shade of feeling in the House.
The Hun. Gentleman who had named their Committee
appeared to have been actuated by that desire, and
he thought on the whole, that the Committees us
it now stood on the paper, was open to little or
no objection whatever. He, however, hoped the sugges-
tion of the Honourable and Gallant Member for Lincoln
was well worthy of attention, and if any Gentleman
could be placed on the Committee who could
represent the feelings of the army and the navy on this
outflow, of the income-tax, it was extremely advisable to
do so —(1-leer, beer.)
Mr. FRESUFIELD moved as an amendment that the
order for the appointment of the Cummittee be read fur
the purpose of lef-itig discharged.
Mr. DISRAELI rose and was
(LEFT SPEAKIN(I.)

THE ATLA:NTIC AND PACIFIC

RAILWAY PROJECT.
The letter from Mr. Whitney in the Times of the 17th
of April, describing his proposed railway aoro 's the
American continent from the Atlsmie to the Pacific,
has excited attention, and led to offers in this country
to aif rd him any assistance be may r, quire. The
nove ty and simplicity of his plan contrast remarkably
with the magnitude of its or ct, and suggest a
revolution in the modes of conducting public enter-
prises which may opportunely c impensate for the
destruction of faith during the fait ten years
which has threaten, d to render it impossible
to carry ou. for the future even the most needful and
prom sing undertakings. Hts schemes is to build a
railway 2 030 miles in length, not only without a still-
nog of Government money, but also wi.hout raiping any
contributions from tne public, and, when complen-d, it
would be the property of the nation, the value of
*Otos° ttrritorial possessions would also be incal-
culably augmented. At the same time, the element
of reit-interest, the true adjunct of practical philan-
thropy-, would operate as the moving cause in every
stage of the whole affair. From New York to the
Wisconsin b rd, r of Lake Michigan, a distance west
of shoot 1 000 miles, there is already a pelftet cona•
munication by steamboat and railvvsy, and Mr.
Whitney proposes to continue the line thence to the
Pacific. For this purpose he asks a grant of thirty
miles of the public lands on each side of the con-
templated road, and from these, altl!ough they are at
present without value exe,pt in the immed,site neigh-
bourhood of the starting point, he would create all the
means that aro necessary. He would, for instance,
commence with ten miles of the road, and then sell
a portion of the lands on each bide, which, owing to
th,ir proximity to the advancing rush of popu-
lation, the existing facilitiiis of transit, and the
fact of such an enterprise being undertaken, would at
once realize considerably more than would be requi,itt,
thus tar to meet the outlay. Tir,e point at the tnd of
these ten miles would then be in nearly the same posi-
tion as that from which he. had originally starked,;
and another ten miles might therefore be constructed
with like results. In this way, bit by bit, the
read iveuld advance, and vvit,4 a staadinez;; and
ra,4idit7 cau oulY h3ealasted tOzg