The Sun.
London, England, 1851-02-21 00:00:00

alleged object of which was to produce low prices.
The public caught at the idea, and lent him a
favouring gale. In 1847, that gentle and favouring gale
was changed into a roaring tempest, the winds blew,
and the waves beat against the sand-founded system.
It fell, and great was the fall thereof. The income-tax
has been termed a war tax, and the fact of our being at
peace is one of the great objections that has been urged
against its continuance. This is an ill-founded objection
enough; the real and only sufficient excuse for the im-
position of this objectionable impost is, no matter from
what circumstance or combination of circumstances
arising, national necessity—the proved impossibility of
maintaining national credit, and the national establish-
ment by any other means. There was little doubt that,
in 1848, after the bursting of the Peel Prosperity
Bubble, and the occurrence of the Irish Famine, that
this necessity had a bond fide existence. But where
is the necessity now ? How is it that now,
in 1851, with a progressively increasing revenue, with
general prosperity, and a recurrent and increased
surplus revenue, we are again asked, as if it were a
matter of course, to consent to the extension of this ob-
noxious tax for a further period of three years? We
are the last people to run a-muck against taxation,
or to exhibit what Lord Castlereagh once called an igno-
rant impatience under its influence; but we do of ject to
being paltered with in this manner, and we have a right
to ask whether there is any bond fide intention of en-
deavouring to administer the finances of the country in
such a manner as to put it in the power of the Chancel-
lor of the Exchequer really to relieve us of the burden of
this particular tax or not? We own that we look with
considerable alarm upon the present mode of administer-
ing the financial affairs of the country, and we believe it
is destroying the basis on which the revenue has hitherto
rested. How does the ease stand? Sir Charles Wood,
since his accession to the office which be now holds, has
had through his hands a sum sufficient, if it had been
judiciously nursed, to have enabled him now to dispense
with the income-tax. Well, what has he done with this
sum? Why, he has allowed it to dribble through his
fingers, watering, or
rather barely moistening, each dry
and gaping interest in such infinitessimal quantities, that
though he has himself been drained in the operation, the
sprinklings have not been sufficient to impart freshness
or vitality to anybody. If Parliament acquiesces in the
present Biedget, future Finance Ministers will have no
spring left at which they can fill their pitchers but that
of direct taxation. It may be asked of us—Well, what
course do you, who pick holes in the Chancellor's coat,
recommend ? Would you refuse the income-tax? To
this we reply—We would not at the present moment.
We would not create a deficiency. We would give the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, at any cost, the means of
maintaining the public credit. But in return we would
require an assurance—and by that we do not mean
promise merely, but an assurance by something done—
that eventually the country shall be relieved of the bur-
den of this objectionable impost. The Chancellor of the
Exchequer may provide for this in two ways. He may
keep his surplus in his pocket till it grows to a sum suffi-
cient to fill up the void which the abolition of the income-
tax would occasion, refusing, for the present, any remis-
sion of taxation, or he may eventually place himself in a
position to dispense with it by the adoption of the principle
of raising income by a moderate and well-adjusted
scheme of import duties. The latter appears to us the
only safe and sound foundation on which to build a na-
tional financial system; but as we have so recently
placed before our readers the grounds on which we
have formed that opinion, we shall not at this moment
enter farther upon its consideration. The income-tax
never has been, and never justly can be, regarded as an
ordinary and permanent source of revenue, or otherwise
than as an aid in times of pressure. In his essay, "De
Plmpot," M. Thiers thus speaks of it "Les Anglais,"
says M. Thiers, "ne l'emploiente sous' la designation
d' income-tax, qu'a titre de suppl6ment, dans les temps
difficiles, en ayant soin d' exempter tousles petits revo-
nus, comme qui dirait une sorts de souscription, de-
mandee aux classes aiseJs, pour venir au secours du
trJsor en detresse."