The Sun.
London, England, 1833-05-03 00:00:00

t.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

The opposition in town and country to the
home and window tax becomes very serious.
Ministers ought. to bestow their grave attention
on the appearances to which every day, indeed
every hour, is giving rise.* When mobs
threaten, we know of what we are to be appre-
hensive ; their object being lawless violence, they
provoke us to appeal to an armed power for
protection. But who and what are they among
the King's subjects who are meeting, day after
day, and resolving unanimously that they will
not pay their assessed taxes? Do they threaten
violence ? Undoubtedly not ; nor do we defend
that which they now avow—namely, a determi-
nation, one and all, to let their goods be seized
in execution by the Sheriff's officer, rather than
pay the collector of the house and window tax
even another shilling. But the brokers and auc-
tioneers !—what are they about ? In many
parishes throughout the metropolis, (and the
example spreads like wild-fire) that class of
functionaries have resolved that they will not
assist in selling the goods of their fellow parish-
ioners, taken at the suit of the King, in respect
of the above branches of revenue. This is a
black page torn from the Irish farmer—this is
passive resistance. It seems to have been adopted
by men despairing of legislative relief from what
they have long felt to be an intolerable species
of taxes, and therefore taking the matter into
their own hands. Now, these men are not rioters
nor plunderers, nor desperadoes. They are
quiet, steady, anti-revolutionary, most peace-
ful, and most loyal subjects, decent house-
holders, careful and hard-working tradesmen,
whose profits have been progressively cut down
until they can no longer drain a subsistence from
their business, and, to crown all, see themselves
racked and harassed by taxes screwed up to the
highest point to which legal duress can wind
them. These men—not in London alone, but
throughout England—ought to be commiserated ;
they ought to be peculiar objects of Parliamen-
tary protection ; they form the link between the
upper classes and the lower, and ought to be
made the conductors of sentiments of reciprocal
kindness and attachment. We cannot contem-
plate without pain and apprehension the spirit
of hatred towards the Government which is
everywhere generating amongst these vexed and
overburdened classes. Would it not be
worth the while of Ministers to set them-
selves earnestly to work for the reconcile-
ment of this body of their fellow subjects ? It
is said Lord Althorp stands pledged to the
malt tax, and on that point we have nothing to
object, knowing that without a free admission of
foreign barley the repeal of the malt tax was but
a Landowner's job. Then, why not compromise
where the end to be gained is the restoration of
men's affections to the Government ? We give
them up, for the present, the property tax ; we
leave the malt tax to their discretion, and we
would humbly suggest the following materials
fbr an arrangement of this financial dispute :-
1. Lord Althorp, by his budget, proposes to
take off taxes to the amount of
lie retains a surplus, we believe, under-esti•
mated, of 500,000

Total, after supplying the wants of the public
service
We may surely, without any injury to the
public service, fairly calculate that another
million of expenditure may be cut away.... 1,000,000

..£2,800,000
Well, then, here is a gross excess of 2,800,000/.,
or which; the greater portion has been already
provided by Lord Althorp's own calculations.
We would recommend the Noble Lord, there-
fore, to withdraw the multitudinous, minute,
and paltry reductions tendered by him to the
country, and for which no human being thanked
him, or cared a single straw ; and in lieu thereof
let him abolish the house and window taxes,
which produce no more than 2,500,0001.,
whereby he will calm at once this terrible com-
motion, and leave the revenue in as good a state
as by adhering stubbornly to his own much re-
pudiated budget. This at least will be con-
sidered everywhere an easy letting down of the
Noble Viscount and his financial maladroitness.
For the present it will satisfy the people.—Times.
• See, for instance, the reports of two meetings in
Westminster in to-day's paper.
The motion of Mr. Richards for the establish-
ment of poor laws in Ireland, was met last night
by a declaration from Lord Althorp, that he
atiould move, as an amendment, an address to
the Crown, for the appointment of a commis-
sion to inquire into the poorer classes in Ireland,
and into the various institutions at present esta-
blished by law in that country for their relief.
" All (lie said) that he should require from them
was, that they should lay the case fairly before
this House; that they should state what is the
condition of the population of Ireland—what are
the means for their relief ; and that we, by see-
ing that case brought fairly before us, may be
able, on the one hand, to inquire what alteration
may
,be made itt our own poor laws, and to de-
termine what poor laws should be introduced into
Ireland ; and on the other hand, if we should
come to the conclusion that no poor laws should be
introduced there, that we should have the means
of deciding the question with a degree of autho-
rity, and of showing, that it is not from a
want of humanity—not from a want of sym-
pathy with the Irish people—that we so decide
it, but because, looking at their best interests,
we have felt compelled so to act." We should
have imagined that there was no great occasion
to send a Commission to Ireland to ascertain
what is established by abundant and satisfactory
evidence, that the poor of Ireland are in a most
destitute condition ; and we hardly think the
Commissioners will be rewarded with the disco-
very of any very important institutions fur the
r,.slief of the poor in Ireland, which have hitherto
„„ced observation. Upon general principles it
may be decided, that a population like the Irish,
coinpetil:,<! for land as the only means of subsist-
ence, must exhibit frequent examples of dreadful
destitution, ant; that order would be greatly pro-
moted by a provishji for the victims of disease
and poverty. We are spay to see Lord Althorp
allowing himself to be led away by the notion,
that because there are abuses under the poor
aws in England, the inducements to in•
dustry are less strong with the labourers in
England than elsewhere. Why, the very secu-
rity that the knowledge that, at the worst, there
will be some provision fur him should his health
and strength desert him, makes the Englishman
work with an alacrity unknown to the native of
any other country. The Englishman is a better
labourer than the Scotchman or the Irish-
He likes to live well, but
Irish-
man. lie will
work for his living. It is good not to lead
the labourers to accustom themselves to too penu-
rious a way of living. Habit is every thing, and
when once a habit of living well has been given
to a people, there is no fear of their ceasing to
be industrious. Mr. HUM " maintained, that
the deterioration of the labouring classes began,
wish the introduction of the poor

Mr. Hume, look a little into the history of the
labouring classes in England, and you will
abandon this opinion.—But, after all, where are
the labouring people in Europe upon the whole
so well off as the English labourers Let him
cross from England into Scotland, either from
N n dorthumberla or Cumberland ; and contrast
the labourer of England and his 12s. a week
with the Scotch labourer with his 7s. Berwick-
shire and Roxburghshire are richer districts than
Northumberland and Cumberland ; but are the
labourers one-half so well off in them ? The
Scotch are less oppressed by law and better edu-
cated, but the Englishman, physically consi-
dered, is the better of the two. Deterioration
Why all the industry of this most industrious
nation has followed, not preceded, the intro-
duction of the poor laws. Much will depend on
the gentlemen named as Commissioners. There
are people who can see only what favours their
own speculations. The Commission should
not be named as a screen.—Morn. Chronicle.

The feeling of the constituency upon the sub-
ject of the assessed taxes, and the conduct of
certain of their representatives, as manifested in
the late triumph of the Ministry, has already
begun to show itself in a very unequivocal man-
ner. At a meeting of the electors of Southwark,
a report of which appears in another column, the
conduct of Mr. William Brougham on the occa-
sion referred to was denounced as inconsistent
with his duty towards his constituents ; and a
resolution was agreed to, calling on him to re-
sign his seat. A meeting of the central com-
mittee for the repeal of the house and window
taxes was also held on the same day (yesterday),
in which the conduct of Sir Francis Burdett on
the same occasion was severely censured. The
committee did not feel themselves authorized to
request the Hon. Baronet to resign, but they
passed a resolution of censure, and recorded,
their determination to summon a general meeting
of the electors, for the purpose of reclaiming the
power which they consider him to have abused
and forfeited by his recent vote. Our limits pre-
vent us from laying before our readers any more
particular account of this preliminary step to-
wards a still more decisive demonstration of the
spirit that is now awake, and calling for satisfac-
tion. It is evident, that though the House of
Commons may contradict itself without forfeiting
its own opinion, individual Members will find it
no easy matter to reconcile 'A hat they have done
to those who expected from them a different
conduct.—Morning Herald.