The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-21 00:00:00

70 THE RIGHT H. LORD JOHN RUS-
SELL, FIRST LORD OF THE TREA-
1
SURY, &c. &c.
Lord,—Permit me, with the greatest deference,
to, suggest a mode of dealing simultaneously with the
'proverty and income .tax—and with the franchise ;
whico,on examination, will be found, I believe, prac-
tical, s:mple, and effective.
It has now come to be admitted by, I believe,
almoat all classes of politicians, that the payment of
rates and taxes should confer the right of seeing to
its disbursement.
Then let the income-tax and franchise go together;
let the income-tax be extended to all sons having
an income of say 6U—or, if you will, 4per 0/. or 30/. a
year ; and let the payment of the tax confer the pri-
th
vileg of a vote for u Member of the Legislature—
e tat o
or per centage of the tax to be by a gra-
duated scale.
The same machinery which collects the tax now
would do it then ; the revenue would be increased,
enabling the Minister to remit such imposts as pressed
most heavily upon industry, and all classes would bo
benefited.
Thera might, also, be added to the qualification, the
obligation that each voter (with certain exceptions)
shou;(1 be a householder of a certain duration, and
rated to the poor; also that he should have belonged
fur a given number of months to some institute, or
have a certain sum standing in his name fur a specific
period in a savings'-bank.'
But these individual conditions I do not press, as,
it will occur to your Lordship, there are grave con-
siderations pro and con., which may be urged on both

sides.
The mode proposed would give a substantial class
of electors, and would, in respect of the franchise,
sotisfy, in all probability, the most liberal advocates of
political extension.
1: will not here refer to other points of political
reform which agitate the public mind at the present
time, mny simple object being to lay before your Lord-
ship a plan for the extension of the franchise, which,
, I belie. would be found effective and satisfactory.
ve
Trusting it may be deemed worthy of your Lord-
xhip's consideration, I have the honour to remain,
uky, Lord.
Your Lordship's most obedient servant,
E. WARD JACKSON.
N 0110137 Stockton-on-Tees, Oct. 13, 1851.

A FAIR DAY'S WAGES FOR A FAIR

DAY'S WORK.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR,—As you kindly indulged me with space for a
letter upon the subject of " the cheap loat" I hope to
be similarly indulged upon the subject of " a fair
day's wages for a fair day's work."
To labour, as I stated in my letter upon the cheap
loaf, we should look for a measure of value ; thisis, I
believe, admitted by our best authorities upon the
science of political economy. Adam Smith does, if
,I remember rightly, complain of authorities who
admit such truth, but who lose sight of it as they pro-
ceod with their subject, regarding, at last, the precious
metals only as measures of value and a s wealth. I
have not yet lost my wits, .nor am I likely so to do,
in the glitter of gold and silver. To labour, then, I
bold for a measure of value, and wealth I recognise
in very many other products of
industry besides
gold and silver ;
am even so vulgar as to prefor
butter or cheese to tinsel.
Labour being assumed as the measure of value, and
food a function of labour, being essential to its sup-
port ; for if the animal man be not fed he cannot
work. Now, to express labour in terms of food is
what I propose to do.
Toillustrate the proposition I will take the case of
a husbandman, one of the "unskilled," but, neverthe-
less, a most useful member of the community, as by
his labour we are provided with the first necessary
of life—food. The wages of a husbandman, of ordi-
nary strength, should, to maintain him in good work-
iug condition, be four-thirds peck (that is a peck
and a third of a peck) of wheat, of medium quality,
for a day's work of ten hours' duration. Tnis ex-
nreesed in terms of the expanded currency of the
-
State, which land very many others confidently hope
to .see, would. ba thirty puce, the average price of
wheat being sixty shillings per quarter. If wheat
should: rise to sixty-two shillings per quarter the
day's tsesges in money would be thirty-one pence; if
wheat Mould decline to fifty-eight shillings per
quarter the.' day's wages would be twenty-nine pence ;
two shillings variation in the price of the quarter of
wheat making- exactly one penny difference in the
d,sy's wages—the wages in each case being the worth
of four-thirds peck of wheat. Piece-work to be paid
for 1a proportion, ntf2cted, as it should be, by the
ability of the workman ; work over time to be paid
for at the rate of threepence per hour : these are
matters of detail.
It should be understood, that as the labourer
would be paid in money he would be quite at liberty
to purchase with it any sort of food, or any other
necessary of life ; it is not insisted upon that he should
be fed upon bread only, a portion of animal food is
requieed by most labourers to support their strength,
so that they may do justice to their employer by
giving in return for a fair day's wages a fair day's
work.—l am. Sir, yours, &c.
Oat. IS, 1851. J. H.

EXHIBITION ON TILE SERPENTINE.
Since Wednesday the departure of articles of vertu
and of ingenuity from the Crystal Palace, have been
varied and multifarious ; locomotives have been tugged
away by teams of horses, because there were no rails
upon which they could leave ; merial machines have
been quietly packed up and carted away because the
breezes were not propitious for wafting them and
their Ingenious projectors to their havens ; and the ma-
jority of inventions exhibited have returned to the
possession of their owners untested, though perhaps
stamped with the imprimatur of jurors, and their ac-
credited excellences acknowledged by honorary
medals. All, however, is not gold that glitters, and
inventions which mty appear very feasible in models,
or on paper, often prove inefficient when put really to
the test. The recent loss of multitudes of valuable
lives in the Orion and other vessels having invested the
subject of escape from shipwreck and drowning with
intense interest, every appliance for preventing, in
future, such sacrifices of life, requires that its effi-
ciency should be tested before it is entitled to the
contNence of the public. The most recent patent
in connexion with this important subject is that of
W. R. Lawrie, Esq., of Glasgow, whose licensees are
the Messrs. W. S. Silver and CO, of Cornhill, who
exhibited a variety of ingenious appliances for this
purpose in the British naval department, in the
south-east transept gallery of the Exhibition. The in -
veotiotas referred to, consisting of articles of deck
and chin furniture, such as mattresses, pillows,
°awl:Lens, boat and deck cushions, life belts,
buoys, heat floats, &c., were removed on Saturday
afternoon from the building to the Serpentine.
A model of a life-boat, designed and executed
by W. R. Lawrie, and T. and W. Forrest,
of Limehouee, was first exhibited ; and,
although it had become somewhat leaky by
several months' exposure to the sun, on being filled
and turned bottom uppermost, it righted itself in less
than a minute. Several boatmen dressed in Guru-
seys, duck trousers, &c., and wearing the patentees'
life belts, then proceeded to capsize a boat, rigged
with duck floats, which prevented its sinking,
although one of the men, after righting, got into her
to bail her out. The .I'mattrasses, &c., having
been
been thrown overboard,Plt e men, who found they could
not sink with the life-belts on, got astride of the float-
ing •
artielee or reposed themselves at full length,
c.rackingjokes with the lookers-on who were on the
banks of the Serpentine Onem of the
ent
e inrae(tit,rwashsoe swfoarsmneodt
beeit, into which one o.
f ~
only quite at ease in his buoyant barque, but who
Serpentine crossed and re-crossed the with great ra-
pidity. The smallest mattrase was
persons, and the capable of sup-
porting sixlargest would in an
ewater ,emergency keep twenty persons above
defiteite period of time, without thatliability to col-
lapse which attends all artificially
inflated for an in-
who are old icemen of thea
appliances.
Society, were surprised and delighted with the buoy_.'
ancy of tbese requisites of deck and cabin furniture,-.
and declared, as regarded the belts, that they lut
never before worn such powerful preventives of sink-
ing, accompanied by a convenience of formation
which allowed them free exercise of their limbs.

TIIE PHILOSOPHER and the FERRYMAN.
A philosopher stepped on bo ferry-boat to cross
he understood arithmetic? The inquiredman of the ferryman if.
"Arithmetic! No, air."
I am very sorry, for one quarter of your life is gone.,,
A few minutes after ho aAcd—
" Do you understand mathematics r
The boatman smiled and replied—" No."
of
"veer Welllife is said the philosopher, " another quarter
go
Just then thene." boat ran ori a snag and was sinking,
when the ferryman jumped tip, pulled off his coat,
and" asked- tho philosopher with great earnestness of
manner—
" Sir, can you awitn?''
" No, sir."
4, Well, then," said the ferryman " your whole l
4 ife
on
is gone, for the boat's going to the bottoss."—o
Clippei%

IRISHMEN IN TUE SPANIsti SERVICE. The Dublin
Encasing 1'0,4 says--" We understand that the Spanish au-
thorities
have cot over to this country to have
made respecting the next of kin of Colonel O'lteilliPuiries
lately died in the service of Spain, leaving property to the 1
amount of upwards of 30,000/. He is said to have been a
native of the county of Cavan, and to have entered the
Spanish army at an early age ; he intermarried with a lady
of rank and fortune there, and, having survived her, be-
cameheir to all her wealth. He has not left any relatives
in Spailirimetittio f kin in Ireland be forthcom-
ing' ti* Minleciatft d• e money."
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