The Sun.
London, England, 1833-04-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The majority against the malt tax on Friday
night was a surprise, it seems, to his Majesty's Mi-
nisters, although Sir William I gilby had given
notice of his motion for this partial repeal of the
malt tax several weeks ago. We wish to make a
few observations. It appears to us, that when Lord
Grey's Government were in the act of framina their
Reform Bill, it would have been useful to them to
consider, under every aspect, the detailed workings
of that msa,ute in the House of Commons, as well
as its bearings upon the constituency out of doors ;
and this would have deserved their attention, not,
surely, that they might have been thereby enabled
to prevent the natural consequences of the measure,
bur only to be prepared for them, and take the
rough and smooth of their inevitable operation.
The old system would not have answered its pur-
poses if it had not rendered the business of Govern-
ment in some respects an easy task. The Mi-
nister and his friends returned very nearly a
majori y, who were kept to their good be-
haviour by wages wrung from the people.
The votes on every question were as well
ascertained, beforehand by the Secretaries of the
Trek, tiry, as it was known from the records of Par-
t ament how many Members sat therein. There
was, under such a system, little or no room for sur-
prise, or when it did come it was of necessity fatal.
A majority against the Minister was like the pre-
aen, ation of the bowstring,—it was instant death ;
because it indicated a total falling off of his allies, and
would have shoarn itself on every succeeding ques-
tion until the grand purpo-e of his expulsion from
office had been effected. From the same pre-
ordained course of proceeding which merged all partial
divisions and interests in two,—namely, the sup-
porters of 'he existing Administration and its adver-
saries,—there was little probability of the occasional
triumph of any subordinate party by means of its
own independent resources over either of the two
great ones which comprehend the bulk of the House
of Commons. The East India interest, the West
Indian. the shipping interest, the manufacturing in-
terest—even the landed interest (the leviathan) itself,
could do nothing hut by now and then contriving to
hold the balance, where the opposing weights were
more nearly equalized than usual, and thus carrying
their point in the way of bargain and sale. Things
are altered since the reform of Parliament.
Ministers have no tie over a majority but the pre-
vailing confidence in their general integrity or wis-
dom. True it is that two great parties still com-
prehend within them the mass of the House of
Commons, but they are not the same parties, nor
fighting under the same banners as before. For-
merly, it was Ministerial and Opposition—it is
" agriculturist and commercial" now. Stupid and
shallow may it well be called of any class of men
in or out of Parliament, to conceive that they have
interests which, in Me long run, can be served by
the sacrifice of another great class of interests; but,
tinfortunateiy, the landowners are found to act
with pertenacious violence upon that sordid error.
Professing to make common cause with the manu-
facturers, and to plead for the prosperity of the
e iffering farmer, to the exclusion of their own, there
I. no trick or subterfuge which they have not em-
ployed to deceive both the one and the other of these
their clients, that bread might be kept dear and land
over-rented. When Lord Chandos carried his mis-
chievous clause, qualifying 50/. tenants.at-will as
electors, the "rights and respectability" of this order
of tenants was on the tongue of that loud agricultural
champion, but at his heart was landlord power, and
well has that truth been since demonstrated. So,
when the same Noble Lord, on Friday evening,
. .

. _
brought in his general resolution for " duly consider-
ing the interests of the agricultural portion of the
community," what was his whole speech but a je-
remiads upon the disappointments and distresses of

the " farmets ?" while all the world but some of
the farming gulls themselves well understood what
portion of the " agricultural community" was the
secret object of his Lordship's care. Again, what
was Sir W. Ingilby's motion but a landlord motion,
to heighten the rent of barley land by reducing the
sum yielded out of it for the revenue, and thus
tran.fer the amount of the tax—nay more (for there
would be an increase of consumption, and conse-
quently a higher price for malt)—into the landlord's
pocket ? Partners, indeed !—much they feel for
the farmers ! There never was a cry more hypo-
critical or disgusting than this, raised by landowners
on behalf of their own rents, tinder the cloak of
anxiety for the well-being of their tenants. With
regard to the influence of such a vote as that of
Friday upon the conduct of his Majesty's Ministers,
nothing can he more manifest than what it ought to
be—that is to say, that public spirit, as well as
personal sagacity, 1 }adds them to quit their
posts. In fact, the mere rumour, which has been
put about with much diligence among the Tory
circles, was the severe satire upon their want of
firmness and on their ignorance of the machine which
they have themselves cotts•ructed—a Parliament
representing the various interests of the nation
Resign! for what ? in whose favour ? on what
shadow of pretext ? No, let them begin by enforc-
ing a little better discipline among their own officers.
I et the secretaries of the Treasury be a little more
alert in reminding those Members who are not of
the particular clique, having a selfish interest in
jobbing either against Ministers, or against any one
department of taxation, that if they do not attend
on certain question, they themselves and their con-
stituents mus inevitably suffer. It is shameful for
the friends of Ministers to call last Friday's vote a
suprise. If it was the general desire of the country,
to reduce the malt tax, they ought not ro have op-
posed it ; if not, they ought to have succeeded in
their opposition to it ; in either case they ought to
have known what they were doing. A. a rider to
Sir W resoltiti-n, there ought to have
been another introduced forthwith, to admit foreign
barley free, for Mr. Warburton was unansoei.able
in hi: statement that the effeet of the motion, as now
curried will be no more than to raise the barley rents
of Great Britain :thou' 2,000,0001. per annum. It is
to he hoped that Ministers will have manhood enough
to propose from themselves this cure for a gross de-
ception—this just and honest retribution upon the
Landlords for their grave hypocrisy. If the price of
beer is to fall—if the poor man is, in truth, to be
benefited—destroy the landlord's monopoly of the
material for making beer; there will then be some-
thing consistent in the votes of the House of Com-
mons. But more than this must be done, It
is plain that, with such a hole in the revenue as these
agriculturists have created, the public creditor or the
public service must be left unptovided for. Why,
then—we repeat Lord Althorn's words—the re must
be a commutation for the malt tax ; but not for a
moiety of the malt tax : abolish the whole of it,
Consult, moreover, the universal feelings of the
middle gentry and trading interests of the king-
dom, abolish the house and window tax, and
raise the deficit to upwards of 7,000,000/,
"What next ? Then face the monster of landlord
cupidity boldly, and, like another evil being, it
will fly from you. Dismiss also the Macullochs,
and other quacks of that superficial and prating
school, as unworthy of serious attention; propose a
good bold property fax, and it will be carried in
spite of the landlords and iundlords, increasing ra-
ther than diminishing that surplus of revenue over
expenditure, of which, when not immoderate and
not wasted, Lord Althorn admits the pol cy in his
last budget. Oar advice, under all the
circum-
stances, would be to pay the landlords in their
own coin, give them the whole malt tax, take away
their monopoly of barley, relieve the people gene-
rally from the house and window tax, and lay on a
tax on property in commutation. If Ministers re-
sign on such a difficulty as this, they deserve to lose
the confidence of all parties, and of every honest
man in England; but they must not adhere to their
present budget !—all classes repudiate it.—Tines.
Much speculation exists as to the direction which
matters may take in the I-louse of Commons this
evening. All that is certainly known is, that Mi-
nis' ers decaled not to resign at the Cabinet yester-
day, and communicated their decision to the King,
who expressed, n terms of unabated con6dence, his

satisfaction at the resolution they had adopted.
The further measures they intend to pursue will, of
course, be explained to the House. The alterations
before them appear either to be a large commutation
of other taxes for a property tax, or perseverance in
the financial plan submitted by Lord Althorp to
Parliament, when he stated his budget for the year.
Both courses, in the temper of the House and ex-
cited expectations of the people are beset with dif-
ficulties. A property or income tax is not likely
on further examination and consideration, to be
more popular with the country than the taxes
from which the people are so eager to obtain
relief; and, on the other hand, a perseverance
in the measures disclosed by the budget, may
unite in opposition to the Government the Mem.
bers who voted for the repeal of the malt tax,
those who are pledged to their constituents in
the towns for the repeal of the house and win-
dow tax, and lastly, the minority who supported
Mr. Robinson in his proposition for the substitution
of a property tax for a large amount of our present
burrhens. Truly, the times begin to bear with an
intense pressure on those who have to administer
our affairs, and to whom has been bequeathed the
precious inheritance of the Pitt system. The bill
of the late wars is now to be paid, and we do not
envy those who have to provide the money, and, at
the same time, to sati-fy the urgent and clamaurous
demands of the people for relief. The tax payers
are much in the situation of the soldier, who never
could he reconciled to the lash of the drummer,
however applied. The means required for the dis-
charge of the demands of the national creditor,
whether as fundholder or pensioner, absorb two-
thirds of the whole amount levied in taxes ; and this
branch of our expenditure, at least, admits of no
reduction. Nor can the Ministers at once (if that
is the right policy) dismantle or abandon our
Colonies—leave Ireland without a military force
—or, in the present unsettled state of our
foreign relations, reduce to any sensible extent
the active military or naval force of the country.
Reductions they must make of every still ng expe-
dient on either not absolutely necessary to maintain
their efficiency; and every vote to •vhtch reasonable
objection can be urged will he watched, and gru lged
with the most scrupulous and rigid jealousy. But
what will all this do towards satisfying the craving
appetite of the public for immediate relief ? We
sincerely believe the distress in the large manufac-
turing towns has been grossly exaggerated. That
part of our population is generally enjoying a fair
state o wages, wi h a steady demand, and a reduced
rare of the necessaries of life. Tne pressure is prin-
cipally in the agricultural districts, where the capi-
tal of the farmer has been gradually exhale-ter] in the
vain attempt to uphold the former scale of rents;-
and the shopkeeper in the villages equally affected
by the fallen fortunes of his customer, and the de-
preciation annually affecting his stock in trade since
the bubble of 1825. We suspect that the frequent
tamptrings with the currency are now in their effects
producing much more wide-spreading misery and dis-
tress, than the actual burthen of taxation. Tire fever
and ague system—t he alternate relaxations and restric-
tions adopted by all our wise Admieistrations since
the peace, have produced su:h frequent changes in the
distribution of property, that it is almost impossible
to caiculate their consequence or effects on these
classes of society. The large stockholders in trade
pass more rapidly through the Gazelle, and fall the
victims of their speculations, encouraged and de-
stroyed by this system—their places in the great
commercial marts being supplied by others founding
their fortunes on the ruin of their predecessors. In
the agricultural dis!ricts and towns, these changes
are protracted by a struggle in the vain expectation
of the return of " better times," and are more
slowly, but as certainly, doing the work of destruc-
tion. The decline in the value of almost every
article of which a shopkeeper's stock consists, has
been gradually going on, from 1826 to the present
time, and amounts in the whole to between 30 and
50 per cent. What have been his profits in the
mean time ? Such are the true causes of the present
well-founded complaints of these classes of the
people. Those who have benefitted—but, after all,
it is only, as we have before said, a change in
the distribution, not the destruction, of the
national capital seldom boast their good for-
tune. We only hear of the reverses and distress
of the unfortunate sufferers. Lord Grey, at least,
is not accountable or to blame for this state of
things. lie patronised neither the French nor
American wars. He resisted the Order in Council
for the suspension of cash payments in 1797, and
has constantly since been opposed to the system of
corruption and extravagance, and all these tamper-
ings with the curreney. What may be the result of
the present critical posture of affairs, we are at a
loss to conjecture. An open quarrel between the
Ciovernment and the House of Common:, will be
the " commencement de la fin;" and we therefore,
►vi hour expressing any decided opinion on the pro-
bable causes of d.fference between them, deprecate
such an issue as fraught with irremediable mischief
to the country. Where are successors to be found ?
We have every reason to believe that the stories in
circulation of differences in the Cabinet are utterly
destitute of foundation, and have been circulated for
the worst and basest purposes. If, therefore, they
act in good spirit together, no division from this
Government can be expected to join or reinforce
any new parry. Can Sir Robert Peel and the
Duke of Wellington re-unite their discordant forces,
and attempt the vain and hopeless task in which
their predecessors will have failed, of satisfying the
people with large reductions, either of esiabli,li-
merits or taxation—or must we fall into the hands
of :qr. At t wood, Mr. Robinson, and the other quacks
of their peculiar schools ? Whichever way we look,
the prospect before us is full of fearful difficulty and
anticipation ; and we sincerely hope our evils will
nor be immediately agzravatett by arty change in the
Administration.—Moreing Chronicle.

Nothing in the shape of positive intelligence has
reached us respecting the determination of Mini-
s•ers consequent upon the vote of Friday night, but
rumour has been fertile on the occasion, though not
quite so contradictory as usual. We have heard
from the goddess of many tongues, many things
which Ministers intend to do in their present ac-
knowledged state of embarrassment ; but we have
nor heard even upon her loose authority that they
intend to retire from office. This is the more sur-
prising, as they have been known to threaten retire-
ment before, not only when the Reform Bill was
under discussion, but when other subjects less im•
portant than the Reform Bill or the demolition of
their financial arrangements were about to be de-
cided by the House. Taking it as we find it, how-
ever, the silence of rumour as regards retirement, on
the present occasion, is not without its significance.
ft furnishes a sort of negative evidence that the
:•finistry intend io survive their defeat, or perhaps
to deny their defeat upon the principle that no Mr.
nistry can be said to have fallen so long as they
can contrive to sit upright in their places.
For this reason we think it likely that Lord
Grey and his colleagues will endeavour to
hold on, with what prospect of success the
next step they resort to will better enable
us to conjecture. One of the reports in circu-
lation was that Ministers would muster their forces
for a new division on the malt tax, in the hope of
making the House of Commons contradict itself.
Another was than they would give it up and supply
Its place at once by a property tax. But that which
is stated in our city article as obtaining most credit

amongst men of business on 'Change, was the sur-
render both of the matt tax and the assessed taxes,

and the raising of five millions of Exchequer bills to
supply the deficiency until a proper sub.,titute could
be found to replace them. Though something was
said of the resignation of Lord Althorp, it did not

obtain much credit, and though it if, certain that
Lord Grey had more than one interview with his
Mi.jesty since the vote of the House of Commons,
not one of the speculations founded on those inter-
views assumed that the Premier had resigned. A
few hours will, in all likelihood, disclose to us the
ar:t al position of the Mioistry, which at present is
any thing but distinct. Candour and manliness may