The Sun.
London, England, 1833-04-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The vote on Friday night, though certainly
not intended to affect the stability of the Ad-
ministration, because a considerable portion of
the majority consisted of their friends, had
nearly driven the Ministers from their seats.
The Noble Chancellor of the Exchequer had
procured the postponement of the various an-
nounced motions for the repeal of particular
duties till he had himself presented his budget.
Among his ,t ways and means" for meeting the
supplies of the year were included most of the
menaced taxes; he therefore probably concluded
that as he had disposed entirely of his little sur-
plus, no further reduction of taxation would be
seriously insisted on during the present session.
The budget was evidently unpopular both in
and out of the House ; but it seemed to be

understood that for any further reduction of
duties a substitute must be provided to the
amount of the diminution ; and that relief—

tvhere relief was anticipated—could only be
°trained by shifting the pressure from one part
of the body to another, without removing
the burden. In this state of things, the suc-
cess of Sir W. Ingilby's motion, which de-
prived the Treasury, at ore blow, of resources
to the amount of nearly 2,500,0001., fol-
lowed, as it must in fairness be (if the vote is
maintained), by the repeal of the house and
window duties, which amount to about the same
sum, alters the whole financial plans, or system
of taxation, for the year. If one-half of the
malt tax is reduced, it would be absurd to
maintain the restraints or to incur the expense
necessary for collecting the remainder, and thus
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, instead of
having a sufficiency of income to meet the esti-
mated expenditure, would be obliged to provide
a Pm substitute for 7,000,0001. of his existing
revenue. Had such a result been in any way
contemplated, and we think it ought to have
been contemplated, it would have been the
bounden duty of the Government to have insti-
tuted inquiries as to the practicability of the
change, and to have presented the most ap-
proved project for carrying it into execution.
But the Ministers allege that they have been
taken by surprise ; and even the landlords, we
suspect, who on Friday night voted for the abo-
lition of a duty which lessened the consumption
of their own barley, would much rather that
beer-drinkers, for whom they feel so tenderly,
confirmed to pay a penny a-pot more for their
beverage, than that they should contribute 10
per cent. to the revenue on their whole rents.
Whatever may be the decision of the House,
the Government of this country is at pre-
sent, and owing to its own want of
foresight, placed in a frightful state of embar-
rassment. Lord Althorp has announced that
he intends to give it an opportunity of revising
its late vote, and of rejecting the promised reso-
lution of Sir J. Key, with the alternative before
it of a property tax, and an extensive change in
our whole financial system, which the Government
pronounces " inexpedient." To rescind a re-
solution passed only three or four days ago
would be degrading to Pailiament, and would
tend to weaken the confidence of the country in
the future stability of its purposes. The vote,
it is said, was taken by surprise, though six
weeks' notice of it had been given ; but may not

the same apology be pleaded on future occasions,
when a Minister with less reason might appeal
to the new precedent ? Though the House,
on Friday's vote, was composed of little more
than 300 Members, the paucity of their num-
bers can afford no justification for rescinding
their decision, which would not affect fatally
more than four-fifths of its proceedings or reso-
lutions. Besides, though the House should
assemble this evening in greater force—though
11 the former majority should persist in
their recent votes—and though their friends,
with the fear of a property tax before
their eyes, should help them out of the
malt duty scrape, what security have we
that the repeal of the house and window
duties will not be carried also, a motion the
success of which would keep the Government
in the sante dilemma as at present ? Whatever
may be the result, Government, we think, is
right in placing the alternative of the mainte-
nance of existing duties, or the imposition of a
property tax, openly and fairly before the Re-
formed Parliament, and offering to abide by its
deliberate decision, especially as it is not im-
probable that the majority on Friday did not act
upon such an extensive view of circumstances
or in contemplation of such great results. The
idea of the Administration resigning on such
a point would be the height of folly or absur-
dity. There could scarcely be a greater calamity
for this country than a change in the councillors
of the Crown at the present moment, when
plans have been matured for the settlement
of so many great questions, and when the
country is so eager to reap some of
the fruits of Reform. The arrangement of
the affairs of the East India Company, the
Bank Charter Question—the new code for
abolishing or mitigating colonial slavery—
the state of the church, besides many other
things of great importance, press for an imme-
diate decision. The least interruption to the
march of the Government at this interesting
crisis would lose half of one of the most im-
portant sessions in our annals. Besides, no
party but the faction of anarchy could gain any
thing by the change. The return of the Tories
to office is impossible : the country rejects
them, and they themselves are confessedly afraid
to take it ; and we suppose the country is not
/et prepared to submit to the dominion
of the Irish lord of misrule, or of the
Brummagem Hampden. All that we could
gain by any exhibition of an unpatriotic pique
or pride in tendering their places by the present
Cabinet would be some confusion, and a great
interruption to the business of the country.
We hope, however, that Ministers will take
warning from the danger into which their own
want of foresight has plunged them.— Times.
The course which Ministers intend to pur-
sue, in consequence of the vote on Friday night,
was announced last night by Lord Althorp.
His Majesty's Ministers (said his Lordship)
have felt it desirable to bring the question again
before the House ; and in such a manner that
the whole state of the case may be brought be-
fore them, and that they may see clearly all the
consequences which may take place from the
proceeding of that night, and come to a deci-
sion with their eyes open. That decision may
be precisely the same as that which they came
to before, or it may differ from it ; but there
thisreis
a necessity for a clear understanding upon
subject." Nothing can be more manly and
straightforward than the course indicated by his
Lordship. Neither Ministers nor Parliament
dare to propose spoliation, and, therefore, we
will not libel Parliament by supposing for one
moment that any of those who voted for the re-
duction of the malt duty had the slightest idea
of attacking the Funds. This being a settle&

point, the next consideration is, how and by
what means the Government shall be carried
on. Parliament will not, of course, resemble the
Egyptian taskmasters,who insisted on the Israelites
making bricks without straw. The money must be
obtained from one source or another for carrying on
the Government. Lord Althorp gave notice,
that it is his intention to move this even-
ing, as an amendment to the motion of Sir John
Key for a repeal of the house and window taxes,
the following resolution :—" That the deficiency
of the revenue which would be occasioned by
a reduction of the tax on malt to 10s. a quarter,
and by the repeal of the taxes on houses and
windows, could only he supplied by the sub-
stitution of a general tax on property, and that
this substitution would occasion an extensive
change in our who!e financial system, which
would at present be inexpedient." The House
may repeal taxes to any amount ; but if the
taxes repealed exceed in amount the balance of
revenue over expenditure, and the utmost saving
which can possibly be effected, other taxes must
provided ; and at present the choice is soon
made, for a property and income tax is the only
conceivable substitute. A good deal of time
was consumed in endeavouring to fasten on Lord
Althorp a declaration on Friday night after the
division, which he disclaimed. It was very ap-
propriately observed by Mr. Baring, " That
the Noble Lord, when he declared he should
abide by the resolution, meant that he either
would not negative it on the second resolution
being put from the chair, or that Government
would abide by it. The declaration might,
without stretch, have been interpreted either way.
But no gentleman could suppose that the Noble
Lord meant, without consultation with his col-
leagues, to bind Government as to the course
they would take on so important a question."
It is quite clear that Lord Althorp could never
have intended to make a declaration in the sense
to which several Members wished to tie his
Lordship down, and it was trifling with the
House to waste so much time in such an at-

tempt. The announcement of Lord Althorp
produced considerable sensation. In the con-
versation which followed, one or two Members
endeavoured, by unmeaning rhodomontade, to
evade the difficulty. The Marquis of Chandos,
for instance, affected to feel great regret that
that there was any intention to get rid of the
vote of the House of Commons, and was quire
distressed " that there should be any attempt on

he part of a Minister of the Crown in that re-
7ormed House,from which so much was expected,
set aside the vote—that Members should be

told they voted improperly, and that he would
give them another opportunity of correcting their
mistake." Not a word from this Noble Lord,
who regrets so much the departure from the
vote, of a substitute ! Other Members, how-
ever, were more candid, and admitted that no
possible saving could cover the taxes proposed
to be reduced, and that they were prepared for
the alternative of a property tax. Mr. Tennyson
said, " he should be ashamed of himself if, be-
ing ready to vote for the repeal of the malt tax,
and of the house and window tax, he were not
also ready to vote for a substitute for it. The
utmost that could be saved from the expendi-

.
ire was two or three millions. He was,

therefore, for one, prepared to agree to a pro-
perty tax."—Mr. Robinson, of course, was
ready to supply from other sources the taxes
to be reduced. Mr. Hall Dare was ready to vote
for a property tax as a substitute for the malt
tax. Sir Robert Peel declared, that if he had
been present on Friday night he would have
voted against the reduction of the malt duty,
knowing the consequences to which such a re-
duction would lead ; and the Right Hon.
Baronet threw out a hint, that among these

consequences might be a change of the corn
laws as well as a property tax. But the most
curious exhibition of the evening was unques-
tionably that of Mr. Alexander Baring. Mr.
Baring is a perfect Proteus. On the night of
the Budget he was quite shocked that the
Ministry bhould persist in reducing taxes instead
of haring a large surplus revenue. On Friday
night he voted for the reduction of the malt
duty to ten shillings, which would reduce tl,e
revenue below the expenditure. But on the
announcement of a property tax as an alterna-
tive, he pricks up his ears. " Would they,"
says the Hon. Member, pathetically, " have the
relief of the malt tax and the house and window
tax, and were they prepared to take as a
substitute for them a tax on property and
income—not a tax on property or income,
but a tax on property and income ?" The
Hon. Gentleman repeats, emphatically, not a tax
on property or income, but a tax on property and
income. He knows, however, that the tax would

fall almost exclusively on property, and not on
income ; for an income tax would cause an in-
finity of trouble—would provoke a great deal
of ill blood, on account of the absolute and in-
quisitorial powers which it would be necessary
to delegate, in order to obtain anything from
incomes—and the danger to which this discon-

tent would expose the whole financial system of
the country. We know already, by experience,
what an income tax yields. But the ludicrous
part of Mr. Baring's speech was his concluding
observation—that, " in fact, he thought the re-
duction of the malt tax, for which he voted on
Friday, might have been afforded without bring-
ing on the necessity of a general commutation
of taxation ; but, even allowing that it were
put to him distinctly, whether he would have
the malt duty reduced and a property tax im
posed, or the malt duty left alone, he shciuld
certainly say—leave the malt duty alone—(Hear,
hear)—and spare him the property tax.---(Hear,
hear, and laughter.)" Well might the House
laugh. The Hon. Gentleman, like all those
who view everything too exclusively with refe-
rence to themselves, saw on Friday night the
danger to which a vote against Sir William
Ingilby's motion might expose him at a future
election in Essex ; but he probably thought
that a majority against the motion would
avert the consequences. Now, however, the
property tax is uppermost in his mind ; and the
Essex electors are treated cavalierly enough.
We are under no alarm. The House will think
better of the matter. There will be no property
tax. The honest Members who voted for the
reduction of the malt duty, in the hope of there-
by obtaining a property tax, will be deserted this
night by several of those who helped to
make the majority, but who have no relish for a
property tax. We are not blind to the advan-
tages of a property tax, if it were possible to
raise by it any proportion of the taxes necessary
to meet the public creditor and defray the
charges of the Government. But it is impos-
sible to raise the moiety of the revenue wanted
in this country by a property tax (for we put
. icsrityy
resisted. t
income out of the question.) A graduated
property tax
is
We confiscation,
see the and
evils
o o
ur
presentbe str e
system of taxation? but we are unable to see
how, by any other system, we can improve our
situation. As the course of Ministers -*
I
S plain

and simple, the negativing of Lord Althorp's
resolution will lead at once to a property tax.
We are less afraid of the House than of the people
of London ; for, in our conscience, we believe
that the house and window tax will he resisted
in London.—Morning Chronicle.

The public will look with great anxiety to
the result of the motion of Sir John Key for the
total repeal of the inhabited house and window
duties, which motion stands for discussion in

the House of Commons this day ; but, by refer-
ring to our report of the debate of last night, it
will be seen in what manner the Ministers mean
to meet it. An amendment is to be moved by
Lord Ahhorp which will, if carried, settle the
Hon. Baronet's motion,tortether with that of Sir
Ingilby's of last Friday. Whenever it is
proposed to reduce any portion of the enormous
load of taxation, under which the productive in-
dustry of this once great and flourishing country
struggles and perishes, the Ministers and their
sycophants raise a cry about " keeping faith wi'h
the public creditor." This cry is mere nonsense,
unless it can be shewn that all practicable re-
ductions have been made in the establishments
of the Sate and the expenditure of Govern-
ment. It is only when economy and retrench-
ment shall have been carried to the utmost
possible limits which the honest and effective
discharge of the public service will allow that re-
ductions of taxation, which bring the income
of the State below the reduced expenditure,
can endanger the security which the public
creditor has for the payment of the interest of
the debt. But as to the assessed taxes, the re-
taining them in the eighteenth year of peace is
itself a gross and flagrant breach of faith with
the people. Those taxes were not laid on ori-
ginally for an indefinite period, as a security for
the payment of the interest of the debt, or for
any other purpose—they were laid on as war
taxes and war taxes only, with a distinct pledge
from the Minister of the Crown that they should
be abolished within two years after a return to a
state of peace. This, the eighteenth year since
the restoration of peace, sees those taxes still in
existence, and Ministers feel no qualms of con-
science at committing the breach of faith with
the public of which their produce is the disho-
' nest fruit. The great result which the people
anticipated from the Reform Bill was the prac-
tical alleviation of their grievous burdens. If
they were wrong and unreasonable in that ex-
pectation, the Whigs are to blame for encou-
raging that popular impression which their syco-
phants are now e,nployed to deride. Out of
office, the Whigs imputed to the corruptions
of the rival party then in power the extra-
vagant expenditure and intolerable taxation
of the country. They denounced the sine-
cures—they assailed the pension list—they de-
clared that the salaries of public functionaries
were fixed on a scale far beyond what the cir-
cumstances of the country justified—they ob-
jected to the magnitude of the standing army
—they drew aside, with rude hand, the veil that
concealed from the vulgar gaze the inmost re-
cesses of Courtly profusion. In short, they
took every opportunity to impress upon the
public mind the notion that if they were in
power, and Parliament were reformed, the country
would then enjoy that cheap and good govern-
ment which -Would restore England to her proud
and happy superiority among the nations of the
world. Have the people got that cheap and
good Government ? Are they even promised it?
As to cheapness, the Chancellor's Budget in this,
the third year of a Whig Administration, is
conclusive on the subject. Lord Althorp voted,
when out of office, against the assessed taxes, as
he did against military flogging. If he did not
do so for the purpose of embarrassing the then
Ministry, he must have done so to make himself
popular with the country. Upon that popularity
he was rased into power, and now he upholds
the assessed taxes, the sinecures, the pension-
list, and all those rapacious or prodigal measures
of State, which he and the other Whigs used both
in and out ofParliatnent, to condemn and denounce.

Nay more, under the fiscal Admlnistration
of Lord Althorp, the assessed taxes have been
made to be felt a greater grievance than ever, at
least, by the middle and industrious classes of
society. Under former administrations the

monstrous inequality with which those taxes,
especially the inhabited house tax, were levied on
the higher and middle ranks of the community
afforded the latter a ground of just and unan-
swerable complaint. That the princely mansion
of the Duke of Northumberland, or the Marquis

of Lansdowne, should be taxed at a lower rate
than that of a humble shopkeeper, whose pre-
carious income depended upon the uncertain
returns of trade, was bad enough ; and yet,
under the present Administration, this inequa-
lity has been increased by the vexatious sur-
charges, by which the assessed taxes have been
raised, as far as the middle classes are concerned,

to the highest pitch that rapacious ingenuity
could devise. This was also done in an unworthy
and dishonest manner, for previously to the
last general election the emissaries of Government
very widely circulated reports that Ministers had
trade up their minds to take off the assessed
taxes. On the principle quod volumus facile
credimus, the public lent a credulous ear to those
reports, and to the confidence thereby inspired
in the economical intentions of Government the
Ministers are indebted for the return to Parlia-
ment of a large proportion of those thick and
thin supporters of their measures, who have
assisted them by their votes in falsifying their
former principles and disappointing the public
hopes. No sooner had the elections terminated
than notices of surcharges were served, which, if
they produced much evil, also effected one good
result, that of raising the public voice against
those taxes with a more general burst of indig-
nation than ever had been heard before. How-
ever Ministers may wish to cling to those taxes,
we think they must have discovered by this time
that the public feeling which is abroad against
them is such as they can no longer, with safety,
resist.— Morning Herald.
King's Ministers, placed by the vote of i
~ n a situation of considerable ernb3r-
The
Friday
rassment," saw before them but three ways of
escapefrom it :—they might quit office—they
miglit attempt a property tax—they might re-
scind the uncomfortable vote. The first project
would be inconvenient to their purses ; the second
would be inconsistent with their professions ;
the third would make their House of Commons
ridiculous. The King's Ministers have formed
their determination, alid have resolved to make
their House of Commons ridiculous. It is a
very merry and yet a very melancholy story. On
Friday the malt tax was diminished by half of
its amount. The intelligence was circulated in
all parts of the country, and the joy of the thirsty
labourer was unbounded. On Tuesday the
malt tax is to be restored to its old limits ; the
rejoicing is to be turned into mourning, the bells
are to be silent, the bonfire is to be put out, and
A µ;-e re is to set down in bitter disappointment
are
1
his yet un4-,Asted cup r of cheap beer. Why is the

deliberate vote of the House of Commons
to he thus suddenly annulled ? Is it
that the matter upon which that vote was
given is a matter of small moment—one upon
which indifference and indecision are excusable
—one upon which the expectations of the coup•
try are to be lightly raised and carelessly crushed ?
The tax repealed and reimposed is one which
affects the comforts of the most industrious and
the most distressed of our fellow countrymen.
The amount of taxation upon which legislation
has been so precipitate and is to be so penitent,
is two millions. They who supported the Re-
form Bill cannot think the comforts of the
labouring classes unworthy of their notice ; they
who manage the Exchequer must not call two
millions a trifling sum. Is it that the discussion
which terminated in this result came by surprise
upon the Ministers and the Parliament, so
that the orators were dull to explain and
the audience slow to understand ? Read the
reports of the proceedings at the county
elections ; scrutinize the intimations given from
time to time by the representatives of our largest
constituencies ; count the petitions which have
been laid upon the table of the House. If
the Ministers, if the Parliament, were
►aken by surprise in the debate on Sir
William Ingilbv's motion then, indeed, we must
cease to anticipate any most common conse-
qttence from the antecedents which it has most
commonly followed. Is it that the numbers of
those who voted upon the subject were not such
as to afford a fair criterion of the sense of the
House of Commons ? Taxes have been laid
on, and taxes have been taken off; money has
been levied, and money has been spent, in
houses of half the number The House was
far too numerously attended for the purposes of
its present guides. There were so many inde-
pendent and so many conscientious Members
that the Chancellor of the Exchequer needed a
larger muster of his pensioners than Mr. Charles
Wood had deemed it proper or found it pos-
sible to make. But whatever may be the
reason for rescinding the vote of Friday,
the vote of Friday is to be rescinded. We
offered a strenuous and consistent Opposition to
the measure by which this House of Commons
has been constituted. We never anticipated from

that measure the assembling of a judicious, an
honest, a respectable Senate. But we have a
Reformed Parliament. We would not, that our
own spleen may be gratified and ,our own pre-
dictions fulfilled, have that Reformed Parliament
rendered in its very first Session a laughing-
stock and a by-word. The hundred and sixty
Members who supported the reduction on Friday
will have too much respect for their own cha-
racters to support the re-imposition on Tuesday.
We beseech those who were absent, and those
who supported the Government to have some
regard for the character of the House, although
their own may not be so immediately at stake.

We will suppose that the malt tax was not a tax
in which reduction was desirable ; that the vote
of Friday was a vote to which the House
ought not to have come. Our opinion of
what is now to be done is not affected by such a
supposition. It might have been safe to with-
hold the boon which it is most unwise to retract ;

and it is better that the Legislature should abide
by one improvident decision than that its fickle-
ness should make legislation itself ludicrous
and contemptible. We have left ourselves
scarcely room for one word upon the
unfair and crafty policy by which Lord
Althorp purposes to extract from his
House of Commons the condemnation of its
own vote. He will propose to-night that the
House should adopt two propositions :—The
first, that there is no alternative, the motions of
Sir W. Ingilby and Sir J. Key being both
carried, but the imposition of a property tax; the
second, that the imposition of a property tax is
inexpedient. His Lordship will scarcely force
his House of Commons to affirm either proposi-
tion. No alternative ? When the beer tax was

taken off did it not appear to many that the
malt tax was a fitter subject for legislation ?
And if it shall now seem to many expedient to
adopt the course which many then recommended
is the property tax to be made a bugbear to
frighten back the deserters from the Ministerial
ranks? For the sake of public credit it is un-
doubtedly desirable that some resolution should
he adopted by the House which should ensure
the raising of sufficient supplies for the expen-
diture of the year. But it is not on that ac-
count desirable that the House at only twenty-
four hours' notice should resolve that there are
only two ways in which these supplies can be
raised.—Morning Post.

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, APRIL 29.