The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-14 00:00:00

wtitt,

LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 14, 1851.

The second reading of the Income-tax Bill has
been postponed until after the Easter recess. The
renewal of that impost in its present oppressive and
unequal form will not be obtained quite so easily as
our sapient CHANCELLOR of the ExcnEQuEn appears
to calculate. He must not forget that the days of the
present Parliament are numbered, and that the time
is rapidly approaching be made
when an appeal must
to the country—_when Honourable Gentlemen will
have to meet their constituencies, and to render
accounts of their respective
Stewardships, if desirous
of again figuring a, .
Members of the Le-
gislature. The voice of public opinion must
therefore be listened to respectfully.
And com-
plaints of " an ignorant impatience of
taxation," or
the announcement that the incomparable financier Sir
CHABLIS WOOD, had " arrived at a conclusion,"
albeit, he did not condescend to inform the commu-
nity of the reasons by which be was influenced, v‘ill
not be considered as sufficient to warrant the
support
of an act of gross and palpable injustice. We rejoice
then at the postponement, because it will afford a fit-
ting opportunity for all persons desirous of obtaining
an equitable adjustment of the tax, and a modifi-
cation of Schedules D and E, of explaining
their views clearly and unequivocally, so that there
may be no possibility of mistake or misconception.
The holidays will be the best possiblee time for that
purpose, when the absence of the usual avocations will
give to each Member sufficient leisure for considering
the subject maturely, and reflecting on the probable

, 4. . .

consequences of suffering himself to be dragged
through the mire by a Minister who, whatever
may be the fate of the Cabinet, cannot long
remain at the head of a department, for
the arduous and important duties whereof he
is totally unqualified. It is, however, essential
that those who feel themselves to be aggrieved by the
equal assessment of all descriptions cf incomes, with-
out reference to the sources from whence they may
be derived, should take due advantage of the golden
opportunity, and exhibit the amount of zeal, energy,
and activity which the occasion demands. If they
now bestir themselves, they will obtain speedy, in-
deed we may say immediate justice; but if they re-
main indolent, careless, and apathetic, they will be
saddled with the burden for at least three years more,
if not perpetually, and their feelings of indignant
annoyance will not be soothed by the thought that
they have only their own negligence and insouciance
to thank for the continuance of the grievance.

It is not, as we have repeatedly stated, the amount
of the tax that excites the public indignation. It
unquestionably pr,sses severely on many men toiling
hard to maintain and improve their position, and to
make some scanty provision for themselves and
families when age or infirmity shall paralyse their
energies and deprive them of the power of earning
their daily bread by their own exertions ; but still
it would be cheerfully satisfied, if fairly pro-
portioned to their means and circumstances.
It is the deep burning sense of wrong that rankles in
their hearrs at finding themselves plundered under
the sanction of law, and seeing the earnings of their
skill, industry, and enterprise classed with the profits
of accumulated and realised property. This it is
that has made many resist the unjust enactment, and
oppose fraud and deception to power unfairly and
oppressively exercised. We do not justify this con-
duct, for so long as it is the law of the land it should
be respected and obeyed, however strong the ob-
jections that may be felt. But it has unquestionably
a demoralising tendency ; it leads to fraudulent
returns in but too many instances, and should, there-
fore, be erased from the national statute-book, to
which it is the stain and disgrace.

It is scarcely possible to believe that the incomes
assessed under Schedule D have fallen by no less than
8,000,0001. sterling per annum since 1842, or by
6,000,000/. since 1844 The change occasioned by
free trade would not effect the parties charged under
that schedule, for the incomes assessed are not in any
degree derived from lands or houses, or any other
description of real estate ; they are gained ex-
clusively by intellectual or physical labour.
We are told that the: agriculturists are the only de-
pressed class, but we find that those who are sup-
posed to be in the enjoyment of unusual prosperity,
although increased in numbers, are actually receiving
8,000,0001. per annum less than in 1842, a diminu-
tion of nearly fifteen per cent. on the sum total. If
this be true, they are far heavier sufferers than the
territorial aristocracy, for whom the Honourable
Gentleman the Member for Buckinghamshire
demands popular sympathy, on the ground that
their incomes have depreciated ten per
cent. within the same period. In whatever
point of view then the matter be regarded an altera-
tion of the system is essential. If the returns can be
depended on, there has been a melancholy detniora-
tion in the profits of trade and the incomes derived
from professions—if not, frauds to an enormous ex-
tent are daily practised on the Exchequer. In the
former case suitable relief should be afforded to the
sufferers ; in the latter, the apparently irresistible
temptation should be removed, or at least the delin-
quents should be deprived of the plea of justification
which they might have set up, viz., that they were
only mseting one desoripti )n of fraud by another.

Difficulties to all appearance of an insurmountable
character still impede the labours of those who have
been so long and sedulously endeavouring to realize
the dream of German unity. Nothing satisfactory,
absolutely nothing, has resulted from the Dresden
Conferences. The efforts of MANTEUFFEL on the
part of Prussia, and of SCHWARTZPINBERG on the part
of Austria, have failed in removing the obstacles
hitherto estranging front each other the constituent
parts of the Confederation. If anything is yet to be
accomplished in the way of combining the interests of
the several states, it must be effected by other means
than those employed by the most eminent among
their statesmen.

Germany may unfortunately console itself at the
present moment in its dilemma by that most sorrow-
ful and barren of all reflections, that contemporary
powers are plunged into a confusion quite as bewil-
dering, and, in cne or two instances, quite as
far removed from any ulterior settlement.
Its citizens can recognize in the stormy de-
bates of the Spanish Cortes the political
evils still impending over the Peninsula. They can
perceive as clearly in the sullen submission of the
Italian principalities, the auguries of an agitation the
outbreak of which must be regarded as dependent
alone upon some apparently accidental combination of
circumstances. They can observe in the torpor which
'has temporarily fallen upon the various divisions of
the Sclavonic family the portent of an explosion yet
more terrible than the one recently quelled by the
union of despotic Governments. They can see in
France the perpetuation of those troubles which have
afflicted the hearts of its most patriotic citizens and
undermined the energies of its Republican Constitu-
tion, almost uninterruptedly from the memorable days
of February—the new Ministry of LEON FAUCHER
affording but indifferent guarantees for the permanent
discomfiture of the conspiracies against the popular
rights and democratic principles. Aware of all
this, the German multitudes may flatter them-
selves into the belief that theirs being no ex-
ceptional case, they have no reason whatever for
lamenting in any particular manner over calamities
that seem to be the common property of our genera-
tion.

Reasoning after this fashion, however, is but
a miserable consolation after all, a consolation calcu-
lated to effect no good to the community, to forward
in no respect the cause of liberty, of social improve-
ment, or of general civilization. Especially must we
look upon the matter thus mournfully, if we but take
into account the construction that may be placed
upon recent events by the enemies of freedom and
enlightenment. It Rill remain for the future histo-
rian of occurrences now taking place throughout
Christendom, to decide whether the blame attaches to
the peoples or to the Sovereigns, to the believers in
civism, or to the traitors to nationality. Many inte►li-
gent and conscientious men there are we doubt not,
amongst us who observe in the whole course of the
German movement merely additional evidence of that
malign influence applied by some philosophers to the
whims and passions of the population. Observers of this
class may detect in the failures of diplomacy, now the
subject of our regrets, but supplementary illustrations
of the miseries flowing from the fury of revolution.
They may fancy even that they can discover in
each of the principaltie• of the Confederation but a
melancholy vignette drawn by the band of European
destiny as embellishments to the prophetic verse of
CORNEILLE

" Quand le peuple est maitre, on n'agit qu'en tumulle,
La voix de la raison jamais ne se consulte.;.
Les honneurs sont vendus aux plus ambatteux;
L'autorite livree aux plus seditieux."
Yet, Preserving in vivid remembrance the events
which have marked the annals of Germany during
the last three years,
and more particularly during
the past twelve months, we cannot ourselves discern
in them any testimony inimical to the repute of the
population—the ill success of the negotiations carried
on between Austria and Prussia being solely, to our
thinking, attributable to the ambition of a few states-
men, to the chicaneries of a knot of diplomatists, and
to the personal pique excited respectively between
the two principal plenipotentiaries.

'What, let us ask, is the precise nature of that
latest impediment which has just now sprung up be.
tween the chief members of the German Confedera-
tion ? Austria, it will be recollected, induced Prussia
to consent to a conference at Dresden. SCRWART•
ZENBERG, and BIANTEUYTEL were the negotiators.
They met : and not once, but repeatedly. The argu-
ment was protracted. It was broken off. It was
renewed. It has at last been rather seriously inter-
rupted—a difficulty having arisen which bids fair to de-
lay to an indefinite period like the Greek Kalends, the
close of the long-debated misunderstanding. Austria,
in fact, after evincing a readiness to share with Prus•
sia in the prerogatives of a sort of dual Administra-
tion, now demands for herself a certain degree of
supremaey, and expects, tuorsoyer, that this supra.