The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-10 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 10, 1869.

' mity, "I am willing to forget, but which appears to
have excited him to a high degree of that rhetorical
spleen of which he is a master." Kindred in bitter-
ness, though partaking rather of the character of
irony than of invective, were Mr. Disraw's allusions
later on to the Premier's " natural candour of
mind "—as exemplified, for instance, as the late
First Minister went on to indicate, by the contrast
presented to view by the very manner of the now
First Lord of the Treasury's reply to the observations
made by the ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer. " A
statement made," said Mr. DISRAELI, " with the
coolness and total absence of acerbity which charac-
terized the statement of my hon. friend ought not to
be met with a torrent of taunts." And in a similar
strain of mingled banter and reproof the Leader of
the Opposition convulsed the house with laughter a few
minutes later on, when he remarked, " I am sure the
right hon. gentleman has great confidence in the
eloquence of his speeches, and that, notwithstand-
ing the occurrence in his native county, he still
looks back on his campaign as having
given a great impetus to his circulation."
Convince even the most gifted of men against his will,
and, like the zany in the proverb, he's of the same
opinion still. Referring subsequently to Mr. HUNT'S
allusions to Mr. GLADSTONE'S memorable assertion
in Lancashire, the latter said, " the right hon.
gentleman calls that statement rash and ill-con-
sidered. I call it measured, true, and constitutional."
Mr. DISRAELI is not to be eclipsed, however, in this
kind of Parliamentary positivism, for he, too, rose
again, immediately afterwards, to remark that the
right hon. gentleman had said that his (the Leader of
the Oppoition's) assertion on such and such an occa-
sion was so and so—" Well, sir," he exclaimed, " .1
must unreservedly contradict that statement." Ob-
viously the buttons on the end of the foils are getting
loosened.

IT is impossible to say anything in favour of the
mode by which Mr. LOWE obtains his imaginary
surplus. To extract 14 millions of taxes from the
taxpayers a twelvemonth in advance, under the
name of economy, is an extraordinary perversion of
the term. While the large and sudden payment will
be of little advantage to the Government, who can
merely leave it in the bank as a provision for subse-
quent expenditure, to those who have to pay it the
demand will involve both loss and inconvenience.
Taking interest at 5 per cent., and calculating that
the 14 millions are paid on an average
six months in advance, the loss will not
be less than £350,000 in interest alone, or more than
three times as much as the sum which Mr. LOWE
expects to save on the collection. The inconvenience
will be worse than the loss. With quarterly pay-
ments the Government receipts and expenditure are
pretty equally distributed; but with one-thirel of the
whole taxation of the country demanded in January,
there will be a large accumulation and locking-up of
funds which will be very prejudicial to trade. The
course proposed is the more to be regretted because
the substantial advantages of Mr. LOWE'S Budget
could be secured without resorting to such a
questionable expedient. The ordinary revenue of
the country is four millions in excess of the expen-
diture; and therefore it would be perfectly reason-
able to extend the payment of the Abyssinian balance
over a period of two years. Under this arrange-
ment all the remissions of taxation proposed in the
Budget, except the reduced income tax, could have
been made, and the substantial advantages which will
result from them would be realised without subjecting
the country to a permanent annual inconvenif n-,T.
With such a palpable objection to the substitution of
annual for quarterly collections, it is to be hoped
that Mr. LOWE will consent to revise this portion
of his scheme. At the present moment the
Government floating debt is unusually small, and the
issue of two million of Exchequer Bills for twelve
months at the existing low rate of interest would be
a judicious proceeding, enabling us to secure the
advantages of the Budget while avoiding its evils.
If the mode by which Mr. LOWE obtains his
surplus is open to the most serious objection, the
mode in which he applies it is, on the whole, most
satisfactory. There are two alterations that we
should like to make : one, a matter of considerable
importance fiscally ; the other, of importance only
politico-economically. We are now about to
do justice to Ireland ; we are about to put
an end to that ascendancy of the few over the
many which has lasted for so many centuries,
to our shame. The Irishman is henceforth to be the
equal of the Englishman, so far as regards his rights ;
he ought to be the equal also as regards his duties.
There can be no reason why we should continue to
bribe Irishmen into loyalty by a money present, for
we are giving them their due. Exemption from
taxation is no longer needed to buttress up an
alien Church, for we are disestablishing and
disendowing that Church. There can, therefore,
be no reason why we should not extend
the assessed taxes to Ireland, as we have
during the last sixteen years extended the income
tax and the spirit duties. That extension would have
been the more easy and the more just because after
the alterations made by Mr. LOWE the duties will bear
almost entirely upon the class best able to bear them.
He might naturally have felt reluctant to extend the
onerous taxes on locomotion to a country so poor as
Ireland ; but the tax upon luxuries, which for
the most part is what the assessed taxes
now are, can be borne as well in Ire-
land as in England, and can certainly be
better borne by the Irish landlord than the duties on
tea and sugar can be borne by the English labourer.
We presume that Mr. LOWE, though a lack of valour
is certainly not one of his deficiencies, could scarcely
screw his courage up to the point of imposing fresh
taxation upon a country so disaffected as Ireland
now is. Moreover, to have done so might have given
his opponents an opportunity of saying that he was
robbing the Irish Church in order to relieve the
English taxpayer ; that he was with one hand getting
rid of one tax at the expense of the Church by devoting
Church revenues to the payment of the county
cess, and with the other hand was subjecting the
payers of that imposition to others hitherto borne
exclusively by Englishmen. Of course the
accusation would have been false. Yet it would at
least have been plausible, and we cannot blame Mr.
LOWE if he did not care to expose himself to it.
Equalisation of taxation must be the work of
another year. The other criticism that we
have to make on this part of the subject refers
to the remission of the hair-powder tax. The
amount of the tax is absurdly small, is something
less than £1,000; but it represented the sound
principle that those persons who can afford to make
themselves conspicuous, can afford to pay for doing
so; that those who find pleasure in shaking the flour-
box over their flunkies' heads, ought to pay for that
pleasure. This is the last tax that Mr. LOWE should
have abolished. He should have increased it tenfold.
For the same reason he has done quite right in
increasing the duty for armorial bearings. The man
who finds a pleasure in heraldry must be of
about the same mental calibre as the man who
finds a pleasure in the flour-box ; both ought to
be taxed for the right of enjoying themselves in
these particular ways.
Passing from these somewhat minute criticisms,
we come to the other points of this very remarkable
Budget which remain to be considered. The remis-
sion of the shilling duty on corn is at first sight
a small matter, but the fact that the duty brings
in nearly a million a year slims that its remission
is not a small matter. The truth is, this tax
is borne chiefly by the class least able to bear it. The
richer a man is, the more meat and the less bread he
eats ; the poorer a man is, the more bread and the
less meat he eats. So that just in proportion as a
man's wealth increases, so does he escape from this
tax; and just in proportion as his wealth decreases,
is he exposed to it. In the case of the farm labourer
1 who earns 10s, a week, and whose household consists

lof five persons, the abolition of this duty will amount
to no less than one per cent. upon, his income, aim-
mission of taxation which his richer neighbours are
never inclined to despise. This abolition will remove
what is really a protective duty, indefensible
on every ground of justice and expediency ; in
fact, the tax was never meant as a tax at all—it was
a mere registration fee. It turns out to be a very
substantial burden, and to be wholly unneeded for
the purposes of registration. Mr. LOWE was sanguine
that by abolishing it England would become the
granary of the world ; that, in fact, English ports
would no longer be used merely by vessels calling for
orders, but would become actual storehouses, with the
inevitable and happy result of diminished prices for
the benefit of the country which is so fortunate as to
possess these stores. This anticipation, if it be
realised, implies increased employment of labour in
our ports, so that the proposed change should be
beneficial both directly and indirectly.
As we have been urging the abolition of the duty
on fire insurance for the last ten years, we need
scarcely express our satisfaction that this tax upon
providence and prudence has been abolished at last.
Mr. SHERIDAN will now see that he gave way on
Tuesday night to good purpose. He did not aspire
to more than a reduction of the duty. Mr. LOWE
has abolished it altogether. No future Chan-
cellor •of the Exchequer, however great his
needs, not even though he should be engaged
in a war with Paraguay—to adopt Mr. LOWE'S
humorous hypothesis—would venture to reimpose
this duty any more than he would the window tax.
The abolition of the licenses for the sale of tea,
cocoa, and pepper is also a most commendable
feature, for it is essentially a relief for the poor man,
and is a step in the direction of " a Free Breakfast
Table." It will, moreover, by stimulating the con-
sumption of tea, involve no -loss to the Exche-
quer. The alteration and large reduction of
the taxes on locomotion is beyond all praise.
These taxes have hitherto pressed most unfairly
upon a hard-working class, and have seriously
interfered with the public advantage. 'We may now
hope that a London cab will cease to be the nastiest
vehicle in the world next to a dung cart, and that the
innkeepers of villages off the line of railways will be
able to run conveyances between their little communi-
ties and the nearest railway station. Altogether,
though we have devoted the larger portion
of our remarks to blame, we find in the
Budget much more to commend than to
censure. It is sound in most of its main prin-
ciples. Where it is unsound it can be altered
without disturbing the framework. 'We sincerely
trust that Mr. LOWE will be induced to consent to
this alteration. He will then have the satisfaction
of feeling that he has, under the most unfavourable
circumstances, produced the best Budget since 1860 ;
that he has out of the nettle Deficit plucked the
flower Surplus.

LATEST IN ELL LGENOE

( REIT'EWS TELEGEAMS')

AUSTRIA.
VIENNA, April 10.

General Sonnaz, the Italian
Envoy Extraordi-
nary, arrived here last night, commissioned to pre-
sent to the Emperor the Order of the Annunciata.

AIIEItICA•

NEW YORK, April 9.

Gold closed at 1331, the highest quotation dur-
ing the day was 133 k, the lowest 1321. Sterling
exchange on London, 107 i ; 5.20 United States
Bonds, 1882, 124 ; ditto, 1885, 1171 ; ditto,
i.
1865, 1131; 10-40 Bonds, 105; ; Illinois, 139 ;
Erie, 31 Cotton, midland upland, 28k. Pe-
troleum, standard white, 31k. Flour, extra state,
$5.95 6.55 ; corn, old mixed, 88c.

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORL.ESPoNDENT.)
PARIS, FRTDAY, April Q,

The Belgian affair remains in a generally mysterious,
but unsatisfactory, condition. The war rumours have
vanished for the time ; and now wo are troubled with
reports of Ministerial changes. The speech of M.
Thiers has produced an immense effect. A crop of no less
than 10,000 cards has been left at his residence since the
speech was made. The effect produced at the Tuileries is
scarcely less marked than the impression on the general
public. The Ministry is to be remodelled, we are told,
and concessions—Ministerial responsibility at least—are
to be made at once. M. Emile 011ivier is to form one of
the new Cabinet, whilst M. Rouher is to be set aside with
the Presidency of the Senate ; all of which we shall be in a
position to believe when it happens. But we still live in
the hope that some results will follow the recent attacks
upon the Imperial position. Ministerial responsibility
would be better than nothing.

The Left is by no means so thoroughly uniten
in face of the ccming elections as its friends could wish.
The various sections of anti•lmperialist politicians seem
disposed to keep up their minor differences, instead of
uniting in the common cause pf liberty. M. Emile
011ivier, for instance, will be opposed both in the
Var and at Paris. In the latter circumscription
he will have two antagonists, and between the three an
official candidate may slip in. The Liberty bitterly and
justly complains of this. Liberty is the first considera-
tion which the Left ought to provide for ; differences
among themselves might safely be adjourned. In 1863 the
great victory throughout Paris was achieved simply by
unity. The friends of M. Thiers aided the friends of M.
Jules Favre, and vice versa. Is this wise policy not to be
repeated?

It is now asserted that the elections will take place on
the 23rd and 24th of May, instead of the two last days
of the month. The reason given for this fresh change is
that the Government desires to terminate the disagreeable
discussions of the session as speedily as possible.

An extraordinary scandal which occurred here some
days ago is still the theme of comment and dispute. Com-
mandant ThZ:ve recently committed suicide by shooting
himself at his barracks. When the report of the pistol
was heard people rushed to the room. They were met by
a lady in a complete state of undress, who emerged from
the apartment. She was the Marquise de la Mothe
Fenelon. The condition in which she was seen left
no doubt as to her relations with the man
who had jast terminated his life; and it is
said that the two had been on improper terms for six
months, the Commandant gratifying the Marquise's ex-
travagant taste for dress. Scratches were found on the
lady's shoulder, leaving it to be inferred that her para-
mour had attempted to commit suicide, and had ulti-
mately accomplished his purpose after a struggle. After
this exposure the lady was reported to he in a state
verging upon insanity. In this mysterious condition the
matter was left ; but now a new element of complication
presents itself. The Marquis de is Mothe Fenelon, the
husband of the lady, writes to say that his wife had gone
to the barracks at his request tl see M. Thbve, for the
purpose of inquiring after the health of his eldest son, who
is enlisted in the sth Hussars. Surely the affair had
better have been left as it stood. This statement neither
clears up the mystery, nor does it clear the character of
the Marquise. For, in the first place, it is an all but im-
possible coincidence that the Commandant should have
chosen the visit of the lady to inquire alter her son as the
most eligible occasion for committing suicide. And,
then, how about the state of her apparel? It is impossible
to explain away this last condemning fact. The scandal
rivals the poisoned bonbon affair; but that it is a scandal
seems, unfortunately, too true.

The papers tell a strangly sad, tale of adventure at sea.
In August 1863, the trading vessel Adelina Eliza sailed
from Bordeaux, bound for Hong Kong. A mouth after
she was spoken to off the Cape, but never afterwards
heard of. A solitary survivor of the crew of fourteen
has just returned to narrate the dismal fate of his com-
panions. The vessel having been driven from her course
by a violent tempest in the Southern Ocean, lost her
masts and rudder, and finally struck on a coral bank.
The men had only time to get into the long boat before
she sank. They landed on a neighbouring island, and
being exhausted went to sleep. On their awaking they
found themselves surrounded by a number of natives, who
made them prisoners. Their captors turned out to be
cannibals, and gradually killed and ate eleven of them,
including the captain. The other three managed to get
hold of a canoe, and made their escape to an islet not far
off, but there two of them succumbed to fatigue, and
died. The last, after moving by degrees from one small
island to another, and living on shell-fish and roots,
finally managed to construct a raft, and committed him-
self to the mercy of the waves. He drifted out to
mid-ocean for an indefinite space of time. At last he was
thrown on the coast of South America, where lie was
found by some whites. He was treated with every kie
'less and sent back to Europe in a Portuguese vessel.
An execution has just taken place at St. Omer. It is
the first at that town since 1857.