The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-20 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 1858.

The Budget has been unfolded, and the financial
Minister has carried with hint the House and the
country, in favour of the propositions which he
brought forward. The fiscal scheme was not all
that we desired or anticipated, but it was certainly
far better than would have been offered by Sir
G. C. Limn, Mr. DisnanLi has justly con-
sidered that, in the face of a very considerable
deficiency, amounting to nearly four millions
sterling, he is not justified in attempting to ply
off any portion of debt. He will not create a
new burden in order to get rid of an old one, and
therefore he has wisely determined to put an end
t) the sinking fund on the war debt, and also to
renew the 2,000,00 W. of Exchequer-bonds which
will fall duo in May. These were matters
that the oppressed t Ix-payers had a right to
anticipate, and they have not been disappointed.
Three-and•a-half millions are to be renewed, which
Sir G. C. Lewis would have placed on people ex-
hausted by a monetary crisis of unparalleled in-
tensity. The money, if required, could be raised
on very advantageous conditions ; but we believe
a large
_proportion thereof is vested in the Com-
missioners of Savings' Banks, who will be de-
lighted to receive a security so eligible in every
respect, against which no possible objection can
be raised.

Seven-eighths of the deficiency aro thus pro-
vided for, and a comparatively small sum re-
mains. There is still half a million t) be
raised, and Mr. DISRAELI, with rather too fine
an appreciation of the compact of 1853,
one for which he was not in the slightest degree
responsible, determines - not to interfere with the
reduction. Yes ; thanks to the Darbyites, the
Income Tax will be reduced to sd. in the pound,
and some reasonable hope is held out of its total
abolition in 1860 ; although that, we confess, is a
matter on which we must still remain sceptical.
There iv, at all events, a persevering and ener-
getic attempt to carry out Mr. GLADSTONE'S views,
and for that the opponents of direct taxation
should feel grateful.
But: the half million must be provided unless
the Right Honourable Gentleman could
consent to a deficiency. This he hopes
to obtain by an equalisation of the spirit duties
throughout the whole of the United Kingdom, or
in other words by an addition of ls. 101 per
gallon on Irish whiskey. As we have repeatedly
stated; there is no amount that can be levied on
alcohol that may not be charged. It is of all
othera the most legitimate subject of taxation.
Therein, however, one check that must be re-
spected. Any increase that woul 1 lead to illicit
distillation would produce the most demoralising
consequences to the community, and at the same
time wJuld prove injurious to the revenue. The
fair trader should receive fair play. He should
not have undue competition forced, upon him, as
we fear it will be when the duty is raised
to 7s. 10d. ; and there is so large a
margin for the gentlemen who are by no
means disposed to take the revenue officers
into their confidence. Mr. DISRAELI, however,
thinks that it can be levied, and that he will ob-
tain half a million therefrom--trusts that calculi-
tions may be verified, but we confess that we en-
tertain very serious doubts on the point. As we
have already stated there can be no objection
against the principle. It is merely one of figures
to which the revEl.sto returns of uExt year will

afford the most conclusive, if not the most satis-
factory, answer. But Mr. DISRAELI is not
satisfied with merely making both ends meet.
He wishes very naturally to have a surplus
which will be available for the general purposes
of the nation, if all should be right, or would
provide for any unexpected casualty. This
he obtains in a perfectly unexceptionable manner
by a small stamp (Id.) on cheques. Any person
who keeps an account with a banker is probably
liable to the Income-tax. The few pence that
he may have to disburse will be of comparatively
trivial consequence. In all his dealings he is beset
with stamp duties. He has to pay a heavy tax
on bills of exchange, payable at a future day,
and on receipt of any sum exceeding 40s. he must
place an adhesive stamp on the receipt. It
will be no great hardship, therefore, to affix
one to the instrument of payment which will
practically operate as a receipt. It will, in-
deed, scarcely be felt, and we congratulate
Mr. DISRAELI on having obtained such an unob-
jectionable mode of increasing the revenue.

Of course, with a deficiency of four millions,
no reduction of taxation could be anticipated.
Taxes on prudence and on knowledge would have
their claims fairly balanced when there was a sur-
plus, but the consideration must be postponed
until that surplus is apparent. 1860 seems to
be " the good time coming." Everything is then
to be accomplished—the Income-tax will only be
remembered from its gross inequality, and there
will be an Utopian readiness to discharge all fiscal
obligations. We, however, believe that the
Ineome•tax will still survive, that it will be a
perpetual blister on the sides of the middle
classes. We do not, we cannot complain
of Mr. DARAEL/ having avoided the diffi-
culty during the present year. It was almost
a miraiulous feat to have been enabled to do so,
to have allowed the reduction of 2d. in the pound
to be accomplished. For that he will receive many
blessings from humble roofs, and many cheerful
matrons will rejoice in garments which they have
procured for themselves and their children out of
the remitted charge. But next year, and if he
goes on as he has done, he will have another finan-
cial scheme to develope—he must grapple with the
Income-tax—must render it more equitable—and
induce the real creators and producers of national
wealth—those who earn their daily bread by
their daily labour, physical or intellectual, to
believe that they are not swindled. Considering
the short time he has been in office, and the
factious opposition that would have been offered
to any fiscal project, we are deeply grateful for
what Mr. DISRAELI has achieved, but we shall look
forward confidently to a further improvement ;
and although we cannot anticipate the abolition
,f the income tax, we shall anticipate a reasonable
recognition of the distinction between permanent
and precarious incomes. It is from Mr. Dis
nenra alone that we can expect it, for Mr. GLAD-
STONE, and Sir C. WOOD, and Sir G. C. LEWIS,
have given unequivocal indications of no change
or modification at their hands, and we sincerely
hope that they may never have the opportunity !

The necessity for further Harbours of Refuge
along our coasts, has perhaps never been more
strikingly demonstrated than it has been very
succinctly in a document, whic`l, nevertheless,
merely refers to the want incidentally. This
document is no other than the lest annual Report
addressed to the Lords of tae Committee of Privy
Council for Trade, by the Surveyor-General.
The report, as usual, is followed by an ingenious
-,l3:Aract of returns as to the actual amount of
wrecks and casualties occurring in 1857,' on
,-)r near the shores of the United Kingdom.
It is an abstract as clear in its ar,
rangement, as it is succinct and c•)m-
prehensive. It is so tabulated that it in no re-
=poet whatever admits of the possibility of mis-
tpprehension. The facts accumulated during the
pa,t twelvemonth, beginning with the Ist of
January and ending with the thirty-first of
a:comber, are not only classified with a punc-
tkilious regard to accnracy, but are minutely and
,crupulously analysed. The result is precisely
what could have been most earnestly desired.
With this official paper in our hands we can esti-
❑ate to a nicety the extent of the loss sustained
both in life and property during the yeas last past
—and by comparing the returns of 1857 with
those annually precading it, we can distinctly re-
cognise the extent of our advance towards the
iiminution of these peculiarly insular calamities.
Altopther it is satisfactory to find that the Sur-
gt yor-Geueral can write—and with perfect truth
—" The meek experience of the year is on the
thole favourable." Yet the magnitude of the
I aigers to be contended with may be appreciated
ill the more forcibly when we add to that en-
couraging announcement an epitome of the casual-
ies here, in regard to this " favourable" year,
leliberately enumerated.

Let it be observed then, in reference to 1857,
that the number of vessels wrecked, stranded,
foundered, or in any way damaged or destroyed
by maritime casualties, on or near the coasts of
,lie United Kingdom, were no leas than 1,143
altogether. Re,calle,ct that these ill-fated ships
represented an aggregate burthen of 218,570 tons,
and were manned by very nearly 10,000 seamen,
se many as 9,819 souls having been thus griev-
ously imperilled. Remember in addition
to this, that of all the jeopardised
" hands," but 1,668 were saved from actual
shipwreck—eight by individual exertion; 243 by
assistance from shore, with rocket and mortar
apparatus, ropes, Sac.; 398 by life-boats ; 507 by
ships and steamboat 3; and 512 by small craft,
coastguard boats and luggers. It is curious, by
the way, to note the proportion of the different
descriptions of vessels which were thus subjected in
1857 to wrecks and casualties—there being enu-
merated in the total of 1,143, but one of each of
the following, namely, of yachts, hookers, cobles,
and chasse mares ; two keels ; three dandies (!);
four flits (1); five ketches; eight snows, and
eight cutters ; 11 luggers ; 21 galliots ; 3 9
steamers ; 51 brigantines ; 58 ships (so called);
65 smacks ; 68 sloops ; 129 barques ; 311 brigs,
and 354 schooners. The catalogue showing a
terrible crescendo of danger from the smacks, on
through sloops, and barques, and brigs to the
most seriously imperilled of all crafts, viz., the
schooners. Perhap3 the most striking passage in
the whole of the impressive and sententious re-
port of the Surveyor-General is that in which he
thus comments on the extraordinary advance
(en advance of no lessthan 94 upon 1856, or as he
puts it to us rather fearfully 52'5 per cent. on
the whole of the casualties on the entire coasts),
the extraordinary advance iu the number of
casualties on the East Coast during 1857,
briefly
but accurately described by him as " a very large
proportion." Observe what follows—" This,"
writes the Surveyor-General, " may in some mea-
sure, no doubt, be attributable to the great num-
ber of vessels passing and repassing along that
coast ; but the chief causes appear to be—the diffi-
cult- and intricate navigation incidental to the
rocks and sands with which that coast abounds, the
worst of harbours of refuge, and the dangerous
I system of 'follow the leader' constantly practised
by colliers and wasters, whereby reference to

charts, the use of the lead, and the necessity for '
laying down courses are neglected." Without
any doubt whatever there is a terrible proportion
of the aggregate loss to be attributed variously
to the difficulty and intricacy of the navigation,
as well as to this deplorable neglect in regard to
the laying down of courses, the use of the lead,
and the reference to charts—but, beyond all
question, the most fertile source of danger to the
vessels traversing the waters of the German Ocean
to and fro along the east coast of England is—
the lack of additional harbours of refuge. In
order to recognise this upon the instant, and, as
it were, at a single glance, it is only necessary to
look at the admirable, yet at the same time really
frightful, Wreck Chart for 1857, prefixed to the
report, and compiled from the authentic testi-
mony of the Board of Trade Register. Along all
that coast, from the Orkney Islands to the entrance
of the Channel, but more particularly from Tarbet
Ness to the South Foreland, the evidences
of wrecks, strandings, foundering, collisions,
and other casualties, are something absolutely
frightful. The most fearful amount of catastro-
phies occurring between Yarmouth and Gorleston,
between Seaton Carew and Hartlepool, between
Flamborough-head and Bridlington, but most of
all between Seaham and Sunderland. Assuredly
more remains to be done with a view to tke sal-
vage of life from shipwreck than has yet been
attempted along the coasts of the United King-
dom. For it cannot for an instant be regarded
as adequate to this end—the expenditure of
5,0201. 14s. 3d. upon the maintenance of life-
boats, rocket and mortar apparatus, Jac., besides
a comparative trifle upon .the distribution as re-
wards of money, medals, telescopes, and chro-
nometers. In acting thus we are only following out
the " penny wise and pound foolish" principle.
Salvage throughlife-boats, rocket and mortar appa-
ratus, rewards, and so forth, down through all
the various sections of this elaborated catalogue,
ought, in reason, to be subordinate, or subsidiary
rather to the more imperial enterprise of construct-
ing new harbours of refuge wherever experience
proves them to be most glaringly requisite. By
acting thus we shall be acting both humanely and
economically. It is an enterprize worthy of the
greatest maritime power on the globe—and one,
the continued neglect of which, is in an extraor-
dinary degree discreditable to the name and fame
of the British nation and Government.

We are sorry Lord DERBY should differ from
Lord STANLEY on the subject of Church Rates ;
unhappily he differs from but little, if at all,
more than the two ex-Premiers in the House of
Commons. The committee of laymen, who waited
on Lord DERBY yesterday, elicited from him very
similar remarks to those which either of the two
Whig Lords would have made to the same gentle-
men. The battle, therefore, now lies entirely
with the people, and the independent Members ;
if they do their part as they ought the abolition
of Church Rates will, at least, advance by an
important stage this year. Lord DERBY pre-
dicted that Sir JOHN TRELAWNEY'S Bill would
come up to the House of Peers, " and unfortu-
nately be added to those questions which pass one
House, but do not pass the other." This, how-
ever, is a stage which every Reform must pass.
Rejection by the House of Lords from one or two
years to ten or twenty, according to the degree of
popular pressure, is a part of the necessary course
for every measure of civil or religious liberty.
All the more important is it that every Libe-
ral member should be at his post on Wednesday
when Sir JOHN TRELAWNEY'S Bill is to bo read a
second time. Everything depends on the House
of Commons' majorities. Resistance in the Upper
House depends on the votes of the Lower House.
The question is one in which great numbers feel a
strong prsonal interest, and if members who
make loud professions of liberality wish to be re-
garded by their constituencies as honest in mak-
ing them, they must be at their posts. It will
not do to be absent, nor is it very respectful on
a decidedly popular question to pair off, except
from inevitable necessity. We trust that the
majority of 53 for the first reading of the bill
will be considerably increased on its second read-
ing. The solemn affirmation of the principle of
the measure ought to be by as large a maj nay as
possible.

Several amendments will bo brought forward.
Besides the motion for the rejection of the Bill,
several will be moved on its going into committee,
al of which must, of course, be dealt with by the
supporters of the Bill. Mr. GRIFFITHS has one,
Mr. PULLER another, Mr. BUXTON' another, but
they all aim, more or less, offensively to perpetu-
ate the old nuisance in whole or in part. Liberal
Members must be in their places, and see the
measure carried in its integrity.