The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-24 00:00:00

VIE NIMBLE PFNNY.•

Tee Chancellor cf the Exchequer-lest night made one
step with his budget. It was co great affa r; but it was
from the vast mass of hazy discussion about things in
one step gained, and, as an aAual move, it stands out
general which forms the order of the day. It war, a re-
solution for levying a penny duty upon such bankers
cheques as are now exempt, and everybody thought that
there were people who-had something to say about it.
No doubt it was so. We believe there were speeches,.
and calculations, and everything ready. But, as there
e-as no oreanisol opposition, no leader, !marine if all
but a baukineeinterest, by no means ro well repreeented
as several other interests in the house, when the moment
came nobody was prepared, and the resolution passed.
It was the work of a second. Such is the British Hoisse
of Commons. Tt has spent hours, night' and weeks, in
doing nothing but talk. It has done and undone ; Car-
ried bills half way through, and then let them drop;
given all its confidence to a Government, and then
turned it out ; it has boxed the whole compass since the
opening of the session ; it has done everything and
listened to everything on the single condition that it
should lead to nothing ; and now it has done something,
It has passed a resolution, f r a new tai, which will
obtrude itself on the attention of every man of
n
business many times aday. It Las done away with
an exemption of long standing, supposed to have
Wh penny postage
n
good reasons in its favour. It has pushed one step
" /dar
further that new system of " small profits and
given v a
nu
dich seems what
s t
p,ople cal a new era in taxation. The step is not ueitin.
and
ehe returns"penny which
has
stamp,
portant in itself, but it is the only, actual thing done b y
receipt
the Administration, and it has been done in an instant,
without a word of opposition ; with no comment what-
ever except the laugh ter of the house at the unready gen-
tlemen who were too charged with figures to do their
work quickly enough. What a satire is this on parliat
mentary legi-lation I Flaw well is ours called a Parlia-
ment, or a Talk, when, after talking about everything and
nothing for near three ' months, and doing literally
nothing, merely moving back wards and forwards, round
and round, dove n the middle and up again, changing sides
and returning, it has at last done something, and done it
in a second of time 1
As for the measure itself, it is admitted by this time,
end indeed it always was, that taxation is a matter of
necessity, and knows no laws. It is a matter oftaot—that
is, it ought to be. There are all sorts of robbery. In some
parts of the world robber's are very rude and uncivil.
They bully you, WI into, a passion with you, load you
with maledictions, knock you down, break your bones;
plunder you of everything, of the very clothes on your
back. This is adding insu't to injury. In other coun-
tries, where robbery is a genteel professiod, or where it
is amenable to softer influences, even those of religion,
you are robbed so pleasantly that it is quite a treat, and
you almost wish to be robbed again. The gentlemen of the
road request you to alight, speak softly, give you a lesson
in Spanish or Italian, ask you if you have not some-
thing you can spare, take some of your property, and
request you to retain the rest as the memento of a
peasant introduction. Then there Mee all degrees of
robbery, from the largest to the smallest scale ; from
the irregular appropriation of a ship, a house, or a flock
of sheep, to those depredations that are always going
on -where property lies about. No doubt you are con-
tinually being robbed, and happy are you if you never
find it out. Now, the financier is only a legal robber.
Money he must get in one way or another, in great
sums or small sums, by fair means or by foul. Ho
has to rack his brains for a thousand dodges how to
get what be wants without giving you more annoy-
ance than need be. He cannot quite steal your bed
without waking you, as they do in India. He cannot
clip, or "sweat" a shilling's worth of you, as people,
used to do out of guineas. But he mast get some-
thing out of you, and that without exasperating you
very much. How will you take it! Will you be
nibbled, or scraped, or will you make up your mind
to a good round loss, and have done with it ! No.
Anything but the last. The nation will nut stand the
Income tax. It cannot endure to see the financial rob-
ber invade the house, and carry out a huge lump
of income, or profit in its pure and perfect form. So
there is nothing to be done but to get out of
you by infinitesimal deductions. The lancet is
t)o like a sword. Leeches are the things. So it is all
done now by pennies. You don't care how many pen-
nies you send off by post. People who used to shirk
stampted receipts now like the amusement of putting a
penny stamp on your "little account" when you pay it.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer sees how pleasantly we
all take to it. He applies half-a dozen more leeches,
and proposes that we shculd put those pretty little penny
stamps on every cheque. Her Most Gracious Majesty
ought to be much obliged to him. Her pleasant English
face is everywhere present to no. She goes with all oar
letters, concludes every pecuniary transaction, and now'
she is to impart a look of grace to every appropriation of
our balance at the Bank.

The affair, we have just said, is scarcely within the
range of any philosophy, for the object is to get money
where you can. But the principle of this new penny
taxation, which is making such progress, would appear
to have been borrowed from the streets. It is the finance
of mendicancy. People have noted down and calcu-
lated the immense F. 111119 taken by crossing-sweepers and
other beggars, and they tell us hundreds of thousands
of pounds sterling pass in this way from the pockets
of the industrious to those of the idle. It has been
said, truly enough we dare say, that the people of
London give more to street beggars than they do.
to the clergy, or the CLurch altogether.- - No doubt
many a poor curate and his wife are dining on cold
mutton, washed down with Thames water, while the
sweeper of the next crossing is enjoying a hot supper,
company to nis liking, and some beverage of a better
quality than the cold raw element. This is the old
principle of accumulation whereof housewifes give us a
thousand proverbs and Providence infinite illustrations.
"Many a little makes a mickle;"—Every little helps ;"
" A pia a-day is a groat a-year." Then, as for Nature,
she does it all by small means. Except a few birds' of
prey, the whole winged creation takes a thousand little
meals a-day. It lives by grains, crumbs, insects; and
things too minute for us to see. Such is all the philo-
sophy we can propound for this new finance. The na-r-
-tion is not to feel a revenue of pennies. This is the
great mystery of which the Poll-tax, infamous in story,
was a clumsy anticipation. We have found it at last.
But how long shalt we be content to bleed pennies at
every pore 1 There is the question. We are very
fi lgety on the subject of taxation, always turning and
rolling on our beds, trying this side then that. The day
may come when we shall wary of this as of other agree-
able novelties, and some Wat Tyler will wage war with
the Qoaen's head in all shapes. But, to judge from what.
paned in the House of Commons last night, that day
wi.l tot be in our time.—Times.