The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-25 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING) DECEMBER 25, 1867

ing of the fatal effects of evil desires and unworthy
endeavours on the part of nations, no less than on
that of individuals, where could he find a more im-
pressive illustration than in the present state of
these countries, supposed some years back to be
at the summit of prosperity and crowned with suc-
cess, present and prospective.
France, to begin with, is not the France of yore ;
she may regain her position and shine forth with
increased force and undiminished lustre, but for the
nonce she is shorn of some of her prestige through
the encroachments of Prussia and the insidious snares
of BISMARCK. Austria has had a heavy loss, indeed,
and though she retains nominally her position among
the countries of Europe, she is not whaqshe has been.
Italy has in some respects made a decided advance,
but then again she has lost a great part of her
gain through the ill-judged and persistent attacks of
fanatical enthusiasts. Even now she is disturbed
in her councils, and seems likely to lore her ruling
statesmen at a very hazardous and momentous
time. Spain is generally not in a very satisfactory
state, but at present it is worse than usual through
the continual discord promoted by jealous and un-
principled persons. Russia is verging on a great
confusion with the Eastern question in the distance,
and the European nationslooking on in mistrust and
disapproval. Prussia, which may be called the next
successful state by some, is, in reality, far from
being the happiest land, through the want of sin-
cerity that distinguishes its rulers, and the want of
public spirit that characterises its people. We hear
of liberty having made a great stride, but then,
again, we know that Deputies are imprisoned for
speaking their minds, and while we are told of an-
nexation to Prussia being earnestly sought after,
we are told that very little, if any, individu-
ality is allowed to them. Some very short-
sighted politicians have presumed to lec-
ture us upon the superior merits of
foreign nations to our own, but let practice be pre-
ferred to precept, and for which foreign rules or
regulations would an Englishman give up his free-
dom and merge his independence for the show of
liberty which exists under a military despotism or
gagged . press, and a conventional Parliament ?
Among the blessings which we regard with peculiar
thankfulness at this season of the year, surely esti-
mated at its right value, and ranked at its r ight w orth,
is the real unpretending nature of our institutions.
A glance at foreign nations will convince us of
their immeasurable superiority to our own in what is
most worth prizing. Peace on earth can hardly be
counted among our gifts this Christmas, for there
is strife among ourselves, and many troubles in other
lands. A useful lesson may be learned, at any
rate, even by this adverse condition ; and if right
principles were more the standard of action than
the greed for territory, ar.d if the happiness of the
people were truly sought after among the Kings and
Ministers of the Continent, there would, in all pro-
bability, be a marked improvement in the condition
of things, a consummation devoutly to be hoped
for ; and we trust that next Christmas will be the
dawn, and hail the dayspring of better things, and
be illumined by a brighter prospect.

consequences may not be serious, but at some
critical moment we may find these initial blunders
fatal. In the latest European wars victory has
followed the first success. Austria owed her com-
plete humiliation in a seven weeks' war in a great
degree to having allowed Prussia to anticipate her.
She never recovered the first reverses. We incur
the same risk while our military system remains
without organisation ; and it is becoming a more
pressing question every day how long this state of
divided responsibility and inexplicable blundering
shall be allowed to continue. The task may be
Herculean, but a reform is needed, and it will be
well if this expedition contributes to bring it
about. It seems little likely to enhance our
prestige.

LATEST INTELL MENU.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AMERICA.

NEW YORK, Doc. 24, 6 p.m.

The Cimbria has arrived out.
COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

Closing Prices—Gold,l34. Sterling exchange on
London, 1101. 5-20 United States Bonds, 108 i ;
Illinois, 130 i; Erie, 72i. Cotton—Middling Up;
land, 15i.

PHILADE um, Dec. 24.

Petroleum, standard white, 24.

ITALY.

FLORENCE, Dcc. 25.

Earl Clarendon left yesterday evening for Rome.
Lcrd Bloomfield has arrived in Florence.
M. Boittel, Chief of the French Police, has also

Wit may congratulate ourselves upon the fact
hat the small portion of our Abyssinian army
vhich has been able to get actually into the coun-
try has fared well enough. So far there has been
io resistance and no enemy. The great physical
iifficulties, especially want of roads and of water,
Lppear to have lain on the threshold of their march.
From the shore of the Red Sea to Senafe was, no
ioubt, up-hill work. A strong pull must have been
necessary before the adVanced brigade had reached
twice the height of Mount Snowdon for Semple is
T,OOO feet above sea-level—along the difficult and
tangerous mountain pass of Koomaylee. Once
there, however, • on the elevated table land,
their course promises to be smoother than we might
have expected. A solitary native chief of the Pro-
vince of Tigrd was reported to be in their vicinity
at the head of 7,000 men, but he has professed a
friendly disposition. The conciliatory proclamation
of gir Roz Err NAPIER. is said ,to have had an ex-
cellent effect ; the appearance of the troops has
produced a respectful impression on the natives ;
and, above all, the brigade is quite able to take
care of itself.

So far all is well. But we must not fail to
remember that the bulk of the Abyssinian expe-
dition, at our latest advices, had not yet quitted
Annesley Bay, a considerable portion of it had not
arrived so far, and that Sir ROBERT NAPIER, the
commander-in-chief, was directing operations
from Bombay. While we have been congratu-
lating ourselves on the success of the pioneer
force, there has been anything but cele-
rity and good management with respect to
the main body of the expedition. Our difficulty,
it seems, was not to open up a way into the country,
but to make use of it after it had been opened up.
Although a million sterling had been c:..pcnded on
the Land Transport service, and though our autho-
rities had three months during which to mature
their preparations, when the time came to follow
up the Advance Brigade it could not be done.
Carriages were not ready, store-ships were unloaded,
the Persian and Egyptian labourers were worthless,
and everything was in the state of confusion which
always ensues when there is no paramount autho-
rity. During the whole month of November there
was no fresh arrival of men, and the whole force
to be organised, provided for, and sent forward
was only 2,000 men. Yet this seems to have taxed
the administrative ability to the utmost, and we
are not without some anxiety to know how it will
deal with the larger force, for the advent of which
every arrangement should have been completed.
Time was important, but this delay has been
attended by a still greater loss. The low country
on which the troops were encamped proved ex-
tremely healthy to the men, but owing to the want
`of forage and water it has been death to the mules,
horses, and camels. These invaluable animals
were dying in great numbers, and apparently the
only hope of saving them was to press forward
promptly to the elevated ground. The fact that
mules required water and forage seems to have
been overlooked' in the conduct of the expedition.
Thousands of them were let loose on a sandy
plain, under a scorching heat, and with the atten-
tions of one muleteer to some fifteen animals, and
the natural consequence has been that they have
strayed or perished by hundreds. The British tax-
payer has been providing carcases for Abyssinian
vultures at the rate in some cases of £6O
a piece, and the complaint is that the vultures
cannot devour them fast enough. It is to be
remembered that this waste is twofold. Expen-
sive means have been provided for meeting this
want. Condensers have been sent out, but up to
the 28th of November not one had been erected.
Little as we knew of Abyssinia, Massowah was at
least accessible, and Annesley Bay need not have
been a icrra incognita. The most ordinary foresight
could have seen the folly of merely accumulating
men and military matgrie/ at such a place as this
without arranging for the subsistence of men and
animals.

How does it come to pass that we begin nearly
every war with a blunder 1 That a people
accustomed to every species of military enter-
prise, and possessing unlimited resources, should
commence each fresh undertaking as though it was
the first ? On a small scale, we have here at
Annesley Bay the Crimean errors repeated. We
are unwilling to believe that the English mind is
devoid of that faculty for organising which con-
tinental nations possess. But it is clear we have
much to learn and much to reform. Our military
expenditure at the rate of nearly £1 per inhabitant
of the United. Kingdom is not enough to produce
tolerable efficiency. With Kin,: TnEoDonus the

income tax. This was imposed during the winter how you, how sach a distinction may be made
session of 1798-99, at £lO per cent., or 2s. in the with advantage on both sides, as it is by no
pound, and so it remained on until 1802, which means at all clear to my mind that people of
was the Peace of Amiens, the Treaty of which was Permanent incomes really derive any advantage
signed on the Ist of October, 1801, and the late from not paying, as they ought to do, more than
Lord Sidmouth, at that time Mr. Addington, and those poor unfortunate individuals, who merely eat
who was then Prime Minister (the Must-Hens their bread and butter from day to day, by means of
William Pitt having resigned the year previously, the whims audcaprices of porn' frail, weak humanity.
on account of the well-known disagreement This is undoubtedly a gross abuse, which will, I
between him and King George the Third trust, be one of the, first efforts of our new reformed
upon the Catholic Question), came down Parliament to see rectified. At any rate, our beau-
to the house and voted and carried nem. tiful soi-disant Liberals have never attempted to
con. a total repeal of the income tax. On make any change. The only time any change was
the breaking out of the war again, however, :in ever seriously attempted was by our present Go-
May, 1803, it was put on again at ls. in the pound, vernment—the first time Lord Derby was Premier,
or half its former amount ; i. e., £5 per cent. per and just before the accession of the late Lord Aber-
annum, instead of £lO per cent. per annum, and so deep to office, on the resignation of Lord Derby,
it continued for two years, until 1805, when the when our present Chancellor of the Exchequer pro
war had got a great footing again and the immortal Posed that precarious and uncertain incomes should
Nelson was killed at the battle of Trafalgar, pay one-fourth less than those derived from inde-
endent sources. The Whiga comme a l'ordinaire
and Pitt had again for the last time become P
Prime Minister, and then the impost was further blackballed this, and when they became poaseased
increased to 61 per cent., or is. 4d. in the pound. of the sweets of office, proposed that the income-
But a few weeks, not to add days, after England tax should gradually die out in 1860, like a dis-
had given the remains of Nelson a public funeral in solving view, on the falling in of the long annui-
St. Paul's Cathedral, and while " the fatal wound ties ; but no sooner does 1860 arrive than they make
which caused dismay around " was piercing the the income-tax more firm and secure than ever,
hearts of a brave and generous people, William Pitt following the precedent of 1806. Their doings
was gathered to his fathers, " his sun having gone with regard to the income tax, and indeed I might
down while it was yet day," and he, too, was buried add with regard to many other things, come round
at the public expense in Westminster Abbey. What like the solar and lunar cycles. I trust it is, how-
followed all readers of the history of the last sixty ever, with them as it was said by a morning Minis-
years full well know. The Whigs, or rather that terial print in the days of the first Melbourne
celebrated and well-known Broad-bottomed Govern- Government, I mean that Administration which
went, came into office ; and as I have often in for- succeeded the Government of the late Earl Grey,
mer letters remarked to you, the -Whigs, who had the Father of Reform, when it was thought the
raved and stormed at the income-tax when first im- Tories were banished for many a long year to the
posed by Pitt in 1798, were only too glad to put it Opposition.
on again at the same amount that Pitt had origi- The aforesaid journal concluded its article with
nally levied it, 2s. in the pound. The Whigs, as "a long and a hearty farewell to these officious curs
a party, have invariably been followers, but yelping at our heels."—l remain, Sir, your faithful
never originators. Their conduct with regard servant,

to the old income tax of 1799 and 1806 was
something after the fashion of an old maid,
who, so long as she remains a spinster, rails at and
condemns her own country, because she does not
consider it has done her full justice; but no sooner
does she get spliced, and contracts her late mar-
riage,
than her country, which has heretofore been
everything that was odious and detestable, is
now everything that is charming, delightful,
and happy. So the Whigs, who while in
opposition had made the income tax their
stock in trade against the Government, were the
first to make it their stock in trade to suit their
own purposes in carrying on the business of
the country, when they became possessed of
the sweet and savoury things of office. They
attempted to do the same thing in 1848, and
failed. " Sarve them right" was the verdict of the
country against them. The income tax, at the
time of the last-named date, might fairly have been
called the sour grapes of the Whigs. Perhaps I
may here be allowed just to digress a little further,
and to show that the conduct of the Whigs with
regard to the income tax has been quite on a
piece with regard to their conduct on almost all
other subjects, religious and political. They drove
out one King and decapitated another, and
yet they were the first, on their return to office in
1830, after a banishment to the regions of the
Opposition of (with very little intermission) 70 or
80 years, to vote no less than two palaces and
£lOO,OOO per annum to Adelaide, the Queen Con-
sort of William IV., in the event of her surviving
ber royal husband. They too, in 1850, on the death
of the late Duke of Cambridge, were the first to
vote £24,000 per annum to the House of Cambridge
alone. £27,000 per annum had fallen into the
Treasury by the decease of the Duke of Cambridge
—the country was a gainer, therefore, by only
£3,000 per annum—no small sum to save. It is
true the Whigs confiscated the estates of the Crown,
and at proper intervals have vindicated the majesty
of the people ; but nevertheless they have been
glad enough always to serve Royalty when it suited
their purpose. They who had spent their
lives, from childhood almost to old age, iu
advocating Catholic emancipation, were the
first to cry shame on Cardinal Wiseman
for the so-called Papal Aggression. To return,
however, to the income tax. This tax, after having
been increased to £lO per cent. by the so-called
Broad-bottomed Government, in 1806, was fixed
to remain on until the sth of April, after a general
treaty of peace, which was actually the case, as it
remained on until April 5, 1815, being the first year
after the general peace of 1814. In April, 1815,
it was reimposed for one year in order "to wind
up," as the saying is. Now in 1816 came the
violent battle against it, when Lord Liverpool pro-
posed to make it a perpetual tax at 5 per cent.
Sir William Curtis, and divers other Miuisterialists,
all went over to the Opposition for the purpose of
voting against the income tax, which was, after a
somewhat sharp discussion, at once dashed to the
ground and banished for a quarter of a century, until
reimposed by Peel in 1842. So very unpopular was
the tax that, ou the motion of Lord Brougham—.
then popularly known by the name of Mr. Henry
Brougham —every paper connected with the tax
was burned. And I have been told by those who
were living at the time that the cheering of the
people continued from the lobby of the old House
of Commons to Charing-cross, so intensely unpo-
pular was the income tax. That a golden opportu-
nity was then lost for making it (the property tax)
a good, sound, permanent, substantial tax, few can
deny who have studied the history of the period ;
i.e., few sound politicians. The heavy weight of

A LOVER AND OBSERVER OF HISTORICAL
DATES AND FACTS.

indirect taxation which England groaned under
from 1816 down to the passing of the old Reform

Bill in 1832—or, more properly speaking, until the
introduction of the new commercial tariff of Sir R.
Peelin 1842—was something fearful to contemplate.
So fearfully was all kinds of food taxed in those
good old days that a large number of persons were
kept without the common necessaries of life, and
were in fact in a state of complete starvation.
When the aforesaid tax was laid on again in 1842
by Peel the emergency was equal to a time of war,
albeit we were in a state of profound European
peace, but not universal peace, for, as I remarked
to you the other day, we were engaged in two
distant Eastern wars ; and only the very week
Sir R. Peel proposed the income tax accounts were
received in England of one of the most bloody and
disastrous engagements ever known since the days
of the old American war, in the reign of George
111. Now it never can be fair to tax precarious an d
professional incomes in the same proportion as in-
comes derived from fixed and independent property.
The gross injustice is so very apparent on the face
of it that I trust it is wholly impossible for it
to escape the eye of a Reformed Parlia-
ment. To expect, or even to desire, any altera-
tion before the Ist of January, 1869, is wholly un-
desirable, as well as being quite out of the question ;
for it is obviously unfair to tax people who work for
their living by the sweat of their brow, subject as
all professions and tradesmen are to all the whims,'
caprices, and changes of human nature, as well as
leading a life of complete self-denial, and bearing
in mind, as all politicians ought to do, that the
least ailment or disease of the brain may deprive a
man of gaining his livelihood for ever. Moreover,
none who gain their living from trade or profes-
sional sources can ever tell exactly what their real
income is—and albeit they tell you, you may take
the average calculation of three years or so ; never-
theless this by no means does away with
the present gross unfairness of the present
mode of levying the income and property
tax. Let a dead onslaught, therefore, be
made against our present income and property tax
at the general election, which is most certain to
take place in the early part of the year 1869, and
let all people who feel deeply on the subject, as you
and I do, make it a sine qua non with their consti-
tuents before giving the favoured candidate their
vote, on the especial condition of his bringing in a
measure for the readjustment and reassessment of the
income tax. Direct taxation, provided it is but fairly
assessed, is of all modes of taxation the most fair, the
most just, and the most equitable. To say that it
is impossible to make any distinction between fixed
and precarious incomes is to my mind, as I have no
doubt it is to yours, the very height of absurdity.
On another occasion I will show yo , or attempt to

Dec. 13, 1867.