The Sun.
London, England, 1835-08-17 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 1835.

of reduction of taxation since the war. He seems to
astonish himself with the largeness of the amount ;
but he forgets to make any allusion to the effect of
Peel's Currency Bill, in adding to the amount of taxa-
tion since 1819, though to state that addition at
twenty millions of annual increase of ,
we believe, be •
- amount;
10f mould,tioontl
the real MIMI
creased value of taxation by the rllailge ill the cur-
,
rchey I.!e deatiZted from the sum actually reduced, it
will diminish the result of Mr. Ric.:'s enlclilLion very
considerably. But this distiil6.ilished professor of the
red-tar. st!'.66l of finance found it expedient to look to
only one side of the question, though by so doing he
made out a much more favourable cause for the 'Derry
Government with regard to the remission of taxation,
than if he had been a more accurate historian of finan-
tial operations. When Mr. Rice speaks in laudatory terms
of the reduction of taxes made by the Whig Ministers. he
also omitted to mention the large addition which they
have made to the floating or unfunded debt. Here,
again, he was but the historian of one side of the
narrative. He praises the effects of cheapening. ardent
spirits, although Lord Morpeth,the Secretary for Ireland,
attributed to " cheap whisky" the faction-fights, the
riots, and bloodshed, with which Ireland is disgraced
and barbarized. This may give the public some no-
tion of what connection Mr. Spring Rice thinks ought
to subsist between financial operations and public
ility. He adopts Vespasian's maxim—that gold
hrought into.the Exchequer from the foulest sources,
smells as sweet as from the purest. With equally
sound views of political economy, ho refers the im-
poverished farmers to the Poor Law Bill, as the
anchor of their hope. It provides them, at all events,
the tender mercies of the workhouse, when they can
struggle with their difficulties no longer. The whole
of his proposed relief consists in a reduction of
the duty upon glass, a cheapening of spirit licenses,
and a reduction of the stamp duty upon Irish awards I
Great must be the gratitude of the country for such
an extent of relief, though a large drawback of the
general joy exists, as far as the " cheap knowledge"
gentry are concerned, by the " taxes on knowledge,"
as they pedantically call the newspaper duties, being
retained. The " knowledge" which the mass of the
population want, is to know how to get employment
and adequate wages. The farmers must continue to
struggle with ruinously low prices and high taxation as
well as they can, notwithstanding the wonderful
" prosperity of the nation." Indeed Mr. Spring Rice
seems to have displayed as much keen-sighted sagacity,
in discovering the proofs of national prosperity, as the
celebrated financier who earned for himself the soubri-
quet of " Prosperity Robinson." Why this state of
prosperity does not allow the alleviation of the burdens
• of the British farmer we cannot conceive. We are
equally at a loss to discover why it does not allow to
other classes the relief which would follow the repeal
of the window-tax, a war tax, still levied in the twen-
tieth year of peace ! Alas ! the prosperity is a pros-
perity which, after all, brings with it no surplus !
Nor can the sagacious Chancellor of the Exchequer
tell when it will. He could as soon discover the phi-
losopher's stone.--Morning Herald.
Much blustering indignation has been of late ex-
pressed by Lords Brougham and Melbourne respect-
ing what they term " the attacks made upon the Cor-
poration Commissioners" on the Opposition side of
the House. The obvious design of this is to blind
the public to the real bearing of the charge of unfair
and factious conduct brought, not in fact, against
the Commissioners, but against the Government
which selected them and authorized their pro-
ceedings. Instances were proved at the bar in
which much valuable evidence, bearing directly upon
the matters inquired into, had been altogether sup-
pressed by the Commissioners, and in which specific
charges against Corporations, or individual mem-
bers of them, had been carefully set forth, and
heightened by the comments of the Commis-
sioners, while no notice whatever had been taken
of facts proved, or offered to be proved, on the other
side, in refutation of those charges. Was it just or
reasonable that no means should be taken to dis-
abuse the public mind from false impressions
thus attempted to be made upon it ? It is,
indeed, no ground of charge against the Com-
missioners that the Ministers should have culled for
their purpose, from the political debating societies
' of London, persons well known there for their violently
republican and revolutionary opinions, and but little or
not at all known in the profession to which they osten-
sibly belong. But for Sutton Coldfield the worthy
Commissioner " of that ilk" would never have been
heard of beyond his clique, and his learned colleague at
Leicester might, but for the discrimination of the Mi-
nisters, have attained no other fame than that conferred
upon him by Mr. Cobbett in the soubriquet of
Roaring Rushton." The state of the case is really
this :—The opponents of the Corporation Bill affirm
that the Ministers, designing to extend and esta-
blish their own power, by throwing a great additional
weight into the democratic scale, issued the Commis-
sion for the purpose of getting up a case against the
Corporations ; that the Commissioners in general
acted in pursuance of the mission upon which they
• were sent, and framed their Report accordingly ;
and that the Bill now before Parliament is founded
upon the Report, and must, therefore, as surely as like
causes produce like effects, work injustice to indivi-
duals and mischief to the State. The answer of the
Ministers is in effect that, as to the Report, to assert
that the Commissioners recorded all the evil which
they could collect respecting the Corporations, and
none of the good, is to abuse the Commissioners, who
are not present to defend themselves, and so forth ;
and that, as to the Bill, it is not founded upon the Re 7
port. " Mark now how a plain tale shall put you
down." By the very terms of the Commission (to say
nothing of other instructions, which the Commissioners
must have received) the Commissioners were directed
" to proceed with the utmost despatch to collect infor-
mation respecting the dflects in the constitution of the
• Municipal Corporations in England and Wales, so as
to enable Parliament, if possible, to legislate upon
• this subject early in the next Session." What lan-
guage could more clearly evince the desire of the Go-
vernment to gather up every thin, that anybody
might have to say against the Corporations ; what
could more deeply stamp on the Commission the cha-
racter ascribed to it by Sir James Scarlett, in his me-
morable opinion :—" A roving Commission to inquire
for grievances, and to compel answers, even in cases
where the Crown can visit by Commissioners, much
more in cases where it cannot, is clearly contrary to
law ?" The Government, by its own act, fixed upon the
Commissioners the character (as Lord Lyndhurst ex-
pressed it), of " the paid accusers of the Corporations ;"
the Commissioners have but laboured in their vocation,
and, truly, " the labourer is worthy of his hire." With
respect to the assertion that the Bill is not founded
upon the Report, one at least of these two proposi-
tions must hold good—if the Ministers are acting in
conformity with the purpose expressed in the Commis-
sion, namely, of legislating upon the information to he
collected by the Commissioners, the assertion is
false—if the assertion is true, the Commission was a
fraud upon public opinion.—Morning Post.

CORONER'S INQUEST.-SINGULAR AND FATAL
A CCIDEN T. —On Thursday an Inquest was held at Charing-cross
Hospital, before Mr. Higgs, on view of the body of T. Sum.
ner, aged 48, who was killed under the following distressing
circumstances:—Henry Elms, police-constable C, 166, de-
posed, that about two o'clock on Monday morning he was on
duty in the Haymarket, when he saw one of the cabs stationed
near the Opera-house start off at a rapid rate towards Cock-
pur-street, and immediately afterwards saw some person fall
from the dickey into the street. Witness ran to the spot, and
found a lad lying partly insensible from the fall. The cab
proceeded on at a rapid rate. The youth, Sharp, recovered
in a short time, having fortunately escaped with some bruises,
Police constable Thomas Cole, C, No. 79, deposed that he
,bserved a cab come from the direction of the Haymarket. It
vas going at a furious rate, 04 reaching near the United
servlce Club-house, a man fell out on his head. The cab
'ontinued i41:,;;;;Irse. Witness picked the man up. He was
insensible, and bleeding from the head. A conveyance was
obtained, and he was taken to the Hospital. Joseph Sharp, a
youth about sixteen, deposed, that deceased was a cab pro-
prietor, and was on the stand in the Haymarket between two
and three o'clock on Monday morning, when he requested
witness to sit in the dickey of the cab, whilst he (deceased)
had a sleep, and mind the horse ; but witness also fell asleep,
and the horse starting off could not be stopped, as the reins
were across his back. Witness fell out, and was picked up by
the policeman. Mr. Cood, the house-surgeon of the Hospital,
stated that the deceased's death was caused by a severe frac-
ture of the skull. Verdict—Accidental death.