The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-22 00:00:00

THE WEATHER.-Surr OFFICE, FEB, 22.

THERMOMETER, TN THE SHADE.
56—highest since noon yesterday.
48—lowest this morning and during the night.
52—this day at noon.
BAROMETER-30'38.
WIND, Westerly; light and fine. Some rain in the
morning.

A glance at the Sale of Poisons Bill is of itself
sufficient to encourage us in the hope that before
the present session shall have elapsed the hon.
member for Birmingham (Mr. SCHOLEFIELD) will
have carried triumphantly through the House his
promised measure for the prevention, or, at any rate,
for the punishment, of adulteration. The two
projects are obviously of a kindred character. First
of all, however, in regard to the Sale of Poisons
Bill, which was printed on Friday week—a Bill the
introduction of which we ourselves have so often
and so earnestly advocated.
The enactment, it is in the first instance worthy
of particular notice, is to come into operation on
the 31st of next December—an arrangement which
will.afford ample time for preparation to the ven-
dors of medicine generally throughout the country
—chYraists, druggists, and apothecaries. Another
particular in reference to the bill is most especially
deserving of notice—medical prescriptions are to
be. in no way affected by the enactment. Neither,
for that matter, will wholesale dealings in poison
be interfered with in consequence. The police
authorities, however, will be empowered at all
seasonable times to enter the shops of vendors of
poison, druggists, &c., for the purpose of
discovering whether or not implicit obedience
has been accorded to the regulations marked
out by the act of Parliament.
repealing enact_.the and
ment, after successively
15 VICTORIA, chap. 13, will require, after 31st
December, 1859, that all authorised vendors of ,
medicine shall keep their poisons in vessels (boxes,
bottles, or what not), carefully and conspicuously
labelled with the word POISON! That they shall
never, upon any occasion, or under any emergency
whatever, supply minors with poisons ! That they
shall never vend poisons to any adult customer un-
known to themselves, saving and excepting in the
presence of some adult witness known to the vendor,
and who is himself acquainted with the purchaser !
That even then they (the vendors of poisons) shall-
enter a formal and explicit statement of each sale
of poison in a book kept exclusively for that pur-
pose ! That the poisons thus sold by them shall be
ss carefully labelled as the vessels in the shop or
wszeroom containing the poisons with the warning
diesYliable—PotsoN! The same label being also
affixed to Poisonous medicines for external applica-
tion ! All this, under severe penalties for either
neglect or disobedience—for the first offence, £5;
for the second, £2O ;tor the third, £lOO ! Employers
being held fully answerable for the acts of their
servants and assistants, shopboys and apprentices !
Beyond this, arsenic, after the 31st of December,
will have to be coloured with soot or indigo, in
proportions necessitating its instant detection, the
required proportions being one ounceowf
esiooghtt or
f
half-an-eunee of indigo for every pound
the deadly mineral. It is more than simply into_
resting—it is in the highest degree important—
that we should particularise what those prepara-
tions of the pharmacopoeia are which the bill

specifies as poisons :—They include—the lii-chloride
of mercury, otherwise commonly known at corrosive
sublimate (the most important ingredi .ent in the
process of kyanising); belladonna, digitalis, morphia,
veratria, strychnia—in fact, all the deadly vege-
table alkaloids and their salts ; hydrocyanic acid,
otherwise prussic acid ; the essential oil of bitter
almonds ; the cyanides of potassium ; cantharides ;
aconite ; oxalic acid ; nux vomica (the deadly
source of strychnine) ; coculus indices ; and,
finally, opium in all its forms, crude, in
powder, in extract, in tincture. Sufferers
from tic or toothache, however, may be consoled
to learn that no restrictions whatever are to be
placed upon the sale of a certain quantity, amount-
ing, however, at the utmost, to so many grains of
crude opium or extract of opium, or to a certain
quantity restricted to so many minimums of the
liquid tincture of laudanum. Such, rapidly ana-
lysed, is the bill ; such are its leading features and
provisions. It affords evidence that good has come
indirectly to the community at large from the
terrible ills resulting from the lozenge-poisonings at
Bradford, as well as from the appalling revelations
by which the public were startled two or three
years since upon the successive trials of Mr.
WILLIAM PALMER, of Rugeley, and of Miss
MADELINE SMITH, of Glasgow. The perils of the
old careless system of vending poisonous drugs and
minerals have of late'years indeed received toomany
and too frightful illustrations to be any longer
tolerated. Hence this truly admirable Sale of
Poisons Bill, which we are fain to regard as but the
immediate precursor of Mr. SCHOLEFEILD'S mea-
sure for the diminution, and, if possible, the preven-
tion henceforth of the high crime and misdemeanour
of wholesale and retail adulteration.

Although Lord STANLEY distinctly and expressly
declared on Friday evening that there was a
general feeling in this country that India ought, as
far as possible, to supply the capital that may be
required for works in India, it is still quite possible
that we may be called on to render assistance which,
without costing us a single farthing, may be of vital
importance to the stability and integrity:of the Angl-
o Empire. India is in a very different posi-
tion from other countries and even other colonies.
It has passed under the direct rule of Queen VIC-
TORIA, and is unquestionably the brightest gem in
her diadem. With an existing revenue of
£33,000,000 sterling, and the strong probability
that it will be greatly enhanced when the public
works now in progress, or which may hereafter be
undertaken, shall fully develop the almost miraculous
natural resources of the country, we cannot see
the Indian faith with the public creditor violated—
we cannot behold the most promising under-
takings brought to a standstill, or witness
the establishments essential to the pro-
tection of its empire reduced below their
proper proportions. It is manifest, therefore, that
there may be "an indirect and contingent respon-
sibility lying upon this country, for if the Indian
revenue proved insufficient, who is to find the
necessary funds to pay the civil and military
administration of that country P" We surely feel
as deep an interest in the preservation of the status
quo in India as in Turkey. And yet we spent
nearly one hundred millions sterling, besides the
sacrifice of many valuable lives, in preventing the
premature dissolution of the " sick man," and the
unfair division of his assets. The loss of India
would be the total destruction of British prestige,
and the reduction of England to a second class
nation. But all this should be braved and encoun-
tered, in order that the matter might be considered
for ever closed, so that, under no possible circum-
stances, an imperial guarantee should be given for
an Indian loan.

There can be nothing more fallacious than
the argument of the Times, that' if the credi-
tors of India should have an indirect and con-
tingent right of appeal to this country in case of
the revenue of India not being equal to her
requirements, they will certainly congratulate
themselves on the virtual possession of an imperial
guarantee. This is not so. They may congratu-
late themselves on knowing that they have claims
on a Government which will strain every nerve to
satisfy their just demands, and that closely con-
nected with it is another of great wealth and almost
boundless resources, that will use every reasonable
exertion to enable it to liquidate its liabilities, there
is but little prospect of their losing any portion of
their dividends. This will, unquestionably, ease
their minds, and render them perfectly satisfied
with the security they have obtained, which, with
or without a guarantee, England can never see
discredited.

The object of the present agitation is easily per-
ceptible. To any ordinary person it would seem
amply sufficient to provide for a difficulty when it
arose. Not so with the Times, or its friends
" the hard calculators :" they desire an an-
nouncement that must depreciate the funds
in the market, and possibly injure the
chance of obtaining the money. Neither Lord
STANLEY nor his friends have discountenanced any
pretensions, for the simple but all-sufficient reason
that no pretensions have been put forward. There
is, therefore, not the slightest call for them to put
" their views on record" against the croakings ven-
tilated by a worn-out Whig twaddler. They will
deal fairly and judiciously with each emergency as
it arises ; but most unquestionably they will not
transgress the well-estabiished Ministerial limits,
or wander into the realms of doubtful futurity to
satisfy the querulous demands of the Times—en.
able " the hard calculators" to make better bargains,
or render the terms on which the £7,000,000 may
be obtained more unfavourable to India than would
otherwise be the case. The Times' was opposed to
the new loan ab initio, but we could hardly conceive
that it would resort to such means to gratify its
vindictive and unprovoked animosity.

" Rassurez vous, Messieurs, la paix ne sera pas
troublee." Remembering the half-a-million bayonets
backing
up that assurance—do not those words
sound familiarly, like an echo of the immortal line
of VIRGIL—.

• "Pacera oraro
It is but a
manu, prtefigere puppibus arma ?"
reminder to us of the truth articulated
plainly enough years
sptiainndciipnlge
mo fe
naee. arbitration. y
ago by the champions of the
Imagine for a moment the A standing arm is a
de-
lightful sense of satisfaction
and security,
the agreeable feelings of
repose and comfort
which would of course be secured to us_
if our dearest friends, our most intimate
associates never could, by any possibility, consent
to hobnob with us, to causer with u, unless armed
to the teeth, and carrying perpetually each in their
right hand a deadly-loaded revolver—hair .triggered
and at full cock ! Austria has at this moment
under her despotic rule an array of 500,000 men.
France has under her despotic rule an array of
400,000—capable of being increased at any
emergency to 500,000. Russia has no less formid-
able an array already drawn, or ready to be drawn,
from her population of 60,000,000. The European
continent is no doubt at peace, but it is a peace
that arrays like these render ever precarious. It is
as though we, were perpetually congratulating
ourselves upon there being no explosion at the
very time that the fireballs of diplomacy are being

thrown to and fro—carelessly, from hand to hand
—by players standing in the midst of a frightful
litter of bombshells and rockets, stores of detonat-
ing mercury and unguarded magazines of gun-
powder.

OUR NATIONAL AND LOCAL
TAXATION. ,

[FROM A CORRESPONDENT.]

No system of taxation can be more unjust than
that existing in this -country, whether we regard
the local or general taxes—the former, or local,
resting on a most unequal assessment of property,
termed a rateable value, which value is too often
imposed and varied by men of sufficient interest
and petty local weight in every parish (such as
vestrymen and men of retired trading interest),
who most ingeniously contrive, in parochial assess.
ments, to carry very light weights themselves
(aided by this convenient rateable values), whilst
these gentry - take care that the saddle of
local taxation shall be adjusted to the full
rateable value on others. These vestry or
vestry worthies could not escape'or evade their share
of the local burden, but for this said loophole for
their trading consciences, viz., the rateable value.
Why not a rentable value, which would be just for
all ? As one specimen of the unjust working of the
rateable value, observe that in almost every parish
there exists one or more plague spots in the shape
of small house property paying to the owner (gene-
rally a vestryman or parish worthy retired from
trade) enormous rents, but you will find that the
owner farms the rates on this property, paying thus
next to nil, although from this very property,
owing to its faulty hygienic position generally, its
over-crowded tenements, bad drainage, small water
supply or none, bad ventilation, and accumulated
filth there arises a never-ending succession of dire
diseases, debasements mental and moral, degrada-
tion, destitutidn, and death. Thus, one parish
worthy, paying but little towards the local rates,
can maintain, for the benefit of his fellow
parishioners, this centre of contagion and infection,
these hotbeds of disease, crime, and pauperism, in
which the mortality is also very great, pressing
most severely on the rate-payers at large, whilst a
few owners of this small house property not only
abstract enormous rents, but absolutely en-
gender paupers and pauperism, fostering crime
and disease in the bosom of their respective parishes.
A rentable value, with power given ,to the assessor
and medical inspector to class such property as
doubly or trebly hazardous to health, and make the
owners pay on a double or treble assessment or
rating, would soon cure this crying evil.—As to the
method of levying the national taxes, I defy any
one to imagine a more unjust, ungenerous, or un-
English mode of assessment than the conscientious-
return method at present adopted, which weighs
severely on the just and upright who make true
returns ; but (as in the case of the local
taxes) permits the unscrupulous to evade
their share of the burden, in spite of
all the efforts of an expensive and in-
quisitorial machinery instituted for the pur-
pose of making dishonest folk more honest. A well
regulated assessed tax might, without difficulty, be
collected by the machinery already existing (and
at present not too well paid) in every parish, viz.,
the existing collectors of the local rates. Why
should they not collect at the same time the
national taxes, saving the country the enormous
expense of the present collection, as also the Income-
tax Commissioners, with their thousands per an-
num ? This being premised, I offer a few propo-
sitions for a more just and less expensive mode of
raising and collecting all taxes in this country,

VIZ. :-

1. That all taxes be raised from a levy upon a
just and fairly regulated assessment, and then more
correctly termed general or local assessed taxes.

2. That all such taxes shall rest on the basis of
such assessment, to be declared as the true rentable
and not rateable value, as heretofore.

3. That every parish in the United Kingdom
shall have a collector (already existing ?) who shall
receive both the local and national taxes of his
parish, district, or hundred.
4. That every holder of house or land in each
parish or collection district shall, under fine and
penalty, if in default, make, within a specified
time, a return to the collector of his district
of the amount of rent (or its equivalent)
paid by him as occupier of house or land
in the said parish, and to whom paid as owner ;
that the owner, being also occupier, shall declare
the same and submit to an assessment by the
county assessor, together with the vestry (or a
deputation from it). The rate of assessment
shall be computed from the average value of
neighbouring houses or lands ; that in all
cases the assessed or declared rentable
value shall be considered the value of pro-
perty in this land, and estimated at such de-
clared worth in all courts of law or justice, and
may be taken at such computation by the Govern-
ment of the day, if positively required, either for
local or national purposes, the assessment being
always a guide to equivalent compensation.
4. That all owners, agents, trustees, or others
concerned, shall give by plans, maps, writings, or
other such descriptive means, a full specification of
their respective property in each parish, free from
cost.

5. That the collector in each parish shall declare
the limits and boundaries of such parish or district
as heretofore, in writing, and by an enlarged map
or plan, to be open to the inspection of each rate-
payer in a hall or room public to every rate or tax-
payer in the said district or parish.
6. That every collector shall enter into his pro-
perty register book a description of each owner's
property, its size, extent, and value (rentable),
tenure, freehold, copy or leasehold, toge-
ther with the Christian and surnames of
the present owner or occupier, his titles
duration of ownership or occupancy, &c., &c. And
no future title to house or landed property shall be
valid unless proved to be registered in the said
parish property-book of the collector of the district
in the name of such declared owner or occupier,
and that all future sales, letting, transfer, mort-
gage deed, of gift, subletting, or change of owner-
ship, or occupancy in either house or land, in the
said district, shall not be considered complete or
legal, unless duly testified, and properly registered
in the parish property register book.
7. That correct copies of all' plans, maps, draw-
ings, modes, &cl, of all new houses, mines, canals,
drains,
,sewers, pr- any 'sub-division of ownership,
or occupancy, be left with the collector and duly
registered within a space of one month from the
commencement of Such works or change.
8. That all transfers of, or change of ownerships,
interest in or occupancy of house or landed pro-
perty, shall be registered by the collector before
such change can be recognised as legal ; and that a
proper and commensurate charge shall be made for
entry on certificate or abstract from the collector's
parish register; also that a sworn copy of the
register of each parish shall, on its completion, be
sent to and deposited in trust with the sheriff of
each county, and another copy to the Chancellor of
the Exchequer or other Government authority, and
that every six months, or oftener if required, a
sworn declaration and a copy, statement, plan, or ex-
planation of all changes that may have occurred in
ownership or occupancy since last report; as also
the amount of fees received for such alteration or
change in the register. Also each collector shall
return the gross assessment of his district every
year, showing its variation.
9. The propeity register books of each parish
in the hands of the collectors, the sheriff of the
county, and the Government, shall in future con-
stitute the title-deeds to all holders of property. A
sworn copy from one of these three registers will
give the right of ownership ; if wishing to mort-
gage;si deposit, become security, or will away, but
in all cases of absolute sale or
the
os tripleses onchange of
occupancy,.
TheN ,registration,end
ealone
owner
r shall
l con-
stitute
legal p
give to the purchaser or oce •
upter a certificate from
the parish registrar, as sufficient
authority to let or
sell. The registrar's entry b • being made in the pre-
sence of the collector by the contracting
parties in
presence of themselves and witnesses, shall be
binding and legal.

10. That every collector shall, on the first day of

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THE SUN.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1859.