The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-05 00:00:00

THE INCOME TAX.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR,—As it is rumoured that the Chancellor of
the Exchequer will, in the ensuing session of the
new Parliament, have so large a surplus that he in-
tends taking off the above-named tax, it may not
be amiss just to consider to what extent such a step
would be politic, and just to take a slight survey of
this tax from its original imposition by Pitt in 1798,
just 68 years ago, down to the present time. N°l"
this tax is well nigh 70 years old, having first been
imposed by the immortal William Pitt in the session
of 1798-99 to meet the exigencies of a most gigan-
tic and expensive war, which had then been raging
for six years, and when loan after loan had been
borrowed and tax after tax imposed, all of which
had failed of producing the required revenue. It
was first of all put on at £lO per cent., or 2s. in the
pound. It was regarded strictly as a war tax, to
be taken off immediately peace was restored, which
was the case as soon after the peace of Amiens in
1801 as could conveniently be. The general treatY
of peace was signed Ist October, 1801. (1802)
Mr. Addington, afterwards Lord Sidmouth, at that
time Prime Minister, proposed and carried a repeal
of the tax nenz. con. This peace was, as all readers
of history are full well aware, of very short dura-
tion, being regarded more in the light of an armed
truce than anything else, for in May, 1803, the
war between England and France, after a peace of
18 months, was renewed, and the income tax was
reimposed at £5 per cent. only, or Is. in the pound ;
and in 1805, Pitt having again, for the last time/
become Premier, augmented the tax to £6 10s• Per
cent., or is. 3id. in the pound. In 1806 Pitt was
summoned to his account, and there came into
office that Government commonly called
‘i All the
Talents," or " the Broad-Bottomed Govern-
ment," when the Whigs, true to their usual
principles, endeavoured to do the same thing in
1848. Lord Russell's Government in 1848 tried to
increase the income tax from 7d. to Is. in the pound
—or, in other words, from £2 18s. 4d. per cent. to
£5 per cent., only they were defeated. After having
violently opposed the income tax when originally
brought forward by Pitt in 1798-99 (as they did
when it was imposed by Peel in 1842), they
were the
first to double it in 1806, in which said year it was
brought back to the original £lO per cent., or 2s. in
the pound, with a declaration that it was to con-
tinue in force until the Ist (sth) after the rati-
fication of a general peace. And this was
the case, as it actually did expire on the
sth of April, 1815, the spring after the general
peace of 1814, when it was imposed for one Year
more, partly on account of the war having
broke
out again between England and France (and -which
we all know terminated in a few short months with
the ever decisive and memorable battle of Waterloo),
and partly, to use a business-like term, to wind
up." In 1816, exactly half a century ago, Lord
Liverpool, at that time Prime Minister,tried to make
it a perpetual tax at £5 per cent. Several Minis-
terialists went over to the Opposition, in order to
vote against the income tax. The said Opposition
made a dead set against it, when it was knocked
on the head by an overwhelming majority. So very
unpopular was the tax, that on the motion of Lord,
at that time Mr., Brougham, every paper connected
with the aforesaid tax was burned, and it remained
off for 26 years (a period of more than a quarter 01
a century) until reimposed by Peel in 1842, to meet
the all but bankrupt state that the Whigs, by their
bungling and mismanagement, had then brought us
to. Now, sir, I speak for myself, and I think 1
may for most of my countrymen, when I say that
we should all of us be very sorry to have to return
to the old system of indirect taxation, so ably done
away by the late Sir Robert Peel, in 1842. Direct
.
taxation, if it be only fairly levied, is of all modes of
taxation the most just, fair, and equitable. But
here is the difficulty. It can never be just or right
that a man who is working hard for his living, sub-
ject to all the caprices, whims, and fancies of human
_
nature, should be paying taxation in an equal degree
with some rich, independent old lady or gentleman.;
who has merely to put himself or herself into their
carriage, chariot, or brougham, or say even Hans°ta'
cab or omnibus, as the case may be, and go down
to the Bank of England and receive their dividends"
Now above all times is the time for a general re-
vision of taxation while we are at peace. In a few
years we may be engaged in war, and then all hopes
of a revision of taxation will be at an end, val.,
likely for 20 years. We cannot any longer re.,aaru
this tax as a war tax, as it has now been in ef;
tence for nearly a quarter of a century of all but
time of profound European peace, with the 01;
tion of the two years of the Crimean war. .1
proposition of Mr. Disraeli, 13 years ago, was a very
a
good one, i. e., making professional incomes pay
quarter less than incomes arising from fixed Pro-
perty. Only this hardly went far enough- ,
comes arising from professions and trades paid
about one-third or one-fourth of what is paid by
people deriving incomes from independent means' it
is fully as much as they ought to pay, when
em
consider that the least ailment might deprive tii,
tt
of the means of livelihood for ever. They olignif
at least, to have some allowance made them.
Mr. Gladstone is desirous of perpetuating his name
t Mo ls-
to posterity as a great, and, above all, a jus
le of
ter—i. e., one who has the interest of the peop
England at heart—he will lose no time in readjust-
ing the frightful inequalities of the present mode ,cif
direct taxation. An income tax fairly and properly
levied might be made of all taxes the most
just, and proper ; but, as it is, it is most funao:
just, unfair, improper, unequal, inquisitorial, al3 Ci•
iniquitous.—.l remain, sir,
Your faithful servant,
A LOVER OF HISTORICAL DATES AND FACTS'
Jan. 30, 1866.

EPIGRAM ON GAD'S HILL. The following
quatrain we take from the columns of a weekly contem-
porary :
Thrice famous
Hill
yi
has;
Thrice famous spot, where Falstaff fought
MgloissrY. Bateman a Pesir—
Miss AsIIBs Dickens'fiS aahrramrANpahye ro.oeise
~d at
Niblo's Garden, New York, on the evening of the
caught
The New York Times says that " the lovely Oth•
who left
girl
us three years ago returns matured and improved ; she
has grown in classic and statuesque beauty, and Pr„es°rt
one of the most splendid pictures over seen uP°'" all
stage. Her appearance was hailed with a storm of 1113;
plause that might have thrilled the heart of Siddone ill base
zenith of triumph. Her fair, sweet, classic face W. 9.6 f
welcome as summer sunshine ; and the grand greeting 0_
three thousand friends had not only an artistic
but a V3l.
so nal
Mr.gnificance . George •
Peabody
si"
in Georgetown, District of Columbia, to accommodate th 0
church and society lately formed in that place, to slis,trtv
the faith of their fathers, in opposition to the new di.f. I,
The churca
introduced there by Rev. Charles Beecher.
is not only intended to accommodate those who have gilled
is to erect a new church
by the donor, Mr. Peabody, for their use, but it is also in-
up their ancient house of worship, and the fund inten
tended as a memorial of several generations of many
of
body's ancestors, who were born and lived, and . ...
them lie buried, in that town. It will unquestionably be
one of the finest churches in that county.
31
The ccst of living in Washington just flow is
rather startling, if correspondents writing from that city
speak correctly. A letter to a Western paper states that t
Congress member from Illinois has been in Washington
some days enjoying the luxury of a room in the third
story
of Willard's Hotel at the moderate quid pro quo of $lB P°
day.