The Sun.
London, England, 1835-12-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT O? TIDE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times is graciously pleased to promise praise
to Lord Melbourne and his colleagues when it shall
be proved that they really desire a re-union with Lord
Stanley and the Duke of Richmond, on the terms of a
total, peremptory, and final breach with O'Connell,
and a frank and absolute surrender of the appropria-
tion clause in the Irish Tithe Bill. This is, in other
words saying, that whenever Ministers abjure a prin-
ciple to which they are solemnly pledged, and conse-
quently infamise them Selves, they shall have the praise
of the Times. For such a reward men will,hardly be
tempted to " welcome lasting shame." It is.extremely
characteristic of the Tory party that all their hopes are
built upon some hypothesis of folly or baseness on the
part of their opponents. Sir R. Peel's expectation
was that the Reformers would quarrel among them-
selves, and enable him to govern through their divi-
sions ; the disappointment of this hope has been fiercely
resented. And here we may remark that the ex-
pectation of Sir Robert was that O'Connell would be
at feud with the Whigs, but as that did not happen,
the most violent indignation has been expressed by the
enemy, because the Whigs did not wage war with
O'Connell. Sir Robert thought that O'Connell would
be dissatisfied with the Whig policy ; but in his visions
of office so extravagant an idea as a Whig quarrel with
O'Connell for approving and supporting the Whig po-
licy, never entered the ex-Premier's head. Peel
reckoned on Radical impatience of Whig moderation—
not upon Whig impatience of Radical acquiescence in
Whig moderation. Indeed, Sir Robert Peel would, ere
this, have been locked up aalunatic, if he had declared,
in his Tamworth speech, that when he undertook the
Government he expected the Whigs to face about and
fight the Radicals, if they should consent to travel the same
road. Such an,expectation, in the case of the Liberals
in power, is just as insane as it would have been
in the case of the Liberals in opposition. A hope of
another kind, about as reasonable, has now occurred
to the Times, that Ministers may apostatise, in whiCh
event it offers them the hand of brotherhood. Show,
says (in substance) this new organ of the Tories, that
you are false and treacherous—that you are deserters
and renegades, and we will embrace you, and esteem
you worthy of government. What a characteristic of
the party is this promised affinity with any unworthi-
ness I Only a few days ago, every Tory journal was
subscribing to the saying of some Tory orator, that
the Whigs in office had• " the violence of the Radi-
cals, without the honesty ;" and now the cry is, quarrel
with the Radicals, par fas aut nefizs, and the Tories
are your friends. And, no doubt, mightily pleased
would the Tories be with, the Whigs, if they would
contrive a quarrel, by which the way would be cleared
for Sir Robert Peel's hitherto balked Administration.
—Morning Chronicle.
If there is one subject more than another upon
which our representatives in Parliament ought to have
sound practical information, it is upon the true princi-
ples of taxation. When it is considered that nature
has most bountifully supplied this country with almost
everything which can tend to promote its welfare, that
the climate is peculiarly suited to call forth the energies
of its. population, how imperative is the duty of those
in whose hands is vested the power of controuling and
directing the resources-of this great empire, to. be well
informed as to the effects likely to result from the ap-
plication of theories to so vast a machine as that of a
great nation. We are, however, sorry to say that
whilst a certain portion of the -House of commons is
• rather inclined to laugh at the application of • sound
principles to taxation, and another portion or section is
opt to legislate exclusively to promote particular views,
many very useful alterations in our fiscal laws are over-
looked. Taxation is a necessary evil—to a certain ex-
tent it must be borne by every country ; and in Eng-
land, where more than half the annual income is applied
to the payment of the interest of its debt, its pressure
must be severely felt—in proportion, however, to the
severity of the burden, is care required in its applica-
tion. During the war, so great was the difficulty of
raising a revenue equal to the expenditure, that the
Ministers of the day, totally disregarding all princi-
plea, placed duties or taxes upon every commodity of
universal consumption—their only consideration -was
how to raise money. Thus nearly all Excise duties
were dOubled and trebled, Ivithout reference to the
probahle increase of frauds, or the injury to which
trade would be exposed, by the multifarious restric-
tions imposed under the plea of protecting- the re-
venue. Many of these war taxes have been repealed
in the course of the last few years, and it is our ob-
ject to call public attcntiou to the facility 'of repealing
others„ hr the careful and judicious application of du-
ties to the productions of foreig,n countries, in lieu of
that most arbitrary system of Excise, Which is revolt-
ing to the feelings of every one who has a just sense
of liberty. The principles of political economy may
be opposed to taxing raw material, but they are more
opposed to the existence of Excise • laws, and no-
thing but necessity can justify the continuance of
either one or the other ; but - under the existing
circumstances of this country, we have -in every
instance to consider, not so much' the abstract
principles opposed to a particular measure, as its
policy with reference to existing laws. _, For this
reason it may in some cases be justifiable, and even
advantageous to the country, to tax raw materials by .a
Customs duty in preference to the manufactured
article by the Excise. This was
_especially the case
with raw cotton. A tax was imposed upon it, and the
Excise removed from printed calicoes. It was proved
that improvements were checked—that_ frauds could
not be prevented, and that an establishment was
maintained to collect a duty a large proportion of
which was returned in the shape of 'drawback on
exportation, and to do which another establishment
of officers was required. The same arguments may be
strikingly used with regard to the duty on foreign
tallow, which we noticed yesterday. At present there
is a small Customs duty on tallow, and a heavy Excise
duty on soap. One-fourth of the duty collected is
returned to the manufacturers by drawbacks, &c. It
is proposed,-and we think the adoption of' the propo-
sition would be of the greatest service, to remove the
latter and increase the former, so as to raise from
the raw material half as much as is now collected
upon soap. In this case we have before us a choice
of evils—the positive evils of Excise laws, the fraud
and crime they encourage, the injustice to which
every honest manufacturer is subjected by every in-
fraction of the Revenue laws ; and, on the other hand,
the deviation from a generally-received principle, that
a raw material should not be taxed. It is important
to the proper consideration of this question to know,
that it is impossible to smuggle talloW ; that great
advantage would be derived to the country by increas-
ing the duty, which is now exceedingly low ; and that,
if we are correctly informed, the manufacturers and the
agriculturists are both anxious for the change. The
question, then, is, are two important interests to be in-
jured simply to support a theory ? Are we to offer a
bonus to a foreign country by admitting the produce of
her land at a slight duty, to the injury of our farmers,
and to the injury of the manufacturers who consume
it ? There is little reciprocity in such an arrangement,
particularly when it is recollected that Russia taxes
very heavily our manufactures ; and we believe, that
when this subject is fairly considered, every one will
arrive at the same conclusion as ourselves,—viz., that
of two evils, a tax on a raw material, the produce of
Russia, is infinitely less injurious to English interests
than the existence of an Excise on a staple manufac-
ture.—Morning Advertiser.
We return, as we promised, to the consideration
of the leading paper in the Polonais, on the means of
counteracting the designs of Russia without the necess
sity of war. In drawing our inference from the text of
the Writer in question, the tenor of our yesterday's ar-
gument was, ;that Russia, with all her boasts, is afraid
of war with England. She is afraid of it, because
she haS calculated with the logical tact and with the
address which characterises the whole of her diplomacy,
that if such a war once commenced, it would terminate
in kwar of opinion. For the risks connected with a
material struggle, she is, we believe, fully prepared by
an accumulation of means, and by a centralization of
power never, perhaps, united before in any nation. It
is always best to look at danger in the face. The means
of Russia of bringing warlike masses into the field for
the purpose of conquest, we believe by no means exagge-
rated. The exaggeration has always been the other way.
It has consisted in depreciating her military power and