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

-
(61114 (iirA

HER MAJESTY•

OSBORNE, Feb. 3.
her Majesty drove out yesterday morning and
afternoon.

Lord Cowley was introduced by Lord Sydney,
Lord Chamberlain (Sir Charles Young attending
with the insignia of the Order of the Garter), and.
her Majesty iuvested Lord Cowley with the Riba,nd
and Badge of the Garter.
Her Majesty drove out yesterday accompanied
by
Princess Helena and Prince Christian of Schleswig-
Holstein, and attended by the Hon. Flora 111110-
donald.

THE INCOME TAX.

TO THE EDITOR OF TIIE SUN.
Sin,—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 be in-
tends taking off the above-named tax, it nilaY ne
be amiss just to consider to what extent such a step
would be politic, and just to take a slight surveY °f
this tax from its original imposition by Pitt in 1798,
just 68 years ago, down to the present time. No\
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 rn
1801 as could conveniently be. The general treaty
of peace was signed Ist October, 1801. (1802)
Mr. Addington, afterwards Lord Sidmouth, at tha4..
;
time Prime Minister, proposed and carried a repeal
of the tax nem. con. This peace was, as all readers
of history are full well aware, of very short dura-
tion,c being regarded more in the light of an armed
‘
truce than anything else, for in May, 1803, tue
war between England and France, after a peace of
18 months, was renewed, and the income tax Nos
reimposed at £5 per cent. only, or ls. 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. 31d. in the pound. In 1806 Pitt was
summoned to his account, and there came int
office that Government commonly called " the
Talents," or " the Broad-Bottomed Govern:l
ment," when the Whigs, true to their usual
principles, endeavoured to do the same thing it
1848. Lord Russell's Government in 1848 tried tde
increase the income tax from 7d. to ls. in the pout
—or, in other words, from £2 18s. 4d. per cent.
£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 NT_
brought back to the original £lO per cent., or 2s. 11'
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 le
the case, as it actually did expire 011 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
with
we all know terminated in a few short months "
the ever decisive and memorable battle of IVaterli
and partly, to use a business-like term, ,4 to win,
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 Mints:
terialists went over to the Opposition,
in order to
vote against the income tax. The said Oppositien
made a dead set against it, when it was knocked
on the head by an overwhelming majority. S 0 very
unpopular was the tax, that on the motion of I
-4°r
ci
at that time Mr., Brougham, every paper connected
with the aforesaid tax was burned, and it remail'ed
off for 26 years (a period of more than a quarter 0,
;
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 to
to. Now, sir, I speak for myself, and I think 't
may for most of my countrymen, when I say tha.,
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
Put
taxation the most just, fair, and equitable. 19
here is the difficulty. It can never be just or rig
ht
sub
a man who is working hard for his living, sea
ject to all the caprices, whims, and fancies of ha°
degree
with should be paying taxation in an equal degr:,
with some rich, independent old lady or gentian_ e
who has merely to put himself or herself into th
carriage, chariot, or brougham, or say even ganso rct
cab or omnibus, as the case may be, and go (I°w
o
,
to the Bank of England and receive their dividends'
Now above all times is the time for a general
fog
vision of taxation while we are at peace. Iu -n,
es
years we may be engaged in war, and then all 111)1;
of a revision of taxation will be at an end, vend
likely for 20 years. We cannot any longer rego_
this tax as a war tax, as it has now been in e$ a
tence for nearly a quarter of a century of all but
time of profound European peace, with the acer oe
tion of the two years of the Crimean war.
very.
proposition of Mr. Disraeli, 13 years ago, was 3 a
good one, i. e., making professional incomes Pal
d Pr°
quarter less than incomes arising from file •
If in,
perty. Only this hardly went far enough•
comes arising from professions and trades Pai▪ d
about one-third or one-fourth of what is pai▪ d
it
people deriving incomes from independent means, 70
is fully as much as they ought to pay, wh en
the9l
consider that the least ailment might deprive
ott,
of the means of livelihood for ever. TheY °u° Yf
at least, to have some allowance made thern'ame
Mr. Gladstone is desirous of perpetuating his is.
to posterity as a great, and, above all, a just Min of
ter—i. e., one who has the interest of the poi)le
in t_
England at heart—he will lose no time r eadjos
of
ing the frightful inequalities of the present ino'erii
direct taxation. An income tax fairly and Pr°P,,_jr.
levied might be made of all taxes the most la
just, and proper ; but, as it is, it is ino st
an
just, unfair, improper, unequal, inquisitorial,
iniquitous.—•l remain, sir,

Your faithful servant,
A LOVER OF HISTORICAL DATES AND FACTS•
Jan. 30, 1866.

EPIGRAM ON GAD'S HILL. The followi?
quatrain we take from the columns of a weekly coute
porary
:
Thrice famous spot, where Falstaff fought
In Shakspere's famous story ;
As Dickens' home, Gad's Hill has caught

Its final
.71
at
Missßateman pp .
Niblo's Garden, New York, on tho evening of the
ho left
The New York Times Aglloissry. a eared
says that "the lovely girl w--
us three years ago returns matured and iraproVed ; ts
has grown in classic and statuesque beauty, and Prey
any
one of the most splendid pictures ever seen uPeut
stage. Her appearance was hailed with a storm n her
0'
plause that might have thrilled the heart of Siddons
i as
zenith of triumph. Her fair, sweet, classic face `vas ,f
welcomethree
thousand friends had c but Pe
sonal significance."
church
Mr.
George Peabody is to erect a new
in Georgetown, District of Columbia, to accommodate t'
church and society lately formed in that place, to inist''.,l°
the faith of their fathers, in opposition to the new
The churco
introduced there by Rev. Charles Beecher.
is not only intended to accommodate those who have giVded
up their ancient house of worship, and the fund int"' 8
in-
by the donor, Mr. Peabody, for their use, but it is also
tended as a memorial of several generations of Igr.
body's ancestors, who were born and lived, and Inan b°
them °
them lie buried, in that town. It will unquestionably
one of the finest churches in that county. •
The ccst of living in Washington just n°vr
rather startling, if correspondents writing- from that city
speak correctly. A letter to a Western paper states that
n
Congress member from Illinois has been in Washingtory
some days enjoying the luxury of a room in the third sto
of Willard's Hotel at the moderate quid pro quo a $lB Pe
day.