The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-16 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1857

"Finance" has always been a stumbling-block
in the way of the Whig,. It has been their weak
point, which has brought them into discredit and
disrepute, and led to their eviction from place
and power in 1841 and 1552. In fact, they
could never take au original or comprehensive
A slavish adherence to pre-
view of the suhj =e.
cedeut was their chief eharActeriaic, and all their
Budgets were enveloped in voluminous folds of
" red tape." The more objectionable an impost
he more closely did they adhere to it, and what
to men of ordinary common sense would occasion
its unequivocal condemnation, seemed to consti-
tute its chief recommendation in their sight.
Sir G. C. LEWIS is no exception to the general
rule. His chief ambition appears to be to prove
that Sir CHAS. Woof) was not the worst Financial
Minister that could be selected. He deserves no
particle of credit for yielding, to a certain extent,
to the popular demand for the immediate aboli-
tion of the War Income Tax. Were it possible
to do so, he would cling with desperate tenacity

to the war duty of 16d. in the pountl. But
" the pressure from without" convinces him that
such a course is practically impossible, and that it
would render his own tenure of office very brief in-
deed. But in yielding he keeps the slight convenient

intrenchment still available as a place of refuge,
and requires, as compensation for going back to
the original id., an additional 2d. in the pound

for the next three years, or 6d. in the pound alto-

gether. He also distinctly repudiates the " GLAD-

STONE compact." He declares that the settlement
effected in 1853 has been entirely deranged by
the stern reality of subsequent events. It is there-

fore perfectly clear that he does not intend to
relinquish, or even materially reduce, the tax in
1860—that it must, so far as he is concerned, be

regarded as a permanent burden, and that, there-
fore, it is essential that it should be forth-
with revised, so as to render it more equitable in
its apportionment, and less oppressive in its inci-
dence. We trust, then, that professing fiscal
reformers seeing that the hope of complete relief

in 1860, which could alone extenuate a submis-
sion to the present system, being completely re

moved, ma; insist en its immediate modification,

so as to remove the chief grounds of objection to
its continuance. The difficulty must be encoun
tered sooner or latter, and there is no use in
endeavouring to postpone the inevitable contest !
The reasons assigned by the Right Hon. Gen-
tleman for not adhering to the settlement of 1853
were clearly fallacious. While speaking of the
losses arising from the alteration of the stamp
duty on Bills of Exchange, he gave no credit for
the stamps on foreign Bills of Exchange. The
alleged loss in the assessed taxes of 285,0001. had,
as Mr. GLADSTONE explained, been provided for
in the financial scheme of 1853—and the esti-
mated loss on the malt tax does not depend on
any proposition of his, but is the effect of the
existing law, which fortunately leaves no loophole
for a " pettifogging quibble." Besides, he will
still receive the same amount of duty that was
levied on that imported article in 1853, and
which was contemplated at the time of the alleged
settlement. As to tea, coffee, and sugar, in place
of giving any remission, he is actually proposing
a very considerable increase on that which he
would be entitled to receive from and after the
sth April next, and, as Mr. GLADSTONE declared,
it would be well if, in place of contenting himself
with stating the amount of reduction from the
scale of duties, " he would supply the figures
from the gain which he expects to realise from
the new duties, as compared with those which
would take effect under the existing law." In
tea alone he will gain 972,5001. during the year
1857-8, 1,291,5001. in 1858-9, 972,5001. in
1859-60, and 553,5001. in 1860-1 ; or, in other
wordclin that one article alonehe attempts to realise
3,790,0001. more than he would receive under the
existing law. This makes a formidable inroad on
5,000,0001. he professes to surrender on the In-
come Tax. We have calculated these returns on
his own data, for if 2d. per lb. produces 369,0001.,
the sd. increase will produce 972,5001., the 7d.
1,291,5001., and the 3d. 553,5001. ; and the
additions on coffee and sugar will more than make
up the balance which he professes to give up on
account of the Income Tax. Even if he availed
himself of the " pettifogging quibble " so justly
complained of by the indignant people, all that he
can justly claim credit for is the remission of the
stamp duty on newspapers, which he asserts
amounts to 260,0001., and the addition to th•
interest on the public debt, amounting, as he de-
clares, in round terms, to a million and a half,
but actually to 1,459,0001. only, according to his
own figures.
But he displays a similar want of candour in
these matters. He ignores the Post-office increase,
produced mainly by the abolition of the newspaper
stamp, and which accounts for the greater portion
of the loss; and also the war-duty ou spirits,
which he proposes to maintain, and which, accord-
ing to his own estimate, " may be reckoned on
as producing a permanent addition to the revenue
of about 1,500,0001. per annum ;" thus more
than counterbalancing the increased interest on
the debt, inasmuch as (to say nothing of the
41,0001. which he erroneously takes on interest)
that will gradually be reduced by the proposed
extinction of the Exchequei Bands ; the
1,000,0001. loan to Sardinia, which will bring
in another 40,0001. per annum ; and the interest
on the Sinking Fund of 250,0001. for the next
year, and 1,500,0001. for every subsequent year
until the recent war-loan be altogether extin-
guished. The 81,0001. per annum arising from
the error in simple addition, for which a
candidate for a 'petty clerkship, producing 801.
per annum, would be Plucked by the Ctvd Service
Examiners, and the interest of the Sardinian loan
is an ample equivalent for the loss on Newspaper
Stamps, credit being allowed for the augmented
receipts of the Post-office, which he estimates to
produce 3,000,0001. next year, but which only
returned 2,767,201/. for the year ending on the
31st March last. It is therefore manifest that
the entire proceeds of the additional taxation can
only be required to pay off the debt, and against
that considering that the people have suffered so se-
verely during the war, and that the whole of the
war debt will be liquidated by the Sinking Fund in
sixteen years. We earnestly and emphatically
protest, and call upon the independent or quasi
independent Members to resist this disreputable
dodge on the part of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer.

His views as to direct taxation are equally sin-
gular. Iu comparing the amount raised by di-
rect and indirect imposts he classes amongst the
former, not only the Income-tax, Land-tax, and
Legacy and Succession Duties, but also the whole
revenue on Stamps, the assessed taxes, and the
gross returns of the Post-Office. Can anything
be more unfair or more uncandid than this ?
Can he, with truth, allege that Admiralty stamps,
bills of Exchange, cards and dice, Chancery fund,
civil bankers' notes, and composition therefor,
plate, marine and fire insurance licences, and cer-
tificates, law forms, medicines or receipts and
drafts, fall on accumulated property ? Moat of
them are charges on trade and commerce, and
defrayed by the consumers of the commodities
dealt in. The Irish insurance is chiefly paid by
the occupiers, not the landlords, of houses—and
of the assessed taxes, the same may j
said of the House-duty, and all the
others on servants, horses, horse-dealers,
hair-powder, garne-duty, dogs, carriages, and
composition duty, and armorial bearings, although
nominally direct taxes do not necessarily fall en
the owners of accumulated property. They are
entirely optional, and oven a millionnaire need not
pay a single shilling on account thereof if he does
not choose to do so. But the Pos•- ffico is the
most absurd of all. Sir G. C. LEWIS is fully
aware that the Post-office swallows up in its acle
ministration very nearly the whole of its revenues,
and properly se. Full and valuable consideration
is given for the payments made, which fall on the
general population of the country, and not on the
owners of property. There is scarcely a family,
however humble, that does not contribute its
quota to the charge.
We have something yet to say respecting the
volunteer views which the Right am, Gentle

man unnecessarily put forward respecting the

paper and wine duties. Our space will not, how- I
ever, permit it this day. We, however, entreat
the chosen representatives of the people and the
community at large not to be misled by the ap-
parent remission of what is facetious/1j tarmed the
War 9d., but to examine the whole scheme
closely and attentively. They will then perceive
I that it merits condemnation in place of the plau-
dits it has received on a mere superficial inspec-
tion, and that Sir G. C. LEWIS is as unfair to
the industrious classes on the fiscal as he is on the
monet try question. He has proved himself utterly
imcompetcnt for the duties of his arduous and
important office, and if the PALMERSTON Admi-
nistration desire to retain the confidence of the
people they must find some person far better qua-
lified to preside over the national exchequer, and
more disposed to relieve the industrious classes
from the burdens by which they are afflicted.

A frightful evidence has just been afforded at
Milan of the atcocity of Austrian domination over
the Lombard territorieF. We allude, of course,

to the infamous murder perpetrated in a public
café of that city by au officer of the Garman army
of occupation. The assassination of a young
Italian civilian in a manner unexampled in civi-
lised nations, and under circumstances of peculiar
horror. It appears ta have been a crime
committed so entirJy without even the sem-
blance of what might be ordinarily desig-
nated provoc-tion, that it can only in reason
be regarded as a deed of blood originating
in the very want anness of Pride and Power,
on the part of one wielding—in a subordinate
capacity no doubt, but still wielding in that capa-
city the sword of a conqueror. A Lombard
citizen at the Odera-home presumes to hiss the
prima donna. He is, iusulted thereupon by an
officer wearing the Austrian uniform—is followed
out of the theatre into the street;—is provoked,
challenged to single c)nab4t, and threatened with
summary vengeance. The authorities, having
their attention called to these incidents betimes, are
driven t) the necessity of interfering, in very
shame, with a view t) the prevention of an out-
rage not uncommon in the Italian provinces ap-
pertaining to the dominions of the Red Emperor—

the semi-legalised butchery of Lombards or Vene-
tians by the weapons of the professed duellists in
the German army of occupation. Forewarned in
the recent instance at Milan the Austrian Com-
mandant compels the officer in question, as in
duty bound, to retire for a while to some distance
from the capital of Lombardy. Shorty after-
wards a friend of this Knight-Errant of the Prima
Donna of the Opera House—this friend also, be
it observed, wearing the uniform of the soldiers
of FRANCIS JOSEPll—encounters by accident, in a
public café, the young Italian who had had the
presumption to hiss a favourite actress. There-
fore, with a sweep of his sword—like a Turk of
the middle ages rather than a civilised Christian
gentleman of the nineteenth century—this Ger-
man cut-throat severs the head of the young Ita-
:ian, without any more ado, clean off his shoulders I
Intelligence of which unparalleled outrage spread-
ing rapidly, as it ware, on the wings of the wind,
throughout Milan, creates—naturally enough—an
extraordinary ferment among all classes of the
population. Whereupon, dreading the conse-
quences, the whole Austrian army now quartered
in the capital of Lombardy is turned out and
marched to and fro about the streets—the shops
being closed—the citizens being compelled to keep
in doors—martial law being all but proclaimed.
Revolutions before now have sprung out of
crimes less in infamy than this atrocious and hor-
rible assassination. Quotcsque tandem abutere--
How long, Hew long is Italy to display this oraven
toleration of the heel of the German CZSAR upon
her neck ? Has she one spark of heroic pride among
ail the millions of her prostrat3 people ? Is the
tocsin ever to sound fur her liberation ? What
was it MIRABEAU erAtirued so grandly at the be-
ginning of the First French Revolution 1—
" MARIUS flung dust to heaven, and out of that
dust sprung the Gracchii 1" Se may it not be at
length with the ashes strewn upon her own head
in her profound abjection and despair by modern
Italy—ltaly, not less than Rome (as the central
point of Italy) as sung by BYRON, " The Niobe
of Nations I—The M 'VIAL. of Dead Empires !"
Speaking of her 1 living but degraded chil-
dren, particularly of the Lombard Serfs of
Austria, may we not rather ask than declare,
with GRAY--" Even in their ashes live their
wonted fires l" Have they the vaguest glimmer-
ing sense of their despicable condition 7 Hardly
can we imagine this. Otherwise catching but the
merest glimpse of it—they would barely, for very
shame, but start up at once erect from the dust
in ono grand and irresistible rising fur their
Fatherland, from the Abruzzi to the Carpathians.

Sir W. CLAY has returned again to the Church-
rate conflict. Ho got his bill zead a first time
on Thursday without opposition ; the debate is,
of course, to be taken on the second reading—a
debate which ought to be the last ever held on
that subject. If Dissenters only used half theie
power, or put forth half their strength, it is quite
certain that they might compel the Government
to move, and the House of Commons to dd its
part. We believe they could even vanquish the
House of Lords. At their door we lay it, that
with no one of nets to conquer in the
House of Commons but Lord Jowl RUSSELL,
the Church-rat.: contest is prolonged Session after
Session. We are sick of it, and if those whom it
chiefly concerns will not be,•tir themselves as they
ought what are they to expect of us ? We pro-
bably should have more to pay after the abolition
of Church Rates than we now have, but we have
taken the straightforward course, with all truly
liberal Caurchinen, of j )iuing in the condemna-
tion of the gross inju,tice of Church Rates.
There are thousands and tens of thousands of
Churchmen all the kingdom over who feel as we
do. Tney would scorn to advocate a palpable
wrong to half the worshippers of the country, for
the benefit of their own pock its, or oven for that
of their own rel:gious denomination. But they do
ask Dissenters to c mie forward, now, in a way
which shall make this effoit a final one.

As to their quond tra friend, L )rd JOHN RUS-
SELL, he has 'Joked back on this question, and
become a pillar of ELDON bigof.ry. It is hopeless
for them to wait for a man whose decrepitude in
Religious Liberty t•embl3s for the House of
Urdu, the throne, and the altar, whenever
Church-rate abolition ia talked of. Dis-
senters must be content to write off Lord
JOHN'S help as a btd debt. They will never re-
ceive Ever since he lampooned their clergy
as stageplayers, and gave up the appropriation
! clause, he has cut hi 3 old supporters. It is of no
use for them to vote for him as a practical friend
of religious liberty. He will talk big out of
office, and deliver grand preambles in office, but
the practical issue of any official speech will
always be the minimum of reform that will pass
muster for one who oats the political bread of
Liberalism. That is our measure of Lord JOHN
for the remainder of his career. Dissenters must
carry all they want for the future in spite of Mm;