The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-07 00:00:00

" Practical convenience," as Mr. HUBBARD observes,
" was the excuse of the financiers who operated on
Finchley-common and Hounslow-heath a century
ago; it is the plea of every oppressive and grasping
despot; but I did not expect to find it deliberately
recorded by a member of her MAJESTY'S Govern-
ment as the justification of an indiscriminate taxa-
tion." No proof was ever attempted that Mr. HUB-
BARD'S plan would be so practically inconvenient
as to form a reason for its rejection. The chief of
the Inland Revenue Department, indeed, admitted
the contrary.

The other fancy is that the incidence of other
taxes, of the succession duty especially, must be con-
sidered in any adjustment of the Income-tax. To
which our brief reply is, if any other tax be found
to press unfairly on any of the classes who pay it,
let that unfairness be remedied; justifying one
wrong by another is an old, but not very reputable
device. But as to the Succession Duty, a landlord
House of Commons had better be silent about that.
It must be balanced, not with the Income-tax, but
with the Legacy and Probate Duties; when it will
be found that this said Succession Duty, compared
with the duties paid by the landlord class, is a
feudal exemption of the latter from three to six
millions per annum paid by all other legatees. We
must ask, therefore, the attention of Mr. WILLIAMS
and Mr: BRIGHT to the-concludingsentences of this
report.

A very ingenious suggestion is thrown out by an
intelligent correspondent of ours in another part
of our impression of this evening, It ,has reference
to the Thames Embankment, with a view to the
facilitation of the great and costly enterprise in-
volved in the task of carrying it out. Whatever
may in the end be thought of the financial operation
proposed by Mr. HAENEY, it is at any rate one that
is entitled to impartial consideration. It possesses
this advantage upon the face of it, that it is simply
the application to a series of great public works
here in the metropolis, of a principle that has
already been acted upon with advantage elsewhere.
A case in point being referred to, indeed,
by name, wbere our correspondent alludes to
the market that some years back was built
at Guernsey on the same identical principle, as
narrated in Mr. DuNcam's work on the Currency.
But now as to the practicable application of this
sound (ani tried) principle to the furtherance of
the long-looked for scheme of the Thames Em-
bankment—a scheme now happily at length
actually within our view ! " The proposal "
to put the matter here before the reader in
the very words of our co: respondent "is
to get power from Parliament to issue. Thames Em-
bankment Notes, and with these to pay the firs t
expenses : to allow these notes to circulate in Lon-
don till rents from the ground, gained from the
wharfs and from the quay room, began to come in,
and then to cancel these notes when presented in
payment." As the writer himself remarks in
regard to his own proposition, while offer-
ing it "It is time that public works of
obvious utility should be commenced without
eubmittieg to what is hastily assumed to be
an inevitable consequence—a heavy fine, pay-
able in the shape of interest to the monied power."
Adding, "All that is wanted for a great public
work like the embankment of the Thames is labour
and raw material ; and as to the great requirement
of money, it is only necessary to make it on the
plan prepared." The suggestion is certainly not
without its temptations. And—with an eye
simply to the public good, by the speed-
ing onwards of a great and admirable enter-
prize—we would hereby proffer this suggestion
of our correspondent to the scrutiny of those
with whom the responsibility of carrying out the
labour of the Thames-Embankment rests.

TER FESTIVAL OF THE THREE CHOIRS.

HEREFORD, FRIDAY.

All the arrangements for the holding of the 138th
festival of the three choirs of Worcester, Hereford,
and Gloucester, are now complete, and there is every
indication that the meeting of next week will be one
of the most successful ever held here, thanks to the
indefatigable exertions of the conductor and
honorary secretary to the stewards, Mr. G.
Townshend Smith. The Worcester and Hereford
line was to have been completed in time for the
festival, but the Government inspector has not yet
certified for its opening. We have already
given the list of principals engaged, and the
oratorios selected. The festival will open on
Thursday with morning service at the cathedral, in
the choir, now just re-opened, after having been
closed a long time for restoration; and oratorios
will be given on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
and Friday mornings, in the nave of the cathedral,
and miscellaneous concerts (including Benedict's
" Undine") at the Shire Hall. A ball on Friday
night winds up the festival week. We learn from
a statement put forth by the committee that the
proceeds of these festivals, aided by the diocesan
clerical charities, have of late years in this diocese
averaged to each widow £2O, and to each orphan
£l5, besides a grant of £179 to twelve widows and
children, from a fund called the Church Stretton
Fund. There are within this diocese 147 benefices,
with stipends below £lOO per annum.