The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-21 00:00:00

THE INCOME TAX.

Unexpected as was Mr. Hubbard's victory on
Tuesday evening, it is impossible to deny that it
illustrates a great prineiple. There must be some-
thing sound as well as something popular about so
very enduring a belief as that which prevails con-
cerning the relative assessments of property and
income. Mr. Gladstone, indeed, is of another way
of thinking. He stated distinctly at one point of
his speech that, though people certainly did object
to the system of taxing fixed and precarious in-
comes at the same rate, he, for his part, had always
considered that " sentiment" to be " not supported
by reason." But, though he thus closed with the
question, he did not argue it. He never advanced
beyond the proposition, and fairly exposed himself
to Mr. Hubbard's remark, that he had left the
merits of the case out of view. So tenderly, indeed,
did he speak of the opposite persuasion, and so
anxiously did he appeal to the authorities recorded
on his own side, that it is hard to avoid doubting
the absolute nature of his convictions. In fact,
at different times he has himself both said and
done enough for Mn Hubbard's clients to show
that, if he did not recognise the force of their ar-
guments, he at least felt the hardship of their case.
When it is maintained on grounds of abstract rea-
soning that an income of £5OO derived precariously
from daily toil is, for purposes of just taxation,
identical with an income of the same amount spon-
taneously flowing from an inexhaustible source, the
assertion at once clashes with our instinctive ideas
of right. We seem to feel the contrary. We seem
to understand, as if by involuntary conviction, that
the two positions are certainly not identical, and
that they are not assumed to be so in any ordi-
nary transaction of life. If a man earning a
certain average income by the sweat of his brow is
held by financiers to be exactly as rich, as fortunate,
and as taxable as a man deriving the same in-
come without exertion, from permanent and inde-
pendent property, we naturally observe to our-
selves that such an estimate is strictly limited to
this one occasion. The tax-collector may take
this view, but nobody else does. No tradesman,
no capitalist, no landlord, no father of a family
would pretend to rank Mr. A., the working man,
with Mr. 8., the man of independence, or to say
that the circumstances of the former were as good
as those of the latter. Everybody would admit,
without the least hesitation, that there was all the
difference in the world between their two positions.
Take analogous occasions of contribution, and this
difference would be expressly recognized. Mr. A.
would never be expected to give so large a sub-
scription as Mr. 8., or to make so large an allow-
ance, or to be so free with his money, in any case,
or for any purpose whatever. The explanation,
too, would be perfectly obvious. One of the two
men would be always sure of the same means, .
health or sickness, manhood or old age, and at his
death it would still be his to transmit to his chil-
dren. The means of the other would certainly last
no longer than his strength, and might not last be-
yond the hour, so that in common prudence only a
portion of his income should be held available for
expenditure, while the rest was saved. All this
appears so profoundly reasonable that few would
choose to gainsay the conclusion ; and yet all that
Mr. Hubbard urged was, that if this view of the
case was taken by everybody else, and in every other
transaction of life, it ought to be taken also by
Chancellors of the Exchequer in imposing an Income
Tax.

Mr. Gladstone threw the weight of his reply, not
upon a disproof of the alleged wrong, but upon a
disparagement of the suggested remedy. He re-
capitulated the difficulties notoriously in the way
of any reconstruction of the Income Tax. He
endeavoured to obliterate the broad governing dis-
tinction between permanent and precarious incomes
by showing that the line was crossed and recrossed
from each side of the barrier till the demarcation
became invisible. There was many a business worth
25 years' purchase—that is to say, as good as any
real property. There might be many a case
of property not half so valuable, so that in
effecting the proposed transfer of burdens you
might actually be relieving the strong at the ex-
pense of the weak. You cannot take off in one
quarter without putting on in another. If you lift
33 per cent. from Schedule D, you must drop it
upon Schedule A, and then Schedule A will have to
be heard. Are small fundholders to bear the bur-
den from which great merchants or bankers or
cotton lords are to be relieved ? Go to work how
you will, you will find when you come to a read-
justment that you are leaving inequalities as glaring
as thuse which you are endeavouring to remedy,
and the general sense of injustice will have been
aggravated by your partial and imperfect reform.
This is what has been discovered whenever the
attempt has been made, and it has been made often
enough to teach us the truth.

So thinks Mr. Gladstone in the matter, and we
do not deny the force of his words. Yet, as Mr.
Hubbard's arguments chime in with our very
instincts of moral right, and the truth cannot be on
both sides of the question, there must be fallacy
somewhere. Is Mr. Gladstone right in saying that
you cannot draw the dividing line with anything
like justice, or that you cannot, without an aggra-
vation of existing inequalities, form two great
classes of taxpayers, one of which shall pay less
than the other ? It would be a hard case to prove.
The mere fact that distinctive characteristics may
blend and disappear at the point of contact proves
nothing. The colours of the rainbow fade into each
other in this way, but that does not show that
violet is the same as orange, or green the same as
red. No doubt, certain examples could be found of
incomes which, nominally precarious, would be
more eligible than property nominally permanent;
but does that prove that property on the whole,
and in the vast majority of cases, is not more valu-
able than income ? Might not we take Schedule D
altogether, and assume, in comparing it with
Schedule A altogether, that the incomes returned
under the latter could bear taxation better than
those under the former ? 'Would not this be a
just conclusion in the main, notwithstanding a
few exceptional cases to the contrary ? Again,
what is the real value of the argument founded
on the supposed aggravation of injustice which
would follow an imperfect reform ? if out of 1,000
persons aggrieved, 900 can be relieved while
100 are left without relief, is the case of the unre-
lieved really worse than before ? Of course, the
" inequalities of the Income Tax" can never be
wholly removed. We know that full well. We
are quite aware that if Mr. Hubbard could do all
that he proposes much would remain to be done
still before the incidence of the tax could be ren-
dered anything like equitable. But is it reasonable
to hold that because all cannot be done nothing
should be done, or to argue that injustice is some-
thing less than injustice because it is made univer-
sal, instead of being, as it might be, only partial ?
All that Mr. Gladstone described as sure to remain
even after Mr. Hubbard's reform may be true
enough, but is that all half so flagrant as what Mr.
Hubbard showed to exist at present?
These occur to us as the leading points of the
question, and we must needs add that the acts as
well as words of our successive financiers—Mr.
Gladstone among the rest—seem to prove that they
felt the force of the doctrine which Mr. Hubbard
advocated. It was because the Income Tax was so
sweepingly unjust that it was always declared—
we now know to what effect—to be " temporary
only." Twice has a differential rating been actually
proposed, and what did Mr. Gladstone himself say
and do a few years back? He said that the tax
did bear too hardly on precarious incomes, and not
hardly enough, in proportion, upon permanent
property ; and he proposed that a certain amount,
not exceeding one-sixth, might be deducted from
incomes before they were taxed, on the assumption
.that it was the allotment for savings. But, except-
ing that he chose to prescribe the form in which
the saving must be made—viz., by life insurance
only, he was acting in this on Mr. Hubbard's own
principle. He dictated the method of proceeding,
and he withdrew one-sixth only of the income
from taxation, instead of two-sixths, as proposed
by Mr. Hubbard ; but he not recognise the force
of circumstances, if not of argument ? Perhaps the
wrong is not quite so shadowy nor
etnhueeaf
nr remedy
peace,dtoy
quite so impracticable as he conceives; and we are
sure that the inquiry is oppotrstaucnoteinrateinoug enough no
andthat
itnh et
he Income
twentiethT ax hasyear o
risen,t. in
more than twice its original yield, while the whole
produce of direct taxation exceeds
ee cent.
that
tohfatthoef
Customs, and is already 25 per t. above
the Excise.—Times.

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-FIRE NEARS E

THEATRE.

Last night, about seven o'clock, mhilst the per-
formances were going on in Astley's Royal Amphi-
theatre, Westminstcr-road, Lambeth, a cry was
raised from the outside that the interior of the
establishment was on fire, Fortunately the noise
did not reach the audience in the theatre • if it
had, it.is quite probable that a fearful loss Of life
would have ensued.

From personal observation, made on the spot, it
would seem that immediately facing the Royal
Amphitheatre stood a large building, used as an
hotel, termed the Victoria Tavern. This building
contained 14 dormitories, each partitioned off, but
they adjoined the New Inn and several other
buildings running into the York-road. It appears
that a female had entered the house, and from what
had been seen by others in the place, it was sus-
pected that she had wilfully set fire to the pre-
mises, and she was accordingly taken into custody
and locked up in the police-station.
The powerful engine of Messrs. Hodges, the
eminent distillers of Lambeth, was soon in attend-
ance, as well as numerous others of the London
brigade, but in the course of a few minutes, and
before sufficient time had elapsed to set an engine
to work, the fire had taken possession of the whole
of the hotel, threatening destruction to some of
the houses in the Westminster-road, as well as the
livery stables in the York-road.
Plenty of water having been procured from the
main, the engines were forthwith called into full
operation, notwithstanding which the work of
devastation continued, and floor after floor of the
building continued to fall a prey to the fury of the
fire, and at length the whole establishment was
burned out and several of the adjoining premises
were severely damaged. The total loss is very
considerable.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

NEWARK-FEB. 20.

The trade in wheat was fair, and late rates were for the
most part realised, with a steady sale. An increased shoal
of barley, but trade dull. Oats a steady sale, at late rates.
Beans scarce, and in request. Peas very little changed. ,
White wheat, new, 58s to 76s Barley, grinding.. 32s to 35s
Red do. sos to 70s Oats, old, .. 32s t 0378
Old white sBs to 76s New do 23s to 29s
Red do sos to 70s Beans. 56s to 58s
Barley, malting 38s to 44s Beans, new 38s to 43$

Peas, ... :

40s to 50s.

SHEFFIELD-FEB. 19.

The supply of wheat was small in bulk. There was an
average attendance. Good sorts of wheat realised former
prices. Good oats in demand. Flour and other articles
unchanged.
Red wheat, per load of 3 imperial bushels...24s Od to 28s Od
White 11 )1 ...25s Od to 28s Od
New red .9 )1 ...20s Od to 22s Od
New white )1 » ...225 Od to 26s Od
Beans 11 11 ...16s Od to 22s 6d
Peas, per qr s4s Od to 55s Od
Grinding barley, per qr. 338 Od to 35a Od
Malting ditto, „ 3ss Od to 43s Oil
Oats 2ss 6d to 34s Od

Millers' prices for flour-2s 3d, 28 sd, and 2s 8d per
141 b.

HULL-FEB. 19.

A small supply of English wheat to-day, which sold at
about the prices of last week. Foreign sold in retail at
fully late rates. Barley was somewhat easier. Beans and
peas progressed slowly, at former quotations. Oats were
neglected.
Wheat.... Old white.... per qr 66s Od to 69s Od
Old red
New white .. 1,
New red .... ,
Dantzic Konb , &c. old white 62s Od to 66s Od
Dutch, Belgian, and French. 60s Od to 62s Od
Baltic and Hamburg red 6os Od to 62s Od
St. Petersburg and Riga, old s2s Od to 55s Od
Barley.... English mating 4ls Od to 42s Od
Grinding 34s Od to 36s Od
Saal and Oderbruck
Holstein and Danish 3Bs Od to 40s Od
Grinding 32s Od to 34s Od
Oats English, old
Archangel and Riga, per at Os 14d to 14id
Friesland and Dutch 06141d to 0315 d
Swedish andpanish osl4d to osl4id
Beans ....English, old, per qr.
New pigeon 44s Od to 45s Od
New tick 43s Od to 44s Od
Egyptian
Peas .. Foreign breakers
Grinding
Tares ....Spring. —B Od to —s Od
Indian Corn
Linseed, feeding
crushing
Linseed cakes (11u19 £lo 10 0 to £lO 15 0
Foreign BlO oto 9 0 0
Rape cakes 5 0 oto 6 0 0
Bones 5 0 oto 6 0 0

COAL MAR)
(Prices of Coal per Ton at

.ET—FEB. 20.
the close of the market
Walls End.

s. d.
Tanileld Moor 16 3
Wylam
Holywell 18 0
Haswell Gas. l4 0

d.
Hedley 19 6
Framwellgate 2O 0
Harton l9 6
Locomotive Coke. 25 0
Carway and Duffryn
Malting
, 16; sold, 16.