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

result not a humiliating expose of this moat extra.
vagant "bit of humbug." The remaining articles
include " Latham and Grimm on the Ethnology of
Germany," " The Credit Mobilier, and Banking
Companies in France," " Strains and German
Hellenism," and "The Slave Empire of the West."
The writer of the last holds forth but little hope of
the extinction of slavery in the United States, and
in pointing out the duties of this country, expresses
the wish that our Indian authorities may stimulate
to the utmost the growth of cotton in the Past, so
as to relax the tension of production, and the rush
into fresh fields in the tropical states of America,
and to sat fres the moral sympathies of .our m er-
cantile classes at home from an oppressive rick,
procity With the planters' interest. To which w
add a cordial—. Amen

MR. WARREN,Ard.Toivi---VIE INCOME
TAX.

E
' On Saturday afternoon last, a meeting on the
subject of the income tax was held at t
Hall, Midhurst, the High Bailiff in the chair,°wllkt.
which Mr. Warren attended, and addressed iii;
constituents for upwards of an hour, in a speech
which was listened to throughout with the deepest'
attention. He was the first person to communi-
cate the intelligence in the borough that the ',War:
Ninepence" had fallen—an announcement which .
was welcomed with great cheering. Re stated
that he had been in his place in the House till it-.
rose on the preceding evening, and had listened
with painful attention to the elaborate and pro•
tracted statement of the Chancellor of the Ex=
chequer—who had consumed three mortal hours
before he came to the only point of interest to his •
eager auditory—the war ninepence—which was
then announced to have been at last surrendered to
the unanimous demand of public opinion. But
that surrender had been greatly accelerated, if not,
occasioned, by the determined attitude assumed by
the Earl of Derby, Mr. Disraeli, and Mr. Glad.
atone ; and Mr. Warren commented in very feeling
terms on the absence of any allusion in the Queen's
Speech, to the patience and magnanimity with -
which the people had borne the enormous burdens
of the war taxation. After explaining the nature"
of Mr. GladstOne's comprehensive and final settle.
ment of the income tax question in 1853, in order
to extinguish that intolerable tax in 1860, and com-
menting sarcastically on the sudden and precipitate
reduction of the estimates, which yet required to
be rigorously scrutinised, with a view to its fur-.
ther reduction ; and pointing out that by inflicting
the sevenpenny tax for the next three years, Mr.
Gladstone's compact had been violated—Mr. War-
ren proceeded to denounce the income tax with
great vigour, as totally indefensible, except as a
desperate remedy ror a irevi...6 ai.,..., ne spoke
of its original imposition in 1842, professedly for
three years only, as very strongly savouring of
misrepresentation and bad faith, having regard to •
the then declared object of simply enabling
Sir Robert Peel to place the fiscal and commer- •
cial policy of the country, by a prodigious effort,
on a new footing, which would admit of the
speedy extinction of.the tax. Mr. Warren painted
an affecting picture of the anxiety and privation
occasioned to the earners of limited and precarious :.
incomes—the comforts and conveniences of which.
they were despoiled—the opportunities and advan-
tages
which they were forced to undergo, while it
was "in vain to rise up early, to sit up late, and
eat the bread of sorrow." He said that all those
classes suffered alike—professional men, traders,
farme-s, merchants—the energies of all were cruelly ..
cramped, and those energies all the while " perish-
ing in the using." How many of intellect, of .
genius, of virtuous - patience, high principle, and
resolute fortitude had been palsied and driven to
desperation by this cruel and unjust tax I " And
while," said the honourable and learned member,
" the Chancellor of the Exchequer looks compla-
cently at his sixteen millions—the produce of his
income tax—l regard it, very differently, as a sick-
ening exponent of an immense mass of silent suf-
fering—of heart-wrung anguish on the one hand,
and on the other of enormous frauds. The income,
tax is at once breaking the spirit and corrupting
the morals of the middle classes, on whom it owe-'
rates with so tremendous and relentless a pressure.
It wounds their honest pride, it tempts into uncon-
scientiousness. The exposure of private affairs-
which it entails is insufferable : a man's most criti-
cal condition is revealed, it may be, to his next-door
neighbour and rival. In fact, this tax comprises
every characteristic of a vicious tax—it is unjust, it
is oppressive, it is inquisitorial, it is inconsistent
with the free spirit of Englishmen, and the voice-of
the country is calling out to it—begone l" Mr.
Warren then entered into a general explanation of
the Budget, and said that he had no doubt it would
on Monday be subjected to a thorough and un-
sparing criticism, in which (as we understood the
' honourable and learned gentleman) he might him=
telf take part, only for his reluctance to speak too
frequently in the House. At the close of his ad-
dress, which was received with loud demonstrations
of applause, several resolutions were passed oot-
demnatory of the income tax ; and the meetingr
which was a very influential one, and unanimous=
its condemnation of the income tax, and oordial
thanks to their member for his promptness.ifizt
coming down to announce the abolition of 4tie
" war ninepence"—broke up, after a vote of thahke
to the High Bailiff. •