The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT, or TEE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Saturday .Review, in an article on the Budget,
expresses a fear that the income tax will never again be
reduced to fourpence in the pound. The future Parlia-
ment will be returned by majorities exempt from direct
taxation, and, therefore, indifferent to the hardships which
it may involve. Mr. Bright, in a less statesmanlike
mood than at present, formerly anticipated a happy era
in which the poorest class should impose taxes to be paid
by the owners of property. In the United States enor-
mous sums are levied for the purposes of townships,
of cities, and of States, at the expense of the minority;
and in the city of New York the Irish labourers chiefly
elect a corporation which raises and spends five millions
a year. The traditions of justice and sound economy
will perhaps, in England, to some extent survive the
system which produced them, especially while the
national finances are administered by Mr. Gladstone and
his contemporaries, cr even by his immediate disciples ;
yet there are already indications of mischievous changes,
and ultimate power is vested in a class which has
been educated in jealwasy of wealth and in impatience
of equal taxation. Mr. Huelies, lately presiding at a
meeting of so-calledl financial reformers, propounded to
an admiring audience a scheme of an income tat at the
same time discriminated and graduated. If his plan were
adopted, the tax-gatherer would distinguish his subject-
matter according both to quality and to quantity, and
money would no longer represent equal values, according
to its amount, as it would be variously taxed with relation
both to its origin and its tenure. The artisans, as they
are described by Mr. Frederick Harrison in a very able
essay, form a class capable of ideas, whereas the old con-
stituencies and their representatives were satisfied with
the rules of arithmetic. No idea is older among the poor.
than that the rich ought to be made to pay, and the finan-
cial refoimers will certainly agree with proposals which
Mr. Hughes had not, perhaps, sufficiently considered.
Mr. Harrison is also right in anticipating that the new
constituencies will be vigorous as well as impulsive, and

that the legislation which they inspire will be rapid and
decisive. Ideas and property are generally antagonistic.
The Abyssinian twopence, which Mr. Gladstone holds to
be an English rather than an African twopence, will serve
as the commencement of the impending change ; but the
Government is scarcely responsible for a risk which could
in no case have been averted. It was a sufficient objec-
tion to a loan that it would have been opposed by Mr.
Gladstone, whose authority on a financial question would
have been, not unreasonably, regarded by the House of
Commons as conclusive.

The John, Bull observes that inasmuch as al taxation is
unpleasant, it would be too much to expect the Bull family
to give up their beloved growl, upon so opportune an occa-
sion as the present, when statistics shew a serious increase
of expenditure, and a corresponding failure of commercial
returns. It is, therefore; much to Mr. Hunt's credit
that his first assumption of the wheel of this' vessel of
the State has elicited, if not, entire satisfaction, at all
events general approval. Indeed Mr. Gladstone's sym.
pathy with the difficulties of the present Chancellor, who is
called at a most inauspicious moment to direct our finances,

speaks no less for his candour than it enhances the value
of concurrence. Of course so long as men prefer plucking
jewels with Aladdin to carrying about a heavy burden
with Sinbad, there will always be fault-finders ; but it
is an admitted fact that among many means of meeting
our requirements, Mr. Hunt has hit upon the one least
objectionable. It has been said that the increase of the
income tax, whilst it is the most obvious measure, has the
objection of placing immense power in the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, as a mere political engine ; but
what can be more preposterous than in one breath
to admit this to be the most popular mode, and in
the next to deprecate its adoption? Who wonders that
the House loudly approved the expressed resolution
not to disturb trade by changing taxation on articles of
consumption? When, moreover, the plan was subsidised
by the very legitimate system of issuing fresh Exchequer
Bonds, and of applying the successful method of levying
the dog tax to other collection of the public revenue, it
was felt that, though not possessed of any peculiar
brilliancy, in this hour of financial gloom, the proposed
Budget *as, at all events, of a sound and practical cha.
racter.

The Spectator confesses that there are many difficulties
about Mr. Shaw Lefevre's proposal with regard to married
women and their property. But what is now at stake is
the principle of legal protection for married women. We
must not let any questions of detail divert us from the
main issue. If it be right to remodel the whole relation be-
tween husband and wife, a bill to that effect must be intro-
duced before we are asked to abandon the one now in progress.
At some future time it may be well to ascertain how far the
husband ought to be liable for his wife's debts, and what
is the proper doctrine of necessaries. The present bill
does not go to these legal subtleties, nor does it, so far as
we are aware, touch on a great many other points which
give rise to confusion and trouble in the daily transaction
of business. Any one who is accustomed to the forms of
laW is aware of the absurd complications which are needed
before a married woman can have any legal redress
against a stranger. In some cases husband and wife
must sue and be sued jointly. In others the husband and
wife together must sue for part, and the husband alone for
the rest. It may be said that there is no great hard-
ship in all this ; and we arc far from setting up these
remnants of an obsolete jargon as instances of the
injustice of the English law of husband and wife.
All that can be urged against them is that these cases
are exceptional. It is not every husband that lives on his
wife's earnings. It is not every husband that is reckless,
improvident, or vicious. Some men would allow their
wives to draw their money cut of the savings hank, or even
to keep it there. Others are so scrupulous that they give
themselves great trouble to procure their wives' signatures
to bills which they might cash under their own endorse-
ment. For such people the change in the law will In
needless, and all others may be disarmed, by the payment
of £l5O to an attorney. If nothing more than this, and
the pompous platitudes about authority and subordination,
savouring strongly of the henpecked husband, can be ad-
vanced against the protection of married women, Mr.
Shaw Lefevre's bill ought to be sure of pgssing.

The London Review answers the statement made by the
telegraph companies against the Government taking theiz
property. It is contended on the part of the telegraph
companies that we cannot take the experience of Belgium
and Switzerland, where the telegraph service is in the hands
of the Government, as a guide. They contend, in a state-
ment in which the subject is fully discussed, that no fail
comparison can be drawn between the efficiency of tilt
service here and in those countries from the proportion o
telegrams to letters, because a system has grown up in
this commercial country of distributing by means of the
post millions upon millions of tradesmen's circulars. This
is true, and if the test is fallacious for one purpose it i►
fallacious to all. It is admitted, however, that 0,127,00 f
telegraphic messages are already sent annually in the
United Kingdom, and the question is whether the reduced
rate and the increased facilities which the Post Office
would provide would not before long bring the number ur
to Mr. Scudamore's estimate. Nothing has been more
clearly proved by the experience of the Post Office than aE
power to extend its operations indefinitely, in the two con
ditions of cheapness and facility. The question whether a
man will write a letter or not depends often upor
whether the receiving•house is half a mile off, or within
few doors of him. Neither in point of cheapness nor facilit3

can the tele,,,raph companies compete with the Government.
It seems to us that. the case of the Post Office ought ratite,
to be argued upon this ground than by a comparison witl
what has been done in Belgium and Switzerland. Then
are important particulars peculiar to one which are not tA
be found in the other, and which, therefore, destroy any
argument based upon analogy. For example, both it

Belgium and Switzerland the railways are in the hands o'
the Government, while in both countries the telegraphs d(
a large business in what is called " transit " telegrams—
that is to say, telegrams sent through them in transit fron
one country to another. If, with a costly and compara
tively inferior machinery, our wires already transmit up
wards of 6,000,000 telegrams annually, does not all ow
experience warrant the belief that, with lower charges anc
greater facilities, we shall not be long in reaching Mr
Scudamore's paying point of 11,000,000 ?

The Imperial Review argues that capital punishment it
necessary for the prevention of murders. The debate
raised by .Er. Gilpin's amendment um interesting, an
served to bring out the opinions of Mr. J. s, Arne- Tin
only ground on which our contemporary can regret tht
results of Tuesday's debate is, that it served to advanc(
through another stage the questionable innovatim
embodied in Mr. Hardy's bill. Although it cannon
be denied that the measure has been received witl
general approbation by the House of Commons, and that
its principle has been i)revionsly affirmed by the House et
Lords, it is not impossible that before five years have passed
it will be repealed to make way either for total abolition
or for a return to the old system of public executions
Despite of all the exaggmted lan,L;nage which has beet
nsed in depicting the sc..nes which are to be witnessed as

the fo )t of tl

what gro

tl,i

are yet at a loss to conceive
s modifieAtion in err imtho(l of
elf th can he defend .l. -No doubt

tlu i
c

a,semble to witness au execution behave in
very brutal inenner. To exi>ect that they would no
argues an ign(iranc, of the materials of which such
crowd 11111,it he composed. No doubt pockets are picked 01
such occasions. Then! never is a crowd in London in wide!
pockets are not picket!. It is not for the especial effec
produced upon the witnesses of an execution that we ad
vocate publicity. It is for the effect which the publicit:
pr.oiluces on the mind Of the criminal, and for the cer
which it impreses upon the public that the penalt;
)' 11Y been inflicted. this measure these results()
punishment aresanificcd, and it is difficult to per
CQrapens;Ating advantages arc attained.

THE COLLIERS' S.7.RIICE IN SOUTH

LANCASHIRE.

The town of Wigan was in a most :excited state' all
Thursday night and Friday morning. The most disquieting
rumours were afloat, and when several hundreds of the
turnouts marched with bold step through the centre of the
town about midnight, the greatest alarm was felt. The
authorities, however, were fully prepared. A deputation
of colliery proprietors had waited upon the Secretary of
State in the forenoon, and in the afternoon the
mayor of the borough received a telegram from Mr.
Hardy, stating that a deputation of coalmasters had
been at the Home Office, complaining that protection had
been withdrawn from the peaceably disposed men who
were desirous of working, and who had been interfered
with by armed bands moving about the district. It was
asked from the mayor whether his force was sufficient
for the maintenance of the peace of the borough. His
worship called a meeting of magistrates promptly, and
laid the telegram before them. A reply was sent to the
effect that no protection had been withdrawn by the
borough magistratf‘q. and the complaint of the deputation
must have had reference to what had been done outside
the borough. It was, however, desirable that another
company of soldiers should be sent into the borough, and
that protection should be afl%,rded to the men in the sur-
rounding distiiets. A telegram was also sent to the
military authorities in the county. The same evening
no soldiers reached Wigan from Preston, and on Friday
morning troops of infantry and cavalry were sent in, and
were at once despatched to the several quarters which
were threatened. Shortly after midnight on Thursday two
large bodies of men proceeded through Wigan in the direc-
tion of Standish. They were followed by the borough
police and a detachment of the military stationed in
Wigan. The men proceeded to the Gidlow pits of the
Wigan Coal and Iron Company, where they pulled the
fires from beneath the boilers, and tried to move the
engines in order to damage the machinery. The special
constables and county police, who had been summoned to
the spot by rockets, attacked and drove away the mob.
The police used their staves freely, and several of the
rioters received very severe wounds. One of the men had
to be conveyed into a neighbouring cottage. The mayoi
has issued a further proclamation, giving notice that the
magistrates are determined to suppress unlawful meetings
and processions.