The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-27 00:00:00

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admitted, provided for, and remedied. The greatest
defect of a representative system, perhaps, is, that
the class most powerful in the representation of a
country will always be the most lightly taxed. This
may be taken as an axiom, or a rule. Nor need we
go on to indulge in denunciation of an aristocracy for
Ringing off its burdens. Let us take it for granted,
. that each class will consult its interest and follow its
_
nature. Give each ascendancy, and each will convert
its political ascendancy into fiscal exemption. Our
own history speaks plain enough to this truth. There
was no statesman who began public life with fairer
' or more honest intentions than Pitt, none who was
more fully prepared to equalise taxation. And if one
of his first proposals, indeed of his first crotchets,
was Parliamentary reform, it was that be saw
plainly that reform in inequality of taxation was im-
possible, till it was preceded by electoral emancipa-
tion. Defeated in his views of reform, Pitt was
hurried by the aristocratic passion of the age into
war, and the war rendered him dependent on
the classes whose passion supported him. Hence his
annual increase of the duties on consumption, and his
mortgaging of these revenues to the interests of an
increasing debt, while the land and malt-tax he was
obliged to reserve as subject to annual vote. To get
money out of the landed interest he was compelle dto
have recourse to tricks, of which the most egregious
specimen on record was certainly that fur the redemp-
tion of the land-tax, as if any Government could have
held the right or entertained the hope of alienating
the country's fiscal claims upon its landed property.
From that plunge he floundered on to the still greater
one of the income-tax, the nature of which, and its
effects on the landed interest, are forcibly and pithily
described by Dr. Beeke :
" I am convinced (says Dr. Beeke in 1799) the landed
and agricultural incomes had to pay aisessed taxes in
a triplical proportion to cnoniei and trading incomes.
But now by the income-tax the towns wilt pay more
than last year in very nearly a triplical proportion, while
the country ccarcely pays as much as it did by the for-
mer assessment."
And yet with what tenderness and precaution did
Pitt endeavour to render the income-tax palatable to
the earner. He exempted all incomes paid on poli-
cies of insurance from the operation of the tax. He
granted exemption for children whilst in a dependent
state, and established a graduated scale of payment
for incomes between 601. and 2001. The man pos-
sessed of but 601. a year paid but 2d. in the pound, or
1-120th part of his income; the man of 1001. a year
6d. in tbe pound, or 1-40th, and so on until 2001. a
year was taxed at 1-10th, or 2s. in the pound, which
was the maximum. Thus the graduated scale had at
least no radical origin. In all cases, however, then as
now, the weight of taxation fell on the middle class,
who not only, as employers, paid the greater part of
the duties on consumption, but whose direct tax was
infinitely more onerous to them than their proportion
to the rich. We forget who wrote a book to prove
that the most distressed people were those of from 2001.
to 4001. a year—people always with families, generally
liable to the expenses of gentility, obliged to be served
by others, to keep up appearances, struggling to im-
prove their incomes, risking and losing what they
had. A Chancellor of the Exchequer, however, can-
not enter into such considerations as these. Capa-
bilities of paying taxes must be to him in proportion
to income, and ought to be in proportion to the nature
and durability of that income. The classification of
different kinds of income is, however, no easy pro-
blem To capitalise them, estimating them at their
several years' purchase, is that most generally pre-
ferred. And certainly it were a fair proposition for
income that was transferable and appreciable, but we
must confess we doubt its applicability to the profits
of either profession or trade. From the man en-
gaged in a business where there is little mystery and -
large competition, and where the profits are but a
little more than the current rate of interest on the
money employed ; from this case to that of the apo-
thecary, whose capital is trifling, and whose skill is
everything, there exists a regular chain of gradation
through which to distinguish that part of income
which is profit on capital, and that which is wages
for skilled labour, would be impossible. Twenty
thousand pounds in the hands of skilful and experi-
enced merchants is better than a million in the hands
of a fool, but how appreciate the difference of
their brain-pans? One man can drive a thriving
trade upon no capital, whilst another manages a
humble one with herd coin. Skill in the one com-
pensates for property in the other. But this is durable,
that perishing. How could capitalisation reach all
these mint& ce? Yet, in order to be perfect it ought
to go:further—to take into consideration men's ages,
fading health, offspring. Better to establish some
simple rule, as that the income derived from the use
of capital should pay so much; tbe income derived
from personal exertion or skill, so much in proportion
less. In land and trade, income replaces capital be-
fore it is considered profit. In professional income
all is considered profit, and none set apart as replace-
ing capital, as certainly ought to be the case. A
man's professional gains are analagous to all the re-
ceipts of the trader, and to all the receipts of land.
He ought to replace capital for himself and his children
in economy, in their education, in insurance, and
[ these should be exempt, as Air. Pitt's Bill in some
cases did consider them. This would be a
fairer ground than capitalisation, or than a lesser
rate on what was call,,d profits in both cases, while
the net profit was only taxed in the one case, the
gross returns in the other. There ought, therefore,
to be a classification of incomes, according as labour,
skill, and capital produce them, unskilled and manual
labour paying nothing, skill paying something, and
in the higher rates of each a fair proportion, but by
no means equal to that paid by the profits of capital,
regularly replacing itself independent of the income,
now alone rated to the tax. But it may be as well
to warn the public that no Minister will do this, un-
less the voice of the earning and industrious class be
united, loud, and strong. Statesmen will exempt
mere labour. To keep the wealthy and high born in
power by contenting and alleviating the lower and
working classes, is the great modern dodge, invented
for the safer and surer oppression and spoliation of
the middle classes. If these remain dumb they will
be bitted, if they remain isolated they will be made
to pay for the rest of the community. Nor will they
get always men even of their own rank either to pity
or to aid them.

TRAGICAL EVENT.
YORK, THURSDAY.—Two events of a painful and
tragical nature have occurred in this city, viz , the
suicide of one female, and the supposed death, by her
own act, of :another.
The first victim was a woman about forty years of
age, named Burton, who, along with her husband,
kept a lodging and coffee-house for the accommoda-
tion of railway passengers, opposite the station in
Tanner-row. She has had a family of two or three
children, and she and her partner have lived very
comfortably together, but for the last three-quarters
of a year she has been afflicted with an internal com-
plaint. For this she had been at Buxton, and it was
thought that her health had much improved. No-
thing peculiar was observed in her conduct on Tues-
day, but she attended her domestic duties as usual ss
well as her strength would allow. In the eve ning
she went upstairs, and some time afterwards the door
of her room was discovered to be fastened. A ladder
was obtained, by which the room was entered and
the door unfastened, and on the husband going into
the room with a candle a dreadful spectacle presented
itself. His wife was hi I extended on the bed
with two fearful gashes in her throat, and life quite
extinct. There was a raz )r and a pool of blood on
the floor, and a portion of- the blood hid trickled
through the flooring into the room below. Mr.
Key worth, surgeon, was sent for, but of course too late
to render the female any assistance. An inquest was
held yesterday before Mr. Wood, the coroner, and
the jury returned a verdict that the deceased had cut
her throat whilst labouring under temporary insanity.
The second inquest was held the same day on the
body of a young female named Smith, who had
drowned herself. This event happened on the same
night. The deceased had been labouring for some
time under a depression of spirits, and had complained
that she could not appear in as decent clothes as any
other person. She had declared she would drown
herself. She was beard to fall into the Ouse by some
person near, and immediately to utter the exclama-
tion, "Oh dear !" An alarm was raised, but no
assistance could be rendered, and she sunk. There
was no positive evidence as to how she got into the
water, and therefore a verdict of " Found drowned"
was recorded.

RAILWAY SHARE MARKETS.
BRISTOL, SarT. 26.
STomc ExcHAEGE.--The share market was firm to-day,
and prices remain without any material deviation, the only
transaction reported being—Midland, 41.
LIVERPOOL, SEPT. 26.
STOCK EXCHANGE. —The share market was firm to-day
at the quotations. Midland and Dover shares commanded
considerable inquiry. The transactions were as follow:--
Lancashire and Yorkshire, Consolidated, 4734—Ditto, Fifths,
8% dis.—London and North-Western, 114t/2—Ditto, New
Quarters, 2 p.—Ditto, Quarters (C), 2 p.—Manchester,
Sheffield, and Lincolnshire, 1814 Midlaud, 42 Ditto,
Halves, 22 % dis.— Shrewsbury and Birmingham ( B), 2 13-1(i
—South-Eastern and Dover, 2014—Ditto, (No. 4). Regis-
tered, 631.,—Y0rk and North Midland, 204—Dutch Rhenish,
5 dip.— Lancaster and Carlisle, Thirds, 2.:.% p.—Newcastle
and Carlisle, 8314—North British, 6%--North Union (B.),
1663/4—Shrewsbury and Chester (Oswestry and Chester),
64—Ditto, Preference, guaranteed P per Cent., 12N.
MANCHESTER, Snpr. 26.
Srocz E SERA/TOL—The market was pretty active to-day,
and prices were firm. The transactions were as follow:
East Lancashire, 10—Great Northern, 12 dis.—Lancashire
and Yorkshire, 471—' itto, Fifths, 8 c. dis.—London and
North-Western, New Quarters, 2 p.—Ditto, Manchester and
Birmingham, Quarters (C), 2 c. p.—Manchester, Sheffield,
and Lincolnshire, lB—Ditto, Quarters ( No. 1), 8 t —Scottish
Central, 12:4—Shropshire Union 33 die.—South-Eastern
and Dover, 20—Ditto Consol. (No. 4), 6% c. •
YORK, SEPT. 26.
STOCK EXCHANGE.—The transactions to-day were as fol-
low :—Great Northern, 11%—York, Newcastle, and Ber-
wick, 168—Ditto (CT. N. E. Purchase), 4.