The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-18 00:00:00

Jelling 3 Ant

LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 1850.

ment and coercion.
The system that has led to such melancholy and
heartrending results has surely been tried suffi-
ciently long. If it is to be " judged by its fruits,"
what stronger condemnation could be pronounced
than that to be elicited from the existing state of
affairs ? Even if based on justice and equity,
which it is not, expediency would demand a
total and sweeping alteration. The people can scarcly
be placed in a worse position, and almost any change
must be for their advantage. But when the very
causes that have led to such untoward results can be
clearly and distinctly pointed out, when all the
social evils by which the nation is afflicted can be
easily traced to our fiscal and monetary codes, and
the prodigal expenditure of •the national revenues, is
it too much to expect that adequate remedies should
he speedily provided to remedy the abuse, and to
restore the people to prosperity and happiness ?
These grievances are not the work of a single age,
they have sprung up by slow degrees until they have
attained their present monstrous and gigantic pro-
positions. Nemo repente fuit turpisimus. No
Minister that ever lived, however corrupt and profli-
gate, would have dared to introduce laws so
iniquitous, and in every respect so repugnant to
the feelings of the people ; they have been
the work of many men. One act of injustice
has led to another until the climax was attained,
until the burdens were placed upon the shoulders
least able to sustain them, and the means by which
they could be borne simultaneously reduced. By
the system of " indirect taxation" those who have
nothing to depend on but their industry have been

compelled to defray the interest of an enormous debt,

contracted to defray the expenses of consecutive wars,
carried on to gratify the fully or ambition of former
Governments, or for " the security of property," to
place the matter in the least insidious point of view.
For this purpose the labour of the people was mort.

gaged even before their birth. They came into the
world deprived of their natural liberty, slaves, in
fact ; for what is slavery but being compelled to toil
at the desire, and for the benefit of another, or others ?
Is not the English labourer bound to work to satisfy
the demands of the fundholder ?. Must he not de-

vote a considerable portion of his earnings for such
a purpose, and also for the support of armaments,
maintained to protect " property" from foreign inva-

sion or domestic disturbance ? He is not even per.

mitted to have a voice in the election of those by
whom the taxes are imposed and the estimates voted ;

and yet, in the very face of these unquestionable

facts, westill vainly boast, that "Britons never sba

be slaves," although we undoubtedly are serfs and

bondsmen, and must so continue, until a total change
be effected in our fiscal system.
Let us, in support of this, which by many will be
regarded as too strong a view of the case, consider
the amount of our national expenditure, the sources

from whence derived, and the objects to which ap-
plied. They will be found explained at still greater
length in the able and convincing statement of ED-

WARD BROADRIBB, EN., made at a meeting

of the Liverpool Financial Reform Associa-
tion, in the month of November last, which has
been published along with the invaluable tracts of
that useful and patriotic society. It appears that
there was expended in the year 1848 no less than

59,000,000 i sterling, which exceeded the amount ob-
tained from the ordinary sources of revenue by

2,000,0001. sterling. This enormous outlay was thus

accounted fur :

Charges of collection £5 000,000
Interest on public debt ... -28,500,000
War expenditure, including our naval,
military, and ordnance establishments ... 18,500,000
Civil Government (including the miscel-
laneous estimates)

7,000,000

Total... ... £59,000,000
Now, of these we may remark that the cost of
collection, amounting to more than nine per cent., is
partly ascribable to the system of indirect taxation,
and partly to the various stoppages in transitu, and
deductions made before the amounts are paid into the
Exchequer. These moneys are thus placed beyond
the control of the representatives of the people, the
appointed guardians of the public purse. Among
these may be noticed the hereditary pensions to the
Dukes of GRAFTON and MARLBOROUGH, the heirs of
the Duke of SCHOMDERG, the Earl COWPER, the
assignees of the late CHARLES BOONE, &C., sm.---
matters which can scarcely be justified or defended on
any possible grounds, but which, under any circum-
stances, cannot be regarded as coming under the head
of "Costs of Collection," and which, with other.
charges thus improperly applied, amount to 763,926/.
4s. 4d. per annum, The cost of collecting the re-
venue, exclusive of the above, may be taken in round
terms at 4,000,0001. sterling per annum. Now, if the
revenue were directly levied on accumulated and
realised property, it could be collected for less than a
fourth of that amount. In other words, there
is no less than 3,000,0001. literally wasted every
year in order to maintain the unjust And inequit-
able principle:of "indirect taxation."

Passing, however, from this unnecessary outlay,
we come to the next point—the interest of the
national debt, 28,500,0001. ! Now, in order to pre-
vent any misapprehension, we must, at the outset,
declare that we do not desire, in any degree, to take
away from the just rights of the public creditor--we
would pay him to the utmost farthing, not in an ap-
preciated currency, which gives him more than double
of that for which he contracted, or which he has a right
to receive, but in a currency equivalent to that
which was in force when the liability was first in-
curred. Of this he could not complain ; on the con-
trary, he should be thankful for being permitted to
retain, without question, the large overpayments he
has received during the last thirty years, without
being called on to restore any portion to the plun-
dered people. We would also place the charge on
those by whom it should properly be borne. No code is
now recognised that permits a parent to charge children
who derive no property under or through him with
the payment of his debts. Still more absurd would
it be to assert that he could bequeath an unencum-
bered property to a favoured son, whilethenetof
liabilitiesthat
incurred for the protection and improvement
property could be placed on his other children, who
had no inheritance but their labour, the gift of a be-
neficent CREATOR, of which no earthly father could de-
prive them. towards BriwBut this is what is done

Never, perhaps, was there a more fitting opportu-
nity than the present for pressing on the attention of
the Government, the Parliament, and the country,
the great Reforms so urgently required by the great
body of the people. We have seen the melancholy
condition to which the industrious classes—all who
live by their daily labour, mental or physical—have
been reduced of late years. Their scanty comforts
and enjoyments have been materially abridged ; they
can scarcely hope for full remunerative employment—
for obtaining the first great necessity of a working
man—" a fair day's wages, for a fair day's work." If
so fortunate as to be occupied, the toil necessary to
procure the commonest necessaries of life for their
families is so oppressive, that they speedily sink under
the fatigues, which they can scarcely endure. Their lives
are prematurely cut short, and they fall into their early
graves, leaving helpless widows and innocent children
to the tender mercies of the parochial authorities, to
become additional burdens on the humble resources
of their suffering brethren, of those who, from greater
physical strength, are still enabled to struggle on in
the unequal contest. Meantime the gaols and work-
houses are filled to overflowing ; crime and pauper-
ism flourish in rank luxuriance ; new buildings are
erected every day, devoted, not to the enlighten-
ment of the people and the promotion of their happi-
ness or intellectual improvement, but to their punish-