The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-21 00:00:00

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COURT OF QUEEN'S BE 4
SPRTE Y. PORTER. -
Sir F. Thesiger, Mr. Lush, and Mr. Lefevre•appeeced-
for the plaintiff ; Mr. M. Chambers, Q C,O 111. r.
Q. 0., and Mr. Milward for the defendant.
The llaintiff in this action, Richard Sprye, Was
a person skilled in tracing pedigrees, and he sued the
defendant. Thomas Porter—to recover a sum of up-
wards of 10,000/., under an agreement by which
the defendant (T. Porter) promised that if the plain-
tiff would furnish the defendant with certain docu-
ments and eviJence then in the plaintiff's hands, and
the defendant should succeed by their means in estab-
lishing his right to certain property, the defendant
would pay the plaintiff one•fifth of the property so cc-
quired. Tao defendant plead,d a great many pleas, one
of which alleged that the agreement hal been rescinded,
and the other that the right of action, if any, was vested
in the assii;bees of the plaintiff, who had been in.oleent.
After a cenfercree with the counsel, a verdict was
taken for the plaintiff.

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LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1867

Never was a financial scheme so mauled and
worried as was the " Precious Budget" of
185'7 last night in the House of C)mmons. Mr.
DISRAELI_ opened the ball, and although he did
not attempt to perform the duty of the Chancellor
of the Eisahequer by substituting a different plan,
he made it Perfectly clear to the most superficial
observer that the mass of absurdities put forward
by Sir G. C. Lnwis could not receive the confidence
or support of the House or of the country. He
plainly showed that there was, according to the
Ministerial scheme, no possible hope of the aboli-
tion of the unfair and oppressive Income Tax in
the Financial Minister rather ob-
-3860, which
scurely hinted at, then ventured to promise
directly. The views we have put for ward
1853 on this important point
received • the strongest corroboration
from
the facts and figures addressed by Messrs.
DISRA.ELI and GI, AnsTorm, which were in-
deed perfectly unanswerable. The deduction
from the premises is very simple. It requires no
elaborate calculations—no far-fetched arguments
to show that there is but one alternative--
either the Income Tax must be rendered a per-
manent impost in some form, or an adequate
substitute must be provided. This sub-
stitute must be in the way of a di-
rect property tax, or a series of indi-
rect duties, which will, on the high authority
of Mr. ARTHUR YOUNG, which Sir G. C. LEwis
has disinterred from the obscurity in which it
had so long mouldered, supersede the system that
has been so long established during the last 15
years with the cordial concurrence of the Parlia-
ment and the people of the United Kingdom.
Will the retrograde policy be sanctioned in any
quarter ? Will independent members, whose pride
and boast it has been not only to have assisted in

since

establishing sounder fiscal principles, but have
materially stimulated successive Ministries in the
path of progress, consent to such a result ? We
believe not. We cannot suppose that aiy really
Liberal member, any consistent financial re-
former, can reconcile it to his conscience to sup-
port Sir G. C. LEWIS in his plan for the mainten-
ance of the war duties on tea, coffee, sugar, and
spirits, with almost a certainty of further vexatious
charges on a number of small articles, according to
the doctrine of the illustrious ARTELITIL YOUNG, of
whom he professes himself to be the disciple.
As Mr. GLADSTONE pointed out, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer is the first person who, for the last
fifteen years, has ventured to argue in that strain.
" The idea of remission of indirect taxation, of
the simplification of our commercial laws, of giv-
ing to trade all the freedom compatible with
the effective maintenance of the revenue, has no
place in his mind. In hismind there is only room for
disparaging estimates of what yet remains to be
accomplished in order to perfect the work destined
to fill a bright page in the history that shall
record the doings of our times." He, in fact,
travelled out of his way to advocate the duties
on paper aad wine, and the stamps on fire insur-
ances, or, as it has been denominated, the " tax
iarudence." The heavy burden on literature,
the intolerable vexation to the manufactures,
not only of the article itself, but of all who are
obliged to find means of packing their productions,
a restraint upon labour was not, according to his
views, by any menus a bad tax. Indeed the fact
that it was a heavy drawback and great discourage-
ment to journalists generally would more than
compensate for its other admitted evils. The wine
duties, by means whereof and with mutual conces-
sions our trade with France might he greatly ex-
tended, was slurred over as a matter of trivial conse-
quence, to be discussed anothertime, while the tax on
prudence, the blot on the national statute book,
was one of the last burdens to be remitted. This
was the ARTHUR YOUNG philosophy which the
Right Hon. Gentleman promulgated with the
indiscreet zeal of a recent convert. These views
sufficiently indicate what the nation has to anti-
cipate from his continuance at the head of the
Financial Department. But because he, " more
Tory than the Tories themselves," chooses to de-
nominate himself a Whig because he made an
exceedingly inefficient Edinburgh Reviewer, the
chosen representatives of the people are to en-
dorse his views, and repudiate all their own
pledges, rather than walk- into the same lobby
with Mr. DISRAELI. This calculation, we hope
and believe, will be defeated, and, chiefly for
their own sakes, we desire it to be so. They will
cut a very strange figure on the hustings at the
ncxt general election should the gl triug discre-
pancy between their "sayings and doings " be
brought under the consideration of the elect)rs.

Mr. Datum and Mr. GLADSTONE both proved
beyond the possibility of doubt, that oven with
the Income Tax there must be a very consider-
able deficit iu 1858-0 and 1859-60. It must not
be forgotten that during the present year Sir G.
C. Lrwis will have at least half a year of the
War Income Tax, and as he proposes to give up,
as he facetiously terms it, more than 9,000,0001.,
while he is really adding 2,000,0001. to the
tax. There will be a clean loss in each suc-
cessive year of at least 4,500,0001. under
that bead—there wiil also be a loss on
tea and sugar, even if his own plan be adopted,
—and that the House sanctions all that he de-
mands---of more than 900,0001. next year, and
of nearly double that amount in 1859-60, as
compared with the ensuing year. There is also
an addition to the Sinking Fund of 1,250,0001.
in each successive year, so that the deficiency of
revenue and increase of expenditure in 1858-9
will amount to at least 6,750,0001., and
nearly 7,700,000/. in 1859-60. It is under
such circumstances that he has the audacity to
deceive the tax-paying community by holding out
a hope of the total abolition of the Income Tax
in 1860. Surely he must be himself aware of
the actual impossibility of fulfilling that expecta-
tion, and, to paraphrase his own argument, we
can only "exonerate his capacity at the expense
of his integrity 1"

The Chancellor of the Exchequer attempted to
follow Mr. DISRAELI, but "what a falling off was

there 1"

" Infelix ricer atque impar congressus Achille."
He made, indeed, a deplorable exhibition, after
the brilliant performance of his antagonists.
Nor was the matter by any means improved when
Mr. GLADSTONE followed his now partner's lead,
and completed the demolition of the unhappy
financier. Never was an unfortunate victim
pisced between two such fires. Indeed, his con-
fusion was pitiable—even his own colleagues
could scarcely refrain from smiling at his ludi-
crous dismay. Mr. JAMES WILSON endeavoured
to bolster up his Budget, but it was by no means
a labour of love. The Honourable Gentleman
could not forget that he himself, as well
as the remaining members of the Government, had
advocated a very different policy in 1853 and
1854, while the Right Hon. Gentleman was
exercising his skill as a reviewer, and looking
rather to the events of bygone days than those
of the work-a-day world in the latter half of the
19th century. The Member for Westbury was
clearly ashamed of himself, and disgusted with
the task he bad undertaken. Mr. LAING com-
pleted the discomfiture, although it was merely
" kicking a fallen man."

The debate has been adjourned until Monday,
when we hope it will be brought to a conclusion.
It is clear that Sir G. C. Lzwzs, if he hopes to re•
tain office, must bring in
greatly reduced esti-
mates, and make considerable progress in the way
of economy and retrenchment. He must also
unequivocally repudiate his defunct friend,
" ARTHUR YOUNG," and show the fiscal and
financial reformers that he is prepared to go
along with them in the gradual reduction of
indirect imposts ; and this he can only do by the
immediate revision and extensive modification of
the Income Tax, rendering its apportionment
more equitable and less oppressive than it is at
present. If he abides by his previous Budget he
must fall. One, and one only, mode of escape
still remains. But the " light cloud is rapidly
passing from the face of the moon," and after
Monday it will be too late. Lord PALMERSTON
may still come to the rescue of his dis-
comfited subordinate. • But he can only do so
effectually by
announcing a complete and
immediate alteration in the system on which the
Income Tax is levied, and by giving a binding
undertaking that the distinction between perma-
nent and precarious incomes shall be fully recog-
nised, and fairly acted on. By this means Le
may save his Government, otherwise the PALMER•
sToN Administration will ere another week be
numbered with the past.

Whenever an inconvenient question is put to
the Government, Ministers—as a matter of course
—know nothing at all about it. Absolutely no
information can be got out of them at these mo-
ments beyond what the more wily may conjecture
from a lifting up of the official eyebrows, or a
shrug of the administrative shoulders. Lord
BIIRLEIGLI'S immemorial nod was nothing, abso-

lutely nothing, in its profound significance to the
mere hums and hahs indulged in at these times
by the members of the Government. The stereo-
typed phrase is something to this effect--" Sir,
I can only repeat, in reply to the in-
quiry of the Hon. Gentleman, that her
MAJESTY'S Government have no information
upon the subject, beyond that which has been
received from the statements in the public news-
papers." This is the sort of thing which is con-
sidered to be clever fencing on the part of an Ad-
ministrator. It is precisely the kind of official
babble, or Ministerial small Stalk, heard night after
night in the House of Commons : heard so per-
petually ; reported so pertinaciously—that we
have at last got to be quite sick of it. A
flavour of this insipid kind was imparted,
as usual, last evening, to what may be termed
the customary catechetical chit-chat preceding
the more formal, lengthy, and deliberate discus-
sions. Mr. LAYARD—ever watchful as to the
evil-doings of Russia in the East—wished to
know what amount of truth there might he in the
rumour prevalent just now to the effect that
there has been recently negotiated a secret treaty
between the SHAH and the CZAR, by which treaty
Persia cedes to Russia a rather considerable and
very important section of her territories. A
portion of those territories no less consider-
able than the track of country lying imme-
diately between the Muscovite and Osmanli
dominions. An acquisition no less important to
the Government of St. Petersburg than one open-
ing up to that Government the very military
path into Turkey which Czar after Czar has nota-
riously covetted. Well, the questipn thus sub-
mitted to the House, and through the House to
the Government, was plain enough in all con-
science. As plain as the answer vouch-
safed to it by Lard PALMERSTON was evasive and
illusory. According to the Premier, Ministers know
nothing at all about the existence of any such
treaty. They had no information of any such
Russian acquisition of Persian territory. They
had no more story to tell Mr. LAYARD —" bless
you"—than the Needy Kuifegrinder had for the
Friend of Humanity in the Anti-Jacobin. Minis-
ters referred the Hon. Gentleman, referred the
House, referred the Country to the " public jour-
nals" for all the Administration had really yet
learnt upon the matter. That was literally the
gist of Lord PALMERSTON'S reply last evening to
the very earnest inquiry put to him upon that
most remarkable subject by the Honourable
Member for Aylesbury. And so the matter
dropped. Aud so all these matters do invariably
drop—leaving the nation as wise about them as
ever, until too late, until the evil complained of
has been entirely consummated. When we are
coolly recommended to—make the best of it !
Russia all the while advancing with grand strides
upon her malign and ominous destiny—making
nominally pacific treaties with England and
France, while she is all the time secretly robbing
from Persia, and encroaching upon the confines of
Turkey ! True to her infamous sy.ttena of hypo-
crisy throughout.

Mel in ore, verba lactis,

Pel in corde, traits in factis.
For the connivance with all which, a craven
Ministry must—before GOD and Man—be held
responsible.