The Sun.
London, England, 1850-10-23 00:00:00

,
(le/J-,' .1.e)111314.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1350.

This day her MAJZSTY'ii Ministers will assemble
in Cabinet, to consider and decide on the fneLsures
to be brought forward, and the line of policy to he
', during the ap,,,roaching session. Their va-
c s:ion has alrlciy terminated ; they must now ad-
dress themselves vigor,;us'y to the necessary prepara-
ton fur the forthcoming Parliamentary campaign. It
Rill be one of unapu-.1 importance to the Government
and to the people. Not only must the several matters
standing over from the last session, which were ruth-
lessly sacrificed at the annual " massacre of the in no-
c?nts,” be brought forward, and finally disposed of, bu'
there are other questions of the deepast interest
which cannot lie poeponed or evaded. Ministers have
to maintain a position of conskisrable difficulty, and
if the popular representatives are only true to them-
selves, and turn to proper account the extraordinary
acivantages within their reach, they may easily ob-
tain many valuable concessions, for.which it would be
vain to hope under different circumstances. There
will, indeed, be a golden opportanity which must not
be neglected or thrown away. It is a tide in the
national affairs which, if taken at the flood, may lead
to results of no ordinary magnitude.
We are quite prepared for a great display of
liberality on the part .of Government. Something
will be done, and much more will he promised.
Every effort will be made to conciliate the Parlia-
mentary and Financial Reformers, and to induce
them to surrender the 'vantage ground on which
they are,, placed. The doctrine of "finality"
will be formally abandoned, and an ex-
tension of the suffrage in this country, as well as
in Ireland, will probably be brought for-
ward as a Government measure. Some ob.
noxious impost—:he window-tax, for instance, may
be relinquished, a modified house-tax being substi-
tuted, if the Commons should appear in very gocd
temper and inclined to submit to the finan-
cial tricks of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The utmost deference will be exhibited for
public opinion. Nothing will be left un-
done to cajole the people and their representatives;
and why ? Why is it that we indulge in such
pleasing anticipations and so confidently rely
on this disposition on the part of Ministers ?
Simply because the property and income-tax imposed
in 1842, and twice renewed for successive periods of
three years, will expire in 1851, and if not renewed
there will be a loss to the Exchequer of about five and
half millions of pounds sterling, an amount which
Sir CHARLES WOOD, to use his own stereotyped ex-
p., " is ioly not prepared to r,lit quish."
This tax, which imposes an equal burden on in-
f every tie,eription—w Lich makes no dis-
tinction between the precarious earnings of the
hard-working professional man or the irdustri-
ous tradesman, and ground-rents issuing from
landed property, or dividends from the public funds—
is so unjust in pric.ciple, anc: uro qual in of eration,
that we trust a firm resistance will be oppost-d to any
attempt to ren-: w it in its insult oppressive and
inequitable form, or to grant it for any prolonged
term. The pea ple, through tht-ir represeotatives, will
be enabled to insist upon a total revision of our taxa-
t.:n and expenditure, and that many of the burdens

that now press down and paralyse the exertions of
industry may be removed and placed upon ac-
cumulated and realised property. The Free-traders
will have an opportunity of pressing for the
further extension of the principle, and the abolition of
many-of the restrictions that still injuriously affect the
trade and commerce of the country ; while the mone-
tary reformers can demand that the attention of Par-
liament be directed not only to the amount to be raised,
and the manner in which it is to be levied, but also to
the circulating medium, in which the liabilities of the
tax payers are to be liquidated. An instrument of tre-
mendous power will be placed in the hands of the
people, which will enormously increase the popular
strength, and those who would surrender it without
receiving an ample equivalent will have to account
to their respective constituencies at the next general
election for the fatuity, the apathy, or the treachery
that could have induced them to pursue so unworthy

a course.
The first, and perhaps the most important point
to be determined in reference to the new property.
tax is the period for which it is to be granted. The
first income and property-tax since the conclusion of
the war was introduced by Sir ROBERT
PEEL in 1842, and imposed for a term
of three years. The deplorable state of
the national finances, the inadequacy of the public
revenue to meet the public expenditure, the annually
increasing deficiences at the Exchequer, had become
too painfully perceptible to permit any doubt as to
the imperative necessity of adopting some vigorous
and decided course calculated to place the public
credit on a firm and sound foundation. For this pur-
pose the income-tax was sanctioned, but Parliament
was assured that it was but a temporary expedient,
the necessity for which would speedily terminate,
" The many" were induced to lend an easy
credence to this " too flattering" tale, but
the better informed "few," who knew the
tenacity with which Ministers of Finance
stick to any profitable tax producing a good round
sum to the Exchequer, clearly saw that if once esta-
blished it would become a permanent charge. No
alternative, however, remained. The national credit
had to be preserved ; we should, perhaps, rather say
restored. It would not do to go on increasing the na-
tional debt during a time of profound peace and tran-
quillity. So the impost, with all its glaring defects
and inequalities, was granted for the term of three
years.
The general prosperity of 1845, and the many
valuable fiscal improvements effected by Sir
ROBERT PEEL in the interval, induced Parliament
to yield a willing assent to the renewal of a source of
revenue that had led to so many pleasing results, and
an Act was again passed for its collection for a further
term of three years. Circumstances had, however,
materially changed in the meanwhile. In 1848 no-
thing could be given up. The administration of Sir
CHARLES WOOD had occasioned a lamentable falling
off i❑ the income of the country. A large sum-
-8,000,0001. sterling—had been added to the national
debt. An attempt was made to increase the
charge from sevenpence to a shilling in the pound,
which was strenuously resisted, and eventually aban-
doned ; but the existing tax was renewed in the same
form and for a similar term as before, and it was
again granted until the year 1851.
An attempt will now be made to get it for a longer
term, to make it permanent, or, at leas', to continue it
in force for five or ten years, but that must be vi-
gorously resisted. Why should it not be renewed
for a single year ? Why should not Ministers have
to come before Parliament in each and every session,
as they do with regard to the Metiny and Stock in-
Trade Exemption Bills ? It is impossible to estimate
too highly the importance of such a course. It would
do more to consoli late and strengthen the popular
power, to enforce a due respect fur the popular wishes,
than any other step that could be adopted.
We trust that the attention not only of fiscal re-
formers, but of those of every description, may
be especially directed to the duration of the contem-
plated Bill. It is the point of the moat vital import-
ance of any that will be submitted to the consideration
of Parliament during the ensuing session.

A Parliamentary document of no inconsiderable
importance has just been issued, having reference to
the unfortunate misunderstandings which have re-
cently arisen between the lonian representatives and
Excellency the Lord High Commissioner. Having
articular allusion to the political sentiments prevalent
among the inhabitants of that minor archipelago,
these papers have been examined by ourselves with
the closest and most dispassionate scrutiny. Our
attention has been especially directed to the change of
feeling manifested by the Lilian multitude (through
their representatives) towards the protecting sove-
reignty during the time when Lord SEATON
presided over their administration, and that
since manifested under that nobleman's successor as
Lord High Commissioner. Throughout the latter
portion of Lord SEATON'S stay at Corfu the most
amicable relations were maintained by his Excellency
with the local Parliament ; whereas almost from the
first entrance of Sir HENRY WARD, the conduct of
the affairs of that insular government has been dis-
turbed by a succession of lamentable squabbles, some-
times threatening the most serious and embarrassing
consequences. To discover the reason of such a sur-
prisiog difference of sentiment on the part of the lo-
nian Legislature, it becomes only necessary to ob-
serve with vigilant care the events which have
one by one transpired, and to note down with
a most cautious exactitude the references made to
hose events in the correspondence of the Lord High
Commissioner IA H-1 her Bri,annic MAJESTY'S Govern-
ment. After poring over the 131 pages of this cor-
reapendence, printed with due sequence in the Par-
liamentary document referred to, we may be per-
mitted to allude somewhat more explicitly than might
have been previously permissible to these harassing
and unhappy differences.
Without altogether exonerating Sir HENRY WARD
from blame in these transactions, it must be bol ily
and honestly premised that they have originated in
his Excellency's anxiety to withstand all efforts
at precipitate innovation and in his strin-
gent endeavours to suppress the disgraceful
insurrection in Cephalonia. Abstractly such at-
tempts to secure obedience to authority, and respect
for the constitution, are entitled to the highest praise
imaginable. It only remains to be seen whether in
striving thus earnestly to vindicate the influence of
the treaty of Paris, and to maintain a profound regard
for the sway of ther protecting Sovereignty, Sir
HENRY WARD may not have, in some measure at
least, exceeded the actual requirements of the
occesion, mistaking severity for determination, and
forcing upon the lonian Legislature the unwel-
come dogmas of finality instead of a simple
recommendation of moderated improvement.
That is the difficulty demanding solution in
regard to these melancholy occurrences. For its
better appreciation, it becomes requisite to observe the
precise nature of the demands all along made by the
constitutional reformers in the lonian Parliament. It
will be necessary likewise to discover what where the
views taken of these, same demands by Sir HENRY
WARD'S immediate predecessor, and to contrast those
views with the opinions entertained upon the same
subject by the present Lord High Commissioner.
As early as the February of 1848 (simultaneous
consequently with the French revolution), we find
the people of the lonian Islands petitioning for three
extraordinary innovations—innovations no less radical
in their nature than the emancipation of the press, the
subjection of the extraordinary expenditure to the
control of the L-gislative Assembly, and the modi•
fication of the electoral law in such a manner that
a right would be established fur the holders of the
suffrage to elect their municipal officers freely, and
without the interference of the Lord High Commis-
sioner or the Executive Government. So earnestly
were these reforms desired by the local popu!ation
tiroughut Corfu, Z mte, Santa Maura, Ithaca, Paxo,
C'erigo, and Cephalonia, that Lord SEATON, in a
dispatch dated the 21st February, 1848, assured
her 1M A JESTY.s Colonial Secretary that the
petition might be at once numerously signed
by the intelligent inhabitants of those islands
generally. Neither would these memorialists be
men incapable of estimating the meaning of the de-fired
improvements, foremost amongst them being Mr. NA-
POLEON ZAMBELLI, termed by his Excellency in the
same dispa`eb, " ene of the most eminent and re-
spected advocates of the bar of Corfu." As early as
the November of 1844 Lord SEATON had written to