The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-25 00:00:00

MR. SCHENCK'S SPEECH. ON INTRODUC-
ING THE NEW INLAND TAX BILL.

The Chairman of the Committee of Ways and
Means, Mr. Schenck (as we last week stated) re-
ported the New Inland Tax Bill to the house,
June 1, explaining both it in a speech of great clear-
ness, and his own views,which are eminently sound
and sensible. We need not here add to the lengthy
epitome in ourlast issue of this the most voluminous
bill ever brought forward, but we cannot allow the
speech to pass without notice. Mr. Schenck
acknowledges his error in supposing 11. whisky tax
of $2 h gallon could be collected, the effect being
that the revenue dwindled to little mare than a
tenth of the estimate, $13,000,000 being raised
this year instead of $120,000,000. As the differ-.
rence represents upwards of `one hundred millions
of plunder, the effect may be imagined. Rogues
grew in such rank luxuriance that it is now almost
impossible to penetrate through the tropical jungle,
and the strength of the whisky ring is such as to
govern the country, so far as they choose to rule.
Into every branch of the public service the gang has
carried fraud and corruption. Men who had hitherto
been honest have been seduced in hundreds into per-
jury:and peculation, while the manufacture and con-
sumption of whisky have been stimulated to an enor-
mous extent. Mr. Schenck, in common with many
members of Congress, has learnt a lesson by expe-
rience for which there was no necessity, as the
teaching of the human race from all time ought to
have taught them, and saved the country from a
legislation productive of such vile results. However,
it is better to learn late than never, and the Chair-
man now proposes to reduce the tax to 75 cents. If
his estimate be correct, the distillers would sooner
pay this sum than defraud. Mr. Kelly thinks 50
cents. the better figure, but Mr. Schenck is correct
in fixing it at the highest that can be honestly and
fairly collected, always supposing it can be. The
Philadelphia correspondent of the Mites, observing
that Mr. Schenck calculates next year on obtaining
from the tax as fixed by him $70,000,000, adds,
"even if the tax be reduced." This shows how little
he understood what the Chairman of the Commit-
tee said. Iny, it is because the tax is reduced that
he expects this result, for his whole speech went
to demonstrate that the temptation of a high
rate generates a fertility in rascality which
utterly defeats all legislation. He estimated
that the total anticipated revenue for the next
fiscal year will be as follows :—From Customs,
$165,000,000; inland Revenue, $210,560,000 ;
Public Lands, $1,000,000 ; and Miscellaneous,
$30,000,000. Grand total, $406,560,000. The ex-
penditures for the next fiscal year he calculates at
£352,320,629, which would leave a balance of surplus.
revenue of over $54,000,000. Most of this surplus
is expected on realizing the results anticipated from
whisky and tobacco. Speaking of the national
obligations, Mr. Schenck sail :—" There is but one
way after all in which the debt of the country can
be raid, and that is by working it out. Industry,
commerce, the productions of labour and of the soil
are eventually to pay the debt." After propound-
ing such sound reasons, it is strange to see Mr.
Schenck falling again into the error out of
which he is now struggling. Why not utilize
the experience of other nations in legislating, and
why persist in assuming that there is something
different in American nature from European na-
ture, which impels the American into the repetition
and consequences of European blunders. Mr.
Schenck proposes to tax foreign brokers $5,000,
and to send them to the penitentiary if they do not
pay, who transact business in their rooms and hotels,
thus evading the tax on brokers of $22. The result
will be in a small way to reproduce the effect of the
whisky tax, introducing a set of unmitigated
scamps in place of whatever is decent in the class
he legislates against, and erecting illicit brokerage

into an art which will mere than ever thrive. The
best feature of the bill is the absolute control be-
stowed on the Commissioners of the Revenue over

the employes in the service for whose behaviour they
will then become responsible. But it is necessary
to supplement this by making the mods of appoint-
ment such as is advocated by Mr. Jencks—that is,
by training and examination ; promotion being by
zeal, ability, seniority, and good behaviour.
The dodges by which excessive taxation is evaded
are well illustrated by the following case. In im-

posing a duty o❑ pig-lead,Cmgress exempted leaden
busts as being works of art. Forthwith moulds in
the likeness of Washington, Clay, 'Webster, Jack-
son, the Apostles, and others, were forwarded to
Spain, into which the lead was run and the tax
evaded. A dispute is now being carried on between
the revenue officers end the importers of foreign
tobacco, on which a duty of 30 cents a pound is
levied when twisted or reduced from leaf into a
condition to be consumed without further pro-
The importers pack dried tobacco leaves
in square boxes, so as not to come within
the conditions, but the Inland Revenue
consider these leaves to be manufactured to-
bacco, and therefore liable to duty. Against
this the New York Journal of Commerce con-
tends that, "if packing a raw article in square
boxes is such a processs as the law contemplated
when the tax was imposed, the hay sent to market
in square trusses is most certainly a manufactured
article." The fact is certain that so long as a high
premium is offered to ingenuity and rascality in
evading the laws, ingenuity and rascality will be
forthcoming, and unless compelled by the circum-
stances no statesman should offer the inducements.

CESS.

THE BLADENSBURG DUELLING
GROUND.

Two recent cases have attracted attention to this
famous duelling ground, which is situated in Mary-
land, some six or eight miles from Washington. It
is a beautiful little grass plot,' surrounded by trees,
and there a number of most noted duellists resorted
to perform their deadly work. The TVatchman and
Reflector tells us that in 1814 Edward Hopkins was
killed in a duel. This seems to have been the first of
these fashionable murders on this duelling ground.
In 1819 A. T. Mason, a United States Senator,
fought with his sister's husband, John M'Carty.
M'Carty was averse to fighting, and thought there
was no necessity for it ; but Mason would fight.
M'Carty named muskets loaded with grapeshot, and
so near together that they would hit heads if they
fell on their faces. This was changed by the seconds
to loading with bullets, and taking 12 feet as the dis-
tance. Mason was killed instantly, and M'Carty,
who had his collar bone broken, still lives with
Mason's sister in Georgetown. His hair turned
white so soon after the duel as to cause much com-
ment. He has since been solicited to act as second
in a duel, but refused, in accordance with a pledge
he made to his wife soon after killing her brother.
In 1820 Com. Decatur was killed in a duel here by
Corn. Barron. At the first fire both fell forward,
with their heads within ten feet of each other; and as
each supposed himself mortally wounded, each fully
and freely forgave the other, still lying on the ground.
Decatur expired immediately, but Barron eventually
recovered. In 1821 two strangers, named Lega and
Sega, fought here, and Sega was instantly killed.
The neighbours only learned this much of their
names from the marks on their gloves left on the
ground. Lega was not hurt. In 1822 midshipman
Lock was killed here by a clerk of the Treasury
Department named Gibson. The latter was not
hurt. In 1826 Henry Clay fought (his second duel)
with John Randolph, just across the Potomac, as
Randolph preferred to die, if at all, on Virginia
soil. He recei7ed. Clay's shot, and then fired in
the air. This. was in accordance with a declara-
tion made to Mr. Benton, who spoke to Ran-
dolph of a call, the evening before, on Mrs.
Clay, and alluded to the quiet sleep of her
child and the repose of the mother. Randolph
quickly replied, " I shall do nothing to disturb the
sleep of the child or the repose of the mother."
When Randolph fired he remarked, " I do not
shoot at you, Mr. Clay," and extending his hand,
advanced towards Mr. Clay, who rushed to meet
him. Randolph showed Mr. Clay where his ball
had struck his coat, and said, facetiously, " Mr.
Clay, you owe me a coat." Clay replied, " Thank
God the debt is no greater." They were friends
ever after. In 1832 Martin was killed by Carr. Their
first names are not remembered. They were from
the South. In 1822 Mr. Key, son of Frank Key,

and brother of Barton Key, of Sickles' notoriety,
met Mr. Sherborn and exchanged shots, when Mr.
Sherborn said—" Mr. Key, I have no desire to kill
you." "No matter," said Key, " I came to kill
you." " Very well, then," said Sherborn, " I will
now kill you." And he did. In 1838 W. J.
Graves, of Kentucky, assuming the quarrel of James
Watson Webb with Jonathan Cilley, of Maine,
selected this place for Cilley's murder ; but the
parties learning that Webb with two friends, Jack-
son and Merrell, were armed and in pursuit, for the
purpose of assassinating Cilley, moved towards the
river and nearer the city. Their pursuers moved
towards the river, but missed the parties, and
then returned to the city, to which they were
soon followed by Graves and the corpse of Cilley.
The latest was between Colonel P. 11. Green, of
Missouri, and Daniel G. Wright, of Baltimore, in
which both were wounded ; and Mr. A. G. Law-
rence, United States Minister to Costa Ricl, who
fought his duel there with Baron von Kosserow, of the
Prussian Legation in Washington, accompanied by
Count Lothum. Although neither of the combatants
was hit, the President removed Mr. Lawrence and
nominated Mr. Mot in his place, and Mr. Seward
has directed the attention of the Prussian Minister
to the matter, in order that these members of the
Legation might be made sensible of the displeasure
of their Government by their removal.

ABANDONMENT OF THE IJOOSAC

TUNNEL.

This is one of the world-renowned undertakings,
to which Massachusetts fondly hoped one day to
point as the best evidence of her skill, enterprise,
and judgment. But vain are the hopes of men ! Still
should Massachusetts lay the Hoosac Tunnel lesson
to heart; it may not be without its value.- If Mr,
Walker's elaborate report and opinion be adopted
and the work abandoned, it will remain as a stu-
pendous instance of Massachusetts folly. Not long
since we gave a full account of the progress of this
mighty work, which has already cost $4,708,110 in
gold, and the lowest computation sets down the
total cost at $13,735,199. The question is, and
ought to have been before the commencement,
What is to be obtained for this stupendous outlay?
Boston thought that by shortening the road to the
West it might make its port the Atlantic terminus of
the trade supplanting New York. Mr. Walker says,
" I regard the construction of this line of railway,
at this late day, as a mistake, and in this opinion
I am supported by all the best authorities on the
subject of western transportation. It strikes the
borders of New York at too low a point ; it crosses
the waters of that inexorable river which always
will flow downwards to the sea ;' it seeks to enter
into a fruitless and unavailing competition with
navigable waters, and the attractions of a greater
market." It is unpleasant for Boston to have
its hopes thus dashed, but it would be wise in
Boston, in common with the whole State, if
hat Mr. Walker says be true, not only to re-
cognize, but to act on the truth which that gen-
tleman thus represents :—" If these conclusions are
just, the sentiment which would persist in an enter-
prize, the friends of which concede that its comple-
tion must cost nine millions additional of the
people's money, merely because the State has entered
upon it, is a false and foolish pride, to be anything
but proud of. The face of the civilized world is
scarred all over with abandoned enterprizes; so is the
life of man. Shall the State be wiser than the aggre-
gate wisdom of its people, and what prudent man is
there who would continue a buSiness adventure after
he had found every day's continuance in it to be a loss?"
And he thus concludes-his speech—" Can we in-
crease this burden —on the contrary, must we not
lighten it ? I believe we must, and I see no mode
so feasible as by stopping this unpromising enter-
prise of the tunnel. I would complete the railroad,
and then I would put all the tunnel work and ma-
chinery under hatches till I could take the sense of
the people on a continuance of the expenditure,
and until I could investigate the alternative pro-
positions to which I have called the attention of the
House."