The Sun.
London, England, 1845-02-12 00:00:00

GLOBE.—The announcement made by Sir Robert
Peel on Friday last is conclusive as to, the Right lion.
Baronet's intentions respecting the odious income-tax.
On Friday next, in the Committee of Ways and Means,
I shall propose a resolution to the effect, that the laws
imposing an income tax in Great. Britain, anti an addi-
tional stamp duty in Ireland,. be continued fora further
limited period. Such is the nature of the resolu-
tion which I shall propose to move." What-
ever relief from other taxes may be contem-
plated is preserved, au secret, in the recesses of the
Premier's mini, or at leas in the drawers of his cabinet.
The effect might be diminished by premature dis-
closure. Certainly, some of the petitioners for a
share of the surplus revenue, and of the still more sub-
stantial benefits of increased protection and of reduced
duties, woould be relieved from the suspense in which
they are held. The bland smiles of the Right Hon.
Baronet—which have cheered the hearts of his agricul-
tural suppliants, and led them to anticipate the lion's
share of the spoil at his disposal, will operate as a
charm till Friday—big with the fate. of landlords and
tenant-farmers—arrive, and dispel the day-dreams
on which they have fondly fed. If Sir Robert
Peel were not, as he is, the Pecksniff of politicians
—the very Joseph Surface of statesmen—there
would have been no doubt in the public mind as
to what his " financial statement of 1845" would
reveal. His intentions respecting the income-tax
would be fully ascertained. The Right Hon. Ba-
ronet's " financial statement " ~f 1842 is before us, A
reference to that statement would have been sufficient to
settle the question. In that statement Sir R. Peel de•
plores the necessity which was imposed upon him in the
performance of his public duty. With reluctance, certainly,
but still from a deep conviction of duty, he was brought to
propose a tax on property and incomes—the very tax
which he now, with characteristic breach of his public
engagement, proposes shall be continued " for a
limited period"—after the circumstances on which he
alone rested the infliction of such a tax have ceased
to exist ! Necessity for maintaining the " public
credit," and " the ancient character of the country,"
were dwelt upon, in every imaginable form in which
they could be presented to the House of Commons
and the country, as motives and arguments to induce
the Legislature to impose the tax, and the people to bear
it without murmuring. Its inquisitorial, and therefore
vexatious, prying into private affairs ; its heavy, un-
equal, and, therefore, inequitable distribution—taking
comparatively much from the man of small and uncertain
income, and little from the man of large, fixed, and ascer-
tained property; these naturally objectionable features in
this impost were endured, if not without murmuring, yet
with a degree of patience and submission which had
their origin in the hope of an early deliverance from the
burden. Had its fill weight, and the measure of its
duration really designed by its proposer, been known
at the time of its infliction, there would have been
remonstrances., protests, petitions, and every other
constitutional resistance to its enactment. These
would have plainly indicated the " impatience
of taxation" for which the British people have been
reproached, Their " ignorance" of the benefits
and blessings of an income-tax is still as inveterate,
and their desire fur its removal still as strong, as
when Lord Castlereagh uttered his memorable phi-
lippic against them in the House of Commons thirty
years ago. Sir Robert Peel, in 1842, led the coun-
try to expect that the tax would be imposed for a
very short period. Three years and it was to cease.
Once imposed—having tested its powers, and found
that it produces nearly two millions annually more
than he estimated—he cannot consent to part with so
effective an instrument. With a large surplus revenue,
he has the temerity to trifle with the pledge he made
when he asked the House of Commons to impose an
income-tax in a time of profound peace. Having
derived from it one-third more than he antici-
pated—upwards of five millions, in place of
3,771,000/., the sum at which he laid its probable
annual amount—with the Chinese compensation money
—an item which he did not take into his
calculations when he made his statement in March, 1842
—with these, and other favourable accidents not in-
cluded in the Premier's much-lauded financial speech—
he intends to come down to Parliament, and make another
" financial statement," in which he will modestly
propose to continue the income-tax ! If Sir Robert
Peel possessed the honesty, and with it associated
sufficient courage, to propose a review of the
existing imperfect system of taxation, with a view
to substituting direct fer indirect taxation, he would
establish for himself a name, and deserve the gratitude
of his country. But this perpetual peddling—this mis-
chievous interfering with things of trifling amount,
while the nation groans under the incubus of high
duties upon raw materials, essential to the employ-
ment of the industrious classes,' and upon articles of
daily consumption--such a system is fraught with
folly, and replete with misery : it is at once insane and
cruel. The only form in which the income-tax can be
made available for go6d, ietolikait it to prOperty;npon
scale at once just and equitable. Lord Motiteagle's
speech last nikht.in the House of Lords, on moving fur
various financial 'returns, places this subject in a strong
and convincing, light, and will therefore obtain the atten-
tion of all who feels-4nd who does -not ?—Oppressed by
that part oflhe tax which is levied on incomes derived
from trade and professions.
STANDARD.—We have to announce, to-day, two
uncontested elections, returning two members of Sir
Robert Peel's. Government—viz., Sir- Thomas Freniantle
and Sir George Clerk, and the retirement, in East Corn-
wall, of the Whig candidate, Sir William Trelawny, be-
fore the Conservative Candidate, Mr. Carew. This
is something, but we doubt not that there are
more like cases in reserve.- South Wilts will pro-
bably test the constancy or the - power :of the
League, by ,returning Mr. Sidney Herbert, either
without opposition, or in defiance of an opposition
that must be simply ridiculous, and the unopposed return
of Mr.-Towers -in Buckinghamshire is perfectly certain.
Now, these are the real substantial proofs oT the strength
of a Government. The speeches of Sir Thoihtsa
Fremantle at Buckingham, and Sir George Clerk
at Stamford, were both excellent in their way, but
the speech of the former Right Honourable Baronet
derives a peculiar interest from the nature of the
duties upcin which he is about to enter. One passage
towards its conclusion is worthy of particular remark :
" Everything must be done to couciliate Ireland, laying
down the rule that the legislative union shall be main-
tained, the Church upheld, and the laws respected."
Here we have a faithful outline chart of Sir Robert
Peel's Irish policy. And we ask every candid man
if it is not merely the wisest, but the only wise,
policy ? Is it not the policy most conducive to
the permanence of the union, to the stability of
the 'Church, and to the ascendancy of the law, to prove
that all these are peifectly compatible with the most
impartial and even indulgent and fostering care of the
population ? On the other hand, is it not the utmost
kindness to the people to warn them, in a firm though
friendly tone, of the utter hopelessness of those
pursuits in which the malignant incendiaries
by whom they are deluded have engaged
them ? The permanence of the union and the
inviolable. security of the Protestant Chun-h, are- indis
pensable to the safety of the empire ; the ascendancy of
the law is requisite for the maintenance of civil govern-
ment everywhere. These, therefore, constitute the rule
laid down by the present Administration ; and this rule,
so far from being inconsistent, either in its present ope-
ration or in its remoter tendencies, with the welfare and
material happiness and prosperity of Ireland, is in-
timately connected with both in an unequivocal relation
of cause and effect. The union it is that has given life,
and is now giving increasing spirit to Irish commerce,
Irish agriculture, and Irish enterprise generally ; a re-
peal of the union would make bankrupt every Irish
trader, w^d turn one-half of the land now under tillage to
pasturage or to primitive desolation. The clergy, again,
are the most useful gentlemen in Ireland, wholly irre-
spective of their sacred office as teachers—,-the most
useful gentlemen to all classes, Roman Catholics as well
as Protestants. This is cheerfully acknowledged of
each particular clergyman in his own immediate
sphere, though it is not found convenient to admit the
general proposition. But in truth, if the union and
the ascendancy of the law are valuable, the uphold-
ing of the Church is indispensable for their preserva-
tion. The union would not survive two years any serious
injury to the-Church, and the civilisation of the country
would steadily retrograde from the day of such injury.
But how are the imperfectly informed and deeply pre-
judiced Roman Catholics of Ireland to be satisfied
of these truths, so manifest to all intelligent
men ? In no other way than by teaching them to
consider themselves citizens of the empire, not of a
particular district of it only—by showing .hem prac-
tically that they are to participate in the wealth,
in the honours, and in all the other immense benefits
of the richest and most powerful empire existing
or that ever did exist ; and this can be shown
practically only by that real conciliation, which
gratifies by material benefits graciously conferred,
not by speculative victories over falsely imagined
enemies. We have no doubt that Sir Thomas Fre-
mantle, a man as much characterised by truth and firm-
ness as by courtesy and good sense, will act in the spirit
of his declaration. And if he does, Lord Eliot will not
be missed—nearly the highest praise that can be ex-
pected by Lord Eliot's successor, whatever that suc-
cessor's merits.
TIMES.—Last night, in anticipation of the financial state-
ment to be made next Friday, Lord Monteagle moved fi
various returns, the most important of which are already
before the world; and took the opportunity of predicting,
prejudging, and prescribing the Premiers
intentions, as fir
as the circumstances allowed. How far it is customary for
Ministers to remain open to new reasons and persuasions
till
within four days of their sessional declaration, it is not for us
to conjecture; but Lord Menteagle is better informed, and
he appears tolliink his advice will not be entirely thrown
-aWay. Whatiiier the result, however, we fear he will scarcely
enjoy the credit Of contributing much to the Ministerial de-
cisior. It is trip the Premier still rejoices in the maiden
prideathd• liberty of. apparent -irresolution. He still, smiles
complacently on a hundred rivals, and retains the besought