The Sun.
London, England, 1828-12-15 00:00:00

(FROM THE MORNING HERALD.)

Sir Herbert Taylor, on whom a great share of the
popularity of the late Duke of York appears to have
descended, is about, it seems, to confer a boon
upon the army, which is almost • the only one it did
not receive from his Royal Highness—we mean by
abolishing, as far as he is able, the expensive tawdry
trappings which press so heavily, in a double sense
of the word, upon officers iu the army, transform-
ing them often into something scarcely resembling
human beings; and, above all, putting .an end to
those frequent capricion4 changes, in dress and ac-
coutrements by which both the country and indivi-
duals are burdened in a most severe and reprehen-
sible mariner. Of course, no one wishes, on the
mere score of economy, to see the army prevented
from deriving any benefit its materi4 can un-
dergo by means of necessary and judicious im-
provements. But expence does not imply im-
provement; nor cart our officers become one jot
the more terrible to an enemy, or useful to their
country, by being- " bearded like the pard," or
decked out in trimmings which appear ridiculous
when exhibited on the stage. It should be the po-
licy of the country to attract the youths of respectable
families into the public service. That is the link
which best connects the citizen with the soldier,
and renders it least probable that the standing army,
which necessity has imposed upon us, will become.
dangerous to the liberties of the country. Hitherto
however men of moderate fortune have been afraid
to place their sons in the army, knowing that their
pay as subalterns will be quite unequal to the heavy
charges which will be brought upon them by the
expensive nature of their equipments, and the con-
tinual changes that they have been constantly tinder-
going. In putting an end, to this abuse, Sir Herbert
Taylor will confer a signal boon upon 'the country,
and one of which the illustrious Duke at the head of
the public service must be best qualified to estimate
the value. In fact, it is a subject upon which there
can be but one voice in the country, except among
the few who have contrived to gratify their whims
and fill their pockets by this cruel arid unnecessary
tax upon these whose interests it was their duty to
have protected. -

_ .
(FROM THE NEWS.)
" Call me not Fool, till late bath given ma fortune."
THE REFORM OF THE TORIF-S.—We are now
told, i 5 good set terms," by the best informed—or
those who Ktght to be the best informed liberals,
that the Catholics will be emancipated-4 the
Tories; and we are likewise told, by the Tories
themselves, that the Assessed Taxes will be taken off,
and the consequent defection of the Revenue met by
a reduction in the Army, and by other minor or.
rangements. If this intelligence do not rank among
that order of news which is called " too good to be
True' we shall begin to believe *Atli Parson Irving
that the awn of the Millenium has actually com-
menced. The Radicals themselves will soon begin
to admit that it would be extremely dangerous to
introduce any changes in iiich an admirable cdnsti-
tution of Government ! If the Toxlps should really
surprise (the Whigs, by thus stealinf a niar,..." on
the vanguaid. of Liberal " intellect, ' they will, pos-
sibly, not know Yikey.e to stop; popular applause
may so bewilder them, Ow, god forgive them ! they
may next set about reforming the Clergy ! and
parody tl Poet by exclaiming that

" A lath: pruning is a dangerous thing,
Cut deep or touch not * * *"
Give us but the odium of th,e Assessed Taxes; and
the Liberly of the Press; and wiz would undertake to
innoculate the otherwise best Goveciv,:?ent on the
earth-with a deadly v:Aus; fatal alike to tlie:repa7e and
seelwity of Princes anti Ministers. The mere ai
stractiot; of the money: from the pockets of the
people by tthAse taxes, is the least consideration of
the public, as far as the character of the taxes pay
go; though the money is all that the Government
/pants in the affair. The greet and obnoxious "mass
of disgust and annoyance rests w;th the machinery
of the impact; and the wide-spreading ks,r_anehes of
offence that diverge therefrom ; making the empn,
which should he the sacra liberal creditor of the Ern-
pire, the most illiberal, the mast oppressive, and the
most crud; scattering desolation im its inquisitorial
processes; and carrying ruin and confisc,i,tion in its
train ; and that too by a saloction of such pet tyrso,iron=
temptible instruments, as reader the means hateful,
while the result is destructive. We have so often broken
the 1,-ghts of the Window Tax, that we will not now
stop to rake up its long train of absurd and iniqui-
tous enactmeQts ; only juste to observe that they are
made to operate alike as a tax on rile and light ;
and this wicked impost, should therefore take its
name accordingly ; viz. the i` Light and Air Teal"
If a man stop up a light, it must Lie with brick and
mortar; or the same materials as the house; and
hence the fact that many upper and unoccup‘epi rooms
in every person's dwelling, are made receptacle,
for foul and unventilated air; so that the tax is, prac-
tically, so much in money, and so.much in sickness;
with a garnish of architectural deformity ! It is
likewise deserving of remark, that though it was
found " too bad" to extend the Window Tax to

lights in workshops, manufactories, &c. &c.; yet it
was deemed only cotuistent to mix up with the gra-

ciousness of an abatement in this particular, as much
of the original malignity of the impost, by way of
alloy, as would work with the material; and though
a man might carry on a trade (where as ratieli light
was necessary as, if paid for, would consume douhie,
the amount of the whole profits) untaxed of light, it
was considered proper to preclude all internal com-
munication between the dwelling-house and working-
house ;--for die
benefit, as we suppose, of thieves
and burglars; for we can devise no other object in
such a preposterous clause. The more dangerous
part of this detestable system, is the facility with
which the most contemptible and the least respon-
sible agents of the Board of Taxes can invoke the
people in ruinous Exchequer processes, from motives
of caprice or oppression ; and thus place them at
ever be
properly applied to the
their own mercy, us it were—if the term can
"compunctious
visitings" of suuch cold-blooded extremities of
the law. it is likewise a ..serious objection
to the morale of the machinery of these
taxes,
that the Surveyor is paid by a Per crutage on his
squeezing, " thus placing him out of
the ordinary
circle of humanity; and dependent on his own ex-
action and extortion, for all perhaps that can be
called a luxury of life; he &Wine his wine, mo-
rally speaking, under the power of the thumb-
screwr
ow the
; and furnishes his drawing-room w
rack of the wheel.. A vagary has lately seized mow.,
of these worthies, y towns, of surcharging
in- -
shopkeepers fur their apprenikei, as „journeymen.—
Different hearings have been bad 41,0e.44.rg the Magis-
trates;and Linen-drapers, Grocers, lie., baKe been

•
obliged to swear that they received the premindis
with such apprentices, for the consideration of
teaching them the " art and mystery of their trades,"
and not as a consideration of finding them board,
lodging, &c. In the Abstract of some affairs of
taxes, several 'cases of this kind have been pub-
lished; with the principles on wbie,b they were
adjudged,—to the confusion of the tax-man. Put
we notice the matter as it involves a peculiar absure .
dity. What kind of „surveillance can a surveyor of
taxes affect to exercise over the private engagement
of an indentuTe ? The stamp of the indenture covers
the deed, with a heavy tax on the obliglation; a finer

speci►nen, therefore, of tax-once insolence than this
prepostOrous attempt acofficio extortion,-we serer
remember. An apprentice.is in the eye of the law, as
_well as in the social principal, a part and parcel of a
man's farnily ;and it would be just as decent torequire
man to pay a tax for his wife, as for any other part
of his lawful houSehohL The Magistrates before
whom these cases were brought,decided in one or two
points in favour of the Tax Inquisitionists ; viz.
that where the indenture was for a less term Man
seven years, they held the apprentice to be a taxable
servant within the meaning of the statute. This
decision involves another absurdity ; viz, that if you
permit a youth to. go unapprenticed beyond Me age
of fourteen years, he is no longer an apiventiceable
character; because his parents have no power to
bind him beyond the period of his mrfjority. Thus
would this ridiculous decision go to throw thousands
of youths out of employment, or rather legally pre-
elude them from employment, at a period of life
when it is most essential they should he learning
some means of obtaining a future livelihood; and at
an age the most dangerous of all others for the for-
motion of indolent and capricious habits. Tories and
Whigs have alike condemned and denounced the As-
sessed Taxes; because all have suffered from them;
not only in the mere affair of money, but by the paltry
and vexatious system of tyranny and exaction in which
they are made to um)* ; calling down on the heads of
the " authorities that be," a gratuitous odium that
answers no profitable end whatever, either to the
purposes of finance, or of power. If the Tories are
not absolutely afraid of being popular, they have a
chance of shouldering off this code of taxes ; the
most hateful in the history of national imposts;--
but we will believe in any well-principled economy
of theirs—when we see it. In the case of Catholic
EmancipatiOn, Ministers are beset: Pat has " sur-
rounded them," as the story says. Menace, and the
shadow of rebellion stalks through the land with as
large a stride,—and set forth equal if not greater
dimensions,--than Government misrule itself. This
dilated creature of re-action,—the Agitator,— might,
with Cwsar, say to the vicious spirit of Irish Go-;
vernment,—

" We were two Lions, litter'd in one day,
And I the bolder and more terrible."

There is no way on earth to prevent an explosion
in Ireland that will involve both countries in tiarne-s,
but by a measure striking at once at the great master
root of the evil. Ministers are now pretty well aware of
this ; they have run out to the extreme of the tether,
the policy of expedients; and finding the earth quake
under their feet at every step, they are—even so late in
the day—turning round (though in the dark) to face
the_ gigantic evil which they have created. The Duke
of Wellington's and Mr. Peel's prejudices are brought
fairly to a parley, and they are sending out a flag of
truce, as the forlorn hope of their ascendancy policy,
to show a disposition—to treat. 'What will these
great men do ? They will draw a broad line of
Protestant demarcat;on, that shall pass close up to
the toes of the Privy Council, and touch the thresh.
hold of the House of Commons;--they will then
say to the, Catholic, " Thus far shalt thou go, and
no further; and here shall thy proud hopes be
stayed," The British Catholics will come into the
terms : and Daniel O'Connell will -fling the Charter
back into their faces, and call 4 council of

. . . .
" agitators." The Liberals, and the War party irr
France and in America, will eventually be consulted;
and an expensive substratum of War and Rebellion,
will be projected, and laid down ;, to be brought into
action:in due season. The nation will advance to
the verge of the precipice. The question will be
who shall assume the reins ? The greatest blusterer
and the biggest fool, will probably have the best •
chance ; and Europe will be PUP more at logger-
heads. Let the Government—if it be wise—give
to Ireland, all that she is fairly entitled to; and she
is rnwally and politically conquered. The Minister
that does legs 11,aii 401 does wrong.
(FROM Tab: Joita )3&ILL.)

The newspapers have been very busy (I;riTig the
last few days new-modelling the Ministry; the Duke
of Wellington's visit to the Duke of Richmond, at
Goodwood, whence his Grace returned on 'Wednes-
day, does not appear to have struck the quidnunes
as any thing politically strange or itoportaot; but
his Grace's visit to.the Marquis of Chandos, to shoot
wooAcocks and rabbits in Buckinghamshire, is a
matter of /4.7.triate consequence, coupled as it is with
the extraordinary faict thtg Mr. HolmeS, the Trea-
surer of the Ordnance, i; gone to Dublin. This is
seriously said—not only interred, but
when we come to couple it again with the Duke of
Bedford' i 3 nuitting Brighton in the same week with
Lady AffieCk, ,ord.. Frederick Beauclerk's appoint-
ment as a Lieutenant of the Southampton, Mr.
Wygliiile's Knighthood, and tpe fire in York-house
stables, at 13g,th, really does appear a patter full of
matter and mystery; .Mr. Planta's shooting at jr:..7a,
thant, we were told, would bring Mr. INskissoli
back into the Cabinet, and the Duke of Wellington's
shooting at Apthorpe pop the Privy Seal smack
into Cite stands of Lord Westmorland. This sort of

inference is verif ,411011. One part of the Morning
Chronicle's history is eri•Gw;tw6—that which inVolves
the chronology and locality at it; 4;e whole of the
pp, yty of Ministers are represented in •thra pet. of
Friday herd at work, shooting right and left, 4
the very momeAnit the reader is feasting his eyes with
the mystified detail, 44.:4 p,be Honourable Member
from Dublin is to he at Stokoe oir the same mmning.
The party are not going to shoot et ;.,-:t29!,ye but at
Wooton, and they do not go there until next w 7,ey.