The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLi‘i OURNALS.
FROM TITS nVENING SyTURDAY.
GLOBE.—" Opel; your inoetn—shut
,vour
eyes—and see what Peel will send you Such
was, in effect, urged up;ii th,! country, in divers
forms, as no more than was duo to the newly-in-
stalled Premier; who asked far "time" to
prepare his measures, and then put torth
the same plea, that his measures might
also have time to work the promised
good. The gobe mooches complied with the
Premier's request: they devoutly' shut their eyes
to consequences—opened their mouths wide with
expectation—and had the income-tax popped in
as the produce of Peel's financial skill ; while the
new tariff, shadow of good things to come—the
substance of which was never to he realised—
completed the amount id' the Premier's benefits
to the country. In his much-lauded finan-
cial exposition, upon the in troduc Lion of his
first budget, the Right Honourable Baronet
founded his claim to public confidence on
the estimates and working of the grand
scheme for restoring the rational revenue.
The result has proved that no failure was ever
more signal than has attended the Minister's
scheme of finance; because no estimates were
ever more erroneous than those on which that
scheme was founded. Sir Robert Peel's grand
expedient for meeting the deficiency in the
national taxation, and fin- restoring the revenue
to health and efficiency, now been in opera- •
tion two years. The country is familiar with
its results. The several sources of revenue,
with the increase or decrease, as the case may be,
on the year and quarter, are thus supplied ; anti,
as these returns are published by the Govern-
ment, they constitute satisfactory data by which
the financial condition of the country may be
arrived at, and a correct judgment be formed of
the system of taxation to which the Govern-
ment has sabjected the nation. The increased
receipts from the Excise for the quarter
amount only to 8,7631. The Post-office shows
an improvement of 2,000/.3 but the deficiency
of the latter on the year is 13,0004 This defi-
ciency is, however, attributed to items being
now charged under this, which were formerly
placed to another account. It is thus seen that
the increase upon the legitimate sources of reve-
nue is trifling. Any improvement in those items
which indicate the condition of the labouring
classes is, we admit, a subject of congratulation. An
improvement in the Excise on the year 0f387,0001.
is, therefore, to be taken as proof, to that extent,
of an increased ability in the consuming classes
of taxed articles to procure a larger quantity of
the necessaries and comforts of life than, for a
considerable period, they had been able to ob-
tain. Still, when the state of depression and suf-
fering, of which the labouring classes had been
long the subjects, is considered, the improvement
in trade, and increased means of procuring more
than mere food, and that of the coarsest kind, is
but trifling. The decrease in Stamps evinces an
apathy in commerce. The diminished receipts
from the Assessed Taxes show that it the income-
tax enriches the Exchequer in one department,
it induces the individual who is subjected to its
odious operation to curtail his expenses in other
respects. Reduced domestic establishments,
among the more opulent classes of society, and
houses exchanged for tenements ()Flower rents and
rates, with inability to pay the assessments on even
these, explain the continued decrease upon the
Assessed Taxes. To the income-tax, therefore,
the boasted improvement in the state of the na-
tional exchequer must be principally assigned.
Even that improvement is the result of the
great statesman's erroneous estimates of the
amount it would produce—errors which cut away
the bases of his calculations as to the per cent-
age to be imposed, and the number of years
durinc, which the tax was to be in operation. The
head oe'f Miscellaneous includes, if it does not altoge-
thercomprise, alarge remittance under the treaty
with Ghina—an item which, though it has largely
aided the Exchequer, was not so much as hinted
at in Sir Robert Peel's grand financial exposi-
tion. The same may be remarked of " Corn,"
the duties on which—though they have assisted
the revenue to the extent of I,3oo,oool.—were
a god-send to the Minister, though a fiscal
curse to the community. We have gone more
largely and elaborately-into the revenue returns
than we have been wont to do on former occa-
'ions. The notes of preparation sounded by the
Standard, to prepare the public for Sir Robert
Peel's grand financial triumph, have prompted,
if not provoked, the analysis; which, we
think, will exhibit the great political luminary
somewhat shorn of his beams.
STANDARD.—It has lately been our pleasing
duty to present to the public a rich array of
proofs of the prosperous advance made by the
empire within the last two years, the effect of
a prudent and patriotic administration of
the Government. Peace conquered and
confirmed—the British territories profitably
augmented—manufactures mid commerce re-
stored—boundless fields opened to their
;enterprise—and the value of British public
obligations enhanced In per cent. To-day
we complete the gratifying work, by announcing
an improvement in the revenue wholly without
example under any circumstances approaching
to similarity. The readers of the Stant/arc/1
were prepared, by our brief' and general, but
accurate, announcement of last night, for
a large increase in the public contribu-
tions of 1843, beyond those of the pre-
ceding year ; in our present number we
lay the figures in detail before them. In the
tables inserted in tier first page they will see an
increase, a large increase, in every branch of re-
venue which can by any construction be treated
as an index to the state of the mass of the
people, with reference to their enjoyments
Dr to their active industry. The year's increase
on the Excise amounts to no less than
387,5031., and the total increase of all sources
of revenue, deducting decrease upon those
beads of taxation which are proofs of distress, not
of prosperity—such as the corn duties and time
stamp duties—amounts, exclusive of the pro-
perty-tax, to 1,063,974/.—inure than one mil-
lion sterling. Including the property-tax, the
increase would be 5,712,078/. and as respects
the resour‘ies of the Exchequer, its abi-
lity to meet the demands of the public ser-
vice, as respects, too, the general ability ofthena-
tion, this increase of nearly six millions sterling
questionless, a bona fide ine:•etve. But this
is not the light in which we wish to have the
returns looked to at present; we would direct
attention to them as evidence of the national
progress, not as evideuce of tbe national strength,
of which, indeed, tiv2re was itur.r any rational
doubt. Let us then take the property-tax from
both years, because it was e,dlvtted during a
part only of 184:4 and Ave shall hays a compa-
rative viaw to which no excep:icu can be taken,
viz.
1842._44,3J9,8651., minus 57 1,016/. property-

£43,751,809

tax.....
P 343.-50,071,9131., minus 5,1149:260/. pro-
party-tax

InBTease on the year, exclusive of pro,,erty-

.... £1,063,974

tat •••

Thus, exclusive of the propyriy-tax, na
despite of its reflex operating, which the oppo
fielltS of the measure thrcatuncd to be so injure
ous to other sources of revenue—exclusive of the
property-tax, and, in spite of all the mischief
it was to do—the ordinary sources of revenue
are more productive in 1813 than they were in
1842, by one million slerlhez and upwards.
Even this, however, is I,tl I.qj :ate view of the
national progress. 01; the iice of the returns
befough a ore us, thereappears we mast adiait it decrease,
th
trifling one, in the Customs of last
year. From the statement it is seen that the
great excess of revenue in NO. ariscs upon the
October quarter of that year—an excess,
altogether attributable to the prodigious nuts,
of foreign corn imported or taken out of I).lnd at
the Bs. duty in the month; of August and Sep-
tember rated, it' we mistake not, at three mil-
dquarters. Such revenue is an index of
loss dud not of gdin, as for every shilling gained
by the Exchequer the farmer must have lost
at least t.,I*CC7 and lost the money never to
return to this country. Upon the same prin-
ciple upon which l, in order to arrive at a
fair comparative vies:' of the revzume of the two
years, we have struck out the property-tax for
both years, we ow4ht to s!rike out the corn
duties, which made up so largo a part of last
year's revenue, and have produced little or
nothing in the present :car. It we had the
figures enabling us to do thi:4, there is no
reason to doubt taut the actual increase of
the ordinary fixed sources of revenue, instead
of resting, happily high, as it does above
sue million sterling, would closely approach
two millions. Such, at least, is appa-
to , .
the just inference from the fact, that upon
rend: the concluding quarters of the
a compit.'is.o,ll of:
two years, I.'q neither of which quarters did the
corn duties se-71011ply operate, the last quarter
presents an increase of
more than half a mil-
deficiencies, they
lion. As to the other trifling
plained, while they, whose
can be all as easily
of the noble
business it is to find fault, be. somewhat. at a
loss to explain away one a
increase of more than one raihon sterling)
wholly exclusive of the property-tax.

The League Fluid for Liverpool amounts to 6,0201.
The noble salescription of the Marquis of Vlistininster, alluded
to elsewhere, seems to have completely paralysed the monopo
lists—more particularly the so-called fnends of the landed in-
terest—in this neighbourhood.—Liverpool Igurnal.