The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-12 00:00:00

FLANDERS MAIL.

BRUSSELS, MARCH 6.—The Senate in its sitting to-day
was engaged on some projects of law relative to the votes of
credit.

The Chamber of Representatives continued the debate on
the budget of the Minister of Public Works.
The Indastriel, of Verviers, says—" We are informed that
the Directors of the Civil Hospitals have just passed a resolu-
tion by which admission to the hospital is forhidden to the
Jesuits who have settled at Verviers, and to those who may
be settled there in future. This resolution was adopted una-
nimously."
This morning (the sth), about nine o'clock, just as the
Princess Victoria was going to leave the basin the depar-
ture was delayed by a melancholy accident. The second
mate was at the wheel, when a mass of ice struck the helm
and caused the wheel to revolve with extraordinary rapidity,
so that it struck the mate in the stomach and wounded bins
in a most dreadful manner. All possible assistance was im-
mediately given him.
Our readers will recollect that in the month of May last
there was an explosion of fire damp in the coal-mine of
Horlevy, in which twenty-eight workmen lost their lives.
After a long investigation the proprietor, the director, and
head workmen, have been sent before the correctional tri-
bunal, as having by imprudence and want of attention to the
regulations been the involuntary cause of the deaths of these
twenty-eight workmen.
BRUSSELS, MARCH 7.—ln the Chamber of Representatives
M. Mast de Vries read the report on the project of law for
proroguing the law relative to the tolls on the railway. The
Chamberi mmediately discussed the project, which was agreed
to unanimously by the fifty .four Members present. The debate
on the Budget of Public Works was then continued.
Lord Wellesley, who has so long resided at Brussels, which
he left only on Saturday last, has already taken the oaths to
her Britannic Majesty, as Earl of Morning-ton, having suc-
ceeded to that title, on the death of his father, with a fortune
of 60,000 francs sterling per annum.
Captain de Bonings, commanding the Comet, schooner,
) belonging to Ostend, who has just arrived from Messina,
states that, on the 9th of February, about one in the morning,
being off Cape St. Mary, and fifteen miles from the Spanish
coast, he fell in with three light vessels, with lateen sails,
which opened a brisk fire of musketry on his Vessel, which
was struck by several balls. Having a good wind, he lost
sight of them about four o'clock. They were, doubtless,
pirates.
FROM THE RUSSIAN FRONTIERS, Fan. 24.—Recent accounts
from St. Petersburgh, which may be depended on, say that
neither the Emperor nor the Empress will visit Germany this
year, as was at one time supposed ; nor is there, at present,
anything said of the intention of the Empress to visit
Southern Russia. The health of the Emperor is good, but
the Empress is still suffering.
BRUSSELS, Blanca B.—The average price of wheat in the
week ending on the Bth of March, wsa 16f. 36c. ; and that
of rye 10f. 63c. for 1,000 kilogrammes. The duties on im-
portatien and exportation remain the same as before.
The Senate has discussed and adopted to-day the articles of
the first chapter of the budget of the Minister of the Interior ;
and the Chamber of Representatives continued the debate on
the budget of the public works of which it adopted several
articles.
Several journals announce that their Royal Highnesses the
Duke of Nemours, Aumale, and Montpensier, will arrive at
Brussels on the 15th, but we believe there is no foundation
for this statement.
The llfoniteur publishes a law, dated the 7th instant, by
which the Government is authorised to grant to Richards
and Co., the iron-railway D' Entre, Sandre, and Meuse, and
its branches as the basis laid down in the convention of 21st
of January, 1845, between the Minister of Public Works and
that Company.
ALExlsmnlit, FEB. 6.—Mr. John Galloway, who arrived
here yesterday on board the Hibernia steamer, has been com-
missioned by Mehemet Ali to survey the desert between
Cairo and Suez, and to make an estimate of the expense of
an iron-railroad on that line, and if it should not prove too
great, the work is to be commenced as soon as possible.
Mehemet Ali, who has quite recovered from his late indis-
position is gone with Linant Bey, from Cairo to Fayound, to
be present at the opening of a a canal ; he intends afterwards
to go in a steamer to Upper Egypt.—Allgemeine Zeitung,
March 5.

BELGIAN FUNDS.—Bausszts, Mmtcui.
Actual Debt, 21 per Cent ••••••• • • • • • • •
Rothschild's Loan, Five per Cent —
Loan of Thirty Millions, Four per Cent •• • 9814
Ditto Three per Cent.
Ditto Thirty-seven Millions, ditto •. • • 77
Ditto, ditto, 1840 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 103!i3
Ditto, ditto, 1844 •
Ditto of the City, 13.43 lO3
Ditto, 1832
Bank of Belgium • ... • .. 626
—Brussels Papers. March 8.
AUSTRIAN FUNDS.—VIENNA, MARCH I.
5 per Cent. Metalliques ••• • • ...... 112
4 per Cent. ditto •
3 per Cent. ditto
Loan, 1834 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Ditto, 1839 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Bank Shares
Esterhazy's Loan •••• • • . • • •• • •
—Aligemeine Zeitung, March 4.

: : :. 1640

• ---
ANCIENT WROUGHT-IRON
WORK.
In ancient works, such as hinges, locks, bolts, rivets,
railings, or screens, the greatestingenuity to produce
beauty, in addition to skill to render the work_ sound and
fit for its purpose,
is apparent. You see that the man
an artist as well as a smith, that he understood the
wasma terial on which ho was working, and knew how an
effect was to be obtained by it. The beauty of the
foliage in some works of .the sixteenth century formed
out of thin iron plates, simply twisted up by a tool, is
marvellous. Tracery was produced by plates differently
pierced, laid one over the other, without any attempt at
disguise, and fiat bars were rivetted together, and made
ornamental by the very rivets. Those men, as we said
before, were artists as well as smiths : ono of them, in-
deed, Quentin Matsys, shows himself so to the world in
another material; but his reputation as the worker of the
iron screen of King Edward the Fourth's tomb in St.
George's Chapel, at 'Windsor, is as great as it is for his
well-known picture of the 'Misers, at Windsor Castle.
That extraordinary piece of ironwork is now under
repair at Messrs. Bramah's, and must be considered one
of the finest specimens in the country, presenting
panelling and tracery, crockets, finials, and minute orna-

ments, wrought in the most perfect and art istical manner.
Inquiring of one of the firm wh,ther lie would be able
to produce a similar work, his reply was, " Certainly ;
but not by contract, or under limitation of time:" era
these, there is no doubt, are the great bars against th.s
improvement of our own mechanics and artisans. Thy
master cannot afford to develop a man's ability; what h©
is obliged to seek for is, the greatest quantity of work in
the smallest space of time: excellent work won't do;
work that will pass is all that he can hope to give.
And the result, as might have been expected, is a
lamentable decline in many of the constructive arts.—
The Builder.

DEBATE ON THE INCOME-TAX...-.

DIRECT TAXATION.

Though the wisdom and honesty of Parliament have
inflicted the income-tax for a further period of three
years, thus exacting the same sum from the uncertain.
and contingent funds of professional men, as from fixed.
and enduring property, nevertheless there is much in.
the debate wich calls for congratulation. Not by one
but by several Members, was the great prin-
ciple of direct taxation announced, as the most politic
and the most just.. This doctrine was enforced by us iu
the earliest numbers of this journal, and it formed a.
distinctive feature in our original prospectus. We then.
were told, that the doctrine was wild and chimerical ;
that it might be good in the abstract, but was absurd
in the concrete ; we were charged with advocating
the impracticable ; and when we referred to the
first six centuries of the monarchy, when direct
taxation obtained, we were told, that the system might
suit a comparatively barbarous age, but wasincompatible
with a high degree of civilisation. We remember Sir
William Clay dtlivcring a long philippic against our
views in the House of Commons, and not a single Mew.-
ber opposed him. Opinions, however, are now materially
changed, and the debate of Wednesday night very sig-
nificantly in,licates in what direction the mind of the
country is running. Mr. Evart supported the principle
of direct taxation ; so did Dr. Bowring ; it found a,
friend even in the Conservative Lord Sandon ; while Mr.

Hawes gave notice that he should take the sense of the
House upon the question of direct taxation, either upon
the bringing up of the report, or on the third reading of
the Property-!ax Bill. The movement is thus fairly
commenced, and the circumstances of the country will
impel it forward, in spite of every resistance.
A direct tax on property is the necessary condition of
genuine free-trade. Mere anti-protectionists are not
free-traders ; mere anti-monopolists are not free-
traders. It is true, they claim the title of free-traders,
but only throu,4ll an abuse of language. To abolish a
differential duty—for instance, on sugar—shortens the
fiscal chain, by knocking off some of its links; but, if
any iinpoi t duty whatever be retained, whether oit
foreign or colonial sugar, it cannot be said that the trade
is free. It is a contradiction in terms, nor is the absur-
dity weakened by saying, that such import duty is for
purposes of revenue, not for protection.
We shall never arrive at just conclusions on this sub-
ject, till we broadly and clearly separate commerce from
revenue. If we desire free-trade as the end, we must
will all the means by which it can be established. Hence
it follows, that the abolition of Customs and Excise
must precede any practical realisathai of free-trade.
Let us endeavour to point out some of the more im-
portant consequences that would follow the introduction
of this relation to property as it now exists, with our
public indebtednes;. Under a perfectly free trade the
price of wheat in this country would fall to 335. per
quarter. During the last war, when our national debt
was doubled in amount, the average price of wheat was
87s. per quarter. If we repay that debt at the rate of
335. per quarter, the debtors would be givin the credi-
tors nearly three times the amount borrowed; or, w hat
is the same thing, we should, de facto, swell the debt
from 800 millions to nearly 2,400 millions. This would
amount to a complete revolution in property ; it would
be better for the landed proprietors at once to transfer
all their title-deeds to the fundholders ; for, with such
burdens as they would have to sustain, on the hypothesis
we are now considering, their possession of the soil would
be simply nominal, and in no respect beneficial.
Under this view of the subject, we may consider
direct taxation, because of our public indebtedness, im-
practicable. It would involve a wholesale confiscation,
and create a ruin of existing interests, as sweeping
and as desolating, as though the united hordes of Gen-
giskhan and Attila were to be resuscitated from their
graves and renew their work of devastation.
How, then, shall we introduce direct taxation, with-
out these awful consequences ? Let us first understand
what we propose by direct taxation. It seems to us to
be a system by which all the burdens of the State
may be shifted from industry to property, so that the
poor may be relieved from all fiscal assessments what-
ever. This may be accomplished by an indirect mode of
direct taxation, which simply requires a free-trade in the
precious metals, so that gold may no longer be
tied down to a Mint price, but rise and fall in
value according to the laws of supply and demand. The
true law of the Currency is nothing more than the law
of ratios applied to the instrument of exchange, and may
be reduced into the form of an algebraic equation. It is
because that law of ratios has been violated by the Legis-
lature, that the country is constantly witnessing the al-
ternate sacrifice of the -agriculturists and the manu-
facturers. .

Assuming corn to be the standard of value, and the
precious metals to be the measure of value, we must first
ascertain the relations that gold; silver, and corn bear to
each other in their natural or untaxed state. It has been
proved that they stand to each other in the following re-.
lations of equivalency.

1 Quarter 0' Cor❑ = (lwts. of Gehl which = 6!,joz._of Silver 7.

Taking our present standard, according to Peel's Bill
of 1819, which makes the ounce of gold the equivalent
of 67 shillings of silver and 100. of copper (allowing
lid. for mintage), then the price of the quarter of wheat,
expressed in silver, would be 335., taking silver at 58. od.
per ounce. So long as direct taxation was maintained,
these ratios would be permanent and unfluctuating.
Bat introduce the principle of indirect taxation—apply
it to corn, and put a tax upon it, say of 50 per cent., then
the corn, to repay the producer, must rise from Si dwts.
of gold to 124 dwts. of gold ; for, if not, the funda-
mental ratio between the two would be disturbed,
and the original equivalency would vanish. Now,
this is the very error Peel committed. He tied down
the gold to 8} dwts., while he indirectly taxed the
corn, thus confounding value with price. It is
clear that taxation does not increase the value of the
commodity taxed ; but it renders a higher price neces-
sary, exactly so much higher as is the amount of taxa-
tion. If tLe measure of value remains a fixed quantity,
it can only measure natural values ; therefore, with this
restriction, there is nothing to measure the tax added to
natural value. Consequently, where indirect tares are
levied, with a fixed price of gold, such taxes must fall
on the producer, not on the consumer ; in this manner,
industry is depreciated and property appreciated, or, to
use the popular phrase, the rich grow richer and the
poor poorer, precisely because, under such a system, the
rich escape all taxation.
Now, the remedy for the evil is simple and efficacious.
Liberate gold from the Mint price; let it be sold at the
market price; and let all Bank-notes be convertible into
gold, not at the fixed Mint price, but at the fluctuating
market price: then wages and profits would rise exactly
to the height taxation required, and competition would
prevent them passing that limit. The excess of price,
over and above natural value, would be condensed in
commodities, and, therefore, he who consumed most,
would pay most: thus the taxes would fall on the rich
as the great consumers. In this way, then, we arrive
at direct taxation through an indirect process; and, to
effect this, we ask no more than a free trade in gold.
This is the remedy for all our ills; and when it is per-
ceived, the League and the Protection Societies will
shake hands, their antagonism will cease, and they will
be united in the bonds of amity.—Sentiael