The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-30 00:00:00

reckonedrwould amount to 21,500,0001., and the Ex-
cise to 13,000,0001., the Property-tax to 5,100,000/.,
and with the other taxes the total amount would be
51,790,0001. After some other details respecting
the income and expenditure of the country, he ad-
verted with much satisfaction to the reduction of the
Three-and-Half per Cent. stock, and praised the House
and the country for the manner in which they had
supported him in a plan which reduced the in-
terest on the enormous sum of 250,000,0001. The
number of dissentients hardly required notice, they
were so small, the total amount being only 247,1101.,
and the greater proportion of that amount arose from
the circumstance that residents abroad, and chiefly in
the colonies had not yet signified their intentions. It
was probable, however, that in (hie time the greater
part of them would signify their assent, and the num-
ber of dissentients would amount to a mere trifle. To
pay off these dissentients, he proposed to set apart
200,0001. The total expenditure of the year he cal-
culated at 48,643,1701., the amount of the revenue at
51,790,000/., leaving a surplus of 3,146,830/. Next
came the reduction of taxation, and we regret it is
so meagre. The first reduction he proposed was one
on glass, which would amount to 45,0001. The
second was a reduction of the excise on the article
of vinegar. This announcement excited loud laugh-
ter. He then endeavoured to repress the laughter by
showing the importance of the article in various
trades and manufactures, but without effect. The
laughter still continued, and he proceeded to another
item, which he said was one of considerable import-.
ance—marine insurance. He then stated the re-
ductions in detail, which, on the whole, would
amount to 100,0001. He also proposed to reduce the
stamp duty on agreements made by railway com-
panies. The next proposed reduction also excited
loud laughter. " I mean," said he, " a reduc-
tion in the article of currants.—(Laughter.) Now,
what are currants ? They are but grapes after
all.— (Continued laughter.) I propose to re-
duce the duty on • currants from 225. to 153.,"
which would make a sacrifice of about 90,0001. On
coffee imported from foreign States he would also
make a reduction. The duty at present is Bd., and
he proposed to reduce it to 6d. From this change,
and another on chicoree root, he calculated a diminu-
tion of revenue to the amount of 50,0001. On foreign
wool, which he considered the most important item,
he proposed to take off the entire duty, which last year
amounted to 100,0001. The total reduction on glass,
vinegar, currants, coffee, marine insurances, and wool,
would amount in round numbers to 400,000/. With
regard to sugar, he said it was his intention to move,
when the treaty with Brazil expired in November
next, a reduction on all sugars exempt from the
slave trade, which would throw open all the countries
eastward of the Cape, and thereby encourage the
trade with China. According to this arrangement,
therefore, no reduction will take place on this neces-
sary article of life till next session. The Right Hon.
Gentleman, after some flourishes about the prosperity
of the country and the forbearance of the House of
Commons, concluded his long speech amid cheers.
Mr. HUME expressed great dissatisfaction that the
reductions were not greater, while he commended the
Government for some of the proposed changes. They
ought not, he said, to go on in this higgling manner;
they ought to set free all those branches of industry
which were fettered by the Excise and Custom 'laws.
They might also reduce the army, navy. ordnance,
and miscellaneous estimates, and make a saving of
4,000,0001. a year.
Mr. WILLIAms also expressed his regret that

larger reductions had not been made, and expressed
his firm conviction that the income-tax, instead of
being temporary, would be perpetual.
Mr. BARING said one great omission of the Right
Hon. Gentleman was with regard to the
income-tax; no mention had been made whe-
ther it was the intention of the Government
to continue it beyond three years, as originally pro-
posed, and upon that the whole financial calculations
hung. It would have been a more manly course to
have stated whether it was to cease or be continued
for three years longer. The only allusion to it was,
that the subject would be brought forward next year.
He approved of the reductions proposed, and only re-
gretted that they did not go further. As to the pro-
posed reductions on sugar, he could see no reason in
the Government scheme. It would encourage the
growth of sugar produced by slave States, as much as
if they admitted it at once from Brazil.
Sir ROBERT PEEL pointed at the danger and the
inconsistency of reducing the naticaPal establish-
ments, and particularly our naval and military forces,
while other countries were making large preparations
for any hostile event. With regard to the income-
tax, he considered it would be more conformable to
common sense to wait till the period for which it had
been fixed was expired. Next session they would be
much better qualified to discuss the question. He
then repeated what he had stated on the introduction
of the tax, namely, that Parliament, he hoped, would
not be unwilling to continue it for five years, but
possibly, owing to the increasing prosperity of the
country, it might not be required for more than three.
In the meantime it would be better to wait and see
the result of the proposed changes, and the state of
the country next year.
After some remarks from Mr. LABOUCHERE and
other Members the discussion closed.
Sir G. CLERIC gave notice that on Monday next the
House would be moved to resolve itself into Com-
mittee to take into consideration the question of the
Bank Charter.
The House tOjourned at a Quarter to Twelve.
We have not space to give an outline of the pro-
ceedings in the House of Lords, but we call the at-
tention of our readers to the discussion which took
place relative to the recal of Lord ELLENBOROUGII.
The Duke of WELLINGTON, it will be seen, denounced
in the strongest terms the course adopted by the
Court of Directors. He called their conduct indis-
creet, and added, that a more indiscreet exercise of
power had never been exerted since he became con-
nected with public affairs.

In adverting this morning to the Budget of the
CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, we gave him due
credit for the fidelity with which'he had redeemed
his promise of bringing forward the customary
financial statement of the year on the appointed
evening, instead of withholding it (after a bad official
fashion
ahi much
of
hf
more recent growth),
adv
repeated postponements,
t
ance by
advanced period of the session. We
m
can now pay this additional tribute to the Right
Hon. Gentleman's Ministerial punctuality and dis-
cretion. He accurately recapitulated the estimate he
had announced, in his statement of last year, with
regard to the various items of the public income and
expenditure; and was at no pains to slur over
any of the elements of deduction which it was neces-
sary to apply to the due appreciation of the results he
had to communicate to the House, favourable as,
primci facie, these were. For this candour the public
are much beholden to him; and for ourselves, we can
truly say that it tells with us to great advantage by
the side of that specious plausibility with which his
Right Hon. Leader and Chief affects, on all occasions,
to have nothing to conceal ; whereas the truth is, in
nine cases out of ten, this pseudo ingenuousness
amounts merely to the fact—that he has nothing to
communicate. Mr. GOULISURN, undoubtedly, went
about his figures and stated his case like a man of
business ; openly, and distinctly. So much for
'the Right Hon. Gentleman's statistics. As to the
scheme of future finance which they developed—the
soundness of the economic principles on which he
proposed, as to existing duties and imposts, their re-
tention or their modification—the amount of conces-
sions which these modifications involved to the great
necessity of ,free trade—or the ground which the
whole statement afforded for any reasonable hope of
the introduction into the councils of Government of a
liberal and intelligent policy that shall appreciate the
cruelly degraded condition and the righteous
demands of that portion of the community whose
existence depends on the expansion and activity of the
market for industrial labour, we must confess we are
utterly disappointed with this Budget of 1844. Its
exposition, moreover, held out, even incidentally, no
hopes to domestic trade or the foreign commerce of
the country, far relief from those fiscal shackles which
cramp, by absurdly imposed, or excessive duties, their
just evolution in some branches, and absolutely para-
lyze their energies in others. And, above all, it passed
over, unnoticed, unremembered as it were, the press-
ing domestic question of every hour, " What is to be
done towards the revision of our monetary system ?"
On the general statement of income or revenue,
and expenditure, it is clear that Mr. GOIILBTAIN boasts

that, after paying off the balance of deficit of 1843,
namely, 2,749,0001., he has, this year, an availablo
surplus of 1,400,0001. Now with the disposition of
2,749,0001. we have no quarrel. It may have been
much better thus to pay deficiency for 1843 out of
revenue for 1844, than to extinguish it—for the pre-
sent only—by loan. But we cannot without a mur-
mur witness his appropriation of the 1,400,0001.
Altogether, as Mr. WILLIAMS, of Coventry, well
reminded him, there had been, with the income and
property-tax, amounting, alone, in this last year, to
5,100,0001., an aggregate of additional taxes during
the last four years, of no less than 8,000,000/. Well,
with this elastic public income, and this net balance
in favour (after so large a demand upon it for the de-
ficiencies and delinquencies of its predecessor,) what
is it that 1844, so careful for 1843, is to do
for us, unfortunates, of the present day ? It takes
eight millions ; and it remits us 400,000/., not quite
so much! A liberal allowance of bread, this, to all
the sack absorbed into the QUEEN'S Exchequer. Let
us see upon what articles this 400,0001. is doled out.
On coffee there is to be a total reduction of
50,000/., which we hail with Mr. BARING as pro
tanto a homage to free trade ; and together with the
meditated discouragement of chicory, we trust it will
work well for the general trade and the unadulte-
rated reputation of coffee. But such fractional pates
of financial confectionary as a little 12,0001. on
vinegar, to oblige the admirers of sharp flavours—
and such glittering beads for grown children who
can be cheated out of their just claims for much
more solid and extensive modifications of foolish im-
posts, as 35,000/. on glass, are downright puerilities
to be introduced into such a statement by the CHAN-
CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER of Great Britain, dealing
with a yearly income of 52,000,000/. The reduction of
100,000/. on marine insurance is very good ; yet it is
provoking to find it not infinitely better by at least a
proportionate reduction of that bitter tax on prudence,
foresight, and frugality, the duty on fire insurances.
100,000/. off the duty on foreign wool, we believe,
may rank in point of utility with the reduction on the
duty of coffee. But whilst Mr. GOULBURN was
throwing away 90,0001. from his revenue on cur•
rants, why did not he throw after it some of the
hundreds of thousands of pounds which his, coffers re-
ceive annually from the poor, levied on the corn that
should have produced the cheap flour wherewith
puddings for the currants might have been prepared
by them ? We reserve till another opportunity the
remarks we have to offer on the bad faith evinced by
Sir ROBERT PEEL on the subject of the Income-tax,
and on the course it behoves the contributors to that
obnoxious and disgraceful impost now to adopt, in
insisting upon its repeal.

We are glad that the League, through its recog-
nised leader, has spoken out on the subject of
shortening the hours of labour, and shown to the
country that in this, as in all social questions, sound
philosophy is the surest guide to useful philanthropy.
Mr. COBDEN has pointed out the means of effecting
the good which all must desire, the diminution of
factory toil, without inflicting what would be a more
than counterbalancing evil, a reduction of wages, and
consequently of the means of obtaining the necessa-
ries of life. The opposition which Lord ASHLEY has
met from many of the Leaguers, was obviously
directed not against his end, but his means. Unfortu-
nately, we live in an age pre-eminent above all others
for boldness in misrepresentation, and the advocates
of monopoly eagerly embraced such an opportunity
of placing the free-traders in an invidious light
before the operative classes. Mr. COBDEN'S speech
has removed all excuse for such misapprehension,
and we cannot help wishing that it had been made
at an earlier stage of the conflict. Profits
are the wages-fund of the country, and
Lord ASHLEY'S proposal directly and imme-
diately tended to their diminution ; but it is to
be first considered whether manufacturing profits are
at present so great as to be able to endure such a
subtraction as must follow from taking away one-
sixth of the income derived from the most important
branches of British industry. It is on the produc-
tiveness of capital that wages depend; to render
capital unproductive is to condemn the working-man
to idleness and starvation ; to lessen the amount of
its productiveness is to lower the wages, and, there-
fore, the subsistence of the operative in the same
proportion. It was, therefore, the course equally
pointed out by sound policy and true humanity first
to secure the wages-fund, and then to regulate the
amount of employment. We have been from the
first zealous advocates of the Ten Hours' Bill ; we
lament that there should be a necessity in the nine-
teenth century, and in such a country as England,
for legislative interference to obtain for the working-
men such relaxation of employment as is necessary
for the preservation of their physical health and for
their moral and intellectual advancement. It seems
now to be conceded on all hands that nothing will be
done on the subject this session. Our statesmen feel
that they are fettered and impeded by the inroads which
restrictive laws and the income-tax have already made
on the great wages.fund, the profits of commercial
and manufacturing industry. It is therefore the clear
duty of all who have advocated a Ten Hours' Bill to
consider the means by which the wages-fund may be
so increased as to allow the hours of labour to be
shortened without abstracting from the income of the
working man, which is limited enough already, and
subject to heavy deductions from the unequal pres •
sure of our system of taxation. As wages come out
of profits, and profits arise from sales, it is evident that
an increase of the wages-fund can only arise from
enlarged markets. Let us then earnestly endeavour
to remove those monopolies and restrictions which
close the markets of the world against the products of
our industry. Free-trade includes a safe Ten Hours'
Bill in its blessings ; it will enable the manufacturer
to sell more goods, to pay more wages, and to give
to those in his employment the rest essential to their
health, and the leisure necessary for their social im-
provement. Not only will the manufacturers be able
to give equal, or perliaps more, wages for a shorter
period of work, but the operatives will be in a posi-
tion to command them, as indeed they could have
dontin 1835 and 1836, had they, during that pros-
perous period, fixed their desires on a Ten Hours'
Bill. The season of brisk trade is the season of the
operative's strength ; when two men seek one master
the master may dictate his own conditions ; but when
two masters seek one man the position is reversed,
and the operative has the power of legislating for him-
self in fixing the amount and remuneration of his
labour.

Madrid journals of the 22d have been received, but
they bring no news. In the Corresponsal, a Govern-
ment paper, the doings of the BRAVO Cabinet are
summed up in these words :—" The Ministry are
employed on the magnificent work of re-organizing
unhappy Spain."

On the Bourse business was done in the Three
per Cents. to the amount of 72 millions and a, half,
besides 17 millions in the Five per Cents., and 13
millions in coupons. The Three per Cents. opened
at 361, at 60 days, and after. a good deal of fluctua-
tion rose to 38, when they began to decline, and
ultimately fell to 351, at which price they.closed.
The Five per Cents. opened at 221, and closed at
22 5-16, at 60 days.

The Paris papers bring no intelligence of import-
ance. The discussion on the Education Bill in the
Chamber of Peers was continued on Saturday, and
again adjourned. Every one seems tired of the
affair, but as a great number of Peers had inscribed
their names, and prepared speeches for the occasion,
as a matter of course, they must go through the
ceremony. The Bill introduced by the Government
will be adopted without any material alteration. In
the Chamber of Deputies numerous petitions were
presented for the abolition of slavery in the colonies ;
and on Saturday next a report is to be made on the
subject, which is looked forward to with great in-
terest, as the Minister of Marine, Admiral MACKAU,
had announced that he would take that opportunity of
stating to the Chamber the views of the Government,
with regard to the proposed changes. Arrests still
continue to be made in the army, but no journal
states for what cause. The following mysterious state-
ment appears in the Courrier Francais of Sunday
" The arrest of non-commissioned officers still con-
tinues, and the rumours of military conspiracies are,
therefore, gaining ground. Rigorous measures have
been exercised towards the Bth Artillery, which has
recently left Toulouse. It is even affirmed that the
Ministry suspect officers, some of a high rank. The
imprisonment of a colonel was at one time agitated,
and it is only owing to motives of relationship that.

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