The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-23 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

PROM TEE EVENING PAPERS OP YESTERDAY.

GLOBE.—The near approach of the period when
Parliament will be called upon to decide whether the
property and income-tax shall be abandoned, or con-
tinued in a modified form for a longer period, invests
with peculiar interest the question of its superior fit-
ness as a means of obtaining the necessary supplies for
the government and defence of the country, to an
indirect system of taxation. This question is dis-
cussed, with considerable clearness, in the pamphlet
on the property-tax by G. P. Bushe, Esq., to
which we alluded on Monday. We resume our
notice of that pamphlet, for the purpose of examining
the writer's views on the expediency of continuing,
and even perpetuating, the tax on property as a sub-
stitute for the existing system. Mr. Bushe strongly
advocates a modification of the present income-tax, so
as to convert it into a property tax, which shall be
levied upon every description of property in the United
Kingdom, whether the proprietor resides at home or
abroad. One of the arguments—the expense of collect-
ing the indirect taxes—adduced in support of this re-
commendation, is worthy special attention. The pro-
portion which the means bear to the end, will always
be a' consideration in the fiscal arrangements of a wise
Government :—" The Customs produce annually
about 22,000,0001., and the expense of the establish-
ment, in all its department, civil and military, for
collecting this sum, is about 2,400,0001., or nearly 11
per cent. on the amount received. Now, according
to the best authorities, about 19,000,0001. of the
Customs' duties are obtained with comparative little
difficulty or expense ; and it is to secure the other
3,000,0001. that a great part of the establishment is
required ; the proportion of which is estimated at
about 1,000,000/., or 33 per cent. on the sum collec-
ted." This most improvident expenditure—this waste
of public money, the impolicy of which a careful re-
vision of our present system of taxation would expose,
and thus prepare for its abandonment—is thus illus-
trated :—" If a merchant sends his clerk to call in
moneys due to him ; and, on his return, the clerk
makes out a bill for expenses amounting to one-
third of the sum brought home, the merchant will
assuredly investigate the matter, and introduce
very material alterations into his system of proceed-
ing." Yet it is in a precisely analogous manner that
England, the most commercial nation in the world,
has for a long time collected a large portion of' her
revenues, and still continues to collect them. An abo-
lition of the Customs' duties which produce these three
millions, would enable the Government to reduce the
expense of a Customs' department by about a million
—a clear saving to the country to this considerable ex-
tent. It is certain that the demands of the revenue
must be supplied. The great mass of the labouring
poor can only be enabled to pay an increased rate of
taxation by an increased rate of wages; so that, after
all, the means of taxation must be furnished by
the wealthier classes. Some of these may be tempted
to cry out against the increase of taxation to which
they would be subjected by a tax upon property;
but without reason. The further taxation is removed'
from capital, and the more indirect its operation, the
greater must be the cost of its collection ; or, in other
words, the greater must be the sum lost in gather-
ing it in, and the greater the gross amount re-
quired for the services of the State. Nothing can be
more unequal than the pressure, nothing more expen-
sive than the collection, of revenue from the great
masses of' the population. If the labourer is to pay
one shilling, the capitalist will have to supply him
with much more than one shilling, in order to make
up for the waste and profits of capital while passing
through so many hands—downwards, from the
capitalist to the labourer ; and upwards, from the la-
bourer to the tax-gatherer. The ultimate saving to
the community by a system of direct taxation
would be immense. Nor is this the only
form in which the people would find relief
from the substitution of direct for indirect
taxation. It is under the veil of indirect taxa-
tion that monopoly, with all its miserable conse-
quences, has been allowed to stalk through the land.
It is ,only because the evil is not discovered in its
natural hideousness, that a bread-tax in the shape
of corn-laws, or sugar-tax in the shape of protection
to the West India interests, has been allowed to carry
on its inordinate exactions. Were the wants of the
State supplied from the property of its subjects, with-
out any circumambulations, the benefit would be felt
by all. The burden would be equally distributed;
and payment for protection would be made in pro-
portion to the value of the property protected.
STANDARD.—At a late hour yesterday it was
determined to withdraw the addition to the statute
"de auctoritate," &c., intended to be proposed at the
Oxford Convocation on the 13th prox. We deeply
regret this determination, but we have been
some time prepared for it by the multitude
and variety of objections to the intended proceed-
ings which we have heard from different quarters—
objections not proceeding from the Romanist party
only or principally, but from men who highly prize
the Protestant character of the Church and, Univer-
sity, prize it above everything, except—each man's
display of his own private wisdom. It is a melan-
choly reflection that in the age in which we live, no
united effort can ever be made upon mere reason and
conviction—passion is the only feeling that will so
far discipline our rampant self-opinion as to bring
us to act in perfect harmony. Tell any one in cold
blood that he must sacrifice this crotchet or that
scruple to ensure the success of a common enterprise,
and he will tell you that his crotchet or scruple is very
precious in his eyes, and that he is not a man to
compromise his own convictions in even a trifling
matter; while in this very obstinacy about trifles he
is making the meanest and most unprofitable of all
compromises—selling a noble end for the saving of
some petty means. This wretched temper of the
time is almost a sufficient excuse for those who
inflame men by appeals to their most violent
passions before calling upon them to act in pursuit
of any important object, a complete excuse for the
authorities in the Church declining to take any
definite course in repressing the evils that threaten
the Church, and ultimately the State, with ruin.
Men can be brought to concur in nothing
definite, because such concurrence involves the
humiliating confession, that there are others
in the world as wise as one's self ; the offer
of the most simple definite proposition is a sum-
mons to the exercise of that most vulgar and
universally diffused of talents, the talent for
" picking holes." What simpler proposition, in-
deed, can be imagined than this, that " men
ought to be made to say only what they mean,
and to mean what they say ?" Yet this is the
proposition which cannot be safely hazarded at
a convocation of a Christian Protestant university.
This state of the public mind is distressing, not
merely as affording protection to the most serious
evils, but as proof of a great intellectual decline.
Great men wrestle with or dispose of objections
that little men weave about themselves, like some
insects, until they are smothered in them. We
need not reflect long to know whether the
manufacturers of or the tramplers upon objections
most advance the knowledge and the happiness of
mankind ? Not all the Germans that ever
lived—and they have ever been and are the
great artists in this line—have done so
much for human knowledge and learning as
Locke and Butler, Bentley and Porson—men more
remarkable for nothing than their contempt of the
objection trade. The most eminent objector that
ever disgraced this country was Mr. Malthus.
He objected to feeding the poor, lest they should
exhaust the granaries of Providence. He shad
his day, as the objectors to making men speak
truth will, we suppose, have theirs. Posterity
will look upon both with equal contempt and
pity. But Mr. Malthus was the cause of inde-
scribable evil ; and the objectors of whom we
have now to complain will, we have no doubt,
be the authors of even worse evil. Let us not be
understood as imputing blame to the Oxford Board ;
they have done their part nobly in, framing the sta-
tute, and perhaps they have used a sound discretion
in withdrawing it. We know not whether it is com-
petent to a single %ember of Convocation to propose
the measure. If to, we have no doubt that it will
be proposed—aye, and carried too—while the Board
will be relieved rom the responsibility of having it
carried by a small majority.

RESIGNATION OF MR. BARON GURNEY.—Mr.
Baron Gurney, in consequence of continued ill-health
and increasing weakness, has sent to the Lord Chan-
cellor his resignation of the high office of one of the
Barons of the Exchequer, which the Learned Baron has
tilled for some years with great ability and satisfaction
to the bar and the public. The general opinion in West-
minster Hall is that Mr. Platt, Q.C., will succeed to the
vacant seat on the Exchequer Bench, but of course no
arrangement has at present been made.—Evening paper.
WHITTLUSET.—AA an early hour on Sunday
morning, or late on Saturday se'nnight, some thieves
brokeinto St. Andrew's church, by removing the glass
from one of the windows. The communion chest was
also found broken open, but fortunately the plate had
previously been removed to a place of greater security.—
Cambridge Advertiser.

STATE OF TRADE.—The yarn market continues
very active and buoyant, showingan advance
one-
eighth
.per pound in several descriptions of yarn, or
ndaily in 40's mule, suitable for the India market,
earslr.t,
and some particular counts and qualities of water
twist. The goods continue much the same as last
week ; prices are perfectly firm, and stocks low ; but,
except for good 40-inch shirtings, which are in de-
mand, there is no great activity in the market.—Man-
chester Guardian.
ROCHDALE FLANNEL MARKET, MONDAY, JAN. 20.
-There has been but a very indifferent market. Few
buyers have attended, and the business transacted has
been upan a limited scale. Manufacturers are asking
more for pieces, on account of the increased price of the
raw material—Manchester Guardian.
Dispatches from the Governor of Gibraltar were re-
Nived yesterday at the Colonial-office.

TH

A BISHOP AND A RECTOR.

There is, in the north of Devon, a gentleman of
large fortune, rector of a parish, who keeps a pack of
hounds. He is celebrated all the country round for
his old-fashioned hospitality, his love of rur 11 sports,
and his encouragement of wrestling and other athletic
sports. He is rather getting beyond his prime, or
otherwise he would have been backed to take all the
bench of bishops, " one down and t'other come on,"
with his " mauleys." He is not a man of refined
mind ; not so good as Fielding's Parson Adams, nor
so bad as his Parson Trulliber, but a cross between
the two. Well, respecting this reverend man and his
parochial doings, strange rumours reached the ear of
the bishop, and he determined to "take him in
hand." He had tried him at an early visitation, and
addressing the reverend gentleman as he stood
amongst the assembled divines, he said to him,
" Mr. —, I wish to have a few words with you
in private." The honest divine roared out in a
broad vernacular twang, " Nothin' privut betwin yue
and me, my lard; whatever you've got to zay to me
zay it heer." The bishop declined in his blandest
tones. But in vain. The reverend gentleman, who
professes to be as open as the day, and, indeed, is so,
still reiterated his desire that his reverend brethren
should have the benefit of any advice the bishop had
to bestow on himself. The bishop still declined ; he
must talk to him in private. " Very well, my lard
(exclaimed the divine), your lardship will find me at
my quatters (quarters) at the George." The bishop
did not go to the George (a respectable farmers' inn),
and the interview did not take place. It was destined
to be held at the reverend gentleman's own house,
and this brings me to my story of the brandy.
The bishop had written to this exemplary divine,
and ' received no reply; in short, no notice of
any kind was taken of his letter. Having to make
a pastoral tour into the neighbourhood, and being
determined to see for himself into matters which
had been literally reported to him, the bishop one
fine morning found himself travelling in his
episcopal equipage, just as the apostles travelled, very
near the house of the rector. That diligent minister
was on horseback, and arrayed for hunting. Seeing
the bishop making towards his house, he turned round
and galloped home. He told his housekeeper that a
gentleman was coming, to show him into the parlour,
and call him down. She was not to notice that the
expected visitor had been seen, or that her master had
been out. The bishop came, and the bishop was shown
into the best parlour. Great was the flutter around
the rectory when they found who it was that had
come. In a few minutes the reverend gentleman en-
tered, and to his astonishment found the bishop ac-
tually in his house. He moderated the ecstacy of his
admiration so far as not to give the bishop a stage
hug. But he ran over to the bell, pulled it violently,
and thus brought in the domestic at a gallop. " Did
yue knaw that the bushup was here ? " he
roared. " Ees," exclaimed the terrified maiden.
" Then why didn't 'e bring un some brandy?"
he retorted, rushing up and down the room, stamping
and storming at this neglect of his bishop. The
servant stood aghast. The bishop exclaimed " Si-
lence, silence !" turned up the whites of his eyes, and
endeavoured to look like a primitive Christian. But
he was in the wrong place to make any impression
in that line. " Silence !" roared the divine ; " Si-
lence ! When you've come over the North Devon
hills this cold morning to zee me, and her not to
give 'e no brandy ! Why, it was enough to make a
man go stark mad to see the hospitable character of
his house endangered by such unpardonable neglect."
The indignant divine was not to be pacified. The
bishop raised his voice authoritatively ; he demanded
silence ; "he wanted no brandy." But he had to
deal with one who could storm too—aye, and storm him
blind if it came to stentor-proof trial. The pious
bishop descended from command to entreaty—he really
wanted no brandy—" Why didn't you answer my
letter ?" he asked. " Letter, my Lord !" inquired
the Rev. Gentleman, " why, whatever could your
Lordship have to write to me about ? I thought I was
indebted to your friendship for the honour of your
visit." The bishop was very much surprised to find
that his missive had miscarried. " How did 'e zend
ut ?" asked the divine. " Through the post, of
course," replied the bishop. " Oh, that accounts
for't," said the divine, " I never take up letters by
the post—when I write to a gentleman, I zend my
servant wi ut!" I will not occupy your space by
stating all that is reported of the denouement. It is
sufficient to add that the bishop got out of the
house with all reasonable alacrity, after stating
what his letter was about, and hearing such ex-
planations as the reverend gentleman very frankly
tendered. One point was that "he kept hounds." He
said, " Show me a canon of the Church against keeping
of hounds, and I'll put them down." Another was
that people were seen to come out of his house drunk.
He pleaded that he was "main glad to zee his friends
at all times ; he put the best his house could afford
cheerfully before them ; he could not guage their
stomachs, and say, thus far shalt thou go and no fur•
ther," &c. Having replied in this orthodox fashion to
the bishop, his Lordship took his leave, and has never
been in the house since. Now Ido not mean to vouch
for the whole truth of these stories. What passed
between the bishop and the reverend gentleman has
never been mentioned by the former; the story is,
therefore, one-sided. I can only say that it was the
rage of clerical circles, and was most righteously be-
lieved to be true in substance, and I believe it to be
substantially true. Morning Chronicle.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
VICE-CHANCELLOR'S COURT, Jan. 22.
(Before Sir J. WIGRAM.)
EMPERINGHAM V. SHORT.

This case had been before the Court on Saturday and
Monday last, and his Honour, on the conclusion of the
latter day, stated that before giving his decision he
would read the notes of the common-law judge before
whom certain issues directed in the cause had been tried.
In February last the case came before the Court on ex-
ceptions to the Master's report, when the validity of a
sale of property, as between father and son, was im-
peached. On that occasion the two issues above-
mentioned were directed, to try whether a con-
sideration had been paid, and, if it had, whether
the conveyances were executed, on the part of the son,
to the purpose and intent to delay, binder, and defraud
the plaintiff; also whether certain moneys were receiv-
able under a sequestration. The issues having been
tried, a motion was made for a new trial, and this mo-
tion was now to be decided.

HIS HONOUR, having informed himself of the opinions
of the Learned Judge who tried the issues on the various
questions then decided, thought that there were no
grounds to warrant a new trial ; he therefore refused
the motion, with costs.