The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-20 00:00:00

en) irb Mtittton

THE FUNDS-(CLOSING PRICES.)

BRITISH FUNDS.
Bank Stock ... .
3 per Cent. Reduced
3 per Cent. Consols
New 31%, per Cent . 1043‘
Long Annuities to expire Jan.lB6o 12 3-16
Ditto 30 years, Oct. 10, 1859 ... 12
Ditto 30 years, Jan. 5, 1860 ... 1174
India Stock
India Bonds, 1,0004.
Ditto under 1,000/. ......-. .....
Bank Stock for Account 213
Consolsloo
...,7

India Stock for Account 2BBli
Exchequer Bills, 1,0004,110. 57 pm.
Ditto 5001.
Ditto Small
FOREIGN FUNDS.
Columbian:Bonds 6 per Cent. l4°‘
Danish Bonds, 1825,3 per Cent. ... 8' ji;
SHARES.

Birmingham and Gloucester, 100 paid
108%
Bristol and Exeter, 70 paid
Bristol and Gloucester, 30 paid .
Catodonian, 5 paid 4 !'4.
Churnet Valley, 2 paid.....
Dublin and Belfast Junc+' Jon 21/2 paid ......
rJ
Eastern Counties, 25 r
.aid,
1814
Ditto Perpetual, ''
per,Cent, 3% paid, No. 1.
Ditto ditto, _1:)s. 4d.
p
Edinburgh a*
id Glasgow, 50
50d paid
lak2
63
Great Wee cern, 75 paid
176
Ditto
Half Shares, 50 p aid lO2
Ti—} .to Fifths, 20 paid 4O
.'7..arwich, 1 paid... ll4
Lancaster and Carlisle, 15 paid
London and Birmingham (Stock) ... .. —
Ditto, Quarter Shares, 2 paid
London and Blackwall, 16%
London and Greenwich, 12% paid
LOndon an.: South Western, 41a paid SO
Ditto New, 2% paid
London and Croydon, 131. 15s. 9d. r aid ..... - lsb
London and York. 2% paid
Mancheti.er and Leeds, 70 paid
Ditto Half Shares, 30 paid 55
Midland, 100 paid ... 132
Ditto New, 2 paid
Midland, Birmingham, and Derby, 100 paid 9S
Newcastle and Darlington:Junction, 24 paid... 661/.
North British, 71/2 paid
Northern and Eastern, 45 paid
Ditto Scrip, 30 paid %. 44%
Portsmouth Direct, 21,4 paid'
Rugby, 1 paid
South Eastern ;.nd Dover, 33h paid 4Bl;_
Ditto New-Shares, 4 paid 21:;?,
Ditto, %Ilan'
Yarmout,ii and Norwich, 20 paid
York P.od North Midland, 50 paid
Vitt() Half Shares, 25 paid
FRENCH RAILWAYS.

Boulogne and Amiens, 2 paid
Paris and Lyons, 2 paid
JOIST STOCK BANKS.
London and Westminster, 20 paid,

2i 1,4

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.

GLOBE.—The proposal to inflict an income-tax on
the nation, as a means of meeting the deficiency of the
revenue in 1841, was a bold measure of finance. It
took the country by surprise. The silence which en-
sued was not acquiescence—it was the effect of asto-
nishment. When the public mind had recovered from
the amazement which had been produced by the coup
d'etat of the newly-installed Minister, the dishonesty
and iniquity of the proposed tax were denounced ; and
the insult and injury which the obnoxious impost
would inflict on the classes whose incomes were de-
rived from professions and trades, were loudly
complained of. The question, whether the tax
shall he allowed to expire, or shall be con-
tinued for a longer period, will necessarily be
comildered in the next session of Parliament.
The three years certain, for which it was ori-
ginally imposed, will then expire. The Budget of
1845 will be framed either on the continuance of the
tax, in its present shape, for at least two more years
--on a modification of its present scale—or on the
principle of allowing it to expire at the termination of
the three years; viz., in October, 1845. If the country
be not prepared for an extension of the tax for two
more yeas—with a high probability of being then re-
warder.l for its patient submission to vexatious inquiries
int% private affairs, and injurious abstractions from
c'xitinFent profits toad salaries, by a further continuance
of the impost—the present is the most appropriate time
for action. The organs of public opinion are especially
bound, at the present time, to employ their powers, to
rouse the public mind to a sense of its position with re-
ference to this tax, and to endeavour to bring the
legitimate exercise of that power to bear upon. the
Government' and the Legislature. An inco,,ne and
property-tax is too productive to be spontaneously
parted with by any Ministry. Five millions of an-
nual revenue, collected with comparative ease, places
a large sum at the disposal of tae Govern-
ment, and thus enables it to cirery out many
desirable schemes of its own. 'There is, there-
fore, little chance of the Y...inister of the day
coming down to Parliamni, and making the grati-
fying communication that, out of their abundant
grace and favour. Ler Majesty's Ministers had deter.
mined on removing the property and income-tax
from the shoulders of the people. There must be
" eressue from without"—an " impatience of
taxation which, though it may be designated " ig-
norance" by the Ministry, whom it disturbs and an-
noys, 'Rill eventually succeed. With a good grace, or
with kndiscreet indications of having yielded to the
very influence it affects to despise, the Government will
gill, up the obnoxious tax to the demands of the
country, and the " ignorant impatience" of the people
will be rewarded with success. We are not, how-
ever, disposed to advocate the absolute and entire
repeal of the income and property-tax. The finances
of the country will not justify the removal of
the entire tax. If the five millions derived from
this source of revenue were to be abandoned, the
deficiency which would be thus caused must be sup-
plied from other sources. The imposition of other
duties, difficult to be discovered, and the levying of
which would be productive of embarrassment and in
jury to the trade and commerce of the country, would
be the consequence. This will induce the Legislature
to refuse its sanction to an immediate abolition of the
tax, and will prevail with the considerate part of the
community to concur in its decision. A calm and
temperate view of the question will lead to a con-
clusion that the tax on landed and funded property
might be advantageously retained—though on a scale
more equitably adjusted than that on which these
descriptions of property are now assessed. The tax
on income derived from trades or professions, as at-
present computed and assessed, should be given up.
It involves an inequitable distribution of the tax. In-
comes, which may cease in a moment, and the family
of the individual be cast without resource upon the
world, are taxed on an equal ratio with realised pro-
perty, which, at the decease of its present possessor,
is available for the support of his family. This
view of the question is demonstrative of the in-
equitable distribution of the tax. This has been re-
peatedly urged. It is, obviously, an argument with
which Sir Robert Peel ought to be pressed.