The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-24 00:00:00

*tronbriibition

SUN OFFICE, Three o'Cloch.

In yielding to the determination of the minority in the
House of Commons last night, to postpone till after
Easter the resolution upon the inccme tax, Sir ROBERT
PEEL spoke in a petulant strain of the factious opposition
offered to his new financial scheme. Regarded apart
from every other consideration, there is something amaz-
ingly suspicious in the excessive eagerness of the Right
Hon. Baronet to pledge the country to the adoption of the
principle of this inquisitorial impost. The concoc-
tion of this nostrum cost him six months' labour, as
evidenced by his draughts for salary upon the Treasury ;
and yet he loses his temper because it is proposed that
the country shall have as many days to choose whether
or not it would be prudent to swallow it without limita-
tion of quantity. Now we will tell Sir R. PEEL that the
rules of the House of Commons, which enable an
honest minority to defeat the designs of a tyrant
Ministerial majority, were intended for such cases as
that of the income tax. They were designed to give an
honest minority the power of preventing the country
from being taken by surprise by the perfidy of a ma-
jority ready, at the beck of the Minister of the
day, to vote away their liberties, or their property,
or both. As the whole weight of the income
*tax must fall upon the middle and industrious
classes out of doors, the minority in the House
of Commons very properly and patriotically resolved
that the tax should not be imposed before time
was allowed for the legitimate expression of public opi-
nion respecting it. This is carrying out the princple of
the representation, and is deserving of the praise of every
part?, in the country.
Vs e are not, however, surprised at the petulant irrita-
tion of the Right Hon. Baronet. His pet scheme of
trade taxation is in imminent danger of being altogether
rejected. Short as is the time allowed for the expression
of public opinion against his nostrum, many Members,
who voted in the majority last night, next week will
shrink from assisting him to administer it. Petitions
against the income tax are getting up in every
part of the country, and every honr adds to,
the public hatred of this measure. In one
of these petitions from the Bankers, Merchants, Traders,
and other inhabitants of the city of Norwich, among
other weighty objections to such an impost, it is truly ob-
served that it would "inflict the deepest injury on the
industry of those engaged in trade and commercii, and
from the inquisitorial process adopted in levying it,
would cause a most injurious exposure of the affairs of
individuals ; destroy that confidence which. is so essen-
tial to the prosperity of trade ; and surround our com-
mercial transactions with an intricate web of espionage,
disgraceful to a Government based on constitutional
principles." The same petitioners, in an Address to the
Queen, whose readiness to share the burden of taxation
with her people endears her to every class of her sub-
jects, humbly submit to her MAJESTY, that an income
tax appears to them only justifiable as a last re-
source in a period of extreme danger and distress,
and that there is nothing in the present state of the nation
which requires its imposition. A series of resolutions,
passed at a meeting of the Reformers of Bradford, to the
same effect, arc also now before us. In one of them, it
is resolved, that " before the imposition of an income
tax, every other source of revenue ought to have been
exhausted ; and that so long as the real property of the
country, passing by desctnt, entail, or by will, has
not yet been called upon to contribute. to the exigencies
of the State, and in the absence of a liberal commercial
policy, affecting sugar and timber and corn, it is highly
unjust and impolitic to add to the burdens of a class
already overburdened by the operation of partial and
unjust laws." The language of the Reformers of Brad-
ford and the Bankers and Merchants Of Norwich forms
the burden of a heap of letters and addresses now before
us from all parts of the country.
The Minority in Parliament has nobly done its duty.
It is now for the country to step forward, and assert the
principles of its handful of honest Representatives.
Remember that PEEL'S pill• box differs materially from
PANDORA'S—there is not even hope at the bottom.

We have received the whole of the Paris Journals of
Tuesday. Their contents are of no political importance.
- . . .

Some Journals speak this morning of the resignation of the
Minister of Agriculture and Commerce. This news is en-
tirely unfounded.—Moniteur, March 22.
PARts, MARCH 22.—The Moniteur of this morning has
no official part.
Intelligence from St. Petersburg of the 15th instant, in the
Wurzburg Gazette, states that the late disturbances in that
city are totally void of truth.
fhe Siecle says—." It is reported that the Ministry, intimi-
dated by the demonstrations of the seaports, and the irritation
which has spread in a considerable portion of the Chamber,
and of the electoral body, will, on Wednesday next, or at
least in one of the next sittings, bring down a project of law on
the sugar question. It will propose to continue the present state of
things for another year, hut the explanatory mem,,rial is to
contain a formal promse that at the opening of the session for
1843 a new project of law shall be presented, which will finally
decide on the existence of our beet-root manufactures."—
Commerce.