The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-25 00:00:00

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LONDON!
MONDAY MORNING, APRIL 25, 1842.

The Income-tax Bill is to be committed this . day,
.411(I it is a matter of course that every Member of
the House of Commons will oppose every clause. of
Iv/licit he does not approve. We hope that he will
4,0 t only oppose it, but will divide the House on it.
4toreover, it will be the duty of the independent
11embers, we think, to oppose those clauses, the ob-
;!ct of which they may not disapprove of, but which
te,so worded that they are difficult to be understood.
'file Parliament has no right, by a studied ambiguity,
14(1 a confused multiplication of terms to lay traps for
It people. It is, on the contrary, bound to make all,
enactments clear and explicit, so that the fault of
!!'obedience may not he justly charged to the unin-
of the law. On this principle we maintain
it is the business of the Liberal Members to
:10Pose every clause of the Income-tax Bill, and, if
l'issihle, to compel Sir R. PEEL to alter that which is
14 clear and intelligible. Some time ago Sir R.
q•
t. said that when he saw the Income-tax Bill
B'etty well advanced, he would take up the tariff„
I.l;)ll..riaost persons inferred that he would bring f0r-
,t.141 the latter before he went into a Committee
'"th the former. It seems, however, that he has no
I'
intention—that he means to hurry the Income-
'to a conclusion, and . not till then will he bring
Ward the tariff. He has been so much praised,
t!tscl allowed on most points to have so exclusively
t. own way, that we are not surprised at his disap-
:'ioting the hopes of those who believed that he
Fuld delay the Income-tax. He knows his advan-
; he knows that the mercantile classes will grow
:It:Patient to have the tariff settled, and he will make
ejr impatience an instrument for forcing the In-
C 40-tax more speedily through the House of.
,f4rit-nons.

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ilallile admirers of Sir R. PEL's tariff seem to forget
‘, t, besides the new discriminating duties on Colo-
t:18.1 produce, which he essayed to establish, it con-
es a new duty on trade. His proposition to levy
' Per ton on coals exported is as much in opposition
i 4 ,the principles of free trade, as was the 'prohibition
import cattle, which he proposes to remove, and as
l?e heavy tax on the importation which he pro-
CS to substitute for that. He does not act, there-
, in framing his tariff from any distinct and clear
~,-; of the benefits of free trade or of the great import-
Ibt! of its principles; he merely draws up such regu-
Cris, even, as to commerce, as will promote his
1119rary and party purposes, and he looks no
Ver. 'The evils of his tax on exported coals are
CI set forth in an article in The Sun, and we only
that the friends of free trade who are loud in their
ti°44B of the tariff will ponder over that exception to
'r principles.
kt4lfain, with respect to the tax on Irish spirits,.
oti:tt. PEEL is acting directly in the teeth of the
Cnple he pretends to advocate. He is imposing an
tional duty on an article peculiarly liable to be
k7Vled, enhancing the temptation to evade the.
tittle, and, at the same time, causing a consider-
tite increase of crime. When we see these parts of
I. PEEL'S financial scheme, we cannot echo the
La,s of our Liberal Contemporaries, nor believe
tilt ten such tariffs, could they be multiplied with
qNponding advantages, would be a compensation
the Income-tax.

;0.

1141 appears, by the examination of Mr. J. WIGNEY,
I,t bankrupt Brighton banker and M.P., that his
yLik has never been solvent since 1836. For six
03, then, at least, he has been carrying on his
qtiog business without adequate means. He has,
4 that long period, been trading on his creditors'
Ntty, and every year, it is to be supposed, losing
it and more, till he has lost it nearly all. To us
likvken'is very doubtful whether such a game could
kt:e been played so long without the fact being
to many persons that the Messrs. WIGNEY'S
:114' Was not solvent.
aAntild suppose that the nature of the pay-
Qnts for which it had to provide, the kind of
„`111"Ity it must have continually offered for ad-
the sort of business it carried on must
cl 4 made its London - correspondents ac-
ted, years ago, with the true state of its
t 4 1'1; Did they, we ask, or did they not, know
tpi:()adition of the Brighton bank ? If they did not,
I*.t' Innst we say for their discernment as men of
? If they did, what must we say for their
alinent of it as honest men ? Either they trusted
the htdealt with that bank for several years, knowing
it was not a safe concern, and so, by their avowed
4slqtice, helped to beguile the creditors of the
Y, or they trusted, and dealt with it
that time in perfect ignorance of its character, and
iktgeir carelessness contributed to produce the same
i
ts on the unfortunate creditors as if they had
liN,11113: lent themselves to the deceit. We have not
4lirfliideed, that. the' London correspondents are
of the Brighton Bank to any extent ;
no doubt, took care of themselves ;

but,— whatever may be the case irk law, it
does not satisfy morality that an opulent London
house, which lends its countenance to a coun-
try-house through six years of insolvency, has, in
the end, escaped without any loss.
We are induced to make these observations, be-
cause we are convinced that persons like the- Messrs.
WIGNEY could not carry on their insolvent concerns
for so many years, greatly to the detriment of
the public, were they not upheld by solvent houses of
fair public character, which perhaps profit by their
difficulties, and use them, as it were, to extract money
from their confiding creditors. For such bankrupt
concerns to be kept afloat through a series of years,
there must, we believe, be a sort of confederacy, in
which those who, in the end, reap the most advantage,
never appear to bear any of the blame. Were this
an isolated case, too, we should be disposed to pass
it by unnoticed ; but we cannot conceal froln
ourselves, nor is it right to conceal from the public,
that similar cases are numerous. -However scan-
dalous may be those invasions of property
which carry one to the bar of the Old Bailey
there are amongst the middle and upper classes
numerous infractions of property, more injurious to
the public happiness than those which the law most
severely punishes. •
Before the Bankruptcy Court on Friday, there
appeared another specimen* of these dishonest pro-
ceedings amongst dashing London tradesmen, with
which that Court has of late teemed. Mr. WILLIAMS,
of the firm of Messrs. MOTTE AM and WILLIAMS, then
admitted, that he and his partner had, after they
knew that the firm could not go on, bought goods on
credit, and sold goods, at great sacrifices for ready
money, to meet the demands on them, or to
supply their own necessities, dividing the mone
betwixt them. ' In the course of the examinatio

the three firms of Messrs. COWPER, Messrs. AIARTIN,
ABBOTT and Co., and Messrs. SPENCE and 13AG -
GELLEY, are mentioned as buying the goods of the
bankrupts at a considerable advantage for themselves,
and a considerable loss to the bankrupts. It is
not said that those sales were irregular or out of the
course of trade, but the effect of them were to
benefit the monied persons, who purchased, and im-
mediately paid for the property, to the detriment of
the creditors. We do not say that these parties
are to blame for the purchase, but we must say that
the character of English tradesmen, now most
seriously damaged, will not be restored till their sense
of honesty shall prevent them doing many things
which the law has omitted to forbid.

Mr. Commissioner EVAN 3 very properly spoke
of the case of the bankrupts as one of a
most outrageous character. They were charging
21,500/. expenses, 7,4001. for their own expense,
while their profits were only 5,7831. It is by

keeping villas and town houses, carriages and gigs,
and by putting up splendid shops, which rival in
gorgeousness a royal apartment, that such exorbitant
expenses are incurred, and other men are defrauded.
In the present case some of the creditors appear to
live abroad, and, the result of their past confidence
will be to make them distrust English tradesmen.
Taking this too prevalent want of honesty in con-
junction with the accusations of Mr. FERRAND, some
of which, we are afraid, are true, we are driven to
the conclusion that the character of our country, for
honesty in its dealings, is not rising in the estimation
of other nations. That we should have an honest

Government, while we have a demoralised people, is
morally impossible, and the vast corruption we have
of late heard of in electing Members of Parliament,
which poisons legislation at its source, is only another
specimen of that want of morality, not ordained by

law, which is equally palpable in the case of bank

rupts and corrupt electors. They, again, are not worse
than the law-makers, who abuse the confidence of

their creditors, the confiding people, to enrich them

selves by laws which ought never to be enacted un-
less they clearly promote the advantage of the greater

number.

.When Mr. WAKLEY stated publicly in the House
of Commons on Fridaynight, that "there was nostrong
feeling against the Income-tax out of doors, for that
the opinion was, that it was the most just tax that
could be imposed," he either convicted himself of
gross ignorance, as to the state of the public mind ;
or else he wantonly perverted the truth, 'in order to
pay his court to R. PEEL. No strong feeling,"
indeed!' Why, the Hon. Member cannot enter a shop in
Finsbury without at once discovering the utter fallacy
of his assertion ! The .dislike of the Income-tax is
there, as elsewhere, positive—unqualified; and nothing
but a deep-rooted conviction on the part of thC inha-
bitants that opposition is perfectly hopeless with
such a majority in Parliament as Sir R. PEEL now has
at his command, prevents them from giving a fierce,
open expression to their dislike. But Mr: WAKLEY,
we suspect, has not taken the trouble to speak with
any one of his Constituents on the subject. He was
apprehensive, no doubt, of being too much enlight-
ened ; and this would not answer the purpose of one
who is now struck with admiration of the boldness,
sagacity, straightforwardness, &c., of the most artful,
intriguing, unscrupulous -Minister that ever yet
played fast and—loose in turn with every party
that trusted him.' But -the Honourable Member
*for Finsbury has clearly but little faith in his
assertion that there "is no strong feeling against
the Income-tax ; " otherwise he would not, in
the very next sentence, express his suspicions that
"such a statement might make him unpopular." If
he be really speaking what he firmly believes to be
the truth, how can he be rendered " unpopular "
thereby ? Unpopularity does not arise from men
expressing themselves in .accordance with public
sentiment ; but from their running directly counter
to it, as is the case just now with this very
shallow, flippant gentleman. If Mr. WAKLEY
be anxious to propitiate the favour of Sir ROBERT
PEEL, in Gon's name let him do so ; we
have not the slightest wish to Jetain him among
us ; for talents so perverted can confer little
benefit -on the cause of Reform; but let him
not blow hot and cold with the same breath ;
let him not flatter and toady a Tory Premier from the
Opposition side of the House ; but at once go and
take his proper seat beside PETER BORTIIWICK. at the
back of the Treasury- bench. His indirect praises of
the Income-tax, and his direct praises of Sir R.PEEL,
will then come from him with propriety. • .

We agree with Lords MONTEAGLE and WICKLOW
and the Bishop of DERRY, who addressed the House of
Lords on Friday night against the Irish Spirit Duty Bill,
that increasing the duty upon Irish whisky will have
the effect of increasing illicit distillation in that
country. With a duty amounting in all to 150 per
cent. upon Irish whisky, it is not to he ex-
pected that the inhabitants of wild mountain-
ous districts will be prevented from carrying
on an illicit traffic from any fear of the vigilance of
revenue officers. The certainty of large profits will
crowd the mountain glens with private stills. A
gambling spirit will be revived among the peasantry,
and for every shilling saved to the Treasury an ounce
of blood will be shed, and a habit of violating the law
confirmed.

The attack of Count DE BOISSY in the French
Chamber of Peers upon the REGENT of SPAIN, whom
he foully and slanderously stigmatized as an inten-
tional regicide, has produced a ferment in Madrid. It
has led to a motion in the Senate, and to speeches
on the part of the Senators, which will find a ready
echo out of doors, and add to the bitterness of
Galilean hatred which prevails throughout Spain.
The speech of Senor Huaos, director of the
Royal patrimony, and the mouthpiece of the
Ministry, removes all doubt as to the light
in which ESPARTERO regards the insult offered
him. M. HERDS declared that the calumnies of
Count DE Boissy were not those of an individual
Peer—they were a part of the system of the
French Government. Such vile insults were the
fashion of the day in France, whose aim it was
to reduce Spain to the condition of a dependency
u—pon the French throne. He affirmed that Count
MOLE, M. TRIERS, and M., GUIZOT were following
the line of policy pursued by CEATEAUBRIAND in
1823, and that their intentions were precisely the
same. He did not like asking questions in the Cham-
ber, but he would put it to Ministers whether
the King of the FRENCH had not apprised them
that if he could not have the hand of the
QUEEN for one of his sons, he would prevent
her marrying any but a Prince of the BOURBON line?
The noble Senator referred to the conduct of the
Archbishop of Paris and the clergy of France, and
affirmed that the time was come when every true
Spaniard was called upon to deliver his country from

the yoke of. France. This speech made a profound
impression upon all the Senators present

The Infante Don FRANCISCO DE PAULO was to
dine with ESPARTERO on the 15th, sitting to the
right of the REGENT, whilst the Inranta CARLOTTA
occupied the seat right of the Duchess of VITTORIA.
ARGUELLES, the Guardian of the QUEEN, GONZALES,
the Prime Minister, the Duke DE BAYLER, liEnos,
CAPAZ, FERRAZ, and Mr. ASTON, were also to be at
the entertainment.
A Madrid letter announces, that the -Infante Don
SEBASTIAN had obtained the authorisation of the
REGENT to take up his residence at Seville. The
Infante had pledged himself not to meddle in poli-
tical affilirs, and to remain only two days in -Madrid
on his way to Seville. Don SEBASTIAN, it will be
recollected, was nominally Commander-in-Chief of
the armies of his uncle, Don CARLOS, during the
Royal expedition in Madrid in 1837. He is the son
of the. Princess of BEIRA (Don CARLOS'S second
wife), by her first husband, the Infante PrTER, bro-
thel- of FERDINAND the SEVENTH, DOH CARLOS, mid
Don FRANCISCO DE PAULO. Don SEBASTIAN is mar-
ried to the Princess MARIA AMELIA, daughter of the
deceased FRANCIS 1., King ofthe Two Sicilies, and who
is therefore the half-sister of Queen CHRISTINA, the
Princess CARLOTTA (Don FRANCISCO'S wife), and the
Duchess of BERRY.

On the- Madrid Exchange on the 14th, twenty-one
bargains for 14,253,000 reels were transacted in Threes
at 221 1,-, 15-16t.hs, b ; twenty-three, 'at various dates.
In the Fives twenty-one bargains for 12,400,000 reels at
28i, 4, ,+, 29f, .2- for sixty days ; and 20+ it for sixty
nays, with the three coupons. EXchange upon London
ninety days, 37-'Bl- to

The French Journals .will never have done with
the Right of Search question. They seem to resent
the coolness with which the affair is treated in Eng-
land, as if their vexation waA not enough to alarm the
world. In reality they are as angry as they can be,
because when M. GUIZOT declined to ratify the
Treaty, no effort was made on the part of the British
Cabinet to change the resolution of the French
Ministry. 'The self-love of France is so great, that
she deems it an insult to be told that 'anything can be
done without her. IS this the result of conscious
weakness as compared with her world.-compelling
pretensions ? The answer seems to us well given in
an article in the last number of the Edinburgh Review,
entitled " France, America, and .Britain." " With
respect to France," says the Reviewer, " we hope much
from the Commercial Treaty, of which even the details
have been long arranged—which. each Government
has long been anxious to sign—which is deinanded

by the Departments—and delayed only in fear of
the Journalists of Paris. Commerce, manufactures,
and the desire for individual advancement, may, in

[me, direct to peaceful pursuits the restless ambition

and vanity which now seek to be gratified by parti-
cipating in the glory of the nation. It is with deep
regret that we express our conviction, that until this
change in the habits of thinking and feelingin France
shall have taken place, any durable alliance between
the two countries is impossible. They may not—we
trust they will not—be at .war ; but their peace will
net be the peace of friends. If the present hostility
of France to England had arisen merely from the re-
collection of past defeats, it would wear out as those
defeats receded more and more into the obscurity of
history. If it had arisen from our disapproba-
tion of her interference against the liberties of
Spain, or her colonization of Algiers, or from the
Syrian dispute, the only matters in which, for the
last quarter of a century, we have oppoSed her, it
would have subsided as soon as these questions were
disposed of. Her hostility springs from far deeper
sources. Sixty years ago, towards the close of the
American war, France was the most powerful king-
dom in thz, world. Her population amounted to

twenty-six millions, while that of the British Islands
did not exceed half that number; that of Austria and
European Russia, about twenty-five each; and that
of Prussia, seven or eight. She had flourishing colo-
nies, a fleet which could cope with that of England,
and a population superior in wealth and industry to
that of almost every other portion of the continent,
except the Netherlands. On her southern and
south-eastern frontier, she had Spain, Savoy,
and Switzerland, all under her influence ; then
the territories of petty German States ; and
then to the north the Austrian Netherlands, the
weak dependencies of a distant Empire. Now Spain,
Savoy, and Switzerland have thrown off her control;

:elgium, in cloe alliance with England, is on her

north, and the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, Rlw.
nish Prussia, jThenish Bavaria, and Baden—all con.
.nected by the powerful. Germanic Confederation—
close her in on her remaining frontier. Her military
marine, no longer supported by an extensive com-
merce, has ceased to be formidable. Algiers is the
substitute for almost all her colonies; the wealth and
industry of her people are scarcely equal to those
of the inhabitants of many of the nations
around her ;. and while her, population has reached
only thirty-four millions, that of the British

Islands amounts to Stwenty-seven millions, that
of Austria to thirty-seven, that of Prussia to four-
teen, and that of Russia to fifty. France looks at the
change with a mixture of grief and terror. She fears
that if her neighbours outstrip her in the next half
century as much as they have done in the last, she
will sink to a secondary Power."

'At the risk of putting the French Press into a
towering passien, we must say that there appears to
.us,a great deal of truth in this. The remedyis, how-
ever, obvious, and pointed out in a friendly spirit by
the Reviewer. She need only recal commerce to her
shores, by modifying her barbarous tariff—invite the
merchants of the world to carry away her surplus
produce, and fill her warehouses with necessary
and luxurious articles in exchange—give up the
ridiculous system of fleecing her pqople to maintain
fleets and armies which serve to no purpose, but the
impoverishing of other States in the maintenance of
rival armaments—and save her millions of men and
money, instead of pouring them annually into the
all-absorbing vortex of Algiers, to regain all the real
power and influence which she has lost. Whatever
may be her own opinion, a war must reduce France to
a worse condition than that in which she is even now.
The French charter and the French dynasty would
he swept from the earth by.the first blast ofa war hurri-
cane. The Journalists who now shout "war" solustily
would ride the storm no longer than the KING. They, tco,
would go the way of all incendiaries. We are not
here supposing for an instant that England would
pas sscatheless through such an ordeal. On the con-
trary, perspaded that a war with France cr
the United
are
t'edStates would entail upon England cala-
mities which we are willing to make many sacrificca
to avert. No highly civilised moral people can con-
template war without horror. It is at best the most
dreadful of all evils—the first resort of a people really
barbarous, although wearing the outward garb of a
refined civilisation. Nor is it among the evils which
philosophers are in the' habit of calling necessary.
Nothing could be easier than to constitute a tribunal
for deciding the disputes of nations, without having
recourse to the savage expedient of war. We trust
the period is not distant, when the nations of Europe
will look back with astonishment to periods in their
history, in which wholesale slaughter was the raw
material out of which their ancestors manufactured
glory I

There is no miscellaneous news of political impor-
tance in the French journals.
• BOURSE—PARIS, THURSDAY, APRIL 21.

. .
Lust Highest Lowest Last
Price Price. Price. Prim
french 5 tier Cents ll9 ... 119 20... 1.8 ... 119 211
4%pe • cults lO7 ... li 7 ... 107 ... 107
*per Cents. ......
s per Coats Bl 55 .. 81 9.5 ... 81 52 ... 81 35
Rank of f rance....... .....
Lattitt. Bank I AIM. Snares 1025 ...11a5 ...1025 ...1C25
!m
Belgian 5 per Cents.
5 per Cent%) 1840 lO5 ... 105 ... WIN ... 101%
Spanish Active ts ... 255
... 25 ... 254
Passive
Portuguese 5 per Cent.. 7.2 ... 32 ... 32 ... 32
Heapolttan lO7 RO ... )07-70 ... 1117 BO ... 407 70
Rienan..,..
EtALLVV A 'V :itH A Bits.
St. Germain
Versaitics.it. h...
L.B 2lO ... 210 ... 2flit ... 205
Rouen 531 ... 533 75 ... s.'io ... f :33 75
usu.'. s .
B:rasburg to Bale 237 50 ... 237 50 ... 236 25 .., 4,..; 6 2)

FIRE FROM THE LIGHTNING OF YESTERDAY.—
During the burial of a body at Brixton churchyard, yesterday
afternoon, a tremendous storm took place. The thunder was
frightful, and the lightning most vivid. The electric fluid
struck the steeple of Brixton church, knocked the cross on one
side, and dislodged several of the stones. At the termination of
the funeral ceremony information was forwarded to the parish
engineer that the lithtning had also struck the houses of Messrs.
Williams and Poore, of Upper Tube Hill-road. A mounted
po iceman was despatchi d to London for the engines, when in
a short time those of the West of England and London Esta-
blishment reached the spot, but fortunately by the time they
arrived, through the timely assistance afforded by the lo'ice
and-neighbours with buckets and plenty of water, the fire was-
soon extinguished, hut great damage has been done to the fur •
ass tire and two houses;

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