The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-20 00:00:00

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tldi oppressive Income-tax was to maintain public cr
got into a financial difficulty, and they ought to c,
cause of it. This tax was merely a means of evar
those courses. The House had been told frequently
time was approaching when they would have to co:
effect produced by levying taxes on the people, not on
,support of the State, but for the benefit of particula
and that they would have to do one of two things, eith
property to maintain public credit, and to diminish thos
polies which impoverished the people, and prcvente
from contributing to the taxes. It was owing to those
polies that the pi ice of living was enhanced, and trade
stricted, and they were about to commence thatstruggle
had long been predicted between the maintenance of
poly and the maintenance of public credit. '
The delusion hitherto was that the Ilightllon. Ba
proposed an Income-tax in order to remitcertain on,
duties on trade ; he wanted it mainly to supply
deficiency of the revenue, and to put an end alt
to the timber duties and the duties on the raw mater. tiffs
of manufactures. Now, Sir H. PEEL avows that it, is ro.
no such purpose, and that he braves all the odium of '
imposing an Income-tax to keep up the value of fund ?ti
property. This is the old Tory humbug. Whoev ti-
looks back at Mr. GOULBURN'S speeches when ,he w. 14.
formerly Chancellor of the Exchequer, will find save; :17
budget and every financial proposition—every resist, inc I-,
also to any proposed reduction of taxation—redoieraL.
with this mysterious phrase "maintaining the pub lie
credit." Since Mr. GOULBURN and the Tories wero
ejected from office in 1830, for notorious inefficiency, a
' vast amount of taxes has been reduced, and public credit
has through the whole period been maintained quite I
as firmly as when AIr.G otiLuurtN was obstinately resisting
reduction of taxation on the plea of maintaining public .-
credit. The old bugaboo of the Tories new revived, and.
again put forward as a pretext, whatever be its real
dimensions and its qualities, is quite insufficient to justify r
the infliction of an Income-tax on the people.
We were informed by Mr. RoEnuck, on Mo nday
night, that all the debates and all the proceedings of the
bulk of the Members of the House of Commons,. are in-
tended to serve the purposes of party; but those genti e-
men go to Parliament on the pretext of serving tht
public. Their professions and their conduct, therefore,
are in direct opposition. They are now about to inflict;
an onerous tax on the people, under a multitude of false
pretences. At one time it is the war in Aff. .
gl*nistan, and the derangement of the finances
of the Indian empire, which makes the Income-
tax necessary. At another it is to substitatea
a portion of direct taxation for the indirect taxation,
which is ruinous to trade. Again this pretext is scouted
by Sir It PEEL ; and the Income-tax is levied to
maintain public credit. It is not only newspaper writers
who accuse the Members of the House of Commons ;
they accuse one another of mismanagement, of gross
errors, of scandalous conduct, and of plundering the.
people on false and fraudulent pretexts. Such state-
ments, continually impressed on the public mind, must
have a great, and even a wonderful moral influence,
making men in the end heartily despise those who once
were honoured, and preparing the way for a greater
change in Government than a mere change in men, or
the change from a circumscribed to universal suffrage.
While individuals are labouring assiduously, by means
of literary and scientific institutions, subscribing their
money, and sending out missionaries of all kinds—some
promoting the arts, some the sciences, and some morality,
some spreading abroad the softening knowledge of har-
mony, and others the elevating knowledge of sculpture
and painting—in steps the Legislature, and by an In-
come-tax, to bolster up a Corn-law and a multitude of
officials, increases poverty and discontent, and spreads
falsehood and crime through the land. It sets the ex-
ample of plundering on a great scale and on false pre-
tences, and makes a violation of right not the exception,
but the rule of society. All history and all experience
are worthless, if such a conflict between the Government
and the moral sentiments of society do not bring in its
train, at n.-) distant day, some great social confusion.
While individuals are struggling to improve and elevate
society the Legislature, which continually plunders the
people on false pretences, continually labours to im-
poverish, demoralise, and degrade it.

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SIR ROBERT PEEL'S REDUCTION OF RENT.-It seems
that the landlords were alarmed at the report that Sir
Robert had reduced his rents 20 per cent., and his jour-
nals have received instructions to give it a positive and
emphatic denial. The tale served its purpose with the
townspeople, and helped to forward that reduction of
price to which the Tory journals have already appealed,
as ale proof that Sir Robert Peel's tariff was a most
won-aerful improvement—a real scheme for making both
parties at a game of whist—to borrow Sir Robert's Ame-
rican Ambassador's illustration—win. It is to benefit
all, and injure none. Now that the reported reduction
has worked its purpose, and the alarmed landlords must
be again soothed, it is denied on authority. Sir Robert
Peel has not lowered his rents. lie is not the generous
landlord he has been described ; he is, as we have before.
said, nothing but axedtapist, intent on getting and hold-
ing power by all those little arts which that peculiar
genus of statesmen know so well how to employ.

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