The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-07 00:00:00

every voice was drowned in the cry of " Question,'
and the House divided
.when the numbers were—
For thebors lei
t'rlyvx:ep edrdtuyr:it ang
Against it ............
condemnatorytheseositsh. 2Ol
petiotniosnisn2t3hBo Parlia-
ment 3 though
numerous,
e:o7olanusistau:he Property-tax, that the
did not represent the general sens'e, of utite
people, for that much the largest proportion of the
country prosecuted no petitions.
The Property-tax ceased on the sth of April, 1815,
but was revived for one year more (1815, ending sth
April, 1816) in consequence of the renewal of the war.
The assessments charged for 1814 were continued
without fresh returns, and without the power of in-
creasing them, except in respect of the dividends of
funded property and interest of Government securi-
ties, &c., under schedules C and E ; but in conse-
quence of the great distress among the agricultural
and other classes at that time, provision was made for
abatement of the duties in certain cases of diminution
of rents and profits under schedules A B and D.
The opinion of Lord A lthorp on this question of a
Property-tax is conveyed in the subjoined extract from
one of his speeches, made at a time when the point was
under agitation _ .

" Mtich has been said about a Property-tax, and he
believed he differed on that point considerably from
his friends about him. Still he had no hesitation in
saying, that to grant relief to the productive popula-
tion by a reduction of taxes, and to impose a Property-
tax to meet the deficiency thus occasioned, would be
a very good measure. That was his own individual
opinion. It might be alleged that he was inconsistent
in what he he now said, when his present was con-
trasted with his former opinion • and perhaps it might
seem to many that he was so. -hut the country was
now in a situation very different from that in which it
was formerly placed : and he would say to the land-
owner that if a Property-tax of 10 per cent. were im-
posed, he would be the gainer ; becauSe he thought
that the landowner, in consequence of the ex-
isting distress, and the large sums he was obliged to
advanae for the maintenance of the poor, lost consider-
ably more than 10 per cent. on his rents. He was
perfectly convinced that it was the ill-arranged state
of the taxes, more than the amount of the taxes, that
pressed heavily on the country."
Paley's opinion, with regard to the Property-tax,
as to the scale of equitable proportion—proposing to
affix certain rates of taxation upon certain amounts
of property, proportioned to the general conveniency
of subsistence of those by whom such payments are
to be made, is worded thus :
" We are accustomed to an opinion, that a tax to be
just, ought to be accurately proportioned to the cir-
cumstances, or more correctly perhaps to the amount
of property of the persons who pay it. But upon
what, it may be asked, is this opinion founded, unless.
it could be shown-that such a proportion interferes
the least with the general conveniency of subsistence ?
Whereas I should rather believe that a tax con-
structed with a view to that conveniency, ought to
rise upon the different classes of the community in a
much higher ratio than the simple proportion of their
incomes. The point to be regarded is, not what
men have, but what they can spare ; and it is
evident that a man who possesses a thousand pounds
a year can more easily give up a hundred than a
man with a hundred pounds a year can part with ten ;
that is, those habits of life which are reasonable and
innocent, and upon the ability to continue which the
formation of families depends, will be much less
affected by the one deduction than by the other. It
is still more evident, that a man of a hundred pounds
a year would not be so much distressed in his sub=
sistence by a demand from him of ten pounds, as a
man of ten pounds a year would be by the loss of
one; to which we must add, that the population of
the country being replenished by the marriages of
the lowest rank of society, their accommodation
mid relief becoMe more importance to the State
than the conveniency of any higher but less numerous
order of its citizens.

LONG Surn---The longest law-suit ever heard of
in England, was between the heirs of Sir Thomas Talbot,
Viscount Lisle, on the one part, and the heirs of Lord Berkeley
on the other, re,pe,ting certain possessions in Walton-under-
Hedge, in the county of Glouce,ter. It commenced at the
end of the reign Edward IV. and was pending till the reign
of James 1., when a compromise took pla:.e, it having lasted
above 120 ytars.

STRIKING DEATII.-Towards the middle of the
seventeenth century, a man is stated to have been killed by
the famous clock in the square of St. Mark at Venice; while
repairing the clock, he stooped his he'd in such a place, and
in such a nick of time, that the quarter-boy struck it with
his hammer, and knocked him over the battlements.—Evelyn's
Diary.

The Western Luminary records the suicide of a
young girl, eighteen years of a.e, the daughter of a respectable
man, a i.ensioner, in Exeter, who drowned herself on Saturday
evening last, in a mill-dam near this city. The young woman,
who was apprenticed to a staymaker. and bore a good character,
had kept c:impany for some time with her ma•ter's son, but it
did not appear on the evidence at the inquest that then" had
been any dispute between herself and her lover, or that any
circumstance whatever had occurred which could account for
the committal of suicide. A medical man proved, that some
eight merit a back the young woman had 'had a lever, which
very much affected her head, and he added that ho thought her
a person likely to be afflicted with insanity. In the absence of
other facts to account for her drowning herself, the Jury found
a verdict in accordance with the surgeon's representation.
The great mine cause, in which Lord llatherton is
plaintiff, and the Marquis of Anglesey defendant, is expected
to come on at Worcester on Monday next. Sir Thomas Wilde
gees down, with a special retainer, on the part of the noble
plaintiff; and the Solicitor-General, Sir William Follett, on
the part of the noble defendant. The trial is expected to last
at least two days.

1 DREADFUL COLLISIONS AT SEA AND Loss OF LIFE.
—Thursday amongst the numerous communications received
by the authorities at Lloyd's from their agents stationed in
different parts of the kingdom, were two from Torquay, in
Devonshire, and Deal, detailing the loss of the schooner Unity,
belonging to Exeter, and another vessel, supposed to belong to
Brixham which were run down during the dreadful hurricane
on Tuesday last. It appears, from the facts mentioned in the
communication from Torquay, that the storm on Tuesday night
was of the most se%ere description, and lasted several hours.
At about half-past nine o'clock, the brig Undaunted, belonging
to London, which left the river Thames the latter part of last
week for St. Michael's, came in violent collision with a vessel
belonging to Brixham, and so great was the force with which
they met, that the latter immediately went down, carrying
with her two of the unfortunate crew. The Undaunted was
at the time passing rapidly through the water, being closed
reefed, and the wind blowing a complete hurricane; but
whether there was a proper look out kept on board, is a circum-
stance not mentioned. The collision happened off Bolt-head,
near Bingbury-bay, about five miles from the shore, and from
the depth of water where the vessel went down, it being be-
tween 13 and 14 fathoms, it will be impossible to raise her.
Three of her c, ew succeeded in getting on board of the
Undaunted, just at the moment she was sinking, and it is sup-
posed that the others could have been saved had they been on
deck, but they were in their berths asleep. The Undaunted
received considerable damage by the collision. Her bowsprit
and foremast were carried away, besides other injury, and she
was compelled to put into Torquay. Respecting the loss of
the ether vessel, the Unity, it appears that she was laden with
coals, and was on her passage to Exeter, when she was run into
by a brig, name unknown, off the North Foreland, and her
crew had barely time to jump into the long boat tefore she
sank. They landed safely at six o'clock on Wednesday morn-
ing, at Broadstairs, near Ramsgate. From the fury of the storm
it a feared many similar disasters occurred during the night. '
Mr. BUSFIELD FERRAND, M.P.—lt is perhaps not
generally known that the father and grandfather of this
scurrilous and vulgar slanderer of the manufactures were both
cotton spinners! His grandfather was in partnership with a
person of the name of Willett, under the firm of Busfield and
NVillett, and they worked the Castlefield-mill, Binglev, now
worked by Mr. Ellis. Mr. Ferrand's father, Mr. Currer
Ihisfield, was :Aso engaged in the same business, and actually
Ihad rooms in the mill and lived entirely there. Of course the
airs of insolence which this person assumes towards the manu-
facturers, and his scandalous imputations upon their characters,
are virtuaily a spurning and spitting upon his own immediate
ancestors. Ilia quarrel with the manufacturers arises out of
his own dictatorial and overbearing temper, and his ungentle-
man-like ma•iners, which have brought him into personal colli-
sion with nearly all his respectable neighbours, several of whom
are manufacturers of high character and Magistrates ; and
hence his vulgar spite against the class which he vents
with characteristic indecency in the House of Commons. If
Mr. Ferrand's own character and conduct'vere to be assailed
as he assails those of others, or even were represented with
strict truth, a pretty picture would be drawn of him. We
have reason to believe that his constituents at Knaresborough
are heartily ashamed of the connexion, and are resolved never
to renew it.—Leeds Mercury.
Grand dinner-parties were given on Saturday by
Sir R. Peel at his residence in Whitehall Gardens, by Lord
Wharncliffe, in Curzon-street, by Lord Stanley in St.
James's-square, and by Sir Thos. Freemantle in Eaton-place.
IiEPRESENTATION OF BRIGHTON.—The unfortu-
nate failure of Mears. Wigney's bank will cause a vacancy in
the borough, and there is now a favourable opportunity for a
gentleman of Liberal principles to offer himself for the represen-
tation of Brighton in the Imperial Parliament. As this will
be a single election, it is most important that the Liberals
should be united. The Tories are active and sanguine, but
their defeat is certain if the Liberals are true to themselves, arid
if they are fortunate enough to obtain a candidate worthy
of their confidence and support. We hope and trust
that we sha'l be able in our next to announce that
such a candidate is in the field. Since the above
was written we have received the following paragraph
from an influential quarter :--•• We arc authorised to state that,
as a vacancy must shortly arise in the representation of this
borough, active measures are in progress for the maintenance of
the Liberal interest. In the meantime the electors are cau-
tioned against committing themselvesby any premature pledge."
—Brighton Herald. [Mr. Laurence Peel, brother to the Right
Hon. Baronet, and an old resident at Brighton, as also Lord
William Harvey, and Sir Adolphus Dalrymple, the late Mem-
ber' havebeen named on the part of the Conservatives • and
Lord Morpeth and Lord Edward Howard on behalf of the
Liberals. Notices have been issued cautioninc, the electors
against giving a pledge in the present state of affairs. Various
accounts are circulated as to the liabilities of Messrs. WigneY,
some estimating them at 400,000/.l—From a Correspondent.
It was with extreme pain that we learned tlonitcea
gentleman holding a highly responsible situation in the
of the Paymaster. of Civil Services, has disappeared. We
which
no benefit la the concea'mentof the particulars of a.
are, unhappily, the topic a discussion and regretne of the
cir-
cles. The gentleman alluded to is Mr.
Perkins,d. Among other
for the-amrgo-e
d a large
amount is said,
ini.nsn:oa.fiicial
cashiers in the department above mentiot e
nips have
matters laid
'sit stamps psh ifsro tenhtalri
of '2,000/., with-h stamps were.
tin of cashier, the custom being
ney paid personb im in his c p y
pay the price of the stamp
va„iisa4,ealsslimouaidde no return of the amount,
been
lei
ea
nt eesx•amount
charge
Stamp-office, thisiti)ei_:::fili
received. All
11
iaottAroliri
lteel
these
ep:rie‘po.sas.telsuusrteta,
also lost to the public. It is a curious
eprepynadreidet.ulATaait: s
ile:la.:nikeAsl;"erkins had been,_ fora considerable
a clerk in the
m°iffithe,e'of Exchequer
necessaryp. antreot
eni covere. t
wt.:Al luipietr,
steaaiiinideeeltibhmdea:ftotre his removal to
i ther Payma s te
Beaumont'
Smith,
notoriety.— Observer.