The Sun.
London, England, 1842-11-17 00:00:00

PUBLIC OPINION.

The Time: thus points out some of the beauties of
the Income-tax :—" We were a good deal startled
yesterday evening at the alarming pile of paper with
which our Correspondents had favoured us in the
course of the day. It turned out, however, that the
whole of the excess was due to a letter inserted in the
Times a day or two since from An Assessor,' on that
all-interesting subject the Income-tax, and proceeded
from that numerous class of her Majesty's subjects
whose incomes fall short of the notable 1501. per,
annum. A Clerk,' A Poor Clerk,' Another Poor
Clerk,' Another Poor Clerk,' and still Another
Poor Clerk,' 4 A Widow from the West-end,' A Poor
but Honest Man,' 'Truth,' Justice,' two or three
who have been inconvenienced,' and a variety of
others, of whose lucubrations at least a dozen lie now
at our elbow, poured forth in a flood of indignation
their denials of the clumsiness which the 'Assessor'
summarily imputes to all who are aggrieved by his
brethren in office, and their protestations, each for
him or herself, that after having, in the most regular
and unambiguous way declared themselves unblessed
with the fatal 1501. a year, they have not the less re-
ceived notices of being assessed to the various amounts
of 2/. 18s. 4d., Si. 16s. Bd., and so on, with the aggra-
vation, in some instances, of an intimation, a fortnight
antedated, that if they wished to appeal, they must
deliver in their notice of the same within 15 days of
the date. It is far too bad that a national resource,
submitted to with the greatest reluctance under the
severest pressure, and already sufficiently onerous to
those on whom it is levied—sufficiently dangerous to
the popularity of its imposers—sufficiently perplex-
ing and inconvenient in its necessary appendages,
should be made intolerable by the mere carelessness
of its subordinate collectors. All are equally in-
terested, Minister and people, in providing against
this abuse ; and we do hope that the authorities are
sufficiently considerate of the convenience of the
people to have already visited with prompt and
pointed censure those who have caused so much vexa-
tion and inconvenience. A complaint appeared in
our paper a day or two since, with an aggravation
which deserves even a more stringent reprimand. A
return .claiming exemption, as for an income below the
taxable amount, the assessor took occasion to remit to
its author without even taking Pie trouble to enclose it.
This is perfectly abominable. For what purpose does
he suppose he takes the oath (which we presume he
has taken) to retail to the world none of that informa •
tion respecting his neighbour's affairs to which his
office as assessor admits him ? For what purpose
does he suppose that the law has framed all that ap-
paratus of special and general commissioners, and
commissioners for general purposes, by which the
rich hope to protect themselves from the impertinent
curiosity of the world? Those members of the Go-
vernment whom it concerns will, if they are wise, lose
no time in putting a stop to this ignorant misconduct.
To sacrifice popularity is sometimes necessary, but
to allow it to be sacrificed by such blunders as these
is a folly of which we do not suspect the Conservative
Ministry."

The Herald, speaking of some recent trials in which
certain members of the aristocracy figured in no very
creditable manner, says :—" Lord Chesterfield is a
leader of a class—a chief of what is called fashionable
society—the head of a frivolous and offensive con-
federacy. It is a society devoid of every good quality
composing the English character ; its men have the
appearance of well-dressed tailors' blocks, and its
women of milliner-girls fitted out for show days ; its
manners are as affected and vulgar as its morals are
detestable and its habits of life unwholesome; its
career is one continuous round of vicious indulgence
purchased by the infliction of misery on others ; its
termination is generally ruin and expatriation ; and
wealth and vice are the chief qualifications for admis-
sion into its saloons. The Chesterfield set is an ex-
pression in the mouth of cabmen ; is there among the
squad one desirable acquaintance—one Christian gen-
tleman ? Are not the pecuniary embarrassments and
difficulties of its members becoming more and more
notorious daily ? Do we not read of the continental
residence of this spendthrift Earl, and the sale of the
estates of that imitative Commoner? Is not the end
of such contamination insolvency and disgrace ? Why
the very gambling-houses maintained by the crimes of
these men are closing their doors—the carcase has
been plucked to the very bones, and the vultures are
taking wing. Their studs are sold or are selling,
their very furniture has in some cases been brought
to the hammer, and these leaders of fashion are only
protected from the sponging-house and a prison by
the privileges of the Order which they have degraded.
We quote the following from the Post:—" In
plight most pitiable are Lord Palmerston and his
brother authors of our recent Asiatic triumphs.'
Where to hit, and how to hit, at the details of a po-
licy planned by better and abler men than themselves
they cannot for their lives discover. When they
imagined that an immediate retreat from Affghanis-
tan had been finally resolved on by the Indian Govern-
ment, the heat of their affected indignation well nigh
overcame the delicacy of their nerves. When the
news of an advance arrived they were not better'
laleased; and now that they know not what to think
(seeing that they are altogether unable to form an
opinion of their own as to the course that wisdom and
sound discretion would dictate in the East), they
think to save their reputation by blaming everything--
everything thing that is, everything that may be, and
everything that can be. If the troops go forward,
the movement is wrong; if they go back to India, it is
wrong ; if they stay where they are, it is wrong.
Such is the substance of the Noble Viscount's latest
fulmination, as issued through the columns of his
congenial newspaper organ. Such are the straits to
which the Morning Chronicle is reduced in its feeble,
though venomous and desperate, thrusts at the char-
acter and conduct of Lord Ellenborough."
The Chronicle says Heartily, therefore, do we
wish success to the League in its momentous enter-
prise. It is both a power and a safety-valve. The
perils of agitation are abated by the organisation and
direction that ensure its fairest chance of being crowned
with success. The Great League Fund' should
be raised promptly. For the farmer, it is an insur-
ance against fire, and for the citizen against tumult.
Fifty thousand pounds are a good round sum, it is
true ; but, like the little loaves and fishes, what are
they amongst so many ?' And what, moreover, in
comparison with the tax which they will go far to-
wards abolishing ? One landowner, and proprietor of
several farms, has, we perceive, subscribed 1001., to
berepeated if requisite. The example is a good one.
All who have property, especially property in land,
are deeply interested in the speedy settlement of this
question. Their liberal subscriptions may purchase
expedition of Sir It. Peel. While to those dependent
on trade, or whose only property is labour, it is a life
or death question. Both the outlay acid the raising
of the fund will act with appalling force on the up-
holders of the food monopoly. We remember a poli-
tical drama with a chorus of mechanics in it, commen-
cing We do object to starve.' And the strength
of the ob:ection to starvation is now to be shown, first
by subscriptions varying proportionally from the
pence of the poorito the hundreds of the propertied ;
and then by that hearty co-operation in the renewed
agitation, which will evince its claim to the character
of a national movement, and enable it to avert the im-
pending storms of national calamity."
The Advertiser makes the following comments on
the Lord Mayor's politics :—" A great deal has been
written about the absence of party feeling which is
said to have characterised the proceedings at the late
civic banquet. As the advent of the new Lord Mayor
is a purely civic and social occasion, the politics of the
Lord Mayor never being taken into consideration by
those who elect him, it is, doubtless, right that there
should be an entire absence of all political feeling at
the banquet, by which his investiture with the insignia
of office is always accompanied. We cannot see,
therefore, why Lord Mayor Humphery should have
been so prodigally praised for his non-exhibition of
political feeling on the recent occasion—even had the
absence of such feeling been really as entire as it is
represented to have been. Other Lord Mayors before
him have always made it a point, whatever were their
private political views, to sink all political feeling on
such occasions, and so to demean themselves both by
the choice of guests and by their speeches when ac-
knowledging the compliments paid them, as if they
had no political partialities at all. Even, there-
fore, had the new presiding genius of the Mansion-
house displayed the most perfect political impartiality
on the late occasion, we do not see why he should
have been so liberally lauded, just as if no one
else had ever done the same before him. But it so
happens that Lord Mayor Humphery has no claim

! whatever to commendation on the score of an absence
of political feeling. He displayed decidedly political
leanings, and these leanings, which makes the thing
look still more indecent, were in favour of that very
person, and that very party, to oppoie whom the elec-
tors of Southwark sent him to Parliament. Instead
of exhibiting that absence of political feeling at the
Guildhall banquet, for which his new Civic Lordship
has obtained so much credit, he appeared on the oc-
casion in the character of an apostate from those
principles which he has professed through life, and to
assert which, in the House of Commons, the electors
of the Borough returned him to that House. He spoke
in approving terms of Sir Robert Peel being at the
head of her Majesty's Government, and expressed his
belief that we could not have a more fitting Premier.
1 His words were, that " the Government could not be
in safer hands." If this be not rank apostacy from
the principles of Mr. Humphery, we should like to
know what is.