The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-23 00:00:00

PUBLIC OPINION.

The Post says :—" The Income-tax Bill has been published;
and, though we do not mean to join the class of grumblers, yet
we may, perhaps, be permitted to say that it it by no means a
soothing or dulcifying document. Comparing it with the
speeches which have been made regarding the proposed tax, it
reminds us of the bitter physic which frequently comes after an
interview, rather cheering than otherwise, with the doctor.
To say the truth, however, we cannot pretend to have any very
distinct understanding of what the Bill means. We wish that
when such interesting Parliamentary Bills as these arc pub.
lished, there were sent. round with them a brev:ate, contain-
ing a translation of the barbarisms of legislative language into
plain, popular, intelligible English. Hew long must we wait
until the public shall not only perceive, but act upon the per-
ception, that the technical language of lawyer-craft is a nui-
sance, and that the aim of Acts of Parliament ought to be,
in respect to language, strict accuracy, combined with pepu.
lar intelligibleness ? We are very far from wishing that
every man shall be able to be his own lawyer, but when
laws are made which the people generally are bound to
obey, and especially when laws are made to take money
out of our pockets, it were but fair that the language
of them should be as intelligible as possible. In the new Bill
there is an immense deal about the occupation of lands, tene-
ments, and hereditamente, and there is a clause taxing all pro-
perty in England with threepence-halfpenny in the round in
respect of the occupation of the same. Is it really intended, then,
that we shall have to pay threepence-halfpenny in the pound
upon the tents of the houses we occupy? It this be so, it is a
tax not upon income, but upon out-going ! We at first thought
that perhaps the clause applied only to farmers, who are not to
pay upon their profits, but in proportion to tke rent paid for oc-
cupation. But afterwards we found the word house, and dwel-
ling-house, repeatedly used; and one clause provides that when
houses are divided into different properties, each occupier shall
be charged separately. There are abundance of other clauses
somewhat startling as well as this, :n relation to the occupying
of tenements, but we would fain hope that, apart from lawyer-
craft technicalities, no greater tax is intended than what has
been described in the Ministerial speeches. We think we know
enough of Sir Robert Peel to be tolerably confident that he
will not support any unreasonable severity. We wish he could
have post his proposition into a legislative shape that would have
been more intelligible and less alarming."
The Chronicle has the following remarks :—" Anxious as
we are to see a good understanding between the middle and
working clxsses, and satisfied that without such an understand-
ing, constitutional reform is impossible, while without reform
we can have little chance of seeing an end to that class legis-
lation by which Parliament has lost the esteem of the people of
this country, we are, at the same time, anxious, in a matter of
so much moment, to avoid committing ourselves to any-scheme
which, if carried into effect, might place us in a worse situation
than that in which we are at present. It ought to be constantly
borne in mind, that to extend the franchise is much easier than,

when it is or.ce extended, again to narrow it:— It sounds harsh
to say that any portion of the adult male population of the realm
should be excluded from the suffrage ; but if, by communicats
ing the suffrage to all the adult male population, the power of
the really independent and intelligent part of the community
should be diminished, the interest of the whole would demand
a partial exclusion. Were England parcelled out Into electoral
districts, we are not sure that this would not be giving to the
squires and the parsons a much greater power than that which
they now possess."
The Herald thus refers to the Income-tax :—" The ma-
chinery by which the duty is to be levied will give to every
person possessing an income exceeding 150/. a year, a new
subject of thought, an additional matter of business, a new
point of vexation, and a feeling of permanent uneasiness. It
is impossible to collect a tax on income without inquisitorial,
oppressive, and vexatious powers, and nothing but the apparent
impossibility of righting the public finances in any other way,
sale one to which the country has repeatedly refused to resort,
and of contemporaneously stimulating trade, and reducing the
cost of living and producing, could induce the nation to tolerate
so great a nuisance as that which will be erected by the Income-
tax Bill. We distrusted from the first the ability of Ministers
to extract the more monstrous provisions from the machinery
of assessing and collecting a tax on income ; and our distrust is
now confirmed. The provisions of the present Bill are liable
to most of the objections which were urged against fotmer
Acts, though certainly some stipulations have been introduced
to mitigate the mischiefs which occurred under the old law
when in force. But these stipulations appear to be more likely
to be useful to the rich and well-informed than to the pourer
and less active-minded, to whom exposure of private affairs is
matter of greater importance."
We take the following from the Advertiser: —.4 Mr. Shar-
man Crawford's motion in the House of Commons last night,
though pre-doomed to insulting rejection, must do essential
service to the State, by enabling the people to distinguish be-
tween their friends and foes. After the numerous outrages
lately perpetrated in that House against the wishes and interests
of the people, whom•it is deputed to represent, he can be no
friend to public liberty who would deny the necessity of im-
proving the constitution of that body—and this was all that
was aimed at in Mr. Crawford's motion. Yet, notwithstand-
ing the enormity of the evil thus crying so loudly for reforma-
tion, the House of Commons last night, by a majority of 226
against 67, refused even to take the subject into its considera-
tion. Lord John Russell, and the pure Whigs, with charte-
teristic discretion, absented themselves from the House, and
thus for the nonce avoided the ignominious position in which
their truckling and incompetent policy has placed them. In
this the Whigs, as a party, have acknowledged themselves de-
funct. Better men must now be sought for to supply their
places."