The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-19 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

The :letter fi:om Totness on " Naval Affairs" was duly received,
but owing; to the press of matter we have net been able to
find tom for it.

w will er deavour to make room for some of the numerous
l.itters of Correspondents respecting the income tax as soon
as possible.

TIC; WEATHER.—NooN, MARCH 18.
P. AI. ,GALLERY OF SCIENCE, ADELAIDE-STREET.
Thin-mon eter... 43 1 Highest 52 1 Lowest 40
B troinet?.r 29.93.—Wind W.—Freezing Point ;12 Deg.

HIGH 'tvirEl: AT LONDON BRIDGE THIS DAY.
Mo •ning,..... 57 minutes after 5 1 Evening 22 minutes after 6.

after being reduced nearly 50 per cent., yielded directly
within two years a revenue short only by one-fifth of the
sum they yielded before the, rate was reduced nearly
one-half, it is presumable that the indirect effects
of the reduction more than made up that fifth ;

or that the reduction of the duty on this
doubtful article of wine of nearly 50 per cent., in
fact caused an actual increase in the whole revenue of
the country.
What, in truth, were the results on the whole revenue
of those successive reductions in taxation, made between
1825 and 1836, whitth, on Sir ROBERT PEEL'S new theory

should have beggared the State, and made an income-
tax necessary, six years ago ? We find from Mr. Pon-
TER'S tables, that between 1825 and 1836 inclusive, the
total amount of taxation reduced was 15,319,1621., and
the amount of revenue yielded less in the same period,
was only 3,031,222/.

In the short space of ten years, therefore, the taxes
which were left on yielded 12,000,0001. per annum more
than they did before the reductions, or one-fourth the
whole revenue of the State. Now, that great increase
took place in consequence of the reduction of duties,
notwithstanding the continued existence of Corn-laws,
and various commercial restrictions, which prevented
the industry of the country from having fair play. We
therefore, have no doubt, that by the abolition of the
Corn-laws, and a due revision of the tariff, the revenue
would soon be equal to all the legitimate wants of the
State. On the article of sugar alone, we arc assured by
respectable merchants that the increased revenue from
reducing the duty on colonial sugar to 205., and on fo-
reign sugar to 345.,w0u1d amount to upwards of 2,000,000/.
We could even produce men who would guarantee that
increase, or who would farm the revenue on the expecta-
tion of receiving it.

Now, we complain of SirßonEaT PEEL that he wholly
.and, we think, inexcusably, whether it were from

ignorance or design—overlooked the indirect ei

fects of reducing taxation on the revenue ; and con-
tented himself with stating its direct effects on the

article alone on which the tax was reduced. In an

editor of a newspaper such a mode of reasoning would
not be justified ; in Sir ROBERT PEEL it was wholly
unpardonable. The objection which we have stated is

to the principle of,his proceeding—his errors in arith

metic, or his omissions, were last night ably exposed
by Mr. BARING. A formidable opposition is gathering,
we are happy to see, against Sir R. PEEL'S scheme ;
and it will not be our fault, we trust, if that opposition
do not compel him to give it up, and confess that the
only bold act he performed in his life was unsuitable to
his character, and was a perfect failure.

We announced some ten days ago that Government
were about to send eight or ten thousand men to re-
inforce the army in India, and gave them full credit
for the vigour displayed in meeting the emergencies
caused - by the protracted war with China, and the re-
verses of our troops in Affghanistan. Sir B. PEEL, in an-
swer to a question from Lord J. RUSSELL on Thursday
night, admitted that the determination to reinforce the
Indian army had been formally taken, and that a sup-
plementary estimate to that effect would be placed before
the House, but he declined for the present to state the
amount. We have no doubt, however, that the number
of troops mentioned is rather under than over the mark.
The Duke of WELLIIqGTON last year said this country could
not afford to carry on a little war, and urged the propri-
ety of showing to the world that we were in earnest when
once engaged in hostile operations. There is sufficient
scope now, certainly for carrying out the plan of the
Gallant Duke. The present cannot be called a little war.
In the two extremities of Asia, Britain is engaged in two
;neat contests—one with a nation of three hundred mil-
lions, and the other with a treacherous race of moun-
taineers, both at a vast distance from this country,
and the seat of empire in India. Independent of these,
she has to watch the Burmese, ever ready to take ad-
vantage of circumstances, to overawe unfriendly States
in India, and at the same time keep up a large force
in another hemisphere, to meet exigencies that
may spring out of the unsettled state of our
relations with the United States. If the loss
in Affghanistan turns out as extensive as the late
accounts lead many to anticipate, ten thousand ad-
ditional troops would form but a miserable reinforce-
ment, and the public will probably find that twice
that number at least must be forthcoming from England
and India together. Everything in these Eastern regions
depends on opinion. This circumstance the Government
cannot fail to keep in view, and they will therefore be
anxious to show that, notwithstanding.the reverses of our
troops in one quarter, Great Britain is as powerful as
ever, and fully prepared to assert her supremacy in
the vast territory over which she holds sway.

I I Among the petitions presented to the House of Com-
. mans on Thursday, was one by Mr. O'CONNELL, com-
e. plaining of the Ironmongers' Company of London having
served notices of ejectment on many of the tenants upon
their estates in the county of Derry, for the purpose of
terrifying the rest to become tenants at will. We con-
fess that we cannot comprehend the meaning of such
conduct on the part of a London Company of
merchants. The tenants who occupy their estates
are nearly all Presbyterians, whose ancestors emi-
grated to Ireland from Scotland in the reigns of
JAmEs the First and CHARLES the Second. They are a
peaceable, industrious, moral race, attached to the insti.
tutions of this country. We are aware that the tenantcy
at will system of letting land is unfortunately preva-
lent in Ireland. The principal causes of this are, the
religion of the people, and the absence of the land-
lords_ from their estates. As most of the great landed
proprietors are Protestants, and the bulk of the tenants
Catholics, leases are denied them, to prevent them from
exercising a hostile influence as electors. Had the
tenantry of Ireland leases, the Members returned to
Parliament by that country would, in four cases out of
five, be of different principles from what they really are.
The next cause is the unwillingness of middle
men, and agents upon the estates of absentees,
to diminish their own, almost absolute power, over the
tenantry, by granting them leases. They could neither
rack-rent from year to year, nor fine, nor exact several
days of manual and horse-labour annually from tenants
having leases, as they can, and do, from tenants at will.
Upon the estates of absentees, where the tenants
have no leases, they are the slaves of the
agents, who exact from them every farthing
they possess for their individual profit, without the
slightest regard to the injury done to such estates, or to
the wishes of the proprietors. But the London Compa-
nies having estates in Ireland are comprised of men of
a far different stamp. They are men of sense and busi-
ness, as well as humane and liberal men, and must be
aware that no landed property was ever improved in
value by a tenantry holding at will. On the contrary,
to refuse leases is to impoverish landlords and ruin their
tenantry. No tenant will seek to improve a property in
which he has but a year's interest ; and to the extent of
the permanent value of such improvemcnts is the land-
living upon a leased holding, does not nearly

that it is the duty of every statesman, and more parti-
-1 cularly the duty of the First Lord of the Treasury,
1 who receives large emoluments, and is
.entrusted with
I great power, to serve, not to mystify and deceive, the
public, whenever he proposes any measure, to state all
the facts concerning it in the most ample and most com-
plete manner. His resources for obtaining information
are almost unbounded ; and the plea of ordinary in-
dustry, which may hold good in the case of a journalist,
will not justify him who has at his command the labour
of all the servants of the State, for the smallest negli-
gence, or the least incompleteness, when he undertakes
to bring some statement before Parliament and the
country. We yesterday pointed out the erroneous
view which Sir ROBERT PEEL had laid before the
public, of the effect on the revenue of the reduc-
tion
of certain taxes. We shall now, we trust, sa-
tisfy our readers that the Right Honourable Baronet
has not only taken an erroneous view, but we shall
Casten on him, we think, the suspicion of having de-
siguedly put abroad an error, in order to promote his
own ambitious and nefarious scheme of direct taxation,
and blind the public to the beneficial consequences of
substituting freedom of trade and lowering of imports,
for monopoly and new taxes.
The examples we quoted yesterday showed
.that the
consumption of wine had incrensed from 5,000,000 to
6,500,000 gallons, while the consumption of coffee has
increased from 9,251,8371b5., in 1807, to about
115,000,000 lbs at present. Now, Sir R. PELL cannot pos-
sibly be ignorant of the fact, that by this increased con-
sumption .of wine and of coffee, the revenue is augmented
in a much greater ratio than is shown by the mere pro-
duct of the wine and the coffee duties. The additional

1,500,000 gallons of wine imported must have employed
a considerable number of ships, increasing thc., revenue

from hemp and timber, those ships were navigated by
officers and men who consumed various articles subject
to excise and customs duties ; the wine imported gave
additional employment and pay to porters, warehouse-
men, wine-merchants, publicans, waiters, &c., all of
whom contributed to the revenue by their additional
consumption. Similar facts ars, of course, true as to
coffee. The 25,000,0001b5. now imported to consume and
require nearly three times as many ships to bring them into
England as the 9,000,0001b5. consumed in 1809, then re-
quired; and theyproduce to the revenue over and above the
actual increase of duty on coffee itself, at least twice,as
much revenue on account of the Consumption of the
different persons to whom that increase gives the means
of consuming as it would otherwise derive from them, or
an equal number of persons. Now, when the wine duties

7t4:'4=f-4t
,
4'l,
0- 0'
o MOB
•'•