The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-02 00:00:00

,i_itt _‘zei Atn.

LONDON :
FRIDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 2, 1842.

The landowners and farmers have been amaz-
ingly ill-treated by the present Administration.
The free-traders would only place them on a fair
footing with the rest of the community. Sir
ROBERT PEEL has lowered the price of their pro-
duce exclusively, and subjected them in common
with the rest, to the Income-tax. He avowed
that his intention was to give to other classes a
compensation for that tax in the reduced
cost of living; but that reduced cost is obtained
from the reduced price of agricultural produce.
He retorts, then, on the landowners and farmers
the system they have so long upheld, and actually
fleeces them to pacify the other classes. He con-
tinues the corrupt system which the free-traders
would abolish, but brings it exclusively to bear
against the very classes who placed Min in office.
So is the poisoned chalice of unequal taxation
commended to the lips of those who prepared it.
The landed interest, according to Sir R. PEEL'S
system, is to pay the Income-tax for the rest of
the community.
We do not like this injustice, and as the price
of agricultural produce has fallen 30 per cent.,
in consequence, as is said, of Sir ROBERT'S mea-
sures, the farmer ought to be relieved from the
Income-tax. We are not churlish towards the
agricultural classes, and we will readily lend
them our aid to obtain that end.

At the same time the rest of the community
wish to be relieved from the tax as well as the
firmer. Suppose the latter pay it entirely, to all
other, classes it is a prodigious annoyance. It
taxes" lie trader for an income he may never re-
AR its inquisitorial properties are expe-
rienceoy those who do not contribute to it, as
wellae those who do. It is felt to be little better
than a torment in a great multitude of families.
Never did a tax so much harass the people for
the little sum it- places in the Treasury. To raise
40,000,000/. by other means does not cause half
.as much inconvenience and contention as to raise
4,Q00,000/. by the Income-tax. For the conve-
nience of the people, annoyed by it beyond mea-
sure, and for the benefit of the Government, the
safety of which is always endangered when they
.are discontented, it ought toberepealed. Theother
classes feel it, though, according to Sir R. PEEL,
they may not ultimately pay it. They hate it for its
inconvenience and its irritation. It is inquisito-
rial and degrading, and Sir ROBERT PEEL will
gain much more in popularity than he will lose
in revenue by giving it up.
All classes, and particularly the suffering agri-
eulturists, pressed down by poor-rates, have now
a right to demand this relief. All the circum-
stances alleged in favour of the tax—all the pre-
texts on which it was defended—are changed.
The peace of Canada is now entrusted to its
own people, and no longer causes England so
much expense. Many of our troops have been
withdrawn from that colony. All apprehension
on the side of the United States is extinguished
by Lord ASHBURTON'S treaty. The war with
Affghanistan is over, and all the expense caused
by that country is at an end by our forces leav-
ing It. China has sued for peace, and is to pay
a large sum of money to us, amply sufficient
to meet the deficiency of the revenue in the pre-
sent year. At the same time there is now a hope
that trade, and the revenue derived from trade,
will increase very rapidly, so that the resources.
of the Administration being increased, while its
expenses are largely diminished, it may, -without
the least inconvenience, dispense entirely with
the whole Income-tax.

We see with almost infinite sat;isfactiqn that

the public has already taken this view of the
matter, and in many places meetings are contem-
plated to petition for the repeal of the tax. In
that course of conduct fortunately all may join.
On this question agriculturists and manufacturers
have no conflicting interests. Landlords and mer-
chants, retail dealers and annuitants, equally
wish to be relieved. They have all a common
interest in reducing the expense of the Govern-
ment, and that can only be effectually reduced
by witholding the means of extravagance. We
trust, therefore, that all classes will unite on the
point before the meeting of Parliament, and
plainly signify to Sir ROBERT PEEL that he must
give up the Income-tax.

The once happy and secure vales of England
seem no longer safe dwelling places, and they
are overrun with paupers. The terrible disease
which the country gentlemen and the farmers
were longago warned would spread its infection
from the decaying towns to the rural districts,
seems now to be ravaging them. "SUDDEN IN-
CREASE OF PAUPERISM" is the heading of an ar-
ticle in the Essex Herald, which thus goes on
to detail the alarming progress :
The accounts received this morning from various
parts of the county, announce the consequences con-
templated by the late rapid reduction in the produce
of the soil, as regards the wages of agricultural la-
bourers, which threaten to fall in proportion; in some
parts they are already lowered to Bs. a week. The dif-
ference will be felt, and be thought by some greater
than it appears ; but there are parishes in this county
where the wages have never been generally and
permanently raised beyond nine shillings ; and if the
reduction in the price of flour within the last four
months is referred to, the shilling lost in the
wages will be found to be fully compensated in that
article. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the
measures of late adopted to instruct the labourer, and
' to promote his independence, will enable him to ar-
rive at the fact, that the present reduction of wages
is the natural consequence alone of the crippled re-
sources of his employer, and that he may rest assured
that on the return of the means, a proportionate in-
, crease will quickly follow. For the moment there
certainly is cause for the apprehension of the want of
employ, and that many will be thrown out of work
altogether. The present law, it is well known,
forbids relief out of the house under every plea
but that of affliction, however numerous the family,
in order to counteract a principle that was prac-
tised under the ohl law—that of paying from the
poor-rate a part of the wages ; instances have been
found, however—notwithstanding the liberality of the
master and the competency of the labourer—in which
numbers in a family have rendered such wages less
than required to afford the common necessaries of life.
In some unions it has been the practice to take from
large families into the union-house one, and some-
times two children, in order to bring the cost of
maintenance within the earnings of the parents; and
such a relaxation of the general rule has been sanc-
tioned, in some cases, by the Poor-law Commissioners.
We hear of an increase of paupers in one union in
particular, where the house was built for only 350,
and there are now more than 300, and an overflow is
looked for. The union-houses must be relieved of
the aged paupers, if room is required, and accommo-
dation can be found for them out of the house.
The reader will remember that the increase of
pauperism takes place in communities already
very seriously afflicted with that evil, and it can
scarcely become more intense without absorbing
the property of the soil, and rendering a country
residence in England no longer either safe or
pleasant. In spite of the New Poor-law and the
Corn-law, the landlords will scarcely save their
estates and the tenants their capital.
We have printed in italics one statement, which
we consider to be extremely important. Ac-
cording to the Essex Herald the resources of the
farmers are already crippled. It is their need,
not their will, for they are well disposed towards
their labourers, which compels them to lower
wages and turn off their hands. Similar state-
ments have been made of the farmers in 'Wilt-
shire, Cheshire, Surrey, Sussex, and several other
counties. The Corn-laws, however, are still in
existence, and have lately been altered on an im-
proved plan ; but they are so noxious to the
farmers themselves, that the very first decent
harvest in six years has crippled their resources.
This is a most important fact for solving all
doubt as to the effect of our legislation.
In favour of the Corn-laws it is alleged that
they enable the farmer to keep hands in employ.
ment and land in cultivation, but under their in-
fluence the farmers turn off their hands, and are
crippled in their resources. What has become
of the plunder obtained by the bread-tax ?It has
been in a great measure imaginary, and has been
dissipated as soon as got. The injury done by the
laws to the rest of the community is not the less
because the gain of the farmer has been nil. His
expenses, we believe, have exceeded his gains,
and all the advantages of bolstering up prices
have gone to the landlord in the shape of rent.
How rent is spent the foul disclosures lately
made of the manner in which our nobility pass
their time and employ their money, have in-
formed the public. The produce of the tax on
the people's bread enriches courtezans at home
and abroad. It is wasted in odious profligacy. It
goes to nourish vice, not sustain labour. In all
ages plunderers have been profligates, and there
seems no difference in this respect between those
who plunder by law and those who plunder by
the strong hand. None of the wealth extorted
by the bread-tax remains with the farmers, who
have no hoards, no resources, and who cannot,
like the Messrs. ASHWORTH and other manufac-
turers, keep a large number of labourers em-
ployed long after the period when they can hope
to profit by their labour. One bounteous harvest,
when the towns' people are unable to buy as
largely as usual, suffices to reduce the farmers
almost to as bad a condition as the labourers.
What delightful, what blessed consequences, of
that tax on bread, which stifles trade !
Pauperised Essex is, at the same time, not
without its poachers. We see by the journal we
have quoted, that three men were lately sen-
tenced to two months' imprisonment each for
doing that. on the squire's game which the squire
does on the people's bread—that is, take it away
without leave of the owner. In other places,
too, the people imitate on game the conduct which
the game owner pursues towards the people's
food, and bloody encounters ensue. The New-
castle Journal gives the following account of a
been WITA
P ci
E theas agPhPt latelyero
that a gang
DESPERATEof ApoFaFcßhAerYs
have
of pursuing their nocturnal depredations on the pre-
serves adjoining Warkworth. On the
Wednesday week information was brought to Mor-
wick-hall, the residence of Mr. S. G. Barrett,
that a party of poachers were upon the
estate, and that gentleman immediately went out,
accompanied by his brother-in law, the Rev. H. Bell,
Vicar of Longhoughton, for the purpose of warning
them off. Shortly after leaving the house, and being
a short distance from each other, Mr. Barrett heard
Mr. Bell call out as if for aid, and on proceeding to
the spot he found the Rev. Gentleman attacked by
the whole gang, five in number, who had knocked
him down, and were beating him unmercifully with
the butts of their guns and bludgeons. After defend-
ing himself, Mr. Barrett, who in turn was attacked,
succeeded in getting out his pistols, when the villains
fled: Mr. Bell was conveyed to Morwick-hall, with
one of his arms broken by a desperate blow from the
butt of a gun, which was also broken by the blow,
the butt end being afterwards found on the spot ; he
was also severely beaten about the head by the
cowardly villains when on the ground.
Happy, peaceful England ! Such a scene re-
flects equal honour on her people and her
Government. Here is its counterpart in another