The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PAFER9 OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—Ministers have got their income tax
majority—much good may it do them. Our readers
will remember (we may at least be allowed to put
them in mind) that, on the first introduction of the
Peel Budget, we admitted the Opposition were, in a
great measure, 'disabled from resisting the pro-
ject effectually by the defectiveness of the
• Whig Budget in providing for the immediate finan-
cial exigency. The practical demands of the day are
what are first looked to' by the English public—and
the late Ministers expiated their short comings of those
demands by the failure of effective support from the
most active and influential classes. The present Mi-
nisters, as it appears to us, have risked discredit with
those classes by the opposite course of exaggerating
the demands of the present crisis, and throwing the
burthen of making them good too heavily on the Middle
and mercantile classes. The Whig fault was a fault of
weakness ; the Tory fault is a fault of class-strength.
' If the late Ministry are to he blamed, it is for not
having thrown the reins of Government sooner to
those who now hold them : but to their last acts, it
--mist be remembered, we owe the first acts of the
present, so far as those are of Liberal tendency.
What the present Government have exclusively
to themselVes is the responsibility of the income tax,
We are much mistaken if this responsibility will
prove a light matter. Is it supposed that, in its pre-
sent shape, such a tax can be permanent ? The inten-
tion is disclaimedon the part of its authors. We are
not to have a permanent income tax. So they tell us ;
and whatever they may mean, the public will hold
them to their word. But, on the strength of their
income tax, they are actually preparing to part
gratuitously with 1,200,0001. of revenue from a pro-
- ductive and unobnoxious impost ! They are doing
this in the face of an annual deficit, only filled up
.by an income tax ! We desire to know how, as a
matter of principle, their conduct differs in this re-
spect from that of their predecessors, whom they charge
so vehemently with relinquishing 1,500,000/. from
the Post-office ? Is it the 300,0001. that makes the
difference between prudence and imprudence ? It
will be replied that our finances may be expected to
have improved five years hence. The same plea
may be urged for the probable increase of the post-
age, and other revenues. All that is clear at
present is, that Ministers, with the warning example
before them—for as such they choose to parade it—ol
their Whig predecessors, with the ruinous effects of
their conduct, as they Choose to assert, staring us in
the fitce, imitate that example in the very first steps of
their course, abandon a tax, the abandonment of
was not even asked for by the public, and do
this at a moment when the accumulated dangers, of
.deficiency have forced them, as they say, on an' im-
post so odious that they dare: not proclaim it perma-
nent—so odious, we add,,that the public will take
good care that they shall not make it so !
STANDARD.—The adjourned debate upon the
income tax terminated last night in the adoption of
the measure by a decisive majority—a majority of
one hundred and .six, in a House of 515 Members.
The numbers were—for bringing up the Report, 308;
against it, 202. It is thus that the representatives of
the people of 'England proclaim to Europe, and to the
world, their determination to maintain the honour and
interests of their country, at whatever sacrifice may
be necessary. We have lately heard much of the
confession of weakness involved in resorting to an
income tax. We are willing to trust to the
judgment of the world for the decision, whe-
ther to go on year after year, nursinc, defi-
ciencies-after deficiencies into cumbrous debts, or
getting rid of , deficiency and debt by a bold, ener-
getic, and generous sacrifice, is the greater proof
of weakness. The most intelligent of the foreign
journals has already given its decision on the matter.
"The late news from India," says the Journal des
Debats, " was received in England with a profound
feeling of pain ; but likewise with remarkable dig-
nity. * 4 4 The eminently practical and positive
spirit of the English has postponed all other conside-
rations to a future period. They are occupied in esti-
mating the real injury sustained, in taking measures to
repair it, and acting with all the energy the gravity
of circumstances requires." This is a true picture of
what is nowpassing in this country, and a very faith-
ful indication of the character and temper of the
British nation.; our great poet has described them
with inimitable precision and force :

" Beware
Of entrance into a quarrel, but being in
Bear it, that the opposer may beware of thee."
This is the national character, and to a nation or to
an individual such a character is the highest claim of
respect and good-will, the safest guarantee against
wrong or insult. It is not by the amount of the resources
of the wealthiest people in the world that the safety
of danger of provoking a quarrel with that people
is to be measured, but by the greater or less prompti-
tude with which they will use those means their pos-
session of which can be doubtful to no one. In this
light we cannot but regard the Ministerial victory of
last light as of the highest political importance—as the
cheap and bloodless equivalent of many military
triumphs.