The Sun.
London, England, 1829-10-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Our Lisbon correspondent, for whose letter of
the 10th we cannot find room to-day, draws a
frightful picture of the present condition of Por-
tugal, in which tyranny and misgovernment arc
described as producing every day more abundant
fruits of wretchedness and crime. As the taxes
are unpaid, Don Miguel in order to procure the
means of maintaining a force for his own pro-
tection, has been obliged to demand money from
the Bank, and the knowledge of this fact has
destroyed the credit of that establishment. This
ronlyeba regime, meremainingllich has ittihoendoofcotle ntd Constitutionalucted.it,i
busi-
ness with great prudence, and has been Gf con-
siderable use to commerce, is now likely to ex-
pire under the grasp of arbitrary violence. It
has, we are told, called in its notes, and an-
nounced its intention of closing its transactions
as soon as they are paid off. This, probably,
may be impossible within a very limited time ;
but it is equally impossible for the Directors to
continue their operations under the pressure of
such a power. The failure of the expedition to
Terceira is said by our correspondent very much
to have lessened the confidence of even Don
Miguel's friends in the stability of his Govern-
ment. With these causes of distrust and dis-
satisfaction concur the almost total interruption
of commercial business, and the cessation, of
manufacturing industry. The lower classes of
the people cannot find employment or food, and
the rents of the landed proprietor are not paid.
In such a state no police can restrain violence and
robbery ; and accordingly, we hear of the com-
mission of twenty-four burglaries in Lisbon in
one night, some of which were aggravated by
assassination. The correctness of this general
representation our correspondent supports by a
reference to particular facts, into the detail of
which we cannot at present enter. Such a state
of things inspires hope—though, we confess, a
faint one—that Miguel's power may not be of
long duration. At the same time we are bound
to confess, with whatever reluctance, that the
ultimate recognition of Miguel, should he not
be upset by his own people, is an inevitable evil :
and, however offensive to our moral feelings, is
an event which the exigencies of the State and
of commerce may absolutely demand. Let,
however, the step not be taken one minute before
it shall be necessary, and in the interval some-
thing may occur to avert the painful measure of
apparent acquiescence in so absurd as well as
cruel a tyranny.—Times.

An article from " A Correspondent," on the
subject of the Land-tax, deserves to be atten-
tively considered. The object of the writer is
to recommend a more equal and productive re-
partition of the above impost. The history of
this tax is, in few words, that it was assessed
and collected by virtue of the 4th of William and
Mary, and continued down under the same as-
sessment to the year 1798, when Mr, Pitt
first brought in a Bill by which individuals were
allowed to redeem their land-tax, thereby exo'

nerating the lands ever after from payment of the
duty so redeemed. But as the progress of
wealth and circumstances had produced extraor-
dinary changes in the relative value of landed
property according to its situation, it follows that
by adhering to an old assessment, great inequa-
lity had been introduced into the rates of taxa-
tion, as compared with the altered value of the
property from which it was raised. Thus, as is
described by our correspondent, some places
have increased so enormously in wealth and po-
pulation, that the old tax, remaining always the
same, now hardly amounts (as in the parish of
Marylebone) to one farthing in the pound ;
while elsewhere—for instance, in some of the
City wards—the inhabitants pay mo-e than Ss.
The proposition, then, is, that the land-tax
should be equalized every where throughout the
kingdom, and assessed at the rate of 2s. in the
pound, subject to a periodical revision of the
cess, which our correspondent assumes would
yield a revenue of between three and four mil-
lions sterling : the maximum of the tax under
the former assessment, which was to be a rate

not exceeding 4s. in the pound, gave a receipt
of 1,989,0001., or, in round numbers, say
2,000,0001. per annum. Strange to say, the
permission to reduce the land tax, authorised by
the law of 1798, had not been acted upon so
recently as the year 1822 to an extent of more
than 690,0001. a year ; there remains, there-
fore, about 1,300,0001. per annum quite open to
any plan of re-assessment. The only difficulty
which has occurred to any one arises from the
case of those individuals who have actually re-
deemed their land-tax. With regard to such
persons, the rule might be this : as the original
principle of the tax was, that it should be levied
equally and indifferently ad valorem upon the
whole realm, and as, by a culpable departure from
that principle, a great portion of the country
came to pay but a few pence or farthings in the
pound, while others paid the maximum value of
45., let those who redeemed at the rate of 2s. or
upwards, be in future exempt from any assess-
ment for land-tax, while those lands which were
redeemed below that rate shall be charged in
future the difference only between the scale on
which they paid, and the new assessment. As
for any portion of property claiming to be ex-
empt from an equal share of the burdens un-
posed for the relief of the public necessities upon
the general mass of property of the same descrip-
tion, it is wholly preposterous to set up any such
pretension. The only fair ground of complaint
is inequality of pressure, and that objection to
the ancient land-tax, it appears in the course of
our correspondent's article that Mr. Pitt felt and
stated in the strongest terms. If, as well-in-
formed men suppose, a pretty extensive revision
of our financial system is about to be undertaken
with the sanction of persons who have great in-
fluence in the state, it does appear to us that a
re-adjustment of the land-tax may be resorted to
as part of the general scheme, and as not only
consistent with equity and economy, but enjoined
by every consideration of national necessity and
advantage.—lbid.
If we may venture to form an opinion on the
question at issue between the East India Com-
pany and their army in Bengal, we should say
that the order complained of is too general, and
that however clear the title of the Company to
dictate the terms on which they will admit men
into their service, this power must be limited to
future contracts, and cannot (except in a case of
necessity) extend to contracts already entered
into. In the case, then, of all the officers, who
may be supposed to have calculated on entering
shouldiashave been
been done.the service on the allowance which is the subject.
toif,hcontroversy,order
r (i injusticeer
prospec-
tive, and that the Company ought so far to re-
consider their order as to - except from the re-
duction all those who entered the service in Ben-
gal- prior to its date. With regard to what is
said as to the difficulty in the way of officers
subsisting themselves on the existing allowances,

04f,`i;"

V-w•E

L., 1.