The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-20 00:00:00

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LONDON
WEDNESDAY MORNING, APRIL 20, 1842.

Lord STANLEY made a curious statement last night
-relative to emigration. New South Wales, it appears,
received nearly 13,000 immigrants in the last year, and
there are 10,000 more on the road ; the colony is in
debt, and knows not how to provide for the labourers
imported. Van Diemen's Land cannot receive more
than 1,500 persons in a year; Western Australia offers
only a small field; and Southern Australia has been
blocked up by misgovernment. Out of a population of
15,000, 1,200 are living as paupers, maintained out of
the public funds. This is the pattern colony, established
on the Wakefield system, under the guidance of a Govern-
ment Commission, composed of some of the leading
political lights of the day. One, in particular,
having helped to ruin Australia, is now by his writings
helping the Tories all in his power to ruin England. In
Canada, it, appears, the wanderers are better off, but
even there the people have suffered severely. Though
Lord STANLEY went to the Pacific, he did not touch at
that half-way house, the Cape of Good Hope, and of that
important colony said not one word. We apprehend,
however, that the Cape of Good Hope at present—now
that a large portion of the people of a Dutch origin have
left it, because they did net like the English Government
—is, at least, as favourable a place for emigrants as either
Van Diemen's Land or New South Wales. What quantity
of labourers that colony might absorb, we cannot say; but
we should suppose, from its magnitude, and from the
trade it begins to carry on, that it might usefully
employ as large a number of our destitute people as any
one of the colonies Lord STANLEY mentioned. The
Noble Lord was extremely anxious for one thing,
namely, that all emigrants should place themselves under
the Government Agents ; so that the Government will,
by and by, become responsible for the due dispersion
and location of all the children of England.

We are, then, to have an unmitigated Income-tax. It
seems all settled, and only a miracle or convulsion of na-.
ture can save us from it. The LOUIS PHILIPPE of our
present system may indeed be suddenly called away, as
he has been suddenly elevated into great power ; but
short of some unexpected event of this description, the In-
come-tax Bill seems almost, as certain to become a law
that as the sun will, rise to-morrow. If any person had pre-
, dieted a twelvemonth ago, or even six months ago, that
John Bull, in the midst of peace, when all the Powers
are proud of his alliance, and are cultivating friendly
relations with him--when no great disaster has befallen
him—when he is weighed down merely with monopolies
and excessive taxation—would submit, almost without
a murmur, to a tax on income imposed by
the Tories, such a person would have been
laughed at as the idlest dreamer that ever
took to the unprofitable task of soothsaying. Yet the
fact has contradicted all presumptions and all forethought.
The condition of England question, which erewhile
puzzled the brains of thinkers, is solved at once
by Sir ROBERT PEEL. Taxation, and taxation of the
worst and most oppressive character, is all that is re-
quired on his system to restore the people to content-
ment and prosperity. If this be true, what a woeful mis-
take must all the reasoners, all the philosophers, all the
political economists, all those who hate formed high and
hallowed hopes of the destinies of England and English-
men, have committed. At present, however, Sir R.
PEEL has only succeeded so far as to render it highly
probable that his plan—lncome-tax, Tariff, and Corn-
law—will become the law of theland. What will be its
effects on the nation is quite another question.

At present the Three per Cents. are at 914, and first
class commercial bills are canvassed for in the City—we
tire told—by the bankers and discount houses, at three
per cent. There is a great probability, it is added, that
the rate of interest will recede still further. Under
such circumstances it seems highly probable that the
Government might borrow, if it wished so to act,
10.000,000/., or 20,000,000/. in a week, at 3?,-, per cent.
It is plain, therefore, that our public credit
is, at this moment, perfectly sound. We doubt
whether at any former period it was ever in
a better condition. It needs, therefore no bolstering
up whatever ; yet Sir R. PEEL told the House of Com-
mons on Monday that he was braving all the disgust,
dissatisfaction, and unpopularity which the Income-tax
would bring on his head, from a firm belief that it is
absolutely necessary to maintain public credit. When
a gentleman, like Sir R. PEEL, publicly makes a so-
lemn assertion. we cannot doubt his word.
His belief • must be as he describes it, but
the circumstances we have referred to prove that his be-
lief is not warranted by facts. He acts more from
imagination than truth, and public credit is not in such a
deplorable state of decrepitude as to require the buttress
of an Income-tax. Admitting the truth of Sir ROBERT
PEEL'S assertion, we cannot deny his credulity.

Mr. VILLIERS followed Sir R. PEEL in one of the
most correctly reasoned speeches we have yet seen, treat-
ing of the Corn-laws and the Income•tax in conjunction,
and pointed out immediately the bearing of this new
foundereason for an Income-tax, in the following pas_
sage:— _ _

The Right Hop. Baronet's speech of that evening had dis-
sipated all delusions; for the Right Hon. Baronet had said
that, if it should be again proposed to substitute a property-
tax, for the indirect taxes which pressed upon the masses of
the people, no man would be more firm in resisting such a
change of system than himself (Sir Robert Peel). The Right
Hon. Baronet distinctly admitted that all he proposed to do by