The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-02 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY MORNING, APRIL 2, 1842.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—It is an old saying, that oae half the
.world knows not how the other hillf lives; but this
preverb will begin to lose its force if Sir Robert he
succeeds in bringing into operation the inqiiisitorial
machinery for collecting his income tax. It might
appear prima facie a good thing that the real means
of all men should be known, in order to, prevent the
keeping up of false appearances ; but the fact is, the.
proposed measure will vexatiously. and needlessly
lay bare. the concerns of many who have no int-
proper motive i;a- seeresy, while it will enable those
whose desire it is to deceive the world by the ap-
pearance -of ample means; to effiect their object with
greater. facility than hithertta A few additional pounds
devoted to the income tax will bci soon repaid' in the
additional credit to be gained by the reputation of
being rich ; and instead, .61' 'their being more en-
courageinent to straightforwardness under the pro-
posed new order of things, there will he every in-
ducement held. out to the practice of trickery. It
does not; follow that all who are desirous of . keep-
ing the true state of their atfairs to themselves have a
dishonest motive for doing/so ; and there. is nothing
reprehensible in a disinclination that the world should
be made aware of the contracted means on which many,
by the frequent practice of acts of self-denial, contrive
to preserve an appearance of competence. If the out-
cry against the inquisitorial nature of the income tax
were confined to the sort of persons who desire to profit
at the expense ofothers by seeming richer than they are,
there might be something-in the argument that the
public will have an opportunity of learning the real
circumstances of one mother; but this isnot the case,
and the hardship.of the inquisition will be most severely
felt by those whose disinclination to it will arise from a
laudable desire to preserve respect towards themselves,
without doing an injury to anyone. The English
people are noted for their disposition to keep themselves,
as the saying is; "to themselves;" and the same cha-
' racteristic that prompts 'them to repel intrusion on
their society, induces them to dislike inquiry into
their means of living—not 'occause they wish to ale-
ceive, hut on account of an innate repugnance they
feel to being made the subjects of impertinent
curiosity. An income tax is, therefore, peculiarly
opposed to the national tastes and habits of
Englishmen ; nor will the proposition of the
Premier, to give an appeal to special com-
missioners, at all prevent the evil it -professes to
remedy. In the days of the former income tax it
was professed that secresy should be preserved ;
but those.who remember the obnoxious impost will be
able to say how far that profession was realised. It
is within the knowledge of the. writer of these re-
marks, that a nobleman, since in the possession of
considerable wealth, who had come somewhat tines:-
pectedly to his title, and had been forced to abandon a
profession of which he had commenced the pursuit, re-
turned fire hundred a year as the amount of his in-
come. Being a peer, the assessors conceived that eight
hundred a year could not bp too low a'sum to rate
him at ; but the nobleman in question had truly
stated the extent of his means, • and having proved
the fact to he as he had represented it, the tax was
reduced accordingly. In spitelof the secrecy to which
the assessors were bound, this fact was known and
talkA about in the volunteer regiment of which his
lordship was the colonel; and should the income tax
come again into operation, such will be the sort of
delicacy that will be observed by the "special commis-
sioners," or some of tha numerous, " parties" that they
will be empowered to bring-before them.
STANDARD.—A thin meeting, whether a meet-
absolutely or comoaratirply thin—of the great ward
of Farringdon. Without dues not testify much in fa-
vour of the whisper ; for a thin meeting held for a
great and populous .district must be a thin expression
of opinion—the whisper " attenuates doubly as. its
sphere expands ;" and—certain it is that all the meet-
ings called to oppose the income tax have been
very, very-- thin. , A Manchester correspondent iris,
indeed, favoured us with a handbill, from which we see
that " the Leaguers " have at length proceeded to the
dangerous length of taking the anir into their own
hands, as far as regards the metropolis of mill-
owners. how far they may succeed in helping
" the whisper of a . faction " in Lancashire it
would be rash to conjecture ; but beyond the
limits of the factory land, the movement of the
League must have an influence the most favourable
to the Ministerial plan. The agriculturists and
the colonial interest, and all others committed' to
our national industry, must see at a glance, what
the Leaguers see already, or they would not act as
they are acting, that there is nothing between an
income tax and a recourse to free trade in its wildest
and most ruinous form, including, of course, an abo
lition of the Corn-laws, with a substituted fixed
duty, imposed for time sa!me of revenue—that is, in
the strict and only true sense of the phrase,
a bread fax. Lord John Russell, indeed, when
he offered his last year's budget, said just the
same thing. , W - have little fear that the
agriculturists will be led by such seducers as the
Leaguemnen to help out " the whisper." There is,
besides, a consideration- to which all classes of the
people will be awakened, when they find the Lea-
guers coming forward to'oppose an income taL Who
have rendered such a tax necessary-, or :at least who
are they who have iendcnl necessary this or some
other extraordinary coup de finace 7 Are they.
not - the late i\linisters who have imposed the
necessity—the I.inistry supported against the
public opinion of England, litst by Mr. O'Con-
nell, next by the League—and which sold itself for
such support successively to the one and the other ?
This is a consideration which must not be lost sight
of for a moment. Mr. O'Connell and the League are
as fairly responsible for the difficulties inherited by
the present Cabinet, as the poor creatures whom they
retained in office to do their will, and who created
those difficulties under such circumstances as no men
ever before drew like embarrassments upon a nation. I

CORN•LAWS AND THE TARIFF.
Mr. Handley has published the following address to
the farmers of South Lincolnshire

" My late connection with you will, I trust, plead' my
apology for this address.
" The cry of protection to agriculture gulled the far-
mers of England at the late elections into the belief that
their property was
,only safe under the guidance of Sir
Robert Peel. The result of that misplaced confidence
has been the introduction of a Corn Bill which has redu-
ced the protection on wheat one half, and on Spring
corn to a point which has alarmed even the most confi-
ding. Emboldened by your apathy and the subservi-
ency of the representatives of agricultural constituences,
Sir Robert Peel has dared to propose the imposition of
an income tax—so odious and inquisitorial in its
nature that the country would not endure it in
1816, although the deficiencies of the public in-
come were :nearly twenty-fold what they are now.
This tax it. is propoSed to levy upon trade and manu-
factures, to the extent of three per cent. ; but by taxing
bot 4, landlord and tenant,
,to impose upon land per
cent.! And as if the blow.were not sufficiently heavy
to mark his gratitude towards those who have raised
him to power, he proposes to fill the measure of his in-
justice to your class, by applying the principles of free
trade to almost every article of your produce, as is ex-
emplified in his tariff.
"At length the farmers of the North Division are
roused to action, and a meeting of this great county is
to be called by the High Sheriff for Monday next, at
Lincoln. Your representatives will doubtless attend ;
and it is for you to afford them the opportunity of con-
veying to the House of Commons; on the following day,
a contradiction to the bold. statements of Sir Robert
Peel and Sir Edward Knatclibull that you arc satisfied
with the proposed measures.
" I well know the reluctance with which you leare
your homes and occupations, and I duly appreciate the
inconvenience of so long a journey to many of you ; but
y,ur existence as men of property is at stake ; your pro-
visions for your families sire endangered ; • the proceeds
of your hard-earned industry arc about to be plundered
in silence

" Rouse yourselves for this one exertion—perhaps the
last it will be worth your NO-die to make ; and, sinking
all minor inconveniences, rally in the Castle•yard, to re-
monstrate in terms of determination that shall even
make Sir Robert Peel pause in his career of ruinous
justice.• ," HEM-RY HANDLEY.
" Culverthorpe, March 30, 1842."

DENT OFF
LAMENTABLE ACC]

WENNINGTON MARSHES,

It is with deep regret that we have to record' t; event,
of a most painful nature, which occurred on Monday
last, on the Thames, opposite Wennington Marshes, by
l'e neighbour-
them to give
which two persons lost their lives, It aPpears that Mr.
C. Russell, eldest son- of C. E. Brantill, Esq. of upmins_
ter, accompanied by his cousin, Mr. Henry IlohneS,
aged 16, son of the late Colonel Holmes, of the 3rd Dra-
goon Guards, went down to take a row upon the Thames
hino(axis, ton
aalnl;
,b,doajtooser 1
iai tit‘osehin nat labourer
.s
toefd tol
f him a lift to Purileet. In consequence of the sudden
"jibbing" of the sail, from a squall, the b:•at vvtis upset,
and they were precipitated into the water. Mr. Rus-
t
sell reached the land with great difficulty, but the
bodies of his companions were not recovered till three
hours afterwards, when, on the receding of the tide,
they were both found near the sea wall, '. .
On Wednesday, an inquest was held upon the bodies,
before C. C. Lewis, Esq. coroner, at the .11.1unard Arm's,
Wennington, when the jury immediately returned a
verdict of "Accidental death Ashman has•left a wife
and four children.— Clo Word Chronicle.

THE FARMERS V ERSUS THE PEEL MENISTRY.—The
East Kent farmers had a kind of preliminary meeting
on Fitturday last, in order to ecneert measures for pub-
licly remonstrating against Sir 'Robert Peel's financial
reform measures, and to express, as We hare heard,
surprise at the conduct of their' represen:atives ' aban-
cloning the farmers' interests. A general meeting. into
be held on Saturday next, at which all concerned will
be enabled " to air their discontent. —Kent //emit/. (*Sir
Edward Knatclibull will haVe to eh pose between his con-
stituents and his place in the Cabinet—Nits('team tatii
again !]
Last evening Mr. Lawrence and Lady Jane" Peel
gave a grand dinner and evening party to Sir nobert
Peel. About three hundred of the nobility and ,henry
residing in Brighton were present.