The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-06 00:00:00

•
SPIRIT ofthe PUBLIC JOtJRNALS.
_ FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF :MONDAY.
STANDARD.—When a nation or an individual
gets into debt, or finds that expenditure greatly exceed;
income, or both (which happens to be our present un-
fortunate condition), two courses are open—either to
" put off the evil day," with the certainty of its ar-
rival sooner or later in aggravated terror, or boldly
„ ,
to meet the difficulty by such sacrifices as may be
-neeesSary. There is no middle course. We may
(leeeive ourselves, or (which more frequently hap-
' 'pens) pretend to deceive ourselves, by expedients
for discharging debts or demands. without paying
anything; and there never will be wanting persons
to help us' with such expedients—as wise as Lord
John Russell's late budget, or the scheme of
Swift's philosopher, who proposed to extract
sunbeams from cucumbers. But the truth is,
. that money due must be paid by money, in one shape
or the other, and money cannot be paid without
making some sacrifices. If, therefore, the country is
prepared to pay the debts incurred during the last seven
years of peace, and to meet, without incurring further
debts, the augmented expenditure rendered necessary by
the ministers who have incurred these debts, the coun-
try must be prepared to make sacrifices. Neither Sir
Robert Peel, nor any other minister, can make a de-
ficient revenue an adequate revenue : "ex nihilo
nihil fit." This is a very plain proposition, and
any attempt to make it plainer would only obscure
it obvious truth. But this proposition is admitted
on all sides—all are agreed that the country must
make a sacrifice, and all are perfectly contented
that the country should make it; but, somehow,
every one has' an excellent reason whyhe and his class
should be exempted from the necessity of contributing
to the offering. How is a statesman to deal in such a
case ? Is he to accept every excuse offered upon any
grounds more or less plausible, or upon no rational
. grounds at all ? Is he to spare the annuitant because he
thinks that the proprietor of a perpetuity will be
taxed too little in proportion ? or to spare the land-
owner and farmer, because other measures theatened
• to fall heavily upon him ?—while all object to the cruel
necessity of being obliged to expose the true con-
dition of their affairs. The truth is, that they do not
like to pay. They liberally profess their readiness to
make a common sacrifice ; but their interpretation of a
common sacrifice, is a sacrifice which is to cost them-
selves nothing. Now, if a Minister were to yield to
• these and like objectors, it is not difficult to say
. what would be the fate of his expeCted revenue.
And, therefore, in the circumstances supposed, a Mi-
nister has but one course, and that is to look for
revenue to all who are able to contribute it, and who
can he made to contribute it, but to look no further.
GLOBE.—The "tug of war" between Sir Robert
Peel and the firmly-compacted Opposition, by which
his odious income tax is resisted, will be'resumed to-
. night. The Easter recess has been well employed
by the public press, in bringing before the country
the incurable evils involved in the principle
arid inseparable from the essential machinery
of the impost. The universal discontent which
the Government measures have excited out
. of doors, will impart fresh vigour to their
assailants within the walls of Parliament; while the
Premier, who has taken upon himself the onerous
task of encountering, almost single-handed, the ar-
guments of the Opposition, must, necessarily be dispi-
rited by the threatened defection from his ranks, and
the consequent advantage conferred on his opponents in
the strife. Whether Sir R. Peel will continue to
' "wage this unequal fight" throughout the protracted
• discussions of the principle and:details ofthe measure—
in the various stages through which it is yet fated to
. proceed, ere a majority on the third reading of the
place it beyond reach of danger in the House of
Commons—we, of course, are unable to predict. The
"holding back" of his colleagues from contributing such
aid as they could afford him, must be attributed to
one of two causes, neither of which says much for
'• the position of a Premier so circumstanced. Either
' he has' not sufficient confidence -in them to entrust
them with the defence of his financial scheme, or they
.so littlir'approVe of it as to be unable to defend it with
advantage to the discussion, or with credit and safety
to-themselves. As to the tariff, that has fairly set
the several class interests together by the ears. Let the
discussion of the Premier's proposed modifications
. of existing duties come on when it may, we will pro-
mise him such a reception from the different interests
it will affect, that the disturbance of a hornet's-nest
would be scarcely equal to it. The Corn-law project has
also roused the farmers to revolt. These regard the " re-
duce(' protection" to their staple commodity, with the ad-
mission of foreign cattle to compete in the markets with
those of their feeding, as little less than treason against
them, by whom, at the bidding of their landlords, he was
elevated to the post which, they say, he ungratefully em-
ploys against the interests of those who placed him in it,
and from which they would now, most gladly, de-
pose him. The " Parmers' Friends" in the House
will have a difficult game to play. Between their
sense of duty to their constituents and their desire
to uphold the Premier, they will find their double
alleeiance most embarrassing. Their appearance on
. the Ministerial benches on the nights of the discussion
of the tariff measures, may be appropriately described
in. the words of Shakspeare
"They spake not a word ; •
But, like•dumb, statues or unbreathing stones,
Star'd at evil other, and looked deadly pale."
To return to the monster-grievance sought to be
imposed by Sir It. Peel in the form of an income tax,
we hive already, in several foriner articles, ob-
served on the inequality of the pressure, and conse-
quent injustice, of this obnoxious impost. To the
objection founded on the inquisitorial character
of the machinery by which the tax must, if imposed,
be necessarily collected, we have seen no reply, save
one, to which the Government is indebted, in the
amount it may be worth, to its evening organ, the
Standard—that none but preverse and dishonet per-
sons will be subjected to surcharges, and therefore
none but such persons will he subjected to the inquiry
into their private affairs, which is, in its very nature,
obnoxious to the feelings, and in its consequences
likely to prove injurious to commercial credit.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTEHDAY.
f-;.FANDARD.—The intelligence brought by the
Indian mail yesterday, though rendered more than
probable by preceding accounts, has created an im-
pression such as cannot be remembered. The dis-
graceful calamities at the Dardanelles and at Buenos
Ayres, under a former Whig Administration, filled
the country with shame; but it was shame un-
clouded by private sorrow or public sympathy for
suffering, as few of our gallant countrymen had
perished—the 'disastrous retreat to Corunna had,
indeed, its melancholy accoinpaniment of losses to
a.,:cravate the sense of failtirc ; but the failure and
tlhe less were relieved by the glory of the victory
that concluded the sad drama. The deplorable
events made certain yesterday have, unhappily,
no' mitigating circumstances. 'ley tell of failure
—.of utter failure—of, not the capitulation -of
• a British army, but of its complete annihilation—
de slaw4lit( r of more than ten thousand of our fel-
low subjects, and all without a single 'ray of glory
to lighten the dismal scene of blood. What would
otherwise atipear impossible, we see some thousand
British soldiers, armed and diSciplined, swept away
in one ghastly butchery, as if submitted to the hands
of executioners. How was this passible ? Was the
i:lnate valour of the troops extinct? Oh, no; that
• ehn!,l riot be; it was there as active and energetic
rs-ever ; but it was unprofitably exercised in ob-
. ')!' :cure individual exertions for safety, and, there-
- 'Ore, squandered without effect and without honour.
. Discipline served only so far as to bring the
gallant men to the slaughter-house, where disci-
line could no longer aid then), and then—but
e will not prosecute the horrid story. The peo-
p'e deeply feel the indignity and tlie injury that
t.ley have suffered, but the prevalent feeling is
sorrow for the brave men that have perished,
and sympathy with their surviving fr:ends. These
are feelings which it would be impossible to
ggravnt o, and which it would be scarcely in
nocexit to exasperate, were it possible. to do so.
Ihe Indian journals concur in laying the blame
of the deplorable event upon General Elphinstone.
That blame attaches somewhere cannot be matter
'• cf one moment's doubt. A British force of 10,000
men—for in extremity camp followers might be roil—
dered efficient—ought not under any circumstances to
• have been so totally destroyed without one pitched'
feld upon fairground. Indeed, we cannot let go the
opinion that an attempt ought to have been made to
regain the city, as 4 is plain, from the in-
" hiNtants being able to maintain themselves,
that in the city the British could not have wanted
sufficient provisions to support them until the arrival
of reinforcements' ; this' is also said to have been the
cipinion of our allies, and of the civil authorities upon-
.,dhe spot; but it is also said that General Elphin-
stone overruled it, and that he, the European
• robber, the 'last "man who ought to propose such
dateeerOu4 and dishonorable course deter-
mined for capitulation and retreat, in defiance
of the remonstrances of ASiatic Princes and mere
civilians. This may be false, but the fact that capi-
tulation and rOreat were determined on—capitulation
with Men whose practice, whose genius, morality, and
even religion, are perfidy; and retreats through 90
. miles of' a defile, with no guarantee but the faith of
.such a capitulil ion, that these were determined on is
certain, and equally certain it is that General Elphin-
stone had the chief command.
GLOBE.—General Nott had defeated a force of
•
foe thousand AffghanS,in Candahar—the commence-
ment, we trust, of a series of successes by which the
fate of our brave countrymen, and their native
companions in arms, will be signally, though with
no cimilar crimes and cruelties, avenged on their per-.
lidious murderers. How many brave fellows—lured
within the power of the enemy, to die without
4he power of resistance, . while sinking beneath the'
stroke of the assassins—looked up to their
God for mercy, and to their country for redress !
Their appeal -shall not be in vain. Whatever