The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-21 00:00:00

THE' TORY INCOME TAX.

OPINIONS OF THE COUNTRY PRESS.
(From the Scotsman.)
The grand financial scheme, the combined product of
Tory. skill, the fruit of six months' gestation, is at length
I.:efore us, in the shape of—an income tax ! ! The void
in the. Treasury which the Whig Mihisters would have
haPPlled by abating the existing monopolies of corn,
sugar, timber, and other articles, without laying an ad-
ditional burden of one shilling upon the country, fur-
rtshes ocimsion, in the hands of the Tory Government,
for the imposition of a tax, the naost repugnant to the
habits and feelings of a free people—a tax so odious, so
Liquisitorital, and oppreacive, that statesmen of all parties
I are hitherto regarded it as a resource to be reserved
frr some great exigency, such as awar which threatened
our nation al existence. The miserable mockery, pre-
sented ton s under the name of a Corn-bill, led us to
anticipates omething bad enough in finance ; but we were
.it prepari d—and the country certainly was not pre-
Fared—Tor anything so monstrous as this.
(From the Glasgow Chronicle.)
To the -principle of an income tax, the people of this
e' entry h ire a strong, and, as we think, a just, repug-
ri Ince, bet bon account of its inquisitorial character, and
it uneque 1 operation. To tax a mr.n who derives two or
theee hun, fired pounds a year from trade, or in the form
o' an anni tat payment for his services, to the same extent
a a man - who draws the same income from land or other
st,,ble pro perty, is obviously unjust. The latter is a far
r.:Ther inaA than the former, yet he pnys no more. The
pi.-ncipie or paying according to ability is quite lost
ai ht of.

(From the Brighton Guardiar.)
And now.. let us ask our readers what they think, in a
iod of IN ,ace, of an income tax of 7d. in the pound ?
regarl, I this. whole scheme of income tax as the
n •es.ary c 3ilsecluen,ce of the Corn-law, and a mere de-
e to rai a. the revenue of the country by taxing the
p )ple, .mc.l of raising it. by setting. trade and industry
fiL ?. We eider a 'great -blow to future prosPerity.•
A :ax whi'a falbt so heavily its nearly three per cent. on
tit profits -of trade and on the incomes of all the middle
.ses evil 1 in reality fr,o a considerable way towards
cii pain heir means of consumption and of saving, It
tent r o arrest the increase of employment. Let it
b u2.ways remembered that the addition to our burdens
A: price we Day for Corn-laws and the ascendancy of
E • Roberti Peel. A reformed Parliaraent,under a Tory
I mier, an income tax- iu peace will be a phe-
nor tenon in history and moral science.
' (17:.-om the Bristcl Gazette.)

Pe are' .not, eat enough to • reinernber the practical
gr asancesaand nanoyances experienced tinder the former
fer ositiori of this tax, but the slightest reflection on the
_so ',2Ct must show 'hat of all direct taxation it is the
;t unjasts and to the feelings-of Englishmen, most ab-
b.) rent in its pryirev inquisitorial character. The visits
• tax-gatherer, whether for state or local burdens, are
se; 'r of a parti sularly gratifying description ; brit to
im% a pert official pegging his nose into every man's
le inspecting secs;;, private cash-book, exposing his
busing 'B' to his r,ca;hbours and rivals in trade, extorting
• t.st, sa, per ce atrge from him on the twitting plea that
s sty. and Se, it the same line, conducts a more profit-
at corteslrn— -is an unbearable intrusion, only to-be re-
solaed te its the- craw of the last necessity. And the ia-
jr beet of the s shame is palpably apparent.
From the Bury Post.)
a ;le Minister as recurred to that tax which the " im-
ps em of the •eountry shook off at the close of the war,
• pr Jposes• to renew it in all its odious features of in-
• its nial and unequal assessment. The professional
man a nd the tradesman, whose laborious avocations bring
th, as. in an 'nee me under any circumstances precarious,
aaa -which tlaath may annihilate to-morrow, are
to p ty precisely the same tax as the owner of a landed
estate or investment in the funds yielding an equal
ante unt ea income. But these are not the greatest ob-
ject'. ons so the sa.a upon incomes ; the intolerable evil is
ats a ,qu.aitorad character, and its tendency to encourage
deaf ption. "Is is," as. Mr. MaCulloch describes it, " a
tax upon honesty, and a bounty upon perjury and fraud."
The consaientio.sa will pay. the tax on the fall amount of
his / aofits ; the man of "easy virtue' will pay just as
little as he thinks he can induce the commissioners or
inspe etors to be satisfied with. - It is in vain to talk of
it as s • temporary enactment. Let the tax be once laid on,
ana • ae shall have no hope of living to see it removed.
(From the Cambridge Advertiser.)
It has been he'd, and we believe justly held, by the
able :t political economist a, that a tax of this nature can
be ji stifled only by urgent and extreme necessity. It
is in possible to a djustit in such a manner that it shall
not I cress upon many indisiduals with harsh and unequal
Se' 3. city. And if that necessity arise, it would for many
re; s As be the best and fairest way to tax property only,
ans i not the profits arising from trade or professional
lzcr tions, at least not to tax the latter to the same
Mx ant as the farmer.
axation shoald be regulated by the principle that
the relative condition_ of the parties. upon whom taxes
are rnposed, should not be at all changed by their im-
pea ion. No cue would venture to assert that the pro-
pom d income tax will stand this test. It is, therefore,
Tour tiesl on the grossest injustice, and Sir Robett Peel
;ma; - be assured that. unless he make some great alters-
; io. ;in the, dot ails, of his plan, he will create throughout
t ha country a reeling of indignation which no Minister
sa aa withstand..
(From the -21'asercurga)
Ve thought the. day such a alas
am osi4on., as that bearing the name of income tax
we ld ever again, be laid upon the people 'of Great
Br Sin.. Those who remember the character given to
tax just before it was abolished, after the last war
war France, will be of the same opinion with ourselves.
It .as their designated as the most odious, abominable,
inq dsitorial, and unconstitutional of imposts. It was
pro ed to be so' from the injury it produced to trade—
the shameful intrusion it caused upon the privacy
of ;usiness—from the troubles and vexations which it
brc !gilt upon great numbers of persons of variable
nag 'is, or of hardly any means, though they endeavour
te eep up a respectable appearance. An income tax,
m, K died as. Sir Robert proposes, will at the present time
be • ne of the most unpopular, as well as unprofitable,
tea :es that could be imposed. We hope this proposal of
Sir atobert's will be universally scouted. We cannot
thi: 1: it will be carried, when it was thrown out in one of
the .most rotten Tory Houses of Commons that ever
axis. -a 1.

(From the Wiles Independent.)
Ira d Sir Robert Peel wished to have acted fairly by
the ) )ple in proposing an income tax, he ivould have
ma ,1. le per centage increase gradually with the amount
of i is Tine; in this way the rich would have been made
to ( wibute their fair proportion and to have borne that
sht e - which equal taxation would impose. As usual, the
wet tes tgo to the wall. There are other and grave ob-
jec'7. ins ;to any income tax. Independently of the vexa-
tio s heart-burnings which its collections must cause,
which were so severely felt as to induce the people
sin ,tst - with one voice to demand its repeal when it before
exited, X;lere is this objection, that it deals precisely the
sat. ' wit,' t the matt whose income is the fruit of his in-
ly, as with him whose income arises from the
ten of an estate, or the interest of money placed out on
ant' security. This is not right.
F (rom.the Devizes Gazette.)
. _

;'hat. a t. tx of three per cent. will be severely felt by per-
son. . of am in incmie, and that it will bear much harder
on t 'lose w,'m derive their incomes from the exercise of
labs rious trades and professions, than on those who de-
rive it from the rents or annual proceeds of property,
cam lot'be'denied. This is a great, and to some extent
(we fear) a necessary evil. btill, however, something
ma) be done to mitigate it; and, when we come to be in-
' fora ,ed of the details of the measure, we shall probably
furl that something has been done for this purpose. We
shal ~ be very glad to see the measure fully mid minutely
div.i :sled, in order that it may be rendered as unexcep-
tion tble as possible.
(From the Nottingham Review.)
.t t this period, when trade is depressed and commerce
par: lyzed, when bankruptcies and insolvoncies abound,
whs 1 the closing of shops, the half-working of mills, and
the thud wailings of the unemployed artizans, conjoin in
att€ sting the severe pressure upon commercial transac-
tion s:7-4;Vrhen.the country is looking out for relief from
the heavy burdens which oppress it, Sir Robert Peel
anr ,unces in the House of Commons his intention to
pro ;os,e,an,income tax ! The Tories have been restored
to 1 iyi.ei;* to ilripdse a galling and inquisitorial income
tax upon the country ! The shopkeepers and manufac-
turf ~-s, instead of baying the relief of a cheap loaf, are to
feel the weight: of additional, burdens, and to mark it the
moi -., every farmer whose rent is less than 3001. is to be
exc _ied from paying any income taxi! This is a mon-
stra 'a insult to the commercial classes; they asked bread,
and ;.he landlords' Government gives them a stone.
(From the Dublin Pilot.)
Ic .. man can now talk of Peel's wise and just plan,
witl out proving himself very silly or very dishonest.
The first bait for catching minnows thrown out by this
port: ical im'?ostor and knavish man, was, the name of
"is t- pnie te,xes." This tax was associated at once in the
put is mind with bearing heavy on large, and light on
sin, .1 prop erties —with throwing burdens on real pro-
per :, and relieving industry from now intolerable bur-
der, ; ; but judge what is felt of the tax now, when it is
foul: 1 to b: taxing the property of a man of 1501. per
inn In equally in.proportion with a man of 150,0001.
wh, tit is found to tax income obtained by hard earning
as v *lll as that enjoyed in idleness, and instead of reliev-
ing Inanufacturing industry, adding to the ruinous pres-
sure -Upon it. An income tax is no relief under such eir-
eun-lances—it is wanton violation of principles of free-
dom—lnquisitorial, unequal, and relieving no class, while
opr essing many.
• , (From the Sherborne Journal.)
17,,s MUST PAY con PEEL.—After all the expenditure
of money and ill feeling which was engendered by the
last general election; what has been obtained ? The
sub, titution of one ministry for another—the placing of
Sir iiobert Peel on the Treasury Bench instead of Lord
John Russell. Now we can calmly ask landowners and
farrxes, whether they expected any' such measure as
the amended sliding scale for corn, and a tax of 3d. in
the ;I. on the rental paid for. their estates ? And we
may also take leave to ask the monied and mercantile
interest, how they will like 'to hand over to the tax-
gatherer 301. for every .1,000/. per. annum of their in-
eon es ? and, at the same time, we may remind the
cler, y and the other professions that they will not be
exelepz, after next October, from this heavy additional
clai:.l on their incomes.
(From the Manchester Times.) ,
iN 1..•,* SS' S 1-9 W FiIkUBLE-FACED LANDLORDS.—While the object
7,_,-ttetefeqd the Corn-law, the farnik,tg interest was so
'e q.:-: fnutfrefio,thig, all other interests n3nst, be taxed for its
'' -.--lei)c6iel, benefit ; but when there is a new tax to be
o. ~wcf, -is•• ~. landlords discover
t._..x.' .1- -.o f037/10,10000L, the 1e slating
44-0...44--, 1116 r. ' ts can contribute no more than 150,0001.,
(.....
'r .„.„.„,_,' csaataveiittofifth part of the whole !
--:-..„A --A,t;,.. om the Manchester: guardian.)
WI vr,...._....►1iFt1i.EDT.19n02,1 . .•PI TUE COFFER D. iTTJES.--:
Me' .-r . akee,4tton•-of the. colfee,daties which Sir Robert
Tien tit to the
'f-el4l P"i'6se
cis of such a mature as to offer very, little.
consumer while it is likely to entail a,,Con--
aiderable loss or.
the "'gentle. He proposes to reduce the