The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-25 00:00:00

SUMMARY OF NEWS

AND
Pttbttt Optuton.

" Who runs may read."

FOREIGN.
The sugar question, and " the persecution of the
Church of Spain by the Spanish Government," as the
French clergy denominate the measures resorted to by
the Regent, are the chigf topics referred to in the French
papers.
The Univers mentions that the French frigate Eri-
gone, which reached Macao on the Bth of December last,
had on board Colonel Dubois de Jansigny, " Envoy of
the King of the French to the Court of Pekin."
M. Duplessis do Grenedan, a member of the Parlia-
ment of Brittany before the Revolution of 1789, and one
of the Royalist Deputies who contributed most to the
overthrow of the Government of the Restoration by the
extravagance of their retrograde doctrines, died at St.
Ilellier on the 19th instant.
Madrid journals of the 16th inzt. report that the mar-
riage of the Queen was beginning to be talked of in the
Madrid circles. The English party, and at its head
M. Mendizabal, openly declared against the pretensions
of the Bourbon family. Another party would willingly
accept a Prince recommended by Austria ; but the ma-
jority seemed to incline in favour of one of the sons of
the Infant Don Francisco de Paula.
The Constitutionnel Barcelona journal of the 17th inst.
publishes a letter addressed by the Political Chief to the
members of the Provincial Deputation, informing them
that the Regent had acceded to their demand, and been
pleased to decide " that the municipal councillors sus-
pended in November, 1841, and who were to continue in
office during the present year, should be reinstated in
their functions."

PUBLIC OPINION.
The Morning Chronicle contains the following re-
marks :—" When did the mind of Sir Robert Peel first
become impressed with the stern necessity of resorting
to that odious measure, an income tax, for the extrica-
tion of the country from its financial difficulties ? Was it
before or after the late general election ? The question is
not one of idle curiosity. It involves his character as a
statesman, and his claims on public confidence. The
proof of the alleged necessity is repeated in Sir Robert
Peel's speech of Thursday night. It consists of the state
of the public revenue, as compared with the amount of
public expenditure during a period of six successive yeari.
'He had proved that there had been an increasing deficit
during the last six years ; a rapidly increasing deficit du-
ring the last four years.' It was on this ground that he
asked the country maturely to consider whether he did
not establish such a position of financial necessity as called
upon him at least to propose some vigorous step?' Any
defence from a mere temporary emergency is disclaimed.
We have had two years of cheap postage ; but that is
not it. Nor is it the increased outlay occasioned by our
operations in the East. He thought that the great
majority of the Committee would admit that he had
proved the necessity, the existence of which he had
asserted. He had not proposed an income tax on account
of the war in Atfghanistan, or the war in China.' The
six steps in Sir Robert Peel's demonstration of
the financial necessity are six years. Only thus has
he arrived at that seventh of sabbatical rest on which
he bestows his blessing of an income tax. The ex-
perience of that long period of time constitutes his pre-
mises ; of which an income tax is the inevitable conclu-
sion. In this fact there is nothing to fix the date of his
conviction. It may be new born ;or it may be of long
standing. It may be more than three years old, or less
than three months old. All is uncertain beyond the
alternative that he must have come to it either before or
after the late general election. We will take each side
of the alternative to reason upon. Five out of the six
demonstrative years had fulfilled their course before
the late contest. They had done their duty we as-
sume, on the mind of Sir Robert Peel. In that
case he knew last year that the question of an in-
come tax was to be virtually decided by the division
on the Whig budget. He was fully aware that
there was no other alternative. He knew that ha was
leading on his unconscious party to the vote for an in-
come tax. The elections were, in his mind, a struggle
for and against the imposition of an income tax. His
talk of inquiries and consideration was mere pretence.
He was only keeping close the secret of his determina-
tion till a convenient season for the disclosure. Voters
and candidates were doing his work like puppets. By
undeceiving the .people he would have changed the
whole face of things. He reserved the word that would
have done so, and would then have scattered like a
routed army his ignorantly zealous supporters, until he
should be safely ensconced in Downing-street. Now all
this may be vastly clever. We impeach not its ingenuity.
We only ask whether the trickster who is capable of it
can ever again, as long as he lives, deserve to be an ob-
ject of public confidence ? Has he not played false with
a whole people ?"
The Times thus alludes to the Income tax :—" If every
income depending on personal skill and exertion were
considered as a certain life annuity, if a business were
always considered, without reference to its actual pro-
mise, as equivalent to an estate for a given number of
years—set that number as high as you please—strict
justice indeed would not be obtained—this of course is
impracticable under any law—but very mnch injustice
would be avoided ; and that in the case of a business,
without any additional complication of the bill or in-
vestigation of circumstances—in the case of profes-
sional incomes, by merely demanding the age of the
holder, and referring to a table of the value of life.
But most persons would be satisfied with even a

looser attempt at fairness. Mr. R. Palmer—the Member
for Berkshire, a strictly agricultural county—and him-
self, as a landed proprietor, interested against this sug-
gested tax, ested reduction of the proposed, in a speech which
_ e,
did much credit both to his sense and to his equity, that
a tax of only 2 per cent. should be levied on all incomes
coming under the schedule of trades and professions. We
have very little doubt that such a concession as th)s—
involving no change of principle in Sir Robert Peel's
Bill—no one additional clause in its enactments, or in-
quiry in its administration—would satisfy those who at
at present conceive their interests arbitrarily set aside."
The Post remarks that Government is determined to
stand or fall by the income tax, observing :—" Upon the
general principle of the measure—as a measure of finan-
cial necessity—the Government is resolved to stand or
fall. For so far there can be no mistake. Either the
country will have the proposed income tax or another
Administration. This also is a bold, honest, and useful
declaration. During the existence of the late Adminis-
tration no one could calculate upon what was to happen,
for when the Ministers could not carry what they pro-
posed,-they- were in the habit of submitting to whatever
the Opposition might dictate, and of still continuing to
be in appearance dig- Government, though ceasing so to
be in reality."
The Herald makes the following observations suggested
by the Income-tax :—" To apply the principles of equal
justice to the case so strongly, and, we will add, so un-
fairly drawn, a graduated scale is the only expedient ;
under that process the small fundholder' would con-
tribute from his poverty in a ratio conformable to the
large profits' of the large manufacturer.' We do not
advocate, and we know no Conservative who does, that
the entire amount of the deficiency should be levied on
dormant capital ; but we do protest against any taxation
of the business of production; at a time when industry is
oppressed with innumerable difficulties, to such an ex-
tent as will repress production ; and we confidently assert
that to levy three per cent. on income derived from re-
tail trade and-struggling profession, will-be-to afflict in-
dustry in the middling classes with a one-sided
paralytic stroke."
We quote the following from the Advertiser :—" Sir
Robert Peel's justificationof the resolution be has come
to of maintaining unimpaired the principle of an equal
rate of taxation upon every species of income, whether
for life or in perpetuity—whether fixed or variable—
whether certain or precarious—must have been felt by
all who listened to it, as a most lame and impotent
affair. He did not pretend—adept as he is in plausibi-
lity, and skilled as, he is in sophistry—he did not pretend
to argue that the principle of his income tax is a just
principle. He evidently felt it to be otherwise ; but he
felt, also, the trammels in which the landed interest hold
him, and lacking the courage to be just, lest he should
incur the hostility of these marauders upon the public
interests, he descends to the miserable expedient of
trying to sustain a great measure by a piece of special
pleading that would disgrace a third-rate practitioner at
quarter sessions."

LAW AND POLICE.
At the Lewes Assizes, on Wednesday, John Pockney,
Charles Briggs, and Stephen Steadman, all young men,
were tried for what has been called the " Ringmer mur-
der." The Grand Jury ignored the indictment for
murder, and the prisoners were therefore tried for steal-
ing some articles of little value from a woman whom
they had abused, and who was after wards found drowned
in a pond near the spot to which they had enticed her.
The occurrence took place four years ago. Pockney
and Steadman were found guilty; the first was sentenced
to twa years, and the other to eighteen months' hard
lal
Sophia King, the milliner's apprentice, convicted at
Cambridge on Monday, of stealing a Post-office packet,
containing property of the value of 7801., was sentenced
Wednesday to be imprisoned for eighteen months.
At the Surrey Sessions, yesterday, Mary Lee, aged
21, a girl of the town, was convicted of stealing from
the person of Daniel Good, on the 17th inst., 7281. 175.,
and sentenced to be imprisoned for twelve months.
Mary Bromley, a girl of the same stamp, was convicted
of stealing a watch-chain and seals from a man of the
name of Burley, near St. Thomas's Hospital, and sen-
tenced to be banished for seven years.
On Tuesday the five men charged with the late bank
robbery at Manchester, two of whom were arrested in
London some time ago, were, after a lengthened exami-
nation, committed for trial at the assizes.
At Guildhall yesterday, Richard Bates, formerly a
draper at Wakefield, was committed to take his trial for
endeavouring to extort 10/. from Mr. Carlin, a tobacco-
nist on Ludgate-hill, by threatening to make a charge of
an infamous nature against him.

From the return made to the House of Commons, the
amount of fees received by the Clerk of the Affidavits in
the Court of Chancery for the past year, has been
4,836/. 12s. 10d. ; and the number of affidavits for which
these fees were received 15,561.
PINE ARTS.
The state carriage of the Prince Charles of Bavaria,
intended for the occasion of his marriage with the
daughter of the King of Prussia, is to be seen at the
show-room of Messrs. Pearce in Long-acre, by whom it
has been built. Its appointments are highly costly; the
iron-work is plated with silver : the different ornaments
of solid silver, in some cases intermixed or smoked with
gold. Betweens 301. and 40/. kvas paid for the painting
alone.
LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC.
The alluvial accretions on the shores of Vendee and
the ancient Poiton proceed to so great an extent that