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

Tin 2ult,

LONDON:
SATURDAY MORNING, APRIL 2, 1842.

Denying as we, and as all the Anti-Corn-
law party deny, that there is now any necessity
whatever to impose additional taxes on the peo-
ple, it is no business of ours, or of theirs, to
suggest by what other taxes less unjust, less in-
quisitorial than an income tax, the sum Sir R.
Pam, says he must have, may be obtained. We
agree with the Anti-Corn-law League, whose
Address we yesterday published, that " it is to
secure the continuance of the corn monopoly,
that the people are called upon to submit to a
tax on their incomes." We are not solicitous,
therefore, either to make that tax agree-
able, or to suggest any .other, which, may serve
the purpose equally well of augmenting the
revenue, without setting trade free. At the
same time, we may observe, that so many
less obnoxious contrivances suggest them-
selves to the dullest financier, that Sir ROBERT
PEEL is without any excuse for adopting the plan
of an income tax. In truth, he seems to have
chosen it designedly, in order to annoy the
middle classes, to whom he knowS it is pecu-
liarly hateful; and by annoying them, to
court a popularity from the lower classes,
who have learnt, unfortunately, to dislike the
middle classes more than the Aristocracy. With
the usual policy of the Tories, he essays to pre-
serve his power by nourishing enmities and fos-
tering all the rivalries and evil passions of the
different claSses of the community.
If Sir R. PEEL had really desired to find the
means of raising an additional revenue of
4,000,0001., without much annoying the people,
he might, as the author of a pamphlet, " On the.
Taxation of the United Empire". shows, have
raised 3,700,0001. a-year by :2d. per lb. on cotton
wool ; that he might have reimposed some of
the taxes which have been abolished since 1823,
not one of which, the writer properly observes,
would have been remitted on the condition of
rehnposing the income tax; that he might have,
wit.i advantage, laid on a house tax of fifteen per
cent., which would have yielded 3,700,000/.; but
not one of these obvious and less obnoxious
courses would Sir ROBERT PEEL adopt. He
will have nothing but an income tax. He
could not doubt the productive power of
such taxes, fbr he is well aware that Mr.
BARING'S addition to the assessed taxes has
yielded more than was expected. he had
set his heart, however, on 'an income tax, and
he is to bully the agriculturists and the land-
owners into aiding him in fixing it on the rest of
the people—to their own great future annoyance ;
to the increase of the division which now exists
between different classes; and to the 'disturbance
of the public peace—by threatening to give up
the Government, and throw public affairs into
confusion, unless he be allowed to have his own
way. Is the nation, then, to be tortured because
Sir IL PEEL is the spoiled child of the Tory par; y ?

An account, which appears in another part of
Tha Sun, of a dreadful occurrence at Neilston,
near Paisley, supplies us with a glimpse of a
curious and, for us, novel feature of society. Up-
wards of 150 women lodge together, and work
and take their meals in the same building. They
live like soldiers in a barrack for females; they

inhabit a nunnery, without the restraints of a
'I vow, and without the sacrifices which a monastic
life requires of its votaries. Great complaints
and great alarm have been excited by societies
too much composed. of one sex in New Holland,
in boarding-schools, and on board ships, and it
is scarcely prudent, for any commercial or pc..
cuniary advantage, to establish communities
which cause the- like fears and the like com-
plaints. We are not quite sure that our work-
houses, under the present system, notwithstand-
ing the, vigilance of authority, are not open to
the same suspicion; and we notice the subject to
express a hope and give a warning, that the
example at Neilstou may nowhere be imitated.
Our suspicions are strengthened by observing
that these females did not command the respect
of their employer. On a dispute arising betwixt
him and them, Mr. Jour COCiMAN set to work
on Monday last to smoke them out like so many
vermin. He placed a quantity of bleaching pow-
der in the passage of the -brrack, and pouting.
on it a quantity of sulphuric acid he dispersed
the poisonous chlorine gas through every part of
the building. The poor creatures rushed to the
doors and the windows to escape, and it being

then ascertained that their lives were in danger,
the source of the poisonous vapour vas removed.
Seventy or eighty suffered severely; six or eigl. t
continued seriously ill on Tuesday afternoon.
We must refer to the description fbr the parti-
culars of the alarming scene;—happily none of

the women died, or IYIr. CocanAN might have
ibund himself in some danger. He has been
held to bail, and we notice the subject with no
view to prejudge the case, but to bring plainly
before our readers this new phasis of society.
Upwards of 150 women are huddled together in
one barrack, and when it suits their employer
are subjected to the same noisome process by
which vermin are killed.

The case reminds us of the attempts made at
Glasgow a few years ago, when trade disputes
were rife, to destroy an opponent or an enemy
by throwing sulphuric acid over him. We are
afraid, therefore, that hard and brutal feelings
are not sufficiently discouraged in that neigh-
bourhood. The clergy probably are so much
taken up with Intrusion and Non-intrusion, and
with enforcing Sabbath observances, that they
have no time to look after the morals of the
people. The occurrence, we must say, reflects
no credit on the Christianity of that part of the
empire.

Another glimpse of. society equally painful is
obtained through a petition lately presented to
the House of Commons by WILLIAM_BINNEY of
Manchester, and printed in the Appendix to the
Seventh Report of the Committee on Petitions.
It sets forth that a great number of females are
employed in the coal mines of Lancashire, from
eight years of age and upward. These infants
drag the coals out fro'm the shafts, almost creep-
ing on their bands and. knees, by means of a
chain, which, passing between their legs, is
fastened at one end to a little cart, and at the
other to a belt round their waists. We insert the
petition, and refer our readers to it, for a descrip-
tion of the horrors to which these infants are sub-
ject under ground. At the same time, we are
afraid that their case, though much worse than
that of the factory children, will scarcely receive
any attention from the spurious humanity-mon-
gers, for it supplies no argument against the
League, and cannot be made to subserve ade nee
of the Corn-laws.

Most of the coal-owners tire also land-owners,
and though they may not work their pits them-
selves, they profit by the infant drudgery which
prevails in them. The same power, it is to be
apprehended, which maintains the iniquitous
Corn-law, will also maintain the system of infant
slavery. Among the land and coal-owners of
Lancashire, there are some like Lord F.
EGERTON, who have a reputation for humanity
and conscientiousness, and it will become them
to be forward in correcting this enormous evil,
or they will lie under the suspicion of encou-
raging and protecting it. _

Some good we hope may be done, by bringing
under the notice of the opulent classes the heavy
and irksome toils of those by whose labours they
are enriched. They do not and cannot suppose
that the wealth they riot in is rained down from
heaven. It is all created by the toils of the la-
bourers, including women, who are shut up in
barracks and mills, and infants who are entombed
in collieries and mines. If, as the poet says,
" The gay, licentious, proud,
IV horn pleasure, power, and affluence surround,
They who their though:less hours in giddy mirth
And wanton, often cruel riot waste,"
think little, . _

" While they dance along,
How many feel, this very moment, death
And all the sad variety of pain.
Ilow many shrink into the sordid hut
Of cheerless poverty,"
they think, we are afraid, still less of the
immense 1117.5 S of misery which is caused to pro-
vide them with luicuries, and to contribute to
their enjoyment. If they had such a picture, as
that of female infants dragging coals along
under ground, frequently present •to their
minds, it would be, we believe, impossible for
them to purchase opulence at such a cost. Fe-
male vanity sometimes gets the discredit of
causing extravagance, but there is in the hearts
of the mothers and daughters of England, a well
of nobler feeling, which will make them throw
aside, with disgust, the apparel, the ornaments,
arid the equipages which are purchased by the
degradation and slavery of the young of their
own sex.

It is announced that Sir ROBERT Pt cL returns to
London to-day. The Right Hon.. Baronet has
changed one of his plans, and will perhaps change
another. He was not to return till Monday, but he
probably finds it necessary to have some communica-
tion with his .colleagues before the meeting of the
House of Commons. His tariff meets with so much
opposition from his own dear friends, that he fears he
will not be able to carry it, and he comes to town to
prepare some modification, or, like Mr. GLADSTONE,.
to rectify some of the mistakes of the printer.
It is amusing to read the account -a Sir ROBERT
PEEL, who having just convulsed the-empire by his
arrogant policy, is, like some sighing, sentimental
swain, walking about Brighton Cliffs, with his pretty
little daughters, and their pretty little dog. It is
perhaps, an odious association, but his pastorals re-
mind us of the large nosegay of ROBESPIERRE, and
of the heroes of the French Revolution, who, were
only a little more arrogant and self-conceited than
Sir ROBERT PEEL, and quite as sentimental. He
will not, however, find the English such a horde of
ignorant worshippers as RonEspxrura-LE and his fol-
lowers found the French ; and, if we are not misin-
formed, the " bold and comprehensive statesman,"
bidding an early adieu to his ruralities, is hastening
back- to London to try, by some kind of concessions
and compromise, to lay the storm he has evoked:

Some curious details will be found in the
report of the proceedings at the Kingston Assizes
yesterday, respecting that notorious and defunct
association, called the West Middlesex Insu-
rance Company. The verdicts, of course, were
all given against the swindlers. We hope the
plaintiffs did not bring the actions without the
conviction that there were funds to meet their
claims.