The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-14 00:00:00

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LONDON
THURSDAY MORNING, APRIL 14, 1342.

The Report on the resolutions imposing an income tax
on the people was agreed to, and the resolutions read a
second time, at half-past one o'clock this morr;ng. A
Bill was ordered to be brought in, which Sir R. PEEL
announced would be brought in and read a first time on
Monday. He also mentioned that he should propose to
read it a second time on Friday, so that it will now
gallop on to a conclusion.

Lord Jour/ RUSSELL was understood to repeat that it
was his intention to take the sense of the House
both on the first and the second reading of the
Bill ; but there is not much hope of his success,
unless many Members should be directly opposed
to the income tax, like Lord WORSLEY, who would not
be brought to vote for his resolution. On a division
last night his amendment was lost by a majority of 106,
308 voting against him and 202 for him. The minority
is powerful enough, if properly organised, to delay and
obstruct bad measures ; but it is obviously divided, and
therefore weak.

Sir ROBERT PEEL announced his intention to proceed,
as quickly as possible, with the tariff, for which there is
a demand in the country, after the Income Tax Bill has
made some progress ; but he refused, at Mr. LABOU-
CHERE'S suggestion, to allow the Income Tax Bill to stand
over and advance the tariff before it. On him, therefore,
as Mr. LABOUCHERE said, will rest the responsibility of
not gratifying the burning impatience of the commercial
classes to have the tariff. To escape all suspicion,
though he perhaps invited it by the declaration, Sir
It. PEEL repeated that it was his intention to stand by
the tariff, or give up his place. He declared that he was
as much bound in honour to pass the tariff, or resign
office, as to pass the income tax. The country would
have felt more assured on the subject were he to
folow Mr. RIGBY WksoN's advice, and keep the Income
Tax Bill in the House of Commons till the tariff had
passed through the House of Lords.
In the course of the interlocutory discussion which
took place on Mr. WILLIAMS' amendment, which, by the
by, was put but not pressed, after the division, Sir
R. PEEL said that he meant to apply some kind of scale
in the income tax to the Scotch farmers, and give them
the same advantages as the English farmers. This will
be gratifying news to them.
To us, we will own, that it is not gratifying to find
one of the most important measures that ever was
proposed, so far as its bearings on the economic his-
tory and welfare of the people are concerned, forced
as it were through Parliament by considerations wholly
extrinsic to its merits. The commercial classes, whom the
Opposition chiefly represent, are impatient to have the com-
mercial question, with which Sir R. PEEL has. connected

the income tax, set at rest, and, therefore, an income tax
Ls to be hastily, harshly, and unnecessarily, forced on all
tha people.

When Sir ROBERT PEEL introduced his financial
scheme to the House of Commons he declined to enter
into the details of the tariff, but holding up the paper to
that admiring assembly he exclaimed—" Here it is,
all ready drawn out in columns, every article enumerated,
and all the duties settled." Whereupon those august
legislators cheered most vociferously, in order to express
their unbounded approbation of the prodigious and suc-
cessful labour of the great Minister. The wonderful
tariff, however, was no sooner made known to the public
than all the classes whom it concerned began, one after
another, to find fault with it. Some received for answer
that the figures they objected to were mistakes of the
printer, others that their objections should be considered ;
some that they were correct, and that the tariff should be
revised; and finally, after a month's consideration, the
wonderful document comes forth in a second edition, like
the work of any ordinary mortal, materially revised and
amended. The combined wisdom of Sir ROBERT PEEL
and Mr. GLADSTONE, prodigious though it be, is not
quite equal to the task of striking out at one heat a per-
fect tariff, as Mr.WonDsworan would strike out a sonnet.
These great men have condescended to take lessons
from the Whigs. As soon as the proposed mode of
making all kinds of timber pay duty according to its
cubic contents was announced, Mr. HAwEs informed
the Government that this mode of levying the duty had
been already tried or proposed, and found impracticable.
Persons connected with the trade made similar repre-
sentations, and they were informed that the proposed
scheme was entirely temporary, and that it was in-
tended hereafter to simplify the anatter amazingly, by
levying the duty in the lump, according to the known
tonnage of the ship. A hint has now been taken, and
the perfect Premier, and his perfect Assistant, have
adopted the recommendations of others, and have in-
troduced " an equitable distinction between dressed and
undressed timber." In fact, an entire new series of
duties for hand-spikes, oars, lath-wood, &c., forms part
of the amended tariff.

Again the Whigs pointed out the folly of establishing
a complete series of protecting duties in favour of the
Colonies, for everything imported, whether they now
produced it, and whether they could produce it or not,
Lord JOHN RUSSELL, Mr. LABOUCHERE, and Mr.
BAnixo, all objected to Sir ROBERT PEEL'S tariff, be-
cause it created for the first time a 'system of differential
duties in favour of the colonies. The amended tariff,
by acting on this Whig suggestion, has been, we are told,
" considerably simplified by the removal of a vast number
of differential duties which stood in the original scheme,
for the purpose of favouring the produce of the Colonies.
Many of these differentia duties were to have been
levied on articles which none of the Color:es produce,
and they might have had the bad effect of encouraging,
by new protection, certain branches of unprofitable or
unnatural cultivation and industry."

The perfect paper, then, that was shaken with such
confidence in the face of the applauding House of Com-
mons, owes its vitality to Whig principles, and its com-
pleteness of details to Whig suggestions.
So the glovers have obtained an alteration of the

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duties that did " strict justice" between them and the
consumers. We are to have the income tax from the
sth of April, but cheap meat, so far as meat can be
made cheap by the importation of fresh beef and pork,
is not to be had till October 10th, 1842, the operation of
that part of the tariff having been postponed till then.
In the duties on metal, rolled speller, or z'ne is not to
pay only 11., as at first proposed, but 4L per ton, and
other alterations are made in the duties on metals. The
.duties on some seeds also, such as flax seed and linseed,
' is reduced from Is. (as proposed on March 11th) to Gd.
per quarter, as proposed on April 12th, while the duty
on mustard-seed is reduced from Bs. to Is. 3d. per bushel.
There are other alterations, but these arc quite suffi-
cient to prove that the Ministers now admit that the
measure, which they boasted of on March 11th and sub-
. sequently, Es one of perfect justice between proltcers
and consumers, is neither, in all its parts, ajust nor an
expedient measure.
We opposed the tariff from the first, because we were
convinced that it was not possible for any man in the
reeesseeof the Board of Trade to frame 'it whole tariff
without much consultation with the different classes,
which should be either satisfactory or just. We de-
nounced the attempt as an unseemly piece of arrogance,
and now that such is, in part, admitted to be the case,
- who will assure the public that it is not the case also
with these articles of Sir R. Peee's original and " per-
fectly just" scheme, which are not yet abandoned by its
authors ? By giving up part, the public faith in the
whole must be weakened. Sir R. PEEL has opened a
breach to his opponents, and we hope they will march
in to victory.
The few remarks we made yesterday, to prove that
the West India coffee planters will receive upwards of
120,000/. by the new scheme, will explain to our readers
why they, and all the persons whom they can influence,
and of whom, probably, Mr. MAsTEamA's is the
organ, are so extremely eager to get Sir Ito-
BERT PEEL'S tariff passed. There are a great
number of other class engaged in different branches
of trade, who, expecting an individual benefit from the
changes which he proposes, are like the coffee planters,
and on similar grounds, anxious for the new scale of
duties to come into operation. Mercantile men gene-
rally dislike uncertainty, and they arc ready to sacrifice
the public liberties and the public happiness—ready to
fix an income tax on other men, which they will
probably be enabled to throw on the consumers, in order
that their business may not be interrupted. They
• demand, regardless of others, that the question be
speedily settled. Why all these matters have at
once been east loose, they must ask Sir ROBERT
PEEL, and they must blame those legislators for the
present derangement who, in former times, de-
ferred to- the avarice of' individuals and esta-
blished a system of duties which the circumstances
of the country can no longer tolerate. They must not
blame those who, like ourselves, prefer justieJ to what is
practicable, and take on themselves the ungrateful task
of recommending their countrymen to prefer their per-
manent to their temporary interest. Sir ROBERT PEEL'S
tariff, in conjunction with an income tax, cannot be per-
manent, and in order to avoid further agitation, and fur-
ther uncertainty, the matter must be now thoroughly
sifted, and no law be passed till it can be established on
the basis of justice.
Some writers seem to think that any law which can
be passed is therefore a good law. It is what they call
a practical measure. Sir R. PEEL can pass, they say,
what Bill he likes through the two Houses, and he
therefore is a practical man. Lord Jolts RUSSELL could
not pass his measures, and therefore he was not practical.
Are we then to set down contented under the most ob-
noxious enactment ? Are we to give to such an enactment
the honour and reverence which is due only to truth and
justice, simply because Sir R. PEEL, fur a party pur-
pose, has been placed at the head of a strong Govern-
ment ? 'Are we, in short, not to remonstrate against
the income tax and the tariff, much less delay them all
in our power, because Sir R. Peet, is enabled to give
them the forms of law ? Such is, we ste, the doctrine of
some liberal journals. It is not ours, and no temporary
present advantage—no prospect of cheap beef next No-
vember—shall induce us to sanction a scheme which, tts
a whole, including income tax and tariff; is a most arbi-
trary and flagitious act or injustice.

The speech of Mr. MANGLES, on Tuesday night, is an
excellent example of the value of gentlemen confining
their observations to subjects they arc acquainted with.
Air. MANGLES, who has been, or who still is, in
the service of the East India Company, having
some knowledge of India, was enabled, without
much difficulty, to refute and expose the sophistry
of the Prime Minister. He gave n masterly account
of the Indian finances, and proved that the deficiency
of the revenue to meet the expenditure, had long
been the rule in that country. Again, he proved
that the Burmese war had been more destructive to our
' troops than the war in Afighanistan, and that Sir IZonEnT
PEEL, in describi:►g our rule in India as endangered by
the success of a Mahomedan tribe, wholly overlooked the
fact that the bulk of the 'Endo() population deserted the
Maho►nedans, and would stand by us in opposition to
them. Mr. MANGLES confirmed his statement by several
instances. We eo not, however, refer to his speech to
Point out in detail the manner in which he exposed Sir IL
PEEL'S sophistries ; we refer to it to call on the Liberal
Members generally to imitate Mr. MANGLES' example.
Let them divide a subject which is to come before Par-
liament amongst themselves, and each one treat a sepa-
ratepartofit:lnstead of every speaker going over the whole
ground, let each one speak only of that particular part
of it he has studied ; so will ha produce an effect, and
like Mr. MANGLES, though he be the mast insignificant
Member of the House, he may rise superior on that one
point to Sir 11. PEEL.

THE INCOME TAX.
It is, as we have before now said, because we have confidence
in Sir Robert Peel, that we acquiesce as far as we have done in
his proposed tax. The arguments which be has actually ad-
duced, we must candidly allow, do not carry to our own muds
anything like a conviction that the emergency is sufficient to
warrant the obnoxious remedy which Sir It. Peel has resorted
to. But Sir Robert is a man of business, a man of integrity,
a man of foresight—a man who pushes measures through the
House of Commons, as he has done his Corn-law, without any
very distinct explanation of the principles on which it is based,
or complete exposition of the reasons to which it ewes
its shape—lastly, he is the man we have chosen. Therefore it
is that we, withs some knowledge of the inconveniences of his
tax, and therefore we think it is that the country, with little
of such knowledge, acquiesces in its adoption. That it has
acquiesced seems in process of being allowed. The unfortunate
Mr. Brotherton in a most plaintive tone acknowledges the
f et that he Has unable to find in the country the feeling which
he expected, wonders to find things Si) much changed from his
recollections of 1816, and consoles himself by accounting for it.
We doubt whether his party will consider that the merit of the
explanation compensates for the imprudence of the admission.
There it stands, however, made with an unconscious naivete,
which is almost enough t ) make us think there must be some
misunderstandin"e:in the matter of the "print-works." Whether
the country will be long as contented as it seems at present is
another question, and a ticklish one for the Premier. *lle
passing of an income tax, like the occupation of Alfghanistan,
is the beginning, not the ending of troubles ; and we confess
we shcu'd scarcely be surprised to find that before evee the
short three years had passed, a storm of remonstrance had
blown up, wiiiet it would be difficult for Sir 11. Peel, even
with his Act of Parliament in his pocket, to Oppose.— Times.

DRURY-LANE THEATRICAL Fuxn.—The anniver-
sary festival of this useful Society was held yesterday at the
Freemasons"favern. There were about 260 gentlemen pre-
set t. The Duke of Cambridge in the chair, supported by the
Marquis of Clanricarde, Lord Dunkellin, A. 13. Cochrane, Esq..
M.P., H. H. Lindsay, Esq., M.P., J. G. Booth, Esq., B. B.
Cabbell, Esq., &c. &c. On the removal of the cloth, " Bene-
thetas" was sung by the musical assistants present, including
Miss Hawes, Miss Homer, Miss P. Horton, Miss Betts. the
Misses Williams, Messrs. Crouch, 11. Phillips, Reeves, Fitz-
william, Giubilei, Italie, Allen. &c. &c. '1 he usual toasts
having been proposed anti duly honoured, the illustrious Chair.
man proposed Mr. Harley and success to the Drury-Lane
Theatrical Fund, after which Mr. Cooper delivered the custo-
mary address. Subsequently the amount of subscriptions to
this fund was announced. The total amount was 830/. Among
the principal contributors we observed—Her Majesty, 100 gui-
neas ; the King of Hanover, 50 guineas ; the Duke of Cam-
bridge, 25 guineas; the Duke of Devonshire, 25 gu neas : the
Duke of Bedford, 50 guineas; Hugh Hamilton Lindsay, Esq.,
Esq., M.P., 10 guineas; Alex. Heinle Cochrane, Esq., M.P.,
10 guineas; B. B. Cabbell, Esq., 10 guineas; Miss Coutts,
50/. ; Earl af Dartmouth, IW. ; Charles Kean, Esq., 20/. ;
Lord Francis Egerton, M.P., 10/. ; the lute Mr. Davidge (a
bequest) 100 guineas, &c.
llur,i.an's Musical. CLASSES.--TheSe el'a"CA
held their first great choral meeting yesterday evening at
Exeter-hail, in order to show the proficiency they hadacquired
by Wilhelm's system. The orchestra was divided into " re-
served scats" for the more distinguished portion of the anditors,
amongst whom were his lloyat Hiahness Prince Albert, the
Duke of Wellington, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York,
the Bishop of London, and Lord Wharneliffe. The coup d,,x1l
presented by the hall shortly before the commencement
of the evening's performances, was exceedingly grand,
the body of which Wl3 filled by the immense
mass of male and female vocalists (1,500 in number)
who have f llovred Mr. Hullah's course of instructions.
At eight o'clock the performance commenced. Mr. Hullah
conducted the chorus, which was unaccompanied by any in-
strument. The concert was divided into inn parts, of which
the first comprised various psalms and hymns, beginning with
the 100th Psalm, and the seconi a madrigal, by Donato, some
Wilhelm
, and coneludiug with " God save the
songs bv
Queen." The effect of such an unprecedented number of
voices was most s'ngular and imposing, anti considering that
there was no instrument to guide the sinFers, their general
precision was remarkable. In the course of the evening Me,.
Hullah made his pupils go through ascending and descending
scales in various times, representing the notes by manual
signs. The concert terminated about ten o'clock. Prince
Albert and the Duke a 1t ellington were loudly cheered as they
left the Hall ; the Noble Duke looked exceedingly well, and ap-
peared much to enjoy the evening's performance.
H T AYMARKET HEATRE.—Ihis theatre was last
night crowded to the full to witne Mr. Charles Kean's first
repr thees styamtipo:
an
appearance in the character of Claude Meluotte, in the Lady
of Lyons. The character of the sentimental swindler, which
andis
little calculated to excite the
through interest,
thiesof
rendered
a i ai uadtiternacceti,
vievasemphatic part: and the various
,
n
episodes of the impostor were well delivered. At the close of
the performance Mr. and Mrs. Kean were, as usual, called for,
and loudly applauded. The piece is announced fur repetition
Air.
Kean's or enlist
en
on Monday next.