The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-22 00:00:00

THE INCOME TAX.
EXTRACTS FROM THE TIMES, 1816.
"It was with great grief that we heard of the intention to
continue the income tax during a time of peace, and our dis-
like to the proposition was rather increased than abated by the
intimation that it was to be reduced to five per cent. The
notion may, perhaps, seem paradoxical, but it is, nevertheless,
true, that an impost so odious in its principle is only tolerable
because it is severe in its application. We shall explainotir
meaning more fully. In times of great danger, such as we have
lately encountered, taxation may be allowed to assume a more
rigorous aspect, because the mischiefs to be provided against
are more alarming, and the preparations for defence, and the
funds necessary for the support of them, must be upon an
equally extensive scale. But the evil in that case reme-
dies itself, or rather it points out its own limits
and duration. It ceases, or ought to cease, with the threatened
danger which produeed it. No one, for example, would object
to part with 10 or even 20 per cent. of his annual income to
preserve his country from the tyranny of a Bonaparte, during
the existence of that tyrant, provided the danger was clear
and the impost could be impartially levied. We put in these
conditions in order to account for the opposition raised against
the income tax, even when it was most allowable to have re-
course to so harassing a financial measure. But now, when
Bonaparte is no longer formidable, and France ceases to hold a
threatening attitude, what can justify this deviation from the
ordinary rules of taxation—this inroad upon the rights of Eng-.
lishmen ? * * * * There is nothing
that men in a state of society hold sacred sinto which it
does not obtrude itself, or thrust its odious agents. It pries
into the marriage settlements and claims of consanguinity
among the living ; it ransacks the wills of the dead ; it hunts
deeds and bonds in the deepest recesses of the bureau, and
drags ' them to light. Rushing into the counting-house, it
spreads wide the ledger, and thereby blasts commercial con-
fidence, and chills mercantile speculation. It stands at the door
of the shopkeeper and counts his customers ; it mounts the
chariot of the physician, and numbers his fees. It adjusts the
claim between debtor and creditor, whose relation to each
other should only be known to themselves. It com-
putes the feelings of filial piety, of gratitude and hu-
manity, by items of pounds, shillings, and pence; for
it estimates the support allowed to decrepit old age,
to decayed services, perhaps to penitent or discarded guilt.
In short, if any man would know whether the income tax ought
is apply in this or that imaginary case, let him be assured that
if its application can render his home comfortless, or his closet
suspected to him, there will the myrmidons of income tax have
a right to be. Nor is this the termination of the mischief, for
like every other tyrannical measure, its manifold oppressions
have the effect of driving those who are the objects of it to a
corresponding degree of baseness, falsehood, treachery, and per-
jury, in order to elude its grasp.
"And all this misery and, corruption is now to be fastened
upon the country for ever, and for what? Not, as before, for
so important a gain as 10 per cent., and in order to preserve
the independence of the nation ; but for so small a result as
even half 10 per cent. ; so much have our comforts and our
virtues sunk in value, and at a time, too, when we have nothing
to dread from foreign enemies, nor from any thing but our
own want of economy at home.
" Clear, therefore, it is that an income tax now of 5 per
cent, is much more unjustifiable than one of 10, or even 50 per
cent. under former circumstances. A man, perhaps, might
not object th the admission of a whole company of soldiers into
his house, while a foreign enemy or a gang of marauders were
in the neighbourhood ; but is that a reason why the Com-
mander-in Chief of his Majesty's forces should billet a file of
musketeers upon him all the rest of his life ? Be well aware
then, countrymen, that if you do not at once state your feelings
now that the foreign enemy is no longer at your doors, you will
have the file of musketeers in your homes as long as you are
housekeepers ; that is, you- will have the 5 per cent, income
tax saddled upon you henceforth and for ever.
"We know very well when the country has once shown
itself anise, as it soon will do, upon this aggravating topic,
that then attempts will be made to soothe it by promises that
even the 5 pet cent. shall only be a temporary impost. And
this brings us retrospectively to a painful subject indeed,
namely, the violation of the solemn engagements already en-
tered into with the country, that the tax in question should be
wholly and finally abolished at the end of the war. No future
promises can now weigh much, if those which have been
already made are to be so grossly violated. No pledge
can equal in sacredness those which have been already
given, because they were given while the faith of Go-
vernment in this respect was yet unbroken, its honour
untainted. What claim to future credit have those
who are already bankrupt in fidelity to their past
engagement ? It is the curse of this tax to produce
treachery on all sides—on those who would impose, and on
those who would elude it. No income tax will always be
wanted on the one hand, while it is conceded on the other; re-
fuse it manfully, and it will soon be found that there is no oc-
casion for it; and Ministers, however paiced at first, will ulti-
mately, as Englishmen, have Cause to thank the country for its
firmness. At all events, we have long been pledged to rssist
it in every Shape and form which it may assume, and shall not
be found wanting to our engagement.' —The Times, Feb. 6, ,
1816.

" We are glad tO perceive anything said, even in behalf of
the British ilitplisition, the income tax, both because whatso-
ever is said in support of so odious a process can only serve to
llttray the cause it would maintain by the weakness of the de-
fence, and because we are sure that injustice and oppression
succeed best in ob,lcurity, andare overthrown by free di cussion.
"An etching paper, in the shape of queries) deduces the
follevting inference : That a case of necessity being made out
by the King's Ministers, the ttt in question is one to which
they may legally have recoUrse. This savours a little, by the
way, of the opinions held by the unjust judges in Charles L's
reign, that the King might have recourse to ship-money, in a
..e. of necessity ; and that his Majesty==-that is, his Ministers
—are the judges of that necessitV. .The truth is, that no one
doubts the logic by which the necessity' may be urged; bet
common sense and common reason declare, at ti!st sight, that
it is all false.

" 'I here can honestly be no vigil, of the money ; for if in
peace, and after victory, w 'ate to be subjected to the inquilition•
tax, to what uolrelA-bt tortures must we have submitted ill
the case of &teat, or the continuance of war ? erititch,
the cOttplered country, his, even # preMtt, no impost
Mit odiously scrutinizing oe topprtsiive. But, to put the
matter differently ; this ts.k has been called a war-tax, and
we have been or it that with the war it should teiset
What state ef Mire, then, we demand, did they Who flu& et
these ptokeises suppose would justify the ettinetioe of the tax
et the end of the war, if the prefer!: *ill hot? Let them tell
us how it is that the ritr%t condition of Europe is not so satis-
factory as the)? a pected it would be when they mate us the
promises ,t ,!!'r 'else let them confess that they meant to
es, VA never intended to relinquish the tax at alh it it 111 t
Izihvious that no possible good can result trOkll its ebntinuance in
any shape whatever, becaest thero is ho possible good which,
as a nation, we have het obtained. The farmers are said to be
distressed bet that is net now the matter in dispute; the pru,
duce of tki tax is not to be applied to their relief. In our
feltign relations what do we want ? Absolutely nothing. AM
what in our internal concerns? Nothing bat the hittnedlale
removal of those burdens, of Whith OtilY the ftiagnitude of the
danger from ahroed, no* past, could justify the imposition.
However, ottt ptiFpose is in a great measure answered; for we
see ttlfd heir that the nation is ready to rise as one min agaibst
his breach of faith which it is now attetnpteti to put in prac-
tice. That which is wrung from Its necessities can only be ay:
plied• to its ruin,"--The nowt, Vetk. 8j 1816:

UNIVERNITY iNTELLIGEN'C.E.
131eVonh, illAntit !O.—This being the last day of term, a
eongretatlien Was holden, when the following degrees were
toiMrred
Masters of Arts.—Rev. George T. Hyatt. of Wadham Col:
lege; Rev. George Border, of Magdalene Hall; Revs Thotnai
Lowe, of Oriel College,
Bachelors of Artit.--ThetnaS Aiyhm, of Wadham Col-
lege ; Samuel NeWing* bf Nekv Inn Hall.
The exatniners bf tt candidates for the mathematical
scholarship Fakt hotified to the Vice-Chancellor that they have
elected B. iarice scholar of Pembroke College. This scholar.
ship it tenable for three years.
Messrs. G. Smart, of Eketer College T, Davison,
have been eletted exhibitioners on Lord Crewe'sfoundation of
Lincoln College:
Messrs. W. Iltitclley, of Lincoln College, .1. Banks of St.
Mary Hall) and J. R. T. t aton, of Elizabeth College, 'Cuero,.
sex, have been elleited scholars of Lincoln College.
PreSidint .tid Fellows of Magdalen College have pre-
sented the lev. F. P. Lowe, Fellow of their Society, to the
Reriti-27 of Saltfleetby, All Saints, Lincolnshire.
the Rev. It. Marriott has presented the IN
V. Ps AsMar-
riott, of Oriel College, to the Rectory
9f VottsPach, Leices.
terhire.
The Wat'deh and Fellows of All Souls College have pre-
tented the Rev. E. B. Dean, Fellow of that College, to the
Vicarage of Lewknor With Ackhamstead, in this county.,

FIRE AT LIVEIIPOOL.—AiI alarming fire broke out
in Messrs, Harrison slid fathom's warehouse, situated in front
of the St. GWrgt's Dock 4 on Friday night last, chiefly filled
with tottbn stores, roach of which were damaged. Three ac-
cf.:tents Vcchrred one from the falling of a fragment on i poltee-
Yttait ettgaged, and another by a sailor's falling from a masthead
in the docks to see the fire.

Mr. Wombwell's female elephant died at Newark
at eleven o'clock on Sunday morning. She was til?otlt !hive
parts grown.
Under date of Tttrib, Mardi 3, the Augsburg
Gazette says :--" The negotiations teppectihg the ihyri6ge
of the Princess Januaria, sister of the Ehipteiron btßrazil, with
the Prince de Carignan, Not bb al broken off, because it
was stipulated oh thb part of the Prince that, in case the
Princess simUld he called to the throne, the Prim:should be
invested with the Imperial dignity. This condition could not
be accepted, being contrary to the Brazilian Constitution."
THE 'INQUISITORIAL " INCOME" TAX:.—In a Court
of Com Mon Council, held Dec. 19, 1798, Pitt's plan for
taxing income caused the adoption of resolutions, stating
" That, in the opinion of this Court, the Bill tow
.pending
in Parliament, by which it is proposed to tax the precarious and
fluctuating income arising from the labour and industry of per-
sons
in trade, professions, &c., in the same proportion as the
permanent annual income from landed and funded property, is
most partial, cruel, and oppressive," and " that the said Bill
proposes to es'ablish an inquisitorial power unknown in this
country, inconsistent with the principles of the ,British. Consti-
tution, and repugnant to the feelings of Englishmen." This
Bill, however, received the Royal assent OA the 9th of January
following.

THE SUN, LONDO

the backs of the middle-class constituency. This is
as it should be. Peel would deserve thanks for the
I direction he has given the pressure, if he had had any
choice. But choice he had none. The back of the
cart-horse was broken by former loads, the high-
mettled hunter would bear no burden, and since more
must be carried somehow, there was nothing for it
but to make a hack of the sleek old coach horse.
Surely we shall see some kicking now, if the beast has
any spirit."

(From the Glasgow Post.)
"Much is said, and by the Liberal presslin particu-
lar, against the income tax. A direct levy on the
scarcely definable precarious profits of the man in
business, who scarcely knows what is his own. We
are quite aware of the evils of such a tax. We are
aware of its disgusting, scrutinizing, inquisitorial
nature. We are aware how much it can be evaded,
and that for one man who will conscientiously pay his
just proportion, twenty will cheat the Government.
W
e are also aware how injurious it must be ; nay, the
utter ruin that must follow persons with a declining
business. If they proclaim such a thing to the tax
gatherer, they are at once overset—they are down for
life—and, therefore, hundreds struggling with un-
known poverty will have to defraud themselves to save
appearances. This is most undoubtedly an obnoxious
system, but the more obnoxious the better. All taxes
are obnoxious—the fewer taxes the more prosperous
will be the people ; therefore, whatever taxes we have,
let them be as obnoxious as possible, we say ; and that
the more particularly when they are made to fall with
double force on those who have the means put into
their hands for abolishing or reducing them.