The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-26 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

In Camp before Monopoly, Ides of March, 1842.
SIR,—You have twice printed some information,
supplied by an emissary of the Government, respect-
ing the price of bread in Prussia. If you will have
the goodness to publish my correction of it once, the
ends of truth will, I hope, be satisfied.

It may be some apology for Mr. Meek, that the
comfortable terms upon which he travelled, and con-
ducted his inquiries, raised him above the level of this
portion of his subject. I had conditions with my
employees better adapted to the investigation—for my
terms with them were no wages—and to find them-
selves; consequently, they have studied economy
every inch of their way. I learn that the three
ounces franzoischbrod in Prussia is uniformly 4 pfen-
nings, the third, and not:the half, of a silbergroschien;
that housekeepers usually received four such brod-
chen, or petits pains for 14 pfennings, or 3i pfennings
each ; and a still lower price was paid by a family
who received 20 such loaves per diem. Further
south in .Germany, the name, or a larger loaf of the
finest flour costs only a kreutzer. As to the rye
bread noticed by Mr. Meek, it is by no means the
article of common use, but a leavened delicacy of the
finest quality, under the name of mar brod ; and
many Germans have a custom of eating a slice of it
during their dinner, as an article of diet, or gad, ra-
ther than of nourishment. The price is, as stated,
11 silbergroschen, but the weight can never be lib.
10,1 oz. It does not appear that the rye-bread of
common usage, as the food of man and horse in Ger-
many, as oats are in Scotland, is materially, if any
cheaper than good wheaten bread. It is eaten from ha-
bitude, rather than economy, by the peasants and com-
mon people. In some parts of Germany, the household
bread called messig, that is made from a mixture of
rye and wheat, and seeded with caruc, is very palate-
able, and on no account to be despised. I think this
observation calculated to settle some of the absurd re-
presentations which our landlords would pass for ar-
guments against free competition. It is at your dis-
posa 1 from one who has never deceived you, and can
be verified by any German, or by any one who has
dwelt among the Germans, for very few of our
tourists pass their time with any but the English.
MAG.

N.B.—Price of good veal, beef, and mutton, in some
parts of Germany, equal to W. of our money per lb. ;
in other parts, and in Prussia, sd. Table wine, as thQ
new vintage approaches, has fallen to a silbergroschen
the English quart on the Rhine. Beer, in Prussia,
from 1 to 2 silbergroschen ih Bavaria, kreutzers, for
the quart English. Clothing cheaper even than in
England. Pleasure cheaper in Germany than sulking
in this country. God be with you!

THE REAL EARTHQUAKE-OR
PROPHECY FULFILLED.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

•
Six,—On perusing t.lie columns of your patriotic paper
of the 17th instant, I could but be amused at the para-
graph headed " Earthquake by extraordinary express,"
and must allow that you have treated the subject with
much jocularity ; but I confess that I discern much
more truth in the ancient prophecy than is generally
admitted. No person -can read the sacred works of the
ancient fathers without perceiving how greatly allegory
was in vogue iu early times. May we not thew look
upon the prophecy which has caused of late so much
anxiety in the metropolis, as altogether allegsrical ?
We are told to expect a catastrophe in the month
of March, 1842, bringing disasters upon our land ? Surely
then, that prediction is fully realized by the late measure
brought forward by the thundering leader of the Tory
faction, in the very month, and almost on very day,
foretold by the Monk of Dree—a catastrophe about to
shake the very foundations of the trade -and commerce o"
this hitherto prosperous land.
I think, Sir, upon reflection, you will agree with me
that we have had the ancient prophecy fulfilled (althougl
not literally), and that the timid inhabitants of the irw•
tropolis need not anticipate a greater evil than that
already convulsing our coasts—an Income Tax.
I am, Sir, Yours,

J. B.

EFFECT OF THE INCOME TAX
ON THE WORKING-CLASSES.

(LORD BROUGHAM'S OPINION.)
A corrected copy of Lord Brougham's speech having
been published, and some doubts having gone abroad as
to what the Noble Lord said on the influence of an in-
come we Copy the Noble Lord's opinion
onth tax on wages,
atpoin
point
wfrao
from ;he corrected report :
"A very great delusion prevailed in the country—at
least amongst that large class, the labouring population,
for whom he felt, and ever must feel, the most lively in-
terest —as to the operation of the income tax on them.
It was a common thing for them,- and for those who in-
structed them, and who should know better, to say that
the income tax could in now ay affect them. There was no
greater delusion than this. It required but little argument
to show that the labourer was affected by the diminution
of the fund out of which he was paid. When capital ac-
cumulated, the fund was increased out of which labour is
paid : when it became diminished, the fund to pay the
labourer decreased in the same proportion. The manner
in which the income tax was levied showed its effect on
labour. You levy so much on men possessed of income ;
all that you withdraw from their capital—supposing
them tradesmen, farmers, or manufacturers—came from
that accumulation which they had made this year, and
would either spend next year in supporting labour, or
lend to others who would so employ it. The
money which they paid as an income tax was no longer
an expenditure from which they could derive any direct
advantage, for it was taken from them to be applied in
another way—to support labour of another kind, which
was not productive. If that amount were not taken from
this class, it would be an accumulation which would be
spent in the same, or the next year. The classes of mere
annuitants not in business, would employ their accumu-
lated capital, if not taken as a tax, in lending
it to those who could profitably employ it, or
they
.would themselves spend it in articles of con-
sumption, and other modes of domestic expenditure.
That was the. case of one class. In another class were
the traders, the manufacturers, and the farmers of the
country.. He would take the first, because they consti-
tuted the class to whom the argument applied, perhaps,
with the least stringe I.:T. Now, he believed that when
a tax fen upon that class, the annuitants not in business,
the last retrenchment they attempted to make was, in
what brought them more prominently before the eyes of
mankind—in what went to maintain outward appear-
ance—in those things which went to give a colour and a
form to their circumstances, as servants' equipage, and
what is called establishment. But, unfortunately, the
first retrenchment they made was, in that which put
productive labour in motion—in articles of consumption :
so that even this class of the community diminished the
fund which they previously usedin giving employment
to productive labour. Then there was the other class, the
persons employed in the manufactures and agriculture of
the country—and with regard to them, he needed scarcely
stop to remind their Lordships that, whatever was with-
drawn from their fund, was, in fact, withdrawn from that
which went to give employment to the labouring classes ;
that every 101. this class withdrew from their capi-
tal,the labour of the working community was to be
by so much lessened the fund out of which
paid. Their Lordships would remember that there was
an essential difference between a tax upon incomes and a
former was unaccompanied by any extension of. the sup-
tax upon consumable commodities ; inasmach as the
port and the stimulus given to labour ; whereas the other,
at the same time that it put something into the Treasury, of
necessity also put something into the fund out of which the
productive labour of the country was rewarded. A tax
of 1,000/. upon incomes added nothing to the productive
collectedlabou upon
labour of tleoncoatrintiterl3e',s whilstg the duties of excise ora tax of the same amount
customs, of necessity caused an expenditure of 1,0001. or
it might be of 2,00 c/. or 3,000/. more, which went to sup-
port
the trade and agriculture of England."

------
The frigate Venus, which left Toulon on the 28th
ult., to continuo her practice in gunnery, returned into
port on the 18th inst. On the 15th, when about 30
leagues from the islands of Hyeres, steering for Corsica,
nd three other leaders,
Captain Bulimit Gilly, her commander, was struck with
apoplexy, and died within an hour.
avitaAt
}lelelitetea Madridrd , fosTrethe
aas Philippinetttrheey oNltero Apallinario, who was
,a
g Islands, of 9th Nov.,
had been shot. The number of the victims of this out-
break is,estimated at 400.
Our readers will recollect
.that in December last a
Spanish Officer, ramed Quintero, in prison at Vittoria, was
set at liberty by his wife under similar circumstances to those
in which Madame La. alette released her husband. The Me-
morial des Pyaenees states that a prosecution of Madame
Quintero has been ordered by the Spanish Government, and
that the Tribunal is to be called upon to inflict a punishment
of three years' imprisonment.