The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-19 00:00:00

.

LONDON
SATURDAY MORNING, MARCH 19, 1842.

Sir ROBERT PEEL:9 financial and commercial schemes
were exposed to a rough scrutiny last night, and some
of the paste having been rubbed out of them, their
tlimsey and -rude texture is made perceptible. Mr.
BARING began the examination, and having exposed

several arithmetical and financial blunders of the

Ministers, he demonstrated that they had made a serious
misrepresentation of the produce of the 5 per cent.
additional Customs and Excise duties which he levied
in 1840. Sir ROBERT PEEL estimated the pro-

duce of those duties at 206,0001. Mr. BARING
showed that it had yielded 1,700,0001.
.The Right Hon.
Gentleman also proved that his alteration as to

the sugar duties would have yielded upwards of
1,000,000/ which together with the increased revenue
obtained from the Timber duties and the fixed duty on
Corn, would have nearly made up the deficiency of the
revenue. At present, but for the unscrupulous conduct
of the Tories, the country would have had the benefit
of those alterations for nearly a year ; but it having
been denied them it must now, as was stated by Mr.

LA BOUCHERE, pay the price of an income tax for the good
of the Tories and the retention of the corn-laws.
Mr. BARING and Mr. LABOUCHERE both showed

that the' tariff of Sir R. PEEL is a mere pretence of
liberality. It meddles not with the giant monopoly—
sugar. Far from doing away restriction, it establishes,
for the first time, a complete series of differential
duties on everything which may ever be imported from
the colonies, and proceeds on the mischievous principle
of creating a vast nest of petty monopolies and vested

tercets, which no Government N ould be able to over-

An income tax might be borne, it was remarked,
were it the price of a liberal and extensive system of
commercial freedom ; but we are called on to submit to
such tax, in order to establish a new system of im-
proper commercial regulations.

come.

It was generally felt in the House of Commons, after
Mr. BARING sat down, that Sir ROBERT PEEL'S proposal
for an annoying income tax is entirely unwarranted,
either by the deficiency of the revenue or the petty
commercial reforms which ho makes the pretext for it.
In truth, it is a great and dangerous innovation, not
justified by the reasons assigned, and brougiit forward
from motives which cannot be avowed. If we might
offer a conjecture, we should say that the Tories expect
by the help of the working classes, whom they hope to
bribe by a scheme of taxation which pretends not to
touch them—though they will deny them the suffrage—
to fasten the income tax permanently on the middle
classes, to increase it when convenient, and so punish
those classes at their pleasure for their attempt to throw
off the yoke of the aristocracy.
After Mr. GOULBURN had replied to Mr. BARING,
and after Lord Howler and Lord JOEN RUSSELL had
spoken, the House went into a Committee, and Sir R.
PEEL explained the machinery by which he is to levy
the tax. The Right Hon. Baronet, annoyed apparently
by the manner in which his scheme was exposed, made
a somewhat furious attack on the Whigs, for
opposing his income tax. He gave the country
no reason, however, to love or support it,
when he stated that he proposed to adept
the provisions of the Act under which the former in-
come tax was levied, and under which there were in the
city of London alone in one year 11,000 surcharges.
That may give our readers a notion of what awaits
them if they once suffer this tax to be established. Sir
ROBERT PEEL proposes to appoint Special Commis-
sioners to hear appeals which may relieve a man from
the investigation of neighbours. Ho means also to
allow persons to compound for the tax, as they
have compounded for assessed taxes. Income from
professions is to be returned according to the receipts of
the previous year, and that from trades OR the
average of the three preceding years. The latter
mode will make the tax fall lightly on
prosperous men, but ruinously heavy on men who are
unfortunately going backward in the world. The reso-
lution was moved, but not adopted, last night, and as we
shall therefore have frequent opportunities of discussing
its merits, we must now close, assuring our readers that
they cannot hope to escape the uncalled for tax unless _