The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-01 00:00:00

PUBLIC OPIZIMON,_

The beneficial action of the new tariff as re,_..ards our
colonial dependencies, is thus viewed by the Times :
" Down to a very recent period—nay, even to the present
time—the possessions of Great Britain in the East and
in the West were subjected to infinite varieties of duties
and restrictions. • Those differences are finally swept
away by the new tariff, and we shall know of no distinc-
tion between the produce of the various colonial provinces
of the empire. In one or two of the great staple com-
modities of the colonies, such as the timber of North
America, the duties in the English ports will be reduced
to a merely nominal contribution. In all the minor ar-
ticles of commerce, many of which will now for the first
time be cultivated with advantage in the British domi-
nions, . great reductions will be made on the duties.
And if this principle be gradually pursued, the time may
come when the commerce of the British empire will be
one vast system of coasting trade ; always bearing in
mind that the more the colonies are allowed to improve
their natural wealth, the more capable they Hill be of
affording new resources to meet the public demands."
The Chronicle suggests as follows:—" It would not at
all surprise us, were Sir Robert Peel, as in the case of
the proposed reduction of the malt tax by the Duke of
Buckingham (then Marquis of Chandos), to be dependent
on the Liberals in Parliament for his success in carrying
the tariff. We should only be deceiving our readers if
we did not state it as our sincere belief that he will have
great difficulty in carrying it. No reliance is to be
placed by him on the country gentlemen. To the feel-
ings that pervade the country they cannot remain in-
different."

The Morning Heron, approving of the new tariff, in
regard of British and foreign woods, remarks :—" By
taking off the duty on colonial timber we encourage the
best sort of reciprocity, while by increasing the tax
thereon, and reducing that on foreign woods, we render
dearer to ourselves an article useful in ship-building, and
indispensably necessary to our manufacturing pre-emi-
nence, and that on the mere contingency of opening new
markets for our goods amongst jealous continental rivals."
The Morning Post still labours to supply reasons for
the advocacy of the income tax. "It is true;" it says,
"that the income tax professes to fall with unusual
equality, according to the proportion of the means to
bear it. That is, the great proposition in .iits favour,
and we deny that any thing has becabrought forward to
invalidate that proposition. Let it be granted that it is
unequal, still it appears by all the argument that has been
brought forward, to be much less unequal than other
taxes, and therefore it is fair to say that it operates with
unusual equality. It is not to be denied, either, that in
some instances the inequality of the income tax is 'pecu-
liarly stringent,' as in the case mentioned by Mr. Att-
wood. But this instance, and some others of the same
kind, are, we submit, exceptions to the general equality
of the operation of the income tax ; whereas the con-
stant rule, operating in millions qf instances every day of
our lives, in regard to., taxes on articles of general con-
sumption is that of inequality."
The urgency for quick and co-operative action
among the people against the new tax, is thus im-
portuned by the Morning Advertiser :—" The consti-
tuencies of every town and county in the land ought to
meet without one hour's delay, and come to such decided
and unequivocal resolutions regarding the meditated act
of robbery, as shall leave Members no pretext for mis-
taking the wishes of those w hose representatives they
profess to be, as to the course vvhieh they should pursue
on so momentous a question."