The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-06 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

. FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF MONDAY.
STANDARD.—When .a nation or an individual
gets into debt, or finds that expenditure greatly exceed::
income, or both (which happens to be our present un-
fortunate condition), two courses are open—either to
" put off the evil day," with the certainty of its ar-
rival sooner or later in aggravated terror, or boldly
to meet the difficulty by such sacrifices as may be
necessary. There is no middle course. We may
deceive ourselves, or (which more frequently hap-
pens) pretend to deceive ourselves, by expedients
for discharging debts or demands, without paying
anything ; and there never will be wanting persons
to help us with such expedients—as wise as Lord
• John Russell's late budget, or the scheme of
Swift's philosopher, who proposed to extract
sunbeams from cucumbers. But the truth is,
that money due must be paid by money, in one shape
or the other, and money cannot be paid without
making some sacrifices. If, therefore, the country is
prepared to pay the debts incurred during the last seven
years of peace, and to meet, without incurring further
debts, the augmented expenditure rendered necessary by
the ministers who have incurred these debts, the coun-
try must beprepared to make sacrifices. Neither Sir
Robert Peel, nor any other minister, can make a de-
ficient revenue an adequate revenue : "ex nihilo
nihil fit." This is a very plain proposition, and
any attempt to make it plainer would only obscure
it obvious truth. But this proposition is admitted
on all sides—all are agreed that the country must
make a sacrifice, and all are perfectly contented
that the country should make it ; but, somehow,
every one has an excellent reason why he and his class
should be exempted from the necessity of contributing
to the offering. How is a statesman to deal in such a
case ? Is he to accept every excuse offered upon any
grounds more or less plausible, or upon no rational
grounds at all ? Is he to spare the annuitant because he
thinks that the proprietor of a perpetuity will be
taxed too little in proportion ? or to spare the land-
owner and farmer, because other measures theatened
to fall heavily upon him ?—while all object to the cruel
necessity of being obliged to expose the true con-
dition of their affairs. The truth is, that they do not
like to pay. They liberally profess their readiness to
make a common sacrifice ; but their interpretation of a
common sacrifice, is a sacrifice which is to cost them-
selves nothing. Now, if a Minister were to yield to
these and like objectdrs, it is not • difficult to say
what would be the fate of his expected revenue.
And, therefore, in the circumstances supposed, a Mi-
nister has but one course, and that is to look for
revenue to all who are able to contribute it, and tvho
can be made to contribute it, but to look no further.
GLOBE.—The "tug of war" between Sir Robert
Peel and the firmly-compacted Opposition, by which
his odious income tax is resisted, will be resumed to-
night. The Easter recess has been well employed
by the public press, in bringing before the country
the incurable evils - involved in the principle
and inseparable from the essential machinery
of the impost. The universal discontent which
the Government measures have excited out
of doors, will impart fresh vigour to their
assailants within the walls of Parliament ; while the
Premier, who has taken upon himself the onerous
task of encountering, almost single-handed, the ar-
guments of the Opposition, must, necessarily be dispi-
rited by the threatened defection from his ranks, and
the consequent advantage conferred on his opponents in
the strife. Whether Sir R. Peel will continue to
" wage this unequal fight" throughout the protracted
discussions of the principle and:details of the measure—
in the various stages through which it is yet fated to
proceed, ere a majority on the third reading of the
Bill place it beyond reach of danger in the House of
Commons—we, of course, are unable to predict. The
" holding back" of his colleagues from contributingsuch
aid as they could afford him, must be attributed to
one of two causes, neither of which says much for
the position of a Premier so circumstanced. Either
he has not sufficient confidence in them to entrust
them with the defence of his financial scheme, or they
so little approve of it as to be unable to defend it with
advantage to the discussion, or with credit and safety
to themselves. As to the tariff, that has fairly set
the several class interests together by the ears. Let the
discussion of the Premier's proposed modifications
of existing duties come on when it may, we will pro-
mise him such a reception from the different interests
it will affect, that the disturbance of a hornet's-nest
would be scarcely equal to it. The Corn-lawproject has
also roused the farmers to revolt. These regard the "re-
duced protection" to their staple commodity, with the ad-
-mission of foreign cattle tocompete in the markets with
those of their feeding, as little less than treason against
them, by whom, at the bidding of their landlords, he was
elevated to the post which, they say, he ungratefully em-
ploys against the interests of those who placed him in it,
and from which they would now, most gladly, de-
pose him. The " Farmers' Friends" in the House
will have a difficult game to play. Between their
sense of duty to their constituents and their desire
to uphold the Premier, they will find their double
allegiance most embarrassing. Their appearance on
the Ministerial benches on the nights of the discussion
of the tariff measures, may be appropriately described
.s
in the words of Shakpeare
"'They spake not a word ;
But, like dumb statues or mibreathing stones,
Star'd at each other, and looked deadly pale."
To return to the monster-grievance sought to be
imposed by Sir R. Peel in the form of an income tax,
we have already, in several former articles, ob-
served on the inequality of the pressure, and conse-
quent injustice, of this obnoxious impost. To the
objection founded on the inquisitorial character
of the machinery by which the tax must, if imposed,
be necessarily collected, we have seen no reply, save
one, to which the Government is indebted, in the
amount it may be worth, to its evening organ, the
Standard—that none but preverse and dishonet per-
sons will be subjected to surcharges, and therefore
none but such persons will be subjected to the inquiry
into their private affairs, which is, in its very nature,
obnoxious to the feelings, and in its consequences
likely to prove injurious to commercial credit.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY,
STANDARD.—The intelligence brought by the
Indian mail yesterday, though rendered more than
probable by preceding accounts, has created an im-
pression such as cannot be remembered. The dis-
graceful calamities at the Dardanelles and at Buenos
Ayres, under a former Whig Administration,, filled
the country with shame ; but it was shame un-
clouded by private sorrow or public sympathy for
suffering, as few of our gallant countrymen had
perished—the disastrous retreat to Corunna had,
indeed, its melancholy accompaniment of losses to
aggravate the sense of failure; but the failure and
the loss were relieved by the glory of the victory
that concluded the sad drama. The deplorable
events made certain yesterday have, unhappily,
no mitigating circumstances. They tell of failure
—of utter failure—of, not the capitulation of
a British army, but of its complete annihilation—
the slaughter of more than ten thousand of our fel-
low subjects, and all without a single ray of glory
to lighten the dismal scene of blood. What would
otherwise appear impossible, we see' some thousand
British soldiers, armed and disciplined, swept away
in one ghastly butchery, as if submitted to the hands
of executioners. How was this possible ? Was the
innate valour of the troops extinct ? Oh, no ; that
could not be; it was there as active and energetic
as ever; but it was unprofitably exercised in ob-
scure individual exertions for safety, and, there-
fore, squandered without effect and without honour.
Discipline served only so far as to bring the
gallant men to the slaughter-house, where disci-
pline could no longer aid them, and then—but
we will not prosecute the horrid story. The peo-
ple deeply feel the indignity and -the injury that
they have suffered, but the prevalent feeling is
sorrow for the brave men that have perished,
and sympathy with their surviving 'friends. These
are feelings which it would be impossible to
aggravate, and which it would be scarcely in •
nocent to exasperate, were it possible to do so.
The Indian journals concur in laying the blame
of the deplorable event upon General Elphinstone.
That blame attaches somewhere cannot be matter
of one moment's doubt. A British force of 10,000
men—for in extremity camp followers might be ren-
dered efficient—ought not under any circumstances to
have been so totally destroyed without one pitched
field upon fair ground. Indeed, we cannot let go the
opinion that an attempt ought to have been made to
regain the city, as it is plain, from the in-
habitants being able to maintain themselves,
that in the city the British could-not have wanted
sufficient provisions to support them until the arrival
of reinforcements ; this is also said to have been the
opinion of our allies, and of the civil authorities upon
the spot; but it is also said that General Elphin-
stone overruled it, and that he, the European
soldier, the last man who ought to propose such
a dangerous and dishonorable course deter-
mined for capitulation and retreat, in
,defiance
of the remonstrances of Asiatic Princessand mere
civilians. This may be false, but the fact that capi-
tulation and retreat were determined' on—capitulation
with men whoa:: practice, whose"genius morality, and.
even religion, are perfidy;'' and retreat trough 90
miles of a defile, with no guarantee but the faith of
such a capitulation, that these were determined on. is
certain, and equally
certain it is that General Elphm-
stone had the chief command.
GLOBE.—General Nott had defeated a force of
fire thousand
Affghans in Candahar—the commence-
ment, we trust, of a series of successes by which the
fate of our brave countrymen, and their native
companions in arms, will be signally, though with
no similar crimes and cruelties, avenged on their per-
'dious murderers. How many brave fellows—lured
within the power of the enemy, to die without
the power of resistance, while sinking beneath the
stroke of the assassins—looked up to their
God for mercy, and to their country for redress !
Their appal shall not be in vain. Whatever