The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-21 00:00:00

duty on colonial coffee from 6d. to 4d. per lb. Will the con-
sumers reap anybenefit from that? Not in the
least. The
revenue will, doubtless, suffer to the extent of one-third of
the sum derived from the importation of British planta-
tion coffe at present ; but the whole of that sum, so far
as we can judge, will go into the pockets of the planters.
They are unable to furnish this country with the whole
quantity of coffee required for its consumption, as is
proved by the fact that, in 1840, the respective amounts
of duty paid on British possession and foreign coffee were
as follow :
British plantation coffee £373,579 -
Foreign
Here it will be seen, that our imports of foreign coffee
amounted to considerably more than one-half of the entire
quantity consumed; and as the price which it bears in the
market, duly paid, must necessarily rule the price of colo-
f nial coffee, it is evident that any reduction of duty on
the latter, without a full equivalent reduction of duty
on the former also, is merely a bonus to the West India
interest. If any evidence were wanted to show that this
will be the practical result of the new scheme of duties,
it may be found in the fact, that, as soon as Sir Robert
Peas proposed plan became known in the London
market, an immediate rise of ss. 6d. per cwt. took place
on British coffee, while foreign remained without im •
provement. In Liverpool, an advance of 10s. per cwt.
on British took place; but foreign continued steady at
former prices. The reason of this is chylous. Under
the present' scale of duties, the monopoly granted to the
British planter over the foreigner amounts to 66 2-3
per cent:; under the new scale, the monopoly will be in-
creased to 100 per cent. If Sir Robert Peel's object were
to benefit the consumer, and to promote commerce, he
' would make the duty on British coffee at sd. per lb., and
r educe the duty on all kinds of foreign to Bd. per lb.
(From the Carlisle Journal.)
A tax upon income—upon the mere fruits of industry—
on
the profits of trade and the exercise of talents, must,
as a matter of course, be so inquisitorial in its nature,
so oppressive and unjust in its operation, that nothing
but the direst necessity can justify its imposition. Take
the present proposition of Sir Robert Peel to illustrate
its injustice. The professional man whose labours pro-
dnce to him say 3001. a year, who, if lie dies to-morrow,
leaves his family 'destitute, is taxed as highly as the
ownetsof a freehold estate yielding the like income, and
whirls ceases not with his life. The inquisitorial nature
of such a tax was thus graphically painted by the Times
during the struggle for its abolition in 1816 i—
" There is mOtifin„.• that men in a state of society hold
1 sacred into which it does not obtrude itself, or thrust its
odious agentss It pries into the marriage settlements
an I claims of consituguinity among the living, it ransacks
the wills of the dead, it hunts deeds and bonds in the
deepest recesses of the bureau, and dras;s them. to light.
Rushing into the counting-house, it spreads wide the ledger
and thereby blasts commercial confidence, and chills mer-
cantile speculation. It stands at the door of the shopkeeper
and counts his customers ; it mounts the chariot of the phy -
sician, and numbers his fees. It adjusts the claim between
debtor and creditor, whose relation to each other should
only he known to themselves. It computes thefeelings of
filial piety, of gratitude and humanity, by items of pounds
shillings, and pence; for it estimates the support allowed
to decrepit old age, to decayed services, perhaps to peni-
tent or discarded guilt. In short, if any man would know
whether the income tax ought to 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 tyrannic measure, its manifold op-
pressions have the effect of driving those who are the ob-
jects of it to a corresponding degree of baseness, false-
hood, treachery, and perjury, in order to elude its grasp:"

- -
Those who remember tae-time when this tax was in
operation, know that this is not an overcharged picture;
and some notion may be formed of the odious light in
which it was viewed in these days, and the fears enter
tained of a publication of the facts which the collectors
of the tax had compelled the tax-payer to disclose, from •
the fact that the House of Commons ordered the docu-
ments to be destroyed—Lord (then Mr.) Brougham sug-
gesting that they should be burned by the hands of the
common hangman.
And it is this odious tax which the Tories now pro-
pose to revive ! and which they are so bent upon, that
they will not give the country time to express an opinion
upon it. Without warning, without time being permitted
for consideration or remonstrance, a tax of the most op-
pressive kind is to be imposed upon the country, in
order that the landowners may enjoy a little longer their
monopoly of corn. Even in the imposition, the power of
the landed aristocracy is felt. No farm is to be assessed
to the income tax which is of a less rental than 300/. a
year.' In this county there are very few farms which
reach that amount, and we believe there is scarcely
one in the whole county of Westmoreland ! Where they
do exist, speedy means will be taken to divide them so as
to evade the tax, and thereby enable the' landowner to
obtain a larger rent. At present, for political purposes,
two or three names are inserted in nearly all leases of
farms exceeding 1001. or 15C/. a year. This was done to
obtain the advantage of the Chandos clause of the Re-
form Bill, and through its operation the Tories have been
placed in a position to dictate this tax to the country ; it
is only to carry the principle of division a little farther
to enable the landlords, as far as their tenants are con-
cerned to evade the tax altogether, and thus shift the
burden from our own shoulders terthose of the trading
community. The Chandos clatise may, therefore, be
m ayailable. by the aristoecy, not merely for ob-
taining politic:A power, AbutTort:vndL;g tit;cation
of those -‘ blessings" bestowed upee us by a Tory Go-
vernment.

DR. REID'S LECTURES ON
CHEMISTRY.

Dr. Reid's second lecture on the Chemistry of Daily Life,
the course of which is now in pursuance at Exeter Hall, was
delivered on Wednesday to a more numerous audience than
the preceding, and among whom a large gathering of tic scien-
tific young men of the day were prominent. Standing only at
the threshhold of the course; Dr. Reid renders his initiative
lessons more than ordinarily palateable and pleasing. 'The nature
and property of primitive elementary atoms—a wi&le and uni-
versal theme—as well as the action of that equally universal-
pervading agent, oxygen, upon these, formed his leading sub-
jects. Atoms, unnoticeable as at first view they appear to the
unchetnical beholder, are nevertheless the components of every
mass and solid in creation,
.and the planet that wheels in
gravitation through the skies, depends in its motion upon
its aggregate of minute atoms. It was these subtle in-
finitesimals in which resided attraction, electricity, and ma':-
tietic power. The combination and decomposition of these
occasioned by the chemical action, which, in some shape. or
other, is constantly proceeding in nature, gives rise to those
changes in solid, liquid, or wriform matter, which daily origi-
nate new shapes and organizations in all the three k.ngclorns
of nature. Some experiments, elucidative of this proposition,
were here performed by Dr. Reid. Oxygen, continued the
learned lecturer, powerful operator as it is upoit the external
surface of the earth, acts no less potently on its interior. To
the stirring nature of this agent in the mineral kingdom, an
experiment lent full test. Dr. Reid drew from the forge a
bar of iron at a white heat. A current of cold air, the pre-
ponderating ratio of which is, of course, oxygen, was then
blown by the bellows on the kiedled mass, and
every successive blast of the :oxygenised air tended to
its diminution, till it was at last totally consumed. Again, the '
operation of oxygen upon the external surfaces of the earth,
was exemplified in the case of temperature, the various modifi-
cations of air and climate being caused by the greater or lesser
portion of oxygen present. 'thus a bottle of ether, which in
England appears in a fluid state, would, if transferred to India,
lin the increased temperature. vanish at once into air. The
further action of oxygen was manifested in another experi-
ment, thus:--Some lime in solution, contained in a vessel, ap-
peared to the eye colourless ; a glass tube was inserted, through
which an assistant blew air, occasioning the solution in a
few seconds to lose its transpicuit y, and become densely clouded.
The oxygen conveyed in the air evolved by the human 'lungs had
operated on the lime in the manner which occasioned the change.
By inversion of reasoning, atmospheric oxygen exercises in a
similar way as marked an influence on the frame of man—a
frame composed of atoms of dust, each liable to be acted upon
in the same manner as any other species of matte:'. In di-
lating further upon this general agent, Dr. Reid proteeded, by
an experiment on the air pump, to evidence the compressi-
bility of wriform or gaseous substances, as also their elasticity,
and power of expansion. The most delicate spring, he ob-
served, in existence, was that which the air assumed to itself;
human mechanism was here left in the rear, and this spring
was occasioned by variation of pressure in the atmosphere,
and produced by the disturbance of its equilibrium. Dr.
Reid proceeded to indicate the course he intended
to pursue in his subsequent lectures, which appeared to
' give general pleasure. From "thole already delivered, it may
be safely asserted that Dr. Reid will have a highly popular run.
As an experimentalist be is bold and skilful, and evinces the
accustomed master in the adroitness and management of his
operations. With regard to his lecture,nevertheless, we consider
him somewhatunsystematic, and considering the plain matter-of-
fact audience who surround him—the beings of daily life—who
flock to him to hear expounded to them the " chemistry " of
their life and vocations, as proposed by she talented lecturer,
floridness of speech might be cast aside, and give way to stricter
and more logical demonstration.