The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-15 00:00:00

,§lAtit.

-LONDON
FRIDAY MORNING, APRIL 15, 1342.

We see with satisfaction ,that the House of Com-
mons last night ratified Mr. T. DUNCOMBE'S resolu-
tion, that petitions should be received against an im-
pending tax. It was, however brought forward by
Lord P. EGERTON, who ;bound it up with some other
things, that his friends the Ministers might not
actually seem to adopt the very resolution on Thurs-
day which they had opposed on Monday. They did
so, however. As Mr. T. DUNCOMBE said, the Noble
Lord let his friends down on the bare ground.
It was perhaps to be expected that Lord JOIIN
RUSSELL, who has been a Minister, and may be one
again, should support the practice of not discussing
petitions, but it is not on that account the more
pleasing to us to find him and Lord HOWICK taking
what we regard as the Tory side. The Noble Lords
dread lest the House of Commons should be too much
occupied with the petitions of the people, and not have
time enough to make laws. In the case of the
tariff, for example, Lord Jour/ supposed that
discussing petitions might be very inconvenient, but
it seems to us that it would be very just. The tariff
has been brought forward without any communication
with the parties concerned. It inflicts serious injury
on several trades, and if those who carry them on
cannot have their petitions discussed, how can the
House of Commons as a body become acquainted with
their claims ? Will all the Members read their petitions
They will not ; and to abstain from discussing those
petitions before the House agrees to the tariff, is to
legislate in ignorance. But that is commonly done,
and legislators like to do it. They think that their
knowledge is all-sufficient, and they are apt to treat
with contempt the representations of those whom they
are about, by their laws, to injure. We regret to see
Lord JOIIN RUSSELL taking such a decided
part in favour of the modern practice of stifling
discussion on petitions, and beg leave to tell him that
such a course will not restore him to that public fa-
vour, which we regret to say he has lost. Sir Ro-
BERT PEEL has lately set him the example of earn-
ing popularity, and though we would not recommend
Lord JOHN RUSSELL to imitate the cunning and de-
ceit of Sir ROBERT PEEL, he may learn from Sir
ROBERT'S success the value of that popularity which
Lord JOHN RUSSELL seems habitually to despise.

It seems that neither the deficiency of the revenue,
the disasters in Caubul, nor the desire to improve
trade, nor all these combined, are the sufficient mo-
tive in Sir ROBERT PEEL'S mind for imposing an
income tax on the people. He has some knowledge,
it is hinted, of vast impending difficulties for which
the income tax is to provide. From some prophetic
skill for which modern statesmen have been in general
so little renowned, that they have not been able
to foresee or foretell the consequences of their
own conduct, he has ascertained what will be the
condition of things in future, and to meet it nothing
less than an income tax, the rate of which, when its
machinery is in operation, can be increased at any
given moment, from 3 to 20 per cent., will suffice.
He sees much further, we are told, than the multi-
tude, and his income tax is to meet some great event
which nobody but himself yet dreams of. The Times,
in a leader from which we have made a short extract,
states, that the arguments used by Sir R. PEEL do
not carry anything like a conviction to its mind that
the emergency is sufficient to warrant the obnoxi-
ous remedy which he has resorted to. Our
Contemporary, therefore, pleads for confidence,
in the man " the people have chosen to be Prime Mi-
nister," and claims credit for him that he is only car-
rying out, with that secrecy which becomes a Con-
servative Government, the precautionary measures
which coming events demand. Froni his own friends
and partizans the Minister keeps the grounds of his
conduct secret, and requires them—and requires the
nation—with a true devotion and implicit faith, to
surrender their judgment and understanding to his
will.

Another Tory Journal, more perhaps in Sir Ro-
BERT'S confidence than the Times, and which was once
supposed to receive its inspirations from Mr. CRORER,
informs us that the event for which Sir ROBERT
PEEL is providing is an approaching war. The al-
lusions of our morning Contemporary confirm, if
they be not borrowed from the statements of the
Johns Bull. We have announced in The Sun that
Louis PHILLTPPE labours under a disease, which, at
his time of life, is rarely cured ; and it is, according
to the Sunday organ of the Tories, to ba ready for
the consequences of his death, as they are painfully
depicted to the vision of the Seer at the head of
affairs, that the people must at once submit to an in-
come tax.

At Louis PIIILLIPPE'S death a Revolution is antici-
pated in France, and our Tory Go'vernment, in con-
junction with the despots of Europe, who are all, it
is said, preparing for war, is to employ the force of
England in another crusade against the development
of liberty in France. Such is the version given by
the John Bull of the origin of the income tax,
which throws some light on the elaborate peroration
of the Premier on propounding his budget. The first
French Revolution and the apprehensions of a third, we
must now believe were present to his mind, when he ap-
pealed to the patriotism of the Tories, formerly called
life and fortune men, and conjured them by consent-
ing to pay 7d. per pound out of their incomes, to show
themselves worthy of their sires. For them to cash
up at once is to awe in time revolutionary France,
and maintain " that reputation " which " repels hos-
tile aggression and secures extended empire."
This conjecture receives some confirmation from
the Corn-laws and the budget of the Right Hon.
I Baronet. It is to le presumed from the angry

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