The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-28 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE THIS DAY.
Morning... .51 minutes after 3 Evening ..... 13 minutes after 4.

4111 Advertisements of a Disgusting Character,
or .Immoral Tendency, aro excluded from
the Columns of " The Sun."

LONDON?
THURSDAY MORNING, APRIL 28, 1842,

The debate on Mr. ELPHINSTONE'S motion to sub-
' ject real estates to the legacy and probate duties, is a
good illustration of the pertinacity with which selfish-
ness in lawmaker 4 as in individuals, pursues its own
gratification. The poor argument against Mr.
ELPHINSTONE'S motion, found equally satisfactory by
Lord JOHN Itussma. and Mr. Cronenuari, was, that
the probate duties' on prsonal property did not apply
to settled property, and were those du,tieS, therefore,
as proposed, extended to landed property, a great
portion of which is settled, the revenue would be very
little benefited. Those who have not a strong interest
in the question, at once say, that this is not an argu-
ment for exempting the land, but for subjecting all
settled, as well as unsettled property, equally to
the duty We are quite sure that no reasoning in
Parliament, and no sophistry out of Parliament, will
ever make the public believe that it is not a monstrous
injustice that the vast estates of the Dukes of NOR-
THUMBERLAND, DEVONSHIRE, and BEDFORD, should
pass from heir to heir—from age to age—without
ever paying a farthing to the State, while every
thousand pounds which a tradesman scrapes together
by a life of labour, and leaves to his family, must pay
301. to the State. The lawmakers, however, do not
see, and will not see, the glaring injustice of this, 119-
cause, in the great majority of cases, they are the
holders of settled property, and benefit by this
cular injustice.
We cannot altogether blame them for this. Man is
a selfish animal ; and when lawmakers act on the
good old rule, though it be a breach of confidence, Of
getting and keeping all they can, they only follow
their natural instincts,:like a cat watching for mice
and seizing them. That they should so act is neither
unnatural nor surprising. What is unnatural, and
what is very surprising, is that we should continue to
believe, after such an immense range of contradictory
experience, that man is not a selfish animal, and con-
tinue to place as implicit faith in the professions of
lawmakers, as if they had never. beguiled, deceived,
and betrayed our hopes.
Year after year, and age after age, have demon-
strated that all statesmen think much more of
themselves, or of their class, than of the com-
munity. It must be so. The faculties of each
individual are adapted to provide for the welfare
of the individitid, not for regulating the whole
globe, or providing for; the welfare of the spe-
cies, and, by his very constitution, he must chiefly
consult his own welfare. What is wrong, what is
contemptible, what is even silly, is the belief that
things are otherwise ordered, which places those who
entertain it, bound, as it were, hand and foot, at the
mercyrom o o
selfish lawmakers. Rather than be
angry with them for so much using legislation to
tetheir own
hetilrown interest, we ought, .perhaps, to he
grateful that they are no worse. We must recognise
too, in their qualified ambition, kept in check
p
by their fears of rousing the confiding people,
a strong proof of the advantage of mutual and
reciprocal dependence, such as equal freedom
maintains. It teaches us, too, that the way to keep
selfishness in' check, is not to • indulge it ; and con-
sequently, to make legislators honest and just, we
must not submit to their dishonesty and injustice. In
spite Of Mr. (orn,istrioi and Lord .Toffy .RussEnn, the
tradesman who has a legacy duty of 301. abstracted
from every 1,000/, he leaves behind, while the Duke of
I,IEnFoRD's estate will not pay a farthing, will persist
in thinking that the Legislature is dishonest and
unjust ; and, so thinking, he must; in the end—he
cannot help himself—throw off its authority, for he
dare not obey dishonesty and injustice.

The appeal made by the Southampton Election
Committee to the House of Com Mons against Mr.
FLEMING, and the order issued by the House for Mr.
FLEALING to attend the Committee and answer its
questions, have made quite a sensation. All the
journals write about' it, and all the Members talk
about it. Their own law now hits one of themselves,
and it has instantly becoMe a subject of deep consi-
deration. Committees might have gone on com-
mitting LUCASES to prison, and forcing WRENNS to
answer, ad infinitam, without exciting any observa-
tion ; but the instant an Hon. Membez is assailed, the

0- ,1 ...!i:Llia•il:,-
13 1 ~ -e •re'' <5.11:V '' 6
G._ '-, r-C, '" , ),4,..1 ~ ~,....',;~,,,,

Zite nu.