The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-12 00:00:00

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LONDON!
TUESDAY MORNING,, APRIL 12, 1642.

After a short debate, last night, Mr. THomks MTN-
comues motion, to bring up a petition against the in-
come tax,was lost by only a majority of One. That is tanta-
mount to defeating Sir R: PEEL. Of course all the
Ministers and all the placemen voted for his pro-
position arbitrarily to reject the petitions of the
peOple, and they ought, according to the logic
of the Tory press, when the Whigs were in office, to
be subtracted from his majority. Supposing that they
amounted to 20, Sir ROBERT PEEL and his friends were
virtually left in a minority of 10, in a House of :418 inde-

pendant Members. The numbers were 221 and 222, and
subtracting 20 from the latter for the Ministers and
their subs., the Tories were 19 fewer than their oppo-
nents. That. is, in fact, a great victory achieved in
the cause of the people. Honour
,to
_the independent
Member for Finsbury l We are happy to see that this
contest is to be renewed. Mr. COSKPER gave notice that
he would to-day present a petition on the income. tax.
Mr. T. DUNCOMBE told Sir ROBERT PEEL that he would
have to fight the same battle day after day, and day after
day will business be delayed, and Sir lionEnT PEEL
disgraced. "It was his intention," said Mr. T. DUN-
COMBE, "to do everything in his power to break
down, if possible, the unconstitutional barrier which
had been interposed between the' people and their in-
alienable right to petition the House against a tax." He
will remove that harrier, and Sir R. PEEL will find that
his cunning and his arbitrary proceedings have only
roused against him the straightforward honesty of the
people.
In the speech which he delivered in defence of abro-
gating the right to petition, he talked of cases "of im-
minent wars, in which -it would be absolutely necessary
to raise immediate supplies fur the public service." But
when did such cases arise and find the people backward
in supporting the Government? In 1798 the wants of the
Government were partly supplied by a voluntary loan.
His remark shows the impropriety of his whole measure,
He brings forward, in time of quietness, when there is
anything but enthusiasm abroad in favour of the Go-
vernment, a scheme of taxation which requires, accord-
ing to his statement, the imminent danger of war, to
justify the practice he is obliged to have recourse to, in
order to get it passed. He stands self-condemned.
The result must be to secure for the people the right to
petition against the income tax, and as Sir ROBERT
PEEL says, that they arc in love with it, that they wish to
have an inquisition into their private affairs, we trust
that they will, by numerous petitions, undeceive him,
and convince him that he never in his life made a more
glaring mistake.

Society is in commotion. Whatever may be said by
the Tory journals, it is agitated to its very core. Ere-
while we heard only of Chartists and Anti-CornLeaguers,
with now and then a canting note from Exeter Hall, a
little Anti-Roman Catholic brawling from Sunday pul-
pits, and a little mutual whining of-the Ghurchites and
the Puseyites. None of that agitation is stilled or
lessened, it is only obscured and lost amidst the greater
agitation about pecuniary and personal matter which
pervades the land from Inverness to Cornwall.
The Chartist, partly merged in the Complete Suffrage
society, far from diminishing, are increasing their
exertions, with a growing prospect of success. Mr.
&MIME and his friends are warmly taken up by
nearly half the provincial papers of England and Scot-
land. The other part of the Chartists, encouraged by-
Sir R. PEEL, having " entered the wedge' into our in-
stitutions, are more. strenuous than ever; and, though
they have lost in numbers, they have not abated in
energy. The Corn-law League.has received for the moment
a new direction ; its power' has been wonderfully in-
creased, and its arguments driven home by the concession
of many of its principles, and by the proposition of an
income tax to maintain the corn and sugar monopolies.
But, whi!e all that was before agitated is now more
vehemently agitated than ever, a great many new
elements of agitation have been added. The agricultu-
rists are everywhere in motion. So agitated the com-
munity has net been since the period of the Reform Bill,
and for thus disturbing all the interests of the empire,
never again, we believe, to settle down into quietness
till great changes have been effected, the Conserva-
tives—how unworthy of the name !—have to thank
themselves, and to thank their great leader.
He wanted power, and they wanted places. Instead,
therefore, of patriotically meeting the proposition of the
Wrhigs to increase the revenue by extending trade, and
1 abating certain monopolies ; instead of wisely meeting
the wants and the demands of the age ; making some
little sacrifices in time, and modifying, if they did not
exactly like, the Whig measures, the Conservatives,
with the most blind greediness and ambition, profited by
the opportunity to unite the selfish monopolists in one
great league against all improvement, and succeeded in
turning out the Whigs. A continually declining trade,
and a not increasing revenue—in spite-of the Chinese
booty—during the nine months the Tories have been in
office, hive added g:eatly to. the embarrassment of the
Government and the distress of the people.
Of that vast mischief Sir ROBERT PEEL was the prin-
cipal author. Revolutionists will bless him—of the Con-
servatives he has been the organ, and they have no right
.ti curse him. Sensible in part of the mischief he pro-
moted, and thinking at the simc time wholly of the
Government ; concluding, that if it were strong and
powerful, society would be prosperous—for in his theory
Government and society are identical—he has now made
a desperate plunge at the property of the people. He
has proposed an income tax, and re-distributed the tariff:
He has, to a certain extent, of his own will, made a new
distribution of the property of the
people. He has
juggled with the interests of the timber merchants, the
farmers, the glovers, and the leather dealers ; and he