NEWS OF THE WEEK.
WE left theMinistry at the close of last week, to use Lord At- miouP's expression, " in a state of extreme embarrassment,"— their retainers angry and dismayed, their foes full of high hope and sanguine anticipation. The Country gentlemen, however, soon became alarmed at the probable consequences of their own victory. It was a very easy matter, and a very delightful opera- tion, no doubt, to raise the rent of barley-land by reducing the duty on Malt. But when it became apparent that the landed in- terest had only made the first breach in the revenue, and that the 'trading part of the nation was prepared to deepen and extend it, then dire anticipations of taxes upon Property and Income terrified them into submission to their Ministerial leaders. Ac- cordingly, the vote of Friday was rescinded on the following Tues- day, by a majority of 355 to 157. The Malt-duty was reimposed, the House and Window tax fastened more firmly than ever (as our sage legislators hoped) upon Metropolitan shoulders, and the spectre of a Property-tax hooted out of the Rouse of Commons. This -was indeed a hardy, we suspect it will prove to have been a foolhardy, proceeding. Lord ALTHORP'S resolution on Tuesday, which was carried so triumphantly instead of Sir JOHN KEY'S simple motion for the repeal of the House and Window tax, affirmed the inexpediency of making any important changes in the financial system of the country ; in other words, it repudiated a Property-tax. It was agreed on all hands, that some substitute for the taxes proposed to be taken off would have to be found ; and it was generally al- lowed, that a Property-tax must be that substitute. This, how- -ever, it seems the House would not listen to. The members were convinced of its injustice and inexpediency, by such arguments as the following, which we extract from the speech of Sir Ro-
BERT PEEL.
" There was one alternative to which the proposed reductions must inevitably lead—an Income and Property tax. To that species of taxation he was de- cidedly opposed. He did not pledge himself beyond the present period in making this statement : he spoke of the existing condition of the country, and pronounced an Income and Property tax, in reference to that condition, a great public calamity. He said an Income and Property tax, because he considered the two inseparable ; and thought any attempt to tax Property without taxing Income pregnant with the grossest injustice."
Now, when a person grossly and wilfully misstates the propo- sition of his antagonist in an argument, it is a fair presumption that he is unable to overthrow it if fairly put. This is what Sir ROBERT PEEL, in conjunction with Lord ALTHORP, Mr. BARING, and others, has done in the above quotation. Nobody dreams of imposing an Income-tax, of the odious description which Sir ROBERT PEEL endeavoured, too successfully, to persuade his brother members must be the necessary result of reorganizing our financial system. If we entertained any doubts of the expedi- ency of a Property-tax, they would, we think, be in a great mea- sure removed by observing to what shifts an acute and clear- headed man like Sir ROBERT PEEL is driven, in order to give his arguments against it even a plausible appearance. A circumstance occurred which is likely to bear hard upon Lord ALTHORP'S character, once proverbial for honesty. He was reported by all the newspapers to have declared his des termination to acquiesce in the vote upon Sir WILLIAM INGILBY'S motion, and to carry it into effect. With scarcely an exception, also, the same interpretation on his language was put by the Members of the House who heard him speak. But it now appears, according to his own explanation, that he said nothing of the kind, and merely declined dividing the House upon the ques- tion a second time that night. Does not Lord ALTHORP'S easy and good-natured disposition-sometimes render him the prey of his more wily colleagues ? Do not these latter now and then over-persuade him to give singular explanations of his imprudently honest admissions ? An excessively honest, good-intentioned Minister, may be found occasionally, we suspect, quite as convenient a colleague as an unprincipled one. The Fear of being saddled with an Income-tax, then, was one of the main reasons for reseinding the vote of Friday week for the reduction of the Malt-duty. The Ministerial threat of resignation was another : the Members of the House of Commons consider the retirement of Ministers as a greater calamity than the loss of the confidence of their constituents, and of their own character for consistency and independence. The fear of an Income-tax, the possibility of which no rational reformer of our system of taxation ever contemplated, and the dread of embarrassing the Ministry of the day, are positively the only two reasons to be assigned in ex- cuse for the extraordinary vote of Tuesday night ; the alarming consequences of which are already clearly to be discerned on the political horizon.
This was the great Parliamentary measure of the week. On Thursday, Mr. RICHARDS brought forward his motion respecting the introduction of Poor-laws into Ireland. It was cushioned by Lord ALTHORP; who proposed that a Commis- sion should be appointed to inquire into and report upon the state of the Irish poor, previously to legislating on the subject of Mr. RICHARDS'S motion. The House of course acquiesced in this cable, easy, and now very usual, though unsatisfactory mode of king rid of a troublesome matter. last night, Mr. ConnErr's resolutions on the subject of the iniquitous operation of the Stamp and Auction duties were re- jected, by a majority of 250 to 26. The debate proved a very dull one; and, strange to say, Mr. SPRING RICE was more pointed, and his speech appears to have told better, than that of his. veteran antagonist. Mr. RICE went out his way to bestow a high-flown eulogium on the virtues of the nobility...; which, as was justly re- marked by Mr. HuluE, met with more applause from the members of the House than it would be likely to receive from their con- stituents out of doors.
Lord ALTHORP moved last night for his promised Committees of Inquiry into the state of Agriculture and Trade,—premising, however, that, in his opinion, they would be of little practical ser- vice. This is not very consolatory; nor is it calculated to put people in good-humour with their representatives. Earl FITZWILLIAM has laid a string of resolutions on the sub- ject of the Corn-laws on the table of the House of Lords. He intends to bring them under discussion on Tuesday week ; not- withstanding Earl GREY, according to the policy of his Adminis- tration, expressed his regret that this difficult subject should be mooted at the present time.
We cannot say much in praise of the Parliamentary oratory of the week. The grand discussion on Tuesday did not produce a single good speech. The arguments on the Ministerial side were not even adroitly put, and did not meet with that thorough ex- posure from the Opposition which we hod a right to expect.
