The Express. — London, England, 1848-02-11 00:00:00

article of which he would more gladly see consumption of tea might have some influence in eow-v••••••••• — .7 — tchreit:.,hdereno seam its impaling a duty almost upen any other COMIDO to supply the deficiency in the spirit duties. (Rear.) ditY, H. ben now to ii.le whether the house or the coun try was satiefied with the existing trade with China ? China b e d a population of 300,00 0 ,000, and et y the trade of Great Britain with her had never exceeded 2,000,0001. of annual Why was that ? Was It from the suet of any exports. ty on the part of the Chinese—was it from soy want of cug owe eeeill mineiple among hem ? On the contrary, the Chinese nation was equally . distinguished for its industry and the desire to turn that industry to the best account. Vies it then that the Chinaman having strange notions of peculiar contempt for the foreign barbarian civilisation and a h u t ra ised moms obstacles in the way of intercourse between the two nations ? There load been a day when apprehensions of that kind bad _ been . seriously entertained, yew, .go it bad been said that such practices and fifteen would prevail, but in 1844 a meaty had been concluded with them by which British manufactures were imported by them per cent.—so that the ab et duties varying fron t I to 10 staeles to intercourse had not been created by the uncivilised, but by the civilised —not by the barbarous but by the re geed, By the evidence of the British consul, corroborated by the Bntisb governor, there tinted but one limit to the trade between the two nations, and that Want ante from the amount of duty at which this country admitted Chinese exports. (Hear, bear ,) New though the Chime were celled an uncivilised people, still they per Ka ma great Dignity, and he much feared that dill country by its commercial policy towards them wee teaching them a lesson which they would be quick to learn. ( gm. hoer.) From recent accounts it appeared they had become apt on the subject of reciptual protection, and that altbotuth they were bound by treaty from charging higher rates of duty than those ha had stated at any port of import, still be believed that the Chinese exporter had been the me- Cum of communication between the British tariff and his own government , and that though they could not lay em British goods any increase of duties at the port of i they had increased the transit and inland duties, tat them graiLble to their revenues , and he feared th it if this state of things long continued the uncivilised Chinaman would be found to be an apt scholar in the school of pro hibitory duties, and that a hostile tariff would be esta blished in China which this country would have no power to meet. (Hear, hear.) He had to thank the house for the kindness with which, at that late hour, it had 'Meisel to his observidions, whit* he bad compressed Into the smallest possible limits. It was not for him to divine what was intended on this subject by the Right Hen. tie Chancellor of the Exchequer, but, looking to the near approach of the financial statement, he (Mr. Cardwell) had felt it due to the committee and to their chairman (Lord Bandon, now the Earl of Harrowby), whose mantle bad in some degree fallen upon him, that the report should not be permitted to slumber. (Hear, hear.) In conclusion, and SS s matter of form, he begged to more fora return of the reports and correspondence received on the 'object of duties from the governor and the consul in China. (Rear, hear.) Mr. EWART seconded the motion, and sail he waited with anxiety to learn what course her,Mejesty's government intended to adopt beth with the tea and the tobacco duties. He was, therefore, anxious to support the motion of his hon. friend. The time was come when these duties must be con sidered, and when a comprehensive view ought to be taken of the excise duties. There should be a general revision of our whole taxation. ( Hear ) He was prepared to throw a larger burden on accumulated property , but not on incomes. (Hear, hear.) The result of this would be a considerable relief to the trading and manufacturing interests, and the springs of industry would thus be strengthened. (Hear.) The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said that no apology was necessary from the hon. gentleman opposite, for introducing this subject. At the samo time he ought not to argue too strongly on the present depressed state of the trade with China ; for his own statements sufficiently accounted for it. On the opening of the trade, the merchants had eagerly engaged in it, and after can ying it on for a short time had found it a very losing concern. 1 hat was almost universally the case on the opening of any new trade. It had be. II notoriously the case on trio opening of the trade with the states of South America. The whole mercantile world at once engaged in it, and the South American markets were consequently glutted. The same had occurred with China. Many mer chants had cousequently found the trade a toeing concern, and had given it up. In the same way the manufacturers had suffered , and bad been deterred from sending more of their fabrics to that market. The fact was, the Chinese markets had been glutted in the first instance with the quantity of manufactured goods sent from this country; and however lamentable might be the check which the trade had suffered, it was the natural result of the exces sive exports in the tint instance. He considered that more stress had been laid on the diminution of the importations of Chins in one particular year than was right, looking at the permanent state of the trade in that country. In 1943, there was an addition of about half a million to the imports, which had increased from a million sterling in the preceding year, to aboat a million and a half. In 1844, they increased to 2,300,0001.; and, in Pict, to nearly 2,400,0001. ;—more than double the amount of 1812. It was hardly likely that all this would be taken elf at once ; and if, in the subsequent year, there had been a considerable falling off under this Lead, it was only what might have been expected from previousexperience. With regard to the general trade, he con curred in almost every position which We hon. member for Liverpool had laid down. (Hear, hear.) lie had not the least douht that, by diminishing the duty on tea, the con sumption would be greatly extended, and that, in course of time, the revenue lost by lowering the duty would be made up. Again, he Lad not the least doubt that the quantity of goods sent to China must entirely depend on the returns which could be obtained from that country, and that, by ad mitting tea at a low rate of duty, our exports to China would be considerably extended, to the =Wiest benefit of the consumers, muufacturers, and ship-owuers of this country: also, that though considerable Ms. might be entailed on the revenue, it would in the end be made up by an increased consumption of tea. (Hear, hear.) This warn not only true of tea, but of other articles; the same argument had been applied to wine, and also to tobacco ; and it was true of all articles on which a high duty was imposed. As to the increased consumption of tea diminishing the consumption of spirits, he was not prepared to offer en opinion ; but he must gay the consumption reduced than of spirits, provided the re veuue was made up from other sources ; and probably an in n. that respect. But he feared that if any such reduction were ' • made freah taxes must or necessity be imposed to make up the immediate deficiency; for if, in the article of sugar, for instance, the increased consumption were set I off against the reduction of duty, be feared there would be, for some years, a considerable loss. The hon. gentle. man who had seconded this motion was in favour of an ad valorem duty on tea ; but the committee had recom , mended a uniform duty of a shilling a pound; and he be lieved the advantages were decidedly on the side of a fixed uniform duty. (Hear, hear, and " Very low.") But it was quite impossible to reduce the duty to anything like the amount recommended by the committee, without risk ing some two millions of revenue; end that was a risk not very likely to be incurred just now. The hon. member n r Liverpool had said that, on a former occasion, the distressed state of the country bad been nude the ground for a con siderable reduction of taxation ; but he should remember I that that reduction had been accompanied by the imposition of the income tax. In like Runner, if they were now to repeal the window duty, from which 1,700,0001. was derived, or any other tax which brought in a considerable revenue, it could only be done by the imposition of some other tax, which would yield at least as great an amount ; and whether the gentlemen who advocated these reductions would cheerfully submit to an addition to the income tax or to the property tax he very mnch doubt, d. (Ilea, and a laugh.) On this subject it would be most improper in him to anticipate the statement which the noble lord at the head of the government would give in ten days' time respecting the general finances of the country. He should therefore best discharge his duty by not saying another wor ood the part of this question which related to revenue. To the motion of the hon. gentleman he had not the slightest objec tion. (Hear.) Lord O. HENTINCK said the house had had some little experience in the mode now proposed of improving the reve sue, namely, by " removing the burdens from the springs of industry.' In 1838 the postage had been reduced to a penny ; and now, a:ter a lapse of ten years, the revenue from the post-office, then 1,800,0001., was but half that amount. (Hear, hear.) The hon. member for Liverpool and his friends had taken off the duties from timber, cotton, corn, silk, and brandy, thereby nutting • present of so much of 1 our revenue to foreign nations. (Hear, hear.) He (Lord 0. Beatinck) had recommended, two years ago, that our relations with China should be cultivated. In the United States, with their 20,000,000 of inhabitants, only 19,900,000 lbs. of tea were annually consumed, aF I though it was subject to no duty ; and the hon. member for Liverpool was therefore a little un guine in calculating the increased consumption of tea, with a reduction of ls. 2d. per lb. in the duty, at 22,000,000 of pounds. Two years ago, when everybody appeared to be free-trade mad, Mr. Olyr, and the directors of the North Western Railway Company were induced to try the experi ment of reducing their tariff; and the consequence was a reduction in the shareholders' dividends from 10 to 8 per cent. ; while the hen. gentleman near him (Mr. Hudson) had strongly resisted the innovation on the Midland line, 1 I and their dividends were still undiminished. (Hear, hear.) • He could not support the hon. member for Liverpool. 1 Mr. MOFFATT thanked the hon. gentleman the mem ber for Liverpool for the able and lucid manner in which he introduced this subject. He did not think the noble lord who had just spoken had succeeded in showing that a loss at revenue must necessarily follow from a reduction of duty. , The Post-office revenue was within 5 per sent. of what it was before the reduction took place, great as that reduction was. bH in ear n , hear .) ese, an o r e e i thomh c t y th t a o t w as a lm: i it ie ter of i tus si tice . i t i th ut e 1 tion of the duties on tea ought to be made. He did not think with the right hon. gentleman (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) that there would be anything like a loss of 2,000,0001. in the revenue. (Hear, hear.) Mr. W. BROWN said that he had investigated the ques tion of the reduction of duties since 1667, and he found that DP to the present time a reduction of duty had been followed by increased consumption. Mr. MASTERMAN thought that great credit was due to the hon. member for Liverpool for bneging this question under the notice of the house and the country. Mr. BROTIIERTON thought there could be only one opinion as to the propriety of reducing the duty, provided the poor were to get the benefit of such a reduction. In the year 1815 the consumption of tea in this country was 1 9 ,000,0001 M., which cost 3,500,0001.; in 1846, the con sumption was 46,000,000165. which cost 3,000,0001., that was to sty they gave 500,0001. less for 40,000,0001 be, of tea in 1 846 than they gave for 19,000,0001 M. in 1815. That showed d a very great increase of consumption ; and, if eduty was reduced Is., he thought it reasonable to "Mt that the consumption would be doubled. Dr. BOWRINO said, that if bis hon. friend bad been a masher girths committee on this subject, he would be coo visited that the imposition of an ed valorem duty on teas wan el terreltor Impracticable. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Aiderneen SIDN EY thoughtthere was a great fallacy la the argument with respect to the expected inexems in the mearamption of tea from a reduction of the duty. In 1801 the consumption per bead was 1 lb. 3 oz. the average price balm then from 4s. to ss. per lb. In 184 6 , when the price of tea was not more than one-third of what it was in 1801, the consumption per bead was only 1 lb. 10 ox. (Hear.) Mr. WILSON said that the increase of consumption was expected to arise from the demands of the poor, and not from the rich, to whom price was act an object. In Ireland particularly a large inmate of consumption might be ex pected. He believed that a mode might be devised foe re ducing the duty without diminishing the revenue. In 1846 the consumption of tea was 46,700,0001b5. In 1847,in con sequent:lot manufacturing distress,the consumption had fallen to 4.5,600,000 lbs., and in 1848, he did not think the Chan cellor of the Exchequer could calculate on a greater con sumption than 44,000,000 lbs. This showed that there was an increase or decrease of consumption, according to the prosperity of the country. In 1831 the consumption was 31,000,0001 h., the price being 10d. higher than it was last year. Ceder that redaction of price, there was an increased consumption of 15,000,0001 b., and it seemed that this in crease had gone on pari punt with a re uction of price. Now, he did not believe that en entire abolition of these duties was necessary or desirable in the tint instance. He believed, however, that a reduction from 2s. 21d. to le. 6 d. might be made wit hout any falling off even in the first year. He was told by them practically acquainted with the trade that the largest portion of tea sold to the pour was a tea sold at 4s. alb. If they took 4s. as a (sir average price of this tea in bond, and added to it Is. 6d. duty. the tea might be sold at 3e. a lb. with a fair profit. Calculating that the same amount of money would be 'pent in tea under those prices as was spent at lament, he found that an increased sale of only 16,000,000 would give a revenue of nearly four mil lions and • half, to which was to be added the jemmied amount received for the duty on the additional sugar coa sumed. To the sugar bill of 1846 bethought the reduction of the tea duties ought to be considered a necessary com plement. Mr. HUDSON was very glad to find that the Chancellor of the Exchequer was not to be seduced by this sort of spe culative argument. He was glad he had at last found out that a reduction of duty was not always followed by an increased consumption, or a decrease of price lie was also glad to find the member for Salford retracting his free-trade principles. (" Hear, bear," from the country party.) It was a satisfactory indication that these principles were not so popular among the nninufiscturera es they were once supposed to be. Mr. CARDWELL replied. He thanked the house for the good humoured way in which the subject had been treated. He congratulated the Chancellor of the Exchequer, not upon his arguments, but upon the support he had received. He congratulated him upon the support of the noble lord, of the hon. gentleman who had that night issued his royal man date upon the subject, and, more than all, upon the support of the hon. member for Salford, rarely an eloquent speaker in that house, and to-night, for the first time, an advocate of taxation. (Hear, hear.) The motion was then agreed to. DUBLIN WATER. Mr. REYNOLDS moved that the order made on the 7th of February for certain returns, under the head of " Dublin Water," be diacharged, the returns having been alreauy made. Mr. OROGAN opposed the motion. The gallery was cleared for a division, but 40 members not being present, the house stood adjourned at one o'clock. \l-P icprexils• MAILS The mails for British North America Bermada, and the Unite] States. will be made up on the evening of the llth lehruary. The West India Maila, ezeluding Bermuda, Nassau, Havana, Honduras, New Orleans, Vera Cr., Tampico, awl Porto Rico, and including those for Madeira. Jaemel, Carthame, Santa Mort* tkagrM P.116/11S, Welt Omit of South AOltrid, and St. Jusuithc- N mangos, will 've made op on the morning of the 17th February. malls for Vigo, OpOtto, lathon, Madeira, Cadiz, and Gibraltar will be rands up on the morning of the 17th February. Ms overland mails for Gibraltar, Malte,Gri eoe, the lonian !elands XrtAden, Ceylon, Indio. Hong-Kong, and Chine, via Southampton made up on the morning of th e 20th February. The male for New South Woles, Vats Diemen's Laud, sad New Zealand will be made up on the evening of the 29th February. Ile overload elosen maths eth Marseilles. to the atednerrancth Egypt, Aden. Ceylon, ladia. liens Kong, Ike., will be made up on tie swung of the 24th FebtlATT. The mils for the West Coast of Africa and Madeira will be mode op on the evening of the 29th February. The mails for the Brasile, the River Plate, Monte Video, Pernam buco Bahia, Madeira, and Buenos Ayres, will be made u p on the evening of the 4th March. TO CORRESPONDENTS. THE number of STAMPS issued to the DAILY NEWS by the authorities of the Stamp-office, during the >ear 1847, was From JAN. 1, t 3 Dn. 31, 3,447,009 This, we believe, is within eight per cent. of the number issued to the Morning lierahl, Morning Chronicle, and Morning Post, ALL PUT TOGATHEL Ia addition to the above, issued to the DAILY NEWS, Morning Paper, there were issued for the Evening Edition, THE EXPRESS, From JAN. 1, to Dcc. 31 778,714 Which was more, wehelieve, than were issued either to the Glebe or Standard, Ereniog Papers. •.• aelvemeesteste letes/ei fee • T. Eames." teaks eyelash peen. wee he at the secs.lo.l.lotweete-etreet. he Two s'elsek es the 04e of pelliesties. SION WALTZ AT LONDON ■EDOO[. TAD DAT—MaraimL 24 .1.. put 6; AMINO, 41•10.166. 6. Teal —llenNeg. saw so 7; Attn... 41 ISM. M. 7. LONDON, FRIDAY, FEB. 11. - - Tile American general has declared himself " at home" in Mexico. Ile has issued an ordonnance, directing the dispersion of the American army, and the occupation by it of the principal provincial posts, where the American commanders are to carry on the government and levy the taxes, until such time as " the republic of Mexico shall sae for peace." As General Scores occupation annihilates the republic, and proscribes the authorities of Mexico, how these are to sue for peace is not apparent, unless, indeed, they continue to urry on the war in some province beyond American reach, by which they will infallibly draw down upon them the vengeance of Gen. Scorr. In their fiscal arrangements the Americans have, however, abrogated two sources of taxation, in which the Mexicans would do well to imitate them. They abolish lotteries, as also the dues on transit or internal commerce. The latter used to amount to nearly one million sterling, little short of the produce of the customs itaelf. But however lucrative as a source of revenue, nothiag could be so destructive of the trade and prosperity of the country as these taxes. The Americans 'have decreed that, the customs duties once paid at the port, the goods shall be free to circulate everywhere with out fresh changes. This is a species of free trad e which ought to - be the first introduced in old coun tries, and for which Mexico ought to be grateful to its invaders. The conquest of MONTEZI:3I empire has, how ever, opened far more fertile sources of quarrel and contention amongst the Americans themselves than of gain to the government or community. All, indeed, admit that Mexico is a costly investment-40 millions ot dollars already gone, and 60 more very probable to go, with an immediate loan of 17 millions almost im posible to raise ; so much so, that the rumour runs of Mr. POLK'S competing with the Emperor of AI:STRIA for some of the gold in the cellars of the CZAR at St. Petersburg. But if more absorbent than productive of gold to the Americans, Mexico, as we observed, is rich in veins of quarrel. The generals have all fallen to loggerheads, showing strange specimens of demo cratic discipline. General WORTH, we are told, is popular with the old army, and General PILLOW with the new : whilst General SCOTT, mistrusting both, places his chief confidence in General TWIGGS. Hence WORTEI and PILLOW, l ealous of TWIGGS, show dis respect to SCOTT , who c spa them both in arrest, im pounds the gallant Colonel DuNcsre with them for attacking him, the commander-in-chief, in the news paper ; whilst President POLK recalls Scorr, sends all the heroes of Mexico, the three generals, to be tried by court-martial, and gives the command-in-chief to an old Kentucky friend. All this makes a sorry tail to the commentaries of the American CLeAR. Amongst the political public at home, in the United States, quarrel is quite as rife. Never were so many candidates for the presidency, and never were parties so split, and sub-split with reference to that all absorbing point. And never was President in office more snubbed and grudged and menaced than the victorious POLK. His demand of ten regiments is fiercely disputed. And the same anti-military fervour which is awakened in Great Britain is powerful at Washington. As the raising of the ten regiments would give the PRESIDENT the appointment of about 400 officers, and as the government is in the habit of taking their officers in block from the ranks of civil life, the protest against such an absurd fabrication of epanletted heroes, after conquest, is rational as well as loud. And Mr. PoLx will probably not get his' regiments. But then, on the other hand, he may raise as many thousand volunteers as he pleases. Nay, he can raise them ; for the prospect of living at free quarters in Mexico, when fighting is over too, cannot but be most attractive. Indeed, half the American forces in Mexico at present consist of volunteers and when we consider that all the gene- THE EXPRI SS, FRIDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 11, 1848. rats are under arrest, and that half the soldiers are irregulars, we may conceive that Mexico is almost as much • bear-garden as Congress. DIFFERENT portions of our columns are filled with discussions on two subjects, closely allied, and most important to the public—the window-tax and the sanitary law. On the latter, presented by Lord Moiternt last night, we shall defer one comments. Of the grievances of the window-tax we beg to add a few items. On Monday was pub lished in this journal a description of the new dwelling for artisans, now nearly completed, near old St. Pancras churchyard. The Association for Improv ing the Houses of the Industrious Classes have done a good work in placing within reach of those who pre fer comfort, cleanliness, and retirement, to squalor, filth, and exposure, homes, isolated, though under one roof, in which for a lower price than is now paid for a close and inconvenient shelter in the common tenanted honse,the working man may secure a compact home, with convenience to which he has hitherto been a stranger. We pointed out the grievous injustice in flicted on the occupants of such dwellings by the pre sent assessment of the window-tax. Each nest of rooms, occupied by one family, though all are under the earns roof, constitutes to all intents and purposes a separate dwelling. Standing apart, every such dwelling would be exempt from window-tax But when they are gathered under the same roof, the building, whose external wall shuts them all in, is rated as one large and many windowed house. This, in itself a grievous injustice, is rendered still more intolerable by the partiality which, in the act 48 Geo. 111., treats each distinct set of chambers in inns of court and colleges uan entire house. The same harden which, by an express clause, is laid upon the poor, is, also by an express clause, lifted off the rich. This single wrong typifies the mischief and unfairness of the whole window-tax system. It is to be hoped that when the subject is brought before the house this odious feature of it will not be forgotten. The working of these clauses may be strikingly exemplified from the case of the Birkenhead labourers' dwellings, as compared with the houses of the rich in the Albany, the inns of court, or the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge Each block of houses at Birkenhead contains eight separate dwell ings, and is assessed for window-tax at 271. 2a 10d. For the same number of windows in the Albany, the inns of court, or the colleges of our universities, the occupants would pay 71. Thus the poor, under the peculiar circumstances of such a case, pay for window-tax upwards of three times as much as the rich. Here the primary condition of fair taxation is violated by an express act of the legislature. A question has been addressed to us by an intelligent tenant of a house in the St. Pancras building, in the name of 80 or 90 of his brethren. He wishes to know whether occupants paying a rent of 4.. a week and upwards, that is, an annual rental of more than 10!., will be entitled to vote for Finsbury under the provi, Mons of the Reform Act. It is unquestionable that these dwellings, being isolated, and each house pos sessing its own " street-door" (as they must be held to do), would, if rates and taxes were paid by the tenants, entitle their occupants to votes. The only question in the case arises on the rating. Wo un derstand that the rates and taxes in this case are paid by the landlords. Is such a payment by the land lords in respect of all the occupants, a payment by each occupant through his agents? If the tenants are rated in respect of the premises they occupy, we apprehend that those holding at rents which, after deducting their rateable proportion of rates and taxes, amount to the clear annual sum of 10!., may reasonably claim to be regis tered as voters for Finsbury. At the mane time we are not aware of any case strictly in point. In the case of " Wright r. the Town-clerk of Stockport" (re ported in the Law Journsl, vol. 13, Common Pleas, 50), there was this feature, that though the occupants there held very much as the tenants in the St. Pan eras building, and though the rates were paid by the landlords, yet those landlords were themselves occu pants of rooms within the manufactory in respect of which the votes were claimed, and were named in the rate as joint occupiers with their tenants. The decision of the court on appeal, that such a payment of rates by the landlord was a good payment by each tenant, turned on this fact, that the names of the landlords themselves appeared in the rate among the tenants, and therefore the former might fairly be presumed to act as their agents. This is nut the case with the St. PalleiSil building. The claim is, there fore, undecided by the case we have cited, which is more in point than any we can find in the books. Still our own opinion is, that under the terms of the 27th section of the Reform Act, if the occupants at the clear yearly value of 10/., calculated with due deductiot of the rates and taxes, are rated to the poor-rates in respect of their holdings, they will be entitled to the franchise, although the payments are actually made by the landlord. The rate-paying clause requires the claimant to be rated to the poor rates. In respect of the assessed taxes its terms are different. It stipulates that in order to vote he must have paid all the poor-rates and assessed taxes paya ble by Um in respect of the premises he occupies. If the landlord have duly paid such assessed taxes on account of the tenant they are clearly not payable by the latter. But the rating to the poor-rate is a condition precedent to his right of voting. It would be worth while for the landlords of the St. Pancras premises to take a regular legal opinion on this point, and so to ascertain by what means, if by any, their tenants may secure the privilege of the franchise in respect to their occupancy. The acqui sition of a vote is an object of reasonable ambition to Ithe artisan. It should be the aim of those who strive to elevate his condition to do all that in them lies to secure for him this right. We conceive, as far as a rapid survey of the law enables ue to arrive at a con clusion, that there is no obstacle in the circumstances of the case under comment to the enjoyment by the higher class of tenants under the association, of the proud privilege of voting, in addition to the other advantages held out to them by those who have pro jected and carried out the associated houses of Old St. Pancras. BRAZILS.—The Hong-Kong, which arrived at Liverpool yesterday, from Pernambuco, on the 29th ult. The holidays nut having expired business of course was at a stand still ebt erourt. The Queen had a dinner party yesterday at Buck. ingbam Palace. The company included the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Duke and Duchess of Saxe Coburg, Prince Frederick of Hesse, Count Arthur Mens dorff, Lady A. Cadogan, Mdme. de Waugenheim, Dowager Lsdy Lyttelton, Lord G. Lennox, Baron Knesebeck, Baron Fritsch, and Col. Wylde. Her Majesty had afterwards an evening party. The Queen end Prince Albert, followed by their illustrious visitors, afterwards entered the Picture Gallery, where, at the upper end, a spacious orchestra had been erected for the first performance of Mendelssolsn's music to the " (Edipua Coloneus," an abridge d English ver sion having been written and adapted to it expressly for her Majesty. It was recited by Mr. Bartley and the author, who, as upon the occasion of the " Antigone's" performance at Wiud,or Castle, assisted him as his chorus speaker; numerous voice, professional and amateur, tinging with effect the profound and impressive strains which the lamented author has woven with this beautiful relic of antiquity, their effects being ably sustained by her Majesty's private band, increased for this occasion by a number of eminent instrumentalists of the Philharmonic Orchestra, Mr. Ander son directing the whole performance. An invocation for (Edipus to the powers of Hades, was rung by Messrs. Genge, Peck, C. Seals, and Collet , forming a quartet into which the chorus, at its conclusion, glides effectively.—The company included the Belgian Mi nister and Madame Van de Weyer, the Prussian Minister and Madame Bunsen and Madlle. Bunsen, Prince Lowenstein, the Duke of Welling ton, the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk, the Ladies Mary end Adeliza Howard, the Marquis of Anglesey and Lady Adelaide Paget, the Marquis and Marehiesem of Lansdowne, the Marquis and Marchioness of Abarcorn, the Earl and Countess Forteseue, the Countess Seises', the Earl of Liverpool, the Earl and Countess of Hardwick', Viscount and Viscountess Palmerston, Viscount Jocelyn, Viscount Morpeth, Lord and Lady Ashley, Hon. Miss Lyt triton, Lord E. Howard, General Hon. A. Upton, Major- Geneal the Hon. H. F. and the H on. Miss Cavendish, Mr. G. E. and the Hon. Mrs. Anson Colonel the Hon. C. B. and Mrs. Phipps, Sir R. and fsdy Gardiner and Mir Gardiner, Lady Caroline Cock', Hon. Mies Paget. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council oat yesterday, and resumed and concluded the hearing of a peti tion for an extension of the term of Pinkus's patent. _ _ SIR STRATFORD CASNINO aniced in London on Wednesday frost Paris and Switzerland. ELECTION TOR NORTH Sustorsunta.—The sheriff has appointed Wednesday next, the 16th inst., for the election of the amber for that division of the county vacant by Viect. Clive's sitecession to the peerage. Mr. J. W. Dod, the conservative candidate, is expected to be elected without opposition, no other candidata having presented himself. REPEAL OF THE WLNDOW TAX.—DEPU TATION TO THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EX CHEQUER,. Yesterday, a deputation from the metropolitan wkihee waited upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in Downing-street, for the purpose of urging on the attention of the right hon. !gentleman the necessity of the repeal of the window-tax being included in the ensuing budget. Mr. ORORoz DANIELL, as chairman of the metropolitan delegates, presented a memorial agreed to and signed by all the representatives of the metropolitan parishes, urging the entire abolition of window duds.. Mr. Hamm (churchwarden of St. James's, Westminster) subraittejl that the great injustice of the tax was its inequa lity. The'retum showed that, in England, there were 3,600,000 houses. The 600,000 houses were taxed, whilst the 3,04400 escaped. Toe CReNciELLoa of the EXCHEQUER said he believed the exemption to be in favour of the poorer classes chiefly. Mr. Ogratir mid that was not the cue. He could go a little way from town and purchase or rent as splendid a cottage as be desired without being subject to the tax at all. Mr. Caooca (St. Pancras) observed that, in a sanitary *et of view, the window-sex was the producer of fever and disease. Mr. Crouch submitted that a tax levied like the parochial assemments or any other tax was preferable to the window-lax. The CHANCELLOR of the EXcHEQUIE—Then am I to understand that, in the event of my being ambled to effect a modification of the tax, you would have no objection to have it asseumi in the same manner as the poor-rate ? Or what would you say to the house-tax as a substitute ? (Ge neral cries of " No, no.") Viscount Litsceiv, M.P., begged to remind him that the house-tax exhibited the same objections as the window duties. The wale of the told house-tax went up to 40, and then there was a graduated scale downwards. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said there were three modes which might be adopted with reference to this tax. First, the total repeal, which the deputation appeared to call for. (lime, hear.) Well, supposing that cou:d not be done, secondly came the question of modification, or com muting the tax; and, thirdly, the substitution of some other tax for the window-tax. In the first place, if the tax were abolished altogether, the question was, in the event of his being unable to do without it, what should be the substi tute ?If he felt it right to propose that the ten t a be modified —namely, that the scale should be made more equitable, by taxing to a greater extent the higher class of houses, and placing it on a similar footing to that of parochial assessments, would that be satisfactory? (No, no.) He knew that one of the great objections to the house-tax was that the higher elms of houses were let off in the same way as by the window-ter, but which he did not think was the caae. He considered that large houses in the country pod mere to the window-tax than they did under the old house- tax. Mr. WILSON begged to call the attention of the Chancel lor of the Exchequer to the fact, that there was a house tax already levied in the shape of a property tax. Viscount Duncan said, as 1111 iIIUCIRUOE of the effect of taking off the house tax, in the case of the Earl of Chester fi-ld's house, it was 2801. The CHANCELLOR Of the EXCHEQUER was quite aware that noblemen's houses in the metropolis were not assessed to the window tax as they ought to be, bat he thought that was not the cabs in large country houses. After a few words from Mr. WIrLD, M.P. The CHANCELLOR of the Excitant:ate M.P., I perfectly understand that you ask for a total repeal, but supposing that the sum which the tax produces cannot be spared, I want to know whether you would object to the tax upon an improved scale, and levied in a less objectionable form, or by the substitution of another tax, in the same manner as the parochial taxes. Viscount Duticam—We object to the tax entirely. We cannot consent to a modification. Mr. HOWARTH (churchwarden of St. Pancras) suggested a propeetritax upon Ireland as a substitute. The Cisticstton of the EXCHEQUER—Then I am to understand that you ask for a total repeal ef the window duties; and euggest in its stead a property and income tax upon Ireland, and a real property tax altogether? Capt. Piscanu. and they left the substitute for the con sideration of the Chancellor of the Exchequer; but at the same time he would ask why a place like Belfast should sot pay a property tax as well as the property in the manufac- taring towos of England. Sir B. Hatt, Ban., M.P., said, if the Chancellor of the Exchequer could not substitute a property tax uoon Ire land, in lieu of such a tax as the window-tax, be (Sir B. Hall) would at all events try if he could not get a property tax upon Ireland first, to help his hon. friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer to repeal the window-tax afterwards. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER remarked that the bon. baronet would be indeed a friend, for be would be help ing him when he could aot help himself. (Laughter.) Ile would, however, consider the representations which bad bean made, and give the matter his best attention.—The deputa tion then retired. COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL. Yesterday a court wee held for the despatch of public businesa Tax POOR OP THE CITY OP LoNnos.—Alderman Kelly presented a petition front the Association for the Relief of the Poor of the City e London and parts adjacent, for a great in aid of its tuode, and moved that the petition be re ferred to the coal, corn, and finance committee. The petition was unanimously reinvent to the committee. Tax BREAKING UP OTTER CITY OANO OP Mr. W. Lawrence presented a petition from Mr. henry Trimbey Gray, " for assistance in defraying the expenses in curred by the petitioner in the preeecution of swindlerr,there being no public prosecutor." Mr. Lawrence moved that the petition should be referred to the coal, corn, and finance committee. The petitioner was worthy of the consideration of the representatives of a great commercial city, in which fraudulent practices were constantly going forward, and he trusted that the recom mendation of the committee to which the subject would be referred would amply repay Mr. Gray for his great exer tions and his unquestionable disinterestednue. Several members briefly expressed their cordial approval of the peti tion, and the motion was agreed to. IMPROVEMENT OF THE CITY.—A report was brought up recommending that 300,0001. should be borrowed front the Bank of England, to accomplish improvements in the City of Loadon. The immediate improvements in Cannon-street are included. METROPOLITAN COMMISSIONERS OF SEWERS. The Commissioners met at ten o'clock yesterday morning, in room No. 23, New Houses of Parliament, Lord Morpheth is the chair. On the motion of Mr. CHADWICK, it was resolved that the executive of the commission should adopt steps to im prove the cenditien of the labourers employed upon the sewage works of the metropolis. Dr. SOUTHWOOD SMITH approved of the motion, which be considered highly necessary. Mr. BIOQ brought under the consideration of the court the complaint of an inhabitant of Lucelles-court, relative to the bad state of the cesspools of St. Giles's. Mr. Lentt, urged upon the attention of the court the necessity of doing away with cesapools altogether, and sub stituting in their stead a tubular drain to the nearest com mon sewer. Alter some conversation, be moved a resolution that an estimate should be given in of the espense of abolishing the cesspool in Lasce ll es-court, and substituting a tank or a tubular drain. After some observations from the Dean of WESTMINSTER, the resolution was *greed to. Mr. L. JONES moved that a oommunication should be made to the water companies of the metropolis, requesting that an estimate might be given in of the expense of water ing the whole of the courts in the district of the court. After a abort conversation the resolution was agree/ to. A resolution was also paved appointing an sass stant-sur aeon to the commission ; and one fixing the charge sr drain age at 10s. per foot frontage. The court then adjourned till this day fortnight. GRAND BALL AT COLD-BATH-FIELDS PRISON. What a reproach to the management of this prison does the shove announcement convey! On Wednesday night. about nine o'clock, public attention wee attracted in the neighbourhood of Contbath-square by bright lights issuing from the nairow-barred windows at the governor's house, and from that hour till past eleven the trinderous outer gates of the Metropolitan House of Correction were con stantly on the move to admit a stream of hackney-coaches and street calm, receiving orders, as they deposited their motley groups at the governor's house, teat they were to take up sgsin at three o'clock the next morning. This was a most unbecomiog scene, to say the leas'. of it ; but when we refer to what the Secretary of State for the Home Department has decreed to be the proper course to be pursued at night with reference to these said outer gates, we can hardly cha racterise in sufficiently strong terms the impropriety of what took place Wednesday ight. No. 10b of the printed rules of the prison enacts as follo n ws : " The orison shall be locked for the night, and the keys of the outer gate delivered to the go vernor at or before eleven o'clock each night, and a report shall be then made to him whether the officers resident in the prison are all present. The keys shall be kept by the governor until the hour of unlocking is the morning ; and no ingress or egress shall be allowed between the hour of locking at night and unlocking in the morning, except iu special cases to be entered in tke governor's jour nal." We understand this worthy functionary (the governor) receives seven hundred pounds a year for the care of this prison. Now we can well understand that a man of talent and education agreeing to shut himself up within the walls of a prison—to give up the pleasure of general society, and to devote himself early and late to the very important, end (if performed con amore) most interesting occupa tions involved in the internal management of a large prison, should be well paid for the sacrifice of time, and pro. bably of health, also, which be may be called upon to make; but we can hardly conceive that the overburthened rata-payee of the county of Middlesex will easily be recon ciled to pay seven hundreds year to enable the governor to give balls at Cold Bath Fields prison. What are the visiting justice' about, to allow the poor inmates of the pri son, after a day of hard labour, and especially those in its infirmaries and convalesceet wards, to be disturbed all night by sounds of music, dancing, carriages rattling over the paved yardand dragging over the gravel, and the incessant banging of gates and rattling of bolts and bars ? Are they ignorant of the practises alluded to ? Them some extraordinary deceit nanstbserdised upon them. Do they know of them, and satins yet them by snowing them to exist unreprimanded? Tisla are they unfit for the responsible office of visiting SiStkek and the sooner the, are relaced by officers appointed sad paid by the ponnuneat th e better. THE EARL OF SHREWSBURY TO ARCH BISHOP WHALE. My Lord Archbishop,—Had you received my letter ac cording to the design with which it was written, you bad gone . far to redeem the character of the Irish Church in the °ptpies of the English pooOse ; but you have cheerio other wise, and have only made - bed worse. My first impression on reading your grace's reply, was to leave it quietly to the public, and to its own merits ; hut circansitances and reflec tion have altered my purpose. I will not, however, my lord, reply to you in the spirit in which you have replied to me. I will not substitute invective for argument, nor reckless martian for proof ; but, nevertheless, I will speak the truth, for you demand it of me. My lord, it is a stale, unworthy, end unprofitable trick, for a disputant to endeavour to gain a momentary triumph over his adversary by falsifying his " amertions, ' and then exposing them either to ridicule, contempt, or hatred, in the fictitious guise in which be himself has dressed them. My I lord, " it is the wisdom only of this world (and it is an illus. trious countryman of your's who says it), to put false odours upon things, to call good evil, and evil good, against the conviction of our own contcienees," for, 14t your grace read the letter on which you comme nt, and which you condemn in such unmeasured terms, is proved by the quotation which you pretend to give in the wry words, while that quotation, in its turn, proves that you are acting against the evidence of your senses, and—may I say it ? against what ought to be the conviction of your conscience. There seems to be no room for mistake here. I, • catholic peer, deliberately asserted, indeed, of an entire national church, that she is a conniver at injustice, an accessory to crime, a pestilent sore in the commonwealth My . lord. for shame ! Inc shame ! Had I done so, I should indeed be worthy of the chastisement with which the Divine anger visited Herod for his cruelty and his hypocrisy; and, my lord, to this latter vice you are pleased most siguificently to refer me. But here, my lord, lam haunted by the idea— and if I give expression to it, it is not is anger, but in sorrow—that we also might read a lemon from your illustra tion, not altogether inapplicable to the point; for, does it not remind us not merely of the hypocrisy of Herod, but also of the &simulation of Pilate, who that day made friends together, that by false testimony t .ey might conspire to the ruin of an innocent man? My lord, if these are unpleasant words, they are at least suggested by your own; and it I venture to utter them, we must ever remember that as a Christian you are bound, like ourselves, by the moral code of the Gospel, that whilst you art Archbishop of Tuam, you are 'bothe most distinguished member of • political confederacy, working incessantly against the best interests of the whole empire. My lord, if I rested here, I think it might be considered that I had already made a pretty fait commentary in justifi cello's of my former letter • but since you invite me to con fession and repentance, an d demand adequate reparation too for a long list of very grievous sins—the sins of unauthorised and presumptuous dictation, and of lay pretensionv; since you assail me as • corrupt courtier-as a selfish and assiduous suitor of ministerial favours—as hypocritical and ungrateful—as • scandalous calumniator—as a Con spirer against the lives and liberties of the people— am a public denouncer of the entire catholic church in Ireland—as grieving and scandalising the whole Christian world—as insulting the majesty of Rome, and as guilty of such like offences, smaller or greater as they may be—l must, my lord, before I answer to your summons, crave • moment for the examination of my conscience ; for it is really the first time I have heard of a father confessor taking upon himself to be the searcher of hearts and the diviner of thoughts, and thus, even before he hears his penitent, pass ing judgment upon him without appeal. My lord, let us proceed with method —lst• The sin of un authorised and presumptuous dictation and lay pretension. My lord, it requires no knowledge of casuistry to under stand a question of plain common sense. I will, therefore, enter at once upon the case. It is alleged, that, though it may be difficult to contest the right of the laity to con tend against the clergy when engaged in political strife, yet that in purely ecclesiestical affairs they at least have no concern. And this we most willingly admit ' pro vided the exercise of ecclesiastical authority neither harms the social, nor endangers the civil state ; nor yet trenches upon the just rights and privileges of the laity. Upon the occasion now before us, the ground for lay interference was the evil which the undue exercise of ecclesiastical govern ment appeared to be bringing upon the social and political condition of the country ; and which at once shifts the argu ment from the spiritual to the temporal. It, then, the laity have an rights to uphold, any duties to perform, any re sponsibilities before the country, any reciprocal relations with the state, this is their occasion. As legislators for the people, on them greatly depends the condition of that people if, then, they see, or gravely suspect they see, their hest endea vours frustrated by the crooked intermeddling of the clergy in civil concerns, or by neglecting their own, is the spiritual character of that clergy to be invoked and the lay man to be told that it is no question for him — that his privileges are absorbed by the superior pri vileges of the church ? or, in other words, is all the world to remain silent while Archbishop M'Hale specks —that men may learn to listen and to obey ? Is be to stand alone an irresponsible power in the commonwealth, wending forth his mandates both to the governor and the governed, and no man to gainsay his will ? My lord, I know the an swer is, that you offend no law. But in this our great civilised community is there no law but that of King, Lords, and Commons? Is there not a bar of public opinion before which to arraign the public conduct of public men, and to condemn or to acquit Is a bishop alone to be shielded from its influ enceoo not amenable to its jurisdiction Is he alone to" play such pranks before high Heaven as make the angels weep," and none to be suffered to lament it here below, or to labour to abate the scandal ? My lord, when, in 1687, Father Strickland preached poli tics front the pulpit of Whitehall, and preached not the doe• trines of the church, but his own, on the divine rights of kings—their unlimited power and irresponsible authority— I think no one will more readily acknowledge than your grace that he was not then the churchman but the politician, not assuredly the spiritual pastor of his flock to be implicitly obeyed, nor even heard without a murmur. My lord, to me it has ever appeared that you have exhi bited even a suspicious anxiety in all your public documents, to identify yourself with the whole church in Ireland, and through her, with that of the whole Christian world. But, my lord, we view you in a two-fold capacity ;as a high dig- niter, of the church, and ma political partisan. We desire to separate one character from the other, because we never desire to speak disrespectfully to a churchman, or, as such, to call a churchman to account. When you speak with the voice of the church we willingly obey, because the church, 1 n matters purely spiritual and dogmatical, has dele gated her authority to her prelates; and in such things, but in such things only, can the church exercise that authority over us. But when, my lord, you descend from your archi episcopal throne, overleap the pale of the sanctuary, and enter the hot arena of political contention, your character is then changed, your responsibilities are transferred to another tribunal, and there is no free man in the three kingdoms who has not a right to criticise your doings. My lord, we live in a land of civil rights, one of which is freedom of discussion on civil and even religious questions; Sit then to be tolerated that any ecclesiastic, how exalted so ever may be his dignity, shall interpose between the honest exercise of these rights under a constitutional government by which those rights are admitted and protected ? Is it to be endured that the fair fame of a million of British cache lies should be sullied by the eccentricities of Archdeacon I Laffan, and the unseemly demeanour of Father M'Dermott, till an appeal be made and responded to from Rome ? Of appeals to Rome we know the inconvenience, the delays, and sometimes the detriment ; as when that moat estimable prelate, the late Dr. O'Pinan, one of your rrace's euffragans, was dispossessed of his diocese of Killala, and another thrust into his place, as the successful issue of • party intrigue, for want of better information amongst the authorities to which the judgment of the came was referred. It is not, however, to such appeals as these that I allude ; for here was a legiti mate and perhaps necessary cause. But, my lord, there must be some more summary method of disposing of ques tions of immediate and pressing urgency ; questions, no doubt, deeply interesting to religion, but in which the in tegrity of the socisl system of the whole empire may be at least equally concerned, and which will admit of no delay. My lord, Rome lm been appealed to, and has more than twice told you to hold your peace, not to meddle in the political contentions of the country, but to devote yourselves to the sacred and far more necessary avocations of your call ing. But the clergy of Ireland—of course I speak only of thus represented by your grace—instead of yielding a re verential deference (as many others to their honour did) to the earnest recommendation of Rome—answered, that as Route knew nothing of their condition, neither would they heed her admonitions. Is it not then a mockery to tell us that our remedy is an appeal to Rome? But, ray lord, my argument is, that as tar as the laity are concerned, Rome has no jurisdiction in the matter, for it is purely civil and political, and no otherwise religious, than as every social and political question, more or lees, incidentally influences the interests of religion. Surely,overt suchm y I p o r r o d p , o, yiotionusas would these?not seriously undertake tocontrovert The time was when a geese and united effort of both clergy and people was necessary for the accomplishment of a wholesome and importaat object. But that time is now past. The victory is won; buhen are we to enjoy its fruits? They would be many ; btu the season of fertility must be the season of peace; but y ou, my lord, have decreed that there shall be no peace in Israel in your days; you will speak peace neither to your people nor to us. The enemy has been conquered, but your army is not disbanded. We have the same menacing array, the same clang of arms, the lame portentous threatening of another conflict, with now a di s- a friend and not a foe. Can the country prosper under turbance which brings into life every evil peseta of our nature ? My lord, you act for the good of Ireland, and in the name of civilisation and Christianity—how comes it then, that u have so signally failed in your endeavours: . That you have excited the whole people of England as one man against yourself, and alas ! too much against your country. men in general'? that civilisation has retrograded under your auspices? that religion has decayed within your in fluence ? whilst you have overwhelmed the faith which you profess under a deluge of rebukes and reviling' from with out against which it is almost in vain for it to struggle ? Such, my lord, is the unhappy result of 20 years of your warring against the state. 'Would it not be wiser to enter into alliance with it, and to become an availiay in the great work of reform, instead of obstinately maintaining an wrote sive hostility to the government, and marring every inspimit effort at improvement, by decrying it as the devise of as enemy, and the dictate of malevolence ? com M rn y o l n or w d eal , it th ts . God. It the law offend her, let her strive discreetly far up in defiance otinnhf atht"ethmaiceivciFulinr,ottheserh—Cofhuranrd authusp:wiTinrttairielei= its amendment. If evils assail her, and afflictions 001118 upon the people entrusted to her keeping, let her renew strata with truth, dignity, and jaittoe, not cutup di and sanctuary, andetive.His w d ro " d m oes in so d , "s passee Pect the I th itu rerh rati oid o o n f the subjects himself to the judgment and reproof of the world. To rail against those who stand in the place of God without measure and without justice—to constitute oneself the sole judge of wham is meet and just both is the political and religious relations of the country—to impute melicions motives to men of unblemished honour and high statical without a particle of proof—to place Celt and Saxon in eternal antagonism to each other—to keep the people is a state of perpetuate excitement for they knew not what, as excitement alike injurious to their social as to their religious progress—to wring eontributions from a starving poor for a visionary and unatminabie object—surely, my lord, this is an unwholesome and unnatural position for a church to assume, to which heaven has appointed a reign of peace and charity. Yet it so the position which yon bare chosen. whence you disturb the very foundations of order, and drive all the bowing, of good government from your people. So long as the church as made to take upon herself the attri butes, and place herself in the attitude of a faction ; so long as she is stirred by every tumultuous wave of power pas sion ; so long as she is enslaved to unsound opinions or to absurd prejudices which she herself has fostered or created; 60 long she works not in her vocation, which ought to be is the ways of humility, peace, and security. My lord, such is the result of the examination of my con science upon the first count—an examination in which it has been my intention to show, that whilst we anxiously seek to fulfil the duties of our allegiance to God, we know also that, through Ood, we have likewise an allegiance and a duty to Crew. Our rights, my lord, under this alle giance, arc social and political ; yours are spiiitual and re ligie,us. ''e do not desire, as laymen. to interfere with any spiritual prerogative, neither do we desire to see those pre rogatives exceeded, and our own rights invaded. Let us proceed to the second count; "as a corrupt cour tier, a selfish, auiduous, suitor of ministerial 'avows." With this, my lord, I will take leave to connect the in sinuation, that in addressing you I was but a tool in the hands of others. My lord, I do not consider myself of sufficient importance, or sufficiently qualified, to be so used; nor, diseonneeted as 1 am with the ministerial climbs, could it be possible. If there were any rte possibility in the question. it was shared only with one itedividuel—an individual like yourself a priest ef the Most High, but a man of larger views, and sounder principles. His opinion did I nsk, and his concur rence I received. He is now far beyond my remit, and I have no longer the benefit of his counsel. Since toe publi cation of nay letter I have received many approving testi monials from clergymen both in England and Ireland; and not one private rebuke or admonition. But kr what I write now the whole responsibility is on myself alone, if any responsibility diem be in an honest defence of rights so un justly and so wantonly attacked. Nor is it one whit the leas untrue that lam a suitor either fur court favours or minis-. terial patronage. On this count, also, my conscience is equally clear. lam not even a party man ; what tittle aid I can give to any minister whom 1 consider to govern the country for its advantage, I give it freely as &matter of duty, without seeking a return. Passing over the petty items of hypocrisy and ingratitude as sins of minor magnitude—as well they may be supposed to be in so heavy a catalogue—l pass at once to that severest of your accusations, as I presume you fan(y it, and which you seem to judge must haunt me with its ghastly terrors, and sting me with a rod ef scorpions. Could 1 believe myself to be a scandalous calumniator of Father ISl•Dev mott, I should, I trust , humbly beenoch his pardon. But I never asserted anything against Father hitt/er e:twit, but as appearing to be substantiated upon peeitive or presumptive evidence. This was my stateuario to the Bishop of Elphin ; and to your grace I took especial care to say, that a!I yet remained to be proved. Previous to the publication of the letter of the Bishop of Elphin—a letter which I rejoice to have been the means of producing— there wise not a reasoning man in the three kingdoms who doubted of the formal denunciation of Major Mah na from the altar. Now, Father M'Dermott is fully acquitted el that charge. I wish it were as easy to obliterate the impair don made by the scene at the relief committee, and the sub sequent correspondence. But this has not yet been at tempted ; and were it not, my lord, that your accusation refer*, as I presume it does, to that item, I should have eluded it altogether. Yet I cannot but take te myself credit for having been the medium of rectitying the case, as far as it appears to be possible. For the Bishop of Elphin I have the highest respect—a feeling which lain sure is now com mon to us all. Supposing the charge of calumny to emaciate me, as offending mainst the reputation of your grace's dio cese, there, too, I think I have rendered you a service before the public, by enabling you to prove your exertiuns in the calve of order and education. Nor do 1 ice why an honest steward should be angry when called upon to account for his trust. Upon thin very sensitive polio, how evor, 1 have one suggestion to venture—that like the knight of La Mancha, from whom it amuses you to draw 5 our meta phors, you fancy an enemy where there is none ; and had yea ellowcd your poor to receive the education "O i led them by the state, wh. n you could not supply it as ahundently your self, it is difficult to understand why it should nut have proved as efficacious to them as it has been found to others in the very many dioceses in which it has been eieopted ; nor would you, 1 think, any more than they, have ha d eco.sion to cry out, '• An enemy bath done it !"—he bath sown tares among the wheat. by lord, I beg to oh/terve' that my remarksupun this sub ject must be considered as if made merely in reference to a police regula;ion, or any other question immediately coa -1 sated with the social administration of the country, and without presuming to trench in the slightest degree upon your grace's jurisdiction in the matter. With these short explanations it is only necessary for me to refer to my former letter, and to hold myself once more acquitted. Though the neat charge, of conspiring regained the lives and liberties of the people, sounds so heavy, yet if at be ex tenuated in proportion as it is diffused over a larger surface, the number of the conspirators will, I trust, render it a very venial offence. This may he bad casuistry, but it may never theless be good legit, for I trust it at once disproves the very existence of the crime, which is of too atrocious a nature to have any reality beyond the morbid imagination of those who prefer it. I might, I think , with a far greater sere a• blance of justice, retort the accusation upon there with whom your grace has at least ever been intimately con nected, and who for so many years opposed the wise and bo neenlent advice of that honest patriot and true philanthro pist, the celebrated Dr. Doyle, and were, without any doubt, the means of postponing tke extension of the pour-law to Ireland, which is only inefficient now, because it has not been matured by experience and consolidated by time. How much of human misery might have been eared, had it been in full organised operation when famine first came upon the land The next count—that I have grieved and scandalised the whole Christian world-1 shall dispose of still more brie fly, by a simple reference to my letter—not, my lord, as repre sented by you, but as speaking for itself. Of all the great names you have enumerated, perhaps, however, I may be permitted to select oar to whom I would address myself . more emphatically, beseeching him to give no credeuse to so monstrous a calumny. I allude to the illustrious bishop of New York—whom you also have chosen, and I not unskilfully, as a special theme of eulogy—n prelate as much to he commended for the larasneas of his views, as for his mild, unostentatious virtues—whom I have long been taught to reverence and admire through the genius of Mrs. Mytton Maury—and who has just now received the most distinguished honour ever conferred upon a churchman of the New World, that of being invited to preach before the representatives of the whole American commonwealth, that from his lips they might learn to govern upon true Christian principles. Nor ran the moralist fail to be struck with the singuler fulfilment of the designs of Provide nee in the history of this great man. What st happy de stihy as he row nocomplishing in comparison with that bmtlees part he might probably have played amongst the pitiless wrangling. of his native land, upon the turbulent stage of repeal politics ! Lest, however, it shoo'''. seem discourteous not to devote a word to NI. de Nontalembert, whom I revere as the brightest ornament of his eouatry, and the most chivalrous champion of a tholiciam—l will merely observe that if he be sot scandalised at the proceedings at Conciliation Hall—of which, indeed, we must hope he has no very definite know ledge—nor yet at your grace recent letter, neither do I apprehend he will bo at mane. We hive now, my lord, but one sin more, sad though last, not least—thst of insulting the map sty of Rome!!! but the wherein and whereby not being specelied, I might at once dismiss it as an imaginative phantom as it is, did it not serve to illustrate that axiom, that they who suspect any par ticular failing in others are almost sure to be the most sub ject to it themselves, and it was rather a singular coinci dence, that both your grime and your friend and admirer the Tablet—each of you my secusene—should, to my mind, at least, have committed thin self-same offence in your own persons, on the selfsame day . you, my lord, by your mani festo of the Ist of Jan., in which, in the very teeth of the late rescript on the new colleges, you proclaim with re doubled zeal your eternal end uncompromising hostility to the government of Englishmen, those hereditary enemies I of your country and your creed, and your st i ll closer adhesion with increased energy and strength to an asso ciation, the most effective ever yet organised for the disturb ance of the social harmony of any people. That sesecia tion was founded by s great and illustrious man, but whose republican tendencies, too clearly exhibited by his theories of universal su ffrage, vote by ballot, and annua l parliament/4 and at this moment too closely imitated by his disciples,* has made even his memory a very dangerous guide for any political party, and therefore most obnoxious to the friends and supporters of regular government, and of which Home has ever been the chief abettor and inserter. The other has sinned by a most presumptuous attack upon the Sovereign Pontiff himself, arraigning his policy in the most noble, generous, and enlightened exercise of his royal prerogative as rash and ruinous; for, qui (acid per ahem, facit per si —rating him, good pious man! for letting loose eo many convicted rebels to plot the subversion of the throne and the altar, by means of his own recently appointed Council of State, that normal school of revolutionary agita tion But this is not all ; from the state be rushes to the church ; be boldly intrudes himself into te judgment ball, lays his irreverent han of God's anointed, orowns him with tumely, throws a mantle of derision ova then jeeringly challenges the Vicar to tell us of the qualifications of his ree. lates in Spain ! I wonder, says he, new m the rejected ones of Oregoey But the To'. and is patronised in return, and thenceforth vested with authority as the licensed vehicle scurrility, the licensed defamer of the .- licensed censor over prince, patriarch, thinks that two Christian men might 1. congenial pastime for that blessed, amps,. of the new ear ! and that the accusation majesty of Roma might have tome trio' ail ilt7 •-•_•• rascro —hese. lotter et' • See 1, 1: - (1 I . 1 ' ! 11 j l il l 4 ' 1 , ..., : . . I. il. 1 1 4 i . 1 1 ' 1 1 , ch ; he noituy InCraam. salmase." I, lays his irreverent hands upon the highest inted, crowns him with the thorns of ma- rs a mantle of derision over his shoulders, and y challenges the Vicar of Christ upon earth the qualifications of his newly-appointed pre- ! I wonder, says he, new many qf them are ones of Gregory But the Tabla patronises, ,iced in return, sad thenceforth become; in- stkority as the licensed vehicle of slander and lionised defamer of the government, and the w over prises, petriarch, and potentate Me- sa Christen area might have found some , rtime for that blamed, auspicious da 't\kft ear t end that the accusation of • _ 3 c.144- NM night have come with a beuer turret. i • / • ." . " Bt. 01figgina's Letter et UN Mot Jausai. • xi • . ke-I ‘