The Sun. — London, England, 1815-02-04 00:00:00

THE SUN RE VIE i'vr. (No. LXVIII.) R::FLECTIONS on the FINANCIAL SYSTEM of GREAT BRITAIN, an 'l particularly of the SINKING PuND, written in France in the Summer of 1912. By WALTER BOYD, Esq. Pp. 46. Htitchard, This Pamphlet,•remarliable as it is fob•, the time, circumstances of its, composition, is still more remarkable for the ability it displays in treating the most difficult of - all subjects—the Fi nance System of this great Commercial Country. t is a singular example of coincidence that while BOYP was beguiling the heavy hours of cap tivity in writing this work, Mr. VANSITTART had. .st ruck upon the same idea with a view to carrying the plan into effect in the British Senate. Not- . withstanding this circumstance, and the able eluci-' dations of the principles on ivhich his new scheme of finance syas founded in the Speeches of the Chancellor of the Exchtquer ; notwithstanding the distant date and assumed,data of Mr. BOYD'S theory, his labours are well • entitled to the atten tion of 'the 'public and of all political economists. Mr. VANSITTART'S opinions on_ this question are -unfortunately mixed up with larger publications . , .and not sufficiently accessible to the general reader ; and this in itself - rendered a small de tached statement, like the one before us a great deslderatum. But it is still mote recommended at this period from the extraordinary aspect of Luanda' difficulty presented to us by the 'Conclu sion of peace with all tbe,world. It--is extremely robable that this state of affairs may lead to fur ther arrangements.and modifications of the Situ ing Fund, and in this event we Clo not knoiV - treatise that we could more justlyrecommend,t6 'universal consideration than' thesereflections by Mr. !oyrio. Without entering into .theriurestigation of the plan:they advocate, which wonld involve us in a a length ; of argument and of figures not very congenial with the extent-of our limits nor the form of a Newspaper, and which is in effect the,satne , with that brought forward by the CHAN CELLOR of the EXqIiEUUER, and so beneficially acted upon ; we shall briefly notice that the na . `lmre and operations of the Sinking Fund arc In cidly explained, and the thesis founded thereupon inost ably supported by calculations less intricate than we could possibly have expected from the difficulty of the subject. It is truly important at this moment to esainine how far the Country may be relieved from the pressure of taxation by any expedient which the accumulating force. of the Sinking . Fund presents . and though we are far from being of that extreme opinion which would do nothing for posterity, because posterity has Jiever done any thing for us, we are yet -selfisld enou.,:li to wish any project to be adopted xi , hich may lighten, by dividing, the burthen of these heavy times. In this point of view the intelligence and arithmetical demonstrations of the Author are of great value, and will serve to simplify and eluci date any Parliamentary Discussions which may he expetecl to occur very shortly. on this momentous question. Having thus shortly stated our sentiments re specting Mr. Boyn's production, and noticed our reasons for abstaining from an analysis of its spe culations, we, shall close this lteview with a single Extract from ;the introductory part, which dis rhys the sound sense of the Author, and is very applicable to the inconsiderate clamour now ex isting conceroing the Property Tax. ," The sacrifices which a war of unexampled duration and expense has required of this country have indeed been immense; and they have 'been borne with a 'Magnanimity ‘vhich is above all praise. The same spirit which dictated this'ready acquiescence in every financial measure, while the War lasted, will, doubtless prompt an equal coin &lance with those measures which the conse quenceS of the vat- may still render „necessary. The same . high-minded people, who shrunk not from a wear expenditure on the most extended scale that . 'ever 'the world saw, will bear without a murmur, those burthens• which still may be ne cessary for the complete discharge of the debts of every description which that war may have left unprovided for. What these- borthens may be, it is not - for one, now alMost a stranger in his own country, to say ; but be is con fid en t t h at , whatever they ma y b, they will he supported with all the readiness which Britons have ever d:splayed in doing what their duty required to be 4iutle. Superior,to all refinements of distinction be tween. one species of tax and another, they will prefer those, of whatever denomination; against nhich the fewest objections really eXist, and par ticairly thosi:> which experience has demonstrated to be the most productive, and the least aivres re, to the great hddy of the people. Above the we,tknes.s of . a griairel of words about %var iind peace taxes, they will think only of the con tributions .which the public exigencies may re iinirc.; and, knowng - that these must be fur-- Dished, they %via cheerfully acquiesce in the le gisktive measures by which they may be esta- This is - t;le language of judgment and-discre timi—let - it be set in -oppesition to the furious baAle of Lord A Li.it mAa L'E, and the insanedeelara t ions of .Mr:CoxE, , the.se patrician and plebeian luminaries of Norfolk, and how truly cotitempti bie wll one plain statement from a, rational and ini'ormed mind m a k e suc h p a rty drivelling appear. We wiruld advise these persons, as well as the Puolie, to peruse this sensible Pamphlet. [RRCEIVED THIS MORNIbN:I LEu'SIC.-A party of Prussian troops in the Northern Saxony rtas put ifself. iN Marcia for Chemnitz, and the'frontiers of Bohemia, in order to go into cantonments.. PARIS, J. 31.—Lord- Welliugton•, passed Strasburg!! 'on - the. 27th; his 'train •consisted of only two carriages.' His Excellency passed the • Rhine without stopping, his intention being to arrive aS soon as possible at Vienna. . • In the Royal 41)Onark, just- published, under the head of " Sweden and Norway,". after men tioning the King and Queen; - continues-- , -clrarles' 'John., Prince Royal; elected by the States - of "the , . . Kingdomthe 2ist August, 1810 ; bornthe ,2; - 2(1 January, 1764; married 16th Arigust, 1795, to.• Eugene. Bernardine Desiree, Princess Royal,:born the Bth November, 1784 by 'Whom:he had Francis Joseph 'Oscar, Duke of•Sudtrmania, born 4th July, 1799.. PARIS, FEB. - I.—The 6th Regiment of Artillery, in garrison at Rennes, have received aik order to quit that city to proceed towards. the North. PETERSBURGII„ J. 4.—The Persian Ambassa 7 slor arrived at• Moscow .on the 23d December 5 -he was received with the greatest honours. • By an Order-of the Emperor; dared Vienna, tire 24th Noveniber,: addressed, to Mons. Kosoclaw lew, :Minister' of the Interior, Doctor Hamel Os . sesor, of the College; who is at present in Eng-. land by the order of Government, in order to exa mine the manufactures of the:countrY, is to remain three years upon that mission. • The.2l/Inister ofthe Interior has presented to the • Empress sonic pieces of cotton, manufactured by Tcheratw, at Moscow. The Empress ordered the Minister to give the manufacturer a gold watch, as.a:testinfony of her approbation. ' BERLIN, JAN. 16.—A letter from Gruneberg, in Lower Silesia, says, that a band of some hundreds of banditti, composed Of deserters from. different armies which , have hitherto infested these 'coun tries, have thrown themselves into Poland. Our Minister, Baron Humboldt,. has proposed a, plan of a ritw German Constitution, in -142 Articles. , FRONTIERS OF SAXONY, JAN. 20.—The King of Saxony, with his family, visited the Theatre of Berlin on the 15th, fOr the first time for a long period. All the Prussian Royal Family received there. • lie has ordered two travelling carriages to 'be made, and it is thought • that he ,will soon quit Fredericksfeld. , It is reported that he has been, invited to go•to the Congress, and that he ‘vill set out very SOW). - ,• ViENNA, JAN. 22.—Travellers who have ar rived tri,in Milan assure us that the accounts which have been published or the conspiracy discovered in that city. Generals Lcchi, Bonlanti, and Co lonel. Gasperine, who are under arrest in the Castle of 11Iila.n, are allowed to walk about it freely. General fontanelli, who , was arrest ed at Verona, was not long iu Confinement"; be is now on his toad to Vienna. The extcn dons which are to take place have no connection with that conspiracy ; the persons to be executed are seven or eight thieves who were Caugia in the fact in Marshal 13'ellegattle's apartments; . Prince Eugene Beauharnois appears more f-er luently titan usual at the fetes of the Court. 5 per Cents.... Bank Action S-. FUNDS. .7sf. 15c. 1165 f. [RECEIVED LAST NIGHT.] VIENNA, JAN. 20.—Lord Stewart gave here on the 18th a magnificent fete, in celebration of the Queen of England's Birth-day. All .the Sove reigns, Archdukes, and Foreign Ministers, were present. The following provisional determination has, we are assured, been adopted with regard. to Po land :—The Duchy of. Warsaw will be preserved, with a population of. 2,200,000 - inhabitants— Warsaw remaining the,capital. A population of 500,000 souls wilt be detached•from Western Po land in favour of. Prussia, which will• facilitate her communications between. the New Mark and Sile;Aa, The remainder of the Duchy of War saw will form an Independent Principality, and intermediee between the Grand Duchy, Prussia, and Austria. The Sovereign of thi s new S tate i s not yet designated. It is believed that '.the plan of the Germanic Constitution presented by Prince Metternich •will be adopted, with some modifications ;:though . wc lt4in that Prussia has just communicated arioflier drawn up by M. De Humboldt, by no means co incident with that of Austria. . - EXIRACTS. FROM A PRIVATE LETTER: " Oar Politicians ,are Weary of conjectures, and have dropped them for.somedays. The King of Saxony seems to be no longer exrcted here, nor even at Prague. With respect to Poland, every thing is said to be absolutely settled,,; the parti culars are not yet authentically known. .Both Austria and Prussia bare granted the privileges of representation to those parts of Poland which will be ceded to them." STUTGAtW, JAN. 22.—The King of Wurtemberg 1 We mentioned on Wednesday what we presume will be the course pursued by Ministers respect ing the Property Tax ; namely, that after laying an exposition of the Financial State of the Coun try before Parliament, shewing the amount of the , Supplies ,absolutely necessary for the Ex penditure of the Empire, and the Ways and Means in operation to meet the National Expellees and _Engagemen6, they will propoSe to continue the Tax for another year, and throw themselves upon the judgment of the Legislature and the Public for the expediency, of re-enacting this Bill to wind up the war accounts. When the subject comes to be fairly and rationally discus sed, mere declamation against the Impost will fail of having any weight,, and it will he required in_ the adVocates for, the extinction of the Tax,_ to demonstrate how the Treasury is otherwise to be enabled to discharge the obligations of the Public. It is evident, that under existing circumstances we have - only an option of-Taxes—and ,t he real* con olden' don involves not merely the mode of getting rid of one that is obnoxious altogether, but a.t ►he same time. of providing others equally•produc tive and less burthensome. This we will be bold to say, would gravel the ablest Orator at any of the numerous Meetings which have been held on the subject.—We have before remarked, that the main arguments of the " no property" men, are founded upon the supposed pledge contained in the original enactuient, .that the Tax was to expire within xspecified period after ". the termination of the present war ;" and that they are no better than an idle quibble upon Nvords. Tlie TaX is called a War Tax, the very name importing that it was to meet warexpences generally, and not definitely , the single; war then existing between us and France. Suppose, for; example, that byany com bination of events we had made peace with France, but had been left engaged in an equally expensive contest With all the rest of Europe, would any man in his sense have contended that by the inaccurate wording of the Act in question, it was impera tive that its operation should expire within six months after signing the Treaty with France ?-- No ! the obvious reasoning would be then, as it is now, that the Act was calculated to meet a (any) War Expenditure, and not precisely that of the War pending which it was passed. This is the spi'rit of the legislative provision which would indeed have been more properly expressed, had it defined the term of the Act to be " six months after the conclusion of a general, Peace," instead of six months after " the termination of the present War." Yet even in this case, •we think, there would he good grounds for urging such a pro longation as is now spoken of, to wind up the accounts of the most expensive conflict in which ever Country engaged, and from which ever People'emerged w►th so much of real benefit and gloey. On this'point we beg to refer to the concluding part ‘pf . the REVIEW of Mr. BOYD's excellent Pamphlet in rilE .SUN - of to-day, We shall only add two or three brief facts to these observations, and request the attention of our Readers, to them. We have at present 70,000 men upon the Con tinent !—Was this contemplated when the Pro perty Tax Act was worded ? , We are still engaged in a war with America ! Was this in view when the Act was worded. The military expeuce of the fornier, and the military (and especially the Transport department) a great .0 e 'P J than ever the Country has charged with till the present era !—Was this in the minds of the framers of the Act ? When these things are duly weighed, we feel convinced that the great body of Country Gentle men will follow the plan chalked out by Govern _ inept—that is, they* will calculate both sides of the question, and _decide according to the -exi gencies of the Nation. We are sorry to think that, any of them have prematurely given pledge cf a contrary tenour to any body of their Con stituents—the better course would surely have been, to have first had before them the state the 'Ways and Means, and of the Supplies. The French Papers to the 2d are as unimport-' ant as they have been for the lasi two months, sts will appear from the various extracts from those of the Is' t received this morning, and of the 31st ult. which are given in another part of the Paper: The Duke of Kent packet has arrived at Fal mouth, with a mail from Lisbon, from whence she sailed on the 25th ult. The Court-Martial on Sir JOHN MURRAY IS a t , length drawing to a close. The evidence for the Defence terininatedyesterday. A distinguished Female, who is now upon 0. visit at Naples, is upon the most intimate footing with what ,is ludicrously denominated the Royal Family in that kingdom. To. such a degree - of partiality does her attachment to that Family pre--. wail; that she will not return the visits 'of any of those Noblemen and their 'connections who re solutely refuse to attend the Court of the Usurper of their Country. Nothing, it seems, can exceed the endeavour to give splendour to the Neapoli tan Court ; but it is marked by such a kind of , tawdry magnificence as might be expected from a, vulgar Upstart. We have the following Private Correspondence from Spain : " CADIZ, DEC. 31.-,-Letters have been received from his Excellency Lieut.-General DOYLE fral Malaga ; he is recovering from his long and pain- , fol illness, and may soon be expected" here.—The Expedition is in a very considerable state of for" wardness, and maybe on the seas in a few daysr • "MADRID, DEC. 31.—The Royal Edict has been issued, authorizing Capt. BRIERLY, of the Navy' to commence the great work of improving the Navigation of the Guadalquivir, which will hi": crease the opulence and grandeur of Seville, °" 4 have the most hendicial effect upon the whole empire. This Magnificent undertaking was sng..7 gested by Captain BRIERLY, who, as his MajestY in the official document alluded . to states, is dis''. tinguished for his eminent'services in the English , and subsequently in the Spanish Cause. fie buoyed the entrance at Copenhagen, and was ill . the confidence of the immortal NELSON, when his, Lordship achieved his splendid victory over the Danes. Many circumstances conspire to prov e his Majesty's attachment to the British Nation.- - " Major-General CARROLL has just received die Order of CARLos 111. and the Croix d'Honneurf which his Majesty has conferred on Gen. DowstS and Lieut.-Colonel STEELE, bears his Majesty . ,°. picture in its centre ; and all the English Officers who had. distinguished themselves in the Spanish service have been rewarded. Colonels Macne NALD, DOWNIE, and CAMAC, are also to reccil' e. Crosses of Honour. " The French Ambassador has arrived, al; though his introduction to the presence has o°l been announced in the Gazette., His Majesty continues to receive Deputation ° from all parts, Authorities, and SoCieties in th e kingdom : he attends more than ever to busines.f. o , but appears frequently in the midst of his peopif!, and the poorest of his vassals may pour the stall of his affliction, or othis.wants, to the ready c 5 of this beneficent Sovereign, frOM whoin, wha t ; ever may be said by jealousy, or disappointed af ) vain expectations of individuals, m uc h good 5• derived, and more may be anticipated. " Madrid fills very fast. The houseS of t ile different Ambassadors are the scenes of enj°l; went, harmony, and the best society. The Id e a of ,Sir HENRY WELLESLEY'S present return ‘ England seems to be given over. " SEVILLE, JAN. 3.—On the Ist, the Gov er ; nor of the Palaces, Sir JOI-IN DOWNIE, set off . 1 0 his carriage , and . four post horses for Madrid , i ` o; be present at his MAJESTY Grand Levee 0 0 . t. , 0 6th. His Excellency beats Addresses to the Ic“ % o s' from the Corporation, the CoMmon Council, • , the Dean and Chapter of the High Church. ( i t . o ° / . loud STEELE left the .Palace this' morning 00 Cadiz : both these Officers are expected to by the end of the month.'” BREAD.—The price of the Quartern Liverpool is 94d. a penny cheaper than is don ! ! ! A 10 Yesterday morning the Duke of KENT Pal - t bet respects to Iris Royal Mother and Sisters at e: QUEEN'S Palace, as did a numerous assenib l %, of Female Nobility. A little before two o'c lec ia her MAJESTY and PRINCESSES left the Palace Windsor, escorted by a party of Light HQrs e. Yesterday, at two o'clock, a Cabinet Cotlllol was held at the Foreign Office, which O t about five. At, the breaking Up of the Co up Mcsseugar was scut off with dispataws. the following is an outline :—•-• •• • fte Eitates cannot originate the laW, but may:propose le regniatioOs through the medium of petition, which iflke Kin, should iierline three tinfOg, is . to assign his rea sons' for Bon-comi4ance. • The Constril;tion Laws and the Civil List to be revised by the Estates. „. Thf;Y will determine as to the nature and - extent of Im yosts. Wurteinburghers to be equal in the eye of the law, and eligible to all public employments. ••-,-- • The Estates to assemble, at least once in three years, for sig Weeks. A Legislative Committee will sit annually,- on the Ist of February, for four weeks. The Princes, the Crown Digoitaties, and. the Nobility, are to he Hereditary Members of-the States. . The right to Vote at Elections of Members of the .states to be confined to those• who have a net revenue of 200 florins . .per annum. s A -- feW subordinate .regulatidus are also set forth in the plan of Constitution.. , MAILS: ARRivrnl France', 1 Lisbon. I)uE-1 Malta, 1 Holland, Hatnburgli, 1 Guernsey and Jersey, 3 Dublin, 3 Water ' ford. • • • , PILICE OF STCCKS ' - THIS ))%1( 14 TIV EINE O ' CLOCK. Bank Stock, • • Ban:: L. Ann. 164 3 per Cent. Ityd. I India Bonds, 17s. 18s. pr. 3 Ccnt.Cons. (I.li, 65 Excheq. Bills, 3s. 6s. pr. .1 pc!: Cent. Cons. Oinnium; 2 dis. 5 per (eat. I‘;zaAnn. 941 1 1 C9ns..for Account, Gsk IIIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE TO-AIORROW. Alorning.o minutes after 11. I Evening, 3 , 1 militates after 9. t TN. Ir)I.EM QV'S DICERF. FAL4II3I AUDEAT LONDON, SATURM4Y, FEBRC,4RY 4, 1815.