The Sun. — London, England, 1830-03-16 00:00:00

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Ai. 0 irr .. ,L , Li'l 4 'ING. rz of tlie origients, Quarters, ioneel, Counties an'l ..._, . ~... _,.../.. / , 4 -. 1 .__,, ~,,,4,* 4e .4,) .."--- ---' ... e ,„/„_ .. . _"" " •.-- . - , X • - • ARMY coNtnAcT.t.• CoMMIRsARIAT nitrAft.TatltNT, TREAstfliit 44" , . .. .. ,_ CHAatrints, FEB. 26, 1830. . - .. •,_ -..- - , . . , A oTicE ix hereby given to all Persons de- :,,, siroun of ro ntraeting to supply the following Atli- i• F T il : 40 , Iles f or t h e Use a the Amy, viz. , — i . BREAD, ' , :'''".t:- , , To his Majesty's Land Forces in Cant, an Barracks, in the tinder-rnenth Wands : Bedford Gloucester (includ 13erks (includin g th e ingthecity of Bris town of Hunger. tol) ford) Hants Rocks Can Her:-ford i (includ- I .:ertford in tr the town , r Hunts N ewmarket) - Isle of Man e Cti h r e rlw '' a Isle of Wight rtl c i theluding Kent (includin: TiL Scilly \ (: 'l . : s n : et, l : y e'hand bury Fort, in the county of Essex) Lancaster ..tie, o , Leicester torset Lincoln Durham Middlesex 1...110.17 (includingll) Monmouth ' 4 'x (exclusive of Norfolk Tilbury Fort) Northampton 10 the several Counties in North Brita . in. A And In the 151.1nds of Alderney, guernsey', and Jersey. ' ^ &rad to the Household Troops in London and Northumberland eluding Berwick on-Tweed) • Nottingham Oxford Rutland Salop Somerset Stafford Suffolk Surre♦ Sussex Warwick Westmoreland Wilts Worcester York North and south Wales No. 11,702. to 3,200,00010 ; the second at 350,0001. ; and the last, at 25,0001,; making a total, in round numbers, of :3,-100,000/. In looking out for the means of re lieving the public, two plans occurred to the Right lion. Gentleman, each of which was examined with mature deliberation. In the first place, as the lower classes, connected with agriculture and manufac tures, were suffering peculiar pressure, his Majesty's Government had considered whether it might not be advisable to substitute for taxes which affected them, a species of tax to be imposed on others more able to support the burden. This project would merely shift the pressure from one portion of the community to another. A property-tax would have effected this purpose, and therefore such a tax had been under the consideration of his Majesty's Govern ment, though the idea of it had been afterwards abandoned. The alternative, therefore, of abolishing some taxes without imposing others was adopted. In looking at the kind of imposts which it would he advisable to abolish, the Government had been guided by two principles—namely, that the tax to be cancelled should be one, the removal of which would yield immediate relief to the lower orders; and secondly, that it should be of a kind to be en tirely (and not partially) abolished, so as to save the expense of collection, and to allow the removal of restrictions. The duty on beer appeared to him to unite these two conditions, and he therefore did not hesitate to recommend its abolition. Com bined with this measure, was the opening of the trade in beer; for he would never have consented to remove those checks, which even the imperfect surveillance of the excise opposed to its adultera tion, unless he could guard the public from the chance of such an evil by establishing a perfectly free competition, and enabling the public to secure the goodness of the article by giving their custom to those who supplied it of the best quality. The duty on cider was not important in amount, but it was levied under restrictions which were so vexa trous as to limit its manufacture and consump tion in parts of the country where it would otherwise be a favourite beverage. The same objections existed to the tax upon leather, and the same advantage would result, to the same classes, from its repeal. It pressed particularly on the lower classes, and on the persons engaged in agriculture, while, as in the case of beer, the excise restrictions necessary for collecting the tax constituted a great aggravation of its pressure. Though, therefore, the net revenue derived from these three sources only amounted to 3,400,000!., he had no doubt that the repeal of the taxes would produce a relief equal to 5,000,000/. But a Chancellor of the Ex chequer feels himself called upon not only to grant relief to the public, but to see that the relief so granted is made consistent with the necessary demands of the public service and the support of public credit. Can taxes to the amount proposed be spared without an injury to those great interests? Such is the question which the Right Honourable Gentleman had next to solve, and the solution of which led him into the extended state ments which will 1;e found in his speech. The abolition of the tax on beer, for reasons which he detailed, ;s not to commence till the beginning of October ; the tax on leather lasts till July ; and the whole loss in the Revenue of the present year will not exceed 700,000/. or 800,000!. Taking the whole Revenue at 50,180,000!. and the whole expenditure (including int rest on debt, funded and unfunded, civil list, army, navy, and miscella neous services) at 17,690,0001., there will remain a sum of upwards of 3,000,000!. of surplus, from which, after deducting the loss by the proposed abolition of duties, we shall still have about 2,400,000/. for the redemption of debt in the present year, by an increased duty on British spirits, and a new regulation of the stamp duties. 'When the abolition of duties shall produce its full effect on the Revenue of the next year, :t will then be seen that the amount of 3,400,000/. must be made up for. He anti cipated that the increased consumption of malt, which would he stimulated by the abolition of beer duty, and the saving arising from the conversion of the Four per Cents. into a stock of a lower denomination, to gether with an improvement in other taxes arising from an expected general improvement in the state of the country, would not only be sufficient to meet the de falcation occasioned by the proposed measures of relief, but allow a surplus to pay olf debt. The Right Hon. Gent. did not enter into any estimate of what that surplus was likely to be, nor did lie mention any time for bringing for ward the measure for the conversion of the Four per Cents. As auxiliary to the fund arising from these sources, he held out a hope of great advantage from an examination into our system of colonial expenditure, and the adoption of a new plan to save the public from any addition to the burden of superannuation allowances. It will be seen from the preceding summary, that taxes to the amount of 3,400,000/. per annum are to be repealed in the course of the present year. " Good," said Lord Althorp, " so far as it goes," and we agree with him. The beer tax produced a revenue of 3,000,000/. a year, the leather-tax between 300,0001. and 400,000!, These are not to be reduced, but abolished, which is touch wiser ; because the whole machinery of excisemen, &c., remains with half a tax as cumbersome and costly as when the whole existed ; whereas, in case of the total repeal of a duty, tax and tax gatherers are got rid of together. A tolerable judgment may be firmed of the mixture of vexation and improvidence which has been suffered to prevail in the management of our financial system, from the statement that the revenue would lose about 3,400,000/. ; but that the country would be thereby re lieved of expense to the amount of not less than 5,000,0001. Is it possible to paint a more frightful pie. ture of the administrative part of our finances? There are, undoubtedly, other taxes which we should like to have seen the Chancellor of the Exchequer throw into the same scale with those on beer and leather. Materials for build ing—means of cleanliness—candle-light and fuel—ought to be scrupulously spared, and spared on the same prin ciple on which Mr. Goulburn justified his selection of the two first-mentioned duties,—that is to say, their pressure on the poor. Timber, bricks, and tiles—tallow, soap, candles (soap and candles being, like houses and windows, taxed twice os er, in the raw material and the manufactured state), coals likewise,—are all impolitic and oppressive subjects of taxation. They produce little to the Treasury, and wring a great deal from the people, and invade the very sanctuaries of a poor man's existence in the health and comfort of his family. However, we do not mean to dis parage the kind of relief already granted, which was shrewdly as well as humanely chosen ; for it not only goes in some degree to disburden the poorer classes, but has also the additional merit of pleasing the country gentlemen, who all cheered loudly the removal of the beer tax, for its tendency to promote the consumption of malt, and that of the leather tax, which will enhance the market for cattle. The licence system, the source of an offensive and insup portable monopoly, departs at the same time with the beer duty, its worthy colleague. A prospect is thus opened of a vast increase in the growth of barley, and the use of malt, and of a consequent, though at present not easily calculated, indemnification to the revenue, But the repeal of the tax on leather is not merely the abolition of a tax : it gives new life to, and, we may say, creates an invaluable manufacture, viz., that of leather, no longer embarrassed by an exciseman's inquisition, the purpose of which seemed to be nothing less than to frustrate all the etlorts of the manufacturer to improve the article in which he dealt, and thereby to aid the foreigner in his at tempts to drive British leather from the market. A very small addition to the tax on Irish and Scotch spirits, not exceeding 2d. per gallon, which raises the duty to 35., and a moderate addition (though not so small) of is. per gallon to the 7s. now payable on English spirits, are the only other alterations of the existing imposts which have been formally announced by Mr. Goulburn.— These, the Right Honourable Gentleman reckons, will leave a surplus revenue, at Christmas, 1830, of about • 2,000,0001. sterling. We do not yet quite clearly com prehend the plans of Ministers regarding a conver sion of the Four per Cents. in some stock of lower denomi nation. The Chancellor of the Exchequer did not seem to reckon on rendering the conversion available to the public service before the ensuing year. We should be glad to re ceive some further elucidation on this point, which is not a little interesting. With respect to the Sinking Fund, we concur with Mr. Baring in pressing for its full and • inviolable maintenance as a useful instrument for diminish ( ing the debt, and an indispensable resource in case of I sudden emergency. It strikes us, that as the repeal its Vicinity. _ To l• C OATS, „., ' a Majesty's CaYalry and Artillery Horses in Canton detrirt:' a nd Quarters, in the under-mentioned Counties : /3erk g , ;Hants and Isle of I Oxford 11 , . ',including I Wight Rutland - ' - "nßerf d (Hereford _fa • -nr ) Salop -erwi.k Buck, !Hertford Somerset !Hunts Stafford Cambridge (includ.' Kent (including Til. Suffolk log Newmarket) ! bury Fort) Surrey Chester !Lancaster Sussex COrtmdl Leicester Warwick Cu mberland !Lincoln Westmoreland Mmo Derby !Middlesex Wilts !Monmouth Worcester borset Durham Norfolk York Ir eloTeester !Northampton North and South !Northumberland Wales. (includ. !Nottingham ing Bristol) I FORAGE, vie. Oats, nay, and Straw, to his Majesty's Cavalry, and Artillery Horses in Barracks, in the under-mentioned Connties in South Britain : Bark s Nottingh amßentC ornwall Somerset Lancaster berms Suffolk borset Middlesex P.ssex Norfolk Surrey Northampton Sussex. Hants (including the Northunthelland Warwick Isle of Wi g h t) York And in the several Countiei in North Britain. That the deliveries are to commence on and for the 25th da Y of April next ; that Proposals in writing, sealed IN sad marked " Tender fur Army Supplies," will be re ceived at this Office en or before Wednesday, the 31st day of March next; but none will be received after Twelve o'clock in that day. Proposals must be made separately for each County and 'gland, except for the Counties comprising North and South Wales, all of which must be included in One Tender ; like wise the Islands of Alderney, Guernsey, and Jersey, as also the several Counties in North Britain ; and each Proposal mutt have the Letter which is annexed to the Tender properly filled up by two persons of known property engaging to be came bound with the party tendering in the amount stated in the ',tinted Particulars, for the due Performance of the Contract; and no Proposal will be noticed unless made on a printed Tender, and the prices expressed in worths at length ; and should it so happen that during the continuance of the Contract nu troops shall be supplied by virtue of the same, the Amount of the Stamps on the Contract and Bond, paid in the first instance by the Con tractor, will he refunded to him. Parties wishing to Tender must make their Proposals according to the Printed Forma, which may be had upon application at this Office between the hr. , ars of Ten and Four ; and of the Barrack Masters in the Islands of Onerneey, Jersey, and Man • and Samples of the Meal may be seen at this Office. BANK OF ENGLAND, Illancit 9, 1830. 'THE COURTof DIRECTORS ofthe GO -1- VERNOR and COMPANY of the BANK of ENG LAND give Notice, That a GENERAL COURT will be held at the BANK, on THURSDAY, the 18th instant, at tleven o'clock in the Forenoon, to consider of a Dividend ; and also, that another General:C,'lurt will he held at the Bank, on Thursday, the 6th of April next, from Ten o'clock in the Forenoon till Four in the Afternoon, for the Election of a GOVERNOR and DEPUTY-GOVERNOR for the Year ensuing (which will be declared that Evening); and the same Court will be continued, by Adjournment, and held at the same place, and during the tame hours, on Wednesday, the '7th April next, for the Election of Twenty-four Directors (which will also be one of the Quarterly General Courts appointed by the charter), and the Election of the Twenty-four Directors will be declared as soon as the Scrutiny is over. Printed Lists of the Proprietors, having Votes, will he ready to be delivered at the Bank on Tuesday, the 231 of March. JOHN KNIGHT, Secretary. N.B. By an Act pawd in the 7th year of the Reign of his late Majesty, no person will he entitled to vote at the said Election who shall not have been Six Calendar Months possessed, in his own right, of the Stock for which he shall then give his vote, unless the said Stock shall have been acquired, or shall have come by bequest, or by mar riage, or by successio n to an Intestate's Estate, or by the custom of the City of London, or by any Deed or Settle ment, after the death of any person who shall have been entitled for his life to the Dividends of such Stock. RI TISIT INSTITUTION, PALL-MALL. THE GALLERY for the EXHIBITION and SALE of the WORKS of Bitrrisii ARTISTS is Open d.ily , from Ten in the Morning- till Fire io the Evenin g. Atizoiesieo I•.—Catalogue I. WILLIAM BARNARD, Keeper. NOTICH TO ARTISTS. A LL WORKS o f PAINTING, SCULP TURE, or ARCHITECTURE, intended for the r min a EXHIBITION at the ROYAL ACADEMY, r"'"t be Pent in oit MONDAY the sth, or by Six o'clock In the Evening of TUESDAY the 6th of April next, after which time um's CAI possibly be reeeived. The Regulation s necessary to be observed may be seen in th e last Year's Catalogue, •r way be obtained at the Academy. UENRY HOWARD, R.A., Sec. SIR JOHN WALSH ON IRELAND. This day war; publi T h e d, t h e S econ d Edi t i on, pr i ce 3 s . DOOR LAWS in IRELAND, CON SIDERED in their PROBABLE EFFECTS upon the CAPITAL, the PROSPERITY, and the PRO ORESSIVEIMPROVEMENT of that COUNTRY. By Sir JOHN WALSH, Bart. Second Edition. James Ri4lgtvay, Piccadilly, and of every Bookseller. Under the Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. TOn Saturday, March 20, will he published, price 28. HE NEW ZEALANDERS, Part I. The Second Part of this subject, which is complete in "" Volume, will be ready in a few days. *sThe foll otv i ng V o l umes h ave b een pu bli s h e d, p r i ce • d eseh, hound in cloth : Vol. 1. THE MENAGERIES. 11. TIMBER TREES—FRUITS. 111. INSECT ARCHITECTURE. IV. PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE. London : Charles Knight, Pall-Mall East. SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. Last evening the Chancellor of the Exchequer brought forward his statement of the views and in tentions of the Government with regard to the finances of the ye ar . Hi s plans of reduction and re trenchwient wera an ti c ip a t e d w i t h so muc h a nxiety, that it was advisable to satisfy the public mind expectations within the shortest delay possible. Extravagant on the n • of impossible relief are thus prevented , • one h an d ; and, on the other, the unfounded gulVlcions entertained that Government meant to do noting . are tlernan yielding removed. The Right Hon. Gen 'to these considerations, entered into a very clear and methodical account of the estimated revenue and expenditure of the year,—of the pro posed abolition of some taxes, and the modification of others,—of the rea-ons why he preferred one sp'e'cs of reduction to another,—and of the grounds tel t he had for believing that present relief to 711 p e Public might be combined with the mainte nance of our national credit and the efficiency of national establishments. The chief feature in the financial t h • P'''" of the Chancellor of the Ex leatherc euer is the abolition of the beer duty, of the duty, a n d o f \ venue arisin g the duty on eider. The re from the numbers at 3 1 first h e c a l c ulated in round 4691° ° 01 . (though last year it amounted 11. Sheriff , nifl ing !., long 1,0 ing, Ifrrtiu~ , o k the I ishn rr• Lori P., and vol . 4 the ljonrn- should vied in d n a i he -ilinitlo .re nO hive 'a Be ment, d that -(Tre ie pro, it with y (Mr. health. ly putt t p lace• in of the 'rouble) e-antl- High been be put rn.") L hole ties in High to out d, suit mpris- a rgon, 1 1. It eh the ettße of overn aro to ri g re led for ve the iave a P4rlis tici 00 . - hops, i• his it dis rowing nt confi- Gen- o rern- turring arnell's The retting Iverful house e it a , ire the 1 other II aq it; were 4eans, to 8• hi 30 ! 46 J. 8. e. 8 6 0 9 9 6 6 2 „u 0 0; 3 6 Ig 6 6 10 ° 0 lg 0'0" , T2s. 34 ,—Oats , 91. Od* .—Daft' , to od--' ats, jog. ~...,Beel, la. 77 u 0 76 . 70. ms, t 136 W. 11' hay 0 1 y of ; n _bV 4 . of t ° the 10 ' in 6B LD. Exlade' twat,' )euglo il rd-103" itre 44° ray A LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 16, 1830. of the taxes in question is not to he in full operation until the year 1831, Ministers postpone any further provisions for the Sinking Fund, until they can ascertain by experi ment, whether the increased consumption of commodities still subject to taxation may not of itself supply the means required for that prop to public credit. Coupling the actual- reductions of last night with the solemn promise held out by Mr. Goulburn, of further exertions on the part of Ministers to extend the scale and system of re trenchment, we finish as we opened, with declaring our approbation that so much has been actually done, and • our conviction that much more may be.— Times. It will be seen from our Parliamentary report that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, as was expected, opened his Budget last night. There has not been a period, during many years, when more anxious and intense curiosity was manifested to know by what financial process the Right Hon. Gentleman intended to meet the alarming exigencies of the country. In - introducing the subject he took the interests of the agricultural and manufacturing classes principally into his consideration, and those that were to be chiefly benefitted by his proposed reductions. He reviewed the financial operations of last year, and challenged Parliament to say whether all the antici pations which he had formed had not been realized ? He observed that, if there had been a deficiency in one quarter, there had been surplus in another. After • some other general remarks he proceeded to open his plan. As the public are most interested in the reduction of taxation, we will briefly state that he proposes to reduce taxes to the amount of 3,390,0001. in the following way : The beer duty (not malt) estimated at £3,000,000 Duty on leather Duty on cider 50,000 But he calculated the total amount at 3,400,0001. All these taxes are to be absolutely repealed, no part of them remaining, which is certainly more judicious than the partial repeal of a greater variety of taxes to the same amount. The repeal of the beer and cider taxes will come into operation on the 10th of October next, and that of the leather tax on the sth of July. Another part of the plan is, that the beer trade is to be thrown open, and, so far, the licensing system done away. He states that, as those reductions will affect only a portion of the present year, the loss to this year will be only 960,000/. He also promised the fullest inquiry into all departments of the public business—colo nial, &c.—and these inquiries to be conducted by Committees not connected with the departments under investigation. This announcement was re• ceived with loud cheering. But we very much doubt the effectiveness of the proposed inquiries, seeing that the Finance Committee, of which such great hopes were once enter.ained by the country, is not to be re-appointed. Was it apprehended that it would apply the pruning-knife of retrenchment too roughly to the luxuriant branches of Ministerial patronage ?—was it expected that it would make pampered sinecurists and overpaid functionaries of State contribute to the alleviation of the expen diture of the country, as well as hard-working clerks and half-pay officers ? At all events, its non revival does not say much for the sincerity of Ministers as to cutting down the public burdens to the exigencies of the nation. The set off which the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposes against the above reductions is as follows :—He lays 2d. a gallon upon Irish and Scotch spirits, raising the duty from 2s. 10d. to 35., and Is. extra upon English spirits, rais ing the duty from 7s. to Ss. This will improve the re venue to the extent of at least 300,000/. He calculates upon an increase under the stamp duties of 110,0001. from a better management and an assimilation of Irish and Eng lish stamps, and expects also a considerable increase in the Post-office department. The grand feature of his plan is, however, the reduction of the Four per Cents. He did not propose it to be carried into effect immediately, but inti mated that he would, at a future day, submit a proposition on the subject, to meet the full amount of the reduction next year. This part of his plan was coldly received by the llouse. It was objected to by Mr. Baring, who, how ever, at the same time stated that it would not have any bad effect on the credit of the country ; and he expressed his confidence that the public would receive the Budget well—none verrons. Mr. Hume afterwards expressed his approbation of the reductions, as far as they went ; he only lamented that the Chancellor of the Ex chequer had not proposed greater reductions, as he felt persuaded that they would have relieved the people without injuring the revenue. The amount of re lief this year, he contended, would be only 550,0001. namely, 750,0001. for one quarter's beer tax, and one half-year's leather-tax 200,000/, making together 950,0001. ; from which was to be deducted 400,0001., the produce of the assimilation of the stamp duties, and the additional duties en spirits, leaving a reduction only of 550,000/. on the money payments for the taxes of the year. Mr. C. Barclay also gated his approbation of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's propositions, particularly that for reducing the beer tax, as it was to be accom panied with the opening of the trade. With that accom paniment he held that the reduction would not much in jure the beer trade; and lie added, that as the beer tax was to be taken off, the brewers had not the least ob jection to the trade being entirely open. We have not time or space for further comment now, but cannot avoid expressing surprise that there should be any desire to con tinue the delusion of the Sinking Fund still to be kept up. The only principle on which we can have a real Sinking Fund is a surplus revenue, and the only proper application of a surplus revenue at present would be to remit taxation to that amount. We fear that the proportion of taxes which is to be reduced, according to the above plan, will go but a short way in relieving the distresses of a people who are pressed down to the earth by a debt of 813 mil lions, who pay upwards of 50 millions in taxes for the in terest of that debt and the expenses of the State, and who pay upwards of eight millions besides in poor-rates—whirls poor-rates equal the whole amount of the taxes in the middle of the last century !—Morning Herald. In another part of our Paper will be found the most important official statement for the year—the Budget of the Chancellor of the Exchequer,—a statement, in fact, to which all classes have been looking with an anxiety never befoie evinced, and which we fear, notwithstanding its very plausible appearance, will cause no inconsiderable disappoint ment. That any reduction in the taxation of the country is a good, there can be no possible ques tion, and that much good will be derived from the non-existence of those taxes which the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposes to repeal, we do ant mean to deny ; but the reduction is not to the ex tent required by the necessities, and distressed con dition, of the country, nor, much as we have already heard his selection of articles lauded, do we con sider it the best. The reductions which he pro poses are— I st.—The tax on Beer, amounting t0....X3,000,000 2d.—The tax on Cider .... 30,000 3d.—The tax on Leather 400,060 Amounting in the whole to £3,430,000 The relief to the country, however, will not amount to much more than half this sum ; for, in the first place, the repeal of the duty on beer will greatly increase its consumption, and in consequence also increase the amount of the duties on the various materials, malt, hops, &c., of which it is composed; and, in the second, an additional duty is to be im posed on British spirits, from which an addition is expected of 300,0001. But this is not all. The relief for the present year is to be only a mere drop in the bucket. The beer duty is not to cease until the 10th of next October, so that in that article there will only be a reduction of 750,0001. ; in leather of 200,0001.; while by the imposition of additional duties on spirits, and an increase in the Stamp department, the country will be benefited for this present year to the amount of something more than half a million only !—There are two other points in the speech, however, which we Must notice before we offer any further ob servations upon this plausible scheme for the relief of the existing distress. In the first place, the Four per Cents. are to be converted into Three per Cents., though not during the present year; and ; in the secund, according to the arrang,ment of the Chancellor• of the Exchequer, a surplus revenue is still to be placed at the disposal of the Government for the reduction of the National Debt. Nov, allowing the proposed conversion of stock to he a righteous and wise measure, we should be glad to know what benefit can possibly result from any attempt to reduce the National Debt—to take away a few millions of pounds from a sum which the country can never pay—which every one knows it can never pay— and only effect a saving of the annual interest on these millions, instead of reducing taxes to the amount of the millions them elves ? Had the Chancellor of the Ex quer adopted the latter plan, the taxes might have been reduced to the extent of two millions mere, and a sensible relief thereby afforded to the country ; whereas by that which he has selected, taxes to that amount are continued in order simply to save the interest? But these are not our only objections to the notable scheme which was brought forward last night. The reduction, in our opi nion, is not to an amount which will afford any substan tial relief to the country, nor is the selection such as we could have wished. The repeal of the duty on beer is right in principle, and will prove beneficial in practice; but the two other taxes which are to be repealed, ate utterly trifling in amount, and will do little or any good. - Now, we ask, why not have repealed the whole of the Assessed Taxes? There would in that case have been at once a most substantial relief to the country, both from the repeal of the tax, and from the-saving in the expellee of the collection ; and we believe that every one would have been grateful for it, and have exerted himself gladly to meet all other legal burthens ; but strange to say, thine is not only to be no repeal, but even no reduction of these taxes, all of which, however, press hardly on trade and manufactures. To conclude, what the country wants is a substantial reduction of taxes, to the tune of five or six trillions at least ; and this reduction effected in such a manner as will not only afford relief by the non-payment of them, but increase the consumption of the various ar ticles which are either most in use by the labouring and middle classes, or which form articles of general mer chandise; and we are not without hopes that the Govern ment will ba compelled to adopt such a course. This evening the whole subject will be debated, and if the Le gislature will but do its duty by the country, we are con fident that the Government will speedily find the means of bringing down the expenditure to its diminished means of expenditure —2I/Ornin9 Advertiser. It will be perceived by those who may take the trouble to peruse the verbose speech of the Chan cellor of the Exchequer last night, that he and his colleagues are determined to carry into effect the nefarious measure which they propounded some time ago, of throwing the beer trade open, and ruining all those who are now engaged in it, for the nke of giving a chance of a new business to those who have now none. What they expect, or can expect, from such a measure, it is impossible for us to divine ; but this we will venture to assert, that they cannot now, with any possible grace, object either to the total abolition of slavery in the West Indies, or to the despoiling of the Church of such revenues as still remain to her. The right of property in all the three cases is precisely the same ; and if the public good, without respect to equity, be to be the order of the clay, we can see no reason why, if the one class be ruined, the other two should not share the same fate. We denominated the scheme of throwing open the trade in beer nefa rious, and we again repeat that it is nefarious; first, as being a direct spoliation of every licensed victu aller who has embarked his property in public-houses, in the faith and persuasion that the law, which gave them an artificial value, would not be repealed; and, secondly, as being a spoliation of one of the most deserving—if not the most deserving—classes of so ciety in the metropolis. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, we dare say, is not perhaps aware that the licensed victuallers of the metropolis con tribute more to the support of valuable charities than almost any other class—that they not only ' relieve the aged, the infirm, and the decayed, by donations of money to a large extent, and provide an asylum for them, when they are destitute of the means of providing one for themselves, but that they have established a school, in which the children of those who have by accident or misfortune been reduced in circumstances, are clothed, maintained, and educated ; but such is, nevertheless, the fact, and we will venture to assert that he cannot point out any class which can exhibit equal claims to the candid consideration of the Legislature. Yet it this very class, ' respectable and praiseworthy as it is—which he has se lected for sacrifice, and which he proposes to visit with ruin and misery !—Let him try it, and he will find that his experiment will fail. The trade in beer is altogether a different trade from that in any other article, and cannot be thrown open without great injury, not only to those who are now engaged in it, but to the public morals. At the same time, and on these grounds, let us advise the Licensed Victuallers to be united, firm, and persevering. The trumpet has been sounded, but the battle has not yet been lost. They have justice on their side, and if they will but guard themselves from false friends—for we conscientiously believe that they hare been sold—we mare little question that they will yet succeed in offering an effectual opposition to a measure no less nefarious in principle than, we arc confident, if carried into effect, it would prove most injurious in practice. —Morn. Advertiser. The vindictive and sanguinary character of our Criminal Code has long been a reproach to the humanity, and a stain upon the civilization of Eng land. Efforts have been made, from time to time, by enlighted and humane men, to redeem us from this national disgrace. Those efforts have been hitherto abortive; for our Legislature seems to be tenacious of the bad pre-eminence in penal legisla tion which our code of punishments have obtained for us in the eyes of the Christian world —nay, Pagan antiquity could boast a greater advancement in civilization in this respect than England, adorned with all the moral and intellectual triumphs of the nineteenth century! It is time that the Statute book should be purified from those exterminating laws which, like the code of Draco, may be said to be written in blood. But Draco's laws were scarcely enacted when they were repealed. The mind of the Athenian people revolted at their cruelty—they expunged the barbarous decrees of callous, unreflecting severity, and consigned the name of their author to the execration of history.— Alas ! in our Christian Legislature, no man has yet appeared intrepid, persevering, and fortunate enough, to achieve the honourable and glorious labour of making our criminal laws consistent with the principles of reason, of justice, and judicious policy. The task which Romilly failed to per fora), and Mackintosh attempted in vain, has not since called forth the talents and energies of any other within the walls of Parliament. The narrow limits which Mr. Peel prescribed to himself in his " amend ment of the Criminal Law " has left this task un touched for some man of greater moral courage and more comprehensi ve i n t e ll ec t than his legislative exertions have yet di-played. On various occasions we have ende avoure d to b r i ng t hi s su bj ec t un d er the notice of the public and of Parliament. We have always looked upon the multiplicity of capital pu nishments which disgrace our Statute-book as not less abhorrent from humanity than at variance with the soundest p r i nc i p l es o f c i v il w i s d om . All great legislators and writers on law have held the op:nion that certainty of punishment is much more effectual in repressing crime than an extreme, but capricious seventy. Now, in a country far advanced in civi lization, it is scarcely possible that laws of a cruel and inhuman nature can be invariably carried into effect. If all the persons who receive sentence of death at the Old Bailey were actually to pass into the hands of the executioner, the feelings of the• people would not tolerate the repeated exhibitions of the wholesale work of blood; or, if they did, the frequency of the scene would so brutalize them, that they would think no more of the waste of human life than of the spilling of water I And what an awful responsibility would rest upon a,Government that could so harden and degrade the hearts of its subjects ! What a number of convicts, too, have sentence of death recorded against them at the several Assizes, and who, as a matter of course, never suffer the last punishment of the law! These facts prove that we have a criminal code which is equally cruel and impracticable. Why not change it for one so just and reasonable in the apportionment of the penalty to the offence as to be capable of certain and uniform execution ? If death ought not to be • inflicted—if, in fact, it dare not be inflicted on the greater number of those to whom our laws award it, is not the solemn passing of the sentence, and the recording it in open Court, and in the face of the people, a mockery of retributive justice which is equally impolitic and indecorous ? Then see the other evils which arise from such a state of the law': —one Judge is humane and sensitive, another has less of the milk of human kindness in his disposition. The one will not leave any man for execution who is not convicted of some very heinous crime; the seller will be less compunctious about taking away the life of a fellow -creature, and send wretches to the scaffold who are guilty of less flagrant offences, because the law gives him the power of doing it. Thus it may be said that men are executed or saved, not by a certain law, but by judicial caprice. While this state of things continues, there are a great number of persons in society, who, rather than avenge a wrong by risking the life of the offender, desist from prosecution altogether, by which means the very severity of the law counteracts its own purpose, and he who, under a more rational system would have received a proportionate punish ment, escapes with perfect impunity ! We are glad to see, however, that many intelligent and respect able persons are exerting themselves in various parts of England to obtain, by public meetings arid peti tions to the Legislature, such a revision and reform of the Criminal Laws as the interests of justice and the progress of Christian civilization demand. At a meeting convened for the purpose at Southampton, the other day, a Mr. Buller exposed the present sys tem in a•speech reasoned with great power, and re plete with the testimony of convincing facts. There is one passage, in particular, winch we cannot avoid quoting, and in the sentiments of which we p rfectly concur :—" But we are told," says Mr. Bullar, " by some, that ours is a weak humanity, but that legislators must have stouter nerves, and do their duty, and not allow those whom they nick-came humanity-mongers to interfere. We reply, if this is a weak humanity, it is the weakness of Dr. Johnson, who could never think that to pick the pocket and to pierce the heart are equally crimi nal, whatever epithets of reproach or contempt his confession as to unjust punishments might incur from those who confound cruelty with firmness." It is the weakness of Judge Blackstone, who said that " to shed the blood of our fellow creatures is a matter which requires the greatest deliberation, and the fullest conviction of our own authority, for life is the immediate gift of God to man, which nei ther he can resign, nor can it be taken from him, unless by the command of Him who gave it." If this tenderness of human life is, indeed, a weak hu manity, it is the weakness of Beccaria and Mon tesquieu—of Erasmus and Sir Thomas More, and Chillingworth—of Goldsmith and Franklin, and Howard—of Fox, of Pitt, arid of Romilly. " So deeply (says Mr. Wilberforce) was Mr. Pitt con vinced of the improper severity of our laws, that, to my knowledge, that distinguished person had it in contemplationto submit the whole Penal Code to the revision of some able lawyers, for the purpose of digesting a plan to diminish the sanguinary na ture of punishments;" nay, it is the weakness of that solemn and venerable Liturgy which earnestly prays for " all prisoners and captives," and declares of the Almighty that " he willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wick edness, and live." At this meeting Mr. Hammond the Recorder of Southampton, attended, and strongly supported the object and prayer of the peti tion. We trust such meetings will become more general, and that the voice of enlightened huma nity will be raised throughout the kingdom, until the laws which doom our fellow-creatures to perish un• justly shall themselves perish before the irresistible power of public opinion.—Morning Herald. The principal feature in the Budget is the repeal of the beer tax. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in stating the reasons which had determined the Government to fix on this tax, observed that the re strictions on the manufacturer which the collections of the duty rendered necessary, operated very much against its manufacture. " Among others (he said) may be instanced, that while a man may brew one specific quantity of beer, he may not brew another. So he is prohibited from varying its strength but in certain degrees, besides other circumstances, which in themselves impose upon the article of beer an amount of duty which may be supposed to be repre sented by tile degree of inconvenience and restric tion to which the whole combined give rise. But there is a still heavier duty on beer, which I have yet to mention; and that is the system under which it is permitted to be retailed to the public. I am not afraid to estimate it, at the very least, at one-third of the whole amount of duty paid to the State; and therefore we may assume that if we repeal the whole beer duty of three millions, we shall give to the country a relief of little short of four millions and a half from the measure." We were glad to hear the Right Hon. Gentleman urge as a reason for taking off the whole of the beer tax, in pre ference to making a compromise, by taking off half the beer duty and half the malt duty, that it would enable Government to make a still further saving by making some reduction in the establishments. Many fragments of taxes used formerly to be re tained, not so much for fiscal purposes as to prevent the necessity for reducing establishments. This is therefore a remarkable change. The beer duty is to continue till the 10th of October next, because the freedom of the trade enters into the plan of Go vernment, and this cannot take place till the period when the licenses are renewed; arid because duties have been paid on large stocks, and in all cases of repayments of duties already received, extensive frauds are invariably committed. In the case of the Silk-trade, for instanct, it is well known that Go vernment was outwitted, and repaid much more than they had received. The cider duty, which amounts to from 25 to 30,0001. is also to be re pealed. Another repeal, important from the extent in which the commodity on which it is levied is used in almost every branch of industry, was an nounced—that of the duty on leather. Here, agaill, the Government deserve commendation, for ihp. manner they have gone to work. " The presetit amount of revenue," said the Chancellor of the Exchequer, " derived from that tax, is about 400,0001.—a tax heavily felt by the agricultu ra l po pulation. Moreover , a n abolition of the tax altogether, and then doing away the restrictions that are now laid on the manufacture of the article, which compel the manufacturer to manage the business differently from what he otherwise would, and which compel one man to be a tanner and another to be a dresser of leather ; in removing the restrict , ons we shall give a relief to the people, as well as by the 'educ tion of the duty. At present, these restiietions affect the manufacturers injuriously, and are useless to the revenue. It is for this reason that Ido not propose tire reduction, but the abolition of ti ese taxes. If I had not done that, the restrietien , , , nhist have been continued on the trade—an esta blishment must have been kept up for collecting the trt~ —and tedticing the duty one-half, would hare ap peared like doing nothing. in acting on this principle, the Government has not booked to keeping up a large establishment, and it has deferred to what has been considered necessary by the House." It is Imporsible not to see in all this an honest disposition on the part of Government to adopt those views with respect to the repeal of taxer which have ob tained the sanction of the best informed persons in the country. In considering what tax ought to be repealed, the restrictions which the collection im poses on a manufacture ought always to have great weight. These two taxes—the beer duty and the tax- on leather—coupled as the former is with the determination to open the trade in beer, are, there- , fore, judiciously chosen for repeal. As the beer duty ceases only in October, and the leather duty in July next, the reduction will not be much felt in the revenue of the present year. It is calcu lated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer at 960,000/. Against this, however, there is a set-olf in an addition to the duty on spirits. In a country over-taxed as this is, a repeal of taxes is not always, a reduction of revenue, and therefore we conceive the Chancellor of the Exchequer fully justified in his anticipations with respect to the compensation from increased consumption. The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced extensive i n quiries into various branches of the expenditure. " Indeed," observed the Right llon. Gentleman, " I may say we are engaged in an examination embracing every public department, and we presume, in con formity with the precedent which has in one case proved to be beneficial—that respecting super annuatioris—to confide the execwtioa of that inquiry to gentlemen connected certainly in some way with the Government, but totally unconnected with the particular departments to which these inquiries are to be extended, with a view of ascertaining how far it may be possible to make a still further reduction. In the same manner and to the same extent, the Government propose to empower a Commission to deal with the whole of the Colonial expenditure." With respect to euperannuetions—that prolific source of abuse—a deduction is to be made hence-. forward from the incomes of the servants of tho public as a fund for superannuation, and in a few days a Bill is to be brought in for regulating the management and appropriation of the fund. It would appear that the great brewers are reconciled to the plan for throwing the trade in beer open. Mr. Chalks Barclay observed, " that he was happy to say that he had not the least objection to the measure proposed, and the brewers had concurred in it." This statement was loudly cheered by the House. On the whole, the Chancellor of the Ex• chequer estimates the balance of the receipts above the expenditure at 2,667,000/., and the produce of a duty of 2d. a gallon on spirits in Ireland and Scot land, and of Is. a gallon in England, at 330,0001., making in all three millions. He looks forward to the possibility of converting the 4 per Cents. into 31, and announced art intention of bringing the sub ject before the House on an early day. Wherever Government can effect a saving in this way they are bound to attempt it. All attempts at partial tax ' ation are deserving of reprobation ; but there is a material difference between a partial tax levied on fundholders and the taking advantage of the state of the money market to effect a reduction of interest. Lord Althorp observed, with reference to some re marks of Mr. Baring on this subject, that the con templated reduction could not possibly create any apprehension in a free country. The only differ ence of opinion in the House related to the extent of the repeal of duties, and not to the principle which had governed the Chancellor of the Exche• goer in the repeals.—Morning Chronicle. Accounts of the improvement of trade, and meet ings on the subject of the distress of the country, not unfrequently from the very same quarter, are pouring in on us. The Leeds Mercury, for instance, tells us that at Leeds and Manchester, the two great capitals of the woollen and cotton manufacturers, there is a greater demand than astral at this season of the year ; while a meeting at Huddersfield, en Thursday last, agreed to a resolution recommend ing a reduction of the interest of the National Debt ! On Friday there was a meeting of the County of Kent, on Penenden Heath ; and on Saturday a meeting of the County of Hertford. At the latter a letter was read from Lord Deere, in which his Lordship said, " I never have been able to compre hend the advantage of voting by ballot. Unless the English people are ashamed of acknowledging the principles and object of their choice, I cannot see the benefit to be derived from it. I hope never to see the day when such shall be the condition of English voters." Lord Mere we believe to be a very worthy man, but he is not one of those who will ever set the Thames on fire. There are not, we firmly believe, six men in either House of Par liament, who hale the courage, or the imprudence to express their real sentiments without reserve publicly; and yet these skulkers have the efrontery to declare, that poor men should have the courage to do that at the hattard of the ruin of themselves and families, which they dare not do, for fear of the sneers of the coteries to which they belong. We will not do Lord Deere the injustice to believe him insincere; he has never thought at all upon the subject, and merely repeats what he has heard, like many others. The meeting in Kent was remarkable for the un expected turn which things took. We alluded, some weeks ago, to the hostility of the secondary class of gentry and yeomanry throughout the country to tithes, and a pretty decisive confirmation of our opinion was afforded at this meeting, by the unani mous adoption of a resolution, moved by Mr. Bentley, the respectable Chairman of the Kent Agriculturists. " That it is the opinion of this meeting, that amongst the various causes of the distress which so generally per vades the people of this country, there is none more power ful than the present system of collecting tithes, which, by affecting the tenth part of the produce of the land, produces the most injurious consequences to the eonimenity at large, to the agricultural interests in particalar, and to the best interests of religion itself. To the eomninnity at large, by unavoidably increasing the price of articles of general and necessary consumption—to the agrieulturitt, by the vexa tious tax upon the culture of the land—by disabling the English farmer from competing with the foreign grower, and being part of that overwhelming system which it was too much the present policy of the eoantry to encourage; and to religion, by being the fraitful soiree of discord be tween the Clergyman and his parishioners, and by destroy jug that harmony, upon the preservation of which the sue eess of his spiritual labours must is a great degree depend. —(Cheers.)—This meeting, therefore, submits it to the consideration of the Legislature, that no better mode of giving relief scold be devised than the getting rid of this impolitic system." The Essex meeting, in like manner, agreed to a petition against tithes, so that we are warranted in assuming that the agriculturists have at length de termined to take the bull by the horns. What wonderful r t s are sympathy open pressing h upon t h s sufferings he o pleases us the most is to see that the rea l nature o f tithes begins to be correctly und ers t oo d b y t h e agriculturists. They see that tith es are a tax , an d t r a heavy tp t lie p x, pressing at o ne t i me on t h e consumers, t c i a " : I t e ‘ , vh h e a l s i a ducers. Lord S tan h ope, w h o, l i ke the rest of h i a of the labourers, once in twenty years or so, when it suits his purpose, declared at this meeting that " he had witnessed the extreme and intolerable distress which prevailed so universally throughout the country; and he deeply regretted its existence, most of all because it affected so much the happiness and comfort of the labouring classes—(Hear, hear) — who, above all others, contributed to the welfare of the state, and, therefore, had the best claim upon the raipport and protection of Parliament." Was there ever such benevolence ! It reminds us of the love of the House of Commons for economy and PRICE 7D. ration`•