The Sun. — London, England, 1803-02-28 00:00:00

and new ConorierciAl SpcculAtions ate entering, into with cespea to our Westatn Colonies, the Isle of Prance, And the Indies. _ _ Marseilles assumes her wonted ascendancy in, the Mediterranean. The chambers of Commerce have been restored to those towns which formerly .pos sessed them, and new ones established in places where they are likely to be of service: The Deputies chosen in these different Chambers will discuss, under the superintendance of Govern. ment, the various affairs appertaining to their Offices. All the Sources of our Financial Prosperity have: become more produdive ; the dired Contributioos artless rigorous. The arrears which were latily so great, are now very materially reduced. In the midst of so many signs of Prosperity, the Excess of the dired Contributions are still corn plained of. Government. has observed, in common with all the enlightened Administrators, that the surcharge was particularly in the inequality of the 'Assess. ments. Measures were accordingly' decreed and executed for ascertaining the adual . inequalities which exist in the different Departments., At the latest period in the course of the year t a we shall be particularly apprised of the relations which the contributions in one Department bear to those of another, &c. These once ascertained, Government will proceed to make the arrangements didated by strict justice. Even now it has caused am import. tant diminution in the Contributions. Farther innovations are still proposed in our financial system ; but all changes are bad, unless de monstrated by proper evidence that the result will be beneficial. The Government, therefore, will proceed with the greatest caution,. and call in every praEticable assistance' to its discussions. .• Notwithstanding an incalculable increase of re venue, extraordinary circumstances have created deficiencies which it was impossible to - foresee. It became necessary to re-conquer two of our colonies, and to-re-establish in all of them the ascendancy and power of the Mother Country. It was ne, cessary, by expeditious and expensive means, to provide for the subsistence of the Metropolis, and that of many of the Departments ; however, the success was coammensurate to the exertions of Government, and. the result of the whole was such as to guarantee, in future, the Capital from the recurrence. of the like Scarcity, and from the ma chinations of Monopolists.. In the account ache Minister of Finances will be found the total of the annual Contributions, and the differFnt branches of. the Public Revenue ; what they have produced ; what may be expeded,of atneliora. tin ; the measures of Administration ; the progress of Public Prosperity ; what have been in the, dif. ferent Departments of the IVlinistry, the elements of the Expenditure for the year rikma ; what sums are still to be paid on that year, and the preceding years ; what resources remain to cover them; what is the alual state of the Public Debt ; what have been its increase, and the opera t ion of its extinction. In the • account of the Minister of Public Mel. sures, will be seen the receipts and payments which belong to the different branches of Revenue. Time bnited accounts of these two Ministers, will give a complete pi Lure of our financial situation. The Government presents it with an equal confi dence to its friends and its detradors, to citizens and to fbreigners. After having authorized the estimated expenses for the year a 804, and appropriated the revenues necessary for these expenses, objeEts of the greatest interest will occupy the session of the Legislative Body. It must re-establish order in our system of coinage ; it must give to the system of our customs a new, and a free energy, in order to repress contraband. It must at length give . to France that civil code so long prOinised,. and so long expected. On all these matters projetis of Laws .have been formed under the eyet of government, and ripened in conferences, whither.Cornmittees of the Council of State and of the Tribunate have brought nothing hut the love ,of truth and sentiments. of public inters. r. The same sentiments, the same.principlek will direct the s tieliberations of the, Legislators, and guarantee to. the Republic the Wisdom.and itnpar. ttality of those Laws Which may. be adopted. —.On the Continent every thing presents to us the pledge of repose and tranquillity. The Italian Republic, since the deliberation of Ljonr, has fortified itself by. the still more intimate union of the People which compose : it.. 'The happy agreement of the Authorities which governits inte. rior administration, its military force, give it alrea, dy the clutrafter and the attitude of a State formed long since, . and if preserved by wisdom, will guarantee to it a destiny still morerprosperous. L;garia, placed undera mixed constitution, seek at its head, and in the bosom of its Authorities, those Citizens who are most distinguished for their virtues,, their talents, and their fortune. • New shocks have overthrown the Helvetic Re. public. The Government owes its assistance to neighbours, whose repose contributes to its own •; and will do every thing to ensure the success of its mediation, and the happiness of a People, yihos position, habits, 'attd interests, render them the necessary Ally of France. Batavia is gradually- regaining possession' of the Colonies which Peace. has preserve(' to her. She will always recollect, that France can be to.. wards her either the most useful ,Friend, or the most dangerous Enemy. In Germany, the last stipulations of the Treaty of Lunevab are near their completion. Prussia, Bavaria, and all the Secular Princes, who have possessions on the Left Bank of the Rhi►►e, have obtained on the Right Bank adequate In►ie►n_ nities. The House of Austria finds in the Bishoprics of Eichatit, 'Frew, and /3rixeN, and in the :reater part of that of Pamir, mote than it has lost in Tuscany. Thus, by the happy co-operation of France and Russia, all these permanent inlerests are re conciled, and the Germanic Empire, an Empire so necessary to the repose and to the efuilibrillis of . Europe, has received an accession of real strength ; it. is now sed of elements mare concordant, and. wore approp,riate to existing circumstances, and , to the idea of the present age. 4 .French AMbassador is now at Constantino i ble, chaiged to coiled and strengthen those ties which should attach us io a PoWer which appears to totter bur, ~w hich it is our interest to support, and to re; establish on pure foundatious. Alexandria and Malta are still occupied by British Troops. 0f this, Gc, • vernment 'would be founded in complaining ; but it /earns that the vessels intended, to carry them to !Europe are now in the Mediterranean, Government has secured the Peace the Conti. nent,.; and it has reason to hope for the contin6ance of ii by Sea. This Peace is equally necessary and 'wished for, by all people. For ats preservation GO vernmena will do every thing consistent with the National Honour, which is isientially conntaed the stria execution of Treaties. _ _ But, in England, Power seems to be disputed h)l' Two Parties. The one, which has concluded Peace# seems determined to maintain it : the other, has sworn an implacably hatred towards France. t Thisyludua, lion of opinion, and of . Councils, displays an attitude at once pacific and menacing. • • During this struggle cfParties prudential mea, sures are adopted 'by the Government of the Republic, - Five hundred thousand men arc in readiness to pro tea and to avenge it. Unaccountable necessity (which passionS the most disgraceful) imposes upon two nations, whose. interests and - inclinations corn. bitted, equally attach to Peace ! However, it is to London the success of intrigue is limited ; it is unable to in other Powers ; and Government can. assert, with a just pride, that at p,re,:rent England would have to contend singly against France. But we entertain 'better hopes, .and rather be lieve, that the E councils of Wisdom, and voice of Humanity, will prevail in the British Cabinet. Yes, certainly, paCification'will every day acquire new strengtll- . -.-the relations of the two Govern... ments will alone assume that charaeler of benevo. fence whicch so well tallies with their mutual inter. ests. A.felicitous Peace will obliterate the cala. r mities of disastrous war ; and France and England, by rendering their happiness reciprocal, will merit and ensure the gratitude,of the whole world ! (Signed) BONAPARTI J First . Consul'. By Command of the First Consul, • . 11..8. MAR ET, Secretary of State. EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM PARIS, TEN. IS. ", Last autumn the unfortunate KING of SAR DINIA received order, from General MURAT, to leave Rome and to reside at . Viterbo, where his aCtions and transaetions might more easily be ob served by the French Agents or Spies, who follow him every where ; various reports circulated in Italy in consequence ; it was, however, sonn re. marked that the arrival of a British Fleet in the Mediterranean, created much uneasiness to the Italian Proconsuls of the Great Nation. . " Two days ago a Courier arrived from Mi/a4, and since it is whis_pered in'the Mini s terial, circle s , that the KING of, S ARDINIA has voluntarily ceded to England the Island of Sardinia, on receiving for himself and his posterity a Pension somewhat more than the present Revenue of that Island. " Should this really be the case, England has only anticipated the intention of France, and Sardinia as a Naval Station, when Malta is given, up, would as such, certainly, be a very valuable acquisition . ; had France been As powerful by sea as by land, there is no doubt that the Senatus Consultus that incorporated Piedmont with the French Republic, would have added Sardinia to this usurpation. cc When France surprised and usurped Piedmont, a Pension was promised. its Sovereign which never has been paid, and Indemnities which he never has received ; and since the Continent of' Europe, only with unavailing pity, has seen force and fraud di. vest this Prince. of the most valuable inheritance of his Ancestors, it has no reason to complain, and no right to interfere, because he trusts only to British Honour and to British Generosity for the future support and maintenance of himself and his family. el The English and. other Foreign Nobility and Gentry continue to fraternize with men guilty of revolutionary crimes, and grown rich by revolu. tionary plunder ; men, who in their own country, they certainly would nat . permit 'to come within their doors. Last week, at a Ball given by a man now worth millions (but formerly a Porter to a Wine-merchant, and one. of the persons who on the 6th oClober 1780, carried from Versailles to Paris, before the carriage of the Royal Family, the heads of the King's Garde de Corps) most Foreigners of distinetion were present, together with the Regi. cities Met; Foucnr, StEy es, CARNOT, &c. and an Unusual'number of other Revolutionary Gen. try, as the Senator GAttAT, who signed the Death Sentence of his King, the Tribune GROW/ELLE, who read the Death Sentence to his King, and Gen. SAN. TERRE, who with a shocking brutality, carried his unfortunate King to the scaffold ! ! When German and. Rosian Princes, English Peers, and Spanish Grandees are found in such company, who dare todeny the ion fatal progress of jacobinism in all classes of society every where. BONAPARTE has more than once said that the Revolution was at an end---his Prefeek of the Police at Paris, is however of a different opinion ; he has just renewed all the former Revo lutionary Laws and slavish terrorist Regulations to which persons travelling in free France are sub.. jet ; this is particularly diretled against English Travellbrs, as either from ignorance of the numerous , formalities required here to make passports : valid, or unaccustomed to those degrading and trouble. some inventions in their own country, they, snore' than other Travellers, negleet or forget them ; and nothing is more agreeable to a French Police Agent than to send proud John Bull to Prison, and to re ceive some guineas for setting him again at liberty." DIED. On Friday morning, Mrs. Hall, the wifenf Richard Hall, Esq. of Lawrence-lane, Cheapside. On Saturday murning last, Mr. FoUdrinier, Stationer, Charing•cross. NR U gink Siock zgg go gay) , s per Lciu. loll} vet Cent. 1 797, 104e} risl) s pet Cent. • irper Ciwt. Con, RS : IW ' pat Cent'. Red. 3 per Cent. Con. 71iiii• Vint , Scrip ank L.Atin. 2013-16 tt.l6 !)iittiStiutt Ann. I )itts Scrip ; SA U( _ . DON Printed by IIIICIIANAN 11 , 1 4 MILLAN, (of How.Stroof, covent.G4rdenj ; and Oublishml by lAtiLLiahl Aittitairt Scior (of,South IVloltoh-strir % CrusTehor-*quarc); At the SuN.OrFics o N o . lib Strand 1 where Advertiwrwits Otitti fog the Paper, Lettrri for . the Zdisor, &c, fpoitlaid), mot be addressed, TO ruE EDITOR stir, BEI NCk.a 43ily Reader of_ your valuable Puldica tion, I observe, in the 'Paper of the rBth inS6nt, a note signed VE AX; introducing to you a Letter, under the signature AMATOR PATR IX, designed, as VERAX declares, as a reply to my Letter to Mr. H t LI„ in your Paper on Saturday the z zth instant. I hope you will permit me, in return, to tender you some further rernarki relative to the Tonnage Duty on Shipping, requesting you "will have the goodness to give them an early. insertion. WE SUN. NE ARC HUS. SECOND LETTER. TO MR. JOHN HILL, CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE OF SHIP-OWNERS, FOR THE REPEAL OF THE TONNAGE DUTY ON SHIPPING. DEAR SIR, When I took the liberty to address you, on the 6th of February, on the subject of the Repeal of the, Tonnage Duties on Shipping, starting Some ideas in opposition to that meastire, I was in hopes to do good-by examining the subject in a rather tiew point of view, and that, if wrong, I should have been set to rights in friendly guise, the same by which I attempted' to convert you to my opinion. Judge, therefore, of my surprise, when I observed in the Sun Paper of the tBth February, an Address to the Editor of the Sun, .Signed VE R AX, request., ing the insertion of a Letter by AMATOR PATR IX, dated the loth December last, as a reply to my Letter to you of the 6th Februaty, which appe are d in the Sun on the foregoing Saturday. 1 began reading the production of AN Toil PATR I/E with a good share of curiosity, but found no objedion . of mine replied to or investigated, which certainly could not be done, if the date of the Letter be not fictitious. Tu call it a reply is clearly a misnomer. This novel method of replying ism tainly a very curious one, but it is to he hoped that few will con. sider it a fair mode of proceeding. It is also obvi, ous that the favourers of the Repeal have not found it very convenient to answer, .much less to over- come the plain reasonings and fads adduced in NEARCH us's Letter to you, my dear Sir, and there. lure they favour. the Public with a Letter, accord. ing to the assumed date of .which the Writer could not know a syllable of NEAR CHiIS'S objections, and, of course, could not answer thcmi except. it was written in the prophetic spirit of anticipation. _ However, .NEARCHUS must be excused from let_ ting this pass, and thinks it incumbent openly to declare to you his confirmed opinion, that his argu. ments, why the Tonnage Duty ought not to be re_ pealed, but modified, and, in that state, they h e . ing even capable of increase, are _founded in sound reisiatt44 and good.policy., Nothing appears easier than, fur yourself, or some good Lawyer either, con:. . versant with the business in.hand, to make a most flourishing plea on in copious a subjeft as the mari time interests of Great Britain, and ANIATOR PA 'ratites Letter is ex:l6lly a produalon Of ,tbis kind. - .Elie proposition That a dtka ..may be inju rious, is not denied ; but all Taxes are so in some degree, and it is no rule Ships should ,be excepted from all diredt Taxes, and houses and lands continue to pay them. It is said Ships are sUbjed to indi reel Taxes, by all the building materials paying duty. I hope English Oak dues not. However, it is granted many materials do. pay. And pray, don't the materials, of which houses arc construCl. ed, pay ? Are there not duties on brick, on stones, on slates carded coastways ; and are not 7-Bths -of the houses built with foreign timber, every inch of which has .paid duty, and even freights to these. vessels who claim exemption from all (fired taxa tion ?- Do not iron, glass, and sundry other mate rials used in house-building, pay heavy duties ? That the -Tonnage Duty on Shipping is a new tax, is no argument that it be a bad one, 4VIanY - new Taxes have been created by the 'necessities of the times, which have been found to be judicious, though our Ancestors never dreamt of them. Moreover, as .I stated in my former Letter to you, though the Tonnage Duty is a novelty amongst. us, it is not so in other Nations ; as for instance the Dutch,'who have had it this half century and upwards. Their desire to encourage Navigation, and knowing its value; is probably coeval with the British systems on this head, The cry of the Carrying Trade being in danger to be lost, is another specious argument, which,' if sifted to the bottoin, comes to nothing. The Car.. rying-trade, in the real acceptation of the word, means carrying goods on freight from a Foreign Port to a Foreign Port. Now how can the Cairy ing-trade, thus , understood, ever be inju r ed by 'the Tonnage.DutY, which is only payable on Vessels arriving in, and sailing from a British Port? If a Vessel thus, for instance, should, for two or three years, trade in the Mediterranean, and never return to Great Britain in that period, she would not have, a farthing Tonnage to.pay all this time. Foreign ers pay, in most places in Great Britain, higher Pilotages, Dock dues, Li,g , ht-money, end Sundry other Port charges, at a higher 'rate than British Ships, which is a preference which must tend to keep, the 'Foreign Ships back, and counterbalance any advantage they .may possess in point 'of occasional cheapness. Moreover, according to the Act of Navigation, which is since the Peace restored to its, former ativity, Foreign 'Ships can .come loaded only, from the Countries to 'which they belong, which na turally circumscribes their employment, and gives the British Ships a due superiority. They are eluded of our Colonial Trade, both the. East and West Indies of course ; and British Ships have par., ticular, advantages in Duties on certain goods . ,, which insures, them preference there again.- 'Li' the heat of argument, these assertors for the repeal quite forget that. - not 'British Ships alone pay the Tonnage. Duty, . but. Foreign Vessels also; that things, arc; therefore on a par ;-tbat.we raise thus a Revenue on the earnings. of 'Foreigner., and that, on relinquishing. this TAX,. we shall give,over to draw thia benefit from,those Foreigners, which fre quent our Ports. NEARCHUS has already exposed,. in his former Letter, the absurd idea of letting Fo-, reigners continue to pay this Tax, and abolish it on Pritish Slttp3, wttich ‘r otild on.fi• raise a War of re taliation on the part of other Nations, by wttich WC must unavoidably lose. The fear expressed by AM TOR PA,Tst. 'ai'4o the Northern Nations rivalling us in Navigation, does not skew a.very clear conception of their situa tion. Russia is, during five to six months, Sweden duling four months, and Denmark and the Southern Baltic Shores three months in the. year, enveloped in ice and winter, which efredually stops their Na ,vigation, when no British Harbourexperiences such impediment. Any Foreign Ship, not got home be fore the winter sets in, must winter in a Foreign Country at. a most heavy ,expence, and keep their Sailors on -wages for months without any use—a case very coitimon, and a heavy drawback on their, earnings. In regal,d to the danger expressed, that by..hay. ing employed many foreign Sailors in British Shits, during the War, they have been improved, and have obtained English habits ; it may be depended upon they are likely to stay, .aiid their nativecoun. try will see very fete •of diem return, as they dire certainly better treated in British. Ships than mist others. What has' happened, in this respea, Ist War, is exaftly; what occurred every fernier War, and therefose the consequences can easily, by der.. rience, be ascertained, as more beneficial than bat. ful to this Country. • Whoever would assoit, that a Ship-Ownet.cou not maintain a , Ship's Company which visit Other Countries, where mostly provision catibe laid in ld much cheaper than at home, at a cheaper rate than a manuUturer could an equal number of his,peooeo who never stir from home, would be deservedly laughed at ; yet saying that the Lanilett Interest has, in this point of view, ~an advantage. over Ma ritime Commerce, is asserting this very imProba" bility to be fa&. To call.the Tonnage nntY,%Yhic h is hardly nine-pence in the pound at farthest, oti the usual rates of freights, and in many instances ranch less, a heavy, burthensou e a . injurious, not beara ble Tax, when the Du t ies flou,e's, by Onvern ment and Parochial Tix:es, swallow from five to tea shillings in the pound of the amount of the Mit many parts of this Kingdom,' is an unadou.nt#e assertion, which must be left to the'complaining Ship-Owners to be explained, for it is totally otttuf toy power to solve this riddle. In my humble opinion, it is dangerous polio to admit any set o f p eo pl e w hatever to set up a (Jaya on the score of their being useful, that they ought to- - be exempt from. bearing dired burthen or taxes , the same a s their equally . industrious neigbbours , who .have borne them many Years, ,and are no t gitfed with'equal assurance to' cry aloud and spare not. It is asserted, that at Canton, in Chirp, many thousand people, With families, lire in 4oats on the river, upon the prin,:iple . that the boats /being in part covered in) . afford them a cheaper' 'ret i teett than houses, and so, in truth;theyvidulti in many places in this country, when freed from all Tax" whatever ; nor will, itlbe probably denied, th4t te' v claside iii . men pay less direEt Taxes than Sairpr s for if they h a d n ot t o pay sixpence pet' 1116 r it of their wages to 'Greenwich Hospital, thou sands of them would not pay a groat in their ' liyes. This is noways said‘tb derogate of Ale r t • usefulness or value as members' of society , : wh j c ,%; fully appreciate ; but peopl e must not eres o ", score of hardships which do not exist, het a re O A " ginary. The complaint of shilis being sunk iroheir value, is not at all provid *by- their tieing. °illy worth tWo.tfeirdi of An - they tiVete ferreetlY cs ti " mated. S1311)81 as 'every' .1"'"g dse, ,were during u the 'ar got - 14ond - iiteit . true .value ; 'they must return to their true standard, and repeal or nietel'e al -of this petty Duty of Tonnage on Sliippinp .0 11 not prevent this occurrence ; fur it days to the na• ture . of things It will be so.. •,,lecall it a petty POP foe: SO' it . Ise ineverpsense of the word, when th e :immense capital employed' is considered. -`'Vat ti this Tonnage'Duty to that laid on the , West-lOia Trade' by' the Docks 'in die Isle: of Dogs Pe . A-tnere phantom in the - Comparison ! As to ehe example of France,' in Siting bounties to Shipping, we have seen inch 'awful 1-xamples ' given by that fantastie; fickle, and 'at present—en slaved people, we 'ought not to be 'so ready to praise what their Government 'sounds forth, and is vfteri vox et Areterea If such bounties are really paiii and they ni t tie ube yitare':ih4d; ttu p al ,e lymore titan the sound of promise, who, besides the most admite a tb C le o security theYnt . ~.' joy as to properly and,stability, in regard to mer cantile regulations' and duties, paying' interest .at the rate of twelve per' cent. per annum, ought to have some encouragement more than: common, CO run the ri,k of the frowns - of Neptune, in addition to the otle:r perils they are exposed to. I note that the Ship-Owners have no'blejedion, if the amount of 'fonnage Duty on Shipping was laid as a duty on the goods exported and 'imported. Generous souls ! provided they do but get shut of it, they don't care if it was laid on the Lambkins playing in the fields !, This trait causes me, in additi,,n, wish that the Legislature will se e t h e h n propriety of the repeal'; and though this. may not be a very handsome concluding wish, to be -imparted to ) 1 ". the Ciairman of the Petitioners, yet I hope you will allow, that honest conviction of what is rights ought to be a consideration superior to every thing else, and therefore, I trout, be accepted by you as an excuse for any incivility my wish may imply. , subscribing myself, heartily: to Dear Sir, your';, Feb. 10, 1803. N EA RC HUS. I OCKS. DAY. India Stock 217 • Indi.t gonds ' • Exchcq. Bills is. dis.' .FuntlAhle ditto limn. ";d Exchequer Ilills'dis. Oinniuth 4 Impel'. 3 per Cent. Ditto Ann. 11A 1 !lank foi opening India for Acc. Cons. for Apri1.72.0 +'fi