The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-28 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 1855.

Although the telegraph to Balaklava has been
duly opened, and intelligence from the Crimea
may now be received within a few hours, the
country is still without information as to the pro-
gress of the siege, and the real state of affairs
before Sebastopol. This is really inexcusable
trifling. Enormous sacrifices have been made by
all classes throughout the country to carry on the
War vigorously and efficiently. Every pecuniary
demand has been promptly and liberally complied
with. Nor have we spared the blood of our
brethren in the just and honourable cause in which
we have embarked. Why, then, has information
been withheld ? Why has Lord RAQLAN main-
tained a perverse silence, when the means of
transmitting intelligence are so readily available ?
We confess that we cannot understand this
ominous taciturnity. It cannot, under the peculiar
circumstances of the case, be supposed that "no
news is good news." The worst interpretation
may be given to the mystery, and what may
really be ascribable only to the apathy and indif-
ference of the Commander-in-Chief may be pro-
ductive of very prejudicial consequences to the
nation.

It is now universally admitted that Peace must
be conquered—that no satisfactory arrangement
can be concluded until some great success has at-
tended the Allied arms in the Crimea. The sus-
picious and dilatory conduct of Austria proves
that she is biding her time, and will not decidedly
commit herself until unequivocal indication be.
perceptible as to which is the winning side.
Hitherto the proceedings at the Conferences
and in the Crimea have mutually influenced
each other. The General has been waiting for
diplomatists—the diplomatists for the General.
Lord RAGLAN has been almost as anxious to avoid
injuring the town of Sebastopol (with the excep-
tion of the fortifications) as Admiral DUNDAS was
to spare Odessa. He, perhaps, conceived that
its existence might be considered as a make-
weight with Russia. A very probable supposition
if he knew that its destruction would not be even
demanded at Vienna. On the other hand, the
Plenipotentiaries, by submitting to so many tedious
delays by their polite request that Russia should
assume the initiative as to the means by which
effect would be given to the principle of the Third
Point, clearly showed that they anticipated sole
intelligence from the seat of War that would con-
firm Austria, an,lmake Russia anxious to enter into
a treaty on the exceedingly easy terms tendered
for her acceptance. Lord RAGLAN was the "Deus
ex machina" who was to extricate Lord J. RUSSELL
from his difficulties, while he, good easy man,
hoped that the pending negotiations would termi-
nate his labours, and that he had only to do nothing
in order to obtain the coveted step in the Peerage,
accompanied by a pension for himself and his two
immediate successors, or possibly the grant of an
immediate sum of money, equivalent to a perpe-
tual pension, as it was generously intimated he
would prefer so long ago as October last before
the fire was even opened against Sebastopol. It
was, in fact, a repetition of the old story, when
" Lord Chatham, with his sword already drawn,
Was waiting for Sir Richard Strahan ;
Sir Richard, longing to be at 'em,
Was waiting for the Earl of Chatham."
We have seen the result. Between the two
stools the interests of the nation haie fallen to the
ground, and should it not retrieve its position it
will continue, as it has partially become,
laughing-stock of Europe."

"a

. These disastrous results may, in a great degree,
be attributed to the easiness of both Houses of
r 0 raent last session and the readiness
leave everything :
rnment, hands of the
GOTe
previously been. although
afforded in the
evidence had
orttde.d. of Ministerial incapacity
and inefficiency. :true that the representa-
tives of the people
their own dignity,
and refused to be converted into political cyphers
in all relating to the
points
t of the War.
that the new
One of the most essential
telegraph should, when not re 's
vernmeut, be dedicated to the Pulall.3y the
Go-
that all persons should be allowed to avol.n ulsert,haelanici..
selves of the facilities thereby afforded,
able terms, when it is not otherwise engaged. reason
able
it be not so, we shall only hear the most meagre
and unintelligible accounts, doled out at long in-
tervals. Even the Legislature itself will,
as heretofore, be compelled to receive all
its valuable information from the graphic com-
munications of the correspondents of the public
journals :
- week after the facts have been
Itiown- to the
gifind9 Oliciteti before
Government. The avidonoe
Mr. Itorarcle3 Ccilguittea

has shown how very easily the Cabinet Ministers
are disposed to take matters, and unless energy
be displayed somewhere we cannot feel surprised
if the affairs of the nation should become seriously
embarrassed. If the end of a private concern so
managed could only be bankruptcy, what can be
anticipated from the carelessness and inefficiency
displayed in the direction of public business ?

The Loan Bill and Customs Duties Bill have
passed through Committee, almost without dis-
cussion. The Hon. Gentleman the Member for
Glasgow alone stood forward to record his earnest
protest against the manner in which the Loan was
contracted, and the retrograde policy adopted by
the Government in imposing additional duties on
such articles as tea, coffee, and sugar. Mr. MAC-
GREGOR justly complained of the apathy and indif-
ference displayed on subjects of such vast impor-
tance. A few members, barely sufficient to keep up a
House and to prevent another " count-out"
' listened with impatience to the objections against
the additional taxation, that would be felt most
grievously in every cottage throughout the
United Kingdom, and which would note only ma-
terially derange the operations of commercial men,
but would extract much larger amounts from the
pockets of the people than would ever arrive at
the National Exchequer.
It is certainly very unjust and unfair to the
mercantile community to introduce changes
in the tariff 'on trivial or inadequate
grounds, more especially when questions
have, after full discussion, been decided by
Parliament, and merchants enter into large
speculations on the faith of the permanency of
such arrangements. There are elements in such
calculations, and points to be considered not merely
relating to the incidence of taxation. Even if it should
be decided that the comforts, we might almost say
the very necessaries, of the labouring classes,
should be subjected to additional burdens, we
should, at all events, 'act honestly towards those
embarked in the trade, and not in any way
likely to occasion loss to these on whose energy
and enterprise we are dependent for the
requisite supplies of these very important matters.
Nor should, as far as practicable, any advantage
be given to one man, or body of men, that would
enable him or them to undersell their competitors
in trade.

Now, it is notorious that the intention
to increase the existing duties, however
strictly concealed, invariably ooze out in some
mysterious manner, by which the few are bene-
fitted at the expense of the many. There was no
exception to the general rule on the present occa-
sion, and some dealers—who displayed a species
of fiscal clairvoyance, discerning the heavier
charges " looming in the future"—paid the lower
rate of duty on large quantities of tea. We do
not wish to be understood as charging that there
has been undue favouritism, or a distinct and in-
telligible intimation given to the Minister him-
self. It is sufficient for the purposes of our
argument to show that the mystery in some
instances is dispelled, and that, therefore, the
better-informed dealers are enabled to obtain
great advantages over their less-favoured brethren.
There is another strong and almost insuperable
objection to such a change. The charge to the
public is increased from the moment of its an-
nouncement. The dealers receive the higher rate
of duty on the stocks in their hands, as well as on
what they may subsequently purchase, and the
consumer must pay, although not a, penny of the
amount becomes available for public purposes !
This is the strongest argument that can be urged
against any impost. The chief aim of a Financial
Minister should be to get the largest amount of
that which is extracted from the pockets of the
people, and not, if possible, to let any stick to the
fingers of the middlemen.
The change is open to the same objection in
another way. We must recollect that the great
body of the working-classes purchase all articles
of consumption in small quantities, barely suffi-
cient for their immediate wants. The over-toiled
sempstress while making shirts at a penny or five
farthings each, cannot afford to get her tea by
the pound or half pound. She is but too
happy if she is enabled to procure the neces-
sary supply for the day, buying an ounce or even
half an ounce of tea, or a quarter, possibly half a
quarter, of a pound of sugar. Now, to such per-
sona the additional duty of 3d. per pound on tea,
or 3s. per cwt. on sugar, practically amounts to
nearly three times the amount payable at the
Customs. It may be .considered as at least a
halfpenny additional in the ounce (or Bd. per lb.)
of tea, and a penny per lb. (or 9s. 4d. per cwt.)
on sugar. How, then, can such additions be
justified. The sufferings or burdens of the
poorer classes may be beneath the notice
of our magnanimous Chancellor of the Exche-
quer. As they are without the elective franchise
honourable gentlemen may slight their com-
plaint; but they will still be heard, and justice-
loving Englishmen will not disregard the mur-
muring of the poor and lowly—albeit, they may
be nothing but political cyphers in the estimation
of the " waiters on PROVIDENCE," hankering after
the crumbs of patronage that occasionally fall
from the Ministerial table.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge and
the Princess Mary of Cambridge, attended by Lady
Charlotte Suffield, Mrs. Home Purves, Major Home
Purvey, and Colonel Stephens, honoured the Society of
Painters in Water Colours with a visit, yesterday, pre.
vious to its being opened to the public.
On Monday last, before leaving Vienna, Lord John
Russell p Aid a final visit to Prince Metternich.
It is 'expected that before the end of the summer the
electr4.e communication between Marseilles and Algeria
will 'oe complete.
fin Wednesday steam-boats will commence running
rime times a week, in connection with the Eastern
Counties Railway, from Antwerp to Harwich.
The Mayor of Manchester and the- heads of the com-
mercial bodies have received replies to the addresses
with which they last week greeted the Emperor of the
French.
There is no truth whatever in the reported death of
his Grace the Duke of Marlborough.
The new building connected with the Asylum for
Idiots, which Prince Albert has kindly consented to open
this summer, is at Earlswood, Redhill, Surrey. There is
in the neighbourhood an agricultural school of discipline
for boys, which was opened by Prince Albert in 1849.
The Exhibition of Art Contributions to the Patriotic
Fund, which will close this evening, at 121, Pall-mall,
is to be re-opened, on Thursday next, at Burlington-
house, Piccadilly.
When Mr. Berkeley's motion for the ballot is made,
Major Reed intends to move as an amendment that the
proposed
bill be a merely permissive one.

D. Mitchell Davidson and Coamo NV. Gordon, charged
with a breach of the Bankruptcy laws, were further ex-
amined yesterday at Guildhall, and again remanded.
The Caledonian Mercury appeals to the humane on
behalf of a poor woman, of the name of Rice, who has
just been confined of her sixth pair of twins. She has
had, besides, eight single children, making twenty in all,
of whom she has at present thirteen alive. The eldest of
the family is only eighteen years of age!
ihacuiaeni
AUSTRALIAN' ARRIVALS.—FALMOCTII, FRIDAY.—The
Rhips Virniera, Captain Neathy, and Lady Ann, Captain
Maxtor), both from Sydney, were off this morning, and
i A piece of news received at Turin, from Constanti-
, nw, h
_Lo ,as made 1., great sensation. eneral de Cavero, ,
.'"
.1'24 been appointed intcadant of the Piedmontese
eTthngent ha.s re!imned. He had scarcely landed at
thentable difficultim with regard to the vic-
htim inKurn,o7l° hen he perceived what appeared to
The French aal'olYr;
greiacruhßiicyewnizbetrw"e'eaaarr%g to put up a separate tele-
and Bucharest for their own
The Bucharest co r.
on the authority of arielrenrnfdre,llt
Ifl)f th© Frenden,
jonzate,
"m
'Allow' sta.- that
42.1,A firp4 at
tl7lga:isnhgadvoe wan .the Deart'trt'ojanm''rehantien which
, .esthe
' them to return,
ta
relztz, aLd taced
,:liatnnmiet
fidn, passengers.

WOOLLEN TRADE.

(From the Leeds Mercury of this day.)

We have observed no change of any moment in the
state of the woollen market during the current week.
In the Cloth-halls, both on Saturday and Tuesday, there
was a fair attendance of merchants, and a steady, but
not a brisk, business was done—something equal to a
present average.
The trade in the warehouses has been rather quiet
during this week ; it has been steady, but, we believe,
most of the merchants have done less business than
they did during the two or three preceding weeks. In
fact, buyers were rather scarce during the early part
of the week ; a few have made their appearance within
the last day or two, but they operate very cau-
tiously, and their purchases are mostly confined to
immediate requirements. The London buyers report
favourably of the state of the London market ; they
state that they are doing a better trade, and hope to do
a good steady business during the next month.
HUDDERSFIELD, April 24.—The market of to-day was
but too quiescent, especially in the Cloth-hall. Some
few houses, however, could reckon on having had a good
day. There was a moderate attendance of buyers, but
their patterns were very select, and only purchased in
small quantities. Pt ices continue nearly stationary.
ROCHDALE, April 23.—We have had a more steady
business doing to-day in pieces, and the merchants have
evinced a greater disposition to purchase. There is a
fair demand for wool, and prices may be quoted a little
firmer.

HALIFAX, April 21.—There continues a fair business
doing in the worsted trade, all circumstances con-
sidered, and prices fully as firm. In the wool market
there have been some extensive sales this week, at rather
better prices for certain kinds of combing fleeces, which
very lately were showing a temporary inclination to give
way a little. Wethers appear to have recovered 141.
to 124 d. again. Short wools are a little better, and noils
fully as dear.