The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-26 00:00:00

BUMOURS CONCERNING THE

.MINISTRY.

Yeet:rday was the high festival of Rumour. In the
afternoon—some time before Mr. Hayter made an offi-
• cial annoencement of the fact in the House of Commons
- —it had become tolerably well known that Lord John
Russell no longer held office in the Cabinet of Lord
. Aberdeen. The public expected to hear that Govern-
• ment had been defeated in an attempt to oppose Mr.
Roebuck's notion for a committee of inqniryinto the con-
duct of the war, and they were obliged to be content, at
least for a few hours, with the sacrifice of one Minister.
And after all it was neither the Duke of Neweastlenor Mr.
Sidney Herbert, but Lord John Russell who had offered
himself as the victim to public indignation. Were matters
to remain thus the Peelites would be undisturbed in the
honours and emoluments of office, and the Whig section
of the Cabinet alone would bo made to feel that " Eng-
land does not like a Coalition." But can the movement
stop here Or are we to hear cf fresh resignations ?
Is one Minister after the other to flinch from inquiry
until Lord Aberdeen is left, in solitary and unenviable
grandeur, to look upon the desolation ho has caused ?
Or is Lord John Russell the only one who has the
honesty to confess that, in almost every respect, the
Crimean expedition Las been shamefully mismanaged •
that the best thing is to make a clean breast of it, and
to give up the task into the hands of men better qua!i-
fied to meet a great emergency 1 To none of these ques
tions can any reliable ansyscr be re'-urned, beyond what
will be fund stated in the preceding reticle.
While waiting till Lord John she tell his own tale
in Parlianient, it may be interesting to give, in as few
words 23 possible, the passing rumours of yesterday.
In some quarters it was believed, early in the forenoon, 1
that the whole Ministry had resolved upon resigning.
The ordeal, it was said, was too severe. Do what they
would, it was equally impossible to contradict the facts,
and to withstand the sarcasm of Mr. Roebuck. The
time had gone by for promises and equivocations. The
British nation wanted to know what had become of the
thousands of brave men who had lately left these shores
in the pride of life and strength. From every lip, in
every palace and every cottage, the stern inquiry had
come. It was a terrible thing to face the organ of a nation,
roused beyond endurance by the spectacle of calamities
which _might have been avoided. It might be that
other men would have been quite -as inexperienced,
quite as unprepared for war, quite as unable to over-
come the enormous difficulties of the crisis. But be
that as it might, Ministers could not but know that
they at least had failed, and the only possible course was 1
•
to resign, _ _

Another rumour soon succeeded—that two members
only were to be sacrificed. The Duke of Newcastle
and Mr. Sidney Herbert were responsible, in the
eyes of the public, for the confessed mismanagement
of the Crimean expedition. Why should the whole
Cabinet suffer for the sirs of two men / Why not
fling away tie leaven which went far to corrupt the
whole mama ! This was no time to think of private
friendship and family coneexions. Public men must
rise above such petty considerations. How has that'
powerful Coalition Ministry earned nothing but con-
tempt, inspiring no confidence, declining in reputation,
but because two out of the whole number had shown
themselves unequal to their task I There could be no
doubt about the matter. The sinning members must be
cut off. Is other words, the Duke of Newcastle and
Mr. Sidney Herbert must resign.
At last these rumours evaporated, and the real truth
came out that Lord John Russell alene had resigned,
and that political oracles had been consulted in vain.
But the question remained, how the event came to pass I
According to some accounts, the whole proceeding is a con-
spiracy, got up by Lord J. Russell and Lord Palmerston,
for the entire destruction of the Peelites. It was all
very well, so long as the Whigs were weak, to coalesce
with the followers of Sir Robert Peel, but what was the
case now I It was the Peelites who had drawn down
upon the Cabinet the indignation of the public, and they
must perish in the storm which their own conduct had
raised. Besides, the whole force of public opinion
pointed in that direction. It was Lord Grey who had
pointed out the necessity for a War Minister, and no one
was so well fitted as he was to undertake the arduous
duties of that post. With Lord John Russell as Premier,
Lord Palmerston as leader of the House of Commons,
and Lord Grey as War Minister, the whole aspect of
affairs would presently be changed. The wand of
the magician would wave over the snow-clad steppes
of the Crimea, Sebastopol would fall, and the memory
of the dread and sorrowful past would quickly fade
away.

But this was not the only for'n that busy rumour
took, Lord John Russell's esoteric reasons for assum-
ing the position he did were revealed by certain mes-
meric sages. Suppose, after all, that he saw reasons to
doubt the sincerity of Austria, and, in opposition to the
other members of the Cabinet, would gladly see an end
to the conferences at Vienna. Suppose that the ex-
Minister had resolved that he, at least, would be no
party to an easy peace, and that his resignation was, in
fact, a censure on colleagues too ready to sacrifice the
honour of their country—

- around the board
Thus Lara's Tassels prattled if their lord.

But, as already said, all that is really known of Lord
as ohn Russell's resignation, and the reason he has
ssigned for it, will be found stated in the preceding
article. For what he himself may be disposed to tell
we must wait till this evening. In the meantime, it
seems not uninteresting to chronicle the various shapes
that rumour successively assumed in the course of yes-
ferday—te stamp on the canvas these " Cynthias of the
minute"—to eneroe in amber these flies of the order of
the ephemerce.—Daily News.

TITHE COMMUTATION- SEPTENNIAL

AVERAGES.

TO THE EDITOR OF TLIR SUN.
Sir, —On the 81.11 inst., I communicated to you the
result of the septennial averages to Cl,ristwas, 1854, as
deduced from the return published in the London Gazettc
of the sth inst.:—

s. d.
Wheat
Barley
Oats 2 6
Mid that each 100 L of the tithe rent charge for the year
1855 would amount to 891. 15s. Sid.
Several communications having Lem addressed to me
expressing surprise that the value of the rent charge
should have gradually decreased since the year 1849,
while the price of wheat has gradually increased during
the same period, in order to show that this may be ex-
plained, I must draw attention to the mode in which
the question of tithes was settled in 1836.
It was enacted, by the 57th clause of the Tithe Com-
mutation Act (6 and 7 Wm. IV., c. 71), " that the
amount of the rent charge, as awarded or agreed upon,
should be divided into three portions, and that every
tithe rent charge should be deemed to be of the value of
such number of imperial bushels, and decimal parts of an
imperial bushel of wheat, barley, and oats, as the-same
would have purchased at the average prices for seven
years ending Thusday before Christmas-day, 1835, in
case one-third part of each rent charge had been invested
in the purchase of wheat, one-third part thereof in the
purchase of barley, and the remaining one.third part i❑
the purchase of oats."
In conformity with the above, we find that 1001. ex-
pended in wheat, barley, and oats, would purchase the
following quantities, at the average prices for seven
years to Christmas, 1835, as fixed in the London GaTctte
of Dec. 9, 1836 :

Per Imp. Bushel. Imp. Bus liels
s. i.
One-third, or £33 6 Bin wheat, at 7 014 is equivalent to 94.935489
One-third, or 33 6 Bln barley, at 3 Ili If 168.421052
One third, or 33 68 in oats, at 2 9 f, 242.424242

£lOO 0 0

It is, therefore, clear that the rent charge was not a
fixed money payment of 1001., but only such a sum ns
the above quantities of wheat, barley, and oath are equi-
valent to, according to the average priees for seven years
to each preceding Christmas.
The septennial averages, as published in the London
Gazette, may be shown to be correct by the following
statement of the annual averages :
Wheat per Imp. Qr. Barley per Imp. Qr. Oats per Imp. Qr.
a. d. F. d. F. d.
1848 6O 6 ... 31 6 20 6
1849 44 3 27 9 ... 17 6
1850 4O 3 ... 23 6 ... 16 5
1851 3B 6 ... 24 9 ... 18 7
1852 4O 9 23 6 19 1
1853 53 3 ... 33 2 21 0
1854 72 5 ... 3G 0 ... 27 11

3)339 11 7)205 2 7)141 0

8)48 6 8)29 3 8)20 1

Average p.
imp. bus. 6 Oi
The year 1847, which in the above account is re-
placed by the year 1854, was, in consequence of the
scarcity which then existed, one of high prices, and pea.
titularly so as to barley and eats, viz.:—
d.
1847.... Wheat, 69 Q ... Barley, 44 2 Oats, 28 8
On comparing these amounts, which are excluded
from the seven years, with those of 1854, which are
added, it will be evident that the septennial average
must necessarily be less than the preceding year, al-
though the price of wheat was a little more in 1854 than
in 1847.
We have seen that the 1001. rent charge was, from
the passing of the act, to be represented by a certain
number of bushels of wheat, barley, and oats ; there-
fore, if wo value these numbers of bushels by the septen-
nial average prices, as fixed in the London ela:ette of the
sth inst., we shall find the value of 100/. of tithe rcpt
charge for the year 1855 as follows ?--
Per Imp. Bushel.
■. d.

01.955589 bushels of wheat, at 6 Oi
.. ... £2B 15 8
168.421052 at 3 7i . 30 14 0
212,424242 . at 2 6 ... 30 6 0

£B9 15
I hope the explanation I have given will enable any
one to satisfy himself, at any future time, as to the ac-
curacy of the valuation of the tithe rent charge, as well
as of the septennial average prices of wheat, barley, and
oats.

It may be of •some use to the owners of tithe rent
charge to be aware that, by the 20th section of 3 Vic.,
c. 15, the half-yearly rent charge which becomes due on
the Ist of January, is to be regulated by the averages
publised in the month of January in the preceding year.
not by the averages published a few days after the said
Ist of January.--I remain, &c.,

. ,
CHARLES M, WILLICH,
Actuary University Life Office.
25, Suffollostreet, Jan. 231 180.
_ _