The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-02 00:00:00

Ot

LONDON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1852

Naturally enough, the Financial Reformers have
revived their very wholesome agitation immediately
upon the eve of the anxiously-expected occasion
when the Budget is to be formally submitted to
the House of Commons by the CHANCELLOR of
the EXCHEQUER. Yesterday, however, they re-
stricted their endeavours to the one important
purpose of insisting upon the total remission, or
at any rate upon the gradual reduction, of the
most unpopular and pernicious of all taxes—the
Taxes upon Knowledge. We could have wished
for our pFt that the meeting held last evening,
in Exeter Hall, and presided over very efficiently
by Mr. DOUGLAS JERROLD, had been convened
somewhat earlier than the Ist of December. For
all practical purposes, we regret to think
that it must necessarily prove inoperative, in as
far as it could be supposed to affect in any
manner the anticipated financial statement of the
DERBY-DISRAELI Government. It cannot but be
obvious that the Budget for '52-53 has long since
been definitively arranged. Nothing can in any
way be insinuated so late as the eleventh-hour-
and-a-half as a practical improvement. It has
now only to be explained by the leader of the
Lower House of Parliament. Eagerly shall we
welcome in it any relaxation of the existing sys-
tem, so far as affects the wider diffusion of cheap
literature. Possibly Mr. DISRAELI may have re-
cognised the necessity of reforms in this direction.
A successful man of letters himself, he cannot be
blind to the inestimable value of knowledge to the
community, any more than he can be unconscious
of the barriers• raised by the paper and other
duties in the way of its more extended dissemi-
nation. We shall see. Until to-morrow evening,
at least, let us hope. If by no more compre-
hensive innovation, much good might be effected
by the mitigation of the evils resulting from the
odious tax upon advertisements. Meanwhile—
whether we are waiting vainly or rationally for
the removal of these particular burthens from the
population—we cannot but be very materiallyserv-
ing the cause of financial improvement, by giving,
as we do elsewhere in our impression of this even-
ing, a report of the masterly speech delivered
yesterday by Mr. COBDEN on the subject of these
detestable and injurious Taxes upon Knowledge. ,

It seldom happens that the career of a great
man can be authenticated, in all. its more remark-
able incidents, upon oath, in the form of a regular
affidavit. Elsewhere, in our impression of this
evening, will be found, however, a document pre-
cisely of this character—a document of inestim-
able value, and of extraordinary importance, re-
lating as it does to the principal occurrences in
the history of Sir CHARLES NAPIER, the heroic
conqueror of Scinde, renowned not less for his
consummate ability as an Administrator than for
Avgenius as a Generalissimo. It cannot but
e been observed by the majority of the intelli-
gent 'N..I,
ati .
p Hon that about a week since that emi-
nent man applied in
criminal
Quarter/Ij, informationin against the publisher of the
consequence of an article contained
in the current
according to thnelm ber of that Review, calculated,
judgments
of the applicant, to dis-
tort the
contemporaries, and
thereby seriously tso °Ill; his
his reputation. The
statements there sworn to be
, altogetlnteers
as evidence of the reaeethSir CHARLES NAPIER
s.of his request,
consent as a
proved, nevertheless
aof u the LORD
means for obtaining the
We for a cri-
_as entirely
CHIEF JUSTICE to the granting of
nainal prosecution. The application
—the rule was refused unsuccessful
the obnoxi-
was virtually declared, in the very
ous article in the last number of the nuarter
teet% of the
hero of Scinde, in
spite of his manly appeal and
to be in no way whatever
his explicit assertions,
either false or calumnious.

Cordially, indeed with the whole intensity of
our nature, do we accede to the wisdom, and the
justice, and the liberality, and the patriotism of
the sentiments expressed upon the occasion by
Lord CAMPBELL, in reference to the necessity of
maintaining intact the most perfect freedom of
Liberty to the Press. As we are ourselves num-
bered in the ranks of journalism,
we could not in
truth by any possibility do otherwise—for in so