The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-01 00:00:00

stamps—stamps having yielded in 1864 £9,317,000,
an d in 1863 £8,994,000. Taxes, again, so-called
ha ye improved by the sum of £168,000 on the year
just ended, the yield under them in 1863 having
been £3,150,000, whereas in 1864 it has been a yield
there of £3,218,000. If the Customs have produced
to the revenue during this last twelvemonth a total
lei s by near the £BOO,OOO, as already shown, than
they did in the year immediately preceding—the
Excise has considerably more than made up the
deficiency. There, instead of the returns show-
ing any falling off at all, much less
falling off to the extent of £BOO,OOO, and
upwards there is an increase of more than £BOO,OOO,
there is an increase of fully £1,052,000! The Ex-
cise returns, which in 1863 amounted to £17,155,u00,
having in 1861 advanced t 3 an aggregate of
£18,207,000. The falling off upon the year's re-
venue, as compared with the revenue yielded by its
immediate predecessor, is to the extent of £391,593
—the national income amounting, in the year end-
ing 31st of March, 1864, to £70,208,963, as com-
pared with an income of £70,60.3,561 from its
immediate predecessor. Upon the whole, therefore,
the results are eminently encouraging. The Chan-
cellar of the Exchequer having himself anticipated
a modest surplus of £500,000, finds his anticipations
exceeded agreeably enough, now that he is about
to submit his newly prepared Budget to the House
of Commons, by about £2,000,000.

The Conservative demonstration at Exeter at
which Sir STAFFORD NORTHCOTE made his remark-
ab:e speech on the condition and prospects of the
Ministry, was one of considerable importance.
These meetings are increasing in frequency and
numbers, a sign that the party which they represent
is gathering its forces and preparing for active exer-
tion. It is a sign, too, of that probability of success
which has a wonderful effect in stimulating the
enthusiasm and enforcing the convictions of politi-
cians. Although the greater part of the territorial
nobility and a large proportion of the landed gentry
are known to incline to Conservative views and
feelings, still it requires some prospect of success in
the political arena to awake such animation in
rural retreats. The meeting at Exeter was by no
means unimportant, eince the leading men of the
county attended it, and it had a specific purpose,
being held to promote the return of Lord COUR-
TENAY, eldest son of the Earl of DavoN, for that
city. The coming election was of course prominent
among the topics of debate—that election which is
beginning to show with terrible distinctness through
the vista of the future. " Next year at farthest
—possibly this year" is the warning cry sounding
very differently in the ears of the Ministerialists
and of the Opposition. It has often provoked very
different feelings in their respective ranks, since
time after time, when the Conservatives have ap-
pealed to the country on Government questions, the
answer has been unfavourable. They have usually
lost in a new Parliament any temporary advantage
which they may have gained in the old, and the
threat of a dissolution has been a potent weapon in
the hands of the Government. The Liberals
had a most captivating programme—Reform,
Retrenchment, Free Trade, Peace, and
National Honour were foremost in the
list, while the Conservatives hod nothing they
could bring prominently forward as their own,
But unfortunately for Lord PALMERSTON'S Cabinet
and supporters, people have begun asking when
the performance is going to begin, and discover that
Reform means rest; retrenchment, lavish expendi-
ture ; free trade, a duty on foreign rags ; peace, an
embroilment in half a dozen places; while the
maintenance of national honour has made us the
laughing-stock of Europe and America. Under
such circumstances the public feeling has been
gradually turning towards less voluble professors,
and it only needs the Opposition to come forward
with a bold, manly, and independent foreign polfcy
to secure, the, respect and support of the people.
The addresses the other evening were in harmony
with the general feeling on this matter; in fact,
no considerable body of influential Englishmen
could be got together at present without express-
ing some of that indignation and irritation so uni-
versally felt throughout the country at the attitude
which England has been made to assume. Lord
COURTENAY, the future candidate for Exeter, whose
address gives promise of his being no idle or inca-
pable representative, very truly said, with reference
to the peace-at-any-price policy of the day, that,
although war was a cause of great evil, and the
misery arising from it was incalculable, there were
evils nearly as great. It was a grave matter for a
State to abdicate its functions, and an evil
greater than war itself was the loss of
national spirit. " The noble lord very
justly reproached Earl RUSSELL with having in-
sulted Russia without benefiting Poland, and
having lost the friendship of the Confederate
States to subject themselves to nothing but insult
from the Federal Government. Mr. GARD, the
Conservative member for the City, boldly declared
that the present state of things could not last
much longer, and expressed his conviction that
the Opposition had already a majority in the
House, a majority which they might reasonably
hope would be greatly increased at the next general
election. The Hertfordshire victory was of course
cited as an inspiriting example, and probably
the success in that case will lead to several others,
since it has encouraged the Conservatives to
united action, and has given them the stimulus
of that hope which is always so powerful an
auxiliary. A sanguine man has tenfold the chances
of success of a desponding and hopeless mortal.
Mr. DISRAELI, as Sir STAFFORD NORTHCOTE
amusingly told his hearers, is what his enemies
call a sanguine man, and his friends a man of
great courage, and to his possession of those
qualities the Conservative party unquestionably
owe much of their recovered position. All its
members are now recovering spirit and energy,
and are looking forward with confidence to the
promise of the future; but it was not so at one
time. It is to be hoped they will profit by the
experience of the past, and when they attain their
long sought ambition they will show that they have
taken warning by the errors of their predecessors,
by pursuing a firm and consistent policy abroad,
and by faithfully fulfilling the pledges which, in
the hour of anticipated triumph and doubtful suc-
cess, they have given to the public at borne.

The correspondence between the Government and
the Messrs. LAIRD is now before the public, and it
is satisfactory to know that there is thus an oppor-
tunity of becoming more intimately acquainted
with the details of this remarkable case. In the
first place, there was a churlishness on the part of
the Government in refusing to publish the official
correspondence which put au appropriate finish to
the long course of uncourteous conduct and unwar-
rantable interference which distinguished the whole
of their proceedings in the matter. It was not of
so much consequence in so far as regarded the de-
sired information being circulated, but it was of
importance, as it testified, to the total want of
fairness that characterised the authorities, and it
was an insult alike to the Messrs. LAIRD and the
public in general. Those who study the reports
here presented to notice will be amazed at the
tiling of aliafain oxcuaee, and lame and impotent