The Sun.
London, England, 1852-09-27 00:00:00


Dividend Amount '
Name of Conpany per of Paid. Price.
Annum. Share.
_-.........--•-•••••- --....-__ -.-- - __„.
Z s. d. 4 5. d.
Australasia • • .. • • •• • • 61. per cent. 40 0 0 40 0 0 57
BritshNorth American 61. per cent. 50 0 0 50 0 0 -
Commercial of London 61. per cent. 100 0 0 20 0 0 29
Colonial .• • • • ...... •• 31. per cent. 100 0 0 25 0 0 -
Ionian .. • • • • .. • • • • • • 61. pr cent. 25 0 0 25 0 0 -
Lend. Char. Ilk. 01 AtI5. - 20 0 0 2 10 0 4
Landon and County... 61. per cent. 50 0 0 20 0 0 -
Loncln and Westnamstr 61. per cent. 100 0 0 20 0 0 -
London Joint-Stock . • • 61. per cent. 50 0 0 10 0 0 -
Provincial of Ireland.. 81. per cent. 100 0 0 25 0 0 -
Ditto, New.•• • • • • • • 81. per cent. 10 0 0 10 0 0 -
National of Ireland •• 41. per cent. 50 0 0 22 10 0 -
Nat. Provncial of En7. 61. per cent. 100 0 0 35 0 0 -
Ditto, Now. • • • • • •• 61. per cent. 20 0 0 10 0 0 -
Oriental Bank Corpora. ,81. p.
South Australis • • • • .. '61. p. ct. & bs. 25 0 0 25 0 0 -
nl
Ditto • • • • •• • • • • •• •• 61. per cent. - 2 10 0 6%
clnioo:o of on
71. per cent. 50 0 0 10 0 0 17
Union of Madrid ..... , _ 40 0 0 40 0 0
----------
Uf ALitstdraollni. i
....... . 6/.p.ct.&ts 25 0 0 25 0 0 50
rzirsuRAircs a OISCPANIES.
Dividend Amount
Name of Company. per of Paid. Price
Annum. Share.
------. ..................... .. ....• ....•••••• -.•••••••
£ a. d. £ 5 d.
Albion • • • • • • • • •• " • • 31.105. 500 0 0 50 0 86
Alliance Brit. and Fer. 71. 145.6d.bs. 100 0 0 11 0 22%
Ditto Marine. • • • • • • 61. p.c.& bs. 100 0 0 25 0 42
Anchor .• • • • • • • .. • .. • 6 per cent. 5 0 0 1 0 -
Mims . • • • • • • ...... ' '• 185.6d. 50 0 0 5 1 0 19%
Argus Life •• • • - •• 41.per cen . 100 8 0 16 0 -
British Commercial .. 7s. 6d. 50 0 0 5 0 7
Clericl,Med.hGen•Life 5pr ct.8cbs. 100 0 0 10 0 20%
County - • • • • • • ....., 41. 100 0 0 10 0 102
Crown • • • • •• •• • • .... 145. 50 0 0 5 0 16%
Eagle • • •• bs. 50 0 0 5 0 7%
Eqity and Law ...... 43 per cent. 100 0 0 5 0 5%
European Life • • •• . lbs _
. 20 0 0 All aid. 14
General • • • • ........ 5 0 0 5%
Globe • • • • '• '• •• 61. per cent. Stock. 145%
Guardian •• •• 51. per cent 100 0 0 45 0 58
imperial Fire • • •• • • •• 121. per cent. 500 0 0 50 0 0 256
Imperial Life • • • • .... 125. 100 0 0 10 0 0 19%
Indemnity Marine •• .. 11.5h.& 1,4. 100 0 0 20 0 0 52%
Law Fire • ..........
25 & 25. bs. 100 0 0 2 10 0 4%
Law Life • • • • • • •• •• .. _ 100 0 0 10 0 0 47
Legal and General Life - 50 0 0 2 0 0 5%
London Fire • • •• .... 105. & bs. 25 0 0 12 10 0 30
London Ship - • .... 105. & bs. 25 0 0 12 10 0 30
Marine • • -; ••v•,.• • •• •• •• 155.per share 100 0 0 15 0 0 17%
Ked.invlinc'en•Life 4%l. per et. 50 0 0 2 0 0 2%
Monarchl. Va - 5 0 0 1 0 0 205.0d
. 5 a . : 51.
Minerva • • • . • .......
S* ati o n al L " e
*a
5 p. ct. & bs. 20 0 0 2 0 0 5
per cent. 20 0 0 2 10 0 -
Pallaclitun Life ....... . 51. per cent. 50 0 0 2 0 0 2%
Pelican • • • • • • ........ 45
- - -
pace ''x • • • • •• ...... ..
goyal Exchange ...... 61. - - - 173
Professional Life...... 51. per cent. 6 5 0 0 10 0 155.0d
provident Life.. „, .... 11. 55. to bs. 100 0 0 10 0 0 40
Rock Life............ sa. 5 0 0 0 10 0 5%
p.ct. & bs. Stock. all 231
.
Ditto Life ..
11. 6s. - .... 61. 10s. - „ 211
55
United rligcloni ... 41.p. ct.&bs. 20 0 0 4 0 0 4%
Craiversal Life,....... 21.5s. per sh. 100 0 0 10 0 0 41
Victoria Life,. ...... 5/.
...
per cent. - 4 12 6 5%
DOOX$.
1 Dividend Amount
Name Of Company, I per of Paid. Price.
Annum. Share.
--•------ _ - - - -
X 5. d. £ s. d.
',:lommercial ......... 41. pr cent. Stock. - 105
East and West India...6%1. pr cent. Stock. - 168
East Country ........ 20s. per sh. 100 0 0 - -
London ..., ,
....... 51. pr cent. Stock. - 130
Ditto Bonds........ 41. per cent. - - -
St.Katharine ........ 4 per cent. Stock. - 95
Southampton ....... i 11. per cent.; 50 0 0 50 0 0 34
Victoria .........., - 20 0 0 2 0 0 6
BRIDGZS
Dividend Amount
Name of Company. per of Paid. Price.
Annum. Share.
--- - --- -- •••=1111•
X• a. d. X. s. d.
ilungerford .......... - - - -
Southwrk .......... 100 0 0 - - -
Ditto Nw of N p.c. 70s. per cent. 50 0 0 - 16
Waterloo .... „ „ „ .. - 100 0 0 - a
Dit+2 Old Amu, of81. 21.8s. Od. - 60 0 0 24%
Ditto Nw ditto of 71. 21. 2s. Od. - 40 0 0 22%
Far %hall .... ... AT. 2i. 7010 3 - 20
IITATE31-177031XS.
Dividend Amount
Name of Company. per of Paid. Price.
Annum. Share.
---........._ ----
X s. d. £ a. d.
East London.......... IlLper cut. 100 0 0 - 155
Grand Janctien ...... 41. per cnt. 50 0 0 - 68
Kent•• • • •• •• • • ...... 41. per cat. 100 0 0 - 83
Lambeth ............ - 100 0 0 - -
New River Company.. 21. 'Os. - - 60
Southwark & Vauxhall 51. per cut. 100 0 0 - 90
West Middlesex...... 66.01. pr en - - 105

OA NMI'S.
..; I 4 Dividend
Names of g Dividend! pri0. Names of 2 I
Companies. ..
,,,i per I - --- Companies. d per Price.
lc Annuni. Annum.
c \
•------- -- _.1—_.. ..----- — — —.
£ £\
Ashtn& Oldn 98 71, p. ct. 140 Macclesfield • 100' 21.10s. 50
Barnsley•• • • 160 — Neatk •• •• • • 1001 161. —
14rknk&Abrg 150 51. 85 Omford .. • • • • 100 13/. 135
Birmingham 40 41. 101 ,Peak Forest. 78 31. 18s. 70
Coventry.. • • 100 252. 200 Regent's • • • • 33 1/. Os. 17
Derby • • • • • 100 62. 63 Rochdale.... 85 , 21. 42
Ellsmre&Chs 69 2% p. et. 33% Somrset Coal 150 — —
GrandJunctn 100 31. pr.ct, 50 Do.LkFd St 12 — —
gDo., 6 pr.Ct. 10 6L pr. ct. 11% Stffrd&Werc 140 281. 405
Grand Surrey 1001 2t. 10s. — Shrewsbury.. 15 — —
Grand Union 100 11. 10s. 24 Stoarbridge.. 145 "I. 290
Kennt& Avu 39 4s. Od. 7 Severn and 7 21. Os. 24
Lancaster . 100 — — Wye Bail. t 26
Leetis&Livrp 100 201. 508 Warwick& 41. 40
Leicester .. • • 100 51. 66 Birming. j 100
Leicstr&Nth 83 41. 44% Warwick/10
Loughborogh 1421 701. 510 Napton.. 3 100 W. 28
hfonmonthsh 100, — — Worcstr &2 78 31. 33
Nintgemrysh 100 — — Birming.
MeltnMwbryl 100 — — Wilts & Brks — 10s. Od. 7%

GAS-WONT AND COKE COMPANIES.
Dividend Amount
Name of Company. of
A Paid. Price.
npnenrm. Share.
...1•••• .././....... .1............... ..1.1.1•10...
Se le d. .t. s. d.
British • • • • • • • • " ** ** - - - -
Ditto Provincial.. •• 11. 81. 20 0 0 20 0 0 19
Brighton • • •• • • • • • • " 51. 20 0 0 20 0 0 16
City of London • • • • • • 61. 100 0 0 150 0 0 -
Continents] (Thi d?Calb.) 41. 75 0 0 43 10 0 67
Equitable-. • • • • • • •• •• 50s. 50 0 0 50 0 0 26
Great Central:....... 10 per cent. 10 0 0 10 0 0 14%
Imperif" .. • • .• .... • • 31. & bones. 50 0 0 50 0 0 85
Independent ... • • • • • • 61. 40 0 0 40 0 0 46
London...................- • • • • • • - 50 0 0 50 0 0 -
Do., Parl. Preference 61. per cent. 25 0 0 25 0 0 25
Phoenix . • • .„ .• .. •• - 311. per cent. 50 0 0 49 0 0 26%
Rate= • • • • • • • • • • • 61. 100 0 0 90 0 0 -
United General •• • • • • 11. 50 0 0 fin 0 0 24
Westmirster Chartered 51. ber cent, 50 0 0 50 0 0 36
Ditto, New •• • • - •• 51. Per cent. 50 0 0 10 0 0 63(
LIST OP SCOTTISN cOMPANXES' PRICES
Dividend Amount
Name of CompanY• per of Paid. Price.
Annum. Share.
£ a. d. I a. d
Bank of Scotland ..... 71. per cent. 100 0 0 100 0 0 19234
Bfitish Linen Company 81. per cent. 110 0 0 100 0 0 210
Caledonian Bank ..... 81. per cent. 10 0 0 2 10 0 3/.16s.
City of Glasgow Bank 51. per cent. 10 0 0 10 0 0 10%
Clydesdale Bank-. •• •• 61. Per cent. 20 0 0 10 0 0 121 lOs
Commercial Bank •• •• 71. per cent. 500 0 0 100 0 0 181
Eastern Bank .. • • • • ••
3611:
per
rr
eceenntt.. 251
00 00 150 00 00 10
4
EExdinenbe.n&eGeBlansto7f
sl3eaentk..
___ 100 0 0 31 5 0 9s. Od
National Bank • • • .... 634 Per cent. 50 0 0 10 0 0 16
Not th of Scotlandliank 51.pereent. 20 0 0 2 10 0 3
RoyalBank of Scotland 51. per cent. 100 0 0 100 0 0 1344
Union Bank of Scotland 81. per cent. 100 0 0 50 0 0 9234
Western Baia • • • • • • • • 71• per cent. 50 0 0 50 0 0 71
Alliance Fire and Life 8341.pr cent. 10 0 0 10 0 0 21%
British Guarantee • • • • 41. per cent. 10 0 0 1 0 0 18s 6d
Ceedonian Fire Insur. 101. per cent. 100 0 0 10 0 0 24
City of Glasgow Life.. 6/. per cent. 25 0 0 2 0 0 41. 15a
Colonial Life .• • • .• • • 51. per cent. 50 0 0 1 0 0 2%
Edinburgh Life Insnr. 61. per cent. 100 0 0 15 0 0 2354
Eng.& Scot, Law Life 51.per cent. 50 0 0 2 17 6 3%
Life Assoc. of Scotland 61.per cent. 10 0 O 1 10 0 31. 17s
NationalFire and Life 6/. per cent. 10 0 0 1 0 0 308.6d
North British I. n. s.nr.... ....
5611..
ppeerr cent 200 25000 00 00 270
00 00 3124:
ScottishUnionInsrnce. 7%1. pr cent. 20 0 0 1 0 0 328.9d
crStntantedd Dap.
eLni
fe
Assurance 51.per cent. 10 0 0 1 0 0 ,19s 6d
.--------------------.
MISCELLANEOUS.
_______...-------------..
Dividend Amount
Paid. price.
Name of Company. Ar 1peu rm.Share.ef
10 -0
0 2 0 0 4
X. a. d. X. a. d.
A -Jam Tea •• ...• .• •• - 50 0 0 20 0 0 -
21. 52. 50 0 0 -
Suction Mart • • • . • • • •
o00 3105 430
00 232206
Austrelan Agriculturl
35 0 0 -
11111.0s. 1"210,
_0°0
15s. -
British American Land 38 II 0
AAnstrus*-rianan
Canada ... •• ........ 61. per cent. 100 0 0 32 14 0 50
Angle-Mexican T1tratlii i. n. Mail
t. .
Do. 5 per cent Bonds - - - _
61. per
Tcent.
- 115%
?geprticetn. BBeonndeds 651j.
pPe
_.
.- 97
- 20 0 0 19%
ElectricCity tiN -
Ditto,
25 0 0
Telegraph (A)
Ditto .. • • • • • . • • (B) 7 10 0 -
+ 100 0 0
Equitable Reversionry 51 pr. cen- 100 0 I 119
Ditto New .. • ....• - 50 0 0
et 100 0 0
Gen. Revers. & Invest. 5 p. c.
- 100 0 0 100
Stolk.
15 0 0
15 0 0 15 0 0 Is
Gen.SteamNavigation 10epr:.ccetn. t.
14 0 0 29%
Hudson's Bay...... • • - 220
Hungerford .....• • • - 21. 55. 100 0 0 100 0 0 47
...r cent.
London Institution ... - - 78 15 0 5
100100
00 00 16000
00 00 1_16
- 12 10 0 RLoaneedeolln Reversionary Si. per cent.
-
Price's Patent Cand. Co. 101. r ,: -
cent. 20 0 0 17 10 0 25
ItneevyearlsmioneialrItIelnt.
Steam...
South Australian . • • • • 51. per share. 25 0 0 25 0 0 -
Trust and Loan Comp.
of Upper Canada.• .. - 20 0 0 3 0 •
'3441. pr
P.
rehcarenet:

rADVENTISEMENT.]—Holloway's Pills are an In-
fallible Remedy for the Cure of Coughs, Colds, and Asthmas.
—There are daily. so many undeniable proofs of the efficacy of
Holloway's Pills in the cures of diseases of the chest, arising
either from old coughs, recent colds, wheezings or shortness of
breath, that all persons, whether young or old, suffering from
such complaints, should have immediate recourse to these in.
luable pills, as a fair trial will show their extraordinary
powers, Many persons who were scarcely able to draw their
breath, and apparently almost at death's door, have been com-
pletely by this remedy, to the astonishment of those who have
witnessed their sufferings.—Sold by all druggists and at Pro-
fessor Holloway's Establishment, 244, Strand, London.
THE COMMON LAW Bau.—From Thursday next
a provision in the late County Courts Further Extension Act
(15th and 16th Victoria, c. 54) will take effect, which will
prevent a number of barristers, including a few learned ser-
geants, from practising at the common law bar. The 16th
section of the Act states, that " After three months from the
passing of this Act (June 30) no judge of the said County
Courts shall practise at the bar or as a special pleader or
equity draughtsman, or be directly or indirectly concerned as
a conveyancer, notary public, solicitor, attorney, or proctor."
\ This clause will enable the County Court judges to devote
themselves exclusively to their duties, and do away with
late sittings in the evening, and the crowding of a number
of cases into one day's list. By the same Act (section 14)
the salaries of the judges may be increased to 1,5004, and
" in no case shall any judge be paid a less salary than 1,2001."
There are GO County Court judges.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
TIMES.—" The Spanish ulcer and the Austrian
match," said Napoleon, at St. Helena, " were my
ruin." Disenchanted of the illusions of absolute
power, restored to the faculty, which he had lost, of
justly estimating his position as the ruler of republi-
can and revolutionary France, Napoleon saw, when
it was too late, that the attempt to sever himself from
the people from which he sprang, and to introduce
his parvenu family into the hierarchy of European
monarchs, had robbed him of popularity without in-
creasing his dignity, and deprived him of the support
of the class to which he belonged, without conciliating
for him the regard and sympathy of that to which
he aspired. Eckmiihl and Wagram had given him
the power to demand from prostrate Austria the
hand of one of her princesses, but this alliance, bril-
liant as it was, could not secure to him in adversity
the fidelity of his father-in,law, or raise him to a
permanent position in the aristocracy of kingship ;
it was not in Napoleon's power to be a legitimate
monarch, though he might, had he chosen, have
been something quite as respectable. The same
folly which made Cromwell covet the Garter
made Napoleon seek after foreign alliance. His
renown, his genius, his great exploits were as
nothing unless consecrated by the blood of Rudolph
of Hapsburg. Did we want any proof of the narrow
intelligence and vulgar estimation of things which
characterise the present ruler of Prance, we should
find it in the manner in which he deals with this deli-
cate subject in the speech just delivered by him on
the inauguration of the equestrian statue recently
erected to the honour of Napoleon by the well-garri-
soned town of Lyons. The man who, be he kinsman
or stranger, Frenchman or foreigner, undertakes a
panegyric of Napoleon the Great has a fruitful—in-
deed, an inexhaustible subject ; it required something
less than the mind of a gentleman-usher to treat such
a theme after the fashion of Louis Napoleon. The
principal point which this man of etiquette and con-
ventionality can find to remark in such an occur-
rence is that the statue is equestrian. This, he
observes, is a significant fact. Equestrian statues
are only erected to legitimate Sovereigns, the
people of Lyons have therefore legitimated the
Emperor, and by so doing rendered legitimate
also the domination of his nephew. Since the
days when Caligula made his horse a Consul, or,
rather, since the devolution of the Persian empire
was determined by the neighing of a horse, never did
that noble quadruped do so much for a dynasty as
this horse of Lyons. Darius's horse neighed him into
a throne, but Napoleon's has cancelled the 19th of
Brumaire and the 2d of December, and legitimated a
whole dynasty. Such things can a horse do, and
that a horse made of stone. But the Emperor had
other claims to legitimacy ; he was thrice elected by
the people, upon which, however, his nephew does
not seem greatly to rely ; he was consecrated by the
Pope—an honour which hes rarely been withheld
from those who have got the Supreme Pontiff into
their power ; and he was connected by the ties
of blood and policy with all the Sovereigns
of the continent of Europe. What can legitimacy
ask more ? Is it not wonderful that there should
be Orleanists and Bourbonists in the land when
the title is so clear and the prcaf so unanswerable?
or, rather, is it not much more wonderful that a
man who has the command of a vast army and
the undisputed power of ruling one of the finest
countries in the world, should think it worth his
while to seek to rest his power on such miserable and
paltry pretences ? Does the President suppose that
the name of Napoleon, which has lifted him, being
what he is, into his present position, owes the charm
which it exercises over the soul of the French peasant
to any of the paltry accidents so pompously enu-
merated ? Does be really believe that it is on account
of the sham and compulsory elections of Consul and
Emperor, of a consecration by the hands of the Pope,
of his alliance with the House of Austria, or of his
intimacy with the Emperors Alexander and Francis,
that the name of Napoleon is still a name of power
which makes the heart of every Frenchman beat
high with triumph and exultation ? Surely the
author of the Ida's Napolioniennes must know
that it is to transendant genius, to brilliant
military exploits, to glory which captivates the
imagination if it does not always satify the judg-
ment, that such homage is paid, and that it would
have been paid much more heartily and more unani-
mously had not the character of the great man been
stained by that vulgar weakness which his nephew is
so anxious to parade and to emulate. The truth is
that no event bids fair to be so fatal to the reputation
of the first Napoleon, and tends so much to tarnish the
laurels which he has won, as the advent to power of
one who, bearing his name and imitating his actions,
has contrived to show to the world how much of
littleness there is in great events, how much of weak-
ness in prominent characters, and how much of folly
in successful undertakings. No matter bow false the
praise, a subservient audience is sure to applaud the
most ill-deserved eulogium if uttered by the lips of
power. History is boldly perverted and facts
mis-stated without the possibility of correction,
and the most that can be said in favour of the
sketch of his uncle by the younger Napoleon is,
that it is not more false and delusive than the account
which he gives of himself. The Emperor, says
his nephew, destroyed the old regime by re-establish-
ing all that was good in it, and the revolutionary
spirit by causing the blessings of the revolution every-
where to triumph. Napoleon retained, or rather re-
stored, much of the porups and vanities of the old
regime—an endless muster-roll of the officers of state,
a plebian nobility, a vulgar imitation of Court cere-
nial ; but the better parts of the old regime—the
royalty, the devotion, the subordination of ranks—he
neither did nor could restore. Napoleon sacrificed a
generation of his countrymen, not to extend the bless-
ings, but to blot out the memory of the revolution,
and to raise himself and bis mushroom Kings into the
fraternity of those ancient monarch whom he tram-
pled into the dust. But when he fell the ancient
rime revived, and the revolutionary spirit revived
with it; and at this very moment the very ele-
ments that he is represented to have destroyed
divide the opinions of French society between
them. For himself, Louis Napoleon says he has
but one object—that of reconstituting peace in France
as a faithful servant of the public. We are happy to
hear that in this respect the views of the President
differ from those of his uncle, and that while the for-
mer gave France the blessings of the first revolution
through a series of never-ending wars and conscrip-
tions, the second will give her the benefit of her
second revolution through a contrary policy. A
faithful servant of the country, we admit, could do no
less; but willing as we are to believe the President's
assertion of his fidelity, we seek in vain for any other
guarantee than his own affirmation to confirm our
belief. Was he faithful when, after the failure of
Strasburg, he ventured on the attempt of Boulogne ?
was he faithful to the constitution to which he swore
in 1848 ? and is he faithful to his own creation of
1851, when he admits publicly that he is now
balancing between the retention of the title of
President and the dignity of Emperor, and
has not made up his mind whether under the
humble title of President—too humble to express
the substance and possession of arbitrary power—he
can render sufficient service to France, or whether it
will not be advisable to change that title for one
which will fix the destiny of the country, and enable
him to render it the greatest services? To inaugu-
rate an undignified and servile parody of the old Em-
pire, no address could be more proper than that de-
livered at Lyons. By drawing down Napoleon the
Great from his vast and eccentric orbit into the same
system as ordinary Monarchs, the President makes
imitation more easy, and comparison less invidious ;
and though no laurels may adorn his brow, and all
the victories he can boast have been gained over the
helpless passers-by in the public street, in the appe-
tite for mere conventional rank, in the ardent desire
for admission into the hierarchy of Sovereigns, and
the utter misconception of the causes of his power
and the conditions of its duration, he may, with
some confidence, flatter himself that he is fully equal
to the conqueror of Marengo and of Austerlitz.
DAILY NEWS.—We are very much disposed
to concur with a contemporary as to the grounds on
which any attempt at further; centraliastion, as re-
gards the poor-law ought to be steadily resisted by
the representatives in Parliament of a frugal and
freedom-loving people. There is no practical ques-
tion, in truth, in which considerations of national

economy and popular liberty are more plainly in-
volved. Local taxation and local administration are
the very elements out of which all our boasted consti-
tutional rights, habits, and capabilities have for gene-
rations been formed. To these, as to the main roots,
are traceable all that affords healthful vigour and
sober earnestness to public opinion amongst us • and
to maim or mutilate these roots, however covertly and
without surface disturbance, must be regarded as an
act of the deepest and most indellible treason to the
well-being of the State. Our Poor-law sys•
tern, like moat other portions of our in-
stitutions, may, from time to time, require repair.
Twenty years ago great abuses had arisen in the
mode of administering relief. A mistaken or indo-
lent philanthropy had gradually led to a species of in-
discriminate disbursement of alms in the form of out-
door relief to the ordinary labourer, which in many
places bad actually effaced all marked distinction be-
tween pauperism and independent industry, and
which threatened to reduce vast districts of the king-
dom to the same plight of over-deepening demorali-
sation and decay. Stringent and decisive measures
of corrective discipline were felt to be indispensable ;
and without the interposition of some central power
it was confessedly impossible to hope for their effec-
tive application. It was not without a struggle,
however, that the public mind could be brought to
assent to the erection of the Poor-law Commission,
which at first was proposed only as a temporary con-
trivance, and not renewed or eventually placed on its
present permanent footing without many hesitations,

doubts, and warnings from the jealous spirit of lo-
calism which the surveillance of Somerset house in-
spectors, and the veto of Somerset House authorities
had filled with alarm. Experience has indeed dune
much to abate this feeling of hostility. Grcat cor-
rective
good has been undoubtedly accomplished ;
and the conciliatory temper in which the administra-
tion of the department has been of late years con-
ducted has disarmed many of the most suspicious de-
fenders of parochial independency. It is a mistake,
however, to suppose that because one peculiar and
dangerous malady has been cured by doses of Cen-
tralic Acid, we are at all disposed to extend its use
to less urgent cases, or to consent to its being mingled
with our ordinary food. The deadliest poisons are
wisely resorted to on rare occasions, but even then
they are employed with infinite reserve ; none but a
quack would think of prescribing their unnecessary
use, and none but fools would submit to be so
drenched with them. And a surer or more deadly
political poison than centralisation society has never
been known. Yet this is one of the nostrums recklessly
recommended by the great quack doctor now in vogue
with the country gentlemen—the celebrated mesme-
riser to whom they have blindly surrendered them-
selves. We do not profess to be in the secrets of the
Tory camp, but we may venture to foretell that, should
the present Miaisty remain in power, a Bill will be
introduced during the coming session, proposing that
what are termed the Establishment Charges of the
poor-law should be paid out of the Consolidated Fund,
thereby exonerating the localities from a certain por-
tion of the rates which they are now by law obliged
to provide for by self-assessment in the olden way.
The poor stupid squires will be made to believe, for
the time being, that their broad acres being relieved
to the extent of three halfpence or twopence in the
pound, they will, at the end of the year, be just so
many three half-pennies the richer; and they will
cheer and shout at the notion of getting so much in the
way of compensation of the industrious classes of the
community, who took from them their precious right
to tax the people's food, quite forgetting that if
500,0001. additional be added to the list of Civil Con-
tingencies, new taxes in some form must be imposed
on the entire community in order to provide for the
same. Many of the squires no doubt believe that the
Consolidated Fund is a sort of miraculous mulch cow
that never goes dry ; and that whenever their cupidity
happens to be thirsty, it is only necessary to order
another pail to be filled for their special and separate
use. The official dairymen declare that no supposi-
tion can be more utterly groundless, and that in point
of fact they are frequently in great fear lest the pro-
duce should not be sufficient to enable them to supply
the demands of those to whom they are already under
engagements. To speak plainly; if any further por-
tion of local burthens be transferred to the general
taxation, new taxes either on property or on industry
must be imposed. We need hardly pause to ask whe-
ther the former alternative is likely to be resorted to by
the present advisers of the Crown. They have in-
veighed against the property and income-tax that
now exists for ten long years, and they would abo-
lish
it to-morrow, if they dared. Mr. Herries ac-
tually proposed, in the session before last, to apply
the surplus in the Ezell( quer to its partial liquida-
tion ; and the whole Protectionist party voted that it
ought to be gradually put en end to. What, then, is
to be done ? Mr. Disraeli is pledged against each
and every one of the excise duties, and he has always
maintained that Lord George Bentinck's was the
best and soundest theory of finance—that, namely,
which would emancipate domestic industry from all
restrictions, and rely on import duties wholly
for the vast revenue we require. The ad-
ditional half million, therefore, cannot come
out of an increased excise. There remains
but one resource—some novel impost on our
foreign trade. Which of the many articles freed
from the fiscal yoke by Sir Robert Peel is to be sa-
crificed once more to propitiate the landlords, time
will soon reveal. We pass to other, and, if possible,
more serious considerations- Let the fatal prece-
dent be once set for centralising the taxation and
expenditure necessary for purely local purposes, and
what is to prevent the gradual absorption of the
whole into the annual estimates of the Empire ?
Some giddy or ignorant talker may exclaim—" The
fear is idle—no man in his senses could be found to
propose it." Is he quite sure of that ? Or does he
not know that the proposal of a national rate for the
support of the poor has actually been made—aye,
and very recently too—in deliberate and well con-
sidered form, by one of the most prominent members
of the present administration? We allude to the Noble
Earl who fills the post of Secretary.of State for:Foreign
Affairs. A Select Committee was appointed in the
course of last year by the House of Lords to inquire
into the nature and method of levying local assess-
ments. It consisted of many distinguished indivi-
duals, and, amongst others, of Lord Malmesbury.
The evidence taken by it was highly curious and
important, especially that given by Mr. C. Lewis,
whose large experience and powers of observation
enabled him to state, as he did most clearly, the diffi-
culties and dangers of a centralised system of poor
relief. Nevertheless, at the close of the proceedings,
Lord Malmesbury placed on record his conviction
that a national rate for the maintenance of the desti-
tute, and a centralised administration for its disburse-
ment throughout the kingdom, amenable to a great
functionary sitting in London, was the best remedy
for the existing inequalties of rating, and that it
ought to be adopted by Parliament. This then is
what we are drifting towards. The transfer of the
Establishment charges is only the first step; but it ix
a step which, once taken, will inevitable be followed
by each successive Government that may come into
power, for sake of the ever-expanding range of pat-
ronage and influence it too palpably tends to afford.