The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-16 00:00:00

relieve agriculture from one of the greatest disabilities to
which it was subjected. It would open up a fresh branch
of manufacture, and thus add materially to the stock of
agricultural wealth in the country.
Mr. MORRITT was not in favour of absolute repeal, but
thought that with the large surplus revenue two-fifths of
the malt duty might be surrendered without injuriously
affecting the public income. As to the bill on the table, it
could not be carried into effect without fraud. Instead of
being a step in the right direction it would be a stumbling-
block ; and instead of satisfying the farmer, if it made him
quiet for a time, it would convert him into a rogue at last.

Docks. The balance sheet shows an expenditure of £51,132,
including £79,512 on profit and loss account. The revenue
account shows that £4,329 had been received and £5,125
expended, leaving a Wince of £796 against the company.

Mr. It. LONG remarked that whatever might be the
merits of the measure, there could be no doubt that the
Chancellor of the Exchequer had honourably redeemed the
pledge he had given to the deputation that waited upon him
last year on the subject of the malt tax; but he advised the
right hon. gentleman to go the whole animal and see if ho
could not reduce the tax.

Lord R. MONTA GU accepted the bill as something
more than an instalment, inasmuch as it removed a great
hardship from the farmer ; the one blemish in it was the
interference of the excise; but that was an evil which he
saw no means of avoiding.

Sir F. CROSSLEY doubted whether a repeal of the malt
tax would be really advantageous to the farmer, for the
immediate result would be the introduction into the market
of inferior qualities of foreign barley to compete with our
own produce. He locked upon the subject of the malt duty
as altogether a consumer's question.
Mr. HENLEY granted that it was a consumer's ques-
tion, but it was also a producer's; and he should like to
know whether Sir F. Crossley's constituents would be bet-
ter pleased with a tax upon the produce of the mills of
Yorkshire upon being told that it was paid by the con-
sumer. It was, perhaps, ungracious to look a gift horse in
the mouth, but he could not help thinking that the bill
would not solve the question whether or not malt was bene-
ficial for the feeding of cattle. The results of the experi-
ments made by the Government during the autumn ought
to have been furnished to the heuee.

Mr. DUTTON feared the bill would, in practice, turn out
a dead letter.

Sir F. KELLY was disposed to receive the measure in a
spirit of thankfulness, and suggested that sufficient interval
should be allowed for its consideration by the public before
the next stage was taken.
Mr. BARROW did not form any extravagant hopes or
expectations of the effects of the bill. It was very much in
the nature of a bone thrown to a hungry dog : there was
very little flesh about it.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said that
the report of the experiments made under the superinten-
dence of Government agents would be produced as early
as possible. He owned he did not anticipate any magical
effects from the measure, nor could he hold it out as an in-
stalment or a step in the direction of abolition or reduction
of so important a source of revenue as the malt tax.
The bill was read a second time.
The Collection of Taxes Bill and the Government Annui-
ties Bill were also read a second time.
In committee of the whole house, the CHANCELLOR of
the EXCHEQUER obtained leave to bring in a bill to amend
the laws relating to the warehousing of British and foreign
spirits duty free,
Leave was given to Mr. PALLE to introduce a bill to
facilitate the discharge of insolvent debtors in certain
cases; to Mr. C. FORSTER, a bill to abolish the forfeiture
of lands and goods on convictions of felony; and to Sir H.
BRUCE, a bill to provide fur the better watching of towns in
Ireland.
The house adjourned at half-past 10 o'clock.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE,

SALISBURY AND YEOVIL.

The report of the directors states that the earnings for
the half year ending the 31st December last are £31,823
against £29,834 for the corresponding half of 1862, showing
an increase of £1,989. The traffic receipts for the year 1863
are equal to £26 18s 93 per mile per week, or £57,031,
against £24 Os 9d per mile per week, or £50,933, for the
year 1862, showing an increase of £2 Os per mile per week,
or £5,098. After deducting working expenses, Government
duty, interest, and all other charges, a balance remains of
£12,693. Out of this is deducted £3,156 for dividend at the
rate of 6 per cent per annum on the preference shares, and
£3,066 for the dividend recommended by thrt directors at the
rate of 5 per cent per annum on the ordinary shares of the
company, leaving a balance of £1,474, which, added to £BB4
brought from the preceding half-year, will make £2,358 to
the credit of the current half-year. The double line has been
completed and opened between Salisbury and Tisbury, and
the branch into Yeovil has also been roubled, and
is now ready for inspection, The directors have instructed
the engineer to proceed with the doubling of the remaining
length, 202 miles, and active measures are being taken for
that-purpose. A bill to enable the company to raise addi-
tional capital to complete the works has been introduced into
Parliament. The sum of £655,837 has been expended on
capital account.

THE SUN. LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 16, 1864.

to the disadvantage of the extremely long line they
have to defend, and to the scantiness of the troops
they have to employ for that purpose. Whatever
may be said of the numbers of the Danish army, I
have reason to believe that not more than 30,000
men are at the present moment on the line—a line
for which 150,000 combatants would not be too
many. The amount of work falling to the lot of so
small a force, encamped against such fearful odds,
is not only wearing out the moral strength, but
actually exhausting the physical powers of the Danes.
Were the men elren equal to their hard task, over
exertion would soon tell, and is now telling against
the horses. The inclemencies of a winter campaign
' begin to show their effects even upon the robust
frames of the Danes. It is calculated that out of
the whole of their army 1,000 are already hors de
combat. A few have been killed, wounded, or
taken prisoners; but by far the greatest number axe
laid low by illness, most of them victims to the
ague, the result of their exposure to this severe, yet
fickle climate. We had on Wednesday heavy rain,
with dark, lowering skies; yesterday a bright
morning, with gusts of cold wind and showers in the
afternoon. To-day a fall of snow, half melting on
the ground. The Austro-Prussians, more imper-
fectly clad and sheltered even than the Danes, must
be exposed to greater sufferings ; but men are cheap
with them, and they can stand threefold the same
losses without inconvenience. Their casualties on
the field are described as very severe. I have seen
Prussian and Austrian prisoners brought in, but not
in very large numbers.
Heavy firing to-day on the side of Hadeby.
Should it lead to any important results, you shall
have the news by telegraph.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

PosT.—A few evenings since Lord Palmerston, in
reply to a question put in the House of Commono,
stated that, although reductions would probably
be made in the estimates for the forthcoming year
for the military and naval services, the efficiency
either of the army or of the navy would be in no
wise impaired. This country pays largely for the
maintenance of both its armies and its fleets, and

not unnaturally receives with gratification announce-
ments that the annual estimates for their support
have been materially reduced. So long as the nation
is at peace, persons are apt to imagine that the mil-
lions which are yearly taken out of the taxpayers'
pockets for military and naval purposes are so much
money thrown away. Of what avail is it, they ask,
to have thousands of men quartered in barracks
throughout the country whose sole employment con-
sists in attending useless parades, and in owning
fleets of fast sailing frigates and impenetrable iron-
clads which are from year's end to year's end either
quietly riding at anchor or listlessly cruising from
one part of her Majesty's dominions to another !
Those who indulge in this strain, however, forget
that the maintenance of these armaments and the
preservation of peace stand to each other in the re-
lation of cause and effect, and that it is precisely
because this country possesses well appointed armies
and efficient fleets that those armies and fleets are

happily kept in continual idleness. When, how-
ever, circumstances arise which promises to test the
capabilities of the country, either for purposes of
selC-defence, or for maintaining in the eyes of the
world that prestige which constitutes no unimpor-
tant element of national greatness, those who cavil
most at the expenditure occasioned by the support
of our military and naval armaments evince the
greatest anxiety lest in the hour of trial they
should be found inefficient, and watch with more
than ordinary jealousy any attempts to reduce
them. At the present moment the nation is at
peace with every European Power, but there is
only too great a probability that that peace may be
of no long duration. At such a time, then, the
nation would receive with anything tut satisfaction
an announcement that the Government deemed it
expedient to reduce materially the power of either
the military or the naval branch of the public ser-
vice. The navy estimates for the ensuing year have
now been laid before Parliament, and it is gratify-
ing to find that, whilst the perfect efficiency of the
navy is secured, a decrease of upwards of £300,000
will be effeeted in the expenditure demanded for
its support. The total sum required for the service
of the navy for the year 18645 will be £10,432,610 ;
the last vote having been £10,736,032; show-
ing a decrease of £303,422. There is, how-
ever,always a difference between the sums demanded

from Parliament and the estimated net expenditure
arising from various causes, and we accordingly find
that the latter for the ensuing year will be
£10,169,022, or somewhat more than a quarter of
a million less than the amount actually required to
be voted by Parliament. The decrease in the esti-
mates now before us, though considerably lees than
that effec, eel in the estimates for 1863-64, as com-
pared with those of the year preceding, is, however,
such as could scarcely have been anticipated consi-
dering thecomparatively trifling modifications made
in what may be termed the existing standard of the
navy, and is mainly attributable to superior
management on the part of the Admiralty. The
net expenditure for the year 1862-63 was upwards
of eleven millions and a half; whereas that for the
following year was less than ten millions and a half,
giving a decrease of upwards of a million. The
difference, however, between the estimates for the
two years was mainly occasioned by the extraordi-
nary expenditure occasioned in the former year in
commencing the construction of our iron-clad fleet.
Last year the estimates were reduced to their normal
limits ; and if, this year,they have been still further
' reduced, the circumstance must be attributed, as
we have already observed, to the more careful
management of those entrusted with the disburse-
ment of the public? money. A reference to the
several items of increase and decrease in the pre-
sent estimates confine s the accuracy of this im-
pression. In the following items reductions have
been made ;—The vote for wages to seamen and
marines will be £47,304 less than that of last year,
while for their victuals and clothing there is a
decrease of £112,867 in the sum demanded, The
amount granted to the Storekeeper-General of the
Navy for naval stores and for building and repair-
ing vessels is reduced by £169.951, and that for the
Comptroller of the Navy by £195,137. Under the
item of half-pay to officers there is a decrease of
£21,551; in that of civil pensions aad allowances
£949; whilst the vote for medical stores is reduced
to the extent of £1,650. The estimate for wages
tuartificers abroad is diminished by £752, and that
for scientific experiments by £685, making the
total for the reductions for all those branches of the
service £550,846. As against these, however, we
find that the Admiralty-office will cost £3,283 more
than it did last year, and that the vote for the Coast-
guard Service will be increased to the extent of
£1,023. Her Majesty's home establishment will
call for au additional expenditure of £9,258, and
those abroad of £1,296. The estimate for wages to
workmen employed in the home establishments
shows an increase of £162,438, and that for new
works either projected or in progress in the dock-
yards, an excess of £16,000. The votes for miscel-
laneous services and for military pensions are in-
creased by about £lO,OOO ; whilst for the army
department and the conveyance of troops, the esti-
mates show an advance of upwards of £44,000 on
those of the past year. As, however, the total of
the items of increase amounts only to £247,424
there is a net decrease on the entire
estimate to the extent mentioned above.
The present state of the navy of this, and indeed of
every other country, is one of transition, and so long
as that continues to be the case we can look for
no surprising reduction in the navy estimates.
The largest item of increase will be found in the
vote for wages to our dockyard artificers, and that
the item in question does not show a still greater
increase is a matter for congratulation. On the
other hand in the decrease in the estimates for
the Storekeeper's and Comptroller's depart-
monis we find those evidences of economy and re-
trenchment which the nation has so long sought,
and sought in vain, in the several departments of
the Admiralty. Ten millions sterling may seem an
extravagant sum to pay annually for the mainte-
nance of a navy, but when it is borne in mind that
it is to our immunity from the aggressions of other
States the sum will not be considered preposterous.
As a nation, we find it profitable to insure the
peaceful prosecution of our commercial pursuits, and
we therefore regard the expenditure occasioned by
the military and naval services in the light of pre-
miums annually paid to secure that end.
HERALD.—No one doubts the perfect accuracy of
Lord Russell's statement as to the date on which
the detention of the rams was determined ; but it is
to be regretted that the noble lord's explanation was
not a little fuller. As the case stands now, it would
appear that Lord Russell came to the decision to
stop the rams on the 3d of September; and, strange
to say, Mr. Leyard nth that very day wrote to
the Treasury, desiring at the rams should be
stopped. Obviously Lord Russell must have
been so convinced of the necessity of losing no
time that ho telegraphed to his subordinate in
London. Mr. Lay ard carries out Lord Russell's
instructions and writes to the Treasury. But on
the 4th September, the day after Lord Russell
telegraphed the order for the detention of the rams,
he writes to Mr. Adams lo state that the subject is
under the consideration of her Majesty's Ministers,
and only on the Bth is the determination of the
Government to stop the rams announced to Mr.
Adams, and even then in a form not requiring Lord