The Sun.
London, England, 1830-01-05 00:00:00

more the objects of attention and reverence, and
therefore more useful to plain and unlettered
men than an endless variety of teachers, how-
ever well qualified for the task, but also that the
resident members of the Universities are less

likely than other Clergymen who have been or
are to be in the constant habit of preaching to
mixed or unlearned congregations, to administer
religious instruction in the form and manner best

calculated to render it acceptable and beneficial
to such a class of persons. We trust, however,
that we do not, by the avowal of these opinions,

expose ourselves to the imputation of indiffer-
ence or hostility to the interests of the Church
of England.—Morning Post.
It is now generally reported that it is the in-
tention of Ministers, to appease the wrath of the
landowners, at the fall of rents. and agricultural
produce, by a repeal of the Malt and Beer Du-
ties, but that no other reduction of taxes will
take place. Should this report prove to be cor-
rect, it may be safely averred that, although no
inconsiderable benefit will accrue to the commu-
nity even from such a partial measure, the general
distress of the country will not be materially mi-
tigated. The reduction in question involves but
a very small portion of revenue, and could not
greatly subtract from the pressure of taxation.—
But we are inclined to believe that the Duke of
Wellington has snore comprehensive plans in
view, and that along with the repeal of the
Malt and Beer duties, other measuies, both
for the purpose of reducing the taxes, and
reducing the expenditure, will be proposed
and passed. No Prime Minister assuredly
ever had it so much in his power to benefit
his country as he has ; and although hitherto
the reductions which have taken place have been
on a small scale, yet it ought not to be forgotten,
that, without any previous pledge on the sub-
ject, he brought forward, and carried to success-
ful completion, a measure which is now con-
fessed to have been beneficial, and which none
of his predecessors were ever able to accomplish.
From such conduct great hopes ought in justice
to be entertained ; while, on the other hand, it
ought not to be forgotten, that governments are
seldom inclined to be economical unless strongly
urged thereto by the people, and it is, in conse-
quence, the duty of every one who feels ag-
grieved by the pressure of the taxes, to petition
for their reduction. Without any wish to em-
barrass Government, we strongly trust that this
will be the case, and the table of the House of
Commcns will be covered with petitions, with-
in the first week of its meeting.—Morning
Advertise?.

No political prediction was ever more com
pletely verified by the event than that whicl

was put forth by the opponents of the Small
Note Abolition Bill. They declared that it
would produce great distress throughout
the country, and distress is every where vi-
sible— they said that prices would fall in con-
sequence of it, and they have fallen--they as-
sured the propounders of the measure that it
would cause rents to fall, and now, from one end
of the country to the other, we hear of nothing
but landlords being obliged to give back from
fifteen to five-and-twenty per cent. of the sums
which the farmers had agreed to pay for the oc-
cupancy of the land, when paper money formed
the circulating medium. Yet the abettors of a
gold currency still persist in opposing a return
to paper money ; and for what reason let us in-
quire ? For none that we know of, or have ever
known to be alleged, except that gold is better
than paper !—a fact of which no one ever
doubted who could distinguish between a far-
thing and a pound sterling, any more than he
could doubt of obtaining a better dinner at the
London Tavern than at a hedge alehouse. But
the quality does not always suppose the capa-
bility. The question is not which is best, but
which we can procure—not that which we would
prefer, but that which we can afford to obtain.
Had the country, at the period of abolishing the
one pounds, been possessed of an extra capital
equal to their amount 'which had not found a
previous channel of employment, it would only
have had to lay its hand upon it, and put it into
circulation instead of these small notes; but, in-
stead of this being the case, the measure was
adopted, as if for the very purpose of ruin, at a
period of great national calamity, when there
was not only no spare capital to bring into play
to supply their place, but when the want of it
was producing ruin among thousands, and the
temporary sinking of it in various quarters of
the globe, rendered the measure most inconve-
nient and impolitic. A wise Government would
no more, under such circumstances, have at-

tempted to put an end to the paper-money, than
a prudent nurse would think of making a child
walk that had not got out of leading strings—it
would, on the contrary, have allowed the
paper money, bad as it was, to circulate, and
waited for a more convenient period for intro-
ducing its gold currency. The ferment, how-
ever, which existed at the time, either seized his
Majesty's Ministers, or they were glad of any
excuse for casting the blame of the panic upon
other shoulders than their own ;—the Abolition
Bill was passed—the small notes offered up as a
sacrifice, and now the country is distressed be-
cause of their destruction ! 'he effects of the
measure by increasing the amount of all pecu-
niary obligations, and at the same time diminish-
ing the facilities of meeting them, would have
been sufficiently distressing, even although it
had been accompanied by a corresponding re.•
duction of the taxes; but up to this moment no
reduction has taken place, nor any effectual at-
tempt been made to reduce the national expen-
diture. A few public boards, costing the
country a few thousand pounds, have been
.united—and numbers of workmen discharged
from dock-yards, and clerks from offices, whose
wages and salaries formed but a small item of
expense; but there has been no reduction where
the reduction would have been felt as• a benefit

—there has been no squaring of the expenditure
to the altered circumstances of the country—no
reduction to the amount of the increased value
.of the currency. The time, however, is now
come, when, if the landowners have any sense,
they will either compel the Government to re-
turn to the former currency of the country, or
to reduce the taxes in proportion, and pass a
legislative measure for the equalization of all con-
tracts and engagements made during the exist-
ence of a paper currency, and still remaining to
be fulfilled. The farmers, they must now know,
cannot continue to pay their rents while agricul-
tural produce is selling at such low prices—they
must also know that if they attempt to exact
them, the land will be thrown upon their hands,
and that without exacting them they cannot meet
their own engagements—and, finally, that the
only remedy for these grievances is to be found
in the adoption of one or other of the measures
which we have pointed out. Let them -then
come forward as boldly in behalf of the commu-
nity in this matter, as they have frequently done
in their own ; and they will deserve as well of