The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—On Monday night there steamed into
Galway Bay a very large ship, with some goods on
board, about 300 steerage pessengers, and a select
party in the cabin. Under zhe protection of the Isles
of Arran, thirty miles off, and favoured by wind
and tide, the ship steamed up to an anchorage on
the sate side of a small island, on winch stand h
lighthouse and a batteryond thence, by means of a
steam tender, communicated with the Port of Gal-
way. No doubt the whole town was roused from
sleep to welcome the stranger. Four hundred new
passengers, with their boxes and belongings, were
carried on board by the indefatigable tender. Last
of all, amid universal excitement, everybody stand-
ing at his shop door and ready to cheer at the
smallest provocation, one of Bianconi's coaches
drove down, loaded inside and out with large white
sacks of letters. The policemen formed a line on the
quays, already barricaded to keep off the shoeless
and stockingless natives; the mail sacks were put
on board the tender, and thence in a quarter of
an hour put on board the Adriatic, which at half-
past 2 on Tuesday afternoon steamed down the bay
on her course across the Atlantic. Besides the 400
steerage passengers and the 23 sacks of letters, she
took in at Galway two puncheons of whisky and
the latest telegrams. As to the puncheons, no doubt
they are very pleasant compagnons de voyage. The
latest telegrams we must presume to represent the
state of the London markets that morning, and,
therefore, one day later than any news carried by a
rival steamer from Liverpool in the same longitude.
The letters we will say nothing about, for, till the
Galway steamers start to the hour, all letters in-
tended for them will be liable to serious delays in
the Galway post-office. We suspect that they were
letters that could easily wait a day cr two. It is
only on the most favourable supposition that we can
conceive it at all worth the while of a steamer start-
ing from the Mersey, and getting safe into the open
sea, to retrace its course off the worst coast in the
whole world and steam up a deep bay into the heart
of Ireland. As for goods traffic, that was suitably
and abundantly represented by the two puncheons
of whisky. The famous bay of Galway, like all
the bays of that shore, is as beautiful as nature can
make it ; but commerce can scarcely be said to have
yet furrowed its fair face. Nothing cares to avail itself
of the much-boasted protection of the Isles of Arran.
There is no part of the neighbouring seas where you
could have long range practice with the most fabul-
ous guns, across the bay, or up or down, with more
certainty of doing no mischief. Except a small
boat, or an occasional " hooker" from the opposite
shore, there is not a sail to be seen. Half the town
is in ruins; pity compels us to be silent as to
the prospects of the monster Railway Hotel. The
place, of course, is full of institutions, as all Irish
towns are : indeed, it threatens to be all institutions,
and nothing else. Workhouses, barracks, police-
station, court-house, churches and chapels, monas-
teries and convents of a dczen different orders, the
Queen's College, the model farm, a dozen schoo.s,
the splendid group of the station and hotel, the
club-house, and twenty other public buildingq,which
it is impossible to recall, constitute the head of a
community, the body of which consists of a thou-
sand fishermen's huts and some suburbs of thatched
or unthatched hovels. There is nothing to sell but
fish, and the free Parliament of Ciaddagh steadily
resist not only trawling, but every plan whatever
for joining the deep-sea fishery to the miserably pre-
carious produce of the bay. What they do with the
fish we know not, but we doubt whether they send
it to England ; they don't send it to America. In
all this we le not see even the beginning of trade.
Most of these institutions prey on the resources of a
country and do little to develope them. Whether
he " religious" are consistent or not in their own
renunciation of the world, they are very apt to pre-
vent others from making the best of it. But putting
out of the question that desolate waste of waters,
that strange old mediseval city, its still stranger
suburbs, the twenty-three sacks of letters, the
twenty-eight cabin passengers, the latest telegrams,
and the two puncheons of whisky, out and out, be-
yond all comparison, the most important article in
that departure from Galway Bay were the seven
hundred steerage passengers. They were robust,
healthy, young people; very few of them married;
what people used to call the "sinew and bone of a
country. Though " A Magistrate," in his statistics,
set down to the national loss the few pounds in the
pockets of these poor people, we are inclined to sus-
pect that most of them have been enabled to emi-
grate by remittances from their relations in America,
and that every one of them will assist others in like
fashion. There never was a feeling so universe!,
so deep seated, so prevailing over considerations
usually supposed to be all powerful, as that which
has turned the face of every Irish man, woman,
and child towards America. There is not one
who will not go if he can. They ale only waiting
on fortune, or their turn in " the list" of some now
American relative, be it first, fifth, tenth, or twen-
tieth in that list. This is a fact which overrides
every other Irish question. The current, in every
town and village, every street, every family, every
breast, has set in, and it is beyond the power of
Governments, of laws, of priests, or politicians to
do more than just lash and disturb the great tide
of emigration. The Federal Government will have
them and must have them. It will offer any terms,
even greater than those it now offers; but men it
must have, whether directly for the war, or for the
gap it leaves in all branches of labour. But there
is scarcely a cottage in the West of Ireland where
the promise of the family, the elder sons and
daughters—their voices and their features still
fresh in memory as young and old gather round
the turf fire—are not in some far Western State,
sending home their hearts' best wishes for the re-
union of the circle. The passage to the New
World, once so formidable, has long been divested
of any speculative quality or imaginative hue. It
is not more than a voyage to Liverpool or London
Indeed, Ireland is much more American, and
America much more Irish, than English people
are apt to conceive. The great majority of the
white population of the United States are of Irish
descent. It is the Irish element which has long
governed the politics of the Union. So like is
now flowing to like, and kin to kin, with an
irresistible affinity. While writers at home ate
angrily debating what is to be done with the
Irish, they are fast settling the question for them-
selves by a universal departure. But this
throws a new and singular light on the Atlantic
'loyal Mail Company. If the British Govern-
ment said to the Irish,—" We are sick of you ;
we can do nothing with vou : we would rather
have Ireland without you ; so the Great Eastern
and a few other big ships will call once a-
virt-ek at Galway, or Queenstown, and take'
5,000 of you at a time to New York," the
proceeding would be thought mast startling and
equivocal. The Confederates would have some-
thing to say to it ; so too would Irish land-
lords and English taxpayers; so too would the
priests ; so too would even our economists and
philanthropists. We know of no party that would
have a right to be satisfied, except a very few Irish
proprietors, who are perfectly sure that the land is
good for nothing but breeding horses and grazing
small :cattle. In the end we suspect that every
British interest would be injured by such a course,
were it possible or conceivable. But, in matter of
fact, this is just what we are doing. Oa a ridiculous
pretence of a few bags of letters and the latest tele-
grams, both of which will be always anticipated,
we are subsidizing a big ship to put into Galway,
and carry off, every time, in effect to a foreign
country, the better part of a thousand young and
healthy British subjects, never to see Ireland again.
In the scale of war the living freight of the Adri-
atic is worth far more than the ships lately seized in
the Mersey. Even that, however, is a trifling con-
sideration compared to the incalculable results to
this country,—to England, to Ireland itself, to the
whole Empire, to its domestic operations and its
foreign policy. There are those who rejoice in this
exodus. We wish it God-speed I but on all the
principles of social and political philosophy it must
be considered a misfortune. Grant that it cannot
be helped; grant that it averts or postpones some
immediate annoyances; grant that, as we really
don't know what to do with the people,they are wel-
come to take care of themselves and dispose of
themselves in what way they please; but that is
only the case of an unmanageable son, which is a
misfortune, even when the cause of our grief re-
lieves us from further anxieties. Who will not
reproach himself when this is the conclusion of a
long embarrassment ? "We have not been able
to manage this child of ours. It is betaking itself
to America. Well, we shall have less trouble for
the future." If we could grow old and apathetic,
we should, in a dull way, be all the more comfortable
for it ; bat not if we retain our youthful sympathies.
POST.—The Turkish budget, when rightly ,un-
derstood, presents in almost all respects a highly
satisfactory financial statement. n for t u nar:y
t
some very important errors have crept into he
graphic version of the figures which have.luHti besetein.
published at Constantinople. Thus the Ea
mated revenue for 1863 64 is stated at 3°,000,00. 0
purses, while that for the year 1862-63 is stated at
3,300,000 purses. In this manner there appears to
be, on the face of the statement, a decrease of re-
venue in the estimate of the coming year by about
10 per cent. This is simply an arithmetical error;
toe those who will take the trouble to add up for
themselves all the figures of revenue in detail, for
ereanchceoifn therel a
ttwoive years,
amountwill
.s just the other way, Al)1 I perceive that the diffe-
rence
accurate addition of the two rows of figures evinces
that the estimated revenue for 1863-64 is greater
than the revenue for 1862 63 by not less than
' 000 purses. This makes it difference of tts much
-0 purses in the relation of the f:stimated re-
e,r3

venue as between one year and another; and it is
fact of no small consequence to Turnish finance, a
a verification of this correction of the telegram by e:
reference to our impresion of last Tuesdey
will
evince. The estimated revenue of Turkey is -tulle'
£14,000,000 for the financial year on which eve have
just entered, while the public income on the see
' cession of the present Sultan was not more than
£11,000,000. Proportionately considered, this s
a more rapid increase than that of any other
European revenue; and it represents the prac-
rice' result of a course of financial reforms which
were often deemed rather imaginary than real by
those who were apt to cling too implicitly to the
miserable traditions of the late reign. But this
increase in the revenue, as it stanas in its pree
sent figures, is far from being the only one.
Hitherto the taxes have been collected in paper
money, namely, in the ceimes, which are now ex-
tinguished, and were at all times more or less de-
preciated. Fur the present financial year, however,
the calculation is made in metallics. We are hardly
able to strike an average of the depreciation of the
paper money during the last few years. But that
average, if ascertained, could hardly be found to
have been less than 20 per cent., and the premium
upon gold was often-very much higher. But, now
that the paper money has been extinguished, all
taxes are paid in metallies, and the revenue hence-
forth will therefore represent its real and interna-
tional value, whereas the revenue of previous years,
being more or less collected in paper, appeared
greater than it really was. The interest on the pub-
lic debt forms a prominent item in the schedule of
expenditure. Ostensibly there is a great increase
of cl:arge on this account for 1863-64 as compared
with 1862-63 ; and in fact there is a slight increase
in the actual debt. But it must be remembered
that much of the increase in the foreign debt has
been obtained by the consolidation of anomalous
internal loans, as well as through the expenditure
required for the suppression of the paper money.
Thus the foreign loans of 1862 and 1863 hate been
contracted, not to satisfy current expenditure, but in
part to withdraw and cancel the paper money, and
in part to pay off local loans contracted of different
Galata capitalists under the reign of the late Sultan,
at higher rates of interest. Some of the consoli-
dated internal debt, has also been created for the
same purpose—the requisite amount having been
obtained from the market at Constantinople as well
as from the markets at London and Paris, In point
of fact, therefore, the real debt of Turkey has very
slightly increased during the present reign, the
essential difference being that the debts of all
kinds have been brought forward, avowed, and
consolidated. The total charge of the whole debt,
foreign and domestic, is now 800,000 purses; or
about £3,600,000 of our money, inclusive of the
sinking funds provided for the redemption both
of the foreign debt and of the Consolides. This
is a proportion of about 25 per cent. upon the whole
revenue, whereas the proportion of the British
tevenue that is paid away for interest on its
national debt, wi, flout any provielou fur the
ultimate redemption is about 40 per cent. The
current expenditure bas at the same time been dimi-
nished iu several of the departments in which it
had beer, alleged that the predilections of the pre-
sent Sovereign were extravagant. Thus the navy'
is to cost for the present financial year only 210,000
purses as compared with 245.000 purses in 1862-63.
The army is further reduced. It cost the treasury
during the last year 959,000 purses, and during the
present it, is restricted to an outlay of 827,000. The
Ministry of Finance, at the same time, is reduced
from 153,000 to 120,000 purses. These figures are
marked by very great moderation. The army will
cost no more than the annual charge noon the debt,
or about £3,600,000. For a Sovereign who rules
thirty minions of subjects, this is, in our judgment,
an estimate marked by extraordinary moderation ;
nor is it intended to expend so much as £1,000,000
on the navy. It is hard to say, therefore, from
whence certain prevalent notions of the present
Sultan's disposition to military extravagance could.
have had their origin. Looking merely to the credit
of the Turkish empire, it is surely better that it
should possess fair means of defence, whatever be
the improbability of its being again attacked, than
that it should again invite attack by its defenceless-
ness. The table of receipts evinces the gradual
progress of the new system of collection, and of the
new tariff. The former is necessarily of slow deve-
lopment. When the present Sultan came to the
throne nearly all the taxes were farmed out. This
Asiatic mode of proceeding involved a great loss to
the State. But to replace it by a general system of
collection presupposed the presence of a local orga:
nisatiou throughout the empire. Of course this
great staff could not immediately be had. Conse-
quently it was needful to apply the new mode of
collection—province by province, and district by'
district—as the organisation could he obtained.
When it is complete, it is probable that a large fur-
ther augmentation of revenue will be experienced.
Nor is it without reason to anticipate that the new
tariff will soon promote the commerce of the coun-
try sufficiently to do more than cause the small re-
duction that at present involves in the customs
revenue. Before many days we shall probably have
this budget before us without any of the inevitable
inaccuracies of the telegraph; and we shall then
perhaps be still better able to judge how it augurs
for the future of Turkey.