The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-16 00:00:00

SEIZURE OF THE ALEXANDRA.

Mr. HORSFALL gave notice that to-morrow week, on
the motion for going into committee of supply, he should
call attention to the seizure of this ship.
In reply to Lord A. CECIL,
Sir G. GREY said detectives had been employed by the
authorities of Liverpool to watch the conduct of Con,ede-
rate agents in London supposed to be engaged in the con-
struction of Confederate ships. No " spies" had been em-
ployed by the Government.

THE BUDGET.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER rose at 20
minutes to 5 to move that the Spaaker leave the chair, in
order, in the Committee of Ways and Means, to bring
forward the financial statement of the Government. At
this time the house was completely filled. The hon. gen-
tleman was loudly cheer, d.
The motion was agreed to, and the Speaker accordingly
left the chair.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER proceeded

to say (addressing Mr. Massey) that the expenditure imme-
di•itely after the Russian war was £64,664,000, and that in
1859-60 it rose to £69,502,000, exhibiting an augmentation
of 4838,000, In 1860-61 the expenditure wee £72,842,000
—an augmentation in two years of £8,178,000, or an average
outlay in these four years of £71,195,000 or without the
outlay for fortifications £70,678,000. The increase of the
expenditure was perfectly justifiable, because there was an
anxious desire to increase the defences of the country on
the part of the public and the Parliament. For four years
the finances of the country had been kept in a state of
tensic n. Last year the income and expenditure
nearly balanced ore another. The income and expen
diture which the Government now asked the house to
consider was a hopeful and favourable one. The harvests
of the last three years had only been ordinarily favourable,
but then there was the drawback of the distress in Lallea•
shire. The losses thus inculcated during the past twelve
months should not be lost upon the house, or the country.
The The magnanimity with which the distress had beeen
b spoken
and the calm endurance of the people, could not
had risen
b
too highly of. (Cheers.) The price of
to 2s.
and 2s. Id,
since the distress, from 6d. or 7d.
Per
lb. t
indulge in any
at the time he spoke. And he could
light hopes as to the future. This and the distress of Ire-
land,some extent interfered
w
as yet but little noticed, had to
with the revenue. Otherwise he probably should have
been able to exhibit a brighter picture of the finances of the
nation. Agricultural statistics, carefully computed, in
respect to Ireland, exhibited that, from 1856 to 1860, the
annual value of agriculture and stock—the four usual items
_was £39,437,000, whereas in 1862-3 it had descended
to £27,327,000, and the duty from spirits, which was
52,463,000 in 1861-2, had only reached £2,292,000 in
1862-3. These causes must be taken into consideration in
reviewing the present finances of the country: The esti-
mated amount of annual revenue at 31st March last was

With respect to the tea and sugar duties, this was the
first time in the history of man that tea and sugar
were placed in competition—(laughter)—but whichever
got the reduction great benefit could not fail to be
conferred on the public. The present tax on tea was actu-
ally 100 per cent. of its value ; that of sugar only one half
of its value in bond. So the Government gave
the preference to tea, and they proposed to re-
duce the duty to ls. per pound, (Loud cheers.)
The reduction would take place so soon as the res.llution
was agreed to, and the tax would be remitted ; this would,
he reckoned, take place on Saturday morning next week. i
(Hear.) He proposed to maintain this final rate of duty
till August, 1864. This would absorb £1,300,000 of the
surplus. (Hear, hear.) [The right hon. gentleman
caused some merriment by exhibiting two small
packets of tea sent by an hon member (Mr. Gregson) the
larger is., untaxed, the smaller, ls. sd. tsxed ] Next he '
intended to take 2d. per pound off the general income tax
as at present levied, which would involve a reduction of
taxation of £3,340,000 in the present financial year, though
that would be a prospective loss of £1,601,600 of taxation
After all these reductions there would remain a surplus of
£531,000, with which he did not intend to part.
He did not claim much originality for these yro-
positions ; but both he and the Government
were sincerely impressed with the belief that it was the
best reduction that could he made under the circum-
stances, and the condition of the country. (Cheers )
He preposed to take power to pay off £1,000,0000 of ex-
chequer bonds falling due in May, with power to re borrow
the amount should the exigencies of the country need it
After briefly reviewing the reduction of taxation diving the
last few years, and the state of trade at the present time
and our exports to other countries.

The right hon. gentleman concluded at half-past seven
o'clock, by placing tho various resolutions in the hands of
the Chairman.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.—This Day.

EPSOM RACES—Tins DAY.
BY ELECTRIC TELEGRATR.
TRIAL STAKES.

Buckenhani 1
Argonaut
Six ran.
HEATHCOTE PLATE.

Poland
East Sheen
3
Rapture _ _

Twelve ran.
TWO-YEAR•OLD STAKES.

Molly Carew
Diomed
Narbonne

THE CITY POLICE.

-----~

The Lord Mayor is understood to have received
a comnunication from Sir George Grey apprising
him that it is the inten!icin of the Government to
introduce a bill in the House of Commons, having
for its object to place the whole of the metropel:e,
including the City, under one system of police. The
Aldermen have been summoned to attend a meeting
at Guildhall to-day, for the express purpose of
hearing the letter of the Home Secretary read and
shaping their course of action.

For years past nothing has occurred to cause
ogfr etahtee rc
oe xc r
poi treamt
ieon and
at
thanthe alarm among the
proposition
t o members
amalga-
mate their police with that of the metropolis. From
the highest to the lowest they may be said to be up
in arms at the suggestion, and already u great
amount of bitter party feeling has been engendered,
which is chiefly directed against Sir George Grey
and sir Richard Mayne. Ward meetings are being
held all over the City to protest against the
threatened innovation, which is denounced in
speeches and resolutions as being opposed to the
principle of local self-government, akin to centra-
lisation, aimed at some of the time honoured pri-
vileges of the Corporation. A favourite figure of
speech is, that it is an attempt to introduce " the
thin end of the wedge," and that, once deprived of
the management of their police, the right of elect-
ing their own magistrates, on which they pride
and a stipendiary would
themselves, would follow,
be substituted for au unpaid magistracy. It would,
however, be an error to suppose that the pubde
feeling in the city of London on this or on any
other occasion is at all fairly reflected in
these assemblies. They are usually held in some
little schoolroom capable of holding fifty or a
hundred people, as at the election of an alderman
or a common councilman, and any more than in
numbers they cannot be said to represent in
any considerable degree the intelligence or wealth
of the citizens. A notable instance is at
hand. The ward of Langbourn, which is
located in the midst of the populous and wealthy
community in Fenchurch and Lombard streets,
and in the neighbourhood of the old East India
House, has a constituency for civic purposes of less
than 270, and at the recent hotly contested election
tor an alderman, not more than 200 of them took
the trouble to record their votes. It was considered.
a proud circumstance that a banker on the one
Fide and on the other had been allured from his
business for half an hour to propose or second the
candidates on the day of nomination, and six
hours of the following one were spent in polling
the 200 voters.
But it is not only in the wards that resistance is
made to the contemplated change. Appeals are
being addressed directly or indirectly to the corpo-
rate bodies throughout the kingdom, with the view
to enlist their sympathy and assistance, by allega-
tions that it also concerns them, as a blow aimed at
municipal institutions. The petitions to Parliament,
too, are bAog sent in some instances to leading
members of the Opposition, with the obvious in-
tention of making it a party question.
This partizan spirit betrayed itself in the Court
of Aldermen on Tuesday during a conversation as to
the distribution of a sum of money which had been
forwarded from her Majesty to the Lord Mayor, to
be given to peer people who had suffered injuries
in the City on the night of the illuminations. One
member of the Court went so far as to call it an act
of indiscretion, judging it from its alleged effect in
eliciting the number of accidents, such as they were.
'['he tone of the whole conversation was to deride
the notion that there had been such a thing as an
accident in the City on the occasion, barring, of
course, the six or eight lives which were sacrificed,
and a few black eyes, and it was not until an ob-
servation by Alderman Mechi, gently adverting to
the humane feeling which had prompted the Royal
donation, that the subject was allowed to drop.—
Times.

GRAVEYARD SECRETS.

The mania which seems to exist now for selling antiquated
church property, and removing the remains of the dead
from their last resting-places to make room for the upward
tendency of business, has led to some curious developments
which have startled the community, and in many instances
given rise to suspicions not much to the credit of certain
persons holding high position as churchgoing folks and vir-
tuous members of society. The case of the Sullivan-street
Church was the first that attracted the attention of the pub-
lic. The disgraceful details of the manner in which the
bodies were removed from the vaults of that church must be
still fresh in the recollection of our readers. Many coffins
were discovered in a state of perfect preservation, with the
shrouds also immaculate, but with nothing else save a
shovel full of dust ; and it was generally believed at the
time that certain persons had carried on a very profitable
business in the bodies < f the dead interred in the vaults of the
church. But if the developments which were brought to
light by the removal of the remains from the Sullivan-street
Church are to be considered strange, they are nothing as
compared with what has been since discovered in the graves
of the old Baptist Church, corner of Wooster and
Amity-streets. About a month ago the trustees of
the latter church resolved to remove the remains tif the
dead to Cypress Hills Cemetery, preliminary to selling the
property. Hete, as in the Sullivan•street vaults, coffins
were found deprived of their tenants. One day, while the
labourers were engaged in their work, a grave was disco-
vered which had once contained five or six coffins, with
their remains. All but one of these coffins were very nearly
gone. The third coffin was still in a good state of preser-
vation. The curious part of the story remains to be told.
The bodies in all the coffins except the third from the sur-
face, already alluled to. had wasted away into undistin-
guishable collections of flesh and bones. The body in the
third coffin was still left perfect in form, the stockings and
shroud in a good state of preservation, and the flesh hard-
ened almost to petrifaction. Dr. Sayre was invited to view
the body, and expressed the greatest surprise at what be
witnessed. The shroud was covered the entire length with
a smooth white substance resembling wax. On examina-
tion the body proved to be that of a woman. A party of
physicians have since visited the church, at the invitation
of the city inspector. They found the shroud coated with a
thin, white, mouldy substance, which might have resulted
from the deposit of the gases in the coffin, or might have
been the residue of some antiseptio matter sprinkled there-
in for the purpose of preserving the body. Un removing the
shroud the body was discovered to be somewhat more
altered than when at first viewed after disinterment. The
skin was of a dark reddish colour, resembling dirty lecahthoetre
or the covering of old cheese. The legs, abdomen,
arms, hands, and in fact every portion of theewha
retained
fibres
snwe
were
erufck with
except-
ing the head, which was decomposedzaboonive, t
tboad
petrifaction:a
oor cram-
• lifter, the body emitted a
eifrofimb
On being struck with anuixdr
h theirar d e originale co 12 d form,io a pi,
wrao:asac hucpinunrgo
et
muscular
sound like that which wAo
ll the cellular and adipose tissues
Were similar instrument.
and,
te ba
sks at ab remarkednl
eevreiedsr Yee
mnycbeelaisrniYg thatdried
through •
Crum-
pled tallow. The •••01with some diffi-
nvarreeregtdeiid:nteinluytorna.aißtster death, 0
wabriiejion.
cuity, and
as they would be in found to
be about as strong an ordinary
st mortel
he lthy
body "D n examining the
examination had been performed w
the tendons
ere discovered. It was
suggested by the medical examiners that
that of some unfortunate creature the body might be
of poison, like Airs. who had been the victim
membered, was perfectly Stephens, saturated with arsenic.
fact that the hair was From the
jetty black, and that the teeth were
in a perfectly sound condition, it is conjectured that the
woman, whoever she was, could
30 not have been more than
or 35 years old at the time
of her death. However that
may be, it is pretty certain that the remains must have been
interred over 30 years ago, from the fact that the coffins
found above the one which contained her body showed by
the dates on their plates that they had lain beneath the
earth for that full period. This is the only way that the
length of time her remains have been buried can be arrived
at, inasmuch as there was no plate on the coffin to speak
for itself. It is a remarkable fact that there was not the
slightest stench from the body, even from the head, which
had decayed. The prevailing idea seems to be that there
was some foul play, Perhaps the only conclusion that the
authorities will ever be able to arrive at will be that of the
moody Hamlet, that there are stranger things in
,heav,ieen
and earth "then your philosophy ever dreamt of f
•'
York Herald.

GAMBLING FORA WIFE.—At Irkoutsk a strange
case in connection with the prevalent passion for
gambling came under the notice of Mrs. Atkinson, the
lived t
authoress of "Recollections of Tartar Steppes." In one of
the magazines of the bazaar a lady was observed whose
us to hear that
history might be briefly summarised in the statement that
sho was lost and won at cards. Her husband had been a
wealthy Siberian, but, like many of his countrymen, he
was a inveterate gambler. In one night he lost every ke.
peck he possessed—land, house, "'and furniture followed
and last of all he staked his young and beautiful wife. She
was also ~lo and the victor entered calmly i to ' ''-'"
sion of his winning& It is not a little curious to
P°S.Sirs'.
the pair thus strangely mated had
and 6410c1 a most happy and exam , °gether 20 years
the
life."