The Sun.
London, England, 1830-05-08 00:00:00

"PIRIT OF Till PUBLIC JOURNALS,

In making some strictures in our two last nun:-
bens on the Parliamentary- document entitled " Di-
plomatic Expenses," we expressed our desire to see
a specification of details, under particular heads,
which, upon examination, we find the return itself
was not intended to include, and the absence of
which, therefore, afforded- no ground. for animadver-
sion or suspicion. The return in question was
moved for by Mr. Hume, and contains all the in-
formation required by that Hon. Member, who
shaped his motion so as to obtain the aggregate
sums under each head, and not the particulars of
any. The form adopted in making out the tables is
the same as that which is found among the Parlia-
mentary papers of 1U22. The particular details of
" the extraordinary and incidental expences," which
are lumped together in one sum, the items of the
expences " of commissions under treaties with
foreign Powers," of the expellees of special com-
missions, and consular establishments, together with
the amount of retired pensions and superannuation
allowances, are annually laid before Parliament un-
der the head of " civil contingencies," or in some
other separate form. On Monday last we observe
that these returns, in more minute and specific
detail, as well as others connected with our diple-
Matic missions and consular establishments, were
laid on the table of the House of Commons iw
answer to a motion of Sir James Graham. It is
but just and candid to mention these facts,
in order to remove the unfavourable impres-
sion which might be otherwise created against
the office which supplies these returns, by any
complaint that information was either wilfully with-
held, or scantily afforded. With this necessary ex-
planation our remarks might end ; but as our atten-
tion has been again directed to the subject, a few
observations on the document before us may not be
deemed misplaced. We are not among the number
of those who undervalue the duties of our diplo-
matic agents, if performed with zeal and capacity,
or who would deal out with a niggard and parsimo-
nious hand the means of rewarding their exertions
or supporting their dignity, as the representatives
among foreigners of this great and opulent nation.
If the definition of - an Ambassador by Sir H.
Wotton, as " a man sent abroad to lie for the good
of his country," were correct, then we might ex-
claim, what a deal of lying might be bought for
less than a quarter of a million," and propose the
most unsparing retrenchment. If our diplomatic
agents were required merely to live like private
gentlemen in foreign capitals—to make their houses
only a kind of caravansary on fitting occasions for a
stray English traveller, arid never to see their noble
or distinguished countrymen who might visit the
court at which they reside except when expediting
their passports, then a tithe of their present salaries
and allowances would pay for all their official outlay
and extraordinary expenditure; but it is needless
to say that such a representation of their duties,
and such a limitation of their expenses, would be
ridiculously incorrect. In the execution of their ne-
cessary functions, they are liable to charges which
no private gentleman need incur, and which must
be defrayed either out of their own purse or that
of the State. The hotels of their mission must be-
come a common centre of international intercourse,
and should exhibit to the people among whom they
reside some reflection of their country's splendour.
It is their duty to bring distinguished Englishmen
and distinguished foreigners into contact—to display
the virtue of a becoming hospitality—to maintain
the character of their country for the manners and
accomplishments of those whom they invite foreigners
to meet at their entertainments, arid create a favour-
able impression of their nation, even among the lower
orders of those around them, by their liberality and
generosity. All this may be independent of their
more essential duties as honourable spies, informers,
or negotiators. It is unconnected with diplomatic in-
trigues, over-reaching, or officious intermeddling;
but it is, nevertheless, often useful in advancing po-
litical objects, or smoothing down political difficulties.
Now, though there may be different notions about the
sum necessary for manitaining a suitable diplomatic
establishment, it is plain that our Ambassadors at
the chief Courts of Europe must receive larger in-
comes to meet these extraordinary charges than any
other class of officers employed by the State. The only
question that can properly be raised relates to the
amount. In the paper before us we find five mis-
vions—those to France, Austria, Russia, the Ne-
therlands, and the Ottoman Porte—in the- receipt
of between 12,1001. to 13,1001. each. It is but
fair, however, to mention that this allowance mais-
tains the secretaries; and defrays all the expenses of
the embassy, as well as the salary of the Ambassa-
dor. The sum, after all, seems large, and the ar-
rangement, which is not one of the present Admi-
nistration, ought to be reconsidered. With respect
to the Netherlands, it does appear to us most unne-
cessary to maintain an Ambassador at the plain, un-
ostentatious Court of Brussels, or the Hague, with
an allowance which would support the whole of the
Dutch Cabinet. Spain is now very properly struck
off the list of great Courts, so far as Court great-
ness is measured by the scale of English diplomatic
allowances; and the modest sum of 8001. for Lisbon
in the last year (though we know not to what ;
envoy it was paid) appears to us about a just com-
pensation for all the diplomatic service that has
been done at the Court of Don Miguel. In run-
ning over the list of missions with a view to econo-
mical retrenchment, the eye is arrested at the names
of Bavaria, Wurternberg, Saxony, the German Diet,
and the Swiss Cantons, to our envoys at which we
pay respectively 5,4001., 4,4001., 3,3001., 4,400/.,
and 3,300/. It would appear unnecessary to send
Ambassadors both to the meeting of the German
Confederation and to the separate small states of
which it is composed. And, in the name of every ,
thing extravagant, why have we an Envoy at Flo-
rence, with a salary of 4,400/.2 Is it to represent, I
not English interests, but English musical taste,
and to add one performer more to an amateur con-
cert ? If this be the object let the lovers of the
Tuscan music or the Tuscan stage pay their own 4
performers, and let us not be called on " to pay the '
piper." Our Consul at Leghorn is capable of dos
ing all our diplomatic business in Tuscany. The
arrangement made for the maintenance of Consular
establishments by salaries from the English Govern-
ment instead of fees from the merchants, deserves
revision. This head of expellee probably cannot
otherwise be much reduced, thBtigh it amounted last
year to the heavy sum of 102,4001., or nearly a
third of tile whole of our foreign diplomatic expen-
diture. We come now to the more pleasing task
of pointing out the savings which have been effected
in the expences of foreign missions within the last
four years. In 1826 we paid for these services the
enormous sum of 459,5381., and last year we find
the . charge reduced to 366,0041., leaving a ba-
lance in favour of the nation of nearly 100,0001.,
or more than 20 per cent. on the whole.
When it is considered that the pensions, amount-
ing to nearly 60,0001., could not be touched,
—that our Consular charges could not be easily
diminished without a total change of system,
and that some new missions (such as that to Greece)
have been added to the previous list, this cannot
fail to appear a great saving over the remainder, to
which the pruning-knife could be safely applied.
The branches of expenditure on which thin eeeno-
mica! experiment has been tried appear to us as ju-
diciously- selected as the saving itself is consider-
able. From the salaries of Ambassadors have been
struck off more than 10,0001., the amount being
reduced from 142,584/. to 132,1451., though the
mission to Greece, amounting to 2,9001., has been
added to the latter. The item of special commis-
sions sent to South America, which in 1826
amounted to 21,9801., necessarily dropped off last
year, la! 4Pie tteceSaity for them had ceased; but we
owe' tHe'Goveriinfentthanks for its reduction of the
eipelices of Envoys to these States from 25,3571.
to 15,5721. Such propitious attempts at saving '
the public money offer the cheering prospect of still
jeore extensive retrenchment, should the courageous
Teoittance:of fle Government ;o the perpetuity of

abuses, and its resolution to cut down extravagance,
be reinforced by the approbation of the country and
the-garages of 'the-independent portioilof Patlia-
ment.—Times.

Lord Goderich made a clever speech the other
night on the finances, though we are not altogether
satisfied that those parts of his statements which
passed off most triumphantly at the time possessed
more than one of the two great qualities aimed at by
men of talent in public discussion : they were itigr-
nious, but we doubt that they were true. his Lord-
ship was incontrovertibly right in affirming that the
debt of England is in substance an annuity redeem-
able only by the payment of a certain sum of money.
But when his Lordship goes on to add that the na-
tion has paid off a portion of the capital of its debt.
bearing the ratio of 150,000,0001. of principal to
4,500,0001. of annual interest by which the sum
total of interest has been reduced, we take leave to
doubt the correctness of Lord Goderich's proposition.
Many private gentlemen have been enabled to reduce
the interest of their debts; and why ? Because mosey
Had become of less value than before, and the interest
of the loan was consequently lowered. But have these
gentlemen so reduced the interest on their mort-
gages, as that the sum remaining annually out of
their rents for clear income bears a larger propor-
tion to the interest money than before that interest
had been diminished ? Undoubtedly not. If the
value of money put out on loan has fallen, so the
rents of land have fallen; and if the interest pay
able on the mortgage has been diminished, so has
the part of the rental remaining untouched. The
gentleman who pays less interest and less taxes than
he used to do, has not, therefore, or at least in a
very trifling degree, a larger proportion of his rents
than formerly to expend on comforts, and in fact
has experienced no relief; so the same process
through which the interest on the public debt has
been reduced, has :educed likewise the annual pro-
duce of laud, commerce, manufactures, &c. (in
money), out of which that interest is defrayed.
We do not, in truth, believe that 4,500,0001. is a
greater deduction faint the total interest of the debt
in 1816, than would correspond with the general
diminution of the income of the country, if the
present amount be contrasted with that of 1816.
On the contrary, it is our firm opinion, that if one-
seventh of interest has been reduced, we have ex-
perienced a reduction fully equal to one-fourth in
public and private revenue. The result, therefore,
we submit to Lord Goderich, is not quite so bril-
liant as his Lordship's speech has described it. Take
off 8,000,0004 a year from taxes on necessaries,
&c., and repair the revenue by a more skilful dis-
tribution of its items, and Lord Goderich may then
have some more solid ground of congratulation.--
Times.

Every thing from the pen of Mr. Barton is en-
titled to attention. We have just received a pam-
phlet, published by him, under the title of A State-
ment rf the Consequences likely to ensue from our
growing Excess of Population, if not remedied by
Colonization, in v hick we think he rather, like Mr.
Huskisson and some others, over-estimates the de-
terioration of the condition of the labouring classes.
Mr. Barton lives in Sussex, and it is difficult for
any man to escape local influence in his specula-
tions. There is partial deterioration unquestion-
ably, but in many districts the labouring classes are
not worse off now than at any former period. A
Northumbrian or a Scotchman, knowing that the
condition of farm-labourers in the North of Eng-
land and South of Scotland, where they are paid in
agricultural produce, has the best evidence for an
improvement in their condition, for the food they
receive is positively greater in quantity, as well as
better in quality, now than was the case forty
years ago; and as manufactures are cheaper,
there is no set-off against the food. A native,
again, of the South of England infers a ge-
neral deterioration of the agricultural labourers,
because their condition has unquestionably
deteriorated in that part of the country. Mr. Bal-
ton states that there are particular periods in the
history of this country when the population has ra-
pidly increased; and that these periods have been
followed by decline in the real wages of labour and
disease and crime. Referring to Acts of Pallid-
rnent and other documents, he infers that the period
of Elizabeth, in particular, resembled the present,
and indicates that if we do not look about us, we
may expect the same disasters which then followed
over-population.
" It may be inferred (he says), with at least great pro-
bability, from these and other similar records of the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries, that an increase of popu-
lation was then taking place, such as prevails at the pre-
sent day. And it is certain that during the greater part
of the last century, such an increase of population did not
take place. If, therefore, we desire to ascertain what
effects may be expected to follow from the present state of
things by reasoning from past experience, we must look
back from 150 or 250 years ; and in so doing, we shall
be quite surprised to discover how very remarkable a pa-
rallel exists between the circumstances of the time of
Elizabeth and those of the present day.

" In the first place the rapid increase of population
was followed, as in our times, by a great decline in the
real wages of labour, i. e. in the price of labour measured
in corn or other commodities. Comparing the rate of
wages with the price of wheat on an average of the five
preceding years, we shall find that in 1495 a labourer
could purchase with his week's wages one hundred and
ninety-nine pints of wheat ; in the year 1593, towards
the close of Elizabeth's reign, only eighty-two pints ; in
1610, only forty-six pints.* So that in the reign of
James I. a labourer could obtain only one-fourth part of
the necessaries and conveniences which he obtained in the
reign of Henry VII. Just such a decline in the real
wages of labour, though not to so great an extent, has
taken place in our own times ; and at both periods it is
undoubtedly to be attributed to the same cause, viz, to an
increase:in the number of labourers faster than the increase
of funds destined for their employment. The fact be-
comes still more striking, when it is known that at the
same intermediate period of our history, in which, as I
have said before, the rate of population became nearly
stationary, wages measured in corn experienced a very
considerable advance. This is proved both by a compa-
rison of prices at different dates, and by the universal
complaints of political writers about the middle of the last
century, of the dearness of labour, and the difficulty of
obtaining workmen."
_ _

Mr. Barton, we think, attaches too much import-
ance to the partial evidence which our domestic
history affords us as to the condition of the labour-
ing classes. From Sir John Mac Callum's valuable
History of the Parish of Hawsted, the condition of
the labouring people in the time of Henry VII., ap-
pears to have been any thing but comfortable. Again
during the first part of last century, there are pam-
phlets on pamphlets representing the working people
as in a most wretched condition. In a pamphlet
published in 1739, for instance, tinder the title of
" The Miseries of the Miserable; or an Essay to-
wards laying open the Decay of the fine Woollen
Trade, and the unhappy condition of the poor Wilt-
shire Manufacturers," we find that the Truck Sys-
tem had become then prevalent from the distresses
of the workmen :

" It is the almost universal complaint," says the
writer, " of these poor people, that they cannot earn even
a tolerable maintenance for themselves and families, by
their honest labour and industry at their several trades.—
This is the complaint of the most industrious poor, who
work 12, 14, 16 hours out of 24, and live with the
greatest soberness and frugality." . . " Many in-
stances might be found of industrious weavers who, in this
last winter, were from five to ten weeks a piece in weaving
a cloth of about 405." . . . " These poor wretches
don't want to grow rich, but to get bread for themselves
and their families. The price of necessaries is rai,ed to
them considerably above the common rates, both by
truching masters, or their relations, or dependents, at
whose shops the poor are obliged to buy things."
We notice these things, because we believe that
there has never been that uniform deterioration or
uniform improvement which Mr. Barton describes.
We Oa on a future day enter more fully into this
subject as connected with the remedy.--31. Chron.
Lord Goderich, who, when Chancellor of the
Exchequer, made himself so memorable by discover-
ing ire the operations of the Bubble Companies con-
* Compare the Tables of the Rate of Wages in the
third volume of Eden on the Poor, with the Tables of the
Prices of Corn in the same work,