The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-03 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 1863.

In the House of Lords, last evening,
The Prince and Princess of Wales' Annuities
Biil was passed through committee.
On the motion of Lord LTFFORD the Drainage
of Land Bill was read a second time, and at the
suggestion of Lord LUCAN referred to a select
committee.
The Duke of SOMERSET moved the second reading
of the Naval Coast Volunteers Act Amendment
Bill. The noble duke said that according to the
existing, arrangements, the services of the coast
guard volunteers were limited to a distance of 300
miles from their own shores, and some inconve-
nience had arisen where vessels having any of these
men on board were required beyond that limit.
The bill, therefore, proposed to abolish this ar-
rangement so far as all men were concerned who
might enter hereafter, but the strictest good faith
would be observed with regard to the men at pre-
sent constituting the reserve. This proposal might
perhaps lead to some diminution in the coast guard
volunteer force, but, seeing that the reserves from
other sources were increasing, no sensible effect
would be made on the total number of the naval
reserve, which, before the end of the year, he
expected would number about 30,000 men.
The Earl of HARDWICKE expressed his surprise
to find that, with the large reserve force of 30,000
men, the Government deemed it necessary to have
not less than 76,000 seamen and marines for the
present year. And he should like to know what
NN as the necessity for it. The Duke of SOMERSET
said the intenVon was to employ these men at home;
but it was possible that in the event of war some of
them might be found on board the ships in the
Channel, and if they were not available for a more
distant service our whole force might be paralysed.
The bill was then read a second time, and their
lordships soon after adjourned.

In the House of Commons, Mr. COBDEN gave
notice, that, on the order of the day for going into
committee on the Navy Estimates, he should call
attention to the administration of naval affairs by
the Board of Admit:alty.
In reply to Colonel STUART,
Sir G. C. LEVIS said, that regard to any prize
money coming to the troops engaged in the Chinese
expedition of 1860, the loot taken by the troops had
been sold on the spot,and the proceeds divided among
the men.
Mr. LAYARD stated, in answer to Mr. Caird, that
the attention of the Government had
.beei. called to
certain vessels supposed to be fitting out in this
country for the Confederate States, but that the
information was too vague and uncertain to justify
the interference of the authorities, at the same time
La wished it to be understood that her Majesty's
Government would keep a close watch upon all
suspected vessels.
The adjourned debate on the second reading of
the Tobaceo Duties Bill was resumed by Colonel
DUNNE, who contended that the proposed change
would place the Irish manufacturer in a worse posi-
tion than he was at present, at the same time that
ii would be of no benefit to the consumer.
Sir S. NORTHCOTE argued in favour of referring
the bill to a select committee, in order that the

merits of the case put forward by the native manu-
facturer might be inquired into.
Sir E. GRCGAN was likewise in favour of a select
committee, while Mr. R. W. CRAWYORD op-
posed it.
Mr. CHILDERS was of opinion that, under exist^
ing circumstances, any measure that proposed a re-
duction of the duty on tobacco ought to be duly
considered by the House.
Mr. HORSFALL wished the subject to be post-
poned until after the financial statement of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer had been brought before
the house.
Mr. CARDWELL said that the object of the bill
was to adapt the tobacco duties to the principles
which had been advantageously applied to other
articles of consumption, and so diminish the exten-
sive system of smuggling at present in operation.
Sir HUGH CAIRNS thought that there would be
considerable difficulty in collecting the duties in
inland towns under the proposed alteration.
Mr. NEWDEGATE thought that the bill ought to
be referred to a select committee.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said that
he would fix the committee for Thursday, or Friday,
in order to introduce certain provisions which he
thought would tend to meet the wishes of, and be
advantageous to, the trade, provided that the house
would agree to read the bill a second time.
Mr. AYRTON then withdrew his amendment.
The House then went into committee on the Cor-
rupt Practices at Elections Bill.
Mr. CAVE moved the omission of clause 2, which
proposed to disfranchise solicitors, agents, and mes-
sengers.
After some discussion the house divided, when
the motion was carried by 110 to 103.
The Government being defeated by the majority
of seven, clause 5 was therefore struck out. After
some discussion on clause 8, the chairman reported
progress, and the Births and Deaths Registration
(Ireland), as amended, was considered.
Sir R. PEEL obtained leave to bring in a bill for
the registration of assurances in Ireland, and Mr.
MAGUIRE to introduce a bill to amend the practice
and procedure of the Court of Admiralty in Ireland.
Other business was disposed of, and the House ad-
journed at one o'clock.

The prolonged debate on reducing the duty on a
portion of manufactured tobacco was finally resumed
last evening with increased zeal, if not bitterness.
There is evidently a screw loose somewhere, and a
dread of the immediate consequence to those who now
appear to reap substantial profit from the impost as
it stands—while the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
on the other hand, seems "well up" in the know-
ledge of the underhand goings on of the gentlemen
smugglers. Profit, no matter how, and increased
revenue, by a reduction of the duty, are at daggers
drawn for the mastery. For our own part, we
cannot but wish success to the revenue, for the
more we get by duty-paid tobacco, blowing its
noxious vapour on the polluted air, the less duty
will be required on the increased consumption of
tea, exhaling its grateful fragrance on the blessful
breeze. Besides, the consumption of the one is
voluntary, while the other has become an article of
almost universal necessity. No doubt, the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer would prefer income arising
from free-will than from compulsive enactment.
But in any case revenue he must have, and the more
the better, because of less trouble to himself and
satisfaction to the consumer.

Sir MORTON PETO discusses this matter in his
usual clear statesmanlike manner in the volume on
taxation lately published. He enters into the com-
parative amounts produced by moderate and exces-
sive duties, and decidedly advocates the former on
the articles of tea and sugar, but leaves tobacco to
be dealt with simply as what will bring most to
the revenue. It is a luxury of questionable use,
certainly not one of necessity ; and, its indulgence
being altogether a matter of taste, makes it one of
indifference to the better half of the population, too
often doomed to bear the pestilent effluvia " from
night till morn, from morn till smoking eve."

But our business is not so much with the vice as
with its virtue in bringing money into the exche-
quer; and as the Roman Emperor said of an objec•
tionable tax, " this money does not smell," and
pocketed the coin ; yet the tobacco does smell, but
not quite strong enough for the Chancellor's olfac-
tory nerves while snuffing the balance awanting in
the exchequer coffers, So money he must have in
despite of all the dust and smoke so freely volun-
teered by the patriotic representatives of the dis-
interested few, whose eloquence is dumb save when
duty touches the pocket.

Morally speaking, it is a bad sign when a nation
must meet its necessities by ministering to the vices
of its people. But Mr. GLADSTONE'S poverty, and
not his will, consents to do what his own better
judgment would reprobate if his duty to
raise the wind did not stimulate his in-
genuity. Would that he were as ingenious
as eloquent. Then, indeed, there were hope in
Israel and balm—not in Gilead—but in the Income-

tax, which is a prodigy of iniquity worthy of the
prince of darkness. But, however repugnant to
reason as a whole, will he compound the odium by
remitting one half this year, and absolve his own
conscience and relieve ours by crying " quits" the
next I Let him consent to that and he may keep
his place for a further term, leaving the condemned
to their fate. Let him tax property, and welcome,
for that has its duties as well as its rights. The
millions of dormant property guarded and protected
by the patriotism of the people has a duty to per-
form to those who protect it, and the immense ac-
cumulation of wealth seeking investment in devious
ways to shun the tax-collector would, if brought to
book, make a very respectable item in the ways and
means of the national balance-sheet. Even his own
succession duty now begins to do honour to his vir-

tuous determination to be just, regardless of pres-
sure from any and every quarter. The wonder is
how often men in power overlook the present op-
portunity of doing good in their vain anticipation
of future celebrity, no matter at whose expense.
But though there be little cause of opposition to
getting as much as possible from a worthless weed,
there are grave objections to pressing too hard upon
tea and sugar, especially in keeping on the war tax

True, our
long after the necessity is past and gone.
apprehension of impending danger has of late ra-
ther startled the national mind; but there is always
somehow or other a good reason for spending money
and too little care taken in its disbursement, as our
dockyards and other wasteful departments too truly
testify. With respect to the dockyards, suppose
the House of Commons refuse to allow the building
of the proposed five ships in wooden frames, wha
will the shipwrights have to do ? Surely they
cannot be kept in idleness, neither can they all be
employed beneficially on the iron blips, for however
clever and handy the men itay be in their own
proper vocation, they cannot reasonably be expected

to become expert all of a sudden on a new principle.

No doubt they will soon turn their knowledge to
good account, for the difference will be chiefly in
the material and not in the construction of the craft.
Even if the new ships be given to private establish-
ments, the future repair of our ships must be done
in the Royal Dockyards, and the sooner the people
are versed in their new vocation the better.

WILLIAM I. and his Ministers have just received
a lesson, which it is to be hoped for the sake of the
peace of Europe they will profit by. The Prus-
sian Deputies have stood firm, and in spite of the

known wishes of the KING and the insolence of the
Minister have carried the obnoxious resolution by
a triumphant majority. Tho Liberal party in the
Chambers had discernment enough to perceive that
the imprudence of their rulers had converted the
revolt of the Poles into a European question ; had
enconaged the formation of an alliance between the
three great Powers of England, France, and Austria
against Russia, and Prussia as her ally ; had given li
Austria a golden opportunity for acquiring supre-
macy in Germany, and by outraging the best sen-
timents of humanity and abetting the barbarous acts
of a ruthless tyranny, had rendered their country
contemptible in the eyes of the civilised world.
Herr VON BISMARK, and bis self-willed Sovereign,
who, it is said, is the real originator of this ill-
timed Convention, have cause to thank the
Deputies for their manly and fearless opposition
to the headlong course which threatened the
security of Crown and Cabinet. The summary of
the debate, which we publish in another column, is
full of interest. The tone adopted by the Minister
looks strangely to English readers. With an arro- I
gance only befitting an irresponsible despot Herr
VON BISMARK insulted his opponents, and declared
himself superior to the regulations of the Cham-
bers. With unparalleled effrontery, he said that in
any other Parliament the most malcontent Opposi-
tion would have refrained from pressing a question
which the Government deemed it prudent to
decline; " Give us," he said, "an English
Lower House, and then ask us for English institu-
tions." The deputies might well echo that wish, for
most assuredly Herr von BISMARK would not be
tolerated for a day in St. Stephens. No wonder
that great laughter followed the sage aphorism.
" The Upper House is less important,"
he continues, its importance, we presume,
being measured by the degree of its oppo-
sition to the Court. Not content with these
generalities, Herr von BISMARK went on to attack
the speech of Deputy UNRUH, who had found an
effectual means of restraining the arrogance of
Court and Premier. The Deputy had said that if
the measures of the Government produced external
complications, the sinews of war should be refused
to the King. "Is not this," cried the angry Mi-
nister, " saying to the foreigner Come hither; the
moment is favourable." Indignant contradiction
interrupted his speech, but silence was restored by
the Vice-President, who decided in favour of the
Minister. Encouraged by his intervention, we
suppose, VON BISMARR'S insolence increased. He
recalled the antecedents of Deputy UNRUH, who had
been conspicuous in 1818, with the object, easily
perceptible to the Chambers, of scaring the
KING by evoking the shadows of the
year of revolutions. Fresh exclamations broke
forth, and this time the Vice• President decided
against the Minister, as his allusions had nothing to
do with the question before the Chamber. Upon this
the despotic Vizier of an unconstitutional prince
denied the right of the President to regulate his
speeches. He declared that the power of the Pre-
sident ceased at the bar where the Ministers take their
' seats. The firm and temperate reply of
the President only called forth fresh asser-
tions of his dignity, and the King's autho-
rity, on the part of the minister, which were
met with becoming decision by the President, who
threatened the adjournment of the Chambers.
After this the debate proceeded more quietly, not,
however, without a renewal of the offensive allusion
on the part of Herr von BISMARK. What is to be
thought of the assumption of such a tone on the
part of the Minister of a Constitutional Govern-
ment a House of Representatives ?
According to our French news of yesterday the
Convention will most likely remain in abeyance ;
probably the Prussian authorities are startled at the
unanimous outburst of indignation that has assailed
them from all quarters. The remonstrances of
France can hardly be despised, while the spectre of
the Rhine as the natural boundary of France is
ever present to German eyes. In the words
of a gifted writer, now no more among
us, WILLIAM I. may fancy he hears the
Third NAPOLEON exclaiming—

"And what if Venice wed the sea,
Some dotard's ring the sign,
The sword shall France's emblem be,
That Franks shall wed the Rhine."

Let NAPOLEON reorganise Poland, and he will have
richly earned the reward. Such an extension of
French territory would be more favourably looked
upon by European statesmen than the claiming of
Savoy and Nice as payment for assisting the Italians.
How rash and short-sighted then is the policy of
the Prussian Government ! With so great a dan-
ger ever threatening one of their frontiers, in un-
reasoning alarm at the very name of insurrection,
they are going the best way to lose Posen also.
In spite of the assertions of the Minister, in spite
of the explanations said to be thought satisfactory
by the Cabinet of Paris, in spite of the contradic-
tion of Earl RUSSELL'S report of his conversation
with the Ambassador, the fact seems to be
clear that Russian troops have crossed the
Prussian frontiers—that Poles endeavouring to re-
join their countrymen have been seized and sur-
reniered to the tender mercies of the Russians.
In the face of accusations like these, solemnly
brought forward, the Prussian Minister coolly says
that "troops might cross the frontier without
knowing it," and that "it often happened that
twenty or thirty Russian or Prussian officers had
gone across to visit their friends." The Deputies
might well doubt whether to take such language
as jest or earnest. Their own sense of the gravity
and importance of the occasion was shown in the
vote which followed the animated addresses of some
of the principal Liberals. A majority of 246
against a minority of 57 expressed in unmistakeable
terms the resolution of the Deputies to preserve
their national honour and their national interests, not
only against the dangers of foreign intervention, but
from the more insidious and deadly evil of
internal treachery. Such a vote must make its in-
fluence felt even at the Palace. It must, we should
hope, convince the SING that discretion is the
better part of valour; that the time for trifling
with his people, for tyranny under the name of
divine right, is over. It will be well for the in-
terests of Prussia if it does not teach him a new
version of the old adage, " Quern Deus
vult perdere prius dementat," for the aphorism
of the h e
Minister Prussian
_Court.
let Most
heed can hardly fail to rise to the mind while
reading the extraordinary harangue of the favoured
statesman
applies
to
the
WILLIAM
heed lest it also bear application t o the certainly
taketainly
Monarchy.

When first the probable events of the session
were talked of, it was said that nothing definite
could be done until the marriage of the Prince of
Wales was over; but it appears that, at any rate,
" Coming events cast their shadows before ;"
and even in this perforced state of inaction, this
compulsory calm before the storm, we may gain a
very fair idea of what is in perspective. This is
the fourth time in less than four weeks that the
Ministry has been defeated. If this is what they
are capable of in the lull of a truce, what will they
do when the tug of war begins P Last night the
" Corrupt Practices at Elections Bill" came on, and
upon clause 2 the Ministers were defeated. This
clause was to disfranchise attorneys and agents act-

ing for candidates. An amendment was moved for
its omission, and Sir G. GREY, with the usual in-
decision of his set, declared that he had no particu-
lar or decided opinion upon it, but he thought it
was the wish of a committee of that House that it
should be adopted. This is always the way with
these Ministers ; nothing concerns them essen-
tially, because they have no definite policy ; but this
system of subterfuge and policy does not seem to
answer, as the division list bears witness with fatal
accuracy to the adverse majorities. Sir M.
FARQUHAR spoke out sensibly and strongly es to
his intention of voting against the clause. He said
that he could not designate such legislation as was
now attempted as anything but a sham and a
humbug. This is the real truth, however unpala-
table it may be to ears polite. Either be liberals
or not, says the common sense of the house and the
general feeling of the country, but do not be hypo-
crites and time-servers. If things as they are
at present constituted are suitable for the time,
let them remain so, if not, make a thorough change
and a complete re-organisation, but let us not go on
patching what requires total renovation. The
dignity of the Constitution suffers from such
unseemly changes and imperfect innovations. If
Lord RussELL had been honest in 1859 he would
have come boldly forward, and in the face of day
have prepared an extreme measure of Reform and
other proposals of the most advanced Liberals.
Then if the Hcuse had rejected his bill he could
have dissolved Parliament and appealed to
the country. Anything short of this was
but hypocrisy and make-believe. If the Liberal
Government did not want to advance the views of
Liberalism, they had better have remembered the
adage, "Fa: est ab hoste docere," and take advan-
vantage of the DERBY Reform Bill, which might have
satisfied their consciences and saved their credit.
They preferred to adopt a mediocre idea of their
Own, which has covered them with disgrace from
all impartial judges, and now threatens to make
them share the unenviable notoriety of those whose
friends and foes alike disdain them.