The Sun.
London, England, 1830-01-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The temper displayed at the Cambridge county
meeting may be useful in one respect to his
Majesty's Ministers, by suggesting to them the
wisdom of obviating in time the dangers which
must arise out of any tende►►cy to coalition be-
tween reasonable men, who seek only a reform
of real grievances through practicable and tem-
perate means, and persons ofan opposite political
character, who take the opportunity of a public
meeting, no matter what may be its professed
object, to run wild upon all manner of debateable
topics, and agitate the country for no acknow-
ledged or definite good. As it happened in
Ireland, so it will here and every where. By
conceding the demands of the upright and so,ber-
minded, their forced connexion with the turbu-
lent is at once broken up, and men of property
and men of sense—let them belong to Whig,
Tory, or neutral—will form an accession to the
moral strength of Ministers in resisting schemes
full of violence or absurdity, which can never
gain proselytes but from the encouragement by
Ministers of evils which ought to be corrected.
If the pressure of unwise taxes were not felt, the
declamations of Mr. Wells on subjects foreign to
any immediate cause of public suffering would
command but slight attention.—Times.
We have elsewhere inserted a letter, written
by a distinguished person, which expresses in
strong language the sentiments of the writer
on questions which for some months past
have been perseveringly, if not quite dis-
creetly, forced upon public attention. After
deprecating a return to one-pound notes, in
which we may venture to say that every man
whose mind is capable of profiting by experience
will agree with him, the writer proceeds to
touch upon the several measures which have
been recommended from various quarters for
meeting the distresses of the time. They all
come under the title of what is called equitable
adjustment in some shape or other, and begin
with the return to an execrable expedient, which
we can describe no otherwise than as an inquisi-
tion into every thing, for the enforcement of a
tax out of every thing or nothing. With the
name of property-tax, this precious device was
to be the old income-tax, in its most odious and
intolerable form. It was to embrace pictures,
plate, and chattels of all denominations, to sub-
ject therefore the furniture of every house to an
appraisement, the personal apparel to inspection,
and to establish a daily spy in every dwelling
throughout the land. A system like this, to be
productive, must be utterly unbearable. Under
the late income-tax, the receipts of trade, or pro-
fession, or accident, in one year, were to serve
as a standard for the tax-gatherer of the year
ensuing. But the income of the twelvemonth
had ceased with the twelvemonth. The next
season might be one of sickness, and wholly un-
profitable. What then ? The tax-officer called
as before ; and wrung from destitution the tribute
which there was no new accession of wealth to
answer. This was a tax on capita/,—on capital
which had not even assumed any tangible or
substantial form : it was a tenth levied on the
remaining nine-tenths of last year's produce, by
anticipatinc, as a certainty a rich return from
every unfledged adventurer of the counting-
house,—drawing bills against the contingent
rhetoric of the lawyer, and mortgaging the in-
spirations of the poet's muse. An income-tax
like this, we say,—and the country knows and
shudders at it,—is impossible to be borne. Our
letter says truly, that the attempt at it would
create an insurrection ; and, with us at least,
there is nothing gained by the assurance that
the proposition of it was one of Mr. Ricardo's,
for it was not the only one of that ingenious but
perversely-minded reasoner, which in practice
would be ridiculed by those whom it did not
affect, and kicked against by those who were
doomed substantially to feel it. This is not the
occasion on which it might be proper to state
the essential difference between a tax on pro-
perty and one on precarious income. Not until
retrenchment shall have been pushed into every
nook and cranny of the Government, will the
substitution of any new tax for those of which
the country insists on the abolition, find advo-
cates or apologists in us. There is a whole
forest of abuses to be cleared, before the nation
can ever hope to breathe freely. We shall re-
turn at an early day to the remaining topics of
the letter above alluded to.—lbid.
STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
Time following is an extract of a letter which has
been kindly put in our hands :
" I will admit that an ' equitable adjustment,'

prac icable upon ' equitable' and honest principles,
might be desirable. But the only ' adjustment' I
can contemplate, that would not be iniquitous,
would be a property-tax, embracing every species of
property--land, funded property, valuable leases,
jewels, pictures, goods and chattels of every de-
scription. This was the plan of my late excellent
and able friend and honest politician, David Ricardo;
but, as I repeatedly observed to him, there appears
to be one little difficulty in accomplishing it,—
namely, its utter impracticability ; for, in addition
to other difficulties, I believe it would not be at-
tempted without instantly producing insurrection,
and the subversion of all constituted and legal
authority from one end of the country to the
other. So much for equitable adjustment,' which,
however, means with many who recommend it
(though they do not own this meaning), the
plunder of one class of the community for the be-
nefit of the other.
" There is another nostrum—urged by Mr.
Western and others,--namely, debasing the quality,
or raising the nominal value, of our money, which
in other words would be, enacting by law that a
sovereign' should pass: for 255. or 305., or for
any other sum which folly or roguery might suggest.
1 he first and immediate effect of this dishonest and
barbarous expedient (practised by our Edwards and
Henrys, and recently, I believe, in that enlightened
country called Turkey), would be, to enable all
debtors to cheat their creditors, exactly in propor-
tion to the advance i►► the nominal value of the
sovereign.' All tenants, too, who holds leases,
would in the same degree be enabled to defraud
their landlords. But the classes of the community
who do not come within the description of debtors,
creditors, landlords, and tenants, would experience
no relief from such a measure, nor be in any way
affected by it, except by a participation in the uni-
versal confusion and intricacies resulting from the
derangement of the relative value of all exchange-
able property. The landlord, upon graisting a lease,
would no doubt get a higher nominal rent; but that
increased rent would not enable him to obtain a
greater quantity of the necessaries and luxuries of
life than he can command at present : there would
soon, too, he established two prices for all commo-
dities,—the one founded upon our present, the
other upon the new nominal value of our currency.
" I must add a word with reference to those who
appear to be the most clamorous for the adoption of
the expedient to which I have adverted—I mean
the class called country gentlemen,' who profess to
represent in Parliament the landed interest. Surely
they.are the very last who have a right to complain
of evils produced by a system and by a course of
measures, which they, more than any other class in
the community, created, and du►ing a series of years
•upported by their votes and opinions in and out of
Parliament. It was by their votes in Parliament

' -,-------,
that Mr. Pitt and succeeding Ministers ad*.ei in
1797, and ob.itinately maintained till the yeatl
i 9;
the fatal measure of the Bank Restriction
.-Ac" id
prosecuted the war with a profusion and eictii.ltra-
gance that is without example in the history'of
)r
nations, and which has been the chief, if not the
sole cause, of the pressure and evils of which they
now so loudly complain. It was the country gentle-
men who supported and encouraged Ministers in all
those operations which produced the mass of
national debt which is now so severely felt by all
classes; und, after having been the main cause of its
creation, they are now foremost in clamouring
against: the payment of it. Has .it never oc-
curred to these gentlemen that the title of the
public creditor rests precisely upon the same founda-
tion es the title by which they hold their landed
estates—namely, the law of the land ? that
the spoliation of the fundholder would be just
as iniquitous and illegal as that of the proprietors
of the land? and that the robbery of the one class
might, and probably would, immediately lead to the
robbery of the other ? If plunder is once admitted
as a principle, can these wise gentlemen limit its
operation, mid foresee where it will stop ?
" But I hope and believe the Duke of Wellington
is long-sighted enough to be aware of the fallacies,
frauds, and fooleries of these nostrums, and that he
will have firmness and patriotism enough to resist
all the importunities of those who, from ignorance or
dishonesty, may be urging him to adopt them."--Thid.
Who is there who has not derived pleasure
from the productions of George Colman the
Younger? This ingenious and facetious gen-
tleman has just published the " Random Re-
cords" of a life which, we trust, will be pro-
longed many years, in the dedication of NVIliCh
"to the King's Most Excellent Majesty, by
gracious permission," we are informed that
" from his Majesty's long continued patronage
and favour, he now chiefly derives the means
whereby he lives." Considering the powerful
motives Mr. Colman has for gratitude and
loyalty, it would be very unreasonable to demand
of that he should not be both grateful and
loyal, and we certainly quarrel not with his gra-
titude and loyalty. It will always, besides,
give us great pleasure to learn that Mr. Colman
lives well and comfortably ; and as he is of a
joyous and convivial spirit, we will do him the
justice to say that we have no doubt his joy
would be increased by knowing that all his coun-
trymen were in the enjoyment of all happiness of
which our nature is capable. But we fear Mr.
George Colman has committed the trifling mis-
take of confounding his wishes with the results.
His introduction, and we have not yet had time
to proceed further, brought forcibly to our recol-
lection the dialogue between Sganarelle and his
wife, in the illedecin Malgre Liti of Moliere :
Martine—l have four little children on my hands.
Sganarelle—Pot them on the ground.
Martine—Who are continually calling to me for
bread.

Sganarelle—Whip them. When I have.drunk
and ate my fill, I insist upon every person being fall
in my house.
There can be no hungry person in England so
long as George Colman the younger is not
hungry—no person clothed in rags so long as lie
is warmly clothed, and comfortably seated in his
arm chair. Let us hear his account of the
matter :—" What revolutionary wars, dismem-
berment of states, with
" Moving accidents by flood and field"
at home, what shocks, front within and without,
has our little island proudly sustained, while
scoundrel traitors croak of the ruin which they
wish, but are usable to effect !—ruined are we ?
Then what merry undone dogs are Englishmen!!
Ride through our laughing land, and what is
now to be observed ? The residences, parks,
and wide domains of the noble and the rich ;
gay boxes of the tradesmen, snug tenements of
the yeomanry, and comfortable cottages of the
peasants; morasses drained, and wastes cultivated ;
excellent roads and canals intersecting the country
in every direction ; commodious vehicles, high-
fed horses, and luxurious inns; hills bored or
levelled, and bridges stretching from bank to bank,
where lately the traveller was forced to climb the
steep and ford the torrent, in peril of his life.
Then drive to the metropolis—be quick, or be-
fore you have got within twenty miles of it, it
will have met you half way ; there you behold
art and science improved, with a rapidity beyond
the most sanguine expectation ; new spacious,
streets and squares, thronged with equipages ;
mansions, whose external grandeur betokens the
gorgeous decorations to be found within ; public
offices rebuilt or beautified ; even hospitals or
other structures of charity, towering like palaces;
churches multiplied, theatres enlarged, clubs in
clusters, hotels in swarms, brilliant assemblies,
and Lucullan feasts. Shops, too, where the
costliest articles of home and foreign fabrication
are displayed, while the worth of many thousand
pounds lies glittering in a show-glass ; and in vari-
ous districts of the town, where not longsinee a few
miserable lamps winked at dismal distances, to
make darkness visible,' a joyous blaze of
~,tts
now gladdens the passing population, and ifln,
initiates the night scene. If this be ruin, thank;
to him who under Providence has thus ruined
us I Thanks to the King of England, who,
during his regency and his reign, has evinced
energies, and pursued measures, which, by en•
dearing him to his people, have doubly fortified
him in the power of guarding his dominions'
Thanks to the illustrious George the Fourth,
and the wisdom of those counsellors whom
judgment selected, in the midst of convulsions
which shook the world to its centre, for not
only preserving our constitution, When the storm,
was at its height, but for enabling es to quell tfik?
tempest, and dictate peace to Europe ! Tempo,
rary pressure upon certain classes is the unavoid-
able consequence of a glorious struggle which has,
saved the country; and men may firmly endure that
transient national evil which is the alternative- a
national annihilation." There have been writers
who endeavoured to prove that Alexander and,
Julius CEesar could not have gained hatt6
without soldiers ; but Mr. Colman has not;
deemed it necessary to follow their footsteps, foe
he admits that the King did not save us with-.
out the Minister-) and naval and military officers,
and men who co-operated wish hint. "It is al-
most redundant to observe some people, how-
ever, might have thought the King did it all
himself) how greatly and triumphantly the zela
and talent of the Executive GovernmerA, the
skill and gallantry of our naval
officers,
and the proverbial valour of our wen, have co-
operated with the Monarch mid his Mini-
sters in establishing the pre-eminence of
Great Britain during time difficulties we have
surmounted." " Men may firmly endure that
transient national evil Which is the alternative
of eational annihilation " Hear this, ye cla-
morous Grand Juries, and Noblemen and Gen-
tlemen who vote at county meetings that the
distress is too great to be borne, that order can
no longer be preserved. Mr. Colman tells you.
that men may firmly endure what you endufo,
Mr. Colman endures it firmly, and we trust his,
Majesty endures it firmly. Now that he is,
fairly recovered from his late sever.„ attack, Wl'
should griae to think that he otuld not bear the

:sufferings of others. Most men indeed will sup-
- port wonderfully well the sufferings of others.
ee What a difference in the philosophy of those
•'.• rho once voted hie and fortune addresses 'at the
time when over their cups they told those who
were dissatisfied that they might leave the country,
and now when the mortgagee is devouring with
his eye " the residences, parks, and wide do-
mains of the noble and the rich," which he soon
expects himself to inhabit ! All men who have
the good fortune to be on the Civil List, or in
comfortable quarters about the Treasury, are firm
as rocks at present, and wonder that the men at
Buddersfield and Halifax, and Preston, &c. &c.
who receive only twopence a day, should think
of complaining in a " laughing land," which it is
so pleasant to ride through. Mr. Cobbett, who is
now on a tour through this laughing land of
instruction to the people, and we trust of profit
to himself, does not seem to look at objects
through Mr. Cohnan's spectacles. " Yes (he
says) the stakes put up in the fields, twisted
round with straw, and then covered over with
garments to frighten away the birds, I have
never seen covered with such miserable rags as
the people of proud Preston' are now covered
with. There might be a couple or three thou-
sand sten ling before me ; and leaving out the
garments of the insolent and tyrannical masters,
I verily believe that the covering of the whole,
with the exception of the wooden clogs upon
their feet, was not worth forty shillings. I re-
member that my father used to buy tons of rags
to chop up for manure for his hop garden.—
Scores of garments have I seen amongst those
rags far more valuable, far better looking, than
the things which covered, or in part covered, the
nakedness of this shivering and ill-treated group."
The Quarterly Review, too, the loyal Quar-
terly Review, tells us that "a conviction is now
beginning to gain ground among all classes in
the country, that we have little prospect of re.
turning to a sound and healthy state, until such
a diminution of our burthens shall take place as
shall enable us to approach them (our neigh-
bours) still more nearly ; and that some just
and efficacious measures for that purpose will
before long force themselves upon Parliament,
if Parliament is prepared to do its duty."—
No more talk of Waterloo now, that proud
day for England. It would be difficult to
distinguish between the Quarterly Reviewers,
the Noblemen and Gentlemen who attend County
Meetings, and Mr. Cobbett, except that the
latter is perhaps the most moderate. Speaking
of" the different ways in which the revolutionary
war affected us and our Continental neighbours,"
the Quarterly Reviewer observes that " with
them the existing generation was thinned by the
sword, and the produce of their fields, and sav-
ings of their industry, were consumed by the
military exactions of a victorious enemy. Those
who survived the struggle found themselves poor,
but corrected and instructed by adversity and
comparatively unembarrassed. With us it was
quite otherwise. Notwithstanding the exertions
we made, our country scarcely ever saw an enemy.
Our fleets and armies were maintaine Iby enor-
mous successive loans, contracted during the
suepension of#sh payments, the interest of
which the monopoly of manufactures and com-
merce enjoyed by our predecessors enabled them
easily to pay ; while the whole weight of the
burden, principal and interest, has with dimi-
nished resources been entailed upon us." Mr.
Cobbett, alluding to the recommendations at.
the Preston Quarter Sessions, to make soups in
all their districts to relieve and comfort the poor,
exclaims in the spirit of the Quarterly Review.
" To this art thou come at last, bragging John
Bull I This is the result of having twice
conquered France,' and restored the Bourbons!
This is that indemnity for the future,' which
beeven-born Pitt promised as the effect of the
war. What the soup was made of I cannot say,
but this I know well, that any thing so h errible
as this picture, so humiliating to the nation,
!never was heard of before. I wish that the
poor people to whom this soup is tendered
could come in a body of fifty thousand, and
see the tax-eaters rolling in Hyde Park, or
going to a levee. They would then at once see
cause and effect." It is now admitted, notwith-
standing the vote of the House of Commons
that a Bank note of twenty shillings and one
shilling were equal in value to a guinea, that
ildr. Pitt, under his late Most Gracious Ma-
jesty, and supported by the life and fortune men,
involved this nation m bankruptcy in 1797.
That was the source of much mischief undoubt-
edly. Though the late Mr. illushett
anion balancing accounts after the close of the
war, that the national creditors had loet more
than they gained by the depreciation, still a
great part of our debt was contracted, no doubt,
eluring the depreciation, and the interest of that
we now pay in a better currency. An equitable
adjustment, then, cry the Quarterly Reviewers.
Au equitable adjustment, says Mr. Cobbett.
Down with the Fundholders, exclaims Sir
Robert Heron. We must have a new standard,
say the Quarterly Reviewers. A new Stand-
ard, say Messrs. Atwood and Western. No,
no, Gentlemen—the country is suffering, no
doubt ; but, before meddling with standards, or
enabling Country Gentlemen to cheat those
who have now their estates within their grasp—
Jet us try what can be done by Economy. We
have the Church, too ; and, if confiscation is to
be the word, we ought to begin with property
that belongs (life interests excepted) not to indi-
viduals, and the application of which to public
purposes can create no individual suffering.
Much is to be done before we come to an ad-
usiment.—Morning Cironide.
We have reason to know that the testy and
scornful reply which the Prime Minister conde-
stended to give to the representations of the
Sussex Magistrates hes excited the disgust not
gentleaaen of Sussex only, but of men of
Ali ranks and pasties. There is certainly some-
thing in the cenduest of the Duke of Weil:el:ton
which, to use the mildeet phrase, borders on in-
fatuation. He cannot even be civil to those
who confer on him an obligation. He has not
the politeness to thank them for telling him the
truth. He is not grateful for those acts of kind-
csess which originate in a desire to enlighten
11110. He professes to disbeliseve in the dis-
tresses of the cc entry, just as if theee were a
single man pr ass in the country, except the
Editor of the Courier, who would give him
credit for sincerity ; end yet the Noble Duke
snaps and growls as if he would kick down
stairs the Sussex oculists who come to open his
eyes. The country ie in a state of insupport-
able distress--both commerce and agriculture are
in a fatal decline—the farmer is unable to pay
his rent—we, your Highness's poor Magistrates,
are unable to pay our taxes—the tradesmen
in our villages are nearly all insolvent, and
our labourers are reduced to a state of ab-
ject pauperism—say the gentlemen of Sussex.
Very uYll ! answers the Duke of Wel-
ltniton. But it is very rejoin the justices
p