The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-30 00:00:00

THERMOMETER.

Highest since Noon yesterday
Lowest during the night
This day at Noon
Wind—North-Easterly ; light, with fine weather.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tale Dent.—Morning, llh. 49m.—Afternoon, h. m.
To-icognow.-Morning, 12h. 14m.—Afternoon, 12h. 34m.

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LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 1863.

The Wednesday afternoons during the last few
Sessions are attaining—increasingly—a high degree
of importance and celebrity. They are the favourite
field-days of Party. Theirs are the chosen sittings
at which the Dissenters and the members of the
Established Church love to contend. These are the
select occasionsupon which the Whig-Tory.Radical-
Conservative Coalition now ruling the destinies of
England—(that is, nominally ruling it, for the
Conservative Opposition, now for a long while
past, have been notoriously pulling the strings)—
these are the occasions upon which this heterogeni-
ous Coalition may scatter, ad libitum, to the right,
or to the left hand of Mr. SPEAKER, flocking, some
With the ayes into one lobby, some with the noes
into the other. And not only this—but it is
upon these fast becoming more and more
memorable Wednesdays, that Ministers of the
Crown in the Coalition have been allowed the pri-
vilege not alone of gratifying their own political
and religious whimsies at pleasure, but actually—
it must be remembered distinctly that this has oc-
curred again and yet again in very flagrant in-
stances—actually of speaking hot and voting cold,
or vice versa Supporting a motion and immediately
afterwards voting dead against it; or it may be
doing the very like by some notable amendment.
Lovingly as the wolf and the lamb may,
according to wont, lie down together in the
pastoral haunts of Downing street, while that
debonnair young CORYDON, the Premier for
Once with a primrose in his buttonhole instead of
a straw in his mouth, pipes to them deliciously—
lovingly as the kid may ordinarily sport with the
basilisk, in the sylvan shades of Whitehall—upon
these same sessional Wednesdays, they are latterly
in the habit of returning each to the indulgence of
its own natural instincts, and of betraying each its
"In particular preference. The Tory Solicitor-
General, Sir ROUNDELL PALMER, then, for once,
cannot, for the life of him, find it in his heart to troop
into the same lobby, say, with an accustomed col-
league like that thorough-going Liberal the Right
Hon. MILNER GIBSON, the President of the Board
of Trade, and M.P. for Ashton-under-Lyne. Or,
again, still less can he go meekly forth through the
same porch of the House of Commons, at the heels
of a new colleague like the junior Lord of the Ad-
miralty, the ultra-Radical, Mr. sTANSFELD, M.P.
for the borough of Halifax. Instead or sauntering
into the lobby with these—forth once again into
the lobby, as of old, with his old friends the Tories,
goes Sir ROUNDELL PALMER, rubbing elbows with
Mr. NEWDEGATE, and with Mr. G.7W. P. BEN-
TINCK, with Mr. DISRAELI and Sir J. PAKINGTON.
Even the Right Hon. member for the University
of Oxford can for once, forsake the haunts of his
more recently found friends, Mr. BRIGHT and Mr.
COBDEN ; and, not without feeling strange enough
under the old-new companionship, hie once
more with: his quondam acquaintacce of the
Csrlton—numbered, as he was, only as recently
as yesterday by the members for Bridgnorth
and Bedfordshire, with true blue representa-
tives like Sir J. TROLLOPE and Lord R. CECIL.
Among all the Wednesdays of the session, however,
tire 'Wednesday of Wednesdays—what the Derby
Wednesday is in the sporting world—the " bright
Particular" 'Wednesday annually sacred to the de-
molition of Sir JOHN TRELAWNY'S Bill for the Abo-
lition a Church Rates, is beyond any doubt of it.
Year after sear of late it has been really and
truly nothing less important to the Conservative
Opposition (half in a political, half in a religious,
altogether in a distinctly party point of view) than

the winning of the Blue Ribbon, so to speak,
of Tory Orthodoxy. A couple of sessions back it
will be remembered that the race run on that
famous Wednesday resulted at the moment
in a dead heat. Contrary to what is the
course pursued under a similar emergency in the
sporting world, the Umpire in the Chair (of the
House of Commons) settles the matter at issue as he
rather whimsically, not to say Quixotically, settled
it: then by giving his own casting vote—that was
in 1861—dead against his own convictions. Doing
so purely out of an over-refined sense of honour and a
wholly exaggerated view of the magnamity required
at his hands as Speaker.

Yesterday, as it happened, the SPEAKER was put
to no such possibility of a threatened fix. Last year,
earlier than this year by nearly a month, last session,
that is to say,onWednesday the 14th of May, instead
of, as now, on Wednesday the 29th April, the Speaker
had not the fix of 1861, but he certainly again
had the threatening of it! A great deal too much
is said by the parliamentary reporters in some of
our morning contemporaries, to-day, about the
multitude of members thronging into the House for
yesterday's division. The total number voting yes-
terday, as the simple fact shows, being fully
" thirteen " less than the aggregate voting in
1862. Last year the division paper showed all but
a tie—all over egain ! There were 286 for and 287
against the Abolition Bill of Sir JOHN TRELAWNY.
So that then the Bill was thrown out again by a
single vote, only that here the single vote in excess
against it, did not happen to be the casting vote of the
Speaker. This year, that is yesterday, the numbers
showed a difference between the opposing ranks
not of one but of ten-275 voting with and
285 against the very badly used, the rejected
and re-rejected Bill of the hon. and learned
baronet the member for Tavistock. Showing, as
we have said, fully thirteen less in this division-
list as compared with that of last yGar. As cir-
cumstances would have it, the noble viscount the
the First Lord of the Treasury was prevented
solely from voting, as he did last year, among the
the supporters of Sir JOHN TRELAWNEY by a sudden
summons from Her MAJESTY to attend upon Her
MAJESTY at Windsor Castle. Otherwise, of course,
by the Premier's vote (if recorded) the majority of
ten would have dwindled to one of nine : even
under those circumstances, however, a very
considerable enhancement of advantage in
this matter to the Opposition. If not the
result—as it certainly is not the result—of any in.
crease in the number of opponents to the measure
on their side of the House (their aggregate being
less by two, as we have sten, than it was last ses-
sion)—the division of yesterday shows, at least, on
the side of the Minority, a notable falling off (a fall-
ing off to the number of eleven) among the sup-
porters of the favourite reform of the Member for
Tavistock,

Notwithstanding the grand flourish of trumpets
indulged in by Mr. WHITESIDE yesterday, when
exultingly quoting the recorded opinion of Mr.
STANSFELD that there could never be any possibi-
lity of a compromise—as suggested again and
again before now, by one or another—we
still hold firmly to the opinion that the hon. member
for Birmingham, hit long since upon the one
"possible" compromise, namely, that of doing
away with the power to levy a compulsory rate,
though interfering no otherwise with the general
arrangements for the carrying on of the Church
Establishment.

It is not surprising that t Mr. GLADSTONE'S
proposal to tax Charities should have created great
dismay, and given rise to considerable discontent
among those connected with these important insti-
tions. A meeting was held at St. Bartholomew's
Hospital, at which nearly all the London hospitals
were represented, and several of the charitable in-
stitutions. At this meeting the following resolution

was passed :
" That the meeting considers the proposal of the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer to deprive the charities of the ex-
emption from income-tax, which they have always hitherto
enjoyed, to be most impolitic, unjust, and inconsistent.
" That such a measure would be productive of the most
serious consequences to the poor persons who are the objects
of charities ; and this meeting, therefore, feels called upon
to take the most prompt and energetic measures to prevent
the imposition of such a tax, and to invite the other chari-
ties throughout the country to co-operate, by immediately
presenting petitions to the House of Commons against the
proposed tasation, and by communicating with members of
Parliament."

There is great force in what is here stated, and
all impartial persons will fully coincide with the
opinions herein expressed. It is most impolitic of
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to call down upon
his Government such opprobrium as will inevitably
fall upon them should this measure be adopted. It
is manifestly unjust to take away from the poor
and afflicted what has been presented to them for
their exclusive use and especial benefit. It is also
highly inconsistent to propose such a plan. If it is
to be taken for granted that large sums are annually
to be extracted from these resources for the destitute,
it stands to reason that a far greater number of in-
firm and sickly persons will be cast back on the State
to support. The plan suggested at this meeting for
the various charities throughout the country to co-
operate and present petitions against the innovation
is an admirable one, and it is to be trusted that this
invitation will be cordially responded to, and that
no local prejudices or class jealousies will intervene
to interfere with the carrying out of so laudable an
endeavour and wise an undertaking. Union is
strength is a well-known adage, and in this case it
is
tobveilltrursegtiedn
amongthatthe most complete cor-
dialitythose associated in a
cause so worthy of zeal and devotion, and that con-
tains so many incentives for honest exertion and
inducements to perseverance in its maintenance
and defence. Sir STAFFORD NORTTICOTE has given
notice that he will move an amendment on this
clause in committee of supply. This is a rrost
satisfactory announcement, and reflects great credit
on the hon. member. He could take up no better
principle to defend than the interests of those who
are powerless to help themselves, but who appeal to
the charity, the good-will, and the Christian feeling
of their happier and richer brethren So much has
hitherto been conceded to Mr. GLADSTONE—partIy
because he is so over-rated and over-estimated in
his vocation, and partly because he has great in-
fluence in the House--that those who are likely to
be the victims of his schemes and the sufferers by
his crotchets may be excused if they give way to
despair and count the battle lost before it is fought
in their vindication. Yet, notwithstanding these
doubts and difficulties, this is a case
which, in some respects,o
may be
a e n regarded
latn g
as an exception.
Cold and
s such matters, Mr.
as he prides himself on beingin u
GLADSTONE now will surely pause before be in-
sists on making this affair a sine qua non in his
arrangements. The members of the Legislature will
also be called upon to reflect that before the claims
of party etiquette, and the rigour of Ministerial
adherency, they have a higher duty to perform, to
follow the dictates of their consciences, and not
violate the principles and trample down the interests
that are arrayed against this proposition. Lord
PAL3fERSTON may yet come to the rescue as he has
often done before, and with his great tact and ad-

mirable discretion perceive the right moment when
opposition should be withdrawn and concession
substituted. There is more to be expected from his
good sense and keen appreciation of the claims of
others than from all the elaborate evolutions and
skilled sophistries of his Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer.

Last night there was laid before Parliament the
correspondence of the English Government with
the European powers relating to the Polish in-
surrection. One of the chief of these despatches
is that of Earl RUSSELL on the subject of Russia
fulfilling her treaty obligations. His lordship says
he feels that her Majesty's Government have a
peculiar right to make its opinions known to his
Imperial Majesty from Great Britain having been a
party, in common with many other European
nations, to the Treaty of Vienna. Farther on he
distinctly states the grievance of the case by de-
claring that by treaty the Grand Duchy of Warsaw
was erected into a kingdom of Poland " to be inse-
perably attached to the empire of Russia under
certain conditions specified in that article, and her
Majesty's Government are concerned to have to say
that although the anion of the kingdom to the
empire has been strictly maintained, the conditions
on which the union was distinctly made to depend
have not been fulfilled by the the Russian
Government." Again, afterwards, Earl RUSSELL
forcibly protests against the assertion of Prince
GOBTSCHAKOFF, that the revolts have cancelled all
the engagements of Russia in the treaty of Vienna;
but, argues his Lordship, her Majesty's Govern-
ment cannot acquiesce in a doctrine " which they
deem so contrary to good faith, so destructive of
the obligation of treaties, and so fatal to all the
international ties which bind together the com-
munity of European States and Powers.' His
Lordship could hardly have spoken more strongly,
and he still further adds that, if the Emperor of
RUSSIA held Poland as part of his original domi-
nions, or had acquired it by the unassisted success
of his arms, he might have refused to listen to the
dictates of generosity and justice, and in conse-
quence of the revolt of a portion of the Poles, have
visited his displeasure upon them and their descen-
dants for ever, by depriving them of their privileges
and confiscating their liberties. But the position of
Poland is entirely different, for Russia had made a
solemn stipulation with the European Powers, by
virtue of which treaty she held Poland, and no re-
volt of the Poles could annul the engagement or
obliterate the signatures. Finally, Lord RUSSELL
adverts to the issue of the struggle, and states that
whether quelled speedily or at a more prolonged
period, it cannot be done without great sacrifice;
and her Majesty's Government, therefore, would
submit to the Impel ial Government that Russia
has duties to fulfil, as a member of the community
of European nations, besides the obligations that.

treaties may impose.
This is all that can be desired, and it is most
errnestly to be trusted that it may have some weight
with the Imperial Government. Earl RUSSELL is
always great in his despatches; they often exhibit
such force and decision that they appear worthy to
be models for statesmen to study. The misfortune
is, that it is by this time pretty well acknow-
ledged as a fact that no results ever ensue from
these admirable communications with Foreign
Powers. Lord RUSSELL'S remarks on the
amnesty are also most excellent, and he plainly
states his conviction that the terms pro-
posed to the Poles are not such as they are
likely to agree to, and are not uttered in the right
spirit of conciliation. Certainly these despatches
are worthy of proceeding from the Government of
Great Britain, and exhibit a force and display a
straightforwardness that are worthy of the occasion.
All that is wanting to complete the satisfaction
that is occasioned by their perusal is the fear that
they be deemed conclusive on both sides, that Lord
RUSSELL will think he has done enough, and that
the Emperor of RUSSIA will not expect that more
will be done to follow up this remonstrance.