The Sun.
London, England, 1830-05-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE. PUBLIC JOURNALS.

it is now quite clear that, under the colour of a
measure for consolidating the Stamp Duties, new
and onerous taxes of that description are about to
be imposed upon the country. In any arrangement
of this kind the public had a right to expect rather
to be relieved from some part of these taxes than
to see new ones proposed ; at all events that it was
the bounden duty•of the Finance Minister to have
laid before Parliament an explicit detiil of all alte-
rations, whether of an adverse or of a favourable
nature, that were intended. This, however, was
not done ; and consequently the House, as well as
its constituents, were left to discover from the
Schedule to the Bill, when printed, what in reality
were the proposed alterations. To this there
teemed no very material objection, provided the in-
formation were given in a plain and tangible shape;
and, that it might be so given, Mr. Hume, we
believe, in the outset, proposed that a schedule
should be so printed as to show, in parallel columns,
the amount of the old and substituted duties.
This, it was promised, should be done. It has
not, however, been done; and the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, when pressed for a reason, candidly con-
fesses that lie c.innot tell why. We are not among
the number of these, if there be any such, who sus-
pect Mr. Goulburn of any thing so disingenuous as
attempting to steal a march upon the Legislature en
this occasion, by wilfully concealing from Parliament
or the public the truth. Disingenuousness, indeed,
would be too light a word to apply to such con-
duct : it would be better characterized as a species of
trickery quite unworthy of any man, still less of a
man holding the Right Hon. Gentleman's situation in
the Government. We have, therefore, every wish to
acquit the Chancellor of the Exchequer of any mean
and paltry intention to deceive; hut then how comes
it that what he himself had promised should be dome
has not been performed ? Why are Members of
Parliament and their constituents compelled either
to remain in darkness, or go through the drudgery
which properly belongs to well-paid functionaries
in Somerset House and the Treasury ? Did Mr.
Goulburn issue orders, as be was bound to do by
his duty and his promise to the House, that the de-
tails in question ebould be clearly made out, and the
old duties accurately contrasted with the new ? and
were those orders neglected or disobeyed ? In the
army disobedience of orders is so severely punished,
that we should be surprised to find a Government,
several of whose members had been educ'ited in that
school, hold the reins of discipline very loosely. In
the case of Mr. Huskisson an act of insubordination
was followed by very prompt punishment indeed ;
nor could any penitent entreaties or imploring sup-
plications alter the decree which hail gone forth,
and which was like the law of the Medes and Per-
sians, " that changeth not." Have clerks, with the
dread of such a doom before their eyes, lolled lack-
a daysically at their desks, or grounded their re-
bellious pen ee rather than make out the details in
question at the bidding of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer ? IVe pause for a reply.—Morn. Herald.
The only points mentioned in the French Papers
worthy of notice relate to Prince Leopold, and the
Algerioe expedition. The armament for the latter
purpose is pushed forward with the greatest alacrity
and expedition. A squadron has arrived from
Brest, and both the military and naval forces will, it
is expected, be in readiness to be reviewed in the
early part of next week by the Duke of Angouleme.
The embarkation will of course take place imme-
diately afterwards. With regard to Prince Leo-
pold, it is asserted in the Paris papers that he has
left the capital in order to return to this country,
and give in his final protest against any Denatu-
ralization Bill. The first morsel of intelligence is,
ne doubt, correct, for the Prince has already arrived
in the metropolis; but the latter, as will be seen
from the proceedings of the House of Lords, last
night, can have no foundation in truth. It has never
been required, as a condition of being the Sovereign
of Greece, that hi; Royal Highness should surrender
his rights as a British subject, and any protest on
the subject is, in consequence, wholly out of the
question. Every thing relating, as Lord Aberdeem
stated last night, to his Royal .H;ghness's appoint-
inent, has, in fact, been arranged, with the excep-
tion of some minor points, which ran cause no
eventual embarrassment or rupture.—Morning Ad-
vertiser.

,Ever since the Chancellor of the Exchequer ex-
plained the details of his annual budget, and an-
nounced an increase in the duties on home-made
spirits, a warm contest he been carrying on between
the British distillers and the \Vest India planters—
between the manufacturers of gin and the makers of
rum. The clans of the North have been roused,
grad have passed " the border," to contend for the
right of supplying England with whisky, as they
foimerly did with kings. .Deputatioris have come
over frofh the " sister island" to represent the Irish
distilling pot, and to join their trusty brethren in
this part of the empire. The English distillers,
who on any other occasion would sooner have heard
of a pestilence than of an importation of whisky, and
would rather have seen a thousand new excisemen
than one of their rivals from beyond the Tweed or
St. George's Channel, have hailed the arrival of
tice latter as allies, with whose aid they hope to
tesiet the colonies, or to assault the Treasury. Nor
does this coalition of the British alembick rely upon
their own strength alone. They have called to
their assistance the farmer and the landed pro-
prietor, the barley-grower, and the gin-drinker.
1-laving established their head-quarters in Parliament-
street, they issue their instructions to their agents
ail over .the eountry. Their pmcquets and skir-
mishers are already stationed in both Houses, armed
smith petitions and prophecies of agricultural ruin.
They have called out the landwehr if not the land-
darns of the provinces, and displayed their banner
over county meetings. Their leaders from the most
.distant parts of the two islands have been invited to
take part in the war, and are now hastening to the
'scene of action. The Chancellor of the Exchequer
is understood to have expressed some alarm, though
'entrenched behind barrels of molasses and bodies of
West India planters. The latter are equally active
as their antagonists. They are resolved to fight for
their interests even against the landwehr; and ex-
press as great a horror against gin-makers as against
saints or abolitionists. Both sides, with a strong
presentiment of victory, wait in anxious expectation
the field-day in St. Stephen's, which must decide
their respective pretensions. Though we have rc-
gularly,• as in duty bound, read the manifestoes of
die belligerents us they appeared, we have hitherto
found no reason to depart from our neutrality, or to
take part with either. The interests of the public
did not appear to us to be very deeply involved in
ithedispitte,and private interests we knew would take
care of themselves, Were the question merely a
'question of gin v. rum, or rum v. whisky, we
should have allowed the contending parties to litie
gate their case in their own way, and have awaited
for the decision of the proper Parliamentary tribu-
nal, satisfied that the less encouragement which
either received, time more sober and happy would
our population become; but, by the pubLeatioree
'which have been sent us, we have been compelled
to observe that some general principles are involved
in the discussion, which deserve to be pointed out
,with an impartiality which probably could not be
expected from either of the antagonist sides. In
the first place, it should be remembered, in favour
of the home-distillers, that the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, in bringing forward the new scale of
duties, professed to impose an additional shilling on
the gallon of British spirits, not as a protecting; duty,
but as a productive tax—not to promote the Ei'
interests -
parate of the West India Planters, but
to aid the revenue of Great Britain. The Right
Honourable Gentleman, in justifying his mea-
sure, did not say,—. I - think that gin is drunk
400 much in this country, and rum too
little,—that the British barley-grower is too
highly favoured, and the colonial cane-planter too
much overlooked; therefore I shall impose an addi-
tional duty on British spirits, without touching rum,
to turn the balance against the former, and promote

the consumption of the latter." If the Chancellor
of the Exchequer had desired to alter the relative
situation of the parties to each other, this ought to
have been his language : if he did not, them he
dught to have imposed the same additional duties
On both. But though this plea has not been put in
by the Right lion. Gentleman, his would-be West
Indian clients contend, that in the settlement of the
distillery question in 1825, they were injured by the
imposition of disproportionably high duties, and
that the proposed new arrangement only restores
them to their proper equality with the British dis-
tillers. The answer returned by the latter to this
allegation is quite satisfactory, if correct. We shall
therefore extract it from their own representation,
without vouching for its accuracy :
" The present duty on English raw corn _

spirit is v 7s. Od.
" The proposed additional duty on ditto is ls. Od.

Bs. Od.
" This spirit cannot be afforded for hsi than 3s. Od.

111. Od.
" The expense of rectifying, compounding,
and sweetening the gallon at proof, with-
out profit to the rectifer, is O. Bd.

lls. Sd.

" The present market price of rum is Is. 9d.
" The present duty on ruin is Se. 6d.

" Total cost of rum in its finished state 10s. 3d.
" The disadvantage to English spirit is, consequently,
obvious.
" Nlalt whisky distilled in England, or
brought thither from Scotland or Ireland,
pays duty of is. Od.
" Besides the whole of the duty on malt ls. 2d.
"If to this be added the proposed new duty of Is. Od.

" The duty per gallon on malt whisky in
England is

" While the duty on rum is only . . S.
.6d."

In order to show that the higher duty previously
imposed on rum did not diminish its relative use,
the British distillers produce a Parliamentary paper,
from which it appears that the consumption of this
spirit was last year 237,287 gallons above that of the
previous year, while the consumption of British spi•
rits had diminished 58,934 gallons. Every person
who understands the subject, and who lies under no
bias to mislead his judgment, must allow, that as
both kinds of spirits are made by British subjects,
they should be permitted to come into consumption
under the same encouragement or disadvantage.
The dispute between the parties would thus be re-
solved into a mere question of fact ; and though
that fact may be differently stated by each, it is
surely capable of being ascertained by the Legisla.
ture with some degree of certainty. We quoted
above the estimated charges on the gallon of Bri-
tish spirits and rum, as given in the " case of the
distillers." Mr. Innes, the advocate for the West
India planters, proceeds on a different calculation,
and probably arrives at a result more wide of the
truth. He calculates that the peculiar burdens to
which the British distillers are liable, amount only
to the value of 7.1. per gallon, while those which
press upon the West India distillers amount to Is. 2d.
In answer to the argument drawn from the increas-
ing relative consumption of rum for the last year
over British-made spirits, Mr. Innes produces the
accounts of both sorts consumed since the arrange-
ment of 1825, by which it appears, that while the
quantity of home-made spirits consumed in Eng-
land has more than doubled, that of rum has only
increased one-third, the former being in 1825
3,443,553, and last year 7,700,776; the latter in
1825 being 2,832,833, and last year only 3,702,143
gallons. We pass over all the arguments drawn by
the British distillers in favour of their• own trade
from the policy of encouraging domestic agricul-
ture,—from the consumption of 1,400,000 quarters
of barley in their manufacture,—from the employ-
ment thus given to the British labourer, and from
other sources equally relevant or extraneous. The
only question worthy of consideration in the pros-
pective fiscal arrangement of the Treasury is, whe-
'her the existing difference of Is. 6d. between the
duty on colonial and home-made spirits is too much,
whether it is more than pays for the disadvantages
under which the British distiller already labours in
being watched and restricted ►tt every step of his
processes by excisemen and excise laws,—whether
the duty on malt and on foreign barley, addei to
these restrictions, do not create an expense as great
as the protection enjoyed; arid whether the pro-
posed additional is. a gallon on British spirits,
without any addition to the duty on rum, would not
destroy that balance of existing interests which the
Government professes its desire to maintain. Pro-
bably the best way for the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer to get out of the difficulty would be, to raise
the divies on rum in the same proportion as those
on British spirits, or to propose a repeal of the
corn laws as fur as they relate to barley. The public
will then be enabled to consult their taste rather
than their purse whether they shall drink of rum or
gin.— Times.

The Courier of last night gives a sort of lame
contradiction to the facts mentioned in this Journal
of yesterday relative to the bankruptcy of the emi-
nent house of Palmer and Co. If this contradic-
tion be put forth by individuals connected with the
house in question, as it seems to be, their object
must be to deceive the creditors and the public.
That they have been able to impose upon the
Courier is not surprising ; but that they should
have been so imprudent as to expose themselves to
a charge of this kind, at this unfortunate juncture,
does indeed excite our amazement. We have no
wish to pry into the private affairs of commercial
establishments, far less of any in connection with
the insolvents, for reasons which concern some
of them much more nearly than they can pos-
sibly concern us. In the matter of Palmer
and Co., however, their case, their misfor-
tunes, arid the misfortunes of their creditors, are
before the public, and we have a right to
express an opinion upon them, the more especially
as the trade in which the insolvents and their agents
were engaged is of national importance,and has been
encouraged and sustained by a system of delusion
extremely discreditable to the character of British
merchants. We assert again that this unfortunate
house owe their losses to their wild and extravagant
speculations, and in a great measure to the enormous
exports of British manufactures to India within the
last few years. They have ever since 1825 been
struggling with declining prices and increasing
adventures. Theirs has been a continuous loss year
after year, madly persisted in and endured, in the
hope that the next year's speculation and a rise of
prices would redeem the damage of the past. And
they do not stand alone in this bad business. Other
houses connected with India are equally culpable
with themselves, and are likely to suffer, if not
fail, as they have done. We say riot this in
order to create alarm, but solely in the anxious
hope that what we consider it our duty to ex-
pose, may operate as a warning, and induce
those not yet irrevocably involved to pause before
they rush into destruction. The India trade, as it
is now conducted, is certain ruin to all who largely
embark in it, The passion for this trade is a despe-
rate one. It is a dArstier but a fatal expedient in
the great game of mereatiti;;; adventure. Our home
trade being greatly diminished by what is culled the
lii;eral system—the trade to the West Indies being
injured hy the same heartless policy—America being
shut against ti..s by our own feeble diplomacy and
timid spirit, and the .coutinent of Europe supplying
itself with manufactures made by machinery which
we have been generous enough to allow to be ex-
ported, the only market which appeared left for us
was considered to be the East Indies. Hence the
overdone trial.; the enormous exports, the cheap
and ruinous freights, and, lastly, the torrent
of bankruptcy which has begun its eourse„—
It is a notorious fact that Palmer and Co.
owned nearly a sixth part of all the free tonnage
trading
value pt‘ovarCdsulcoufttfityai Shipping has declined in
u
per cent.; so that simply

glancing at the amount of this tonnage a fair esti.
mate may be formed of what the insolvents have
lost in this branch alone. The Courier says—." The
embarrassments of Mesrs. Palmer and Co. are of
long standing, and to be attributed to the advances
they have been for years in the habit of making to
the civil and military servants of the Company.
Hence a mass of balances has accumulated on their
books, which, although many may be ultimately
realised, are not immediately available. It is con-
fidently reported that they base assets to the amount
of 3,300,0001. to meet demands of 2,800,0001. It is
rather unfortunate for the Courier that there is not
a word of truth in this statement. It is true
that Palmer and Co. did make advances to
various servants of the Company; but they have
yet to show the loss they have sustained or
are likely to sustain thereby. One thing is certain
—these advances were made to one class of ser-
vants out of the deposits of another class. It is
therefore absurd to allege that their embarrassments
could be caused by these advances, seeing that the
' sums deposited in their hands were never less, but
generally more, sometimes double, sometimes triple,
in amount, when compared with the sums advanced.
They had loans from native Princes, and rich na-
tives besides; consequently it is not unreasonable
to suppose that their advances were but part of
these deposits. In short, we know this to be the
fact. As to the amount of the assets and liabili-
ties, the Courier seems to confound the one
with the other, and makes a strange jumble of
both. The debts of Palmer and Co. amount to
about 3,300,0001., and their, at present, available
assets to only 1,500,0001.—n0t ten shillings in the
pound. Whether they will ever be enabled to
realise more than this, or even as much as this, is.
extremely uncertain. Verily it is a bad business
altogether ; but we fear this is but the beginning.
We heard whispers yesterday that warrant such a
conclusion. The parties deeply involved by this
bankruptcy must not attempt to bolster up their so-
lidity, or pacify their creditors, by fallacious articles
in the Courier. Our contemporary, as all the world
now knows, is capable of lending itself to any fiction,
or any delusion, or any commercial mauseuvre ; but
the job here is too manifest—the stratagem will not
succeed.—Morning Journal.

FROM THE GAZETTE OF LAST NIGHT.

Lord Chamberlain's-Office, April 28, 1830.

Notice is hereby given, that the Levee and Drawing-
room, announced for the sth and 7th of May, will not
take place, but his Majesty's Birth-day will be celebrated
on tl:e 7th of May in every other respect.