The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-01 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 1, 1865.

We have in this country happily little cause to
regard with any anxiety the appearance of the
Revenue Tables. Year by year they tell us the
same tale of marvellous prosperity, of a revenue so
buoyant that important reductions or remissions of
taxations only serve to occasion a temporary de-
crease, and every lightening of the public burdens
becomes ultimately a source of profit to the revenue
by enlarging the area of the consumption. The
diminution of the receipts usually precedes a large
increase from the very same source, and the policy
which has converted our Post-office from a costly
establishment into a continual source of profit
seldom fails to produce a similar effect when ap-
plied in the other directions. The reduction of the
Tea Duty, which has necessarily produced a diminu-
tion in the Customs, will very probably before long
have a very contrary effect, owing to the increase in
the number of consumers and in the quantity con-
sumed. Notwithstanding any reduction of the kind
made this year, however, the Customs only show a
decrease of £208,000 against the corresponding
quarter of 1864. The Excise comes very nearly to
the precise amount of the similar quarter, being
£4,865,000 against £4,864,000. The year shows a
decrease on the customs of £517,000 owing to the
loss on sugar, but the Excise exhibits a steady in-
crease of £893,000 during the last twelvemonth.
This is a pretty sure test of the internal prosperity
of the people, and we have additional evi-
dence to the Nome effect i the increase

of £19,000 under the head of Stamps, and
the larger amount of £290,000 under the Post-
office ! The principal decrease of the year is one
which was fully anticipated from the reduction of
the Income Tax, which occasioned a loss of very
nearly a million to the revenue. But if we are not
to expect reductions and remissions with such a
revenue, when are we to expect them? The only
matter of regret is that the lavish expenditure in
official quarters should necessitate such an immense
expenditure, and that there appears to be no choice
between being helpless and unprepared in time of
emergency and spending fabulous sums annually
for the maintenance of our armaments. There is,
happily, no ground for fearing that our public
revenue will not be amply capable of bearing any
burdens we may impose upon it ; but that is no
reason why we should waste the national means
for the pleasure of seeing how easily we can meet
our obligations.

There are few subjects of greater interest to the
public, or more important in a sanitary point of
view, than that of space. As each year witnesses
the increase of traffic and the numerous additions to
railways, so do we find more frequent and fatal
encroachments upon the space about and around
the metropolis. Great care and caution are requi-
site in order to prevent the prevalence of this practice,
and it is most satisfactory to notice that the recom-
mendations of the Select Committee on this subject
are very strong, and that they seem to have been
resolved to lose no chance of preventing the mis-
chief as much as possible. If all, or indeed only the
most part of these suggestions, be carried out no
doubt great advantages will accrue to the e‘mamu-
nity, and we shall not have the annoyance of find-
ing so many encroachments made upon open space
and such inroads committed on commons, heaths,
and other places where fresh air and freedom have
hitherto been enjoyed. One of the most admirable
of these proposals is that " a Board be appointed to
act as trustees for the preservation of commons and
open spaces within the metropolitan area." This
will be a great protection, and the rights of the
matter can thus be properly investigated, instead of
these important things being left .to the mercy of
interested parties and the scanty consideration of
selfish speculators. It is proposed that this Board
should cause an " accurate survey" to be made, so
as to ascertain the present extent of all forests, com-
mons, and open spaces. Further, that they should be
authorised to inquire into the particulars of
any place about which special rights are re-
served, or particular claims are put in,
if they consider that the public interest
require such a course to be adopted. This is an
excellent arrangement, because a great deal of harm
is done by the faulty course pursued in many cases,
and when the harm is done people exclaim about
the evil too late. it is likewise stipulated that the
Board should have a locus standi to be heard upon
all railway bills, or other measures proposing to
interfere with any open space in the metropolitan
area. The main objects of these proposals are to
prevent inclosures, and to secure the benefit and
convenience of the public thereby. It is earnestly
to be trusted that all possible heed may be given to
these hints, and that many of them may be
speedily adopted. There can be no doubt what-
ever that something decisive ought to have been done
in this matter long before this, for by this time many
grievous innovotions have taken place, and much
has been done to materially injure the welfare of
the community. Unfortunately there is always so
much to get over in these cases, and so many ex-
cuses are made for delay, that it often happens that
nothing is done until the evils assume a great magni-
tude. The Select Committee appear to have en-
tered
fully into the merits of the case, and to have
been sedulous that no efforts of theirs should be
wanting to effect the very desirable object in view,
an object the importance of which both now and
hereafter cannot be too much overrated. It is
incumbent upon the authorities that they should
strive with might and main to put these proposals
into practice, and to allow those schemes to be
realised, for it is only by these or similar means
that we can avoid the stigma attaching to our time
of sacrificing everything to material advantage, and
destroying what we should regard as the means of
promoting and preserving health, a benefit and
blessing to those now around us, and a rich posses-
sion to be held in trust for the generations to come
after us. Nothing can justify the wilful disregard
that has been paid to this subject by those who
ought to have known better, and it is high time that
they seek to amend their ways.

A very suggestive and striking article has been
published by a Leipsic journal in reference to that
great question of Schleswig-Holstein settlement,
respecting which the minor German Powers have
found themselves so grievously mistaken. They
have too late discovered that they have been made
tools of for Prussian ends ; that the shrewd, though
unscrupulous, Minister at Berlin, while professing
disinterested anxiety to maintain the rights and
dignity of the Diet, has really entrapped them into
aiding the designs for the aggrandisement of
Prussia ; and that, so far from having extended
the influence of their Confederation, or of having
really enfranchised the people of the Duchies, they
have, by their arbitrary conduct towards Denmark,
weakened themselves by strengthening their aggres-
sive neighbour, and brought Schleswig-Holstein
under the oppressive despotism of Von BISMARK.
The writer we have referred to is clear-sighted
enough to foresee the probable consequence of
Prussia's unchecked success in her designs upon the
little northern kingdom. " There is no reason," he
says, " to presume that the policy of annexation
will once spontaneously halt in its course—will im-
pose upon itself moderation of its own accord."
Upper and Lower Austria may presently expect to
be incorporated with the kingdom of the HOHEN-
ZOLLERNS, with just as much right as Schles-
wig and Holstein, and the steady encroachments of
Prussia are evidently full of danger to the national
liberties of the whole of the neighbouring States.
The appetite of Prussia will not be satisfied with
what it has already obtained ; it will be constantly
seeking more ; and neither powerful speeches nor
the resolutions of majorities will avail against it,
unless they are supported by the requisite material
strength. Only Austria, says the writer referred
to, has the necessary bayonets, and her presence in
the Duchies is absolutely indispensable as a security
for the rights of the Northern Marches. The time
has now come, he declares, for the non-Prussian
Governments to coalesce in counteracting their
threatened destruction by common action, and he
proposes that a great National Parliament should
be called together, that a union should be
formed between Austria and the minor German
States, so that, by united and powerful action,
they may present a resolute point to the encrocch-
ments of Prussia, which only offers them union
on condition of the total surrender of all indivi-
dual independence. If these ideas gain ground in
the smaller States, as assuredly they must do
eventually, Prussia will, in grasping at the Duchies,
have lost the coveted position of head of Ger-
many. Her unscrupulous conduct towards Den-
mark may yet bear bitter fruit ; and if Aus-
tri4 144 only liberality and enlightenment