The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—To-day, the Ist of April, the amended
American Tariff, which we published yesterday,
comes into operation. The new Secretary of the
Treasury must be persuaded that, in selecting this
day for its inauguration, if in no other respect, the
framers of the scheme showed peculiar wisdom. As
for the measure itself, it is impossible to find an
excuse for it. Tried by the light of reason or by
the results of experience, it is alike condemned.
The sole effect of the increase in import duties
enacted last year has been a decrease in the total
sum received, and it is with this fact staring them
in the face that the Federal Congress have passed
an act imposing still higher rates of duty. Mr.
M'Culloch was presented with this new law on
entering upon office, and one of his first duties has
been to issue circulars to the Collectors of Customs,
calling their attention to the fourth Tariff passed in
as many years. We do not envy his feelings in dis-
charging this function. As an economist, he has put
on record reasons for disapproving the policy of ex-
aggerated tariffs, and as Secretary to the Treasury
they must be more than ever hateful to him. He
knows what demands will be made on him in the
course of a few months for money, and he sees one
source recklessly cut off. No candid man would
quarrel with the financial management of the Fede-
ral Government because it did not correspond at all
points with the teaching of political economy. The
task imposed at the outset upon Mr. Chase was one
of unexampled difficulty, and some errors of practice
were inevitable. The Secretary to the Treasury was
called upon to furnish large supplies of money in quick
succession,while he was absolutelywithoutmachinery
for collecting it. A few small Customs Duties, aided
by land sales, had sufficed for many years to defray
the expenses of the United States' Government.
Excise Duties were unknown. No direct tax for
Federal purposes had been levied for more than a
generation. The Constitution itself threw a difficulty
in the way of any system of direct taxation, for it
required the different States to be assessed to such
taxes in proportion to their population. It would
be obviously unjust to compel the inhabitants of
Wisconsin and of New York to contribute at the
same rate per head to the National Treasury, and Mr.
Case was, therefore, debarred from using one of the
most powerful instruments of taxation. But the leni-
ency with which we must judge the earlier manage-
ment of the Federal finances cannot be extended to
the more recent conduct of the Secretaries of
the Treasury. Perfect freedom from error may
not be obtained even after four years crowded
with varied experience, but the most glaring
mistakes ought not to be repeated in fresh legisla-
tion. Taxes -which defeat their own object by
stopping consumption entirely, and taxes which
cost in collection more than they produce, ought to
be abandoned altogether. Both kinds, on the con-
trary, flourish and abound. In Customs and in
Excise an attempt is made to tax every article of
consumption without regard to the profitableness of
the impost or the amount of pressure put upon the
taxpayer. Such a policy is wholly indefensible, and
as respects the Customs, at all events, it has been
most unequivocally condemned by its results. In
the year ending June 30, 1862, the 'amount re-
ceived from Customs Duties was £9,800,000. New
duties were thereupon imposed, coming into opera-
tion* on August 1, 1862, and the articles in the
tariff were so multiplied that they filled more than
16 pages of close print. The receipts increased in
the year ending June 30, 1863, to £12,800,000, and
in the next year to £20,400,000, but a comparison
of the sources of these receipts will show
that they are obtained from a comparatively
small number of commodities. The obvious les-
son was, however, so entirely lost sight of that
when the tariff was reformed last June the new list
was even longer than its predecessor. About 2,000
articles were separately enumerated, and while the
articles taxed were so numerous, the imposts to which
they were subjected were exorbitantly increased. The
inevitable consequence has been a large reduction in
the amounts received at the Custom-houses. After
six months' experience of the Tariff, Mr. Fessenden
was enabled to estimate the customs' receipts up to
the end of next June at little more than £14,000,000,
instead of £20,400,000 received last year. It might
have been thought that a Secretary of the Treasury
would have looked upon this result as anything but
satisfactory, but Mr. Fessenden, possibly knowing
how short would be his tenure of office, was able to
congratulate the country upon the reduction
of foreign imports indicated by the falling
off of the Customs' receipts. The Congress
has been entirely of his opinion. In House and
Senate there has been but one feeling upon the
result of past legislation, and one resolu-
tion—to persevere in the policy which has been so
successfully adopted. The Tariff which comes into
operation to-day is the fruit of the determination
to increase the rates of import duty whatever may
be the cost to the revenue or to the consumer. It
is unnecessary to refer to the several items of the
Tariff, but one of them may be noticed, because it
illustrates most completely the mischievous policy
to which the Northern States are committed. No
object is more eagerly desired in Massachusetts and
Pennsylvania than the substitution of home-
spun cotton for the yarn of Lancashire, and fore-
most in the new Tariff are the duties on cotton
manufactures. Before the war began the import
duty on cotton yarn was 24 per cent. ad valorem ;
the Tariff of 1862 raised the duty to 40 per cent.,
and last' year the impost was again altered to
a specific duty of 3d. per 1,200 yards and 30
per cent. ad valorem. The duty thus imposed
amounts to a shilling or thirteen pence per 1,200
yards, or about 60 per cent. ad valorem, and as it is
to be paid in gold it has dining the past year been
equal to from 2s. 3d. to 2s. 6d. per 1,200 yards in
American currency. The internal duty on yarn
manufactured in the States is 5 per cent. in currency,
a tax amounting at the utmost to 3d. per 1,200 yards.
The protection thus given to the home manufacturer
is enormous, and the falling off in the Customs revenue
has, of course, been proportionably great. The
revenue collected at New York shows us the effect of
the different scale. Before the war began the tax
of 24 per cent. produced on an average about
£78,000 per annum ; in the first half of the cur-
rent year the tax of 3d. per 1,200 yards and 30
per cent. brought in only £21,600. This dispropor-
tion, great as it is, does not fully represent the
decline in the importation of yarn, which can only
be adequately learnt from the quantities brought
into New York. In 1859 and 1860 the average
importation was: 7,200 pa,ckages ; in the six months
from the Ist of July to the 31st of December, 1864,
it was under 700 packages. The effect of these ex-
aggerated duties in keeping out foreign manufac-
tures is the one to which attention is most naturally
attracted on this side of the Atlantic. We are cot-
ton-spinners and ironmasters, and feel a lively
interest in legislation which deprives us of one of
our best markets. But we should wrong ourselves
if we attributed all our regret at the Protectionist
policy of the United States to self- interest. An
attempt to force Catawba down the throats of
American citizens instead of champagne must
seem as great an error as an attempt to benefit
Lowell at the expense of Manchester. In each
case the ruling power in the States wilfully pre-
fers the worse market and interposes obstacles
to the free exchange of commodites. But
Mr. M'Culloch must feel an especial pang at the
diminution of the Customs' receipts. He has lost
more than the difference between the £20,400,000
collected :ast year and the £14,000,000 which will
probably be collected in the current twelve months.
The Customs' receipts were the sole specie payments
made to the Treasury, and they were on that account
doubly valuable. The interest on the national debt
so far as it is payable in gold, was charged on these
receipts, which have hitherto been able to provide
for it and to leave some considerable surplus in
addition. Last year the interest paid in gold was
no more than £10,730,000, and Mr. Fessenden had
therefore nearly 10 millions in gold left in his hands.
This sum was partly disbursed in buying stores
abroad ; and the rest was sold in the market at a
premium, and incidentally kept down the premium
on gold. In fact, in the financial accounts of last
year a sum of £3,300,000 is credited for premium
on gold sold. The fatal legislation of Congress has
altogether destroyed any hopes of receiving such a
sum again. The amount to be paid in the way of inte-
rest has naturally increased, and the reduced Cus-
toms Duties will not be able to meet it. 3lr.
M'Culloch will be driven to buy gold instead of
being able to sell it, and the accounts of the cur-
rent year will be debited with a sum paid for pre-
miums on gold purchased to meet claims for inte-
rest. We cannot regret this result, if it compels
Mr. M'Culloch to retrace the path pursued by his
predecessors. If Mr. M'Culloch would reduce the
articles in the tariff to a few productive items, would
impose an Excise law equally simple in its range
and equally onerous in its incidence, and would
supplement the tax-system of the States by a
genuine Income-tax, he would earn for himself a
name among the financiers of history.
HERALD.—That cool disregard of national obli-
gations which is the vice of American commanders
has at length met with a very summary check,
though at the hands of a small European Power.
Portugal has ,dared to uphold its dignity against
Federal America ; and in doing this it has shed the
blood of a seaman serving in the American navy,
and by a well-directed shot stopped an American
frigate. The story is this. On the 28th ult. the
Federal war steamers Niagara and Sacramento en-
tered the port of Lisbon in search, no doubt, of the
Confederate ram Stonewall, lying there. The com-
manders of the two frigates must have been well
aware that by doing this they tacitly agreed to a
well-known rule—a rule wisely maintained by neu-
tral powers for keeping belligerents apart in neutral

waters. They must have known that once in the
port of Lisbon they would not be allowed to follow
the Stonewall when she left the harbour, but must
give the Confederate ram a fair 24 hours' start.
Disregarding this knowledge, however, the Federal
frigates steamed into the port, and the natural re-
sult was they were detained, and the Confederate
ram had the grace to which, by the law that governs
such cases) she was entitled. It was not in Yankee
flesh and blood to submit to this. There was the
example of Bahia, when the Wachusetts, after
quieting the authorities of the harbour by seeming
acquiescence ilk rules necessary for the prevention of
hostilities there,stole a march upon theßrazilian ad-
miral and the Confederate captain, and towed the
renowned Florida off in triumph. Brazil is a weak
Power, it is true, and not an European Power. Por-
tugal is not so small a Power, and Portugal happens
to be in Europe, and to have strong European allies.
Therefore the Brazilian example must be followed at
a respectful distance only, not taken up boldly for
imitation. There must be no absolute violation of the
neutrality of the port, but merely an evasion of its
authority and a disregard of the Portuguese right to
detain for a time ships bent on a hostile expedi-
tion against a vessel that had just enjoyed. Portu-
guese hospitality. Different countries have dif-
ferent ways of enforcing attention to their just
authority. Poor little Brazil did all she could by
taking the Florida to an inner anchorage, and giving
her the company of a Brazilian war vessel ; but
after that Brazil went to sleep, and left the Yankee
commander and the Yankee consul to their devices.
In France—they manage these things better in
France—the very simple expedient was adopted of
mooring a French man-of-war right across the bows
of a light-heeled Yankee craft, inclined to be slip-
pery. And in England something of the kind has
happened, not only with armed and commissioned
Federal war ships, but also with unarmed, un-
finished and inoffensive hulls, said to be destined for
Confederate rains and Southern cruisers. Portugal,
however, though it did not adopt this very effectual
system of blocking the way, had recourse to a
measure as decisive and as useful ; a measure more
in consonance, perhaps, with one's notions of how a
Yankee captain should be held to his word than
any less bold but more pacific way of keeping him
to the truth and making • him walk unwillingly in
the paths of rectitude. Portugal did not lay a ship
athwart the bows of the Niagara and the Sacra-
mento ; but Lisbon kept its powder dry in the
Belem Fort, and when, as was possibly anticipated,
the two Yankee frigates attempted to steal a march
upon the local authorities, and to follow the Stone-
wall before the assigned twenty-four hours had
expired, a round shot plunging from the fort into the
poop of the Niagara, expressively, though somewhat
roughly, forbade their exit. Next to a Yankee com-
mander's temerity in trying to evade his obligations
is his patience in submitting to circumstances over
which he has no control. He will go a long way with
his bravado, but when he is met with vigorous hos-
tility he says, " Oh, if you mean that !" and retires
to whittle his stick and chew the cud of his resent-
ment in peace. Messrs. Mason and Slidell were
taken from the Trent, and they were never—no
never—to be given up. But when they were asked
for in a certain tone, Messrs. Mason and. Slidell
were ".handsomely" returned to us. We are not,
therefore, surprised to find that the Niagara, with
a round shot through her poop, and an unfortunate
seaman killed, gave up the idea of defying the usages
of nations, and, with her consort, the Sacramento,
cast anchor, and yielded to fate. She was converted
to the rules of civilised warfare much as Colonel
Quagg was converted to those of piety and good
behaviour in Mr. Sala's admirable sketch. She was
drubbed into a decency, and brought to reason by a
rebuke that will no doubt have a good effect upon
Yankee commanders in general. Portugal has cer-
tainly done something towards revenging Brazil ;
and apart from this, it has performed excellent
service to: Europe, by showing what can, and what
should, be done to a smart belfigerent infesting our
shores and coming into our harbours to fish for what
he cannot catch on the high seas. A grave question,
however, arises out of this little encounter. There
is a man killed on board the Niagara—killed by a
Portuguese shot. Who is to be answerable for this
life taken away? The unfortunate seaman was not
the victim of ordinary war ; neither was death the
result of accident. Portugal, of course, is not to
blame. Then who is? The question is worth asking,
though the answer--the practical answer—lies with
the authorities at Washington. There is the guilt of
manslaughter somewhere ; for there was no state
of war between Portugal and the Northern half of
America. In England, certainly, this would be a
case for a court-martial, for in his excessive zeal the
captain of the Niagara has undoubtedly cast away
the life of one of his men to no purpose, save an
illegal and an unrecognised evasion of neutral rights.
He must either have believed that Portugal would
not assert her authority or that he could safely run
the risk of defying it. In either case, America not
being at war with Portugal, the commanders of the
Federal frigates have, in the result, gravely com-
mitted themselves, even to their own people. An
American sailor is killed, and to no purpose. An
American frigate is fired upon, and hit, and so
poor is the cause for which she suffers that her
captain dares not return shot for shot. These two
adventurous commanders have admitted that they
have not a leg to 'stand upon in their speedily-
checked defiance of law and custom, and there,
with their dead evidence on board, they come sub-
missively to anchor as frightful examples of what
evasion and outrage may result in. How often during
this war are we to record these peculiar demonstra-
tions of Yankee smartness? Do these commanders
of Federal frigates thinklhat neutral ports are nets
set to catch Southern cruisers for the advantage of
gentlemen in American naval uniform who always
miss their game in the open sea ? If they do, Por-
tugal has disabused them of the idea. That highly-
efficient schoolmaster, a spotted gun, has sent a
message to the deck of the Niagara which was so
well understood by the frigate's commander that he
at once desisted from the contemptuous and defiant
course he had rashly ventured upon. He will pos-
sibly,be the last of the race, the example that will
not " encourage the others." Had he been success-
ful in his attempt to leave the port of Lisbon at his
pleasure, Portugal would have had to accept the
kind of apology with which Brazil has been smoothed
and salved over i • and not till the next time would
the thing have happened again. But to be unsuc-
cessful, to have a rough reminder in the shape of a
round shot that crashes through the poop, and takes
toll of human life on the way, is to err with more
than human fallibility. And then, after all, to wait
like a kept-in •schoolboy till the flagellator declares
that the door is open, and the smarting pupil in the
school of international law may take himself and his
punishment off ! This is a terrible case, and we do
not envy the unhappy commander of the Niagara.
An English court-martial once shot an admiral for
what it was pleased to call cowardice, or, as Napo-
leon said, "pour encourager les autres." Whatever
may be done with the captain of the Niagara, the
ill-success of his Portuguese adventure will not
afford much encouragement to his naval brethren in
the imitative way. As to the excuse since put for-
ward, that the commanders of the two frigates did
not mean to leave the harbour, but that they were
merely " shifting" their anchorage, we may take
that for what it is worth. It is not the first time
the plea of " I didn't mean to do it" has been heard
in cases of a similar character.

"And then he drew a dial from his poke,
And looking on it with lack lustre eye,
Says very wisely, It is ton o'clock :
' Thus wo may see,' quoth he, how the world wags."
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IRON SHIPBUILDING IN THE NORTH.._. he iron
shipbuilding trade of the north-eastern ports has
not been very much embarrassed by the lock-out of the
puddlers, some of the leading firms having procured iron
plates from Belgium to prevent any stoppage of the works.
Several fine vessels have been launched this week from the
north-eastern ports. On Monday the largest iron vessel
built on the Wear was launched from the high yard of
Messrs. Oswald and Co., of Pallion. She is named the Med-
way, and is built for Messrs. Temperley, Coster, and
Drake, of London; she is 1,823 tons register, and will be
propelled by engines of 250-horso power, nominal. Messrs.
Palmer Brothers, of Jarrow, launched on Tuesday an iron
steamship of 800 tons register, built for Messrs. Pickering
and Co., of London, and another fine vessel, the same tide,
from their Howden works. This firm have entered into a
contract with the Government to build a steam transport of
4,000 tons for the Indian service. On Tuesday Messrs. J.
IT. Pile and Co., of Hartlepool, launched an iron steam-
vessel of 1,500 tons for the West Hartlepool Steam Navi-
gation Company.

ADTERTISEXENT.i—HoIIoway's Ointment and Pills.—
The Knife Superseded.—All afflicted with ulcers, diseases
of the bones, inflammations of the joints, should, read this
testimonial to the curative powers of these healing and
purifying remedies :-"Mr. John Allen, 17, Denmark-
street, Leicester, suffered severely from a bad foot for three
years,' during which long period he was under surgical
treatment without any perceptible benefit. He resolutely
objected to amputation, which seemed the only course open,
till he providentially tried Holloway's remedies • these gave
him great relief, and at last completely .cured him." Spots,
blemishes, sores, and skin diseases, arising from impo-
verished blood or a reckless course of life, may be removed
by the judicious use of Holloway's ointment and pills.

The Lock-ont in the Iron Trade.

HANUT, Friday Afternoon.

A general meeting of the paddlers of this district
has been held in Hanley to-day, to consider the pro-
posal made by the masters at the conference at
Stoke-on-Trent on Wednesday--that the men shall
resume work at the reduced rate of wages accepted
n the other iron districts, and that the question of
whether they are entitled to higher wages shall then
be submitted to arbitration. There was a full at-
tendance of men from all parts of the district. The
meeting was private, but the following resolutions,
which were passed, were afterwards communicated
to our correspondent :--" That a vote of thanks bo
presented to Lord Lichfield for his kindness in en-
deavouring to bring the dispute to an amicable ter-
mination." " That if the South Staffordshire
masters will re-open their works and let the men
resume there, and if the masters in North Stafford-
shire will give their men the old rate of wages, the
men will then consent to submit the whole question
to arbitration." A deputation from the meeting
went down to Stoke to meet Lord Lichfield, on his
arrival there after the interview with the masters at
Stafford, and communicated to his lordship the de-
termination of the_paddlers. Just as the meeting
was breaking up his lordship arrived at Hanley and
had an interview with the men.

Lord Lichfield stated that the masters had agreed
to his proposal for the men to resume work and
draw wages on account until the question has been
decided by arbitration, and advised the men to
accept it.
The meeting refused to listen to the proposal,
and the resolution previously passed was again put
and again carried unanimously.
The meeting lasted five hours.

The Leeds Mercury says the lock-out in the
North terminated on Thursday.
The ironworks at Middlesborough, Wilton Park,
Spennymore, Corset, Jarrow, and Walker, com-
mence work as previously arranged.