The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-11 00:00:00

supererogation to adduce a single argument on
the subject. Suffice it to say, that while no less
than 1501. must be paid in stamp duties on the
articles and admission, a further sum of 121. is
charged every year to Metropolitan Attorneys,
while 81., or two-thirds of the former amount, is
levied on country practitioners. Thus, assuming
that the actual outlay for stamps were converted
into an annuity, for which 10 per cent. or 151.
per annum could easily be obtained, we would find
that each resident in London of the profession con-
tributes 27t. per annum to the Exchequer before
he is enabled to exercise his industry, or gain a
single shilling by his own exertions. After that
he must pay income tax on his earnings at as high
a rate as the proprietor of 3 per Cent. Consols,
or of well-circumstanced real estate. So that if
we consider 3001. per annum as about the
average professional earnings of Solicitors—and
we believe that the amount is by no means over-
rated, we find that each man pays nearly 391.
per annum, or 13 per cent. on his precarious and
transitory income, while the more fortunate pos-
sessor of accumulated and realised property, which
he can transmit to his children and his children's
children, pays less than one-fourth of the amount
in proportion to his actual receipts.

It is no answer to state that Solicitors are
not worse off than others who are in like man-
lier compelled to take out licences—more or less
expensJve—for liberty to pursue their trade or
calling. Every one of those charges on industry
are indefensible. They are -worse than acts of
confiscation ; and can no more be justified than
the assault of the highwayman who rifles his vic-
tim's pocket because he has the power to do so.
Why should we complain if some Attorneys be
sharp practitioners. They merely reciprocate the
dealings towards themselves by which they are
treated with gross and palpable injustice.

Naturally enough—in regard to the gold
diggings—something like serious reflection is
beginning to grow up at last out of our prolonged
excitement. People are becoming conscious by
little and little Chat it may be just as well to cal-
culate rather more than they have done hitherto
before yielding themselves up entirely to the
prevalent enthusiasm. There were several old
adages which were repeated with a sort of parrot-
cry monotony by the more wary, or less cre-
dulous, at the first outbreak of this mania,
in reference to the sand-washing of the Musray
and the Sacramento. Among these sayings, one
in particular was very often repeated, to the effect
that " all is not gold that glitters "—it being
imagined, we suppose, by the prophets of evil,
that there was exaggeration in the accounts re-
ceived both from Australia and California. Ex-
perience has shown in a rather magnificent way
that the insinuation was signally erroneous.
So little of exaggeration was there in the intelli-
gence received in Europe almost simultaneously
from Melbourne and San Francisco, that it ap-
peared before long as though the riches opened up
to the world at once in both hemispheres were as
vast as they were accessible. Nuggets of solid
and pure gold weighing many pounds were proved
to have been actually discovered by some among
the more fortunate or more persevering adven-
turers. But in addition to these occasional God-
sends to the few—there was manifestly a continual
opportunity for the many commanding a steady
advance of good-fortune by an ordinary amount
of pertinacity in their researches. The precious
metal was found to be really abundant in quartz,
and in the slaty rocks of elder antiquity, but par-
ticularly in those known among geologists as the
Silurian. Besides this, it was seen to be un-
expectedly attainable in minute grains drifted
down in the current of the water-courses
together with the debris or gravel sucked down
into the valleys from the ancient veins or lodes
upon the mountains. Aware of all this, the
unemployed citizens of the old world made a sud-
den, but undoubtedly a very accountable, move-
ment in the way of rapid immigration. Thou-
sands upon thousands were shipped off in this
manner within the space of a few months—here
to Australia, there to California. ,Some of the
earliest adventurers actually commenced their
labours in washing for gold-dust with no better
implements than a clasp-knife and a basin !
Afterwards came others with shovels and wheel-
barrows ! Lastly came the more intelligent work-
men, with portable cradles, very ingeniously con-
structed ! Meanwhile, the mass of emigrants
being thus absorbed in the methodical toil of
dry-digging and wet-sifting—various others of
either a more sang,uine or amore impatient tempera-
ment were roving over the higher and less fre-
quented tracks, prying here and there for a species
of windfall in the shape of golden lumps, such as
have actually been sometimes lit upon, some of
them . weighing above a hundred pounds, and
having a value of even so much as four thousand
sovereigns. The chance of this abrupt leap Into
wealth, seemed better than the certainty of a
slower ascent into compkence. It presented the
luxurious prospect of a royal road to profusion—
being a method altogether independent of the aid
of rocking by means of the cradle, or of securing
the desired treasure by its amalgamation through
the employment of quicksilver. In this manner
the crowd of diggers was forsaken at intervals by
little parties bent en the pleasant task of nugget-
ting ! Enhanced by all these different methods
adopted for its acquisition, the gold through-
out the whole world has increased in its
yearly yield, comparing 1840 with 1853, by the
enormous sum of 40,000,000/ ! The graduation
of this increase during the last thirteen years is
in sober truth something realll astonishing. Alto-
gether, the yield of gold in 1840 was not more
than 5,000,000/. In 1848 it had only increased
to 7,000,0001. But in the spring of that (for
many reasons) ever-memorable year, the Califor-
nian discovery had been made quite accidentally
by Mr. MARSHALL, in the construction of a saw-mill
on the American Fork, one of-the numerous feed-
ers of the River Sacramento. And the effect of this
discovery was soon rendered visible by the increase
of the gold-yield in 1850 to 17,500,000/. During
the following year—another among the more me-
morable years of our generation—during 1851,
the total yield had increased yet more, reach-
ing the splendid sum of 22,500,000/. But a
still more wonderful discovery than that made
by Mr. MARSHALL, on the American Fcrk in
California, had been made on the 12th of Febru-
ary, in 1851, by Mr. HARGRAVES, in New
South Wales, in the discovery (not by accident,
but by systematic investigation) of gold dig-
gings in the districts of Bathurst and Welling-
ton. By a curious coincidence, the news of this
discovery became known in Sydney on the very
day, the Ist of May, when her MAJESTY was open-
ing the Crystal Palace by a solemn and a stately
ceremony of inauguration. The consequence was
not very long in rendering itself apparent. By
1852 the yield of gold had reached the magnifi-
cent total of 40,000,0001., and by 1853 the glorious
aggregate of 45,000,0001., exceeding the yield of
only thirteen years before, as already intimated,
by a clear sum of 40,000,0001. Everything, in-
deed, has helped to prove that the depreciators
of the accounts first received from -the gold
diggings of California and Australia were slightly
mistaken in their application of the proverb, " All
is not gold that glitters"—more, in fact, having
turned out to be gold in both directions than at
the outset could have been at all anticipated.
Nevertheless, there is another adage fraught
with wisdom, which is gradually coming to be
recognised as worthy at this period, of being
seriously called to
l the
before
you ea'p." populart i sa
shrewrecollection—
Look
r e oo
11
mendation enough At all times , but one actnall
humane in its tendency when
juncture to the s remembrance or.tnamhe
y
egnedneedralatcothirn_s
41
[Dignity. With this object it was put forward
rather prominently, only the other day, ins
ENs'
8 Household
the Britishid
intelligent pages of Mr. Dim(
Word& An eye-witness, addressing
multitude from Melbourne, spoke thus plainly,ral
whom it
arduous may
and
and we cannot help thinking, sorrowfully too,
as from the dejection of experience_,,
once for all, digging is so
very
a work that very few
excepting labouring men
assurance, corroborative of this, is
profitably."
concern
precarious
A melancholy ;cancontinue it
given in the course of those very
a( niirable

" Notes" on the distribution of Gold throughout
the world, * published some time back (with
maps) by Mr. WYLD, and a third edition of
which, we are gratified to see, has recently
appeared, enhanced in value by the addition of a
copious Gazeteer to upwards of five hundred of
the Gold Diggings of Australia. In those notes
it is distinctly stated (p. 19), that the description
of operations required from those who go in quest
of the precious metals "is only suited to canal-
diggers, excavators, and miners." After these
somewhat startling and authoritative declarations,
we may, without culpable timidity, afford that
warning—Look befqre you leap---the advantage
of an earnest repetition.

* " Gold Fields of Australia : Notes on the Distribu-
tion of Gold throughout the World, &c." By JAMES
WYLD. Third edition. To which is added, a Gazeteer
to the Gold Diggings of Australia. Bvo. Pp. 83.
WYLD. London, 1853.

We can but laugh and mourn alternately while
we read the reports of evidence taken before the
Election Committees. Like the cleverness- of
some swindlers and thieves, so the schemes of
q,droit old bribers, their technical slang and ma-
sonic signs, will sometimes compel more than a
smile. We cannot keep grave while we read of
the darkened room at Derby, the sentinel on the
stairs, the voter putting his right finger to his
nose, and adding, " All right—l come from RAD-
FORD," as the pass word, then turning round his
back in the room " because he feels authorised to
do so," putting his hands behind him, and " feel-
ing two sovereigns drop into them." The Cam-
bridge ladies leaving Mr. Litrna's arm to drop 51.
and 101. notes in envelopes, or sovereigns in par-
cels, into the hands of unwitting, but happy,
electors ; the injunction at the same place to the
upright voters to go and " just do the thing that's
right," i.e., poll, and that the agent " will make
all right," i.e., pay them ; the reluctance at Hull
to pay " a duberous" toter, who eventually
" doubled," that is, took in his bribers ; the
thirty voters carousing in an upper room un-
seen, but huckstering their votes by one of
their number, from 101. to 21. 10s. These
little incidents, and a hundred more, will
continually keep provoking our risibility. And
yet we feel almost as if we were laughing at some
odd occurrence in a trial for murder. The thing
is as bad and as base as it can be. We blush for
ourselves, and blush still more that foreigners
should read such accounts of the working qf ,‘ our
free English institutions."
Sometimes we have really tried to put the best

face upon it, and to see what could be said for it.
We have asked ourselves whether a man conscious
of qualifications to serve the country in Parlia-
ment—certain, moreover, that in every constitu-
ency he has access to, he must appeal to part of
the electors through the power of their landlords,
or the power of beer and sovereigns—whether he
may not regard it as a necessary though deplor-
able evil, and " knowing nothing whatever" of the
purposes to which his hundreds or thousands may
be applied, whether he may not just put his
money in the hands of the ordinary agents and
leave it to them to use it as they think needful ?
If this be morally very bad, its bearing will be
painful upon too many cases already. Yet
that it is, on the very best estimate a
man can put on his services, " doing evil
that good may come," is but too plain.
We can only regard such " Honourable
Members" as having been guilty of the
crime universal, that of fixing their moral
standard by the habits of their time and age,
rather than by the higher dictates of their own
consciences. We must, however, think it one of
the most painful features in these inquiries, that
so many gentlemen of unimpeachable character
could declare, in one way and another, that they
knew nothing of the bribery carried on with
their money, or with their promises of situations
and places. It is time for the House of Com-

mons to deliver candidates for the honour of a

seat in it from temptation to dishonourable
evasion. We laugh at the simplicity and inno-
cence of the " Sitting Member" under cross-
examination ; but there is another and a more
serious phase of the matter.

Sometimes we have wondered how a house of
such really respectable gentlemen can be collected
by such means. No one doubts that the return

of the larger part of it is clue, more or less, to
bribery or intimidation. The Members petitioned
against on the ground of bribery can be but a
small part of those who owe their seats
to something of the kind—" How, then, can
a clean thing come out of an unclean ? "
We take it be much in this way. The
respectable but rival portions of the consti-
tuency amount to pretty nearly equal num-
bers, in a great many places. Of course, any can-
didate to have a chance with them, must be a re-
spectable man also. Party zeal, indeed, is proud
of fighting under the banner of a man of both
character and ability. Hence, whichever candi-
dates win, the general result will be political
rather than moral and intellectual, since both par-
ties get the latter qualities if they can, the quarrel
being generally about their politics. The venal
electors, therefore, turn the scale politically only.
Of no politics themselves, they arbitrate for pay
between the earnest party politicians. Though
the most worthless of judges, they have to select
from a list of their betters only. Could these
venal wretches really return members—could
they, we mean, return their own class—the result
must be appalling indeed, and the intelligence of
the country would rise against it as one man ; it
would even prefer. a despotism. As it is, intelli-
gence and character nominate, ignorance and cor-
ruption merely cast the dice.
If theee facts, however, explain a curious pro-
blem, Heaven forbid that they should be deemed
the slightest apology for so vile a system. The
briber and the bribed ought to hold in society the
place of the seducer and of the female who has
sold her virtue. No prescription, not even from
the time of HOGARTH to the election of 184 can
whitewash so mean a thing as selling and buying
the vote with which a man is intrusted for his
country's good, especially when the price beer
and money, or even Situations and places. The
only case we must commiserate is that of the
afflicted man, whom a tyrant compels, at the peril
of starving himself and family, to vote against his
conscience. Such cases are so numerous that we
have never varied from our demand of the Bal-

lot for all, to protect this justly to be pitied class.
But the remedy—this is now the universal in-
quiry. Decided advocates as we are of the Ballot,
we should still wish to unite with it every possible
co-operating means. The disease, principally we
think through the pretty equal balance of parties,
not only in the House, but in constituencies also,
is arrived at such a height, that it may be fairly
supposed to have reached a crisis. Dealt with it
must be. Large constituencies and the Ballot
every honest Reformer will name as the first
things. But we need not stop there. Bribery
and personation might still exist. It is thought
by many that they could not be de-
tected under the Ballot. Why not ? A
large part of the facts now disclosed before
Election Committees could be come at quite ,irre-
spectively of knowing for whom the party voted.
Still, as the Member could not well be unseated
on a scrutiny, some think the Petitioners would
have no object. Their object and means would
be the same as at present. If the Members or
their agents were provekl to have employed bri-
bery or intimidation, or if the bribery were ex-
tensive and systematic, we could have them un-
seated even as now ; also if their agents had
brought forward the personater of a dead or ab-
sent man. This, combined with the uncertainty
of securing the vote paid for, must almost ex-
tinguish bribery. In any case, Ballot or no Bal-
lot, we would visit every borough where bribery
had occurred with a Parliamentary Commission,
and inflict upon all who had given bribes, Mem-
bers and agents, as well as upon those who had
taken them, the penalty of forfeiting their vote
for life. The whole genus of bribers, from
W_ef.
allß the
B. downwards to the FLEWKERS, FRAILS, and
Monotre rank of
s, ought
vuontqeurse.stionnabeyly
areto btehedegaded
from authors
wickedness. They have solicited and
corrupted the virtue of the electors, and electoral