The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-05 00:00:00

IHE SUN, LONDON, '.:THURSDAY Evi:TENIL4G, JUNE

regard to the £700,0000 voted for the culture of
opium, it was necessary to state that a large pro- I
portion of the revenue of India was now derived
from that source, and that the Government could
not be expected to sacrifice £7,000,000 per annum
at the present time. Indeed, he did not what would
bacome of the financial resources of India if it were
not for the opium trade. The English taxpayer
was not oppressed by the profit obtained from the
opium trade, for the Chinese really paid the amount
which was carried to the credit of the Indian ex-
chequer from the cultivation of opium. He thought
it remarkable that while all this complaint arose
from the manufacturing districts :against the pres-
sure of the Indian tariff an increase in the imports
of British manufactures had actually taken place
during the last few months. This did not show that
the tariff was a hardship upon the English pro-
ducer. He could not admit that the taxes in these
cases were paid by the producers—they were in-
variably paid by the consumers ; nor could he admit
that the tax upon British goods and yarns was
paid at the cost of the operatives or the masters in
Preston. It was true that an increase of price
limited the market, but this was the entire amount
of the hardship asagaiast the producer. The Eng-
lish Government imposed a tax of 50 per cent.upon
Indian sugar,and 100 per cent. upon Indian pepper,
and it would be a 3 reasonable for the Indian pro-
ducers of those articles to demand the repeal of
those duties as it was for the English producers of
cotton goods to asl for the abolition of the Indian
tariff. It was necessary to have a large military
force in India. The present Covernment had done
much to reduce the expenditure on that force, but
he believed they had now arrived at the full limit
of reduction. The native population were very im-
patient of anything like direct taxation, and direct
taxation was almost impracticable among all classes
of the people of India. In one of the largest of the
Indian cities, in which resided some of the most in-
fluential merchants, it was found when the various
occupiers of one street were called upon to make
returns of their profits in trade, that their whole
revenue was stated at a less than £lOO per annum.
It was therefore impossible to get at what was called
the trading revenue of the natives ; and direct
taxation, however desirable it might seem to
some, was impossible in India. There were plau-
sible arguments sgaidst the tax on salt, which in
theory was an extreme hardship, but in practice
the tax was found to be a very good mode of pro-
curing revenue, as was shown by the fact that in
proportion as thit tax had been increased the con-
sumption of the article had been increased also.
This circumstame, he said, was in a great measure
to be accounted or by the general rise that had
taken place in tLe wages in India, which also ex-
plained the incriase of the opium grant. There
was, however, on 3 point of extreme importance in
considering the reduction asked for, and that was
that upon the examination of the estimates of Mr.
Laing, it turnei out that a mistake of £1,000,000
had been made, and that, instead of a supposed
surplus, there would in reality be a deficit. Sir
Charles coneludad by expressing regret that at
present he could hold out no hope of any further
reduction of these duties, or any early abolition of
that which at present remained a portion of the
tariff.

After a few words of explanation from Mr.
LANGLEY and Mr. BANKS the deputation withdrew.

THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.

Yesterday was a day of agreeable disappointments
at the Exhibition. The counter attractions of the
great sporting festival were expected to thin the
crowd at South Kensington, and hundreds of
families seized upon what they thought would
prove a quiet day for going over the great indus-
trial collection. When fifty thousand people come to
the same determination in fifty thousand different
places the result may be easily anticipated, and
her Majesty's Commissioners had yesterday to wel-
come one cf the greatest crowds that has yet
poured into the building. We reject the half-
estimated numbers of the opening day as fabulous
and unreliable, but the figures of yesterday, not-
withstanding a few defects in the turnstiles, are
solid and unmistakeable. As it is matter of public
interest to know how these numbers were distri-
buted over the day, we give the official returns up
to 5 o'clock.

ELEVEN O'CLOCK RETURN.
Season tickets .. 331
By payment 7,99 t
8,325
ONE O'CLOCK RETURN.
Season tickets 1,341
By payment .. 27,204
-28,545
THREE O'CLOCK RETURN.
Season tickets 2,512
By payment 38,703
-41,215
I'm O'CLOCK RETURN.
Season tickets .. 4,244
By payment .. .. 44,985
--- 49,229
By this it will be seen that 20,000 people entered
in two hours.

These numbers—increased by a later return—are
the greatest we have yet had to record in connec-
tion with the Exhibition, and they seem to have
astonished no one more than the managers of the
two refreshment departments. It says much for
the resources of these gentlemen that they were
able to cope on the whole so satisfactorily with an
influx that was evidently unexpected on a fine
Derby day, and to make as much as they did of
the cramped and crowded space. No waiter can
do his work well unless he has plenty of room, and
half the complaints—many of them unfounded
—which have been made about attendance in the
English and French dining rooms would never
have been heard of if those rooms had been twice
their present width. The visitors appeared gene-
rally to belong to a very respectable class, and the
fact that they were new to the place was proved to
some extent by the large sale of catalogues,
Dr. Chipp performed a selection of music at 4
o'clock on Messrs. Forster and Andrews' organ,
which drew a large crowd to the neighbourhood of
the north-eastern annex. This performance will
be repeated on Saturday. We cannot honestly say
that we admire the decorations of this organ, fault-
less as they may seem to persons of mediaeval taste.
The pipes lock very much like rows of Roman
candles in a firework-maker's window.

The visitors, as usual on the shilling days, were
pretty equally dispersed about the building—the
machinery Lennes being filled to overflowing. The
large proportion of children of all ages present on
these shilling days is a noticeable and gratifying
feature. Judging from the jammed appearance of
the building at 3 o'clock yesterday, and the diffi-
culty of moving along many of the chief avenues,
when at least 40,000 persons were present, crinoline
has asserted its power, and it will be no easy matter
to pack away tLe large numbers who will doubtless
present themselves on such days as Whit-Monday.
The crinoline of the middle and lower classes is not
quite so expansive and dome-like as the dresses of
the aristocracy, but it is sufficiently broad and un-
yielding to inpede the circulation of masses.
The hardware courts, from some cause, are still
comparativels deserted, much to the loss of the
visitors. The display here is valuable andinterest-
ing, the passages are wide, and the courts lie near
the eastern entrances.

Amongst the distinguished visitors yesterday
were the tsso young royal princes—Arthur and
Leopold—who, under the guidance of the Duke of
Buckingham and Captain Fowke, spent several
instructive lours in the Exhibition. Lord Elcho,
the Duke of Cleveland, the Duchess tie Nemours,
the ex-Queen of France, and Lord and Lady Shaftes-
bury and family, were also visitors during the day.
The numbers admitted on Tuesday show an in-
crease over the numbers on the corresponding day
in 1851 of about three thousand. The door pay-
ments on the second shilling day in 1862 were about
four thousand more than in 1851. The third shil-
ling day in 1851—corresponding with yesterday—
showed aemission by season tickets estimated at
5,000, and by payment 37,384—total 42,384. This,
it will be seen, is under the total of yesterday. The
Derby Day in 1851
(May 21) was a five shilling day
at the old Exhibition, and the receipts amounted to
£3,512. Ihe season ticket admissions were 14,500,
and the payments 14,049.
The btal number of visitors yesterday was as
follows :—Season tickets, 4,899 ; by payment,
45,686; total, 50,585.