The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-27 00:00:00

TRE BUDGET.

( From the Morning Herald.)
It is natural enough that Mr. Gladstone's
budget should bear the clear impress of Mr. Glad-
stone's mind, and that has ever been a mind so
given to refining, balancing, and weighing probabi-
lities, as to perplex every bystander by its endless
hesitation. The incidents of 1845 settled Mr. Glad-
stone's place in the political hemisphere for ever.
On learning that Sir R. Peel meant to endow, May-
tooth, he resigned his office. People were wonder-
ing why he should do so, when he gave the House
of Commons an " explanation." Of this, Lord
Brougham remarked in the House of Lords, that
" it had been difficult to understand the right hon.
gentleman's reasons before he had explained them;
but that, after the explanation, it was altogether
impossible." A little later Mr. Gladstone made
another speech, on the IVlaynooth question itself.
He dilated for an hour very forcibly on the reasons
against endowing Maynooth, and then ended by
declaring that he should vote for the endowment.
Such is the man, and such is his budget. We
do not wonder that Ministers are anxious to push
it to a vote quickly ; for if the country could have
a month, to become acquainted with the real nature
of its proposals, it would not have the least chance
of becoming law.
At present the people are merely mystified.
There is something in the budget for everybody,
and something against everybody ; and very few
people have yet been able to make out whether
they shall lose or gain by it.
A month ago it would have been reckoned very
improbable that a Minister should propose, and
succeed, with respect to the income tax—

1. To keep it entire, making no allowance on
precarious incomes.
2. To extend it to a still poorer class—those hav-
ing less than 1501. a year.
3. To fix it upon the people of Ireland also.
4. And, by gaining a new lease for seven years,
to make it, at last, a permanent tax.

_
No one, we say, would have thought it possible
to do all this without exciting a storm of popular
indignation ; yet, by a skilful way of dealing with
opponents, it has been done, and little active oppo-
sition has yet shown itself. A leading newspaper
has been silenced by a peculiar sort of douceur, too
large in amount to be easily rejected. The more,
noisy Radicals have had a fancy of their own grati-
fied, by the extension of the legacy duty to landed
property ; and the Irish members, or some of them,
have been gained over, even to surrender their own
country to the income tax, by a gift of four mil-
lions, which benefits largely a few at the expense
of the many. And thus, by " dividin#to con-
quer," it is rendered possible that this naturally-
unpopular part of the budget may pass.
We have said that nobody yet understands whe-
ther, on the whole, he will be a gainer or loser by
this scheme. To begin with the landed proprie-
tors. First, the legacy duty on landed succession
seems a heavy imposition on this class. But then
it may be said that it will not affect the present
generation. No landlord will pay it so long as he
can manage to live. And then Mr. Gladstone
strives to show him that the demand for a reduc-
tion of income tax on precarious incomes is an at-
tack upon the landed interests, from which he,
Mr. Gladstone, volunteers to defend them ! Be-
sides which, he offers to the gentry some consider-
able reductions of the assessed taxes ; so that this
class, like the rest, may study for a long while
before they find out whether they gain most or lose
most by the new plan of taxation.
A morning journal of Liberal politics prints the
following brief letter :

"Sir,—From Mr. Gladstone's budget a gentleman
who now keeps 10 horses solely for pleasure would pay
less annually 231. ss. 6d.: upon his three carriages less
141. 155.: upon his four servants less 41. 10s., making
together a saving of 421. 10s. 6d. Now, this is not a
tax put on by Government, but by themselves, being
optional whether they choose to keep them or not. But
how different is the case of the trader, for every one
who sells pepper, &c., is compelled to pay yearly lls. 64d.
for his licence ; but to make up for these reductions of
duties on pleasure horses, carriages, and servants, we
are called upon to pay yearly for our pepper licence
lot. 11s. 6d., formerly 11s. 64d., and friends of ours
271. Hs- 6d., instead of lls. 64d. It is a plain but sim-
ple question. The pleasure tax all can relieve themselves
from, but from the trade tax no one is able ; hence the
gross injustice of benefiting the former at the expense of
the latter.

"Yours respectfully.
"M. P. DAVIES AND SON.

" G 3, St. Martin's-lane, April 25."

Here, then a trader makes it appear very claarly
that some of the traders are largely burdened with
new taxes, in order that some of the gentry may be
relieved. Yet, while these facts are unanswerable,
it is no less true that the only supporters of the new
Budget are found among the tradesmen of West-
minster and of Southwark. From these two bodies
a couple of small and hurried petitions have been
got up, praying that the House of Commons would
pass the Budget. And yet we feel not the slightest
doubt that very few indeed of these tradesmen had
any notion of the new taxation they were asking for.
We have said that it will puzzle most country
gentlemen to make out whether they will gain
most or lose most by the proposed changes. And
equally perplexed must the trading classes be if
they seriously addressed themselves to the same
taslf.. On them, i. e., on the smaller traders, and
on the commercial clerks and assistants, will the
new income tax on 1001. incomes chiefly fall. On
them, too, i. e., on the traders, will the new tax
for licences fall. And we feel no doubt that Mr.
Gladstone has, whether intentionally or not, greatly
underrated the amount which will be levied under
these two heads. In this view we are supported
by the Globe of last night, which, in treating of the
new class of income tax payers, says—
" If we assume, then, that the number of persons re-
ceiving from 1001. to 1501. per annum is as large, rela-
tively to those having larger incomes, in 1353 as it was
in 1814, we obtain a much larger addition to the revenue
than the Chancellor of the Exchequer has taken credit
for. He estimates the receipts from this portion of the
tax at 250,0001., which is equal to only 1-22 of the en-
tire amount now raised ; but if our calculation be cor-
rect, and we have every reason to believe that it is so,
the new assessment fairly levied ought to yield 750,0001.,
or 500,0001. sterling more than Mr. Gladstone anti-

cipates."
We believe that Mr. Gladstone has similarly
erred in his estimate of the produce of the new li-
cence tax. He estimates it at 113,000/. a year.
We feel no doubt whatever that it will yield more
than 500,0001. a year. Thus we have a gross sum
of 1,250,000/. per annum, levied chiefly on the
trading classes, under these two heads alone, and
constituting new taxation.

But, it may be asked, if the remissions and the
burdens are really so balanced that no one can tell
who is benefited, what has Mr. Gladstone's object
been ? We might reply, that we attribute much
of this balancing and compensating work to the
character of Mr. Gladstone's mind. But we must
also say that one clearly-defined object is visible
throughout the whole ; and that is, the diminution
of indirect taxation, and the increase of direct
taxation, in every possible way.
First, the income tax, which is just now dead,
and which has never before been granted for more
than three years at a time, Mr. Gladstone now
proposes to take lb; seven years certain, making
its whole duration nlo less than eighteen years, and
rendering the idea of its discontinuance at the end
of that time a perfect farce.
But then, in so perpetuating it, Mr. G. insists
on spreading it over a wider surface, embracing
Ireland as well as Scotland and England, and in-
cluding all classes, down to the clerk or shopman
with his 1001. a year. So levied, it will produce
at least 7,500,000/.
Next, Mr. Gladstone introduces a new sort of
house tax on certain trades. All the brewers,
grocers, maltsters, soapmakers, and tobacconists,
are to pay for their licences in future, according to
the premises they occupy, or the business they
transact. As this will involve a gross injustice, if
confined to five or six trades, out of 50 or 60, we
must look for a speedy extension of the same
licensing system to all other trades. So levied it
would produce some 3,000,0001. or 4,000,0001. per
annum, and would be a new description of direct
taxation of the most onerous kind.
We need hardly say that the third source from
whence Mr. Gladstone expects to draw new revenue
is of the same
geclraiss., To make the successor to an
estate pay a
certain of it is levy in money on coming into
direct taxation of the plainest
kind.
Thus, that system which Sir Robert Peel began
in 1842, and the drift of which he explained in his
famous " Elbing letter,"
his pupil and admirer, e ono remark to
isaulir vtlbei"g enlarged by
which we' shall limit ourselves now is this--
that it would be a far more honourable
straightforward course if, such bnenirrratlbleire and
object, her Majesty's Ministers would explicitly
real
ecitly,
state that object to Parliament and the
and let a vote be taken upon it, after sufficient
time had been allowed for calm consideration. °lit
1

pens to be located in a particular part of the Queen's
dominions. It is treating a legitimate subject of
fiscal demands precisely as if its existence were
purely imaginary. We can understand a Chancellor
of the Exchequer, who should chance to say that
the income tax shall not affect Ireland, because
there are no incomes in that country ; though we
might not discover the necessity for so profound an
observation. But it defies the human mind to com-
prehend that an income tax should not operate
wherever incomes are found above the minimum to
be rated. Between 20,000 sovereigns raised from
rents and produce in Ireland, as the revenue of
land, and 20,000 raised in like manner in England,
a banker would be unable to discover any differ-
ence ; Chancellors of the Exchequer have hitherto
created an unreal difference, and excused the in-
come in the country, which, of the three kingdoms,
has always been allowed to bear the smallest pro-
portion in taxation.

This strange injustice is not to be repeated. Mr.
Gladstone proposes to extend the income tax to
I Ireland ; and, as it has always been the favourite
practice of Irishmen of large incomes to spend
them in Paris, and other Continental cities, some
means should be devised for securing the tax while
the money is yet in Ireland ; for, it is a tax not on
the man, like a poll tax, but on the income alone.
Mr. Gladstone, as far as he goes in a westward di-
rection, is honestly measuring out "justice to Ire-
land," a commodity for which she has so long been
impatiently clamouring, but with which, now that it
responds to her prayers, she does not appear to be
heartily delighted. wo Irish members oppose
this portion of the Budget. Mr. Fagan objects
that Ireland has not escaped from her past
embarrassments, and that she has others, which
are present. Such considerations do not weigh
with Financial Ministers. In panics, reverses of
trade and commerce, with a large excess of
bankruptcies, the machinery of Government has
always gone on as usual. Misfortunes have never
excused England from taxation. Mr. Fagan says,
that "he has always been of opinion, that the
mother of Irish embarrassments, the famine, was
a visitation of Providence in the United ing-
dom ;" and he holds the very convenient opinion,
that " the advances to relieve it ought to be made
out of the Imperial resources." It was a visitation
of Providence in this manner, that it was an ope-
ration of the invariable laws of Providence. In
any other sense it is blasphemy to use the words,
for they attribute the calamities brought on solely
by the agency of the creature to the Creator. Will
Mr. Fagan deny that, in raising the incomes on
land, rents were not exacted so high that the
tenants and labourers were compelled to sell the
whole of their more generous produce, and rely
entirely upon the wretched and perishable potato
for their subsistence ? That perished through some
natural law, and all their other food going for rents
to make up large incomes, the people also perished.
The proper mode of dealing with such a cruel and
unjust case was, to cause the land to revert to the
first use of all land—the sustenance of its cultiva-
tors and inhabitants, regardless of the few rent-
devourers who occasioned that very famine, which
is attributed to a being who has blessed Ireland
with an unusual fertility and abundant fisheries.
Instead of doing so, we advanced eight millions,
and almost immediately afterwards remitted one-
half of the debt, which is now paid by English ar-
tisans and tradesmen, who had never any benefit
from Ireland or its rents and incomes.

Mr. Maguire, the other opponent of the tax in
Ireland, is sure.that it is "alien to the habits and
very much opposed to the feelings of the Irish
people." No doubt of it ; but dislike to be just is
no reason to continue excusing them from what all
the rest of the United Kingdom have been obliged
to bear. An income of so many hundreds in one
part is the same in Downing-street as another in a
different part. We have not forgotten the violent
opposition that was made by lords and gentlemen
of large landed property in Ireland to the poor
law, though if legal relief had existed the famine
could not have been so destructive of life as it was.
The poor law was alien to the habits and feelings
of all the people, but those who were perishing, or
in danger, and who compoSed, if we are to believe
Irish accounts, the bulk of the population. The
incomes which are raised from that landed pro-
perty, solely by the labour and toil of the people,
are now liable to find subsistence for the labourer,
and it is no more than common fairness to make
them pay the income tax also, j ust as if they were
raised in England.
. . . . _ . .

What we condemn is to exist in both countries
alike. Precisely the very people who can best pay
the income tax, those who either do not, or are
not obliged to make any useful or ornamental
exertions, are to be favoured, while those who con-
tribute to the maintenance of the State are to bear
the heavier of the unequal shares of the burden.
Still one hundred pounds a year in Ireland, how-
ever acquired, leave a much larger residue, after
the visits of the parochial and Government tax-
gatherers, than the same amount in England ; con-
sequently the Irishman is a fitter subject for the
income tax. '

The objections of ➢Zr. Newdegate and the English
landowners to the legacy duty would be worth
taking into consideration, if, by innumerable expe-
dients and evasions, they had not contrived to
emancipate the land from its proper quota to the
exigencies of the State. At present, the phrase of
" unequal burdens upon the land," is as without
foundation as it is stale and unprofitable. Like
justice to Ireland, equalised burdens will be un-
palatable whenever they come. There seems to be
little difference between Irish and English land-
owners in regard to their views of taxation. They
who toil not, neither do they spin, in either coun-
try, strive to lay all the weight upon the shoulders
of the spinners and labourers.

DISCOVERY OF A NEW AND IMPORTANT
MECHANICAL MOTION.

The science of mechanics has just received a
valuable addition by an entirely new mode of ob-
taining a multiplying rotative motion.
Messrs. Callen and Ripley, of Parliament-street,
Westminster, have obtained English and Foreign
patents for a beautifully simple mechanism of their
inventing, consisting of a disc and simple crank, by
which the speed of anyrevolving bodycan be multi-
plied at pleasure, without the use of cog-wheels,
driving-bands, or other dangerous and ojection-
able contrivances hitherto in use. The accidents
(too often attended with fatal results) which have
arisen from the' use of straps, cog-wheels, &c., have
long called for the substitution of better and safer
machinery, and although many and various have
been the means suggested, or partially adopted, it
appears that none of these were found to answer in
practice. When we look at the vast improve-
ments that have been made in machinery gene-
rally, it is somewhat strange that spur-wheels,
bands, and straps, attended as they are with so
much danger to those engaged in our manufac-
tories, objectionable in other respects from the
space they occupy, the deafening noise they pro-
duce, and the decrease of power and expense they
cause, should not have been long since superseded
where the same is practicable.
This invention has been thoroughly tested by a
practical engineer, from a perusal of whose report
thereon we find that in a multiplying motion
there are many important conditions to be fulfilled,
which, although they do not appear at first sight,
are absolutely necessary in practice. Ist,—The
motion transmitted must be perfectly regular, that
is to say, the speed must be the same in every unit
of time under a uniform power and load. 2nd,—
The power required to maintain a uniform speed
must be also regular, for it is manifest that if these
two primary conditions are not fulfilled, the power
will either be in excess of the load at one point, or
inferior thereto at another, and a jerking,
uneven motion and loss of power will be the
result. In order to obviate loss of power
by friction, the parts should be few in number, of
a simple form, and the material inexpensive and
durable ; they should require small space, be easily
geared and ungeared when necessary—should not
'be liable to derangement, and, when in motion,
should be under perfect control, and produce no
noise. The perfect success with which (according
to the report of the engineer) the simple construc-
tion adopted by Messrs. Callen and Ripley an-
swers all these conditions in the most satisfactory
manner, greatly increases the importance and
value of their invention. It is proved to be
not more than one-sixth of the cost of cog-wheels,
it is much stronger, and requires only one-half the
space, while the motion produces no noise, and
transmits the power with only one-sixth of the loss
by friction,—in fact, its advantages over all the
other multiples are such as must lead to its general
adoption. It appears peculiarly adapted for our
steam-vessels, when spur gearing is used to the
screw propeller (producing such a deafening noise
so objectionable to the passengers), while the
small space it occupies will be a further advan-
tage, and one which appears worthy of the con-
sideration of naval engineers, inasmuch as, when
applied to our screw war-steamers, it could be fitted
below the water, and thus not be liable to any
danger from shot in action. Hence, its advan-
tages over cog-wheel; must be apparent to all par-
ties conversant with mechanics, and will un-
theedly obtain or it a great demandi and give
inventors that return their ingenuity so justly
merits.

( Feom the Morning Advertiser.)
Though the Ministerial intention is to extend
and prolong the original injustice of the income
tax, in order to save the pockets of the rich,
andi empty those of the less favoured, either by
Government or the blind goddess, yet it presents
DUTCH. STOCKS. The accountfs from Holland describe
some appearance of fairness. If it is an intoler-
ablequent upon
wrong that a man with 1001. a year, derived 1
, considerable depression in the
past
ti the recent act
from , personal exertions, should be taxed at the
the political agitation in connectiulds' conse
fewof days the
same rate as the possessor of the same amount fromt
of Papal aggression. Within
declineatl°len
funds, lands, or houses, it is not less unjust o
Dutch stocks have experienced
excuse incomes entirely from taxatian, simply. be- ,
cause the source from which they are derived hap- and 3 per cent. between 2
1

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

PORTSMOUTH, Amur, 26.
Her Majesty's ship Hastings, 72, Captain Austen,
unbent sails this morning at Spithead, and was towed
into harbour by th. 3 Sprightly and Echo steamers to be
dismantled and paid off. The widow and daughters of
the late Admiral Sir Francis Austin, with their baggage,
were landed at the dockyard yesterday.
The London, 90, Captain Charles Eden, returned to
Spithead this afternoon from Plymouth.
The Illustrious, hospital-ship, was inspected this
morning by Rear-Admiral Fanshawe and Captain Scott,
of the Neptune.
The officers and crew of the Agamemnon, Captain
Sir T. Maitland, having been turned over from the
Camperdown, the sickness having entirely disappeared,
and her stores are being reshipped with all possible dis-
patch.
The Vulcan steam troop-ship, Captain Von Donop,
has been supplied with lower yards and topmasts, and
will shortly be ready for sea.
Wind, S.W., with fine weather.

PLYMOUTH, Amur, 26.

Her Majesty's steam-frigate Odin, 16, Capt. F. Scott,
arrived in the Sound last evening. The sickness on
board the Odin left as soon as the land was cleared. She
has been to Vigo. On entering Plymouth Sound only
one engine was used, as one of her boilers is out of
repair. She is expecting telegraphic orders to return to
Portsmouth.

The Sanspareil, screw steam-ship, 70, Captain S. C.
Dacres, left the Sound at 5 p.m. yesterday for the east-
ward.

The merchant-brig Hamlet, of London, Capt. Har-
wood, from London, the 16th inst., for Adelaide, with
passengers and a general cargo, put in here yesterday
afternoon with pumps choked and leaky.

`WOOLWICH, APRIL 26.

It is not yet known who will be master shipwright at
Woolwich Dockyard in the room of Mr. Oliver Lang,
deceased, but it has been decided that Mr. 0. W. Lang,
assistant to the master shipwright at Chatham Dockyard,
is to be promoted to be master shipwright, as he is the
senior assistant master shipwright, although Mr. Chat-
field, assistant master shipwright ,at Woolwich Dock-
yard, is the senior as an officer in her Majesty's dock-
yards, and, consequently, it rested between these two
officers.

The officers of the Woolwich Dockyard battalion com-
mence their summer drills to-morrow, and the workmen
recently entered in the yard are having new clothing
made for them previous to the men commencing their
summer drills.

The Phoenix screw steam-sloop, Commander Edward
A. Inglefield, is now so heavily laden that she draws 16
feet of water. She has a large supply of stores and
coals, but a portion of the latter will be consumed in
her voyage to the North Polar regions. It is now de-
cided that two sailing vessels, laden with stores for
Captain Sir Edward Belcher's expedition, will accom-
pany the Phoenix to Beechy Island, and the Diligence
store-ship is now loading at Deptford, to be employed,
in addition to the Breadalbane on that service. The
Breadalbane has taken on board 200 tons of the best
Welch coals at this port, and will be taken out of the
basin and up to Deptford to receive provisions. She
will then return to Woolwich and fill up with patent
fuel.

THE NAVAL COMPASSIONATE FUND-WHO
HAS THE CONTROL ?
TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING HERALD.

Sir,—l feel that I need no apology in addressing my-
self to you on a subject which is of peculiar importance
to the widows and fatherless, especially to those con-
nected with the Royal Navy. You have always stood
out boldly in protection of those who might deem them.
selves oppressed—you have constantly opened your
columns to the complaints of those whose sufferings
have been neglected in high quarters ; and I therefore
have every hope that you will render your powerful in-
fluence in causing an inquiry to be instituted as to the
distribution of a fund which originally was intended to
be devoted to the wants of the poor and needy.
I am the widow of a master who served long and gal-
lantly in the late war, and who left behind him, owing
to the utter callousness of various Boards of Admiralty,
nothing but a good and honourable name (beyond the
pitiful pension of 401. per annum) to his widow and
orphans. In due time, after considerable exertion, I
obtained 81. a-year as an allowance for my daughters
until they attained the age of twenty-one ; for my boys,
who were above sixteen, but who, from circumstances,
were quite unable to provide for themselves, I got
--nothing. My daughters are still unmarried, and,
owing to ill health, can do nothing towards obtain-
in, a livelihood. My appeals to the Admiralty in
their behalf are met with the usual cold official letter,
and thus am I left to struggle on in my old age, con-
tending with poverty and sickness on an annuity that
would be looked upon with contempt by the valet or
cook of any one of their lordships, or of the chief clerks
of the Admiralty. I can expect at my time of life but
little at the hands of those who have the dispensation of
the Compassionate Fund ; but, in the name of the wives,
children, and sisters of the gallant men now serving their
country, will you pardon me if I beg that you will publish
the amount annually devoted by Parliament to maintain
this fund, and the name of the particular Lord of the Ad-
miralty under whose directions it is distributed, and the
reason why a captain's orphans should be entitled to a
larger sum than those of a commander, lieutenant, or
other junior officer, unless the father had peculiarly dis-
tinguished himself, for it should be borne in mind that
it takes as much to feed and clothe the one as the
other.

This fund has hitherto escaped the notice of an in-
quirer into modern abuses, and I trust the time has now
arrived when, with the invaluable assistance of your pen,
its mysteries will be opened out to the public, and an
equitable \investigation ensue.—l am, sir, your obedient
servant,

A MA.STER'S WIDOW.

Portsmouth, April 14, 1853.
[We believe that Mr. Hay, the Chief Clerk of the
Admiralty, has the control of the Compassionate Fund.
—ED. M.H.]

TIIE JAMES WATT.—The James Watt, launched at
Pembroke, is a two-decker, and is pronounced by com-
petent judges to be as fine a vessel as was ever launched.
She is fitted with the auxiliary screw propeller, and has
Robinson's patent tiller, which is necessary, as the shaft
of the screw comes up through the cabins, and it is
therefore requisite, in order to clear the casing of the
shaft, to have recourse to a long tiller. She is fitted
with an outside balcony and spacious galleries. She
will be taken round to Plymouth by Mr. Brown and his
party of seamen-riggers, and, on arriving at that port,
will immediately be got ready for commissioning.
PRIZE MoNEY.—Woodhead and Co. have given notice
that the.account sales of the proceeds arising from the
capture of the slave-vessel, name unknown, by her Ma-
jesty's ship Castor, Commodore C. Wyvill (in company
with her Majesty's ship Dee, F. H. Stirling, Esq., lieu-
tenant commanding), on the 7th of June, 1850, will be
registered in the High Court of Admiralty on and after
the 7th day of May next.
_ _

PRIZE MONEY.-Messrs. Case and Loudonsack have
given notice to H. B. Beresford, Esq., lieutenant com-
manding, the officers and crew of her Majesty's brigan-
tine Spy, who are entitled to share for the slaves cap-
tured in two canoes on the 3d of November, 1851, that
their respective shares will be paid to them, or their
legal representatives, on the 17th of May, 1853, at No.
1, James-street, Adelphi, and re-called every succeeding
Tuesday and Friday for the usual period, agreeable to
act of Parliament. Scheme of Distribution—Flag, 141.
Os. 4d. ; commander, 261. ss. Bd. ; fourth class, 71.
19s. 6d. ; fifth, 41. 13s. ; sixth, 31. 19s. 9d. ; seventh,
21. 13s. 2d. ; eighth, 1/. 6s. 7d. ; ninth, 16s. 7d. ; tenth,
9s. lid.

THE DEAD OF THE FUTURE AND THE GENERATIONS OF
THE PAST.—I think it necessary to inform my readers
that these remarks are a reprint of my " Practical Sug-
gestions for the Establishment of National Cemeteries,"
published in the year 1849. A strong conviction of
the necessity of the case, and a belief that I might ren-
der a service by the republication, has alone induced
me again to take up the subject. I have neither the
inclination nor the space at present to wade through the
mass of "Reports" which have been subsequently issued;
but I may remark, that already precious irredeemable time
has been lost which the people had a right to expect
should have been employed in energetic action. Instead
of wasting time and money in arbitration, which has even-
tuated in a sum of 117,0001. being awarded for the Nun-
head and Brompton cemeteries, which sum the Treasury has
declined to advance ; those to whom the power of provid-
ing an efficient remedy for a grievous and hourly increas-
ing wrong has been delegated, ought to have opened forth-
with cemeteries sufficiently capacious to receive the dead
of the metropolis for centuries to come. And here let
me observe, that not only the dead of the future, but the
generations of the past, demand our care and solicitude.
Myriads of bodies piled one upon another in the vaults
of our churches and chapels, which have been during
centuries converted into charnel-houses, are furnishing
their quota to the general mischief. Thousands of those
whose bodies have been so disposed of have not a single
living representative. If, after due official notice,
they were unclaimed, what sentiment could reason-
ably be offended if a solemn and appropriate
transmission were accorded them by funereal
trains to a cemetery ? Having myself personally
superintended the exhumation and removal of
many thousand bodies from the cellar under Enon
Chapel, Clement's-lane, Strand, in the years 1847-8, I
am fairly entitled to express my opinion that what has
been done by an individual, alone, and unassisted, may
be accomplished by an imperially constituted autho-
rity. This undertaking was effected without any acci-
dent, and four up-heaped van loads of human remains
found Christian burial in the Norwood Cemetery, whilst
an enormous quantity of coffin-wood from the same
place was consumed by fire at Sydenham. I mention
these circumstances in order that I may place on record
a remarkable fact, viz., that although upwards of 6,000
persons visited this wretched receptacle during the time
it was in ray possession, and although I am acquainted
with many who had placed relatives and friends there,
yet only one person made any inquiry concerning, one
body, out of the many thousands there deposited.—
G. A. Walker,'Surgeon, on the Past and Present Con-
dition of intramural Burial-places.
ALARM :NG HIGH TlDE.—Yesterday afternoon, owing
to an immense amount of land-water, arising from; the
recent excessive rains, and a strong north-easterly wind
the waters of the Thames rose to an unusual height, and '
at half-past. four overflowed their usual boundaries, inun-
datinv: the low-lying places on both banks. At seve-
ral of the s team-boat piers extra accommodation was re-
quired to I and and embark passengers. It is fortunate
the tides are on the neap, or the damage would have
more been ore extensive. • •

THE NEW YORK EXHIBITION.

Besides the Earl of Ellesmere, Sir Charles Lyell, and
Mr. Dilke, the Royal Commission which is about to be
issued for the American International Exhibition, will,
we understand, embrace the names of Professor G. Wil-
son, Mr. Whitworth, and Mr. Wallis. It will thus con-
sist of six members, and form a body well calculated not
only Worthily to represent this country on the other side
of the Atlantic,.but to bring back, in the shape of official
reports, the results of the approaching industrial display.
The nobleman who is placed at the head of the Commis-
sion is thoroughly qualified to pronounce a judgment
upon the merits of the Fine Arts' section, while he
unites with• a highly cultivated taste the prestige of rank
and wealth. Science, especially in the departments of
raw produce and mineralogy, could not find in this
country a worthier representative than Sir Charles Lyell;
and Mr. Dilke, the least rewarded, and certainly not the
least valuable member of our own Executive Committee
in Hyde-park, by his practical good sense, his business
habits, and his experience, may fairly be expected to
stamp the new Commission with a useful as well as a
merely dignified character. Professor Wilson is favour-
ably known to the public from the attention which he has
paid to scientific agriculture, and it may be anticipated
that at New York he will find the materials for much
useful information to his own countrymen in that and
kindred t ranches of knowledge. The appointment of Mr.
4Vallis also is a very judicious one. He was one of the most
valuable and active officers employed at Hyde-park in
1851, and, apart altogether from his acquirements as a
teacher of the first principles of practical art, he has
a rare and extensive acquaintance with the merits of
textile fabrics in every branch of their manufacture.
Perhaps, however, for the material interests of this
country, so far as they are likely to be affected by the
New York Exhibition, the most valuable member of the
new Commission is Mr. Whitworth, the leading maker
in this country of what are called " Manchester tools."
Mr. Whitworth is the very best man that could be
selected to concentrate into a report the mechanical
results of the New York Exhibition ; and, ingenious
and inventive as the Americans undoubtedly are, we
need not be ashamed to send over to them, as a reporter,
the mechanic who can, by the unaided exercise of his
craft, measure the millionth part of an inch. The Com-
mission goes to America carrying with it souvenirs of the
display of 1851, with which all its members have been
intimately associated. It is accredited neither to the
Committee of the New York Exhibition nor to the
Government, for the former is a private commercial body
which this country could not officially acknowledge, and
the latter only indirectly patronises the undertaking.
It has, however, ample powers and a useful and digni-
fied mission. It is charged with the duty of representing
the industrial interests of England at the forthcoming
display, and of reporting, in an authoritative manner,
upon the results thereof. The Government have
issued it upon the suggestion of the Surplus
Commissioners, and they have further shown
their zeal in the matter by getting several of the
chief departments of the State to contribute. The
Ordnance, the Admiralty, the Mint, and the Board of
Trade, through its School of Mines, intend to send arti-
cles for exhibition ; and it is worthy of remark that, little
as we may show, compared with the constituted authori-
ties of other European communities, we have done far
more as a body politic for the New York Exhibition than
we did for our own. In Hyde-park the Government
showed itself chiefly active in snubbing the Royal Com-
missioners and worrying it through Lord Seymour. Dr.
Royle is busily engaged in selecting, on the part of the
East India Company, a brilliant show of Oriental manu-
factures wherewith to dazzle the Western world. About
800 British exhibitors, comprising the leading houses in
important departments of our national industry, have sent
contributions. Our artists are admitted also to the field of
competition which embraces p'aintings, and among the
champions of the national industry is included the name of
the Duke of Buccleuch. Consideringthe extent to which
other European States as well as our own intend support-
ing the approaching Exhibition, it is a matter of some sur-
prise that the building in which the display takes place is
one of such small dimensions.. The site upon which it
stands is not more. than 500 feet square, and the structure
itself has been already supplemented by additions for ma-
chinery. We Londoners grumble at the want of space
available for such objects, and the surplus of the late Exhi-
bition has been sunk in one lump to secure more elbow-
room for our public institutions ; but in New York, with a
Continent in the back ground, the evil seems to be still
more severely felt, and they appear there to have been
driven into a situation not much more convenient than
that at one time contemplated for the display of 1851,
when it was seriously proposed to hold it in Leicester-
square. Only one-third of the area has been reserved for
native exhibitors, the rest being devoted to the products
of European industry and art. The openingis postponed
till the first of June.