The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-06 00:00:00

ht

3144 V

LONDON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER G, 1853,

We. are now gravely told by the ABERDEEN
organ that " the EMPEROR of Russia has declared
for peace." It acknowledges that " the announce-
ment may probably appear incredible, after what
has been proved respecting the nature of the ori-
ginal aggression," but adds that it " can state,
upon undoubted authority, that the sentiments
the CZAR, as expressed at Olmfitz by his own lips,
are not onlyin favour of a pacific settlement, but are
reconcilable to a great extent with the conditions
proposed by ourselves." It may be so. The
Times should be good authority on anything
emanating from Russia just at present. It has
well merited the confidence of its Imperial Mas-
ter, and is entitled to the most unreserved dis-
closures from the party on whose behalf it has
made such energetic exertions and incurred such
an enormous amount of obloquy. It has evinced,
too, unquestionable discretion on behalf of the
cause which it had undertaken to advance. For
what stone did it leave unturned to promote
the interests of the AUTOCRAT and damage
those of the SULTAN I What portion of
information did it not apply to the same
purpose, twisting and turning it in every
possible form, now bringing it forward in
the shape of foreign correspondence, again of in-
telligence gleaned and collected from well-informed
continental journals, accompanied by notes and
comments—at one time in the shape of editorial
remarks, at another, of elaborate letters from con-
venient correspondents, who were ready to predict
the inevitable downfall of the Ottoman Empire,
and to prove that England should make the best
of that which could not by any possibility be
averted, or even long postponed. At intervals
the blessings of peace were chaunted in dulcet
strains, befitting an Arcadian bard, save that, in
place of green fields and lowing herds, it sung of
unnumbered bales of cotton, and power-looms
worked two-and-twenty hours per day, the human
machines attached being allowed the odd two
hours for rest, refreshment, and recreation—
all, in fact, that could please the smooth ma-
nufacturer, who thought the Government of the
world, and the position of England in the scale Of
nations of but trivial importance, when compared
with the supply of additional calico to the banks
of the Don or the Dnieper, or the clothing of the
hordes of Cossacks and Calmucks, who owed fealty
to the benignant and gentle NICHOLAS. Anon,
it struck the lyre with bolder and more vigorous
hand, when it dwelt on the honours of war in
terms that might have sufficed to harrow up the
soul of every member of the Peace Congress, and
made the broad-brims quiver on hairs standing
erect like " quills on the fretful porcupine."
Surely after such unwavering fidelity, such
efficient services, bestowed,
too, with such total
disregard of characters, the obedient journal is
at least entitled to the 'need of early and authen-
tic intelligence, as the least return for all it has
performed, and all the serious risks it has en-
countered.

Nor is the matter itself so very improbable as
to induce us to doubt the statement thus put for-
ward on "undoubted authority." We have seen
and heard enough of the professions of mode-
ration on the part of the CZAR, not to feel
any degree of surprise or astonishment at any
assertions he may choose to put forward. Like
his great prototype, " the wolf in the fable," he
had ample justification for any extremities to which
he might please to proceed, and any indulgence
which he might feel disposed to show was owing,
not to the merits of his adversary, but to the
unbounded benignity and clemency of his own
disposition. When such claims were put forward
by a servile herd "the God of the Russians," as
by a refinement of blasphemy he was termed,
might surely speak of his own kindly disposition,
and of his pacific inclinations. . Besides, the Great
Northern Despot possibly finds that matters do
not run quite so smoothly as he had anticipated.
He did not perfectly understand the dispositions
of the Anglo-Saxon race when he imagined that
because he had secured the co-operation of the

" good and excellent" First Lord of the Treasury, I
and of " the leading journal," he could do as he
thought proper in all respects. He has at length
made the discovery that Englishmen are not quite
so easily led by the pose as he had imagined—
that the voice of public opinion in the Western i
Isles will penetrate into the inmost recesses of the
Cabinet, and that no Minister can venture long to
resist " the pressure from without"—more potent
than even the hug of his own bear. He has also
made the unwelcome discovery that Turkey is
even better prepared for the contest than he had
supposed possible ; and that with such assistance
as she can and will receive from the Maritime
Powers, she may defy his utmost exertions, and
possibly retaliate by carrying the war into his own
country—that the co-operation of the Times and
ABERDEEN, coupled even with the tergiversation
and treachery of Austria, are inadequate to the
complete carrying out his nefarious projects. He
has never been very scrupulous as to the complete
correspondence of his " sayings and doings," and
a slight concealment of his intentions—nay, even
a postponement to a more convenient season, of the
partition of Turkey—may possibly suit his pre-
sent views. It is therefore very probable that he
would now thankfully accept the original Vienna
Note, coupled with an interpretation or ex-
planation of its provisions, which would go
far to remove its objectionable character, and
to place it in a very different light from that
in which it was viewed at Constantinople and St.
Petersburgh by REDSCHID PACHA and Count NEs-
SELRODE—his high sense of " dignity " alone pre-
venting him from receiving it with all the modifi-
cations. But he threw off the disguise too soon
for this purpose. Any future negotiations must
be based on a document complete in itself, which
may be read, and its meaning understood, with-
out any reflected or borrowed light from collateral
" explanations." Any such compromise would
be worse than useless—it would merely postpone
the evil day, and allow the unscrupulous and un-
conscientious invader to carry out his plans on
the first favourable opportunity, which would but
top soon arise. In such case " the snake would
be but scotched, not killed." The elements of
disturbance would remain with undiminished
force, to burst into flame at an untoward
time. We cannot think so much of the dig-
nity of the man who thought so lightly of the
dignity of others. He has got himself into the
scrape, let him wriggle out of it as he best can.
He may rest assured that, under any circum-
stances, he cannot be more disgraced than he has
already been through his insolent and domineer-
ing manifestoes, his unwarrantable aggressions,
and his grasping cupidity. These may leave in-
delible brands on his character, notwithstanding
the submissions he may now make. Pity it is
that the indomitable pride of a single human
being should be capable of inflicting such calami-
ties on the whole family of mankind—that all
must suffer for the faults and perversity of one.
But such is the necessary consequence of des-
potism, which must be banished from the world
before we can hope for permanent tranquillity or
the realisation of the aspiration that,

" When kings assert their right,
The men who make the quarrel be the only men to fight."

That the ordinary penny receipt stamp, which
will come into operation from and after the 10th
instant, is destined to exercise a material influence
in the every-day transactions of life, is certain.
Every person of moderate means will require to
keep a stock by him ; and it is by no means im-
. possible that they may constitute a new paper
currency of small denomination, that would prove
exceedingly convenient to the community, more
especially during the comparative deficiency of
the copper coinage that must arise during the state
of transition to the decimal system, and which
indeed is already spoken of. When every transac-
tion amounting to 2/. or upwards will render
necessary the use of one of these stamps, it is
scarcely necessary to say that they will generally
be accepted. The humblest person will thank-
fully receive that for which, although he may
have no use of it himself, he is certain of obtaining
full value from any tradesman or shopkeeper with
whom he deals. They will also afford opportu-
nities of liquidating small accounts by post that
are now frequently obliged to stand over, greatly
to the annoyance of the creditors. Indeed, there
will henceforward be no plausible excuse for the
neglect of such claims. The postage-stamps par-
tially performed this duty ; and we read in the
pages of our amusing contemporary, Household
Words, an interesting narrative of a tour, during
the course of which the writer was rescued from
a very embarrassing and unpleasant position in
a small village in North Wales, by the possession
of a few postage stamps, and finding a person,
even in that remote district, who understood their
use, and was willing to give money in exchange.
Their exchangeable value was, however, greatly
impaired by the regulation which imposed a
penalty on any person who sold or disposed of
them without a license, and the consequent limi-
tation of the demand to those that might be re-
quired for the personal use of the individual who
might accept them in payment of any demand.
No prosecution was ever instituted fur the sale of
these substitutes for money, and a similar right,
or at least immunity, will no doubt be afforded to
persons dealing in the new receipt stamps. In-
deed it appears by the New Stamp Act that such
an exemption was contemplated by Parliament,
as it expressly provided that " Persons authorised
by the Postmaster-General may sell postage
stamps, or carry about the same for sale, without
being subject to any penalty." The use, therefore,
of such stamps would be materially promoted, and
the public convenience provided for, by the power
thus virtually conferred upon any person of re-
ceiving money in exchange, and everything that
could be desired would be achieved if the postage
and receipt stamps were convertible, so that either
would free a letter, or justify the acknowledg-
ment of payment of a sum exceeding 2/. sterling, or
a cheque made payable to order, or at a distance
exceeding ten miles from the place where it is
made payable.
There is no earthly reason why this should not
be the case, or why one should not answer the
Purpose of the other in every case. And yet we
find by an unaccountable instance of perversity
that such is not to be the case ; but that a stamp
specially prepared must be used for receipts, while
the old postage stamp must be resorted to for the
transmission of letters through post. Now, we
ask what can be the meaning of this most absurd
and vexatious regulation ? The object of the
Legislature was to ensure the payment of a cer-
tain duty on the transmission of every letter, and
the signing of every receipt. The duty was the
same in each case, and. surely that object would
be accomplished under whatever name the money
was paid. The receipt into the Exchequer would
be as useful, whether it went under the head of
" Post-office," or of " Stamps." The money
should be paid in each instance. What then can
be the purpose of maintaining an absurd distinc-
tion where there is no real difference?
It may be asserted that the distinction is re-
quired in order that the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer may be enabled to state exactly the pro-
ceeds of each branch of the revenue—that he
may have the additional element to guide his cal-
culations, as to future fiscal changes. Never was
there a more ridiculous reason assigned, a more
untenable argument put forward. It is one only
worthy of the philosopher who thought the cat
and her kittens required different modes of
entrance, and that the latter could not make
their way through the same passage as their parent.
It is quite clear that if the entire quantity of
stamps sold were known, and the number that
were applied to postal purposes also ascertained
(as it would be without difficulty), the balance

would represent the produce of the new penny
receipt stamp. Any person capable of working a
sum in subtraction could tell the amount. But
for that the public are to be greatly inconvenienced,
and double supplies must be provided. We hope
that this absurd regulation will be altered. It
must be so if the commercial community bestir
themselves, and represent in the proper quarter
its inutility and absurdity.

NORFOLK is to enjoy the honour of being the
first English county appealed to for its Agricul-
tural Statistics. It is solicited to serve as the
model county on this side the Tweed, to enable
our Legislature to pass a satisfactory and well-
considered Act on this subject. We trust that it
will not disappoint the expectations of the country,
and those expectations are high. It is the county
which enjoyed, during his long-protracted life, the
princely and intelligent example of THOMAS WIL-
LIAM COKE, which saw Holkam Park converted
from a wilderness to an agricultural garden, and
an estate consisting largely of poor light soils, ren-
dered one of the best cultivated and most pro-
ductive in England ; which beheld the agricultural
intelligence of the whole kingdom annually
assembled at the Holkam sheep-shearing a
gathering at which nobles and tenant-farmers, and
agriculturists from other countries also, mingled
in free and hearty intercourse, inspected the model
farm of their generous host, and the farms of
intelligent gentlemen around who had followed
his example, and returned to their respective
farms, counties, and countries, enriched with a
knowledge of the results of all the costly experi-
ments which were constantly in hand, at the
expense of the wealthy and public-spirited Lord
of Holkam. Those who are so frequently calling
on Mr. MECHI to produce his balance-sheet, and
who would wish him to guarantee himself a profit
ou all he does, may remember with advantage
that Thos. War. COKE, the father of Norfolk, we
might almost say of British agriculture, was accus-
tomed to avow that he never wished or expected to
gain anything by his splendid experimental farm.
It was carried on to verify everything worthy of
trial at the cost of a landlord who could afford it,
on behalf of tenants whose capital ought not to be
exposed to risk ; and it was carried on till it has
almost changed the face of the county. Septe-
genarians now can hardly identify some parts of
it. It is true, Norfolk farmers have yet much to
learn ; but it is also true that they have learned
very much, probably more than the same number
of their brethren in any other part of England ;
they have long employed every kind of agricul-
tural horse machinery; the steam-engine, though
not so fast as in Scotland, is making its way
amongst them, and the agricultural productions
of the county are perhaps more varied than those
of most counties in England.
Probably amongst the tenants of the Earl of
LEICESTER, not one will be found unwilling to
make the required returns. We have no doubt
that the son fully sustains the system of his vene-
rated father. That system was one of long leases,
we believe seldom less than twenty-one years; ab-
solute political liberty ; license to destroy the in-
jurious game ; and for the landlord to regard a
large produce with exultation, not as furnishing a
claim for higher rent on his part, but as establish-
ing rather a claim on the part of the tenant, for
any man, according to the Earl's favourite adage,
" deserved the country's gratitude for making two
ears of wheat grow where one grew before." The
farmer who had made most of his farm felt most
sure of a renewed long lease on terms at least as
favourable as before. Nor can we believe that the
landlords are numerous who would raise a tenant's
rent because of the excellence of his cultivation,
and the consequent largeness of his production.
They know that there must have been a propor-
tionate outlay of capital to obtain it. They know
that a secure rent from a well-cultivated estate is
better than a rent which impoverishes and dis-
courages the farmer, and brings the land into their
hands at the end of the lease deteriorated in value;
they cannot wish to set before the other tenants a
premium on slovenly farming, and a penalty on
high cultivation and improvement of the estate.
The farmer need not fear, we believe, to return
freely and openly the entire amount of his pro-
duetion of every kind. However, even the
hazard, imaginary as we think it, of exposure of his
business to his landlord, the farmer's sole fear,
even this is considerately saved him on the pro-
posed plan.

The returns are to be made in two schedules to
a statistical committee of each Board of Guardians,
and to be collected by the relieving officers, to be
issued the first week in October, and collected
again the first week in November. Individual
names are not to be given, and the results alone
are to be made public. This was the course
adopted in Scotland, and with such success that
in three entire counties, Roxburgh, Haddington,
and Sutherland, only three individuals declined
giving the information requested, and they now
probably regret that they did so. Of course it
will not be difficult for the relieving officers to ob-
tain the information pretty accurately at second
hand. The number of acres sown by a farmer
with each kind of crop, and the number of his
stock, are open, with tolerable accuracy to all
eyes ; but the desideratum is to accomplish the
object with the thorough good will of the farmers
themselves. They will share most largely in the
general benefit of the knowledge obtained, and it
is highly desirable that they should co-operate
with the enlightened confidence that the farmer
will be the greatest gainer by holding in his hands
a reliable summary of the agricultural statistics of
the kingdom.
There is hardly a branch of trade throughout
Britain, hardly any interest indeed whatever, to
which the course and prospects of agriculture are
a matter of indifference ; the probable abundance
or scarcity of food enters into the calculations of
every one who has anything to make, to buy, to sell,
or to convey about the kingdom or the world. The
present year is, perhaps, the one which, since the
repeal of the corn laws, most reminds us of the
old panics (and other tricks too) by which gam-
bling speculators endeavoured to raise the price of
corn till it would suffice to open the ports. We
think the price at this time is in great part a panic
price ; one which the large buyers will uphold, of
course, if they can, till they have disposed of their
purchasers ; but a price which, notwithstanding
the smaller extent of the wheat crop last year,
and also there is too much reason to fear a dimi-
nished yield per acre, cannot be maintained when
the facts of the actual home and foreign supply
become fully realised. Of course we may be mis-
taken ; but just in this appears the value of the
desired returns. We should, in knowing with
certainty the actual average of the wheat crop,
compared with other years and seasons, have by
far the most important element in the calcula-
tion placed beyond doubt. If, however, every
one else could act with so much more certainty
provided he possessed the proposed statistics, how
much more the farmer ? He would see at a glance
which kind of produce was likely to be in excess
or deficient, and could shape his business arrange-
ments by knowledge rather than by guessing.
And not only would they apprise him of the
probable supply and demand of the several articles
which he manufactures ; with a little care and a
few more columns, the returns might inform him '
of the different principal modes of cultivation in
different districts, and the changes of modes, the
various kinds of manure used, or newly intro-
duced, with their effects, and all the general agri-
cultural usages and variations in the kingdom.
We should not be surprised if the present attempt
issues in a series of annual Blue Books, invaluable
to the farmer, and beneficial to us all.

FEES PAID BY MILITIA OFFlCERS.—Yesterday a re-
turn to Parliament was printed, showing the fees
charged on commissions by deputy-lieutenants and
other officers in England and Wales. In Middlesex the
fee by a deputy-lieutenant is 10 guineas ; a colonel of
militia, 91. ; lieutenant-colinel, 71.195. ; major, 61. 18s. ;
captain, 51. 17s. ; lieutenant, 41. 16s. ; ensign and
second lieutenant, 3/. 15s. ; and surgeon and assistant-
surgeon, 51. 17s. and 4/. 16s.
GOLD.—The Alverton has arrived from Sydney,
whence she sailed the Ist of June, but the gold she
brings is valued only at 2,0001.
THE HARBINGER.—The General Screw steamer Har-
binger, which leaves Southampton to-day (the 6th), for
Port Philip and Sydney, takes out only 5001. in specie. ,
She has jewellery on board valued at 5,000/.

A .