The Sun.
London, England, 1853-07-25 00:00:00

and fortifications repaired and improved. Every-
thing that can by a possibility strengthen the
position, is effected with reckless prodigality.
Where there is such a total disregard of expense,
and every indication of a .permanent occupation,
we may readily suppose that the AUTOCRAT has
made up his mind as to who shall pay the piper,
and the means by which he will enforce the liqui-
dation of his demand. We must not, then, be
too sanguine as to the pacific solution of the diffi-
culty, or induced to let the golden opportunity
slip away, in vain reliance on the specious pro-
mises of the AUTOCRAT, who, having once deceived
the Western Powers, is no longer deserving of
implicit confidence.

The war in Burmah " drags its slow length
along," precisely as may have been predicated b 3
any one acquainted with Eastern policy. The
men of the burning clime can only be brought to
book by force, and our application of force has
been from the beginning absurdly directed—more
absurdly applied. Only self-sufficient ignorance
in supreme authority could have adopted Rangoon
for the point of first attack, to render it after-
wards a base for operating up the Irrawaddy in
its whole length, and to reduce a king who can,
by retiring, lengthen that line by a thousand
miles—who can dispute, if he chooses, many
strong positions as he retires, and, if beaten, leave
pestiferous swamps to do battle for him ! What,
we say, but self-sufficient ignorance in supreme
authority could have determined on such a line,
when a short safe movement across Arracan and
by the Aeng pass, would have brought the army
at once upon the river, cutting the long unhealthy
line from Rangoon in half, and giving the power
to assail the capital up the stream, or Rangoon,
by descending it, with the advantage of taking
all the Burmah defences and forces in reverse,
separating their troops in the lower country from
those defending the capital.

This pitiable ignorance of the great principles
of war, which does not require a military head to
forbid—though not to forbid it would be damna-
tory to the reputation of any General—has now
brought the operations to a fix, and negotiations,
bullying, boasting, the if and the what I will do,
are all brought into play. They will be fruitless.
Eastern politicians understand their work. They
cannot be beaten in that way. They will lie,
fawn, flatter, threaten, appeal to justice and to
religion. They will promise and interpose delays
while they are preparing for battle, and make
piteous appeals for mercy, for forbearance, offer-
ing amity, entire submission, and even love, at
the moment their swords are raised to smite.
This was the way of the Ameers of Scinde with Sir
C. NAPIER. So it is now, apparently, with the
Burmese towards General GODWIN, and it will
ever be so with the subtle barbarians of the East.
Sir C. NAPIER has been, with all the virulence
that malice, and ignorance, and dishonesty com-
bined could produce, accused of having assailed
the Ameers when they were dreaming of anything
but war. Poor, innocent, sincere, simple souls !
They expostulated against coercion, they declared
aloud for peace, they sent their commissioners to
negotiate ; they would do any thing to avert
the anger of the power which menaced
them that is, while their plans for war
were incomplete, their gathering army unable
to strike, and had Sir C. NAPIER been deceived
by their negotiations, had he trusted to the infatu-
ated political Outram, who, without the wisdom
of the Serpent, hissed mischief in his ear, the
Ameer's subtle negotiators would have kept the
General and his troops in suspense, until the
sharp Belooch swords were at their throats. This
should be a lesson to General GODWIN. He may
be assured that negotiations and promises without
acts for guarantee, will end in peril greater, per-
haps, than is now anticipated. If the whole sys-
tem of operations be not soon changed, the Direc-
tors may yet weep tears of blood as freely as they
are now weeping tears of gold, for Lord DA.LHOU-
sif s warlike ignorance.

Mr. MACAULAY reminds us continually of his
own. Halifax. For all the trimming legislation of
the Whigs, their great orator displays an unmis-
takeable predilection. Two of his three orations
this session have been delivered in the cause of

compromise, and of compromise with a lion's share

!for the advocates of vested abuses. We have
scarcely forgotten his endeavour to cover the coali-
tion work of Sir CHARLES WOOD and the India
House from the irresistible onslaughts of the
Indian Reformers, before down he comes to the
House, to invest, if possible, with a halo of ora-
torical glory, a most miserable clerical compromise
of the Edinburgh clergy with the Lord Advocate
and the present Government. Mr. MACAULAY,
like Lord JOHN RUSSELL, is successful enough in
enunciating noble principles, and we listen, except
as taught by experience, with the full expectation
of propositions in accordance with them. Uni-
formly, however, we find this discernment and
appreciation of the nobler and better, to be but
the prelude to the old avowal sed deteriora sequor,
to the defence of some utterly contemptible com-
promise with confessed evil.

Let us glance at the oration for the Edinburgh
Annuity Tax on Tuesday night. Mr. MACAULAY
declared that the " cost of the Establishment for
Edinburgh was enormously disproportioned to the
wants of the inhabitants," " frightfully dispropor-
tionate compared with the scale of other large
cities in Scotland." He proved by calculation that
it was "at least three times greater than its cost
in other cities ;" and that hence the inhabitants
of Edinburgh " had a real, a substantial grievance
to complain of." Well, to rectify this part of the
" substantial grievance," Mr. MACAULAY pro-
poses that the 18 ministers, whose congregations
average some 20 or 30 persons each, should be
'educed by—three ! That 18 clergymen preaching,
just like those in the city of London, to nearly
empty churches—preaching to congregations which,
all, put together, would not outnumber one of the
congregations of the popular Free Church preach-
ers, actually non-resident clergy also, should be
reduced, if reduction it can be called, to fifteen,
and should still enjoy 5501. a-year for doing next
to nothing. A truly substantial redress this of a
substantial grievance !

The substance of the Annuity Tax case is this.
It affects only the Old Royalty as it is called, con-
taining about one-third of the whole population
of Edinburgh, which now amounts to 160,000.
It is a tax of 6 per cent, on house property, and
was collected' by the Corporation who paid the
salaries of the ministers. Previously to 1808, it
could be levied only for six ministers who received
3301. each. In that year, however, a bill was
framed on the subject, into which clauses were
smuggled as .it passed through Parliament,
in virtue of which the number of ministers was
increased to eighteen, and their salaries to 7501.
per annum. This led to endless disputes, which
resulted in the corporation undertaking to pay
the ministers 5201. each. The arrangement
lasted till 1820, when the clergy again undertook
to collect it. Their doing so became the signal
for fresh resistance : and summonses, sales of
goods, imprisonments, and even calling out the
military, were the fruits of clerical tax-gathering.
At length in 1848, Mr. J. S. LEFEVRE was de-
puted by the Government to take evidence on the
subject. It became clear enough that the griev-
ance was indeed "substantial." Out of 10,0001.
collected in one year, 8,0001. was paid by persons
who never attended the church ! In the Old
Town there are eight churches, but out of 8,480
sittings only 655 were let to persons residing
within the Royalty. There were in them not
less than 5,882 sittings unlet. Another gross
iniquity is, that all persons belonging to the
College of Justice, the wealthiest portion of the
residents, are exemptfromthe tax, and, as Mr. MA-
I CAULAY stated, " a poor dissenting shoemaker
actually paid to two churches, while the wealthy
Lord Provost paid to none." It is scarcely to be
wondered at that flesh and blood could hardly
submit to such galling provocations as these.
Since the secesEion of the Free Church, of course,
the anomaly and disproportion is far greater than
ever. Edinburgh
is now amply provided with
places of worship, but it is by dissent, or, at least,
it is the Dissenting Churches which have all the
congregations. Seventy-four of the latter are
nearly all of them well attended, while the twenty-