The Sun.
London, England, 1854-05-27 00:00:00

STRAND THEATRE.

Sole Lessee Mr. F. W. Allcroft.—Directress, Aftss Rebecca Isaacs,
THIS EVENING, MAT 27,
Will be performed THE STATUE LOVER.
To be followed by A DAY AFTER THE WEDDING.
After which, THE GARDENER OF VER3AILLE3.
To be followed by THE SEA NYAIPH'3 CAVE.
To conclude wilt THE BONNET-BUILDERS' TEA PARTY.

Stalls, 55.; Boxes, 3..; Pit, Iv. Gd ; Gallery, 6d.; Private Boars,
Xi I Is. 6d.. to bo had of Mr. Allcroft. lb, New Bond-street.

ASTLErS EUROPE'S NATIOITA r, A %EMIT iIEATICE.
Lessee and Manager, Mr. 'William Cooke.
THIS EVENING, MAT 26,
Will be presented the new gramd Nautical and Equestrian spec-
tacle, 'embodying n 'vet and extraordinary eftects (written by Mr,
Nelsoa Lee), entitled A TALE OF THE SYANISFI VAR; or,
The Horse of the Wreck. Th: horses expressly trained by Mr. W.
Cooke.
}MILLE
Followed by NONE[: FEATS of EQUITATION SANiPA-
To conclude with a Grand Ballet, entitled THE STAR OF THE
RHINE.
Box-oflice open from Eleven till Four. Stage Manager, Mr. W.
West.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Twei DAY —Morning 9 min after 2 I Evening 26 min.aft. 2
r3-Mouitow— -Morning 44 mln.after 2 1 Evening 0 min.aft. 3

THE WEATHER.—Sun OrFur; MAT 27.
THICEMONIETEU, IN THE SHADE.
G 5 - highest since noon yesterday.
50 —lowest this morning and during the night.
57—this day, at noon.
BARouNTER, 29.73.
WIND, W•8•W. to W.N.W.—Fresh breeze, with heavy
showers, and glimpaes of sunshine.

_

LONDON, SATURDAY,
MAY 7, 1854.
-----s-

When it is slyly suggested by the
venerable,
Mr. Punch that, if we cannot prevent the rise ;-
Tallow consequent upon the war with
Russia, at
any rate we can keep down Greece—it is earnestly
to be koped that there is at least as much reason
as humour in the innocent little joke of our con-
temporary. Besides the powerful maritime arma-
ments now in the Black Sea, under the combined
authority of Admirals DITNDAS and HAMELIN, and
the mighty fleet gathering together in the Baltic,
under the allied flags of Admirals NAPIER and
DESCHENES, there are at present no less than four-
teen of the war vessels of France in the Greek
-waters, under the command of Admiral LE BAR-
nIER DE TlNAN—nine of them steamers—ready
at once to awe the Athenian Government into
submission, while ostensibly ordered into that
part of the Levant with a view to the
suppression of piracy in the Archipelago.
Whenever France and England, therefore, may
be disposed to proceed resolutely against the
Hellenic friends of the AUTOCRAT, there, imme-
diately on the spot, are the means for their ener-
getic interference, Always before our own Cabi-
net from first to last in the carrying out of war-
like manifestations against Russia, the Ministry of
our neighNtir has already, it would

ern, ilegrotcheil a sliffic•ifmt military force to the
Pira3us, with au eye to its active co-operation with
the naval force already in its vicinity. In other
words, and to speak directly to the point, accounts,
dated from Valetta up to the 22d instant inclu-
sively, announce the departure from Malta of the
division under General FOREY to occupy Athens,
and, of course, to put an end thereby to the late
mendacious proceedings of the Greek Govern-
ment. It is well. Time enough that a step of
this bold and resolute kind should be taken
either by France, or by England, or by both
together. Time enough that that atrocious con-
spiracy engendered by Russian intrigue in the
Morea, and fostered by the influential complicity
of OTHO and AMELIA with its lawless fomenters,
should be crushed out entirely—and this by a
vigorous blow aimed directly at the arch conspi-
rators at Athens, instead of by a blow struck at
their scattered agents in Epirus, and Thessaly, and
Macedonia.

There assuredly needs no additional justifica-
tion for this course on the part of the - Cabinet
either of ST. JAMES'S or of the Tuileries. The
heinous guilt of the Court of Athens in
affording open encouragement to the sangui-
nary rebels who have desolated the South-
Western frontiers of Turkey, has long since
been proclaimed in the British House of
Commons by Lord JOHN RUSSELL. A similar
accusation has been directed against the holders
of the Greek sovereignty, through the columns of
the Moniteur, by the French Imperial Govern-
ment. Documentary evidence, demonstrating the
justice of the charge, has long been preparing,
has long been promised by our own Administra-
tion. The Hon. Gentleman the member for
Manchester, who has, from some eccentric
principles of magnanimity altogether incompre-
hensible to ourselves, taken upon himself
the vindication of the Greek character (!), has
asked again and again for the forthcoming blue-
book, to the present moment in vain, until the
reiteration of his inquiries upon the subject have
come at last to assume the aspect of the ludicrous.
Possibly for some reason as unaccountable as the
chivalrous bearing of Mr. BRIGHT in behalf of
that degraded race, the members of which have
contrived to associate so much infamy with their
title either as Modern Greeks or simply as Levan-
ters—th e blue-book may be adroitly withheld until
its publication has become utterly useless and
unnecessary, and then Sir JAMES GRAIL A XI, or
some other Minister of the Crown, may rise in
his place in Parliament and tell the House there
is no necessity to potter over the pages of the
azure volume, throwing out a taunt, if they should
happen to do so, against the Leaders of her MA-
JEsTy's Opposition. Altogether, the delays and de-
lays which have for some while past been obvious no
less at the official printers than at the Horse Guards,
or even in the camp at Scutari and Gallipoli, have
been—it is useless attempting to deny it—as
systematic, apparently, as they have, without
doubt, been disastrous and unsatisfactory. Pa-
tience, indeed, is the virtue most frequently called
into requisition of late by the contest with Russia,
and its many deplorable consequences. If it is
destined yet further to be exercised by the ob-
durate procrastinations of the English Ministry,
in regard to the still-eagerly expected blue-book
about Greece, it is earnestly to be hoped that
the anxiety very naturally felt, both in France
and in England, for some time past, in reference
to the continued impunity enjoyed by the
Athenian conspirators may be closed by the
energetic proceedings which may now be speedily
anticipated at once by the arrival in the vicinity
of the Greek capital of the division under General
FORE; and the squadron under Admiral DE
T INAN.

The Income Tax Bill last night passed through
committee, if not sub silentio, at least without any
serious attempt at opposition. It is true that
Sir H. WILLOUGHBY interrogated the Chancellor
of the Exchequer as to whether he had entirely
abandoned the hope of removing some of the
glaring inequalities of the tax. The Honour-
able Baronet Lriefly inutuxuand the unf.wir aarttt par
tial operation of the impost on Long Annuities,
which were taxed more than six times as much
as Consols, in proportion to their actual value.
It scarcely, however, required the rising of the
Financial Minister to indicate the nature of the
answer. It might be learned from the careless
and indifferent aspect of the House, from the
apathy which reigned on every side, and which
could not be shaken off. Mr. GLADSTONE himself
alluded to the not very creditable circumstance.
He spoke of a question of great difficulty being
introduced " at a moment when one-tenth of the
members were not in the House, and when one-1
tenth of those present were attending to other
subjects! " This was the scene so graphi-
cally depicted by the Right Honourable Gen-
tleman, while a charge amounting to more than
six and a half millions of pounds sterling per

annum was about to be fixed on the back of that

patient animal JOHN BULL for an indefinite
period. This was the mode in which the fiscal
and financial reformers exhibited their interest in
a question of vital importance to the industrious
middle classes—to those struggling to maintain
a position which they must now relinquish, and
who were obliged to submit to many serious pri-
vations in striving to carry out that object.
The argument in favour of the equal taxa-
tion of 11. Long Annuities worth 41. 11s. 3d.,
and 11. Consolidated Annuities worth 301.,
was of the kind generally resorted to by the
advocates for the equal taxation of all kinds of
income, without reference to the sources from

whence they may arise. It was impossible vto
deny the glaring inequality of such a charge—to
assert that in the one instance capital was not
taxed, while it avowedly escaped free in the other.
Dipet defence was clearly impracticable. The

, logical reply then was, that even Long Annuities
did not supply by any means the strongest in-
stance of discrepancy between the cases of
persons in the enjoyment of temporary and
permanent incomes. The Right Honourable
Gentleman was virtuously indignant at the
notion of being required to redress one
grievance without administering equal justice to
all. "Nothing," he said, "could be more irra-
tional than to say that he would select one class
of persons having a temporary interest, and give
allowance to them, and leave every other class of
persons having a temporary interest to the full
sweep and stroke of the tax 1"
This snubbing of the unlucky Baronet—the
only one, by the way, who had the manliness and
consistency to stand forward—had its anticipated
effect, and the bill went through committee with-
out a single amendment being pressed to a divi-
sion or even brought forward. It is true
that the veteran member for Montrose offered
some slight apology for his daring coadjutor, ex-
pressing an opinion that the irregularity com-
plained of might easily be rectified, regretting
that the facts so clearly brought out before the
Income Tax Committee had not been better
weighed and acted upon, and declaring that " the
time had arrived when these questions of adjust-
ment ought to be seriously considered."
These milk-and-water protests had, however,
but little effect, when the citadel—which might
so easily have been defended by a handful of
energetic and *determined men—was thus delibe-
rately abandoned. When the enemy was permitted
to fortify
and garrison the stronghold, it was
absurd to speak of
attempting to reconstruct the
edifice next session
orane3rrs flti:t.tuire session. It is
now virtually, and in a few weeks will be actually,
fastened on our should
to
shake
offi
sth
the
cannot be disturbed. Until the a tenacity that
of pri April ntehxatt,
until after the ratification of
peace, we cannot hope permanentincubus
treaty of
will paralyse the efforts of industry, and embitter
the feelings of every person
whose scantily-.
requited exertions are taxed as heavily as
the dividends of the fundholder or the chiefs
rents of the owner of real estate. "Put not your
faith in princes," is a time-honoured apophthegm,
the validity and accuracy whereof has received
new illustrations in every age. "Put not your
faith in professing patriots" is one of equal
truth, and, we regret to say, has been established
by equally incontrovertible testimony.
If the different members of the Rouse of Com-

mons acre ati:werinfr interrognt-,ri,:ss on flio
crcod, ho,;-
would -venture to defend Iho equal taxation
of all kinds of income ? Few, indeed, would
dare to do so. Indeed, we have the
confession of Mr. GLADSTONE that it was " the
wish and intention of a large majority that the
tax should not be renewed except on the condi-
tion of reconstructing it !" Where, then, was that
" large majority ?" Where did the Hon. Gentle-
men conceal themselves while the matter respect-
ing which they entertained so unequivocal a desire
was discussed, if discussion it could be called ?
Where were nine-tenths of the members of the
representative branch of the Legislature who
absented themselves from the House on the
occasion And what was the topic that so
strongly attracted the attention of nine-tenths of
the one-tenth present as to prevent them from
taking any notice of what was going forward ?
These are questions to which the several consti-
tuencies will require answers—clear, distinct, and
unequivocal answers. These are points which
will enable the electors throughout the Kingdom
to form some estimate as to the amount of confi-
dence they may bestow on the candidates for
their "most sweet voices." If persons who
tacitly connive at injustice are almost as much to
be blamed as the actual perpetrators, what can
be said of those who have thus wantonly-disregarded
their clearly-expressed opinions, and sacrificed
the interests which they were elected to defend.
We were about to recommend every fiscal and
financial reformer to obtain a list of the absentees
on the occasion, until we recollected that it would
be impossible to do so, as.no division was taken.
There are, however, but few exceptions—all are
" tarred with the same brush," and the nation
has had another practical instance of the wide dis-
tinction between hustings " sayings" and legisla-
tive "doings," that should be treasured deep in the
memory of every man entrusted with the elective
franchise.