The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-16 00:00:00

jury has yet returned its verdict of guilty against him.
Whether such a contingency is in the womb of the
future, is not for us to say. We have, however, our
opinions on the subject. At all events the Magyar
chief is no convict yet.
Assuming that the report of the Times is correct, not
only regarding the fact that arms and ammunition have
been found in a house belonging to Kossuth, but that a
large quantity has been discovered,—what then ? What
purpose did the Hungarian patriot intend to achieve by
these arms and ammunition ? Let the Times answer
that question. Despotism is unhappily not confined to
the geographical limits of Hungary. It pervades nearly
the entire Continent. Where is the evidence that the
warlike articles found•in the house referred to, were to
be applied to the overthrow of any existing Government
at all ? These are questions which must, we presume,
be answered before the ex-Governor of Hungary can be
convicted.
And then will come another question—Why, assuming
that Kossuth meant to attempt the emancipation of his
country by the arms and ammunition said to belong to
him,—why have other persons, notoriously conspiring
against foreign Governments, been allowed to escape ?
Why were not the houses of persons who, it was well
known, had been systematically plotting, for months
and years, the subversion of foreign dynasties —why
were not their houses searched for papers, if not for
arms and ammunition ? It was in 1832 clear to all, as
the noon-day sun, that a regularly organised conspiracy
was formed and carried on in this country against the
Government of Don Miguel, in Portugal, and in favour
of Don Pedro. An expedition was openly got up in
England with that view. Yet Government did not in-
terfere. The expedition started, and the objects which
it contemplated were accomplished. How did it hap-
pen that all this -was done in open day, and that the
then Government took no notice of it, while the pre-
sent Governinent can actually so far degrade itself as to
set its detective police in motion to discover conspiracies
of the existence of which the public had no idea ?
Then, again, look at the forbearance shown to the pre-
sent ruler of France when he was in this country. It
is an historical fact that he planned two expeditions in
England for the overthrow of the Orleans dynasty in
France—the one known by the name of the Boulogne
expedition, and the other by that of Strasburg. Yet,
after the escape of Louis Napoleon from his prison at
Ham, and his return to this country, he received no
molestation whatever from the police. He was not sus-
pected. though after the antecedents to which we have
referred, he very naturally might have been so.
And so, with regard to the ex-royal family of France.
Had the-British Government thought proper to keep a
watch .on the proceedings at Claremont during the time
of Louis Phillippe, there can be no question that they
would have found evidence enough of continuous con-
spiracies against the French Republic in that abode o
royal exiles. But the threshold of Claremont was never
invaded by any of Sir Richard Mayne's detectives. It
was sacred against the inquisitive intrusions of the police.
Why, then, should the unfortunate Hungarian refugee
have his every movement watched ? Why should the
spies of the Government always have their eye on him ? It
is because the exiled Magyar is one of the people, and is
the object of the special dread and aversion of the
crowned despots of the Continent.
We do not, we are sure, mistake the charactesor feel-
ing of our countrynien when we say, that intelligence of
the way in which Kossuth has been treated by the British
Government will stir every true-hearted bosom in the
land to its lowest depth. There is not a man in England
whose blood will not boil within him, and whose face
will not be crimsoned with a blush, when he is made
acquainted with-the transactions of Thursday. England
degraded to the character of an Austrian spy ! Deeper
degradation it would be impossible to imagine. There
is no lower depth than that. Further in a downward
direction it would be impossible to go. The Times libels
the people of England when-it says, " Whatever punish-
ment the law may inflict on such a misdemeanour, pub-
lic opinion will not only ratify the sentence, but increase
the rigour of it by general aversion and contempt." The
Times, in thus speaking of the English nation, not only
libels that nation, but grossly outrages all the better and
more generous qualities of theirnature ; for there is no
feature more noble or more marked in the English cha-
racter than its sympathies with the foreigner, who has
fled from the blood-thirsty tyrants of his own country,
to seek an asylum on the shores of Great Britain.
But it is not necessary that we should undertake the
vindication of our countrymen from the foul calumnies
of the Times. The people will reply to those calumnies
themselves. They did so 18 months ago in a way which
that journal will never forget, when Kossuth was syste-
matically assailed and slandered in. a manner which had
no parallel in the history of the British press. The enor•
mous fall which then took place in the circulation of
the Times was the most effective reply which could be
given to the representations made by that journal, to
the effect that the people of England approved of the
course which the Times adopted in reference to Kossuth.
After the above had been in the hands of the printer,
we received our report of the proceedings in the House
of Commons last evening. It will be seen that questions
were put to Lord Palmerston on the subject, and that
the noble lord's answers were neither dignified nor satin
factory. He would not, on the one hand, say that Kos
suth was to be held responsible for the arms and am
munition which were found in the house alluded to

neither would he acquit the Hungarian Chief. All that
the noble lord would say was, that the matter was un-
dergoing a strict investigation. We shall wait with no
small anxiety the result of the inquiry.

THE TAXES ON KNOWLEDGE:

(From the Times.)

Brevity is the soul of wit. It is also the soul of
something that partakes of the nature of wit, but is
rather more substantial, and that is business. When
men are agreed upon doing a thing, and know that it
will be done, they don't' waste many words about it ;
indeed they are afraid of talking about it, lest they should
inadvertently raise some obstacle. On Thursday night
Mr. Milner Gibson moved three resolutions, which he
affected still to treat, as he has treated, them on many
former occasions, as very much one and the same affair.
The second and third of these resolutions were stated in
language unusually argumentative, prolix, and even
rambling. They contain references of all sorts—to
public opinion, to lawsuits, to various Parlia-
mentary proceedings on other questions, and so
on. The language of the first resolution stands
in noble contrast :--" That the advertisement duty
ought to be repealed." Here is no redun-
dance—no needless allusion to the march of the human
mind, to the progress of civilisation, to the claims of phi-
lanthropy or the Court of Exchequer. There is even a
brusqueness in the expression, only one seemingly need-
less elongation —the word " ought"—of which more
anon. Now, why this strange difference ? Are not
advertisements quite as copious and suggestive a subject
as paper and stamps ? The truth is that advertisements
were the only piece of real business in the string of re-
solutions. They were the nucleus, and paper and stamps
the mere coma and tail of the comet. They had been
transacted and made safe. "As men on earnest busi
ness bent," the speakers said little enough about them,
and lavished their eloquence on the resolutions that
were not to be carried. The business part of the
affair was also put first. In the natural order
the topics would have come paper, advertise-
ments, stamps ; the material, the contents, the
circulation. This was the order observed last
year, when there was no busineis done, and no prospect
of any. The. question then lay between Mr. Milner Gib-
son and Mr. Disraeli, and the amount of understanding
they had come to upon it appears from the very uniform
fate of the three resolutions. The divisions were then as
follow :—Paper 195, against 107; advertisements 199,
against 100 ; stamp duties 181, against 116. Stamp
duties were then first horse, advertisements the last.
The latter was beaten two to one. However, towards
the end of the year, the unjust steward found it neces-
sary to make friends with the mammon of unrighteous-
ness, and opened an account with the Financial Re-
formers on advertisement duties. They have now re-
ceived him into their league, and the result is, that in-
stead of a long, adjourned debate, followed by a majority
of two to one against the repeal f the advertisement du-
ties, the affair has been settled after rather a short de-
bate in one evening, and by a division of 200 against
169, virtually in favour of their repeal. Last year only
100 could be found to vote for the measure. There is
the same roundness of figures this year, but it is exactly
double. The only difference between the two proposi-
tions respectively beaten last year and carried this is,
that, out of deference to a lingering hesitation in the
Protectionist contingent, the word " ought" has been
imported into the resolution.
After the very marked difference made by the house
in its decisions upon the three resolutions, we presume
it is almost superfluous to return to those rejected. That
on the advertisement duty is the only one likely to
be mentioned again in Parliament this year. There
can be no doubt that it is a most unfair duty, and
most unfairly assessed. The uniformity of the charge
on the advertisement of a poor scullion wanting
a place, and a nobleman wishing to sell half a
county, or a company of speculators proposing to join
two oceans and cut two continents asunder, operates
as disadvantageously for us as it does or it can do
for the advertisers. It prevents" us from charging the
smaller fry of advertisers as much as we should do, and
compels us even to refuse or, what is the same thing, to
postpone indefinitely whole pages of small advertise-
ments. Whether there will be the immense increase of
advertisements expected by Mr. Milner Gibson is a mat-
ter of speculation. He and those- who think with him
take their opinions from America, which they consider,
with some degree of truth perhaps, the future of Eng-
land. Yet there does appear an almost essential, in-

effaceable difference between the habits and tastes of. the

two countries. There, to judge from the papers, every-
body advertises everything. Indeed, there are many
dealers that advertise every article in succession, and
cannot receive a consignment of hams, or spades, or

cravats without advertising it. However, we do not
for a moment doubt that with the duty abolished there
will be much more advertising, and if it only discourages
other more offensive forms of publicity, that will be no
inconsiderable gain.

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