The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-11 00:00:00

THIS EVENING, OCT. 11,

And during the week, will be presented (the 26th time) the New
Classical Burlesque, entitled JUPITER'S DECREE, AND TUE
FALL OF PHATON; or, THE FIERY COURSERS OF THE SUN,
supported by the entire strength of the Company.
New and original Scenes in the Circle, introducing Signor CAR
LO and Signor FRANCOIS.

Concluding with (101st time) THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO.
Box-office open from Eleven till Four. Stage Manager, Er. W
West,

DAILY WEATHER TABLE.

TUESDAY, OCT. 11, 1853.

State of the wind and weather at each of the following
places at nine o'clock yesterday morning. The stations Al k
arranged in order of latitude.
SO UT HAMPTON-- N., gentle breeze—overcast.
TUNBRIDGE—N., gentle breeze—overcast.
STRoon--N.W., calm—overcast.
Sw D 0 N—N.E., light airs—foggy.
Cam MUD GE—eahn —cloudy.
YARMOUTH—N.E., gentle breeze—overcast.

The returns from the following places indicate the state
of the weather on Saturday morning at nine o'clock :
LIMERICK—N., calm—cloudless.
MULLINGAR—S., calm—foggy.
FOLKESTONE—S., calm—partially cloudy.
TUNBRIDGE—E., calm—partially cloudy.
STROOD—S., calm—partially cloudy.
SWINDON—N.W., light airs—foggy.
CAMBRIDGE—S., rain.
YAnmouTH—S.E., strong breeze--partially cloudy.
BIRMINGHAM—S.W., calna—foggy.
LANCASTER—S., calm—cloudless.
HOLYHEAD—S.W., gentle breeze—partially cloudy.
WHlTBY—calm—rain.
DARLINGTON—E., gentle breeze—partially cloudy.
SHAY—S., calm—overcast.

11 (la WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tan DAI —Morning 22 min.after 8 1 Evening 11 :ain.l.rt. 9
To • .oitrtow —Morning 0 min.after 10 Evening 47 rui,i.an. 10

Tfi 1,1 WEATHER.-SUN OFFICE, OCT. 11.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
60—highest since noon yesterday.
52--lowest this morning and during the tight.
56—this day at noon.

BAROMETER, 29'78.
WIND, Easterly—dull weather.

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1111

LONDON, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1853

THE QUARTER'S REVENUE.

The Revenue Returns for the Year and Quarter,
ending the 10th October instant, are once more
before the public. They still maintain the favour-
able appearance which we have noticed with so
much pleasure on former occasions, proving, be-
yond the possibility of doubt, the wonderful elas-
ticity of the national resources and the efficacy- of
the Free Trade policy, which has now been su 1)-
jected to so many stringent tests, and on every
occasion with the most auspicious results. Never,
perhaps, has there been a more complete and sig-
nal triumph than that which has attended the
great fiscal experiment, under so many different
phases, and with such varying circumstances.
We have found that a reduction of indirect taxa-
tion is almost invariably followed by such an in-
crease of consumption, that there is frequently
rather an improvement than a diminution of
Revenue arising from that particular item.
But this is not all. It is even found that
the total repeal of a particular impost, for
which it would seem to the superficial ob-
server that no equivalent could be found, does
not lead to a permanent loss, the money saved
being applied in the purchase of other taxable
commodities, and thus finding its way, albeit by
rather a circuitous route, to the National Ex-
chequer.

We do not remember ever to have witnessed
more favourable returns, not even those of July
last, of which we have already spoken in high
terms. And what is the more remarkable is, that
it should so closely follow one so extraordinary
in every particular as that to which we have just
referred. All the fiscal boons, whether those
freely granted by the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, or those wrung from his unwilling hands
by the pertinacity of financial reformers, have, it
appears, not only led to no losses whatsoever,
but have been attended by very considerable
gains under almost every different head, evea
those that have been most largely interfered with.
We find, then, a large increase in the available
revenue of the year and quarter—on the former
of no less than 2,311,7521., of which 1,559,864/.
arises from the ordinary branches of revenue ;
and on the latter of 417,7271., of which 226,7541.
is from the permanent items which may be fairly
looked forward to in future years. These simple
figures speak more conclusively in favour of the
general prosperity than all the arguments that
could be adduced by the most brilliant orator ;
and the satisfaction excited at first sight will not
be deteriorated by a close examination of the de-
tails of which the sums total are composed.
First, then, we find under the head " Customs,"
which indicates the condition of our foreign trade
and dealings with other lands, there is an increase
of 361,5191. on the year, and of 120,6671. on
the quarter ; and this, be it remembered, not-
withstanding the diminution of the duties on tea
and sugar, and other articles which have recently
come into operation.

The " Excise" return,s--the indices of the
amount of comfort enjoyed by the working popu-
lation of the country—are no less favourable.
The improvement on the year is even greater
than the Customs, it being no leas than 372,768/.
The quarter only exhibits a trifling improvement
of 5,4741. ; but when we consider that the duties
on soap, which have been totally repealed, pro-
duced no less than 1,200,000/, per annum, we
have abundant cause for self-gratulation at find-
ing that there has not been a serious deficiency in
Place of a trifling improvement. It must be
borne in mind, too, that the revenue has not, in
the first place'' had time to recover the total aboli-
tion of an item so very productive; and, secondly,
that the increase of price of tallow, in consequenct:
of the unsettled state of the Eastern question, has
prevented consumers from experiencing the benefit
.f the repeal of the duty. The full improvement,
then, may be estimated at no less than 300,0001.
on the quarter, and 675,000/. on the year ; and
yet we find the working classes rebelling against
a state of affairs that has been productive of such
auspicious results. We have indisputable evi-
dence in the Excise returns that they have been
in the enjoyment not merely of the necessaries of
life, but of many unwonted comforts ; and yet
they are striking for an advance of wages, and,
with strange fatuity, endeavouring to cut off the
sources of employment by which they have been
enabled to accomplish the enjoyment of so many
humble luxuries.

In " Stamps" there is also an improvement oil
both periods—the year showing an advance of

476,3721., and the quarter of 98,7421. On this
point we must take into consideration the fact,
that there was a nearly similar addition to the
receipts this time last year when com-
pared with the corresponding quarter of 1851.
We must also recollect that several reductions
have been coming into operation just now, and
that, consequently, stocks have been materially
reduced, and yet we still find the large improve-
ment above referred to.

In " Taxes" there is an improvement on the
year of 27,1591., but a falling off on the quarter
of 29,9961. The Property Tax, however, shows
an increase of 204,191/. on the year (equivalent
to an addition of nearly seven millions to the in-
comes of the industrious middle classes, for these
are the only incomes that fluctuate materially),
and of 24,4671. on the quarter. The changes in
the area of taxation have not yet come into prac-
tical operation, as no money has as yet been col-
lected from persons having incomes amounting to
1001., and less than 1501.
Of the other items it is sufficient to say that
the " Post-office" shows an increase of 45,0001.
on the year, but a falling off of 25,000/. on the
quarter. The " Crown Lands " an advance of
182,8881. on the year, and of 10,0001. on the
quarter ; and the " Miscellaneous," of 22,4001.
on the quarter, but a falling off (the only one in
all the items), on the year, of 110,033/.
So much for the ordinary branches. On the ;
extraordinary there is an increase, on the year, of
133,8801., but a diminution, on the quarter, of
16,2391., while the repayments of advances show
that the general prosperity has enabled the pub-
lic debtors to exhibit much greater punctuality
than heretofore, the addition to the payments
being for the year 618,0081., and for the quarter
207,2121.

We heartily congratulate our friends on this
very favourable state of things. We only trust
that it may be continued, and that the working
classes may not have themselves to blame for any
diminution in the consumption of Exciseable
commodities that may reduce the receipts under
that important item in the national balance-
sheet. We know not how the alarmists will
attempt to get over such an imposing array of
figures, or venture to assail the public credit of
a State based upon such solid foundations.

We wrote a few days ago on the assumption,
justified by the information which had then ar-
rived, that Miss CUNNINGHAME had distributed
the tracts and Bibles in conscious and somewhat
ostentatious defiance of the Tuscan law. We are
most happy to recal this assumption on the expli-
cit assurance of our countrywoman, that she was
at the time entirely ignorant of the law ; an as-
' sertion which we could most thoroughly credit in
the face of all the police lies or witnesses which
can be furnished from Tuscany. Moreover, it is
corroborated by the fact, that the new penal code
for Tuscany only came into operation on the first
of last mouth ; and that it is under this code that
Protestantism is made for the first time a felony.
It appears also that the edict itself is not
only very recent, and, therefore, presumably
unknown to a foreigner, but that it is even of
doubtful validity. The DUKE had given his sub-
jects a constitution including a certain measure of
religious liberty, and this edict is in direct viola-
tion of it. To be sure petty continental despots
following their greater brethren, have been ready
enough in recalling constitutions they had granted.
It would seem, however, that the Duke has issued
an edict which alters a former solemn charter,
without the important form of previously abro-
gating the more liberal enactment. All this,
however, must be left to the lawyers. We stand
firmly on the ground that England will never suf-
fer a subject, and a female too, to be imprisoned
for unconssiously violating the newly-promulgated
law of a foreign country. The Earl of ABER-
DEEN is a fellow-countryman, and, we pre-
sume, a co-religionist of Miss CIINNINGRAME,
and much as he may sympathise with Continental
Autocrats, he is doubtless Scotchman enough to
protect a Presbyterian lady guilty only of not
knowing the extent of Grand-ducal intolerance.
We can hardly doubt that he will concur heartily
with the Foreign Secretary in such "official repre-
sentations" as will be potent enough with a despot
whose subjects would fling him into the sea at
half a word of encouragement from us.
While, however, we assume that England will
never submit to months of negotiations for the
liberation of one of her daughters, whom she
knows to be most unrighteously imprisoned, we
by no means recal our censure of many censurers
of the DUICE. No terms would be too strong to
express our indignation at his persecuting
enactments. They are a disgrace to Christianity ;
they are undoubtedly, as Lord CLARENDON says,
" opposed to the spirit of the Gospel," but we
wish we could add with him " opposed to the
spirit of the age." The spirit of the age is still
for Governments to have pretty much their own
way in matters of religion. It is so with little
exception from Petersburgh to Madrid, and our
own " enlightened and free country" furnishes,
after all, but an inconsistent exception to the rule.
The Duke could point out to an Irish Church
here, a very small minority, subsisting entirely on
the spoils of Catholics. He could remind us that
an arbitrary Monarch, throughout a very long
reign, deterred some of the ablest and most
powerful ministers England ever saw from
bringing forward any measure of Catholic
emancipation. He could tell us of declara-
tions required from Catholic Members of Par-
liament and Dissenting Municipal Councillors,
" that they would not injure the Church as by
law established." He could, if he carefully rum-
maged our Church laws, find that most unrighteous
powers of oppression still remained in the hands
of English Bishops, but that they are simply
afraid to use them. We once asked an intelligent
Dissenting solialtor to tell us the legal disadvan-
tages of Dissenters ; he mentioned several more
obvious ones, but assured us that it was quite a
study to ascertain what might and what might
not be done to Nonconformists. One recent
fact is very striking, as exemplifying the
Tuscan temper of the English hierarchy. When
Lord LYNDHURST brought in his noble bill
to relieve Dissenters from the consequences
of many old acts, he dared not for fear of the
bishops repeal the Acts themselves ; it would have
endangered his bill ; the penalties only were re-
pealed, and Dissenters left, consequently, liable to
prosecution for contravening the acts themselves,
which, it is said, would amount legally to a mis-
demeanour. Even Spain could point to Church
laws (and Church clergymen too) which refuse
Christian burial in the parish churchyards to the
child of a Baptist or a Quaker ; and not only do
Acts of Parliament give all their good things, even
to the chaplaincy of a gaol or a workhouse, to the
dominant sect, but only the other day the sup-
posed liberal Corporation of London, by a majo-
rity of 35 to 2'7, prohibited the most qualified
Dissenter from being Master of its ORPHAN
SCHOOL. But we forbear to multiply illustra-
tions. We do not write these things to extenuate
Tuscan intolerance, but to remind many how
much they need to clear their own vision while
they are taking others to task. Religious Liberty
is but ill understood in England itself.

Every day's intelligence affords additional con-
firmation of the melancholy fact, that violent and
aggravated assaults against the person, more espe-
cially of women, are on the increase, and that the
Act of last session, notwithstanding its stringent
provisions, is utterly inadequate to meet the exi-
gencies of the case. Not a single journal is pub-
lished in which we do not read of some miscreant
being brought to the bar to answer for severe
injuries inflicted on one of the weaker sex, gene-
rally a wife or mistress, without any provocation
whatsoever, and under circumstances exhibiting a
degree of brutality that could scarcely be credited,
if they had not been proved beyond the possi-
bility of doubt. It seems too as if the depraved
taste for women-beating did not arise very sud-
denly, that it requires careful development and
cultivation. In almost every instance the first
part of the statement refers to a long course of
habitual ill-usage by the prisoner against his unfor-
tunate victim. We can trace the rise and progress
of the praotioe—fostered by a long course of imp

punity—until at length all bounds are disre-
garded, and the wretch proceeds to such extremi-
ties that forgiveness or forbearance is no longer
possible, and he is called on to answer before a
legal tribunal and to receive some punishment,
however inadequate, for his offences. It some-
' times happens that this partial vindication of the
law is too long deferred, that the violence has
attained a pitch that ends fatally to the victim,
and makes the assailant responsible for the
highest crime known to the law. In these
cases, several of which have recently occurred,
we find the same invariable principle—that
the practice had grown up by degrees—had
increased gradually but steadily, and that it would
have been a mercy to all parties concerned had
the offender been called to an earlier account, and
ehown that the law affords some protection to
females. The accuracy of the ancient apophthegm
"nerno repente fuit turpissimus" is established
beyond the possibility of dispute. The most
sceptical must have his doubts removed by a
perusal of some of the sickening details of a few
of these horrible and disgusting narratives. It is
not necessary to be careful in the selection—they
all exhibit a painful similarity in the leading
features. It is not necessary to go far back—one
or two days will be amply sufficient to furnish
suitable illustrations. Nor are we tied down to
a single locality. The record of the Police Courts
in any of the larger towns of England, Ireland, or
Scotland, will afford abundant materials for con-
sideration.

From the proceedings at the Glasgow Autumn
Circuit Court we find two cases where the parties
have been sentenced to perpetual banishment—the
one for attempting to murder his wife by cutting
her throat with a razor while tranquilly sleeping
by the side of her would-be assassin, with their
child sleeping between them—the other for murder-
ing a kind-hearted individual who had interfered
on behalf of the wife, and for the time being suc-
cessfully—a courageous and vigorous man being
seldom encountered by one of these cowardly,
ruffians. The moment, however, when, supposing
he had quelled the disturbance, his back was
turned, in the act of leaving the room, the trucu-
lent scoundrel, whose malice he had foiled, seized
a heavy iron fender, and with it struck a terrific
blow that fractured the skull of the unfortunate
peacemaker, who shortly afterwards died from the
injury. In this case seven of the jury were in
favour of finding a verdict of wilful murder ; and
it was only by a majority of one (?) or by eight to
seven (for the verdict of the majority is received
at the other side of the Tweed) that the assassin
escaped the extreme penalty of the law for his
atrocious ostrage.
It is quite certain from these and many other
instances, that the existing law is totally inade-
quate to remove this fearful blot upon the na-
tional escutcheon —even where it is fully and
fairly carried into operation, as we rejoice to say
it is, with some few exceptions. In the city,
however, " under the shadow of the grasshopper,"
the same undue leniency of which we formerly
complained is still exhibited towards offenders,
and woman-beating is still a cheap amusement in
the district of the Mansion-house. Indeed, the
Lord Mayor appears to regard any kind of assault
as a mere ebullition of animal spirits, not requir-
ing more than a slight reproof from the civic
SOLON occupying the bench for the time being.
Last week a scoundrel, named THOMAS MAGRATH,
was brought up for assaulting his wife so violently
that she had been obliged to remain several days
in the Hospital for " lacerated wounds of the fore-
head and lip, and injury to the nose." The un-
fortunate woman did not appear, but the out-
rage was brought clearly home to her cow-
ardly assailant, who was (credat Judceus
Apella) fined twenty shillings (!), or, in default,
21 days' imprisonment. Another person who,
while drunk, had knocked down and severely in-
jured two policemen, was the same day fined 40s.
by his Lordship, which, it is almost unnecessary
to say, was paid with alacrity I
But the evil is not merely with those who re-
fuse to put the law in execution. Others who
strain it beyond its legitimate objects, and
thereby render the Legislature unwilling to
enhance powers thus abused, are no less respon-
sible. Thus we find Mr. YA BMW, on Saturday,
bringing the Act, which he acknowledged was in-
tended "to apply to the case of men who beat
women," into force for a dispute between two
women. It is this straining of the law beyond
its intended operation that prevents the additional
authority being conferred. The reason of the in-
crease of the summary jurisdiction was because
the wives were tampered with, and prevented
from coming forward, when the case was sent to
sessions or the Central Criminal Court. Mr.
YARDLEY'S only duty is to carry out the law ac-
cording to the spirit in which it was framed ; and
he occasions much mischief by endeavouring to
add the legislative to the magisterial functions.
Increased powers should be conferred on the pre-
siding Justices, but they should be exercised with
discretion, and under the vigilant supervision of a
controlling power, or the nuisance will never be
abated—the stain never removed from the Eng-
lish character.