The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-25 00:00:00

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I,ONUON, TUESDAY, DECEIBER 25, 1849.

There is something exhilarating in the very
thought of Christmas. Coming as it does in the
wintry season of the year, accompanied with falling
snow and piercing cold, it yet is in itself so cheering
and so genial that its very mention warms the heart.
There are few Scrooges amongst us (happily for us
all), there are few even of the most matter-of-fact
and worldly who are wholly insensible to the " com-
pliments of the season." And it is well that it is so.
It is well that now and then we should pause in our
tumultuous career, and yield to that touch of nature
which makes the whole world kin. Let us hope that
the substance corresponds with the semblance, end
that the very general festivities which celebrate
Christmas-day are only a token of the general
prevalence of Christmas feelings. Otherwise our
congratulations are but lip-homage, and our mirth a
mockery. What avails it that we keep the holiday
if its significance be unheeded ? and no holiday is so
significant as this one. This day commemorates the
birth of ONE whose life and death were one long act
of charity, and who fixed, as the distinguishing mark
of his disciples, that they should "love one. another."
Therefore it is in vain that we deck our hearths with
blooming evergreens, and load our tables with con-
ventional cheer—we do not keep Christmas unless
we keep it in a right Christmas spirit—such a
spirit as prompts every one to think kindly
of his neighbour, reconciles quarrels, checks the
angry retort, and with a soft answer turns away
wrath—such a spirit as induces one to give the
beggar a sixpence instead of a copper " because it 15
Christmas-day." It may seem out of place to dwell on
these minor moralities, but all who rightly scrutinize
the complicated fabric of society will find that such
trifles indeed make the sum of human things. It
each individual amongst us would zealously perform
his own peculiar part, and do all the good in his
own power, the world would be somewhat different
from what it is, and Christmas time would not be
annual but perennial. Life is compounded of sweets
and bitters, and they who complain of the pre-
ponderance of the latter have too often
only to blame their own ambitious or ire-
pgient spirit. Still there are in this world
some sorrows and sufferings almost beyond the power
of humanity to sustain, and these call into action
Christian sympathy and Christmas charity. Yester-
day we had occasion to congratulate the public on
the timely demonstration of these sentiments as
evidenced by the large sum already subscribed to the
newly-established Emigrant Fund. The series of
articles which are appearing in the Morning Chronicle,
and deservedly exciting such general interest, also
afford another felicitous sign of the times, and at an
appropriate moment. If ever the distinctions of rank
and lowliness, of riches and poverty, should be for-
gotten, it is at a time which reminds us that
once the LORD of rich and poor, of heaven and
earth, had not where to lay his head save in a
cattle-shed. Our conventional distinctions sink to
insignificance at the remembrance. We are, al
alike, but passing actors on a limited stage, and so
that we perform our part well, it matters little
whether that part be lord or commoner, master or
servant.

" Honour and shame from no coadition rise,"
and therefore they should be especially applied to no
situation whatever. These practical adaptations of
- fraternity and equality, taken rather in a social than
in a political sense, are fit matters for consideration
on the present occasion. This is a day of rejoicing,
it is true—our annual jubilee. Parted friends
meet with gladness, and estranged relatives exchange
the grasp of sympathy. Children cluster joyously
round the paternal hearth, and old faces once more ,
wear the smiles of former days. It is, GOD be
thanked, a day of joy; and yet to those who think
rightly it comes with a chastening sense of responsi-
bility incurred. Christmas leaves its mission un-
fulfilled if it fails in humbling the spirit which it
gladdens—if it fails in opening the heart to sympa-
thise and impelling the hand to suclour—if it fails in
cementing the brotherhood of man while it recals the
human existence of Divinity. Let it not so fail with
us. Never before have the children of ADAM had
greater need of mutual sympathy and mutual succour.
May the influence of the season be evidenced in good
fruits, and it will be gratuitous for us to wish each
other a merry Christmas or a happy New Year.

We have already briefly alluded to the unbecoming
tone assumed by Mr. COBDEN at Leeds, in reference
not only to his steadfast and inveterate opponents,
the Protectionists, but also to his faithful and un-
flinching-allies, the Irish representatives, who aided him
through good report and through evil report, and who
were mainly instrumental in achieving the triumphant
victory on which he so justly prides himself. Like
many others, however, Mr. COBDEN has suffered his
mind to become unduly elated at the extraordinary

success that has heretofore attended his exertions.
He arrogates to himself the entire glory of recent
reforms. He abandons the weapons so nobly wielded
in the former contest, and has assumed the arms of
his defeated foes. He becomes more arbitrary and
despotic even than despots themselves. He would
stifle the voice of free opinion, if it should happen to be
opposed to his own peculiar views. He fulminates
pains and penalties against all those who array them-
selves under any other banner than his own. His
motto is no longer, "Justice and Equality, Liberty
and Freedom to the conquered as well as the con-
querors." " Ice victis" is now his cry ; and not
even the sanguinary HAYNAU, the blood-thirsty
myrmidon of the Red Emperor, the woman-flogger,
could adopt more energetic measures to suppress any
attempt to change the existing state of affairs. The
agriculturists and other owners of real property
must not dare to murmur, because the entire burden
of the poor-rates is cast upon their shoulders ; or
attempt to agitate for a more equitable system—and
1 why ? His answer is, first, " because thwe burdens
have been borne by the real property of the country
1 from two to three centuries at the least." The evil
must not, then, be remedied—the grievance mu et
be maintained with even increased rigour, because it
has become "an aged vice, a grey iniquity." Is
this an argument that Mr. COBDBN would treat with
I much indulgence if proceeding from the hostile camp ?
Would he acknowledge its weight and authority if
ladduced against any of his own favourite proposi-
-1 tions ? No man would expose its folly and absurdity
with more powerful effect, or cast ridicule more
I freely upon its propounders. And yet he now adopts
i it, and thus places powerful weapons in the hands of
I the advocates of " fieality." Is it because personal
property has hitherto been exempted from its just
liebilities, and because the owners thereof have been
enabled to shift the responsibility from their
own shoulders to those of their neighbours
' for so long a period because fraud
and chicanery was triumphant for two
or three centuries, that it is always to continue in a
similar position ? No man knows better than Mr.
COBDEN, that according to the spirit of the law,
and the true intent and meaning of the Legislature,
personal property was assessible to poor-rates as well
as real property, and that it was owing merely to
the difficulty of enforcing the claim, and not to any
just grounds of exemption, that it has hitherto evaded
the responsibility ; nay, an annual Act of the
„ Legislature is necessary to free one description of
gods and chattels, namely, stock in trade, from the
demands of the poor-rate collectors, which may be
omitted any session of Parliament.

Such, then, is his first answer, which he conceives
"to be sufficient." But he has another, and we regret
to say, one not a particle better or more equitable
than his first resporke. He says, " the poor have the
best sight of subsistence from the land, and there
is no other security but the land itself! Other kinds
of property may take wings and fly away! ! Moveable
property has very often been known to flit, the day
before the quarter day !! ! Capital employed in trade
may be lost in an unsuccessful venture in China—
wages sometimes disappear altogether, and therefore
the real and true security to which the people of this
country should look is in the soil itsey !!! !" And are
such the arguments with which RICHARD CODDEA,
the plain, practical, argumentative RICHARD
COBDEN, addresses a reasoning people ? Is this
really the man who has been called " the
Apostle of Free-trade," or a rampant Pro-
tectionist, chaunting the supremacy of the " ter-
ritorial aristocracy," and asserting that all other
;lasses are essentially and necessarily inferior to the
lords of the soil ! We can scarcely believe our ears.
Surely if personal property be of such a character,
,o fleeting and evanescent in its nature that it cannot
be made the subject of taxation, but that the entire
fiscal burdens of the country should be borne by the
landlords, the same parties—on the ancient and well-
approved principle that taxation and representation
should go hand in hand and be intimately connected
together—should have a paramount voice in the go-
vernment of the country and should be allowed to regu-
late the expenditure for which they alone were bound
to provide. Such arguments, Mr. COBDEN, will not
iuit the advanced intelligence of the age. It was not
by such reasoning that the doctrines of free trade
' were sustained until they gained a complete ascen-
iancy over the public mind. As one of the earliest
ind most disinterested supporters of these principles,
is one who from the very beginning of the agitation
afforded an independent and honest advocacy, we
emphatically caution you against the tone you have
recently assumed, and openly tell you that great and
extraordinary as has been your elevation, no less
signal will be your downfal unless you obey the
dictates of reason and listen to the voice of justice
and of moderation.

ME FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
The Constitutionnel announces the arrival in Paris
if M. DE RISWICK, Envoy Extraordinary from the
King of the SANDWICH ISLANDS. M. DE RISWICII
is a native of Baden, and has been for twelve years
past in the service of the King of the SANDWICH
ISLANDS. His mission is connected with the late
events which have occurred at Honolulu, and he is
instructed to make formal complaint of the conduct of
the French Consul, M. DILLON, in that affair..
The Moniteur publishes the following announce-
ment of the reduction of the interest on the Bons du
Tresor of the Republic :
"By a decision of this day's date. the Minister of the
Finances has reduced, commencing from to-morrow, the
24th of December, the interest of the Bons du Tresor,
to wit:—To 3 per cent. per annum for the Bons having
prom three to five months to run; to 4 per cent. per
annum for the Bons having from six to eleven months
to run; to 5 per cent. per annum for Bons of one year."
The person who has won the silver statue, worth
25,000% in the Artists' Lottery, which has been just
drawn, is a M. LotvltlEß, of Paris, formerly a Go-
vernment contractor.

Prince CALLIMARI, the Turkish ambassador, gave
4 brilliant fete on Friday evening, at which the elite
of the society of Paris were present. The diplomatic
corps, several of the Ministers, the President of the
Assembly, and a number of representatives, were to
he seen on this occasion in his Excellency's salons.
Prince CZ ARTORISKY and Count TELEKI were also
present.
The Union having a few days since quoted from
the Constantinople correspondence ofa London journal
a statement to the effect, that on the ex-Ambassador, the
Baron DE:BOURQUENEY, quittingtheTurkish capital,the
SULTAN expressed his regret at his departure, and told
him that if he should not wish to remain in France
he would always find a welcome at Constantinople, at
the same time giving him a sum of money equal to
5,0001., and a magnificent present of die monds.—M
DE BOURQUENEY has addressed a letter to the above
journal, contradicting the statement of the English
correspondent. "It is true," he says, " that on
leaving Constantinople the SULTAN expressed himself
in the kindest manner towards me, and his last words
will ever be deeply engraven on my memory, but he
would no more have thought of offering me a sum of
money than I should of accepting it."
The 41Ioniteur publishes a long list of "Errors of
the Press," being a series of unfounded rumours on
the subject of the PRESIDENT and the Government,
which have been circulated by the journals of Paris
within the last few days, and to the whole of which the
ilioniteur gives oftl dally the most formal contradic
tion. Among the rumours thus officially contradicted
is the revival of the report of the resignation of M.
FERDINAND BARROT, and the appointment of M.
LEON FAucuax as Minister of the Interior which
we characterised as totally unworthy of credit when
it first appeared in the Paris journals.

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK-EXCHANGE, DEc. 24.

Boulogne and Amiens, B—Central of France ( Orleans and
Pierson), 13—Luxembourg, 2—Northern of France, 1743 dig.
—Orleans and Bordeaux, 3X—Rouen and Havre, 9;i—
Sambre and Meuse, 2 t .

SPAIN.

Madrid journals of the 18:11 have arrived.

The following appears in the Garda:—
" Foreign Office.—Her Majesty's Ambassador in
Paris, under date of the sth inst., reports that in that
capital official information had been received :of the
decease of the Queen Adelaide, widow of William IV,
of Great Britain, and aunt to her Majesty Queen Vic-
toria. Her Majesty the Queen, our Sovereign, has
under these circumstances been graciously pleased to
command that the Court go into mourning for twenty-
one rla3s ; eleven deep mourning, and ten light, com-
mencing on the 17th."
MADRID BOLSA, DEC. 18.—The Three per Cents.
30 15-16 for account; Five per Cents., 13 paper.
Exchange on London, 50 35.

OFFICIAL REDUCTIONS.—A Lord of the Treasury
and the Assistant Secretary to the Treasury, Sir
Charles Trevelyan, are about to be .ppointed as
members of a committee, for the purpose of further
revising the public departments, with the view of
effecting reforms or reductions.