The Sun.
London, England, 1849-07-20 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, JULY 20, 1849.

Last evening her MAJESTY'S Government expe-
rienced a defeat upon a question of vital importance—
s question relating to the radix of administration.
Upon the introduction of his promised motion on the
present system of taxation and of public expenditure,
Mr. B.BISRY DnximmoND obtained a majority of three
in his favour out of a House of 139-68 voting for,
and 71 against the amendment introduced by Lord
ROBERT GROSVENOR. Now, taking into con-
sideration the rapid by approximating close of the
session, and the thinness of the attendance
in the Commons, we are ready, of course,
to acknowledge that the triumph, though
distinCt enough in itself, is very far from being, in
any degree, decisive. Still it is entitled to some
degree of attention from its peculiar significance,
from its being indicative of a disposition on the part
of no insignificant division of the Parliament to
require a searching revision, and ultimately a complete
re-organization of the existing mode of taxation
and expenditure.
The purport of the motion introduced by the
Honourable Gentleman the Representative of West
Surrey cannot be regarded even by the
most radical reformer of finance as in
any respect ambiguous. Its different clauses
are sufficiently explicit condemnatory of the
"amount" of taxation as larger than is actually re-
quisite for "the good and efficient government of the
"
United Kingdom," and of the mode" of taxation, as
pressing lightly on the wealthier and heavily on the
poorer portions of the population. It denounced,
moreover, in so many words the enormous sums con-
sumed " in supporting needless places, extravagant,
salaries, and unnecessary works and establishments."
Although the Honourable Gentleman disclaimed
from the outset any intention to make a direct charge
exclusively against the ruling statesmen—the evil of
which he complained having arisen many generations
before the birth of the one which witnessed their
accession to power—it was evident that, no other
attitude could be assumed by the organs of the Cabi-
net but that of the defensive. The interests of the
present are identical with those of all the preceding
Governments—these interests being the interests of
patronage, place, and emolument. It was incumbent,
therefore, upon the Right Hon. Baronet the CHAN
• cELLoa Of the EXCHEQUER to deliver precisely the
speech as that pronounced by hhn last evening, in an-
swer to tb wporsions cast Lt the policy of which his of-
ficial ri n k rendered him for the time being the advocate.
It was very far, however, from be;ng incumbent upon
the majority of the representatives present to declare
by their votes their disrelish for the ancient and pre-
vailing schemes of national taxation and public ex-
penditure.
Mr. DRUMMOND must, nevertheless, judiciously
abstain from claiming for bis arguments anything at
all approaching to the characteristic of novelty.
Those especially in which he demonstrated the

odious and glaring injustice of class legis-
lation, as instanced in the relative propor-
tion of taxes imposed upon the richer and poorer
divisions of the community, are familiar to the mul-
titude, in consequence of their endless repetition.
That the olden system of taxation was in the highest
degree unjust—that that injustice consisted princi-
pally in the exorbitant imposts inflicted upon the
labouring classes, as compared with the imposts levied
upon their superiors in wealth—that this was shown
in the tax of 10 per cent. levied on the cottons worn
by the upper classes, and the tax of 50 per cent.
levied on those cottons, which, from their
comparative cheapness, were used by the
working population—that the same monstrous ar-
rangement warshown in the duties imposed on beer,
on wine, and on leather (leather being taxed according
to the pound weight, wine being subjected to a pay-
ment of 100 per cent. ad valorem duty, and 150 per
cent. being fixed upon beer, the common beverage of
the labourer)—that this execrable and unjust system
had been bolstered up by a variety of aristocratic in-
fluence was all known well enough to the masses long
before the light of truth upon this particular dawned
upon the imagination of the Hon. Gentleman
the Member for West Surrey. Neither did it re-
main for Sir CHARLES WOOD to announce to the
people of the United Kingdoms that " the tendency
of all recent fiscal legislation was to abandon the ad
valorem system and to impose fixed duties on all
commodities." But it did remain for a majority of
the House of Commons to avow as distinctly as it
did yesterday, that the nation still regards with im-
patience the fact that the principle of taxa-
tion, by which the relative amounts have been
fixed, have not yet been entirely abandoned.
That there does exist the tendency spoken of by the
CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER no one presumes to
gainsay ; but what the population requires is, not a
tendency to reform, but reform itself. The "ten-
dency" of the reforming policy of Sir ROBERT
PEEL'S Administration was recognised in the aeries of
great innovations which gradually led to his grand
measure of 1846. The " tendency" of
,the re-
forming policy of Lord JOHN RUSSELL S Ad-
ministration is guessed at only through
the dubious atmosphere of party platitudes
and official ambiguities. In the former Government
we could recognise the development of a grand effort
for the amelioration of the industrial classes. In the
latter it is as impossible to conjecture the purpose of
the policy of the Ministers as it is to conjecture the
next pattern in the shaken beads and glass splinters
of a kaleidoscope. It is because of the miserably du-
bious position occupied by Lord JOHN RUSSELL and
his colleagues among the number of Reformers that
they occasionally find themselves, as they did last
evening, in an ignominious minority.

Besides the public meeting to be holden on Mon-
day at the London Tavern, it will be learnt with
satisfaction by those who sympathise with ourselves
in the cause of the Hungarians, that strenuous efforts
are making by a portion of our hereditary and repre-
sentative Legislators to protest against the apathetic
policy of her MAJESTY'S Government. A Memorial,
addressed to the Ministerial advisers of the SOVE-
REIGN, is now in progress of being signed by Mem-
bers of both Houses of the Imperial Parliament—
and, be sure, among those signatures the names
of the noble-hearted representatives who con-
stitute the Hungarian Committee occupy a
very conspicuous position—in which Memorial
the attention of the Ministry, is forcibly directed
to the unholy coalition between the Austrian
Imbecile and the Russian Autocrat, against the liberty
of the population, and the integrity of the dominions
of Hungary. It demands, moreover, in energetic lan-
guage that the Government shall at once clearly and
strongly express its disapprobation, if not horror, at
this unjust aggression on a people whose noble
conduct excites the sympathy of all Europe. The
public will be, moreover, interested to learn
that this able and powerful Memorial—conceived
in a spirit so generous, and conveyed in
terms so emphatic—is understood to be the produc-
tion of a very distinguished nobleman—the Earl of
FITZWILLIAM. Through the medium of this Memo-
rial, of these public meetings, and of our pecuniary
Testimonial, the people and the Parliament of Eng-
land will be enabled to declare their sympathy for
the Hungarian cause in tones loud enough to set at
defiance the repressive influence of the Government.

A paragraph will be found in another part of this
evening's impression formally contradicting the
statement that Mr. JAMES PARKER, Q C., had con-
sentA to become a candidate for the repre-
sentatio❑ of the city of London. We can-
not be in any degree surprised that such
a very silly project has been abandoned,
when we know that the requisition to Mr. PARKER,
calling upon him to stand forward on the hustings at
Guildhall as the organ of the Protectionist interests,
received only four signatures at the Queen's Head in
the Poultry ! and only five signatures in the Grand
Committee Room at the London Tavern ! Nine sup-
porters being all that the Conservative cause could
muster in a long summer's day in the heart of the
city of London! Surely, this is a new version, or
rather a travestie of the Midsummer Day's Dream.

rilE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday
The Assembly on Wednesday granted the necessary
authorization fur the prosecution of MM. CoMMIs-
SAIRE, CANTAGREL, and KaiNiG.

•
The National has the following :
" The Prince of CANINO (CHARLES BONAPARTE, the
son of LucIEN), ex-President of the _Roman Consti-
tuent Assembly, was yesterday arrested at Orleans by
order of the Ministry, just as he had arrived at that
city from Marseilles on his road to Paris. It is re-
ported that he is to be transferred to the Chateau of
Ham.

The same journal states that a serious collision,
attended with loss of life, had taken place in Corsica,
between a battalion of the Garde Mobile stationed in
that island and certain of the inhabitants, who were
offended at the language in which some of the
Gardes Mobiles had spoken of the PRESIDENT of the
Republic, their country man.
The Assevablie Nationale proposes to plant a new
colony, in which all the political exiles at present re-
siding in France shall be invited to settle.
The National Guard of Beaumont and of Aubien,
in the Auvergne, have been dissolved by a decree or
the PRESIDENT of the Republic.

The Committee to whom the demand for the pro-
rogation of the Assembly was referred has reported
in favour of that measure.
The Permanent Commission of Finance has been
definitely constituted. M. BERRYER has been named
President, and M. GoniN Vice-President. MM. DE
CRASSELOUF, LOUBAT, and BODET have been elected
secretaries.

The debate on the laws of the press is fixed for
Saturday.
M. DE ROTHSCHILD left Paris on Wednesday for
Vienna.

A clandestine manufactory of gunpowder has been
discovered at Borc Roger, in the department of the
Eure.

Letters from Toulon state that two ships of war
are being fitted out in that harbour to receive the
Lyons insurgents. The steam 'frigate Isly, of 650
horse power, is to be launched at Brest on the 19th
instant.

The Three per Cents, closed on the Paris Bourse, on
Thursday, at 53f. 30c. ; the Five per Cents. 87f. 50c.;
Orleans Railroad Shares, 777 f. 50c.; Havre, 265 t.;
Great Northern, 418 f. 75c. ; Avignon, 186 E 25c.;
Vierzon. 3 [OF.; Basle, 101 f. 25c.; Bordeaux, 396 f. 25e..;
Paris and Strasburg, 325 f. 50c. ; Tours and Nantes,
3061. 25c.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK-EXCHANGE, JULY 19.
Boulogne and Amiens, 6%—Orleans and Bordeaux, 3_
Tours and Nantes, 3.