The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-03 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 1849.

The question of the " rate in aid" was fairly
brought before the lluuse of Commons last night by
the Premier, in a speech of great clearness and ability,
in which he not only adduced the strongest arguments
in support of the proposition then before the Ilouse,
but indicated the general character of the Ministerial
policy with respect to the Irish poor-law. The pre-
sent resolution made no reference to the question of a
maximum rate. On that point it appears the Com-
mittee desired further information, and wished that
evidence should be taken, more especially with regard
to the amount which it was expedient to propose.
Under such circumstances the Government consented
for the present to postpone their proposition, so far
as it related to the maximum rate, and to take the
opinion of the Committee as to the expediency of
a rate in aid. On this point a resolution was
adopted by a large majority, which was last night
brought under the consideration of the House. It
was as follows :—" That in each of the next two 3 ears
there shall be paid by every union in Ireland a sum
equal to a rate of sixpence in the pound, on each
electoral division in such union, towards a general
fund, for the relief of the poor in Ireland. That the
said sum shall be paid to a separate amount
at the Bank of Ireland in the name of the Paymaster
of Civil Salaries in Ireland, and shall be applied in
such manner as Parliament shall direct."
By sanctioning such a resolution the Committee
manifestly recognised the principle of a maximum
rate, although the ex let amount at which it should
be fixed either for the &ec!oral division or the union
at large remained over for further consideration.
There could be no necessity for a rate in aid un.
less there was to be some limitation to the liability in
particular districts. It is a matter of the utmost im-
portance that the amount should be settled with all
convenient speed, and before the season for
putting in the crops has elapsed. At present a very
general fear appears to exist in the thirty-one unions
that may par excellence be termed " the distressed
districts," of the possible changes that may be imposed
for the relief of the destitute poor. Owners and occu-
piers of land consider it by no means improbable that
the entire proceeds of labour and capital may be re
quired for the purpose, and that they may be altoge-
ther deprived of the rewards of industry. Under
such circumstances it is by no means astonishing that
lands should be suffered to lie waste and uncul
tivated ; that farmers should be unwilling to rent
lands remaining unoccupied, or capitalists to purchase
those offered for sale ; that there should be a great
diminution, indeed almost a suspension of employ-
ment, at a time when the greatest activity is pecu-
liarly desirable. A. settlement of the question will,
however, effect a material alteration. Parties will
know that there is a certain exteet beyond which
they cannot be charged—a certain proportion of the
produce must at last remain applicable to their own
purpo9es• By patient industry the charge may be
mitigated, but it cannot by any possibility be increased,
however negligent or apathetic their neighbours may
be. The required stimulant will thus be afforded,
improvements will be encouraged, and one great
source of the existing evil will be removed. We are
ourselves the most strenuous advocates for a national
rate, a general equalization of the charge, by
which the entire poverty of the country shall be a
charge on its entire property of every description, not
only reel/ but personal, and `~'here all persons able to
do so shall contribute in proportion to their means

to the relief of their distressed brethren—where the
fundholder, the mortgagee, the annuitant, shall be
equally liable to the paramount claim. What
h.s proved an intolerable burden, when
imposed solely on the owners and occu-
piers of land, without any allowance being made
for the incum brances by which they are affected,
will be by no means formidable when spread over a
wide surface, and when all parties possessed of accu-
mulated and realised property co-operate together
for the relief of distress, whensoever and wheresoever
it may be found. To this complexion it must come
at last, and when the principle is fully and fairly
carried out we shall have the strongest hope of a
speedy restoration to prosperity in that much
allicted land. In the mean time we hail
the recognition of a maximum charge and
a rate in aid from the entire kingdom, as a step
in the right direction, that must ultimately lead to
further changes and a decided improvement upon the
existing system.
Another proposition intended to be brought for-
ward is founded on a suggestion made by Mr. RIGBY
Weems', which first appeared in our columns. It is
to the effect that" when agricultural improvements on
the land take place, there should not, for a certain
number of years, be an increased valuation on account
of these improvements." The period for which the
exemption is to be granted has not been settled.
We regret, however, to find that Lord JOHN
RUSSELL states his opinion to be " that
ten years ought to form the utmost limit." He,
however, admits that upon that point " there may be
room for very considerable discussion." We trust
that such discussion may have the effect of materially
altering his views and inducing him to prolong the
period to at least double the period he has indicated,
and thus to afford due encouragement to that active
industry, that improving spirit by which alone the
regeneration of Ireland can be effected.
With respect to the vexata questio the area of
taxation, the Noble Lord adduced the most cogent and
unanswerable arguments against the plan that has
found so much favour in the sight of some of the
Irish poor-law reformers, " for individualising the
liability and rendering it, whenever practicable, con-
terminous with property." It is impossible not to
acknowledge the validity of the objections so for-
cibly brought forward against the project, and to
feel that they are indeed " insuperable." There
is, however, some reduction to be made in the
larger southern unions, which are much beyond the
average size. We do not see any great objection
to this change, which, it is said, will be more favour-
able to the development of industry, without being
open to the objections which the Noble Lord urged
with so much truth and power against rendering
the area of taxation conterminous with property.
With respect to incumbrances affecting land, a
distinction is drawn between mortgages and charges
in the hands of bond fide creditors, and what may be
termed family charges. The Government, it appears,
intend to steer a middle course. Mortgages, it ap-
pears, are to be exempted from any contribution,
while, what may be termed family charges, such as
jointures, charges for younger children, &c., are to
contribute in proportion to their amount. As a
matter of equity and good conscience all income
derived from land, by whatsoever name it may be
called, should participate in the burden. It is consi-
dered, however, that mortgagees would be induced to
call in their money if subjected to the charge, and
that thus considerable embarrassment would be
occasioned. Will not the same result, however,
happen with respect to younger brothers
and others in possession of " family charges," who
have a right to insist on immediate payment ? In
many instances these charges have been assigned for
valuable consideration, and are now vested in
strangers to their inheritors. The same objections,
therefore, exist that have been felt to be insuperable
in the case of mortgagees. It is equitable and just
that every species of income arising from land should
contribute. Mischiefs, however, may arise from such
an enactment, which can be avoided only by render-
ing every description of property, real and personal,
responsible for the relief of the poor.

Extraordinary movements are taking place in the
north eastern dominions of Europe. Nations are
there striving to maintain their independence against
the insidious machinations or the flagrant assaults of
the arbitrary governments of
,the KAISER and the
AUTOCRAT. Hungary is still struggling sword in
hand to vindicate her rights and to preserve her na-
tionality. Every hour her patriotic children are
evincing some new but we fear fruitless heroism in
their war with their colossal oppressors. Wallachia
groans under the scimitar of FUAD EFFENDI. Mol-
davia is paralyzed by the destructive presence of
DUITAMEL. Bosnia trembles for the existence of her
institutions. Servia observes with alarm the gradual
approach of her destruction. Nothing but dismays
carnage, and ruin are 'visible throughout the
Sclavic population of Turkey. Nothing but
the valour of desperation sustains the vigour of the
Magyars. Nothing but grief, terror, and anguish
are audible in the cities of the great Danubian Prin-
cipalities. And all this is attributable to the princi-
ples of Absolutism presiding over the councils of
011mutz and St. Petersburgh—principles which are
forced upon the reluctant acceptance of the Cabinet
of Constantinople.

Recently we have explained as lucidly as our
command of diction and arrangement of facts would
enable us—the perfect independence of Hungary in
the first instance, and subsequently of Moldo-Wal-
lachia. We proved by reference to the public laws
of Europe that the Danubian Provinces have the
right of autonomy or of self-government guaranteed
to them by a capitulation signed and
sealed between the Sublime Porte and the
Ministers at Bukharest as far back as the reign of
BAJAZET I. We demonstrated, moreover, that the
freedom of the kingdom of St. STEPHEN was equally
well guaranteed by the oaths of fourteen monarchs
and the concurrent testimony of three centuries. Yet
it is against those free and independent races that
Austria is dispatching her commanders, that Russia
is sending her soldiers, and that Turkey is obliged to
forward her commissaries. Hungary and the Danu-
bian Provinces find themselves in a more deplorable
position even than the Roman peninsula immediately
anterior to the imperial downfal and dismemberment,
for they are subjected to the irruptions not of one
horde of barbarians at a time, but to the simultaneous
invasion of their territories by the Germans,
by the Mussulmen, and by the Muscovites. Nor are
the latest accounts more satisfactory than any of the
preceding intelligence. One authority declares that
the forces of WINDISCHGRATZ have obtained posses-
sion of one-third of the entire dominions of Hungary,
notwithstanding the brave and pertinacious defence
made by BEM. Another asserts that a treaty has
been concluded between the Emperor FRANCIS
JOSEPH and the Emperor NICHOLAS, ceding the
Danubian Principalities and a portion of Transylvania
to Russia, in exchange for certain provinces situated
in Bosnia and llerzegoin. So that, taking these de-
clarations as authentic, the despotic powers are adding
new infamy to their greatness by additional violations
of the rights of independent states.

In regard to Hungary, it has been most happily
observed by FRANCIS PuLSZEY (late Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs), that if the Vienna Cabinet
should ultimately prove triumphant by means of the
bayonet, Hungary will no longer continue a source of
power to Austria, but will become, on the contrary,
"her heel of Achilles." She will be the vulnerable
part of that vast and heterogeneous agglomeration
of races—as Poland is to Russia—a province
requiring everlasting military occupation. In
speaking of the conflict at present raging
in that unfortunate country, it must not
only be borne in remembrance that the rights and
independence of Hungary have been guaranteed to her
even by the most ancient and sacred laws of the
European international code, but that Austria in the
treatment of her people, and her local administration,
has evinced not only remarkable injustice, but an ex-
traordinary and unparalleled perfidy. It cannot 1 e
forgotten that on the 11th of April, 1848, the
EMPEROR-KING (since abdicated), attended by his
relatives, great Ministers of State, as well as his Imperi:.ll
proceeded with great pomp to Presburg,
and
there gave his solemn sanction or ratification
to the law establishing in Hungary a distinct
Ministerial Government. Since then. the power of
s
the EMPEROR-KING, or
rather of his successor, sroerv,
ohi
ua s
been strengthened. As a counterpoise

THE SUNS

LON.DON,

tionary vigour of the Democrats, the Absolutists can
point with exultation to the captured city of Milan,
and to the victory of Custczza, to the desolated
;:uhurhs and battered walls of the imperial capital
itself—and, re-invigorated by such occurrences, they
can openly avow that the proceeding of the 11th of
April, 1848, was not in accordance with the unity of
the empire, and since then, as PULSZEY remarks, " the
sword of the Ban JELLACIIICH has served as a support
of that declaration." Happily the gallant spirit of their
forefathers has not yet deserted the Hungarians : and
experience compels us to regard as lying all those
vain-glorious reports of defeat, which are comparable
only to the rumours of similar catastrophes chronicled
FO veraciously in the organs of Madame Munoz in
reference to the civil war in Catalonia. Among these
hyperbolical and rather premature paeans we must
certainly classify the shout of triumph raised by the
Ministerial journals of Austria as to the total defeat
of the Hungarians on the 13th ultimo in the vicinity
of Arad. The correctness of the assertion as to
the good fortune of the German forces in this
instance is rendered somewhat more than
dubious by the acknowledged seizure of lovANovicrt
by the Magyars. Everything, indeed, corroborates
the assertion of Count LADISLAS TELEKI, that no
reliance can be placed upon the accounts furnished by
the German newspapers in reference to what is hourly
transpiring in Hungary—an assertion made by that
distinguished Hungarian in the manifesto recently
issued by him in the name of tha Hungarian Govern-
ment, which manifesto has within the last few days
been published in English from an admirable transla-
tion, penned by Mr. H. F. W. BROWNE, B.A. At a
time when authentic information as to the situation
of such noble but ill-starred territories as Hungary
and Moldo-Wallachia, are more than required
to counteract the evil effects of the falsehoods printed
in the Austrian organs, it is impossible to receive too
cordially the lucubrations of such patriotic diplomat-
ists as TELEKI and BRATIANO.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.
The Constitutionnel confirms the account that
Sardinia had protested against the proposed joint in-
tervention of Austria, Spain, Naples, and France in
the affairs of Rome.

The PRESIDENT and Vice-President of the Repub-
lic are, it is said, in favour of making a decided de-
monstration in Italy, a course which is opposed by
the majority of the Cabinet.
BOURSE—PeaIs, FRIDAY, MARCH 2.
THREE O'CLOCIL—The French Five per Cents. rose to
day to 84f. 10c., the highest price to which they have
arrived since the Revolution; but a number of specula-
tors then rushing in realise profits, there was a re-
action, and they ultimately closed at 83f. sc. The
Italian question gives great uneasiness, and it is feared
that the entry of the Russians into Transylvania will
load to now complications.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK-EXCHANGE, MARCH 2.

Boulogne and Amiens, 93/4 —Central Of France (brleaas
and Vierzon), 13,/i —Namur and Liege, 87g—Northern of
France, 1114— Orleans and Bordeaux, 3j/,'4—Paris and
Strasbourg, 5 ex in —Rouen and HaTre,l3,A2 Sambre and
Meuse, s—Tours and Nantes, 23%.

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