The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-22 00:00:00

A SONG FOR THE WORKERS.

(WRITTEN FOR THE EARLY CLOSING MOVEMENT.)
Let Man toil to win his living,
Work is not a task to spurn ;
Poor is gold of others' giving,
To the silver that we earn.
Let Man proudly take his station
At the smithy, loom, or plough ;
The richest crown-pearls in a nation
Hang from Labour's reeking brow.
Though her hand grows hard with duty,
Filling up the common Fate,
Let fair Woman's cheek of beauty
Never blush to own its state.
Let fond Woman's heart of feeling
Never be ashamed to spread
Industry and honest dealing,
As a barter for her bread.
Work on bravely, God's own daughters!
Work on staunchly, God's own sons!
But when Life has too rough waters,
Truth must fire her minute guns.
Shall ye be unceasing drudges?
Shall the cry upon your lips
Never make your selfish judges
Less severe with golden whips?
Shall the mercy that we cherish,
As old England's primest boast,
See no slaves but those who perish
On a far and foreign coast?
When we reckon hives of money,
Owned by Luxury and Ease,
Is it just to grasp the honey
While Oppression chokes the bees?
Is it just the poor and lowly
Should be held as soulless things?
Have they not a claim as holy,
As rich men, to angels' wings?
Shall we burthen Boyhood's muscle?
Shall the young girl mope and lean
Till we hear the dead leaves rustle
On a tree that should be green?
Shall we bar the brain from thinking
Of aught else than work or woe?
Shall we keep parched lips from drinking
Where refreshing waters flow?
Shall we strive to shut out Reason,
Knowledge, Liberty and Health?
Shall all Spirit-light be treason
To the despot King of Wealth?
Shall we stint with niggard measure
Human joy and human rest?
Leave no profit—give no pleasure,
To the toiler's human breast?
Shall our Men, fatigued to loathing,
Plod on sickly, worn, and bowed? •
Shall our Maidens sew fine clothing,
Dreaming of their own white shroud?
No! for Right is up and asking
Loudly for a fairer lot,
And Commerce must not let her tasking
Form a nation's canker spot.
Work on bravely, God's own daughters!
Work on staunchly, God's own sons!
But till ye have smoother waters,
Let Truth fire her minute guns!
-Weekly Dispatch. ELIZA COOK.

ADMISSION OF SOLICITORS IN CIIANCERY.—The
Master of the Rolls has appointed Tuesday, January 30,
at the Rolls' Court, Chancery'-lane, -lane, at three o'clock in
the afternoon, for swearing solicitors. Every person
desirous of being sworn on the above day must leave his
common law admission, or his certificate of practice for
the current year, at the Secretary's-office, Rolls'-yard,
Chancery-I§4e, 94 94% bekro ktplulay, 29at Jguggry.

SUN, LONDON,

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

PituM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
TINIES.--The Financial Reform Association have at
length hit upon a topic on which they will carry with
them public sympathy. With whatever hesitation we
may admit 1110 policy of adopting speculative reforms
which must have as their first and necessary effect to
denude the country of those means of safety on which
we have hitherto relied, when no such considerations are
involved the Financial Reformer has an easy task before
him. Man is not a tax-paying animal by nature, but by
necessity. We receive no abstract pleasure from con-
tributing even to the maintenance of army, navy, and
ordnance. Our wish to guard the country from the
danger of foreign attack, and to keep the sea inviolate
for the traffic of our mercantile marine, is the result of
reflection, not of impulse. " There be land rats and
water rats." It is no use carrying their non-existence
by acclamation. There they are, and we are not yet
convinced that it would be prudent to drop the in-
surance, although no doubt the annual payments may be
lessened in amount. To-day we publish a return upon a
different branch of the Administration—the Woods and
Forests. The royal revenues arising from forests,
chases, waters, parks, manors, lands, estates, houses,
&c., have, as is well known, been long commuted
for the grant of a fixed civil list on the accession
of the Sovereign. The nation has taken
these possessions into its own hands, and may
fairly look to them as a source of profit. They
now make up a part of the nation's estates. We are
entitled to expect that the same care shall be displayed
in their management as a private individual would be-
stow upon his own possessions. So far from this being
the case, it would be, we verily believe, impossible to
conceive a more utter or wanton waste of property than
takes place under the administration of the board which
is known as the Woods and Forests. The history of
this board we find in brief to be this:—The land reve-
nues of the Crown were originally collected by the
sheriffs of counties, who paid their rents into the Ex-
chequer. In 1535 a court was erected, called the Court
of Augmentations, for the management of the lands of
the suppressed monasteries not having more than 200/.
a year, all of which had been given by Parliament to
the King. Under this court, and the Court of General
Surveyors of Crown Lands, and a Board of Works,
the royal property continued for centuries. In 1781
the Board of Works was abolished, and the Royal build-
ings, which had until then been under its management,
were placed under the direction of a surveyor or
comptroller. This office was united with that of the
Commissioners of Woods and Forests in 1832, saving
so far as the royal gardens are concerned. In 1828 the
management of the Irish land revenue was given to the
Commissioners. These, together with some minor
changes, scarcely affecting the subject matter on which
it had to operate, have brought the Commission to its
present form. The report, of which we publish an ex-
tract to-day, deals mainly with one of the many classes
of property which are under the control of the Board.
There are, it appears, four forests, each with its Lord
Warden—the New Forest, warden the Duke of Cam-
bridge; Waltham, Lord Mornington; Whittlewood, Duke
of Grafton; Whychwood, Lord Churchill. It appears
that the salaries attached to these merely honorary posts
are of no account, and would, in fact, scarcely suffice to
pay the salary of any one of the footmen of any one of
the noblemen in question. But the perquisites are valu-
able. Lord Churchill, for example, is entitled to deer
and game to his own use out of Whychwood Forest to an
unlimited extent, to make no mention of heath, furze,
fern, bushes, and shrubs. The Duke of Grafton has
all the underwood in Whistlewood Forest, which is cut
every twenty-one years. He enjoys besides " the use of
Wakefield Lodge"—so it is stated in the report—" and
the pasturage of Wakefield Lawn, consisting of 200 or
300 acres, besides venison and game ad libitum, and
claims all the deer as his own." We would refer, how-
ever, to the report itself for fuller particulars, in order
to arrive at a point in comparison with which the pecu-
lations of Lords Wardens are but of trifling concern.
In these days of railroads, most persons, either called by
business or attracted by pleasure, have visited the neigh.
bourhood of Southampton, Few would have so little
curiosity as not to devote any hours they could spare to
a ride through the New Forest. Take it all in all,
there is no timber district in England, not even Wind-
sor Forest, which can compare for picturesque beauty
with this. In the neighbourhood of Lyndhurst the
long savannahs and groups of old trees are so beautiful,
that a lover of sylvan scenery would weep over their
destruction. The Liverpool ;men are not open to con-
siderations of this sort. Their view is bald, prosaic, and
disagreeable, but it has its element of truth. " Here
we are," say they, " with a good landed property,
it is true, but heavily encumbered. Embarrassed
men must rather seek to satisfy their creditors than
gratify their taste. We must clear. We must cut
down our timber, and break up the soil into arable and
pasture land. We are not entitled to waste a shilling
upon our love for the picturesque until all our obliga-
tions shall have been honestly discharged." Now the
income derived from the New Forest in six years-1835-6
to 1840-I—was 59,5434, and the expenditure during the
same period 54,8241 ; something, in fact, very con-
siderably under 1,0001. per annum was derived from this
enormous property. During the next six years-1841-2
to 1846-7—the case was infinitely worse. The income
had fallen to 53,2961, and the expenditure had risen to
66,4721, showing an actual loss by the property;of 2,2001.
yearly. In 1847 matters bad got from worse to still
worse. The New Forest cost the country in that year
3,266/. We take these figures as we find them from the
report, and if faith can be placed in the statement of Mr.
Downes, the property is in reality of the most valuable
nature. The timber and plantations alone he values at
942,0001., equal, at three and a half per cent.,
to 32;9701. par annum. For further particulars
with regard to Whittlewood, which paid last
year 11. 3s. 0-id., and to Whychwood, which produced
1231 ls. 7d., and Waltham, which contributed 352/. 75.6 d.
to the national Exchequer, we must refer to the report.
Now, it is evident that here is a source from which a
large revenue may be derived which has been wholly
neglected. When we find individuals coming forward
and offering to pay a large sum in the shape of rent for
a district which at present returns nothing, no reason-
able man can entertain a doubt that there is gross mis-
management. Either the bid should be accepted, or the
property should be made to return more in its present
hands. Without adopting wholly the views of the
Financial Reformers, we are satisfied that no one can
have passed through such a tract of woodland country
as that which is called the New Forest without perceiv-
ing that a great portion of it might with great advantage
be cleared and devoted to agricultural purposes. More
than eight centuries ago, when the surface of England
was but thinly populated, this district was covered with
smiling hamlets and homesteads. The second William
and his successors ruthlessly swept these habitations
away in order to make room for a vast forest in which
they might take their pastime. What the tyranny of
one race accomplished the cupidity and mismanagement
of others have continued. It is time that much of the
land should return to the plough and to the harrow.
Where corn has grown corn will grow again, and the
nation would thus possess a thriving district instead of
an unproductive waste,
CHRONICLE.—" It has pleased Almighty God to
vouchsafe to the British arms the most successful issue
to the extensive combinations rendered necessary for the
purpose of effecting the passage of the Chenaub "—such
is the pious and politic exordium of a dispatch intended
to apprise the people of India, that the Seikhs had
effected a safe retreat on their hill country, in the face of
an overpowering British force. In England, we may
venture, without indiscretion, to doubt whether that
" issue " was commensurate, in point of real value,
either with the magnitude of the 'preliminary prepara-
tions, or with the elevation of language observable in the
official announcement. Possibly, we may be apt to
undervalue a military success which has been purchased
at so severe a cost ; and the lamented names of Cureton,
Havelock, and Fitzgerald, almost unavoidably compel a
sober and measured estimate of the fruits of
a victory so bought. Yet, even irrespectively
of this melancholy list of casualties, there
appears too much reason for thinking that the
extensive preparations, and the well-laid plans, of
the Commander-in-Chief, have, to some extent, been
frustrated—partly, by the irrepressible ardour and
eagerness of our troops, when in sight of the enemy,
and partly by incidental errors of detail in the execution
of the operations. Amidst a crowd of confused state-
ments, the following facts stand prominent : For twelve
days, 18,000 regular Seikh troops, with a mob of about
as many more irregulars, and 28 guns, were encamped
opposite the " Army of the Punjaub," which mustered
23,000 strong, and was supported by a magnificent park
of artillery. During that interval, on the only two oc-
casions on which our men were engaged with the enemy
they were compelled to retire—in the one case, with
the loss of a gun, in the other, after a severe conflict.
When, at length, a general plan of attack was resolved
on, it was marred by a blunder at the fords. The de-
tachment destined to take the enemy in flank made a
that,s o
tu t •afterneed bravely rAe pohe lAsni nv
Legs
alooafreandb
needless detour, by which they were so greatly fatigued,
assault,aywtehseythsetsooldositn. nob n-
-1 e d
the next, the rebel forces were out of reach, having
concealed, writes
a l ship,teroe't'iroer, cbayrrwiehdiehwiwthe
fear his Excellency merely means us to understand,
that he had neither got their guns himself, nor knew
anything about them. It is not improbable that, by
this time, they are crowning some ravine to the west of
the Hydaspes, where a harassing guerilla warfare may,
for a while, postpone the final triumph of our arms. Of
some other portions of our present Indian intelligence,
we are, happily, able to speak with fewer qualifications
and reserves. It is our pleasing duty to notice that
Attock still holds out, that Moolraj is less defiant, and
that Cashmere continues faithful. In all probability,
therefore, Shere Singh has but deferred his defeat. He
leads a tribe—a dominant
tribe, it is true, and diame-
trically opposed, in all its interests, to ourselves—still, it
is only a tribe ; and in that fact lies the moral certainty of
his final failure. The population around him, to say the
least, stand neuter in the struggle. They can feel no
reluctance to be brought back from under the novel and
galling yoke of a sect of persecuting fanatics, to an
an-
cient
empire, which, under all its dynasties—Persian,
Affghan, Mogul, and British—has extended an equal
tolerance to the voteries of its multiform creeds. With
the passive assistance of the Punjaub peasantry, it can
hardly be long before Lord Dalhousie is called upon to
decide whether the Seikhs are to be treated with, or go-
verned—whether he will put up with dangerous neigh-
bours, or with unruly subjects. This is an old dilemma
—as old as British India itself ; yet, for that very rea-
son, the difficulty of making a choice is comparatively
inconsiderable. Encouraged by the results of past ex-
perience, Nve confess that it does not appear to us that any
grievous risk will be incurred by choosing what has been
repeatedly found to be the least of two evils. There are,
however, a large class ofpersons in this country, who, inno-
cent of the slightest curiosity respecting Indian affairs in
general, will yet pronounce very positively upon this
question, without any such retrospective glance. It is
enough for them, that the area of our Eastern dominions

is vast, considered with reference to European analo-
gies; and they conclude that it is, therefore, unwieldy.
The very term, " territorial aggrandizement" conjures
up in their minds a vague train of unwelcome and odious
images—or, perhaps, we should rather say, of mere
phrases, which have acquired all the power of a spell.
A legitimate ground of caution has, in fact, degenerated
into a sort of bugbear, in the presence of which it is not
easy to obtain a hearing for arguments founded only
on the actual specialities of the case. To such per-
sons, of course, our previous treatment of this ques-
tion must have failed to carry conviction. On van -
ous occasions we have examined the probable re-
sults—fiscal, commercial, and political—of anneca-
tion, as indicated by the territorial position and natural
features of thePuniaub. In deciding on the claims of the
Seikhs to the character of safe neighbours, we have ex-
pressed a distrust founded upon all that is known of
Seikh habits and Seikh traditions. We have pointed to
the provocations by which the Indian Government has
become entitled, on every principle of international law,
to look singly to its own dignity and safety in 'deciding
on the nature and extent of its reprisals. But is there
any colour in the assumption that an extension of tern
tory is, in itself, the greatest evil that can befal British
India? Since when, and by what indications, internal
or external, has our Eastern Empire shown itself to be
thus overgrown, unwieldly, and barely capable of hold-
ing its own? Are its subjects more restive, its neigh-
bours haughtier, than in periods when its area lay
within a narrower bound, and its pretensions were less
imperial? The simple enunciation of such questions is
a sufficient reply. There are, indeed, certain sensible dicta
in the Duke of Wellington's Dispatches, which, stretched
beyond their original application, and without taking
into account the vast changes that have occurred since
they were written, are often quoted in order to justify
these disparaging views of our Eastern Government,
and of its present capacities for conquest. " Bengal,"
wrote his Grace, in 1804, " the paradise of nations—
enjoys the advantage of a civil Government, and re-
quiresits military force only for its protection against
foreign enemies. All the other barbarous establish-
ments, called Governments, without excepting that of
Fort St. George, have no power beyond that of the sword.
Take from them the exercise of that power, and they
have no other ; and can collect no revenue, can give no
protection, and can exercise no government." Elsewhere
he thus concludes a similar passage :—" In order to
carry on their foreign wars, they have been obliged to
weaken the means of their internal government, that is
to say, the power of the sword, in their own provinces.
• • • • The conclusion of the most successful fo-
reign war in India, if it gives an excess of territory,
must bring with the territory a necessity to increase the
army; because the Government must be established in
the new territory, and supported, as well as in the old,
by the power of the sword." Now, if British India be
still in the predicament in which it was when these
warnings were given, we will admit their present appli-
cability. If Bengal alone, of our eastern possessions,
" enjoys the advantage of a civil Government "—if
Madras and Bombay still merit the designation of
" barbarous establishments"—if the north. west provinces
are no better organized than when Lake laid siege to
Agra, and Burn defended Delhi—if, in short, half a
century's civil administration, wiser, milder, and more
just than ever blessed the Indian peasant,
has done nothing to quell the spirit of revolt in
our dominions—why, cadet questio ; we admit that it
were unwise to thin our garrisons—Mr. Cobden will not
let them be multiplied. The present state of India,
however, teaches a far different lesson from that which
the facts, or appearances, of forty-five years ago, pre-
sented to the Duke's sagacious mind. We are justified
now in allowing a little less for the influence of the
sword—a little more for the effects of good govern-
ment. With the salient fact before us, that 60,000
troops have been dranghted from the provincial, garrisons
to serve in the Punjaub, without causing the slightest
apprehension for the stability of the civil authority, we
feel warranted in assuming that the question of an-
nexation or no annexation will be decided by the
Governer-General, without its entering into his
Lordship's counsels to allow for disaffection on the
part of his native fellow-subjects, or for insolence
on that of our allies. We entertain a firm conviction
that Lord Dalhousie will exercise, with equal prudence
and courage, that right of choice which, in all human
probability, the complete and final success of our arms
will, at no distant date, place in his hands. For, as we
need scarcely say, we view this Seikh retreat—unsatis-
factory and disappointing as it confessedly is—as a
merely temporary postponement of that issue which has
invariably attended the determined and vigorous exer-
tion of British power in India. The history of that
guerilla struggle, which appears at present likely to be
the proximate result of our passage of the Chenaub,
may be regarded as already written, by anticipation, in
those pages of the Anglo-Indian annals which record the
progress and the termination of the Deccan and Mah-
ratta wars.

TIMES.—We believe we may congratulate the more
moderate and patient economists on the prospect of an
early and considerable step in the right direction. After
years of ascending expense and descending revenue, a
return to the equilibrium, besides being a positive im-
provement, is an earnest of better things to come.
From all that we can hear the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer will be in a condition to announce early in the ses-
sion a reduction in the army and navy estimates, suffi-
cient to bring them safe within the probable revenue of
the year. The twelvemonth just ended has produced a
considerable income on corn, the last that in this coun-
try will ever be levied from the staff of life; but, on the
other hand, it has net been a good year for malt.
Taking therefore into account the evident and substan-
tial improvement of trade, we may fairly expect that
the revenue, now for halt a year on the ascendant, will
soon regain the level of 1846. Unless some unfore-
seen danger or calamity should derange the calcu-
lation, we expect that with the revenue of 1846 we
shall soon combine the estimates of an earlier year,
yet without injury to any of cur civil establish-
ments, or measures for internal improvement. Should
such a budget be announced, the common sense and gra-
titude of the nation would be exhibited by a hearty and
unanimous support, and we have no doubt will be so
exhibited. A mere balance of incomings and outgoings
will, of course, be thought a fiat affair by the financial
millennarians, whose first step is a reduction of
10,000,0001. But with all our admiration of the prophet
who has promised this miracle, we must still regard
economy as a gradual process. Lc t the goal be in view
if you please; but we cannot reach it with a hop, skip,
and jump. The tortoise beat the hare, and perhaps a
system of yearly reductions will answer our purpose
better than an attempt to raze the national expenditure
down to a lower deck all at once. When a gentleman
of large nominal rent--roll, and larger real expenses,
is brought to his senses by the failure of supplies, the
best course he can take in the first instance is the
adaptation of his establishment to his means. It
is difficult of course. He cannot do without this
or that servant, without such and such carriages and
horses, without a house in town, or his annual tour, and
sufficient allowances for his sons at college. Retrench-
ment by piecemeal is killing work. But the more it
kills the more it cures. The greater the demand upon
the nerves the more decided is the moral result. A year
of well-balanced accounts is a glorious turning point in
the life of a thriftless and thoughtless man. When he
has been one year none the worse, he will soon be ano-
ther year much. the better. The financial condition of
our nearest neighbour renders an early disarmament in
that quarter an imperious necessity. France has staved
off bankruptcy for the present, but with an expenditure
for one year 20,000,000/. above the income she cannot
hope to keep faith with the national creditor, unless
she immediately stanch that frightful issue of her
resources. Bankruptcy means revolution; and if
things come to that pass, France will soon witness a
new and more terrible variety of her national spectacle.
She has seen the overthrow of a dynasty, of a court, of
an aristocracy, and of a clergy; she has not lately seen
the extermination of a large monied class. The short-
lived issue and rapid depreciation of a few million assig-
nets will be a very insignificant catastrophe compared
with the application of the sponge to a national debt'
more than a third of our own. But either that sponge
or new and intolerable taxation. Such are the alterna-
tives entailed by war, by the menace of war, or the bare
thought of war. The present Government of France is
not insensible to these grave considerations. It has
shown a peaceful and economical tendency. It dreads in-
ternal ruin more than foreign invasion, and is more in-
tent on restoring the balance of its finances than on un-
dertaking the task of European regeneration. France
being thus brought: to her senses,, and the military
powers of central Europe being fully occupied at borne,
we have an opportunity of reducing our own arma-
ments, and thus showing a confidence in the amicable
professions of our neighbours. This opportunity, we
believe, is now fully recognized, and will not be
neglected. A financial row of some sort or other of
course there will be, and we have no wish to prevent it.
We should imagine the Chancellor of the Exchequer
himself would hardly desire to atop the months of the
furious economists. If, however, they wish to give him
as little trouble as possible, and to make his line of de-
fence easy and impregnable, they cannot do it more
effectually than by striking at once for a standard of
reduction absolutely incompatible with our present do-
mestic safety and colonial dominion. A single glance of
the eye at certain points in the map of the world will
silence a policy which would put us everywhere on that
retrograde, so frequently the precursor of ruin. The
question cannot be handled in the lump. It cannot be
touched without leading into details. The mantle of
Joseph Hume will fall on Mr. Cobden, and we shall soon
see him descending from that grand argumentation
which characterised his war with the corn-laws, into
petty details of contracts and repairs. Once in details,
the 10,000,0001. of the economical paradise will soon
vanish away. It has already been reduced to about
4000,0001., which is all the present increase upon the
army, navy, and ordnance estimates of 1835, if we ex-
clude the novelties and changes rendered necessary by
the progressive discoveries and peculiar circumstances of
the day.

The papers from Ceylon give little news of in-
terest. The local authorities were revising various or-
dinances, and it was anticipated that these and other
measures would be favourably received by the inhabi-
tants. The imports of the last quarter exhibited a con-
siderable decrease. The weather in the interior had
become settled, and was adapted for the preparation of
the coffee crop. Labour was not so plentiful as could
be desired, and few estates had throughout the season
been well supplied. Not much coffee had yet arrived
from the plantations, and the lateness of the crop had
latterly materially interfered with the progress of ship-
ments.

DOVER, JAN. 21.—FALL AT SHAKSPERE'S
This morning, about ten o'clock, an extensive fall of the
chalk rock from Sbakspere's Cliff took place. The fall
occurred near No. 4 shaft of Sbakspere's Tunnel, on the
South-Eastern Railway, and left an indentation in the
crown of this classic cliff of something like an acre. The
quantity of chalk detached way be estimated at about
100;000 MA