The Sun.
London, England, 1836-01-30 00:00:00

to the Report of a Meeting of the Paper Manufacturers
which will be found in another part of The Sun,
Fhe object of the Meeting, which was as numerous as
.t was respectable, comprising the majority of the Manu-
facturers in the country, was to take into considera-
tion the fourteenth Report of the Commissioners of
Excise Inquiry, on the subject of paper. That Report
states that the existing Excise laws and regulations re-
specting them, are as unjust in their enactments, as
they are pernicious, inconsistent, and immoral in their
operation. In fact, so contradictory are they in some cases,
and so perplexing in others, that those whose duty it is to
enforce them are often at a loss how to proceed. Even
the Chief Commissioners of the Board are equally
puzzled ; and in order to get out of a dilemma which
they can neither explain nor justify, they frequently
compromise duties which they ought to exact, and
as frequently exact what they ought to remit ! Surely
such a mass of incongruity as the Excise Laws ought
not to be tolerated any longer by a Parliament which
considers itself so enlightened in commercial matters; for
the tendency of the present (miscalled) laws is to
oppress and rob the fair trader, that the smuggler
may flourish at his expense ! But it were idle
to insist any further on the enormity—justice
and fair play must at length be done to those
who, from jionour as well as duty, support the reve-
nue ; and the temptation to smuggling be at once re-
moved, by placing all parties on an equal footing.
Nothing less will do, and nothing more is wanted.
We think that a reduction of the duty on first class
paper to one-half, could not injure the revenue, if
to that be coupled a reduction in the stamp duty to
less than a penny ; for the increased consumption o
newspapers would be very great in consequence.

The portion of Count Pozzo DI BoßGo's secret
dispatch of the 28th of November, 1828, which re-
lates to the then policy of the Cabinets of London
and Vienna, on the war between Russia and Turkey,
is given in another part of The Sun. It appears from
the whole tenour of this dispatch that Austria was
the only European Power, and MET TERN ICH
the only Minister, that cordially sympathized
with the Turks, from a knowledge of the
disastrous consequences to Europe of the exter-
mination of the Porte by Russia. France, Eng-
land, and Prussia were made the tools of the Auto-
crat, and the " greatest Captain of the age " was
the merest dupe of the machinations of NESSELRODE
and his emissaries. We shall endeavour to give the
conclusion of this important state-document on Mon-
day, when we may have an opportunity of accompany-
ing it with a few pertinent observations.

A Correspondent at Bath has kindly favoured us
with a report of the conviction of an unstamped news-
vender by the Magistrates of that city, which will be
found in another column ; followed by some able ob-
servations from the Spectator, on the propriety of abo-
lishing the Newspaper Stamp Duty. The system of
Government prosecutions for the sale of unstamped
publications has been carried far enough. It has had
a fair trial ; it has not only failed, but it has increased
the evil it was adopted to remedy ; and now all that
remains is either to abolish the tax, or to put down the
Press altogether. The circulation of unstamped news-
papers has nearly doubled since the Government took
measures to restrain it by fine and imprisonment ; and
were the Magistrates to treble the convictions, the sale
of the unstamped would be ten times greater than it is
even now. The truth is, that to defeat the law in this
instance, is regarded as highly creditable by a very
numerous and increasing class of people. The indi-
viduals engaged in it have not only the solace derived
from a species of martyrdom in a good cause to sup-
port them ; but many of them have what they con-
sider personal wrongs to revenge upon the Govern-
ment—wrongs which they have no power of revenging
save through the columns of the unstamped.
But a regard for the morality of the Press itself
ought
to have great influence with Ministers in acce-
lerating the time for abolishing the stamp duty.
Such a measure is now inevitable ; therefore, to delay
its accomplishment is only to render persons despe-
rate, who will very shortly have it in their power to
exercise a considerable influence in directing public
opinion. Several of the unstamped proprietors and
writers opposed the law, in the first instance, from a
mistaken sense of duty ; although in other respects
they were by no means inimical to the Government.
Some of these individuals, from long imprisonment,
losses, and a variety of other causes, have been driven into
a state of recklessness bordering on insanity, and now
rave against whatever seems to oppose the accomplish-
ment of their Utopian purposes. Prosecutions are
daily adding to their number ; the public generally
sympathise with them : whereas, were the Govern-
ment, in the event of not abolishing the tax, to re-
duce it to a penny, there would be no more commi-
seration for a convicted vendor of illegal newspapers,
than there is for a convicted smuggler of bad brandy.

We regret to have to mention the death of
Mr. HAY woos, which occurred on Tuesday last, and
in consequence of which the rule for a criminal infor-
mation, which had been applied for against him in
the Court of King's Bench, for a libel on Lieut.-Col.
FAIRMAN, was not made absolute.

The unfortunate circumstances that accelerated, if
not actually caused, the death of the late Lord NAPIER,
demand the earliest possible inquiry on the part of the
British Parliament. We are not aware that the Go-
vernment has taken any measures with a view to com-
pel the Chinese authorities at Canton to explain the
grounds of the violence offered to the official Represen-
tative of his Britannic MAJESTY ; neither hare we
learned that any Mandarin, Hoppo, or even Hong
merchant, has yet proffered, in the name of the Em-
PEROR, so much as a word of explanation or apology
for the violence offered to the honour of the British
KING and nation, in the person of that lamented
Nobleman. The country cannot have forgotten the
indignities heaped upon the British Representative by
the Governor Loo, in his orders addressed to the
" English Barbarian Eye ;" and still less can it
cease to remember the sufferings of Lord NA PIER—
stretched on a sick-bed, a prisoner in his house,•
his domestics expelled, his fire quenched, the com-
monest necessaries of life—even cold water—refused
him ; and subject, moreover, to a system of fiendish
torment, which, in the opinion of the best-informed
British residents, occasioned his death. Sleep was
denied him by the striking of gongs ; and it is asserted
that the Governor had ordered a Chinese guard to re-
main near his Lordship's door for the express purpose
of striking gongs, and making the most discordant
noises, whenever the attendants upon the " Barbarian
Eye" signified that he felt disposed to sleep ! And
yet while Lord NA PIER was thus tortured—a prisoner
in the hands of a Chinese slave—fifty merchant ships
bearing the British flag, well manned, and some of
them well armed, were lying quietly at anchor, almost
under the walls in which his Lordship was confined
We cannot comprehend how the opinions so preva-
lent among the bulk of the English people—namely,
that the Chinese never resort to hostilities, and that to
offend them would ruin our trade, as they could, and
would, close their ports against British vessels—
first gained currency ; but we can assure them thg
opinions ever were more preposterous. Every privilege
obtained by the nations trading with China have beep