The Sun.
London, England, 1849-10-06 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1849.

The answer of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to
the numerous and influential deputation of hop-
planters, which waited upon him on the 28th ult.,
praying for a postponement of the collection of the
instalment of the hop ',duties payable within the
present month, is now before the public. It contains
a peremptory refusal to accede to their reasonable
request, and states, that " the necessary orders will
be given for its collection at the appointed time," but
intimates that " further time may be allowed for
payment of the duty payable in November." We
confess that we are by no means astonished at this
result. The Right Hon. Baronet has exhibited on
many occasions too great an indifference to the state-
ments of distress and difficulty that have been placed
before him, to induce him to listen favourably to any
representations having for their object the relief
of any class or body of her Maaasrr's subjects from
the embarrassments and ruin to which they may be
subjected by a strict enforcement of existing imposts,
however onerous and inequitable. He has too se-
verely reproved the " ignorant impatience of taxa-
tion," that has occasioned so many pressing remon-
strances on the subject of fiscal reform. " Jonn
BULL is a tax-paying animal," and he must submit to
all the burdens which the wisdom of Parliament may
have placed upon his shoulders. He may grumble,
for that privilege is still allowed, but he must pay to
the uttermost farthing, although his own ruin and
that of his numerous dependents be the inevitable
consequence. His lands may be thrown out of cula
tivation—his labourers driven to the union workhouses
—his family may be compelled to forego all the
comforts that, from long habit, have become almost
the necessaries of life, but so long as he is reduced
to beggary, in due form of law, for debts due to the
Exchequer, he can hope for neither sympathy nor
assistance from Sir CHARLES WOOD. There may
possibly be some common-place expression of regret
at the unfortunate state of his affairs, but that excellent
Minister will most probably express himself unable to
comprehend how these untoward circumstances have
arisen after the great blessings experienced under
Whig government; and some pompous platitudes
will be uttered to the effect that relief to him would
increase the burden upon other tax-payers. Such is
the usual character of the replies to all similar
memorials, and that to the deputation of hop-planters
does not in any degree vary from the ordinary routine.
There is, perhaps, no impost more unfair or un-
equal in its operation than the hop duty, so justly
complained of by the parties liable thereto. One of the
first and best recognised principles of finance declares
the injustice and inexpediency of subjecting native
produce to any charge or tax. It is the duty of a
paternal Government to encourage production to the
utmost extent, and not to interpose any difficulties or
impediments to the growth of the crops. The fields
of the farmer should not be exposed to the constant
surveillance of the exciseman, or his agricultural
operations checked or restrained by fiscal regulations.
If through the bounty of PROVIDENCE his soil is of
extraordinary fertility, he should be permitted to
enjoy the fruits thereof without let or hindrance, and
without being restricted as to the nature of the crops
that he may choose to sow upon it. There can be no
reason why one description of produce should be
heavily taxed while others escape scot free. Why
should hops be subjected to an enormous duty when
wheat or oats, fruit or vegetables are exempted ?
Why should the farmers of Kent or Sussex,
of Hereford or Worcester, be rendered liable
to burdens from which their brethren of Yorkshire,
Lincoln, Derbyshire, or Nottingham are wholly
exonerated ? There is no such extraordinary
prosperity in the hop-growing districts as to
justify peculiar imposts. The poor-rates are as high

es in more favoured localities; there is as deep dis-
tress among the labouring population, even the
farmers and holders of land are not in the most flou-
rishing condition. The complaints of agricultural
distress, of the gradual diminution of farming capital,
are as loud in Kent as in Hampshire. But still a
charge amounting to 400,0001. per annum is levied
upon them exclusively, while they are liable to every
other tax and impost for which the agricul-
turists of other counties are responsible.
This is neither just nor equitable, politic or
expedient. It is in direct contradiction of
the fundamental rule that every subject should con-
tribute to the national expenditure secundum statum
et facultates. It has been truly said, " that no prin-
ciple can. justify the taxation of one portion of the
community alone." How, then, can the hop duties be
defended, duties that fall upon certain portions of four
counties only, while the remainder of the United
Kingdom is free from the tax ?

The rapid abatement of the cholera is producing
very general and very natural satisfaction, but the
diminution of the disorder must not produce a cor-
responding decrease in the vigilance necessary to
trace out the causes, and in the resolution required to
prevent the recurrence of that fatal epidemic. Public
attention must not be suffered to relapse into its
former culpable quiescence. A matter that concerns
everybody is too often treated as if it concerned
nobody, and such has hitherto been the fate of the
public health. It is unnecessary again to recapitulate
the nauseous and often-,enumerated catalogue of nui•
sances which, in London especially, convert the very
elements of life, the air we breathe and the water we
drink, into so many channels of poison. It is unne-
cessary to recapitulate them, but it is necessary to
allude to them again and again, as we have hitherto
done, until they shall be finally put an end to. It
must not be, in this instance, as it has been in too
many others, that the removal, and perhaps only the
temporary removal, of a dreaded danger, effectually
puts a stop to the many contemplated improvements
and precautions which the recent cause of alarm
seemed especially intended to suggest. If the pesti-
lence of 1849 be not followed by some very speedy
and very comprehensive sanitary reform, a yet heavier
calamity will in all probability be the result, and who
shall dare to say that it will not (in such a case) be
richly merited ? Who that now cavils at precaution,
and loudly declaims against the closure of burial-
grounds and similar necessary enactments, shall
venture to say that he himself may not be the first
victim of the returning pestilence ? This is the point of
view in which the question must be regarded. It is
useless to talk to interested men of the duty of caring
for their fellow• creatures ; their charity begins at home
and this is assuredly a most legitimate opportunity
for the exercise of that charity. All are equally con-
cerned, for this is to every man a matter of personal
concern. Had the matter been looked on in this light,
how uncalled for would have been our reiterated
strictures upon .the poisoned atmosphere of London !
Long ago every burial-ground would ha►e been shut
up, pure water, clean domiciles, and well-drained
streets would have been as numerous as are now the
wretched receptacles of filth in which the poor of
London live and die, less cared for than the beasts of
burthen. Complaints have recently been reiterated
respecting the unhealthy state of the metropolis, but
those complaints have produced no consequences. It
was vat et pretereanihil. Must it continue so ? Have
our graves been heaped with cholera victims in vain ?
Will the voices of alternate lamentation and alarm,
which have for the last few months re-echoed through-
out the length and breadth of the land, subside into
apathetic satisfaction ? Never was apathy more out
of place. A vigorous, an immediate, and a
persevering course of energetic action is re-
quired to remove the Augean impurities of
the magnificent metropolis of the commerce of the
nineteenth century. Such a course will never be
even entered on, and most certainly it will never be
satisfactorily carried out, unless public attention re-
main keenly alive to the dangers by which we are
encompassed, and unless public opinion stimulate and
encourage the indifferent energies of those to whom
the guardianship of the public health is consigned.
There is a fair opportunity to test that force of
public opinion on which we, as a nation, so much
pride ourselves. Never was there a cause which had
so much claim on the unanimity of every individual
of the great community, fir every individual is here

personally interested. As, thanks to PROVIDENCE,
the violence of the pestilence abates, let our anti-
pestilence precautions not abate, but rather let us at
once co-operate in bringing about that better state of
things which shall not only ward off any fresh at-
tacks of the same enemy, but which shall render the
recent calamity a source of future blessing.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.

The Constitutionnel has the following announce-
ment :—" The Governments of England and France
have agreed to approve of the conduct followed at
Constantinople by the Ambassadors of the two coun-
tries. We are assured that they have sent a collec-
tive note to St. Petersburgh, and that they have ad-
journed their answer to the questions put by the
Ambassadors, in the event, which is fortunately not
at all probable, of a violent rupture between Turkey
and Russia, until after the answer which the Russian
Government will make to the representations which
have been addressed to it in favour of the indepen-
dence of the Ottoman Porte."

The following paragraph, which appears in the
Freese, confirms this announcement :
" Yesterday evening M. de Tocqueville received
through Lord Normanby a communication of the inten-
tions of the English Government, and M. de Toeque-
vine replied that the French Cabinet would follow the
same course as that of London. Before sending defini-
tive instructions to Sir Stratford Canning, the Cabinet
of London wished to act directly on that of St. Peters-
burgh. A note, conceived in energetic terms, has been
sent by Lord Palmerston to M. do Nesseirode. A simi-
lar note has been sent by M. de Tocqueville. It is pro-
bable that the affair will end in the exchange of these
notes. By letters from Constantinople of the 19th, Rus-
sia has already greatly lowered her pretensions. We
do not think that much importance should be attached
to the paragraph in the Marseilles Courier."
The paragraph from the Marseilles Courier, to
which the Presse alludes, says news from Alexandria
had been brought by the Medina. The Merlin had
been sent from Malta to Corfu to Admiral Sir WIL-
LIAM PARKER, with very important dispatches on the
affairs of Constantinople. The whole of the English
fleet is to proceed to the Dardanelles.

The Turkish Ambassador in Paris had an inter-
view with the French Minister of Foreign Affairs on
Thursday, and which lasted for two hours.
It is said that the Legitimatist portion of the
Cabinet will immediately retire, and that M. DE
FALLOUI will be succeeded by M. PISCATORY, and
General RULLIERE by General BEDPAIL The
PRESIDENT has at length become aware of the object
of the intrigues of the Legitimatists, whose only aim
is to bring about a restoration of the elder branch of
the House of Bourbon by Russian bayonets.
A Cabinet Council was held yesterday morning,
which was attended by the Minister of the United
States, who presented a note on the subject of the
conduct of M. PousslN, which was couched in very
strong terms. The Moniteur publishes an official an-
nouncement of the appointment of M. Bois LE COMTE
as Ambassador to the United States, and cf LUCIEN
MURAT as Minister at Turin, to succeed M. Boss LE
COMTE.

The Presse, alluding to the differences which have
arisen between the French Minister at NVashington
and the American Government, says—" Some expla-
nations of the affair are necessary. The French Go-
vernment demanded an indemnity for the losses caused
to French subjects by the war in Mexico. This de-
mand having met with some difficulties at
Washington, the French Government charged our
Minister, M. GUILLAUME TELL POUSSIN, to an-
nounce to the American Government that the indem-
nities claimed would be kept back out of the an-
nuities not yet due of the 25 millions of francs, for
which we were the debtors of the United States. It
appears that the letter written on the subject by M.
YoussiN was couched in rather unsuitable language,
of which the French Government, while maintaining
the claim, has expressed its disapproval."
The Evenement says :

" We are assured that interpellations are to be ad-
dressed in the National Assembly to the Ministry on
the subject of the suspensian of the piece entitled
Rome, at the Porte St. Martin Theatre. If we are well
informed, M. Dufaure intends to reserve the question of
the liberty of the theatres, and to stand upon the ques-
tion of municipal police and public security.
The history of this cliksma is remarkable. The
Provisional Government of February abolished the
Dramatic Censorship which has never been restored.
During the whole time the Provisional Government
was in power, its members were the subjects of con-
stant attacks by the vaudevillists and farce writers.
General CAVAIGNAC and his Ministry were also
unmercifully ridiculed during the whole time they
ri
were in power, and after the advancement to office
of the present Ministry, M, rßownto was
produced

on the stage in propria persona as the hero of a
burlesque. Neither the Provisional Government nor
General CAVASGNAC thought it worth their while to
notice these attacks, indeed the General himself fre-
quently attended the theatres, and laughed as hear-
tily as the rest at the witty malice of the
rogues. While the attacks of these gentry
w ere exclusively directed :against the Republicans,
they were petted, and praised, and hallooed on by
the reactionaries, who thought " liberty of the
theatres " a very fine thing indeed. At length they
were caught in a trap. A piece entitled Rome was
produced at the Porte St. Martin in which General
OUDINOT and the POPE, and dautwi, and GARI-
BALDI were introduced. The piece had been
written with the intention of making it the
vehicle of a demonstration in favour of the
parti pretre. The Evenement says :—" The
Minister of Public Instruction had placed in
his hands the scenario of the piece entitled Rome ;
and after having read it he addressed to the Director
of the Porte St. Martin the most Ilvely congratula-
tions—they might almost be termed thanks ;" the
boxes were well packed by priests and their agents,
and they all applauded the POPE and hooted MAZ-
ZINI, but the public in the pit and galleries were too
powerful for them, and the result was, that notwith-
standing the efforts of the parti-pretre and the police,
MAZZINI and GARIBALDI were applauded to the
echo and Pio NoNo and his priests soundly hissed ;
and, now these worthy gentlemen, finding that this
pretty plot has failed, call out for the suppression of
the piece and t7he re-establishment of the Censorship.
The piece has been suppressed, but be it ever remem-
bered that M. DE FALLOUX aided and assisted in its
production.
M. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE was examined in the
Bill Committee on the subject of his motion relative
to the amnesty to the family of the Bourbons and
the June insurgents. Ile entered into a lengthened
development of his proposition, of which the following
is a resunsd:—
" The assimilation between the exiled Bourbons and

the insurgents of June does not result from the propo-
sition, the only object of which is to repair an act of in-
justice in our code without distinction of persons. The
necessity of proscriptive decrees no longer exists, and the
pretenders, once returned to Paris, would be no more
than simple citizens.! Should the Count de Chambord
refuse to return, it would be a death-blow to his future
prospects. The Assembly by voting the proposition
would give a proof of conciliation, without creating any
danger or embarrassment to the Republic."
This argumentation was not to the liking of the
Committee, which, judging the proposition bad in its
form, declined a discussion of its bearing. The
Legitimatists, especially, strongly opposed it, declaring
that the very existence of a Republic was a proscrip-
tion against the Count DE CHAMBORD. M. DESJA•.
BERT was appointed reporter of the Commission.
M. MOLE has been appointed President and M.
BEUGNOT Secretary to the Commission appointed to
examine the credits demanded for the Roman expe-
dition.

It was considered in Paris that Russia and Austria

would persist in the ultimatum which they had pre-
sented to the Porte, as it was the wish of the Abso-
lutist Powers to provoke a war with France and
England. If such be the case we can assure
these crowned woman•floggers that England is per-
fectly ready to accommodate them, and we have no
doubt France is ready also.
PARIS BOURSE.—FRIDAY, Ocr. 5, . .

The market has been rather heavy to-day, and at the
close prices were marked a shade lower ; Threes at
55f. 55c.; and Fives at 88f. sc. The market closed as
follows :—Threes, for cash, 55f. 55c.; for account, 55f.
55c. ; Fives, for cash, 88c. ; for account, 88f. 5c.;
Bank of France Shares, 2,315 f.; Spanish and Neapolitan
not quoted.
RAILWAYS.—Shares have been also heavy, but prices
are not generally quoted lower. Orleans closed at 730 f.;
Rouen, 525 f.; Havre, 250f.•' Avignon, 213 f. 75c.; Vier-
zon' 290 f.; Strasburg and Basle, 101 f. 25c.; Bordeaux,
402 f. 50c.; Nsrthern, 427 f. 50c.; Paris and Stras-
berg, 348 f. 75c.; Nantes, 287 f. 50c.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK-EXCHANGE, Octr. 4_

The qn ly transaction to-day woo—Northern of France,
314 dis.

SPAIN.

Madrid journals of the 30th ult. hare arrived.
General NARVAEZ has returned to Madrid, and it
was said a Cabinet Council would be held, at which
the question of the tariff would he considere d.
The Bolsa was closed on the 30th.