The Sun.
London, England, 1838-06-19 00:00:00

Government on the dirt, is just to the refiner and just
to the consumer. In the last debate on the subject Mr.
POULETT THOMSON said something was to be allowed for
the expense of refining, but that ought to be paid by the
consumers. The increased price of refined augar above
raw sugar is the payment of the manufacturer for the addi-
tional value his labour has imparted to the article. The
public ought net to pay that in the shape of a bounty,
which is taxing us to give cheap sugar to the people of
the continent. Except for the purpose of giving the West
India planters a bounty on exporting sugar, thus enabling
them to tax us, there is not the shadow of a reason why
the drawback should not be reduced to 245. or 2.5 s as
proposed by Mr. CLAY.
One fact stated in the article we have alluded to has
great weight with us. The refiner separates from the common
sugar a deleterious material. All those who use Musco-
vado sugar consume a great portion of dirt and slug poison.
All the opulent people of all countries use refined sugar,
in preference to raw sugar, which on the Continent is
looked on with much dislike, proving by common consent
that the refined sugar is superior to raw sugar. It would,
in fact, be absurd to go through the process of refining, if
that labour did not add to the utility and value of the sugar.
It is like separating bran from flour, or like those more
delicate processes by which quinine or morphia is separated
from bark or opium, and the food or the medicine is
made doubly efficacious by being unmixed with mere
husks or wood. It is therefore of advantage to the
public health that refined sugar should be substituted
for raw sugar in general consumption. Now, the effect of
the enhanced price is to make people use raw sugar instead
of refined sugar. But for the bounty, therefore, the use of
refined sugar would be increased, and the trade of the re-
finer would be much extended. The people would no
longer submit to swallow dirt and slug poison. The only ob-
jection we have heard or imagined to the abolition of the
bounty is, that it would injure the refiner by shutting him
out of the foreign market ; but, if the view we have here
set forth be correct, he would be amply compensated by
the extended market he would be sure to find at home.
For much other interesting information we must refer our
readers to the article which has suggested our remarks.

The Standard of last evening in speaking of the recent
duel between M. DE MELCY and Lord CASTLEREAGH,
takes the opportunity of indulging in some sneers at " Mrs.
Galse of the most insulting and ungenerous character.
0 There is," says our pious Contemporary—who among other
high qualifications, piques himself on being the Parson's
Paper, and, of course, therefore, the very mirror of good
taste and gentleman-like feeling—" there is, it seems, a
singing woman, named Gant, at some of the theatres." A
singing woman ! Why, what gross, vulgar personality is,
this ! How like the flippant arrogance of some pert West-
end footman, who conceives unmeasured insolence to be the
surest test of high breeding! If Madame Gaistis to be
visited with contempt and obloquy, because, though other-
wise of irreproachable character, she happens to be " a
singing woman," what is to be said for the majority of our
female aristocracy, a great portion of whose youth is spent
in the sedulous cultivation of that very art which our Con-
temporary deems worthy only of contempt ? SHAKSPEARE
has long since told us that

" The man that bath not music in his soul
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils,"

We will not go so far as this ; but we will say that such
a man, by the coarse tendencies of his mind, is admirably
fitted to pen a leading paragraph in the Parson's Paper.
But Madame GRIST, it seems, sings for her bread. This
is certainly a grave charge to bring against an intelligent
and accomplished foreign lady, who, though standing pro-
minent in the public eye, may bittl defiance to the shafts of
calumny ; but we have heard of Journalists scribbling in-
sults for their bread—and insults, too, against ladies whose
worst crime was that they were of foreign extraction=
which, to our thinking, is a far more disgraceful course to
adopt. We are glad it is a Tory Journal that has indulged
in this blackguardism. Had it been a Liberal one, the
Opposition Papers would have rung for a month with cries
of the insufferable vulgarity of the Whig and Radical
Press.

e have always thought that without a 5/. qualification
for the smaller boroughs in Ireland, Municipal Reform
would be little better than mockery for all but some ten or
eleven places ; and in this opinion we are fully borne out
by a statement made by Mr. R. STEUART last evening.
It appears that in some of the Scotch burghs the 101.
qualification excludes from the town-councils great
numbers of respectable citizens—in many instances
the very fittest persons for managing municipal af-
fairs,—and that in the district of burghs which he
represents, it is impossible to find fit and proper persons to
fill the corporate offices. If this is the case among a thriv-
ing population in a rich county like East Lothian, what are
we to expect in many of the Irish boroughs, where there is
little or no trade, and house-rent is a third less than in
Scotland ? A 10/. qualification, such as Sir ROBERT PEEL
proposes, would disfranchise-these places as effectually as
the noted plan introduced last year under his auspices
for the abolition of Corporations in Ireland. It in fact
amounts to the same thing, under a different name. Mr.
O'CONNELL submits to the 101. franchise, and of neces-
sity, and for the sake of the larger boroughs ; hut, even in
some of these places, it would operate as in Scotland, or
throw the whole management of Corporation affairs
into the hands of
,a few individuals. If in Dublin,
with a population of 265,000, the municipal body
would not be more than 2,200, in Waterford it
would probably not exceed 250 ; and in Wexford, it
would amount perhaps to only. Bo. What, therefore, would
be the use of passing such a Bill ? It would possibly make
some improvement in Dublin, Cork, and Galway ; but in
the rest of the boroughs the same complaints with those in
Scotland would arise, and the work of Municipal Reform
must be commenced anew. In rendering justice to Ire-
land, it is the duty of the Legislature not to place her
nominally, but in reality, on the same footing as England,
and by making allowances for the difference in the value of
property, give the franchise to a proportional number of the
inhabitants of towns. It is a fact beyond dispute that even
with a net 10/. qualification this would not be the case,
and Ireland will still have reason to complain, that in this
instance, as in some others, the people are treated as infe-
rior to Englishmen and Scotchmen.
We find

that Mr. PonLETT THomsoN is about to in-
roduce some measure to amend the Ist VICTORIA, with
respect to some regulation connected with Joint Stock
Company Bulks. As we arc not at this moment in pos-
session of the object which he aims to accomplish,
we cannot pronounce any opinion upon the subject.
We may, however, be &lowed to state that it was under
stood that there was to be no patch-work legisla-
tion with reference to Joint Stock Banking Companies,
until the Committee, which is still engaged in investigating
the subject had made their report, when a general law was
to have been passed to regulate Jnint Stock Banking Es-
tablishments throughout the United Kingdom. We do
not presume to say that the President of the Board of
Trade means any thing wrong; but this we can inform both
him and the CitAscELLort of the EXCHEQUER, that it will
be our duty to watch the progress of every measure affec-
ting such institutions, and that we will set our face against
any tinkering, or left. handed legislation.

The debate on the Irish Municipal Bill last night in the
House of Commons deserves a brief notice. Sir GEORGE
CLERK, on behalf of Sir R. PEEL, professed a desire to
obtain only a bona fide 10/., not a 12/. or 15/. franchise,
which his proposition would in reality establish. Mr.
O'CONNELL was ready to meet Sir ROBERT amicably on
the point. Mr. LASCELLES, Lord ELIOT, Mr. PtTsEv,
and a number of other Conservatives, professed a strong
desire to settle the MUnicipal question. Although it.
was known that the subject was to he brought forward,
Sir ROBERT PEEL, Sir JAMES GRAHAM, Lord STANLEY,
and all the leaders of the Tories, were absent ; and the
conclusion,thereforc, is, that they are disposed to enter into a
compro:nise, and allow the Municipal Bill to become law.
The opposition of such poor things as Mr. LITTON, or the
declaration of such political mites as Mr. DARBY, that
the Tories will then be betrayed, will not prevent the
Parliamentary-leaders from getting rid of this vexatious
question, on almost any terms, and in almost any manner.
Mr. O'CONNELL was throughout as bland and amiablo... as
Messrs. LITTON and DARBY were surly and discontented.
He, we imagine, therefore, sees his goal near at hand,
while they are removed further and further from their
object. Ireland will get municipalities for her towns ; but
will the Irish clergy thetefore 0-their tithes? The num-