The Sun.
London, England, 1825-02-28 00:00:00

DIED.

At Edinburgh, on Tuesday, the 22d inst., Miss Katharine
Wedderburn, aged 81 years.
On Saturday morning, at his residence, Kingston, Surrey,
C. J. Jemmett, Esq., Coroner for the County, in his 73d year.
On the 25th inst., Mr. Henry Gilbertson, of Pilgrim-street,
Ludgate-hill, in the 55th year of his age, of paralysis.
On Tuesday, the 22d inst., at Hammersmith, Mrs. Marga-
ret Ogle Hammond, in the 76th year of her age.
On Thursday, the 24th inst., Mr. Charles Peto, of Ockham,
Surrey.

TILE LONDON JOURNALS.

DAILY

Extractsfrion the MorningPlTers, Feb.9B, 1825.
•

[NEW TIMES.]

The extraordinary rise in th-e price of Colonial
produce, particularly of Spices, which has taken
place within the last week, has led us to make.
some inquiry into the cause of this remarkable.
and rapid increase of value. We learn that, the.
Dutch are with great dexterity endeavouring to
create for themselves a monopoly of spices, and
that, with their usual foresight and persevering
industry, they have so managed matters as to.
have some prospect of accomplishing their puT-
pose. Since they obtained possession of Sumatr,t
they have continued to pay much attention to the
cultivation of spices, which had been introduced,
there, and, as we hear, the speculation is likely
to prove a very profitable one. It is true a long
period is requisite to bring them to perfection
(we believe Cloves require thirty years) ; but
Dutch patience is proverbial, and they will not
lose their object by a premature production io
the market of an inferior article. Nutmegs,
Cloves, and Cinnamon, are cultivated at Trini-
dad ; but the West Indies cat► furnish little :
and as consumption increases every day with the
astonishing increase of wealth and population,
the supply of these articles seems inadequate to
the demand. Within these few years extensive ,
plantations of Spices have► been made at Prince of
Wales's Island ; but we cannot speak positisely
as to the result, or what success has attended the
experiment.

4

1 µ

[rue Timm.]
A petition was presented to the House of COM-
mons on Thursday last, from the city of Edin-'
burgh, praying for the repeal of the stamp-duties
on policies of insurance. ' There is no tax which
appears to us more objectionable in its principle
than this. Two parties are agreed, the one to
insure, and the other to guarantee against a defin-
ed risk, whether of life, or fire, or the sea, wide!',
owing to the immense number of theie transactions
daily effected, is capable of being reduced by cal-
culation to the utmost nicety. It is worth a •
given sum to the insured to protect his property ;
and the insurer, by some slight exercise of dis,
cerntnent and prudence, which enables him to •
incline the balance of risk in his favour, finds
in the aggregate his ow n interests benefitted by
the constant engaging in such transactions. This
latter condition is a necessary one, or no persons
would be found to make a trade 'of iststirance.--:
In this stage of the contract, Government steps
in and lays a tax on it, in many instances equal
to another insurance, and makes the bargain in
that degree an unfair one to the insured. We
believe that this form of taxation does not exist
'at all on the Continent, whither much business
is in consequence transferred, winch the superior
confidence in English security, would otherwise
bring .to this country. Much is lost, too, from. •
' the consideration which intelligent persons ex-
ercise in taking their own risks, when they dis- •
cover that Government compels them to pay a dis. •
proportionate sum for protection. We have no
doubt whatever, that if this tax is repealed there
will be very. large sums annually paid by foreigners
to this country for insurance, of which we are now
deprived by its operation. We should thus be en:-
abled, by the stability and superior knowledge
of business possessed by our capitalists, to create •
a source of national wealth, not less legitimate,
perhaps, than that arising from our commerce and
manufactures, from which, also, far greater 1.)e•• •
[left would result in the end to the Government
than is now derived from the operation of this',
most injudicious tax. 'We are sure that in urg, •
hag its repeal, and describing the advantages tkat •
would thereby be attained, we speak the senti-
ments of some of the most intelligent merchants
in the city of London.

[HORNING HERALD.]
The Chancellor of the Exchequer this evening
brings forward the " Budget"—or,as it is now call-
ed, since it is no longer a bag of ills to be dreaded,
the Statement relative to the Finances. Thu
Army Estimates should have preceded this state-
ment, and would have done so but for the de-
bate on Mr. Goulburn's Bill. By that prece-
dence, Lord Palmerston would have had the
opportunity of stating the amount, the probable :
expellee, and the causes of the contemplated in-
crease of the Army ; as it is, the Chancellor of.
the Exchequer will be forced into details on the. •
subject, or Lord Palmerston must irregularly. ,
enter upon explanations previously to moving his
Estimates. His Majesty, in tie Speech on the
opening of Parliament, after mentioning that thl,
44 state of India," and "circumstances connected.
with other parts of our foreign possessions,"
rendered an augmentation of the Army indis-
pensable, said, that notwithstanding such in-
crease of expeuce, it would still• be in the power
of Parliament, " without affecting public credit,
to give additional facilities to the national in-
dustry, and to make a fur ther reduction in the
burdens of the people." But if that increase of
the Army, and the consequent expellee, could
not be shown to be requisite—though we believe
the contrary will be very satisfactorily proved--
then a greater reduction of taxation could be
effected ; therefore that point must 'in some way
be settled, before the Douse can very regularly
approach the question relating to Revenue and •
Expenditure. As to the objects of those re-
ductions which are at once, to give " addi-
tional facilities to national industry," and to
lighten the " burdens of the people," the
Chancellor of the Exchequer may be said .to
have given some idea of them by the me' •
tions which he made on Saturday morning,
after the division on the Irish Bill, and during
the exclusion of strangers—namely,
statement, which will take place in a Committee
of Ways and Means, that the House do resolve,
into a Committee " on the Customs and Excise
Acts." That
Acts, and on the Assessed. Taxes
it events in those
is the signal for alterations, at a-
Acts are con-
Acts. 'When changes in Money
• of the house first,to
templated, it is the practice
hose Acts, in which' the
go into Committees on
!lever moves iiesolutiong,
'Chancellor of the Exo •
n Inch may be d
embodying those changes emneuk
•
after his

" expedient." From such note of Preparation,
there can be little doubt that there will be re-
dactions of Customs and Excise Duties, as well
Rs of Assessed Taxes.

[mOiklyiNo POST.]
The general Catholic ;Meeting which took
place on Skop.lay at the Freemasons"favern,
appears to-us to have been got up chiefly to gra-
tify an amiable weakness—in other words, to give
some curious-people an opportunity of hearing two
Or three Irish Catholic Agitators declaim in public.
'We trust these singular critics are now satisfied ;
for, if we may judge from the reports of the
rations , we •
imagine it will be long before they
`-'cove,i a repetition of the exhibition. What did
the eloquent strangers who spoke at the Free-
masons' Hall advance to weaken the sound judg-
ment on which Mr. Goulburn's Bill has passed
the lower House of Parliament ? They fulminat-
ed dreadful imprecations against those who
spurned" their prayer to grant permission that
they might hear themselves spout at the Bar of
the House of Commons—but were they able to
mention a solitary fact militating against the va-
lidity of the grounds on which the measure has
been adopted ? A highly coloured epitome of
Irish history for 7 or 800 years was, we
presume, a poor apology for the refutation
of the penal charges against the Association.
In the opinion of the Deputy Orators the
subject seemed unworthy of argument—they
talked wildly and wantonly—figuratively and
-f.rociously—but a single reason we cannot dis-
cover in the whole web of their long spun dis-
courses. Was it then trash of that sort which
the House of Commons has rejected—Was it such
maudlin attempts at vindication, and rancorous
but impotent displays of vindictiveness, that the
Legislature was solicited to endure ? Verily,
we opine our wise men of the West are doom-
ed to little honour out of their own country ;
--there, may hap, they are the tritons among
the minnows, and make a dreadful plutter no
doubt ;—but here, we take leave to warn them,
their philippics are equally unworthy of being
reported and read. We are almost inclined to
join with Mr. Secretary Canning in the wish that
these Gentlemen might appear for once in their
Eves in Parliament—for assuredly that is the
place where " all demagogues shrink to their
proper dimensions."

[monNt No ctinONICLE-]
Our readers will find elsewhere an ample ac-
count of the Catholic Meeting at Freemasons'
Tavern, on Saturday last. We have so often ex-
pressed our sentiments on the subject of the Bill
to put down the Catholic Association, that we
will offer no remarks on it at present. We shall
merely observe, that Mr. O'Connell gave a mas-
terly review of the Catholic persecutions, and
summed up the grounds for passing the Suppres-
sion Bill, which might be all comprehended in
the single one, that the Catholics were now unani-
mous. He contrived to place the objectors to
the word hatred in the far-famed Address of
the Association to the Catholics of Ireland, in
rather an awkward position, by reducing them to
the necessity of either approving of the Orange
Societies, or disapproving of the Bible.—" I ap-
"• pealed," he says, " to the judgment, the pas-
" sions, and the fears of the people to support
" my earnest recommendation to be peaceful, and
".why should I not appeal to them by the strong
" feelings of resentment, by the natural hatred
" they had to oppression ? If I had not, my sin-
" verity must have been doubted ; they might
"have said to me, you have left out the grin-
" cipal ingredient of the dish. You are acting the
" Advocate, but you have neglected to call the I
" principal witness. Is is not legitimate to hate
the robber, the oppressor, and the murderer?
" I should prove that the Orangeman was all
" this. Do I hate their persons ? No, God for-
" bid !—but 1 hate their principles. I shall
" refer you to a book which we all respect, and
66 in which resentment is not alluded to in the
" lady-like terms that mighf be agreeable to the
66 House of Commons. I will read you the lan-
-66 guage of Poetry. Iu Psa inr 132, v. 21,22, you
" will find these words—' Do not I hate them,o
" Lord, that hate thee ; and am not grieved with
" those that rise up against thee ? Yea, I hate them
".right son. ; even as though they were mine
64 enemies!' "—Nit.. Shiell stated the outlines of
a few of the cases of oppression which are of
constant occurrence in Ireland, which admira-
bly serve to illustrate time argument of those
wlio. contend that the Administration of Justice
in Ireland is every thing that it ought to be.

[Bit/TM' PRESS.]
The Brussels papers of Saturday arrived last
:light. The only intelligence they contain is, that
on.. Tuesday the First Chamber of the States.
General again debated the project of law rela-
tive to the French coin in the kingdom. Some
Members protested against the renewal of the
debate ; they also declared that they would not
vote on the law, which they considered as having
?peep rejected in the sitting of the 18th of Ja-
nuary last, when the votes were equal. The Pre-
sident endeavour►'d to convince them that the
prOceeding was perfectly constitutional. After
a short debate, the project was adopted. Twenty.
one voted for it, eight against it, and five refrain-
ed, from voting.

On the Catholic Meethig at the Freemasons'
Tavern on Saturday, we hei,e only a-single obser.
vation to make. Mr. Canning was unhesitatingly
contradicted when he said that there was a large
/wigs of inert opposition to the Catholic claims,
and that The conduct of the Association was calcu-
lated to rouse the indifferent to hostility. If any
doubt existed as to the correctness of the Right
Hon. Secretary's assertion, it must now be re-
moved. All the attraction resulting from the
wetl•known eloquence of the speakers, and the
peculiar novelty of the occasion, failed in drawing
together. SO numerous an assemblage.as we have.
seen collected in the same Hall at the anniversary
meetings of many charitable societies. No proof
can be more positive that the Association has
done injury to the cause it professed to supporl,
(Md.)

CTRS PUBLIC LEDGEIt.j
:ne„..lr,rench Papers of laswhich arrived
antaia nothing of importance, except

the proceedings on the Indemnity Bill, in the
Chamber of Deputies ; and the chief interest of
these is in the matter more than in the manner.
Nothing new, or particularly marked, was struck
out in the course of the debate ; and the argu-
ments, both of its opponents and advocates,
seem to have been pretty nearly exhausted. As
to the fate of the measure in that Chamber, it is
very accurately ascertained; and there is no
doubt but it will be carried by a very triumph-
ant majority; its passing through the other Cham-
ber is not quite so certain ; though the chances,
from what we have learned, are decidedly in
its favour. Should Villelle carry this mea-
sure, his arrogance, which is a compound of
the bloated feelings of the Gascon and the
undeserving minion, will kick down before
it all the fences of prudence ; but whether
it will evaporate abroad or at home—in some
outrageous act of foreign policy, or in a new in-
road upon the rights of the nation—it would be
hazardous to try to anticipate. If it vent
itself abroad, it will select either Russia or
England for its object; but as the selection
of the latter would be more acceptable to
his party, and less hazardous to his own
power, it is probable we shall have to bear
the brunt of his insolence. His party, who
will share in the pride of the triumph, and
who hate England in proportion to the favours
which she conferred on them in the days of their
adversity, will never rest satisfied till they can
gratify this hatred ; and no Minister would be
secure, who should venture to oppose them in this
feeling. Besides, they justly regard our liberty
as an almost insurmountable check upon them
in the prosecution of their arbitrary designs ; and
as they are proverbially arrogant, they will, to a
moral certainty, try to organize a general confe-
deracy, for the purpose of compelling this coun-
try to return within the pale of legitimacy. This
is to be our remuneration for having replaced the
Bourbons upon the French and Spanish Thrones.

COUNTRY MARKETS AND FAIRS

DURING TII LAST WEEK.

BERM
REA:

SHIRE.
kDING.

NVhaat
Barley
Oats 2os a 28s , White —s a -s

WANTAGE,
Wheat
Barley
I'eas