The Sun.
London, England, 1849-07-20 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, JULY 20, 1849.

Last evening her MAJESTY'S Government expe-
rienced a defeat upon a question of vital importance—
s question relating to the radix of administration.
Upon the introduction of his promised motion on the
present system of taxation and of public expenditure,
31r. HENRY DRUMMOND oh:2lnel a majority of three
in his favour out of a House of 139-68 voting for,
and 71 against the amendment introduced by Lord
ROBERT GROSVENOR. Now, taking into con-
sideration the rapidly approximating close of the
session, and the thinness of the attendance
in the Commons, we are ready, of course,
to acknowledge that the triumph, though
distinct enough in itself, is very far from being, in
any degree, decisive. Still it is entitled to some
degree of attention from its peculiar significance,
from its being indicative of a disposition on the part
of no insignificant division of the Parliament to
require a searching revision, and ultimately a complete
re-organization of the existing mode of taxation
and expenditure.
The purport of the motion introduced by the
Honourable Gentleman the Representative of West
Surrey cannot be regarded even by the
most radical reformer of finance as in
any respect ambiguous. Its different clauses
are sufficiently explicit condemnatory of the
" amount" of taxation as larger than is actually re-
quisite for "the good and efficient government of the
United Kingdom," and of the "mode" of taxation, as
pressing lightly on the wealthier and heavily on the
poorer portions of the population. It denounced,
moreover, in so many words the enormous sums con-
sumed " in supporting needless places, extravagant
salaries, and unnecessary works and establishments."
Although the Honourable Gentleman disclaimed
from the outset any intention to make a direct charge
exclusively against the ruling statesmen—the evil of
which he complained having arisen many generations
before the birth of the one which witnessed their
accession to power—it was evident that no other
attitude could be assumed by the organs of the Cabi-
net but that of the defensive. The interests of the
present are identical with those of all the preceding
Governments—those interests being the interests of
patronage, place, and emolument. It was incumbent,
therefore, upon the Right Hon. Baronet the CHAN-
CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER to deliver precisely the
speech as that pronounced by him last evening, in an-
swer to the aspersions cast at the policy of which his of-
ficial rank rendered him for the timebeing the advocate.
It was very far, however, from being incumbent upon
the majority of the representatives present to declare
by their votes their disrelish for the ancient and pre-
vailing schemes of national taxation and public ex-
penditure.
Mr. DRUMMOND must, nevertheless, judiciously
abstain from claiming for his arguments anything at
all approaching to the characteristic of novelty.
Those especially in which he demonstrated the

odious and glaring injustice of class legis-
lation, as instanced in the relative propor-
tion of taxes imposed upon the richer and poorer
divisions of the community, are familiar to the mul-
titude, in consequence of their endless repetition.
That the olden system of taxation was in the highest
degree unjust—that that injustice consisted princi-
pally in the exorbitant imposts inflicted upon the
labouring classes, as compared with the imposts levied
upon their superiors in wealth—that this was shown
in the tax of 10 per cent. levied on the cottons worn
by the upper classes, and the tax of 50 per cent.
levied on those cottons, which, from their
comparative cheapness, were used by the
working population—that the same monstrous ar-
rangement was shown in the duties imposed on beer,
on wine, and on leather (leather being taxed according
to the pound weight, wine being subjected to a pay-
ment of 100 per cent. ad valorem duty, and 150 per
cent. being fixed upon beer, the common beverage of
the labourer)—that this execrable and unjust system
had been bolstered up by a variety of aristocratic in,
fluence was all known well enough to the masses long
before the light of truth upon this particular dawned
upon the imagination of the lion. Gentleman
the Member for West Surrey. Neither did it re-
main for Sir CHARLES WOOD to announce to the
people of the United Kingdoms that " the tendency
of all recent fiscal legislation was to abandon the ad
valorem system and to impose axed duties on all
commodities." But it did remain for a majority of
the House of Commons to avow as distinctly as it
did yesterday, that the nation still regards with im-
patience the fact that the principle of taxa
tion, by which the relative amounts have been
fixed, has not yet been entirely abandoned.
That there does exist the tendency spoken of by the
CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER no one presumes to
gainsay ; but what the population requires is, not a
tendency to reform, but reform itself. The "ten-
dency" of the reforming policy of Sir ROBERT
PEEL'S Administration was recognised in the aeries of
great innovations which gradually led to his grand
measure of 1846. The " tendency" of the re
forming policy of Lord JOLIN RU,SSELL',s Ad-
ministration is guessed at only through
the dubious atmosphere of party platitudes
and official ambiguities. In the former Government
we could recognise the development of a grand effort
for the amelioration of the industrial classes. In tin
latter it is as impossible to conjecture the purpose o
the policy of the Ministers as it is to conjecture tht
next pattern in the shaken heads and glass splinters
of a kaleidoscope. It is because of the miserably du
bious posi ion occupied by Lord JOHN RUSSELL and
his col!eagues among the number of Reformers that
they occasionally find themselves, as they did last
evening, in an ignominious minority.

13;.sidea the public meeting to be holden on Mon-
diy at the London Tavern, it w ill be learnt with
satisfaction by those who sympathise with curselvet
in the cause of the Hungarians, that strenuous efforts
are making by a portion of our hereditary and repre-
sentative Legislators to protest against the apathetic
policy of her MAJESTY'S Government. A Memorial;
addressed to the Ministerial advisers of the SOVE
REIGN, is now in progress of being signed by Mem-
bers of both Houses of the Imperial Parliament—
and, be sure, among those signatures the names
of the noble-hearted representatives who con-
stitute the Hungarian Committee occupy a
very conspicuous position—in which 'Memorial
the attention of the Ministry is forcibly directed
to the unholy coalition between the Austrian
Imbecile and the Russian Autocrat, against the liberty
of the population, and the integrity of the dominions
of Hungary. It demands, moreover, in energetic lan-
guage that the Government shall at once clearly and
strongly express its disapprobation, if not horror, at
this unjust agiression on a people whose noble
conduct excites the sympathy of all Europe. The
public will be, moreover, interested to learn
that this able and powerful Memorial—conceived
in a spirit so generous, and conveyed in
terms so emphatic—is understood to be the produc-
tion of a very distinguished nobleman—the Earl
FITZWILLIAM. Through the medium of this Memo-
rial, of these public meetings, and of our pecuniary
Testimonial, the people and the Parliament of Eng-
land will be enabled to declare their sympathy for
the Hungarian cause in tones loud enough to set at
defiance the repressive influence of the Government.

A paragraph will be found in another part of this
evening's impression formally contradicting the
statement that Mr. JAMES PARKER, Q C., had con-
sented to become a candidate for the repre-
sentation of the city of London. We can-
not be in any degree surprised that such
a very silly project has been abandoned,
when we know that the requisition to Mr. PARKER,
calling upon him to stand forward on the hustings at
Guildhall as the organ of the Protectionist interests,
received only four signatures at the Queen's Head in
the Poultry ! and only five signatures in the Grand
Committee Room at the London Tavern ! Nine sup-
porters being all that the Conservative cause could
muster in a long summer's day in the heart of the
city of London! Surely, this is a new version, or
rather a travestie of the Midsummer Day's Dream.

TEE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday
The Assembly on Wednesday granted the necessary
authorization for the prosecution of MM. COMMIS-
SAIRE, CANTAGREL, and KCENIG.
The National has the following :
" The Prince of CANINO (CHARLES BONAPARTB, the
son of LucrEN), ex-President of the Roman Consti-
tuent Assembly, was yesterday arrested at Orleans by
order of the Ministry, just as he had arrived at that
city from Marseilles on his road to Paris. It is re-
ported that he is to be transferred to the Chateau of
Ham.

The same journal states that a serious collision,
attendel with loss of life, had taken place in Corsica,
between a battalion of the Garde Mobile stationed in
that island and certain of the inhabitants, who were
offended at the language in which some of the
Gardes Mobiles had_spoken of the PRESIDENT of the
Republic, their countryman.
The Assemblee Nationale proposes to plant a new
colony, in which all the political exiles at present re-
siding in France shall be invited to settle.
The National Guard of Beaumont and of Aubien,
in the Auvergne, have been dissolved by a decree of
the PRESIDENT of the Republic.
The Committee to whom the demand for the pro-
rogation of the Assembly was referred has reported
in favour of that measure.

The Permanent Commission of Finance has been
definitely constituted. M. BERRYER has been named
President, and M. Goyim Vice-President. MM. Dm
CHASSELOUT, LounAT, and BODST have been elected
secretaries.

The debate on the laws of the press is fixed for
Saturday.
M. DE ROTHSCHILD left Paris on Wednesday for
Vienna.

A clandestine manufactory of gunpowder has ls?en
discovered at Borc Roger, in the department of the
E ure.

Letters from Toulon state that two ships of war
are being fitted out in that harbour to receive the
Lyons insurgents. The steam frigate Isly, of 650
horse power, is to be launched at Brest on the 19th
instant.

The Three per Cents, closed on the Paris Bourse, on
Thursday, at 53E 30c. ; the Five per Cents. 87f. 50e.;
Orleans Railroad Shares, 777 f. 50e.; Havre, 265 E;
Great Northern, 418 f. 75c. ; Avignon, 186 f. 25c.;
Viorz)n, 310 f.; Basle, 101f.25c.; Bordeaux, 396f.25,7.;
Paris and Strasburg, 325 f. 50c. ; Tours and Nantes,
306 f. 25c.
B LIS'NESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK-EXCHANGE, JULY 19.
6%—Orleans and Bordeaux, 3
ToßursoulaongdneNaannd ens,teAs,m3i.

SPAIN.
Madrid journals of the 14th have arrived.
The Senate passed the Tariff BEI on the 13th by a
majority of 74 to 23. It was expected the Cortes
would be prorogued on the 15th.
MADRID BOLSA., JULY 14.—The Three per Cents.,
26i for account; Five per Cents., 111 paper. Exchange
on London, 50 70 money.

CITY OF LONDON ELECTION PETITION.—CounseI
retained to defend the seat of Baron Rothschild, Mr.
Hill, Q.C., Mr. Edwin James, and Mr. Crompton;
for the petition, Mr. Sergeant Wrangham, Mr. Hope,
and Mr. Merewether. It is doubtful whether it will
be tried during this session.
We are authorised to state that Mr. James Parker
has never had any intention of offering himself as a
candidate for the representation of the City.
ROYAL COMPANY OF ARCHERS- The annual
prize given by her Majesty to her body-guard for Scot-
land was ....lot for in Hope-park, and was p inta by John
Gillespie, Esq , W.S. The royal company afterwards
entertained the officers of the North British staff and of
the garrison at dinner in their hall, his Grace the Duke
of Roxburgh presiding.—Dally Mail.

GERMANY
AND

THE NORTHERN STATES.

PRUSSIA.

The Prussian Moniteur of July 17 says :
" We are able to make the following communications
relative to the treaty concluded on the 26th May between
Prussia, Saxony, and Hanover, and proposed to the other
German Governments. The formal adhesion to it of the
Grand Duchy of Baden and of the Duchies of Anhalt•
Bembourg have also been received from the Grand
Duchies of Hesse Darmstadt, Saxe Weimar, Mecklen-
burg Strelitz, Oldenburg, and Nassau. The Govern-
ments of the El2ctorate of Hesse, and of the Duchies of
Saxe Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Altenburg,
Anhalt-Dessau, and Cothen, and the free town of Bre-
men, have plenipotentiaries at present at Berlin negoti-
ating terms of accession. Brunswick will also soon send
a representative on her part. Tee sittings of the Council
of Adwinistration of the Allied Governments, in which
-he Baden plenipotentiary Meysenbourg takes part, con-
tinue regularly."
The following are the brms of the armistice agreed
on between Prussia and Denmark :

" A suspension of hostilities, both by sea and land,
..or six months, is agree,' to. At the close of this period
lie armistice, if not to be renewed, is to continue six
weeks longer. The Prussian and German troops are to
withdrawn from Jutland within twenty five days
41ter the ratification of the armistice, and to take up
he position assigned to them in the articles agreed on.
The Generals on either side are to agree upon a line of
demarcatien extending from Flensburg on the south to
rendern on the north. During the continuance of the
armistice Prussia is allowed to keep 6,000 men on the
,outh side of the line. The part of Schleswig which is
co the north of the line is to be occupied by 2,000
neutral troops. The King of Sweden is to be
requested to furnish these troops. The King
of Denmark is to bear the costs herwby in-
curred. The islands of Alien and Aree are to remain
:n the occupation of the D:nish troepr. The blockade
is to be raised as soon as the Germln troops have been
moved to the south of Rensburg. The orders for their
retreat, and for the removal of the blockade, are to be
issued at the same time. The captured vessels, with
.hair cargoes, are to be restored on both sides. If the
2argoes have perished compensation is to be made. Tne
~ontributions in money and horses exacted in Jutland
-are to be repaid.
"Commissioners are to be appointed by both parties to
-stime.te their amount, and if they cannot agree, en
English commissioner is to he ridded as umpire. All
prisoners arc to be exchanged at Flensburg within
twenty-five deys after the ratification. During the
;ontinuance of the armistice the Duchy of Sehleswig
is to be governt d by a commission, of which one member
is to be nominate:) by the King of Denmark, one by the
King of Prussia. The Queen of England is to be re-
quested to nominate a third member, Who is to decide in
cass when the other two cannot agree. The coal-
fission is to govern in conformity to the existing laws.
it is empowered to repeal all laws enacted since the 17th
if March, IS4B, of which it does not approve. It can
!:-.11 out the troops stationed in the different parts of the
luchy, for the purpose of maintaining order. It is, in
!uncert with the King of Denna,.rk, to decide what flig
.he ships of Schleswig are to sail under. The rest of the
sr rman states arc to be invited to accede to the armistice,
end on their accession they are to be admittel to the
y...nefit of all its provisions. The ratifications are to be
.xchanged within eight days."