The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-02 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

.1.1,

The petition to the House of Commons from the
inhabitants of London and Westminster, praying for
a reduction in the import duties on foreign and
colonial wine, which we print in another column,
is well worth the attention of the public, not only
in a political and economical, but also in a sanitar♦
point of view. The inhabitants of all great towns,
should bestir themselves, and give the Legislature
plainly to understand that they will no longer con-
sent to be poisoned for the sake of upholding
the landed interest. They should demand
such a reduction in the import duties on colonial
and foreign wines and spirits as would enable them to
substitute light and wholesome wine for heavy malt
liquor, of all beverages the most life-shortening for
persons who do not take an immense quantity of ex-
ercise in the open air, and in cases where spirits are
necessary, wholesome brandy, or sound old rum for
that most heating and delirium. exciting of all spirits,
gin, the use of which is forced upon the consumer
in order to enable the landowners to keep up
their rents. How many human lives are annually
sacrificed to the AfoLour of rent ownerism by the
protection still continued to beverages, the product of
barley ? This would be curious and useful matter for
statistical inquiry. The Protectionists have, of late, set up
as "Colonists friends," and contend that our colonies
should, in all commercial matters, be treated as in-
tegral parts of the empire ; they cannot, therefore,
with any consistency oppose the first prayer of the
petition—" That as no duty exists on home made
wines in England, and, as our best malt liquor is only
subject to a tax of twopence the gallon (regulated by
the duty on malt and hops), so the duty on our colonial
wines should, in no instance, exceed such an amount."
No measure could be devised more calculated to
develop the resources of our Australian and Cape
colonies than such a reduction of duty. The Australian
wine which has recently been imported as a speci-
men is of excellent quality; it can be procured in any
quantity, for the grape in New South Wales is more
prolific than in any other portion of the world, and
it could, if only subject to the same duty as
beer, be sold in England at tenpence a bottle,
which would leave a profit sufficient to pay the
grower, the importer, and the retail dealer.
Such a diminution of duty would also greatly de-
velop the resources of our colony at the Cape, and by
inducing settlers to plant vineyards on the Kafir fron
tiers, mould, by attracting there a large white popu
lation, which would of course be drilled and disci,

plined, render a future Kafir war impossible, by ren-
dering an outbreak hopeless. The petitioners state
that—" As ti wines, other than colonial, your peti-
tioners also humbly pray that the duty on them may
be lowered at least one half; and they have no doubt,
as in the case with brandy, that increased consump-
tion would prevent any diminution in revenue."
There cannot be any doubt but that the revenue
would b© greatly increased by a diminution of the
import duties on foreign wines one-half, and as we
have always contended that in the imposition of im-

port duties revenue, and revenue alone, is to be con•

sidered, we hope that the experiment of this reduction

will be tried, and that if successful a still further re-

duction will take place until we shall have reached
that point of financial perfection which gives us the

greatest amount of revenue with the least amount of
duty.

We would particularly direct attention to the ac-
count furnished by ourselves, in another column, of
the address yesterday presented to Mr. HuDews, at
Newby Park, by a deputation from the electors of
Sunderland. It will be observed that that address
is expressive of the fullest confidence of the
constituency "in the public and private
character" of their representative. And the impor-
tance of the document as bearing upon the estima-
tion in which Mr. HUDSON is held by the possessors
of the elective franchise at Sunderland, is enhanced
by the circumstance that the address is signed by
upwards of eight hundred of the electors—a
number constituting a majority of the constituents.
The circumstance of this address being altogether
spontaneous on the part of the inhabitants of Sunder-
land, cannot be overlooked in regard to its bearing
on the inquiries recently instituted. It is nothing
less than an emphatic testimonial, authenticated by
more than eight hundred signatures.
This fact surely speaks for itself. It cannot but
be regarded as a sufficient counterpoise to that
purblind and petulent animosity which has
recently been lavished upon a gentleman
whose misfortune it has been to have excited
the jealousies of persons seldom given to be
generous. The disinterested and uncalled for appro-
val of such a large number of Englishmen may be
tbe
t: w
c puer
pr sr oi
sneadl
surely taken as an ample compensation for the inte-
araestatel
gdoniaantad. splenetic
w e opposition of a f
find_ if t
ulla a d
complete something
o
moerxetenthuaantion. I\7llitroriu.t.
stl
ion a
seeking them, Mr. HUDSON has now obtained hie
compurgators. Let them speak for themselves.

INDIA
REVOLUTIONS.—On the sth of last Dec.
the Seneca Indians met in convention at the Catta-
rangus Reservation iu Erie County, New York, and
abolished their former Government, that of Chiefs, and
established a chartered republic.—Quelec Gazette.

Now we would, wiout any more ado, have Mr.
JOHN OVONNEL? to know this, that there is no au-
thority, either in Parliament or out of Parliament,
which can compel the reporters for the press to
write out all the twaddle that may be
spoken by him (Mr. Joux O'CONNELL) in
the House of Commons any more than there
is a power in the Legislature to inflict upon the popu-
lation the misery of wading through the iteration of
commonplaces pronounced by the Honourable and
Learned Representative of Limerick. That matter
of real interest and importance should be excluded
from the newspapers for the sake of finding room for
whatever nonsense may be articulated, by gentle-
men like Mr. Joii O'CONNELL, who are not only
fond of talking nonsense by the hour, but are
also particularly fond of seeing that nonsense
printed off' on the same evening or on the
following morning, by the column, is rather
too good a joke both for the public and
for the journalist. When Mr. Joini O'CONNELL
can contrive to deliver long orations, worthy in auy
respect of being reported, or likely in any degree to
be subsequently perused, then, but not till then, will
he find himself treated with the same elaborate atten-
tion that is lavished upon such orators and states-
men as the Prime Minister, or the Foreign Secretary,
as the Right Hon. Baronet the Representative of ,!
Tamworth, or the Hon. Gentleman the Member for
Buckinghamshire.

But that the egotism of Mr. Joins O'CONNELL
is transparent throughout the whole of his very
ridiculous complaint—but that he himself made
an acknowledgment of his overweening self•suffi•
ciency when he confessed last evening that " it might
be said he thought too much of himself "—it might
almost have been imagined, from his indirect eulo-
gium upon the verbatim employment of the art of
stenography, that he was personally interested in the
success of that typographical eccentricity the Fonetic
Nez. One would have conceived that Mr. JOHN
O'CONNELL might, without any very extraordinary
effort of intelligence, have learnt by this time that
e►en a larger discretion devolves upon the gallery of
reporters in the Lords and Commons than that of ab.
breviating some of the speeches delivered in the course
of a discussion. He might have found out that it is
frequently necessary for the occupants of that gallery
not only to suppress large portions of irrelevant or
unimportant harangues, but to impart to their resi-
dues some at least of the more essential elements of
composition, the proprieties of grammatic construc-
tion, if not the graces of syntax or the adornments
of rhetoric—and this not only for the convenience of
the reading public, but for the sake also of the re-
putation of The debaters. Had Mr. Jons O'CON-
NELL been a BURKE Or a GRATTAN had
he possessed, indeed, but one tittle of the
genius, of the eloquence, or of the influence of
his great father—it would still have required a mar-
vellous degree of assurance, and a very large share
of vanity, to make the complaint which he Mr.
Jens O'Cosman (with all his painful deficiency
both in genius, in eloquence, and in influence) had
the effrontery to make last evening, and to make, too,
without the apology of a blush. In conclusion, we leave
the Hon. and Learned Gentleman to the full enjoy-
ment of that harmless acerbity which has arisen from
the spitefulness of his wounded egotism.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.
.....
We hive received the Paris papers of yesterday.
The. National Assembly on Monday determined to
continue the payment of the subsidy to Monte Video.
It .would seem to be the destiny of France to be
governed by newspapers. The reign of M. GUIZOT
was in fact the reign of the Journal des Debats, and
the Epoque for every respectable place under the Go-
vernment was filled by some employe of theDebats,
while the GRANIER DE CASSAIGNACS, the D'EcQui-
VILLYS, and the DE BEAUVALLONS of the Epoque
managed the duelling and dirty work department.
Under the real Republic the Reactionaries accused
the Government of being the Government of the
National, and now France is under the government
of the Constitutionnel, M. Meßiticax, the editor of
. that journal has been gazetted as Secretary-General
of the Prefecture of the Seine, and other employes of
the Constitutionnel will follow in their order.
The troops were ordered out on Monday night, but
there were no assemblages at the Porte St. Denis, or
elsewhere, to disperse.
M. DE LESSEPS has arrived in Paris.
La Pre.sse states that Several of the Sovereigns of
Germany have, at the suggestion of the King of
PRUSSIA, resolved to assemble a congress of Sove-
reigns at Gotha, to regulate the affairs of that portion
of the Continent of Europe.
The Socialists of Paris have adopted JEAN BAP-
TISTE BOICIIET, sergeant major of the ith Regiment
of Light Infantry, and EDMUND RUTTIER, sergeant
of the 48th Regiment of the Line, as two of their
candidates for the representation of the Seine in the
Legislative Assembly.

SPAIN.
Madrid journals of the 26th ult. have arrived.
The Finance Minister was to propose the new
Tariff to the Cortex on the day following.
MADRID BOLSI., APRIL 26.—Five per Cents., 10
paper; Three per Cents., 24 paper.
,Exchange on Lou.
don, 50 20 paper; 50 35 money.