The Sun.
London, England, 1822-02-26 00:00:00

[BRITISH. PRESS.]

The public, we are persuaded, will feet a very
tincere gratification in learning from our report
of the proceedings in, Parliament last night, that
measures are about to be adopted seriously for
relaxing the severity of our import laws. Mr.
Wallace, in moving- for the re-appointment of
the. Committee upon the Foreign Trade of the
Empire, intimated that the attention of the Com-
mittee would he principally occupied by the
consideration of this strbject. It is delightful to.
witness the progress, though slow, of those sounds
iinCiples'of political science which have been so
admirably developed by our standard writers on
commercial affairs, and it certainly heightens
the. pleasure to find that they have at length
forced their way into the 'Cabinet of our Ministers,
as unhappily their success in that quarter was
a necessary prelude to their eventual triumph.
It mattered little to the advancement of foreign,
commerce—little to the prosperity of the em-
pire, that the Marquis of Lansdown, or any other
Member of Parliament, aided by the authorities
of the ablest writers on political science, should
expose the evils of the old system of restriction,.
or point out the necessary benefits that must re-
sult from- relieving the industry, enterprizerand
capital•of the empire from the paralyzing load of
prohibitions and the curse of protections—such
,tfforts were all vain, and the words of wisdom
fell heavily upon the ear of Parliament ; but now
the Ministers have acknowledged the truth- of
the doctrines, they have felt the necessity of sa-
crificing the prejudices and- interests of a few to
the welfare of the many, and no further objec-
tion will be offered' by Parliament to the correc-
tion of its former errors.

[TILE TIMES.]
We have no space to comment on the financial
project discussed last night in the House of Com-
mons. The subjoined clause of the Act by which
the Navy, Five per Cents. were established, may
perhaps inform many of our readers of a fact of
which they were not before aware—namely, that
this stock was, by the original contract, not to
be reduced till after 25 millions of the then ex-
isting Three or Four per Cents. had been paid
off. So far from that having been the case, the
public debt (as was 'observed by Mr. Williams
last night in the House of Commons) has been
increased from '29.9,000,00U, its amount in 1792,
to above 800,000,000/. In the mean time, it is
obvious that a certain dread has been created in
the money market of this country ; whilst all
kinds of Foreign Stock have advanced with un-
precedented rapidity. French Stock has risen in
London to 92 ; Spanish, which was only 59 on
Friday, is now at 63 ; Prussian Stock is advanced.
to 90 ; and Danish bonds from 81 to 86. We
are sorry to sec money thus going from our

funds.
" And he it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid,
that the said annuities, after the rate of five pounds per cen-
t= per annum, shall be charged and chargeable upon, and
payable out of, the monies which shall from time to time arise
and be in the receipt of the Ex•:hequer, of the fund to be
established in this session of Parliament, and: for which the
fend, commonly called the Sinking Fund, shall he a collate-
ral security ; and that the said annuities shall be irredeemable
until twenty-five millions of the public debt, bearing interest
after the rate of either three pounds per oontum per annum,
or four pounds per ceatmn per annum, shall have been re-
deemed and paid off."—Act 44 Geo. 111. " for granting An-
nuities to satisfy certain Navy, Victualling, and Transport
Bills, and Ordnance Debentures."—Sec. 6.

[NEW TIMES.]
Accounts from Vienna to the WM inst. reached
town yesterday by an extraordinary conveyance.
They reiterate the pacific assurances which have
so constantly been made from that capital, touch-
ing the negociations between Russia and' Tur-
key, and assure us that matters are definitively
arranged. The Russian Ultimatum, which was
some time ago stated to have been acceded to by.
the Sublime Porte, with certain modifications,
and forwarded to St. Petersburgh for the ratifi-
cation of the Emperor Alexander, is, in• these
letters, 4tated to have met with a favourable
attention from the Northern Autocrat. It is
added, but we do not pledge ourselves for
the truth of this statenient, that a copy of the
document, with the Emperor Alexander's appro-
val, is in the possession of the Austrian• Cabinet.
By the Army Estimates for the present year, it
appears that out of a charge of six millions and
a fraction, nearly two millions and three quarters
are made up of half-pay and pensions, claims
which, while they last, are as sacred as any that
can. be made on the justice of the nation ; but
which, in. the course of nature, every succeeding
year must rapidly diminish. With the exception
of the regiments in the East India Company's
territories, the actual army on foot, for the pro-
tection of the most powerful empire in the world,.
amounts to little more than sixty thousand rank
and file !—And yet we are told by the most
stupid, or the . most unprincipled of men, that
England is verging towards a military despotism!

[MORNING DIIRONICLE.]
The question. in . which. so many individuals
are now deeply. interested, namely, the Reduc-
ii= al ' the hive . per Cents. was yesterday

brought forward. in a Committee of the House,
.by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who intro-
duced his measure with an account of the Reduc-
tion of the Four per Cents. in 1749, by Mr.
Pelham, on which he relied as a precedent.—
Without opposing the measure, Mr. Ellice point-
ed out in a forcible manner a number of objec-
tions to which it was justly liable. He contended
that it differed from the plan of Mr. Pelham) in
all its bearings, but more particularly in the con-
trast it presented of every thing that was trick-
ing, crooked', and uncandid, to the candour and
fair dealing of the proposal of 1749. Why not,
he asked, as a sacrifice must be made, propose to
the holders of the 5 per cents.. gradually to re-
duce the interest,, and give them time fully to
weigh their situation, by- a notice of three months,
and then require theirassent, instead of their dis-
sent ? Besides these objections to the fairness of
the- measure,. Mr. Ellice called also the attention
of the House to several circumstances of great
importance to a just consideration of it.—ln con-
sequence of the manner in which Government
had proceeded', the Transfer-Office at the Bank
had been attended by bona fide holders of small
sums, for the last week, anxious to avoid the
consequences of the measurer who had sold their
all to the ready dealer in the Funds, and con-
verted it into Foreign Stock, so that French
Rentes, Russian, Prussian, Danish, Spanish,
Austrian, and even American Stocks had risen
since the first announcement of this operation,
and were still rapidly advancing.—On the whole,
Mr. Ellice much doubted, whether, looking to
all the circumstances in the situation of the
country, this was- exactly the moment for the
measure which was about to be attempted.

r:I,IOTCNING
_ _

There appears a, dreadful relapse into-outrage
it) Ireland, and under circumstances of aggra-
vated atrocity. We should observe, however,
that the Irish newspapers—at least, those of a

local, circulation—heighten. the crimes of the
wretched peasantry, by clumsy falsehoods,. and
exaggerations of language at once base and bur-

lesque. Yet one would think there was quite
enough of horror in the bare reality. We shall
abstain from recapitulating or remarking on the
shocking enumeration of outrages brought by the
last Dublin mail ; they are characterized not
only by infuriate audacity,.but, if these accounts
may be relied on, by that brutal savageness- of
the passions, released from• all, legal and moral
restraint, from which one turns away with
disgust, in the humiliating conviction that
'man, when his bad instincts are called forth,

is the most barbarous, cruet, and truly beastly
(in the fair sense of the term)' of all animals. 1.1
any thing were necessary to prove the dreadful
demoralization which the state of the disturbed
parts of Ireland is• calculated to• perpetuate and
increase, it is these recent outrages, and it was
,because we thought it desirable—nay, of the
*last moment to the interests of humanity as
well as of the state, that the measures of efficient
operation, how-ever harsh, should be instantly
adopted, that we saw no reason to censure the
character of the two late Acts, and the haste
with which they were carried through both
Houses. But unless their harshness is justified
and redeemed by the application of measures of
another and a milder nature, there can be no
language too strong to condemn those whose
more particular duty it is on both sides of the
Channel to attend to the Administration of Ireland.