The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-26 00:00:00

THE SUN,

London as the streets of Peterwaradin are removed
from the familiar haunts of the Esquimaux. Hence, it
was always with a kind of apathy that the public
perused the narrative of those researches on the con-
fines of Siberia which were principally interesting to
the assayer, to the geologist, and to the lapidary.
It is exactly the reverse with the republican colony
of the United States. There the apples of the New
Hesperides are not guarded by the Dragons of ty-
ranny. They can be plucked without molestation.
They are ripening, not in the gardens of Absolutism,
but in those of Democracy. Whoever can pay or
work his passage over to San Francisco, can take his
mattock and his basket and pick up the treasures
lying about the ground for the possession of the first
comer. Those treasures are said to exist in some
places in the form of minute flakes of the precious
metal, and in others in lumps of gold as large as pig-
nuts and as solid as pebbles. They belong, moreover,
not, like the waifs and strays of England, to a
Sovereign or a Lord of the Manor, but to
whomsoever might be fortunate enough to rake
them out of the sand, or to sift them from the sediment
of a running stream, or to extract them from the fissures
of the rocks. They are the wages paid by the boun-
teous hand of Nature herself to those who will toil at
the agreeable task of their collection.
Those who are discouraged by the reflection that
the speculators from the United States can reach
California much more rapidly that the speculators
from England, should re-assure themselves by a few
very simple considerations. From New York the
journey to San Francisco cannot be accomplished,
by way of Terra del Fuego, under a period
of six months, by Chagres and Panama under
two months, and, across country, by way of Santa Fe,
under very nearly the same time as the one last-
mentioned. From England the gold region can be
reached in less than fifty-four days—starting from
Liverpool to Chagres, thence across the isthmus to
Panama, and onwards between the coast of Guada-
lasara and the Revillagigedo Islands to the Sierra de
Nevada. It is idle consequently to maintain that the
population of the United States have in this particular
an advantage over the inhabitants of the United
Kingdom.

Of all the consequences of the gold discovery in
California, however, the most remarkable will inevit-
ably be the extension of the settlements on the
eastern shores of the Pacific Ocean. Before half a
century has elapsed, the result of the movement of
the Anglo-Saxon race to the extreme confines of the
Western hemisphere, to those confines which imme-
diately confront the opulent Spice Islands of the
Indian seas, will be perceptible in the predominance
of their sway over the archipelago of those oriental
climates. The effect will ultimately be to enable the
wealth of the Asiatic races to flow eastwards as well
as westwards—the nutmegs and pimento of Japan
the precious stones of Golconda, the indigo and crape
of the Chinese, the musl ins of Bengal, the scymetars
of Oude, and the variegated raiments of Cashmere.
While new markets will be thus opened for
the luxuries of the East, a double source of
civilization will act upon the opposite flanks
of the oriental races. The liberal institutions
of Europe, and the beneficent influences of Chris-
tianity, will act together upon the effete but ductile

intellect of Asia. And by this twofold impetus bar-
barism and despotism may be alike exercised, and the
worshippers of BUDDA and the disciples of Islamism
may both be admitted into the family of Christendom
Nevertheless, it is not alone in these more exalted
anticipations that we can recognise the benign influ-
ence which will inevitably flow from the establish-
ment of great settlements in the regions of California.
Emigration to that country will tend of course to re-
lieve ourselves from a large portion of our redundant
population. It will besides lead as a matter of neces-
sity to an increased demand for our manufactures.
Even supposing that the descriptions of the mineral
wealth of the gold regions should prove to have been
grievously exaggerated—which is by no means im-
probable—the natural fertility of the soil, the ex-
quisite geniality of the climate, end the healthful
incitement to exertion on the part of the colonists,
cannot fail to render their position anything
but irksome. The individuals who have already
migrated to the precincts of the river Sacramento
will inevitably—even, as we have just hinted, in the
event of the gold mania turning out to he a bubble—

prove the germ of one of those mighty settlements
which have from time to time changed the relative
capacity of different empires, and accelerated the
progress of the human race in the paths of civiliza-
tion. It is principally, if not entirely, from these
considerations that we are disposed to regard, with a
certain complacency, the rage for removal to Cali-
fornia which is now agitating the masses both in
England and the United States. In many instances,
doubtless, the passion of cupidity will lead the more
blindly avaricious to ruin, but in the majority
of cases the effect of the excitement must prove
beneficial. A lottery to some individuals, Cali-
fornia will prove to others a secure and remunerative
investment.

Sir EDWARD BULWER LYTTON has formally with-
drawn from the contest for Leominster. He is no
longer a Candidate for the honour of representing a
constituency so dubious and irresolute. So many of
the electors were unable to decide upon the conflict-
ing claims of the candidates—to determine whether
they should array themselves under the banners of
PEEL or LlTTON—that the latter gentleman lost all
patience, and, in pursuance of a previous inti
mation, cut the Gordian knot, and afforded a very
summary solution to the existing perplexities
by altogether withdrawing his pretensions. The
contest, at one time so exciting, might thus
have been brought to a very tame and commonplace
conclusion, but that another candidate has already
entered the field, and for the aecend time solicited the
" most sweet voices " of the electors of Leominster.
Mr. PHILLIIIORE had offered himself as a candidate
for the representation of the borough as soon as the
acceptance of the Governorship of British Guiana by
the late Member, Mr. 13,taimr, was publicly an-
nounced. He was undoubtedly the first in the field,
and the views and opinions which he put forward on
that occasion were such as should have
commanded the suffrages of the Liberal electors. He
claimed their votes as a thorough and unflinching
Reformer, determined to attack the existing abuses
with the most determined energy. He declared him-
self a Church Reformer, and a legal Reformer, in the
most extensive signification of the phrases. Although
the ground was thus pre-occupied. Sir EDWARD
BULWER LYTTON subsequently came forward on the
Liberal interest, while Mr. PEEL, son of the Right
Hon. Baronet the Member for Tamworth, an-
nounced himself as a candidate on the free-
trade Conservative principles. Mr. PILILLDWORA
immediately perceived that any division in the
Liberal camp must have insured the triumph of the
Conservative ; he accordingly waived his unques-
tionable priority, and with the most praiseworthy
disinterestedness—a total absence of personal feeling
—retired from the contest, " in order" that the Li-
beral interest might not be divided. Sir E. B.
LITTON having, however, recently resigned, and
the cause that had induced Mr. PRILLIMORE to
withdraw his claims being no longer in existence,
that gentleman has again come forward, and pub.
lished a manly and straightforward address to the
electors, a copy of which will be found in another
part ofimpression.
Mr, rnL day'slo refers to his
the egpress`o former address
n b
ai
ul esse.
thisiLn
arrnidllopuris and
declares that " is o f
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itsefef nsge
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spiteful depreciation, he does not mean to retract or
qualify them ; that they are principles which have
ennobled the most illustrious names in modern story,
and that by them he is content to stand or fall." He
also states his opinions that " the large revenues of
the Church of England are not distributed in the
manner most calculated to promote the spiritual wel-
fare of the inhabitants of this country." We believe
that there are few of the overworked and underpaid
curates of the Establishment—men who labour zea-
lously, and indefatigably for a pittance insufficient to
maintain their families in the situations to which they
have been accustomed, who will dissent from that
opinion. It is these who receive their thousands per
annum for doing nothing, the drones in the
spiritual hive, that will view the declara-
tion of Mr. PHILLIMORE with alarm, and oppose
with all their energies a man 50 hostile to their
craft. The Church in Ireland also falls under his lash.
He terms it (how justly we leave it to the electors of
11317:minder to decide) "a mockery of all religion, nu

outrage on all justice." The supporters of that
monster grievance will undoubtedly render their
unflinching support to his Conservative opponent.
He speaks in equally decided language against the
enormous abuses in the administration of the law,
that render the obtaining of justice a matter of mere,
chance. He says—" I repeat that the law in its present
state is, from the systematic advantage it gives to
chicane over substantial right, a disgrace to a civilized
country. That the French, Belgian, and generally
speaking the German systems, are free from the
dreadful evils so obstinately defended in our own;
and that recent alterations have inflamed and aggra-
vated these evils, which it was intended by the Legis-
lature to suppress."

He also speaks clearly and unequivocally on the
subject of free trade. i will add," he says,
" that I am an uncomproMising advocate of Free
Trade, for I am convinced that by giving every
country a direct and visible interest in the pros-
perity of every other, by teaching nations to rejoice
in each other's prosperity, and to regret each other's
misfortune,. it knits manhood together in links of bro
therhood, which tyranny, corruption, and caprice will
soon find it impossible to destroy."
There is nothing equivocal in these declarations—
there is no loophole out of which it may be possible
to escape should it appear expedient to advocate other
views. Mr. PHILLIMORE is manifestly sincere and
earnest in his convictions. He discovers abuses,
and forthwith they are exposed in all their naked
enormity, and denounced with vigour and determina-
tion. He sees what is not merely a matter of policy,
but of equity, that monopolies of every description are
but legalized methods of plundering the people—that
every principle of justice and expediency declares that
trade and commerce should be perfectly free and un-
restricted, and he forthwith proclaims himself an
ardent, enthusiastic, and uncompromising free-trader.

It is not for the first time that he has come forward
as a legal reformer. In 1846 he published a
pamphlet in which he ably exposed the evils of the
present system of special pleading in civil cases, of
special pleading in criminal cases, of judicial legisla-
tion, of the game-laws, and of the courts of quarter
sessions as they are now constituted. Many glaring
examples were then cited of substantial justice
being defeated through legal technicalities, and of
the untoward consequences resulting from the mis-
chievous skill of those who were taught "to make

the worse appear the better reason." These are points
in which he will be sustained by the
great majority of the people, who are
heartily sick of legal quibbles, and desire that
every cause should be decided on its real merits,
that the result should not in a great degree depend
on the subtlety and acumen of the respective
pleaders, thus rendering Justice blind indeed, and the
decisions of the Courts matters of chance in place of
being perfect certainties.
We have thus detailed Mr. PIIILLIMORE'S claims
We do not, however, desire to depreciate his adver-
sary. 'We cannot forget that Mr. PEEL is the son of

the Minister who deliberately sacrificed place, power,
and party, to what he believed to be the national advan-
tage, who manfully acknowledged his former errors,
abolished the mischievous monopolies under which the
nation had so Lng groaned, and removed the taxes
on food. Should Mr. PEEL be elected, we trust that
he will perceive the necessity of following out the
doctrines of free trade, and carrying them to the fullest
extent, until, eventually, the entire system of taxa-
tion be revised, and indirect imposts abolished, where-
ever practicable; that he will perceive the errors of
the monetary code, and induce his father to join in
giving to the country a currency adequate to its
wants and exigencies. He may be enabled
to achieve great things, if he look rather to ame-
liorate mankind than to further the interests of a
party. We shall now dismiss the case, leaving to
the Leominster constituency the task of deciding
between the conflicting claims of the rival candidates.
We only trust that their decision may be correct,
and that (in the language of the ring), " the best
man may win."

It is with feelings of gratification that we perceive
the public attention is at length directed to the
question of a reform in the manner of assessing and
levying, and expending the local taxation of the
country; and, as in the case of the free. trade agitation
the commercial reformers directed their attacks
against the corn-law, as the giant monopoly, the de-
struction of which would entail, as a natural conse-
quence, the fall of every other minor monopoly, so,
we are rejoiced to find, have the reformers of our
local taxation fixed upon the county-rate as the
monster injustice to be remedied, the reform of which
will include a reform in all other branches of local
taxation. In this instance also, as in the instance of
free trade, it is to the exertions of Mr. Holm that
we are primarily indebted for an accurate knowledge
of the extent of the evil and of the nature of the re-
medy. The labours of Mr. HUME'S Committee on the
import duties rendered the advocates of commercial
reform invincible, by affording to them an unanswer-
able authority to which they could appeal whenever
their adversaries dared to dispute their facts, and Mr.
HUME'S Committee appointed to consider the report
upon the manner of collecting and expending the
county-rate, has rendered the advocates of a reform
in our local taxation equally invincible. The manner
in which the county-rate is assessed is in direct con-
travention of the great constitutional maxim which
declares that " taxation w ithout representation is
tyranny." It is assessed upon the inhabitants of each
county by the magistrates sitting in quarter sessions,
such magistrates being appointed by the Crown, irre-
moveable save by the Crown, and irresponsible to, and
unconnected with, the rate-payers of the county.
These irresponsible magistrates not only assess
the rate, but they have the exclusive control over
the expenditure of the rate when it is collected.
They have the sole appointment of the officers, who
are paid out of the county-rate, the sole power to fix
the duties and the emoluments of those officers, and
also the most dangerous power of increasing the
number of those officers, and consequently of in
creasing the county expenditure to any extent they
choose. The Committee of 1836 justly observe, " the
administration of this fund is the exercise of an irre-
sponsible power entrusted to a fluctuating body," and
Mr. Hums, in his evidence before that Committee,
after stating that he has devoted his attention for
twenty five years to the investigation and consider.
ation of the county-rate system generally, solemnly
declares—" I consider the principle so vicious that no
efficient reform can be effected without a radical
change in the principle and the system."
It would appear, at first sight, extraordinary that
a system so denounced in 1836 should be existing in
full vigour in 1849, but a little consideration will
easily account for the apparent anomaly. The
Members of both Houses of Parliament are almost
without exception, we believe we may venture to say
absolutely without exception, magistrates of
quarter sessions, and how desirous soever, there-
fore, any individual Member may feel of seeing
this tyrannical method of taxation abolished,
and this temptation to jobbing removed, it is too
much to expect of him that he should voluntarily
come forward to denounce a system of which he him-
self is part and parcel, and to offend the self-love of
colleagues with whom he is every day in the habit of
acting. Under the peculiar circumstances of the
case, it is to the pressure from without alone that
we can look for the remedy of this evil ; and public
attention was too much engrossed by the free •trade
agitation, during the ten years immediately succeed-
ing the presentation of the report of the Committee
of 1536, to be able to attend to the reform of local
taxation. As has been shrewdly remarked by Mr.
COBDEN, " we are nien of business, and we like to do
one thing at at a time," and this is the secret of the
success of all agitations. Had the county magistrates
been content to go on as usual, the question would,
probably, have still continued to slumber ; but, fortu-
nately for the cause of local responsible government,
they have not been content to do so in many coun-
ties. In Lancashire, for example, the county-rate
has in many districts been raised, during the
course of the last ten years, from 1141.
to 4001., and the costs of prosecutions
have increased from 15,0001. to 18,000/., while the
number of prosecutions has diminished. Jobbing to an
enormous extent
of works havingextentappea beentorsalso paid an
have takinecnopmlaeceof;
a surveyor
701. a year for surveying, the outlay upon which
amounted only to 431. 6s. Bd., while a bridgemaster
was retained at an annual salary of 101. to superin-