The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

their interests by joining in an unmeaning chorus,
which they had been taught for political purposes•''
This is unquestionably the truth. Let the people
consider their real position ; let them inquire for
themselves, whether the so-called protection, the

corn monopoly, be really a landlord's or a tenant's
question, and Ns hether the great body of the people
would be benefited by the re-imposition of an oppres-
sive and grinding tax upon the first necessary of
life. We promise, on the part of the Free-traders,
that they will not shrink from the discussion.
Let the point in dispute be approached in a
calm, a reasoning, an unprejudiced spirit, and let a
cool and well considered judgment be formed. If

the conclusion should be arrived at that the evils and
the sufferings by which the industrious classes—as
well the manufacturing as the agricultural popula-
tion—are afflicted are not occasioned by the abolition
of the sliding scale, let the existing causes of the
general distress and misery be fully and closely
investigated. Can they be accounted for in any
degree by our fiscal, financial, or monetary sys-
tems ? Is the unjust, unequal, and oppressive
taxation of
,the country, the profligate and lavish
expenditure in our national establishments, or the
want of a sufficient representative of value, of a
circulating medium adequate to the wants and
exigencies of the country—or any, and which of
them, in any, and what degree accountable for the
acknowledged grievances under which the nation
groans. Would not the establishment of a sound
and judicious system of currency, not subject to
ruinous alternations of value that involve the destruc-
tion of property, and the stoppage of industry,
at once afford the safest and the most equitable
description of protection to British industry of every
kind ? The prosperity which the nation enjoyed
during the early part of the present century, its un-
paralleled power of raising enormous funds and
carrying on a sanguinary and expensive war, was not
owing to that war, hut simply because the intensity
of the crisis required that the rules of the cunning
quacks should be set aside. Then, indeed, "farming"
was a remunerative and profitable occupation.
Agriculturists flourished and accumulated, although
the monetary transactions of the country were
carried on with " inconvertible paper," with the much-
despised " rags and lampblack," against which the
bullionists so loudly rail. Let Mr. DISRAELI direct
his mind to these points, and see whether he cannot
bring fcrward propositions that will enlist the sym•
pathies of the industrious classes without exception,
and make him the leader of a great popular move-
ment. The subject is well worthy of mature and
attentive consideration.
There is much to be said for the suggestions
in favour of a more equal distribution of the local
rates and taxes that press so heavily on
the owners of real property. We have long asserted
that poor rates, charges for public prosecutions, &c.,
should be thrown upon the National Exchequer, in
place of being raised by local charges. But such a
course will require a revision of the whole fiscal sys-
tem. We must not get rid of one species of injustice
by inflicting an infinitively greater wrong ; we must
not dispense with local taxation, if a vast addition to
the indirect taxation should be thereby rendered
necessary. The burden should not be ex-
clusively borne by real property—personal
should bear its full share, as in justice
and equity it ought to do. Let the "land-tax" be
equitably adjusted according to the original intention
of the Legislature, and it will be nearly, if not alto-
gether, sufficient to defray the entire expenditure of
the country, including poor-rates and every local
charge. Let, then, the agriculturists consider
whether it would not be better to pay a single rate
of 4s. in the pound, and to be exempted from every
other claim of any nature or description whatsoever ?
We cannot doubt what will be their answer.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC,

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
A great sensation was created among the fre-
quenters of the political salons of Paris, by the state-
ment that the Government had, in the course of
Wednesday afternoon, received from Madrid a tee-
graphic dispatch announcing that her MAJESTY the
Queen of SPAIN is eseeinte. She has completed the
third month of her pregnancy. The dispatch was,
immediately after its receipt, communicated to the
Duke of SOTOMAYOR, the Spanish Ambassador at
Paris. The communication has been made in an
official form by her MmEsTr's medical attendants at
Madrid to the Spanish Government.
The National Assembly was engaged on Wednes-
day in discussing the alterations proposed to be made
in the law of electoral circumscriptions. In the
course of the debate General CAVAIGNAC declared
that his opinion was unvaried that the proposition
was unconstitutional. The election in the communes
was the exception, and that in the cantons the rule.
"I have only to add," said the Hon. General, " that
not long since a Committee declared the Constitution
to be defective; now we have one proposing to us to
violate it. That I consider a most objectionable
symptom, and I deem it my duty to point it out to
the attention of the Assembly." _

Shortly afterwards General BEDEAU rose, and said
that he certainly thought that the vote by commune
was the best course to be pursued, yet he was arrested
in that opinion by a scruple. He could not but think
that the text of the Constitution did not permit the
proposition to be adopted.—(Noise.) He said so
because he considered that the Constitution ought to
be observed to the letter. In the present case he felt
a doubt if that were done, and in his doubt he stopped
short—all being bound to observe the Constitution.
These emphatic declarations by Generals CAYAIG-
ivac and BEDEAU, that all are bound to observe the
Constitution, are considered by many persons as ex-
ceedingly significant.
The Committee charged to examine the question of
transportation has made choice of the place where
prisoners are to he sent to. It is to be, for convicts
of the first class (that is, for those to be confined in a
citadel), the island of Weithaon ; and for those of
the second class the island of Noukaiva, both forming
part of the Marquise group. It is said that M.
BASE is to propose an additional article, running
thus :—" Persons condemned to transportation cannot
be transferred from the place fixed on for their
punishment unless in virtue of a Epee:ill Bill."
The debate was adjourned.
The Council of Discipline of the Order of Advo-
cates assembled on Wednesday evening, under the
presidency of M. lluvenmen, in the absence of M.
BOINVILLIERS, the Batonnier, who was absent from
illness. M. CREMIEUX and M. JULES FAVILE, and
eight other advocates who defended the prisoners
before the High Court at Versailles, were present,
and laid before the Council their means of defence.
M. MICIIEL (de Bourges) Lot bel..nging to the Paris
bar, could nut be summoned to attend. The result
of the deliberations has not yet transpired.
Intelligence has been communicated to the Minis-
ter of Agriculture and Commerce, by the represen-
tatives of the Haute Saone, of the breaking out of
the cholera in the town of Gray. The number of
deaths there has been within the last few days as
many as ISO, an amount cut of all proportion to the
population. Fortunately the neighbouring districts
were still safe.

The Patric states that the various rumours respect-
ing
.diplomatic changes, as mentioned in some of the
Paris papers, are unfounded, and amongst others that
of General BARAGUAY D'HILLIERS being replaced at
Rome by M. DE RAYNEVAE.
The PRaSIDENT of the Republic, being slighlty
indisposed, was unable on Wednesday to preside
over the Council of Ministers which was held at the
Elysee.
M. FRANCOIS Artano, ex-Member of the Provi-
sional Government, and M. liirtex SAY have been
delegated by the Council General of the Seine, the
one as President, and the other as Secretary of the
Council, to invite the PRESIDENT of the Republic to
the banquet which will be given at the Hotel de Ville
on the 10th inst.
The Minding' de Soir thus announces the fall of
Zaatcha :
"We read in a private letter relative to the affair of
Zaatcha:—At the departure of the last courier, a report
was current in Algiers that the oasis had at tenth been
carried by our troops after a desperate resistance. The
works ably directed were advanced to the wa'l, and even
under the Kisbah. A mine having blown,, up the fort,
the assault was made with complete &uccess.
The Three per Cents. closed on the Paris Bourse, on
Thursday, at 57f. 50e. ; the Five per Cents. at 91f.;
Orleans Railroad Shares, 750 f. ; Rouen, 5-10 f.; Havre,
235 f. ; Great Northern, 446 f. 25c. ; Avignon, 217 f,
50c.; Vierzon, 315 f.; Basle, 102 f. 50c.; Bordeaux, 402 r.
50c.; Paris and Strasburgb, 357 f. 50e. ; Tours and Nantes,
277 f. 50e.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT TIIE