The Sun.
London, England, 1822-02-15 00:00:00

CORN EXCHANGE, FEn. 14.

The supply this morning was considerable, having had
many fresh arriials from our roast, but our Wheat trade is
very dull at Monday's prices, except for the very best sam-
ples, whieh maintained that price; i❑ Barley little doing to-
day, and that only for the prime malting samples, which sup-
ported Monday's price; the Oats trade not very brisk, the sup-
ply large, and for the best samples Monday's price was ob-
lained ; the ordinary quality of Corn did not meet with any
sale, though offered lower than on Monday ; Peas and Beans
as last day.

SMITHFIELD MARKET, Pea. 15.
There was a good supply of all sorts of Cattle at market
this morning, and meat of good quality obtained much th•
unlit prices rot last market-day, but those of an inferior de-
scription were heavy sale. The price of Hay remake,' the same.
Beef 2s PA to 4s 2' Veal
Mutton 9 ad to 4e 2,1; redrk .

THE LONDON JOURNALS.

EXTRACTS raom THE DULY MOANING PAPERS.
February 15, 18'2'2.

[MORNING HERALD.]
We hear that the Message from Throne, this
evening, will :le to the following effect :—The
King proposes to give up a half a million yearly,
out of the Civil List. A proposal is to made for
paying off the 5 per Cents. and creating a Stock
in 4 per Cents to the same amount. The saving
annually to the country, provided this exchange
be carried into effect, will amount to about 11-
millions. Reductions are to be made in the ex-
penditure of the Government generally to the
amount of about 1,1- millions. For clearness sake
we repeat the items as follow :

M illions.

The Ring - - •
Reduction of the 5 per Cents. to 4 per Cents
Reduction in the Government expenditure

The above items of .3.1 millions, added to the stir-
phis of 31 millions, as stated in The Morning lie-
rtild lately, will make a real Sinking Fund of
seven millions, applicable every year to paying
off so much of the National Debt as seven mil-
lions will effect, and taking the three per Cent.
Consols at the price,. even of 80, the seven mil-
lions would cancel, every year, eight millions and
three quarters of three per Cents., paying an in-
terest of 9.642,5001. It is, however, said, that re-
lief is to be afforded to the Landed Interest, by a
reduction of the taxes on malt, leather, soap,
candles, &c. which, if the case, will lessen the
sum above stated, annually available to the dis-
charge of the debt.
The debate upon the motion of Sic Robert
Wilson has done all for him to which he was
fairly entitled. It has allowed him to place his
own statement of his own case before the em-
pire, with the utmost latitude and detail—and
left public opinion to decide between him and
his Majesty's advisers. Prima facie, the priva-
tion of the advantages of a profession to which a
man has devoted a great portion of his life is a
harsh visitation, which requires to be justified.
It now remains for every individual to judge for
himself whether the conduct of this gallant Oil-
ter on the disastrous and disgraceful day of the
Queen's funeral, is an adequate justification.
Fortunately there is no material variance as to

the language used and the conduct pursued by
Sir Robert 'Wilson, between him and the Noble
Secretary at War. But public opinion is the
only tribunal to which the Executive Go-
vernment in this case is responsible. The Con-
.stitution gives the Crown this :discretion over
the army, and though, like all its preroga-
tives, liable to abuse—yet for wise purposes.
One fact in the history of Parliament is alone
`sufficient to prove that Sir Robert Wilson had
no claim to an investigation of this act of the Go-
vernment towards him as an officer on the army
half pay establishment. It is, that in the year
1734 (we believe,) a Bill was brought into Par-
liament providing that no officer on the half-pay
should be deprived of his commission without a
military inquiry. The Bill was thrown out—
which proves two things—that the Crown has
the right to deprive officers on half-pay of their
commissions without inquiry—and that it then
was the opinion of Parliament that the Crown
ought to have this right. The only question is,
whether the act was just or unjust ; the only
judge is the public—and the controversy is so
thoroughly hackneyed that we shall leave it as
it stands.—(Mid.)

[MORNING POST:]

Much importance is justly attached to the ex-
position which the Marquis of Londonderry is to
make in the House of Commons this evening, of
the views entertained by his Majesty's Ministers
on the subject of Agricultural Distress, Public
Expenditure, and all the great questions mate-
rially connected with the welfare of the Stnt-•
whole system of policy which it :,.,:ticended to pur-
stip in order to meet. t,.,,,idgate, and, if possible,
tp surmount. fis,l difficulties of the times, will be
Unfolded to the knowledge of Parliament and of

the country, and submitted for consideration, not
for instant decision, to the wisdom and patrio-
tism of both. Rumours have been circulated,
and attempts have been made, to anticipate what
the Noble Marquis may have to express or to
propose on this occasion. This has been done
for the evident purpose of impairing its effect ;
but the nature of his communications, we have
reason to believe, will be too gratifying to
suffer any injury from the activity of those,
who, if they cannot prevent relief from be-
ing granted- to a suffering land, wish at least
to rob her of the joy which relief should
bring, and to defraud its bestowers of the grati-
tude Which it should excite. We shall not fol-
low Oe .example which we reprove. We shall
not antieipate that, of which we can-haVe no cer-

taitvni definite knowledge; but this we can say,
becanse it does not rest on mere assertion, but is
proved.by acts, that Ministers have manifested a
laudable spirit in coining forward in a ready and
manly manner to encounter at once the great and
manifold difficulties df the present crisis. Awful
a§ is the-responsibility under which they labciur,
loud and afflicting as is the cry of distreis
by which- they are stunned, and commanding
as I.dee the calls made • by • the landed in-
terest,• they have neither sunk beneath the
magnitude.' of their. charge, nor sought to
evade its weight. by putting off the hour of
investigation and settletnent. They have antici-
pated' even the, Representatives of -those who
Most complained-; and at the very opening•of the
Session they gave pledges,. which in its 'Second
Week- they are now redeeming. This evening
Will; we hope, shew how sincere they are' in the
course which they- have- adopted, and that the
recommendation of economy, and retrenchment
uttered from the .Throne was not•a mere sound

intended—to soothe .and to-deceive; but.a. word
spoken in truth and in power, a charge meant to
be sacredly observed, and a law equally operative
on the Tenant• of palaces and the inhabitant of a
cottage. -

. [NEW TIMM] D'•
A general expectation seems to prevail in the
City,thaetlie measures to be proposed by Ministers

will at once shew a strong determination to support I
public credit, as the best means of ultimate benefit
to agriculture, and also will evince a determination
to carry Retrenchment through all ranks of the
State. In consequence, it is strongly appre-1
hended that the great measure of paying off the!
Five per Cents will soon be put in train. That
Stock, therefore, has declined in price ; and
Consols are advancing. They yesterday closed
at 788 for the Account. The late Opposition',
speeches in and out of Parliament have done
little toward recommending the views of the
speakers to the nation at large. One or two ge-
neral observations on them may perhaps assist in
affording a criterion of their real utility. In the
first place, their general tendency on the present,
as on all other occasions, is to discourage the
people from all rational efforts toward the com-
mon security. W hen we were at war with the
French Republic, we were told that it was use-
less to contend against Republican principles.
When we were at war with the French Empire,
we were told it was in vain to resist the Impe-
rial arms. When the seamen mutinied at the
Nore, we were told that the seamen must be
conciliated and not coerced : the same was said
of the Manchester rioters : and the same is now ,
said of the Irish rebels.—ln the second place,
their tendency is to disunite the people. The
Manchester Yeomanry have been insulted in or-
der to flatter the Norfolk Yeomanry. When
trade was at a low ebb, and the price of
corn high, the manufacturers were told that
they were sacrificed to the landed interest.
Now that bread is cheap, the farmer is told
that he is made a victim to the unjust claims
of the fundholder. When Ministers applied
a part of the Sinking Fund to the necessities
of the State, endeavours were made' to render,
the funded proprietors clamorous and disaffected;
now that Ministers have declared they will main-
tain the principle of that fund, the other classes
of society are animated against it as a " foolish
and extravagant system." So long as civil and
military offices were kept up on the large scale
which the public business demanded, the lover
classes were told that it was a wasteful and pro-
fligate expenditure for purposes of corruption
and despotism : as soon as retrenchment begins
to operate beneficially, we hear nothing but
complaints of the cruelty of turning off poor
clerks, and of suffering those who have fought
the battles of their country to pine in indigence
and neglect.—Thirdly, for all the evils so elo-
quently and so pathetically described, the greater
part of the orators point out no distinct or intel-
ligible remedies ; but satisfy their own con-
sciences, and amuse their hearers, with sounding
phrases that mean ❑othing ; pointing out a land
of promise on Cape FIN-away, or on the moun-
tains of Air-shire, like the adventurer in The
Fairy Queen : . . . .

far off they many islands spy,
On ev'ry side, floating the floods among ;
_ Then said the Knight ; Lo ! I the land descry ;
Therefore, old Sire, thy course do thereunto apply.
That may not be, then said the Ferryman ;
Lest we unwitting hap to be foredone;
For those same islands, seeming now and then,
Are not firm land, nor any certain won ;
By straggling plots, which to and fro do run
In the wide waters ; therefore are they hight
The wand'ring islands, which, I warn thee, shun ;
For they have oft drawn many a weary wight
Into most deadly danger and distressed plight.
—Fourthly, Whenever a luckless spokesman on
the Opposition side (to use a Scotch law phrase)
condescends upon any certain and tangible point
of policy, a warrior, out of his own squadron, is
sure to attack him without mercy. If one avows
himself the patrols of Annual or Triennial Par-
liaments, another cuts him down at once with a
sarcasm on " little nostrums and big blunders."
If an eloquent Lawyer, in a speech of four hours,
urges the House to come to a Resolution, that
reducing the taxes would relieve the distresses
of the agricultural interest, up starts a files
Ackates of his own, from the Stock Exchange,
ana u3aerti, that if the House were to resolve
any such thing, " it would deceive both itself
and the country.

[THE TIMES.]

If the day. on which Sir Robert Wilson hu-
manely Interfered to pacify the mutual exaspera-
tion of the ,Guards and the people, and to save
both parties'hcrn further suffering—if that were,
in its occurrences, -a melancholy day, so was that
other day, on which redress was denied by Par-
liament for the wrongs inflicted on the gallant
officer, one which has produced in every honest
mind a crowd of melancholy reflections and fore-
bodings. No one doubts the prerogative of the
Crown to dismiss an officer from the army at its
own pleasure ; but no person has yet been hardy
enough to say that such a prerogative stands on
any higher ground than that long list of other
prerogatives, which are granted solely for the
good of the realm, and which, in conferring aiarge
discretion on the Sovereign, render his official ad-
visers responsible for its exercise 'in exactly the
same proportion. As Sir Robert Wilson does not
quesion the legal existence of the power which
has oppressed him, so Lord Londonderry does
not venture to -deny his own responsibility for'
having called that power into action. In words,
his-Lordship admits that he must answer for the
advice he gives; but the. drift of his conduct is
to establish. the right of crushing, and to annul
the obligation of answering. For what is the
difference between the brave Officer who has been
punished, and the Ministers whOm he accuses of
having wrongfully punished him ? Sir Robert
Wilson affirms that he is innocent and' the Minis-
ters unjust, and asks leave to bring fort and direct
and formal proofs in defence of both these pro-
positions. The Secretary of State, on the
other hand, attempts to fasten the 'stigma of
misconduct by force of his' own unsupported
authority, ..but shrinks from the production
of evidence, or the institution of any thing
under the name of investigation. • Now this
is.. equal' effrontery towards the public and
cruelty' towards the party who calls for redress,
inasmuch as he assumes for his own word- the
credit Which belongs only to a legal and impartial
sentence. And, in
.the furtherance of his deter-.
ruination to evade, in fact, .the responsibility,
.which in words Lord Londonderry thinks it de-
cent to recognize—what confusion has he thrown
into:the debate'. To prove that Parliament ought

not to redress the wrong, or visit upon Ministers
the abuse of their discretionary power, what is
the expedient to which the Noble Secretary has
resorted ? He quotes an opinion of Lord Erskine,
which alleges that an officer, dismissed without
cause assigned from his profession, " has no re-
medy." Where ? In Parliament ? No ; but in
a " Court of law !" Had the King's Court sup-
plied a remedy, why appeal to Parliament?—
But the Minister who strove thus to perplex a
plain question, cannot be deceived by his own
sophistry. He knows well, though hitherto not
experimentally, that offences which the King's
Courts cannot punish, come peculiarly within
the range of Parliamentary cognizance.

[BRITISH PRESS.]
With reference to the acknowledged preroga-
tive of the Crown to appoint and dismiss the
officers of the army and navy at its pleasure, we
must say that much misunderstanding prevails.
The Ministers argued this matter as if a preroga-
tive of the Crown were of a nature too sacred to
admit of the slightest discussion ; but if such a
doctrine were permitted to prevail, our boasted
liberties would soon lie at the feet of the
executive authority. We never denied the ex-
istence of the right of the Crown to dismiss
officers from the army, even without trial ;
but we still contend, that, for the exercise of this
branch of the prerogative, as for that of every
other part of it, the Ministers of the Crown
are responsible, and ought not to refuse the
means of inquiry. It is the undoubted preroga-
tive of the Crown to make war or peace, to con-
clude treaties with foreign States binding the sub-
jects of this realm, to reject Bills, to disso:ve or
summon Parliament, and even to exchange or
surrender colonies to other Powers at its own will
or caprice. The mere announcement in the Gazette
or by royal Proclamation that this realm is in a
state of war with a foreign Nation, gives eo in-
stanti a constitutional right to the King to raise
whatever armies, or to equip whatever fleets, he
may think proper. But is there a man in the
empire who would seriously contend that the Mi-
nisters of the Crown could venture to stand up in
Parliament and refuse all explanation upon any
of these matters by a cold and haughty reference
to the royal prerogative ? This is a question too
plain in the present state of our political know-
ledge to admit of dispute, and yet the principle
that establishes a jealous watch over the Crown
in these matters, governs with equal force the
right of Parliament to inquire into the exer-
cise of the royal prerogative in all matters re-
lating to the government of the army. We be-
lieve that in importance this part of the prero-
gative does not yield to any of the others. The
danger of abuse in the affairs of the army comes
home more immediately to our dearest interests.
Our liberties exist at this moment but by the
sufferance of the army, and our only safeguard
consists in the community of feeling which may
be presumed to prevail between the army and
the people. If the power of dismissing officers
of rank, who may by their conduct in Parliament
have rendered themselves displeasing to the Mi-
nisters, he supposed capable of being exercised
without the controul of 'Ministerial responsibility,
what is to prevent the army from being gradually
and carefully moulded into the mere instrument
of Ministerial caprice ? Men of independent minds
and honourable feelings will either retire or be
removed from the service to give place to the
profligate retainers of the Ministers. The army
,rill be degraded and the country enslaved. The
House of Commons, in refusing to entertain Sir
Robert Wilson's motion, forgot not only its duty
but its interest. It is valuable now in the eyes
of the Ministers from the powers w.weh it is still
capable of exerting, but shoo"
its right to controul inrc divest itself of
~ery
exer-
cise of the prerogP Nes of the Crown, it will
instance the
cease to be treed2.
with respect.

[MORNING CHRONICLE. j
The panacea of Lord Londonderry for the
Agricultural Distress is to 'be communicated to
the House this day. The impatience of taxation
lately manifested throughout the country has,
according to report, weighed so far with Mini-
sters, that the subject is to be introduced by a
Message from the Crown, announcing the consent
to a reduction of 300,0001. in the Civil List, and
recommending a proportional reduction in the
salaries of all servants of the State. Such is the
report. Of course it is not reduction merely
that will satisfy the country. There are many
cases in which abolition,ought to be resorted to.
To the establishments of' the country at home
and abroad, the test of utility should be applied.
We wish for something more than merely lopping
off from the income of a Lay Lord of the Admi-
ralty or other sinecurist, a part of the increase
which it has experienced since the war by im-
provement in the currency. But though, in
deference to the universal demand, some reduc-
tions will no doubt be made, we know too well
of what nature they will he.—No, no, we may
be assured that Lord Londonderry will run into
no excess in this way.—;We have had but too
many indications of the sentiments of Ministers
with, respect to the repeal of taxes and the re-
duction of expenditure, to allow ourselves to be-
lieve that they enter too much into their panacea
for the distresses of the country.—lf we had
any doubt on the subject, it would be re-
moved by an article drawn up with reference
to the debate of this day, earnestly recom-
mending to Ministers the previous perusal of
a pamphlet, just published, under the 'title
of an," Inquiry into the capacity of Government
to administer relief, and into the best mode of ad-
ministering relief to Agricultural Distress." Our
readers will see from the extracts which we shall
give, how admirably the views of the writer of
this pamphlet harmonize with those delivered
by Mr. Vansittart, and from this coincidence,
coupled with the recommendation alluded to,
(particularly directed to the agricultural under-
'standings in the House,) we may form a pretty
safe guess as to the nature of the Ministerial re-
medy. Of the 56 millions (says the author of the
pamphlet) raised annually in taxation, about 11
millions, or one-fifth only, has any possible con-
nexion with the land, as to its subject matter; and
in all the articles of that eleventh (excepting only

1,400,0001. of the land tax) the agricultural pro-1
duce concerned is the occasion only, and not the
subject matter, of the tax ; or, in other words,
the tax is on the consumption and the consumer.
If these taxes were removed (assuming for an
instant that they could be removed), the same
amount must be raised from the consumer by
other means;. and, as the same sum would thus
be subtracted from the general capital, or in-
come, of the consuming classes, the same
amount only would remain to be expended
in agricultural produce."—Here, in perfect ac-
cordance with the views of Ministers, the
impossibility of any essential reduction of ex-
penditure is first assumed, and then we are told
that while the amount of taxation continues the
same, the shifting of it from one article to another
becomes immaterial, because the tax being on con-
sumption and the consumer, an increased taxation
on other articles diminishes by so much the means
of purchasing agricultural produce. It is well that
the agriculturists should know this, but it is also
well that they should draw another conclusion from
it, namely, that instead of shifting the taxation
in question, they must put an end to it alto-
gether. They should learn the difference between
productive and unproductive consumption. The
money raised by taxes and spent by Government
is spent unproductively. All are deeply interested
in seeing that nothing more be taken in the
shape of taxes than what is strictly necessary for
the real exigencies of the State. Taxation is either
paid from the capital or revenue of a country.
In the former case a country advances in the
career of ruin ; in the latter the taxation forms a
deduction from the grand source of improvement,
namely, the accumulation of capital.—A country
pressed to the earth with taxes, and prevented
from adding to its capital, can only be relieved
in one way, namely, by a diminution of these
taxes. Whatever is abated to the people enables
them to extend their operations, and thereby be-
comes a prolific source of wealth : every increase
of wealth operates as a diminution of the burden
of taxation ; and a nation, though heavily taxed,
may in this manner gradually outgrow its burdens,