The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-06 00:00:00

0J Itentag

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1847.

THE QUARTER'S REVENUE.

The state of the public revenue, as exhibited by
the returns for the year and quarter ending January
5, 1847, proves still further, if further proof were
wanted, the soundness of the principles of financial
and commercial policy which have of late years been
adopted by successive administrations in this country.
The Customs, the Excise, the taxes, the property
tax, the Post-office, all exhibit an increase, both on
the quarter and on the year. The Stamps ex-
hibit a decrease on the year of 220,7001., and on
the quarter of 51,7151. A decrease which can be
more than accounted for by the activity of rail-
way operations last year as compared with this.
But even allowing for the decrease on stamps, and
also a decrease under the head of miscellaneous of
38,955/. on the quarter, the increase on the revenue
for the quarter amounts to 19,8731., and on the year
to 13,032/., and this without the aid of the Chinese
ransom,- the receipt of which tended to swell the gross
amount of increase as exhibited in former returns.
The amount of Customs' revenue for the quarter is
4,514,721/. ; for the year, 18,310,865/. ; showing an
increase on the year of 205,6594, and on the quarter
of 159,9321. The Excise shows an increase on the
quarter of 269,318/., on the year of 344,1381:, the
revenue for the quarter being 3,608,1554, for the
year 12,521,250/. This is most satisfactory, as
showing that, notwithstanding the severe pressure of
distress, that pressure is merely partial, and that the
great bulk of the people are sufficiently prosperous to
be enabled to indulge in the use of those exciseable
commodities which constitute the luxuries of the in-
dustrious classes. The revenue derived from stamps
for the year is 6,931,414/., for the quarter 1,740,6874,
showing, as we before stated, a decrease on the year
of 220,7004, and on the quarter of 51,7151. The
taxes show an increase in the quarter of 33,8481., and
on the year of 48,5661., the total amount received
being, for the year 4,272,4081., and for the
quarter 1,909,8991., a state of the revenue
that proves that the middle classes of society
are in a prosperous condition. The Property-
tax has yielded for the quarter, 450,219/. ; for
the year, 5,395,3911., showing an increase on the year
of 368,821/ , and on the quarter of 63,234/. wThe
Post-office revenue still continues steadily on the
Increase, and now that Mr. ROWLAND HILL is once
more restored to office, we doubt not but that each
quarter will show a much larger increase than here-
tofore, provided he is permitted to carry out his plans
unfettered by the bureaucracy of the department.
The increase under this head for the quarter
is 14,000/. ; for the year, 85,0001.; the
total amount for the quarter being 203,000/.,
and for the year 816,000/. The Crown lands
show an increase on the quarter of 5,0001.,
the revenue derived from this source being, for the
year, 120,000/. ; for the quarter, 30,0001. Under the
head of Miscellaneous there is an increase on the
year of 196,773 Z., and a decrease on the quarter of
38,9551.—the total amount of revenue for the quar-
ter under this head being 29,6571.; and for the year,
317,0901. The total amount of the ordinary revenue
for the yearis 48,604,4181.; for the quarter, 12,486,338/.
The revenue returned under the head miscellaneous,
is exclusive of the China money. As no money has
been received from China during this quarter,
of course, a deduction must be made for the
amount received during the corresponding quarter of
last year, that deduction amounts to 475,2801. for the
year, and to 300,8591. for the quarter, we have also to
deduct 32,2001. for the quarter, and 131,3971. for
the year for imprest and other monies, and 408,548/.
for the year, and 101,7301. for the quarter, for the re-
payments of advances, yet, notwithstanding all these
deductions, we have an increase on the total national
income on the year of 13,0321., and on the quarter of
19,8731. Now, when we consider the great reductions
which have been recently made in the Customs and Ex-
cise duties, we cannot but consider the state of the
Revenue as most satisfactory, proving, as it does to
demonstration, the soundness of those financial and
commercial principles Si which
__ R OBEET PEEL laid
down and acted on in 1845 and 1846, and which
must henceforth form the basis of the financial and
commercial policy of this country. The surplus of
Revenue, after providing for the charges to the con-
solidated fund, and for the payment of supply ser-
vices, in the Quarter ending sth January, 1847, is
1,365,455/.

It will be interesting to observe the difference of
tone with which the Legislative Chambers of Eng-
land, France, and Spain, will be opened by their
several Sovereigns. In accordance with the delicacy
of the position of the two latter kingdoms, the
tongues of LOUIS PHILIPPE and ISABELLA SEGUNDA
are restricted from the candid utterance of their senti-
ments. The wires by which the royal puppets of
Madrid are set in motion, have been extended beyond
the Pyrennees to the Council Chambers of the
Tuileries. When the Queen of the Hidalgoes opens
her lips from the throne, she is merely echoing the
voice of the King of the Barricades. The edicts
sanctioned by her signature are literally the pro-
clamaticns of an Afrancesado statesman. As
the disciples of LOYOLA. are said to re-
main as corpses in the hands of their su-
periors, so is the form of Iberian royalty
passive under the influence of the Gallic Cabinet.
With Louis PHILIPPE, again, there are a variety of
repressive considerations to prevent the possibility
of his inaugurative address to the session of 1847
from being characterised by any quality but that of
consummate duplicity. The reproachful shadows of
his own perfidy will rise before his imagination from
the hospitable galleries of Windsor; the recollection
of the flagrant manner in which he had broken the
solemn engagements of his ancestor, PHILIP of
Orleans, in the marriage of his youngest son with a
princess of the Peninsula will necessarily clothe his
thoughts with the language of guile ; the formidable
movements perceptible in the direction of
to all this,oiofVienna,St
Petersburgh, and Berlin, must, in
secretly instigate the constitutional SOVEREIGN
actual
obaal
doubly cautious in the expressions of his .
opinions. Belgium has afforded a totally different
spectacle. Her ruler has there spoken to the repre-
sentatives of the people with the utmost candour and
honesty in relation to the past, with decided congra-
tulations in regard to the present, and with
confidence and' satisfaction in anticipation of
the
cin spec
the future. In England
be calculated even more glytle
to
acfill
theilnational heart with gratification. It will be willthe
strikingly
office of Her Most Gracious MAJESTY to recur to the
strenuous efforts of the Government to ameliorate the
sufferings of the impoverished multitude in Ireland,
to comment upon the munificence of the officers of
t
the Treasury in striving to compete with the progress
of destitution, to refer to the flourishing condition of
the last quarter's revenue. In allusion to our rela.

tions with foreign countries, her MAJESTY will not have
to reproach the Administration with having in any
manner embroiled this empire with foreign Cabinets,
or with having, by the slightest error of commission
or omission, endangered the peace of Europe
and of the two hemispheres. Should her MAJESTY
allude to the improvements effected in the laws
relating to commerce, her MAJESTY or her MAJESTY'S
Commissioners will have ample reason to speak in
terms of exultation. Should her MAJESTY or her
MAJESTY'S Commissioners, on the other hand, refer
directly to the advisability of further efforts to
assuage the sufferings of the community by sanatory
and other similar measures, that reference can be pro-
nounced with perfect reliance upon the Parliament
and the Administration. In every essential parti-
cular the approaching session in England can be
looked forward to with unalloyed pleasure, and with
the most sanguine anticipations.
In France every preparation was duly made for
the meeting of the Peers and Deputies. The different
political chieftains, with the exception of M. Ds
LAMARTINE and M. ODILON BARROT, have assembled
in the capital in anticipation of the forthcoming dis-
cussions. M. GUIZOT is fully primed for the Minis-
terial explanations. M. DUCIIATEL is prepared for
any emergency which may summon him to the tri-
bune. M. TRIERS, M. DE REMUSAT, and M. BIL-
LAULT are all equally in readiness.
In the Peninsula the hum of preparation has been
minded through the streets of the capital. Queen
ISABELLA has opened the Spanish Cortes in person.
The speech delivered on the 31st of December, 1846,
by her MAJESTY to the Senators and Deputies—a
translation of which speech is given in another
column of The Sun—is precisely the description of
announcement which might have been expected. In
the whole range of political matters the question of how
far the friendship previously existing between Spain
and other countries has been recently endangered,
was the most difficult and even hazardous. And
how has this difficult and hazardous question been
treated by ISABELLA ? With masterly simplicity.
A myriad of intricate eclaircissements are avoided in
one inimitable sentence :—" In our relations with
Foreign Powers there is no change worthy of re-
mark!" The felicitousness of the brevity !—" in our
relations with Foreign Powers there is no change
worthy of remark." What a bold and magnificent
quibble, what a delightful resignation under the for-
feiture of external confidence, what an ingenious
adaptation of the style employed in domestic compli-
ments ! "No change worthy of remark," for-
sooth, when for the nonce the Peninsula has
estranged itself from the fountain head of the world's
commerce, for the enviable privilege of lay-
ing itself, bound hand and foot, before the throne
of the French Sovereign ? "No change worthy of re-
mark," when Spain is virtually insulated for the time
being from the current of political regeneration ? The
remainder of the royal address to the Spanish Cortes
is proportionately straightforward with the foregoing
sentence. The young QUEEN does not appear less
inclined to listen to the insidious dictates of the
A franccsados than previously to her nuptials. Although
the very name of la grande nation is scrupulously
avoided in this amusing speech, it is manifest in every
paragraph that it has been modelled upon the plea-
sure of the French SOVEREIGN. The speech to
the Spanish Cortes, indeed, is as anomalous,
and as replete with incongruities as a dis-
solving view only partially dissolved. Parts of
the picture of Spanish policy are jumbled up
in the most bewildering manner with parts
of the picture of Gallic policy : the will
of GUIZOT peeps out in the most impossible
manner through the transparent will of ISTURITZ—
the machinations of the Parisian Court are just dimly
discernable through the vapoury indications of the
sentiments entertained in the Court of Madrid. There
are, nevertheless, several auspicious recommendations
as to mercantile and social reform in the address
which may, if interpreted with wisdom by the mul-
titude, lead ultimately to the re-organization of the
Government and the regeneration of the Spanish people
generally.

We have perused the proceedings of the meeting
held last evening, at the Literary Institution,
in Leicester-square, and presided over by Mr.
HTJME, M.P., for the abolition of punishment
by death. The perusal ended with the same feelings
of dissatisfaction which grew out of our review of
the propositions advanced, and arguments adduced, at
the meeting which assembled in Holborn, on the pre-
vious evening, for the same object. Every right-minded
man must be predisposed to be convinced that the time
had arrived when capital punishment could be safely
abolished. If bold assertions and specious reasonings
could of themselves suffice to justify the extinction of
the extreme penalty of the law, it were impossible to
question that the justification presented at both the
meetings to which we have adverted is as complete
as could be desired. But, premises rashly laid, and argu-
mentation fraught with fallacy, are not exactly the ma-
terials calculated to reconcile our Legislators to a trial
of the great and coveted experiment in favour of
humanity. The demonstration of last night
was not so advantageous as that of the pre-
vious one. Palpable rnistatements were made, and
the speakers were not all of one mind on points
of essential importance. For instance, Mr. ROWTON
remarked, that " morally man had no right to punish
man ;" whereas the Rev. Dr. CARLISLE, who followed
him, held that "society had a right to protect itself
from crime by all means short of capital punish-
ments." This is a serious discrepancy between the
views of the respective speakers. Again, Mr. HUME,
M.P., boldly gives his hearers to understand that,
compared with other countries in Europe, England
stands alone" in regard to punishment by death.
This is a serious mis-statement ; for though we would
not allude to Russia, yet, in France, certainly a highly
civilised nation, judicial power over the life of man is
not abandoned. A good cause is never strengthened,
but always weakened, when, from negligence, it must
be presumed, rather than ignorance, such hap-hazard
and groundless assertions are fearlessly made.
We are sorry to perceive these gentlemen con-
stantly adverting to Scripture in furtherance of the
cause they espouse, and, not only so, but that they
indulge this propensity with greater freedom than
judgment. We think they would do well to abandon
the idea of enforcing their views through the medium
of Holy Writ. In the first place, they only seem un-
necessarily to involve the question in greater intri-
cacy ; and, in the next, it is always painful when they
so marshall their reasonings, upon what they consider
emanates from this sacred source, as to educe mani-

fest contradictions. We are grieved by an unhappy
example of this nature, as elucidated by what trans-
pired last evening. Assuming the correcteritransla-
tion of the oft-quoted passage to be that the words
" by man" should be omitted, it would then run thus :

—" Whoso sheddeth man's blood, shall his blood be

shed," which does not remove the difficulty, for blood
is still to be shed. Then, if not by man, by whom
is it to be ? Not by Divine Power, according
to the abolitionists, for they quote again from one
of the Prophets, " As I live saiththe LORD, I will
not the death of a sinner, but that he be converted
and live." So that, on the one hand, we are directly
told in the Bible that blood shall be shed, and, indi-
rectly, by those who desire to get rid of capital
punishment, that blood shall not be shed. We hope
we have said enough to lead to our being spared from
a repetition of these unhappy allusions to Scripture.
Nothing could be more infelicitous than the train of
reasoning in which the Rev. Dr. CARLISLE indulged,
founded upon his references to other portions of the
sacred writings. This could be easily demon-
strated ; but we decline the ungrateful task
lest we should seem to be infringing upon
the advice we have just sincerely tendered. Besides,
the question can be well enough handled without

1
leaning upon doubtful interpretations of particular
passages in the Bible; for the whole matter in issue
turns upon the point, whether human life is, or is not,
best protected by the existence of punishment by
death; and which ever way it be determined, so that
the best security he realised for the preservation of
life against the machinations and assaults of the
murderer, we may feel assured that the human law is
in keeping with the divine. To decide this question,
we must be chiefly guided by our own experience,
and that of other civilised countries whose social
condition is analogous to the condition of Great
Britain. But experience alone is not sufficient; it,
must be united with the utmost caution and the most
reflective judgment; for, after all, what a dangerous