The Sun.
London, England, 1841-08-04 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1841.

IT CHARLOTTE JONES or BARNARD
MAXWELL, who, on the 13th October, 1840, signed
their names as Witnesses to a Codicil to the Will of ELIZA-
BETH PUDNER, deceased, late of No. 29, South-street,
Manchester-square, will apply to Mr. Boydell, No. 28, De-
vonshire-street, Queen-square, Bloomsbury, they will be re-
warded for their trouble.—Angust 4, 1841.

NATIONAL LOAN FUND SOCIETY
FOR GRANTING
LIFE ASSURANCES, DEFERRED ANNUITIES, &c.
No. 243. CORNHILL.
Capital £500,000.
Empowered by Act of Parliament.
EIRECTORS.
T. LAMIE MURRAY, Esq., Chairman.
J. Elliotson, F.R.S. I John Rawson, Esq.
John Griffith Frith, Esq. Jehn Riddell Stodart, En.
Hunter Gorden, Esq. Clement Tabor, Esq.
George Lungley, Esq. Joseph Thompson, Esq.

AUDITORS.
Professor Wheatstone, F. R. S. j Professor Graves, A.M. F.R. S.
ACTUARY—W. S. B. Woolhouse, Esq., F. R. A. S
SOLICITORS—Messrs. Sweet, Sutton, Ewens, and Omman-

ney, 6, Basinghall-street.

LIFE ASSURANCE.
Besides the perfect security to the policy holder of a large
paid up capital, and accumulating funds, the following is one
amongst many of the advantages which belong exclusively to
the principles of Life Assurance and Deferred Annuities ori-
ginated by t Society, viz.—Power to borrow (without de-
lay, expense, er forfeiture) Two-thirds of all premiums paid
upon a Policy of Assurance.
The annexed is a short Table, showing the Annual Premium
for assuring ZlOO on the Whole Life, or for a Term :

FOR LIFE.
A. B.
Age. Without With For One For Five
Profits. Profits. Year only. Years only
s. d. Z. s. d. Z. s. d. Z. s. d.
20 113 7 117 4 017 0 017 6
SO 24 4 29 3 019 6 1 0 0
40 216 ; 35 3 1 310 11 0
50 44 2 413 6 113 0 116 6
60 613 6 78 4 ' 30 0 39 6
Two-thirds of Profits divided annually amongst the Assured.

Two-thirds of Profits divided ann

DEFERRED ANNUITIES DEPARTMENT.
By the plan exclusively developed by this Society, a single
Deferreal Annuity is made, not only to answer the same object,
but to far exceed in amount the entire benefit of all the ad-
vantages heretofore only obtained by the middle and industrious
classes through separate investments in Savings' Banks, Be-
nefit Societies, and Loan Banks.

1. A small yearly er weekly contribution will secure the
most ample return far after life; thus-21. 12s. per annum (Is.
a week) at the age of 20, will give the policy holder the fol-
lowing option, at the age of 65
Annuity for remainder of life £47 16 6
Cask
Policy, without further contributions, of 466 0 oat death.
Other periods of life (of 50, 55, and 60) may be also taken
with similar advantages.

2. Two-thirds at any time lent en deposit of policy, being a
fund always available during sickness or want of employment.
S. Two-thirds of all payments returned to representatives in
case of premature death.
N.B. Policies, as collateral money-security, for periods of
one t• five years, effected at lower rates than are charged by
any other Office, (See Tables A. and B.), with option of con-
tinuance for Life at the usual rates.
F. FERGUSON CAMROUX, Sec.

BRANDY.—For Preserved Fruits, for British
Wines, or for a Summer Beverage. as a substitute for
malt or other fermentable liquors, BETTS'S PATENT
BRANDY stands, as ever, unequalled and without a rival;
none other having the slightest pretension to approach it, in
either purity of quality or wholesome properties. Price, pale
or coloured, 18s. per gallon.
May be had at the Distillery, 7. Smithfield-bars, loading to
St. John-street; or from the appointed Agents throughout
the Kingdom.

WILKINSON'SPAIANTNTI - CORROSION
REMOVED from 63, Upper Thames-street, to
54, WATLING-STREET, near Queen-street, Cheapside.
J. R. WILKINSON particularly recommends his Paint to
the Nobility, Gentry, and the Public, wbe wish to paint their
houses of Roman cement, stucco, sr brick wallet as a preven-
tive to damp or sea sprit, in exposed situations; it will not
blister or peel off as common paint. On tiling, to represent
slating, iron hurdles, roofs, conservatories, hot-houses, fences,
farm, or any out-buildings, it will last four times as long as
lommon paint. It is so simple in its use, that any labourer
can lay it on. To ship-owners for their decks, bottoms of ves-
sels, &c., it will be shown, as well as to the public, to be supe-
rior to any paint in use, by testimonials of its lasting fourteen
years on wood and houses, twenty years on iron (see the South-
wark-bridge); The public are particularly guarded in giving
their orders for Wilkinson's Anti-Corrosion Paint, that no
ether colour may be imposed upon them for his. A liberal
allowance to the trade.

THE GOVERNMENT AND THE

COUNTRY.

(Abridged from a long, gloomy article in the Spectator.)
" Distress" is a.word often and easily used without
evidence of its existence ; nor can evidence readily be
adduced, since no individual has sufficient knowledge of
facts to pronounce upon national distress. But on this
o?casion we have the strongest reasons for believing that
very great and general distress does exist in the country ;
that millions are subjected to hardships' and privations,
the nature of which many of our readers cannot even
imagine ; and that numbers of persons throughout the
entire trading body cannot live upon their income, but
must encroach upon their capital, if they have any, and
if not, must run into debt. Nor is this surprising. Not
to mention the high price of thq secondary necessaries,
sugar, Vic., we have had for some years past a succession
of bad harvests, almost doublingthe price of corn, com-
pelling the poor to do without many things, and to stint
themselves in all to procure bread, without being always
able to obtain even it in sufficient quantity. This
limitation of the general means of purchasing among the
millions, to almost one article. must have affected the
dealers in every other commodity they usually consume,
and distressed those trades : the exportation of gold.-fur-
ther deranged the whole commercial system, and brought
many to
.bankruptcy : the " little wars" that have been
waged, or are waging in Canada, South America, Syria,
and China, lessened, as Sir Robert Peel truly observed,
the demand for our goods in those markets : at home,
the unsettled state of politics, couplei with the operation
of the other cause's, limited the luxurious expenditure of
the upper classes ; and from the:-action and reaction of
all these circumstances, the existence of distress might
be theoretically pronounced.
The deficiency in the revenue is a direct difficulty,
whicji must be grappled with ;`,for it is the point which
brought on the battle with the Whigs, and it is in
reality the ground on which they intend to base their
future operations. If Sir Robert Peel would resort to
temporary evasions, they will not permit him ; and the
deficiency he has to deal with may be rated at nearly
three millions—it may possibly approach four millions.
This the Whigs may point-blank deny'; the Tories will
hope against hope : here are the data. Mr. Baring in
his Budget estimated the actual deficiency at 2,400,0001. :
but part of his statement was fOunded on a confessedly
conjectural account of the EaSt India Company as to the
expenses of the China war ; the actual cost of which, at
the time spoken of, would probably raise the deficiency
nearer to three millions than to any other figure, besides
the additional expenses which may yet become necessary.
Since then the revenue has gone on declining : sugar,
whose consumption the Tories in the Budget debate
reckoned would increase, exhibits a decline of 580,0001.
on the year ending in July. Should the harvest be plen-
tiful, the pressure of the public distress will be lessened,
and some stimulus will be given to consumption : on the
other hand, corn, which last year yielded nearly
1,200,0001., will produce much less. Should the harvest
fail, the general prospect will be towering enough ; but
the importations may still not yield as much revenue as
last year. The Corn-law averages would be "avorked,"
and the bulk of the imports pushed in at the shilling-
duty. Sir Robert Peel may therefore, we repeat, make
up his mind to deal with a deficiency of some three mil-
lions, which a series of unlucky circumstances may carry
on towards four millions.

How can he meet it ? The chatterers of his party
went about saying he would reimpose the postage duties;
the Whigs could desire nothing better. The attempt
would excite one-half of the country and unite the Op-
position to a man. The Tory Members for London,
Liverpool, and Leeds, with some other commercial towns,
must gather under their banner ; other Members would
probably absent themselves ; and it is possible the Con-
servative Premier would be defeated. But if he
managed to force the odious measure through the
House, what would it give him ? One million; nay,
not that, for the expenses of the Post-office have increased
by nearly 200,000/., and could not immediately be re-
duced. If he try to reimpose the House-duty, there is
the same risk of defeat, and the same deficiency in the
results ; for dear postage and the eld house duty both
together would yield little more than two millions, being
short by one-third of the sum he requires ; and every
Opposition speech would contain the assertion that the
Whig Free Trade Budget would have rendered ne
taxes needless. What fiscal ingenuity may devise to
take money pleasantly out of people's pockets, we do not
know ; we can see but two modes of supplying the defi-
ciency of the revenue,—a property-tax, with the revision
of the Tariff; a revision of the Tariff, broad, bold, but
well-considered in itself, and considerate towards exist-
ing interests, with the reserve of a property-tax should
it not succeed in making up the deficiency after a few
years' trial. For, pledged as Sir Robert Peel is to
protection and the sliding-scale, he cannot deal with
many duties as matters of revenue only ; and the criti-
cal state of our West Indian colonies, with tke nascent
speculations in, India,,calligence by, an_gct of
tardy justice in equalising ireOuties on their commo-
dities, prevent him from realising all the revenue that
could be raised if we threw our colonies and India over-
board, and admitted every article from every place at one
uniform rate. To effect a masterly reform of our tariff,
with a due regard to fair dealing and the interest of all
parties, is a matter requiring great practical information,
and much consideration on each item ; but there are cer-
tain broad principles to be steadily kept in view. There
should be—

1. Duties for revenue, not for mere taxing—none of
those petty taxes which cause useless expense in the col-
lection, great trouble and inconvenience to the importers,
very often enhancing the price of materials to the ma-
nufacturer, and taking money from the trading classes
without any public gain. According to Mr. Porter's
evidence before the Committee on Import Duties, 46 ar-
ticles produced 22,598,0001. out of a revenue of
22,960,000/., the other 369,000/. being drawn from 1,100
articles, some yielding nothing, and 147 yielding, so to
speak, a loss ; 5,398/. of drawback being repaid over and
above the duty they produced. All these minor articles
should be subject to a careful revision, to abolish the
duty on all but those which cogent circumstances re-
quire to be retained.
2. No prohibitions and no encouragement to anything but
the general industry of the country. Many agricultural
productions are now prohibited by express law—they are
forfeited if imported, whilst corn till at nearly famine
prices is subjected to a prohibitive duty : many foreign
colonial commodities, and some manufactures, are sub-
ject to so high a tax as to be practically prohibited. All
articles of this class must be revised, and a fair rate of
duty impoSed.
3. Raw materials should be admitted duty-free wherever
it is possible without a considerable sacrifice of revenue.
4. The Colonial trade should be placed upon the footing
of a coasting trade, and all articles admitted duty-free, so
far as our financial necessities will permit.
5. A bold and well-considered reduction of duties
should be effected where there is a well-grounded proba-
bility of an equal or an increased revenue—as in wine,
brandy, sugar, timber, &c.
6. If, after two or three years' trial and the practice of
a rigid economy, the income should still continue below
the expenditure, recourse must be had to a Property-iax.
In dealing with these financialquestions, we believe the
country—that is, the majority of all classes apart from
mere partisans—are prepared to accept of a fair offer,
and do not expect impossibilities. They do not expect Sir
Robert Peel to come forward with a proposal for a per-
fectly free trade in corn ; or that the revenue is to rise
to the required amount the moment his measures are
propounded. Mere party'excitement, or agitation for
political changes, has been so prostituted to factious uses,
that the thing is worn out. What the country really de-
sires, is a Government that knows its business and will set
about doing it—a Government that will attend to our
economical condition, and give free play to the industry
of the people and the enterprise of the capitalist. If Sir
Robert Peel shall grapple thoroughly and fairly with the
great question of Import-duties, the country will not
contend for trifles, and.will be perfectly willing to give
him time to await the result of his measures. If, however,
he shall attempt to evade, the subject of Tariff-revision,
or be so ill-advised as to peddle with it—to pro-
duce a measure which fails to satisfy by the breadth
of its general plan and by the considerate skill of its de-
tails—he and his party are lost. We do not say that he
will be immediately driven from office ; his numbers are
too strong, and the leaders of the party opposed to him
are too much distrusted for that. But, his Government
will become a weak Government ; the country will shrink
from him with disappointment ; his followers will have
no confidence in him even whilst he deems that he is
lending himself to their purposes ; and his opponents
will be emboldened to attack him with pertinacity and
lower him by contempt.
We are not alarmists, or prone to panic terrors ; but
we see that the country is verging to a critical state,
when much depends upon treatment whether it shall fall
into a financial decline or recover for an indefinite period,
Many taxes cannot be imposed, and many, if imposed,
would share the fate of Mr. Baring's per centages, and
yield about half of their estimated amount. It cannot
be too often repeated, that the only measures which pro-
mise to meet the difficulty are a property-tax or a revision
of the imports. Votes of credit, loans, petty schemes of
this and that, with all the arts of brokering financiers,
will be useless, whether they be tried by Sir Robert Peel
or by his successors some years hence—for if he will not
grant those measures now, we see no chance, for some
years, of a Ministry strong enough in numerical force
and popular sympathies to overcome the Lords. In
-being will come a
riecivainenwluaeeir,gltogether with a growing
the mean time,
wings its way from the country, leaving behindiscredit propagates itself ; cap
ital
it the artisans it had called into
with
hng
every
declinefurthercongregated
(olefc on
our
re togetherieneeoituorteconomical
financial embarrassment. And whether it be that finan-
cial embarrassment is by itself a sufficient cause of na-
tional decline or as we apprehend, financial embarrass-
ment is merely a symptom of oppressive exaction, or of
national old age—indicating excess of luxury, the ex-
tremes of great wealth and suffering poverty, with all out-
lets for enterprise or industry blocked up—pecuniary dis-
order, whatever its shape, has been the forerunner of na-
tional decay or national convulsion.
u are noted by Lucan among the
The " its alien=
pfewnt ear
, n u
eel it. s tetras was one of the three reliances of
i s
s: ingens
fides, are
vorax, avidumque ity tumpore'
c "
seeds" of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey.
Financial pressure brought on the decay of Venice, and
the decline of Dutch greatness; the pecuniary difficulties
of Charles the First was a proximate cause of the Great
_ Rebellion; Louis the Sixteenth and the noblesse of the

old regime might have gone on in despite of their effemi-
nate profligacy and corruption, but for " the excess of
expenditure over income;" and economical suffering, per-
ceived by Wellington at the beginning of his cam-
paigns and the reason of his steadfast fortitude, was at
the bottom of Napoleon's downfal. But, as our system is
unexampled in its magnitude and ramifications, so it
is proportionably liable to sudden destruction. Any
cause, whether real or imaginary-, which should shake
credit, would bring on a financial crisis of the most
tremendous kind. An internal run, whether from
prudent apprehension or from panic fear—whether
with or without a foreign drain for gold—could bring
the Bank to bankruptcy in a week. A man might
take a fortnight's voyage in his yacht, and find on his
return all payment of taxes, rent, and dcbts suspended,
and no dealings going on but for necessaries with the
money in hand. The imagination fails to conceive the
condition of such a reign of terror. In most previous
national convulsions, the luxurious classes were few in
number and mixed up in the strife ; the masses were
either kept down by force or left in peace to raise their
food. When a district was devastated by military li-
cence, its scattered population were destroyed or driven
away, but in otherplaces production of some sort went
on, enough to supply the inhabitants of the few towns to
Whom ancient proscription or modern denunciation left
little deSire for luxuries. But who can paint the terrors
of a time in which the crowded population of our nume-
rous cities should be without a market for their work,
and consequently without the Means of subsistence ! Ra-
venous with hunger--,told, as they are even now told, to
trace all their sufferings to the coming Government—
what could be done ? To feed them, as the Emperors
fed the populace-of Rome, would be impossible ; equally
impossible to preserve order by our small military force ;
and though we have great trust in the manliness and ge-
nerosity of the national character, however coarse its'ex-
ternals, yet if hunger and anger united should stir men
to put off their humanity, we believe the sufferings of
the country would be as unexampled as its prosperity
and power. We are not speaking of such occurrences
as likely ; but there are elements in our social condition
to make them at all events possible. The best mode of
preventing even their possibility, is to lose no time in
restoring our finances to a sound state, and placing our
economical system in a healthy condition.