The Sun.
London, England, 1824-06-24 00:00:00

COUNTY RATES.-HAMPSHIRE.

The proposition alluded to, in the following
article has, we understand, excited so much at-
tention and surprize, that we have been desired
to extract it from The Salisbury and Winchester
Journal, and insert, it in THE SUN

(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.) • •
"On Saturday the 12th inst. a very respectable meeting of
the holders of the bonds of this county (which are charged on
the county rates) was held at the Prince Regent's Hotel in this
city, to take into consideration the alternative proposal made to
them on the part of the county, and founded on the order of the
last General Quarter-sessions, for the repayment of their several
loans or the lowering of the interest on them ; -such proposal
and such order being made under the powers of a Statute, even
yet not fully become a law, and (when a law) in this special
clause intended to be not compUlsory in a county but discre,
tionary, not enacting but enabling.
" The bond-holders, under the influence of that monitor
which resides within their breasts, seek not mercenarily their
own interests at the expence of equity, but they feel that they
would forsake the sacred duty which they owe to society, to
the general interests of man, by an unresisting acquiescence
in that proposal.
" Deeming it their duty to meet, and to oppose, this at-
tempt to set aside their bonds, they at the above meeting
unanimously agreed to, and signed, a strong but respectful re-
monstrance to be presented to the Magistrates at the • ensuing
general Quarter Sessions.
" They feel that they accommodated the county in her
wants, and on terms, as it has ultimately proved, disad-
vantageous to themselves ;—that they did so in the reliance
on the stipulations of the then alone existing statute (24
George 3, chap. 55) ;—that they- deposited their monies in
the hands of the county, under (as they considered) the
mutual pledge of good faith ; and they now lament to
see that an attempt is making to break in on the con-
ditions of those bonds, to render' them no bonds, to
throw down the party - wall ; that their interests and
rights are attempted to be invaded, the signatures of the
Magistracy to be set at nought, and even so (in the language of
their remonstrance) by the unusual operation of an ex post
,facto law, framed for that intended advantage on the one side,
which they feel would have been determinedly refused on the
other.' They consider the proposed measure as an infliction,
of injury on private individuals,. unaccompanied with advan-
tage to the public ; they regard, in their humble opinion as
• tending to destroy the honour, the dignity, anti the character of
this respectable county, arid to impart an example to every
grade of society inimical to the common weal ; they say, in
in fine, (and truly say) that the moral ties of public and private
life aro the same, that the moral codes (however and whenever
attacked. by sophistry) are still one and indivisible.
" They have the fullest confidence, that those Magistrates
who signed their several Bonds, will, in the personal words of
those deeds, confirm and establish the same;' that they will
join in and enforce their already given order to the Treasurer of
the County to pay their several interests half-yearly, as again
in the language of those deeds the same shall become
due until the principal shall be discharged pursuant to the
directions of the said Act; and they possess the strongest
assurance, that the general voice of the county will loudly join
in the vindication of her Honour, her Dignity, her Character,
by the preservation of the Integrity. of her Bonds."'