The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-24 00:00:00

destructive of commercial enterprise. If Ministers
were determined to maintain the Bank Bill at all
hazards, it is desirable that we should be apprised of
the fact in a manner which can leave no doubt
on the point. Let us, at any rate, know
the worst. When the worst has come it
will soon be over, and matters will be-
gin to mend ; but when the worst is
still expected to come, the apprehension has a more
discouraging effect than the reality itself. We dread
the results of the uncertainty which will now for
more than six weeks hang over the fate of Mr. Her-
ries's motion ; and we have no doubt that much of the
gloom which has hung over the stock and share mar-
kets, during the last few days, is to be ascribed to the
postponement of the Right Hon. Gentleman's motion.
In the meantime, let us hope that the interval will be
rightly improved by the opponents of Peel's Bill, in
preparing for the discussion on Mr. Herries's motion.
If the result of the postponement be such an organi-
zation of the opponents of the Bill, as will insure the
success of the Right Hon. Gentleman's motion, the
country will have no cause to regret the delay which
has taken place. From the currency question, let us
turn for a moment to other matters. Lord John
Russell, immediately before the adjournment of the
House on Monday, gave a promise that the recess
should be employed by Ministers in maturing their
measures, so as to be ready to lay them before the Le-
gislature on its re-assembling in February. Let us
hope the Noble Lord will keep his word. The coun-
try will be greatly disappointed if he do not. Nor will
any excuse be admitted for further procrastination.
The Noble Lord, indeed, will not be in a position to
offer any excuse for further delay. But we beg to
remind him that something more will be expected of
him than the mere introduction of his measures. It
will be expected that he shall introduce them in good
faith. It is one thing, as our experience of Whig
Administrations has taught us, to introduce measures,
and another to press them forward through their
various stages. Need we give any instances of this ?
They are ready to our hand. Let it suffice to refer
to one recent and remarkable instance. The public
will, no doubt, anticipate the case which we have in
our eye. We allude to Lord Morpeth's Health of
Towns Bill. That measure was introduced early in
the last session; it was one of the most important mea-
sures of the session, and yet it was allowed to sleep pro-
foundly till near the end of the session, and then it
was one of the " innocents" slaughtered by its parents,
on the ground that "at that late period of the ses •
sion" it would be impossible to pass it. It may be
right to warn the Noble Lord at the head of the
Government that it will not be politic or safe to re-
peat this game with any of his great measures of the
present session. The country is not in a mood to
• stand another experiment on its patience of the same
kind. Whatever measures Ministers may bring for-
ward on the re-assembling of Parliament, they will,
it is to be hoped, for their own sakes as well as for
the sake of the country, introduce them with the full
determination to make them the law of the land with
all convenient dispatch.-

REPEAL OF THE WINDOW-TAX.
Yesterday morning a numerous meeting of the
rate-payers of the parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields
was held in the vestry-room, " to take into considera-
tion the window duties, and their effect upon the
health of the metropolis ; to receive the report of the
late committee of vestry ; and to appoint, if deemed
necessary, a new committee to co 'operate with other
metropolitan parishes for the removal of such tax."
Mr. W. H. Dalton, senior churchwarden, took the
chair, and Mr. Cobbett, jun., read the following re
port :

64 Your committee beg to report that, although
public interest, in regard to the window duties, has
not in the least abated, and the agitation of the sub-
ject, both in and out of Parliament, has met with in-
creased support, hitherto the exertions of your com-
mittee have not been attended with any favourable
result. Changes in the administration of affairs
of the country, and the agitation of measures of
free trade, combined with other causes, have been
the reason for not pressing the matter on the
attention of Government. These obstructions now no

longer exist, and your committee trust that internal
legislation will receive its share of attention from
Parliament, and that all imposts whereby the health
of the public is affected will be removed. In conclu
sion, your committee consider the time has arrived
when, with propriety, this tax can be abolished."
Mr. Labram said that the committee was appointed
in March, 184.5, to co-operate with other parishes,
but their efforts had ever been thwarted by the more
pressing claims of other great questions. The com-
mittee now proposed to renew the agitation, and he
ho ped it would meet with greater success as a ques-
tion of sanitary importance.
,After several very interesting speeches, the report
was adopted.
Several resolutions were also agreed to, and a pe-
tition for the immediate abolition of window duties
was read and approved.
Mr. J. WTI" M.P. for Bodmin, on his name
being proposed as a member of the committee, said,
lAt should be most happy to serve, and if his holding
a seat in the House of Commons could be of any
service to them, he should be most willing to assist
them in any way. With the subject he must say he
wat not very well acquainted, but from his know-
ledge of that parish, and the numerous poor living in
it; he was aware that it was one of very great im-
portance. They had a large number of the working
classes living in the parish, and they were the par-
ties who felt the opressive character of the window-
tax.—(Hear, hear.) Many of them manufactured
vfirious articles at their own homes, and although the
rooms at the top of the house were used as
workshops, they were compelled to pay most exor-
bitantly for the light they required to complete their
work. He knew an instance of a poor man, a book-
binder, who in consequence of making the lower part
of his house a dwelling, was compelled to pay 151. per
annum for the windows in his workshop at the top
of the house.—(Hear.)
He hoped soon to see the
dwellings of the poor man made comfortable, and put
upon the same footing with other classes in the
metropolis. During the great improvements that
had been made in various parts of the metropolis,
every class had been thought of but the working
classes. They talked of fine façades and fine build-
ings being erected, but not one thought was given for
the working man.—
(Hear.) In consequence of their
work many ;of the poorer classes were compelled
to live in houses not fit for habitation, and in
some houses they would find twelve
live. It was not, then, to be wondered at that
there was a predisposition to disease in crowded
ought o r
to
four-
teen families, where only six or seven
neighbourhoods, and unhealthiness produced. If the
Window duties were repealed,
the poor would be improved. After some further re-
marks, the Hon. Gentleman said they might command
to
his services in the House of Commons, either to pre-
sent their petition, or the dwelling-houses of
support its prayer.
A numerous committee was then
co-
operate with other parishes in obtaining the abolition
of the tax. appointed to

On the motion of Mr. ',ABRAM,
the day were ordered to be advertised.
A vote of thanks having been awarded to the Chair•
man, the meeting separated, the proceedings of

METROPOLITAN ASSOCIATION
FOR IMPROVING THE DWELLINGS OF
THE INDUSTRIOUS POOR. This association held its usual meeting yesterday at
the offices, Coleman-street, Sir Ralph Howard, Bart.,
in the chair, when the secretary read the third re-
port of the directors, Which
stated that the ground
opposite the church in
Old St. Pancras-road, which
they had agreed to take on lease for 99 years, at 90/.
per annum, from the Brewers' Company, was now.
oovered with the houses intended for the occupation
of the industrious poor, and would very soon be corn-'
pleted ; that already sixty-two sets of rooms in those
houses had been applied for ; that the houses would
afford very superior accommodation at a moderate'
rent, commencing at 6s. na
--• a week for the
ground floor, consisting of three large rooms, and
proportionate reductions to the fourth floor, which
would be 3s. per week for two rooms; that arrange-
ments had been made for avoiding the necessity of
bringing up and down stairs any other articles than
those necessary for daily consumption ;
that the whole
of the building would be nearly fire-
proof, and had
been insured for four thousand pounds in the West-
minster Fire-office; that the staircase had been pro-
vided with Kite's patent ventilation, which would
have the effect of keeping up a constant supply of
fresh air ; that arrangements had
been made with
the New River Company for the requisite supply of
water upon moderate terms ; that the directors had
endeavoured to get a reduction of the window-tax, by
representing to the Chancellor of the Exchequer the
benevolent object of the association ; but, accord-
ing to the
present mode of assessment, ten of the
dwellings
would be charged as a forty-windowed
house. However, they had received an intimation
that if they prepared mitigatory clauses, they would
receive the attention of the Government. The report
also recommended the erection of a dormitory for
single men. The total number of shares taken
amounted to 1,181. The balance-sheet was next read,
by which it appeared that the sums received from
September, 1846, to September, 1847, amounted to
21,5221. 10s., which included 14,210/. which Share-
holders were still liable to be called upon to pay in
satisfaction of their shares, and
that the actual
balance now in band was 3,3371. 10s. 6d.
Lord R. GROSVBNOH, MT., moved, and Dr. S.
SMITH seconded the report, which was unanimously
adopted.
The meeting soon after separated.

-DEc. The Chamber
HUNGARY, PRESBURG,
the Nigntktes of, Hungry has rejected, by 96 against
vu votes, all those claust,s the adultcss which have het
yet been discussed, and which were of a nature to lead
--agenteine Zeitung.
o violent debates.