The Sun.
London, England, 1840-04-06 00:00:00

GREAT TEMPERANCE MOVE-
MENT IN DUBLIN.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Slll,---I intended to have sent you an outline of the
daily proceedings of the great apostle of temperance in
Dublin, but could! not possibly do so yesterday or the
precious day - and in order that you may, should you
diem the sub,ect sufficiently interesting to the readers of
The Sun, be enabled to have ample details, and to avoid
the trouble which I intended to impose upon myself, if
time permitted, I send you the Weekly Register and
Herald, which contain full reports of the proceeding of the
Rev. Mr. Mathew, up to the close of yesterday, when the
numbers who had taken the pledge at his hands since Mon-
day amounted to 42,800.
This day's proceedings of the Reverend Gentleman
possess a very peculiar feature and interest beyond those
of any previous day ; I therefore communicate those
of
taut fact, having witnessed it.
Having been from the usual hour this morning adminis-
tering the pledge to unabated multitudes at the Custom-
house, the Rev. Gentleman, at half-past one o'clock, pro-
ceeded from thence to the Royal Exchange, where a vast
multitude of the higher and middle orders of society had
been admitted, on payment of 6d. each for the benefit of
The Mendieity ; and after an eloquent and pathetic ap-
peal to the audience upon the necessity and salutary effects
of good example, the greater number of them took the
p'edge, which is a feature in this great movement for
which the public was nut at all prepared—the general im-
pression being that it was entirely confined to the lower
order. The greatest imaginable interest has been ex-
cited by, and importance attached to, this fact, of such num-
bers of the higher and middle orders having taken the
pledge, This has closed the Rev. Gentleman's labours
here for the present. It is calculated that the number of
this day's postulants, added to the others, make an aggre-
gate of at least 50,000 during the week, and not a single
instance of any person's violating the pledge among that
vast number. In fact, consternation has taken such hold
of the public mind that people can scarcely believe their
senses regarding these astounding proceedings, whilst joy
beams on the countenances of the postulants, deep dismay
is visible among those whose properties are involved in the
consequences of this extraordinary and sudden transition.
It is impossible to conjecture the results.
Sir, your very obedient servant,

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

(From the Morning Post.)
The official tables of the receipt of revenue for the year
and quarter which terminated yesterday. as compared with
the receipt for the year and quarter which terminated on
the .sth of April, 1639, appear in our paper of this day.
The increase on the year is 243,9091 , while the quarter
pre,ents a decrease of 15,243/. Under every head of or-
dinary revenue, withlthe exception of the Post-office, there
is un increase during the quarter, when compared with the
corresponding quarter of last year; while the loss of Post-
office revenue amounts to the very large sum of 272,0001.
When we recollect that the revenue of last year was con-
siderably less than the expenditure, and that the expendi-
ture of the present year will be much larger than that of
the last, we cannot regard the statement now before us as
calculated in any degree to dissipate the gloom which the
financial condition of the country had created in the minds
of all reflecting men.
(From the Morning Herald.)
The quarterly accounts of the revenue have been pub-
lished. In some respects, these accounts are cheering.
There is an increase both in the Customs and Excise, as
well as in several subordinate departments. In the Post-
office department, however, there is a decline to the
amount sf 272,0001. upon the quarter—a decline, at the
rate, that is, of considerably more than a million a year.
This, too, in the teeth of a war with China, and with indi-
cations of impending- war with half the world besides !
Had the million a year, which our Ministers have so pro-
fligately sacrificed, been applied to the uses of our navy,
many millions desti,,cd, we fear, to be spent in war, might
have been saved to the country.
We have thus received a glimpse of the available in-
come at the disposal of Lord Nlelbourne's Cabinet. Where,
however, are the sources, from which he may hope to ex-
tract the means of meeting the necessary increase in the
expenditure of the country? What are to be his new
taxes—the reform taxes—the retrenchment taxes? The
bly'get will furnish a more curious theme than the quar
teriy accounts of the revenue !

( From the Times.)
We publish elsewhere the revenue tables for the year
and quarter ending yesterday, which present the clear evi-
dence of improving resources in the country, though ad-
vancing at a very moderate pace. This will more plainly
appear
from the annexed table, in which we have carried
the comparison two year! further back than the offioial re-
turn, and it will be seen on inspection that the last has been
the most productive October quarter of the whole in the
items of Customs, Excise, and Stamps. It exhibits also
the t Let of the recent changes in the Post-office, by which
a loss has been incurred in the present quarter, compared
with the April quarter of 1339, of 272,000/., which is equal
to a rate of nearly 1,100,000/. per annum, which disadvan-
tage, however, is covered by the excess in the Customs and
Excise, so that the total revenue for this quarter, as corn-
vired with 1339, differs only by a sum rather less than
2.0001., and exceeds the revenue both of 1837 and 1838.
The following is the table referred to :

I 18.37. \ 1838. \ 1839. I 1840.
..--- -I- _
C tntoms... ~ 4,436,503 14,061,670 I 4,411,569 4,572,623
Ex~-ise
Stamps ... • , 1,618 462 1,648,194 1,1540,253 1,658,188
'FA XL'S 161,219 130,576 176,440 179,059
1-14).-ollice ..., 337,000 369,000 , 392,000 120,000
I-- - -- - --- ---
i 8,437,629 7.915,213 8,461,773 8,459,863

There to be found, consequently, in the actual re-
v,•nue return no excuse for that increased taxation which
Niinisters are about to impose. Their own improvidence
and profligate waste of the public money, and not the de-
creasing. productive power of the country, are the true
causes of 411 their difficulties. Considering how deadly
tie polic:: is which they have uniformly pursued with
res•dect to our foreign trade, and which has shut out Eng-
-I,t,d. from some of the best markets of the world, it is
really wonderful what energy our commerce has displayed ;
so much so, that there can be little doubt, had they pursued
ii different course, of a sufficient revenue being obtained to
meet even that profligate expenditure of theirs without any
resource to nets taxes. The result of the experiment on the
Post office revenue cannot, on the whole, be considered un-
s itisfactory. Some of the ca'eulationa were that the whole
would be sacrifice by it, but this return shows a net pi ofit
of about half a million annually, which must increase as
the system comes to be more generally understood, and
when the inconvenience of prepayment is got rid of by the
introduction of stamps. These are the only deductions to
be drawn from this document, which relates to income
only, and not to expenditure, or to that part of our ex-
penditure which scarcely undergoes at any time material
fluctuation. The increase of income for the year ending
or. the sth inst is 243.909/. The item of deficiency bills
required to meet the charges on the Consolidated Fund is
lees by about 300,0001. than the corresponding quarter of
1 539, but this will not compensate for the increase in the
pubiic debt, which is shown to have taken place by the
returns lately moved for by Mr. Herries, and which we
have already adverted to.
(Front the Morning Advertiser.)

We presrut to our readers elsewhere the statement of
the quarter's revenue, ending on Saturday last, the 4th of
April, instead of yesterday, the 3th, which makes a dif-
ference of one day in the quarter's receipts. The state-
ment is gratifying in every respect, both as regards the
quarter and the year. Cpun the year there is an increase
ot nearly half a million, whilst upon the quarter the de-
ercaae simply amounts to some odd 272 0001.—a deficiency
produced by one of the greatest improvements of the age—
thg reduction of the postage duties, which it is scarcely ne.
eessary to mention. In the Customs there is an increase
of nearly half a million, and upon the quarter now ended of
a sum of 161,000/. We need scarcely allude to the Ex-
cise, although it is in some measure worthy of being noted,
the increase being nearly 41.000/. upon the year, and up-
wards of 88,0001. upon the quarter. We shall not expa-
tiate upon this subject but to-morrow we may re-
turn to it. In the mean time we think that the facts are
highly satisfactory.

WA NDSWORTH FAIR—On Saturday at the
Wandsworth Petty Sessions, held at the French Horn Tavern,
before W. Nottidge, Esq., Chairman, T. Hawes, Esq., E.
I'vnrhyn, Esq., and Captain Page, county Magistrates, it was
mentioned that measures had been taken to prevent the above
popular suburban carnival from being holden after the present
year. Previous to the fair, placards, of which the following is
a copy, had been very extensively circulated in Wimbledon and
the surrounding parishes :—" Wimbledon Fair.—Notice is
hereby given, that the annual fair hitherto holden in this village
on the tirs.t Monday after Lady-day (having been holden with-
out lawful authority) an application has been made to the
Honourable the Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police to
suppress the said fair. Ity order of the parish officers, J.
Kelly, vestry clerk.—Wimbledon, March, 1540."
LUDLOW ELECTION COMMITTEE.—The
Committee again met on Saturday morning, when the exami-
nation of Mr. Anderson was resumed, and the evidence on the
part of the petitioners, as to the alleged bribery, was brought
to „lose. Mr. Austen summed up the whole of the evidence
in an address which occupied upwards of two hours, and con-
tended that, upon the evidence of George Tilley, and corrobo-
rated by the keepers of other publis houses, treating and bri-
bery had been so fully established as to unseat Mr. Alcock. Mr.
Cockburn, contra, replies to-day. The room was unusually
crowded during the day, not only by strangers, but Members of
Parliament.

A PRESENT OF Two SLAVES.—The ship
Earl Durham, of Dundee,
arrived at Swansea on the 17th
current, from the coast of Chili, in 100 days. lia.. fir
cir-
eisinavigated the globe, and brings from New Zealand 1
siars, of extraordinary size, for naval use ; from
Copiapo, and Penablanca, 410 tons copper ore,ro 27 Valparaiso,
Copiapo, tonsal Naio,
icsa-
r.gua wood, and a considerable arrount in
inon.
restiag incident occurred while theship the bay
Plenty (New Zealand). Captain Cabel had occasion to trade
wish a chief from White Island. At the close of the transac-
tion, the latter made him a present of a slave, and sold him
another for ,a blanket. These two young men are now on
board, and have done duty during the voyage in a highly satis-
factory manner ; increased (indeed by their grateful efforts
to render what they could to the author of their liberty, for
that inestimable blessing. There are two New Holland dogs on
board ; they very closely resemble the wolf, and do not bark.
We regret to learn that Mr. R. Steuart has been
r• rented, by a severe attack of illness, which confined him to
his house, from attending his plaee in Parliament on the Corn-
law question—the first division on that question from which he
has eve: been absent.

METROPOLITAN ANTI-CORN LAW ASSOCI.
ATioN.-7Up to Friday, by the instrumentality of this body, 407 petitions had been sent to Parliament containing 87,000
signatures. It commenced in the beginning of March,
and it
has not had time to establish an efficient organization. It
had no
funds, it found thn middle classes apathetic, and many of the
working classes hostile. It has made friends of the hostile, and
has warmed the apathetic into vigorous exertion, and all in less
than one month. With a perfect organization the Association
will be most effective, and the Corn-laws must fall before
public opinion.