The Sun.
London, England, 1840-05-18 00:00:00

T. .E SUN, I_4()NlioN, MONDAY. MASS Is, IR4o.

two Governments. The account as between the two Go-
vernments will, in point of fact, stand thus :
Whig saving X15,358,045
Tory surplus

25,061,437
—Being about the difference of income in the two pe-
riods : the gro.s amounts of revenue in which were:—
Tory four years
Whig four years

25,445,127
By a Parliamentary return, ordered to be printed March
22d, 1836, the gross amount of taxes repealed in 1831,
2,3, 4, and 5, was 8,922,3761., whilst the gross
amount of taxes imposed during the same period was
871.0831.; showing a net reduction of more than
8,000,0001. Since then the farther reduction to a large
amount of taxation has been affected, and various imposts,
which pressed severely on the commercial and labouring
classes of the community, have been removed, the amounts
of which we have not before us, but the facts are known
to all. The reduction on Newspaper stamps, and the sub-
stitution of an uniform penny postage for the former heavy
and unequal rates, may be estimated at 4,000,0001. By
what we may term indirect alleviation in the public bur-
dens, relief to the extent of four millions more has been
efftcted.

We cheerfully admit that it was a great merit in
the Whigs so to reduce taxation. We believe even
that these successive reductions have been the great
means of successively stimulating enterprise and
keeping alive hope ; we believe, therefore, that this
substantial relief has, more than any other Reform,
contributed to carry the country through the diffi-
culties by which it has been beset; that it has, in
part, neutralized many of the evils of the Corn-laws,
and has nourished that prosperity which they would,
but for the reduction of taxation, have annihilated.
Admitting all that, and stating the successive re-
ductions as a great merit in the Whigs, we are
thereby driven to the conclusion that they have sui-
cidally destroyed their, own work, and in proportion
as we praise them for the relief they have given tr,
just in that proportion we must condemn the addi-
tional burdens they are now laying on the country.

If we could convince ourselves that these were
unavoidable, we should not repine. But our
loyalty has never driven us to approve of the im-
mense allowance made to her MAJESTY. • Our
respect for vested rights has never induced us to
sanction taxing the people for the sake of preserving
the pensions of the Civil List. Our attachment
to colonies is not strong enough to approve of re-
taining them in obedience by force. We think a
great deal of unnecessary expense has been incurred
by Commissions and carrying out theories which
should never have been allowed to take a sixpence
out of the pockets of the people. We admit the
necessity for increasing the Navy—we subscribe to
the propriety of vindicating the national honour
and defending the national rights against the
Chinese ; but we think that had the Administration
been more just to the people, fewer military would
have been required at home, and the expense of
tire Army, with the expense of the Court and the
expense of the Home Government, might have been
much kept down, and the necessity for aditional taxa-
tion avoided. In the present condition of England,
we hold the contentment of the masses to be the
chief aim of public policy ; and we cannot give our
approval to any measures for adding a single hair to
their vast burdens which is not required by the
clearest and most overwhelming necessity.
We dissent, therefore, from the opinion that
greater economy was not practicable, and that in-
creased taxation could not have been avoided.
Adopting, however, the Ministerial view, we next
come to consider whether the best mode of in-
creasing the taxation has been adopted. We agree
that, under all circumstances, the CHANCELLOR
of the EXCHEQUER has done well. He will raise
an additional income, without any additional machi-
nery. He could scarcely raise the two millions he
requires at a less cost. Moreover, by preserving
as much as possible the present relative taxation
on different commodities unaltered, he will intro-
duce the least possible disturbance into commerce,
and give the least possible occasion to speculation.
The new survey he is to institute for the purpose
of levying the Assessed Taxes, may give rise to
some momentary and some partial dissatisfaction,
but the increase of the Assessed Taxes can be as
well borne as any increase of taxation we can
imagine.

One great evil, indeed, may result from enhanc-
ing the Customs and Excise duties, which we must
advert to. Sir ROBERT PEEL in the debate on
Friday night censured the increase in the duty on
raw cotton. At present that is 2s. 11d. per cwt.,
and five per cent. will raise it to 3s. 7-10ths of a
penny. Now small as that increase is, under the
present keen competition with other countries in the
foreign markets, it may inflect a serious injury on our
manufactures. But besides the actual tax on cotton
there are Customs duties on a number of articles
used in manufactures, such as indigo, oil, alkalies,
and dye stuffs, of various kinds, all of which will
be liable to an increase, as well as the duty on
cotton. The cumulative effect of all these in the
price of our manufactures, will be something con-
siderable. Prices generally, with the exception of
the prices of corn will undoubtedly rise, and th?.
consequence will be to narrow the market abroad
for our manufactures, which in their present state is
much to he deprecated and avoided.
Moreover, at present, tea, sugar, coffee, enter
largely into the consumption of the labouring
classes. They are the great consumers of beer and
spirits. On them, therefore, mainly will the increase
of the Customs and Excise duties fall, and as
there can be no hope that this increased taxation
should give them increased employment, and enable
them to raise their wages, this increase of price in
the articles which they consume will tend mate-
rially to diminish their small modicum of enjoyment.
On these two grounds of endangering the sale of
our manufactures, and trespassing on the comforts
of the working classes, we should have preferred
very much Mr. HUME'S .plan of subjecting real
property to the legacy duty, to the increase of the
Customs and Excise duty proposed by the CHAN-
CELLOR Of the EXCHEQUER.
Other persons entertain the same opinion ; but
they say that the CHANCELLOR of the Ex-
CHEQUER could not possibly carry any such mea-
sure, or any measure imposing a direct tax on pro-
perty. On this ground—the ground of what can be
at present accomplished by the Ministers—we have
already said that the plan adopted is the best pro-
bably that can be devised. The greater justice of
Mr. HUME'S suggestion, or of a direct tax on
property, we cannot question ; but no Minister
could now carry either through the House of Corn.
mons. In that statement we see a prodigiously
strong argument for a further reform in the House
of Commons. The justice of a course is admitted,
and it is avowed that the House of Commons can-
not be induced to take it. We are ruled
over, therefore, by injustice. But what better
can we expect from a body which springs, as the
House of Commons mainly does, from beastly
and disgusting corruption, like that at Ludlow, or
that at Cambridge ? Those who act in conformity
to its wishes, as all Ministers must, are but the in-
struments of its corruption and its injustice, and
can claim no higher character. So viewed, let us
say with all the deference that is due to rank and
wealth, that a writer for the public press who pur-
scuorert,
supastraightforward path, and is the servant of
igh
truth and tteausness, is a higher character than
a Minister who is the mere agent and servant of a
unjust body like the House of Commons.

The trial of Mr. CLEAVE, at the Central Cri-
minal Court, on Saturday, for a blasphemous libel,
is but the commencement, we believe, of a series of

prosecutions for similar offences, growing out of the
writings of the Socialists. A Mr. HEYWOOD, of
Manchester, and Mr. HETHERINGTON, of Lon-
don, are both indicted for publishing the letters of
Mr. HASLEM, and both, as was stated of Mr.
HEYWOOD, at a public meeting held at
Manchester, have merely published and sold those
letters in the way of their trade, without being at all
aware of their contents ; neither of them being the
printer or undertaker of the work, who is probably
Mr. HASLEM himself, or whoever assumes that
name. We did hope that prosecutions for such
vague and indefinite offences as writing or pub-

lishing blasphemous libels were at an end ; but we
are deceived ; and prosecution, or persecution, in the
name of a religion of mercy and charity, is again
begun under the influence of the State priesthood.

Mr. ADOLPHUS stared at the trial that the
prosecution was instituted by the Government ;
why then did not the ATTORNEY-GENERAL ap-
pear? Was he ashamed of it, or has Mr. ADOL-
PHUS misrepresented the case? We should hope

the latter ; for we should be slow to believe that
Ministers had brought the law to aid the imperfect
polemics of Dr. PH ILPOTTS, or satisfy the un-
christian animosity of the priesthood against those
who differ from them in belief, as they differ from
them in height, complexion, and security of in-
come ; but we remember that Dr. P
_ HILPOTTS
moved the branch of the Legislature of which he
is a member, to address the Crown to enforce the
law against the Socialists; and we presume that

it was in obedience to that address, that the
Ministers have been compelled, they being, as we
have elsewhere said, only the servants of a corrupt
system, to institute the prosecutions we have ad-
verted to. Some Baptist clergymen, and several
individuals who are staunch believers, have not
been afraid to grapple with the errors of the
Socialists, and have obtained considerable praise
for their success. It is only the State priests
who cannot rely on argument and truth, and
who imply that they themselves entertain doubts
by calling on the law to enforce their views by pu-
nishment.

But whatever may be the apprehensions of ti.e
priesthood, we see no good ground for the Judges
and the law becoming subservient to their views.
The law is altogether made by men, and to shield
men from injury. The notion that it can in any
case vindicate the outraged honour of the Divinity
—supposing any mortal man to be a judge of that
—has long been given up. To calJ it- into opera-
tion, an injury or damage must be done to some
living and set-view,: being. We can understand,
_ _

therefore, Dr. PHILPOTTS prosecuting Mr.
CLEAVE or Mr. HETHERINGTON for a libel on

him ; we can understand the law punishing those
publishers for injuring the feelings of Dr. Pfm-
porTs, or for injuring the feelings of the body o
the priests ; we can understand the law punishing
any and every writer who excites alarm in them for

the continuance of tithes ; but we cannot com
prehend a prosecution and a punishment for a libel
on no human being. Mr. ADOLPHUS said the
libel was an atrocious attack upon that religion
which is held so dear by all the thinking people
of this country ;" but the religion—that is the
body of doctrines, or the books in which
they are contained, or the authors of those
books, who have been dead many hundred years—
could not possibly be hurt by any thing Mr.
H ASL EN! might write, or Mr. CLEAVE might
publish. The thinking people holding those
doctrines very dear, might be hurt by their
being held up to ridicule, or decried as absurd ;
and we can understand a prosecution and a punish-
ment for injuring their feelings. But if that be the
ground of the prosecution and the punishment, it
ought to be stated—and a fiction ought not to be
substituted which only makes the law an object of

scorn and contempt.
There might indeed be some danger of not ob-
taining a conviction, if, instead of an atrocious at-
tack on religion, Mr. HASLEM or his publisher
were accused of an atrocious attack on the feelings
of those who hold in respect the doctrines con-
tained in the Bible, for common justicelmight then
induce the jurymen to refuse the office of judges in

their own cause, and request the trial to be post-
poned till an impartial jury (an impossibility) could
he found. If the prosecution, too, were instituted
for injuring the feelings of the public by a writing,
that would open such a door for strange prosecutions,
that, to state the real ground of the prosecution, if

it be what we have said, would be sufficient at
once to stifle it. We cannot, therefore, too strongly
condemn a prosecution carried on in the name of a
fiction, which seems to us to serve no other pur-
pose than to endeavour to put down those of whose
arguments the State priesthood ale afraid. We can-
not also too strongly condemn the law inflicting a
punishment on Mr. CLEAVE, without its having
been shown or proved that a single human being
has been injured by any thing he has said, written,
or done.

We have given in another part of the paper, the
Third Report of the Select Committee, appointed
by the House of Commons to inquire into the State
of Communieation by Railways. After three
lengthened inquiries the Committee have come to
the resolution that it is inexpedient at present to
make any legislative enactment to prevent Railway
Companies from obtaining a monopoly of conveyance,
and simply recommend the appointment of officers
under the control of the Executive to watch the
systems on the different lines of railway, for the
purpose of protecting the interests and in-
suring the convenience of the public. This, at all
events, will be a great improvement on the present
practice. Persons aggrieved can thus apply to
recognised authorities for redress, and if the sys-
tem should on trial be still found defective, a suffi-
cient ground will be established for legislative in-
terference.

In a private communication from Paris, received
this morning, it is stated that as soon as the pre-
sent campaign in Africa is terminated Marshal
VALLEE will be replaced as Governor of the
French possessions there, by Marshal CLAUSEL.
We had thought that CLAUSEL had enough of
Africa. We have not forgotten, nor have the Co-
lonists, the close of the " hero of the illustrious
sword's" last exploits in that part of the world. But
a worse appointment was possible. The KING
might have placed the Government in the hands of
General BUGEAUD.

The Marquis of SALDANIIA has just arrived
in this country from Portugal, with full powers to
adjust with Lord PALMERSTON the claims of the
British Government upon the Portuguese nation.
The Marquis is accompanied by Colonel BA-
NEIRos and Lieutenant PICALLWA, as members
of the mixed Commission for the adjustment of the
claims of the British officers and men who fought
for the independence of P,oltuga!, under the stan-
dard of Don PEDRO. I his intelligence cannot
hut prove highly satisfactory to the British na-
tion. The Marquis of SA LDANIIA is a man cf
unsullied honour, and one who on all occasions
appeared disposed to do justice to the claims of
i
Portuguese creditors. It s stated that the Mar-
quis comes equipped with bills to the amount of
bills
240,0001. sterling. If the be good, the Mar-
quis will cut a most imposing figure in Downing-
street.

Letters and papers front Madrid of the Sib and
9th inst. have reached us. General Sir De LACY
prosecuting the claims of the
EVANS was actively'
British Auxiliary Legion.
The accounts from Baycnne are of the 12th,
and from Monroyo, ESPARTERO'S head quarters,

of the 7th inst. General AYERBE sent two pea-
sants with letters to the Governor of Cantavieja,
offering him honourable terms if he would surrender
at discretion, and thus spare the useless effusion of
Spanish blood. The wretch's answer was charac-
teristic. He ordered the heads of the peasants to
he chopped off with a hatchet, and stuck them
upon spikes over the gate of the fortress ! We ex-
pect to hear of bloody reprisals.
The preparations for the siege of Morella were
complete. CABRERA, at the head of 300 horse,
has entered Catalonia, to levy contributions, and
to escort his sisters to the French frontier.

The German Papers just received state that a
letter from Warsaw announces the banishment of
the Polish Archbishop of PALACHIA from his
diocese, by command of the Emperor of RUSSIA,
who has been graciously pleased to assign the Ve-
nerable Prelate a residence in Siberia. This ty-
rannical proceeding is said to have created a great
sensation in Poland.

The Hanoverian Minister at the Frankfort Diet,
Baron VON STRALENHEIM, has demanded the
dismissal of Dr. HESSENBERG, Procurator of the
Diet, with the nullification of the sentence of the
Court of Appeal in his favour ; likewise a pledge
from the Diet to receive no more petitions from
the Corporations of Hanover against the revival
of the Constitution of 1819.

The Paris Journals of Friday and Saturday have
all reached us, but their contents are not of much
political importance. The following telegraphic
despatch from French Africa is copied from the
Moniteur of Friday :
" TOULON, MAY 13, Two O'CLOCK, P
" CHERCHELL. MAY 9.
" MARSHAL VALLER TO THE M4SISTER OF WAR

" The army has traversed the entire plain of Metidja
and the valleys of the Oued-el-Haehem and the Oued,
Benin. Five engagements, highly honourable for our
troops, have taken place, and in which the enemy suffered
considerable losses. We have had only 20 killed, with
103 wounded, whom I send on to Algiers.
I am establishing a fortified camp at Haouch-Mouzaia,
near the foot of the Atlas, where I have formed a large
depot of pi ovi{ions.
" Chercheil was attacked during six days. The garri-
son repulsed the enemy, occasioning them a severe loss.
" I am about to continue my operations, and in the
course of three days I shall have crossed the Atlas.
" The' Princes are in good health.
The province of Oran is perfectly tranquil.
" I have ordered to Chercell three battalions of that di-
vision, who shall very soon return to their corps."

In the Chamber of Deputies, on Friday, the
Algiers Supplementary Credit Bill was carried by
a majority of 261 against 68 of a minority.
The Committee of the Chamber of Deputies,
composed entirely of Imperialists, charged with
examining and reporting upon the project of law
for removing to France the remains of NAPOLEON,
-appointed, on Friday, Marshal CLAUSEL its
Chairman, and M. DE LA REDORT its Se-
cretary.
The Committee of the Chamber of Peers on the
Five per Cents. Reduction Bill is opposed to that
measure. The 811 will consequently be thrown
out. This created a sudden rise in the price of the
Five per Cents. on the Bourse of Saturday.
In the Chamber of Deputies on Saturday M.
Tr-11E11s presented a project of law fer establishing
three transatlantic lines of communication between
France and North and South America. The first
line between Havre and New York, is to be made
over to a company, to which the State will allow an
annual subvention of 1,200,000 francs. The Go-
vernment reserves to itself the two other lines: that
of Marseilles is to correspond with Martinique and
Mexico. The Bordeaux line is also to correspond
with Mexico and with New Orleans. Sixteen
steamers of 220 and 450 horse power, are to be
constructed for the purpose. at the public expense.
The whole costs are fixed at 25 millions of francs,
payable in three years.
Murders are becoming frightfully frequent in
France. The following details of a horrible
murder at Artigues near Bordeaux, is from the Me-
morial Bordelais. The murderer, who was a tutor
and a person of considerable literary attainments,
was preparing for the press a work entitled " A
History of the Christian Religion, by a Preceptor
of Little Children." He first murdered a boy, and
to conceal this crime, afterwards murdered the mo-
ther and little sister of his victim :

" On Tuesday morning, at half-past seven, ElizAbide
was taken to the place where his crime was commit ed, in
a cart, escorted by a party of gendarmes, with their mus-
kets loaded and their bayonets fixed. His hands were
bound, and the guard had the strictest orders not to
!osc sight of him for an instant. The whole population
of Artigues and the surrounding communes were as-
sembled, and assailed him with imprecations. At eight
o'clock the Procureur du Roi, his substitute, the exam-
ining magistrate, the captain of gendarmerie, and two sur-
geons arrived at the church of Artigues, where the
bodies of the victims were laid. Elizabide was first
taken to the spot where the murder was committed. It
is in a hollow on the left side of the road, bounded by two
steep banks, which prevented tke cries of the victims from
being heard. The ground was covered with a pal of blood.
He at once admitted that it was there, at 9 on Saturday
evening, he first struck the child on the head with a stone,
the blow being so forcible that the sutures of the skull
opened at once. The same stone, ho added, served to knock
down the mother; and afterwards, fearing that she st.ll suf-
fered, he used his knife to cut her throat, as well as to sepa-
rate her nose and cheeks, plunging it six times into the right
temple, which was previously beaten in. At 1 o'clock on
Sunday morning, when he was met by several persons, he re-
moved the bodies, after having first stripped them of their
clothing. lie first threw the body of the mother into the
watercourse of a mill, ar.d afterwards that of the child
into a rivulet. On being conducted to the church, and
desired to look upon the bodies, he refused, saying Kill
me if you like, but do not exact from me what is above my
powers !' Afler a while he recovered, and related all the
circumstances of his murder of the boy at Paris, which he
efE_Tted in like manner, by first felling him with a stone,
and then cutting his throat. At two o'clock in the after-
noon the murderer was brought back to Bordeaux. The
crowd was so great at the Salicres, and thence to the en-
trance of Fort du Ha (the prison), that it became necessary
to call out a detachment of troops of the line to protect
him from the indignation of the populace. His name is
Pierre Vincent Elizabide ; he is a native of Mauleon, in
the Basses Pyrenees, and thirty years of age. lie had
obtained at Bordeaux the certificates necessary to qualify
him for a communal teacher."

The following extracts are horn the Journals of
Friday and Saturday :
The Etna steamer, which reached Toulon on the 12th
instant, brought intelligence from Naples to the evening
of the 7th. The Vautour, with the Duke de Monte-
bello on board, anchored before Naples in the morning of
the 6th, and was immediately saluted by the batteries of
the harbour, and the English and French vessels of war
in the roads. The tri-coloured flag was fur the first
time hoisted by the Neapolitan vessels of war on the Ist
of May (King Louis Philippe's fete-day), and hailed by
a salute of 21 guns. Since the mediation was accepted
matters remained in statu quo. When the Etna sailed
four British men of war were still before Naples—namely,
the Bellerophon and Benbow, a corvette, and a steamer.
" A ceremony is pretty generally spoken of as intended
to take place at the Tuileries in the course of next week.
According to this report the King, seated on his throne,
and surrounded by the Great Officers of State and the
Council of Ministers, will receive General Bertrand, who
will deliver into the hands of Louis Philippe the sword of
Napoleon.
" The Duke of Saxe Coburg is on the point of pur-
chasing the domain of Muskau, of Prince Puckler, for the
sum of 1,500, 000 dollars, of which 1,400,000 are already
paid. The (;.omain is intended for tier Imperial Highness
the divorced wife of the late Grand Duke Constantine of
Russ'ia, who has hitherto resided at Elfenau, near Berne."
--La Gazette de France.