The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-23 00:00:00

4btnta L

LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1848.

So! the AUTOCRAT is waking up from his sullen-
.+e ac 711 a wrirri nF .EZ cci an devotism ;s to dania,,
the doom of Europe : and the prophecy of the Im-
perial Exile of St. Helena is about to be fulfilled—
that prophecy which declared that within fifty years
the European Continent would be either inundated
with Cossacks or transformed into democracies.
NICHOLAS is girding on his armour : he is about to
descend from the north into the plains of Germany,
and to chastise the rebels who have revolted against
his brother of Prussia. The EMPEROR will march
to the rescue of the absolutist of Sans Souci, at the
head of 500,000 men, attended by a vast and effective
force of artillery. So says, at least, the Frankfort
Journal of the 19th instant, and the Frankfort
Journal is published in the very heart of Germanic
intelligence.

Possibly the Potentate of all the Russias hugs
himself in the idea, that the people of Christendom
will shudder with awe at the advent of himself and
his barbarian legions—that the political institutions
of Europe, in short, are ready to crumble into ruins
at the first stamp of his mailed foot. Let him away,
with these silly notions of his omnipotence. The
insurgent democracies of Europe are, on the con•
trary, ripe for the struggle, which seems to become
every day more inevitable. Vast and almost inex-
haustible as are his powers, filled though his treasury
be to repletion, the Emperor IsTicEtoras will find a
different destiny awaiting him than that which wel-
comed the barbarian hordes of antiquity—the Goths,
and the Ostrogoths, and the Visigoths, and the Van
dals. When ODOACER descended into the frightful
valleys of Italy, and penetrated even to the golden
palaces, and the hanging gardens, and the marble
temples of Rome, he found a population enervated b 1
luxury and paralysed by despotism. When ALARIC
adventured beyond the Alps he found his way
smoothed before him by the pomps of a patrician
race. When ATILLA, " the scourge of GOD,"
traversed the vineyards of Lombardy, he
was preceded by the subjugating influences
of refinement. The modern Serbians will find
themselves opposed to nations placed in an exactly
contrary situation. The BELISARIUS of Europe will
not hare to weep over the prostrate glories of her
capitals. Democracy has strengthened where tyranny
weakened. The civilization of the present day
has conduced simultaneously to the development of
the physical and intellectual energies of the multi-
tude, whereas the civilization of anterior times tended
only to drowse both the mind and the body in the lap
of the DZLILAR of luxury. Among ourselves, it
has evoked the steam-engine and the
printing-
press,
while it has given birth to a NZWTON and JoaNsoN. Among the ancients it elicited acooln
unguent for the bath, and a softer couch for
ther
symposium, while it was reflected in the poetic enamel
of Hortecn, or embodied in the wanton Muse of CA.
TULLI7B. Again we say, Democracy has Streng-
thened where tyranny weakened ; and in thin consists
the solidity and the security of the democratic insti
tutions of the European continent. The Russian
EMPBII.OII fails to recognize this great truth; he is
even, according to the rumour already mentioned,
preparing to act as if the vigour lay in the op-
posite direction ; and, by so doing, if be
be not rushing deliberately on his own
destruction, he is at least aiding, very materially, the
development and the consolidation of the European
Democracies.

That in speaking thus we are not guilty of a gross
exaggeration, that we are not expressing ourselves in
the stilted language of braggadocio, is sufficiently
demonstrated by the sivation of affairs throughout
the continent, and especially on the southern and
western frontiers of Russia. Besides which, neither
the Parolles of SHARSPERE, nor the Thraso of
TERENCE, nor the Bobadil of BEN JoxsoN can be
found very easily, elsewhere than in the courts
or in the camps of Absolutism. When we
allude thus calmly to the prospective invasion of
Germany by the AUTOCRAT; our thoughts are directed
to the countries contiguous to his dominions. Those
countries are ripe for an explosion of democratic
enthusiasm. Hungary is already in arms from Peter-
Waradin to Presburg. Bohemia is not indifferent as to
her indep,ndence. Poland is mad for the sound of the
tocsin which shall tell of her emancipation. The
men of Pose❑ are prepared; the Silesians are cn the
alert ; the Moravians have imbibed a passion

for liberty ; and the same passion has in- '
toxicated the inhabitants of Styria, of Sclavonia,
of Elyria, and of Bosnia, its influence has spread down-
wards through Gallicia, and Buskovin, and Molda-
via, and Wallachia, and Servia and Bulgaria—
extending even beyond Bukarest and the Danube to
the very confines of Roumilia. So soon as the
cohorts of the Russian empire shall have passed
beyond the Lithuanian deserts, so soon will the flame
of revolution become apparent among the numerous
divisions of the Sclavonic family. And then also
the irresistible current of the popular ambition will
burst forth in Germany and Italy—guided in its flow
by the presiding genius of the French Republic and
backed by the sympathies of Great Britain. Then
farewell to the Imperial and Royal
,Crowns of the
old dynasties, the dynasties of Hapsburg, and
Brandenburg, and Lorraine, and the Neapolitan
Bourbons ! Republicanism, and Republicanism alone,
will then be accepted by the nations of Europe.
It were well, then, for the AUTOCRAT to pause before
he sets forth upon his perilous expedition. Unless he
is solicitous to lead to the foundation of a Polish Re-
public, and of a German Republic, and of a Sclavonic
Republic, and of an Italian Republic—he would do
better, perhaps, to keep his gold locked up in the
cellars of his palace at St. Petersburgh, and to
distribute throughout his empire the 500,000 men
destined for the conquest of the Prussians.

We yesterday explained the manner in which Mr.
COBDEN proposes to make the large sum of
11,500,000/. available for the purpose of effecting
reductions in the existing taxation of the country•
This is to be achieved by equalizing the probate and
legacy duty, and by cutting off at one fell swoop no
less than 10,000,0001. sterling from the national ex-
penditure, and compelling the Government to main-
tain the various establishments, and to carry on the
business of the nation, with a diminished revenue. It
is what every private individual must occasionally
submit to. He finds himself possessed of a certain
income available either from realised property or from
the produce of his own industry, and he must confine
his expenditure within the limit of that income,
or he will speedily be involved in debt, and ultimately
driven to bankruptcy or insolvency. His outlay
must be measured by the means at his disposal, and
not by the luxuries and comforts to which he has
long been accustomed, and the absence of which will
materially affect his enjoyments. To use a homely
but expressive phrase, "he must cut his coat ac-
cording to his cloth." A stern necessity exists to
which he must succumb, however painful may be
the sacrifice or unpleasant the privations to which
he may thereby be subjected. A nation should act
in like manner. What is true with respect to a
single family will also apply to an aggregate of such
families, and the same principles must affect the rules
of a state that operate upon the master of a house-
hold.

The analogy, however, is not complete. It would
he so if each family were living in a state of nature,
without any supreme power to control their actions,
or to afford necessary protection from foreign aggres-
sion. That protection or defence will be, if not the
primary, at least one of the chief necessities of such
a family, and every member thereof must devote all
his energies thereto. In a nation, every individual
may be called upon to risk life and fortune in defence
of the common liberties. He must (if required)
serve his country either personally or by providing
the means for paying a substitute. It might be an
unwise and injudicious economy to reduce the na-
tional armaments to such an extent as to invite hos-
tilities, when all the resources of the country would
be necessarily taxed to the very uttermost. It is a well
known and all but universally admitted axiom, that
the best way to preserve peace is to be at all times
prepared for war. The adage of the Romans, "si via
pacem, par. helium," has lost none of its force
throughout the successive centuries during which it
has been tested. Our military and naval establish-
ments, more especially the latter, must therefore be
preserved in a state of due efficiency, how-
ever weighty the expenditure, and we must,
as we stated yesterday, withhold our assent
from that portion of the proposition of the Honour-
able Gentleman until the several details of the pro-
posed reductions are submitted for general considera-
tion. The extension of probate and legacy duty to
real estates is an act of mere justice that cannot fairly
be resisted.
With respect to the reduction of taxation suggested
by Mr. COBDEN, a better view may be taken. All
the imposts are unquestionably oppressive, and, if
practicable, should be reduced. There are many
others, however, equally onerous, for exemption from
which, similar claims might be preferred. Few

taxes are agreeable to the people, and can only be
justified by stern necessity for the maintenance of
the national honour, credit, and safety.
The duty on tea is admitted on every side to be
much higher than it should be. A Committee
of the House of Commons, long since, recom-
mended its reduction to the rate proposed
by Mr. COBDEN, viz., ls. per pound.
The present exorbitant duty operates most injuriously
on our commercial relations with China. Our trade
might be increased to almost any extent, but they
can only pay with a limited amount of silver, and
such teas and silks as we may be disposed to accept.
Our consumption of the former is limited by the
addition of 2s. per pound for duty. There is
scarcely a doubt that double the quantity would be
used in ',this country if the price was reduced to a
reasonable limit. The loss to the revenue (if any) would
be made up after a short time by the increased demand
for sugar and other articles, so that our merchants and
manufacturers would be materially benefited, without
injury to any class or body. There can, therefore, be
no question as to the propriety of the reduction. IVe
confess, however, that we should greatly prefer an
ad valorem duty to a fixed one. It is impossible to
justify the levying as high a rate of duty on the
poor man's pound of bohea, as on a pound of the
finest gunpowder, when the intrinsic value of the
latter is more than twelve times the former. Every
fixed duty is unjust in principle, and operates most
injuriously upon the poorer classes, among whom it is
calculated to excite a spirit of discontent and dis-
affection.

The duties on timber and wood should unquestion-
ably be abolished ; the approaching changes in the
navigation-laws render the abolition of these taxes no
longer a matter of choice, but of necessity. The
British shipowners may demand it, not as a matter of
favour, but of common justice, thst cannot be denied.

The various smaller items (more than one hundred in

all, such as butter, cheese, &c.) should also, if practi-
cable, be cut off. Nothing can be more vexatious
than petty restrictions that cause consider-

able annoyance and inconvenience without

any corresponding advantage to the Fxchequer.
Mr. COBDEN proposes to leave twenty articles only
in the tariff paying duty. Mr. MACOREGOIt, M.P., in
his great work, " The Progress of America," sug-
gests that eight only shall be retained, and we con-
fess that we prefer his propositions to those of the
Hon. Member for the West Riding of Yorkshire.
The

arrogant attempts of the Puseyite clergy to
revive the exploded system of sacerdotal domination,
and to ride rough-shod over the laity, have at length
roused a spirit of resistance on the part of the lay
members of the Church of England, which ere long will
become irresistible. Our modern LAUDS have (Bour-
bon-like) learned nothing and forgotten nothin •
notwithstanding the warnings of histor
thge
still pursue that course, which,
whenever
pursued by the
clergy in former ages,
has invariably terminated in a "heavy blow and a
great discouragement " to the Church of England as
by law established. By stigmatizing the laity as
Puritans, they have aroused in the laity the old spirit
of stern resistance to sacerdotal domination by
which Puritanism has ever been distinguished, and be-
fore which they will inevitably fall, because the spirit
of Puritanism is an earnest spirit, originating in the
keen sense of wrongs inflicted and of rights 'withheld ;
while the spirit of Puseyism is a casuistical self-
sufficient spirit, originating in the overweening arro-
gance of a pedagogue, who fancies all the world a
school of which he is the head master. As might
have been expected, the laity of the diocese of Exeter,
in which the spirit of Puseyism is the most rampant,
,las been the first to protest against the system of
`Every Bishop Pope in his own diocese, and every
Parson Nuncio in his own parish," which the Pu-
eyite-Rornaoists, with lizNar of Exeter at their
;lead, have been for some years past endeavour-