The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-31 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAV OC POBER 31, 1870.

cheapest mode of reducing the debt. The same annual amoun t
applied directly to the reduction of the debt will effect a
larger diminution than when applied by the roundabout
way of conversion into annuities. Upon the termination
of an annuity it will be found that a greater financial
effort has had to be undergone than would have sufficed to
pay off by direct payments the original debt converted.
Moreover, if a sensible reduction of the debt were effected
every year, the value of consols would quickly equal and
ultimately surpass that of par, in which case the interest
of the whole debt may be reduced.
Sixth. There is a serious objection to granting annuities
for lines for it constantly leads to all sorts of frauds on the
Government—annuities being often drawn after the life
has died out. In tontines the Government has this ad-
vantage that each individual in the class has an interest
in discovering the death of every other individual in !his
own class.

Seventh. Both M. Jean Baptiste Say and Mr. M`Culloch
brand terminable annuities as immoral. Say says :—" Les
rentes viageres et les tontines sant des emprunts tres-on&eux
pour I'emprunteur, qui paie jusqu' h lafin le memo intdrot,
quoiqu'il se libere chaque amide d'une portion du principal;
elles sont, de plus, immorales ; c'est le placement des
6goistes, elks flattent et favorisent la dissipation dos
capitaux, en fournissant au preteur un moyen de manger
ses fonds avec son revenu, sans risquer de mourir de
faim." [D'Econ. Pol. liv. iii., ch. 9.]
Mr. M`Culloch observes, "No Government ought ever
to countenance any scheme of finance that has a tendency
to weaken the providence and forethought of its subjects ;
but such," he very much apprehends," would be the effect
of the adoption of any scheme of funding on terminable
annuities, whether for a certain specified number of years
or for lives."

Eighth. It is cheating the country into doing its duty. It is
assumed that the English people are indisposed to pay the
debt, that they have not the honesty or resolution to keep an
adequate annual surplus, and steadily apply it to the
reduction of the debt. It is, therefore, necessary to treat
them as children, and to compel them, whether they will
or no, to pay it in the shape of annuities.

I am convinced that this assumption is as unfounded as
it is insulting to the people of England.
The Government is, therefore, on the horns of this
dilemma. If it believes that the people of England are
in favour of paying off the debt, it was bound to apply
the late surplus for that purpose ; on the other hand, if it
believes that the people are opposed to au annual application
of a portion of the taxes to the reduction of the debt, to
attempt to pay it by annuities, or by any other financial
sleight of hand, is clearly unconstitutional.

Ninth. The moral effect of maintaining an adequate sur-
plus revenue for the liquidation of the debt is very great ; it
is a clear and unequivocal acknowledgment of our obliga-
tion to discharge the debt—an obligation that was repeated
again and again by Mr. Pitt, and almost every other
Minister when the money was borrowed. It is a moral
discipline of self-sacrifice of the highest value in a
national point of view. In paying off the debt in the
shape of a terminable annuity, we pay the debt because
we must. In maintaining a surplus revenue, we pay it
because we ought ; it is a sacrifice of our ease at the altar
of duty ; and it is the duty of Ministers and of Parliament
to evoke and foster a public opinion that will compel every
Chancellor of the Exchequer to provide an adequate
annual surplus for the speedy discharge of the debt.
(To be continued.)

POLITICAL MANCEUVIIES UNDER THE

EMPIRE.

The secret papers found in the Imperial Cabinet, and
now pitilessly exhibited to the light of day, include a
quantity of correspondence which passed between the
principal politicians of the Empire during the formation
of the 011ivier Ministry. A selection of these has just
been published, in which the redoubtable Emile shews
himself under various aspects. In the first letter he
writes to M. Duvernois on the 10th November, saying
that after much deliberation he ogees with Duvernois and
Magne that the Ministry should be reorganised before the
session, immediately after the Paris election. He is more
than ever convinced that it is impossible he should enter
on a course of repression towards the press. He, a Libe-
ral, cannot prosecute when the reactionists did not prose-
cute. " I have," he says, " written to the Emperor in this
sense. You are warned to act accordingly, and announce
me in the Peuple in a way which shall efface the impres-
sion made by your former articles. Your watchword, if
you come to the office of the Interior, must be liberty, and
not reaction. Take care of this, and work boldly and with-
outllelay for this end." In a postscript to this letter he speaks
of having received a letter from the Emperor so noble
and so confiding that it has overcome all his scruples. He
therefore suppresses the letter he had written, and sends
another which he encloses for Duvernois to read, and for-
ward either open or closed, as he may think advisable.
He recommends him to insist on Forcade (the famous
reactionary statesman, who was the ruling spirit of the
preceding Ministry) being in the Council of State. By
this means Forcade will not be humiliated, and the
public satisfaction at seeing him removed from the
Interior will conduce greatly to a successful result.
In the letter to the Emperor, which 011ivier encloses, he
says he is convinced that as the Senatus Consultum was
a transformation of things, so his own advent to power
must be a transformation of persons. He thinks it indis-
pensable that the Empire should attract the greatest pos-
sible number of young men of talent, between 30 and 40
years of age, who have not identified themselves with the
revolutionary party. He therefore proposes the nomina-
tion of Duvernois as Under-Secretary of State for the
Interior, and Philis as Secretary of Justice. The latter
is an advocate, a friend and companion of Gambetta
and Ferry, whom he left to remain faithful
to 011ivier. His influence among the young Irreconcile-
ables would be beneficial. These appointments would have
the additional advantage of establishing the precedent that
under secretaries of state need not necessarily be
selected from the Deputies. In concluding his
letter, he urges on the Emperor the necessity
of calling the youth of the State round him as the
only means of saving his son. A regeneration of per..
sonnet is imperative, " else you will," he says, "perish of
inanition in the midst of the pusillanimous and
incapable cohort of functionaries." He wishes
to select the good men from all parties, but
the Liberals have so long been resolutely excluded
that there are long arrears to make up in their respect.
In another letter to the Emperor, eight days later,
011ivier asks permission to offer the Portfolio of Com-
merce to M. Buffet. He knows all the draw-
backs to such a proposal, but Buffet is no
Protectionist ; he speaks well and has great influence.
011ivier undertakes to guard his Majesty against
ses inconvenients. If, however, the Emperor cannot make
up his mind to M. Buffet, will he have Segris? 011ivier
would prefer to have colleagues personally agreeable to
his Majesty, but the task before them is a difficult
one, and they can only get through it by mutual
forbearance. He suggests various other appointments
proposing to give Pietri a place at the Interior, no doubt
as a bonne bouche for his Imperial master after the un-
welcome suggestions of the Left. A note from M.
Duvernois to Pietri at Compiegne is marked private and
urgent, and announces that 011ivier will start that
evening for Compiegne having his head enveloped
in a handkerchief and leaving off his spectacles,
so as not to be recognised. A note from Conti to
Duvernois, informs the latter, that the Emperor
on hearing his position in regard to the accounts
of the Peuple Francais, directs him to keep the money
he has had in advance as a remuneration for his services
in that journal. Other letters from Conti to Duvernois
express the greatest delight that 011ivier has extricated
them from the difficulties of the position. Last in the
list comes a note from 011iiier to Duvernois, beginning
"My dear friend," and declaring that both he and
the Emperor are anxious to have his assistance, and then,
proceeding to explain that they cannot, because they
must keep M. Magne for fear the Bourse should be
affected. Having thus evaded all his promises at the out-
set, M. Emile 011ivier hopes his dear friend may never
have the annoyance of forming a Cabinet.

A lady has left Mrs. Gladstone £l,OOO for her
orphanage at Woodford.

THE LATE MURDER IN IRELAND.—Slattery, the
farmer who is alleged to have so brutally murdered his
wife, in a fit of jealousy, near Birdhill, in the county Tip-
perary, a few days ago, has been captured. He hid him-
self in a dense wood after the perpetration of the crime,
but the constabulary surrounded it, and employing a large
number of country people as " beaters," he was driven
out and secured. An inquest was held on Wednesday,
and he was committed for trial, a verdict of " Wilful Mur-
der" having been returned against him. He is a fine-
looking young man, in comfortable circumstances:
A BOON FOR LADIES.—Highly as sewing machines are
prized, there is one great fault to which they are addicted—they
make a great noise while doing the work ; a noise so great that
for a worker herself to talk at the same time is out of the ques-
tion. We need not say how trying this must be to a lady. To
be not only prevented from talking, but also from listening to
the gossip of those around her—the very thought of such a
thing is unendurable. Well, an inventor has come to their
rescue with a SILENT SEWING MACHINE ; and as it comprises
all the appliances and devicesfor varied work with which all the
best sewing machines are provided, and several in addition, and
exercises them all sO NOISELESSLY that the ladies may gossip
even in whispers, and the infant or invalid sleep on in peace, we
expect that most of the old machines will ere long be heard, or
,
heard of, no more, and that "LA SILENCIEUSE," the Silent
Sewingß AElGaEchin-sernF,E (at Messrs. POLLACK, SCHMIDT, and Co.'s
210 A, NT T, LONDON, W.), will quietly take their
place, as the universal domestic helper.—"lnvestment Circular
and Financial Record;" September 7, 1870.