The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-16 00:00:00

THE FINANCIAL REFORM UNION.

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The executive committee of the Financial
Reform Union, have held a meeting Lo discuss Mr.
Lowe's last financial enterprise. Their opinions on
the Budget are on the whole favourable, and their first
resolution expressed their satisfaction at seeing so
large a portion of the surplus devoted to the removal
of half the sugar duties. Their second gives the
Chancellor a gentle reminder that, though half a loaf
is better than no bread, a whole loaf is better still;
and sets before him the great advantages which the
people would derive from the total repeal of the
duties on tea, coffee, and sugar, which they hope to
■ee accomplished next session. Our great grand-
fathers would have been not a little surprised if they
could have looked forward to the marvels of this
" iron age " to find these useful domestic commodi-
ties proclaimed as " the three great necessaries of
life," by the Financial Reform Union.

MUSIC IN THE PARKS.
The honorary secretary of the National Sunday
League writes to the Dally News to explain that it
was owing to a mistake on the part of Mr. Layard,
late Chief Commissioner of Works, that
the management of the Regent's Park Band
was handed over to the chair proprietor. It seems
that Mr. Layard was induced to believe the Band
Committee intended relinquishing their office, and
without taking the not altogether superfluous pre-
caution of consulting them on the matter, he
transferred the authority to the chair proprietor.
The committee are a little irritated at this in a per-
sonal, musical, . and national point of view, as they
assistance to the movement.
consequence,are the Band
object to being superseded, they think the
In
nthey anxious to
bs of
give every Mr.
Layard, had he remained in office,, intended to recon-
sider the matter, but his successor does not seem to
etv:weerryestacmheed,minadn.d
Committee, who have been exerting themselves for
several years to promote popular recreation, are left
on one side, and the matter, though musical, is not
altogether harmonious.

KITtWEE PRIZE ➢LONEY.

The vexed question of the Kirwee prize money has
again come on the tapir, and is, we understand, to
be brought under the notice of Parliament
after Easter by the member for Chippenham, Mr.
Goldney. When the chiefs of Kirwee vrere
captured in the Indian war, a quarter of a million
was owing to them, partly by the East India Com-
Pany, and partly by private debtors. The Indian
authorities cancelled the public part of the
debt, and appropriated the proceeds of the private
account to local. uses. The question has
not unnaturally arisen whether they had the
right so to dispose of the spoils of war without
a special grant from the Crown. It is
alleged on behalf of the force which
took Kirwee and its chiefs, that the money is
lawful booty, end ought to liave been remitted to
Whitehall for distribution among the troops. The
present law officers of the Crown have
given conflicting opinions, and a rule for
future cases is Tory much to be desired.
Lord Palmerston's Cabinet established the precedent
of referring such matters, under Lord Cottenham's
Act, to the public scrutiny of a court of law, and as
these new • Kirwee questions, which were not so re-
ferred, are still unsettled thirteen years after the
capture, it does not appear that legal proceedings aro
likely, in ordinary cases, to be more expensive or less
expeditious, or less satisfactory than a private adj ndi-,
cation by the Treasury Board or any other depart-
ment of the State.