The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, 1717ESDAY___ElrE14!1;74O,,_ tTLY

deavouring to form an accurate estimate of the labours
of the present Parliament—we mean the astonishing
explosion of occurrences throughout the European
continent—occurrences sufficiently remarkable to
paralyze into inactivity even a more laborious and
less volatile assembly than an English House of Com-
mons. Besides which, the monetary panic, the mer-
cantile stagnation, the bluster of an insignificant
rabble of Chartist demagogues in England, and the
treasonous agitation of Ireland by the physical-force
Repeaters, have been amply sufficient to distract the
attention of a senate seated within walls so trans-
parent to external events, and so pervious to the
voices of the population, as the walls of the Parlia-
ment of Westminster.

Making every allowance for these drawbacks against
active and efficient legislation, we cannot but think that
the results of the Parliamentary session of 1848 are
miserably disproportioned to the promises contained in
the Speech from the Throne, and enforced by the anti-
cipations of the multitude. Every rational man in the
United Kingdom feels that now more than ever there
is a necessity for a real representation of the people
—for an extension of the right of local self-govern-
ment—for economy and retrenchment in the ad-
ministration of the public revenue—for a revision
and just apportionment of the burden of taxation—
for a just administration of national trust property—
for freedom of conscience in matters of religion—for
freedom for education—for law reform—for reforms
in army and navy, besides many other changes which
are becoming every successive day more imperatively
requisite.* Instead of obtaining any one of these
boons, we have seen the Jewish Disabilities Bill
summarily rejected, and the important motion of
Messrs. Huang and COBDEN defeated by an enormous
majority. Among the more memorable things that
have up to this moment been accomplished we can
only enumerate such measures as the Mutiny Acts ;
as the Alien Act, by which the torch was wrested
from the incendiary hands of the Propagandists; as the
Crime and Outrage (Ireland) Acts, by which a coun-
terpoise was found for the orations of MEAGHER and
the "leaders" of MITCHEL, or as the famous Crown and
Government Security Act, by which the crime of
treason has been degraded into a felony. Such coer-
cive or protective measures as those we have obtained :
but of the three great boons offered to us by the
QUEEN'S Speech how much have we obtained—the
permanent improvement of Ireland, the Public Health
enactment, and the abrogation of the Laws upon
Navigation !—how much of these have been written
upon the Statute-book by the hand of Parliament ?
Let the Prime Minister answer. According to the
statement made last night by Lord J. RUSSELL, the
principal measures which are to be persevered with,
and (if possible) carried this session are—the Bo-
rough Elections Bill, a fair Bill enough as far as it
goes ; the Health of Towns Bill, good to a certain
extent, but deplorably mutilated by the amendments
forced upon it during its passage through Com-
mittee ; the Diplomatic Relations with Rome
Bill, a generous and laudable revival of what
has been suppressed only out of consideration
for the bigotry of the pusillanimous ; and
the Irish Encumbered Estates Bill, perhaps the most
excellent and useful Act of the whole session, but
the fulfilment of which is excessively doubtful, as the
Lords have yet to be persuaded of its excellence.
There is, of course, in addition to this, the Sugar
Duties Bill, which must be numbered among the
successful efforts of the Legislature in 1848, and
which will carry satisfaction not only to the old
ladies of Ayrshire who delect in toddy, but also to a
large portion of the people of Great Britain, and ulti-
mately to the colonists themselves. Not to mention
the Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Bill, which is to
be pushed through the House of Commons only to
be postponed for the consideration of the House of
Peers in 1849, and which Bill the Premier
slurred over as almost a matter of insigni-
ficance, not to mention either the Elective
Franchise (Ireland) Bill, which is abandoned
without a sigh or a scruple—the Bill for the repeal
of the navigation-laws, together with all its subordi-
nate and subsidiary measures, is thrown on one side
as not worthy of any further exertion either on the
part of the Ministry or on the part of the Parliament.
Most heartily do we regret this—not merely because
of the nights which have been expended in its dis-
cussion, and the divisions which have attested the
favourable disposition with which it is regarded by
the Commons, but because we regard the measure as
the consummation of Free Trade, and as one calcu-
lated to act most beneficially upon our mercantile
transactions.

Looking back, therefore, along this retrospective
vista of nearly eight months' legislation, we see only
a fragment of one of the three great boons promised
in the Speech from the Throne, secured. The Naviga-
tion-laws still remain in force, offering an insur-
mountable obstruction to most of the efforts of British
Commerce. Ireland is still, comparatively speaking,
unimproved. And of the vaunted measure for the
improvement of the Public Health we have only the
chance of a few dislocated fragments. Nevertheless,
those fragments we accept with a sort of grateful
avidity, although we are left without the feeble con-
solation of Sir HUGH EVANS seeing that now there
are not even " pippins and cheese" to follow.

The porters of Constantinople are said to surpass
all other carriers in Europe in their power of bear-
ing burdens, often moving with ease under a weight
of more than two thousand pounds. This supe-
riority of performance is not derived from superiority
in physical strength, but from a careful distribution
of the load over the entire body, from giving each
set of muscles a fair share of the entire burden, and
making the whole frame lend its power equally to
sustain the otherwise overwhelming weight.
A similar science is necessary to enable the body
politic to bear heavy burdens, without sinking beneath
them. If a nation be obliged to support an enormous
weight of taxation, that load must be equally and
fairly distributed, or the nation will be crushed be-
neath its weight. Nowhere is this science more
needed than in England, and nowhere is it less
studied, or, at all events, less practised than in this
country.
House property in the city of London is taxed at
least six times more highly than similar property in
Cumberland, or in almost any of the provinces. The
heart of the nation, through which the stream of
wealth and commerce flows to all other parts of the
body politic, is thus oppressed by an unjust, because
an unequal load. Its wholesome pulsation is impeded,
and a morbid state of feeling is created at the very
source of the nation's strength.

Although the present taxation of the metropolis
thus exceeds the taxation of all other portions of
the kingdom, although it is greater than the taxa- '
tion imposed upon any other district of equal extent
upon the earth, it is at present proposed to increase
this enormous taxation. An unhealthy state of feel-
ing, existing chiefly in some of the manufacturing
districts, has made it necessary to increase the police
force, which surrounds and protects the Parliament
and public offices of the empire, and it has been de-
termined to defray the expenses of this additional
force, not equally by the entire nation, but by im-
posing a new tax upon the already over-burdened
metropolitan districts. This additional inequality—
this advance in injustice—has naturally excited the
indignation of the metropolitan tax-payers, and pro-
voked a remonstrance with the Government. Last week
a deputation from the remonstrant rate-payers had an
interview with the Secretary of State for the Home
Department, upon which occasion the Minister ad-
mitted that equity and fair dealing demanded that
the charge for the additional police ought to be borne
by a more extended taxation, but refused to adopt
that course, because such a proceeding would require
a new Act of Parliament.
It needed "Ho ghost" to tell us that such unequal
taxation was inequitable. Why should the inhabi-
tants of London be taxed more heavily than the in-
habitants of any other part of England? Upon
what pretence is a load of taxation laid upon their
shoulders six times greater than that imposed upon
the inhabitants of Cumberland? Is it because they are
more industrious? Is it because they rise earlier and lie
down later, and labour harder than any other portion of
the subjects of this kingdom? What maxim of go-
vernment or rule of political economy has ordained
that atindustry, so far as the State has power, ought
to bringpunishment,and con sitnansttelyadproafctise reward,it? upon those
who honestly
The course of proceeding in this case, which the

* See the admirable " Address to the Queen," con-
tained in the number of the Westminster Review just
published, No. XCVLI., pp. 453-503.

Home Secretary has openly admitted to be unjust,
and has then deliberately adopted, has induced a state
of feeling amongst the tax-payers of the metropolis
such as we never expected to witness in this order-
loving and law-supporting population. The deputa-
tion which waited upon Sir GEORGE GREY, in-
censed by the resolute adoption of a course
of admitted injustice, declared their deter-
mination not to pay the additional tax,
but to allow it to be levied from their houses by the
police. That is, they have determined to oppose
passive resistance to the enforcement of an unjust
tax. No lover of order can regard this state of
things, thus occurring in the v,ery heart of the empire
at a time of dangerous and universal excitement,
without the deepest apprehension and regret. When
a people feel that law is opposed to justice, and that
redress is resolutely denied, no safety can exist for
government—no security for peace. _

In such a state of things, the man who throws a
doubt upon the validity of the statutes thus used to
maintain injustice, and who thereby attempts to
reconcile the letter of the law with the rules
of equity and fair dealing, is, in our
opinion, entitled to both approbation and support.
Strongly impressed with these feelings, we have
perused with much pleasure an opinion of counsel,
denying the validity of those enactments which have
hitherto enforced unequal taxation, and maintaining
" that by the fundamental law of this kingdom
(which statutes cannot change) all public expenses
must be defrayed indiscriminately by the produce of
equal taxes upon the same articles; that every sub-
ject of this kingdom must be charged according to
the rule laid down in HAMPDEN'S case, "secundunz
statum et facultates"—thus, one hundred pounds worth
of property in London cannot legally be taxed more
highly than one hundred pounds worth of property
in any other part of the kingdom, and that any statute
which attempts to change it is absolutely null and
i void."

We propose to examine this opinion, and the
grounds upon which it relies, more fully at some
future period. Without expressing a decided opi."
nion upon the propositions advanced, we must say
that the views put forward are sustained with much
vigour, ingenuity, and learning, and appear well
worthy an attentive consideration. If it should ap-
pear that a strict assertion of the law would insure a
triumph to justice and fair dealing in this case, we
shall have an additional reason for admiring the won-
derful constitution of our country, which seems to
have made provision for all the chances and changes
of political weakness and Ministerial imbecility. We
would strongly advise the dissatisfied rate-payers of
London, instead of resorting to passive resistance, to
take the best professional advice on this hitherto•
unexamined portion of our constitutional law, and to
remember that a very slight legal support may be
sufficient to insure the triumph of a cause which is
already sustained by every principle of equity, of
justice, and of political wisdom.

revolution of February. DS not forget that on
the morrow of February the whole of Italy was
under the yoke, and that to-day, thanks to its efforts and
the attitude you took, which was a sensible and ener-
getic act, nearly the whole of Italy is free, that is to say,
that twenty-six millions of men enjoy your alliance.
Was it for us, on the morrow of the revolution of Fe-
bruary, prematurely to cross the Alps, and to go in our
own name and attack the Austrians in Lombardy? But
do you forget that the groundwork of our whole policy
lay in the principle—respect and friendship to Germany,
and that an aggression so personal and unwarranted
against Austria would have been interpreted as a gra-
tuitous aggression against Germany itself, have roused
all the fluvial states of the Rhine against us, and driven
the north of Germany to an alliance with Russia, the
very thing it has always been our policy and the policy
of peace to prevent? No, we did not place the question
thus; we did not 'induce Charles Albert to declare war
against Austria; the enthusiasm of his people, the cry
of Italy. his position, the ambition of his councils, perhaps
the personal thirst fur glory, were sufficient induce ments
' without our aid. His inveterate personal alliance with
Austrian absolutism could not withstand the impulse of all
Italy. lie advanced. From the day that Charles Albert
advanced, we telt, and we expressed it openly, withiait
reserve, from the tribune, and not without daring, what•
ever your opinion may be, that Italy was free, or would
be free. We said, either Charles Albert will triumph
alone over the armies of Radetaky, with the aid of the
' other Italians, and then Italy will have acquired her
own freedom, a condition the better to defend it: or else
Charles Albert will meet with checks, and the independ-
ence of his own states in Northern Italy will to
seriously menaced by the Austrians, and then we shall
intervene for the safety of France, and for the existing
nationalities on the map, and this is why the Minister
of Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Government ex-
acted, as the first step of his pacific diplomacy, the for-
mation of an army of 52,000 men at the foot of the Alps,
ready to advance. Yuu will not require me, gentlemen,
to enter here into further details on the actual situation,
as an indiscretion might compromise the affairs
of the country. Italy shall be tree, or France will go
alland share the danger: that is that we can say
at the present moment. One word in reply to a re-
proach which struck me home in the words of M. Na
poleon Bonaparte. He said—' The Republic has no
policy, has no foreign policy. I should prefer any bad
policy to none at all ; there are political follies which
are glorious follies, which sometimes save nations, or
which, at least, honour the people whom they lead to
destruction.' To justify his words, he quoted the four-
teen armies of the Convention, and the great and heroic
wars of our epoch of crisis and glory. Gentlemen, he
overlooked one point, that with all its energy the Con-
vention 'acted with wisdom and moderation towards
those nations and Governments which did not attack
France, that it had allies not only among Republics, but
among absolute monarchs—that it did not give war for
peace—that its policy of fourteen armies was not one of
its own seeking, but a policy of necessity and despair;
and it was in that despair, and in that necessity alone,
that the Convention found, by appealing to the nation
itself, the energy to engender those fourteen
armies, and to cause at the same time the triumph
of the Republic, and of French nationality. It was
not there the diplomacy of the Convention, it was its
heroiam, the heroism of despair of the country; thanks
to the very wisdom of the policy you accuse, we are nut
so bad as that, but should it be so, we should find the
same energy with more allies amongst the people. As
regards the diplomacy of Napoleon, I admire everything
appertaining to that name, with two exceptions—his
idea of internal legislative organization and foreign di-
plomacy. As regards his legislative idea, I regard it
simply as an outline, but not intelligent reaction against
the Idemocratic party, which it was necessary to regu-
larize and keep within bounds, but not to stifle. All
these institutions were in opposition to the revolution, to
the age of liberty. As regards his diplomacy—his only
diplomacy was the cannon. He tore up the rasp of the
world without ever endeavouring to put it together
again. With his sword he pierced all the nationalities
and natural alliances of France without ever thinking
of the morrow. On the day of settlement fur so long
an account of blood and glory, what did there remain
for us? Nothing but his name. When France looked
around her, she found herself justly abandoned
and feared by every Government ; hated by
all nationalities; with Poland, whose freedom was in
his hand, and whom he left more a slave than ever, with
Italy, which he had occupied for ten years, without
having done more than to have used it to a change of
masters—without sowing one vital spark of indern-
dence; with Spain animated with the thoughts of an
atrocious war against us; with Germany isolated and
usurped in all her territories; with Russia provoked into
her very deserts; with Europe, in a word, ready to
avenge all her sufferings and defeats upon France. Call
that glory if you like, I have no objection; but if you
call it diplomacy, it is a diplomacy which the Republic
at least shall never imitate as long as our voice is heard
in its councils. The Republic of the 24th February
boasts of having another diplomacy than that of the
Convention and of the Empire, than that of despair and
conquest; the influence France has acquired in four
months, the impossibility of beholding another coalition
against her, unless she was to create one with her own
hands, proves, notwithstanding the assertion of M. Na-
poleon Bonaparte, that its policy is as democratic as it is
national—a policy, firm and moderate, it is that policy
which has been inaugurated by the Government of
February, and of which, I doubt it not, the present Go-
vernment will follow the bold outlines and happy tradi-
tions."

It is said that M. MARIE, the President of the
National Assembly, will succeed M. BETHMONT as
Minister of Justice.

General CAVAIGNAC has declared that, unless some
fresh conspiracy or outbreak should take place, Paris
will be relieved from the state of siege on the 25th
instant.

:The financial state of the Republic occasions con-
siderable uneasiness. The Debuts, in the course of a
long article on this subject, declares that if the system
followed for the lae,t five month.; be persisted in, the
State is ruined. "We roll down an inclined plane,"
says the Debats, "to bankruptcy or assign ats, which
is the same thing."
In the same journal we find it stated that the Go-
vernment had received a telegraphic dispatch from
Naples in three days,.announcing that the Sicilians
had elected the Duke of GENOA, the son of CHARLES
ALBERT, to be King of Sicily.
The Siecle states that orders have been issued by
the French Government to the commanders of fleets
in the Mediterranean, to salute the Sicilian flag.
The disappointed anarchists still continue their
atrocious system of assassination and incendiarism.
On Friday morning, says the Gazette des Tri•
Lamm.; as a detachment of the Garde Mobile,
quartered at Courbevoie, was escorting a convoy
of gunpowder from Mount Valerian through
the Bois de Boulogne, one of the soldiers,
quite a youth, quitted the line in the Allee de
Passy, and laid himself down in the thicket, saying
that he was so much overcome with the heat and
fatigue, that he would rather undergo a fortnight's
imprisonment in the Salle de Police than march a
step further. As the convoy continued to move on,
the captain thought it better to leave the tired man
behind than. lose time in forcing him to rejoin his
company. At day-break on Saturday morning some
of his comrades returned to seek him at the spot
where they had left him, and found him dead, with
seven knife wounds in his body. Neither any part
of his accoutrements, nor of 154 f. which he had in his
pocket, had been taken from him.
The Patric of last night says—" At noon to-day,
as a grenadier of the 39th Regiment of the line was
crossing the Pont d'Arcole, he was stabbed in the
back with a knife. He was taken to the Hotel de
Ville. The assassin made his escape."
These attempts are not confined to Paris and its
neighbourhood ; a desperate attempt at murder and
incendiarism was made on the night of the 14th,
near Rochelle. A letter from that place thus de-
scribes it :

"A proprietor residing in the small village of Legnon,
close to this town, last night hearing a noise in his
house, got up, and on opening the door found the pas-
sage encumbered with faggots, and other combustibles,
to which a man dressed en blouse was about to set fire.
The owner of the house immediately rushed on the
malefactor, but was immediately fired at point blank
with a pistol. Fortunately the ball did not effect its
object, only inflicting a slight wound in his face. The
brave man returned into his house, armed himself with
his musket, and went in pursuit of the incendiary, wile
had by that time been Joined by two of his accom-
plices ; lie, however, attacked them, and wounded one
severely with his bayonet, but the others fell
upon him, and he was on the point of fall-
ing under their superior force, when some neighbours,
attracted by his shouts, and those of his wife, came
to his assistance. The villains escaped into a neigh-
bouring wood, but the National Guards of the place
immediately turned out, and proceeded to make a battle,
in the neighbourhood, and it is hoped that the mis-
creants will not escape. In some other parts of the vil-
lage a
doubtless with the intention of effecting a conflagration (
quantity of wood was found piled together,
a large scale."
It appears that during the time of the insurrection
many of the Commissuriea appointed to the provinces
by M. LEDau RoLLIN suppressed the Government
proclamations, and that, in some instances, they even
organized clubs to aid the insurgents. In the Maine,
M. Lucutteurt, one of the Commissaries appointed by
M. LEDRU Rowe, has not yet made public the
prcelamation of the National Assembly of the 28th
June, setting forth the true character and object of
the insurrection, and a similar fate has attended that
which followed the event of the 15th May,
At Gonesse, only four leagues from Paris, similar
inattention on the part of the authorities has taken
place.
The provincial paper the Haute Loire gives the
following details of the manner in which the political
business of that department has been managed by the
Commissary appointed by the Provisional Govern-
ment :
" M. St. Ferreol organized at Brionde and each of the

towns of the arrondissement a Montagnard Club, whore
the true republican sys!em of '93 was preached up, where
all the mad theories of communism and socialism were
inculcated, and where even the existence of God was put to
the vote, and after several days' discussion was eventually
voted by a majority of 34') to 330. The functionary did
not confine himself to the formation of clubs; as soon as
it was known that the 11th June had been fixed on for
the banquet at 25 centimes, the first mask of the insur-
rection, a similar assembly was proposed to be held at
13rionde, which terminated by cries of Vive BarE a,
Vive la Ripublique Democratique et Sociale,' and the
secretary of the club at Brionde, in giving an account of
the banquet in a journal, said that • the democrats of
this club wished to protest against the or rather
the reactionary proceedings of the National Assembly,
and to testify their sympathies for Barbes, Albert, and
Raspail, whom he considered as the living beacons of the
future militant democracy.'
" The organization of the municipalities by M. St.
Ferriol gave similar evidence of the spirit by which he
was actuated. At Beaumont the municipal administra-
tion was divided by him between three mayors; one
holds the seals of office, another the archives, and a third
is authorised to sign. At Biesle the same arrangement
has been made. At Longeac he appointed an executive
power of five members; one of them acts as president,
another as an invalid who cannot get out of his bed; the
third, and who is specially charged with the police regu-
lations, has been in Algeria for the last two months, and
the other two are equally pre-engaged. The National
Guard has never been properly organized, although the
rappel is beaten almost every night, but by whose orders
no one km,w,."

Seizures of arms and ammunition still continued
to be made both in the capital and in the departments.
The disarming of the National Guards of Lyons is
proceeding with the most perfect order.
On Saturday the Mayor of Paris in public sitting
made the 33d drawing by lots of the municipal obli-
gations to be reimbursed for the loan of 40,000,000 f.,
contracted by the city of Paris, in virtue of the
law of 29th March, 1832: 1,246 numbers of obli-
gations were extracted, and of these the obligation
numbered 37,690, which was first drawn, obtained a
premium of 60,000 f. ; that numbered 30,290, which
was drawn the second, a premium of 20,000 f. ; No.
21,277, drawn third, 15,000 f. ; 274, drawn fourth,
12,000 f. ; 28,884, drawn fifth, 10,000 f. The ten fol-
lowing numbers, from 6 to 15, obtained each a pre-
mium of 500 f. ; the numbers of the obligations were,
17,668, 27,084, 26,082, 31,182, 16,628, 33,421,
31,868, 21,224, 14,001, 36,380. The sixteenth drawn,
which turned out to be No. 6,720, obtained a premium
of 1,520 f. Deducting the 1,246 obligations drawn on
Saturday, there still remain 9,528 out of the 4,000
which were created, all the others having been drawn
and paid off on previous occasions. The 34th draw-
ing will take place in January, 1849, and be of 1,270
numbers.

Intelligence to the 10th instant has been received
from Algiers. The chiefs of one of the revolted Arab
tribes had made their submission to General GENTIL.

The Committee of Finances have rejected the pro-
position of M. JULES FAVRE, for confiscating the
property of the Orleans family.
The Committee afterwards considered M. Puoun-
HON'S proposition for confiscating one-third of the
rents of all properties, and appointed M. TRIERS to
draw up the report.
PARIS 13OURSE, MONDAY.

THREE O'CLOCIC.—The financial position of the French
Government is so bad that it has had a most unfavour-
able effect on the prices to-day. Both Routes and Shafts
suffered. There was no news of any kind. Compared
with the prices on Saturday, the French Three per
Cents. for the Account fell if: 50c. ; Five per Cents, have
fallen lf. For Money, the Three per Cents. have fallen
lf. 50c. ; Five per Cents. have fallen sc. ; Bons du Ti 6-
sor are at 15 discount ; Bank of France Shares have
fallen 15f. ; Belgian Bank Shares not quoted ; Five per
Cents. remain unchanged; Spanish Active not quoted ;
Roman have risen I per cent. ; Rothschild's Receipts
have rise❑ 1 per cent. Exchange on London (30 days),
; ditto (90 days), 32k. In Railway Shares the
change since Saturday is nut great.

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT TIIk
LONDON STOCK-EXCHANGE, JULY 17.

Boulogne and Amiens, Ws—ltalian and Austrian, %
Northern of France, 5%.

GERMANY
AND

THE NORTHERN STATES.

FRANKFORT.
TIIE GERMAN PARLIAMENT.

In their sitting of the 14th, the German Parlia-
ment took into consideration the letter of the
Hanoverian Ministry to the Estates of Hanover,
dated July 7.
In this communication it is stated " That the King
of HANOVER, moved by the personal qualities of the
Administrator, is induced, on that account, to recog-
nise his election, although the form and purport of
the resolution of the National Assembly was well
calculated to have caused him to follow an opposite
course of conduct."

The concluding paragraph in this letter is to the
effect—" That his Majesty declares, in case these
proceedings do not lead to a happy result, but should
proceed in the limitation of the independence of his
kingdom to a pitch hpyoild bearing, his Majesty
could not consent to remain in a position in which
all possibility of advancing the welfare of his country
was denied him."

The Hanoverian Deputies in the German Parlia-
ment protested against this proclamation.
A long discussion ensued, in which the King of
HANoyna's course of conduct was inveighed against
in the strongest terms, and at last NVYDENBRUCK'S
motion was carried by a considerable majority—viz.,
" that the National Assembly resolves, the Provi-
sional Central Executive Power shall immediately
demand from the King of HANovEit a diatinct acknow-
ledgment of the law for the establishment of a Central
Executive Power for Germany."
The House shortly afterwards adjourned.