The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-03 00:00:00

THE REVENUE.

The accounts of the receipts of the revenue for the
year and for the quarter respectively ending on the sth
of July will not be made up before Wednesday night
next, nor published before Thursday. Whilst it is im-
possible to calculate how much may continue to be re-
ceived during the very last few days of the quarter, it is
of course impossible to speak with perfect accuracy of
the comparative receipts of the year and of the quarter
about to end with the corresponding periods of the last
year. This much, however, we are enabled to say, that
the deficiency on the quarter, as compared with the
quarter ending July 5, 1847, will be slight, and the
telling off on the year will not he so great as has been
generally dreaded. This state of things is most encou-
raging, when it is recollected that the quarter and the
year ending July 5, 1847, with which the present is com-
pared, were both unusually prosperous, having shown a
large increase over the year 1846. The whole receipts for
the year ending July 5, 1846, amounted to 50,056,083!.,
whilst at the same period of 1847 the receipts w,A:e
51,060,1091., although in the• first year more than one
million of China money was included iu the amount. 11,
therefore, we had to compare the present with the year
ending July, 1846, it would show a most gratifying in-
crease. And even when compared with the unusual
prosperity of last year, the condition of the revenue for
the year just ended is such as to excite no fears for the
buoyancy and stability of the resources of the country.
The returns will certainly show much less unfavourably
than was apprehended some time back. The revenue
for the quarter is especially calculated to afford well-
grounded hopes of returning prosperity. The excise is
the only considerable item upon which a positive in-
crease is to be expected. This is to be attributed to the
improved activity in the malt trade, and also to the fact
of the carriage duties having been transferred from the
Stamps and Taxes to the Excise department. This
latter circumstance, as well as the limitation of trade
and banking operations, will account 'for a serious fall-
ing-off in the department of Stamps and Taxes. The
Customs, too, we regret to say, will not exhibit
so prosperous a condition as might he wished. The
convulsed state of Europe has, no doubt, done much to
check the increasing prosperity in that important branch
of. cur revenue, to which we looked forward with so
much confidence. The payments for the last few weeks
on account of corn duties have been considerable, but
these have been, in some degree, counterbalanced by the
quantity of colonial sugar which has been kept hack,
waiting the new duties expecting to be imposed after
the sth of July. These are the most important items
of revenue. The property and income tax is neces-
sarily of a steady character. The smaller items will
show no increase as compared with the prosperous cor-
responding quarter of last year. These comparisons
are made as to the receipts only, and have no refer-
ence to the relation of the receipts with the expendi-
ture of the year, of which the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer was able to give a much less unfavourable estimation
on Friday evening in the House of Commons than had
been previously looked for. In every point of view,
therefore, there is ground for hope and congratulation.
—Observer.

• BURFORD'S PANORAMA ROYAL, LEICESTER-
SQUARE. - The following distinguished visitors have
recently honoured the Panoramas with their company:—
The Duke de Nemours, Duke d'Aumale, and Monsieur
Guizot; Prince Metternich, Sir Robert Peel, the Duke
of Brunswick, the Duchess of Buecleugh, Marchioness
of Thomond, Countess of Norbury, Lady Gaysborough,
Lady Coutts Trotter, Lady Martins, Sir Robert and
Lady Robins, Mrs. Sheriff Hill, Mrs. Watson Taylor,
Mr. and Mrs. Colquhoun, Minister and Consul of the
Hanse Towns and Kingdom of Saxony; Lord and Lady
Castlereagh, Major Beckler, Mr. Andrew Drummond
and family, Sir Augustus and Lady 1 taster, Sir H. J.
Brickman, Lady Currie, Lady Burne and Hon. Miss
Burne, Lady Bell, Lady, General, and Miss Galloway,
Miss Holland, Mr. and Mrs. Greathead, Hon. S. Per
cival, Sir R. H. Inglis, General Hunter Blair and family,
Lady Vaughan, Earl and Countess of Stamford, Hon.
Mr. Poucher, Madame Bunsen and daughters, Mr. and
Mrs. Bosanquet, Lord and Lady Sudeley, Lord Shad well,
Sir Edward and Lady Hayes, the Earl of Zetland and
family, Sir George and Lady Talbot, Lady Holsdale,
Lord and Lady Wharncliffe, Lady Cardigan and family.
Lady Webster, Lady Williams, Sir John and Lady
Anderson, Hon. Mrs. Goldsmith, Hon. Mrs. Dent,
.the
Countess of Mansfield and family, tha -Marquis of Tho-
mond, Sir Eustace Ceril, Lady Melrose, Lord and Lady
Morton, Lady Buller, the Hon. Mrs. Ilardinge, HOD.
Mrs. Joddrell, Marquis of Northampton, the lady and
daughter of Dr. Jeff, Mr. and Lady Luisa }inch,
Viscount Mahon, Lady Brougham, Lady Mallett, Lord
Mornington, Lord Adair, Lady and the Misses Hawar-
den, Mrs. Scott Warning and Miss Coventry, Sir
Claudius and Lady Hunter, Mrs. Hicks Beach, &c., &e.

113-18,

TO THE SECRETARI.7 0] THE
BRADFORD REFORM ASSOCIA. LION.
. Wednesday, the 28th, there was some
very close voting on the Catholic Relief B ill. A tye
is a rare occurrence ;-but on Wednesday tl tere would
have' brill two tyts, if it hadnot been for tl e accident
of leading Member opposed to the Bill lee ing shut
out when he had gone to look' for a prec ec tent con-
nected with the first. The chairman (111'r.. Bernal)
gave his casting vote in favour of the urigir is 1 Bill.
On Thursday more debate' on going into 'Commit-
tee on the Sugar Duties; ending in car 7 ying the
going into Committee by 260 against 24 The
Ministers spoke loudly of their hopes that , slavery
and the slave trade would everywhere be :abolished
by the better, judgment of the concerned. Aia. ounce of
action directed towards an end, is better than a pound

of hope. It is plain enough what is going tto be done.
The squadrim is to be removed from the coas t of Africa,
on the plea'of preventing the sufferings:to the slaves
consequent on interfeiing with them in tl lc. passage,
but in reality from some indistinct expects Lion that a
transfer of negroes is to be established to ;13 e British
West Indies, in which the presence of the ,squadron
would make an awkward complication. And the
West Indians are at the same time told, f hit in six

years the market is to be opened to sla s e-grown
sugar ; after which, as the Cornish vicar aid to his
parishioners when they went out of church tc. plunder
a wreck, "-Let us all start fair."

A great deal of this is owing to the con iparative
extinction of the Anti• slavery party, arising, as far as
can trace it, out of the circulation of the of ii?aion that

it i. 3 unchristian, for a man-of-war to inte i'.ere with

a slave-ship, and to a great extent out of :a sort of
personal ill-humour conceived by a leading a holitionist
upon the failure of his Niger expedition, joined to
not seeing the depression of the slave trade on the
_ _

coast of Africa go on so rapidly as he cotdd wish.
So now, to mend the matter, the squadrol i on the

coast of Africa is to be withdrawn, which the evidence

before the Slave Trade Committee demo:asqrates to

be equivalent to a general restoration of 'the slave
trade in the parts where it has been give n up ;.and

as a further bounty on its progress, thebe o:n is held
out to Cuba and Brazil, of the opening of the British
marketin six years, for which of course they will set
to work. Against which, on the other sidt 1, we are to

have the hope of Sir Abel Handy in the:play, that
perhaps the fire will go out of itself.
While on this subject, .1. will mention fhvo points
brought out by the evidence before the Sh xe Trade
Committee, which are at all events clues; to grave
consideration. One is, that in some of •our West
Indian colonies (and examination should be made how
far it is not the case in all) the wages )1. the free
colonial negro are already at that point, :that if the
British Government were to throw newoes from
Africa on the shore gratis, by the expenditure of one
half million after another, they could not,, 'by any de-
vice, be kept in working order for less e rpense than
the amount of wages now given to the fi-ee colonial
negro. And another is, that any gums ;given to the
Atrican chiefs for assistance (or, as it is i;o be called,

permission) for their subjects to embark f Dr the West
Indies, will have precis: 1y the effects whit 43 would be
produced by buying up cocks and hens. upon the
coast of France, with the interior open fi )r filling up
the gap. All of which I could have told forty
years ago.
Oddly enough, the United States were named
among the countries in which slavery is to be ex-
tinguished by the good sense of the ( :ommunity.
And at the same time the Governm ant of the
United States is casting off all pretension.; to pacific
or honest principle, in favour of chivalrot s. efforts to
extend slavery over the whole of tropical America,
combined with an understanding that the States in
which slavery is not allowed, are to p.re serve the
balance by extension in the North. Along: with this,
the most furious feeling is exhibited towards Great
Britain, as the great origin of the op•position to
slavery, and consequently, as -was once said of
negro freedom in 6t. Domingo, the 4‘ nuisance
to be put down ;" and an American army in
St. James's Park, is the form of popular
romance avowed on the occasion. If the

British Government hail possessed the, foresight
exercised by every man that makes a w ill for the
benefit of his posterity, instead of giving: premiums
on, slave cultivation it would have endimvoured to

encourage and support the republics on the American
continent in which slavery was forbidden, as a
balance to that power which is already- held out
in Parliament as what the influence of Britain is

likely to quail before. But on the ckentrary the
British Government has held the garments for the
conquest of Mexico with a view to the estab-
lishment of slave cultivation there, and will
wake up by and by in a bugle to the
discovery that the West Indies and Canada
are within the cupidity of the annexing 4iant. Not
so did our forefathers. With the exception of the
bad times of the Restoration when all English ob-
jects were in abeyance, they always lc ooked to the
maintenance of independent countries hawing a natu-
ral jealousy of the power from which general en-
croachment was apprehended. The interest or the
right of England to support the Hollanders in the
time of Elizabeth, was never clearer than the case of
Mexico, whose independence altogether was the work
cf British statesmen. But simple men have got it
into their heads, that our forefathers were fools and
the world will take care of itself. Do ships, do
manufictories, do families ? Is there any instance of
people putting their heads under their wing, and
waking to find things going as they ought?
Mr. Hume's motion was put off till 6th July.
On Friday the debate on the Sugar Duties was
renewed, on Mr. Bright's amendment that "it is not
now expedient to make any alteration in the Sugar
Duties Act of 1846." Of Course " now" means
" after seeing the Ministerial alternative,.." As the
Anti-Slavery party has as yet raised no banner, nor
in any substantial manner given sign of life except in
the wrong direction, there was no use in voting for
altering a bad thing to a worse, so I voted for the
amendment. Taking into account the 'half million
to be laid out in slave trade on the coast of Africa,
and the renewed promise to Brazil and Cuba to in-
troduce their produce if they will only apply them-
selves to get it up during an interval assigned, it may
be held a worse. The amendment was negatived by

302 against 36. It is not plain what the use of i
was, unless to demonstrate weakness, and hold up the
Free Trade party to misconstruction.
With the political economy of one argument urged
in support of the amendment, I cannot consent to
agree. It was stated that the stimulus to the Cuban
and Brazilian trade from opening the British market
must be merely temporary, and that the competition of
all the sugar-growing countries in the world must
bring down the rate of profits to their natural level,
and that there would in a short time no greater
stimulus—if such at any time had existed—to the
slave trade than heretofore. Now imagine, when
Manchester merchants were agitating for the removal
of duties on their goods abroad, or which comes nearly
to the same the removal of duties at home on what
they wanted to bring back in return, that they bad
been told the same things in the same words; andsee
how quickly they would have replied, that what they
wanted was to see set up the hundred new factories at
Manchester which would be the immediate result, and
that if they only had that chance allowed them, they
would trust to the same causes for keeping them up
afterwards. I should like to hear yes or no to this
froM the commercial world; and can never admit that
any speaker for the amendment "has satisfactorily
disposed of that point."
And now to resume on- the French Constitution.
The National Assembly is permanent; that is to say,
is always sitting. It does not avow the absurdity of
going grouse-shooting, and giving Ministers the op-
portunity of doing what they like without the possi-
bility of being asked a question. It may not adjourn
for more than three/ months. The members can al-
ways be re-elected. They represent all France, and
not the places which send them. They cannot re-
ceive any imperative commission from their constitu-
ents, but are responsible for acting on their own
judgment. They cannot be in any manner punished
nor called to account for what they say in the House,
nor arrested on a criminal charge without the previous
leave of the Assembly, unless taken in the act.
Holders of offices during pleasure, cannot sit; and
a Member cannot accept such office by vacating his
seat. Exceptions to this, are the Ministers, and five
other named individuals, with such as may be here-
after authorised by law. Members to receive
a payment, which they cannot decline. Sit-
tings public, but with power to go into secret com-
mittee on demand of a certain number of Members.
The presence of half the House plus one, isneceas;i
beou tp inr e
stu
me
et
passed
sary for voting a public Bill. [This wouldb English
y
cause
extraordinary quantity of counting
House of Commons. But it is to
ill
o
three
are“T bonly t es qßu dd tpoabs
se. there”j
Privatew hen
Billsquestiont
o
read is put
be
orby
parinvuamtebßerilfil xteodbbeyprassuleedowf tihtbeoHutoubseein. g No public
times, with not less than ten days between each read-
ing. A motion represented to be of urgency, must
be introduced by a statement of the reasons, and
then go before a Committee who are to report to the
House. If reported urgent, and the House agrees,
the House to fix the time for discussion. .
The President appears to be the great blot in the
Constitution ; and see if it does not so turn out.
by this time, that what a
free
hwaavnetslurii
is not a President for four years,
bi‘'luetncnoau'ingthrrtey responsible Minister who must resign
whenever he fails to carry with him a majority
of the representatives. The idea of a Presi-
dent, is a coarse copy from monarchical forms.
In countries where limited monarchy is interwoven
with the constitution of eociety, the monarch nomi-
nally exercises the office of dismissing and appointing
Ministers. But this is nominally, and nothing else ;
or if it is more, there- is no point within human ex-
perience more satisfactorily estahlished than that' it
is for evil and not for good. An active monarch, or

an acfive president may, once in a way, be useful in
a time of crisis, as a surgeon may. But men do not
live upon having their legs cut off, nor countries upon
times ofcrisis. The crisis. 'is the exception and .uot, .
the rule, or woe to the country where iris not. - The
last and crowning example of the evil of a four yeal'E
king is in. the United States, where• a country-. "fa—
which there Was undeniably -a large m'a of peaceable
and honestly-disposed citizens, was hurried into the
disgrace' and misery which ultimately attend the
trade of robbers, through the wretched invention. of. •
giving a four years' lease of power to the Chance Cu'?
spring of a single popular vote. What the world
found out it wants,-is representative, or to make the
term, more comprehensive, parliamentary -govern-
ment. The appointment of a four years' king is a
retrograde movement towards the times when repre-
sentative government was not invented, and there
was no medium between the government of a Sultan
or of a mob. The case of a constitutional king
_ _

wrought into the habits of a community who have
been born to view him as a necessary of life, is quite
foreign to the question. If he is there, of course he
may as well be put to any use as not. But to make
a four years king for the purpose of intimating to
a minister or ministers that they have not a majority
in parliament, and; therefore must make way for
somebody that has, is like insisting on dressing up a
weather-cock with gills and feathers and all the para-
phernalia of a real animal, as if nobody could
tell which way the wind blowa without. Can
there be no contrivance for intimating to a I1li•
nistry that they have no longer rnejorities in the
Assembly, without making a four years' king to do .
it ? Could it not, for instance, be done by the
Council of State ? Or could not the Assembly itself
pronounce a vote of want of confluence, which surely
is being intelligible ?
Take now the present experiment going on in
Prance. Why is an attempt to: be made to subject
the policy of the next four years to decision by a po-
pular election, when it is plain that no decision can be
trusted to lust for four months? If Louis Napoleon is
elected, then a start is to be made in the course of

Imperial conquest ; if General Cavaignac, in the
course of military repression ; and if Larnertine, in
the course. of moderate republicanism, surely damaged
by suspicions, just or unjust, of leaning towards some-
thing else. It the government is substantially to re-
side in the will of the community as expressed by its
representatives, was not an India-rubber Ministry
capable of going in and out in obedience to the various
forms this will may take, the very thing the country
wanted to prevent convulsion, and is not the othe'r the
certain way to court convulsion and ensure violent
change ? The executive powers of the British empire
are wielded by half a dozen very quiet gentlemen in
plain clothes,who no more think of mounting on horse-.
hack than of breaking windows at Charing Cross ; and
they are as well wielded as in any other country known.
Admit the necessity for military interference,. and
what difference does that make ? If England had
presented a similar spectacle after the 10th of April,
and Lord Hardinge arriving from India had been
called to the military command, no man on earth
would have seen' in that a necessity for appointing
Lord Hardinge to four years office independent of
parliamentary control. If wanted, nagke him Prime
Minister; what could he want more ? It will be found
there is a chapter still to read, before parliamentary
government establishes itself in Prance.
The President is to be French by birth, and not

less than thirty years of age. He is to be elected,
by universal suffrage, with ballot, and have more

than half the votes. If no candidate has half the.
votes, the National Assembly is to elect out of the,
five highest candidates. He is elected for four years,,
and not re- eligible within four years more. He i s
to dispose of the armed force, but not to command it
in person. lie cannot cede any territory, nor dis-
solve the Assembly, nor suspend in any manner the
rule of the constitution and the laws. He is to
present a yearly statement to the Assembly.: Ho
negotiates treaties, but a treaty is not valid until rata-
tied by the Assembly. He has the right of pardoning,
but can only exercise it on the proposition of the
Minister of Justice, and with the advice of the
Council of State. He may demur to a public or
private Bill passed by the Assembly, and demand re.
consideration; but the decision of the Assembly there-
after is final. He receives ambassadors, and presides at
national solemnities. He is to be provided with a resi.
deuce at the seat of government, and receive 24,0001.
sterling a year. He is to name and dismiss the Minis.
ters at pleasure, as also the diplomatic agents at foreign
Courts, commanders by land and sea, governors a
the colonies, Algeria, and the Bank of France, com-
mander of the National Guard of the department of
the Seine, Mayor of Paris, Procureurs-General, and
other superior functionaries. He can suspend mayors
and other elected office-bearers, for three months;
but not dismiss them without the advice of ths
Council of State. His acts are not effective without
being countersigned by a Minister. The President,
Ministers, and other functionaries, are responsib e,
each in his own concern. The Ministers have se sts
in the Assembly, and are to be heard whenever Vaey
demand. There is to be a Vice-President elected. for
four years by the Assembly on the presentatior, of
the President. If the Presidentship becomes -vacant,
the Vice-President acts, and an election for new Pre-
sident must be proceeded with within a month. The
Council of State is a kind of Privy Council, but the
members are elected for three years by the Assembly,
and thereby vacate their seats. The Vice-President is
President of the Council of State. Passed Presidents
and Vice-Presidents are of right members of the
Council.

These seem the principal provisions relating to the
form of government. In the judicial branch, the
jury in criminal cases is continued,; a verdict of guilty
to be given by more than two-thirds. Justices of the
peace are elected by the district. The higher judges
are named for life; those of the Court of Appeal
(cassation) by the Assembly, the others by the Ilresi-
itent. All Frenchmen to be liable to serve in the
army and National Guard ; without allowing sub-
stitutes. The punishment of death is abolished in

political cases. Slavery cannot exist upon any.
territory belonging to France. No taxes can }re
levied without law. Direct taxes can only be laid
for one year; indirect may be for more. [Some
people may think this is just the wrong way.]
The essential guarantees of the right to labour, are
liberty itself of labour, voluntary association, equality

of relations between the employer and woikmari,
gratuitous instruction, professional education, institu--
tions for providence and credit [savings-banks, an()
possibly public pawnbrokers], and the establislimen t
by the State of grand works of public utility,
destined in case of 'want of work, to employ the &Ls-
engaged hands. [This is not all very clear, and it
was thought safest to translate it literally. But th eie
appears a falling-off fiorn the first enunciation of
" labour" [le travail] along with " liberty, equality,
security," as among the primary objects guaranteed
by the Constitution. It seems to dwindle into an
undertaking for the abolition of apprentice fees, and
for the Government's engaging in works of public
utility to the extent it may think useful ; which con-
tains nothing very new.] The public debt is gua.
ranteed ; the Legion of honour maintained; Algeria
and the colonies are declared French territory, but to
be governed by particular laws [which seems to be
leaving them much where they were before.]
The Nation is to have at all times ,the right of
changing or modifying its Constitution. If at what
we should call the end of a parliament, the Assembly
announces the desire that the Constitution should be
remodelled either entirely or in part, this can only
be turned into a definitive resolution after three sue .
cessive deliberations, each with an interval of :.nnonth
from another and.by three- quarters of the votes, [which
e rg
proceed
may be presumed to mean three-quarters of the
whole Assembly, or 675 votes ; though it seems ca-
pable of being construed to mean a simle majority
of 3tol, as for instance 30 against 10]. The As.
sembly for the purpose of revision is only to be named
two months [it has been stated before, that it, is
to consist of 900 Members instead of 750, though it
addi-
tional -150 areotbeen observed to be stated
to be sent from] ; it is to go into no
businesssguecthh eeg;
but
bivauttti
it t, hi
measures
earay inresvuis ieosncaas y
for
emr
a lNofrhati
urgency
it whereecwasy
called th
t; o
to
-
be necessary [which
is something like saying it may do anything else or
not as it pleases].

The above dues not profess to be an entire version,
but no important part has been intentionally omitted.
There may be some points after all, on which it
might be difficult to arrive at accuracy, without a
lengthened comment on the original, and a French
lawyer to assist.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. PERRONET THOMPSON.
Blackheath, London, July 3, 1848.

THE NEW DOCK AT MALTA.—The caisson which
has been constructed by Messrs. Fairbairn and Sons, of
London, for the new dock, and which was tried last year
and found defective, having had her alterations corn -
pleted, had another trial made on the afternoon of the
2d ult., in the presence of Sir William Parker, Admiral
Harvey, the Governor, Captain Collier, and other naval
officers, and the officers of the yard, when she was found,
to the gratification of Sir William and those other offict?rs
who had been witnesses of previous failures to answer
her purpose, by fitting well in her groove; but in order
to prove whether she fitted nicely on both sides, she was
again filled on the succeeding Monday, and after letting
in the proper quantity of water necessary fur the trial
into dock, in presence of very nearly the same officers,
she was tried o❑ the other side with equal success. Mr.
Croll, the contracting agent, under whose superintend-
ence the alterations have been made was els° present.—
United Service Gazette.
The nature of the alterations in the dress and ap-
pointments of infantry officers is gradually oozing out.
It appears now that black Spanish leather waistbelts and
stings are to be worn on all occasions, excepting when
the officers are ordered •to appear in full dress. The
present blue cloaks worn by the officers are to bp substi:t
tuted by grey cloaks and sleeves—by no means a change
for the better.—United Service Gazette.