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

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, "ai via
pacem, pare bellam," 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. CODDEN, viz., is. per pound.
The present exorbitant duty operates most injuriously
on our commercial relations with China. Our trade
raight 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. 2id. 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 therevenue (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.
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.

We

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, that 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. MACGREGOR, 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.
Tb,

Je 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
a spirit of resistance on the part of the lay
members of the Church of England, which ere long will
become irresistible. Our modem LAUDS have (Bour-
bon-like) learned nothing
warnin and forgotten nothing:
coursegs obf.
bhistory, they
notwithstanding the
still pursue that
7n
f, whenever
pursued by the clergy
o r rebel
or w
and age sa,
has invariably terminated in a
voyf England as
the l
great discouragement " to the Churchhe
by law established. By stigmatizing
Puritans, they have aroused in the laity the oldalsyiraist
of stern resistance to sacerdotal domination') b
which Puritanism has ever been distinguished, and be-
forey 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,
has been the first to protest against the system of
'Every Bishop Pope in his o%‘n diocese, waft evf ry
Parson Nuncio in his own parish," which the Pu-
seyite-Ronianists, with IliiNalr of Exeter at their
head, have been for some years past endeavour-

I for liberty ; and the same passion has in-
toxicated the inhabitants of Styria, of Sclavonia,
of Illyria, 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 t. 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
11,500,0001. 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