The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-20 00:00:00

S N, JANUARY 20, 1848.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE MORNING 'PAPERS OF THIS
TIMES.—The session of the American Congress
is not sufficiently advanced to warrant any confident
anticipation of the course of its debates, but enol2gh
has transpired in that assembly to throw some light
on the temper of the people, the position of the CA-0 -
vernment, and the prospects of the war. •Our (:or-
respondence has intimated the general belief that the
Administration is strong enough to carry the prose-
cution of its object a little further onward ; if, at
least, we may transfer our own political terms to fele
proceedings under so different a constitution. lar.
Polk cannot be thrown out ;till his appointed' time.
In our own country, a division suchi as that which
took place the other day in Congress when an im-
portant motion upon the army supplies was carried
only by the casting vote of the Vice-President, would
have indicated the approaching downfal of die ar
party. But in America this party can ho:sej
but
against any such demonstration, and is only-
'to be
impeded by a powerful combination agains% the ne..
cessary supplies. Until the year of gr Ace 1849,
Mr. Polk cannot be superseded by any more pru-
dent or pacific President, and his expl'
~ite are only
limited by the means at his co
~wmand. The
question now is, whether be will be. able to obtain
the requisite funds for the contin'aP:nce of that con-
test which has grown more cost)
.y. and less promising
every successive . month. From fifteen to twenty
millions of dollars are imm. e-d.eLately required for this
fresh instalment, and s.uf-Ak a sum, it is considered
very doubtful whether eta will be able to raise. In
addition to the freed.am with which the whole policy'
of the war was ce,,ayassed, symptoms of a monetary
panic had beer
developed which would most mate-
rially comPF.eate affairs. Meantime, the other treat
element of discord was more and more conspicuously
obtrudeo, on the notice of Congress. Motions against
slavery bad been pressed by abolitionist representa-
tive., in so sweeping a form that one member actually
oF.iaracterised the whole war as a device of the slave-
holders, while two of the southern . States had issued
a counter memorial in language so determined as
to declare openly for a transatlantic Sonderbund
in case the Legilasture should attempt any imper-
tinent meddling with their darling institution.
The position of the President's party is now very
curious. There is little doubt but that they them-
selves desire the conclusion of hostilities as ardently
as the most pacific economists of the States, if it
could but be brought to, pass on such terms as would
leave them unconviAcd of folly in beginning the
war. They nevi anticipated a speculation of so
much glory r:Jr so much embarrassment. A glance
at the cor
..ditions under which the enterprise was
oomme;ticed suggests some singular reflections. It
was not recommended by the expediency of em-
ploying any turbulent or restless spirits, or of
draughting off any superfluous battalions to a scene
of action where they might be occupied or expended.
America had no need to look out for an Algiers.
The States contained no war party till Mr. Polk
made one. Hereafter it may be necessary perhaps
to make provision for the military longings so inad-
vertently created, but at the opening of the present reign
no such mischievous spirit was discernible. Neither was
the war produced by the involuntary irruption of a
superabundant population upon the neighbouring
territories. America itself is but half peopled, and
her covetous hankering after California is only just
less preposterous than the tenacity with which
Mexico clings to the deserts under her nominal sway.
We hare never made any secret of our opinion as to
the hands under which California might most reason-
ably fall, but generations must elapse before its lands
can be needed by either people. That the inhabitants
of the new world should be squabbling for territory
is certainly a proof of how very little reason may
have to do with war. Nor did the Americans descend
like barbarians of the highlands upon a richer and
more luxuriant region than that which nature had
assigned them; Whatever may still be the hidden
wealth of the Mexican Sierras, their neighbours were
certainly not attracted by the silver of the moun-
tains or the cochineal of the plains. Mr. Polk
was not originally actuated by any such sage sug-
gestions of policy, or such magnificent conceptions
of felony. He simply wanted to gild his reign by a
little captivating conquest, which would cost neither
him nor his enemies any serious expenditure, and to
prolong his influence by an appeal to new passions
and unusual pomps. If he could but have pushed the
undisputed frontier of his country to the Rio Grande,
extorted a full recognition of American rights in the
lately annexed province, and obtained a little obse-
quious prostration of Mexican deputies at the feet
of so formidable a foe, he would have secured his
original object, and, perhaps, his ultimate end.
That he was bound to anticipate so strange a
subversion of his schemes we will not assert, for it
is, indeed, singular that there should never hitherto
have occurred a single period in the expedition at
which he could retire with honour; but a wise ruler
would have preferred an early acknowledgment of
his mistake to such a desperate accumulation of error.
The tone of the American journals which we have
just received illustrates very pointedly the state of
the war. They are occupied, to a great extent, by
statistics of Mexico, by estimates and reports, more
or less authentic, of the produce of her mines, cus-
toms, and imposts, and by anecdotes of the wealth of
the clergy and the fertility of the soil. All this is
the expression of anxiety to make the most of an
involuntary bargain. The Americans have got the
country upon' their hands, and as they can find no
way of surrendering it without dishonour they are
exerting all their ingenuity to retain it without
loss. Forced loans have been levied in the capital,
customs duties exacted in the harbours, and the
resources of what was called the Mexican revenue
intercepted and appropriated. A detachment has
been sent to work the mines of Zacatecas, and looks
have already been thrown askmit on the gold and
silver of the churches. The collective proceeds of
these expedients can of course do but little in
alleviation of the enormous expenses of the war,
and a rapidly accumulating balance is thus left to
be settled by some vast indemnity or gigantic
cession. If these two items of outlay and return
could ever be made equal, Ati. Polk might then
retire with credit, as his constituents would probably
be satisfied with their glory if they could be reim-
bursed for their contributions. Unfortunately this
is a pure impossibility. The estimate for the next
campaign alone, exclusive of all previous expenditure,
surpasses by the sum of 5,000,000 of dollars the pre-
sumptive value of the greatest cession ever yet de-
manded from Mexico ; nor would the possession of
the entire country be presently worth to America
the money she has lavished in invading it. The
President's dilemma is this:—Should his obstinacy
be as unsuccessful in the ensuing year as it proved in
the last, the debt and discredit of his country will be
fairly doubled. Should it achieve at length the re-
sult which his partisans anticipate, America will have
found an Ireland. The total prostration of Mexico
and its annexation to the United states are the pros-
pects now triumphantly held forth as the fruits of
another campaign, and it needs no extraordinary
sagacity to discover that such inheritance can vary
but little from the present occupation of the country
—an occupation which is already beyond disturbance
from any regular resistance, and which is only encum-
bered by those perplexities which no annexation can
remove.
CHRONICLE.—A disposition appears to exist in
certain quarters to get up a renewed agitation for
the abolition of the window-tax. The tax is in the
abstract so utterly unjustifiable, and has been, from
the first moment of its enactment, so exceedingly
unpopular in this country, that we cannot be sur-
prised at any movement of the kind. Public opinion
has unmistakably condemned the window-tax. Its
eventual doom is certain. The only difficulty is as
to the time and mode of abolition. It is a question
solely of ways and means. Being, however, a ques-
tion of ways and means, we may reasonably doubt
the policy, and despair of the success, of the agita-
tion to which we allude, at a time when the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer may be supposed to be at
his wit's end to devise new taxes, instead of having
either the disposition or the power to abolish old ones.
The ordinary sources of the national revenue have, it is
true, maintained their usual rate of productiveness with
extraordinary steadiness, considering the accumulated
trials the country has gone through. Still it must
not be forgotten that 8,000,0001. have been added to
the national debt, and that the past year's expenses
have exceeded the receipts by nearly 400,0001. Under
such circumstances, the abolition of a tax which sup-
plies one twenty-sixth part of the total ordinary re-
venue of the State is simply impossible, unless the
Chancellor of the Exchequer be endowed with a
fiscal inventiveness equal to that of Pitt himself, and
be prepared with a budget of new imposts which the
public will contentedly see substituted for the old
ones of which they complain. There is no possibility
at present of lightening the load which the nation is
doomed to bear. If, however, any alleviation can be
obtained for the most patient and most heavily bur-
dened people in the world, by altering the position of
their load, or by taking a trifle out of one pannier
to put it into another, by all means let it be
done. The indefensibility of the window-tax is
undoubtedly much aggravated of late by the import-
ance which the question of sanitary reform has re-
cently assumed, both in public opinion and as a promi-
nent function of Government. The window-tax is

[PRICE SD.

a tax on the things,'of all others, which ought to be,
and which Providence undeniably meant to be, free
to all. It is .a tax on light and air. " Free as air,"
" universal as light," are proverbial expressions of
considerable antiquity. It remained for the arehtaxa-
tionist Pitt to change them into a mockery, and' to
put a. restraint on the elements, or at least on the use
of them, which Xerxes, in the intoxication of empire,
had never thought of. In our days the dreams of
reformers and the ambition of public Men have dis-
covered new spheres of action. One grand object of
the philanthropist and of the statesman in the present
age is to open the eyes of the public, of the poor
especially, to the priceless value, the indispensable ne-,
cessity, for moral and physical well-being, of a copious
supply of those elements which Pitt apparently
thought ft man had no right to at all, except in pro-
portion as he could pay for them. As things now
stand, it would he looked upon as no small step in
sanitary reform if all the windows could be replaced
which Pitt caused to be blocked up, or, what would be
still more valuable, if all the houses built since he
invented the window-tax could obtain the additional
allowance of light and air which but for' that tax their
constructors would have given them. Let us glance
for a moment at the tendencies of the sanitary move.,
ment, which, having at length got itself recognised
among the responsibilities of Government, may now
be regarded as effectually set upon its legs. In a few
years we may hope that the atmosphere of the
Metropolis, and of the rest of our large cities, will be
materially purified. In half a century or so, sanitary
reform may, perhaps, reach the length of compelling
all chimneys, great and small,' public and private, to
consume their own smoke, thereby purifying the
atmosphere of an additional amount of carbon,
and making the sight of the. sun somewhat less of
a rarity than it is at present to our City population.
The dwellings of all ranks will, of course, be much
improved. It may be anticipated that the working
classes in particular will be housed and lodged with
a roominess and airiness, a cleanliness, comfort, and
convenience, of which at present they have no con-
ception. To maintain the window-tax in any shape,
simultaneously with immense public and private
efforts to attain such glorious ends as those, would be
so ineffably absurd, that no national distress or fiscal
urgency can be imagined which would justify it.
And once a tax has come to stand in this category,
the sooner it is abolished the better. Blot it from the
statute, Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, the moment
you can supply its place with any impost a shade less
irrational and oppressive. " With all my heart,
gentlemen," the Chancellor of the Exchequer might
be expected to reply, " if any of you will be kind
enough to suggest a substitute. A million and three
quarters of one of the least fluctuating of all sources
of revenue, is more than I can afford to sacrifice
just at present. There is one way to be sure, gen-
tlemen, in which I might meet your wishes, but
I am almost afraid to be the first to mention it.
Are you, are the public generally, prepared to sub-
mit to a property-tax ? Will your representatives
consent to it ? Have you ascertained what the views
of the landowners and monied men, and of all your
propertied and influential classes generally, are as re-
gards such a proposal ? If not, consult with them;
and when you know their opinion, I wiil talk with you
further concerning the window-tax." It is, perhaps,
presumptuous for us, at the moment when the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer's brain is big with the budget,
to conjecture how he would break the profound silence
into which his meditations have plunged him, and
respond to a deputation which complained to him
of this anti-sanitary impost—of this tax on health
and cleanliness—of this parliamentary perversion
of the most bounteous gifts of Providence. And
yet what use is there in blinking the inexorable
facts ? Whether the question be discussed in or out
of Parliament, there is no other legitimate and prac-
tical mode of dealing with it. We leave out of the
question all projects for modifying the tax, for an
impost so obnoxious ought, if meddled with at all, to
be entirely abolished. It behoves its opponents,
therefore, to consider what they are driving at.
There are excuses enough already for the proposal
of a property-tax; there exist, indeed, motives and
arguments in its favour which deserve a better name
than excuses. Still it is an ugly thing. It is a visi-
tation which, like the cholera, how inevitable soever
it may appear, we would gladly escape if we could.
The Government, the Legislature, and the country
all instinctively recoil from it. An impulse of small
moment would, nevertheless, put an end to their he-
sitation. The agitation against the window-tax, if
it rose to any height, would be an impulse of this
description. We do not deprecate it on that ac-
count. We simply wish all petitioners for the abo-
ition of the window-tax this year, to keep in mind
;hat they are petitioning at the same moment for the
mposition of a property-tax.

NATIONAL
'TO THE• EDT''
--Thats great;
re atened with 'invasi
sta .nce in itself sufEci
h more so is this the case when even- the most
dui ne trust alone to the chance of our fleet en-
coin Ito ring the enemy at sea, and all adMit that there
are no Adequate means of defence against any con-
side; :labia force which might succeed in landing on
-our s, bores. To send our ten thousand troops to
oppose an invading enemy of a hundred thousand
men w ould, according. to all the ordinary rules of
warfare be consigningthem to useless destruction.

Whi. le entertaining the- greatest possible respect for
the doc :trines and tendencies of free trade, as well as
for the christianlike, benevolence of the " Universal
Peace I 3ociety." one may yet be permitted to doubt
whethe r any French marshal; on his 'march to
Lon-
don, we )uld halt his. troops -to receive a deputation
from ell her of the societies.
It is now several years since the - Prince
de 'Toil aville published his pamphlet, pointing
out lure blow might be struck at the "heart of
England , yet so infected have our readers been with
the doct, rifles' of peace, economy, and goodwill' that
no it tate:Lint preparations for defence, either naval or
milita Gay, heave yet been made. France has, mean-
while,, been strengthening all the harbours along her
norther
-n.coast, and is now busily employed in build-
ing above ninety new iron steamers, in addition to
the la/ ge number which she already has in the
Meditei ranean and elsewhere. As France is herself
impregi 'able, and has neither colonies nor commerce
requirin g such an enormous steam flotilla, and is
much to o wise and parsimonious to support such an
armamei at without an object, there- seems-to be ne
other so lution of the fact than that England is the
point air ned at. Yor the purpose of carrying on a
war agai net either-Austria; Prussia, or Italy, France
would not require any large fleet of .steamers, as the
highwayk3 of Europe are now as open for the march
of her troops as they formerly were. - England
would, it is to be feared, only deceive her-
self by supposing that because she .is quite
unconsdious of having for thirty years past
given to the French any just cause of offence,
that, therefore, no such feeling exists. They
have nOt forgotten, nor are they, it is to be regretted,
likely soon to' forget, the reverses sustained at our
hands, both by sea and land, during the last war, and
some of the present generation are known to have
declared that chose defeats must yet be " washed out
in English blood." Such a sentiment towards a
friendly people is no doubt revolting; but as those
very words have been used among our neighbours, it
is necessary to take warning.
They have not forgiven us for having sent Napo-
leon to St. Helena, and I believe, however inoffensive
or friend; v our conduct may be, as it has long been,
that till thy` millennium arrives they will never cease
to consider _Englishmen as their national enemies.
Many intelligent persons in this country repose
much confidence in the alleged pacific disposition of
the present King of the French, an opinion in which
the writer can b
no means concur, and which he
believes would sem.? be dissipated, should war at any
time appear to be fox' the advantage of his family—
'as a successful war certainly would be. Louis
Philippe has lately disce vered that he is eminently
unpopular in his own count:Ty, and that his dynasty
is consequently less firmly seated on the throne than
he could desire. There are, perhaps, only two modes
by which this state of feeling in France is capable of
being changed, viz., either by a snore liberal system
of internal government, or the eclat And popularity of
a successful war, and from all we know it is not doing
the se-called " Napoleon of Peace " much injustice
to believe that he would prefer the latter to the
former.
France is a country having little to dread inter-
nally as the result of war; her territory being cora-
-1 pact, her population warlike, her commerce limited,
and her colonies few in number;: while, in all these
respects, the position of England is eminently the
reverse, possessing as we do forty distant colonies,
which would all require to be strengthened on the
first suspicion of hostilities ; our naval force WOUld.
require to be great indeed to enable us also to meet
the enemy on equal terms in the English Channel.
Besides which it is very improbable that they
would, in the first instance, choose to risk a naval
encounter, should they determine on invading our
shores, and to elude our fleet would be no very diffi-
cult achievement. No fleet, however numerous, c.lll
guard the whole line of our extensive coast, and the
enemy, after having selected the least guarded point
for the purpose of landing his troops, might next
proceed to give battle to our fleet as it came up.
Unless, therefore, we should possess a force sufficient
to command victory both by land and sea, our security
is very incomplete.
Perhaps the whole question may 'be considered to
resolve itself into one of expense, for with sufficient
preparation no Englishman will be disposed to admib
that the result could be at all doubtful. Our troops
have generally gained advantages over the French in
foreign lands, and they would certainly not:prove less
heroic in defending their own.
The age of miracles has, however, gone by, so that
we could only reasonably hope to succeed by opposing
to the enemy's forces an equal body of well-disciplined
troops. That a nation like Great Britain, which has
during the present century spent several hundreds
of millions in foreign wars and foreign subsi-
dies, should grudge a comparatively small sum
in preparing for her own defence, is almost inconceiv-
able, and would well illustrate the weakness of the
miser, starving in the midst of abundance. There
are at this moment throughout the country many
thousands of able-bodied men without employment,
who might be drilled and fed by her Majesty's Com-
missioners nearly as cheaply as they now are out of
the parish rates.
The country also abounds in iron, and yet its safety
is perilled, because a niggardly economy grudges the
expense of casting it into a warlike shape, and plant-
ing it in sufficient quantity around our arsenals, and
sea ports, our navigable rivers, and deep water bays.
Many of the roads likewise, which the illustrious
Duke speaks of, as leading towards London, com-
manded by hills, on which cannon might be surely
planted with great advantage, and the Thames might
easily be rendered inaccessible. As national economy
is now so much in fashion, it would be as gratifying as
amusing to hear Lord John Russell condescend to
imitate the style of Mr. Hudson at a railway meeting,
and say, in order to secure the votes of the more rigid
economists, that he had taken advantage of the pre-
sent low price of iron, and entered into a large con-
tract for cannon.
Our misunderstanding with France concerning
Syria in 1840 is now pretty well understood to have
arisen from a finesse of Louis Philipp's, for the pur-
pose of creating a pretext for fortifying Paris.
The French people choose, however, to blame
Lord Palmerston for that act of their own King, and
have ever since contemplated with peculiar satisfac-
tion the wealth and defenceless state of London, as
affording a future means of resenting the imagined
insult.
Their troops have formerly revelled in nearly all
the other capitals of Europe, and why, they, may say,
should London be a perpetual exception ? They also
Profess to believe that Englishmen have latterly be-
come effeminate and pacific, and though it is proba-
ble that they would on English soil soon discover
their mistake, yet it is important in such matters to
make assurance doubly sure ; for which purpose re-
organizing our militia, a military and resisting spirit
might be created throughout the nation. Apart alto-
gether from the question of invasion, a very great im-
provement in the health and habits of our people would
be derived from a general system of military training.
Their evenings might be spent on the drill ground
instead of in the beer-shop, and habits of sobriety,
regularity, and submission, be thus acquired. Their
gait and bearing would be improved, and their feel-
ings: of nationality, manliness, and self-reliance be
greatly strengthened. No person who has travelled
in Germany can have failed to remark, as the result of
a general military training, the superiority of the
Prussians in all these respects over the people of the
surrounding states.
The country has again incurred a deep debt of
obligation to the Duke of Wellington for having had
the moral courage -to point out its defenceless state,
and his warning voice is, happily, so distinct, that no
Government can altogether disregard it.
I am, Sir, yours, &c.,
Brighton, Jan.lB.
P.S. If there be any mode by which we can hope
long to maintain peace with France, as it is most -de-
sirable that we should do, it seems evidently by being
I thoroughly and at all points prepared for war.
Jar. i

aWey ob-
tLanTsp
burn " isthe
Emili W
name"A oNfGtELhelie°wß nToviie by the islth
serve also that a cheap edition of " Emilia Wyndham', ham," about to be published by Mr. of
Col.
has just been issued by Mr. Colbarn in his " Standard
eN'e or D
Novels."
LYNN AND WISBECII RAILWAY.—This railway,
Captain Wynne, the Government officer; and should his
which is now completed, was last week inspected by
report of the line be satisfactory, of which there is but
little doubt, it will be at once opened for traffic.• At
present the permanent bridge over the Ouse is not com-
pleted, but a very substantial temporary one has been
formed, over which the line is carried ; the strength of
this structure was tested somewhat severely by the In-
spector, but so well did it pass through the trial, that we
cannot doubt but it will be favourably reported on.—
Cambridge Advertiser. '
CONTINENTAL INTERCOURSE.—The returns of the
number of passengers through the Channel ports for the
week ending January 16th, are as follow :—Through
Boulogne, 208 ; and through Calais, 104. Correspond-
ing period 1847, Throne; Boulogne 668 ; through
Calais, 183. The passengers through Boulogne may be
subdivided as follows :—From Folkestone, 332 passen-
gers ; from Dover, 59 ; from London, 67—total, 458.
For Folketone, 409 ; for Dover, 73 ;; for London, 6§
—total, 650.