The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS
FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.

TlMES.—Telegraphs end cannon have by this time
informed the world that the Church of Atocha has wit-
nessed the double marriage of the two sisters of Spain.
On one of these events we may at least offer our best
wishes, if not our molt joyful congratulations, to the
Spani,h people. Isabella 11. is united to a native Prince,
Who brings in his train no elements of discord, and offers
no stormy prospects as the price of his alliance. Don
Fraucisco introduces no foreign influence to injure or
'insult the people of his country, his descendants will not
bs liable to the jealous intervention of neighbouring
Powers as the unlawful heirs of a forbidden birthright,
nor will Spain be taught to regard them as debarred
by right from a succession to which they are intro-
duced by blood. Far different is the. case with her
Royal Highness the Infante. Her consort arrives
amongst a people whose detestation of his pretensions
can hardly be drowned in the purchased acclamations
of noisy crowds well trained and carefully posted on
his road. They see through the schemes of his family,
and know the extent to which he is disqualified by
solemn engagements for the position which he is ex-
pected to fill. Ho is either thrust upon them with a
deep purpose or with none. If the latter, his intrusion
is a gratuitous insult to the nation, endangering its re-
lations with friendly powers, which, less perhaps than
any state in Europe, it can afford to peril, and creating
causeless suspicions and empty
discontent. If the
former, Spain is condemned to a perpetual dread of a
detested influence, and to the reflection that the descent
of her crown will entail war and bloodshed upon un-
known generations. The next heir to the Spanish
crown is either disinherited, or she retains her inherit-
ance against the voice of public law and the decision of
Europe. Why should the Spaniards have been compelled
to see their Infanta reduced to such a strait ? What
compensates her Royal Highness for her political loss cr
her political attainder 2- Why should she contract a
mars h ends t.lt.ts.:atui;lfication of her rights,
great or , distant or approximate ? Why should
she have been driven into such a mesa/hence? If, as the
organs of the Chateau declare, it was a duty imperatively
incumbent on France to see that at least such reward as
Louis XIV. did reap by 20 years' expenditure of blood
and treasure should be secured to his descendants--if
such influence as France for the last century has con-
ceived herself to possess in Spain from the consan•
guinity of the two royal lines, should be preserved by the
rigorous exclusion of any princely interloper—even
under all these conditions was it absolutely necessary
that the equilibrium of Europe should be threatened,
public faith sullied, amicable relations disturbed, a
nation insulted, and a princess amerced of her expecta-
tions, to put such a security instantaneously beyond a
doubt ? Was there any remote probability that the
blood of Philip V. would be lost in a more northern
current ? M. de Lamar tine has loudly proclaimed the
utter impossibility of such an event, and shown how
small a proportion the gain bears to the risk in the late
stroke of Louis Philippe and his Cabinet. No interval of
postponements, explanations, or manoeuvres could have
damaged the legitimate connexion of the two Bourbon
stocks, though it might have impeded the precipitate
and unlawful schemes for their eventual fusion _
Louis Philippe has done the deed. He has done
it quocunque mode—whether clumsily, as the French
Opposition conceive, or dexterously, as M. de Lamar-
tine imagines, we shall not here discuss. If report
speaks truly f the royal countenance, it would appear
that he was prepared, as we have no doubt was the case,
to encounter and neglect more forcible reinonstrances
than it has been thought fit to interpose, and that he is
delighted to find the cost fall so far below the estimate.
He has got, at an expense which, perhaps, he may con-
sider reasonable, a prize which he was resolved to get at
any expense whatever. ' The deliberations originally
attending the project could hardly have been unaccom-
panied, we should imagine, either by the suggestions of
conscience or the misgivings of doubt; but from the first
overt act to the final entry of the French Princes it is
clear that not a moment was to be allowed for reflec-
tion or hesitation either to himself or others. It was not
probable that auy of the European Powers, though un-
consulted and over-reached, would interfere by imme-
diate violence to stop the marriage of a Princess of whom,
as well as of the rights she conveyed, they were here-
ditary guardians. The times were not favourable to such
coups de tonnerre. It was conceived that royal mar,
riages had so far lost their influence and significance that
in such matters one Court might circumvent another
without any of those national explosions which are more
immediately unpleasant than the protests of au outraged
ally, or the consequences of a damaged character. What
Louis Phillippe expected to result from his stroke may
perhaps be inferred from his satisfaction at what has ac-
tually occurred. He is overjoyed that England has done
no more than reiterate a solemn protest, and paint to
treaties dishonourably infringed. He is rejoiced that the
balance of European power, which apparently the
Orleans dynasty can so securely neglect, is only seri-
ously threatened by the marriage of one his sods. He
is delighted that nu, further tumult has occurred in the
country on which he has imposed his progeny than the
avowed discontent and turbulence of the whole popula-
tion, the apparition of an armed pretender to the Crown,
and the jeopardy of that very throne, the reversion of
which has lured the French ugustus into such
unusual temerity. A Prince of honoured name and
serious claims is about to raise his standard in Spain,
availing himself of the detestation with which the coin-
pulsory policy of the Queen's Gofernment is viewed to
divide the allegiance of the r.ation, and discreetly pro-
mising the preservation of those constitutional rights,
and the fulfilment of those constitutional duties, in de-
fence of which his family was superseded. King Louis
Philippe has given an opportunity to the Count de
Montemolin of avowing such sentiments. He imperils
the inheritance of a helpless family either for no cause
whatever, or to secure its reversion to his own. lie in-
fringes the public law of Europe, in the preservation of
which every monarch is interested alike. He estranges
a friendly Power, and lowers the character of his Cabi-
net in every Christian Court ; and then the richest So-
vereign of the West is unable to dissemble his joy at
having so cheaply secured a settlement for his fourth
son. With what note in the French calendar will the
10th of October, 1846, be hereafter marked ?
CHRONICLE.—To a superficial observer, the result
of the revenue for the year ending on Saturday last,
which we this day publish, will not appear flattering or
even satisfactory, notwithstanding the slight increase of
88,246/. which it shows, compared with the year ending
the 10th of October, 1845. The prominent fact on the
face of this statement is, that the most important and
permanent item of income—the Customs—exhibits a
deficiency of no less than 501,6191., and that the small
balance in favour of the year is chiefly produced by
placing against that large deficiency an excess of
421,588 L from " miscellaneous" and casual sources, on
which we have no right to build any permanent
calculations for the future. If, however, we turn to
the comparison of the quarter, the accounts for the
present year exhibit, in every
item which can be
taken as a test of the condition of the country, or
of the permanent prospects of the revenue with
the single exception of " stamps"—a
most gratifying
and satisfactory result. The Customs show an increase
of 462,4721., the Excise of 226,8201., the taxes of 8,6611.,
the Property-tax of 148,2451., the Post-office (notwith-
standing the extraordinary amount collected in the cor-
responding quarter of 1845, owing to the railway mania)
of 8,0001., and the Crown lauds of 15,0001.; while the
stamps, attributable to the enormous expenditure under
this head in 1845 for railway deeds, show a deficiency of
5,8111.; and miscellaneous (a mere accidental source of
income) of 59,5481 —exhibiting, on the whole, a balance
m the total ordinary revenue of the quarter of no
less than 803,339/. ; which balance is, however, re-
duced, by smaller receipts on account of " imprest
moneys" and " repayments of advances"—neither
having reference to general revenue considerations—to
539.064/. So great, however, have been the changes
which have taken pie .ce in the two most important
sources of revenue—the. Customs and the Excise--during
the periods embraced in these accounts, that it is impos-
sible to form a fair co mparative estimate, either of the
years or of the quarters to which they refer, without
considering how far ti Ley have been influenced by those
changes. First—as far as regards the year, it is neces-
sary to take into actor int the reductions in the Tariff
made in 1845, and to esca anine how far those reductions ap-
plied to the sums appeal ing as the receipts on each year,
before we come to any conclusion as to the real charac-
ter of the large deficit 'ncy in the Customs, or look
upon it as any test of tl oe state of trade. In the session
of 1845 the reduction s in the Tariff on the articles
of sugar, cotton, and four hundred and thirty other
articles, and on the e: xport duty on coal—all included
under the head of " Ct tstoms"—amounted to no less a
sum than 2,418,000/4 and as the year ending October
10, 1845, had, during i .he first half of it, the avantage
of those higher rater ; of duty, we have a sum of
1,209,0001., which shoo Id be deducted from the Customs
stil to Tariff in the last sessioaof expired. Moreover, there were
f
receipts of that year, it t order to put it in a fair eornpa-
ruisrothnearirtedh
uthcetioonns in
one ja
Par-
liament, affecting the ;annual revenue from Customs to
the amount of at letist 400,0004—which reductions
apply only to the l.htter half of the present year. So
that in making, a comparison between the Customs
duties received in -the two yet Arts ending October 10,
1845 and 1846 respoctively, in order to test the prosperity
of business during the tvo periods in question, the sum
of 1,409,000/. should be added to the receipts of the latter
year, as representing the %mount of duties relinquished,
as far as the receipts oS that year are concerned,
but of which the receipts .of 1845 had the advantage...
As far as the extent of bus loess has been transacted, the
latter year, in place of a de Licit of 501,6192, as exhibited
in the actual receipts, wet did have given an increase of
no less than 907,381/. unde r the same circumstances. We
do not, indeed, pretend to say that, had the duties re-
mained unaltered, the abo v a statement exhibits a pre-
cise view of what the revel to e would actually have been.
But this is just the point of Tactical importance in these
accounts, to which we welt le 1 direct the attention of our
readers. Duties represent it ig revenue to the amount of
1,409,000/., as applicable -to the last of the two years
under comparison, have be a I repealed, while the revenue
has only suffered a loss, e' yen duting the first, year,
of 501,619L1 The public h ave gained, by a reduction
of duties, in round fig' are._ one million and a half
sterling, while they ha le lost, in the shape of reve-
nue, little more thanon t?-Cl *lird of that sum. But the
public have gained nv-Alt t more ; they have gainec