The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-22 00:00:00

TII SUN, LONDON", ritlDAit RirENIN'O, DECIIMBER 22, 1848,

seven hundred and thirty-eight dollars ; making an increase •
of service at the rate of fifteen per cent., and a reduction in
the expenses of more than fifteen per cent.
During the past year there have been employed, under
contracts with the Post-office Department, two ocean
steamers in conveying the mails monthly between New York
and Bremen, and one since October last, performing semi-
monthly service between Charleston and Havannah; and a
contract has been made for the transportation of the Pacific
mails across the isthmus from Chagres to Panama. Under
the authority given to the Secretary of the Navy, three ocean
steamers have been constructed and sent to the Pacific, and
are expected to enter upon the mail service between Panama
and Oregon, and the intermediate ports, on the Ist of
January next, and a fourth has been engaged by him for the
service between Havannah and Chagres ; so that a regular
monthly mail line will be kept up after that time between
the United States and our territories on the Pacific.
Notwithstanding this great increase in the mail service,
should the revenue continue to increase during the present
year as it did in the last, there will be received nearly four
hundred and fifty thousand dollars more than the expenditure.
These considerations have satisfied the Postmaster-General
that, with certain modifications of the Act of 1845, the re-
venue may be still further increased, and a reduction of
postages made to a uniform rate of five cents without an
interference with the principle, which has been constantly
and properly enforced, of making that department sustain
itself.

CONCLUSION'.
Nothing can retard the onward progress of our country,
and prevent us from assuming and maintaining the
of
gtehnefirst
rank among nations, but a disregard of
de
the past and a recurrenceotoouttlaribille peace—anWl war
public policy. Wered
have just closed an honourable
necessary and unavoidable in vindication of the national
rights and honour. The present condition of the country is
bitnilar in some respects to that which existed immediately
after the close of the War with Great Britain in 1815,
and the occasion is deemed to be a proper one to take
a retrospect of the measures of public policy which followed
that war. There was at that period of our history a depar-
ture from our earlier policy. The enlargement of the powers
of the federal government by construction, which obtained,
was not warranted by any just interpretation of the Consti-
tution. A few years after the close of that war a series of
measures was adopted, which, united and combined, consti-
tuted what was termed by their authors and advocates the
"American system."
[The Message then goes on at great length to set forth the
" democratic" viewkof this " American System." The Mes-
sage closes thus
Daring the period I have administered the executive de-
partment of the Government, great and important questions
of public policy, foreign and domestic, have arisen upon which
it was my duty to act. It may indeed be truly said that
my administration has fallen upon eventful times. I
have felt most sensibly the weight of the high responsibilities
devolved upon me. With no other object than the public
good, the enduring fame, and permanent prosperity of my
country, I have pursued the convictions of my own best
judgment. The impartial arbitrament of enlightened public
opinion, present and future, will determine how far the
public policy I have maintained, and the measures I have
from time to time recommended, may have tended to
advance or retard the public prosperity at home, and to
elevate or depress the estimate of our national character
abroad.
Invoking the blessings of the Almighty upon your deli-
berations at your present important sessions, my ardent hope
is, that in a spirit of harmony and concord, you may be
guided to wise results, and such as may redound to the hap-
piness, the honour, and the glory of our beloved country.
JAMES B. POLK.
Washington, December sth, 1848.

From Mexico we learn that almost immediately after the
adjournment of Congress a new meeting was convened, os-
tensibly to appoint commissioners to meet those from the
United States for reviewing and marking the boundary be-
tween the ceded territories and Mexico. The real objects,
however, are said to be a revision of the tariff, with a view to
the reduction of duties and the authorising terms that may
be successful, for a loan of 600,000 dollars.
The position of political affairs in Mexico seems unchanged,
and therefore unstable; still, if, as it is rumoured, Paredes
left his country in the Great Western, recently, one element
of disturbance has been removed.

MR. COBDEN'S PLAN OF FINAN-
CIAL REFORM AND NATIONAL ECONOMY.
The following communication from Mr. Cobden,
on the subject of national retrenchment and financial
reform, was read on Wednesday night, at the meeting
of the Liverpool Financial Reform Association :
London, 103, Westbourne-terrace, Dec. 18.
Dear Sir,—l gathered, from the conversation I had
with you and the members of the Financial Reform As-
sociation in Liverpool, that you had two objects in view
...first, the substitution of direct for indirect taxation ;
and, secondly, a diminution of the present amount of
Government expenditure. I ventured to offer an opinion,
which I now beg to repeat, that it would be far easier
to effect a reduction of expenditure to the extent of
10,000,0001., and apply the whole of that sum to the re-
moval of Excise and Customs' duties, than to transfer the
same amount from indirect to direct taxation. Excepting
in Liverpool and a few of our largest trading towns, there
is not, at present, a very great force of public opinion in
favour of direct taxation. It has yet to be created and
organized. But there is a very general sympathy felt in
the proceedings of your body, founded upon a strong de-
sire to have the burdens of taxation lightened; and
there is some expectation that you will put forth a plan
for effecting that object. My reason for now troubling
you is to suggest whether it might not be advisable to
publish a national budget, exhibiting on one side a con-
siderable reduction in the expenditure, and on the other
the several Excise and Customs duties which you pro-
pose in the first place to abolish. I do not mean by this
a perfect financial scheme, such as may be contemplated
as the ulterior object of your association, but a plan
which, whilst it went in the direction of your principle
of direct taxation, and relieved the mass of consumers
from a heavy tax upon their necessaries and comforts,
should commit those politicians of all shades who now
join in the vain cry for " economy and retrenchment" to
some practical measure worth contending for.
I suggest that you take for the basis of your budget
the expenditure of 1835. The whole cost of the Go-
vernment in that year, including interest of debt, was
44,422,0001. For the twelve months ending the sth of
April last it amounted to 55,175,0001., being an increase
of 10,750,000/. The interest of the debt was less by
87,000/. in the latter than in the former year, making
the comparison so much the more favourable to 1848.
The estimated expenditure for the current year ending
the sth of April, 1849 (see Lord J. Russell's speech 18th
February last), is 54,596,0001.; so that we take the in-
crease to be, in round numbers, 10,000,000/. since 1845.
Do you see any good reasons why we should not return
to the expenditure of that year? Englishmen love pre-
cedents; and they are not easily persuaded that any-
thing is Utopian or impracticable which has been
accomplished within the last thirteen years; and this is
one reason, though I will find you a bettet, why you
should base your budget upon that of 1835. If we go
back a little further, to the time when this nation was
still under the rule of the boroughmongers, we shall
find a startling argument in favour of this plan. In
1830, the last year of the Wellington-Peel Administra-
tion, the expenditure for all purposes, exclusive of the
interest of the debt, was 18,024,000/4 for the twelve
months ending the sth of April of the present year, it
amounted to 26,747,0001. The Tory Government was
overturned the following year upon the motion of Sir
Henry Parnell in favour of economy, and the House of
Commons was soon afterwards reformed, mainly on the
plea of its profligate waste of the people's money; and
yet we have now an increase to the expenditure of
8,723,000/., or nearly 50 per cent., as the fruits of the
Reform Act. We are now actually expending more
upon the army, navy, and Ordnance alone, than sufficient
for the maintenance of the whole civil and military esta-
blishments under the Duke of Wellington's Govern-
ment! When these facts shall be generally known, the
country wilt, I think, be in the humour for responding to
your appeal, if you inscribe as your motto upon your
banner—" The Expenditure of 1.835;" which will be a
reduction of 10,000,0001. from this year's budget.
I would not advise you to complicate your plan by
proposing any new imposts, to rouse the antagonism of
interested parties, or any modifications or substitutions
of existing taxes, to destroy that simplicity of object
which, above all things, is necessary to the success of a
public agitation. But there is one tax from which the
dominant class in this country has exempted itself for
half a century, which exemption would be disgraceful
to the character of the British people any longer to tole-
rate—l mean the probate and legacy duty. In the last
year upwards of two millions of pounds were paid into
the Exchquer by the heirs to personal property, con-
sisting mainly of the hard-earned accumulations of our
merchants, manufacturers, professional men, traders,
and mechanics ; whilst the ducal domain, or the estate
of the great landed proprietor, passed untaxed from
the dead to the living. This year will be memorable
for having witnessed the destruction of the last remain-
ing powers of feudalism in all the countries of the
Continent, excepting Russia. But I know of no privi-
lege which the nobles of Prussia, Gallicia, or Hungary
have been compelled to surrender, as a tribute to the
enlightenment of this age, more unjust in principle than
that which is conferred upon our landed proprietors in
the statute passed by themselves, imposing duties exclu-
sively upon the inheritance of personal property. Let
us not boast of English freedom, or of equality before
the law, whilst this injustice remains. In what form
could aristocratic privilege assume a more offensive and
costly aspect than in that of a bold and palpable exemp-
tion from taxation? I do not think that great resistance
will be offered to the equitable adjustment of this tax,
provided the people speak out as becomes them. No
living proprietor will be affected by the change; and the
landholders are as conscious as you or I that these are
not times for transmitting such a class of privilege to
posterity. I assume that the probate and legacy duty
upon real estate, entailed and unentailed, will yield, at a
moderate estimate, 1,500,0001. By the above plan you
would have a disposable surplus revenue of 11,500,000/.,
viz., ten millions from the reduction of expenditure, and
a million and a half from the increased produce of the
probate and legacy duty.
I will now trouble you with my views as to the dis-
posal of that amount, premising that I have not felt
quite free to choose in every instance those items of the
Customs and Excise duties which I should myself have
preferred to abolish or reduce, but have been partly in-
fluenced by the desire to enlist the sympathy and sup-
port of every class and interest in the community, whose
co-operation will be abundantly requisite to force the
adoption of the plan upon Government.
To begin with the Customs duties. The present duty
of 2s. 2d. per lb. upon tea, whether viewed as a tax
upon the most harmless stimulant enjoyed by the people
or as an impediment to the operations of our merchants
trading with China, is one of the most indefensible in
the tariff. I would reduce the duty to Is. perlb., or to an
ad valorem duty yielding the same amount of revenue,
by which, according to the estimate of the Chancellor of
Exchequer, in his speech on Mr. Cardwell's motion,
there would be a less for the first year of 2,000,000 L
The duty on timber and wood must be wholly abolished.
This is a necessary consequence, if not an accompani-
ment, of the repeal of the navigation-laws. The
amount is 945,0001. (I have taken this and all the follow.
ing items from the finance accounts for the year ending
January 5, 1848, deducting the expense of collection.) I
propose, also, to take the duty off butter, cheese, and up-
wards of one hundred items of the Customs duties, yield-
ing altogether 516,000/.; and leaving only about 20 arti-
cles in the tariff paying duty.
These three sums amount to 3,461,0001.
Next, with reference to the Excise. It may be laid
down as a rule, that, whenes er you touch an Excise duty
at all, it should be totally abolished; because the great
objection to such taxes, the interference of the excise-
men with the processes of production, applies equally
whether the duty be great or small. This should be
borne in mind if you deal with the malt tax, and you
must deal with it, if you would enlist the sympathy of
the county constituents in your movement. To a man
the farmers are in favour of the repeal of the malt tax, and
this, not merely because it would.add to the contentment
of the peasantry by cheapening a beverage which they
universally consume, and also relieve their employers
from a heavy tax upon the beer they give to their
labourers at certain seasons, but the best agriclturists
loudly protest against the duty on the plea that it denies
them the free application of their capital to the fatten-
ing of cattle upon malt, and thus prevents the profitable
growth of barley upon stiff clay lands. Upon this sub-
ject Mr. Lattimore, speaking for an influential deputa-
tion of landlords and farmers which had an interview
with Lord J. Russell in February last, said,—" The
malt tax disarranged the best modes of cultivation, en-
hanced the price of artificial food for stock and cattle,
whereby the fertility of the soil was deteriorated, the
demand for labour lessened, the supply of bread-corn
and animal food considerably decreased, and the com-
forts of the people and the wealth of the country were
also greatly impaired." Your " national budget" would
therefore be undeserving the name if it did not include
the total repeal of the malt tax, amounting to 4,260,0001.
In Kent, Sussex, and two or three other counties,
there is an active agitation against the hop duty. The
expense of collecting this tax is alone sufficient to con.
demn it. Nothing could so well exemplify the wasteful
and costly process of collecting revenue by means of
Excise duties as the spectacle exhibited, for a month or
six weeks every autumn, of a little army of excisemen
dispersing themselves over half a score of counties, to
levy a tax in the fields and gardens of the hop-planters.
I question) if' anything more barbarous could be met
with in Turkey or any uncivilized country where politi-
cal economy had never been heard of even by name. I
propose, therefore, the abolition of the hop duty,
amounting to 416,000/. By including the malt and hop
duties you will secure the co-operation of the farmers,
lwehgios,lantioewh,thheavt
efrueeeethirade mehisinttheeressettted
wlith principletheih hahoif uteohtre
of the towns. The landlords, too (at least such of them
as are not merely professional politicians), will hence-
forth be found in the front ranks of those who advocate
economy and retrenchment in the national expenditure.
Already they have begun to ask, and with good reason,
why should we not have cheap government as well as
cheap corn?
Next is the article of soap. What a satire upon our
sanitary acts, and all the 'pompous agitations in favour
of baths and washhouses is this tax upon the necessary
element of cleanliness ? Not a word need be said upon
it ; the duty, amounting to 850,0001., must come off, it it
only be to cleanse us from the stain of national hypo-
crisy. That which soap is to the skin, literature is to
the healthy action of the mind, and yet we raise
720,0001. a year from a heavy duty upon paper ; by in-
citlhidiirnmgyiaeitalseruin your budget, you will promote the reli-
gnu?, moral, and intellectual advancement of the people
will draw towardsria
ie
ya b lo nationalme tthoe education. all parties,
sympathies
Theowf h
tahl teeesvLtrowt mec
Scotch
items
mbee
Ex-
ciseLT airlseetfsloory,
,l'illolZirrSc.osmu
atoamtaxouenstptroop6,e2r4ly6,6oo6oca/.
although does not, the window-tax, which, lath •
Excise duties, operate as a direct impediment to produc-
Thhkeerethies
tivo industry, is open to the fearful objection that it
‘• obstructs the light of heaven;" and, in these brief words,

we may read its inevitable doom. London, Bath, and
other large cities are pressing the abolition of this tax
annually upon the House, through Lord Duncan, and
you must not think of excluding it from your" National
Budget." It yields 1,610,0001: My " ways and
means" are so nearly exhausted that I can only add the
advertisement duty, amounting to 160,000/.
These two sums amount to 1,770,0001. The total loss
of revenue by the reduction of the above duties and
taxes, is 11,477,000/., or 23,0001 less than the
11,500,000/. of surplus which I propose to create by the
diminution of expenditure, and the equalization of the
probate and legacy duty. I subjoin a summary of the
foregoing, in a concise tabular form :
NATIONAL BUDGET.

Proposed reduction of expendi-
ture •• ... £10,000,000
Proposed legacy and probate duty
upon real estate, whether en-
tailed or ucentailed

1,500,000

Proposed amount of surplus re-
venue .. ... ••• ••

... £11,500,000

rnoroszu REDUCTIONS OF DUTIES AND TAXES.
Customs Duties. Loss of Revenue.
Tea—Duty to be reduced to Is.
per pound ..• £2,000,000
Timber and Wood—Duty abo-
lished ... ••
Butter, cheese, and upwards of
100 smaller items of the tariff—
Duties abolished ...

945,000

516,000

Total loss upon Customs
EXCISE DUTIES.
Malt—Duty abolished .••
Hops
Soap
Paper

... £4,260,000
... 416,000
... 850,000
.. 720,000

Total loss on Excise ...
TAX/111.

£3,461,000

... £6,246,000

Window-tax—abolished £1,610,000
Advertisement duty—abolished ... 160,000

Total of taxes

... Z 1,170,000

Total loss upon Customs, Excise, and Taxes £11,477,000
I repeat that I do not propose this as a complete
financial scheme. Many articles are omitted which I
should not wish to be considered to hare willingly ex-
cluded, or be thought to have overlooked. I have gone
again and again through the dismal catalogue of oar
fiscal burdens, and if there be any of the items of the
Customs or Excise duties which you are sorry to miss from
the above table, be assured that the omission has caused
me equal regret. Bricks ought especially to stand one
of the first on the list for a prospective budget. To-
bacco is a very strong case, but it involves so large an
amount of revenue that I could not include it. The
wine duties also call for a revision, not to name others.
Then there are some duties and taxes, the modification
of which does not necessarily involve a loss of revenue,
and which may be dealt with independently of the pre-
sent plan. The duties on foreign and colonial coffee
ought to be forthwith equalized; the property and in-
come-tax should be revised, and a just discrimination
made between fixed and precarious incomes. For a stamp
upon newspapers a stamped envelope might be substi-
tuted, bearing upon those only which are transmitted
by post; and the stamp duties generally call loudly
for an equitable revision. I mention these examples to
show that, by adopting the proposed " national budget,"
you would not be precluded from effecting other financial
reforms. On the contrary, I believe if the industry of
the country were further disburthened to the extent I
have named, there would be an accruing surplus revenue
from the remaining sources of taxation, which would
afford the means of continually making further modifi-
cations and reductions of duties. This would have been
the case in times past, notwithstanding all the restric-
tions upon our commerce, if the increased income had
not been swallowed up by Government extravagance.
For instance, had not the expenditure been increased
since the time of the Duke of Wellington's Administra-

tion, in 1830, then notwithstanding the very large
amount of taxes and duties since remitted, there would
now have been a surplus revenue, without the income-tax.
A word or two as to the mode by which I would re-
duce our expenditure to the amount of 1835. The great
increase since that year has been upon the army, navy,
and Ordnance. In the year 1835 our armaments cost
us 11,657,000 L; for the twelve months ended on the sth
day of April last they reached, including 1,100,0001. for
the Kafir war, 19,341,0001.; and I expect that the charge
for the present year will not be much less. For the
same time the total expenditure of the Government, ex-
clusive of the interest of the debt, was 26,747,0001., and,
deducting 19,341,0001., the cost of our warlike establish-
ments, it leaves only 7,406,000/. to cover the whole of
the civil expenses of the Government. It will be self-
evident, then, that if any material retrenchment be
effected, it must be mainly upon our armaments, the
cost of which has been increased 7,000,0001.; and this
during a period of profound peace, and in the absence
of all revolutionary convulsions, and whilst each succes-
sive speech from the throne assured the assembled Par-
liament of the peaceful disposition of all foreign Powers.
But if we take into calculation the present reduced
value of commodities, it will be found that 10,000,0001.
expended upon our armaments now will go much far-
ther than 11,6571. did in 1835; and I suggest that you
propose the former sum as the maximum expenditure
for the army, navy, and Ordnance, by which you will
gain about 8,500,0001. of the proposed saving of
10,000,000/. I by no means, however, wish to commit
your association to 10,000,0001. as the minimum cost of
our armaments, for I have a strong belief that you will

live to see the waste reduced to less tban half that sum.
The above-named amount will be three times as great as
that of the United States; greater than that incurred for
the same purpose by Russia, Austria, or Prussia; and,
judging by her promised reductions, nearly, if not quite,
as large as that of France.
The remaining 1,500.0001. to complete the proposed
reduction of 10,000,000/. you will have little difficulty in
saving from all the other heads of expenditure, including
the cost of collecting the revenue, and the management
of the Crown lands.
I repeat, emphatically, all hopes of any material re-
lief from taxation binges upon the question of a large
reduction in the cost of our army, navy, and Ordnance.
If it be objected that I do not specify the particular re-
giments or ships which I propose to reduce, my answer
is—that the only way in which the public can restrict the
Government at all, in its warlike expenditure at a time
of peace, is by limiting the amount of money. Disband
a Tveegdim maye
t,off a ship to day, and the amount
a
paysp spent to-morrow upon steam-basins, or
s n
bo
er
for fresh fortifications at Gibraltrr, Labuan, or Hong-
Kong. This was the view entertained by Sir Sir Henry
Parnell, a great Whig authority, who, in his work upon
financial reform, written when the Duke of Wellington
was at the head of affairs, whilst arguing for a reduction
in the expenditure of our military departments, says—
" Fix upon a much smaller sum, and tell them that they
must make it answer." There is another good reason
for this course. Some influential persons, who are op-
posed to any diminution of the strength of our arma-
ments, yet contend that the present force may be kept
up at a very reduced cost. In their eyes, your maxi-
mum sum may represent a much larger establishment
than you contemplate. These parties. probably, would
be as willing as myself to put an end to the crimes and
cruelties imported into the slave-trade by the interfe-
rence of our costly fleet of cruisers upon the African
coast; or there may be other savings contemplated by
them; so that, perhaps, in their opinion, with an expen-
diture of 10,000,0001., nearly as large an effective force
as at present may be maintained.
But I am prepared to contend for changes in our fo-
reign, colonial, and domestic policy (though I will not
attempt to do so at length now) calculated to facilitate a
reduction in the amount of our armaments. First and
foremost, we must insist that the principles of non-inter-
ference in the affairs of foreign countries, so loudly pro-
fessed by politicians of all parties, shall be carried into
of our Government. During
ptbreactwicbeelien
etfheleeptolicy year
a fleet as formidable as
that required by the Americans to watch over their
commerce in all parts of the globe was maintained in
the Tagus, out of the taxes of the British people, for
the service of the conrt and Government of Portugal.
At this moment we have as large a fleet in the Straits
of Messina, engaged in an armed interference between

the King of Naples and his Sicilian subjects' with no
more interest or right on our part than the Govern-
ment of the United States would have to send a
squadron off Holyhead, and assume the character of an
armed mediator between England and Ireland. For
three or four years we have had a fleet in the River
Plate, interfering in the endless and inexplicable squab-
bles of the Monte Yideans and the Buenos Ayrians,
and which has at last ended in a ridiculous failure. I

would wish to see our Government spare the people this
useless expense, by simply following the rule observed
by individuals, of leaving other nations to settle their
quarrels, and minding its own business better.
I am also aware that any great reduction in our mili-
tary establishments must depend upon a complete
change in our colonial system; and I consider such a
change to be the necessary consequence of our recent
commercial policy. lam prepared to carry out logically
the principle of free-trade in our future relationship
with our colonies. Nay more, I always contemplated
that the practical application of that principle would so
simplify the question, that it would not be possible after-
wards to continue the ruinous colonial expenditure
which we have hitherto sustained. So long as protection
was our ruling policy, the nation believed that the ex-
clusive trade with our colonies compensated us for the
expenses of governing and guarding them. I did not, of
course, share in that opinion; but there was consistency,
if not wisdom, in those who did. But we have now de-
clared that, for all commercial purposes, they shall in
future stand in precisely the same relationship towards
us as foreign countries. For 70 years we have denied
ourselves the right, by statute, to tax them for im-
perial purposes. Under these altered circumstances, will
anybody be found, even among the Protectionists, ay,
even Lord Stanhope himself, who is prepared to main-
fain that henceforth the only exclusive connexion we are
to preserve with our colonies is the monopoly of the ex-
pense of governing and garrisoning them? Once let them
see that tree trade is the irrevocable policy of the country,
and the Protectionists themselves will join with me in
demanding
or forty little armies which (exclusive of the troops in
an exemption from thelexpense of the thirty
the merely military fortresses of Gibraltar, &c.) are
maintained at the cost of this country in all parts of the
globe ; together with the little army always afloat for
the purpose, incredible as such folly may hereafter ap-
pear, of transporting reliefs of soldiers from England to
serve as policemen for Englishmen at the Antipodes
We have only to give to the colonists that which is their
birthright—the control over their expenditure, and the
administration of their own local affairs, and they will
be willing, as they are perfectly able, to bear all the cost
of their own civil and military establishments.
And, finally, I contend that we must endeavour to act
at home more in accordance with the good old constitu-
tional principle of governing by the civil, and not the
military, power. We are, I fear, tending towards too
great a great a reliance upon soldiers, and too little on

measures calculated to insure the contentment of the
great body of the people. It was madness, indeed, to
think of relying on bayonets for the permanent support
of our institutions, after the warning examples afforded
by so many countries on the Continent, where so lately
we saw military despotism crumbling beneath the weight
of its own intolerable costliness. And even if armed
authority has everywhere resumed its sway, has that
solved the problem of their financial embarrassments?
On the contrary, they have only entered again upon the
more vicious circle, where enormous armaments lead to
increased expenditure, to be met with augmented taxes,
which will be followed by groaning discontent, and end
as before, in convulsion.
I cannot conclude without tendering you and your
fellow-labourers my best thanks. By your efforts to
mitigate the pressure of unjust taxation, to remove all
obstacles from the :path of industry, and to widen the
channels of foreign commerce, you are doing that which,
more than armed regiments,_ will contribute to the sta-
b

y of our institutions, and the peace and prosperity
of the country. It will be gratifying to me, if, in this
too long letter, I have succeeded in rendering the
slightest service to the cause in which you are embarked.
My sole object has been to give a practical aim to your
valuable efforts, so that at every step you take you may
find yourselves nearer to a defined object, the attainment
of which shall be some recompense for the labours of an
agitation which, I trust, will become national; and
I remain, dear Sir, faithfully yours,
RICHARD COBDEN.

To Robertson Gladstone, Esq.,
President of the Liverpool Financial Reform Association

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH, Dec.2l.

Sittings at Guildhall, before Lord DiziraiN and Com-
mon Juries.)
GODIMERT V. SPALDING ♦ND SLOWNITZ.

This was an action to recover compensation in
damages for an assault on the plaintiff by the defendants.
It appeared that the plaintiff is a Frenchman, and a
teacher of languages, and that he bad resided in this
country for the last 30 years. He occupied a house in
Eastbourne-terrace, Sussex-square, Hyde-park, and the
defendants came to reside with him as partial boarders
in the early part of the present year, the defendant
Spalding, who holds an appointment in the Post-office,
agreeing to pay 60/. a year, and Slownitz, a teacher of
the German language, 401. Spalding having
been absent about a month was excused the
payment of his board during that time.
When the bills were presented, which were stated to
have been but indifferently discharged, Slownitz claimed
exemption for two or three •` teas," which he had drank
elsewhere. The plaintiff declined to make any exception
for so trifling %matter. 11l •feeling, therefore, sprang up,
and the defendants having been pressed for payment of
their respective accounts, they became offended, and gave
notice to leave. On the 28th of August, the day they
were going to leave, Slownitz followed the plaintiff up
stairs, collared him, and called upon the other defendant,
who was above, to come out of the room. Spalding came
down, and struck the plaintiff a violent blow between the
eyes which produced a black-eye and confined the plain-
tiff to his home for a fortnight. He also threatened to turn
him out of the house; and told the plaintiff's wife that
if she was a man he would strike her.

No evidence was adduced to dispute the facts pro-
duced on behalf of the plaintiff. It was shown, how-
ever, in cross-examination, that Spalding had said that
he would rather have give 1,000/. than the occurrence
should have happened.
The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff—Damages
201.

COURT OF EXCHEQUER, Dec. 21.

HILLARD (EXECUTRIX) V. THE LANCASHIRE AND YORE.

SHIRE RAILWAY COMPANY.

This was an_ action brought, under Lord Campbell's
Death by Accident Act, to recover compensation in
damages for the loss sustained by the plaintiff in conse-
quence of her husband having been killed on the de-
fendants' line, through the negligence of their servants.
The defendants had simply peaded not guilty.
On the 16th of September, 1g47, the deceased, a young
man, twenty-seven years of age, who was an inspector in
the service of the Manchester and Leeds Electric Tele-
graph Company, was travelling on the defendants' line
by the evening express train from Manchester to Wake-
field, when the carriage in which he was got off the
lino, and after being dragged for a considerable distance,
and through a tunnel, came in contact with the
platform of the Sowerby-bridge station. A little be-
yond this point the carriage was detached from the train,
and the wheels torn off by an ash-pit, and hence it was
that the deceased was dashed from the carriage. The
carriage at the time contained Mr. Weston, the Sur-
veyor-General of the Customs, Captain Ellis and his
secretary, Mr. Moon, and the deceased. The deceased
was killed on the spot, Mr. Weston died almost imme-
diately after he WAS taken up, and Mr. Moon was carried
home insensible.

For the defence it was alleged that the accident was
caused by a broken rail, and therefore it was una-
voidable.

The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff—Damages
7501.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.
NORTHERN ClRCUlT.—Liverpool, Dec. 21.
This morning the trial of Joseph Blundell, for coal stealing
at Wigan, was resumed before Mr. Justice Erle, and, after
the examination of several witnesses in support of the pro-
secution,
Mr. JAMES addressed the jury for the prisoner, and,
The Learned JUDGE having summed up,
The jury retired, and, after an absence of a quarter of an
hour, returned with a verdict of Guilty.
His LOZDSHIP, in passing sentence, said the prisoner had
been convicted of a crime of enormous magnitude—that of
stealing several thousand square yards of coal ; and he should
not be doing his duty if he did not pass upon him a severe
sentence. He then sentenced the prisoner to seven years'
transportation.
This closed the business of the assizes ; and the Court rose
at half•past four.

York, December 20.
NISI PRIUS COURT.—(Before Mr. Baron PLArr.)
Thomas Malkin, aged 17, was charged with the wilful
murder of Hester Inman, at Leeds, on the Bth October.
The prisoner and the deceased were lovers; and it was
proved that he had called her out from her parents' house
into the garden about ten o'clock at night. Immediately
after the cry of murder was raised; the girl was found
stabbed in two or three places with a dagger; and she died
almost immediately, saying that he had stabbed her. The
prisoner was seen running away; and just after the murder
he admitted, in the presence of some persons in his mother's
house, that "he had done for her." The dagger with which
the murder was committed was identified by a smith as simi-
lar to one which he bad forged for the prisoner a short time
before; and evidence was given of the prisoner having fre-
quently threatened to kill the deceased.
The jury returned a verdict of Guilty, recommending the
prisoner to mercy on account of his youth.
Sentence of death was passed in the usual form.

PrtESIDENC Y OF THE FRENCH
REPUBLIC.
The following is the state of the gross poll for al'
the candidates as officially announced to the Nationa'
Assembly :
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte ..
General Cavaignac

5,434,226
.. 1,448,107

M. Ledru Rollin • • 370,119
M. Raspail 36,900
M. Lamartine . 17,910
General Changarnier 4,790
Votes lost ••• . • 12,600
The Committee of Public instruction examined on
Tuesday the proposition of M. Rolland, tending to
transfer the National Library from the Rue Richelieu
to the Palace of the Tuileries. In general, the com-
mittee appeared favourable to this change. Several
members connected with it the idea of finishing the
Louvre, with a view to see the libraries and conserva-
tories placed near the museums. The expense of ap-
propriating the Tuileries to the above purpose could
be defrayed by the sale of the buildings and ground
now occupied by the National Library, the funds re-
maining over being employed in the completion of
the Louvre.
During the sitting of the National Assembly on
Wednesday, the Members of the Montagne passed
from hand to hand a pamphlet, which caused a certain
sensation. It contains counsels from M. Emile de
Girardin to the future President of the Republic.
The following is said to be, in substance, the measures
which M. Emile de Girardin thinks useful, and even
indispensable :-1. A reduction of the number of
Ministers to three; a Minister of Direction, a Minister
of Receipts, and a Minister of Expenses, with nu-
merous secretaries-general and directors charged with
special duties. 9. A general amnesty, without other
exception than for persons convicted of ordinary
crimes. 3. An absolute and unlimited freedom of
the press, and no caution-money. Interdiction of
the sale of journals in the public thoroughfares. 4.
Unlimited liberty for associations and clubs. A
strict repression of attroupements. 5. An unlimited
freedom of education. 6. A. recal of the exiled princes
as simple citizens. 7. To give the government of
Algeria to the Duke d'Aumale, and the Presidency of
the Board of Admiralty to the Prince de Joinville.

The contest was ♦ery close, and three ballots took ,
place before an "absolute majority" could be ob-
tained. The first gave 187 votes to M. Simeon, and
126 to his opponent ; the second reduced this ma-
jority to a single vote, the Austrian members having
cast their suffrages into the scale of M. Kirchgessner,
who thus obtained 214 votes to M. Simeon 's 215.
The third and decisive ballot, however, conferred the
Presidency on the latter gentleman by a majority of
10, the numbers being 233 and 223.
A message from the Reichsverweser was after-
wards read, announcing the appointment of M. Von
Gagern (late President of the Assembly) as Presi-
sident of the Council of Ministers.
The new Minister hereupon rose, and read a paper
proclaiming the principles on which the Ministers
imagine that the relations with Austria may be re-
gulated, and concluding by a request that the
Parliament would authorise the Cabinet to negotiate.
The reading of this do.cument excited great in-
dignation amongst the Austrians of all parties, as
well as the Radicals. It was referred to a committee,
with orders to report.

HOLLAND.
SECOND CHAMBER OF THE STATES-
GENERAL.
THE lIAGUE, DEC. 20.—At the opening of the
sitting the President communicated a message from
the Minister of Foreign Affairs, accompanying the
text of the additional articles of the treaty of May,
1818, constituted between the Netherlands and Great
Britain, on traffic in slaves.
These pieces are ordered to be printed, and pre-
sented to the Committee, who are to report to the
Chambers.

M. Von Vollenhoeven desired to put some ques-
tions to the Government relative to the state of the
West Indies.
" Some days since," said the Hon. Member, "some
of the public journals contained a letter from Pa-
ramaribo, which contained some very disquieting intel-
ligence relative to the future prosperity of our colonies.
Several Dutch houses, and the Hon. Member himself,
were then made acquainted with facts which justified
these apprehensions. The emancipation of the slaves
was spoken of, nay the very time for that emancipa-
tion fixed without the slightest allusion to any in-
demnity to the proprietors of those slaves. The letter
also made mention that the Government had refused
to aid those proprietors whose slaves refused to work.
The disquiet caused by these assertions to persons in
the colonies, and also to proprietors resident in
Holland itself, respecting their property in those
countries, might be readily conceived. He, therefore,
called upon the Government to give a categorical
reply."
The Minister of the Colonies and Minister of Ma-
rine, who is charged, ad interim with the porfolio of
the Colonies, replied that the Home Government had
not sent out any instruction whatever to the Colonial
Government relative to the emancipation of the slaves,
and that what was written in the letter in question,
and in the journals alluded to, was utterly without
foundation.—Dutch Papers, Dec. 20.