The Sun.
London, England, 1833-05-04 00:00:00

the Is. in the pound. There is no reduction
to 7d. because they have already paid a duty; no
Hon. Secretary steps forward with an air of re-
monstrance at the injustice. The thing will not
bear arguing, and as we are told a remedy is to
be applied to the grievance, Mr. RICE would
have exercised a more sound discretion in bold-
ing his tongue. We cannot do better than con-
clude these few observations by extracting a
couple of sentences from Mr. HUME'S speech,
the downright plainness of which is " quite
refreshing," after the mystification of the ques-
tion at issue by the Treasury Bench Was
it fair to state that the complaint about the in-
equality of the legacy duties was a mere rubbish
of fallacies in the face of a fact like this, that
the poor man pays more for receiving a legacy
of 5001. than a rich man for receiving an estate
of 500,0001.?—(Hear, hear.) As a fact indi-
cative of the temper in which the legacy duties
were imposed, he would state that the plan of
raising revenue by means of them was borrowed
from Holland. Mr. PITT introduced two Bill;
for that purpose—one iinposisg a scale of duties
on legacies of personal property, and another
imposing a similar scale upon real property.
The House passed the first ; but, being com-
posed of landowners, threw out the last."

It is stated in a morning paper, that a depu-
tation of the West India interest was to wait on
Mr. STANLEY yesterday, by appointment, for
the purpose of hearing from him what he intends
to propose to Parliament respecting the West
India colonies. It is quite true that such a
communication was to have been made yesterday,
and that a meeting of the Standing Committee
was to have been held this morning to receive
the report of the deputation. It has, however,
been postponed to Tuesday, and the Standing
Committee will not meet until Wednesday.
There are various rumours as to the intentions
of Ministers on this important subject, but it
would be useless to notice any of them, as
nothing can have transpired on which reliance is
to be placed.

Mr. ROEBUCK presented a petition yesterday,
from a society established in the city of Bath,
in favour of Sir A. AGNEW'S Bill for a better
observance of the Sabbath. " The petition,"
observed the Hon. Member, " was signed by
a great many persons, who had signed a requi-
sition requesting him to go down to Bath, to
attend a meeting on Monday last, which they
knew he could not do, unless he travelled on
the Sabbath Day." Thus it seems that the very
men who are the most anxious to insist on a strict
observance of the Sabbath, are the very same
who strive to induce their own Member to dis-
regard it ! Verily, this is the ne plus ultra of
cant !

In the House of Lords last night the Earl of
ABERDEEN, after a long speech of no great
pith or moment, moved for copies of extracts of
correspondence between his MAJESTY'S Secre-
tary of State for the Foreign Department and
the English Ambassador at Paris, in the year
1830, relative to the French expedition to
Algiers ; also for copies of official despatches
containing explanations of the objects of the
expedition forwarded by the French Government
to their Ambassador in London, and by him
submitted to the English Government in the
months of March and May, 1830 ; and lastly,
for copies or extracts of despatches from the
English Ambassador in Paris to the Govern-
ment at home, announcing the intention of the
King of the FRENCH to fulfil all the engagements
entered into by preceding governments relative
to Algiers. Earl GREY made no objection to
the production of the principal part of the docu-
ments referred to by the Noble Earl, but objected
strongly to the third resolution, as being likely,
under existing circumstances, to be attended with
considerable inconvenience. His Lordship added,
that with respect to the general state of the
affairs of Turkey, Ministers were as sensitive as
himself to all the interests, both British and
European, connected with that empire, and had
acted on the firm conviction that they were
taking the course best calculated to maintain the
general peace of Europe, and support the ho-
nour and interests of England. We give Ministers
full credit for their good intentions ; but we
doubt their prescience, and still more their
energy. A grand European crisis has arrived ;
a Russian fleet is triumphant in the Bosphorus,
a Russian army is at the gates of Constanti-
nople ; in fact, Russian intrigue is predomi-
nant wherever it has bestirred -itself, and yet,
so far as any one can tell to the contrary,
England is inactive, possibly paralysed, or at
any rate wearing the aspect of a slave who is
hound hand and foot and unable to stir an inch.
If Ministers think that this inactivity is the way

to preserve the general peace, we fear they will
find themselves mistaken. There can be no
hope of permanent peace while all is distrust,
timidity, and vacillation, while that great Euro-
pean bulwark against the domination of Russia,
Poland, is broken down ; while NICHOLAS
holds Persia in check, Turkey in leading-strings,
and by so doing, deranges the balance of power
throughout Europe. Whether Whig, Tory, or
Radical, it is now high time for English states-
men to speak out. The system of protocolling
and temporizing is worn out. The season of
energy and decision is arrived. We scout the
idea of general peace so long as the wing of
Russian ambition remains unclipped.

We mentioned, a few days ago, that several
persons, representing themselves as a deputation
from the London Political Union, had waited
on a distinguished ex-Member of the House of
Commons, requesting him to preside at a meet-
ing which was intended to be held in the open
air in favour of universal suffrage, and repre-
senting that they were to be joined by the Bir-
mingham Political Union. We have authority
to state, that the parties in question had not the
slightest grounds for saying that the Birmingham
Union would take part with them in the pro-
posed meeting ; and we understand also that
the whole affair was without the sanction of the
London Political Union. The parties in ques-
tion must have been deputed by some of the
Union, or, as is not unlikely, have been the
dupes of a contrivance to bring odium upon all
the political unions, by the agitation of a ques-
tion, in which they would not receive the support
of the country.

When we stated, yesterday, that we had good
reason to believe that Sir JOHN HOBHOUSE
was really desirous of giving up the Secretaryship
for Ireland, we did it on the authority of his
personal friends, who had it from his own lips.
We now hear, however, that, although Sir Jou N
HOBHOUSE has resigned that office, the resigna-
tio❑ has not been accepted by Earl GREY,
and, therefore, that there is nothing to prevent
his resuming it after his re-election for West-