The Sun.
London, England, 1851-02-17 00:00:00

TIIE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING-, FEBRUARY 17, 1851.

MEETING of PARLIAMENT

THE THIRD EDITION OF

"THE SUN
will be found highly interesting during the presen.
extraordinary Session of Parliament.

The THIRD EDITION will contain the
DEBATES of the SAME EVENING up to the
HOUR of POST; also, SPORTING of every
description, with TATTERSALL'S on Monday
and Thursday Evenings in time for Post; with
the GAZETTES of Tuesday and Friday, con-
taining Army and Navy Promotions, Bankrupts, &c.,
and ALL NEWS arriving in London up to the
Hour of Post.

EXPRESS EDITIONS
ON ALL IMPORTANT OCCASIONS.

Orders received by all News-agents, and at the Sun
Office, 112, Strand.
San Office, 112, Strand,
JANIJART, 1851.

fur the liquidation of the national liabilities and the
maintenance of the national establishments.

CHARLES DICKENS has already excited towards
himself no inconsiderable amount of public gratitude.
His exquisite fictions, ever genial in sentiment, ever
wholesome in morality, ever tending to nurture some
germ of social improvement, or to forward in some
manner the blessed work of civilization, have conferred
upon the multitude benefactions for which his con-
temporaries cannot by any possibility yield him any
adequate acknowledgment. Nevertheless, some fore-
taste of the recompense reserved for him with pos-
terity has already been conceded in the fame already
enjoyed by him during the last fifteen years—a fame
more universal than has, perhaps, ever been permitted
to another during his lifetime, extending, as it has
done, throughout all sections of the community,
throughout all ranks and classes of the population.
In addition to what our great novelist bas thus ac-
complished, in addition to the cause be has thus given
us for regarding his powers with gratitude as well as
admiration, it is probable that, in yet a different
manner, he will shortly give us new reason for thank-
fulness, conferring a new lustre upon letters, and
opening up fresh fields of progress to the cultivators
of our national literature. It can scarcely be for-
gotten how Boz, in his "American Notes," con-
trived, although incidentally yet vigorously, to en-
force the arguments favourable to the organization of
a regular system of international copyright. Neither
can it be overlooked how he is at this moment exert-
ing his energies in behalf of the intellectual improve-
ment of the masses, by fostering under the shelter of
his own large and enviable popularity the influence of
cheap but valuable and elevating publications. The
weekly and monthly instalments of Household
Words are periodically recalling this to our recol-
lection. While endeavouring thus practically to ad-
vance the interests of self-education among the gene-
rality, Mr. DICKENS is striving, at the same time, to
release from the shackles of taxation the knowledge
hitherto, by that means, denied altogether to the
masses, or, at any rate, only meted out
to them in stinted and niggardly propor-
tions. Very recently, to this end, it may have
been observed that he raised his voice against the duty
imposed on paper, by making one of the deputation
which lately waited upon the Right Hon. Baronet
the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Elsewhere his
efforts are being directed to the emancipation of
knowledge from the other bonds in which it is un-
fortunately trammelled. A ,question put within the
last few days to Sir CHARLES WooD by the Honour-
able Gentleman the representative of Birmingham,
reminded the House of Commons of the challenge
thrown out to the Administration in reference to these
restrictions by Mr. DICKENS'S monthly compilation
known as the Household Nairative of Current Events.
In answer to this inquiry the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer intimated that the Board of Inland Revenue
had not abandoned its suit against Mr. DICKENS for
the issue of that cheap priodical. Partaking as it
does of the character of a newspaper, the Household
Narrative, according to the authorities, requires, in
,)rder to render it legally vendible, the stamp always
affixed to those kind of publications. This stamp

would appear, however, is only imprinted on such
copies as are intended for tranamist•ion through the
Post-office; and, therefore, it is presumed that the
proprietor of the serial has made himself amenable to
the penalties capable of being inflicted at the discre-
tion of the Board of Inland Revenue. A brief in-
terval will enable the multitude to discover if such
opinions are really based upon truth. A week or so,
and the public will see whether the Government will
venture to prosecute the novelist for what it main-

rains to be a flagrant violation of the law. Under

any circumstances Mr. DICKENS will have se-
cured an advantage to the community at large,

by thus bringing down upon his own head
the weapons of the Administration. He
will have relieved us from an uncertainty fraught
with inconvenience. He will have destroyed an
anomaly long recognized, but never before grappled
with by the most adventurous. He will have esta •

blished the real meaning of the Legislature in these
particulars, and, we doubt not, will have forced upon
the attention of Parliament in the most effective way
imaginable the evil influences exercised upon the
multitude through the medium of the taxes imposed
on knowledge. Nevertheless, while acknowledging
thus much, while appreciating the benevolence of
the purpose held in view in this matter by Mr.

DICKENS, we cannot to the full coincide with him in
his evident disrelish for the official timbre upon news-

papers. What we rejoice at, therefore, in the cir.

cumstance alluded to, is the fact that the inquiry

provoked by our illustrious author will tend to ex.

:ort from the Legislature some distinct opinion upon
;he whole mass of pernicious and unjustifiable taxes

on knowledge. Without, consequently, desiring in
any way to witness the abolition of the "stamp "
seeing that we regard it as well compensated by the
capabilities of postal transmission, and feeling that in

addition to all this it is an effectual preservation
against the issue of vile and detestable broadsheets

otherwise likely to be spawned abundantly by the
printing press--we are most solicitous to observe the

remission of the other duties levied upon knowledge
itself, through the materials for its dissemination.
And this remission we conceive may be very con-
siderably expedited by the arguments provoked in
reference to the prosecution of the proprietor of the
Household Narrative of Current Events by the
Board of Inland Revenue. Whatever may be the
result of this approaching investigation, of one thing
we rest assured, namely, of the generous and pa-
triotic intentions by which Mr. CHARLES DICKENS is
actuated.

THE SHARE MARKETS.

BRITISII RAILWAYS

Nominal Prices.

Business done
to-day.

13% 54%%%
% dis•

3%31) %

86 87
17%
12% % %
6 5%

20%% 21%34
lb%

3% A

7% If

P
% P

11 ki % M %

4% % %
18% %
14% % 50c.d

324
344 32 %
6% 7

1814 X X X
654,
11% X
IN X

[9lUx.d
91 90% 92%
5'

74 73%
P

44 %
59% 89( li 3fi

4% %
5%

97 % x. d.
15% %

7% % %

98% 99
[9s SI fi

136 x.d.

[135 134 34
133% 134)4
23% ft% %
18%

69% 90% 90

%
(5% 36%%
34 36%
134
11% %

3% Ws.
62 63

2034 20 5i
ZS 333

5% %

Paid

Nominal Prices.

k
Business do,
1‘ to-day.

Anglo-Mesican(is. 51. p.)
Asturian ....
Australian .... •••• • • ..
Barossa Range .. • • ...
Blaenarvon Iron andeoal
Bolanos Scrip • •
British Iron .. ••••••

Brazilian Imp. (Is. 151, p.)

Do. Cocaes and Cuiibal

De. St. John del Rey..
Cobre Copper -.....
Copiapo , ..
General.. ............
Real Del Monte, Uureg.
Do. Black Debentures.
Do. Red Debentures ..
Santiago de Cuba
Tin Croft .. •• • • • • •... • .
United Mexican

Canada
Gen. Steam Navigation .
Penin. & Oriental Steam.
Royal A; all Steam ......
Peninsular and Orienta

1 13 0

13 5
24%

28 2 8%1
lISCELL,

3M -2%
3y, -3%

(We cannot be answers
will not be influenced by

32% - 32
14% - 13%
32% - 34%
5% -6%
13% - 14
-%

I 7% 6
10% 11
—5%
,ANEOUS.
42% 46
26% 27%
73 —69
5 paid, has been done at 13%
le errors of the Official Lists. an
1 correspondents.]

70 1%

t Steam,
able for t
intereate

MONEY and COMMERCIAL NEWS,

ITY. Tit 0 a CLOGA.
The sales of Cotton at Liverpool on Saturday were esti-
mated at from 4,000 to 5,000 bal,s, of which 41Iu American
were taken for export, and 600 American on speculation.
The market closed steadily.—ln Railway Shares a fair busi-
ness was done, at full rates.

The Corn trade is quiet, at about previous rates.
The monthly Board of Trade returns to the sth ultimo
have now been completed, those for the twelve months hay
ing been furnished about a week since. The month's imports
into the United Kingdom include the following:—

1850. 1851"
Oxen and bulls ... number 1,6.8 2,316
Sheep ..„ 9,491 16,25 l
Swine ... „ 199 675
Coffee ... ... lbs. 5,209,277 2,078,384
Wheat ... ... qrs. 109,372 48,046
Flour ... cwts. 225,418 571,542
Bacon ... 4.- 94,69 9,39 e
Beef, salted ... „ 21,013 19,•65
Pork, ditto ... „ 13,161 9,669
Butter ... „ 30.896 33,830
Cheese . 64,891 37,621
Eggs number 6,011,947 7,21:5,965
Sugar ... cwts. 631,657 484259
The month's exports of British and Irish produce from the
United Kingdom were of the following declared value:-
1850 ... X 4,475,918
1851 ... 5,355,507

of Good Hope; Budget, l3raines, litinnog Ayres for Ant-
werp; Emma Louise, Santos for Hamburgh ; Elu, Mazatlan
for Liverpool.
LivEripoor:, FEB. 15 AND 16.—Wind S , light.—Arrd.
Lahore, Harris, and Reginald Heber, ]slcFarlane, Calcutta;
Maid, Turpin, —; Magician, La Guayra ; William Jarvis,
Jane, New Orleans; Switzerland, Charleston; Martha Shall-
cross, New York; Blanch, ,n t. John's, New Brunswick; Mary
Sparks, Hong-Kong; Autumnue, Madras; China, McNeill,
and Negotiator, Young, Bombay ; Minier, Saldanha
Bay; Cora, and Garrow, Bonney, St Helen; Robinson,
I. lay ; Sultan, and Norfolk, Rodger, Callao ; Emperor,
Friend, Bahia; Titania, Pernambuco • Dauntless, Orr, Buceo ;
Lochmaben Castle, Poole, Savannah% Bowling, Demerara;
Grecian, Maracaibo; Pa, Mclntosh, 11 :nouras •' Tuscarora,
Philadelphia ; Edinburgh, St. John's, New Brunswick ;
Queen, St. Michael's; 16th, al,untaincer, Singapore; Cha-
mois, Partreath, Mauritius; Arctic steamer, New York,