The Sun.
London, England, 1851-02-04 00:00:00

CI o of month
Naples* .. • • • . N:sth 15th 25th of um
Papal States* N,sth 15th 25th of mo
Peninsular .. Ml7th 17th 27th of rao

Peru .. .. • • •• 107th of the month
Tuscany* N'sth I:,th 25th of mo
West Indies 31 17th of the month I
West Indies (except
Havanna & .Nassau) 3F2d of the month
* The mails to those countries thus marl
French packet via Marseilles.

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
(From the Derbyshire Courier.)
As the meeting of Parliament approaches, all
parties are mustering their forces, and propounding
their schemes for the country's benefit. The as-
sembling of the great Council of the Nation has, of
late years, been generally attended with a certain
feverish excitement of expectation that some decided
benefit would result. The country is always expect-
ii g to hear of " something greatly to its advantage."
And, again :and again, when Parliament has risen,
and dismissed its jaded Members for an interval of
necessary cessatio❑ from political toil, has the mourn-
ful voice of a disappointed people proclaimed,
Nothing has been done—nothing compared with what
was expected would be done. We confess that we
have no exalted hopes of the coining session. But
whether or not much is done, there can be no doubt
that we shall have almost interminable discussions on
the topics which have engaged the country's attention/
during the recess. Papal aggression will all be
fought over again with, we fear, little practical ad-
vantage. But no sophistry can explain away this
plain matter of fact, that the English people have
i clearly and distinctly declared their unchanged
and unchangeable aversion to the system of the
Church of Rome. The plain good sense of people
can distinguish between the perfect toleration of an
[ erroneous creed and the encouragement of the occle
siastical domination of a Church which would subvert
all civil and religious liberty. Much will, doubtless,
be said as to the political bearing of this question, and
here also, we think, the opposers of the Pope's recent
measure will have the best of the argument. When
such men as the Duke of Norfolk, Lord Beaumont,
and Lord Camoys pronounce against the proceedings
of the head of their own Church, there is strong pre-
aumptive evidence that such proceedings have been
altogether unjustifiable.
But turning to more mundane affairs, we find that
the announcement of a surplus in the revenue will
subject the Chancellor to the assault of whole hosts of
financial reformers. Never was such an "ignorant
impatience " of taxation manifested ! The Glasgow
Chamber of Commerce think that "an import duty
of from 150 to 200 per cent. on tea " is a grievous
impost, and most injurious to our commercial inter-
course with the 360 millions of Chinese. The Times
appears inclined to think so too. Then the
London Reformers are particularly opposed to the
window-tax, and, as one of them wittily observed, ad-
dress to the magnate of the Exchequer the request of
Diogenes to Alexander, " Do not stand between me
raed the sun." The Manchester men have a strong
objection to taxes of every kind; they evidently con-
sider them to be, like lead, naturally heavy, and dis-
like the thing altogether. House-tax, window-tax,
tea-tax, and coffee-tax, paper-tax, taxes on advertise-
ments, stamp duty—they are all, says Mr. Milner
Gibson, a bad set. Then comes the agricultural party
with an urgent request for the repeal of that great
tax, the malt-tax, and an alteration in that most un-
fair impost, the hop duty. And, lastly, Lord Stan-
hope demands either a restoration of protection or
" the repeal of all taxes which fall directly upon land
the land-tax, the malt-tax, and the hop duty," be-
sides an equalization of all the rater, the poor-rates,
the highway-rates, and the county-rates, a repeal of
the duties on soap, coffee, tea, tobacco, and sugar, and
last, not least, "an equitable adjustment of the public
debt "

Now we will first confess to a very modest desire
of our own far the repeal of a tax—and that is the
tax on paper. It is comparatively small in amount;
its removal, it is calculated, would give employment
to a quarter of a million of persons; and it interferes
materially with the means which might be taken to
provide cheap and good publications and books for
the great body of the people. We should be glad to
see this tax repealed, because, while the window-tax
excludes the light of day from the dwelling, the paper
tax has a tendency to exclude moral and religious
light.
But there is a class whose request for relief from
the pressure of taxation is entitled to most respectful
attention. We mean the agricultural body. It is
impossible for any resident in an agricultural district
not to be convinced that the present depressed state of
the tenant farmers requires,;ifpracticable, immediate re-
lief. Many of the smaller farmers are already ruined,
many are struggling with difficulties which,with present
prices, must end in their ruin, and the most expe-
rienced, provident, and skilful among them are de
riving little or no profit from their farms, and feel
that their stock is daily depreciating. We repeat
that the attention of Parliament should be directed
to the means of affording immediate mitigation to the
severe distress of the agriculturists.
But we regard all reduction of taxes, under the
present financial system, as the expedient of the day.
" We wish," said the Times a few days since, " that
we could get people to look a little more at the debt.',
All parties clamour for a reduction of taxation, and
thiat to a large amount, but the expenses of Gorrn-
went must he defrayed, and the interest of the debt
must be paid. We believe that with a good mo-
netary system, the taxes of this country would be
borne cheerfully, and be raised without difficulty.
If from 60,000,0001. to 70.000,000/. of taxes could
be borne in time of war, when England
had a population of fourteen millions, why should
WO be constantly pressed to the earth under
a load of little more than 50,000,0001., with a
population of 21 millions in time of peace ? The
simple reason is, that by a bad monetary system we
have increased the weight of the debt, and at the
same time withdrawn from the country that cheap,
expansive currency, which enabled this country, from
1797 to 1815, to triumph over greater difficulties,
social, political, and financial, than ever, at one period,
aslailed a nation. In that "system of an expansive
currency" in w hicb, says Air. Alison in his " History
of Europe," " Great Britain, during the war, found
the sole means of its salvation," must we again find
relief from our difficulties, whether (as at present)
those difficulties present themselves in the depressed
and ruinous condition of the agricultural interest, or
in commercial distress, or the impoverished condition
of a teeming population. It is not by the temporary
relief resulting from reduction of a few taxes, that
this country can be extricated from its difficulties.
Whether we like it or no, we must " look at the debt,"
and we shall look with despair if we do not look also
at the only means, viz., a sound monetary system,
which can enable this nation to free itself from this
overwhelming incumbrance.

DEATH OF Ma. LEYLAND, THE SCULPTOR.—We
mudi regret to have to announce the death of Mr. Joseph
Bentley Leylard, of this town, sculptor. lie died on Tuesday
last, in the prime of life. The talent, taste, and execution
dispbyed in the works of this eminent artist had already
won for him a reputation but seldom attained in a provincial
town, and his premature fate has lost to his profession a
member who promised to become one of its greatest orna-
ments —.Leeds Lztelligeneer.
A resident at Stratford, by the death of an uncle,
lays claim to funded property to the amount of between
200,000/. and 300,0001. Ile is now prosecuting his claim,
and it is said with every probability of success.—Essex
Standard.

HIGII TIDE.—Oa Saturday afternoon the river
presented an unusual appearance, in consequence of fhe
tide, which rose to a considerable height, flooding many of
the warehousf-s in Vauxhall, Lambeth, &c., causing much
damage to property stowed away in tne cellars and other
low• lying places on ei her side of the Thames. The steam-
boats had great difficulty i❑ passing the bridges, and if the
wind had not veered round the tide would have risen to an
alarming degree, and a great deal of property must have been
destroyed.