The Sun.
London, England, 1833-02-04 00:00:00

There is no part of our Legislative Govern-
ment which calls more loudly for Reform tha❑
the regulations of the House of Commons—we
mean those authorizing the enormous fees on
private Bills, and the ridiculous forms of print-
ing the same Bills over and over again, if a
single word or even a letter is misplaced, &c.
&c. 'The expenses of getting a private Bill
through the House, even if unopposed, are said
to amount to 7001., all of which is swallote4
up in fees by the various servants of the Hou
beginning at the Chief Clerk and ending-at the
Door-keepers.—(One of the door-keeper's places
is said to be worth 1,2001. per annum.) Is
not this an absolute denial of justice ? This it
is which explains the fact of many of the clerks,
who are placed in the Red Book at salaries of
from 2 to 5 or 6001. per annum, living at the
rate of as many thousands—literally for doing
nothing ; for we will venture to assert, that a
banker's or a City merchant's clerk does more of
actual work in a week than they do in an entire
session. Mr. Cobbett has pledged himself to
cleanse this Augean stable—at least, which is
much the same thing, we hope, now—to ex-
pose its impurities to the House and the coun-
try ; and he cannot employ himself in a more
useful work.—The News.
The Parliament—a Reformed Parliament has
at length met, and the most anxious expectations
of the people of the United Kingdom are
pointed towards it with almost breathless anxiety
to behold the first fruits of the Reform Bill.
The people, who have been for a long series of
years goaded and oppressed by the tyrannical
acts of a boroughmongering faction, are now
freed from a yoke that has so long galled their
neck ; they have already shaken off their
shackles, and felt that they possessed a power
which, if rightly wielded—if wielded as it has been
since the Wellington reign, by the exercise of
an united and firm determination to recover
their lost rights, can never be again subdued
into bondage. To those who have been their
instruments in obtaining for them the Re-
form Bill (imperfect in some instances though
it be) they feel grateful, and to those men they
now look forward for the accomplishment of the
advantages that have been promised. When
the people were told by their enemies that the
Bill would not brine them any advantage, but
that it would destroy the institutions of the
country, Ministers prevented the deception by
pointing out to the people that of which they
were assured—that the Bill would renovate,
not destroy ; that it would rebuild and keep in
repair those valuable institutions which had
either been destroyed, or had fallen into decay
by the neglect and reckless parsimony of their
former keepers—that it would bring about a
reduction of the national expenditure, and a
consequent reduction of taxation—that it would
enable the poor man to live by the sweat of
his brow, without being a pauper in the
workhouse—that it would inflict upon the
wealthy their due proportion of the taxes,
which had hitherto been nearly all borne by the
middling and lower classes—that it would loosen
the chains of their unhappy brethren, the slaves
of the Vest Indies—that it would produce cheap
bread, cheap tea, and a great reduction in all
articles of consumption—that it would reduce
our army and navy to a proper footing, and
make merit and not money or connexions the
stepping stone of preferment in those as in all
branches connected in any way with the Go-
vernment; and that it would, in short, be the
means of introducing Legislators who were de-
sirous and determined to watch over the true
interests of the country, and not permit those

interests to be swamped in the desire for office,
to the utter neglect and ruin of this great king-
dom. The people now call on the Ministers
to perform the promises which they had held
out, and not to shrink from the adoption of such
measures as may tend to give general satisfac-
tion, by restoring the country to a state of peace,
happiness, and prosperity.—Merle's Weekly
Register.

THE PARLIAMENT AND THE TAXES.--
The care of the public purse is the chief and
peculiar duty of the Commons' House of Par-
liament. In the other provinces of legislation,
the other branch of the Legislature is coequal ;
in all that concerns the ways and means, the
people's representatives are originative and su-
preme. The Lords may modify any other
measure ; a Money Bill must pass unaltered. In
matters affecting the pocket, the Lower House
of Parliament is all in all. Its origin and its
late renovation were both connected with the
supplies. The embarrassments of the Crown
created—the distress of the people reformed the
Commons. By a singularity which sometimes
happens, the specific business, the constitutional
function of the first Reformed tiouse of Com-
mons is in accordance with the loudly expressed
demands of its constituents and the urgent
necessities of the country. If the whole of our
fiscal system be not speedily subjected to an
entire revisal, not only will the Commons
neglect their duty, but they will neglect their
first and peculiar duty. They will leave
that undone which no other power can do.
To lend what assistance we may in this great
work, is the object of the exposition we com-
mence in the present number. The first section
embraces the great mass of the subject ; and,
besides endeavouring to give a general account
of the questions connected with the public in-
come, aims at comprising in a few pages of easy
reference, the practically useful portion of many
volumes—at present the applicable principles of
the political economists from Adam Smith
downwards, combined with the facts and figures
of the finance accounts. In discussing the ab-
stract—in explaining the obscure—in arranging
the scattered and confused—a dryness, perhaps
somewhat objectionable in a weekly journal, may
be pardoned, both on account of the nature of