The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-10 00:00:00

THE PRIESTS AND THE INCOME TAX.

The following singular scene is reported by the
Kilkenny Journal as having been enacted in that
city on Friday last, the leading parts being taken
by her Majesty's Income-tax Commissioner and the
Rev. Mr. Fitzgerald, parish priest of Ballingarry :
" Commissioner—Are you the Rev. Mr. Fitzgerald ?
" Rev. Mr. Fitzgerald—Yes.
" Commissioner—What may be the amount of your
annual revenue- ?
" Rev. Mr. Fitzgerald —I don't know. It varies so
much, being one time more and another time less.
" Commissioner—Perhaps you could guess ?
" Rev. Mr. Fitzgerald—No, indeed. Any conjecture
of mine would be quite vague and uncertain.
" Commissioner—Why ?
" Rev. Mr. Fitzgerald—Because my revenue entirely
depends on the voluntary offerings of the people, than
which nothing can be more fluctuating. The person who
gives may give on one occasion a certain sum, and on
another occasion he may increase or diminish it, or with.
hold it altogether. I never kept an accurate account of
these offerings, and never could.

" CommisiOner—But here is a paper signed by you,
stating the average amount of your revenue, and sub-
scribe,i with your name ; is it not an accurate estimate?
"Rev. Mr. Fitzgerald—No.
"Connui.,ioner—Then why put your name to it ?
" Rev. Mr. Fitzgerald—A paper was sent me, saying
that unless I gave in some return no appeal would be
allowed me. I then wrote down some account—not that
I consider, or could consider, it accurate, but to comply
with the conditions, and that I might not be deprived of
the right of appeal.
" Commissioner—ls this your signature.?
" Rev. Mr. Fitzgerald—l'll not tell you.
" C6minissioner—Why not?
" Rev. Mr. Fitzgerald—Because you have no right
whatever to take my revenues ; whatever they may be,
they are free and voluntary offerings of the peop?e.
" Commissioner—lt is not we who seek to tax you, but
the Queen.

" Rev. Mr. Fitzgerald—To me it is all the same as
between you. I get nothing from either of you, and owe
you nothing. Yours is the only Government in Europe
that gives nothing, with one trivia/ exception, to the
Catholic Church. You took away what belonged to her
and threw the Catholic clergy for their support on the
bounty of the people, and now you are not satisfied with.
out imposing on us this tax, the collection of which will
cost you more than it will be worth, and render it as
odious as tithes were some time ago.
" Commissioner—We must rule against you forlso/.
" Rev. Mr. Fitzgerald—You may rule as you like,
end m.. 57 amount that it pleases you, but 1 will appeal to
another Court and take sayaritsge of every tha
law affords me; if this will not avail you may then dis-
train and sell the means of support .giveriby the. libe-
rality of a faithful and devoted people to a hard-working
clergy, but one penny of a tax on their voluntary offer-
ings you will never receive willingly from me."

The Debats of yesterday presents its readers with
the following useful statement of the questions
now pending between Russia and the Allies, so far
as they relate to the Bessarabian frontier :
The deliberations and diecussions of the Paris Congrese
had for their starting point the protocolsigned at Vienna
on the Ist of February.
With respect to the rectification of the Bessarabian
frontier, that protocol declared as follows : "This fron-
tier, thus rectified Ina manner conformable to tbegeneral
interests, shall start from the environs of Chotyin,
follow the line of mountains which stretch in a south-
easterly direction, and shall terminate at Lake Salsyk.
The boundary line shall be definitely determined by the
treaty of peace, and the conceded territory shall return
to the Princiealities, and to the suzerainty of the Porte."
The Cengress was occepi- d with the regulation of the
fronth rs during its sitting on the Bth of March. A po-
tion of. the sitting on the 10th of Marc)] was also devoted
thereto, and the protocols contain a detailed account of
what was said and done during these'two sittings. The
Russian' pleaipotentiaries, denying the possibility of es-
tablishing a direct line between the two extreme points
indicated in the preliminaries of peace, proposed a line
of frontier conceived on another system, and as their
project excited strong objections on the part of the
French, English; and Austrian plenipotentiaries, they
ended by deelaiing " that they bad no other object than
to establish an agreement conformable to the topography
of- the country andthe interest of its inhabitants, and
that they were ready, consequently, to discuss any other
proposition which might, be submitted to them." The
chief French plenipotentiary propounded, on his side, a
proposition fouhded en a compensation, and calculated
to lead to- an agreement. "After a discussion of this
amendment (we quote from the protocol respecting the
sitting of March 8), in which all the pleeipotefitiaries
took part, it was proposed to the Russian plenipoten-
tiaries to establish the frontier by means of a line which,
setting out from the Prutb, between Suova and Hush,
should pass to the north of Lake Salsyk,sand termi-
nate beyond Lake Albedies. The Russian plenipoten-
tiaries, necessitated, as they said, to assure themselves
concerning the position under this arrangement of the
Bulgarian and Russian colonies established in that
part of Bessarabia, requested that the discussion
might be adjourned to the next sitting, which was
agreed to." In the sitting of the 10th of March
the Russian plenipotentiaries required a modifi-
cation of the boundary line which had been pro-
posed. According to the protocol—" This proposition
became the subject of an examination, participated in
by all the plenipotentiaries, who at last agreed that
the frontier line should set out from the Black Sea to the
east of the Lake BOurna-Sola, rejoin perpendicularly the
route of Akerman, follow the same as the Trajan Val-
ley, pass to the.south of Bolgrad, reascend the river
Yalpuck as far as the heights of Saratzki, and thence
terminate at Katamon, on the Pruth." This decision is
reproduced verbatim in the 20th article of the treaty of
March 30th, the last paragraph of which runs thus
Delegates of the contracting powers shall fix the de-
tails of the new frontier
The delegates of the powers have accordingly gone to
work. On the greater portion of the frontier line they
have found, themselves free from .much dispute, but at
Bolgrad they have seriously differed. Bolgrad is a small
town situated at the head of Lake Yalpuck, at a point
where the river of that name discharges itself into
the lake. It is a town of itself of, no importance, but
its possession is not without its interest for Russia, Ix-
cause it is the chief town of those Bulgarian and Rus-
sian settlements established in, that part of Bessarabia,
the condition of which occupied the attention of the
Russian plenipotentiaries during the sitting of March S,
and caused them to ask for an adjournment of the pro-
ceedings. Bolgrad is the commercial centre of those
settlements, and a school and a church have been built
there by the Russian Government. One may readily
conceive that the Russian plenipotentiaries insisted that
Bolgrad might be conserved to Russia, and that the
other powers consented. But the Bolgrad of to-day,
situated on the borders of Lake Yalpuck, is not exactly
the same as the Bolgrad of a former date, situated at a
short distance from the lake. The ancient Bolgrad has
lost its name.. It is now called Taback, or Tamack. It
is but little inhabited. The life and stir of the place have
concentratedelemseives at the New Bolgrad, which, by
means of the Lake Yalpuck, is not absolutely deprived
of all communication with the Danube. Some of the
delegates contend that the new frontier should not pass
to the south, but to the north of the modern
Bolgrad, and to the south of the ancient Bolgrad
only. These delegates, said to be those of Turkey
and England, maintain that a line which should pass to
the south of the now Bolgrad would be irreconcilable
with the well-known intention of the contracting Powers;
so much so, indeed, that if the Congress adopted it, this
could only be through some misunderstanding, or through
a material error, to which power of revocation is always
permitted ; that the paramount object was to separate
Russia tram—kixaDanube. and that this will not be_ nb-
tained if its frontier touches the Lake Yalpnck.
There has been much debate on this matter, much
written and spoken on all sides, without coming to an
agreement. Now, as the Congress is summoned to in-
terpret its work, and to declare whether its intention
has been faithfully expressed or not, in the 20th article
of the treaty, we see that it is highly expedient that this
question should be submitted to its consideration.
In alt the discussions which have already taken place,
there has been revealed a singular matter, which, though
not without significance, is not referred to in the pro-
tocols. When the Russian Plenipotentiaries, in the
sitting of the Congress on March Bth, criticised the pro-
ject for rectifying the frontier setinitted at Vienna on the
proposition of Austria, and inscribed in the preliminaries
of peace, they produced maps drawn up by their designers
which gave their remarks a show of plausibility. These
maps, according to the Russian Plenipotentiaries, exactly
tallied with the districts represented, and an inspection
of the same was sufficient to show the error which was
allowed to find entrance at Vienna. When the discus-
sion was resumed at the next sitting, other maps, it is
said, were produced from the archives of the French
Minister of War. It appears that they came very near
to the Russian maps, and were not without influence on
the deliberations. We are informed that the Russian
Plenipotentiaries now fall back on this circumstance,
and defend the frontier-line adopted by the Congress,
reminding us (that this line, suggested by the French
documents, was unanimously proposed to them by the
other Powers representest at the Congress; and that at
this moment the correctness of the French maps has not
been contested by any one.
But Turkey and England, without denying the fact of
the production of the French maps, do not assign to
them the authority which is sought to be allotted to
them, but reject them from any weight in determining
the point under dispute. They cannot be taken into ac-
count, say they, unless at the time when they were pro-
duced they were marked with the initials of the members
of the Congress present. This was not done, and there-
fore they maintain that these maps have not found a
place in the preceding discussions in the character of
official documents, but only as simple references to which
no one is committed.

THE FATAL ACCIDENT AT THE BRYN
MALLY MINE.

WR4XIIAM, WEDNESDAY EVENING.
Since the fatal occurrence of Wednesday last the great-
est efforts have been made to pump out the water from
the mine; but at first those exertions produced little, if
any, effect. There was a slight diminution on Thursday
and Friday, but on Saturday the water had increased in
depth two yards above the amount ascertained by gauging
at the pit's mouth immediately after the accident. The usual
means of lifting were, of course, insufficient, and the cage,
or large iron box used in raising the coal and in lowering
and raising the men, was brought into requisition at the
earliest possible moment. By this additional power, accord-
ing to information we obtained on the spot, they are now
pumping nut 120 tons of water per hour, and it is confi-
dently believed that, should this be continued as it has
been, night and day, and no accident occur to the machinery
either to-morrow or next day at the latest persona will be
able to descend to the upper workings, and ascertain the
fate of the missing men. The fact of a miner in this neigh-
bourhood, now aged 70, having under similar circumstances
some years ago, remained underground for more than a
fortnight with miky horse flesh to subsist upon, and that a
number of horses ware in this mine last Wednesday, gives
faint—though very faint—hopes of some one or two of the
unfortunate 13 victims being yet rescued from a frightful '
death. Eight married men having large families, four
single men, and a boy, are unaccounted for, and the cit-
eutesta.nce that they were working, at the time of the in-
undation, in a level beyond the spot from which the four
persons Who last emerged escaped in so precarious a manner,
by means of crawling on their bellies more than a mile up
the air shaft, raises the strong presumption that they were
overtaken by the advancing volume ere they could seize
even the small chance of safety which such an outlet pre-
sented. At the time of the accident, nearly the whole of
the 200 miners employed were engaged in the ordinary oc-.
cupations underground, and the escape of such a large ma-
jority under circumstances perilous in the extreme is en
tirely attributable to the presence of mind and the real.
heroism of a boy named Edwards. He was the first to dis-
cover the bursting in of the water, and to spread the alarm,
through the workings. The men hastened to the pit's
eye, and Edwards, not finding his father among them,
set off in another direction with the praiseworthy desire
of saving his parent's life. In this he happily succeeded.
When retreat was rendered impossible by the a 'vane
ing water, he bethought him of an air shaft known
neither to his father nor to his father's two mates;
he
conducted them to it, and in the manner above described
the four reached an upp©r working, whence they were
dragged to the surface in an exhausted condition. The
inundation was in no way owing to late rains, but to an
accumulation of water in an adjoining mine, known as
Sparrow's mine, which had not been worked for more than
50 years. The Bryn Melly mine belongs to Messrs. Clay-
ton arid Darling, a well-known firm iu connection with the
coal trade of Lancashire, and is one of the largest in North
Wales. This sad event, though occasioning less sensation
in a mining district, where loss of life seems ever to be
contemplated as a contingency inseparable from the nature
of the occupation, has created unusual regret, and that
regret is painted in the faces of groups of men, wistfully
regarding every lift of the enormous ' cage, and express-
' ing by their looks in a manner not to be mistaken anxious
apecnlations upon the probable fate of comrades whose
accustomed voices they will never hear again. It is surely
crying defect of law that when an unused mine is known,
as ,this Sparrow's mine was known, to be fully charged
with water, no 'steps are 'or can be taken to preclude the
possibility of casualties such as we have here to record.