The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-30 00:00:00

people who were in earnest to gain worthy results
from the War than to appease the demands of the
nation for the remission of War and other taxes,
dissatisfied, as it is, with the paltry achievements of
the Admiralty, with the Whigs and Coburgs and
the beggarly terms of peace. Of course the Income
Tax will be the first object of attack, nor should we
be surprised if Mr. DISRAEL/ return to offiee
pledged either to extinguish it or to equalise its
pressure ; nothing will save it but the neces-
sities of the Treasury, and the prospect of ad-
justment. Sixteenpence instead of sevenpence in
the pound has dissipated all the mists of Mr.
lIILADSTONE'S eloquence and sophistry. When the
drops fall large fogs ►anish.

Another tax, to which we adverted not long
ago, will immediately attract public attention.
Attacks upon it were, indeed, beginning with
vigour when the advent of war rendered it absurd
to clamour for the repeal of any tax except the
postal one on newspapers. The tax we refer to
is that on fire assurance. The reasons which
have been urged against it are so irresistible that
nothing is wanted but to call public attention to
them. If a tax be laid in connection with insur-

ance of property, it ought rather to be in the
shape of a penalty for neglecting it than in that
of a fine for prudence. Every man ought to
insure. Not only the security of his creditors, if
he have any, but the welfare of his family, and
consideration for those on whom a serious fire
might render him dependent, demand it of him.
Yet, if he fulfil the duty, he pays !rem one to two
hundred per cent for doing so ! If, through mean-
ness or recklessness he omit it, he pays no tax for
it at all. Were insurance like bread or water, some-
thing indispensable to the possessor of property,
the tax would be universal, and so far just. Being,
however, neither a luxury, which it may be com-
mendable to refrain from, nor a necessary, which
the unworthy cannot dispense with, it is a tax
levied discriminatively on honesty and prudence.
At the same time, the proportion of the tax is
so unnatural. Suppose the proprietors of good
houses to unite to guarantee each other •against
the destruction of their property by fire, expe-
rience shows they could do it for Is. 6d. per
cent. Government therefore steps in and imposes
on them the penalty of 35., or two hundred per
cent., for doing it. The average of insurances
may be about the sum charged for duty, and Go-
, vernment therefore inflicts on the prudent part
of the nation about one hundred per cent. for
their prudence. It is a singularly unequal tax
also in relation to the two great sections of -the
community—the landlords and their tenants,
and the industrifl classes generally. Land is in-
combustible, and the produce of land, through
the legislation of its proprietors, is exempt from
the Government duty on fire insurance. Were
land combustible, its insurance would cost the
landlords at least 2,250,0001. ; farming stock
actually insured would pay nearly 100,000/. ; so
that we have here a tax in favour of the landed
interest to the amount of considerably more than
two millions and a quarter per annum. Indeed
the whole sum received by Government from those
who happen to possess combustible property un-
connected with land (1,315,4241. in 1854) is just
a million less than landed proprietors would have
to pay if their property also paid three shillings
per cent. for insurance.

We were led to recur to the subject by a novel
and bold attempt on the part of a French com-
pany to do justice for us, despite all the terrors
of Mr. KEOGH and the Court of Exchequer. Indeed
the French seem disposed to quicken our snail-
paced House of Commons, by giving us thebenefit of
their commercial laws, perhaps, in return for our
Free-Trade generosity. Our laws of limited
liability having been doctored to suit our mil-
lionnaires at home, an omnibus company actually
is started in Paris for the benefit of London. And
now, a Fire Insurance Company, La France, pro-
poses to effect insurances on English property,
and, as no duty is paid in France for this species
of prudence, it can, without risk, insure us one
hundred per cent, cheaper en the average than
our own Insurance Offices. The company is one
of the highest respectability ; but one English
office insures a larger amount of property, anti on
its Board of Management appear the names of
gentlemen of high social and commercial reputa-
tion in Paris. What Sir CORNEWALL LEWIS will say
to this invasion we cannot predict. The company
is evidently confident that he has no legal
means of compelling a French company to pay
duty for the business it trantacts in England. In
their prospectus they openly state that they can
do for 2s. per cent. what an English company
charges 4s. 6d. for, because of the Government
duty here ! The insurance companies must now
make some move. The old ones, which, like the
Sun, make 4,0001, or 5,0001. a year by collecting
the duty for the Government, will not spontane-
ously stir in the business. The younger offices
had, as we have already observed, began the
attack, but have gone to winter quarters during
the War. We may presume that they at least
will urge upon Government not efforts of doubtful
success to get a verdict against the French com-
pany, but the abolition of the tax. They have al-
ready proclaimed war against this semi-barbarous
imposition, and they will hail La France as
valuable ally in a new and vigorous campaign.

It is in no fulsOme spirit, but with heartfelt
satisfaction, and in vindication of a cherished
sentiment, that we invoke the special attention of
our readers, and more especially the young, to
the Report which appears in another column of
the proceedings at the annual meeting of the
governors and friends of the Royal Free Hospital
in Gray's-inn-lane yesterday. Rarely has it been
the lot of a public journalist to present an illus-
tration more striking of what may be achieved by
the enterprising spirit and energetic efforts of a
single philanthropist than the institution and
career of the Hospital in question afford. Some
thirty years or more ago it occurred to a member
of the medical profession, who had become ao-
quainted with the sufferings which unfriended
poverty and destitution, when afflicted by disease,
had to endure in the metropolis, that something
might be done towards their relief by resolute
personal effort and the aid of the benevolent.
Charitable institutions for the relief of the suffer-
ing poor were, it is true, in existence ; but these
were too few in number, and besides were fenced
round by a rule requiring an introduction even
for those whose misery was aggravated by the
knowledge that they had not a friend. Delibera-
tion before long resolved itself into action,
the Royal Free Hospital was founded, and itl
gates thrown -open for the reception of every.de-
serving object the means of the Institution would
enable its governors to admit. This memorable
event took place some twenty-eight years ago,
and from that time to the present it has been
the enviable lot of its benevolent founder, Dr.
MARSDEN, alike to contribute to and to contemp-
late its growing usefulness and success. What
the achievement to which we have thus drawn
attention involves may be guessed at after, a pe-
rusal of the report. There it will be seen that,
during the past year alone, the society's expendi-
ture amounted to G,231/. Os. 81, and its receipts
632t41. 644 th&t Voile old debts to

Showing a decrease of 1,105,360/, in th
lation of notes in England, and a decrease oi
1,173,690/.. in the circulation of the United Kingdom,
when compared with the month ending the 24th of
Nov. ; and, as compared with the month ending the
211 of Dec., 1854, the above returns show a decrease
of 638,1941. in the circulation of notes in England, and
a decrease of 232,890/. in the circulation of the United
Kingdom.

The average stock of bullion held by the Bank of Eng-
land in both departments (Wring the month ending the
22d of Dec. was 11,148,6931., being a decrease of
85,6161. as compared with the previous month ; and
a decrease of 2,861,670/. when compared with the same
period last year.
The stock of specie held by the Scotch and Irish banks
during the month ending the 22d of Dec. was
4,239,9901., being an'increase of 24,2861. as compared
with the previous return, and an increase of 378,399/.
when compared with the corresponding period last year.

ANOTHER PROJECTED RAILWAY TUN-
NEL BETWEEN ENGLAND AND
FRANCE.

(From the Mining Journal.)
The construction of a tunnel for a railway beneath
;he bed of the Straits of Dover, with a view to unite the
shores of England with those of France, and then with
the entire European and Asiatic continents, is occupy-
ing much public attention, from the several projected
plans which have recently been promulgated. Mr.
William Austin, many years in Messrs. Peto, Betts, and
Brassey's establishment, has, since 1853, matured a
plan which has been highly approved of by first-rate
engineering talent. The plan proposed by him has for
its object the accomplishment of a really permanent rail-
way and, enduring structure, extending from shore to
shore, n distance of 22 miles, and connected at each
end with the already constructed and future lines of
rP,.ilroad. It is intended to have a triple way of
three arches, oval in form, and securely locked to-
gether by inseparable and indestructible masonry, con-
structed of approved imperishable material, impervious to
moisture ; and for such unavoidable leakage or collec-
tion of water as will occasionally occur, three efficient
1 culverts will be provided to carry it to each shore, from
whence powerful lift-pumps would convey it into the
sea. The fall is to be from the centre towards each
shore, and it is calculated that the crown of the tunnel
will have a thickness of chalk of 60 ft. between it and
the ocean bed, at the deepest point, which does not ex-
ceed 140 ft. below the tidal level, as proved by sound-
ings. There will be three double lines of railway (three
each way), which will be ample for ordinary good
traffic and express trains. Ample space is afforded
for all necessary pathways, and the telegraphic wires
will be laid in the centre, on a new principle of eco-
nomy and ready access. The tunnel, by its length, will
thoroughly ventilate itself; but shonld it prove neces-
sary, three or four, or even more, air-shafts can he
readily constructed, the upper portions forming light-
houses, or refuge in case of shipwreck, and for sig-
nalling shipa. in the Channel. The cost is estimated
at 6,000,0001., and the time for construction seven
years. The whole of these works are proposed to be
carried out in connection with Mr. Williani "Hutchison's
patent, which we have so often noticed in our columns,
for converting into an indestructible building-material
river or sea sand, shingle, chalk, and other soft and com-
paratively worthless substances. As it is to be geolo-
gically assumed that the stratum to .be cut through is
chalk, Mr. Austin proposes to construct his three road-
way-arches of large blocks of masonry, bound together
in a peculiar manner (illustrated by a diagram in their
description in the Mining Journal of Dec. 1), such
blocks to be formed from the excavated material, carried
to the indurating works (to be constructed at each end),
and re-conveyed to the portion under completion, ready
to be placed in situ. As these blocks would occupy the
space of 40 or 50 bricks, be rapidly formed in the soft
state of the material to the shape required, and quickly
indurated to a degree which the chisel will scarcely touch,
it is expected the work would prooeed with a rapidity
hitherto unknown in the history of tunnelling, and that
the time named by Mr. Austin will be ample for ists
completion.

Pain OF GOLD.—The quotation of gold at Paris ;Is
about 5 per mills premium (according to the last tariff),
which, at the English Mint price of 3/. 17s. 10id. per
ounce for standard gold, gives an exchange of 25'294 ;
and, the exchange at Paris on London at short bei og
25.32 i, it follows that gold is about 0.12 per cent. dear er
in London than in Paris. By advices from Harnbu..g
the price of gold is 425 per mark, which, at the Englis h
Mint price of 3/. 17s. 104 d. per ounce for standard gold,,
gives an exchange of 13.41 ; and, the exchange at Ham-
burg on London at short being 13.6/, it follows that gold
is 0.87 per cent. dearer in London than in Hamburg.
The course of exchange at New York on London for
bills at 60 days' sight is 108.; per cent , and, the
par of exchange between England and America being
109 23-40 per cent., it follows that the exchange is nomi-
nally LOS per cent, against England ; but, after making
allowance for chargea of transport and difference of in-
terest, the present rate leaves no profit on the transmis-
Son 91 pit/ either way Istween the two covitries.