The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-24 00:00:00

RIGEL WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

Tam DAT—Morn. 0 min. aft. o—Evening 5 rain. aft. 11
In-Monnow—Morn.lB min. aft.l2—Evening 41 mln. aft.l2

THE WEATHER—SUN Oros, DECEMBER 21.
THERMOMETER, IN THE, SHAM
42—highest sines noon yesterday.
41—lowest this morning and during the night.
44 —this day at noon.
BAnomrrsß, 29 37—a fall of an inch and a half since
)londay evening.
WIND, W.S W. to S.W.—Light, with fine, sunshiny
wc%ther at noon. It rained in the night.

;71,g) •
ter.
v.. 1;
•
)
r" "

§llll.

LI)ND6N, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1856.

A merry Christmas and happy New Yea-r
to each
and every one—to friends, in particular—and to
the community at large ! Cordially and sincerely
do we wish it ; and earnestly shall we strive, to
the best of our ability, to add to the happiness of
those most deserving of sympathy and assistance.
Good wishes alone will not suffice. All have
heard of the place----" not to be mentioned to ears
polite"—which is said to be " paved with good
intentions." Every one must labour honestly and
energetically in his vocation to add to the general
felicity, and to promote that great end and aim of
true philanthropists—" the greatest good to the
greatest number." Many a heart will, however,
shrink, notwithstanding the social enjoy-
ments and cheering festivities of the season,
at the demands that must be provided
for. The happiness of the day will be
marred by the presence of " the skeleton," that,
we are told, has a place in every household. The
dread of approaching bills that must be liquidated,
the claims that cannot be satisfactorily encoun-
tered ! Conceal it as he may, that grievance will
rankle in the mind of every pater familias. He
sees the wants of his wife and children, the old
gowns, broken boots, and worn-out jackets, are
stern monitors to repel the temporary exuberance
of his spirits, even while partaking of that which
the nursery legend too truly informs him, " comes
but once a year." An unbidden tear " trem-
bles" in his eye, and its bitterness is aggravated
by a deep sense of wrong when he feels that but
for the anticipated visit of the tax-collector, who
requires so heavy a contribution from his hardly-
earned " income," he might provide the
humble comforts so greatly required by his
family, and still keep out of debt ; nay,
more, set aoide a small sum for a rainy day, when
illness or any unexpected calamity shall visit his
home, and press heavily on his scanty resources.
We speak of those who are gaining their daily
bread by their daily labour, not of the possessors
of accumulated and realised prcperty, who have
something on which to fall back in the dark hour
of adversity. They care comparatively little for
the impost, for it may be altogether evaded if
that property is not invested in a tangible taxable
form ; or, if there has been a stoppage in transittt,
a deduction from the gross sum which they re-
ceive in the shape of rents or dividends. They,
are subjected to no inquisitorial and prying inves-
tigations as to their means of livelihood—no im-
pertinent sneers from officials seeking to entrap
them into heedless admission, as a peg whereon
to hang a surcharge. They are not obliged to devote
valuable time to stand the insolent cross-examination
or vexatious badgering of Commissioners. They
are not exposed to the unhallowed visitations of
these prepared to leave a man in possession, and
thus add costs to the burden, if the paymaster
chance to be from home, and who scornfully re-
pudiate the suggestion even of a single hour's
delay ufitil the money can be sent for. All these
serious aggravations are wanting, and, as we have
frequently explained, a fairly apportioned " Pro-
Verty Tax" is at the same time the most equitable
and the most tolerable that can be enforced.

itßut
is altogether different with an " Income
Tax."p
e There, to say nothing of the gross and
inequality of charging at the same cate
that which is really available income—the whole
of which may be expended without apprehension,
and that which is both capital and income must
provide not only for
present wants, but for future
contingencies a
man is charged,not merely
on his whole
worldly wealth, but he is so
charged after that Wealth has been expended.
He is, indeed, fortunate if even the amount of
the tax remains, and that he is not obliged to
become a borrower, in order to avert the dreaded
distress. At the time of the demand the victim
has not by him the amount of his half-years in-
come. The fees of the professional man, the
wages of the clerk, the profits of the small trades-
man are absorbed in the daily maintenance of their
respective families. They cannot live on air, and
though the tradesman's stock may not altogether be
exhausted, like the purses of those living entirely

on their recei the professional men,
clerks, &c., he will still have to satisfy the df-
mand of those who have advanced a portion of
that stock on credit, and is, therefore, scarcely

in a better position !
The Times, in its money article of this day,
tells us that the, " pressure on the Bank is ex-
cessive ; the are count of bullion withdrawn to
Ireland, coupled with the largeness of the revenue
collections, having continued to exercise a power-
ful influence." This is the time when the Income
Tax collectors are peculiarly active. Indeed, it
would seem ap if they desired to aggravate the
unpopularity of the impost by the stringency of
its enforcement. And yet the Times itself would
persuade the people to submit to a gross fraud,
by enduring the iniquitous burden for another
year, because, forsooth, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer may like to postpone the trouble and
annoyance of anticipating the inevitable period of
attempting to render the assessment more just
and equitable. Should they acquiesce in that
unwise and injudicious policy they will
deserve all that may be inflicted on
them, and which they will inevitably
have to sustain. We tell them not only to
" agitate" strenuously and indefatigably, but to
put on the steam to the utmost point. Let every
person insist on "freedom to industry,"—that
property should bear its just liabilities, recollect-
ing that property has its duties as well as its
rights. By so doing they will insure the success
of the movement, and obtain that for which they
can scarcely hope on the present occasion a
merry Christmas and happy New Year in 1857-8,
with the cheering prospect of many returns thereof
during a protracted period.

It may not be out of plaoe to say a word or
,wo on the threatened revival of the slave trade.

The subject is not one we have selected for its
cheeriness, but a few remarks on it seem to us
alike apposite and necessary. All seasons are
good for the discharge of an exigent duty, and no
time, we submit, can be more appropriate than
the present to deprecate the revival of a traffic
so revolting to humanity, so charged with the
direst horrors, and invoking so piercingly the
DIVINE vengeance, as the trade in question.
Next to the enforced contemplation of such a
revival far on to nineteen centuries after the
appearance of that Gracious Benevolence whose
advent we are about to celebrate, the fact that
those by whom it is menaced are of our own
stock, and possessed of like means of self-cultiva-
tion with ourselves, is the most painful feature
of the case with which we have to deal.
Yes ! It is no tribe of a nation of savages
—it is no portion of a worn-out, tyrannically
governed European race, but citizens of
the United States—members of one of the
greatest of free countries, Englishmen by descent,
from whom the threat emanates. With the curse
of slavery upon them, wasting their pith and
marrow, and curtailing hourly the extent of their
resources, the Southern planters, instead of endea-
vouring to get rid of the curse by emancipation,
recklessly seek to avert their fall by an aggrava-
tion of their guilt. Not content with holding
their black brother in cruel bondage, and breeding
up his offspring, like cattle, for the home market,
they long for newer victims, and threaten to let
loose the ferocious slave-trader, with his blood-
hounds, on the inoffensive sons and daughters of
Africa, in order to lay on the abject misery of the
unhappy captives the foundations of future pros-
perity. The impiousness cf the thought speaks
conclusively as to the wisdom of the desire. The
past history of the Southern States and contem-
poraneous annals are not without warning against
the attempt. Do the Southern slaveholders not
know what it would involve ? Are they entirely
ignorant of the peril to which the attempt would
expose them ? If the Presidential election, more
recent events, and England's perseverance in
putting down the traffic, have not opened, or do
not open, their eyes to a right understanding
neither would they be persuaded though one rose
from the dead.

Appealing to their selfishness, and, for the
moment, overlooking an important aspect of the
question, we ask—how should they, even if suc-
cessful in reviving the infamous traffic, be gainers
by so glaring an outrage on the feelings of nearly
all Christendom ? The slave is mainly prized by
them for what he produces, and the value of that
produce chiefly depends on having a steady remu-
nerative European market. Where, in a few
years, would that market be if the slave trade was
opened? Indomitable England!—are they such
fools as to believe she cannot learn to do with-
out their tobacco and cotton ; and that having set
her heart on the abolition of the slave trade, she
wont take this, the most likely, way to make the
trade unprofitable? Has she not colonies she can
turn to good account—is there not a countless
population, industrious and free, to till the cotton-
bearing districts of India ? Cannot she, in
one or more of her many possessions, find
space for the growth of all the tobacco
and other Southern produce she consumes ?
And what is there to bar her from supplying the
wants of the remainder of Europe in course of
time ? Will the Southern planter turn to the
Northern States for succour—the North that
can't help him if it would, and in its indignation
would not if it could ? Where then would be the
luxuries without which life to him is undesirable ?
Gone—never to return. It is a miserable life
he would then discover to live for bare bread.
But the revival of the slave trade means war with
England, as well as the loss of a remunerative
market. Are they prepared for a war, and what
it may entail? The gallant blood that used to
mantle so bravely their cheeks as they stalked
among their human cattle, does it not pale as the
horror of their dreams comes to their recollection ?
A. servile war, a black jacquerie—the blunt in-
struments of their good pleasure, hacking and
hewing remorselessly the living branches of their
family tree, the slave population, mad with
oppression, and credulous or reckless as to the
future plying the devouring brand, and flitting

like demons to their murderous task, amid
the crash of burning timbers and the
shrieks of wretched women and children.
Who does not know that the thought of
that terrible retribution fills them at the present
time with unutterable dread—that the bravado
of discovered plots and effective measures of self-

defence but ill conceals the coward heart thai

beats so tremulously in their bosoms? The North,
if inclined to help them, would send its succour
too late, supposing the North to have acceded to
the war, and not to have its hands full with its
own defence. The very loss of a remunerative
market the continuance of a war would occasion
might lead to an outbreak of the slave population,
quite irrespective of the provocation the hope of
liberty from such hostilities must give rise
to. Turn which way the Southern alavehold-
ers may, the only way of escape from im-
mediate personal peril and utter ruin is being
as quiet as possible, and accustoming them-
selves to the contemplation of and preparing

for a gradual emancipation to be complete at
no distant period. The more reckless they are

the more speedy and certain their disastrous fate.
The disgust they have given the North is even n3w
an element of insecurity. The slave knows of it,
and with his facile imagination brings the bright
future nearer than reason seems to warrant.
Every violent ebullition, every clamour against
slave disaffection, every bit of extra braggadoco
will be accounted as additional evidence of the
oppressor's case having become hopeless, and of
the light of liberty being about to dawn on the
slave. There will be no revival of the slave
trade unless the slaveowners' cup of iniquity be
full and retribution is at his heels. None but
men judicially blind can regard such an attempt
but with disfavour and apprehension.

The advocates of the Game Laws will hear with
pleasure that two fresh victims have been sepa-
rated from their families during the approaching
holidays, for doing what English lords and squires
think they are fully entitled to do—as they like
with their own. In the present instances the
cruelty and impolicy of the proceedings are
greatly aggravated, not only by the time
selected for the persecution, but also by
the fact that the parties sent to the House of
Correction for 14 days' hard labour are respect-
able and industrious men, of unimpeachable cha-
racter, and one of them the widowed father of an
orphan family. In the eyes of the game pre-
servers the example (!) may be the more valuable,
but we greatly fear that its effect on the labouring
community may be very different from that which
they anticipate. The latter are not as yet re-
duced to the condition of the coloured population
of the Southern States of America. They are not
yet compelled to conceal their feelings. The curses
will be loud as well as deep at the gross injustice
practised.

For be it remembered these men were no com-
mon poachers. They did not seek to destroy
game on other people's lands, where it might be
said the wild animals derived a subsistence that
conferred a qualified property on its owners. Far
from it. They only " trespassed," if such an
anomalous phrase can be justified, on their own
soil, or at least that in which they had rights of
commonage. The Judges and Jury—for it ap-
pears the same parties exercised both functions—
ware not even unanimous. One of their number,
who, it appears, had received a legal education,
earnestly protested against the decision of his col-
leagues on the bench—we shall not add "of
justice."

It is really too bad that this system of irritation
and annoyance should be so wantonly maintained.
Regarding the game law even in its most favour-
able phase, it is a badge of servitude and oppres-
sion—a legacy bequeathed by the Norman in-
vaders, which has sunk deeply into the hearts of
the Anglo-Saxon inhabitants of the 19th century.
But when we see respectable, well-disposed men
subjected to the disgrace and demoralisation of a
gaol for what they probably considered to be
merely the assertion of their natural rights, the
grievance is fearfully enhanced. The depth of
feeling may be estimated from the fact that the
victims refused the assistance freely proffered by
the friends and neighbours who would gladly have
contributed the amount of the paltry fine and
heavy costs. They felt themselves to be game-
law martyrs, and they would cheerfully endure
the penalty. We heartily commend the case to
the consideration of Sir GEORGE GREY. He may
restore the parties to their families, and grant
them a Christmas at home, but we do so still
more emphatically to the British Parliament. If
they regard it in a proper spirit, JOHN HAGON
and FRANCIS DUSGATE will not have suffered in
vain—a dark blot will be eradicated from the
national statutes, and a fertile cause of crime and
temptation to the rising generation, a great social
nuisance permanently abated.

The South-Eastern Uazette regrets that the Dean of
Canterbury, who was taken speechless a fortnight since,
still remains in a very precarious condition.
The Grand Duchess Constantine of Russia will, it is
thought, prolong her stay at Hanover until the spring.
Preparations are being made there for building a new
palace for the royal family, two new barracks, and ether
public edifices.
The Grand Duke Michael of Russia, travelling under
the name of Count Mikhailoff, passed through Berlin on
the 18th with his suite on his way to Carlsruhe to visit
the Princess of Baden, to whom he is betrothed.
The Marquis and Marchioness of Headfort have left
Claridge's Hotel for Brighton.
The Countess of Gainsborough and family have left
Claridge's Hotel for Eaton Hall, Rutlandshire.
Lord Staff ,rd has arrived at his residence in Eaton-
place from his seat, Coetessy Hall, near Norwich.
The Hon. C. O. Cavendish, M.P., and Lady Catherine
Cavendish, have left Claridge's Hotel for Lat. imers,
Bucks.
The Hon. Mrs. Fitzroy has arrived at the St. George's
Hotel.
Sir Benjamin Hall has left town for Llanover, S mth
Wales.
Admiral Sir Charles Elliot had an inter riew with Mr.
Secretary Labouchere yesterday at the CJlonial-office.
Despatches for the Governors of the C,)lonies on the
west Boast of Africa were seat yesterday from the Colo-
nial-office. Despatches were received from the Governor
of Malta.
The sugar duties last year produced 5,227,0661.
The expense of public works last year was 950,5761
pACNyO3.l—The
AND
shaGrEeNhoElßdAeLrs LIFEI Aiable i
nsst
huertec
aNsceE
oiCtoh)its-
company to pay off its debts has been settled, and a call
of about 10s. will have, it is understood, to be made.
CONSECRATION OF ST. MATTHEW'S CHURCH, OAKLEY-
SQUARE.—The first ceremonial of the consecration of a
church by the new Bishop of London took place yester-
dayf when the district church of St. Matthew, Oakley-
square, St. Pancras, was opened and solemnly conse-
crated in the presence of a large number of persons.
THE NEW DEAN OF CARLISLE.—On Monday evening
Dean Close, on whom the degree of D.D. has just been
conferred, gave a dinner in the Fratry to the resident
clergy connected with the cathedral. The very reverend
gentleman occupied the chair ; the Rev. Precentor
Livingston the vice-chair ; and the Rev. Canon Gipps,
Silas Saul, Esq., the Rev. Minor Canon Tireman,.and
Mr. Ford, the organist, were also present. The health
of the dean having been proposed by Mr. Gipps, the
very reverend gentleman returned thanks in a frank and
friendly speech. He said he wished to become personally
acquainted with the choir, and it occurred to him that a
aigtno
dwo dahsde it
hnh
one
pe
fier
dr:
itta sofn
wouldot
ht
ea kb
nianoddt
,mbsoeod
the
erf
last. The
effectingthatobject;
hsecroeni
remainder
of the evening was spent in vocal exercises. The dinner
was
riot.
by Mr. Gray, of the Coffee-house.— Carlisle
THE AMERICAN MAILS.—LIVERPOOL, Tuesday.—The
United States mail steamship Ericsson, Captain Lowber,
will sail from the Mersey to-morrow afternoon for New
York, with the mails, passengers, and cargo. Letters
must be posted before 2 p.m., with late fees until 3 p.m.,
and at the floating receiving house until 4 p.m. The
Montreal Ocean Steam Navigation Company's screw
steamer North American, Captain Grange, is now in the
river, and will sail to-morrow forenoon for Portland,
state of Maine, with the Canadian monthly mails, a full
complement of passengers, and a considerable cargo of
merchandise on freight. Her mails will close here at 7
a.m., with late fees until 8 a.m., and at the landing stage
at 9 a.m. to-morrow.
DISTILLATION FROM BEETROOT.—Some highly inte-
resting experiments were made a few days since at Mr.
Dray's, near Farningham, in Kent, with a lately-invented
distillery machine, after the plan of Mons. Leplay, at
Bratt6e, near Lille, in France. The distillation was from
.beetroot, and intended to show that the alcohol produced
from the white Seleran beetroot was not inferior to that
derived from corn, and at a considerable less cost, and
consequently much greater advantage to the agriculturist.
We were informed that an acre of ordinary land should
yield 25 tons of white Seleran beetroot, and therefore
will produce 493 gallons of proof spirits, whereas the
best acre of barley ever grown will only produce 170
gallons of proof spirits. It therefore shows more in
favour of the new plan, particularly as the corn might
be rendered available for other purposes. It appears also
that the beetroot, after being used for the purpose of
distillation, is excellent food for cattle, and that only a
small part of its nutritious qualities are destroyed by the
process. The beetroot, after being properly washed, is
passed through a root-cutting machine,
and is then
conveyed to the vat to undergo for a stated period the
process of fermentation. After draining the liquor the
slices of beetroot remains to be preserved for the food of
cattle. The operation of distilling was examined by
three gentlemen seat by the Excise-offic3, all of whom
expressed their entire approbation of the results. The
alcohol produced on this occasion was elev, n above
pro if. Great praise is due to Mr. Dray for his perse-
verance in the cause of agricultural progress, and which
appears likely to be a real boon to the landed interest of
the country.

HOLT, NORFOLK.