The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-16 00:00:00

and persons of different professions, will not gain
one penny by the reform of the tariff? To them
the tenpenny tax is simply a fine for the benefit of
1 a few manufacturers.

Mr. GLADSTONE was bound, if he wanted money,
to supply the place of the £4,000,000 remitted, and
to make good the naval and military expenditure
to which our Costly Ally has put us, to seek it
elsewhere—to seek it, not by enhancing injustice,
but by substituting equity. We repeat that Equal
Legacy and Probate Duties for all classes should
have been his first resource. Those duties now
" set class against class." They favour outrage-
ously the aristocracy at the expense of the man:7.
He has no moral right to go on augmenting an
unjust tax, while he refuses to equalise
the burdensomeness of another. Mr. GLAD-
STONE was also bound, if he wanted
yet more, to change the income tax to a property
tax. There is but little possible secrecy in regard
to the value of a man's realised property. A
moderate assessment on the realised property of
the nation would have met all wants, would have
made those pay only, who have something to pay,
and would have made our House of Commons gen-
tlemen more careful in voting away money when
they would have their fair share of it to pay.
Then the question of coals. Our readers may
remember that, some time back, we took the view
that they ought to be treated as among the "muni-
tions of war." We think so still. It is not for us
to enable French ships of war to steam across the
Channel. If they do so, let them get this essential
of modern naval warfarewhere they can—we ought
not to forward it. There is another reason of a
manufacturing kind. In thetreaty the "CERBERIJO
across the Channel has cunningly arranged to get
the raw material of manufactures from us, while he
taxes heavily our manufactures ! Coal is a
part of the raw material requisite, in these days, to
every manufacture—why should we help Frenchmen
both by submitting to 30 per cent. duties on our
manufactures, and in aiding them to also manufac-

ture against us ?
The unfairness of the treaty does not end here.
Two things we note especially. First. The 30 ptr
cent. duty on our goods will be augmented to 40
per cent. perhaps by the French navigation laws.
We admit them to equal terms with ourselves on
our waters—they impose almost prohibitory duos
on our ships. Not only is this unjust to our ship-
owners, but it will enhance the price of English
manufactures in France, as there the people will
have to pay protected freights for them. Again,
we are told the EMPEROR will levy an export duty
on wines. If so, he will take the revenue which
we ought to have from increased cheapness. We
do hope that the House of Commons,will not sanc-
tion a treaty which does not allow us to prohibit
the exportation of coals, or to lay an export duty
on them, and one which does not place English and
French shipping on equal terms in each other's
ports. It would be also a mad policy to enable the
French to train sailors at our cost; protective
navigation laws are intended to man the French
navy. On this ground we demand their abolition,
or countervailing duties on French ships in English
ports. We implore the House to sanction the
treaty on no other terms.

A trumpet note has been again sounded for the
rallying of the Rifle Volunteers. It is this time
the clarion voice of the Hero of Aliwal. Addressing
himself in cheery accents to an old rifle comrade
at Glasgow, Sir HARRY SMITH has given us, in a
few striking sentences, the sentiments with which
he, as a veteran soldier of the QUEEN, regards this
great popular defensive movement. His simple
watchword tells all. It is the cry—" Arm the
People !" At the same time, while observing the
multiplication of corps upon corps from John
o'Groats to Land's End, he by no means deems
the development of thig novel species of National
Guard as all-sufficient. He deprecates alike the
infatuation of those who conceive the country may
be secured from the perils of invasion, and of
those who, like Lord MELVILLE, consider the
whole movement to bo futile and in point
of fact very little short of being merely ridi-
diculous. In effect, Sir HARRY speaks out thus
plainly. He says :—" Some of our gallant and ex-
perienced comrades who write upon the subject of
the defence of England take as extreme and one-
sided a view as some of our leading journals do on
the other—the one declaring the inutility of volun-
teers, the other that they are omnipotent." Now,
says the Hero of Aliwal, " I ask either of these
extremities—lf you saw a large French army in
battle array, which must occupy a large tract of
country, with artillery, cavalry, and their sharp-
shooters, how do you purpose to check their ad-
vance ?" Whereupon, he remarks, " I cannot con-
jecture the reply of either." Adding, " but this I
will assert and maintain, with my last breath—lt
is alone to be done by a combination of regular
troops, as a barrier and a reserve, with swarms
of riflemen everywhere, as powerful—most power-
ful auxiliaries." And he then puts the case more
distinctly before us all—bringing the dread possi-
bility " home [according to Lord BACON'S phrase]
to men's businesse and bosomes"— thus : "We
must bear in mind," he writes, "that the distance
from our coast to London is barely three days'
march, hence the object of the enemy is to advance
by a coup de main, to seize London." Now, he
asks, " Could I say loose troops would stop them ?
No. But a combination would insure their de-
feat, and then let loose the sons of Britain, with
this command—Forward and shoot ; you shall all
be supported at the requisite points ! Should any
enemy have the audacity to attempt our shores,
could he avoid our ever invincible Navy, I, as a
General of some experience in war, would be proud
to command a combined force as I have described,
and ' Let Deeds show.' " Now, all this is plain
speaking enough, and without one particle of brag-
gadocio about it. Sir HARRY SMITH has earned
the right to talk thus, earned it at the point of his
good sword—and we needs must listen to him,
when he addresses himself, through his old Glas-
gow rifle comrade, to the rapidly-increasing masses
of our new rifle volunteers !
The Lieutenant-General writes upon the sub-
ject of this great popular movement all the
more plainly and earnestly because his soldierly
heart revolts from the perpetually recurring cries
of our craven Alarmists. "It has been to me," he
says," a subject of melancholy to see a succession of
dastardly panics assail our nation as they have
done, interrupting our trade everywhere, agitating
all classes, when the present movement of Volun-
eers, if previously resorted to, to arm the people,

would have restored the confidence again esta-
blished, and which ought never to be inter-
rupted." And Sir HARRY SMITH adds, in
words that would have befitted the lips of
Sir Jolla PAICINGTON, the Reorganiser of the
Royal Navy—" England ought to be in a position
always to treat with contempt the hostile demon •
strations of her neighbours, whether made in
reality, or by way of interrupting our tranquillity,
our commerce, or with the invidious supposition
that they can or could affect the honour of the
nation." How the mother country can be placed
effectually in this state of preparedness we all
know—even our rulers have awakened latterly to