The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-09 00:00:00

CONCERTS,

CANTERBURY HALL
THIS EVENING.
C. H. GOUNOD'S OPERA,
FAUST.
First Time in this Country.
Faust Mr. Henry Herbert.
Mephistopheles Mr. C. Bernard.
Siobel Mrs. Anderson.
Marguerite
Conductor Mr. Jonglimans.
And selections from
Dinorab, Trovatore, Macbeth, and numerous other
Entertainments.
Balcony, is Hall, Bd.
Comic Vocalists —Messrs. George Hodson (the Irish Come
dian and Mimic), and W. T. Critchfield.
Several interesting Pictures are added to the Fine Arts
Gallery. The suite of Halls have been re-decorated and
beautified, and constitute one of the most unique and brilliant
sights of the metropolis.
The gallery is open from 5 till 11 on Sunday Evening.

THE WEATHER...-StrN OFFICE, MAY 9, 1860.

THERMOMETER, TN THE SHADE.
64—highest since noon yesterday.
53—lowest this morning and during the night.
61—this day at noon.

BAROMETER-29.73 ; rising.
WIND, W.S.W ; light, with fine mild weather. I
rained a little in the night.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

THIS DAY.—Morning, 4h. 17m.—Afternoon, 4h. 39m.
To-monatow.-Morning, sh. lm.—Afternoon, sh. 23m.

4,05'
,
- ' 1:471 • 63,5)
„ -

THE SUN.
LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 1860.

The Paper Duty Repeal Bill had a narrow
escape last night. Had not the additional penny
income-tax been already inflicted, the Bill would
assuredly hare been lost. It is rather singular, as
showing the state of patties, that the majority
in its favour was exactly the same as that
which passed the third reading of the Church-rates
Abolition Bill. When the Conservatives think it
worth while to muster strongly, especially should
there be anything to damp the zeal of the Liberals,
they can evidently run the Government very hard,
and now that the fear of an early dissolution is re-
moved they may not unfrequently be disposed to
do so.
What the Lords will do with the Bill repealing
the ecclesiastical tax. there can be little doubt.
The Duke of MARLBOROUGH and a bench of
Bishops will pay little regard to a majority of
nine for abolishing a Church-tax. Aristocracy, super-
stition, interest, will all plead successfully with their
lordships for its retention. But what will they do
with Mr. GLADSTONE'S bill for abolishing an Ex-
cise tax? Mr. GLADSTONE, the Peelite, and a
novas hwno, is, perhaps, in worse odour with their
Lordships than Sir JOHN TRELAWNY, the Radical,
and the representative of a very old aristocratic
family. And, out of doors, few, indeed, are those
who petition for the abolition of the paper duties
compared with those who petition for the abolition
of Church-rates. Lords, too, feel, as other people
do, the unpleasantness of paying income tax ; all
of them are not wealthy, and those who are so, do
not prefer parting with their money to just the tax
collector. The less of compulsory payment the
more pleasant for us all. The indirect influences
affecting, therefore, their Lordships are not exactly
in favour of the bill.

This being so, they will have no difficult case in
regard to the merits of abolition of a tax at the pre-
sent time. Their hostile vote would not turn out the
Ministry, it could not, therefore, be treated as a
vote of no confidence, or even regarded as a party
vote. It is said the trade would be paralysed, but
we believe the majority of paper makers would
prefer the retention of the tax in the face of the
difficulties on the great rag question. We can
hardly doubt that, if it were put to them, " do you
wish for the repeal of the duty concurrently with
the repeal of the customs duty on French paper ? "
the answer would be, perhaps without exception, in
the negative. 'We must think fairly so. We can but
feel that while it is the interset of consumers, here,
to get paper as cheap as they can, it is hardly fair
to our own manufacturers to take the article un-
conditionally from those who maintain against our
makers a monopoly of the raw material.

But when we come to the revenue part of the
question, it is impossible to deny that the case for
retention is strong, If the tax be abolished now
it will cause for this year a loss of one million ster-
ling at least. Now, the small surplus which Mr.
GLADSTONE had left, of £400,000, is already more
than swallowed ))y supplementary estimates, and
withdrawal of duties proposed at first in the bud-
get. It is confess, id also that 1861 is to demand of
us the filling up o.f,an enormous deficit—not less, it

is computed, than £10,000,000 or £12,000,000 !
The Lords may possibly, therefore, think that
this is a case in which they would be
authorised in staying, what they will affirm
to be a considerable sacrifice of the sources
of income ; and that when the early demand for
the sum surrendered, and for much more than this,
is quite certain. They will strongly feel also
the reluctance, so natural for their class, to
aid in bringing all taxation as much as possible
on property. To them the repeal of duties on
articles of consumption, and the certainty of all
fresh taxation being levied on income or on
property cannot be pleasant. They foresee that
we shall have to pay incalculable sums to maintain
a navy and to erect fortifications sufficient to
secure us against the capricious ambition
of our great military neighbour; and, it is by
no-I, means an agreeable prospect for them that
henceforth it will be impossible to lay taxes on
new articles of commerce, or even to augment
those which are still left. They may not be un-
willing to bear their last testimony against a sys-
tem of taxation they so thoroughly detest.

We have felt hitherto we confess some delicacy
in writing on the subject, since we might so easily
be suspected of having personal objects in view.
We have therefore confined ourselves to the diffe-
rent views which have been dealt with in the
late discussions upon it, and we must own that
they are seriously perplexing. We hate Excise
duties, as all Englishmen since the days of
WALPOLE are bound to do. We hate interference
with trade, and therefore question whether the
interference of the Excise with paper manufacture
can be compared, in point of annoyance, with that
of Mr. ;GLADSTONE'S compensating 'petty
charges on parcels, agreements, and the like. We
are thorough free traders, but when the alternative
is to inflict a stamp tax upon every movement and
document in a warehouse, or to get rid of the
supervision of the exciseman in one manu-
facture, we hardly know which way to
decide. When we add that even if the
paper manufacturer gave us the whole benefit
of the repealed duty, it would then amount to only
one-third of a farthing on each copy of The Sun—

but, that already paper has begun to rise--it is ob-
vious that our concern, and that of our readears in
the alteration must be almost infinitesimally small.
It is indeed singular, yet on reflection not very dif-
ficult to account for, that the repeal of a duty often
raises the price of an article to what it was with
the duty upon it. Our housekeepers tell us that
they are already paying more for all those
articles of grocery, on which the duty is just
abolished. The event, therefore, alone can tell us
what will be the result in regard to paper.

A new interest is suddenly awakened in the
cause of Italy. Another fragment of intelligence
is brought to us full of stirring import. It bears
tidings in its every syllable that will thrill almost
as rapidly from the Lagunes of Venice to the
Straits of Messina, from the eastward slope of the
mountain borders of Savoy to the southernmost
valleys of the Abruzzi—almost as rapidly, we say
—quite as magically, as the news comes thrilling
to us across Europe and under the waters of the
British Channel through the wires of the electric

telegraph.
GARIBALDI has eluded the vigilance of the offi-
cials of the Sardinian Government, and is off (by
sea) to Sicily, there to place himself (if he can but
land) at the head of the insurgents.
It is scarcely possible, in our hearts and
consciences, not to have some lingering
doubt as to the genuine earnestness of the
opposition affected towards this movement of
GARIBALDI by a Government ministerially presided
over by Count CAVOUR, and owning allegiance to
King VICTOR EMMANUEL. The emissaries of
the Sardinian Sovereign, we cannot but conjecture,
have aeted in this matter with a little more "dis-
cretion" than those agents (at Tortosa) of Queen
ISABELLA, who are said to have temporarily embar-
rassed her Most Catholic Majesty's councils by their
officious capture of the Conde de MONTEMOLIN and
his brother Don FERDINAND. Don't we all remem-
ber that true Talleyrandist maxim to your ingenu-
ous sucking diplomatist—Pas de zele. They are
said to have lacked this the highest gift of all to
a Government official, those over-eager Spanish
police or Bens-darmes: who were (it is true) told
to seize, if possible, upon the Carlist Princes, but
who ought (it is said) to have rather connived at
their escape with, it may be, a subsequent
" show" ;of indignation! Not thus blunderingly
overzealous have been the Genoese officials set to
watch GARIBALDI'S movements—to dog his foot-
steps and prevent his embarking on his Sicilian
axpedition —in the name of the Sardinian Govern-
ment. Quoth the semi-official Patric of last
evening, in announcing GARIBALDI'S departure
during the night between the sth and 6th
instant: " The Piedmontese Government had
ordered all arms and ammunition which
had been deposited at Quarto, near Genoa, to be
seized, and had also given orders for the port of
Genoa to be watched." Yes—" given orders"—
no doubt of it ; but orders not for one moment
seriously intended to be obeyed ! And so this
" Quarto" edition of the Book of Fate for Italy is
fairly opened. And we shall doubtless soon learn

now in what manner General GARIBALDI is bent

upon turning over a new leaf. " The expeditionary
vessel which had taken her papers for Malta,
had put out to sea two days previously :"
adds the Patrie—which thereupon thus completes
the story of these admirably preconcerted
arrangements, " General GARIBALDI joined the
vessel immediately afterwards, which instead of
proceeding to Malta went to Sicily." It is
amusing to read on : " The Piedmonteso Govern-

meat made every possible protest against this
act of General GARIBALDI." So did H. R. H. the
Duke of CLARENCE, as Lord High Admiral of
England when writing his famous official despatch
to Admiral CODRINGTON. But the sailor Royal

Highness took good care to add to that despatch
the pithy pencilled postcript of " Go it

NED !" And thence, in some measure, the
glorious victory of Navarino. A victory gained
like two of NELSON'S great achievements
contrary to orders, namely, St. Vincent (that got
the man Sir HORATIO disobeyed an earldom) and

Copenhagen, preceded by that signal of recal from
the flagship in the offing, that made Lord NELSON

swear, as he put his glass to his blind eye, " I'm

d-d if I can see it." GARIBALDI seems to have

gone off with a similar expletive. And as the ex-
peditionary vessel, chartered for Malta, but really

bound for Sicily, fades out of sight from the Bay

of Genoa, we might almost hear wafted after

him a bidding like that we have but just

now quoted, as pencilled by WILLIAM IV. to Sir

EDWARD CODE INGTON.

Farther news as to GARIBALDI'S movements
Sicily-wards comes to us through the °pint'lne

Nationale. It is thus significant :—" The different
vessels belonging to General GARIBALDI's expedi-
tion will wait off the island of Capraji." They will
thence proceed, we are given to understand, to
their warlike destination. Although they are yet

but in transitu, as when NAPOLEON BONAPARTE set

sail for Frejus, and again fifteen years afterwards

p§.

lUNIi,

for Cannes—we may now, as our fathers might then
have said-:—Alea jacta est. Whether it will or
will not hit the mark is wholly another ques-
tion. Time will speedily pronounce. We can
only wait and hearken for the next intelli-
gence. Certain while we are doing so that the
Neapolitan officials and their subordinates along
the coast of Sicily will watch more
..vigilantly as
to GARIBALDI'S movements than the emissaries of
the Piedmontese Government. It is not a trifle,
however, that will make a man like GARIBALDI
retrace his footsteps. So that the Neapolitans may
pretty confidently look out for squalls, now that
the most daring soldier of Italy and his comrades
are " on the sea," like the French sung of, in the
Celtic ballad, by the Shan-van-Waugh ? So conscious
are the Neapolitans themselves of the imminence of
this juncture that we find General BALZANO de-
manding upon the instant a reinforcement of fiv e
thousand men in consequence of the threatening
expedition under GARIBALDI now looming from
the direction of Genoa in aid of the Sicilian incur_
gents.

In the meanwhile, as if to complicate still fur-
ther the already, we might fancy sufficiently, en-
tangled thread of the destinies of the Italian penin-
sula—while VICTOR EMMANUEL'S Government is
yet declaring for, what it has so long declared itself
in favour of, viz., Italian Emancipation, at the very
moment that its agents are striving (to all sip:
pearances) to retard, if not absolutely to prevent
GARIBALDI'S expedition in aid of the Sicilian in-
surgents—what is the last phase in the tortuous
policy pursued all along towards Italy and the
Italians by that wily Prince across the Channel,
who is assuredly the very incarnation of the master-
treatise of MACHIAVELLI ? Why, actually the
French EMPEROR and his Government, after
strengthening the hands of King VICTOR
EMMANUEL, to accept from himself (NAPOLEON
III.) as a gift the fair and beautiful plains of Lom-
bardy, and to seize afterwards:in succession Parma,
and Modena, and Tuscany, and Bologna, and the
whole of the Romagna—has now wonderful to tell
presented a couple of rifle cannon and a large
quantity of ammunition to the Papal Army, under
General DE LAMORICIERE! " A house divided
against itself"—we know the rest of the holy
dictum. Between two stools—but the proverb's some-
what musty. We can onlywatch the course of these
events, and marvel as to the time of the on-coming
of the catastrophe. SHAKSPERE, who has words
apropos to almost everything—has described in a
memorable phrase the doom of ",vaulting ambition."
We only look for the next leap in the dark—(the
last one landed in Savoy)—watching curiously and
quite confidently as to the result of. the final sum-
mersault.

HER 211Af.ESTrs FRIGATE BURY ALUS.

PLYMOUTH, WEDNESDAY, 10 A.M.

Her Majesty's screw steam frigate Euryalus, 51,
Capt. Tarleton, is now leaving the Sound, under
canvass, for Madeira and the Cape of Good Hope.
Wind S.W. ; moderate.