The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-13 00:00:00

cup 0f i.,;_le Budget, ':then we come at last to the
s i:i the shape of flint poisonous copperas
bitterpro d u cde rae
by those g ten II asant pennies lying
there all the while at t,l::::Pbottom of it ! If the
Dut dropped ont of the
eighteen months were
Treaty—if those ten obn o:Lious pennies could
but be eliminated from the Budget the
whole double project would lie xendered so very
different ! But there they at e, i.O spite •of all our
wishing, and there they will yenta in until the 20th
inst., to be taken upon the mining of that day by
the_House of Commons into ser.lous consideration.
Restricting our remarks here to the conideration
of the Treaty, we cannot but dirt let especial atten-
tion at this moment when th ere is an inter-
val for calm reflection out of a. oors before the
terms of the Treaty can be discustted within the
walls of the House of Commons--we cannot, we
say, during this pause but hasten to direct particu-
lar attention to an astounding argument put for-
ward this morning in reference to the Treaty by
one of the recognised organs of the Ares svt Govern-
ment.. It is an extraordinary argument, Advanced
in the following extraordinary terms by ate chief
of our morning contemporaries :—" A Treaty of
Commerce," it is there observed, " has been con-
cluded with France. We will not here reopen the
question as to the poliey of that Treaty or of the
different provisions which it contains. We will not
stop to inquire whether the duty on French wines
' can fairly be characterized as a protection to Bri-
tish wines, or whether it be wise to contract that
we will impose no export duty upon coal, or to re-
eognize in express terms the differential 'duties on
French shipping. The Treaty, whatever be its
merits or its defects, has been concluded and rati-
fied, and it seems to us perfectly clear that, all
circumstances considered, Parliament cannot take
upon itself to annul the Treaty by refusing its aid
towards the fulfilment of its conditions. The power
is, no doubt, expressly reserved, but it would require
a much stronger case than can be made out to in-
duce the repudiation of an agreement involving
such high political and social, as- well as finan-
cial considerations." Now, we have yet to learn
that such a course as this is—we will put it quite
plainly—we have yet to learn that such a course as
th is is, strictly speaking, even Constitutional! Ac-
cordi."ag to the reasoning here put forward in the
name aL` d on behalf of the Cabinet the power reserved
orial Legislature, the power, namely
be denied to it !), of confirming the
toth theat
couldl ilso:.
conclusion and 2.atificatiou of the Treaty is coolly
pronounced to be a deliberate farce—a mere form. of
words just signifying nothing. Nominally, the House
of Commons has the power—but practically it is ut-
terly powerless ! A declaration certainly, in its way,
quite " in keeping" with the amazing self-possession
with which Lord JOHN RUSSELL on Friday night de-
precated any remarks in the House of Commons that
might be disagreeable to the French Government !
At this rate the House of Commons—the most au-
gust political tribunal in the whole world—would fain
be rendered dumb in speech and paralysed in action
by the blighting influence of a secretly concocted
document, a document which it must accept, and
that it cannot object to ! Against any policy such
as this guiding the proceedings of any Ministers in
regard to the British House of Commons, there is
surely not one independent citizen in this vast and
noble empire who will not protest in his heart's
core as at once insensate and unconstitutional.

removed, or that French paper shout pay a duty
hero. French sellers of rags have a d right also to
demand this of their imperial master.
But the grand error of the Budget, the one which
ought to prove fatal to it, in its present form, is the
additional attack on income, parallel with the
sparing of property. We refer, of course, to the
Legacy and Probate duties. Granted that bills
incurred must be paid, and that, if necessary, even
an income tax must pay them ;—granted that our
hugely increased expenditure since 1853 exonerates
Mr. GLADSTONE from censure for his failure to
abolish the tax this year, in accordance with his
own proposal seven . years ago yet nothing
can excuse resorting to the barbarous de-
vice of an equal income tax, but the fact
of all other taxes having been first equitably
adjusted. Now, the iniquitously unjust inequality
of the legacy and probate duties is matter of noto-
riety. Mr. GLADSTONE had himself to confess that
his own succession duty did not produce half what
it ought ; in other words, the rate of duty, not
being the same as that on other property, it pro-
duced so much less. Why should not the succes-
sion duty to £l,OOO a year from land be the same
as that from £l,OOO in the funds or from any other
1 Source ? But not only is the legacy duty on real
property shamefully low compared with that on other
roperty, but real property is exempt from probate
p
altogOlter ! Welwrite without a fresh examination
of the details, but from former investigations we
have reason to believe that if real property paid
probate duty, And a legacy duty equal to that on
personal propen`y, this alone might cut down the
tenpenny tax to fi\-epence; and reduction of expen-
diture, and increased i•evenue from Customs, stamps,
&c., would in a year o.l' two have abolished the

other fivepence.
There is one man in the h'uuse of Commons to
whom the country looks, and jus.4lY so, to demand
justice for it in regard to theso taxes. JOHN
BRIGHT has the ear of tho hou.v) has the
.°NE) to
power, as much as Mr. GLADSI
t and
put a strong case in a strong ligh ,
JOHN BRIGHT has spoken boldly in public on the
subject. It is a taunt against him by his adversarit:
that he is bold enough in the Free Trade Hall or
the Town Hall, but gentle as a dove, when face to
face with the aristocracy in the House of Commons.
Now, if ever, he has an opportunity to hurl
back the taunt upon his antagonists. He has
done two things as a legislator—two thoroughly
right things —he has proposed a pro-
perty tag in place of an income tax, and
he has exposed in the most withering style the in-
equalities and unrighteousness of the present Legacy
and Probate Duties. Let him now come forward
and redeem in the house the pledges thus publicly
given out of it. It cannot be deemed factious oppo-
sition—he need not ask Mr. GLADSTONE to give up
a penny;of the sum demanded for the year ensuing ;
but he is bound to ask him to raise the money in
a way simply honest to all parties.
Mr. GLADSTONE as well as Mr. BRIGHT has
acknowledged also the injustice of the income tax
in regard to taxing equally incomes of such dif-
ferent value, as those derived from property, and
those earned by the labour of the brain or the
hands. Mr. BRIGHT has spared no terms of de-
nunciation in diminishing the odiousness of an in-
come tax. Is it then too much to expect that one
should demand on behalf of the country, that legacy
and probate duties be equalized, and to that extent
the income tax reduced, and for Mr. GLADSTONE to
concede the point. If Mr. BRIGHT will take this
course he will stand higher than ever with the
nation. If he do not sustain his consistency he
must sink lower. We hope he will not disappoint
his friends.

THE T_HEATBES.

COVENT GARDEN THEATRE.
Auber's charming opera of the Crown Dia-
monds" was played on Friday last, in which Miss
Pyne and Mr. W. Harrison sustained-their original
parts. The following distinguished visitors have
lately honoured the 'opera with • their presence :
His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange and
suit®, the Duke and Duchess of Roxburgh°,
the Duke ,and Duchess of Somerset, the Earl
and Countesc of Elgin, Viscount Torrington,
Viscount Exmouth, Viscount Ranelagh, the
Duchess of Inverness, Lady John Russell,
Lady John Somerset, Lady Blanche Balfour, Lady
Mary Wood, Countess of Mountcharles, Hon. Mr.
and Mrs. Dudley Ward, Lady Elizabeth Bulteel,
Lady Cunningham, Lady Francis Thelluson, Lord
and Lady G. Seymour, Lord and Lady H. Thynne,
Lady Anne Becket, Lord and Lady Methuen, Lady
Francis Gordon, Lady Meux, Viscount Holmes-
dale, Hon. Sir C. Phipps, Colonel Wheatley, Sir
F. Roe, Sir Charles Hare, Colonel Wynyard, Lady
Dufferin, Hon. S. Barrington, Sir John and Lady
Pakington, Captain Wellesley, Colonel Dickson,
Lady Theresa Lewis, Hon. Charles Neville, Hon.
Mrs. Carnegie, Mr. Stuart Wortley, Mr. Farquhar,
Mr. H. Greville, &c.

Several days of breathless suspense and profound
uncertainty must now elapse before the House of
Commons can enter upon the discussion of the
varied, numerous, and important propositions sub-
mitted to it on Friday evening by the Chancellor
of the Exchequer. During the course of this pre-
sent week every one of those propositions will be
weighed and scrutinized—separately and together
—in the councils of a powerful Opposition. On
Wednesday afternoon there will be a meeting of
Lord DERBY'S supporters. Until then each of the
Conservative members will deliberate the matter in
his own judgment independently. Not until the
middle of the week will the Parliamentary tactics
of the Opposition be unfolded even to its own
view by the leaders of that Opposition. Possibly
not until the middle of the week will those
tactics be decided upon. At any rate on Wednes-
day afternoon, and not earlier, the great party act-
ing under the chieftainship of Lord DERBY and Mr.
DISRAELI will hear from ;the lips of those leaders
what is precisely the course which it is deemed best
shall be pursued in regard to the BUDGET and the
Treaty by her MAJESTY'S Opposition. Neither in
all this, nor yet in a single syllable that fell from
the mouth of any one of the occupants of the front
bench of the Opposition can we recognise indications
of reprehensible party-spirit or of reckless precipi-
tation. The circumstances are in themselves too
grave in truth to admit of either the one
or the other—of an overweening eagerness to
seize at all risks upon a party triumph, or of
a rash determination at all hazards to jump at some
wished-for conclusion—whether in the inner coun-
cils of a group of conscientious statesmen, or in the
throng of three hundred patriotic English gen-
. tlemcn. The very solicitude evinnd at once by
• the Leader of the Opposition, immediately upon

the close of Mr. GLADSTONE'S elaborate and br:

liant exposition both of the Commercial Treaty and
the Financial Statement, the desire which was
then instantaneously expressed by Mr. DISRAELI
to obtain at least a fortnight's delay after the oral
delivery of the Budget by the Chancellor of the
Exchequer and the manual laying of the Treaty
upon the table of the House by the Foreign See-

rotary, ere the Commons should be called
upon to discuss the Treaty and Budget toge-
ther—certainly manifested quite plainly a calm
and dispassionate recognition of the impor-
tance of both, on the side of the Opposition.
It argued, at any rate, no unfair anxiety to hasten
the discussion. Judging from these and other im-
portant antecedents, the country has reason to rely,
at the very least, upon this—that whatever course
be taken by the Opposition, eventually, in regard
to the Treaty and the Budget, will be adopted
conscientiously, with an eye rather to patriotic
than to any mere party considerations, a course in
every way decided upon only after the most mature
and deliberate consideration.
The BUDGET, as a development of Frce-
trade in England—the TREATY, as a develop-
ment of Free-trade in the direction of France,
cannot, of course, when so regarded, cannot,
by any possibility, when viewed as such—
namely, as distinct developments of the Free-trade
, system and of Free-trade principles, be regarded
otherwise by us than as most acceptable. It is
only when we come to those eighteen months in
advan-
tages are to be reciprocated the Treaty—when p
r(obeuatt
endobt y until Fran when)France—that
t h a t
w e
be-
gin to wince at our bargain, that we begin with a
qualm of hesitation to turn over the dubious docu-
ment. Just as we make a wry face after swallowing
so many of the saccharine ingredients in the mingled

TUE 5(31‘:4, LONDON, MONDAY " EITENINO; FEBRUARY

LATEST NEWS.

The following telegrams have been received at
Mr. Reutor's office

PARIS, MONDAY, FEB. 13.

The Moniteur of to-day says, yesterday the
Sardinian Minister Chevalier Desambrois, pre•
sented his letters of recall to the Emperor.

MADRID, FEB. 11.
Marshal O'Donnell has addressed a congratula-
,ory speech to the army.

GENOA, FEB. 11.

Letters from Naples to the Bth inst. announce
the following as the probable list of the new mi-
nistry :
Prince Cassaro President of the Council
and Minister for Foreign
Affairs.
Prince Commitini .. Civil Affairs.
Signor Savarese .... Finances.
Bonnucci Justice.
„ Spinelli .... Public Works.
„ Ronzelli .... Interior.

7 7 -
The new battalions, composednartly of foreigners
and partly of Neapolitans, had been organised.
15,000 municipal guards had been mobilised in the
Abruzzo.

Yesterday the King reviewed the troops, who
were in marching order.
It was reported that his Majesty had ordered
General Pinelli, in case of need, to act in concert
with the Pope's General, Mayerhofer.

TURIN, FEB. 11.

The Opiniona says :--" The question of the new
vote to be given by Cent. al Italy is not yet resolved.
The deputies shortly to be elected will assemble
probably to confirm the preceding deliberations, and
to declare that they will take their seats in the Par-
liament at Turin.' Count Cavour has despatched a
letter to Baron Ricasoli explaining the reasons
which counsel adherence to the proposal for•new
deliberations :on the question of annexation."

ROME, Fin. 10.

In a proclamation General Goyon expresses the
hope that the carnival will pass by without any dis-
turbance. He relies on the intelligence of the in-
habitants. Political outries will be prohibited, and
riotois assemblages will be dispersed.
The Papal Government has arrested the supposed
leader of the late manifestations.

The furloughs granted to French soldiers have
been suspended.

PARIS, FEB. 11.
The Paris papers publish the following message,
dated _

ANTIBES, Feb. 11

The Ave nir of Nice has been seized for an article
on the popular manifestations published in its num-
ber of the 10th inst.

PARIS, FEB. 12,

The Atoniteur of today contains the following:—
" The Journal dee Debate has announced, on the
authority of the Corriere Mercantile di Genoa, that
the French army, having lost 6,000 men in the last
six months, is about to receive reinforcements
amounting to 15,000 men. The sanitary state of
the army is excellent. The deaths which have been
announced do not exceed the ordinary average mor-
tality. It is also false that typhus fever prevails in
the hospitals. The furlough granted to soldiers
wounded or in ill health in consequence of our
glorious campaign has caused vacancies which it
was natural to fill up, but it has not yet been done."

FLENSBURG, SUNDAY,

Twenty-six deputies, being a large majority of
the members of the Diet, have signed an address to
the King, of which the following is a summary :
The Royal orainance of January, 1852, has hardly _
satisfied the smallest portion of our, expectations ;
even the assurances which it contained have gene-
ralli not been fUlfilled. Instead of the equal rights
promised.to the different natiorialities, the German
one has been forcibly suppressed.
jA complete re-,
turn to the lawful state can aione givistitisractiOn
to the nation. The ordinance of 1852, not referring
to Holstein alone, but also to tchlesWig, the laws
which were abolished in Holst6in in November,
1858, and the general constitution of 1855, cannot
be any more applied to Schleswig..
The members of the Diet then refer to the decla-
ration of Denmark, communicated to the Federal
Diet of Germany in September, 1846, by which the
union of Schleswig and Holstein was recognised,
and they formally protest against any separation
of Schleswig from Holstein.
This address to the King will be discussed by the
Diet on Tuesday next.

TETUAN, FEB. 1.
To-day Marshal O'Donnell made a reconnaisance
on the road to Fez, two miles from Tetuan,
General Prim has also directed a reconnaisanes
towards another point.
The population have received the Spanish army
in a friendly manner.
The debris of the Moroccan army are scattered
on the different roads leading to Fez and Tangiers.

CONSTANTINOPLE, DEB. 4 (via Trieste

Since the departure of M. Thouvenel a great
change has taken place in the relations of the am-
bassadors. The French charge d'affaires has
scarcely had any intereourse with the Russian am-
bassador, who has frequent conferences with the
Austrian internuncio. Sir Henry Bulwer has had
several conferences with Count Lallemand.
The financial committee intends proposing taxes
oil registration.' and patents.
Thirty-two million piastres of Turkish caime
have been withdrawn from circulation and burnt.
The Prussian ambassador has expressed himself
against the tax on house rents.

13, 1860.

meat in favour of the dethroned Princes in the
Duchies, Austria cannot retract from the en-
gagements taken at Villafranca and from the
stipulations signed at Zurich, and conse-
quently admit de jure facts contrary to those
engagements and to
_the treaty between France
and Austria. If the Treaty. of Zurich is respected
as regards Venetia, why should it not also be re-
spected as regards the Duchies ? If the propositions
of England are carried out it is a great experiment
that is about to be made in Central Italy. Austria
will not oppose that experiment by force of arms,
convinced that events will not fail soon to give sup-
Iport to the cause of right and justice."

AMERICA.

QUEENSTOWN, SUNDAY.

The Royal Mail steam-ship Europa nrrived here
at 11 a.m., embatkea mails, and proceeded at 6.30
p.m. for Halifax anfl. Boston. All well.
The Royal Mail steam-ship Africa, Capt. Shan-
non, with New York mails of the Ist of February
passed here at 2.30 p.m: to-day.

WEST COAST OF AFRICA.

LIVERPOOL, FEB. 11.
The screw steamer Cleopatra, Croft commander,
has arrived from the West Coast of Africa, &c.,
with the usual mails; 10 passengers, including
Commissary-General Gaudet, 3,000 ounces of gold
dust, and a small cargo.
The screw steamer Armenian, hence, had arrived
at Cape Palmas, and the screw steamer Ethiope,
hence, at Madeira on the Ist of January, and left
the same evening for Teneriffe.
Her Majesty's ships Medusa and Buffalo were at
Lagos.
At Cameroons the river was healthy, but trade
dull.
The advices are of the most meagre description.
The African and Sierra Leone Weekly Adver-
tiser reports a religious 'revival in that colony, and
that vast numbers of people flocked to the house of
God twice every day.-
The Vice-Admiralty Court at Sierra Leone had
condemned the brigantine El Rosarito, which had
been detained by her Majesty's screw steamer Arro-
gant, when near the line on her-way to Ascension.
She is said to be a fine craft.
Lieut. A. C. Adams, of the Arrogant, died at
Sierra Leone on the 16th of January.
The Spanish screw steamer Palino, the first of a
monthly line of mail steamers from Cadiz, had ar-
rived at Fernando Po on the Ist of January.
Her Majesty's ship Pluto had captured on the
south coast the barque Orion, with between 500
and 600 slaves on board.
The palm oil trade on the rivers was steady, but
at Old Calabar a civil war between the Duke Town
and Creek Town people was feared.
The purser reports the gold trade as being very
dull.
The palm oil season had not commenced, but it
was expected to be a fair one.
The people in Cape Coast had been fighting
among themselves ; 15 were killed and 40 wounded.
The ringleader had been sent on board a man-of-
war to be taken to Quittan as a prisoner for two
years. Some of the natives were very indignant,
and threatened to break out again.
In the interior of the Fantee country a district
called Abrah was again in a disturbed state, the
people of a town called Doonquah having expressed
their determination no longer to submit to the
Otoo King of the district.
The fine imposed on the Crabboes of 20,000 pots of
palm oil (the pot of nine gallons) had not been paid.
Crabboe is in the district of the Gold Coast settle-
ment. The fine was imposed by the British Go-
vernment on the Crabboes in November, 1858, to
pay the expenses of an expedition undertaken by
the Government against the Crabboes to enforce
obedience.
A movement was on foot to cultivate cotton.
Six bales had been shipped at Accra for England.
The chiefs of Accra were imprisoned on the 10th of
January for not having paid the amount of the in-
demnity decreed for the ravage made by the mob at
Accra on the French factory in that town in
January, 1858.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.
Fernando Po.—The American gunboat Sumpter and the
French steamer Renaudin..
Cameroons.—T he ships lqontozuma and Elizabeth Emily.
Old Calabar.—Tho ships Rhoderick Dhu, Africa, and
Clan Grogor.
Bonny.—The Mississippi, the Mary, tho Woodman, and
the Fanny.
Grand Bonny.—The Pomona, the Mary Black, and the
Empress ; and the steamer's ltainb9w and Fideliter. The
Elizabeth had left for this port on the 28th of December.
Sierra Leone.—The William Bonham.

THE SUSPENSE .OP EUROPE ON THE

ITALIAI QUESTIO.V.

The following is M. Peyrat's article in the Presse,
for which that journal has received the warning
spoken of by our Paris correspondent. :
The anxieties increase. • Europe is experiencing
anew that vague disquiet which precedes political
crises ; already the Italian journals, especially the
Opi:nione, the serniaathcial paper of Turin, are pub-
lishing articles entitled ". Probabilities of War."
Since the Ist of January, 1859, the public mind has
experienced such startling surprises, and undergone
such violent shocks, that'it is instinctively led to
see a storm in the smallest cloud which appears on
the horizon. Now, it is evident it may be said
without metaphor that the aspect of the political
sky is not over and above reassuring. Europe, cer-
tainly, is not in the position in which she found
herself a year ago, when Lord Cowley was going
to Vienna to try and make Austria listen to reason,
and Russia was cutting short partial negotiations,
by proposing the•meeting of a congress. However,
after having read what was said on Tuesday in the
English Parliament, we must certainly acknow-
ledge that the differences between the Cabinets are
not less serious at this day than in the month of
April last, and that the complications which led to
the war in very great measure survive it.
There is even in the language of public men and
free writers a sharpness, .and, above all, an impa-
tience, very significant, which was not to be found
in it a year ago. In some way or other everybody
would have done with it; and it seems that a mis-
chievous genius hovers over governments and
peoples to baffle all combinations and upset all cal-
culations. Before and since the war ten solutions
have been glanced at, ~proposed, accepted, and at
the last moment all have vanished like phantoms.
There is not a party which has not been vainly
irritated and rejoiced, whose fears and hopes the
events of a few days afterwards have not deceived,
which has not had, its day of enthusiasm and of
discouragement ; at tbia moment we do not know a
single one which is completely satisfied.
This is a violent state of things, and one which
weighs on men's business'As well as on their minds.
Lassitude is general, and. stronger still than
anxiety. What caused passion a year ago to-day
only causes oppressimis In the month of February,
1859, Europe had a fever ; in the month of Feb.,
1860, she has the vapours. She can do nothing but
ponder on the questions of the day, and it is impos-
sible for her to think twos days alike on the .same
subject. After the intetvie* of Villafranca she
was justified in believing that the two Emperors
had re-established between a couple of shakes of the
hand the alliance pf Austria and France, by ruining
the hopes of the Italians and raising those of the
Archdukes. She knows now that the rights of the
Archdukes, formally recognised at Villafranca and
only reserved at Zurich, are altogether abandoned,
and that the relations between the Cabinets of
Vienna and Paris are no better to-day than at the
moment when the famous speech was addressed to
M. de Hubner.
After the letter of the Emperor of the French to
M. Fould, she thought that all difference with re-
gard to essential questions had ceased between
France and England, and that by the treaty of
commerce the alliance was established on inde-
structible bases. What can she think of it after
the debates in the House of Lords, especially when
she reflects that these violent recriminations and
this explosion of dissatisfaction took place on the
occasion of a secondary question, and one which
was not even officially brought forward.
And what is more remarkable is the fact that
the hubbub -treated by.shis question of Nice and
Savoy is no less' great in Italy than in England.
In their language the. Italians are more reticent
.than the English, .for which they have excellent
reasons, but sn'the main their sentiments are the
same. We arc wrong, for the rest, to speak of the
question of Nice. For the Italians there is no
question of Nice ; on this point they' de net admit
that there is any subject-matter Fur discussion. As
for Savoy, they are Tess absolute and less unani-
mous but the setai official press has come
for ward very wildly in assertins. %l at
the immense mojelltY 9f flip §e'eoyards de-
re44ae4 theif 4tloo4;lWitl to Prance, and especially
by tres.ting as insurgents those who recently
made a demonstration of loyal attachment to the
hoese of Savoy. Not only htla tria spajoritYexhi-
bited its* WWlipk:a, .but ine separatist party is
losing ground every day. We see that it is repudis
ated by the most important and influeutiel men of
Savoy, men such as Fessigey,
verges, dg vsYqPiis Waliand, VOrax, de
411111ey, 4aillet do taint-Cergues, d'Arvillard, de