The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-16 00:00:00

THE ,''SITN,P7iLONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY 716, 1860

be wafted to the four quarters from Printing-
house-square as well as from . certain myste-
rious regions on the other side of the

Channel—and that the " Woe !" pronounced by the

Times upon Indian Finance very recently, while it

had. in it much of the shrillness and the resonance,

had about it none whatever of the prescience, of
CASSANDRA. The identical organ that affected but
a few weeks back to sound inexorably and irrevo-
cably the fate of the revenues of Hindostan is now
breathing balmy prophecies of good in the self-

same direction. "So runs the world away"—so
trundles on that Wheel of Fortune, the Times, with

a bias only in perpetual oscillation, swerving now
to the right, now to the left, startling (those who
watch its course) the more effectually by reason of
*the very suddenness of its eccentric deflections.

The truth is now, in regard to the prospects of
our Indian Empire—not that Young Hindostan is
likely very soon to be a bankrupt, but rather than
this that he has every reasonable chance of be-

coming a millionaire. The enterprise now adven
tured upon in that, the most magnificent of all our
greet colonial possessions, has been entered into by
oar statesmen boldly, resolutely, and comprehen-
sively. The reorganisation there undertaken is no
mere piecemeal labour, but absolutely a work of re-
construction and rehabilitation. We are building
up there a new system of government, of adminis-
tration, of finance, of education, and all de novo,
all ab initio, all from the very foundations. It is
only yesterday, so to speak, that like the voice of
the old BOURBON herald calling aloud from the
window of the Tuileries, Le Roi est mort ! Five le
Roi ! the Legislature of England caused the sceptre
of the East to pass from the dying grasp of the
Old Company into the gentle hand.of our beloved
SOVEREIGN. A perfectly new epoch dates from
that point of time for Hindostan. From the throne
down wards the changes instituted in our Anglo-
Indian empire are becoming every day more and
more apparent. The Government of that empire,
we all know, is henceforth not that administered
by the H.E.1.C., but that administered by the
representatives, the delegates, the officials, and the
employees of the Sovereign of these realms. The
banner there upheld as the symbol of authority is
no other than the royal standard. The Ad-
ministration is to assume a different title out
there, and the policy it is to carry out is to be as
novel as its designation. The army is henceforth
no longer composed of the Company's but of the
Queen's soldiers. The various public departments
are to be entirely rearranged. Beyond this, how-
ever, India, it is now seen, is to be forthwith sub-
jected to a system of revised taxation, while at the
same time the system of our relations with the native
Courts is to be thoroughly and completely trans-
formed. How it is proposed to carry out the
two last mentioned changes, namely, the changes
in the scheme of taxation and the changes in
our system of relations with the native Courts
of ' Hindostan, may here, in a few words, be
very readily indicated. It is not proposed, as it
was hitherto believed to have been projected, that
the emptied treasury should be replenishel by the
imposition of an income-tax. And it is proposed
that one of the most obnoxious taxes of all among
the Asiatic populations, to wit, the salt tax, so far
from being remitted altogether, or at any rate very
considerably diminished, shall actually be increased
by 20 per cent. additional duty. Here apparently are
two sources of regret, if not of actual discontent. It
seems naturally desirable that, by some such means
as an equitably arranged income-tax or property-
tax, the wealthier classes, those who can best afford
it, should pay their important quota to the coffers
" fl—ornment. It seems, on the other hand,
no less naturally desirable that the poor toiling Hin-
doo population should not be subjected to 20 per
cent. additional impost upon salt. As our
chief morning contemporary, however, admi-
rably puts it :—" As an explanation of
the measure it is stated, that whereas seven years
ago the average amount of salt duty paid annually
by a single individual represented two days and a-
half's wages of a working man, labour has now so
improved in value that one day's work has become
the equivalent of the tax for the year. A more
effectual counterpoise is the increased cheapness
and facility of the means of carriage. When salt
had to be carried in bullock carts or on camels,
every 100 miles or distance more than doubled its
price; it can now be carried by railway to all the
principal stations of India, and its price at Delhi
or at Agra will be much less, even with the in-
creased duty, than it was five years since. Doubt-
less, therefore, upon this calculation, even the pro-
posed augmentation will leave the duty ac-
tually lighter than it was in 1853 ; and, if
some expedient can be devised for obtaining
from the wealthier classes of the natives a
proportionate contribution to the necessities of
the State, the new system, on the whole, will be
justifiable. Every Hindoo," adds our contempo-
rary " should pay his share, and it is only by the
salt duty that the Hindoo pays anything ; but it is
really desirable, in the interests of common justice,
that the opulent merchants and money-dealers of
India should not escape, as they have hitherto
done, from the taxation to which other classes
submit." Comments, these, so sufficient of themselves
upon the matter under consideration that not a
syllable further need be added to them. As to
the entirely new relations established between the
native courts of India and the Supreme Government
—suffice it to say, that while these unquestionably
render the Princes of Hindostan more independent
(securing to them feudal authority within the
limits of their own dominions) they also thereby
ensure their loyalty—rendering each native Prim;
a Feudatory to the Crown—binding them all to
allegiance—elevating above them all, to an absolute
supremacy, the power and Majesty of the British
Sovereign.

The date of the arrival in town, for the London
season, of her Majesty, the Prince Consort, the Royal
Family, and the ladies and gentlemen of the Court, will,
it is said, be the 15th of February.—Court Journal.
The absence of Sir George Grey from the Cabinet
Couneil, held on Tuesday last, was caused by indisposition.
The right hon. baronet had been attacked by illness the
previous week, and was under medical care and treatment.
—Court Jour It al.

His Highness the Maharajah Duleep Singh has
arrived at Claridge's Hotel, from visiting the Duke and
Duchess of Sutherland at Trentham.

His Excellency the Ambassador of France and
the Countess de Persigny arrived at Albert-gate House on
Saturday, from visiting the Duke and Duchess of Beaufort,
at Badminton. His Excellency and the Countess de Per-
signy will leave town to-morrow on a visit to her Majesty,
at Windsor Castle.

His Excellency Earl Cowley arrived at Claridge's
Hotel on Saturday, from visiting Lord and Lady Ebury, at
Moor Park, Rickmansworth.
The Duke and Duchess of Marlborough are ex-
fleeted in town in a few days from Blenheim Palace.
The Duke and Duchess of Manchester have been
entertaining a select circle at Kimbolton Castle during the
past week.
The Lord Chucellor and the Baroness S rathc den
entertained a select circle at dinner on Saturday evening,
ut Stratheden House, Knightsbridge.
The Earl and Countess of Clarendon and the
Ladies Villiers have returned to the The Grove, near Wat-
ford, from visiting her Majesty at Windsor Castle.
The Earl and Countess of Winchilsea and Lady
Florence Paget left Badminton on Saturday for their scat,
Emtwell, near Ashford.

LATEST' NEWS.

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

MADRID, JAN. 15.
The following despatch from the Spanish army
in Morocco has been published :

Since yesterday we have been masters of all the
positions of Calea Negro.
After having obtained a complete victory we are
commanding all the heights of the valley of
Tetuan.

We shall be before that place as soon as the
artillery is able to pass.

PARIS, JAN. 15.

It is stated that the French Government is about
to proceed against the Society of St. Vince de Paul,
the most important Catholic charitable association
in France, and that the Minister of the Interior
has already informed all the public functionaries
that they must choose between remaining members
of that association and retaining their offices as
public functionaries.

It is also reported that the Papal Nuncio delivered
yesterday to M. Baroche a note of the Papal Go-
vernment, dated January the 7th, containing a
formal and official protest against the programme
of the pamphlet Ie Pape et le Congres.
Abbe Compieta, who was the bearer of the note,
left Rome on the evening of the 7th instant, three
days after the letter of the Emperor of the French
had been received by His Holiness.

•

showed a slight downward tendency. Ashes firm ;
coffee firm. _

Cotton firm, at full prices. Middling uplands
was quoted 11e. Flour buoyant, and 5 to 10 cents
dearer ; -wheat quiet, but firm ; iron quiet ; spirits
of turpentine inactive, but firm ; provisions dull ;
sugar very firm, and a, higher. Freights un-
changed.

NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 3.

The cotton market stiffer, but prices unchanged.
Sales to-day 15,000 bales, and during the last three
days 31,000, Receipts in the same time 33,500
bales. Increased receipts at port 359,000 bales.
Freights to Liverpool 9-16ths.

MOBILE, Jan. 3.

Sales of cotton to-day, 3,500 bales ; ditto during
three days, 9,000. Receipts in the same time
18,250. Middling, 101 dollars. Sterling Ex-
change, 7 premium.
_ _

QUEENSTOWN, Monday.

The Royal Mail steam-Ship America arrived here
at 11.30 last night, embarked mails and proceeded
at one this morning for Halifax and Boston. All
well.

INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL

.RRFORMS IN FRANCE.

The Moniteur of yesterday publishes the follow-
ing most important letter addressed by the Empe-
ror to the Minister of State

PALACE OF THE TUILERIES, JAN. 5.
Monsieur le Ministre,—Despite the uncertainty
which still prevails on certain points of foreign
policy, a pacific solution may confidently be looked
forward to. The moment has therefore come to
occupy ourselves with the means of giving a great
impulse to the various branches of the national
wealth.

I address to you with that object the bases of a
programme, some portions of which will have to
receive the approval of the Chambers, and upon
which you will concert with your colleagues so as
to prepare the measures most suited to give a
lively impulse to agriculture, to industry, and to
commerce.

For a long time this truth has been proclaimed,
that the means of exchange must be multiplied to
render commerce flourishing ; that without compe-
tition industry remains stationary and maintains
high prices, which are opposed to the progress of
consumption ; that without a prosperous industry,
which developer capital, agriculture itself remains
in infancy. Everything, therefore, is bound up in
the successive development of the elements of pub-
lic prosperity. But the essential question is to as-
certain within what limits the State ought to favour
these diverse interests, and what order of preference
it ought to grant to each.
Thus, before developing our foreign commerce by
the exchange of produce, it is necessary to improve
our agriculture, and to liberate our industry from
all internal impediments which place it in condi-
tions of inferiority. At the present day, not only
are our great enterprises impeded by a host of
restrictive regulations, but even the welfare of
those who work is far from having attained the
development which it has attained in a neighbour-
ing country. There is, therefore, only a general
system of good political economy which can, by
creating a national wealth, spread comfort among
the working classes.
In that which relates to agriculture, you must
make it share in the benefits of the institutions of
credit, clear the forests situated in the plains, and
replant the hills, devote annually a considerable
sum to great works of drainage, irrigation, and
clearage. These works, transforming the unculti-
vated districts into cultivated lands, will enrich the
districts without impoverishing the State, which
will cover its advance by the sale of a portion of
those lands restored to agriculture.
To encourage industrial production you must
liberate from every tax all raw material indispens•
able to industry, and allow it, exceptionally and at
a moderate rate, as has already been done for agri-
culture on drainage, the funds necessary to perfect
its material.

One of the greatest services to be rendered to the
country is to facilitate the transport of articles of
first necessity to agriculture industry. I, itai
this object, the Minister of Public Works will cause
to be executed as promptly as possible the means of
communication, canals, roads, and railways, whose
main object will be to convey coal and manure to
the districts where the wants of production require
them, and will endeavour to reduce the tariffs by
establishing an equitable competition between the
canals and railways.
The encouragement to commerce by the multi-
plication of the means of exchange will then follow
as a natural consequence of the preceding mea-
sures. The successive reduction of the duty on
articles of great consumption will then be a neces-
sity, as also the substitution of protecting duties
for the prohibitive system which limits our com-
mercial relations.
By these measures agriculture will find a market
for its produce ; industry, set free from internal
impediments, assisted by the Government, and
stimulated by competition, will compete advantage-
ously with foreign produce, and our commerce, in-
stead of languishing, will receive a new impulse.
Desiring, above all things, that order may be
maintained in our finances, observe how, without
disturbing the equilibrium, these ameliorations
might be obtained :
The conclusion of the peace has allowed us not to
exhaust the amount of the loan. There remains
disposable a considerable sum, which, joined to other
resources, amounts to about 160,000,000 f. In ask-
ing from the Legislative Body permission to apply
this sum to great public works, and by dividing it
into three annuities, it would give about 50,000,000 f.
annually to add to the considerable sums already
annually carried to the budget.
This extraordinary resource will facilitate to us
not only the prompt completion of the railways,
canals, means of navigation, roads, and ports, but it
will also allow us to restore in less time our cathe-
drals, our churches, and worthily to encourage
science, letters, and the arts.
To compensate for the loss which the Treasury
will for the moment suffer by the reduction of duties
on raw materials and on goods of great consump-
tion, our budget offers the resource of the sinking
fund, which it will suffice to suspend until the pub-
lic revenue, increased by the augmentation of com-
merce, allows the sinking fund to be again brought
into play.
Thus, to resume :—Suppression of duty on wool
and cotton ;

Successive reducticn on sugar and coffee ;
An energetic improvement in the means of corn-

munication ;
Reduction of canal dues, consequently general re-
duction in the means of conveyance ;
Loans to agriculture and industry ;
Considerable works of public utility ;
Suppression of prohibitions ;
Treaties of commerce with the foreign Powers ;
Such are the general bases of the programme to
which I beg of you to call the attention of your
colleagues, who will have to prepare, without delay,
the projects of law destined to realise them. It
will obtain, I am fully convinced, the patriotic sup-
port of the Senate and of the Legislative Body,
jealous of inaugurating with me a new era of peace
and of assuring its benefits to France.
Whereupon I pray God to have you in His holy
k epin g. NAPOLEON.

A IT,T Rik N RULE IN ITa Is.— A curious docu-
ment has found its way into the English papers illustrative
of the mild rule of Austria in Italy. In 1819 an Austrian
flag, ostentatiously exhibited on the Emperor's birthday
from the house of a person of doubtful reputation at Milan,
was hissed and pelted by the Italians. A street row ensued,
52 persons, including two girls of less than 20 years of age,
were arrested' and 20 wero ordered to receive 30, 40, or 50
blows. Marshal Itadetsky sent the bill for the infliction of
this bastinado to the municipal authorities a Milan, and
the account including bandages, medical attendance, and
the purchase of 100 sticks employed in the punishment, is
now published. The crime, as stated by the authorities,
is that of " scandalous political demonstrations." The
Austrians are infamous all over the world as " women,
beaters." For ourselves we do not object to women-beat..
ing men being well-flogged,—in fact wo should be glad to
see this punishment revived to-morrow. An Italian, how-
ever, raises an objection to his country-women being beaten
by thee 'rders of an Austrian soldier, and the expense
charged to an Italian municipal body,—Derbyshire
CO