The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-25 00:00:00

THE TARIFF -INTERNAL REVENUE.

The subject of Tariff and Internal Taxation will neces- I
sarily receive your attention. The revenues of the country
are greater than the requirements, and may with safety
bo reduced ; but as the funding of the debt in a 4 or a 41
per cent. loan would reduce the annual current expenses
largely, thus, after funding, justifying a greater reduc-
tion of taxation than would be now expedient, I sug-
gest the postponement of this question until the next
meeting of Congress. It may be advisable to modify
taxation and tariff in instances where unjust or burdensome
discriminations are made by the present laws regulating
the subject. I recommend the postponement of it for the
present. I also suggest the renewal of the tax on income,
but at reduced rate, say of three per cent., and this tax to
expire in three years. With the funding of the National
Debt as here suggested, I feel safe in saying that taxes
and the revenue from imports maybe reduced safely from
sixty to eighty millions per annum at once, and may be
still further reduced from year to year, as the resources of
•the country are developed. The report of the Secretary
of the Treasury shows the receipts of the Government for
the fiscal year ending June 30, 1869, to be $370,943,747,and
the expenditures, including interest, bounties, dm., to be
$321,490,597. The estmates for the ensuing year are more
favourable to the Government, and will no doubt show
a much larger decrease of the public debt.
The receipts in the Treasury beyond expenditures have
exceeded the amount necessary to place to the credit of the
Sinking Fund as provided b 5 law. To lock up the surplus
in the Treasury, and withhold it from circulation, would
lead to such a contraction of the currency as to cripple
trade and seriously affect the prosperity of the country.
Under these circumstances, the Secretary of the Treasury
and myself heartily concurred in the propriety of using all
the surplus currency in the Treasury in the purchase of
Government Bonds, thus reducing the interest-bearing
debt of the country, and of submitting to Congress the
question of the disposition to be made of the bonds so pur-
chased. The bonds now held by the Treasury amount to
about $75,000,000, including those belonging to the Sink-
ing Fund. 1 recommend that the whole be placed to the
credit of the Sinking Fund.
Your attention is respectfully invited to the recommen-
dations of the Secretary of the Treasury for the creation
of the office of Commissioner of Customs Revenue, for

'ae increase of salary to certain classes of officials, and

the substitution of increased national bank circulation to
replace the outstanding three per cent. certificates, and
most especially to his recommendation for the repeal of
laws allowing shares of fines, penalties, forfeitures, to
officers of the Government or to informers.

The office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue is one
of the moat arduous and responsible under the Govern-
ment. It falls but little, if any, short of a Cabinet position
in its importance and responsibilities. I would ask for it,
therefore, such legislation as in your judgment will place
the office on a footing of dignity commensurate with its
importance, and with the character and qualifications of
the class of men requisite to fill it properly.
THE CASE OF CUBA.

As the United States is the freest of all nations, so, too,
the people sympathise with all peoples struggling for
liberty and self-government. But while so sympathising,
it is due to our honour that we should so abstain from en-
forcing our views upon unwilling nations, and from tak-
ing an interested part without invitation. In the quarrels
between different nations, or between Governments and
their subjects, our course should always be in confor-
mity with strict justice and law, international and local.
Such has been the policy of the Administration in dealing
with these questions. For more than a year a valuable
province of Spain and a near neighbour of ours, in whom
all our people cannot but feel a deep interest, has been
struggling for independence and freedom. The people
and Government of the United States entertain the same
warm feelings and sympathies for the people of Cuba in
their pending struggle that they manifested throughout
the previous struggles between Spain and her former colo-
nies in behalf of the latter. But the contest has at no
time assumed the conditions which amount to a war in the
sense of international law, or which would show the exis-
tence of ade facto political organiz ttion of the insurgents
sufficient to justify a recognition of belligerency. The
principle is maintained, however, that this nation is its
own judge when to accord the rights of belligerency either
to a people struggling to free themselves Lem a Govern-
ment they believe to be oppressive, or to independent na-
tions at war with each other. The United States have no
disposition to interfere with the existing relations of
Spain to her Colonial possessions on this Continent. They
believe that in doe time Spain and other European powers
will find their interest in terminating those relzoious, and
establishing their present dependencies as independent
powers—members of the family qt nations. The depen-
dencies are no longer regarded as subject to transfer from
one European power to asother. When the present rela-
tion of Colonies ceases they are to become independent
powers, exercising the right of choice and of self-control in
the determination of their future condition and relations
with other powers. The United States, in order to put a
stop to bloodshed in Cuba, and in the interest of a neigh-
bouring people, proposed their good offices to bring the
_ _

existing contest to a termination. The offer not being

accepted by Spain on a basis which we believed c)uld be
received by Cuba, was withdrawn. It is hoped that the
good offices of the United States may yet prove advanta-
geous for the settlement of this unhappy strife. Meanwhile
a number of illegal expeditions against Cuba have b3en
broken up. It has been the endeavour of the Admihistra-
tion to execute the neutrality laws in good faith, no mat-
ter how unpleasant the task, made so by the suffering wo
have endured from lack of like good faith towards us by
other nations.

On the 26th of March last the United States schooner
Lizzie Major was arrested on the high seas by a Spanish
frigate, and two passengers were taken from it and
carried as prisoners to Cuba. Representations of these
facts were made to the Spanish Government as soon as
sufficient information of them reached Washington

The two passengers were set at liberty, and the Spanish
Government assured the United States that the captain
of the frigate, in making the capture, had acted without
law; that he had been reprimanded for the irregularity
of his conduct ; and that the Spanish authorities in
Cuba would not sanction any act that could violate the
rights or treat with disrespect tho sovereignty of this
nation.

The question of the seizure of the brig Mary Lowell at
one of the Bahama Islands by Spanish authorities is now
the subject of correspondence between the Government
and those of Spain and Great Britain. The Captain-Gene-
ral of Cuba, about May last, issued a proclamation autho-
rizing search to be made of vessels on the high seas. Im-
mediate remonstrance was made against this, whereupon
the Captain-General issued a new proclamation limiting
the right of search to vassals of the United States, so far
as authorised under the treaty of 1795. This proclama-
tion, however, was immediately withdrawn. I have
always felt that the m )st intimate relations should be
cultivated between the Republic of the United States and
all independent nations on this continent. It may be well
worth considering whether new treaties between the
unicea atu►..- them may not 1)3 nroflta6,v .rtrprml
into to secure more intimate relations, friendly, commer-
cial, and otherwise.