The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-28 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TI- URSbAY EVEN [No FEBRUARY 124, 1856

judging for himself on authentic data. But it
also adds to the indignity inflicted on the pre-
vious Commissioners, and must render their
friends—and all who admire the straightforward
:manly course which they adopted will be in-
cluded in the category—still more indignant at the
'unmerited alight so unfairly cast upon them.
The office of judge will not be a very desirable
one, if he be compelled to change places with the
criminal, and bound to enter into an elaborate
defence of his judgments. The celebrated Judge
LYNCH, of Kentucky, was always prepared to
fight with revolvers and bowie knives any one who
I impugned the juatice or propriety of his decisions.
I But he was a man of peculiar tastes, and we could
scarcely hope to find persons in these degenerate
days, and in the atmosphere of the United King-
dom, who would accept an arduous and thankless
duty, subject to such extraordinary. incidents.
The inculpated officers, however, were -to be
saved at any cost, and under any circumstances.
The umbra of the Horse Guards—the shadow
that sits behind the seat of the nominal Com-
mander-in-Chief, and exercises the patronage of
that coveted position—may be desirous of getting
rid of the odium that must follow, the heaping of
honours and rewards on those deserving very
different treatment. But no tricks, however
clever, no devices, however ingenious, will
divert the public attention or permit the mat-
ter to be shelved quite so easily as was antici-
pated. The important question is ,before Parlia-
ment, and the representatives of the people of the
United Kingdom will speak out fearlessly and
intelligibly. At all events,- the Fourth Estate
will not be gagged ! With a Free Press—such as
England may now boast of—there is no great
danger of public opinion being violated with im-
punity ; attempts may occasionally be made, and
parties may suppose that the dangerous ex-
periment has proved successful. But sooner
or later the mistake will be discovered.
The gigantic bubble will burst, and the experi-
mentalists will too late deplore the reckless fatuity
that induced them to persevere in the ob-
jectionable course. The Horse Guards and its
irresponsible controller have not of late had any
surplus popularity to spare. A little more,
and the cup of national indignation will be
filled to overflowing. And woe betide those
who postpone until too late the submission to the
popular will, which can alone obtain impunity for
the past and indulgence for the future. It is
quite clear that the Horse Guards must be placed
under some authority responsible to Parliament,
and the sooner it be effected the better for all
parties concerned.

The question of an improved representation of
the people in Parliament, absorbed by the deep
and general interest felt throughout the thred
kingdoms in the prosecution of hostilities against
Russia-the most wakeful, determined, and
powerful enemy of free institutions in Europe--is
likely, before long, to become the absorbing topic
of the day, and will, in all probability, have to
be entertained in a more liberal spirit than it ever
was before.

The pressure of taxation has, in all ages, been
the chief moving cause of agitation for the re-
dress of popular grievances, and to such agitation,
whatever concessions of popular rights and privi-
leges have been made, were generally owing, and '
in no secondary degree has this been the case in
this country, where =the Democracy have vindi-'
Gated the claims of their order, if not more strenu-
ously, certainlyeraere persistently than anywhere
else. By no means the most logical, nor the most
foreseeing animal in the world, and exhibiting an
amount of patience, which, shown iu meeting
or tolerating inevitable, instead of removable,
evils, would bo sublime, Jones BULL has been
accustomed to carry his ganglion cf political energy
perhaps quite as much in his breeches pocket as in
his heart or head. Flattered he might be, and
that to his hurt, and he would lay the unction to
his heart with gratifying complacency— trifled
with he might be, and he would again believe his
betrayer—humbugged, to use a vulgar but expres-
sive phrase, be might be, and he would grumble
himself into something considerably short of a mar-
tyr's sleep ; in either case he would content him-
self in the long run in forgetfulness. But touch
his breeches pocket, tithe his hoarded angels or
his annual hundreds, and he stood up at a bound
in his defence, and rumbled and threatened like a
lion. Of course this description is inapplicable,
as every description of national characteristics
must be to all. In almost every period of our
history as many foreseeing, enlightened, freedom -
loving, and chivalrous spirits as ever adorned the
annals of any nation since the world began
have adorned our own—only, however, to
be appreciated, in most instences, in the next
generation.
Of this characteristic there is, as we have al-
ready intimated, a strong presumption JOHN Bum,
hasnot been deprived; and as with the termination
of the War the excitement it occasioned will neces-
sarily cease, while the expenditure of the War
will remain to be met by taxation, he will, it
experience is to go for anything, be roused by
the pressure, and having the additional stimuli
of the gross mismanagement and comparative
failure of the War to stir him, will be led to in-
quire whether he who has to pay the piper Would
net be all the better if he was a little more a
party to State expenditure, and, as the result,
come to ,he resolution to insist on a greatly en-
larged suffrage. Already indications of a bias in
this -direction are perceptible. Pamphlets on the
subject of an improved representation begin to
make their appearance, and with the motion of
Major REED, despite its want of novelty, fresh -
indications will probably be forthcoming.
That gallant officer, it will be seen, intends
to ask leave this evening to bring in a bill
for the enfranchisement of all who are as-
sessed for the Income Tax--a movement, as,
many will .believe, in the right direction, and
unquestionably in harmony with that principle of
our Constitution which associates the right of
representation with the assessment of taxation.
What the fate of the motion may be we cannot
undertake to predict ; but we hope the Ministry
will have the good seine not to oppose the intro-
duction of so reasonable a measure per se,
or in the absence of a more comprehen-
sive scheme. It is one to which
party will have some difficulty to frame
an objection undeserving of being characterised as
frivolous, and in which those who favour
may fairly be expected to
an educational suffrage
concur. To be sure assessment to the Income
Tax is no absolute proof of knowledge or discre-
tion, neither is the ability to read and write
and repeat by rote, many who could pass
muster under either test being likely to
be plucked under one more stringent ;
but it is a notorious fact that a class, probably
man for man, inferior in point of intelligence and
character to no class in the kingdom, however
exalted, viz., the higher class of employes, such
as commercial travellers' clerks, skc4, as well as
professaionals, and others of a like calibre, who
live in lodgings, and who have to pay a con-
siderable proportion of Income Tax, are excluded
frora all voice whatever. in the representation.
Who will undertake to say this is as it sl&ould be ? ,

of Paris. Three opinions are in pres:=nce—Austria
desires that the status quo be maintained ; Turkey
is in favour of the hereditary succession of the
Hospodars ; aril the Western Powers think that
there ought to be only one hereditary prince under
the suzerainty of the Porte.'
There is to be a railroad congress here next
week, to which the Minister of Finance has invited
the representatives of the various foreign com-
panies which have xprossed a desire to invest
their capital in Austrian, Austro-Italian, and
Hungarian railways. The Credit Bank will natu-
rally also be represented, as Baron Bruck never
neglects any opportunity of giving to that highly-
favoured establishment a chance of employing its
capital to advantage. The Credit Bank has taken
shares in the Empress Elizabeth or Vienna-Salz-
burg Railway to the amount of 20,000,000f1., but
the Administrative Council has resolved not to dis-
tribute more than 6,000,000 ff. among tbo holders
of the Credit Bank shares. The proportikt will be
one railroad share to 10 Credit Bank shares, but
such a high vaue is already attached to the former
that the latter have within the last 21 hours risen
some 12 per cent. The remaining Vienna Salz-
burgßailroad shares, to the amount of 14,000,00011.,
will for the twinent remain in the coffers of the
Credit Bank. It is stated that a syndicate is
to be formed by the grantees of the Vienna-
Salzburg Railroad and the Credit Bank, whose
duty it will be to see that the market is not
glutted with the shares. Soon after the Credit
Bank commenced its operations, the founders sold
almost all their shares at a profit of 12 to 15 per
cent. ; but mazy of them have been glad to pay a
reisium of 50 per cent. in order to get them back
again. It is thought that Baron Bruck would do
well to endeavour to check rather than to encourage
the spirit of speculation which now prevails, or
rather rages, for if the peace conferences should
prove a failure there would be a regular financial
crisis here.

The shares of the Vienna-Linz Railroad Com-
pany have not yet been issued, but they are already
at 26 per cent. premium.

THE DANUBE.

Several attempts have been made to blast the
rocks in the bed of the Danube at the so-called
" Iron Gate," but there is reason to fear that the
operations of the engineers have not been attended
with any great success. Major Derwent, of the En-
gineers, has been sent to examine the Sulina mouth
of the Danube, and ho is believed to have received
orders to draw up a plan for the removal of the
sand. The navigation of the Upper Danube has
undergone a great improvement, for in future the
Bavarian steamers will transport goods direct to
Vienna and Pesth, and the vessels of the Austrian
Steam Company will take goods on to Passau, Rat-
isbon, &c. In short, there will be no relading, as
has hitherto been the case.

THE DANISH SUCCESSIO

A Parliamentary return has been i,sued, in com-
pliince with an address of the House of Commons,
which contains a copy of the protocol of Warsaw,
relative to the Danish Succession, and of the renewal
of that document by nussia in. 1852. lathe protocol
the two Courts of Copenhagen and St. Petersburg
agree " That his Majesty the king of Denmark
shall designate the Prince and Princess of
Glucksbourg conjointly as heirs presumptive of
his crown in case the male line of the dynasty ac-
tually reigning should become extinct." The re-
newal of the treaty in 1852 is contained in the fol-
lowing :
TRANSLATION OF A NOTE ADDRESSED BY BARON BRU-
NOW TO THE MINISTER FOR DENMARK.

Loudon, April 26 and May 8, 1852.
The undersigned, Envoy Extraordinary and 'Minister
Plenipotentiary of his Xr,jesty the Ern- n-or of all the Rus-
sins, to her Britannic Majesty, having been authorised to
sign the treaty concluded this day co❑jointly with his Ex-
cellency the Chamberlain de Bille, Envoy Extraordinary
and Minister Plenipotentiary of his Majesty the King of
Denmark, has been ordered to transmit to him at the same
time the present note, for the purpose of recalling and re-
newing the reserves contained iu the Protocol of Warsaw
of May 2-1 and June 5, 1851; which, after havi❑g received
the sanction of his Majesty the Emperor of all the Hus-
sies, and of his Majesty the King of Denmark," was con-
veyed to the knowledge of the Cabinets who have signed
the present treaty.
The third paragraph of the protocol above-mentioned is
worded in these terms

" Writhing on his part to complete the titles resulting
from the renunciations, and thus to effect an arraag,ernent
which would be of such high importance for the mainte-
nance of the Danish monarchy in its integrity, his 3.lsjesty
the Emperor of all the Russian, as chief of the elder branch
of Holstein Gottorp, would be ready t• renounce the
eventual rights which belong to him in favour of Prince
Christian a Glucksbourg, and of his male lineage.
" Nevertheless, it is understood that the eventual rights
of the two younger branch•:s of Holstein Gottorp should be
expressly reserved. _

" That those which the august chief of the elder branch
should abandon for himself, and for his male ijaengo, in fa-
vour of Prince Christian of Glucksbourg, anti of his male
lineage, should be revived in the Imperial House of Russia
whenever (which God forbid) the male lineage of that
Prince should become extinct.

" That inasmuch as the renunciation of his Majesty the
Emperor would principally have for its object to facilitate
au arrangement called for by the chief interests of the mo-
narchy, the offer of such a renunciation would cease to be
obligatory, if the arrangement itself should fail."
In renewing, by order of his Government, the reserves
above mentioned,

The Undersigned,

THE FIRST MEETING OF THE PLENI-

POTE ,V T A RIES.

Our Paris correspondent thus describes the circum
stances under which the Conference assembled on Mon-
day :

" The Parisian public exhibited no great curiosity to
see the plenipotentiaries, for the number of spectators as-
sembled in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at one
o'clock was not greater than that which a respectable
Punch and Judy. show will Ettract any day in the week.
Of the few assembled the greater part were nursery-maids,
washerwomen, and 'long shore men, whose ideas of the
functions of plenipotentiaries must be of the vaguest. The
sergons de ville on duty seemed quite disappointed at see-
ing so few people, for they rated those few for the mere
sake, apparently, of showing their authority, and dislodged
them repeatedly, is a most unnecessary manner, from the
position they bad taken up to see the great men arrive.
It was supposed that the plenipotentiaries would arrive in
great state, dressed in court suits, and escorted by guards
of honour. But this was not so. At precisely three
minutes past one a modest looking brougham, scarcely
remarked till it was within a few yards of the Ministry,
drove into the front gate, and halted at the foot of the
grand staircase. The carriage contained the Sardinian
plenipotentiaries, Count Cavour and the Marquis Villama-
rina. A single chasseur was their only attendant. They,
like all the plenipotentiaries who followed, were dressed
in plain morning costume. As they ascended the stair-
case, a squadron of M. Walewski's footmen, who were on
the look out, threw wide open the glass doors, aid the
Piedmoutese representatives entered the hotel the first. A
few minutes afterwards came Turkey—Aali Pacha, the
Grand Vizier, and Mehemet Bey were dressed just like
Europeans, except that they wore of course the inevitable
nd fez. The Grand Vizier wore a Tabna, that might have
been bought in Regent-street. England and Austria fol-
lowed very shortly afterwards, in remarkably unpretending
carriagss. There was then a pause of several bainut,s.
People began to ask whether Russia would not find some
excise not to come. But at a quarter past One a handsome
carriage, with two chasseurs behind it, drove up at a rapid
pace, containing the Russian plenipotentiaries. Count
Orloff stepped out srst, and, alr,hough he is 70 years of
a; ), ran up the steps like a boy. I had au opportunity of
seeing hint well, for when ho arrived on the top landing he
took off his hat..as if to return the salute of the servants in
waiting, and then turned rouni to see what had become of
his colleague. Baron de Brunow got out of the carriage
very slowly. His face was enveloped in an ample com-
forter ; he walked up the stair?' with a somewhat faltering
step, end his spare and heat form presented a striking con-
trast to that of his coadjutor. Count Orloff is a wonder-
ful-lookinr, man for his •age. He is of largo isizo, very
erect, and his countenancailonotes robust health and great
resolution. He has a very large bead, covered with iron
grey hair, cropped close. The expression of his features is
quite Calm nek, hut as he smiled at Baron Brunow slowly
mon *fine ho stairs after him, he had a g,iod-uatured look."
Neves.

PEEL OGATIVE TILE PRESME.NT OF
TILE UNITED STATES.

not unnecessary clearly to define a matter which,
from the daily discourse upon American affairs, ought
to be thoroughly understood ; fur it is our habit in this
county to speak very freely of matters which we often
but partially understand. The President is the cleposi•
tary of the executive power of the States. B ,th he and
the Vice-President, who is ex officio President of the
Senate, and who sucued, him should ho die'dor,ng his
term of office, are elected for four yeari by the ehetors,
who meet within their respective States, arid vote for
them by ballot. Th,l list of votes in each State is for-
warded, under seal, to the President whose term is ex-
piring-, and who, havirg opened them, declares his sue-
cesscr.

The President is assi,ted in C.° governmelt by a
Cabinet, emsisting of five heads of departments and an
attorney-general, all of whom hold office during his plea-
sure. The various departments are—those of the State,
embracing home, and 'foreign affairs, the Tieaury
partment, superintending all fiscal affairs, of the Govern-
ment, and all matters relating to the regulati,n and
im-
provement of the revenue; the War Department, su-
perintending every branch of military affairs ; the
erection of fortifications ; the making of topographical
surveys, &c. ; the Navy Department, and the General
Post-offic

The President is, moreover, Commander-in-Chief of
the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the
militia of the several States, when called into active ser-
vice. He has also the power to make treaties, provided
two thirds of the Senate concur. He appoints the
officers of state, ambassadors, consuls, and judges of the
supreme courts ; he receives foreign ambassadors, and
can grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the
United States, except in cases of impeachment. The
reftPal of Washington and Jefferson— the first and third
-Presidents of the great American Republic—to be elected
a third time, has bad the effect of establishing it as a rule
that no President shall hold office for more than tw.,
terms. Under the first and second Presidents--Wash-
ington and Adams, both Federalists—the Republic may
be said to have been consolidated. Under Jrfferson—
the leader of the Democrats, and dismissed by Washing-
ton from the office of Secretary at War on account of
his extreme opinions—it commenced the extension of its
territory, which it has pursued with such tenacity and
success to the present time.-01 orning Ad, ertiscr.