The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-09 00:00:00

has been contributing its millions.

EQUAL PROBATE and LEGACY DUTIES are
paid Cy all her MAJESTY'S subjects, we shall not
cease:to denounce the imposers of a NINEPENNY
INCOME-TAX as defrauders of the poor in
behalf of the rich—as patrons of the landed aris-
tocracy, with their monster hereditary estates,
while they wring from the busy many what ought
to be paid by those who neither toil nor spin. We
know that Mr. BRIGHT, and all his clique, hare
been purchased by the Freneh treaty. If, however,
the people's orator, after his own exposures of the
iniquities of the Legacy and Probate Duties, con-
sents to leave them as they are, and to accept this
odious income-tax, and the ninepence, we shall
have lost all confidence in the great orator. In
the name of the million we beseech Mr. BRIGILT
not to lend the countenance of his name to this
financial extortion.

We now know precisely what was meant by
the " moderate demands" alluded to in the Speech

from the Throne, as having been transmitted from

this country for submission to the Chinese Govern-
ment. The additional correspondence just given
to public view explains as clearly as need be how
well these demands deserve the praise due to mode-
ration, to a moderation in the fullest sense noble
and magnanimous. It appears, then, that the sum
total of expiation required from the EMPEROR'S
Government at Pekin in the name of her Britannic
MAJESTY is simply nothing more and nothing less
than an Apology ! An apology accompanied, as a
matter of course, by a faithful observance, at length,
by the Chinese SOVEREIGN of the engagements
" contracted for him by his Plenipotentiaries
at Tien-tsin and approved by his Imperial
edict of July, 1858 !" Nothing beyond this
tardy observance of a treaty solemnly signed
and ratified eighteen months ago by the respective
plenipotentiaries—nothing beyond this tardy ob-
servance accompanied by an explicit apology for—
what ? Have we forgotten it ? For one of the
most dastardly and treacherous ambuscades ever
prepared with deliberate and, wemaight almost say,
dovillish elaboration for the welcome of a pacific
ambassador ! Not a word of indemnity—not a
thought of any new " material guarantee"—not a
whisper of any substantial compensation or satis-
faction. INlerely the requirement of the pei for-
formanco at last of the conditions long since entered
into with us by the Chinese themselves, accompa-
nied by an apology—an apology, it must be
allowed, instant, complete, and explicit, but
still, after all, nothing more than an apology—
for the atrocious crime of that affair on the Peiho,
when six or seven of her MAJESTY'S gunboats were
wantonly destroyed, and 500 of her MAJESTY'S
lieges infamously sacrificed. Well might the
Speech from the Throne refer to demands such as
these as demands in every respect essentially
moderate.

Nothing, certainly, could well be more admirable
altogether than the instructions transmitted to Mr.
BRUCE, in the name of her MAJESTY'S Government,
by Lord JOHN RUSSELL as Foreign Secretary.
Setting out in his despatch No. 2, dated "Foreign-
office, October, 29, 1859," with the supposition that
the British representative might perchance have
received from the Chinese Government seine com-
munication " with the view of inviting him to
proceed to Pekin for the exchange of the ratifica-
tions of the treaty of Tien-tsin," Lord JOHN im-
mediately supplies Mr. BRUCE (for his guidance

in that contingency) with the following very
clever, bold, dignified, and yet very moderate
instructions. " If," says the noble lord, " any such
proposal has been made to you, and if it be still
unanswered when you receive this despatch, you
will state, in reply, that you are not authorised to
entertain it until the Chinese Government shall
have made a formal apology for the act of the troops
who fired on her Britannic MAJESTY'S ships of
war from the Takoo forts in June last." The
Foreign Secretary then goes on to say, " You will
add that her MAJESTY'S Government require that,
when you go to Pekin for the exchange of the rati-
fications of the Treaty, you shall proceed up the
Peiho river to Tien-tsin in a British vessel, and
that provision be made by the Chinese authorities
for the conveyance of yourself and your suite with
due honour from Tien-tsin to Pekin." It is simply
thus, as we have said—an apology that is required
by the British from the Chinese Government as an
essential preliminary to the carrying out of the
original arrangements. Having explained this to
Mr. BRUCE, the Foreign Secretary, adds these
additional instructions. He writes :—" Should
the assurances given to you by the Chinese
Government on these heads be satisfactory, you
will make arrangements for proceeding to Pekin at
the earliest period at which it may be safe and con-
venient for you to undertake the voyage. It will
be proper that a naval force should accompany you
to the mouth of the Peiho, and directions to this
effect will be forwarded to Admiral Hops." But,
adds Lord JOHN RUSSELL, "should you experience
any unbecoming treatment, either at Pekin or on
your journey to or from the capital, you will return
to the Gulf, and place the matter in the hands of
the naval Commander-in-Chief." All this is upon
the supposition of the mere contingency that Mr.
BRUCE may, perchance, in the interim have
received pacific overtures from the Chinese
Government. Otherwise—thus writes the noble
Lord the Foreign Secretary to her MAJESTY'S
Representative upon the coast of China,—" If
no pacific overtures shall have been addressed
to you by the Chinese Government before the
time when this despatch reaches you, you will
immediately on its receipt, communicate to the
Prime Minister of the Emperor the demands of her
Majesty's Government, as stated above, and inform
him that, unless within a period of thirty days from
the date of your communication, you receive from
him a reply conveying the Emperor's unqualified
assent to these demands, the British naval and
military authorities will proceed to adopt such
measures as they may deem advisable for the pur-
pose of compelling the Emperor of China to observe
the engagements contracted for him by his Pleni-
potentiaries," namely the engagements entered
into at Tien-tsin, and formally approved as far
back as the July of 1858, by the edict of his
Majesty the Chinese EMPEROR !
Up to the receipt of these admirably clear and
resolute, yet singularly humane and moderate
instructions, our naval and military and diplomatic
authorities out in the Chinese Seas appear to have
been amazingly in doubt whether we were or were
not at war with the Chinese people and their
Government. Lord Joint's very able despatch has,
happily, long since scattered the illusion there
effectually.
And, now, as to our chances of obtaining the re-
quired apology, otherwise than by the most
vigorous and energetic warlike proceedings, both
afloat and ashore ! If any doubt upon this
point, in auy reasonable mind, remains yet
to be scattered, perhaps the dissipation of that
doubt may be accomplished through the medium
of Mr. REUTER'S Telegram received this very fore-
noon—given elsewhere in our impression of this
evening—dated Shanghai, 21st December—and
announcing that the Chinese were then strongly
forcifying Pekin and the entrance to the Peiho,
upon which latter point 100,000 Tartar troops
were being rapidly concentrated ! For ourselves
we are in no hurry whatever to have an answer
given to the somewhat injudicious inquiry to be
made this evening in the House of Commons
by Mr. SET3IOUR FITZGERALD whether 20,000
troops more or less are t 3 be despatched or
have already been despatched by England or by
France separately, or by both of them together,
to the scene of action on the coast of China : we are
not particularly desirous of hearing this officially
announced for the especial gratification and fore-
warning of either the Chinese themselves or their
Russian coadjutors. We are not only solicitous, but
upon this matter we are indeed profoundly
solicitous, that Her MAJESTY'S Government
and that of our Imperial Ally across the Channel
may separately and together act in veritable
earnest in carrying out this third and, let us
trust, final war with the Chinese. Let the one
watchword of the enterprise be Thorough ! Let
both maritime and military preparations be ade-
quate for the rapid seizure of Pekin, and we have
not the smallest doubt in the world but that an
excellent account will be given of themselves and
of their men both by Admiral HOPE and by General
Sir HOPE GRANT.

The Church rate decision is just of the character

which we led our readers to expect. The sup-
porters of abolition are not diminished—rather
increased indeed—but the majority in its favour is

lessened. All those who preferred to rusticate on
the occasion of former debates, and all the timid
Tories, have been summoned from their obscurity
and made to do duty as dummies in the ranks of
antiquated bigotry. The parsons, squires, and
churchwardens have been active in numberless
villages, as the list of petitions for an equivalent
in the event of abolition shows, and every obscure
member has had the whip held before him, with
significant intimations as to the next election, if he
did not appear and vote against abolition.
The result is, that though the supporters of the
Abolition Bill had increased from 191 last year to
263 this year, the opposition increased also to
234—the majority was 70 in 1859, this year it is
only 29. We have not had time closely to scruti
nise the votes, but at the first glance the grand
difference is apparent enough. On the side of the
" Noes" are all those members whose constituents

dare not call their votes their own ; on the side of
the " Ayes" are all the independent constituencies
in the kingdom. This decision last night is, in-
deed, an admirable lesson for Reformers. They will
see that independent voting is the condition of suc-

cevs for every Liberal question. Who doubts that
if the farmers dare vote as they wished they would

return men pledged to abolish Church-rates ? Yet
the county members are the strength of the

Church-rate list. Mr. DUNCOMBE will do well to
point to this fact to-night, or whenever he can got

his motion Wore the house. It will be resisted, be-
cause the landlords will dread its subsequent appli-
cation to the counties and pocket boroughs; but it is
needed more fur them than for the Gloucesters
themselves.

While we could, of course, have wished that the
majority, as well as the absolute number of sup-
porters, had increased, we cannot feel in the least
discouraged. The result will, of course, harden the
hearts of the Lords till they will become Church-rate
Pharaohs, and will yield only when some last great
plague terrifies them into concession. But the
question itself will only make the more sure pro-

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 9, IL6O.

gross. It will remain over also to vex the Tories
when they shall have their turn in office again.
What with the increasing number of Dissenters,
and the constant additions to the numbers of
Churchmen who build churches, and keep them
up without rates, and who therefore object to
paying rates to the mother Church—the abolition
party acquires increased strength every year. The
vestry battles, too, will be more and more hotly
fought every year, and rates will be abolished by
the parish parliaments, whether the House of
Lords consents or not.

LATEST

We are, we confess, surprised that Mr. DISRAELI
should break silence on the wrong side. He might
have known better. we should think, than to step
into Lord J. RussELL's cast off old shoes—he may
be sure enough that when men like Lord JOHN and
Sir G. C. LEWIS, throw overboard a cause like
Church-rates, that they have gone and gone
irrecoverably. He felt, it would seem, that it
was unworthy of him to pick up Lord JOHN'S
old hackneyed arguments about Church-rates being
essential to the safety of the Church, the Lords,
and the Crown—and he most ingeniously invented
another— the centralisation argument—he abhorred
centralised action ! We hope he will keep in that
mind; only, he must remember, that by central
action the power to tax was given to the present
State Church, and by central action alone can it be
taken away. We are glad to see that Lord STAN-
LEY continues to vote right.

N E W S.

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

TURIN, FEB. 8.

The principles upon which the new vote, on the
annexation of Tuscany and the Amilian provinces
to Piedmont, is to take place, have been resolved