The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-23 00:00:00

still the legacy and probate duties disgracefully
unequal in their favour; it leaves the income tax
the same on incomes from property and from labour ;
it lays no tax on property. We know it will be said

—" How could Mr. GLADSTONE have carried a pro-
perty tax and equal legacy and probate duties against
an army of Whig and Tory landlords ?" Then let
us hear no more of the boldness of the Budget. It
is bold against tribes of persons as numerous and
incapable of co-operation as the tribes of our an-
cestors in the time of the Romans. It is timid be-
fore the well-organised host of men of property,
who ride into the House on the shoulders of their
own serfs, or who hire the services of venal bo-
roughs. Why, Mr. GLADSTONE'S " Succession
Duties" Bill, little as it has accomplished, was a
more bold and honest measure than the scheme now
before us. It was, at least, an earnest of some-
thing fair. The Budget spares property; we ask,
therefore, emendation on that point first.

Bat if it spares one class, it bestows a positive
bounty on another. We do not wonder that Mr.
BRIGHT should declare himself ready to swallow
the whole Budget and the Treaty at one gulp.
Cotton and iron are the two great interests they
were intended to propitiate. One large manufac-
turer in the north told the gentleman from whom
we had it, that he expected, when the treaty came
into full operation, to nett not less than a million
per annum ! Our informant was a gentleman who
was a merchant in the same articles as the former
manufacturer, and he assured us that the expecta-
tion Ras by no means an extravagant one. Mr.
BRIGHT'S former and present constituents already
see the francs and napoleons glittering in pro-
spect ; we cannot blame them for swallow-
ing willingly that tonic bitter—the ten-
pence—when they know it is but to whet
their appetites for such a commercial feast as they
see preparing for them. We advise the landed in-
terest to be quiet if they are wise for themselves.
The time before last, when Mr. BRIGHT spoke in
the North, it was to propose a grand Customs' re-
form, by taxing realised property at Bs. in the
pound on its value ; but the last time he spoke in
Manchester he had seen the treaty, and not a word
did he say about his property-tax ! He had for-
gotten it altogether. And now he tells the House
he can vote for an aggravation of a tax which he
has denounced with all the force of his not very
feeble vocabulary !

THE CHINESE IV AUSTRALIA.

At a period when the public are on the qui vice
,o all things relating to China and the China ques-
tion, it may not be out of place to state a few par-

iculars as to the treatment of Chinamen in Austra-

Ha. There are at present a great number scattered
over the three colonies. However, New South
Wales and Victoria present the greatest attractions ;
in the latter alone there were considerably more
than 50,000 at a late estimate taken of their num-
bers, many of whom have betaken themselves to
storekeeping, both wholesale and retail, for John
Chinaman is a" cute boy," and as he knows that
his brethren must be fed, he has justly calculated

It has been said to us—Would you endanger a
Budget fraught with so many advantages—so bold,
so promising ? We reply, we want a bolder, because
an honester one. Accepting of necessity the esti-
mates—meet them, we say, by taxing equitably the
realised property they are required to protect.
Accepting, if we must, the remissions of taxation,
meet, we say, the deficiency by laying taxes on the
*lasses who will make their millions out of them.
We do object,' with all our souls, to scourging
every respectable clerk, every curate, every clergy-
man, every medical man, every lawyer of all classes,
every artist, every small tradesman, every man who
struggles to live decently on a few hundreds a year,
merely to enrich cotton-lords and ironmasters. If
we are to have a Manchester Budget, tax Manches-
ter men for it.

that they would rather patronise a countryman
than a stranger, with whom there can be no reci-
procity—each party endeavouring to steal a march
on the other; besides, there is more nationality in
being done by a countryman. The greater part of
them are engaged at the "diggings," where they
work with great perseverance, and there is no
doubt they greatly increase the gold escorts, and
bring gold to market from ground which a Euro-
pean could not afford to work on account of its
poverty. The Chinese hold together and assist
each other in distress, the want of which kindly
feeling is a groat drawback to the English miners
the Cornishmen being the only ones who hang
together. Again, if one Chinaman hits upon a lead
the next morning before any European has a notion
of it, the ground is marked out to an indefinite ex-
tent, precluding the possibility of any one else hav-
ing a chance. But the Europeans, aye, and the
Assiatics and Africans, take an equivalent for this,
for if rich ground is struck no Chinaman is per-
mitted to share it although the rights of the Ethio-
pians and the Hindoos are not questioned. The
Celestials are detested and with good reason for,
with few exceptions, such as Chinamen's Flat on
Ararat, no new ground has been opened by them,
cautious John preferring to follow his bolder neigh-
bour and carefully remove his leavings, and by his
care for self-preservation and want of engineering
skill he guts the ground, and although he can ob-
tain only a certain portion of the gold by this
means, he effectually by his timidity prevents others
from obtaining any. Thus the old workings which
have always been looked upon as something for the
broken and unfortunate miner to fall back upon to get
a few ounces for a fresh start, which, but for these
Mongolian robbers, would have lasted fora consider-
able time, are now completely destroyed, and we have
not even the satisfaction of knowing that the colony
has been benefitted by them—at least by fair means.
It is true that they devour provisions, but this
only raises the price and is detrimental to the
English miner. Very few of the gentlemen of the
tail remain in Australia, for when any of them has
amassed sufficient gold to satisfy them off they start
back to the land of the opium smoker and make way
for others ; thus droves are continually arriving and
departing and the only chance of their riches ever
being of any service to this country will be in the
shape of compensation money to pay the expenses
of the war. The continual excess of their ingress
over their egress, and a natural dread lest the reply
of a Chinaman when asked how many more of his
countrymen were coming over, namely, the
astounding fact, " Oh, they are all coming !" and the
great dislike entertained for them by all classes
even down to the aboriginal blacks who will not go
near a Chinaman, and consider him altogether as
an inferior animal, something of the monkey breed,
believing firmly that he eats grass like a bullock,
caused the government of Victoria to endea-
vour to mitigate the evil by stringent enact-
ments. They found that owing to the con-
tinual trouble poor John was getting into from the
angry onslaughts of his rough neighbours, that it
was necessary to give him some further protection
than could be obtained from the warden of the
gold-field or the local authorativos. So a Chinese
protector was appointed and a tax of one
pound sterling • per annum was imposed
on each Chinaman besides his usual mining
license ; and next, to check the influx, a
landing-tax of £lO. But Jahn was not to be done
in this way—to pay money down for no value re-
ceived—it was enough to break his heart and
make his pigtail curl. No, no, he landed in New
South Wales, and footed it over; the Sydney Go-
vernment by no means relished this plan, having
quite enough stock of that kind on hand already, so
they followed the example of their neighbour.
Thus poor John was driven to South Australia,
and the aborigines were thunderstrrck when they
beheld one of the river steamers landing some 300
curious-looking animals on the banks of the river
Murray ; for the Chinese had chartered the steamer
to carry them up to a certain point near to one of the
gold-fields at so much per head, and provide them
with wood and water, which condition was not very
difficult for the skipper to perform, seeing that he
was navigating a river of clear, fresh water, run-
ning through a thickly wooded country. The
immigration being still on the increase, the Vic-
torian Government lately imposed a capitation tax
of £4 per annum. This was strongly protested
against. The Chinese held meetings, made
speeches, and got up a petition a PAnglaise, and a
good many Europeans sympathised with them,
when an untoward event took place. The China-
men in Bendigo held several puddling machines,
many of which were mortgaged to a cer-
tain English usurer, who foreclosed on the failure
of the mortgagers to pay his small interest of about
100 per cent. The Chinese did not like this, so cer-
tain_individuals amongst them:undertook to murder
him, which they accordingly did. Had the mur-
derers been Englishmen and the transaction been
among Europeans, the public would have taken
little or no interest in the matter, or had John
been contented to have killed one of his country-
men it had not mattered; but for a Chinaman to
murder a European, why it was almost worse than
for a nigger to kill a Yankee. We beg the slave
dealer's pardon, a " Southern gentleman." A
change
came
the ho'er the aspect of affairs, nothing was
too bad for e cutthroat devils, and when it was
found impossible to capture or identify the cul-
prits, more than one gravely advised that the best
plan would be to hang a Chinaman every Monday
morning until the right ones were given up.
However convenient it may be for the Colonial
Government to charge landing dues, and impose
capitation taxes on one particular race, we do not
think that it is altogether constitutional, Australia
is still a British colony, and likely long to remain
such ; but while we are demanding free access to
all parts of China, one of our principal dependen-
cies is imposing all sorts of taxes and particular
exactions on the people of that nation. The Chi-
nese of Australia fear and hate the English, and
the numbers who have returned to China may
have not improved the opinion entertained of the
" barbarians" by the Chinese. Of course no sensible
Englishman could for a moment desire any compro-
mise for the dastardly and murderous attack made
upon our ships in the Peiho, but that a complete
and decisive retaliation should be taken, and that
the Brother to the Sun and Sister to the Moon,
learn to his cost both in a political and pecuniary
sense that he may not break faith with England's
ambassador, or insult the British flag with impu-
nity.

THE PRINCE OF ORANGE IN SOUTH WALES.—
His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange arrived at
Raglan Castle on Friday last from, Troy, near Monmouth,
one of the seats of the Duke of Beaufort. The prince was
met at the castle by Lord Llanover and Mr. Herbert of
Llanarth ; and, after inspecting the ruins, his royal high-
ness accompanied Lord Llanover to Llanarth, and thence
proceeded to Llanover, where the prince passed the night.
On Saturday the prince, accompanied by Lord Llanover,
paid a visit to Merthyr Tydvil, and inspected the iron
works for which that place is celebrated. Returning to
Llanover in the evening, his royal highness was present at a
banquet and ball given in his honour. On Sunday the
prince attended Divine service at Llanover Church, and on
Monday his royal highness took his leave of Lord and Lady
Llanover, and proceeded with the members of his suite to
Hereford, and thence to Chester and Bangor.
The Count and Countess Nicholas Laschevsky
have left the Brunswick Hotel, Jermyn-street, for Pads.
Sir E. Grogan,
M.P., and Mr. Ayshford Wise,
M.P., have arrived at the Burlington Hotel.
Colonel and Mrs. Long have arrived at the
Burlington Hotel, Cork-street, from Bromley Hall, Kent.
Lieutenant-Colonel Ricketts and Mrs. Ricketts
have arrived at the Queen's Hotel, Upper Norwood, from
Loughborough.

THE SUN, r" LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 23, 1860.